I bought this in the Phillis Tuckwell charity shop in Farnham on Tuesday, I have to say the Phillis Tuckwell shop in Farnham has some very, very, very smart stock, lots of old collectables, stamps and ephemera, white elephant, ceramics, fabrics and clothing, old toys (a tray of good condition Yesteryear's), I could have spent a fortune, but this was in the window, and while not cheap, is near perfect, so I settled on this.
About Me
- Hugh Walter
- No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
- I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Showing posts with label Chess. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chess. Show all posts
Thursday, March 13, 2025
K is for a King Does Not a Republic Make!
Monday, February 19, 2024
P is for Perfectly Planned Paint Patterns for Plastic Premiums
As seen elsewhere, the colour sheet for collectors who were collecting the French Mokarex coffee premium, medieval chess set. I don't know whether you got it at your coffee supplier, it was included with early issues of the coffee, or you had to mail away for it?
Monday, December 11, 2023
Character Games Limited is for CGL, Not GLJ!
Wouldn't want to get them confused, that could lead to all sorts of awkwardness, you would not know if you were coming or going, had seen them or not, or whether they were what you thought they were, all very confusing, what with GLJ, the makers of those cheepo Hong Kong space vehicles we've seen here a couple of times in the last few years, looking a bit like CGL! Anyway we're definitely looking at CGL in this post, not GLJ which we haven't looked-at, at all today, all day, no need to mention it really!
Shot last year on the way to storage, and what can I say about it, it's a chess-set, for chess-players to play chess with, it's modern, the pieces are a dense resin of some kind, quite heavy for the faux-ivory they are aiming at, but injected, not poured, so relatively robust and nicely detailed.
Tied into the second movie - 2002
The tray
Set-up, have I got the kings on the right colour?
All that effort on the figures and the board's a bit naff!
Boooooo! Boooooo!
Raaaay! Raaaay! Lovin' the Ents!
White wins because it's a morality tale!
Black looses because it's fiction!
Thursday, June 16, 2022
F is for Fanciful Fellows!
Bit of a box-ticker, literally as it's the
contents of the Charbens & odds
ancients tub! I don't have many, but have managed to find most types (I've just
realised I think there's a blue Hong Kong copy missing?) and all the poses.
My two originals, paint's a bit thin on the
ground these days, but then the ground is shiny polymer which never held paint
well, and although some early Charbens
were chalky for the reason of pain adhesion, this set was a late addition
to the range and didn't get a chalky iteration.
Unpainted/home painted, they may be from one of
those home-paint sets, I don't know, but it would make sense? Flesh plastic and
another two poses, you may have noticed they are all fighting over the wild strawberries
. . . in their scale; the size of watermelons!
He's just helping himself with an axe
swing! They were sold as Romans, but everything about them screams Greek, and a
rather fanciful, pre-Classical era, Trojan War/mythical Greece at that!
Duplicates from the recent/current form of
re-issue, a dense, rigid polymer in a neutral grey. You may have also noticed
the kilts are a bit short? The greaves look a lot like pantomime booties as well,
so there's a quite theatrical look to them, but they have plenty of charm, and
might work as Etruscans against true Romans?
Because there's a bit of room in their tub,
they get the odd's which are - from the left; an Athena Greek . . . Greek tourist figure, not that rare, but finding
the spears intact (polystyrene) is always a bonus.
This guy's also in the same tub, a bit bigger
than the others around 60-65mm (I didn't check at the time!) and from the
liberal quantities of gold and silver paint; probably Argentinian! The
fish-plate or scalloped armour has me thinking of Poseidon, was he from a set
of gods? Also quite Ray Harryhausen'esque!
This one is unpainted hard polystyrene, and may be a Prindus (Prison Industries) figure who avoided the painting phase in his hurry to find giant strawberries?
Then a chess-set pawn, who's a bit more Roman. I think you can still find these in various finishes on Amazon, as whole (and not cheap) chess-sets, in metal or plastic, but these older ones are often to be found in rummage trays at shows, and while not a copy, his shield seems to have been influenced by one of the Marx 60mm set. Finally a modern Greek from Conte Collectibles, I think.
Thursday, January 20, 2022
B is for Blobby Blobby!
No, not the dying-pig screeching, pink,
polka-dotted product of early-evening televisual entertainment for the Morlocks
and Yahoos, but a pet project of mine which was five years in the gestation/completion
and has sat in a folder doing nothing since (another eight years!), so this
could also be S is for Selfindulgence!
It started with a sketch, I had thought
that you could have a chess set where the pieces were simply letters
identifying the role of the piece, P for Pawn being the starting point, I then
extruded the King to denote his seniority - despite the original idea being
small flat magnetic 'travel chess' pieces - before I knew where I was going I had
abstracted the Bishop (B), gone back to the Pawn, had another go at the King
(top, and top-right), designed all their plan profiles (bottom-left) and got a
Mk1 Pawn - bottom right.
New sheet of paper; and designs I was happy
with were quickly thrown-up, they aren't all the final designs, but the base
was pretty-much decided upon and the idea of fluid lines and abstract designs
were established, I was aiming for something between sand-blasted wood, and
those turd-towers you make on the beach by dribbling very wet sand through your
fingers. Well, some of us did!
I then modeled working prototypes in
air-drying clay; the king's a bit droopy! I only have this low-res' crop out of
a larger image of the old 'Cabinet of Curious Things', but a few years later I
would be off on the CAD course, and these became a step on the way!
Pretty-much as the clay ones but the Castle
now wears a simplified version of the King's crown, and the Knight has lost his
bulgy-eyes for little pin-pricks which only hint at a face, the bishop gets a
deeper valley between finer sides to his mitre-hat. This is still a 2D flat space
drawing, coloured with a gradation tool in the lower image to give a false appearance
of 3D.
When manufacturing a Staunton set for competition, the factories spend longer
hand-carving the Knights (4 pieces) than they spend producing the rest of the
set (28 pieces), and you can't begin to make Knights until you have been at the
factory for several years and have mastered all the other pieces.
In the end I added a mane (of sorts) and
the final piece works I think? I know some abstract, graphical or 'space-age'
chess sets have Knights which don't look like 'knights', but in the end I felt
a little homage to Jacques was in
order!
I don't seem to have replicated him four
times and coloured him properly for these screen-shots but you can see how
he'll slot-in and I think the overall works, the idea is to get it on one of
the 3D printing sites, it'll be free, I can't see demand making it commercially
viable and if it's free you can forget it once you've uploaded it!
But he is here in this outline screen capcha'.
The 'deliberate' mistake . . . I've got the King and Queen the wrong way round,
the nipple should be the King and taller, while the rubber-glove full of air
should be the Queen, and shorter! It's an easy job to switch them, but fancy
not noticing for what's been 13 years since the first sketch! Anyway, I think
it works and it'll give the haters something else to hate!
Some of you will already have spotted an obvious mistake, but like walking away from a crossword puzzle and returning to it to get the clue you're stuck on, or after the 'Can't see the wood for the trees' aphorism, it took me (and the various tutors/fellow students involved in the below images) until preparing this article to spot it, so I'll save admitting it to the end!
Chees Set! Heay; they're working drawings
in cyberspace! It's an idea though, with that plastic American cheese - you could injection-mould them and once the game was finished (pawns/queens) you could eat them with crackers and a nice wine!
It was a bit like that with my Knight in the end, instead of lathe, saw and blade, I had the Boolean commands of extrusion, union, and subtraction, but it's a messy business while it's happening! I won't bore you with a detailed explanation of the steps but the main one is to pull out the whole profile (a), and the width of the head (b), subtract them from each other to get (c), which you then tweak with a standard base!
Copyright Hugh Walter ©2009-2022
Monday, November 29, 2021
H is for How They Come In - March
This is a brief one two, but I suspect it
was part of a larger parcel, some of which is in the queue, some of which has
been blogged, either in Rack Toy month or more recently! But there are still a
few nice bits here, and we'll return to the rockets in a future post.
Peter Evans of Plastic Warrior fame was the
contributor here, and we have clockwise from the top left; Toy Major handled (several other brand marks issued-) cave-men
bits; a Montaplex Viking boat hull
and blow-moulded water-pistol of Christmas cracker prize/gift proportions and
another of those Palitoy (and others)
kicking footballers.
A small bag of Airfix and other war-gaming plastics lies next to a bag of rocket projectiles and below them is something which is more amusing than interesting, given the state of plastics in the social conscience these days . . . it's plastic (Kinder I think) copies of the old Erzgebirge wooden micro/dolls-house trucks/trains, in wood-effect polymer!
Two castles from a resin chess set in the guise of siege-towers, a small bag of actual Erzgebige items and a couple of mini-pigs conclude the tour, I didn't get them out of the bags as it's mostly stuff building to bigger posts, or stuff we've seen in passing before, and they've been sorted away now, also I was pretty busy back in March, but all it's gratefully received into the archive, thanks again Peter.
Friday, September 27, 2019
News, Views Etc . . . Saturday 28th September - Friday 4th October
October? Where the hell did that come from?
It was still 'Summer' last week!
Boris is out of control, Trump is out of
control, I'm enjoying my free seat at the show to end all shows - the end of
humanity!
Seriously, that little girl from Sweden
gave one of the most heartfelt and stirring speeches this planet has heard in
the last thousand years, and hardly anyone was listening . . .while the
obviously racist and anti-islamist President of the USA found himself too busy
to attend because he was chairing a meeting on religious persecution (?) . . . and then mocked her anyway!
You really can't make this shit up! In Courmayeur
where I once spent the most wonderful two-weeks; some of the best of my whole
life (coming-of-age thing, you had to be there!); a melting glacier is threatening to 'slip' into the valley crushing
everything in its path because it's melted so fast this year it's become
unstable and lubricated by its own melt-water might slide down its own channel,
but Trump won't even acknowledge climate change!
Meanwhile, we've all had the Yahoo eMail which reveals that if we
are Israeli, we can join-in the group/class-action for compensation? Never mind
'51st State', whatever happens to the UK in the next few years the best we can
look forward to is 53rd State, behind Israel and Porte Rico, given how Trump
has been treating the Porte Ricans in recent years, I don't have high hopes for
our chances . . . but the Brwreakshiteers think it's a brilliant idea!
Fuck! Democracy has been replaced by an
Idiocracy
Let's see where we can buy old toys this
week . . .
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Toy Shows
Saturday 28th September 2019
Gateshead - Jim Corr Fairs - Toy,
Train & Sci-Fi Fair
Gateshead International Stadium, Neilson
Road, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, NE10 0EF
eMail - jim_corr73@hotmail.co.uk
Mob. - 07504 035 955
10:00-15:00hrs
Admission £3, children/senior citizens £2,
'Early Bird' £5
Ludlow - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs -
Ludlow Toy & Train Collector's Fair
Ludlow Racecourse, Bromfield, Ludlow,
Shropshire, SY8 2BT
Internet presence unknown
Tel. - 01270 652 773
Mob. - 07825 631 323
10:30-14:00hrs
Admission £2.00
Free parking
Windsor - Maidenhead Static Model
Club - International Toy & Train Fair
Windsor Leisure Centre, Clewer mead,
Stovell Road, Windsor, berkshire, SL4 5JB
Web. - wwwwindsortoyfair.co.uk
Mob. - 07825 564 960
10:30 - 15:00hrs
Admission £3, concessions £2.50p, early
bird (from 09:00hrs) £7, last hour free.
Refreshments
Said it before - one of the best UK shows on the calendar.
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Sunday 29th September 2019
Bolton - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - formally 'Macron'
The Premier
Suite, Bolton Stadium, Bolton, Lancashire, BL6 6SF
Web. - www.bpfairs.com
Tel. - 01604
846 688
Mob. - 07966
527 177
10:30-15:00hrs
Admission £4.00,
early-bird £8, (from 08:00hrs), seniors £3.50, children £1
Free parking
Carmarthen - Chris Dyer Fairs
Carmathen Leisure Centre, Llansteffan Road,
Johntown, Carmarthen, Wales, SA31 3NQ
Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk
Tel. - 01643 702 757
Mob. - 07966 694 579
10:30-15:00hrs
Admission £2
Enfield
- Middlesex
See 'Other Events' below
Lincoln - J&J Fairs (John
& Julie Webb)
The Exhibition Centre, Lincolnshire
Showground, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN2 2NA
Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com
eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com
Tel. - 01522 880 383
10:00-14:30hrs Approximately
Admission £2.50p, seniors £2, 1st child
£1.50p
Midhust - SRP Fairs
The Grange, Bepton Road, Midhurst, West
Sussex, GU29 9HD
Web. - www.srptoyfairs1.co.uk
eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk
Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)
[Probably] 10:00-14:00hrs
Admission charge unknown
Pudsey,
Leeds - Steel
Promotions - Leeds (Pudsey) Toy/Train Fair
Pudsey Civic Hall, Dawson's Corner,
Stanningley Road, LS28 5TA
Internet presence unknown
Tel. I - 0161 283 1255
Tel. II - 0161 766 2012
10:00-15:00hrs
Admission charge unknown
Café, licensed bar
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Auctions
Sunday 28th September 2019
Spalding - M&M Auctions
Unit 4, Plover Court, Stephenson Avenue,
Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 3SW
Web. - www.mm-auctions.com
eMail - info@mm-auctions.com
On-line (www.the-saleroom.com)
Tel. - 01406 422 848
Viewing - 29th May and mornings of sale
days from 08:30hrs
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Tuesday 1st October 2019
Canterbury - The Canterbury Auction
Galleries (1st day of
a two day auction)
40 Station Road West,
Canterbury, Kent, CT2 8AN
eMail - general@tcag.co.uk
Tel. - 01227 763 337
Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis
Auctions (1st day of a four day auction)
Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17
9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel. - 01642 750 616
Specialist die-cast sale - Day 1
"The Specialist sale to be held on the 1st of October starts
at the earlier time of 10am to incorporate the 819 lots, which include boxed
and unboxed Dinky, including French, Spanish and pre-war; Corgi, Triang
Spot-On, EFE, plus others. Lots include Military vehicles, buses and coaches,
lorries and wagons, road and racing cars, construction, fire and farm vehicles.
Corgi models include gift sets and Chipperfield Circus. The sale will also
include TV and Film related models, Corgi Aviation Archive and Airfix plastic
kits. "
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Wednesday 2nd October 2019
Canterbury - The Canterbury Auction
Galleries (2nd day of
a two day auction)
40 Station Road West,
Canterbury, Kent, CT2 8AN
eMail - general@tcag.co.uk
Tel. - 01227 763 337
Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis
Auctions (2nd day of a four day auction)
Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17
9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel. - 01642 750 616
Specialist die-cast sale - Day 2
"The Specialist Diecast and Tinplate Toy sale to be held on
the 2nd of October once again starts at the earlier time of 10am. The sale
includes 805 lots of cars, buses, lorries, aircraft, military and emergency
vehicles from manufacturers such as Corgi, Dinky, Triang Spot On, Britains,
Tekno, Metosul, Solido CIJ and Mercury plus many more. Dinky models include
French, Spanish, Pre-War and trade packs. There are also TV and film related
vehicles including James Bond, Batmobiles and Captain Scarlet; Rob Eddie
Brooklin Models, Shackleton Toy Foden flat beds, and Lion Car truck groups. The
tinplate section includes large tinplate and diecast car transporters, Bandai
and other Japanese tinplate vehicles and toys; Robots and space toys, novelty
toys, figures and vehicles from UK and European models such as Schuco, Wells,
Chad Valley and Lehmann."
Warrington - Warrington & Northwich
Auctioneers & Valuers
551 Europa Boulevard,
Westbrook, Warrington WA5 7TP
Web. - www.warringtonauctions.co.uk
Tel. - 01925 658 833
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Thursday 3rd October 2019
Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis
Auctions (3rd day of a four day auction)
Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17
9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel. - 01642 750 616
General toy
sale
" The General Toy sale to be held on
the 3rd of October features cars, vans, buses and lorries from manufacturers
such as Lledo, Matchbox, Corgi, Dinky, EFE, Oxford Diecast, plus Brumm, WSI and
Vanguards. The sale will also include boxed models from Best of Show, Otto
Models, GT Autos and Autoart, plus TV and Film related toys and vehicles. There
is a selection of kits from Airfix, Revell and others, plus American Civil War
"Accurate Figures Limited" groups of boxed soldiers; Playmobil,
Robots, Mattel Hot Wheels vintage badges, jigsaws, board games, children's
toys, books and magazines, cabinets and much more. "
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Friday 4th October 2019
Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis
Auctions (last day of a four day auction)
Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17
9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel. - 01642 750 616
Vectis' first ever dedicated Lego sale
"In October this year, Vectis Auctions will be holding its
first dedicated Lego Auction Sale, which will be the largest of its kind in the
UK.
The majority of the sale is the lifetime collection of
Stockton based Lego builder and exhibitor Mark Willis who for many years has
created intricate and astonishing dioramas for the enjoyment of others. Mr Willis, who is well respected within the
Lego community, has previously exhibited at York, Wakefield and London and was
the subject of an episode of the popular BBC TV program ‘Collectaholics’, which
featured his vast amalgamation of over 350,000 individual pieces. Recent works have included a model of
Saltburn Pier which was on display at Kirkleatham Museum near Redcar."
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Other Events
Now - Sunday 6th October 2019
London (Docklands) - O2 Arena - Marvel
Universe Live!
The O2 Arena, Pennisula Square, Docklands,
London, SE10
Web. - www.theo2.co.uk
Dr. Strange, Spiderman, Guardians of the
Galaxy, Avengers etc . . .
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Saturday 28th September - Tuesday 24th
December (Xmas eve) 2019
Bury
St. Edmunds - Moyse's
Hall - May the Toys be With You (Star
Wars Exhibition)
Moyse's Hall, Bury st. Edmunds, Suffolk
Web. - www.moyseshall.org
Vintage Star
Wars toys and posters (if it's anything like the one in Basingrad - covered
on the blog - I can recommend it)
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Saturday 28th - Sunday 29th September
2019
London (Central) - Alexandra Palace - Tabletop Gaming Live
Alexandra Palace, Alexandra Palace Way,
London, N22
Web. - www.tabletopgaminglive.co.uk
Board, card, war and role-playing games,
new and news.
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Sunday 29th September 2019
Enfield - Whitewebbs Museum of
Transport - Toy Exhibition
Whitewebbs Museum of Transport, Whitewebbs
Road, Enfield Road, Middlesex, EN2 9HW
Web. - www.whitewebbmuseum.co.uk
Tel. - 02083 671 898
10:00-15:00hrs
Displays of Dinky die-cast & Lone
Star toys
Other models and railways on display on
4-floors
Some selling stalls will also be present
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Overseas Events
Saturday 28th / Sunday 29th September
2019
Bourgoin-Jallieu (France) - Club Maquetiste Nord Dauphiné - Replica 2019 (Toy Fair)
Salle Polyvalente, Avenue Professeur
Tixier, Bourgoin-Jallieu 38, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France
Tel. - ++0662 505 489
10:00-19:00hrs (Saturday)
09:00-18:00hrs (Sunday)
09:00-18:00hrs (Sunday)
Admission €3.00
Toys, models and figures
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Saturday 28th September 2019
Chartres (France) - Galerie de Chartres - Auction
Espace Ventes du Coudray, Chartres, France
(venue)
10 Rue Claude Bernard, ZA du Coudray, BP
70129, 28003, Chartres Cedex, France (organiser)
Web. - www.galeriesdechartres.com
eMail - chartres@galeriedechartres.com
Tel. - ++0237 882 828 (Mr. JP Lelièvre)
Fax. - ++0237 882 820
Doll and Teddy Bear auction
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Sunday 29th September 2019
Leverkusen (Germany) - J. Horner - Toy Fair
Forum, Leverkusen, Germany
Tel. - ++0210 351 133
Paris (France) - Association
Gueules de Meil - Teddy Bear Show
Foundation Biermans-Laporte, 14th
Arondisement, Paris, France
Tel. - ++0616 043 028
St.
Michiels (Belgium)
- Dipro BVBA - International
Collectors Fair
Baudewijn Seapark, Saint Michiels, Brugge, Belgium
Web. I - www.dipro.be
Web II - www.verzamelbeurs.net
Tel. - ++032 395 638
10:00-17:00hrs
Wambrechies (France) - Museé du Jouet/Poupées (Toy & Doll Museum) - 'Eurotoy'
27th International Toy Fair
Salle Gilles Alain Billiet, Avenue Foch,
Rocade Nord-Ouest, Sortie No.9, Wambrechies 59, Lille, Nord France
Tel. - ++0320 396 928
09:00-17:00hrs
The museum also has two exhibitions ongoing;
The
Female Doll Today and; Meccano - the Collection of Monsieur Riff.
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If you are
an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model,
collectable or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here - FOR FREE - or
linked to; please eMail me -
maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com
- stating
the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing
times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features -
parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event
subject matter &etc.
And please
mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in
case they go to the 'junk' folder,
from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're
there!
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Toys in the Media
Chess piece selling individualism at London South East Collages, it looks
like a post-modernist production of King Lear - set design by Grayson Perry!
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Other Toy News
McBurger Joint Kingdom Chain
In a move which said more for inter-burger
espionage that co-incidence, both Macky-D's
and The King announced moves to
phase-out free toys with kid's meals, Burger
K are simply ending toys in kid's meals from last Friday.
McDonald's have come up with a more mealy-mouthed 'Happy Meal' scheme to offer customers a choice between toy or
fruit-bag desert! From next year there will be a book offer (presumably a small
thing with larger print or an 'activity' thing?) in addition to-, but instead
of-, the fruit as the choice.
Neither chain said whether this was a
global thing genuinely wanting to make the world a better place, or if it's
being trialled in the UK to see how it goes down with a modern developed
population, will they (the lumpen pink monkeys) embrace the move or whine
selfishly about the lack of a toy for little Kevin or Kim?
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Hobbycraft
The craft and hobby (see what they did
there!) superstore chain have posted an 11% rise in sales to £81.9m, apparently
fueled by the sale of sewing accessories and quilting gear . . . who knew! But
for a lot of people it's the only place for miles around where you can find
[limited ranges of] Airfix, Heller and Revell in the same place, ignoring the fact that it's chains like
them who put the 'Indie's out of business in the first place!
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Nottingham Mafia
Games
Workshop are to pay-out a dividend this year having
done well, and 35p per share is not to be sniffed at, that's 35-quid per-hundred
shares!
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Poundland
An odd story in both the 'i' and Metro the other day announced that Poundland were to experiment with prices
above and below the magical quid, but while lower-prices (below) will be new
(except that they've often had two for one deals (which is 50p each after a
fashion), they have been selling higher-priced items (above) for over a year now, so I don't know why it's suddenly
news? Good PR team and lazy journo's I guess!
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Smellycat, oh Smellycat?
Lego have brought out a model of the Central Park café where the Friends used to hang-out, and Phoebe has
a very realistic guitar . . . to sing Smellycat! But . . . it's got an RRP of
£65, which for 1000-pieces is a lot of money, so if anyone is stuck for an Xmas
present idea for yours truly . . . ?
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Lip-smacking, cool-talking . . . Mr
Potato Head!
Mr.
Potato Head has had a bit of a makeover; firstly
he's been on a diet and is now a slimmer Jersey Royal 'newie' compared to his
old, round Pentland Squire chipping-spud, no doubt an attempt to convince
modern kids that Bibendum is not a
look to aspire-to, and secondly he has moving lips which are synced to a series
of phrases and songs - presumably in some expensive, electronic add-on?
As I thought he got silly as soon as a
plastic potato was included in the box, I'm not that excited by the addition of
something which will likely short-out with a bang if you stick it in a cucumber
or a lemon - which was the original point!
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Hasbro
The US toy giant has bought the UK's Entertainment One Group, who own the Pepper Pig property along with PJ Masks and Ricky Zoom, they say it will enhance their 'storytelling
capabilities' a classic piece of 'swamp talk' if ever I heard one!
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Card Factory Factor
Another example of the left hand and the
right hand not knowing what each other are doing - in the papers on the 14th of
the Month - we were told that the Card
Factory were doing well despite the other trials and tribulations facing
the High Street and despite slow sales for Father's Day (a recent and frankly
crappy import), yet today's City A.M. (the
UK's business & economy free-sheet) tells a completely different story of
earnings being hit (14% drop in profits) due to Brwreakshit stockpiling, one of
the tales must be untrue as you can't be both doing well and doing badly!
I hope they are probably close to
bankruptcy for not restocking with dinoraser pencil tops the moment I wanted them to!
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H is for How They Come In
A bitty week really but a few chunks of
polymer tat was added to the pile one way or another . . .
. . . the main purchase this week was a
couple of bags of bits, one of smaller figures and novelties including a panda
playing football (top left'ish) who looks like he should be a key ring but has
no sign of ever having been such, so a baseless PVC cake decoration maybe?
The other bag was a series of Disney princesses, not something I'd
paid any attention to until a few years ago (Phidal, Kinder and Kinder-like), but repaint them in the
1860's Parisian style, dark greens, maroons, black etc . . . and you've all the
saloon molls you need for Dead Man's Gulch . . . and they come
in a plethora of scales for any Wild West collection. I've already removed the
two large bases (which were play-dough moulds or something?), rendering both
women smaller - and easier to store! The purple eng-lit' supply-teacher is an ELC witch.
One of the figures in the other bag was
this Disney monstrosity passing for
the Pooh we knew and loved for the
longest time, clearly a lid off something, he needed radical surgery which he received,
and it looks like 'berserker' is about to give him some more - Yeah! Stick it to the simpering imposter,
stick him like a pig!
I bought something new this week as well,
it was half-price, and a bit of fun, being the Disney Little Mermaid on a knight
statue, from Penn-Plax.
Four from the fifty-pee tubs or baskets,
with the two Pooh animal (not so
ruined by Disney's designers)
pencil-tops (who need a dusting!) at the start of the week and the other two at
the end of it, I don't know he resin character but could he be the Parker/Waddington's Monopoly man? He had a name I think . . . Mr Money Bags . . . or
something? The pair of foals or horses (it's all a question of actual, intended
or 'for-the-use-of' scale!) might be New
Ray?
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Received with Thanks
Plastic
Warrior magazine issue number 176 was wung this way courtesy of the mailing elves at PW Towers, a
review is forthcoming, and hopefully should get out next week sometime.
Five minutes ago, images from Chris Smith (I'll have to reply later this afternoon Chris!) which will make a follow-up to something recent!
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Other News
Herald Toys & Models
New announcement from Barney "This week we are pleased to offer for sale not one
but TWO new collections of Swoppet Knights - the Dorchester and Roseberry
collections - all in very nice complete condition, together with some good
Hilco toy soldiers, including a loose set of 3, seldom seen, 'Monarch Series'
Highland Clansmen."
Missed
There was a two-day model railway show and
exhibition in Aldershot last weekend, ten miutes down the road and I missed it!
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SSW Command Central
Staffing problems are not only ongoing
here, but seem to have increased as the summer weather has decreased - Fontanini needed a bigger box; I should
feel lucky my assistant eschews plastic I suppose!
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Other Stuff
Having seen what other people had managed
to shoot, on-line, I went back to see if I could get a better or more
interesting shot last Sunday, and managed to grab this bit of insect porn!
But it took 22 shots to get one usable
image! The Rosemary Beetle, now I
know where to look, I'll try to improve next year!
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