Japan: Toy Story (2022)

Nothing else needed.

Used on a Card with Special Postmark:

Germany: Spider-Man (2022)

On matching Cards with Special Postmarks:

Maxicard:

[News] News of June

June brought some interesting News and I could not wait to write about them, so here they are:

• I have seen the Polish stamp programme for 2023 and it includes a stamp about Koziołek Matołek in June. This popular Polish comic was first published in 1933, so it celebrates its 90th anniversary next year.
• This year's Dutch Kinderpostzegels can be seen online. They feature Donald Duck together with other popular characters from the franchise like Scrooge McDuck, Chip, Dale, Huey, Dewey and Louie.
• The issue date of the US Peanuts stamps was announced to be the 30th September. In addition also a set of four Buzz Lightyear stamps was revealed with a release date on 3rd August.
• The Lego stamp returned to the Austrian stamp programme. Issue date is now the 16th September and it will be a single national letter rate stamp.
• The Lord of the Rings stamps that were supposed to be released by New Zealand Post on 1st June were not issued yet. Last year the set was announced for 2nd June and released on 1st September, so we might expect the same again, but there are no official news yet.

The only thematic issue of June were the Singapore Mascots.

I have not added much to my collection this month, but I finally uploaded most of the additions of the last months.

Singapore: Mascots (2022)

FDC:

Used on a Card:

Poland: Kajko and Kokosz (2022)

[News] News of April and May

Well, once again I have not posted in late April, so I guess every other month will be the new rhythm for my updates. These are the News I have collected since the last update:

• The Portuguese Lord of the Rings now has an issue date. It will be released on 2nd September. I guess like usual there will not be shown anything before the issue date.
• The Lego stamp that appeared in the Austrian stamp programme has now disappeared again.
• USPS will issue a sheet about the Birth Centenary of Charles M. Schulz later this year. The issue consists of a sheet of twenty stamps with ten designs of popular Peanuts characters and a big vignette of Schulz himself. No issue date is known yet.
• The second World Tales stamp from Latvia was not issued as planned on 16th May, but was already issued on 29th April. After the Rundale Castle Rose Ghost in 2021, this one shows Alice in Wonderland. A wonderful issue!
• The French stamp programme for 2023 includes a stamp about Pief le Chien, the programme for 2022 includes another Jeunesse issue, but without further details. 
• Two sheets with ten stamps each about Toy Story will be issued in Japan on 13th July.
• After changing the rhythm from odd to even years the Finnish Post announced a new Moomin set for the 7th September. There will be six stamps like usual and the theme is Moomin ABC to promote reading and writing. 
• The Post of the Isle of Man issued a set about the BBC Centenary of 19th May. There are twelve stamps in total of which Blue Peter and BBC Bitsize can be counted among the children's stamps. Nothing I will add to my collection.
• On 6th December a set of six stamps about the comic character Miss 13 Dots will a issued in Hong Kong.
• An image of the German Spider Man stamp appeared online. It shows the comic character, which actually celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, and not one of the recent movie versions.
• The Polish Kajko and Kokosz issue was released today as planned and is indeed a souvenir sheet.

As mentioned above April and May saw the stamps from Isle of Man, Latvia and Poland, but also Klára Jarunková from Slovakia and Shel Silverstein from the USA.

To my own collection I added a Lotte from Gadgetville stamp from Estonia, Shel Silverstein from the USA and Alice from Latvia. The latter two are however not yet scanned and added to the blog.

Austria: Frog King Special Postmark (2022)

On matching Cards with related Personalised Stamps:

Switzerland: Wilhelm Tell (2022)

FDC:

Germany: EUROPA 2022 (2022)

Used on Covers:

Latvia: World Tales - Alice in Wonderland (2022)

FDC:

Poland: Wawel Dragon (2022)

USA: Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree (2022)

Not needed in mint condition, but a FDC would be nice.

Used on a Card:

[News] News of February and March

After a two-month absence I am back with some News. February and March were busy for me, but also there was not much new information, so I decided not to post last month. Without further ado here however the few news I got:

• The issue date for the US Shel Silverstein stamp was announced to be the 8th April, so next Friday. I read that this stamp sparked a small controversy, as people said that a different book should have been chosen, because it is not said to be his best and apparently can be read as a story of selfish exploitation. I can not judge, as I do not know the book, but I like the stamp and hope to add it to my collection, although I am not very active in philately these days.
• Australian Post issued on 15th March a set of five about Australian Legends of Filmmaking. Among them is George Miller, who is best known for the Mad Max movies, but who has also directed, produced and co-written one of my favourite movies as a child, Happy Feet. 
• The German stamp about Benjamin Blümchen issued in March surprisingly includes the link to the TV show's intro if a scan the dreadful matrix code. Thus the code at least has one positive side effect beside ruining great designs and a useless tracking function.
• An updated version of the Polish stamp programme includes in October a stamp about Thorgal, a Belgian comic series co-created by Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński that celebrates its 45th anniversary this year.
• In time for the release of Fantastic Beasts 3 a thematic postmark is used in Portugal's capital Lisbon.
• Just this morning I saw that the Austrian stamp programme now includes a stamp about the 90th anniversary of Lego on 2nd September. More information is awaited.

The New Issues of February and March were George Miller from Australia, Nero and Marc Sleen from Belgium and Rumpelstiltskin and Benjamin Blümchen from Germany.

To my own collection I have added a few older stamps on cards and covers, but mainly the new issues from Germany.

Australia: Legends of Filmmaking (2022)

George Miller is the creator of Happy Feet and Mad Max, the rest in the set is not needed.

Maxicard:

Germany: Benjamin Blümchen (2022)

If you scan the matrix code you can listen to the intro of the TV show.

On matching Cards with Special Postmarks (one is a self-made Maxicard):

First Day Sheet:

"Erinnerungsblatt":

"Gedenkset" (inside you can see a big image of Benjamin's home zoo, a mint version of the stamp and an old East German stamp set about zoo animals):

Used on Covers:

Germany: Welfare - Rumpelstiltskin (2022)

Booklet:

On matching Cards with Special Postmarks (unfortunately the fourth card got lost in the mail):

[News] News of January

The year is still young, so there are still many countries announcing their stamp issue plans for 2022. January was thus a month full of news. As I am very busy the next time, I am posting already a day early, so without further ado here are the News of January:

• For 2022 two sets are planned about The Lord of the Rings. One will be from New Zealand and one from Portugal. I assume that the set from New Zealand will be similar to last year's issue. The issue date of that one is the 1st June, the Portuguese set has no issue date as of now.
• An image of the German Benjamin Blümchen stamp became available. It shows the famous elephant on a white background with flowers. Although I still do not like the matrixcode, this issue is one of my personal highlights for 2022.
• The Latvian issue plan was updated with issue dates and the second stamp in the World Tales series started in 2021 is announced for the 16th May.
• When the British programme was announced, like usual it included some TBA issues. Through other channels however it was revealed that those are the Jubilee of Queen, Transformers (1st September) and Aardman (10th October). Not sure what we should think about the Transformers issue, but Aardman is surely something to look forward to.
• USPS announced some more stamps for the year. Among them is a single stamp about Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. No issue date was announced yet.
• The Slovenian stamp about Ela Peroci was issued a few days ago and the image was shown some days earlier. Next to a portrait of the authoress it shows an illustration from her most famous book, Muca Copatarica (Slipper Keeper Kitty) illustrated by Ančka Gošnik Godec.
• Singapore announced another set about Singapore Mascots. Planned issue date is in June, but let's see if it will be issued on time this year (as a reminder: the first set in 2020 was postponed from April to August due to Covid-19).
• The Armenian programme includes a single stamp about Cartoons in the second quarter. In recent years always two stamps about this theme were issued, so I assume that another one will be announced (or rather issued without announcement) later.
• Images of the first EUROPA stamps of 2022 became available. I like the stamps from Liechtenstein, but of the ones shown yet I would only consider the Russian stamp for this part of my thematic collection. As I said before, I will not mention all of them here and will also not try to collect all. The EUROPA Stamp Blog however does a great job in also including short summaries of the depicted tales. Go check it out!

The only new issue of the month is the Ela Peroci stamp from Slovenia.

I did not got any new stamps for my collection this month, but I have uploaded the LOTR stamps from New Zealand that I got in late December.

Germany: Astrid Lindgren Prepaid Cover (2022)