Happy Birthday Roland Rat! (originally posted 12/02/2014)

A technical fault has arisen (not by my hand I might add- it's all Blogger's fault!) and as a result two posts seem to have dropped out of existence 'Happy Birthday Roland Rat!' posted back on the 12^th of March 2014 and 'Arfon’sSponsored Friday the 13th Movie Marathon: CONCLUSION' posted on the 15^th of November 2015 thankfully I have been able to retrieve them, but not in their original order- so I have to report them here! Playing merry hell with my links, stats and OCD.... anyway, here they are again!

Many happy returns Roland Rat (superstar) celebrating his 31st birthday today! As Ratfans around the world rejoice I thought I would devote this post to him! We all know the story of how “the only rat to join a sinking ship" managed to save TV-am’s ratings in 1983 and how he became an over (morning) sensation and an instant hit with children (myself included). We tuned in in our millions to follow his latest adventures touring the globe in his pink Ford Anglia with Kevin the Gerbil by his side while Errol the Hamster was left in charge of playing cartoons such as the Pac-Man the Animated Series back at the studio. I was a huge fan and drew several pictures of the gang aspiring to win my very own Ratbag some day! I never did. But I had/have all manner of other rat related items, Roland Rat wristwatch, mug, badge, school bag, lunch box, pencils, rubbers, annual and my very own plush Roland Rat! Received on Christmas 1984 he has been with me ever since, sitting on a shelf in my studio.


Taken on Christmas morning 1984.
Left to right me, my grandmother and brother
showing off our brand new Roland Rats!

This year I decided to restore and customise Roland in honour of his birthday. After a little T.L.C and a minor repairs (thank you  Mrs. Jones) I turned to another plush rat. Back in 2011 Posh Paws produced some rather nice, high quality plush Roland Rats and their talking Roland line was of specific interest to me, however it was the sound module inside that I was after! After 30 years my plush Roland Rat would finally have a voice! The original plush Roland had a section in the back that allowed children to convert their Roland into a puppet (can’t think why) this pocket was the ideal location for storing the sound module (Velcro added for easy changing of batteries). I carefully removed the module from the donor and inserted it into the recipient and I am happy to report that the operation was a complete success!  One talking, plush Roland Rat with 30 years worth of memories attached to it. Check out the video to see/hear the end result. Happy Birthday Roland!

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