Angry Birds

Itella Posti Oy most probably made history by releasing the world's first official Angry Birds stamps, featuring six of the popular game characters - five birds and one pig on 9^th September, 2013. The designer of the stamps is Toni Kysenius, Art Director at Rovio Entertainment, who also designed the HockeyBird character and related stamp issue for last year's IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. 

In order to ensure authenticity, the Angry Birds stamps feature a pattern which is only visible under UV light. In addition, an irregular perforation follows the shape of the characters. The sheet of six 1^st class stamps also includes Priority labels fitting the appearance of the stamps.

Angry Birds is a video game franchise created by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Entertainment. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the first game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009. Over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple's App Store, which has prompted the company to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, including the Android, Symbian and Windows Phone operating systems. It has since expanded to video game consoles and for PCs.

Angry Birds has been praised for its successful combination of addictive gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to versions of Angry Birds being created for personal computers and gaming consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters and even long-term plans for a feature film or television series. With nearly 2 billion downloads across all platforms and including both regular and special editions, the game has been called "one of the most mainstream games out right now", "one of the great runaway hits of 2010", and "the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far".

Thank you Ella for this lovely Angry Birds maxi card.

Postcrossing

"Postcrossing" is an international and strongly growing hobby in which people from different parts of the world send each other traditional postcards. In the future, Finnish enthusiasts will be able to send their cards using dedicated stamps. The Postcrossing booklet released by Itella Posti Oy features four 1^st class NVI stamps and Priority labels. The layout of the stamp sheet, which can be folded in two in the middle, was made by the Helsinki-based design agency Kokoro & Moi.

The postcrossing website www.postcrossing.com currently has more than 426,000 registered users from 214 countries. The basic idea of postcrossing is that each sender of a card receives at least one card back from a random sender somewhere in the world. Globally, postcrossers send approximately 600 postcards every single hour. There are some 15,000 postcrossers in Finland, and so far they have sent more than 1.7 million cards.

Thank you Ella for these lovely cards embellished with the pretty postcrossing stamps and the first day of issue postmark.

Blue Ribbon campaign and prostate cancer research

This year's charity stamp from Åland Post focuses on the Blue Ribbon campaign and prostate cancer research. This card was issued along with the the charity stamp. You can read all about the stamp and the first day cover on my blog www.letstalkstamps.blogspot.com 
The Blue Ribbon card is designed by Åland graphic designer Håkan Sandberg, who himself was diagnosed with prostate cancer.  

Håkan Sandberg’s stamp features a garden sculpture, which he has created himself. The sculpture represents a bon vivant, who enjoys life on earth. Apart from wanting to emphasize the importance of living in the here and now, another purpose of the stamp is to challenge the taboo surrounding prostate cancer. The Blue Ribbon logo has been visibly placed on the stamp.

Thank you Dear Ella for this nice FDC.

SS Princess Anastasia

USS Lexington - The Blue Ghost

USS Lexington (CV/CVA/CVS/CVT/AVT-16), nicknamed "The Blue Ghost", is an Essex-class aircraft carrier built during World War II for the United States Navy. Originally intended to be named Cabot, word arrived during construction that the USS Lexington (CV-2) had been lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea. She was renamed while under construction to commemorate the earlier ship. This ship was the fifth US Navy ship to bear the name in honour of the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington.

Lexington was commissioned in February 1943 and saw extensive service through the Pacific War. For much of her service she acted as the flagship for Admiral Marc Mitscher, and led the Fast Carrier Task Force through their battles across the Pacific. She was the recipient of 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. Following the war Lexington was decommissioned, but was modernized and reactivated in the early 1950s, being reclassified as an attack carrier (CVA). Later she was reclassified as an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). In her second career, she operated both in the Atlantic/Mediterranean and the Pacific, but spent most of her time, nearly 30 years, on the east coast as a training carrier (CVT).

Lexington was decommissioned in 1991, with an active service life longer than any other Essex-class ship. Following her decommissioning she was donated for use as a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2003, Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark. Though her surviving sisterships Yorktown, Intrepid, and Hornet carry lower hull numbers, Lexington was laid down and commissioned earlier, making Lexington the oldest remaining aircraft carrier in the world.

Thank you my friend Barbara for this fine card.

JAMES BOND POSTCARD 007 Dr. No (1962) French Poster

On introducing James Bond in Dr. No, producers Broccoli & Saltzman could not have foreseen the phenomenon that the series of films would soon become. But the material already had a certain glamour. Here was an anti-hero who was terribly British, who killed in cold blood and yet was able to charm numerous beautiful women and solve the deadliest of crimes, all in a day's work. This adaptation from the novel by Ian Fleming was one of the films most faithful to the original story.

 James Bond is sent to Jamaica with a mission: to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of fellow agent John Strangways. The trail leads him to the island of Crab Key, the base of the SPECTRE headquarters of corrupt scientist Dr. No, whom Bond believes to be the murderer. Dr. No informs Bond of his aim of world domination and the destruction of the US space programme. Battle commences between Bond & Dr. No, until the villain finally falls into his own trap and dies. Mitchell Hooks painted the iconic image of Sean Connery as Bond, with a smoking pistol in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

This image was used internationally at the time, as well as in later poster campaigns. The posters featured Bond surrounded by several glamorous women, a visual shorthand that was to make the secret agent immediately recognizable to cinema audiences worldwide. Joseph Caroff designed the 007 logo, which, with a few variations, has been used throughout the series.

A word about his female partner in Dr. No, namely Ursula AUrsula Andress (born 19 March 1936) is a Swiss-American actress and sex symbol of the 1960s. She is known for her role as Bond girl Honey Rider in the first James Bond film, Dr. No (1962), for which she won a Golden Globe.

This card was sent to me by Barbara from Corpus Christie.  

The Taj Mahal

Surprise of surprises this card of the Taj Mahal wasn’t sent to me by someone in India. It was Marja in Finland who sent it to me.

The Taj Mahal is a white marble mausoleum located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".

Taj Mahal is regarded by many as the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian and Indian architectural styles.

The Taj Mahal has been considered one of the Wonders of the World for a Iong time now.  1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While the white domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar component of the Taj Mahal, it is actually an integrated complex of structures. The construction began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, employing thousands of artisans and craftsmen. The construction of the Taj Mahal was entrusted to a board of architects under imperial supervision, including Abd ul-Karim Ma'mur Khan, Makramat Khan, and Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Lahauri is generally considered to be the principal designer.

The Taj looks its best on a full Moon night, and luckily, that’s when the photograph on this card was taken.