With comics still on my mind, if there was one character I wanted to be it was Alfie (General Jumbo) Johnson, from the Beano comic. I dreamt of being him and a general of my own miniature army like him. It was not just any old army, but remote controlled, they could shoot tiny bullets and he also controlled ships and aircraft along with soldiers and vehicles such as tanks it was boys own fantasy stuff that I wanted a part of truly.
I had no idea how the elaborate systems of his wrist panel worked and how he could control so many elements but to me I was a believer until I grew of an age. In one episode, he helped Mancaster Rovers prepare for a crucial European tie, helping take down a saboteur (the nasty coach of Lidano who was going to mickey finn the team after training), his soldiers donned football kits and played a game of football with the Mancaster players cheering on.
General Jumbo was also known as Admiral Jumbo at one point, when he was also given control of a fleet of tiny ships but that was short lived. There was just not enough action and adventure that could be done other than use your miniature frogman to catch fish for tea.
They were all controlled from a remote control wrist panel, oh how I wanted one. Everytime we were in Woolworths (advertised has the shop that sold everything) I would always keep an eye out for one but it was never to be. I was young impressionable and innocent.
I just had to be happy with my Airfix soldiers playing on my bed shouting bang, bang. They produced a wide range of figures representing many countries and branches of the service but not remote control. If I had some money I would buy a box from a shop a few doors down from the Ninian Park Cinema a brisk walk from where I lived. I also preferred collecting Allied soldiers leaving the Germans a bit light come playtime.
In the innocent world of wind-up toys, you dreamt of true remote control and you were lucky if you would have a battery-operated toy on a wire likely to have been made in Japan. I think most boys had the battery-operated robot mine fired sparks as it wobbled along unsteadily.
But my fantasy about General Jumbo as never really died and I am still waiting for some professor to hand me a controller and my own armies. Like Jumbo, I would be the scourge of local minor crooks and bullies. My envious friends would look on jealous as I tell them I could not share has they only worked for me. I am and was living in la la land.
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