Foolproof

A gift that has popped up once or twice in the Fleetway comics is the 'Instant Disguise Kit'. As far as I'm aware, it was first given away free with the issue three of Buster. There was a rather humourous and downright silly themed strip on the cover that week. Here it is as drawn by Bill Titcombe, Buster's first, but short-lived, artist.

The gift could apparently "fool 'em all", and even "fool your friends", according to an advertisement in Whizzer and Chips almost a decade later in February 1970.

This is the Buster advert as seen at
the top of the post but with  Buster's
cap removed and replaced with spiky hair.

Just like Buster had back in 1960 the front cover characters, Sid and Slippy, get up to some fun with the mask. Unfortunately I don't own an actual copy of this issue but I have got a scan of it thanks to Andy Janes! Cheers Andy! Artwork here is by Mike Lacey.

Shiner also got up to some fun with the kit on the front cover of Chips. Once again, thanks for Andy Janes for the scan.

So, what did this foolproof piece of kit actually look like? And surely if it was so good, the government would have got to it first and kept it top secret (by buying every issue of the comics in those weeks)? Well, the Buster kit actually differs very slightly from the Whizzer and Chips kit but overall they are very similar. Here's the Buster kit (the moustache has been placed upside down in the photo):

And here is the Whizzer and Chips kit:

As you can see - they would fool anybody!