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)

[News] 2021 in Review, Outlook of 2022 and the News of December

2021 is over soon and I am not sad about it. The year went by so quick, but had many annoying aspects. Strange to realize that this is already the second time that I write a post like this here on the blog. It seems so long ago that I started this blog back in March 2020. Nonetheless let's look back at the last year and forward to the next.

On the page above I still try to list all new issues about childhood heroes. According to my list 26 postal administrations issued 244 of these stamps in 44 issues in 2021. Last year 27 postal administrations issued 199 stamps in 41 issues. Once again I already got nearly all of the stamps I was hoping to get. Only Mafalda from Italy and the Little Prince from Serbia I am still missing. Among the featured childhood heroes were many that had already appeared on other stamps before this year, but the year also saw some first philatelic appearances. The Secret Garden, Goldorak, Bibi & Tina and many Star Wars Droids, DC characters and Pokemon were among these. 

Also I have once again created my list of favourite stamps of the year and these thematic stamps were able to take places among them:

1. Pokemon (Japan)

2. Star Wars Droids (USA)

4. Mother Hulda (Germany)

9. 400th Birth Anniversary of Jean de La Fontaine (France)

17. Goldorak (France)

19. Sendung mit der Maus (Germany)

You can see the complete list here.

For 2022 eleven countries already announced 15 issues about Childhood Heroes on Stamps, which is roughly the same amount as last year at this time, so I am sure that many more will follow in the course of the year. In the next year the theme of the EUROPA stamps will be Stories and Myths. Some of them might include children's characters, but the ones I have seen so far do not. Of the already announced issues I am especially looking forward to Rumpelstilskin and Benjamin Blümchen from Germany. The complete list you can find above. If you know of any other issue please post a comment.

The New Stamps of December were a Comic Book souvenir sheet from Bosnia and Herzegovina - Republic of Srpska, Bibi & Tina and Die drei ??? from the German series Helden der Kindheit and Demon Slayer and Peter Rabbit from Japan.

During this last month of 2021 I added some more stamps to my collection. These were the new set from Germany, a Demon Slayer stamp, the US Simpsons on covers and two postal cards about Classic Comic Strips.

Wishing all readers here A Happy New Year!

Japan: Demon Slayer (2021)

Nothing else needed.

Used on Card with Special Postmark:

Germany: Childhood Heroes (2021)

This is the third set in the series "Helden der Kindheit" (Childhood Heroes). They show Bibi and Tina and Die drei ???.

On matching Cards with Special Postmarks:

Maxicard:

Used on Card (commercial in-period usage):

[News] News of November

November did not give us much news, but information for stamps from three years, 2021, 2022 and 2023. These are the news of the month:

• On 9th November Spain issued a sheet of six-times the same stamp about the popular video game League of Legends. I am rather sure that this is the first time that the game appears on a stamp.
• The Czech Post issued on 10th November a single stamp about Kája Saudek's comic Muriel and Angels. 
• The Slovenian stamp programme for 2022 includes a single stamp about Ela Peroci on 28th January. According to Wikipedia her book Muca Copatarica (Slipper Keeper Kitty) was still among the ten most popular children's books in Slovenia in 2019. It can easily be bought in a German translation and so I guess in English as well.
• China continues its series of cartoon stamps with five stamps about Black Cat Detective. The planned issue date is the 3rd September 2022.
• After the themes became already available last months, now you can also find images of the Belgian stamps of 2022 online. The issue of Marc Sleen and Nero unfortunately has a very strange format. Unlike recent issues there will not be five different stamps twice in a sheet, but two different stamps five times in the sheet. The image on the sheet shows many characters from the comics having a banquet and the two stamps reuse Nero and Marc Sleen from this larger image.
• The German Ministry of Finance published both the programme for 2022 with issue dates and face values (which however are all wrong, as they are not updated to an upcoming increase) as well as the themes for 2023. The Rumpelstiltskin Welfare stamps and Benjamin Blümchen will be issued, as expected, in February and March respectively. Spider Man will follow in July, the "Helden der Kindheit" (Pumuckl and Smurfs) will already be issued in September and Black Panther will be issued in Oktober. The issue of Video Games disappered from the programme. As was already known, the theme of the Welfare stamps in 2023 will be Hans in Luck. There will also be single stamps about the Centenaries of the author Ottfried Preußler and the Walt Disney Company and new additions to the series "Helden der Kindheit" (two), Video Games (one) and Super Heroes (two). More information about these can be expected later, especially whether the Video Games will be issued at all. The series "Sagenhaftes Deutschland" is not continued. Finally the three Youth Stamps will show the Mainzelmännchen.
• More countries recently published their stamp programmes for the next year, but do not include any stamps about Childhood Heroes. These include Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the USA. The USA however will, I guess, add an issue later on as they been done in the last years. The programme from the UK is still awaited, but they usually include one, two or three thematic sets. Finland should issue a new Moomin set next year, but no news from there, and Guernsey and Hong Kong might issue thematic set in the second half of 2022. From New Zealand might come a set about the 20th anniversary of The Two Towers, but also here I have seen no programme yet. France included a "Jeunesse" in its programme, but no concrete theme is known. All in all it will for sure be another interesting year.

The New Issues of the month are Kája Saudek's Muriel and Angels from the Czech Republic, Shirokuma-chan no hotto kaki from Japan and League of Legends from Spain.

This has been a good month for my collection. It began with the Nibelungs and the US Simpsons stamps on matching cards, the recent Goldorak and Fairy Tale issues from France followed and also I got two more Star Wars covers. The biggest batch of new stamps however comes from a stamp order from an online stamp dealer. I bought the Japanese Pokemon sheets in mint condition and also some older stamps I had been looking for. The stamps are all included here in the blog, but you can see them better on my stamp blog.