Remember
the '70's? Crap, weren't they! Well, apart from "Doctor
Who", of course. And maybe "Basil Brush"... and
"The Goodies". And ELO. Maybe they weren't that bad,
after all. Heck, they were great, weren't they! I'm getting all
weepy just thinking about them.
Do
you remember 1976? What a summer, eh? Hot? I'll say it was hot!
Tropical, eh? And boy, did we eat a lot of iced lollies (popsicles,
for American visitors) THAT summer! The jangling sound of "My
Knapsack On My Back", or "The Blue Danube" was
like an oasis to a man dying in the Sahara desert. And what lollies!
There was a Dracula lolly that left your mouth all black, and
a Red Arrows one - the stick turned into a super little aeroplane
(airplane, for American visitors). And, hey, Walls made DALEK
lollies. Later renamed "Choc Minty". or something like
that, this was the "Dalek Death Ray"! Wow! Talk about
Top of the Lolly-Pops! We got to see Daleks on the TV again -
not on "Doctor Who", of course, but in ads on ITV.
Anyway, the
wrappers were a mine of information about the Daleks, like how
the Prime Minister was really a Dalek agent, that kind of thing.
One time, though, they showed you how to build a Dalek! Really!
The original design involved a yoghurt carton, the top of a dish-soap
bottle, some nails(!) and drawing-pins (tacks). I've revised
the designs a bit here. The head and neck are made from half
a Kinder (no, not Kinda) egg. The gun is a drinking straw,
the 'sucker' a dart from a child's toy, the eye-stalk a screw,
and the whole thing decorated with paint and the foil wrapping
from a chocolate bar. You could always add a tennis-ball for
the head and turn this into the Dalek Emperor! You could have
an entire Dalek army for a few quid!
Daleks on your Kitchen Table!
