Rosenhain & Lippman (R&L) 1969 Neptune and his Switched-on Seaweeders. Neptune was the band leader and the band members all play some form of appropriate underwater instrument. All references are for Nep-Tune with the hyphenated name but most people searching may not be aware of the hyphen.
Issued in 1969 in Pink, Orange, Lime, Aqua, Lilac, Purple and the very rare Yellow colours. Aqua and orange are dominant in my small collection. I sold off a lot of partially damaged ones last year so I could concentrate on a set in good to mint condition.
These ‘solids’ in Polyethylene, came in Kelloggs Corn Flakes & OK’s in Australia, Cornfrost in Japan and Puffa Puffa Rice in the UK. Generally sealed in a clear cellophane bag at the bottom of the cereal box, I prefer them out of the bag, as they can be displayed easily. Bagged items means they are mint, but how do you display them?
In discussions with a few fellow collectors, this series is among the most popular, and the female vocalists, Frantic Fanny and Cool Connie are the hardest to find as they are snapped-up really quickly. Several collectors want multiples to have as a choir !
As always I am using Craig Hall’s magnificent reference book for my information and have coded this series with the number keys for the characters on page 151 of the book. He references this set as R&L 21, Deep Sea Band.
I am looking to complete a set and then a full set in all the colours. Might take a while !
The gallery includes two Corn Flakes box back and side panels for this series. I am keen to have original cereal packet back panels and advertising items to include in my collection if you have any that I can get to copy or even buy if possible then please get in touch.
Neptune and his Switched-on Seaweeders was renamed for the UK market as Neptune and his Sea-bed Serenaders.
The UK released series only had 8 characters. If you look at the cereal box back panel artwork for the series, I think it is the re-use of the artwork in a limited production run that dictated which band members were issued in the UK, as the 8 members of that series feature on the right hand panel, and the 7 that were excluded are on the left panel (noting that Nep-Tune appears in both panels). Similarly the side panel listing would only need the character name changes and the artwork was consistent.