The Flickr Kens Image Generatr

ISI: Fiyero, won’t you come out of there and relax with the rest of the dolls? I’m sure they’d enjoy your company.

FIYERO: No! I’m not budging from this spot until Q. Q. Kachoo gets me some pants!

PINK-HAIRED BARBIE: I don’t know why he’s so bent out of shape about it. We’ve all been left lying around in various states of undress at some point or another. I mean, I have a sculpted plastic shirt! I’m literally going around topless!

FIYERO: Please stop phrasing it that way! I’m going through a lot of issues right now!

PINK-HAIRED BARBIE: Arempvi, you’re good at persuading people. Won’t you talk to him?

AREMPVI: Eh, maybe later; I heard Q. Q. Kachoo start the kettle and I’m going to go get some tea. Good luck with your naked mental case.

FIYERO: I can hear you perfectly, ya’know! The tote bag doesn’t muffle sound! It…also doesn’t muffle the cold draft very well. Brr.

[TOY SUNDAY: Hiding]

Okay, well, so, I gave in to the temptation that I’d been feeling ever since I got Fiyero, and:

FIYERO: ‘EY!

NICK: Hmm, not bad at all. The pants are short and the waist is too low, but the jacket suits me very well, I’d say.

FIYERO: Why?!??

BRUNO: Who’s this clown? Beat it, buddy; there *are* decency laws, y’know.

NICK: What do you think, Nimmie?

NIMMIE: Well, on *you* it looks good.

FIYERO: Why do you hate me??!??!??

It doesn’t exactly show in photos, but after 16 years of posing for toy photography (Dear Lord!), his silver “suit” has become very worn and yellowed, and is also pretty dang sticky (probably due to the faux-metal coating interacting with oils from my hands over the years, combined with being displayed on an open shelf in bedroom I liked to keep on the warm side). It’s gross. So I peeled the thing off of him (quite literally; it was sticky on the inside too, and stuck to his body! Again, gross!), and washed him with some dishwashing soap. That didn’t completely remove the sticky, so I gave him a twice-over with some alcohol wipes, being careful to avoid his head, hands, and feet, since they’re painted silver and I didn’t want to mess that up. (His torso, usually being covered by the suit, is unpainted plastic in a typical “caucasian Ken” flesh tone. Seeing Nick naked is weird!) Then a rinse-y wipe from a wet paper towel, and I let him air dry. (He said my IKEA dish-drying mat was very comfortable.) I’m not putting that silver suit back on him (though I did set it aside in a ziploc; perhaps I’ll rip the seams and trace the parts for clothes patterns someday?), but what to do now?

FIYERO: You’re a little…tacky. I mean, you’re not tacky-looking! (I’m sorry.) I mean you feel sticky to the touch. *removes his hand* Ew.

NICK: No offense taken; I know about it. My coating is beginning to tarnish. I need a re-do in the metal plating dip.

FIYERO: Sounds…fun?

NICK: It helps that I no longer have a sense of smell.

Okay, time for a break from my other activities, and I will try to resume uploading some old scans for you - if anyone is still tuning in ....

We were halfway through a batch of slides from Blackpool 1994, and if nothing else I will complete them this week. It must have been quite a trek from the Suffolk coast for Leiston Motor Hire, who had been avid buyers of MAN-engined integrals for a number of years. This Van Hool T815 Alizee had been new to Bicknell's of Godalming, who were also a fan of this particular model, moving here when 4 years old and staying here for 10 years from 1989 to 1999. It then had its final few years with Ken's Coaches in Coventry.

Central coach park, Blackpool, 8/10/94

A B-24J of the 403rd Bomb Squad, 43rd Bomb Group, 5th Air Force.

Serial number and service history are unknown. The 65th Bomb Squad of the same Bomb Group also had a Queen of the Clouds with a similar but smaller nose art.

Since the 65th BS example was a newer B-24L it is fair to assume that this B-24J Queen of the Clouds was not in service anymore by that time. Using the same names at the same time was generally avoided within Bomb Groups.

B-24M S/N 44-41846 of the 65th Bomb Squad, 43rd Bomb Group, 5th Air Force.

The Mad Russian artwork was commissioned by Pilot and later the Squadron's Operations Officer 1/Lt Andrew Burochonock, a New Yorker with Russian roots, who went by that nickname himself.

The artwork was designed by S/Sgt Sarkis E. Bartigan and painted Sgt Enoch H. Wingert.

The aircraft was assigned to the 65th BS on 20 January 1945. It survived the war and returned to the US in November 1945.

Eventually scrapped at RFC Kingman, Arizona.

Photo taken on Ie Shima, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan in October 1945.

This is the first time I've seen a neon sign for Ice Cream Sandwiches. The name of the establishment was Ken's Ice Cream and More, as they sold burgers in their fast food restaurant. Sadly, they closed in 2018.

Ken Humphreys bought this property in 1979. So, this sign could have been new then, or it could have been a repurposed from the prior business. However the holes for the neon tubes seem to line up. At one time, there was also an ice cream cone on top of this sign.