Celebrating the 45th anniversary (yes, really!) of the creation of the Mr Men by Roger Hargreaves, Royal Mail are issuing a set of stamps, and various other products, which will be available for pre-order from 6 October.
From the Royal Mail website 2016 Calendar:
Two of the characters appeared in the quickly aborted (but not quickly enough) Smilers for Kids issues in 2008 and 2009 one of which is shown at the top of this post.
No further details are available at this time, but it would not be a surprise if this was a set of 10 x 1st class stamps, with maybe 5 of each gender. And Royal Mail may well make the stamps showing these long-popular characters available in the Smilers range for personalisation in the run up to Christmas.
Very disappointing that RM are chasing the quick commercial buck and not considering more worthy anniversaries. More noteworthy alternatives would be the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, 50th Anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, 60th Anniversary of Premium Bonds or, heaven forbid, they could go a whole month without a new issue!
ReplyDeleteThis further underlines the reason why I and I suspect many others stopped collecting mint commemoratives/FDCs/Mini-sheets, in my case at the start of 2014.
Great Fire of London Stamps are issued on 2nd September - Keep Up!!!
DeleteAm I the only one who was disappointed that the Music Greats issue didn't include Yehudi Menuhin (his 100th Birthday Anniversary being this year)? He could have been included in a "Great Britons" issue but we haven't had one this year either...
ReplyDelete"He could have been included in a "Great Britons" issue but we haven't had one this year either..."
DeleteBritish Humanitarians filled that slot this year.
I'm really disappointed with this stamp set, it seems they have banged in an extra set of stamps, like they did last year with the Star Wars set, they could have moved the goal posts a bit, as the stamp programme this year has been cluttered especially the first 6 months, and moved the Agatha Christie set into late October.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's the point celebrating 45 years, its not even a landmark really, Anniversaries are beginning to be a bit of a pain lately, I would welcome set on British Taxis, or even a natural history set instead of those stupid Animail stamp set released earlier this year, I also would love a set on Robin Hood and his Merry Men/ Dick Turpin.
What about Guy Fawkes.Would also be classed a criminal but his gang did have a good idea.
Delete"I also would love a set on Robin Hood and his Merry Men/ Dick Turpin."
ReplyDeleteYes, it might be stretching it to slot these into the programme as cultural but they care certainly historical. But they were criminals.... mayeb a problem there!
From a personal view I would like to see a set of stamps with types of historic steam locomotives, they missed the 75th anniversary of Mallard's 126mph record breaking/making run in 2013.
ReplyDeleteWe had sets of classic locos from each of the 4 consituent countries only a few years ago. We've had plenty of train issues over the years.
DeleteWhy couldn't the Royal Mail made a commemorative set of stamps to celebrate the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings rather than a commemorative sheet and issued that instead of the Mr. Men issue?
ReplyDeleteThe Radio Times is worthy of a set of stamps. It is now 93 years old and has had some marvellous festive covers. Yet Mr. Men? They're hardly grroundbreaking.
ReplyDeleteIs it just me? Am I the only collector who still grins when she sees either Mr.Men or Little Misses books? My early morning mug of tea is currently sitting on a Little Miss Naughty coaster on my desk! I do agree that some issues might have been better NOT being issued (Animails takes the biscuit this year I think) but there is nothing wrong with being a little light-hearted about philately. Of course RM want to make money - they loose enough when people re-use the unfranked stamps that drop through their letter boxes!! Come on guys - there is nothing wrong with attempting to lure all those youngsters away from mobile phones and who are slowly turning into robots and STILL don't understand that social medial isn't the most safe way to communicate. Lets get the sales of ink back up and get people writing letters again. Oh, and by the way, I get the gist that most of the people posting would really like to have disasters celebrated and old-time criminals. My question to them would be 'why'? I think is a lovely idea to celebrate something fun for a change - my children were all raised on the Mr.Men books and my eldest has raised her 4 girls using her own well thumbed copies. They, like the Blyton and Potter books have been translated and distributed throughout the world and have been making people, especially children, laugh for years. So again, my question to all the sour pusses, why not celebrate laughter?
ReplyDelete