What Are They Trying To Do To Me?!

 

Ever since I’ve started to chronicle my action figures, I’ve been finding great new toys popping up everywhere. I think this is because I have been sharing my pictures with my friend Tom on Facebook; it’s obviously put me into some algorithm. Not that I mind, but it leads me into the path of temptation.

Particularly tempting lately is this Brian Blessed 7-inch NECA figure as Vulton in the 1980 film, Flash Gordon. Though I have or had some merchandising from the movie, I’ve never been able sit down and watch the whole film. But I have become familiar with the career and enormous personality of Brian Blessed, whose catchphrase from the movie (“Gordon’s alive!”) greets the 86-year-old actor from London to the depths of the Amazon forest.

My favorite anecdote of Blessed from the movie is when they were filming one of the laser fight sequences, and, in the heat of the battle, the director had to stop the cameras. He called out to Blessed, “We’ll provide the effects, thank you.” The actor, a long-time fan of the Flash Gordon serials, had been enthusiastically yelling “Pew! Pew!” as he ‘shot’ his laser weapon.

Birthday Books: Brian Blessed

Strangely enough, when I ordered these books they were from different sellers (one as far away as Norfolk, England) and were due to arrive at different dates, but they were delivered together - with no other books - at the same time. There is something supernatural about this man, anyway, and by that I mean both beyond nature and also very natural. I'd read "Absolute Pandemonium" before, but have yet to begin "The Panther in My Kitchen."

Absolute Pandemonium: My Louder Than Life Story Brian Blessed

There's no one quite like Brian Blessed: actor, storyteller, mountaineer and coffin-maker. In this frank, riotous memoir he recalls his childhood in a Yorkshire mining town, his breakthrough on Z Cars, falling for Katharine Hepburn, raising hell with Peter O'Toole, meeting the love of his life, the actress Hildegard Neil - and punching Harold Pinter down a flight of stairs. No long dramatic pauses this time, Harold; he got one right on the side of the jaw. Wham! – Amazon.

Panther In My Kitchen by Brian Blessed  (Author)

Brian Blessed has a lifelong love of animals and over the years has rescued cats and dogs, horses and ponies, and even a very ungrateful fighting cock. All were characters in their own right, such as Jessie, a dog left languishing for a year at the local RSPCA, who ruled the entire household with a rod of iron, when she wasn’t out harassing the local vicar. Then there was Bodger, an abused terrier cross breed, who was nursed back to health by Brian and his wife, and Peppone, a stray cat and notorious thief, who was responsible for a crime epidemic in the Bagshot area. Most of all there was Misty, a soul mate and the first Jack Russell Brian met who didn’t take an instant dislike to him. Over the years Brian has encountered more exotic animals too, from Kali the black panther who had free run of his kitchen and the gentle boa constrictor Bo Bo who went for walks with him in Richmond Park to the female gorillas who found him incredibly attractive. Written with all of Brian’s ebullience, The Panther in My Kitchen is a laugh-out-loud, life-affirming book about the joy animals bring and why we should care for them. – Amazon.