H is for Hamleys, or Harrods . . . ?

OK, I'm presenting these as they are, recolouring renders them pretty awful, and 'adjust contrast' has little effect as they are firmly in the all-orange-brown spectrum! Among the odder things in the archive, and I'm sure there are better quality versions in the Library of Congress, or the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library service, but I don't have either of them, here, in a file! While Google suggests, this 'Junior' supplement for 1939 isn't online in an easily visible fashion, while you need valid Library cards to read the originals held by the aforementioned bodies!

 

Also, I don't know how big they will present, until I've hit 'Publish', but I hope if you click and click again, you should get a pretty mahoosive image to track-around, and hopefully read the less than helpful blurb panels for yourselves?

 

A minute after publishing - yes, the detail is actually very good, find the Adrien helmets hiding behind the logs . . . I've never noticed them! Later still - She's a 'he' (now adjusted, Brylcreem has a lot to answer-for!) and it may all be one piece, still in the workshop? The ornamental elephants in one background (probably real ivory) suggest it could be Harrods?

 

For Junior! See what the crazy Europeans are doing this holiday!

 

If he is working on the back of the big cliff, bottom left, then it could be an in-store display, rather than a window display? I suspect it's several dioramas on a theme (rather the aesthetics of the last/previous war, with the 'sci-fi' Maginot Line and half-tracks!), probably running along a line of pavement-facing windows.

This one recoloured slightly! They almost look like old Egyptian papyrus, which adds to their charm! But they are as brittle as old papyrus, too, so I didn't dare bend-back the little nick in the join on the Ack-Ack gun picture.

 

Within the blurb, credited at one point to British Combine, presumably a forerunner of today's 'press pools', and cleared by the British Censor, the only real clue to where these might have been is in the title-line "Offered in West End Shops", clearly then, this is the myth of patriotism, being used, as it always is, to get people used to and ready for war, a war which was - at the time - still in it's 'phoney' phase.

The hype surrounding the Maginot Line, was so strong that articles with lovely little isometric cutaway drawings, and maps of it, were still a favourite of 'Boys Own' books and seasonal annuals when I was still a kid. It's faded now, and while still controversial, most have accepted the truth of history - it was a very, very expensive white elephant, and complete failure, which tied-up tens of thousands of troops badly needed in Belgium, who never launched a counter-attack, nor got to Dunkirk, to be taken-off, either!

It'll mostly be Britains and Astra Pharos (?) I think, with the small tank from Hornby/Dinky maybe? And you would imagine they were in Hamleys windows, but Harrods were equally famous for theirs, and this could have been tucked down one of the side streets, where the windows have to be sought out, leaving the well-known frontage for fashion and household gifts?

 

The blurb also hints at animatronics, such as the mentioned elevators, another standard of such statement, seasonal window-displays back then, hell, Fleet Toys still had busy displays in the 1980's, think - a bunch of woodland animals playing instruments in the snow, Santa popping out of a chimney, an ammunition-lift to supply the gun, to kill Germans, all good, clean, Crimbo' fun!

I know, I'm over-thinking it, but isn't that half the fun of archivism? The what-if's, or what-actually's!

U is for Updates - Various

I've added, or started a wants/swaps page above, as and when I will add things I'm after, and things I have to swap in the hope of mutually filling gaps in collections, it's not got much on it, but it will grow, and the pictures of the swaps will disappear once a deal is done!

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/p/wants-swaps.html

 

 

I added a Type 3 copy Astronaut set from Grandmother Stover's to the Giant Blog, a week ago, here;

https://butisitgiant.blogspot.com/2023/11/grandmother-stovers-c3-spacemen.html

 

 

And a whole bunch of HO-OO additions went in on the Airfix Blog a few weeks ago, can't remember what they all were now, but about 12 pages got new text, images or scans.

http://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

I've also dealt with a couple of recent comments over there and will check the other Blogs later, at the moment I'm not getting the notifications, and tend to only cheak this 'Home Blog' daily, it's because of the Hotmail problem, so it's still maverickatlarge[at]gmail[dot]com for the time being!

 

 

And here's a gratuitous picture of something . . . I'm just going to find in Picasa!

 

Hamley's 1972

R is for Roundup!

I haven't covered all the Supreme medievals in the last . . . errr . . . 9 posts; with this one, nor, indeed, on the whole blog's past posts (linked to individually below), but I have had a good crack at them, and will return to these in the future, for the missing items and a better version of this post which is not quite as polished as I would have it, had I had all the 'tools' in one place!

Supreme also produced a second set of the Crusaders in 54mm, but pirated from King & Country and Zvezda sculpts, while Zvezda also provided the donors for a set of Russian (Nevski'eque) knights in the same 54mm soft-vinyl line. The Vikings, Saracens, and Greeks also cross into this, if only by dint of the Greco-Roman poses they put in the cheaper 50mm line and the Silver Knight set.

And I've been doing it in a rather bitty fashion, a few shots here, a set-post there, some website images, an feeBay image, a scan or two, some more figures, a donated figure or few, another evilBay image, it's been a rather amorphous process, we will return to them in a year or two and re-do this post as a more complete listing, with everything brought together and re-shot, with other posts answering the more specific questions or filling the gaps.

So, we'll start this post with a return to the 'Supreme' (SP Toys Industrial Company Limited) Silver Knights, they are the biggest, and probably the oldest of the Medieval offerings from Supreme, come in many formats and are usually marked-up to the parent, whichever importer/jobber might have flung a sticker on the packaging somewhere.

Shades of Britains Detail in the chain-mace and moulded-in sword guys, and note the catapult is the one which was issued by Halsall with the 50mm Italeri knock-offs.

On the left here is a larger version of the set we looked at a week ago, this having all the accessories and more horses, with the same wagon traces/harness as the Wild West sets. This set branded to Supreme was imported by Express Gifts, whether direct from Supreme who had their own trade page, or through someone like Toy Major is a moot point.

The set on the right is a little more problematical, it comes-up in a Supreme search, but has no obvious Supreme link, so the 'Supreme' must be hidden in legacy/metadata behind the image, however Shaun of the Fantasy Toy Soldier Blog, has included it in his listing.

And the castle is a very close copy of the known Supreme one in the other sets, above and below it in Shaun's linked post, but it's not quite the same, neither do the figures look exactly the same as other Supreme figures, but the horses, especially the two with the lager bases, are identical, so the weight of circumstantial evidence suggests an SP Toys product

Two other connections are the very yellow gold used in both sets and the fact that - that side of the Pond at least - they were both imported by Stevens International, who also carried the Silver Knights sets in the US (still are?). In fact comparing the two forts, the door is the same, the walls/towers differ, so another 'clue'?

Then you realise the paint (antiqued washes in black over gold and silver) is hiding the fact that they are the Toy Major 'Deetail' knights! It IS another Supreme set, but smaller figures and less accessories as a budget 'Dragon & Troops' against the more prestigious 'Dragon & Knights'?

Back to the Silver Knights for a second, they have also featured in a couple of the previous round-ups' comparison shots (links below/through this post), with the next most common set of Supreme knights, which I call the 'Tiger' or 'Deetail' knights, because I first encountered them with Tiger Hobbies stickers/labels around 1997/98 and bought them for someone else (I didn't collect the larger scales then) in a shop in West Sussex, since when I've only found them (several times) with Strawberry Group tags!

They are usually fully marked-up underneath with the TM moniker for Toy Major, but I think smooth based ones also exist, and you can find them in silver, black or the same bright yellow-gold which runs through Supreme's output from the 20mm mini-knights to the current/near-current Saracen camel-troops.

The gold ones are not as common as the other two, but siege engines (in the pack on the left) tie in with other Supreme output, and they have the common horses. I think this set is almost as old as the Silver Knights (1990's) and has guided the poses of some of the subsequent sets. Mounted Silver and 'Deetail' compared on the right.

Now, the four on the right are Strawberry Group tagged, but TM marked, and I think we have seen them before, but they may be another four, however they are not the ones I bought about a year ago, for this post/series of posts, which has/have been a while in the gestation! I don't even know what happened to those, nor one or two which came in with other lots (except the  mounted figure above), so I think we're getting these guys again?!! I'll do them properly another day . . . with the mounted chaps!

On the left though are a couple of Simba blisters, which show a variation of the aubergine (or avocado?) shaped-base horse, of import as it reappears in a set which - originally - I had no idea was Supreme, as it's so utterly shit . . .

. . . what I call the 'Construction Worker' set (lower image), as they look like 1950/60's American construction or rig-workers with their tin/aluminium safety helmets! And - they're painted like cheap play set road-workers!

Above are some more of the 'Deetail' knights, these seem to have thinner bases than the TM ones, which would figure if they are the smooth-based versions, because you remove the TM tool and replace it with a blanking set which can be deeper, but all Supreme I'm sure. Also the fantasy set above seems to have an archer, he would seem to be rarer that the gold versions!

The 'Construction Worker' set, actually appeared in several sets from Simba (as a command element or sienge-engine crew?) alongside either the 'Deetail' knights (Kings Castle sets), or the ones we'll look at in a minute, usually as one each, three foot and a mounted, with a couple of dozen of the better figures.

Remember that wall section I suggested you mentally to hold-on to last week, well, here is the replacement, this is basically my set, with two standard Supreme siege engines, and no assault-tower, in Hamleys packaging. The knights however are smaller versions of the 'Deetail' ones, with uneven cloud or kidney bases (like the Supreme Pirates and Skeletons).

But the wall sections have wider buttresses; my set's walls are from the smaller castles sold by Simba as Kings Castle (now below) with only four  round towers and the different figures as noted above - because it's loose I don't know what Toy Major called it, but it may originally have been 'Knights Adventure'?

We looked at them here, and again the other day here with the Toy Major for Simba packaging, but again these are the earlier, PVC-vinyl painted version.

These are from the current Toy Major website, but the graphics on the lower shot conforms to the recent Simba Dragon Knight Castle Playset! The upper one, clearly the budget version has another set of figures altogether, the Toy Major marked (not with TM, but the newer number/letter codes also found on their wild animals and mini-dinosaurs) Knights Adventure figures.

While the lower one has the 'question mark' figures we looked at last Wednesday, with the older wall section, which is why I'm tagging them Supreme and Toy Major! Note also Toy Major issued them painted or unpainted, Simba unpainted only, if - as some idiots would have you believe - these were Simba 'production', the opposite would be more likely.

They previously appeared a while ago as protagonists for the Toy Major Tomb Warrior skeletons, but only in blue-on-silver, none of the red-liveried figures found in my fort set.

Also from Toy Major's website, and now flagged Action World - Knight Collection, these were the Knights Adventure figures, long running, similar issues to the 'Livonian' knights, and available in a dull gold, bronzy brown and the black & silver.

Note standard Supreme siege weapons, but different archer's mantlets to the bigger Simba sets (which are six-plank with cruciform aperture - same sets Walmart issue with the 'Livonian' knights - now below), while the prison cage is from the old Silver Knights sets!

On the left, also from Toy Major's website in the last few days, on the right Wilco-badged versions from about six/seven years ago, on feebleBay the other day (I think the owner has separated them into Cowboys and Indians, they should both be mixed?), and I think we looked at the Wild West and GI's under another brand a few years ago?

And as I've mentioned what I'm calling the 'Livoniann' knights, here they are, from an anonymous seller on Alibaba, looking to be softer PVC-alike, similar to the Halsall-HTI sets of Italeri rip-offs we looked at here - Red on Black Set and here - Green on Silver Set, a few years ago.

Totally new siege weapons, of the simplistic, infant type, but, while not clear, the logo in the bottom-right of the header cards is the same as the unpainted ones we looked at last week here, it's the Ancient Wars logo.

And here they are in Starlux branding, with a new fort in two colours, both on Amazon right now! Simba bought the intellectual property of Starlux around 2010, but don't seem to have done much with it, and there's no sign of the old Starlux tools, so they are only using the brand to shift more Supreme product.

And while a few days ago I might have conceded they were big enough to be going to Supreme in their own right, the fact that they are sharing artwork with Toy Major suggests that's who they are getting it from/going through.

It was always Mr. Sell's biggest lie, that Simba made or designed any of this stuff and while I dealt quite well with all that, here, it's worth considering the following;

•          Everything in the various generations of Simba knights/castle sets is a mix and/or match of stuff previously/variously seen by/from Toy Major, Walmart, Hamleys, Halsall, Express Gifts, Tiger, Strawberry Group, Stevens International, and many others including dozens of phantom brands on Amazon, evilBay and Alibaba.
•          Most of them happily admit somewhere on the packaging it's all made in China - or earlier; Hong Kong
•          Several of them also handle other Supreme stuff (Tomb Warriors) which Simba hasn't
•          Simba sometimes take the simpler variant

And while it's true that since 2019 Simba have owned a factory in Hong Kong-China, it's the Jada factory they've bought, and Jada are an alloy die-caster, not a plastic injector! Now we've been covering Jada here since the first Nano-Metal mini came on the scene back in 2016/17, and I've covered them at London's annual Toy Fair including this year; I can assure you Jada's catalogues have not changed, they are not suddenly full of unique-sculpt, plastic figures, branded to Simba!

Simba (now of course Simba-Dickie Group) have only ever been a jobbing importer, and while they are growing and have the potential to become a major producer in the future, right now they are using Starlux as a brand-mark, and leaving Jada to do what they do best. They also own several other brands now, but the same points apply, one's a soft-toy maker, another does rotary-moulded play equipment, a third is a French die-caster.

The 'Livonians' have been around for a bit, and the gold ones here are older, polyethylene ones, marked as other Toy Major stuff, the two current-colour ones (Simba, Toy Major and dozens of phantom-brands) are bottom left.

On the right is a set being sold on Amazon by a Sunny days Entertainment, looking a bit Blue Box, but Toy Major was also doing those tubs with a terra-formed lid a few years ago . . . "Rapunzel, Rapaunzel" . . . I think we had that joke the other day, but; new tower!

These are probably not related to anything above, not Supreme, not Simba, maybe not even Toy Major (read on), but are copies of two sets above, combined. Some of the ex-Italeri set split onto two cards by Halsall / HTI (links below the 'Livonian' triple image above) and some of the Knights Adventure figures.

But . . . here in both Halsall and HTI packaging, now; the painted originals were also Halsall, so if HTI as a smaller end-user (smaller than Simba and the evidence is they - Simba - are still going through Toy Major) would probably have been using Toy Major, would Toy Major have allowed them to be carrying knock-offs at the same time? It suggests that actually Supreme may have sanctioned these, perhaps sub'ing from a minor maker if they didn't do them themselves, to cover, or allow Toy Major and its clients to cover, that $£€ 1.50/1.99 slot?

That's all pure speculation of course, but it's odd that they should be back-to-back or even side-by-side like that? The one on the right is a recent generic as currently carried by Kandy Toys, and the HTI are still out there too, the Haslall to HTI brand-mark change was only a few years ago.

We looked at them here.

And briefly the previous year when I didn't know so much about them.

And because the Black-rock castle is there;

We also looked at one here.

And a non-'Blackrock' generic here.

Interestingly, given what's come out since and above, I think they are all three Supreme now, the yellow-gold of the two Blackrock sets, and the fact that the other Stevens/generic set has the same 20/22mm figures in a different colour-way.

But, on the back of the window-box it actually shows the larger 25/28mm figures with the ovoid bases, again suggesting they are all coming from the same place, as I stated back then, indeed, while the knowledge improves, I don't feel a strong need to correct anything I've said in any of the earlier posts really!

This is a poor image from the now-gone Marshall's catalogue, and seems to show the same ethylene/knock-off set but with some in gold plastic, the siege machines being the same as the Halsall ones that came with the fully-painted vinyl's. Kandy Toys seem to have lifted the Marshall's crown, as can be seen by their carrying the cheapies now, sans ballista!

This is from a newer Simba set; Ritterburg [Knight's Mount] Blackmore Castle, and shows a nice Middle-Eastern fort, with all-new figures. They could be from another party/manufacturer, but the way everything above seems to lead back to Supreme (unless you're Erwin or his supporters), and given the colorways - red/blue and gold/silver - the similarity of the riders to other figures from other sets above and the previous weirdness of the 'construction worker' set, I'm leaning toward Supreme for these too! Even the horse painting follows the 'rules'?

While we're trying to find non-Supreme medievals, this is amusing, and I'll follow the outcome, should there be one. Among all the myriad phantom brands hawking the latest iteration of the 'Livoians', are these images.

If you look closely, the 'Livonian' riders have been photoshopped into the larger image and are a different resolution/lighting, the wall looks to be a picture cut out of a larger image and the two towers also look not quite right, like the floor's uneven?

However, the lines of figures look interesting, but I suspect they might turn-out to be small-scale board-game type figures? It'll be interesting to see if they start turning-up, but among all the genuine stuff on eBay, Alibaba and Amazon, there are some fraudulent entries/sellers and I don't trust this lot to turn-up matching the image much!

A couple of shelfies which Peter Evans took a few years ago, already on the blog somewhere, but I'm reusing it because it's 'lost' in a mixed post, looking very Supreme, but actually a mix of various donor-copies including Supreme sculpts, it's a generic 'big box' of the sort that get piled near the till-area of general stores at Christmas time. A solid foam or rubberised slot/stack-together fort and various copy figures including vintage French and British sculpts.

Mentioning Peter, he pointed out yesterday (Tuesday, this is taking a  while to edit!) that the unknown Romanesque set I published late Monday/early-hours of Tuesday, were also a Simba thing, and a search reveals they came in a specific line variously 'Superplay Falcon Castle', 'Hrad Falcon Castle', 'Falcon Castle II' &etc.

Their similarity to both the late Adventure Knights and the 'Livonians' (in polyethylene), along with the horse similarities suggest a connection, Halsall may get away with concurrent straight piracies, but if major players like Supreme, Toy Major and Simba were participating, one feels some kind of permission or license must have been involved?

And if that's the case, the similar set of Silver Knight copies/scale-down solids which we looked at here, might also be sharing the story of the motor-cycle helmeted Romans above? They are a similar material and both the chocolate brown and black are parallels. However both sets can still be regarded as the bigger question-marks where Supreme's involvement is concerned

Mentioned in passing above, the Walmart set with the 'Livonian' sculpts, not showing in their catalogue (which may be down to my browser) but still findable on the 'web.

Another question-mark set is the half-Roman set we looked at a couple of months ago, I'm sure some of you noticed that nonsense the other day . . . really? A couple of fuzzy images, no weapons and some bullshit about rarity earns you brownie-points does it? In your eyes! And it's the way they pretend they can't possibly have seen an article on a Blog we all know they follow religiously!

They are not rare, or hard to find; they are new production; they are all over Amazon and Alibaba, I think mine came from evilBay (brand-new for less than a tenner?), they have been flagged Supreme, by a loyal reader and are being handled by Toy Major rival Liberty Imports, where they go to Creative Kids in the US, are unbranded generics here, and can be found as double figure sets (without separate weapons?) from ArtCreativity (looks like a phantom brand) on Amazon.

$20 for a set of everything, or $15 for double-x-half-armed figures? The choice is yours!
Fuzzy images and fake 'data' or all the above? The choice is yours!

Late addition! The King Castle with a mix of the early painted PVC Adventure Knights and the 'Construction Workers' in the same set.

Which leaves the other iteration of small-scale figures, which we covered here, also Toy Major so almost certainly Supreme, and the same sculpts as King/Adventure knights, the Black Rock and Blackrock's; the commonest used sculpts of all these sets connected to Supreme-Toy Major-Simba and probably in that order! The carry cases also mirroring the ones in the sets we looked at, at the start of this sequence, last week!

A subject we will return to as more becomes clear, and I will do a better pictorial comparison of them all at some point. What we have by way of a recap;

•          Silver Knights (60mm)
•          'Deetail' Knights / Knight's Castle / Dragon & Knights (54mm)
•          'Construction Workers (54mm)
•          Adventure Knights (20, 25 45, 50mm)
•          Livonian Knights (50mm)
•          'Italeri' Crusaders (50mm, see also below)
•          Mixed copies (45/50mm crumbly ethylene)?
•          Ritterburg Blackmore Knights
•          Multicoloured Oddities?
•          'Castle' copies (definite knock-offs)
•          Superplay Romanesque (40mm)
•          Silver Knight solid copies? (54mm)
•          Liberty Romans/Knights? (54/60mm)

And from the current/near current 54mm header-carded, bottle-bagged figure sets, as imported into the UK by Tiger Hobbies, direct from Supreme.

•         Saracens (sold as large set with camel cavalry, or as small sets; split)*¹
•         Alexander Nevski^*2 
•         'Italeri' Crusaders I & II (sold separately or together)*³
•         'Zvezda/King & Country' Crusaders

*1 - Italeri sculpts
*2 - Zvezda sculpts
*3 - Mounted figures are Zvezda sculpts

And many thanks for input/samples to Brian Berke, Chris Smith, John Begg and Peter Evans.

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events; Saturday 18th - Friday 24th May

Still not Blogging proper, but here's some weekly stuff . . .

. . . last weeks weird strings of letters will have looked like this . . . if you've downloaded the 'SoldierWW2' font from the internet, if your Explorer recognises it, it can read it/will show it - my bad, I didn't think I'd be in a cognitive resonance design bubble of my own making! That last line will give Madame Pardeilhan kittens!

ᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥ ☼ ᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪ

Toy Fairs

Saturday 18th May 2019

Merthyr Tydfil - Chris Dyer Fairs

Merthyr Leisure Centre, Methyr Leisure Village, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, CF48 1UT

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

Admission £2

10:30-15:00hrs

Brentwood - J&J Fairs (John & Julie Webb)

International hall, Brentwood Centre, Doddinghurst Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 9NN

Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com

eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com

Tel. - 01522 880 383 (J & J Webb)

10:00 - Approx. 14:30hrs

Admission £3, seniors £2.50p, 1st child £2

Oxford - Richard Atkins Fairs - Toy and Train Collectors Fair

Exeter Hall, Oxford Road, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1AB

Web - www.toytraincollectorsfairs.com

Tel. - 01869 347 489

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Refreshments

Free Parking

Didcot - Retro Ronnie

Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, OX11 7JN

Web - www.retroronnie.com

Mob. I - 07708 385 061

Mob. II - 07900 266 427

Hours unknown

Admission unknown

ᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥ ☼ ᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪ

Sunday 19th May 2019

Great Bentley - R & G Toy Fairs

Village Hall, Plough Road, Great Bentley, Essex, CO7 8LD

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01206 251 351 (Gary)

Tel. - 01255 473 509 (Richard)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission £2.00, under 16's free

Free parking, refreshments

Newton Abbot - Ray Heard Train & Toy Fairs

Newton Abbot Racecourse, Devon, TQ12 3AF

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01823 480 097

10:00 - 15:30hrs

Admission £2

Free parking, refreshments

Kempton Park - RM Toys Ltd.

Kempton Park Racecourse, Staines Road East, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, TW16 5AQ

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 02392 381 529

Mob. - 07957 823 507 (Russell Martin)

10:00 - 15:00hrs

Admission - £4, OAP's £3.50p, Children £1, early bird (from 8:30hrs) £10

Doncaster - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'Doncaster Racecourse'

Doncaster Exhibision Centre, Leger Way, Doncaster, DN2 6BB
Web. - www.bpfairs.com
Tel. - 01604 846 688
Mob. - 07966 527 177
10:30 - 15:00hrs
Admission - Adults £4, Seniors £3.50p, Children £1, 'Early Bird' (from 8 a.m.) £10
Plenty of free parking

Orpington - SRP Toyfairs

Crofton Halls, Orpington, Kent, BR6 8PR

Web. - www.srptoyfairs1.co.uk

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

ᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥ ☼ ᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪ

Auctions

Saturday 18th May 2019

Bury St. Edmunds - Lacy Scott & Knight

Web. - www.lsk.co.uk

eMail - oleggett@lsk.co.uk

Tel. - 01284 748 600 (general enquires)

Tel. - 01284 748 623 (Oliver Leggett - auction)

Toy and Collectors Models

ᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥ ☼ ᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪ

Thursday 23rd May 2019 -

Sheffield - Shefield Auction Gallery

Windsor Road, Heeley, Sheffield, S8 8UB

Web. - www.sheffieldauctiongallery.com

eMail - jmorgan@sheffieldauctiongallery.com

Tel. - 0114 281 6161

14:00 - Finish

ᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥ ☼ ᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪ

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!

ᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥ ☼ ᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪ

N is for News

AAC Museum

The Army Aviation museum at Middle Wallop has opened again after a major re-vamp, I've enjoyed several visits - back in the day - wandering round the exhibits, so can only imagine it's an even better reason for a day-out now?

Hamleys

You're probably aware already, but the same day I was reporting the 150-somthingth store opening (last Thursday), the sale (rumoured in the past) went through, with Chinese shoe-empire C. Banner selling the whole concern to India's Reliance Group for around £70m quid.

They also opened their fifth store in Hyderabad last week!

The Works Aren't Working

The Works posted poor results and suffered a loss of share value last week, I suspect it's just a glitch and certainly hope it's not a sign of something more serious; the Blog gets a lot of mileage from them in the course of a year!

ᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥ ☼ ᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪ

L is for Links

Only the one this week, a book, it may have appeared here already in the past, but I can't remember, so here it is . . . again?

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Son-Story-First-Miniature/dp/153620482X

ᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥ ☼ ᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪ

H is for How They Come In

In addition to the pile of plunder I dragged-home from the PW show last week, there have been a few shrapnel purchases from local charity shops in the last seven days . . .

. . . I managed to get over to Farnborough earlier this week and did the three charity shops in the old precinct, nothing in two of them but several things in the third, among which was this Vivid board game; not worth a separate post, and really only the vampire man-bat is of any use to figure collectors.

The sarcophagus would be better if he wasn't wearing comedy 'shades', the pumpkin will reappear in Halloween comparison-shots at some point and the Medusa's head will make a change from-/in a display of- all those cereal premium kings, admirals, explorers and footballer busts!

A china (and probably China) panda and an Ertl rail-trolley operator (large scale Thomas the Tank Engine?) were also procured for pennies!

I ignore these in the shops (well these days I'll take a shelfie) because they aren't worth the price, but in a tatty box for a quid, they are worth the punt as archive items; packaging's gone to the recycling, where it joined the Khufu game's box and main components!

A dodgy Panther, UPS truck (in mufti), high-performance sports-staff car (HMS Queen Elizabeth's?!!) and a reasonable Jeep Wrangler join a tacky helicopter and two road-signs; it's the bottom-end of the die-cast market! All courtesy of Top Toys; an importer based in Northampton we've seen before I think.

This afternoon (Thursday)'s loot included a tenth Halo (of twelve, I may yet get them all?)* a handful of chinosaurs, a Taiwanese Luke Skywalker (magazine part-work) and a pallet of milk-churns, which were joined by a Phidal set of Toy Story figurines; they will get a separate post at some point.

* Except the post I'm referring to is err . . . still in the queue . . . Doh! Forthcoming! The Works (for it is they) are replacing the Jada Halo with Happy Potter (HP II) and Fantastic Beast sets, also in twelve's,  I think?

ᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥ ☼ ᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪᴥᴪ