[News] 2020 in Review, Outlook of 2021 and the News of December

2020 will soon end and although I just started this blog in March, it is time to look back at this year. 

On the page above I tried to list all new issues about childhood heroes from 2020. According to my list 27 countries issued more than 200 of these stamps in 41 issues. Of these 41 issues I have currently collected 18 (one is incomplete and one other is on its way), but as I am only interested in 20 of them, I can be quite happy. Among the featured childhood heroes were many that had already appeared on other stamps before 2020, but the year also saw some first philatelic appearances. The Calabash Brothers, Tatu and Patu, the Raving Rabbids, Loreley, Wickie, Knerten, Cyborg (DC) and the Soaper 5 were among these. 

On my stamp blog I choose every year my twenty favourite stamps and like usual some childhood hero stamps were among them: 

1. Sesame Street (Germany) 

4. Childhood Heroes (Germany) 

8. The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats (Germany) 

11. Soaper 5 (Singapore) 

13. Raving Rabbids (France) 

14. Pied Piper of Hamelin (Germany) 

15. #oursea (Finland) 

17. 80 years Bugs Bunny (USA) 

You can see the complete list here.

For 2021 nine countries already announced 15 issues about Childhood Heroes on Stamps and I am sure that many more will follow in the course of the year. For example the issue programme of the United Kingdom has not been yet published, the USA always adds some stamps later on and there are so many more countries from which I have seen no programmes yet. Of the already announced issues I am especially looking forward to the Strong Women in Comics from Belgium, The Little Prince and Jean de la Fontaine from France, Mother Hulda and Die Sendung mit der Maus from Germany and Mafalda from Italy. The complete list you can find above. If you know of any other issue please post a comment.

Newly issued this month were the new Helden der Kindheit (Maya the Bee and Wickie) and the Pied Piper of Hamelin from Germany and a single stamp from Ukraine about the cartoon Cossacks. Ukraine also issued a stamp about Mavka - The Forest Song on 30th November, which I first saw in early December. While I am not interested in the Mavka stamp, I still look for the Cossacks.

During this last month of 2020 I added many stamps to my collection. These include the new issues from Germany mint and on postcards as well as the Raving Rabbids in mint condition and some wonderful stamps from Belgium. For the latter check out the label. Also I got the rest of the DC Comic stamps from the USA on covers and most of the US Harry Potter stamps. 

Wishing all readers here A Happy New Year!

Germany: Childhood Heroes (2020)

This is the second set in the series "Helden der Kindheit" (Childhood Heroes). The stamps show Wickie and Maya the Bee.

On matching Cards with Special Postmarks:

   

   

Maxicard:

Used on a Card:

Germany: Pied Piper of Hamelin (2020)

On matching Cards with Special Postmarks:

First Day Sheet:

[News] News of November

November brought some more news, but most of these are of no interest for my collection of Childhood Heroes on Stamps, although they are interesting for a general collection about children's books. So here are the news:

• After San Marino and Italy also Bulgaria issued a stamp about Gianni Rodari. In total four stamps about author anniversaries were issued, which beside Rodari also honour Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and Arthur Hailey. Honestly I think the four black-and-white stamps look a bit sinister.
• Armenia issued this week a stamp about the 150th birthday of Atabek Khnkoyan, who wrote under the pen name Khnko Aper. Never heard of him and not interested in the stamp, but for everyone who likes it, it is available on WOPA.
• The Christmas stamps from Greenland this year show illustrations from the picture book The Most Beautiful Christmas Tree in the World written by Juaaka Lyberth and illustrated by Maja-Lisa Kehlet. Published just in 2019, I think it is very interesting that the book is now already featured on stamps.
• South Korea's Post Week issue of this year shows picture books. Featured are Wave by Lee Suzy, When Spring comes to the DMZ by Lee Uk-bae, Magic Candies by Baek Hee-na and The Goblins and the Pumpkin Porridge Seller by Lee Sang-gyo and Han Byeong-ho. This is a nice set, but as I do not know any of the books, I will most likely not add it to my collection.
• More news also became available for 2021. Most likely the first set of the year will come from Japan. Twenty stamps in two sheet about the Moomins will be issued on 15th January. In June a souvenir sheet from the Czech Republic will feature Kater Mikesch, who had earlier been shown on a German stamp about the Augsburger Puppenkiste. You can find the complete list of stamps that I am currently aware of in the list above. Unfortunately I still have not seen the German programme with dates for 2021, but I suspect that it might become available next week.

Apart from the stamps from Armenia, Bulgaria, Greenland and South Korea mentioned above this month also saw the souvenir sheet about Frakk from Hungary, the sheet about Leo Lionni's Friends from Japan and the Briish Star Trek stamps. So nothing of interest for my collection at all this month, but the next will be better.

To my collection I added this month a FDC about the Raving Rabbids from France as well as the booklet with a special postmark, the Dutch souvenir sheet about Miffy, a maxicard about Singa the Lion from the recent set about Singapore Mascots, a card sent with two Bugs Bunny stamps and the special postmark and two more covers from the USA with DC stamps.

[News] News of October

Here are the News of October:

• Hungary will issue its "Cartoon and fairy-tale characters" souvenir sheet on 4th November. The theme will be Frakk, the Cats' Nightmare, but although it will be issued next week no pictures are yet available. Another sheet in this series is already planned for 2021.
• Following San Marino Italy also issued a stamp for the Birth Centenary of Gianni Rodari. The image became available on the issue date and shows a child with a balloon. I saw that this is the logo of a children's literature prize, but I am not sure whether it is from one of Rodari's books or not. For my own collection I am anyway not interested.
• I really hate when stamp images are published last minute, so it was a welcome surprise that the pictures of the Star Trek issue from the United Kingdom became already available recently. There are opinions about this set vary and range from love to hate. Personally I like the stamps, but I will not get them for my own collection, as I was never a big fan of Star Trek. Also I do not understand why these stamps are issued this year.
• This is the wonderful time of the year when many countries publish their stamp programmes for the next year. The most interesting issue I have seen so far (apart from the German issues) comes from Belgium. Planned for the 25th January 2021 is an issue called Straffe Stripdames, which most probably translates to Strong Women in Comics. It will be interesting to see which characters will be featured in this set. Most likely images will be available in December.
• These are so far all issues about childhood heroes that I am aware of for 2021: Straffe Stripdames (Belgium January), Goldorak (France), Jean de La Fontaine (France), Die Sendung mit der Maus (Germany, one stamp), "Helden der Kindheit" (Germany, two stamps), "Sagenhaftes Deutschland": Heinzelmännchen and Waldfrau (Germany, two stamps), Welfare - Mother Hulda (Germany, three stamps), Jean de La Fontaine (Hungary, March, one stamp), Cartoon and Fairy-tale characters (Hungary, September, one souvenir sheet), Pasaules pasakas ("World Tales", Latvia, one stamp)

The New Issues of October were the Loreley from Germany, the Storm Riders from Hong Kong, Charles Dickens from the Isle of Man, Gianni Rodari from Italy and Miffy from the Netherlands.

This has been a busy month for my own collection. As mint stamps I got the Loreley, Rupert Bear from Guernsey, the wonderful Muppets sheet from the USA and the Soaper 5 from Singapore. The Loreley as well as two of the new Bugs Bunny stamps and the German Till Eulenspiegel stamp of 2011 I also got on matching postcards. Also I got the last missing Marvel stamps from the USA on a cover plus ten of the twenty DC stamps from 2006 and a Disney set from 2008 on covers as well. Use either the labels or the archive to see them.

If I missed any news or new issues please post a comment!

Netherlands: 65 years Miffy (2020)

[News] News of September

As I am very busy this month, I did not managed to post about the news of September in September, but here they finally are. Actually this month at first looked like there would not be many news, but in the last two weeks some interesting things came to be known. Earlier this month I worked a bit on this blog and all posts were now "published" on the day the stamps were issued, so now you can use the blog archive as well to browse my collection. Unfortunately however it is not possible to use a date before 1970 and 1970 itself is not shown in the archive. For these stamps you will have to use the labels. I made this change, because when I uploaded everything in March, I did this quite quick and it became difficult then to squeeze new additions between the old posts without changing the order. 

These are the News: 

• At first there were some problems with the online catalogs of the Deutsche Post, but after these problems were fixed, the new Philatelie aktuell was released on time. In there are the first images for the December stamps, so the Pied Piper of Hamelin and the Heroes of the Childhood issue, which this year shows Maya the Bee and Wickie. Especially the later two are wonderful stamps and I can not wait to add them to my collection. After Heidi and Pippi this is the second edition of this new series of stamps. Next year another two stamps will be issued, but the characters are not yet known. The Pied Piper is as well part of a series called Sagenhaftes Deutschland, which also includes this month's stamp about Loreley and next year's issues about the Heinzelmännchen and the Waldfrau. 
• Compared to other years Japan issued very few childhood hero stamps this year. So far there have only been the twenty stamps about Doraemon in May. In November however there will be another issue about Leo Lionni's friends labeled The World of Children's Picture Book Series No. 4. This is also a very nice issue. The last two issues in this series were the Little Prince in 2019 and the Very Hungry Caterpillar in 2018. Unfortunately I am not sure anymore about the first issue of this series. This new souvenir sheet will include ten stamps about Swimmy, Frederick and Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse. Frederick was earlier shown already on one of the US stamps about Animals in Children's Books issued as joint issue with the United Kingdom in January 2006, for the other two books I suppose it is the first philatelic appearance. 
• The Isle of Man will follow Bosnia and Herzegovina and Jersey with an issue about the 150th death anniversary of Charles Dickens. Of these three issues this one is my favourite, as it is completely dedicated to A Christmas Carol, the only work of Dickens I consider for my collection, but I am still not sure if I will buy it, as there definitely have been cheaper issues for this theme. Issue date will be the 14th October. 
• After San Marino also Italy will issue a stamp about Gianni Rodari in October. 
• Hong Kong Post will issue a set of six stamps plus two souvenir sheets about the fantasy comic Storm Riders on 29th October. I think the issue looks very nice, but I do not know these comics, so I will not add it to my collection. Also the issue is a bit excessive. 
• In the October issue of Philinfo the French stamp programme for 2021 is "completed" (well, they always add some stamps during the course of the year). Of particular interesting is the issue called Goldorak. I suppose this means the Japanese animated series, which aired in France for the first time in 1976, so 45 years ago next year. Only time will tell if this is right and also if yes if this will be the Jeunesse issue or a seperate one. 

While news were mostly published in late September, the new issues were all issued within the first two weeks of the month. Tatu and Patu from Finland came out on the 2nd September, Globi from Switzerland and Rupert Bear from the United Kingdom were issued on 3rd September, the Soaper 5 from Singapore followed one day later and the Raving Rabbids single stamp from France came in last on 7th September. 

For my own collection this has been a good month. From the USA I got the three souvenir sheets about Tweety and Sylvester, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, so I now have all five of these Looney Tunes sheets. Also I got so far 17 of the 20 US Marvel stamps of 2007 used on covers and one of the wonderful Sesame Street stamps of the last year on a cover from the American Philatelic Society. Of the new issues of September I so far got Globi in mint condition, as FDC and as a Faltblatt and the Raving Rabbids used on two postcards. As I am now two days already into October, I also already bought the German Loreley stamp issued yesterday.

Germany: Loreley (2020)

On matching Cards with Special Postmarks:

France: Raving Rabbids (2020)

On a matching Card:

FDC:

Used on Cards:

Singapore: Soaper 5 (2020)

Switzerland: Globi (2020)

FDC:

"Faltblatt":

[News] News of August

Here are the news collected during August.

• The most surprising news of the month came from Portugal. Actually I just thought to mention that the pictures for all the Meuselos can now be found on the Internet, but then I noticed that another postmark for the Justice League was announced. A quick look in the official stamp programme showed that such an issue was now listed there as well. I was really looking forward to this issue, but when images finally became available on issue date, I was rather disappointed. Unlike the Meuselos, which show characters in comic style, the official issue deals with the movie from 2017. I really wonder, why would you issue six sets with wonderful personalised stamps as teasers for an issue about a three year old movie without visible connection to your country that was a box office flop and that received mixed reviews? In total there are six stamps showing the members of the Justice League in the movie plus a souvenir sheet showing all of them together. For Henry Cavill as Superman it will already be the second philatelic appearance and for Cyborg I think it will be the first time on a stamp. Personally I like the Meuselos much more, although I usually do not collect personalised stamps. However all of them can now be bought on WOPA as collectors' sheets (not sure what they include). On the website of the Portuguese Post you can also buy just the stamps, but for some reason Batman seems to be not available anymore. 
• Another much newer superhero team will make a philatelic appearence on a stamp set from Singapore: the Soaper 5. This team was created by the Ministry of Education to guide the young inhabitants of Singapore through the Covid-19 pandemic and there was even already a show created with them. There will be one stamp for all five team members and one showing all of them together. Date of issue is the 4th September. 
• The pictures of the Rupert Bear issue from Royal Mail also are available since Monday. Eight stamps will be issued and surprisingly no additional souvenir sheet. Somehow these stamps were available somewhere in the UK much earlier than intended. I saw a used version of one of the 1st class stamps on Instagram as early as the 18th August. Still I have not decided whether I want to have the set from Guernsey or the UK. I kinda like both, but actually Rupert is no hero of my childhood.
• In Germany this year a new stamp series will start called "Sagenhaftes Deutschland" (might be translated to legendary Germany, but also as amazing Germany). The stamps will show famous legends from Germany. The start will make a stamp of Loreley in October, followed by the Pied Piper of Hamelin in December and the Heinzelmännchen and the Waldfrau in 2021. Some characters shown in the series will surely show childhood heroes, while others will more or less be unknown to younger persons. This year for example the Pied Piper I would definitely call a childhood hero, Loreley not. For my own collection I will however get all of them. The image of the Loreley stamp became available this month, hence I mention it now. I am still not sure if I like it or not. I like that it has a touristic aspect, but the colours are a bit strange.
• As of the 10th August the Bugs Bunny stamps can be ordered in the eBay shop of USPS. Just in case somebody wants to buy them for face value and is not from the USA. 
• For September Hungary planned another souvenir sheet about Fairy Tale Heroes after Süsü the Dragon in 2019. However the issue was now postponed for unknown reasons.
• Just recently I realised that I overlooked an issue from the Netherlands. Apart from the souvenir sheet planned for October, a golden stamp about the 65th anniversary of Miffy was issued in June. I do not collect such expensive metallic issues, but for everyone who likes it, it is still available on WOPA for 50€. Also I have added some British issues to the list above, which I so far did not really considered, but which others might like for the sake of completeness.
• Actually I do not want to deal with special postmarks too much, as I also only collect them sporadically, but in Germany one about the Fairy Tale Festival in Buxtehude will be used soon. In case someone is interested I can offer to send it.
• For everyone who likes philatelic YouTube videos like me Philatelythings recently uploaded two nice ones. One is about Animal Crossing and Stamps and the other deals with the new Bugs Bunny stamps

New Issues there were not so many this month. Only the Mascots from Singapore and the Justice League in Portugal came out in August.

New Additions to my own collection however I had quite a few. Of the newer issues I got the French booklet about the Raving Rabbids, the Mascots from Singapore and the new Bugs Bunny stamps from the USA, which I all got directly from the postal administrations. Through a swap I also got the wonderful US Star Wars stamps on covers plus the old Bugs Bunny stamp and Road Runner in mint condition and Scooby-Doo on a cover. A mint Scooby-Doo sheet I also bought while ordering the new Bugs Bunny. From Poland I also got the cartoon sheet of 2018 in mint condition and as FDC.

Portugal: Justice League (2020)