I found this freak for $5 at an estate sale, tucked away in the garage of all places. At first I thought someone had stuck a skull head on a blow-mold Snoopy body.
Asking the folks on the "Vintage Monster Toys" Facebook page, many felt it was indeed that. However, I pointed out that he has hands rather than paws. I have one of the blow-mold Snoopys, or as I call them "Sneppys" since they aren't licensed (note, I used to call them "Snoppys" being referred to such by a friend of a friend, but then Obvious Plant marketed them as Sneppy and the term stuck with me).
As you can see, while the body is the same, the hands are different.
Doing a little Google reverse imaging, I came upon an old reliable site, Secretfunspot which had already done the heavy lifting and solved the mystery for me way back in 2006. Apparently, this guy dates from 1965 and was marketed simply under the name "Phantom" which is only because the card art they stole was from a Revell model kit of Lee Falk's Phantom.
Image courtesy of SecretFunSpot
Oddly enough, several months later, I came across this twin head in red in a box lot of Halloween
You could pop off the other head and go red when you like.
I found later that this figure was indeed marketed in both brunette and redhead.
As much as I liked him, I ended up selling the figure and the extra head to a collector for $160.
Have you tried the Charlie Brown Halloween cereal yet?
ReplyDeleteOh there's a story there. I looked all month of September and finally gave up and asked someone out of state to grab me a box. Cost me $20 in shipping, for vanilla-flavored Kix. But the box is cool. Then literally the next week, my local grocer had an entire endcap of them.
DeleteAs with last year, the General Mills monster cereals have been difficult to find in my area, but the Great Pumpkin one was available at a regional supermarket chain back in early August(!).
DeleteIt's weird. Here in the Midwest you could find monster cereals by August. I couldn't find any other Halloween cereals. Then a few weeks ago, all of the Kelloggs cereals dropped, but still no CB. That appeared just a couple weeks ago.
DeleteZombie Sneppy is a thing I didn't know I wanted...lol...
ReplyDeleteThat's how I ended up with him (and a lot things).
DeleteHoly crumbs - $160 for Sneppy phantom? Good for you!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lady M. Funds future sales
DeleteSo an antique hunter and a detective? Sounds like you could be a friend of ol' Indy.
ReplyDeleteI do get a lot of enjoyment out of the hunt and researching an item. I tend to lose interest after that and do end up selling items a lot of the time.
DeleteThey look creepy.
ReplyDeleteThey do. Very odd.
Deletesorry, they will always be Snoppys to me!
ReplyDeleteI knew you would feel that way. :) To be honest, I still call them "Snoppys" too, but my kids have fallen into the "Sneppy" camp, so I've started using it now.
DeleteHey everyone! If anyone has one they want to sell, please contact me at jkamusements@aol.com we're offering $500 usd to anyone who will sell us one!
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ReplyDeleteHi Musiklover. Sorry, I've already sold my Phantom, but he wasn't sealed. The picture I have above was just for reference of how he originally came packaged. But thanks for the offer and dropping by. If I ever come across another one, I'll let you know.
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DeleteHi Musikliver,
DeleteI just spoke to the buyer and he is keeping the zombie figure. He's not interested in selling. Sorry,
Tom
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DeleteSorry, I erased my comment by mistake. Thank you very much, Mr. Tom!
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