X is for Xandria - Part One

I can't believe I hadn't used that title before given the paucity of X's to choose from, but I hadn't, so now I have. In the US, we know they were credited to a Xandria - Holland, and have to assume in Holland it was just plain Xandria, or at least, I think it was, there being nothing solid in the archive.

And I don't have to eat a terribly large slice of humble pie, as I corrected myself at the time on Moonbase several years ago, and have since established them as [Dutch] Xandria here too, although it is conjecture as that confirmatory evidence is still missing.

I have nicked the previously linked-to image from Kirk's site, purely for research purposes (http://secretfunspot.blogspot.com/2014/07/vintage-ad-sheets_28.html) in getting it all here at the same time, but have sent people there in the past and would recommend that you visit, it's a long post with tons of fascinating stuff; a Britains point-of-sale Ad', Monogram Luminators, toy filled promotionals, Lindburg.  (sadly no Verity or Una pens though!), somewhere I'm sure I have a non-promotional/un-branded version of the ice-scraper in the second image! And his farewell post (click on the header image to 'go' home) has cool stuff too.

Anyway, these (above) are mostly the Pixies, and I've told the tale of Auntie Ruth or Margaret giving us four younger cousins one each, one summer, and we will look at a few in this and the next post, but Xandria also did specific promotionals, Disney characters, TV related figures and other stuff. And it seems that - in the US at least - they were sold in little blister-cards.

Now on the day, way back when, I remember the dog tramp/hobo and the gopher/rabbit chef, one of which must have been my brother's, but I can't remember what the fourth was? The pig looks a lot like Podgy, from the Rupert Bear strip in the Daily Express (ad the lovely annuals, with their self-colouring pages), but is actually a named character from one of Xandria's promotional series.

You can also see fairy-tale characters like Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, Jack of the beanstalk, stealing the Golden Goose, Hansel & Gretel a frog-Prince, witch,  the Pied Piper and a naked emperor!

My Xavier mouse, his tale was told in a previous post, but there were images left; when you find a elusive childhood memory's item, you tend to take a few shots more than you might actually need!

These three are from Theo, via eMail and his clever depth-of-field scanner, and are of a Policeman from a comedy TV series called Swiebertje (Swiper (or nicker? as in arrester?)), and the character is called Bromsnor (hum moustache), he's one of four in the key-ring line/set.

In the middle is one which Theo though might be from Hong Kong, whether because I originally though they were from there, or because it's a summer uiform, or a different material/style I don't know and Theo's too busy with Real Life to ask right now. Note the ring is a different - push/press - design too.

The third is a police-dog, obviously! He's from the large range of premiums Xandria did for the Tiel-based De Betuwe jam factory, they had a mascot (Flipje) who was actually a red fruit, although I'm not sure what friut, he may be a raspberry, or a more generic thing representing all the fruits in the local orchards (plums, cherries, apples?), he has a statue AND museum in Tiel town!

But the promotion had thirty-nine other anthropomorphic characters to collect, each with a different name and this policeman is called Agent Bulderen, he's dressed quite like a British beat-bobby, but as we've been a vague extension of Holland since 1689, that sort of makes sense! I think a meaningful translation is 'Agent Blunder'?

Two I picked up in a mixed lot, the damaged one is a Disney character (I've previously mused they may not have touched that franchise, but they obviously did!) of Pete, Bad/Black/Peg-leg/Pistol Pete! I think? He's lost his head and is packing a pistol, and you can see how the core (here snapped at the neck) of these figures runs up through the body and head to the ring-loop!

The other is a bit of a regency fop, and I suspect from the expanse of smooth front clothing/bib, that he is missing an advertising or branded promotional sticker, as several of those we will look at have.

Here they are again (upper shot) with the inset pixy from the advertising trade Ad., a grumpy looking fellow! Below them are three more which I think Theo sent me, but I may have taken it off of feeBay; a chap in a top hat, an Indian (is he the same character as those non-key-rings the other day?) we'll look at again in the text post and a clown, the clown I thought might not be Xandria the other day, I can forget something on the end of my nose, believe me! And a circus ringmaster, we'll look at in a minute, without his waistcoat & cravat sticker.

The big guy is also in the US image (with Puss in Boots) and you can see with his t-shirt/under-vest sticker how it could be easily replaced with a different sticker for a corporate logo or event, and - as stock items - even for something small like a local retailer or a village fête, maybe needing only a few hundred units?

Another gopher/rabbit type in a bell-hop's (urrrr . . . rabbit, hop, geddit!) uniform, which could be me over reading it as he's another Flipje Betuwe character, known as Trein Konijn (train rabbit), so I'm not over-reading it; he's a station hopping, bell-hop! It could get worse . . . no, he's actually a driver I think! He's missing a sticker round his hat.

The third is that ring-master and you can see, again, from the missing sticker, he could be used as an advertising hording for something else. Which [promotionals or premiums] seems to have been the driving concept behind Xandria's whole product range.

A close up of Pete's foot with the full licensing message, I have yet to find Hanna Barbera or MGM stuff in Xandria's styleing? And three more Flipje Betuwe characters, from the left in the smaller, face-on image; Juffrouw Geit van Geitenstein (Miss Goat van Geitenstein), Kapitein Rob (a walrus with a corn-cob pipe!) and Mol (mole).

Theo thinks the jam premium range appeared in the late 1960's which would tie-in with the Thunderbirds set  we looked at here also (some time after 1965/6'ish), while the US 'Branch' Xandria-Holland were registered in New York in 1971, with the 'Pixies' which would tie-in with when I was losing Xavier's cheese around 1970-72, clambering around in the hay-stack!

And they are mostly 55-60mm and PVC. We'll look at a equally eclectic selection from Theo in the next post.