My partwork history……

With me currently doing 6 different partworks, I got thinking about the previous ones I have done. I didn’t realise I had been doing them for so long or had done so many.

This is just a quick look at some partworks I still have. There are a few others I remember doing but don’t have around anymore.

The oldest I still have is like many, just a magazine that builds up into a collection. Nothing to build, just a set of binders to keep them in. This one is unusual in that the magazines are stored in order. Most of the time they would be broken apart into different sections, as you will see in some of the upcoming titles.

The Unexplained consists of dozens of articles of , well, the unexplained. Everything from Bigfoot, aliens, spontaneous human combustion, you name it and it’s probably in there somewhere. It is about 40 years old now, and many of the things may have been explained to at least some degree, but it’s still a fun read.

Sticking with the mystical theme, we also bought the Charmed tv show DVD partwork. As well as a small magazine about the episodes and some behind the scenes info you got a dvd disk each week with a couple of episodes on it, building up to the complete series.

Another older one, the Star Wars figurine collection. This features over 50 small figures, cast in a heavy metal with some great painting in many. And some bad faces on others. It featured characters from the original and the prequel trilogies, and then branched out to some of the vehicles.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The Lord of the Rings chess set had all the main characters from the films, and the board has some nice map work engraved into it.

The Star Trek factfiles, like the Star Wars ones, have some very detailed info but are obviously missing the series/ films that were made after publication.

Another one that is still going on is the DC comics collection. Reprints of many classic stories from the DC universe, with Batman, the Flash, Superman, the Green Lantern and many others. I have no idea when or even if it will actually finish!

These wooden puzzles are great. Each issue came with a different puzzle (although some are very similar) and some info on puzzles and of course the solution for the supplied puzzle.

Quest was a strange one. It had many sections to the magazine, with interesting articles, and I remember each one coming with some type of card-craft to cut out and glue. Sadly these are all lost to the great bin-lorry in the sky.

I even collected “Car care” which provides loads of info about car mechanics, repairs and maintenance. None of which I have ever been able to do. Except changing light bulbs and tyres, which I could do before. 🙂

Now what is probably the most impressive “old” partwork: Real Robots.

Meet Cybot. Built up over 96 issues, he can self navigate using IR sensors, follow a drawn line, even play football. Or be controlled directly with a remote, even voice controlled with a headset. Sometimes it even worked!

• 

• 

I even built him a friend, and a goal for the football that kicks the ball back out.

• 

• 

The collection also came with a toolkit including a soldering iron.

There were also a series of cd tins containing programming software and games.

I remember there being a vhs tape with an early issue showing off what you were going to build, but although I am fairly sure I still have it, I can’t find it at the moment.

I hope you have enjoyed this look back on partworks, I know I did several others but they seem to have been lost to the past. I do remember building a complete skeleton with internal organs at one point, which may well have been about 1:2 scale, but that has been gone for many years.

Leave a comment if you remember any of these, or have done any yourself! I hope you can jog my memory about a few more!