I is for Image Dump - Gift Fair 2023 - Christmas Baubles

Taken nearly three years ago, more for my own interest, so the products of several stalls/stands, none of which I recorded the names of, so just more bauble eye-candy as we creep closer to the big day, less than four weeks now!

 

TKMaxx have had these dogs, or something remarkably similar, this year.

 

Resin

 

Pumpkin coach!

 

Bees and bee-keeping related, my late mother would have loved these!

 

Fruits, a bear and a soldier (wantone!), the now defunct Paperchase used to carry the more kitsch stuff like these fruits, but theirs were often very big.

 

Glass drops, give extra structure to the tree, and prevent layering.

And, for those who were asking, I delivered a card several days ago, because I may not see the recipients again before Christmas, and I wouldn't trust the privatised Royal Fail to deliver a turd from their own arse. 

 

The first Christmas sections appeared in stores in mid-August, and while that's ridiculously early, that's capitalism, which is also responsible for the depressing daily-news which Christmas helps us hide from for a while, especially after the quite sudden onset of Autumn this year, nothing wrong with a bit of whimsy, fantasy or tradition in one's life.

T is for Two . . . More!

Having mentioned them twice today, I might as well chuck them up here now, for the thème du jour! Two charity shop finds earlier this week, both from the Debra store in Fleet, I've done all the charity shops in the last few days (week off!), and they have proven pretty disappointing, and quite a few have gone/closed down now, but I found a few bits to show, and this is two of 'em!

 

Having already picked-up the one below, I grabbed this one too, squeezed his feet together and thought, "Oh, it's one of those new vinyl ones?", but in the clear light of day, or at least when I got it home and had a proper look, I realised he's a repurposed Fortnite character, to which a metal eye has been added for a hanging cord, so he'll lose both and join the other Fortnite stuff - stampers and key-rings - in the main figure collection.

 

Three of my favourite colours; heliotrope pink, kingfisher-blue and apple green, you'd think they wouldn't go together, but look at this column of magnificent, technicolor madness and agree to differ! Psychedelic Nutcracker rocks!

 

Except he's clearly incapable of cracking a nut, and, unusually for these, in any material, is carrying a musket, with bayonet, and has a base, so he's 100% a 22-carat, blown-glass, toy soldier, baby!

 

This year's finds together.

A is for Are You Kidding Me!

Well, sometimes it doesn't rain, but it pours, however, if it pours sunshine, who are we to complain! I managed back in the summer to drop the box with the new addition baubles, when I opened the storage unit's 'blast doors' one day, only one bauble broke, but it was the astronaut from TKMaxx, and given the lengths I'd gone to, last year, to find a second one for a friend, a bit galling!

 

So, I've been going into the store every few days, hoping another will turn-up, as one eventually did last year, and they tend to run decorations for several seasons, or until they've all sold, and while that was one reason I caught the second robot the other day, damn me, if they didn't have a set of three this afternoon, which definitely weren't there on Sunday, when I popped-in before closing.

 

 They also had a new set of mini ones, which we'll look at later, but - three more robots!

 

 

Slightly demented, if not, full-on sinister grins, created by the hint of teeth picked-out in flat white paint, but that may just be cynical me, are they grinning happily, in your more-balanced universe? I have a feeling these are old stock (which holds out hope for a replacement astronaut before the big day), as I think I may have rejected them at a higher price a few years ago?

 

But these work-out at less than two-quid each, with one in traditional shiny gloss, a matted, muted one and a kind of stained-glass window one, covered in colour-matched glitter! It's the same moulding for all three, mirroring the second trio, from Homebase we looked at here . . . 

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/11/t-is-for-theyre-only-robots.html

 

. . . but in glass, not plastic, like those Homebase ones. Homebase are now owned by The Range, who have had nothing like these this year. Together with the original resin (too heavy for the tree) trio . . . 

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/11/p-is-for-poundlands-poured-polyurethane.html

 

. . . and the other three found this year . . .

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/11/w-is-for-we-are-robots.html 

 

. . . means there are twelve now, too many for the tree, which already has bears, birds, hedgehogs, musical instruments, and soldiers, among a plethora of other things and themes! With another shelfied in Maxx a year or two ago, and a trio from Habitat in the press, years ago, it's a theme which could run, and run! I have to admit it, I'm now, also, a bauble collector! Is there a BCA - Bauble Collectors Anonymous?

T is for Two - Davies & Langs

Here are a couple of companies formed in the nineteen-forties, so both in their 80th decade, and perhaps set-up with the post-war grants or ex-service gratuities, which were available at the time, and led to several toy companies being formed in the same era? Both shot at the 2025 Gift Fair in Birmingham's NEC, back in February. 

 

I don't suppose Davies Products started (1947) with much poured resin, but that's one of the materials they are carrying now, Davies are an importer specialising in Christmas decorations, and work closely with The Garden Centre Association, where you will find piles of this stuff at the moment.

 

And we're looking at the perennial favourites, nutcrackers, in three styles and another of this year's clear trends - retro' pulp-rockets and/or/with deform NASA astronauts, that's about eight, or ten times they've been on the Blog since this time last year, and there's more in the queue!

 

While Richard Lang ('Langs', established in 1949) describe themselves as "Wholesale Gift & Home Decor Suppliers", so I don't know where these glass ornaments actually came from, but they are very well done, and would make good cake decorations, now the chalkware and plastic ones have all but disappeared? The shot's not brilliant, but unknown to me the camera's lens was probably already failing, by February?

W is for ♪♪♫ We . . . Are . . . The Robots! ♪♫♪

Last year it was spacemen, the year before hedgehogs, other years have had a soldier theme, and bears are perennial, this year I've had some more success with hedgehogs, but also these fellahs all came in over the last ten days or so!

 

I found this chap in Home Sense (the TKMaxx furnishings offshoot) the other day, and thought "Well, if they haven't got any spacemen, you're coming home with me, mate", not intending for it to start anything in particular, but maybe feature in a post on mixed Crimbo Dec's.

 

But then the actual TKMaxx on the other side of the car-park had a few of these yesterday, so I thought "I'm sure I got one in TK the other day, but I'm also sure it wasn't pink?" and took a punt on it, pretty sure it was different, and it was! Well, the game was afoot, Watson! . . . 

 

. . . And I got this one, this afternoon in the big M&S down at the Meadows in Camberley, it seemed to be the only one left, but there were still two, in their pink display tree! He's got a helmet on, so clearly needs some special atmosphere! And with five or six shopping weeks to go, before the big day, I'll have my eyes peeled for additional bauble-bots!

G is for Glass Animals - Oh Dear, More Deer!

I was toying, for several years (the folder these come from has been filling since 2020) with trying to establish 'Vitrines' as the collective noun for these, but the trouble is vitrines are already a thing, specifically small glass table-top/mantle-piece display cabinets, sometimes confused with the similar terrarium glass mini-greenhouses for houseplants, or even fancy lanterns for tea-lights!

 

So even if you were minded to go along with me, it wouldn't be ideal, and sometimes confusing, while if you were determined to not cooperate with the naming exercise, it would annoy the hell out of you every time I used it!

 

Equally, some people call them 'Murano', especially on eBay, where EVERYONE's an expert! And, while there are elements of Murano in their production, Murano is a particular form of Venetian Glass, specifically from the island of Murano, and pertains to larger pieces, using techniques not often found in these little novelty animals, which are more generic to glass foundries everywhere, and amateur glass-sculpting hobbyists.

 

AND, we're looking for a word or phrase which will also cover the plastic-tat versions, and 'coloured-transparent-animals-in-glass-or-plastic' is too much of a mouthful, so, they will be 'Glass Animals' in the Tags, even if they are plastic, and I hope that suits everyone!

 

In the order in which they were originally shot, we'll start with the plastic tat! These were a common prize at fairgrounds, where skill in hooping, hooking, magnet-fishing, shooting (air-guns or darts) or knocking a coconut off a pole, could win you your very-own, chained together set of coloured, transparent animals!

 

Chained together, coloured, transparent . . . yeah, well, boys would pick a pack of cap-bombs or something!  A loo-roll 'Furby' (called a Gonk, and predating Furbies by several decades!), or a bottle of bubble-liquid with wand, were other common choices, a Frisbee, or a balsa-wood fighter-plane! But, under multicoloured, flashing lighting, on their little gloss-painted wooden plinths, these boxes looked pretty attractive!

 

One the left, 1950/60's, on the right 1970's, even more-tattier, tat, in a reverse pose, but the charm's still there, and I bet you can still find these in some souks or markets about the planet! In the end, key-rings were added to some of the more substantial, or just 'less-frangible' mouldings.

 

But, in the 1940/50's, you got glass ones! And here, on the left is a box for a glass set, with a slight variation of the other set on the right - lightly oblong box against the first one's true-square, and a variation of code number, 33V as opposed to 33VA?

 

AG or GA does not spell Venice or Murano! German, Czech', American . . . Japanese?

"ArtNo" hints at Germany, does anyone know?

AG could be something-Glass.

 

The glass ones are much finer, and quite delicate, although some strength is imparted by dint of the stretching, and the annealing effects of continued heating and cooling, as the various steps of the manufacturing-process are gone through.

 

Glass got tissue-paper packing, while plastic gets plastic!

 

Comparison between the two, let's be fair to the toy-men of Hong Kong, it's not bad, and in a capitalist world, it's all about the money saved, at least they've tried to make the one resemble the other? No pink bows, or chains, on this (later?) set of plastics?

 

"Come out to play!"

 

Another boxing of the plastics, the little pink bows are illustrated, but the bondage chains are left off all artworks, here credited to an Illfelder Toy Co., of New York, but plainly the same Hong Kong product.

 

A lot I saw on eBay, with pink-glass horses (or donkeys?), the ceramic deer we saw, cropped-out in a previous post a day or two ago (I'm losing track at the moment!), and a chained set of the 'barley-sugar' deer, also in glass.

 

This one, who I picked-up the other day, in a charity shop next to the lucrative (for Rack Toy Month) Post Office in Cranleigh, is slightly more Murano in style with the orange glass-powder sprinkled, or, more commonly 'picked-up' by rolling the molten glass over the ground glass, on it's back, but is, otherwise, following the same pattern as the others, and it's one of the simpler techniques.

 

While these - above - are obviously all mass-produced sets of commercial production, the many glass animals you find, may also include both craft/hobbyist pieces, and end-of-term/end-of-year student test pieces - can you produce, using a set number of techniques, a number of similar sculpts, following a set of recently-taught rules?

V is for Vitrious

You may have noticed I'm trying to alternate Toy fair and Gift Fair posts, between London Loot's, it won't last for long, but in the meantime here's the next post from Birmingham's Spring Fair; Parmy Ltd., a maker of glass ornamentals, including these exquisite little figurals.

 

Smaller.

 

Bigger.

 

Close-up!

 

Made from hot rods of coloured glass, it's like working with scalding cheese or something, but the finished articles are very clever. There were several similar companies at the show and I shot various other lots, so we'll be returning to the new 'Vitrines' tag!

Website

https://www.parmy.co.uk/

F is for Festive Figural Fur-Baubles

Yes, I know we've had the Bears, because they are every year, we've had the Nutcrackers, because they've become every year, and the Hedgepigs because they are getting annual, not forgetting the Astronauts, newest theme, but with two new sculpts; also becoming regular now, but I did pick up a few other figural baubles this year, more than I probably should have, but there always seems to be more room on the tree . . . it's a question of putting the largest on first, and the smallest last, after the dangly ones!

 

This actually breaks a couple of the self-imposed rules, as far as baubles go with me, specifically, the slightly anthropomorphic adoption of a Christmas jumper, and the appliqué pom-pom headdress, however, it was the first one I saw (in the big Marks & Spark's down at the Meadows, Camberley), and not knowing what else I might find, by the end of the season, I bought it, and it's grown on me, so will stay, in fact it looks very smart, but . . . M&S!

 

Not least because it revealed a trend in the sales/marketing of baubles this year, and - as a result - gave rise to a new theme, which already has four members - Big Cats! It's probably supposed to be a Leopard, but as we will see in a minute, I'm calling it the Cheetah, because of the more moggie-like face!

I then found these in a Charity Shop, i Farnborough, I think? I bought the deer when I first found them, but went back for the other two, as the tree also has a bird theme, and I thought the oak-leaf would be a nice foil to all the pine-cones. They were modern generics with no makers marks or consumer information on their individual boxes, and you wonder what sad tale led to them being 'discarded'?

Speaking of cones, these both came while the hedgehogs and spacemen were being procured, and I can't remember where either was found, but probably both garden centres? The cones are legion, and we may look at them all one day, as there are ancient and modern, and meany designs, while the gingerbread man is a departure for the tree, but he'll be at home with the snowmen and Santa's.

I got this the day I rejected the 'Starman', from the garden centre near Woking, it's another Gisela Graham, and they also had spotted ones, but using the same Tiger moulding, which was daft as the stripes are sculpted-in - lazy marketing! So I left them on the peg, thinking this would be a better foil for the Cheetah!

Then this came in while I was having a frantic, last-minute two-day search for the star-holder astronaut (whose location, I had forgotten!), and a couple of duplicates to send to a friend, it was a TKMaxx, late stock addition, and will have to be a Leopard, even if it's meant to be a Cheetah, because . . . see above!

And it came in this set, branded to a Rachel Zoe with a Lion, so we went from no Big Cats, to four, in one season! But the Lion and Zebra are very pink, more than the photo's suggest, so they will be going to the little white 'gay tree', with all the other pinks.

 

Leaving the Elephant, who's almost as round as a conventional bauble! I'm not desperately enamoured of him, he's a bit too cartoony, but he has a right to live, and is a bit of fun! All the above are traditional blown-class ornaments.

F is for Follow-up - Starmen and Sticklepins

So, I went back for the third spaceman bauble, and have picked up a couple more hedgepigs in the last week or so, I think when I finally get the tree up again it will promptly collapse under the weight of its decorative load!

The new one is in the middle, giving a decent idea of the size difference between them, plastic on the left (fourth colourway now) and two blown-glass traditional.

 

He's a Gisela Graham, so should be available in most of the larger garden centres, mine came from the Edwins in Woking, on the Guildford road. Gisela Graham are also responsible for the rocket, which I rejected earlier in the season, and rather regret getting now, so it's probably going to charity, for next year.

 

Wrapped in the moment, and rushing about, I didn't see or remember from the previous viewing, that the jewels are glued-on appliquéing, as are the resin fins, which aren't even straight, and have poor glitter flocking, so all a bit cheap and tacky, but it's there, if it presses your buttons! The body is blow-glass, and it's sort of half Wallace & Gromit, half Tin-Tin and all kids colouring book, circa 1975!

 

I've also given home to three more hedgehogs! And my maths was out in the previous post, I had eight, and added four, now here's another three, making fifteen, or five per turn, six or seven on view at any given moment - we turn the tree regularly so it never gets boring! With an albino (from Alderney!) on the left!