R is for Remember, Remember, the 5th of November....

How cool are these? Too cool for space school, that's how!

Brian Berke sent me these, and it's not so much that they're balloons that's the cool thing (although rocket balloons are pretty cool), it's that the backing-card is rocket shaped, you don't often see novelty-shaped packaging - perhaps you should!

And they are brought to us from Ja-Ru, which means . . .

. . . These (image also from Brian) almost certainly are as well, as the artwork is clearly from the same studio!

With this set you get more balloons and a pump, instead of the little inflation-tubes of the carded set. Don't think Ja-Ru actually made these; they just wheel and deal them about the place on behalf of an anonymous Chinese manufacturer.

It's been years since I saw balloons like this, when I was a kid they would be sold by vendors in the street, filled with helium, so they hung 'up', there were wobbly ones and the standard tear-drop as well, and giant, black ones with swirly-patterns on them like the page-end blocks of old books, but they had weak spots and would inevitably burst on the train on the way home.

It's a bit late for this year, but given the fear fireworks engender in some family pets, maybe seek-out some for next year and have your fireworks in the warmth and comfort of your living room!