Sunday Show & Tell; MR BONES RUBBER SKELETON

[Gasport]

A good buddy of mine gave me this some years ago...I believe these were sold by Captain Company in FM back in the day. He found it in a second hand store in Florida. Was very impressed that it was still attached to the card and is in immaculate shape.



Also included are pix of one of my shelves in the studio i teach guitar in...





Happy Thanksgiving.   PS; The Herman puppet STILL TALKS!

[raycastile]

He's pretty neat.  How big is he?

[Gasport]

I'd guess about 6-7 inches.

[The Phantom Creep]

Hey Mike, Which Creature is that standing behind the Munsters thermos? And what is that button that Zach is holding about the future?

I really dig Mr. Bones!!

[Gasport]

Thanks Shawn, The Creature is the Billiken kit and the "I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE" button is from the General Motors Futurama display at the '64 Worlds Fair.

[CreepysFan]

 Love the two Zacherle models, and the Three Stooges too.  Very cool displays set up.

[hhwolfman]

Very cool. HHW

[Daimajin]

May I ask if the skeleton's rubber or hard plastic?  Looks like rubber with the excess around the outside edges.  Pretty impressive if indeed rubber -- doesn't that usually deteriorate after a few years?

[fmofmpls]

I believe these were sold by Captain Company in FM back in the day.

Would you happen to have a pic of the FM ad? Love to see it! I'm digging Mr. Boner .. I mean Bones.

Great collection you have there Mike. If more music teachers had monsters in their study rooms, then maybe more children would take interest in playing a real guitar instead of playing Guitar Hero all of the time. 

[Gasport]

Daimajin, You're correct...Mr Bones is made of very soft, spongy rubber. Its heavy consistency is probably the reason it survived for so long.

General Terry, I used to feel the same as you about Guitar Hero. Even refused to get my son the game when it first came out, fearing we were giving birth to a nation of posers. I don't play any video games myself  [would rather play the guitar!]  but after a while i started getting new students BECAUSE of the game. Turns out that after a while, a pretty large contingent of people get so saturated by music from the game that they start to wonder what it would be like to REALLY play this stuff on a REAL guitar. Most of these songs i've known for years. I first figured this out when some 9 year old kid requested "Paint It Black"...I almost fell off my chair! I soon found out how he knew about the song and more people followed with GH requests of their own. Needless to say, i finally let my 15 year old son get the game and the same is true for him. He's a crazed guitar Nazi now, just like his old man. Nice to be able to hand something like this down to your kid...all i got from my old man was a tool box. 

I honestly can't recall what exact issue of FM had Mr Bones...I know that's what it was called, but not sure mine is the same thing...although it sure is old enough! If i find it, i 'll certanly post it. Thanks to everyone who commented!
                                                               Best,
                                                                        Mike G

[ChattyLMS]

Really cool stuff!  BTW - If your Herman ever breaks I can tell you who can fix the talk box.  Also, you have to pull the string every now and then to keep it working.  And it helps to know this: if you're going to let kids pull the string, remember to tell them to pull gently, they are not starting a lawn mower!

[Gasport]

Thanks for the tip! Yes, i do pull the string on Herman once in a while in hopes it won't seize up. I also found out the hard way with one of my son's friends when he was little, NOT to entrust any of my old toys with them unsupervised. I let him play w/my Mr Machine. [fortunately, it was a 70's repro and not an original] I warned him not to overwind him because he might get stuck. The kid looked up at me, smiled and wound him up so hard and fast that i didn't even have time to react and Mr M remains in his tightly wound stage to this day. [about 7 years, now] Live and learn....

[Jscareshock]

Mike, that's a nice piece of your collection.  Thank you for sharing.

Johnny

[ChattyLMS]

I didn't know they made a repro Herman.  If it has the same talk box, and it probably does, that overwind can be fixed.  If you're interested, send me a message and I'll get you the email addy of someody who can fix it.

[Gasport]

No, Herman is original and works fine...it's Mr Machine that is the repro from the 70's. Thanks anyway!