T is for Tops...on Pencils!

I know! But now that I've combined this page with the 'Other Collectables' page you'll just have to bare with it on the odd piece-of-shite posting!! They do after all have their place in the cultural history of toys and things...what '70's child didn't have at least one Munch Bunch?

The Kellogg's super-hero Snap, Crackle and Pop are actually more recent, being mid-80's of thereabouts (I don't have my 'Cluck' at the moment), and I'm missing one pose of Crackle, they only came in the four colours shown and seem to be Ashford Mouldings products, there were other sets in the same style - but not Pencil Tops - involving both these guys and other characters from the Kellogg's universe (Coco monkey, Tony tiger etc...).

Next to them are two sets of Paddington Bear figurines, the top row being a soft silicon rubber with red or blue plug-in hats (the black one was stolen from a spare hard vinyl one for the photo-shoot!) and below them the harder/more rigid PVC figures with red or black hats just mentioned.

Odds and sods. the Wonder Woman is - again - a more recent product, I think it came from Tesco's about ten years ago, and is technically a 'Dangler' not a 'Top'. The big silver monster (Minator?) is the only one with a mark; CH.

Danger Mouse sort of completes the Super-heroes, while how many Highland Pipers based on the Zang/Herald/Britains figure can a man have in a collection?! I must have a couple of dozen now from the Zang original through various Herald and HK-for-Herald,to other UK company's copies, Hong Kong pirates, key-rings, whiskey mascots, and this topper.

Like the upper row of Paddingtons, the two figures bottom left are made from a silicon rubber and bare more than a passing resemblance to the Poopa-Troopers that used to come with little parachutes.

The last shot is just a few odds, I'd like to find a Jerry to go with my Tom, the dinosaur is flocked, and the green parrot/penguin will give succour to 'Folgor' the idiot Italian who once accused me of "...Collecting little ducks and things..." on a forum!

The Munch Bunch...or are they Fruit Salads...or Mr Fruity? They are all three (and probably more beside?) I don't know how many of these there were altogether, I remember as a kid having a purple blackberry, red strawberry and tomato and a rather sickly creamy-white onion, while among others not shown here there was a black something (version of the green pepper above?) and another corn - with the leaves as a jacket? Green apples, oranges and orange pears, a yellow gourd...

Shown here are at least six types;

*Plug-in hat - long legs
*Moulded-on hat - short legs
*Plug-in 'greenery' - long legs
*Moulded-on greenery - short legs
*Moulded-on greenery with key-ring/charm bracelet loop - short legs
*Nothing on the top, nor hole for anything - long legs

I'm guessing the blue 'Pineapple Pol' (the only one who's name I can remember) is a more modern/recent version in a non-realistic colour...and I hope the brown one is a sausage of some kind?

Someone with limited space and limited budget, looking for a hobby could do worse than to collect these alone, it would take a year or two to track down a good example of every version and you'd need a side-collection of pencils to display them!!