These are all side-projects of artists famous for other things. Most instantly recognizable arists in iconic roles find it hard to step out of character, such as Kermit the Frog, Homer Simpson, and Bruce Willis. Not this lot. Clockwise from top left:

This one’s from 1974. Ronawaga Starchu aka Anthony Daniels aka C-3PO. Some Star Wars fans to this day refuse to hear that there’s a man under that gold skin. In 1978 no-one wanted to hear that under the man skin was a Mr Potato head covered in an old stocking and some chicken parts jammed on top of a lawn tennis pole. Recydywa is a Zulu word meaning “layers”, a robotics technique developed in a South African landfill site by the reclusive genius Hans Mbunta. After the success of Star Wars, Mbunta moved to MIT where he works to this day. Perhaps he got too good at his craft because not only was Yoda one of his creations, so too is Kylo Ren and possibly … yeah who cares about Star Wars.

Smurfette, letting her hair down after being the only woman in a village full of men, which might sound pretty great … no, hangon.

Milton Boyd aka Annoying Orange. He wanted to call this “A double-pressing marmalaid” but his producer taled him out of what would mar a serious jam with lyrics themed around memetic viruses and the dying of the corded phone as a concept. It is strange how we’ve lost cords in the main and are yet more tied to out phones, isn’t it? Is the standout track on the album, which didn’t grab listeners as this was 1975. A rare Peel Sessions edition sells for over 9k on Discogs.

Cera, Ltittlefoot, Ducky, Petrie and Littlefoot, yes it’s the Land Before Time gang. Already musically gfited, this was a good record, deserves to be in the Yellowman pile. Just fell between the “too mature for the kids” and “I’m not too sure about so many songs about scat” for adults. Most adults, that is.

Tom Servo of course. Getting in touch with his Finnish Melodic Folk Metal side. He opened for Rammstein in Belarus, in 2001, at the Killijukkehenienenjajayodeljaha festival. The merchandise featured Tom, aka RFC, because the fesitval name was too bloody long for a t-shirt, and that’s saying something in a country where the women grow larger breasts just to wear their favourite band names with pride.

Lastly, this isn’t an album at all but a successful Seatlle Zoo escape carried out by a Timber wolf named Bo, a Mandrill named Karen, and five flamingos. They disguised themselves like this and because everyone knows werewolves don’t walk around in borad daylight, they walked right out the gates and into the wilds. Some say this is actually dave Grohl. Figures.

Ah, migration. If you’re wading out of mud, it’s real fucking slow going.