Sunday, November 10, 2013

The Art of Play: A Mechanical Popeye, 1929



"I'm Popeye."
The Victoria & Albert Museum
Ah, Popeye! Of course he would have a place of honor in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Here's a look at our sailor friend as he was in 1929.

This clockwork toy figure of Popeye the Sailor Man is made of metal and celluloid, painted pink. He wears a white cap and a black and red shirt with white buttons, blue trousers, black shoes, orange hair, and, certainly, anchor tattoos on arms.

When he is wound, his head moves up and down and side to side on his conspicuously long neck. His arms dangle down from a rod stuck through his body and no longer function, but once went up and down.



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