The Herbs and The Adventures of Parsley

CLASSIC BBC KID'S ANIMATION DEVISED & WRITTEN BY MICHAEL BOND

Parsley's Car No.477 - a 1970 Adventures of Parsley spin-off,produced by the ubiquitous Dinky company.

It came out in mid-1970 and is featured as a "new release" in Dinky's No.7 catalogue,below.

I must confess it completely passed me by at the time.But I doubt I would have been too upset even if I'd known about it and still missed out,simply because being one in a range of one limits the play options so much.

Not that it was Dinky's fault of course,because this was the only bit of Herbage that could have been "Dinkified".But you know they were struggling when the only selling points were some cut-out characters in the packaging and the fact that his head moved.Oh,and he was driving without a seatbelt !

Hours of fun   ? Well,hardly.

But maybe I've just forgotten how much imaginative play kids are capable of.

And if you had one and enjoyed it then that's great.And I hope you did.

There are certainly plenty of boxed examples still floating around.Although a lot of that may be unsold stock so it's difficult to guage just how well it actually did.But if you fancy getting one today,just be aware of reproduction packaging.

Fine so long as it's sold as such.But if not,you'll take a hit when you decide to sell it on -assuming your buyer knows how to tell the difference of course.

Personally,I'd prefer to get a nice,boxed example of my long lost UFO Interceptor (on cover below)

Now THAT was a Dinky Toy.And,like most of Gerry Anderson's stuff,a toy that also benefited from being part of a bigger range.Unlike poor old Parsley pootling around on his own,without so much as a map nevermind a missile.And even his staunchest admirers would struggle to get him into Dinky's hall of fame.

But at least it's a further reminder of just how popular the series was that it actually got made at all.

ABOVE - Click on the catalogue to see the relevant Parsley page

LEFT - Click on the pic for a montage of more pics of both model and box.

BELOW - An ad from a 1970 Playland Comic with a quite shameless attempt to incite pester power among the pre-school brigade !

My thanks to Tony Clark for the pic & more details about the comic can be found on site HERE

Buyer Beware ! Swivelling Parsley's head to and fro may wear off as quickly as the "brass finish".

Sadly,ejector seat and bullet-proof screen not included.