Way back (circa. 1983) I collected ‘Spooky Chews’ badges I have absolutely no memory of the sweets themselves but the badges were firmly etched into my memory. Each badge represented a classic monster Dracula, The Frankenstein Monster, The Wolfman, The Mummy etc. these little badges mark the early beginnings of my fascination with all things
monster related. Fast forward three or four years later and the badges were long gone, lost to the mists of time but one day as I played in the garden I made a chance discovery! To my amazement I discovered a single badge under the grass! Somehow a Wolfman badge had survived the elements and several years of mowing and I now had it in my possession again! It’s a vivid memory, as I held it in my 7 year old hand I remember thinking, “
I’m sure they used to be bigger!” Despite being pleased with my discovery I’m afraid to say that history repeated itself and I lost that badge again.
Onwards to 2012 I was browsing on eBay and was amazed to find that Wolfman badge again!
CEREAL PREMIUMS TOYS KELLOGGS FREE GIFTS MONSTER BADGES MUNCH CRISPS SMITHS ???’
I am happy to report
that I won the auction but naturally I then had to acquire the
complete set, not easy because if they came up for auction at all
they would either be over priced, sold separately or in an expensive
group lot made up of many doubles. But here they are all 13 of them!
Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein Monster, Mummy, Hunchback, Skeleton,
Ghost, Ogre? Two-headed man, Viking- troll- man and slime monster and
all of them lovingly mounted and framed and hanging in my studio and
I simply adore them! Being ever enthralled by nostalgia these items
hark back to a simpler time that saw me sitting in front of the
television set watching
The Munsters, The Groovie Goolies or
The Real Ghostbusters eating something endorsed by the Honey
Monster, the Chewits Monster or the Monster Munch Monsters! Which
leads me neatly to the next item on the agenda...
The re-vamped amalgamated banner courtesy of FixMyPhoto
Monster Munch! As the main site approaches completion I am attempting to amalgamate my other sites, first up is my
Monster Munch Collection site. As you may have guessed this site is devoted to all things Monster Munch… For those of you who hadn’t guessed Monster Munch is a brand of baked corn snack (or crisps as we call them in the United Kingdom). Launched in the late 1970’s and aimed primarily at children the crisp manufacturer Smiths produced many items of promotional material ranging from fan clubs to television adverts and to someone like me that is both interested in design, relishes nostalgia and loves monsters these items are simply delightful. Despite being a long term Monster Munch fan it wasn’t until 2003 that I embarked on this strange hobby, I hadn’t intended to embark on a mission to acquire all things Monster Munch related but the first item I bought was a
Blue Monster glove puppet! I had no idea it even existed until I had found it on ebay but it fascinated me and from then on I have been collecting ever since. I created the site in
2010 as an attempt to catalogue the items in my collection and highlight these wonderful examples of 1980’s – 1990’s promotional designs and provide a back story on them and since creating the site I have had people contacting me, thanking me for bringing back fond memories for them (an unexpected bonus). So do please check out the
site for yourselves and see what nostalgic memories it conjures up and feel free to share your monster memories!
©
Arfon Jones 2012. All images are copyrighted throughout the world
Even though Easter has been and gone I thought I would share this as its not often I get to show off my creative culinary creations! Seeing as chocolate eggs seldom live up to my expectations, this year I decided to melt a few down and start over and create my very own chocolate egg, a chocolate egg brain! Just like ‘normal’ chocolate eggs this brain variant can be broken into two sections so you can familiarise yourself with the contours of the brain as you gorge yourself on the chocolatey goodness of the other half. Once it had set I wrapped it with recycled gold foil adding one of my brain logo stickers in the process.
Way back (circa. 1983) I collected ‘Spooky Chews’ badges I have absolutely no memory of the sweets themselves but the badges were firmly etched into my memory. Each badge represented a classic monster Dracula, The Frankenstein Monster, The Wolfman, The Mummy etc. these little badges mark the early beginnings of my fascination with all things monster related. Fast forward three or four years later and the badges were long gone, lost to the mists of time but one day as I played in the garden I made a chance discovery! To my amazement I discovered a single badge under the grass! Somehow a Wolfman badge had survived the elements and several years of mowing and I now had it in my possession again! It’s a vivid memory, as I held it in my 7 year old hand I remember thinking, “I’m sure they used to be bigger!” Despite being pleased with my discovery I’m afraid to say that history repeated itself and I lost that badge again.
In my last post I mentioned an up and coming stall on the Mechanised Market at this year’s Waltz on the Wye. Well I’m pleased to announce that the event will also see the launch of a new series of books that will be written by James Richardson-Brown and illustrated by me!
It certainly has been busy these last few months! Nevertheless I am chugging along at ‘full steam’ in preparation for the Waltz on the Wye event on the 18th-20th May 2012! Held in the beautiful medieval town of Chepstow, located on the River Wye on the English/Welsh border, Wales’ Steampunk and Neo-Victorian Weekender is back for a second helping I’m pleased to report that the logo that will adorn this fabulous event was created by me. Having been approached by event organisers Rachel and Andy, I set about creating the logo which features a mechanical/ clockwork couple waltzing inside Chepstow’s landmark bandstand. The logo can now be found on the event web site (tickets can also be bought there!) Having had a marvellous time last year we decided to go again only this time round I will have a stall at the Mechanised Market on both the Saturday and Sunday. But what will I be selling? Well, on the event website I am advertised as, “Arfon Jones, Purveyor of Artistic Wonderment and Atrocities will be trading in ephemera, glow in the dark portraits plus a portrait service!” Which pretty much says it all really, but I plan to have one or two additional items… watch this space!
Zombies have certainly been in high demand these last few years, between ‘How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse’ and ‘Zombies from Ireland’ I have illustrated many a staggering brain eating corpse! Here is another one, Norman the Northern Zombie!
In light of the Zombies from Ireland poster being so well received I thought I would share one of the concept drawings used which features lead actress Sian Davies who plays a zombie stripper in the film!
The North Wales Chronicle article
Star, Director and Artist
