Wombles

Hi Kath — your best bet is eBay or other second-hand sites. The mascots are quite hard to find though; the bedding should be easier to get hold of.

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Eee-o eleven UrbDic Rush B Cyka Blyat Pimp Nails Backpedaling Anol Wetter than an otter's pocket Wombles generally have a low opinion of other animal species, though they are never unkind to them.

They have a poor opinion of humans in general, though there are exceptions, such as royalty, especially the Queen. They also have a respect for human literature; the Wimbledon Wombles maintain a large library of books left by humans on the Common, and Great Uncle Bulgaria is fond of reading The Times.

All of these were out of print for many years until they were republished by Bloomsbury, from to , along with the short-story collection The Invisible Womble , with all-new illustrations by Nick Price.

The last two books are less well-known than the original four, perhaps because they appeared after the successful television series began. In The Wandering Wombles , the setting moved from Wimbledon Common to Hyde Park in central London, but The Wombles to the Rescue saw them return to Wimbledon Common.

Four of the books were illustrated by Margaret Gordon. The Wombles at Work was illustrated by Barry Leith, who worked on set design for the original FilmFair series.

The appearance of the Wombles in the books followed the design of the Ivor Wood TV puppets, with the exception of original editions of The Wombles and first printings of The Wandering Wombles , which preceded the TV series and depicted the Wombles as teddy bear-like creatures.

When the animated Wombles series was in pre-production, a decision was made to change the design of the characters so that they did not resemble teddy bears, as it was felt that there were too many children's shows with teddy bear characters.

There is a reference in the first book to dark brown being the colour of their fur with the exception of the oldest Wombles whose fur turns white but this was changed to silvery grey, save for the neck, which is black.

Some of the toys and book illustrations do not show the black fur on the neck. There is an audiobook of The Wombles , narrated by Bernard Cribbins. Beresford wrote a collection of short stories entitled The Invisible Womble and Other Stories ; these stories were based on episodes from the TV series, although they occasionally refer to events in the novels.

In addition to these books, many annuals, picture books and children's early readers have been published over the years, some of which were also written by Beresford.

A stop motion animated series of five-minute episodes was made between and , [7] along with two half-hour specials. Narration and all Womble voices for these were provided by Bernard Cribbins.

Background music was adapted from the Wombles' records along with new compositions. A CGI animated series of 52 episodes, under the guidance of Mike Batt's Dramatico Productions, who bought the rights to The Wombles for Channel 5 's pre-school slot Milkshake!

Batt filed for bankruptcy in September , and resigned as director of Dramatico Productions. Songwriter and producer Mike Batt wrote the series' theme tune, but negotiated the musical rights to the characters in place of the traditional composer's fee.

In an effort to promote the Wombles' first single, he had his mother make him a Womble costume, which he wore for most of the working week.

After the Wombles' first chart hit, he went on to perform and produce a number of successful novelty singles as The Wombles in the s.

They were awarded the Music Week Award for Top Singles Band of Reissues of the Wombles' music in the late s and early s also charted, extending their number of UK chart hits to thirteen.

Stop-motion animation is an expensive means of making a programme, due to the amount of time required. Rising labour and production costs, however, have made merchandising a necessary revenue stream for any new programme.

The Wombles TV series had originally been commissioned because of the popularity of the stories on UK children's TV programme Jackanory , with little thought given to merchandising, so the Wombles' initial merchandising was conducted in a haphazard way.

Following the overwhelming success of merchandising for the Star Wars franchise, merchandising became the prime driver of and precursor to new productions.

Prior to Star Wars , the story had come first; and its popularity led to the commissioning of a TV series, followed by merchandise.

After Star Wars , the situation reversed itself, and toy design came first. Demand for Wombles merchandise in the UK was a driven by the popularity of the TV programme and books, but there were restrictions on toy advertising in the UK that kept TV merchandising in check.

The Wombles were merchandised in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Products include stuffed toys along with stationery, stickers, small figurines, bath soap, night lights, lamp shades, chocolate bars, gelatin pudding kits, posters, games, shirts, badges buttons , cloth patches, and other items.

The revival of the series in the late s brought with it another wave of merchandise which included lunch boxes, umbrellas, flannels face cloths , hot water bottle covers, slippers, a Steiff doll, and a set of postage stamps for Alderney , a Channel Island that served as the name for one of the Wombles and the home of Beresford until her death.

He waived the flat fee for writing a single song and instead secured the rights to write songs under the name 'The Wombles'. The band released several albums and singles.

All four studio albums went gold , [2] and four of the singles reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart. A song called "Wombling U.

In January , Mike Batt appeared on an edition of Cilla Black 's television series as Orinoco, having been led onstage by guest Bernard Cribbins , to plug "The Wombling Song".

Consequently, when the single charted, the "band" was invited to perform on Top of the Pops. Additional Womble suits were hastily made for the live performance.

When appearing as a band, the Wombles were always played by experienced musicians in full costume. Batt continued to perform as Orinoco, regularly accompanied by drummer Clem Cattini as Bungo and guitarist Chris Spedding as Wellington complete with Spedding's trademark white Gibson Flying V --both of whom had previously recorded with Batt.

On one edition of Top of the Pops , the costumes were filled by members of Steeleye Span. Tim and Andy Renton, who had worked with Batt in the latter incarnation of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat also donned the costumes, along with Robin LeMesurier, [6] who also had a Gibson Flying V, but was kicked out of the band following an arrest for possession of marijuana.

The band was the interval act at the Eurovision Song Contest The Wombles 'split' in and, following a severe drought that summer, a single called "Rainmaker" credited to Wellington Womble was released.

Batt remains sensitive about the legacy of the band.