Ex-teacher Greg Powell's mug collection holds volumes of character

The retired Lake Macquarie primary school teacher has been collecting mugs for decades and is always on the look-out for more. But they need to be high-quality mugs (more on that later).

He said it started in the early 1990s, when he and his now adult sons began to collect the 3-D cartoon character mugs on offer from some fast-food outlets.

The first were bought from KFC on visits to The Entrance. They weren't free but could be bought at a small cost with the price of a meal.

"Our first mugs were from Looney Tunes and featured Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Tassie Devil and Wile E Coyote," Greg said.

He said people often say they well remembered having the same ones, but over the years they were thrown out or given away.

"This statement gives me the horrors!"

Later visits to restaurants added more mugs to the collection. Hungry Jacks and Red Rooster came out with their own.

"We placed our mugs along the kitchen window ledge but as the collection grew, my wife Brenda 'suggested' that they find another home."

Greg said eventually the boys lost interest in the mugs. "But I did not. The mugs had taken hold of me, and I wanted more."

He said that as a primary school teacher, he would take a mug to school each day and the children would be keen to see which character would be holding his coffee.

"This led to some swapping and trading with pupils and some even kindly gave me their mugs as retirement presents, as mum or dad had decided to declutter their bedrooms."

Greg said whenever as a new Disney movie came out in the '90s and later, character mugs would often be sold as mementos.

These soft plastic mugs gave way to the hard plastic mugs now available at Disney on Ice productions. They come filled with flavoured shaved ice and a novelty spoon. These character mugs usually have a flip-up lid.

"Garage sales, opshops, second-hand stores, and even antique shops are places that I now haunt to try to increase my collection, which to date has 100 different mugs and quite a few extras for swaps."

Greg says he is quite particular and only collects plastic 3-D character mugs with handles, which he says are now hard to find.

"The breakable ceramic type are more common now but I doesn't collect those."

After retiring from teaching, Greg enjoyed going back as a casual for a spell.

"I often turned up with the big bag of mugs, which delighted all ages from kindy to Year 6. The mugs were excellent conversation starters," he said.

They also led to discussions on the pupil's own collections at home - and had an educational benefit.

"They also stimulated the pupil's minds for writing imaginative narratives and for drawing lessons," Greg said.

"The pupils also enjoyed the incentive of 'minding' a special mug on their desk for the day."

Greg said what began as some innocent family purchases decades ago has led him to an "ongoing collecting craze".

"My wife and sons now buy me mugs on-line for Father's Day etc. I am always easy to buy for."

Greg is keen to hear from like-minded collectors to swap, buy or sell. He can be reached on 0401-278-467