Primordial Premiums

 

“In 1969, Walt Kelly, the creator of the Pogo Possum comic strip, together with animator Chuck Jones of Loony Tunes fame, produced the Pogo Special Birthday Special. To promote it, Walt Kelly himself sculpted six figures of his main characters, which were then offered in various brands of detergent, among them Biz. My mother, always on the look out for a bargain and toys for her brood, was, over the months that they were available able, to get us three characters: Pogo Possum, Churchy LaFemme the turtle, and Howland Owl. This was supplemented by our Omi with a spare Pogo from her detergent. It was always our ambition, since the first, to get a complete set. Eventually we got a Porkypine from a garage sale, but that was it for a long time. Just last week I saw a seller offering a complete set, and I went to my friend at Z's Toys and asked him to put in a bid for me. On Friday I learned we had won. On Saturday I learned the toys were in. Just today I went in at 12:30, and the dream of thirty-nine years [now 59!] was fulfilled, for $46.” – excerpted from Power of Babel, June 1, 2008.

“In 1973, when I was almost ten, Crest toothpaste had these cool toy premiums called Zoo Animals. We got a lion, an elephant, and an alligator on one of our rare visits to San Antonio; the timing suggests it was shopping in anticipation of Susan’s arrival. Sometime later at a garage sale we got a bear. We still have the lion and the elephant. The bear got chewed up by the lawnmower. The alligator was mine. I loved it. It was cartoony enough to pass for a dragon (say, one of Friz Freleng’s Stupid Dragons), and that's what it was in many of my playings. I remember building a tower with tinker toys for it. It mysteriously "disappeared" after a visit from our cousin Evie.” - excerpted from Power of Babel, June 12, 2008.

It is obvious that with the success of PogoQuest in 2008 that I was in search of other childhood yearnings. I remember it took me a while just to pin down the name of the toothpaste company. There is no record of when that search was fulfilled, but I imagine it was later that same year. And that was all 15 years ago. Those blog posts were illustrated by pictures grabbed off the Internet, but since I now have a camera-phone I thought I’d post my actual collections on this blog.