Fabulous art (perhaps by BORIS) - comics were growing up.

A classic case of why adverts were more fun in the old days. Dishonest to the point of fantasy, but who cares. We bought these little guys and had a load of fun. These days people would sue.

Space was a big theme in 1969. The Sparky annual from that year would have been read cover to cover by myself in front of the fire.

Like Cosmic man. These guys must have had a heady diet of piss poor Sci-Fi books to make the crummy predictions they do in this record...

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find (find what exactly?)

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, or say
Is in the pill you took today (unless you lie about taking it?)

In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing to do
Nobody's gonna look at you (you always need teeth!)

In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you (you're at the Gym)

In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long black tube (how? you have no arms or legs)

In the year 7510
If God's a-comin' he ought to make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
Guess it's time for the Judgement day (why is he so late?)

In the year 8510
God's gonna shake his mighty head
He'll either say I'm pleased where man has been
Or tear it down and start again (I'd do something else)

In the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man's gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing (he put lots of Co2 into the atmosphere)

Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But through the eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday (solid cheese this part)

Stingray. A classic underwater puppet-based show by Gerry Anderson.

Given that the characters were named things like; Troy Tempest, Atlanta Shore and Titan you can see they didn't look very far beyond the classics for inspiration.
Originally shown in 1964, it was the first British television series to be filmed in colour.

Great stuff. Hours of fun with the Hot Wheels car set. Basically a poor boys Scalectrix (as gravity rather than an electric track made them go) but in some ways the equal as the little cars had suspension and the wheels spun very freely enabling quite an impressive sense of speed albeit on a small scale.

I only had a single hoop set up - but you could (if you were patient) leave a gap between the track and the car would fly across here like Evil Knievel.

God bless MATTEL.

My wife still watches the re-runs of this series. I was never a huge fan even as a child. Their names were just too silly for words (Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin). Their boss was scary looking - we called him "Monkey face", which isn't very nice, but that's kids for you. Kids can be cruel.

In real life his name was Leo G. Carroll and he appeared in a few B movies including a quite famous one that involves him being exposed to radiation (it was always radiation wot done it in these films - that or fire but that was if you wanted a particularly naff ending to your film - radiation is usually introduced at the start, but i digress...) getting even uglier (!) along with a road-straddling behemoth of a Tarantula.

Now were getting somewhere. Quality illustration of a skull with a fierce looking rat squatting atop. Artwork like this inspired me to get drawing although I never quite reached this standard. I often wonder if it was a good idea to immerse myself in the world of horror at such a young age? Too late now anyway - now where did I put my axe...

A Christmas perenial this along with the Sparky etc. My sister would get the Judy or Diana - which eventually I would end up reading (the girls stories were so much better than the boys stuff - or was that just me?)

My Dad used to draw pictures for us from this book - one of the better Disney offerings.

Roy Wood from Wizzard and Ayshea who had her own pop based TV series for a while (with a toy owl I think) . This show was probably my first taste of pop on TV besides Top of the Pops, but that had Jimmy Saville on it and he used scare the life out of me.

My first crush I'd say. Elizabeth Montgomery in the American TV series Bewitched. She was so perfect and had magic powers to boot! A classic series that still gets airtime - despite Elizabeth passing away a few years ago. Now that's the magic of TV.

Mmm. Standard 'hero' type cover from the Victor annual. It just looks plain wrong to me. I mean if you want to be portrayed as a real hero you put the injured man over your shoulder in a firemans carry. You don't humiliate him by bundling him into a wheelbarrow like a sack of manure and parade him about. Unless of course he's utterly bladdered in which case this is absolutely the right thing to do.

Yes please. After the success of the movie "Jaws" some bright sparks decided to put out a comic with a little more 'bite'...the first 5 issues are quite explicit in showing limbs being bitten off and people in general not having a very good time in the maw of a monsterous great white called hook jaw.

The powers that be (boo) decided this was not appropriate for children and pulled the mag until the content was toned down. Spoilsports.

Magazine cover from quite recent i think, but dwelling in the glories of the past. Quite a good job i think.

Another top Xmas gift - the viewmaster. Somehow let you view images of your favourite cartoon characters in 3D powered by only daylight. Well ahead of it's time as no batteries required. Got a bit boring after about 30 seconds...

The ultimate Xmas gift - a wig, fake beard and glasses set.

ROBOT SAM - THE ANSWER MAN

Except he wasn't a man was he?

He was clearly a Robot and not a very good one at that.

Ooh - scary thing this. We used to hide it in a drawer so we couldn't see it. To be really mean I used to hide it under the covers of my siblings bed and wait nearby for the screams (well whimpers)...it's an image that still kinda freaks me out today...

The classic "Aurora" Monster kits - you were no-one until you had glued and painted at least one of these models. I had the werewolf one, but it's head, hands and feet were made of pale green Glo-in-the-dark material so it looked rubbish in the day and just weird at night.

We used to hang towels over the garage windows to black out the light, then set up the models along with the Horror mags and Pan book covers (lit with torches) then charge the smaller kids 10p a time to walk though the 'Haunted House".

An added bonus would be to hide under blankets in a corner then jump out screaming at an opportune moment - I think several pairs of pants were ruined this way, not to mention the emotional scarring.