N is for Not Serious!

A few more toy or figure related funnies, and a couple of cats!

 

I believe this is genuine? But not necessarily a retail thing?

 

Ours were old, fat, bald and tattooed, with their brassy tarts holding the ladders!

 

Sigh!

 

Heehee!

 

Rubber jigglers!

 

Let's make death fun! And phallic!

AI from a couple of years ago - it was poor!

Check-out the white lines, crushed cars and dwarf in a pram! 

 

Real, but I don't know which model village?

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

So, as a follow-up to the previous post this was the 'tower of nutcrackers' at Longacre garden centre in Bagshot about a week ago, compared to the New York display, I think less razzmatazz and more fur!

I think they're dogs? Could be bears, but I think they're dogs!

 

The hall of the Mice Kings!

 

The Tower of Nutcrackers!

 

Ethnic nutcrackers this year, but no highlanders!

 

Jesters!

 

I've seen many, but only shot this lot, and there's a tendency for each venue/outlet to have a different theme, one of the garden centres out beyond Farnham had mostly white/silver 'minimalist types, and we still have a couple to come here, in addition to the drumming bear we saw the other day!

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.

N is for New Recruits - Seasonal Soldiery

A couple more additions to the bauble purchases, although I think tree-hangers is the correct term for these two non-glass additions!

 

I though, after I'd got him home, that I'd already bought one of these a year or two ago, but in fact, that was a different moulding altogether, and had green trousers or something, so there are now two of these glazed ceramic, slip-cast chaps!

 

Meanwhile, this chap is mostly wood, but with a resin head and accessories, glued on, it's another bear as well, so ticks two boxes, but do I place him on the tree with the bears, and end-up with another soldier nearby, or place him with the soldiers and end up with another bear nearby? What a quandary . . . doh!

 

Highlighting exactly why we will go extinct, possibly within the lifetimes of people already born - they highlight their creditable working with FSC sustainable forestry, then using a polymer-wax glue, place resin blobs all over him, give him a metallised polymer string hanger, and then use one of those annoying, and ephemeral clip-ties to hold ALL the 'paperwork' on, nothing remotely sustainable or eco' here!
 

He came from Haskin's on the Wrecclesham-Borden road, and they also had a family of non-military resins, and blown-glass baubles of bears in pajamas! I was tempted, but if you don't limit yourself to a few a year, you'll drown in them!

N is for Not a Follow-up!

As a sort of [pretty tenuous] follow-up to the last post, and the mention of Crong, I'm posting something which was already in the queue, but isn't coming in the order I'd like it to, and doesn't tell all the story, but hopefully still of some use to some Loyal Readers!

 

Donated by a friend of the blog who prefers not to be named, but occasionally comes up with little treasures, Battle Knights by Feva UK, is one of the more recent iterations of a carpet 'wargame', commonly known as Crossbows and Catapults (Tomy, Base Toys, Action GT, Zatu, et al), but also having iterations as Weapons & Warriors (Pressman), and Battground (Moose), which has been around since the 1980's.

 

The originals have produced several generations of two figures, a small squat fantasy figure (Doomlords of Gulch) in a putty-coloured polymer, and a sort of Hollywood Viking/Barbarian type (the Impalers of the Clannic Shelf), in various shades of brown or ginger, which we have seen, in various mixed/plunder/donation posts over the years, but which I haven't posted-on, formally, yet as my main sample has always been in storage.

 

The Pressman version changed the dynamic slightly, with press-pads instead of loose walls, and other innovations have tried to make it more fun or keep it relevant to new generations of electronically-distracted kids, here it's spring-loading. Pressman also changed the figures, to medieval types (Castle Storm), along with a pirate version (Pirate Clash), both also seen here, in past mixed-lots/shots. 

 

This Feva version adds mounted figures, and they are the unknown figures from the Crong post (the tentative link being used here!), although this set has green bases. The foot figures are scale-downs of the Pressman set, and I now think they are all Games Workshop knock-offs?

 

 Other useful bits!

A couple of banner-flags (or pennants?) missing 

 

Could be useful, but would need work to hide the nature of the balls or discs all these sets fire at each other, the oversized culverin for instance has quite an Elastolin look to it . . . fill in the hole and give it an antiquing, with washes and dry-brushing?

These turn-up in every junk-lot on evilBay, the Supreme medieval knock-off's from several brands have versions of them, and there have been large bow-like ballistas and larger cannon, but they'd all need a lot of effort to get realistic-looking.

 

As a Brucey Bonus, these are the Moose Toys figures from the other more recent iteration, Battleground Crossbows & Catapults, and were also a donation, I think from Graham Apperley, but hidden in a PW plunder-post a few years ago.

 

Smaller at around 25mm (the Feva are 30'ish, the older sets closer to 35 (C&C) or 40mm (W&W)) and a soft PVC, against Crossbows' polyethylene/propylenes and Weapons' polystyrene. It's quite a franchise, with many US and foreign-language/foreign-market sets, and worth a proper study, which will appear here one day!

N is for News, Views Etc . . . Sandown.

I sort of ran out of Mojo on Thursday night, only temporary, had other things to do, so should be publishing again by tomorrow, but in the meantime, I saw the bestest shooting star ever last night, the tail must have been 40/100-miles long, and as it broke-up it burned-out turquoise through to ultramarine, it was worth being born, just to see that split-second of wonder!

Anyway, I tthought I'd remind everyone it's Sandown Park toy fair today!

N is for "Nart a'Nurtherrr Whone?!"

As if this set hadn't given us more than most already, another Wilton set has turned-up, only this one has just five figures (the austerity set!), for a two-a-side game with referee, giving us new all-red and all-white strips into the bargain!

 

 

Still sealed, in a charity shop a few weeks ago, I don't know if it's an import, or if someone bought it in the 'States and brought it over here/back here? We have after all looked at it a half-dozen times now, with variations on each issue, what more could be added to the story?

 

From the number of sets we've seen here now, we can begin to conclude the pale green bases, equate to Referees with whistle, so must be the earlier production run/s, while dark green bases should be later sets, with the Ref' turned into another player for single teams of seven.

 

The guy on the ground, and the Number 2 shirt are the ones dropped from this fixture!

 

If you want to see the others - roughly in the order in which they appeared, i.e., the reverse of how they're found if you follow the tags;

 

Wilton - three-a-side 

Anniversary House seven-a-side - red shirts

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/01/f-is-for-football-2-w-is-for-wilton-and.html 

 

JPW seven-a-side - two teams

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/08/f-is-for-football.html

(courtesy of Brian Berke, and I only realised, just now, scrolling through all the football posts, they are the same sculpts! Don't know if they are the larger ones or the smaller ones)

 

Knightsbridge PME three-a-side - all white faces

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/09/t-is-for-they-keep-coming.html

 

Anniversary House seven-a-side - blue shirts + comparison shot (mixed post)

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/02/f-is-for-follow-ups-various-recent-posts.html 

Knightsbridge PME three-a-side - Four white, three black players

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2022/06/k-is-for-kicking-and-screaming.html 

Knightsbridge PME three-a-side - Four black, three white players + comparison with the small ones

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/12/f-is-for-follow-up-footballer-cake.html 

 

Wilton two-a-side

This post! 

 

 

Kaskey Kids - Similar poses, but not the same

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/02/f-is-for-follow-up-kaskey-kids-soccer.html 

 

So the Anniversary House sets are the dark-green based later issues, still in retail outlets, although the PME and Wilton can also be found, while the JPW were probably a one- or two-season rack-toy presentation. What next? We still need a full set and branding for the smaller figures, clearly from the same source, as they are the same colours/materials.

 

Fourteen teams, nine examples, seven posts, four brands, three team configurations, two versions of the referee sculpt, all one set!