About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

RV is also for Return Visit!

So, obviously I needed to find out who Ugo la Talpa is, now my foreign-talk is just about able to work-out that Ugo is Italian for Hugo which is French, Spanish...er European for Hugh, and then to assume that la Talpa is 'the mole'?

First stop; He has a Website - it's in Italian...
Second stop; he has a Facebook page, if you're registered on Facebook - it's in Italian...
Still Italian; A blog-page with the Range in Question

Ok...something to go on, there's only - apparently (I don't 'do' Italian!) - eight in the range, but...hold on...I've got an 'Oscar' and a Roman that don't seem to be listed...back to the Works methinks, they are my namesake after-all, I've got to add them to the collection...haven't I?

So back to the store...four more, no more! Thinks "That's OK, I'm in Basingrad tomorrow, I'll try there"...three more, damn, that's one at the full 59p! Reading on the Wednesday gave up another and I had the 10 from the blog I'd found, plus two others I can't find anything else about, tennis player and climber. Note how Sky gets itself onto three of them...didn't Private Eye have a running gag about that?

I wonder if (assume!) they are related to specific episodes, like the old British TV's Mr Ben? How many others might there be? No! That will do, they might be named after me, but future uses for 50mm, flocked, anthropomorphic moles who only speak Italian are as limited from here as they were several weeks ago!

Google had also turned-up Something in English

While I was running around the various branches I also found....

...a four-colour pen rocket, in the style of the old Bic multi-biro. It's a pen, with FOUR colours and a ROCKET!
Original copy and images published by & (C) - Hugh Walter at 2:22 PM
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2 comments:

Giano said...

Hi! I'm Gianluca, and I'm italian, so I may have some more infos about that Ugo fellow. If my memory doesn't fail me, I remember having seen him a few times on tv commercials together with the famous showman Rosario Fiorello - the commercials were made by Sky, and were meant to solicit more subscriptions. It's a bit unexpected to find him sold as a toy, as far as I see the character didn't gain much success, and was soon forgotten.
I'm not a big tv expert, so I may be wrong, but I suspect the infos that you've found up to now are all that's available out there.

Cheers, and thanks for the interesting blog!

September 23, 2014 at 5:48 PM
Hugh Walter said...

Hi Giano - Thanks for the 'local' take on this, I think he may have made it to toy status as a children's TV programme character as well as the adverts? That website looks like it's aimed at kids rather than adults looking to subscribe. Which you wouldn't have caught as you'd not be viewing at that time of day, or that channel?

But the fact that the pocket-money type toys have been 'cleared' in another country, so soon, does indeed suggest a failed line, they were originally issued in 2010.

Hugh

September 24, 2014 at 12:20 AM

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