Sunday, April 19, 2015

At Flashbak: A Whitman Frame Tray Puzzle Gallery


The other piece I posted at Flashbak this week is a gallery of "kid tested!" Whitman Frame Tray Puzzles.



"...You will probably remember Whitman -- especially the logo which features a smiley face wearing a W-shaped crown -- and the company’s puzzles in the 1960s and 1970s,

The frame tray puzzle format, which "develops coordination and motor control" consists of just ten pieces or thereabouts, so it's not much of a challenge.  The products were marketed with the ad-line “kid-tested!”


But the value of these items arises in the nature of the art work itself.  It’s gorgeous pop culture kitsch. I have several of these puzzles hanging in my home office/Man-Cave. If I could, I’d collect them all.

Over the years, Whitman produced Frame Tray Puzzles for properties such as Star Trek, the Disney sci-fi movie, The Black Hole (1979), Universal’s Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), as well as Gerry Anderson’s Stingray (1963) and superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and the Incredible Hulk.  


Even Saturday morning superhero, Isis (Joanna Cameron) had a few Whitman Frame Tray Puzzles made from her Filmation exploits.


One I’ve always wanted to get my hands on comes from the Japanese animated series, Battle of the Planets.


Continued at Flashbak!

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