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News reaches us of the sad death of a true legend - Evel Knievel - who has passed away aged just 69, after suffering health problems for several years.
An ever-present on TV screens in the 1970s, Knievel is best remembered by children of the era as much for his toy replica as his jumps. And with that in mind, we present this tribute to the great man - classic jumps recreated by the classic toy stunt set.
We'll miss you Evel.
While children plead for and parents stress over whatever this year’s ‘must have’ toy is, remind yourself of the toys that caused a stir back in the 1980s. "Just Can't Get Enough: Toys, Games, and Other Stuff from the '80s That Rocked" is full of memories of the fads and crazes from that decade.
There are chapters devoted to Care Bears, Scratch n Sniff stickers, Strawberry Shortcake, the Garbage Pail Kids, Alf and He-Man. Each section explains the concept (The Story), the products and its cultural relevance and impact (What Did It All Mean?), which makes it sound more intellectual then it is!
For anyone who grew up in the 1980s, it will no doubt raise a smile or two, but for anyone already a grown-up by then, its contents’ appeal will be as mystifying as today’s obsessions. It is available on Amazon for under £7.
Fancy a denim jacket with real heritage? You need the Lee 101J 1966 jacket.
This is a replica of the Lee 101J from 1966, made famous by The Beatles, who wore these very same jackets in that year for a Scandinavian photo shoot. The jacket is made from premium Japanese denim and has an adjustable waist, two button-fastening chest pockets and the Lee tab on the chest pocket.
Yours from Oi Polloi for £159.99.
Gap has taken time out from making casual clothing for middle-management to dress up a Vespa LX50 scooter in stripes.
As far as we know (and please tell us if we're wrong), this is only available in the US and only for a limited time or while stocks last (December 23rd 2007 at the latest according to Gap). The bike itself is nothing different to the standard LX model with a 50cc engine and throwback looks - although its asking price of $6,000 (£3,000) is much higher.
Whether it's worth around $2,000 (£1,000) more for the stripes, I'm not sure. If you think it is, get down to your Vespa dealer sharpish.
Joseph Joseph have undoubtedly cornered the market in worktop savers and we’ve featured a couple of their designs before. The range now also includes two retro kitchen appliance designs; the Mixer Workshop Saver and the Espresso Machine Workshop Saver.
These designs use 1950s style pastel shade but with a bold drawing style that stops them from looking twee. Like all of their worktop savers, these come with a lifetime guarantee against breakage which is good except that with so many great designs to choose from, an excuse to buy a couple would be welcome.
The Perfect Pad is selling both these designs and others priced £12.99.
Barry Murphy returns once more trawl the TV and radio guides (so you don't have to) to find anything worth tuning into this week. All listings are for UK terrestrial TV, Freeview and national radio, with the shows running from Friday 30th November to Thursday 6th December.
Highlight of the week
Brazil, Brazil - Tropicalia Revolution. BBC 4. Friday 30th November 9.00pm (Repeated Saturday 1st December 10.00pm)
The second programme in the series covers the military era in Brazil, from 1964-85, and discusses the role that musicians played in leading the fight-back – and how they suffered as a result. The era began with the left-wing protest movement headed by singers like Nara Leao, that was matched against rival styles that ranged from the passionate singing of Elis Regina to the rousing pop songs of Jorge Ben – with television song contests developing into a battle-ground between supporters of different styles.
All this changed in the late Sixties, with the emergence of the experimental tropicalia movement, determined to shake up Brazil just as military hardliners took control of the government. The programme chronicles the careers of the tropicalia stars, from Os Mutantes to Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, who were both jailed and exiled to Britain (and includes never shown footage of them both performing at the Isle of Wight festival). It describes the military censorship campaign against such leading musicians as Chico Buarque, Milton Nascimento, and even Jorge Ben. And it shows how black musicians in Bahia state responded by developing new, and often militant black styles like samba-reggae.
Want to play just like The Beatles? Well, there's little chance of that with Selcol's Beatles New Beat guitar.
This is an original piece of Fab Four memorabilia, dating back to 1964 and now extremely rare. Because lets be honest, no-one ever looks after their toys. Officially licensed and measuring 32 inches in length, the guitar has just four strings, a logo and some mock autographs to the face.
So can it be used to play anything at all? Well, it does come with a lyric sheet and chords for five songs, so it probably can. It also has its original coffin-shaped cardboard box, albeit with some slight wear and tear. Not the kind of thing that appears all that often - so the price of £750 is probably about right.
Find out more at the 991 website
We have covered Dodo Designs previously - and although this No Singing, No Dancing, No Swearing chalkboard isn't the work of that particular company, it is very much in its style.
Yes, we're talking mock Victoriana with a modern twist, this time a sign for the room of your choice, featuring the text 'Please, no singing, no dancing, no swearing, this is a respectable house'. And with a chalkboard underneath for you to add new rules, new abuse or just a few reminders of things you need to pick up.
Available online, you can pick it up for £6.95.
Looking like a cross between the Ikea Fado light and the Flying Saucer light fitting we featured some time back is this Retro Glass Pendant fitting.
We're talking serious 1970s here, not least with the shade of brown used in the glass. Aside from that, this has a fitting almost identical to the Fado in chrome and those distinctive clear circles that are sure to create a strange light effect in your living room.
Available online, this can be yours for £32.40.
Find out more at the Direct Light website
Ideal for an office - especially one that uses a lot of pencils - is this Pencil Bench from Boex.
It's a bench that was created as an experiment, to see if it was possible to turn an everyday office object into a piece of furniture. And it was - although it took 1600 pencils, each individually sprung for your seating comfort. And if you're short of a pencil, it's not a problem, as each can be removed and used. Oh yes - and it has a smart dark wood frame too.
The Pencil Bench has won various design awards over the last year, but hasn't yet gone into commercial production. Although I'm sure they will make you one if you ask nicely.
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