Another Birthday Present: Mini Zoltar

  How is everybody doing? How are you spending your time in isolation? Or are you still out there braving the world to provide goods and services to everyone? Let me hear from you. Your comments will be available for others to read,so we can all feel like we're in this together...because we are, you know. The world is a community, which is even more obvious these days, with the internet. I hear from people from all over the world, who are reading about my life here on the blog. I feel I know those of you who comment often. I hope you are all managing to keep safe. Marion County,where I live, has just had it's first case of the virus. The man is a 66 year old,who is described as 'recovering at home'. I wish him well.
  I'm managing to get a post out today, and I have several others planned in my head. We'll keep each other entertained as much as possible. Hopefully this blog will also take your minds off your worries for a few minutes. (And my mind off mine too.)
  One of my other gifts that I got a couple of days before my birthday was this cool mini Zoltar.

He came from Barnes and Noble.

He's one of the little boxed things on the spinning racks by the registers.

Sorry it's out of focus.

  Fortune teller figures didn't start with Zoltar. They've been around for ages. As far as I can tell, 'Zoltar' was first seen in the 1988 movie "Big". (Which reminds me of Tom Hanks and his wife Rota Wilson, who have the virus at the moment. I hope they'll be ok.)

He comes with these fortune cards.

Again, I know this is blurry. My auto focus is still not working, so I need three hands,(which I do not have): one to hold the subject,one to hold the camera, and one to focus with. If there was some light in this house I wouldn't have to go stand by the back door and hold what I'm photographing. If it wasn't so cold I could just go outside.

  Olaf Stanton had been making and selling fortune teller figures for years. He'd even wanted to call them 'Zoltar, but was afraid he'd be sued, so he called them 'Swami' instead. In 2005,almost 20 years after "Big", Stanton found that the rights to Zoltar were available. How the movie company/ scriptwriter/ whatever let the copyright on that one get loose, I don't know. I bet now they regret not keeping a tighter grip on it. Stanton bought the rights to the Zoltar name and started producing full size fortune teller figures called 'Zoltar Speaks'.Mini Zoltar is another of the products the company makes. He's pretty much 1/12 scale,as when I sat him on something as a base, he's slightly smaller than full scale for Tammy World. She's 8 inches tall.

Zoltar runs on AAA batteries, and has a little crystal ball,which lights up,as do the lights under the picture of the wall sconces either side of him.
 

Not lit up.

Lit up.

Zoltar himself is a flat picture, as are the wall sconces. The picture is set back a bit behind the crystal ball,which is on a little ledge in front.
 

He has the fortune cards, but he also speaks and tells you something. He's operated by pushing the little fake fortune slot on the front of his case.

There's nice detail on his case. There's some faux wood grain on the front, and 'carved' trim all around.

There are some curtain stickers provided for the sides of his case, but I think it looks better without the stickers,as they don't look very real.

That's today's post. I will hopefully see you again tomorrow, to help take our minds off things. It's not like I don't have enough stuff around here to post every day! Unfortunately, I have plenty of subject matter!