About Me

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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 JB Models. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JB Models. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

H is for How They Come In - London, March, Boxed & Bits

Playing catch-up again with the show reports! Back to the end of March and the London Toy Soldier show first, where I wasn't expecting to pick-up much but ended-up with some useful stuff anyway.
 
 Worth mentioning, that while there was some pessimism around the new combined (soldiers and modellers/wargamers) one day show, it seems to have gone well, and most I chatted with were pleased or pleasantly surprised; next one's only about six-weeks away now!

I don't actually know (or remember my reasoning) why most of these weren't subsequently photographed, but with the exception of the Kinder barbarian (bottom left) they haven't been? I know the EMCE (top) are featuring in a forthcoming post, but why the rest were spirited off to their TBS boxes without a photo', is now a mystery.
 
Points to note include two Fontanini Nappies, a Cane Turk, a nice bag of khaki infantry types, two UNA in sand, a small bag of post-Giant Romans, and . . . the Guardsman pen with flocked bearskin????? I took him off to shoot the rest of the Novelty ceremonials (we looked at on the 4th May), and forgot to come back and shoot the rest didn't I? That's what happened!

As soon as we arrived I asked one seller if he had anything nice, and he basically said I need to shift these, they're yours for [insert ridiculously low price here] if you'll take them, so I was off to a good start with mostly Atlantic small scale!
 
Also boxed were these two Minikins sets which will be part of a bigger post but not for some time, while the farm animals are Tamiya, and I bought them from one of the kit-dealers in the other - additional - room! Just for fun, really!
 
Other boxed items from the 'other team's' stallholders include the JB Models (now Airfix) 105's, I intend to do one in Wainwright two-tone, towed and the other firing in Falklands black & green. The ACE Models half-track 'Diana' SPG, is a nice variant, while I think I already have the space set (from Dark Dream Studio), but I'll de-runner these and make-up the assemblies.
 
I bought this from the Legendary James Opie's table, although I believe his colleague is behind them, there were several, but I thought this had potential for a lot of different figures/eras? Obviously you trim-back to the base of the fort and stand it at the back of a display shelf, there were a whole bunch of them. The fat chap in a bicorne wasn't a purchase on the day, but happened to be to hand for an example of how they look!
 
I have several of these now, they tend to come in with mixed lots and are mostly - I suspect - from cheap, rack-toy 'knock-off' action figures, god knows if I'll ever get them all ID'd, but there are sites which look at all the also-ran's, so one day . . . maybe!
 
This is fun, I saw a heated discussion out of the corner of my eye, toward the end of the show, and when it had petered-out, I wandered over and asked what was the interest, and the seller explained the buyer had wanted one building, but that as it was a complete run, he wanted to sell them all together, and for only twenty-quid, so I handed over the money before anyone else realised what was happening!
 
In the event I found two duplicates and one missing, but they seem to appear on feebleBay regularly, so I'll find the missing one soon for the complete set. In the meantime they are an interesting thing, Waddington's HO-gauge scaled building that slot together without glue and which can be collapsed and put away again when Mum needs the table back! Eight of the smaller/medium-sized ones were also issued as Weetabix premiums.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

P is for Picasa Clearance

I think we've had that title before and we will definitely have it again! I keep muttering about clearing stuff from Picasa but I keep adding to it, not just article folders but the 'other images' folder which had just under 500 shots a few weeks ago and now stands at 700+. A lot of it is shite, but here's some I can clear as a random post, alphabetically;


Britains

Simple shot of Hong Kong produced Britains cowboys, showing some of the colour/base variations in the Herald range - note that the orange one (they all seem to be wearing mechanic's overalls!) has only detailing  three paint colours (black, silver, flesh) while the other two poses manage four each with the neckerchife blobbed-in, in yellow.

Charbens

Thanks to Paul Morehead at Plastic Warrior for ID'ing these for me the other day, I'd scoured the PW 'specials' I have here and checked various websites, but of course my Charbens special (for that is who they are by) is the old B&W one in storage - Paul came to the rescue the other day. From my attempts to find him I'd say he's not too common?

Cofalux

I don't know what these Cofalux are doing in Picasa as we looked at them before everything went into storage, I think they must be latecommers from Samwise/Pascal? I like these French 'bazar' figures (because they are sold in bazaars), they have something of a cross between US production (seen in the UK through Marx or Thomas) and Hong Kong rack toys.

Hornby-Meccano

A Hornby rail-staff figure repainted to represent some fat, rear-echelon, staff-donkey; ready to send a hundred-thousand lions into a hailstorm of Ruhr-moulded lead, at walking pace!

JB Models - now Airfix

Ah, yes; "Would you like a model kit with that fresh-air, Sir?" - The other kind of 'box scale', not an odd-scaled ship or aircraft designed to fit the box size, but a box design resolutely happy to be filled with 5/6ths atmosphere! I don't think they were 'US' either; it's an Australian expediency-design born pout of marrying the turrets of retired Saladin armoured cars with M113 APC's to provide a bit of oomph in Vietnam, which it did quite well I think, albeit while being a bit top-heavy.

Lucky-Giant-Helen of Toy (and others!)

Scans of old photographs that never got used in One Inch Warrior magazine, one of each pose, both colours, err . . .  That's it! Comic offers in the US, they replaced earlier flats.

Norev

Plastic fire engine (dusty) with figures, there should be four outriders, two are missing and one was wedged in the delicate plastic ladder and I wasn't going to force him. Also you have to ask why they are riding outside when they have a lovely crew-cab with two bench seats!

Italian Texas Indian on the left
German bubble-gum premium on the right

All covered before, two random Euro-figures closing a random figure post - call it 'magazine Sunday'! Tomorrow we start a short season.