_____________________________________________________
Actually, that should be ToonsToGo. At least,
that’s the name for
an all-new venture coming your way in January
2002.
ToonsToGo is going to be an internet store stacked
with British
cartoon collectibles for you to purchase safe and
secure online.
On offer will be everything from Bagpuss fridge
magnets and
Whistling Clangers to limited-edition Thunderbirds
collectibles,
like the items illustrated here. You could call
it a cartoon
collectible takeaway of sorts. A smart idea, eh?
Now usually I wouldn’t go out of my way to plug
a site like this
for fear of your cries of ‘favouritism’, but
– hell’s bells – this one
is different because it’ll be owned and operated
by The Hound
himself!
That’s right, I’ve taken the plunge into commercialism
and even
as you read this will be busy collating, scanning,
scheming
and planning for when we go ‘live’ with our
new domain next
month. In time, this little store should stock every
collectible out
there worth a nod and a wink – in the same way that
Toonhound
here attempts to sniff out every niche, nook and
cranny for the
toon info you want to glean up on. I can’t promise
a leap from
startup to stardom in a month, but I will promise
that the same
ethic will be carried through from these pages, and
that over time
we aim to offer you a catalogue of desirable items
to get your
mouths and wallets salivating. Here’s the URL to
bookmark:
http://www.toonstogo.com
There’s nothing there right now, but there will
be soon, I promise!
I could twitter on all day about our plans,
but you don’t want a
big scrolling advert, you want some Toon News.
So here it is:
_____________________________________________________
Well now, it seems that new project from Raymond
Briggs I was
banging on about a month-or-so ago has
indeed turned out to
be a film and book tie-in after all, and
it’s winging its way to
us as a Xmas TV highlight too…
Ivor The Invisible tells the story of
John, a young lad who wakes
up one morning to find an invisible giant
sitting on the end of
his bed. It’s the first project Mr Briggs
has conceived directly
for the screen and the tie-in book from
Channel 4 Books reworks
images from the production into strip form.
The film itself has been
produced by Paul Madden for Screen First
and it’s to be broadcast
on Channel 4 this Christmas. In advance of
that, you can already
buy the video which includes – get this
– an exclusive profile and
interview with our favourite Gentleman
Illustrator!
What a treat, eh?- A shiny DVD is also
supposed to be out, but
I’ve yet to find one locally. Frustrating,
‘cos I’m desperate to view
this one soonest, but I want to savour
it on disc. Will it be a classic
to sit alongside the rest of Mr Briggs’ filmography?
– I reckon so!
For the lowdown on the rest of Raymond
Briggs’ works stop
by Gentleman
Briggs – The Hound’s unofficial, but definitive
guide to all things Briggs-ian…
Meanwhile, being the time of year that
it is, Briggs’ ever-popular
Snowman
has been dusted down again. The Peacock Theatre
Production is back on and likewise the
touring ballet version,
if live productions are your bag. New
this year is a Snowman
kids’ magazine – I’m not sure if it’s
an ongoing publication, but
there’s bound to be more on it at the
officially licensed site:
http://www.thesnowman.co.uk
_____________________________________________________
Gosh, as if The King’s Beard, Eddy And
The Bear and Ivor weren’t
enough for us this Christmas, you
should also keep your eyes
open for SilverFox Films’ Second Star
To The Left, an all-new
half-hour special telling the tale of
a hamster, a rabbit and a guinea
pig and their adventures one snowy Xmas
Eve when they attempt
to deliver a very special present to
a special little girl. This one airs
on the BBC and is already available on
video to buy. I haven’t seen
it yet, but the film’s design looks beautiful
– it could prove to be
yet another classic in a jamboree
of animation delights this year…
Graham Ralph, of course, is a hugely-successful
animation producer
who has previously brought us Spider,
The Forgotten Toys, The First
Snow Of Winter, William’s Wish Wellingtons
and more. His busy
company is currently beavering away
to bring us another hamster
-starring production in the form
of Bounty Hamster. Regular
readers will be aware that this
is the new out-of-this-world animation
adventure series written by the
boys at Peafur Productions, and it
promises
to be a cracker. I mean, any show with a True Grit-styled
rodent called Marion as its lead just
has to be a winner (John Wayne –
Marion – Geddit?).
Another SilverFox series recently airing
has been Angelmouse,
created by Rodney Peppe. Peppe you’ll
recall was the creator of
that jolly, cheeky chap Huxley
Pig – which is a particular favourite
series of mine. I’ve just added
Huxley to the TvToons section…
For info on all the above, bar Huxley,
I’d suggest you link on over to
the SilverFox site – pronto. They
also have an online store there,
so you can buy your favourites on
video and the like.
Here’s the URL:
http://www.silverfoxfilms.co.uk
_____________________________________________________
Following in the chart-topping footsteps
of Bob, Milo and The
Tweenies those there bright sparks The Lampies
have now
released their own record for our aural delight…
Yep, as if having those Tweenies in the
Top 10 wasn’t exciting
enough those good folk at the BBC have
thrown in a little self-
generated competition (Gosh, it’s like
Blurr and Oasis all over
again). The Lampies track is called ‘Light
Up The World For Xmas’
and it will no doubt perform well
enough to inspire a whole album
of lamp-tastic musical delights for us. And,
hell, good luck to ’em
I say. Those there BBC records have all been
slick and professional
little numbers and no worse than many of the
manufactured pop
sounds which constitute the so-called Top 40
of today.
What’s more,
Bob, The Lampies and the rest are only filling
the same niche that
Pinky & Perky, The Wombles and The
Smurfs filled for earlier
generations….
There’s a page of Lampies links for you in
the TV Toons section.
You should also make a beeline for the
official site:
http://www.thelampies.com
_____________________________________________________
A ‘chuffing’ tale now courtesy of a finance
company called Aberdeen
Asset Management. Apparently, the firm recently
offered a free Thomas
The Tank Engine video to people subscribing
to their latest children’s
saving plan. Nothing special about that, one
would have thought. So
you can imagine the surprise when the
firm were reportedly swamped
with 40,000 phone callers interested in the
offer…
Ouch! – That’s a serious number of freebies.
Were these people all
fans of the show, or was the company’s policy
just too good an
offer to miss? – Who knows. But it’s a surprise
to think that, in
this land of DVD converts a ‘boring’ old
video offer could generate
such interest – and a Thomas one at that.
Not that I’ve anything
against our favourite tank engine. It’s just
that this is surely more
of a Thunderbirds or Harry Potter type-of-thing…
Mind you, be it Thomas or whoever, the
promotion’s surely a hit.
It’s got the company name sold right around
the country, hasn’t it?
_____________________________________________________
Crikey,have you seen the splendid amount of
SmallFilms
merchandise out for Xmas this year? – Bagpuss and
The Clangers
really are this year’s Big Thing, with everything
from exclusive
Boots Hot Water Bottles to fantastic WH Smiths
Advent Calendars
available for saggy, baggy collectors like myself….
Funnily enough, my favourite SmallFilms-related
purchase hasn’t
actually been a licensed product at all. Rather,
it’s been ‘Seeing
Things’ (PanMacMillan) the incredible autobiography
from Oliver
Postgate which was recently launched in paperback.
It’s a weighty
but splendid volume filling in every conceivable
detail about Oliver’s
life, from birth through LAMDA days, on to SmallFilms,
Noggin,
The Pogles and the rest, and beyond to Oliver’s wider
views on the
world and his creative work in and around Kent and
Canterbury.
It’s informative, thought-provoking and revealing,
with ne’er a stone
of his life unturned. What’s more the book comes
shrink-wrapped
with a fantastic limited-edition CD-ROM containing
the whole volume
on disc with annotated notes, picture supplements
and a fantastic
collection of film clips from all the SmallFilms’
productions – a tiptop
package, methinks…
Of course, you can’t go reading an autobiography
like that without
wanting to catch up on the original material.
What better then than
those fantastic complete collections of Bagpuss and
The Clangers on
Universal DVD and video. A commentary or supplemental
interview
would have made these two unbeatable but still,
it’s amazing to be
able to watch these again in a pristine digital
transfer, and surely
these should hold a prized spot on your DVD
shelf this Xmas…?
Now, if you call yourself a serious collector you
should make a
beeline for the official SmallFilms online store,
known as The
Dragons-Friendly
Society. This here splendidly nog-ified site
offers such exclusive delights as a complete
new facsimile set of the
12 Noggin books, beautifully bound and presented
in a handsome
slipcase box. What’s more there’s still a chance
of acquiring a
limited edition Peter Firmin print if you buy
the set – it’s strictly
limited to just 850 editions – very smart…
Other Dragons-Friendly exclusives include a
complete compilation
of the Noggin The Nog films on a double-video
set. Again, this can’t
be bought in your your High Street, just through
the web site. Plus
there’s a fine reprint of Nogmania, a postcard
set and – oh – just
get on over there a look for yourself, you won’t
be disappointed:
http://www.dragons-friendly-society.co.uk
++++++
DEC 11TH ++ STOP PRESS! +++++++++++++++
A small Christmas just got smaller!
Electronic publishers NoSpine.com
have just announced the
inaugral releases in a brand new series
of exclusive electronic
Bagpuss stories from Oliver Postgate and Peter
Firmin.
Released on 14th Dec. are ‘Bagpuss Om A Rainy
Day’ and
‘Bagpuss In The Sun’ – never-before-seen
tales narrated by
Oliver with new illustrations from Mr
Firmin. Each title features
over 20mins of Oliver’s narration with accompanying
illustrations.
These two will be sold together for £5.00
as a download, or on
CD-ROM for the same price + postage – only
from NoSpine.com.
More Bagpuss tales are planned for the
New Year as well as two
Clangers stories – ‘The Iron Chicken’ and ‘The
Music Trees’ – and
two Ivor The Engine tales – ‘The First Story’
and ‘Ivor’s Birthday’.
Those latter titles have, of course, been
previously available in book
form but it’s still an exciting new format
to start collecting. Further
discs will include The Pogles, Pingwings
and more…
The NoSpine press release tells us that
Oliver has embraced
electronic publishing wholeheartedly and
that he has no plans to
publish his work in any other format.
Frankly, I’m not surprised,
given the riches on offer in his first
foray, the ‘Seeing Things’
CD-ROM I talked about above…
Now if all that doesn’t make your tinsel
sparkle, I don’t know
what will!
_____________________________________________________
With ToonsToGo coming your way in January
you’d be forgiven
for thinking I’d be taking my peddle off
the metal here at Toonhound.
But that ain’t so. ToonsToGo will be an
entirely separate entity
and I’ve no intention of dropping off
the updates and additions
here. The New Year should at last see
more strips being indexed
at Fleetway St. now that the revamp has
finally been completed.
Those existing main site indexes – TvToons,
Comic Strips, etc – will
also continue their expansion, with more
info, credits and trivia notes
for every title. Plus I’ve another author
mini-site for you, to coexist
alongside Gentleman Briggs. It’s all about
another favourite
British
illustrator-come-writer of mine. It was ‘easy-peasy’ for me
to ’roundy’ up the info on him. So who
is he? – Well, you’ll find out
soon enough…
– Have a good one!
British animation news and cartoon collectibles from December 2001
_____________________________________________________
Actually, that should be ToonsToGo. At least,
that’s the name for
an all-new venture coming your way in January
2002.
ToonsToGo is going to be an internet store stacked
with British
cartoon collectibles for you to purchase safe and
secure online.
On offer will be everything from Bagpuss fridge
magnets and
Whistling Clangers to limited-edition Thunderbirds
collectibles,
like the items illustrated here. You could call
it a cartoon
collectible takeaway of sorts. A smart idea, eh?
Now usually I wouldn’t go out of my way to plug
a site like this
for fear of your cries of ‘favouritism’, but
– hell’s bells – this one
is different because it’ll be owned and operated
by The Hound
himself!
That’s right, I’ve taken the plunge into commercialism
and even
as you read this will be busy collating, scanning,
scheming
and planning for when we go ‘live’ with our
new domain next
month. In time, this little store should stock every
collectible out
there worth a nod and a wink – in the same way that
Toonhound
here attempts to sniff out every niche, nook and
cranny for the
toon info you want to glean up on. I can’t promise
a leap from
startup to stardom in a month, but I will promise
that the same
ethic will be carried through from these pages, and
that over time
we aim to offer you a catalogue of desirable items
to get your
mouths and wallets salivating. Here’s the URL to
bookmark:
http://www.toonstogo.com
There’s nothing there right now, but there will
be soon, I promise!
I could twitter on all day about our plans,
but you don’t want a
big scrolling advert, you want some Toon News.
So here it is:
_____________________________________________________
Well now, it seems that new project from Raymond
Briggs I was
banging on about a month-or-so ago has
indeed turned out to
be a film and book tie-in after all, and
it’s winging its way to
us as a Xmas TV highlight too…
Ivor The Invisible tells the story of
John, a young lad who wakes
up one morning to find an invisible giant
sitting on the end of
his bed. It’s the first project Mr Briggs
has conceived directly
for the screen and the tie-in book from
Channel 4 Books reworks
images from the production into strip form.
The film itself has been
produced by Paul Madden for Screen First
and it’s to be broadcast
on Channel 4 this Christmas. In advance of
that, you can already
buy the video which includes – get this
– an exclusive profile and
interview with our favourite Gentleman
Illustrator!
What a treat, eh?- A shiny DVD is also
supposed to be out, but
I’ve yet to find one locally. Frustrating,
‘cos I’m desperate to view
this one soonest, but I want to savour
it on disc. Will it be a classic
to sit alongside the rest of Mr Briggs’ filmography?
– I reckon so!
For the lowdown on the rest of Raymond
Briggs’ works stop
by Gentleman
Briggs – The Hound’s unofficial, but definitive
guide to all things Briggs-ian…
Meanwhile, being the time of year that
it is, Briggs’ ever-popular
Snowman
has been dusted down again. The Peacock Theatre
Production is back on and likewise the
touring ballet version,
if live productions are your bag. New
this year is a Snowman
kids’ magazine – I’m not sure if it’s
an ongoing publication, but
there’s bound to be more on it at the
officially licensed site:
http://www.thesnowman.co.uk
_____________________________________________________
Gosh, as if The King’s Beard, Eddy And
The Bear and Ivor weren’t
enough for us this Christmas, you
should also keep your eyes
open for SilverFox Films’ Second Star
To The Left, an all-new
half-hour special telling the tale of
a hamster, a rabbit and a guinea
pig and their adventures one snowy Xmas
Eve when they attempt
to deliver a very special present to
a special little girl. This one airs
on the BBC and is already available on
video to buy. I haven’t seen
it yet, but the film’s design looks beautiful
– it could prove to be
yet another classic in a jamboree
of animation delights this year…
Graham Ralph, of course, is a hugely-successful
animation producer
who has previously brought us Spider,
The Forgotten Toys, The First
Snow Of Winter, William’s Wish Wellingtons
and more. His busy
company is currently beavering away
to bring us another hamster
-starring production in the form
of Bounty Hamster. Regular
readers will be aware that this
is the new out-of-this-world animation
adventure series written by the
boys at Peafur Productions, and it
promises
to be a cracker. I mean, any show with a True Grit-styled
rodent called Marion as its lead just
has to be a winner (John Wayne –
Marion – Geddit?).
Another SilverFox series recently airing
has been Angelmouse,
created by Rodney Peppe. Peppe you’ll
recall was the creator of
that jolly, cheeky chap Huxley
Pig – which is a particular favourite
series of mine. I’ve just added
Huxley to the TvToons section…
For info on all the above, bar Huxley,
I’d suggest you link on over to
the SilverFox site – pronto. They
also have an online store there,
so you can buy your favourites on
video and the like.
Here’s the URL:
http://www.silverfoxfilms.co.uk
_____________________________________________________
Following in the chart-topping footsteps
of Bob, Milo and The
Tweenies those there bright sparks The Lampies
have now
released their own record for our aural delight…
Yep, as if having those Tweenies in the
Top 10 wasn’t exciting
enough those good folk at the BBC have
thrown in a little self-
generated competition (Gosh, it’s like
Blurr and Oasis all over
again). The Lampies track is called ‘Light
Up The World For Xmas’
and it will no doubt perform well
enough to inspire a whole album
of lamp-tastic musical delights for us. And,
hell, good luck to ’em
I say. Those there BBC records have all been
slick and professional
little numbers and no worse than many of the
manufactured pop
sounds which constitute the so-called Top 40
of today.
What’s more,
Bob, The Lampies and the rest are only filling
the same niche that
Pinky & Perky, The Wombles and The
Smurfs filled for earlier
generations….
There’s a page of Lampies links for you in
the TV Toons section.
You should also make a beeline for the
official site:
http://www.thelampies.com
_____________________________________________________
A ‘chuffing’ tale now courtesy of a finance
company called Aberdeen
Asset Management. Apparently, the firm recently
offered a free Thomas
The Tank Engine video to people subscribing
to their latest children’s
saving plan. Nothing special about that, one
would have thought. So
you can imagine the surprise when the
firm were reportedly swamped
with 40,000 phone callers interested in the
offer…
Ouch! – That’s a serious number of freebies.
Were these people all
fans of the show, or was the company’s policy
just too good an
offer to miss? – Who knows. But it’s a surprise
to think that, in
this land of DVD converts a ‘boring’ old
video offer could generate
such interest – and a Thomas one at that.
Not that I’ve anything
against our favourite tank engine. It’s just
that this is surely more
of a Thunderbirds or Harry Potter type-of-thing…
Mind you, be it Thomas or whoever, the
promotion’s surely a hit.
It’s got the company name sold right around
the country, hasn’t it?
_____________________________________________________
Crikey,have you seen the splendid amount of
SmallFilms
merchandise out for Xmas this year? – Bagpuss and
The Clangers
really are this year’s Big Thing, with everything
from exclusive
Boots Hot Water Bottles to fantastic WH Smiths
Advent Calendars
available for saggy, baggy collectors like myself….
Funnily enough, my favourite SmallFilms-related
purchase hasn’t
actually been a licensed product at all. Rather,
it’s been ‘Seeing
Things’ (PanMacMillan) the incredible autobiography
from Oliver
Postgate which was recently launched in paperback.
It’s a weighty
but splendid volume filling in every conceivable
detail about Oliver’s
life, from birth through LAMDA days, on to SmallFilms,
Noggin,
The Pogles and the rest, and beyond to Oliver’s wider
views on the
world and his creative work in and around Kent and
Canterbury.
It’s informative, thought-provoking and revealing,
with ne’er a stone
of his life unturned. What’s more the book comes
shrink-wrapped
with a fantastic limited-edition CD-ROM containing
the whole volume
on disc with annotated notes, picture supplements
and a fantastic
collection of film clips from all the SmallFilms’
productions – a tiptop
package, methinks…
Of course, you can’t go reading an autobiography
like that without
wanting to catch up on the original material.
What better then than
those fantastic complete collections of Bagpuss and
The Clangers on
Universal DVD and video. A commentary or supplemental
interview
would have made these two unbeatable but still,
it’s amazing to be
able to watch these again in a pristine digital
transfer, and surely
these should hold a prized spot on your DVD
shelf this Xmas…?
Now, if you call yourself a serious collector you
should make a
beeline for the official SmallFilms online store,
known as The
Dragons-Friendly
Society. This here splendidly nog-ified site
offers such exclusive delights as a complete
new facsimile set of the
12 Noggin books, beautifully bound and presented
in a handsome
slipcase box. What’s more there’s still a chance
of acquiring a
limited edition Peter Firmin print if you buy
the set – it’s strictly
limited to just 850 editions – very smart…
Other Dragons-Friendly exclusives include a
complete compilation
of the Noggin The Nog films on a double-video
set. Again, this can’t
be bought in your your High Street, just through
the web site. Plus
there’s a fine reprint of Nogmania, a postcard
set and – oh – just
get on over there a look for yourself, you won’t
be disappointed:
http://www.dragons-friendly-society.co.uk
++++++
DEC 11TH ++ STOP PRESS! +++++++++++++++
A small Christmas just got smaller!
Electronic publishers NoSpine.com
have just announced the
inaugral releases in a brand new series
of exclusive electronic
Bagpuss stories from Oliver Postgate and Peter
Firmin.
Released on 14th Dec. are ‘Bagpuss Om A Rainy
Day’ and
‘Bagpuss In The Sun’ – never-before-seen
tales narrated by
Oliver with new illustrations from Mr
Firmin. Each title features
over 20mins of Oliver’s narration with accompanying
illustrations.
These two will be sold together for £5.00
as a download, or on
CD-ROM for the same price + postage – only
from NoSpine.com.
More Bagpuss tales are planned for the
New Year as well as two
Clangers stories – ‘The Iron Chicken’ and ‘The
Music Trees’ – and
two Ivor The Engine tales – ‘The First Story’
and ‘Ivor’s Birthday’.
Those latter titles have, of course, been
previously available in book
form but it’s still an exciting new format
to start collecting. Further
discs will include The Pogles, Pingwings
and more…
The NoSpine press release tells us that
Oliver has embraced
electronic publishing wholeheartedly and
that he has no plans to
publish his work in any other format.
Frankly, I’m not surprised,
given the riches on offer in his first
foray, the ‘Seeing Things’
CD-ROM I talked about above…
Now if all that doesn’t make your tinsel
sparkle, I don’t know
what will!
_____________________________________________________
With ToonsToGo coming your way in January
you’d be forgiven
for thinking I’d be taking my peddle off
the metal here at Toonhound.
But that ain’t so. ToonsToGo will be an
entirely separate entity
and I’ve no intention of dropping off
the updates and additions
here. The New Year should at last see
more strips being indexed
at Fleetway St. now that the revamp has
finally been completed.
Those existing main site indexes – TvToons,
Comic Strips, etc – will
also continue their expansion, with more
info, credits and trivia notes
for every title. Plus I’ve another author
mini-site for you, to coexist
alongside Gentleman Briggs. It’s all about
another favourite
British
illustrator-come-writer of mine. It was ‘easy-peasy’ for me
to ’roundy’ up the info on him. So who
is he? – Well, you’ll find out
soon enough…
– Have a good one!