Page 1 of 2

General Jumbo - The Great Reveal!

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:10 pm
by General Jumbo01
I've been pondering what to do for some time. You see, do l tell you the truth or keep quiet and allow the legend to go on? But no - you are all my friends and have a right to know what really happened.

Shortly after WW2, my great grand father on my mum's father's side, a Mr Eric Swivel of Scunthorpe and his best mate from school, Nigel Grommet, decided to build a scale army. Nigel was very good with his hands and did well in physics classes so was put in charge of building and Eric, not the brightest in town, was left to 'organise things'. They raised funds by each doing 6 paper rounds and with a bit of help from the local corner oil shop were able to source what they needed.

Once started, things got out if hand (we all know that problem!) and what started as a wish to build a tank or two quickly grew to a full sized army, navy and airforce but in a smaller scale - around 1/15th (yet another standard....). But how were they to control a 100+ force?

By radio control of course but there was a problem. All that was available then was remote cable control and that just wouldn't cut the mustard. Now - we all assumed they somehow found a way of creating RC and not just any old RC, but an RC system that controlled dozens of vehicles at the same time, concurrently even! But didn't they rely on a friendly professor to do this? No, this was just a myth. And now the big reveal.......

THE RADIO WRIST COLLAR WORN BY ERIC WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A SIMPLE SHORT WAVE RADIO!

Yes, its true. It was just a sort of walkie talkie. So how did Eric control the vehicles? You have to remember that Eric and Nigel were just young teenagers and building fully working scale models was really stretching them. No, they relied on each vehicle being driven, flown, sailed by.....
Simple scale service men. Eric gave his orders over the short wave radio and intelligent scale robots dressed in service uniforms handled their vehicles as commands by Eric. So as you can see, General Jumbo's miniature forces were not the technological marvel they allowed people to think they were!

Their local fame led to the Beano comic fictionalising their adventures but, sadly, that is no more. Though Eric and Nigel are long gone, their vehicles complete with robots are still existing, mothballed in a barn just off the B7067 near Grottbury Pavers but unfortunatley, given the rising costs of paying a minimum wage to all 1500 robots and the pending impact of Brexit, it is unlikely that the famous army will ever again see the light of day.

So there you are, the secret is out and l feel much better for getting the family secret off my chest. I trust you'll think no less of me, were that possible ;)

Sent from my ASUS_T00G using Tapatalk

Re: General Jumbo - The Great Reveal!

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 10:26 pm
by Son of a gun-ner
I still think I shouldn't have relegated General Jumbo to second place as my forum name :think:

Re: General Jumbo - The Great Reveal!

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 10:33 pm
by Son of a gun-ner
And on another note. As kids, I don't think we cared about the technological difficulties of the time in producing such highly advanced little "men," we just wanted to see bad guys get their rears kicked.

As for where they are now, they're just waiting, biding their time, Skynet will recruit them soon enough ;)

Re: General Jumbo - The Great Reveal!

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 11:14 pm
by jarndice
I am left wondering if General Jumbo has been drinking the festive sherry a week early through a straw. :haha:

Re: General Jumbo - The Great Reveal!

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 11:59 pm
by 43rdRecceReg
jarndice wrote:I am left wondering if General Jumbo has been drinking the festive sherry a week early through a straw. :haha:
General Jumbo was, of course, born in DUNDEE, like Desperate Dan, and many others, the noo...and he wouldn't be using a straw, Shaun :lolno:
Here's mcJumbo with an early prototype Mac watch (long before Apple nicked the idea :lolno: )
General McJumbo and his Mac Watch
General McJumbo and his Mac Watch

Re: General Jumbo - The Great Reveal!

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:04 am
by Son of a gun-ner
Oh gosh, I actually remember that picture :{

Especially the bend the little soldiers are on, and with the old guy on the right, oh wow.

Re: General Jumbo - The Great Reveal!

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:15 am
by jarndice
Roy if all you have is a couple of cans of Mcewens if you drink the contents through a straw you will be very drunk very soon although the hangover will have you pining for an early death. :lolno:

Re: General Jumbo - The Great Reveal!

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:29 am
by 43rdRecceReg
jarndice wrote:Roy if all you have is a couple of cans of Mcewens if you drink the contents through a straw you will be very drunk very soon although the hangover will have you pining for an early death. :lolno:
Some of the younger hedonists we see, on Weekends, imitating Freddie Frinton, actually inhale shorts to get a bigger buzz .. :crazy: Sometimes they light the liquor first. That has the added benefit of getting rid of unwanted nose hair :)
Ach well, life is short...so
Why not make it shorter, eh? :haha:

Re: General Jumbo - The Great Reveal!

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:35 am
by 43rdRecceReg
Son of a gun-ner wrote:Oh gosh, I actually remember that picture :{

Especially the bend the little soldiers are on, and with the old guy on the right, oh wow.
I think I posted that one a couple years ago (before your time :) ).. But I did wonder what Lenin was saying to the young RC enthusiast in the foreground. Was it something about Jumbo's tank, or maybe an offer to join the Young Marxists Club? :think:

Re: General Jumbo - The Great Reveal!

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:43 am
by Son of a gun-ner
Yeah, does look like Lenin lol.

No, not seen that picture on here. But, come to think about it, I once went online to show my grandson some comics I used to read as a child. But, saying that, I sometimes remember really obscure things from my childhood, especially if it was something I liked.