N is for Nutcrackers in November, Naturally! 1 of 2

Brian Berke has sent his pretty-much annual batch of Nutcracker shots, from the Big Apple, and not to be outdone I shot a bunch up at Longacres Garden Centre the other day, which I'll post later today, I also seem to have ended-up with a couple for the tree, which will be in a Charity-shop plunder-post!

 

Fun ones!

 

Edibles!

 

The red one's a bit sinister?

 

Not for me, but 75 inches? That's over six-feet!

 

Paint your own from Strawberry Kazoo with Advent calender!

 

I know gay marriage is legal, but this is the odd couple!

Liberace (No, Gran', he really is!) and his Pirate Beau!

 

Cake hat? Hat cake?

 

Many thanks to Brian, it's interesting to see how things are elsewhere in the world, or how trends come and go, I've noticed this year, a larger number of Mushrooms, blown glass, wood and paper-folds, in various designs, all the purveyors of tree-hangers have had them.

C is for Comedy Candy

As mentioned elsewhere in the last few days, Halloween was just not a thing in the UK, when I was a kid, we didn't 'celebrate' it, we weren't [culturally] aware of its connection with South/Latin America and The Day of the Dead, we didn't import any Halloween 'stuff'.

 

It is, entirely, here at least, a commercial invention (like Father's day) to sell us stuff, and we keep buying it! Ephemeral stuff, piles of polymer stuff, which goes straight to landfill, unnecessary stuff, stuff we don't need, stuff we didn't know we don't need, and . . . amusing, edible stuff!

 

This missed last year's Halloween posts, as it was given to me by a customer I was delivering to, in Frimley Green, on the 31! Under the wrapper it was a smooth, milk-chocolate oval, and very nice!

 

These are in Lidl at the moment.

 

Candy Container.

 

Anything container!

 

I succumbed to some of the polymer shite, myself! There were several colours and I nearly selected the purple one, but decided the clear one would look most like a crystal skull, once emptied, and took that instead, and I think it was a good decision, looking at it empty? I'll find something to keep in it, and it can sit somewhere, looking vaguely sinister! I think it was also Lidl?

 

Not nice! Not-chocolate-mice! Chocolate 'flavour' (not 'flavoured') sugar candy, they taste fatty, and aren't quite as realistic looking as the artwork on the B&M box would suggest. As kids, I remember us being disappointed by mini-eggs at Easter, which were made out of this devil's faux-chocolate!

 

The missing pumpkin from a previous post . . . I bought another pack, they were so cheap! B&M stores, and they did have the more colourful ones, from a couple of years ago, I just didn't see them last time!

 

Also Lidl, these are better chocolate, with some actual chocolate in!

Well - once you've unwrapped it, to photograph . . . ! 

 

The Aldi catalogue shows similar Lollies.

T is for Tricky Treats

I posted one of these a couple of years ago, but didn't see any last year, however, B&M managed to get another five out this year, although I ate the pumpkin without photographing it in close-up, soz!

 

Not as colourful as last time, but, like last time, I'd describe the flavours as 'tutti-frutti', yet, I did notice that they varied between the lollipops, and it would seem they are all supposed to taste different, nevertheless, there's no hint as to what the flavours are, or which lolly is which? Still in B&M, and worth looking out for instead of photographing all the piles of polymer, land-fill, shite!

 

As I entered the store, the couple ahead of me said "Oh, there's a spider on the floor" and we had a laugh about it, and as they wandered-off to look for whatever they were after, I though, it might need a good home, so rescued it from the detritus under the shelves! I think it had fallen-off one of those big polymer, land-fill, shite piles! There's a trend for 'spider's web' netting, pre-stapled with hundreds of spiders?

L is for Loose Ends

The last of the Christmas figurals, and it'll be back to more normal output, if equally occasional at the moment, but that's life! A mixed bunch and some of them from last year . . . 

 

Hobbycraft were clearly selling the end of the line we've seen over the last year or two, as they only had a few, back in November, and once they were gone, they weren't replaced, not even with a similar line? I managed to grab this deer family, as one day, a cake-decoration deer page is on the cards; there are loads and loads of them! Poured resin and about 40mm?

 

I also picked up this snowman, which reminded me that while we looked at the line two or three years ago, last year's post went to archive when I ran out of time, inclination or whatever else contributed to quite a lot going off to the long queue. It meant I could get this year's out as last year's is still in his [net] bag, along with the Santa' in a poly' bag.

 

The Mushrooms were from The Works, a bit of fun for a possible future project (fantasy secenry), and this year I saw them or similar assortments in several places including The Range and possibly either B&M or Home Bargains?

Can't remember where I saw this, but I think it might have been the aforementioned Home Bargains, along with The Nightmare Before Christmas, I saw a lot of Grinch 'Merch' as it's called these days - by a dying civilisation which insists on abbreviating everything - JLO, LOL!

 

I mentioned that I thought there might be a sequel to Nightmare in the offing when I started to see that everywhere, back in, sort of, Oct./Nov., but I think with both, it's just the inexorable commercialisation of Christmas, particularly by the toy and home-furnishing industries off the back of Holywood? But it was a very inexpensive white-button walker, which is a slowly-growing side-collection, in main-part thanks to robots and Halloween!

 

I think we did look at the Malteezer deer last year, this year's edibles included this Santa Clause from Marks & Spencer, which was illustrated as being like an Aero inside, but was actually the more solid and disappointing texture of a Wispa - which I've hated from the day they were launched!

I forgot to properly check out the edible cake decorations, this year, but managed to find this in Sainsbury's a day or two before the big day, we looked at all the ranges/brands a year or two ago, but this was a new colourway of one of the Santa's from Cake Decor.

 

While I think this lead flat is similar to the set we looked at a while ago, this one possibly coming from Chris or Adrain last year sometime (2023), and also held over, I brought it forward with the Hobbycraft images! I think a similar sculpt can be seen at the back of the upper set's image in this post, which, it turned-out, are Hafer, but this one has a different base and will be from another set, how many were there!

 

Finally, while the above are mostly in some sort of chronological order of when they acme in or were shot, (or make narrative sense to me!), this was an early purchase which them hung around, unshot, and uneaten until the other night, when I managed both! Hence, the fogging of the chocolate, I think?

A departure for Kinder I think, I don't remember seeing them before, but they may be a year or two old as a concept, the prizes are meant to be tree-hangers, and obviously it's a Christmas-specific thing, being a merry festive snowman!

A is for Advent Calendar

Another occasional regular at this time of year! B&M was the only place I found doing a cheapie generic, with the sort of non-licenced or product-placed chocolates I consider traditional, although they were an import from the continent in the mid-1970's, quite exotic to us kids, back at the time!

 

My own 'hopes' for the coming year are best not divulged right now, although you may get to read them in the next few days, but, yeah, I wish you all the best for what promises to be one of the most interesting years of my entire life, probably the most entertaining too, but happiness may be in short supply for most!

H is for Hodgepodge Hash of Halloween Horrors

I'm hoping to get another post out before midnight tonight, and it should publish before the witching-hour in the US, as I get another five or six hours, after my shift, to facilitate the aim, but in case the UK readers miss it, before bed, here's a few other bits and bobs which have a seasonal element, and have mostly crossed my door in the last five or six weeks!

Remembering I found a set last year, when I saw these in B&M (Morrison's last year) I had to have them, and like last year's, they were lovely, in the same generic tutti-fruity sort of supposedly 'strawberry' way! Indeed, I would say they came from the same source, and I didn't see any others, not even in Morrison's?

 

I seem to recall these were Aldi, but they might have been Lidl? More edibles, best kind of seasonal stuff is edible stuff! Fondant-centred, [not very] monster mice, one a sort of truffle-cream with rice crispies, the other white-chocolate fondant, nom-nom-nomnivore! Obviously a shit-shot of the white one, but you can't re-shoot something, if you've eaten it!

 

Having grabbed two walkers, as the only thing worth buying in a garden centre last year, I felt I also had to grab these, while muttering darkly to myself about 'another side-collection', but you can blame that yellow Christmas stocking robot who survived for several decades in the attic! These are pull-overs, in that cold, clammy silicon type mega-soft, stretchy rubber, which a generic white-button body underneath, and while two are the same design under the paint, the other had no second version, and all three were equally distributed? Asda for the win!

 

I would add - having mentioned them - that the Garden Centres had very poor Halloween displays this year, and seemed to clear them quickly, like over a week ago, they are too desperate to get their Christmas 'markets' up and running!

I'd found these online, and don't know the maker/brand, but if I see them out and about, they will find home-room in that slowly growing 'walker' sub-collection, I actually found a bunch of the other white-button walker soldiers a while back, but forgot to shoot them before they went to storage, so there's a future post!

 

Finally, these came from Lidl about two weeks ago, ghost tea-lights! I think I might paint-in the eyes and mouths of the other two to match the white one, black paint for the orange one and white for the black candle?

Apologies for spelling but Mozilla ad-ons don't seem to be working properly tonight, and I have no spellchecker!

N is for New Old Novelties!

There is a useful expression for searching old toys on the Internet, New Old Stock, indeed, on eBay the abbreviated NOS is good enough to find all sorts of nice things, it means old-stock which is still unused or new-looking, and 'unopened' or 'not played with' are variations, however in the case of today's title, it actually is, 'New', but a version of an old novelty!

 

You may recall, a while back we saw several articulated novelty figures, two from Chris Smith I think and another came in from somewhere else, a skeleton, a bad-Santa and something else, if memory serves, and I suggested they were trick-wire novelties from the 1960's or '70's (as I could vaguely remember them, or something like them!), and here they are, in the shops now!

I found this first, Cheeky Chimp, about six months ago, and it was in a small, independent 'corner shop' credited to a Candy Castle Crew, but also claimed by Monmore Confectionery, and is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of when we saw the vintage parts a while ago.

You press the two buttons either side of the ornate cap, and the attached arms pull two strings tight, they are in curved 'cams' built-in to the monkey's swing, and this causes the monkey to gyrate erratically, like a demented Olympian on the rings! He's also sold as Cheeky Monkey.

 

Then about three months ago, this Sloth turned-up, supplied by Bobby's Foods, who - along with Red Mill - are a common branding in the few independent convenience stores left, as the virtual cartel of the big-four/six/eight (Lidl and Aldi haven't joined that fight yet) buy-up all the sites for their bland, choiceless, mega-store satellites.

A close-up of its mechanism, slightly different to the Chimp's, but I suspect the same factory in China - the similarities are greater than the cosmetic differences? His buttons are set into the lid, and there is a second darker colourway, closer to the Chimp, which is why I took the orangey one, for contrast!

 

Side-by-side, both still out there, I see them regularly, on my rounds, sometimes in the same shop, but having that pretty dire, overly sweet, yet somehow chalky candy, I won't be getting another, unless it's a new design, of course!

 

Obviously not toy soldiers, not even that realistic, but Betterware flats were the second post ever, on the Blog, sixteen years ago, so novelties have always been part of the mix, and, for those with children/grandchildren; these will make ideal stocking-filler's, in the forthcoming season of goodwill and consumption!