Wednesday 28 November 2012

Green-Haired Barney Rubble

Barney Rubble’s hair started out as a grey tone. That’s because The Flintstones were originally broadcast in black and white. Then the world learned it was blond once ABC showed the cartoons in colour. But that seems to have escaped some of Hanna-Barbera’s merchandisers.

Our roving correspondent Billie Towzer has roamed the internet for more H-B knick knacks and has sent some along for your viewing, uh, pleasure. As usual, there are people far more versed in what are now H-B collectors’ items and they’re free to chime in and add what they know.



Here are some plastic Flintstones figures. Maybe it’s because the shows were in black-and-white, but colour accuracy doesn’t seem to have been a priority. But even in the black-and-white days, did anyone think Barney’s hair was really green? Or Betty was a blond (and shared the same hairstyle as Wilma)?



Here are figurines of the three stars of The Huckleberry Hound Show (sorry, meeces). I think Yogi’s carrying honey. Or maybe I don’t want to know what it is. Mr. Jinks, of course, is the wrong colour with whiskers that are a little too prominent. His name is also misspelled, but perhaps you can’t fault the manufacturer, considering Bill Hanna misspelled it as “Jinx” in his autobiography.



Here are some pencil erasers by something-or-other Industries of Chatsworth, California. They’re from 1963 or later because there’s a zip code. Not recommended for kids under three, though I’d be more worried if a two-year-old were holding a pencil.



An orange-glowing Huck lamp? Great stuff. The internet says: “Plastic base with separate figural vinyl head, total lamp standing 13.5" tall. By Arch Lamp Mfg. Corp. ©Hanna-Barbera Prod. 1962. Huckleberry Hound wears hat with his name in raised letters on band. Lamp came issued in several colors.”



Didn’t all kids have one variety of these at one time? You drew with a pencil with a nub on the end and when you wanted to make the next drawing, you simply lifted the grey film and started over again. I guess computers kind of made this obsolete. But what do expect for 29 cents? The Magic Slate was made by in 1962 Western Publishing, more noted for its comic books. Read the history of it in this Los Angeles Times story.



If you wanted an Unmagic Slate, then Standard Toycraft had this for you. I can picture some three-year-old foregoing the slate and just drawing George Jetson on the wall. You’ll notice in the bottom right-hand a little red box of H-B characters. Sorry I can’t make it bigger. I presume it’s of the regular Jetsons characters.



Finally we have something labelled Baba Looey Purex Soaky Green Sombrero Brown Plastic Figure bank. The internet says: “This bank measures approx. 8" tall. The coin slot is on the top of his bright green sombrero. To retrieve the coins, you simply remove the sombrero and the coins will come out the top. This is stamped HANNA BARBERA PUREX on the bottom.”

My thanks to Billie for digging around. There are still more goodies that will be saved for a future post.

9 comments:

  1. I remember all of these, on Woolworth's shelves and a few even made it home...

    I genuinely think whoever had to paint the Barney toy looked at the hair shape and deduced it had to be a pile of leaves. An honest mistake!

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  2. The Snappy Sneezer28 November 2012 at 13:19

    Why does Barney paint his nails green though?

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  3. The Snappy Sneezer28 November 2012 at 13:25

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v687/bricolo/DSC_0121.jpg

    Here is a red Huckleberry Hound Bank I have

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  4. I've got a couple of those mis-colored Flintstones on my shelf. I'm keeping a sharp eye out for the rare Baby Puss and the orange-and-black Dino with Al Jolson lips figure from this series too.
    I also recently picked up the Yogi Mug of Kelloggs infamy. HB had the best merchandise!

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  5. That Jinks one looked like Choo Choo from Top Cat!

    I'll bet many of my fnas seeing me on TV wouldn;t have known I was orange and my owner GUmby was green before color till 1964 when the merchandisde of GUmby products finally came out.

    Steve Caka Pokey

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  6. The Diener Industries erasers are from the '70s. My Baba Looey like that is molded in orange with either a dark brown or black hat (he's not close at hand).

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  7. Steve, I agree. Mr. Jinx looks like a cross between " Choo-Choo " and " Fibber Fox " from that angle. A blonde Betty and a green-haired Barney-Ha!

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