Findus Crispy Pancakes: "The Black Hole" [LP112] (1979)
This was one of the first promotions to be covered by SPLAT, many centuries ago, & yet we still haven't completed our coverage. There were five Scenes on the backs of the promotional packets, & five transfer sheets given away inside the packets, although the sheets don't match the Scenes, as you can see from the evidence below as to which transfers were applied to which Scene by their original owners.
Packet Scenes 1 & 4 are shown unused, but we can only show you used versions of Scenes 2, 3 & 5; & then of the transfers, sheet 1 is a bit lacking in the quality department. But this is pretty good coverage for a food promotion from 1979!
In the interests of research, I watched the film last night & I can say without fear of contradiction that this promotion takes a few liberties with the characters & set design; these sorts of glitches are only to be expected.
The Packets
Roland Kirkby posted his photos of his own packet featuring Scene 1 in a Facebook Group, & everyone messaged me all at once to let me know about it. I contacted him, & he very kindly sent me his original photos, which are edited here:
Photo by Roland Kirkby
"Collect all 5 exciting Scenes from other Findus Crispy Pancakes. 1: Antechamber — 2: Central Control Room — 3: Close to the Edge — 4: Running Battle — 5: Escape"
Scene 1: Antechamber — photo by Roland Kirkby
The fact that the scene includes 'remote controlled laser beam' trajectories means that this set subscribes to the deplorable design philosophy by which each transfer figure can only fit in one specified position — even though you couldn't be sure you'd get the transfer sheet that would allow this. I would call that a flawed design on two counts.
Most of the other packet Scenes we've seen are used, & were scanned by Craig Spivey (apart from Scene 4; see below).
Scene 2: Central Control Room — scan by Craig Spivey
Scene 3: Close to the Edge — scan by Craig Spivey
Because I obtained the above packet back featuring Scene 4 myself, I was able to perform my patented ILLEGAL SURGERY on it in order to show you the original cleaned-up version. I'm afraid the five extracted transfers could not be saved:
Scene 4: Running Battle
Scene 5: Escape — scan by Craig Spivey
Scenes 2 & 5 did turn up unused a few years ago being auctioned by Paul Hart, but somehow we failed to spot them in time:
Photos courtesy of Paul Hart
The Transfer Sheets
We'll show the five sheets out of order, for reasons of quality control…
Sheet 2 — & very expensive, I might add
Sheet 4 — another highly extravagant acquisition, I'm afraid
Sheet 5 — of all promotional transfers, why are these the most expensive?
Sheet 3 — scan by Mark Howard
Sheet 1 — photocopy by Wayne Ratcliffe
We have a good success rate at finding stuff once the lack has been noted online, so hopefully someone will come up with upgrades for the two smaller sheets & the three used packet backs very soon! And thanks to John Baldwin for finding us the latest sheet.
If this isn't enough Black Hole for you, we also have a page on the Black Hole retail sets — recently updated.
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