0066: He's The Utmost-- And The Most Ut!

I know it's been ages since I posted, and largely it's because I've been trying to update my have/want lists for comics. Numerous titles have been published since the last time I wrote out my booklet and integrating the titles alphabetically  seems like a lot of work, but ultimately not as much as flipping through a dog eared notebook trying to find titles randomly shoe-horned in after the fact on whatever page once had blank space relatively close to where they should go. But also because I'm lazy.

I've also been futzing with some new tech I've never needed to use before-- a camera. Specifically the one built into my laptop. So far, most of the items I've been profiling here have been objects flat enough to be captured by a scanner, or the packaging of those things that weren't. And since the purpose of the blog is to take account and/or stock of the items in my collection related to comics without actually being comics (or at least conventional comics- I've done a number of promo and PSA type stuff), I began repeatedly running up against three-dimensional items that I couldn't represent without swiping an image from online, something that I wanted  to avoid or minimize. For the record, on the few occasions that I do use an outside source (such as one of the several images I'll include today), I clearly describe it as such and provide readers with the source.

When the time came to test my editing skills, I didn't have to think twice about it. It had to be the guy who probably wouldn't even think once about it. He's that indefatigable man of action, bon vivant and malaprop, none other than Bob Burden's The Flaming Carrot!

 

This is an action figure made available by Dark Horse in 1999. It's being offered on eBay at the moment for $25-$35 and on Amazon for (I kid you not) $79.99 with the disclaimer that it "comes mint on the card but the bubble has been slit." Do you know what the professional term for that is? It's called "NOT mint on the card". A better way to phrase that might be, "figure and accessories in perfect condition, packaging compromised". That would put your best foot and not sound as though you're trying to misrepresent the item.

On a whim I went to the Dark Horse website (where I got the image below of the original package intact) and found that they are still offering it for $11.95. I don't know how many, if any, are left 20 years later, but you can check it out for yourself at: this page on the Dark Horse site.

This is the outside image I mentioned in the second paragraph.

You can't quite read all of the blurbs through the accessories, but I still have the original packaging myself, so I'll save you the eyestrain:

• "Works upside-down!"
• "Head lights up!" (this is true, keep reading)
• "Use only as directed!"
• "Real fake flaming action!"
• "World's first surrealistic superhero!"

The accessories are (on the left) his Nuclear-powered Pogo Stick and (on the right) his 9mm Radom automatic [this is way out of my wheelhouse, but it kind of looks like the Vis model and yes, unlike the pogo stick that is an actual Polish designed handgun] and two stink bombs. I've seen websites that have erroneously identified the stink bombs as grenades and the pogo stick as a grappling device, but all of the accessories appear in the "Secrets Of The Carrot!" pin-up from FLAMING CARROT COMICS ANNUAL #1 (01/97) and several places since, including two different trades. They're all clearly marked and described.

The back of the package was too big for my scanner, so I broke the image into sections.

The comics portion in the middle has a history. All of the panels were originally published in B&W and I suspect that this was their color debut. The first panel was drawn for the inside front cover of FLAMING CARROT COMICS #24 (04/90), seen below:

In this early version of the page, the other six panels come from a feature in issue #3 (03/84), published by Aardvark-Vanaheim before Dark Horse existed. Entitled "Flaming Carrot And His World" it consists of a full page splash and four pages that each have two large panels, one on top of the other.

In this B&W original, panels 2-3 made up page 2 of the 1984 story. Panels 4-5, in reverse order, made up page 3 of the story and panels 6-7, in that order, made up page 5. The splash and page 4 weren't used.

The color version obviously took only the panels from pages 2 and 5 from issue #3 and the introduction panel made for issue #24.

You can also find the whole B&W page in the third Dark Horse trade, "GREATEST HITS", even though the three trades are devoted to reprinting the pre-DH issues published by A-V and Renegade (1984-1987).

The action figure itself is pretty neat and although I don't really play with the figures I've bought since childhood I have posed the figure on various bookshelves and can attest to it having a certain degree of durability. It has 14 points of articulation, as follows:

1. (pivot) neck
2. (pivot) left shoulder
3. (hinge) left elbow
4. (pivot) left wrist
5. (pivot) right shoulder
6. (hinge) right elbow
7. (pivot) right wrist
8. (pivot) waist
9. (pivot) left hip
10. (hinge) left knee
11. (pivot) left ankle
12. (pivot) right hip
13. (hinge) right knee
14. (pivot) right ankle

That's not including the battery operated red light "flame", activated by twisting the clear plastic flame on top of his carrot mask/head. The battery still works; it's obviously not an alkaline battery since it hasn't leaked acid after all this time. My first attempt at getting a photo of the "lit" flame showed the limitations of the camera at lower fidelity settings:

I can get a sharper picture, but it reduces the overall effect:

Last but not least, no job is finished until the paperwork is done:

Should anyone come across a used, loose copy of the figure, you may want to consult this to replace the battery, because it's a really cool effect in person.

Well, now that I can post about solid objects, I'm not going to write off flat objects completely. But I am going to take advantage of this more often and try to think out of the box. Or at least think out of the blister pack.