When I was a kid in the second half of the 80s, those He-Man figures
were really cool to own. I think my little brother even had a figure
called 'Stinkor'. We called them He-Man-GUBBAR. I think all action
figures are called 'gubbar', and in singular 'gubbe' I think that
Icelandic 'karl' and Swedish 'gubbe' have the same meaning of an
older man.
The word 'gubbe' has a somewhat universal use in Swedish. In compiter
games, all figures are 'gubbar', even female characters.. at least
when I play those games.

The word KALL is commonly used in dialects of large parts of mainland
Scandinavia with approximately the same meaning as in Icelandic. In
my own dialect KALL means an old man. I think a KALL is a more potent
older man than GOBBE (dialect for 'gubbe').

/Annlioter

--- In norse_course@..., "fjornir" <haukurth@...> wrote:
> Sæll Símon!
>
>
> > The word KALL seems to mean a computer game here:
>
> Well no - not exactly. I think the English word is
> 'action figure'. When I was a little boy I had lots
> of KALLAR - mine were HÍMENKALLAR (He-Man figures).
> :-)
>
>
> > Ég á fullt af dóti, mér finnast KALLAR skemmtilegastir.
> > Uppáhalds kallarnir mínir eru Beastwars og ég á marga
> > kalla úr Beastwars.
>
> Þegar ég var lítill átti ég líka fullt af köllum.
> Amma gaf mér marga kalla. "Áttu pening, amma?", spurði
> ég stundum, "eigum við að versla okkur einn kall?".
> Amma átti alltaf pening.
>
>
> > I was just wondering if I was right about the meaning,
> > and what its etymology/derivation was.
>
> It is simply another form of 'karl' meaning 'man'.
>
> Kveðja,
> Haukur