Hey, TOMMY - Do You Have a GUNN? ~ Comics Live Updates

There is a time in relation to one's relatively recent past when things don't seem particularly long ago (mainly because they aren't), and then, somewhere along the line, it one day eventually and suddenly hits you that something you tended to still regard as a nigh-on 'contemporary' occurrence actually took place several decades (and houses and neighbourhoods and friends and relatives) ago.

Such was the case with my brother's 1966 Christmas gift of Pedigree's action figure, Tommy Gunn. My brother was 12 when he received this gift and it really wasn't very long before it passed into my hands. It must have been around 25 years later before I was able to source a replacement in my quest to re-acquire as many items from my childhood as possible, and when I did, the intervening years vanished in a flash.

Initially, at least. Then it dawns on one precisely the gulf of time which has elapsed since 'then' and 'now', and it's hard to adjust to feeling two different and contradictory notions at almost exactly the same moment. It may feel like only yesterday, but you know it was much longer ago than that. The capacity of the human mind to allow opposing concepts to co-inhabit is truly astounding.

But enough of all that self-indulgent philosophical tosh.

Today I took possession of a book called Tommy Gunn Collectors Guide by Harry Hyndman and my mind immediately returned to, first, 1966 (and 'our' original Tommy), then the early or mid-'90s (and my replacement). I ordered the book on the 5th, it was (according to a date in the back) printed on the 6th, then despatched on the 8th, and was meant to be delivered on the 13th (tomorrow, Sunday). However, it arrived today, and I'm certainly not complaining about that.

There must be other Tommy Gunn collectors out there who'd enjoy this book, but rather than tell you all about it, I thought I'd let the spiel on the back cover speak for itself. The original figure was on sale for only around two years (between 1966 and '68) before metamorphosing into Captain Scarlet, so there are probably a load of grown-ups out there who never knew about him when they were kids. Palitoy's Action Man captured the attention (and money) of children of the time, so I feel like I'm the member of an elite club who was 'in' on something that passed most others by.

Incidentally, that's my own Tommy in the last picture. Aren't you jealous? No? You should be! If you'd like a copy of the book, jump over to Amazon and type the title into their search box.

(Click on images to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.)