166 thoughts on “Bunty Stories”

1. Oh, and the artwork is cartoony, the tone humorous.

   Ramon

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   1. I checked “Mighty Mo” and it is a one page story of the strongest girl in Cactus Creek. It has a humorous tone and is in a western setting. It is in Bunty #834 (January 5, 1974) although this is not the beginning of it. It’s still in Bunty #897 (March 22, 1975). I don’t know how many more issues it appeared in.

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2. I believe you are thinking about “Mighty Mo”. It was in Bunty about this time. I don’t know the starting or ending date of it.

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3. That sounds right, thanks Ronnie!

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4. I am hoping to find another Bunty story. In Dutch, it translates as “Who Is Tessa?” but I have not found a matching Bunty title similar.

   Teenage orphan Tess had taken care of her grandfather until the day he died. She then inherits his house and fortune, bypassing Tess’ cousin Telma (Thelma?) who only receives a broche. Telma and her mother Helena then plot to replace Tess with Telma, as they look so alike.

   Any takers?

   Regards,
   Ramon

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5. Oh, the issues reprinted are from Bunty #996 (12 February 1977)-1010 (21 May 1977).

   Regards,
   Ramon

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   1. The title you are looking for is “The Truth About Tessa”. The cousin’s name is Tansy and her mother’s name is Helena.

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6. I think Ramon already knows that, Ronnie. Given that he uses the word ‘reprinted’, it seems obvious to me that he is looking for is a prequel. I’m not sure there even is one, but if there is, it certainly doesn’t have that title.

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7. I couldn’t understand why he would would need the title as he knew the issues, but as he wrote “I have not found a matching Bunty title similar”. I thought I would provide the title just in case.

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8. Hi, i am looking for a story that I think was printed in Bunty around 1981-1983 – I don;t think it was later than this as I left for high school in 9184 and didn’t read the comics as much after that. The story was about a Princess (might have been Incan) and her name was Mora, she had long dark hair and a white dress that reminded me of Roman togas? I’ve checked the Princess of the Sun story that Bunty ran in the 70’s, it definately isn’t that. Unfortunately I can’t remember any more details and was hoping someone might remember it. Thanks in advance, Tracy

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   1. I looked at “Necklace of the Sun” some more today. It starts with Mora being chosen high priestess. The daughter of the last high priestess is jealous and summons OTYS, mistress of murder (who appears as a black cat) to kill her before she puts on the Necklace of the Sun. She escapes by being sent by the gods to 1982. Her dress does resemble a toga. The story is about Mora trying to find the necklace and escape from OTYS. In the end she puts the necklace on after it is found and returned. She then goes back in time to be high priestess while wearing this white dress. OTYS’s punishment is is to be meek and gentle.

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      1. Thanks for that, Ronnie. Do you have any idea who the artist is?

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         1. No I don’t. I looked but I did not recognize it. I don’t know that many artists.

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9. Could the story you are looking for be “Necklace of the Sun”? It started in Bunty: #1250 (December 26, 1981) and ended in Bunty: #1267 (April 24, 1982). It’s about a young girl named Mora from Stonehenge in 2,000 BC who is transported to 1982.

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   1. Thank you for the info about “Necklace of the Sun”. I’ve added it in since there wasn’t an entry for it here.

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10. Mora is clearly an extremely experienced time traveller. She was in Stonehenge in 2000 BC, she met Ronnie in 1982, and Tracy has just got back after spending some time with her in 9184. Personally speaking, I know that I would not enjoy being someone like Mora because sometimes my head can be spinning even after a short train journey from Penzance to Hayle (15 minutes). My remedy is to walk down from the station to the White Hart pub, put my bag on one of the tables, get my book out, go to the bar and order a nice cold pint of lager from Mary or Liz. This lunchtime I got there about 12.30pm, and by the time I got to the bar Karen was already pulling my pint. When I pointed out to her that I hadn’t actually placed an order, she said, ” Well, Derek, I simply assumed that you would find this pint of ‘Cornish’ very acceptable given that it’s the only beer we’ve got on at the moment. We ARE expecting a delivery by 3pm but you and your book will already be back by home by then. I was!!!

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11. I need some details on “Miss Popularity” (Bunty) for an entry:

    1: The name of the protagonist
    2: The name of the antagonist (which I think was Anna Brown, but I want to confirm)
    3: Publication dates

    Any help appreciated, thanks!

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12. I have found a story called “Miss Popularity” beginning in Bunty #1858 (August 21, 1993) and ending in Bunty #1871 (November 20, 1993). This may not be the one you are looking for though. In this story Fiona Taylor wins a Miss Popularity contest sponsored by a perfume company. She is to promote a new teen perfume named Popularity. A secret enemy spoils things for her at all the functions she attends and turns her friends against her. It turns out to be her boyfriend, Tom Brown. He was getting revenge for his sister, Amanda Brown who was upset because she didn’t win. Amanda didn’t know her brother was doing this, promised to keep her brother under control and got her classmates to be friends with Fiona again.

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    1. That’s it. Thank you so much for the information!

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13. As a child I remember being given a second hand Bunty annual . Probably dated around 60s / 70s . The vague story I remember was about a young girl at ballet school who was either left out or bullied . The picture I recall was that she wore a purple / lilac tutu & was dipping the toe of her ballet shoe in a sort of sand box before ballet class.
    The chances of anyone recognising this minute piece of info is of course ridiculous but worth a try as I often think of it

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    1. I know how one image can stick in your head. I don’t have a lot of early Bunty Annuals, I checked the ones I have 1962, 1977 & 78 annuals and couldn’t see anything like that. Maybe it’ll ring a bell with someone else?

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    2. I’ve checked all Bunty annuals up to 1985 without success. Can’t see it in the early Judy annuals either. Oddly enough, although bullied ballerinas are as regular as Nutcracker at Christmas, panels showing a shoe being dipped into a sandbox are quite rare. Also, most of the stories in the DCT annuals of this period were printed in only one colour, usually red or orange, so the scope for a purple or lilac tutu is limited.

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    3. The 1970 Bunty has a story in it where the girl (Anna) is wearing purple, but it is not a tutu. It starts with her on her toes, but the floor is wood, not sand. She gets a Saturday job to make extra money to help pay for her ballet lessons. A ballet school has an audition on a Saturday that her teacher wants her to try for, but she has to miss it because of her job. it ends with her dancing on an empty stage, but she is noticed by the prima ballerina if the Princess Ballet Company who is allowed one pupil of her own, so Anna gets to go to ballet school. It may not be the story you were thinking of but it is in color and the girl is dressed in purple.

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14. The 1970 Bunty has a story in it where the girl (Anna) is wearing purple, but it is not a tutu. It starts with her on her toes, but the floor is wood, not sand. She gets a Saturday job to make extra money to help pay for her ballet lessons. A ballet school has an audition on a Saturday that her teacher wants her to try for, but she has to miss it because of her job. it ends with her dancing on an empty stage, but she is noticed by the prima ballerina if the Princess Ballet Company who is allowed one pupil of her own, so Anna gets to go to ballet school. It may not be the story you were thinking of but it is in color and the girl is dressed in purple. The title of the story is “She Couldn’t Stop Dancing”.

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15. Hi there! I just came across this amazing list while trying to find a comic I remember from my childhood. I’m almost certain I read it in a Bunty magazine around 1998-2001, so right at the end of its run. Maybe a reprint of an older comic?

    The story was a black and white comic about a girl who worked or maybe was an older girl who lived in an orphanage where the children were being exploited/abused by the owner. Ultimately she manages to rescue them or get external help, and there was some plot point where one of the kids accidentally drank rat poison because he couldn’t read and got the bottle mixed up with something else. It’s possible the heroine was blind and accidentally gave the child the poison instead of medicine because the woman who ran the orphanage switched the bottles around? Possibly her blindness was part of how she was being taken advantage of by the owner. I remember the main message of the story highlighting the heroine’s bravery in standing up to the woman running the orphanage.

    The story was set in the past, definitely not a modern setting, but given that I was about 8 when I read it, my understanding of what counted as “the past” is pretty vague. The heroine wore long skirts, that’s all I can remember. Definitely set in the 1980s or earlier. I feel like there were candles or lanterns mentioned?

    There’s a small possibility the story was in the annual, not the magazine as I had some of those, but I’m sure it was serialised across at least two magazines. I have a specific memory of turning very thin paper pages when reading it. I did have *one* of my mum’s old Bunty annuals from the mid 70s, so I might be misremembering something from that.

    I had a look through this list and can’t seem to find anything that looks similar, but maybe I missed it. There’s always a chance it wasn’t Bunty and was a different girls magazine, but as far as I can tell, everything else (Mandy etc) had ceased publications by the time I read this comic. The only other magazines I remember getting at the time were Beano and Girl Talk, and I don’t think they would have had anything like this. I had Blue Peter annuals but don’t think they had a magazine?

    If anyone has any memory of this story or any idea of where else to look, please let me know! I have such fond memories of this story.

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    1. Maybe it’s “The Maze” (Bunty: #1989 (24 February 1996) – #2000 (11 March 1996)). Stories about cruel Victorian institutions had declined in Bunty by this stage. This story was one of the last ones, and if I remember right, Bunty did not reprint anything during this period with this theme. The heroine wasn’t blind, though.

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       1. Here’s link to The Maze story: https://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2015/04/the-maze/

          There are gaps in my collection, so this isn’t complete list stories, so possibly something else might fit better. I’ll have a check if there are any other stories that might match.

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          1. Could the story be Lady Sarah’s Secret? It was reprinted in M&J in 1997, so it is close to the time period in question. https://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2017/05/lady-sarahs-secret/

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    2. Is it possible the story was one of the PSLs? They were still running at the time.

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16. Hello, can anyone help to identify a story from a Bunty annual, mid-late 1960s, about a girl whose little sister (or brother?) is suddenly unwell. Eventually it’s discovered they have eaten some berries, but couldn’t tell the difference between safe green berries and poisonous red ones because they are colour blind. We think there’s a red setter dog involved in the reveal somehow. Can anyone help to identify the story & annual year? The story is well loved and remembered in our family, and came from my mum’s collection of annuals which we used to read as kids at my granny’s house but are sadly lost!

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    1. Hello RubyDot,

       Sadly I do not know the Bunty (the Book) for Girl(s) issue, but I vividly remember this story as well, but from the Dutch reprint. Probably printed in the seventies, read by me in the early eighties. I will try to find the Dutch title/issue(s), hopefully that will help us identify the Bunty issue number/year.

       You ARE sure about the story involving a little sister/brother? I ask, because there is another story in which the same basic plot is used, but the two girls are early teens, same age, and stranded on a deserted island.

       Regards,
       Ramon

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       1. Thank you for your reply Ramon – if you are able to find the reprint that would be wonderful. My aunt remembers it as having a younger sibling involved, but I was so little when I read it that I can’t be sure. I know that I will recognise it when I see it!

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          1. The story is “Fay Farrell – Emergency Nurse” from Judy Annual 1966.

             It was the elder sister who ate the berries, and the doctor and nurse were trying to find where this had happened, so they could identify what the girl had eaten. They questioned the (very much) younger sister, who remembered a house with a “green dog”, which confused everybody until the nurse tested her sight and discovered she was green/red colour blind (yes, the dog was a red setter).

             The entry for the annual on this website shows a picture from the story, and I’m happy to provide a scan of the story if this would help. Or, you could try eBay for the annual – I think they have a couple of copies at the moment.

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             1. Yes!! That’s it exactly, I remember all the details you’ve described! Thank you, I will look for the annual on eBay and would love to see a scan of it in the meantime. Thank you so much, this story is very meaningful for my auntie so we really appreciate your help! X

             2. Just noticed that you said it’s Judy not Bunty… We used to read all my mum & aunt’s old Bunty and Judy annuals when we visited my granny, lots of memories of reading snuggled up in bunk beds.

          2. Here are the scans of the story:

             https://i.imgur.com/BOZ1xOV.jpeg
             https://i.imgur.com/m33xHVT.jpeg
             https://i.imgur.com/aYsp7LQ.jpeg
             https://i.imgur.com/mZozQUj.jpeg
             https://i.imgur.com/I3fQPCf.jpeg
             https://i.imgur.com/1dGG5YI.jpeg

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          3. I’ve just posted scans of the story. These may take a day or two to show up here, as multiple links in a post tend to set off the scam filter. You should be able to see them soon.

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             1. Brilliant, I can see the links now, thank you Goof!

17. Thank you for this site, I came looking for Baseline Barbie and have spent a happy hour remembering all the other stories from my Bunty era (1984-86). But I remember one story that isn’t listed here, perhaps it was from an annual? It was about a girl from a comprehensive school who gets picked to attend a really high tech school with robots and no teachers. Does anyone remember this one?

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    1. One possibility might be “Tomorrow Town” from Tammy (1982), where a family move to a town where everything is high tech. Trouble is, our heroine finds it’s bit too tech. For example, everything is on microfilm instead of paper at the town library. People forget how to do things for themselves and there’s no room for the human touch. The high-tech monitoring is also turning the town into a Big Brother-type prison that keeps intruding on people’s lives. The teachers are still human, but everything else at the school is high tech, including a robot cleaner.

       Another possibility might be “Trixie from 2097” (Bunty PSL #440), reprinted from “Trixie of 2087” (Debbie PSL #107). Trixie goes to a high-tech school in 2087 (updated to 2097), a severe school that bans all forms of levity, including games and sports. It also bans criticism of the system. The headmistress and prefects are human, but the teachers and security monitors are robots that are dead ringers for Star Wars. In class, for example, your teacher is a C-3PO look-alike who zaps you for not paying attention.

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    2. I looked at Bunty from Dec. 1983 through Jan. 1987 and could not find a serial about a school with robots. It must be from an annual.

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       1. It looks like we can rule out the Bunty annuals from that period, though. Is it possible the story was in a PSL? I’ve already discussed one possibility.

          I recall in one annual (Bunty, I think), a story about a professor who invents a robot teacher called Ernest. Ernest has difficulties with the pupils and the tricks they pull, so the professor’s daughter disguises herself as a robot, Ernestina, to help Ernest along. I think it was drawn by Peter Kay.

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       2. The story is not in any of the Bunty annuals for this period. The nearest I can get is a story/serial from Diana called something like “Ingrid and Push-Button Academy”, which prompted a couple of annual stories in 1970 and 1971. Ingrid is the daughter of a professor who creates a load of teaching and labour-saving tech devices for her school, including robots. However, unless the story was reprinted in the eighties, it is too early.

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          1. There was also a PSL “Push Button Academy”, Bunty PSL #249.

             It looks like “Ingrid and Push-Button Academy” isn’t listed in the Bunty entries. Can you provide some details (like start and end dates and Ingrid’s full name) so we can create one, please? Thank you.

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             1. I’m afraid I can’t give any details of an originating serial, which I’ve not actually seen, but tentatively deduced from the fact that something generated two consecutive Diana annual appearances.

                The annual stories have a very similar text intro along the lines of “Ingrid Bergen is the daughter of Professor Bergen, who runs the amazing Push-Button Academy, a school full of wonderful modern inventions and teaching methods”, which suggests a common origin in a weekly series. It sounds rather like a run of one-off comedy stories along the lines of the annual appearances, which are stories about a device that makes the girls weightless, and a disruptive robot pupil.

                PSL #249 looks a possibility. Unless the repetition of the name is a coincidence, it might be a revival of the Diana idea, and as it was published in January 1984, it may be the one we’re looking for.

18. I found an image of Bunty PSL #249 at Last Dodo https://www.lastdodo.com/en/items/6871327-push-button-academy
    It definitely looks like some kind of remake of the Diana story. It could be what we’re looking for.

    Thank you for the mention of the Diana story. It rang a bell of “Push Button Academy” somewhere in the PSLs, and it was something about robot teachers in a schoolroom. And thank you also for the information about the Diana story.

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    1. I don’t have as many Diana stories but realised the story named “The Dunce from Outer Space” is actually a Push Button Academy story as it says above it “A popular school chum in a great new story about Push-Button Academy’s strangest pupil – “.

       I’ve updated the post to add in this serial.

       I don’t know if there was Diana serial previously just called Push-Button Academy or if all the serials were named separately.

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19. I remember a story i think was in Bunty in the 70s about a girl called lena and she was in a horseriding competition on a shire horse against a lot of rich girls on their expensive ponies,They had to go from place to place and the winner got to own the local riding stables .Someone else somewhere must have read it or was it dreaming it!!

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    1. There is plenty of stories with outcast horses and snobby girls.I’ve had a look through a few that I have, but don’t match up with your description. I’ll ask wider group if anyone has ideas.

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    2. I’ve been away on a Holiday and just saw this. The story you are thinking of is: “Big Ben and Little Lena”. It starts in Bunty #970 (August 14, 1976) and ends in Buney #980 (October 23, 1976). Lena Dawson lived with her parents on a small farm. Mr. Burton ran a stable and let Lena ride his pony’s. A tree falls on Mr. Burton and kills him. His will leaves the stables to one of the girls who attends his stables, but they will have to score the most points in a marathon pony trek using their own horse. Lena doesn’t own a pony, so she uses the farm horse Ben. She has to ride bareback as Ben is too large for a saddle. Different things happen to them on the way but in the end, Lena wins the marathon and the stable (she was the only one who was planning on keeping it open). Burton’s Stable becomes a flourishing riding stable again and Ben goes back to work on the farm, although occasionally Lena would take Ben out for a ride.

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       1. Thanks for the information, Ronnie. I’ve used it to create an entry on the story as there wasn’t one.

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       2. Thanks Ronnie!

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20. “Pony Girl” seems to have been translated into Dutch as “Monarch blijft trouw” (Monarch Remains Loyal) and published in Debbie #5 (1978).

    The story revolves around a girl that camps in the devons swamps (moors?) with her horse, Monarch.

    Regards,
    Ramon

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    1. Oh, and ends in Bunty #992 (15 January 1977).

       Regards,
       Ramon

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21. Am looking for a story that started in Bunty #1018 (16 July 1977) and ran until #1029 (1 October 1977). It was translated into Dutch as “Ongewenst” which roughly translates as “Unwanted”.

    Artist unknown.

    Anyone have any of these copies to check?

    Regards,
    Ramon

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    1. Thanks for the information on reprints.

       This is one of my gaps in collection, and haven’t checked these at library yet. Maybe someone else can help in the meantime?

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    2. Ramon, the story you are asking about is titled “The Unwanted”. It’s about an orphan who goes to stay with an aunt who uses her as a drudge in her stables who makes friends with an ugly little pony her aunt didn’t want and teaches him to jump.

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       1. Great, Robbie! Thanks!

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          1. Sorry. Autofill: Thanks, Ronnie!

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22. I think I have this at home. I have several Bunty’s from 1977. I’m away on holiday now but I’ll look when I get home Sunday or Monday.

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23. Have a story in a Dutch reprint (Debbie #11, 1979) which translates back as “Rita Smudgeface”. It features Rita Buckle, a young orphan who becomes an apprentice to chimney sweep Ben Stark.

    It ran in #834 (5 January 1974)-841 (23 February 1974).

    Anyone have one of the copies to check what the title was?

    Regards,
    Ramon

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    1. I just noticed this post. The title of the story is: Sooty Sue the Singing Sweep. The girl’s name is Sue Buckle and the man she becomes an apprentice to is Ebenezer Stark-Adder.

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       1. Great, Ronnie! Many thanks!

          Regards,
          Ramon

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