A Sherlock Hound Phonecard

” Holmes the sleuth-hound”

– The Red-Headed League (REDH)

We discussed Sherlock Hound on these pages before. Between November 6, 1984 and May 21, 1985, 26 episodes of the animated series Sherlock Hound aired in Japan. Based on the Sherlock Holmes stories, the characters were portrayed by anthropomorphic dogs.

Sherlock Hound was the title given to the series when syndicated in the United States. In Japan, the series was known as 名探偵ホームズ, Meitantei Hōmuzu, literally translated as “Detective Holmes.”

We’ve also discussed phone cards before. Many of the visitors to this website probably recall the days when pay phones were a common site when walking down a city sidewalk or inside a hotel lobby. You would drop a few coins into the phone, dial the number and make your call.  Perhaps you would use a calling card  if you were making a long distance call. In the mid 1990’s, there started to appeared prepaid calling cards by some enterprising companies, such as AmeriVox. These prepaid calling cards would generally have 50 call units that would be redeemed at a fixed ratio as the call progressed, until the card would have no remaining call units.

In Asia, prepaid calling cards are quite prevalent and frequently used to promote products or services. Public phones are equipped with card readers.  A user would insert the prepaid card into the reader, make the phone call and when finished remove the card.  The card reader would punch a small hole into the card, prior to its removal, showing approximately how many call units remain, if any.

This Japanese 50 unit calling card features Sherlock Hound and Dr. Watson searching out a mystery on the rooftops of London. In the distance, Professor Moriarty can be seen aloft in a hot air balloon. The card features the colors of white, yellow, red, green and purple.

It would be interesting to learn if there are additional phone cards featuring Sherlock Hound.