Popeye The Sailor Man

POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN

POPEYE? Who among us who grew in the 80's don't know him?  He was the reason why we were all persuaded to eat vegetable. It was a common saying for our moms back then "Eat your vegetable so you can be strong like Popeye" or whenever we came from a fight, looses and started to cry; our mom would say "Now you understand why you need to eat your vegetables? To make you strong!  Look at Popeye, whenever he eats spinach he beats Brutus."

Those were the days of Saturday morning cartoons meant a lot for kids, most of us collecting had experienced this.  Our parent couldn't take us away in front of the Black and White TV until it was on commercial break, and whenever we do our chores, we would hurry-up and finish before the show resumes or worse, we stop and continue later.  I remember our TV was like a big cabinet with sliding doors and dials to change the channel, I would wait patiently for the picture to slowly come-out so I could watch my favorite cartoons. 

Now, here's a little history I learned about Popeye's origins:


Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon of a fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.  Popeye has appeared in comic strips and cartoons on both TV and Movies, including a live-action version depicted by Robin Williams during the 1980's.  He first appeared in the Daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929.  Popeye also became the strip's title in later years.

In 1933, Fleischer Studios, the same studio who made the early animations of Superman adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts. It was one of the most popular cartoons during the 1930s and was continued throughout the years as far as I can remember in the 80s.  It was a household name and was a favorite Saturday morning cartoon during my younger days along with Super Friends, He-Man, Thunder Cats and the Transformers.






I used to watch Popeye when I was a kid regularly, it was one of those Saturday morning cartoons which my Grandma recommends. I guess everybody had their Popeye escapades in their life, Popeye was a household name and was popular among parents due to his source of strength - SPINACH!


I really thought I had outgrew Popeye and Friends, It was similar to Tom & Jerry with simple comedic antics and was light to watch - It was fun.  Until I went to the 2012 Philippine Annual Toy Convention, It was my first time to go to such big event.  Like any other collector, I was looking around for some great buys, not expensive and hard-core stuff but are figures that I need to complete my line at affordable price or cheap and out of the ordinary.  It was a fun and exhausting afternoon, then I stumbled upon a box with old toys from one of the seller which I never got the name and there it was - a vintage rubber and articulated Popeye, Olive, Sweet Pea, Brutus and Lumpy as a set.


The toys were in an old transparent plastic bag, dirty and dusty; I looked at it closely and saw that a little cleaning these would still look great. "Manong, magkano dito? (Sir, how much for this set?)" I asked.  The seller was ignoring my query because he was more attentive with the other buyers looking at the more expensive stuff he was selling "P600 na lang (P600 for the set)" the seller said, I was in awe for the bargain, but as I say let's try to push our luck a bit "Wala na tawad? P500 na lang? (Any discount? Can I have it for P500?)" i said "Sige! (Ok)" he said; I pulled out my wallet and paid the man.  My friend said "Wow! Nice haul!", and it surely is.
My friend said it was a promotional toy way back from a local fastfood joint so we checked the figure for authenticity; and it was engraved that It's an official merchandise and made in the Philippines but with no marking of what so ever that it was made for the local fastfood company.  After cleaning the figures, they came out in excellent condition, tight joints, paint details in tact, there were some paint scratches and wear but bearable due to its age, over-all it was awesome.

POPEYE is the main character for this set, he is a sailor and is married to Olive Oyl and has one child Sweet Pea. The set is even made bigger with the Brutus figure which is the main villain and with Lumpy the burger munching extra, I would say its a decent Popeye cast set.  All of the figures are hollow rubber with minimal articulations in the hand and head.  I was staring at these figures for a while and fragments of my childhood would pop-out my head, it was harking me back to the 90s while I was enjoying these characters as I watched them on our old black and white TV.

Copyright Njvelasquez 2012

Popeye and all Related Characters mentioned are properties of King Features Syndicate and the Hearst Corporation

No Copyright infringement intended in the creation of this article