Tomb Raider Generic Sheet
Royal Mail's first issue for 2020 celebrates classic Video Games!
Honestly!
Clearly nothing of significant interest happened in history to fire
Royal Mail's imagination sufficiently so they have adopted yet another
pop-culture theme for their first issue of 2020, presumably in the
hope that this will add to their bottom line rather than perhaps the birth
bicentenary of Florence Nightingale or Beethoven, not to mention artist
Sir John Tenniel, original illustrator of Alice in Wonderland!
Casting even further back 2020 is the 500th anniversary of the birth of
Renaissance Master, Raphael.
According to Royal Mail ....
"The roots of Britain’s £4 billion video game industry can
be traced back to the very early 1980s. In this stamp issue we look at
some of the best loved games, many of which were worldwide successes, and
mark the UK contribution to ‘gaming’ during the 80’s and 90’s and
up to the modern day. This classic video games issue will evoke nostalgia
and celebrate the joy of gaming through landmark UK-designed games."
It's yet another expensive issue for the GB collector and I think you
will be lucky to see any of the stamps and other products in use on
mail. There is the usual multi- denominational stamp issue, mini
sheet, presentation pack and retail booklet and a collector/generic sheet
based on the stamps only available in the mini sheet.
The collector/generic sheet is based on the Tomb Raider theme and
contains 10 of the miniature sheet stamps and 10 labels. The labels all
feature Tomb Raiders main character Lara Croft in different scenes from
the video game. The sheet is produced as a self-adhesive sheet
printed in Litho by ISP/Cartor making these stamps different varieties to
the mini-sheet gummed issue but Gibbons will not list them as
they are sold at a premium over face value. I wouldn't mind if
Gibbons were consistent but they are not on this point. Yet
another example of Neanderthal thinking imposed by Gibbons on the British
collecting pubic. Royal Mail are moving towards more and more
premium products whilst Gibbons refuse to list them - how daft!
GS-123
Whilst I am sure this foray into pop- culture by Royal Mail is not
sustainable or even undesirable, as a service primarily to our overseas
customers, we will be stocking this sheet priced at £19.95 plus p+p.
(07/01)
