T is for a Tale of Three Trolleys

Well, it's all got to appear here eventually, so by way of box-ticking toward that goal, and because I picked-up the first, die-cast version the other day, it's trolley madness at Small Scale World today; like Reefer Madness but with less murder, divorce and . . . err . . . madness . . . maybe?

Wardie's Mastermodels OO-gauge compatible 1:76th scale die-cast platform/post/parcel/baggage trolley and trailer, this one in an odd colour - as far as railway company liveries is concerned - but I don't know if they came in other colours?

The driver too is die-cask zamac/mazak and plugs-in loosely to two holes in the standing-platform, the control/power lever (sort of dead-mans handle) for these, which is not modeled, were on the face where his left hand is hinted at being, I think?

Merit inherited some of the BJ Ward moulds when the latter went bust and unpaid workers took themselves and some moulds over the road to Randall's in Potters Bar, or so the story goes - one suspects that actually Merit probably shelled-out for some of the intellectual (or actual) property?

Later Merit and current Modelscene sets only supply one unpowered trailer, but the early 'matchbox' issues (which aped the earlier Mastermodels boxings) had two.

Merit have re-cut the driver thought, whether as a new tool, or just in 'cleaning' the cavities//re-servicing the tool, I don't know.

 Airfix's set (bottom right) dates from 1958 (if memory serves) so was probably more contemporary than copy, but they have 'previous form' and the Wardie one would have been around by then I think so . . . no matter, it gives us our trio! I'll chuck a different comparison in the relevant entry on the Airfixfigs Blog.

B is for Blistered Buildings

Coming in at a vague 1:70th, these were probably designed to provide basic scenery for a first model railway, Jean Höfleur had a small railway system, but it was hand-push and go only? Whatever the reason, I have two carded samples and RTM is the best time to show them!

Enough buildings for a whole village in war gaming terms, while the card shows other recognisable Jean products - I have the earth-mover somewhere, or a copy of it! A church and three chalet-style dwellings with shallow roofs for collecting snow (both for insulation and for not falling in a heap suddenly and killing someone!) are all very 'Bavarish', as they should be; it’s the home of Jean!

Construction is much simpler than the diminutive HO-scaled buildings from Vollmer, Faller, Nock and Co., so these are definitely cheaper, infant toys, they are also quite robust so will take a fair bit of punishment, despite being polystyrene rather than the polyethylene of the companies figure production.

These are all polystyrene as well, and the vehicles can suffer from the kind of damage you would guess-at with such a material, however smaller hands delver less stress, and they can (or could - back in the day) provide good inspiration for conversion, I have a few from some old war games army somewhere, stripped-down and painted matt olive!

All three vehicles are marked J&H, even the Post Office (Bundespost) van! The service station has two pumps and a car-wash . . . big enough for the lorries, which is why they are so shiny, silly!

That's it, two carded Jean sets in the collection, the trouble with this carded stuff is, that really they can only sit there on the card, and there's only so many shots you can take (these were shot in too bright sunlight and are a bit fuzzy as a result) but it would be a crime to take them off the card now, not that they are as rare as the 1950's/60's stuff,; one seems to be dated 1979

 

Couple of weeks later aaannnnnnd . . . TJF posts two (count them!) carded Jean sets! Nice to know he's paying such close attention!

M is for More of a Ramble than a Return!

We looked at these a while ago here, when I got my main sample, both carded and loose, but since then a few more have joined the 'legion' and more details have emerged which change the narrative slightly, so we'll have a meander through  them . . .

. . . starting with the most recent additions, which are two of the original (except they aren't 'original' anymore!) Legione Spaziale (Space Legion) figures from the previous post; an orange one and a fleck-marbled yellow one, along with two much better versions - in the 'proper' pulp-era metallics!

New ones added (orange asterisks) to the rest I already had, along with a bronze one kicking about and with a helmeted bronze version in the poorer sculpt-finish of the [not] originals, gives me six poses and three generations; poor, not-so-poor with helmet (1) and good (2).

But what we saw previously is only half the story, the better moulded ones are the originals, the poor ones are complete piracies, even down to . . .

. . . the packaging! They are a little bigger and it's a tighter-cropped image, so they appear even bigger, but basically one set - on the left - is a pulp-era set (1950/60's), the other is a cheaper fake (and that's the correct term when you're copying the product and the artwork), designed to look like the original, possibly as late as the mid-late 1970's?

That was sort of 'it', as while I had these two images and was pretty sure that they were mine and that they were the small copies (they are a mix of old Archer and Premier/Tudor Rose poses) I couldn't find them, so I didn't know for sure!

The blue guy is the Premier/Tudor Rose pose; also covered by a company in Australia - if memory serves - in the larger scale.

Then - looking for them - I managed to find two lots, which with the new pair and the bronze 'kicker' gave me twelve, or a small shed-load! Which I haven't photographed as they are only the three poses and the information is in the other images above and below, but I'll show them in the future when I've found all the poses in the better sculpts.

I also found the Christmas cracker prize ones, and another oddity, so thought 'fuck it' and grabbed the Lido (et al) box while I was at it . . .

. . . to get this comparison of smaller 'pulp' spacemen done! We'll look at the helmeted one (unknown I) in a second, while the blue one with an added base (unknown II; ee's 'armless! Or; it's der Milo from Venus!) will be back in the next post, the rest are - hopefully - annotated with clarity?

The Post premiums are the smallest, while the cracker giveaways are heading toward a standard size, the rest are less than half the size of the Archer and Glencoe (Archer re-issues) sets - which we will look at another day, with the originals (a) slightly taller than the copies (b and unknown I).

I saw another of these the other day, same colour, same helmet foxed with a tub of glue-fumes, different pose (but from the six), so I suspect (guess, assume, presume, imagine!) that A) he was/they were possibly a single thing, bubble-gum, cereal, pasta? Something like that, and probably Italy (as per the other two versions) or France, and B) is the original of the multicoloured copies, being ever-so-slightly better detailed, but much worse that the true originals, i.e.; the chronologically second of the three versions, and the first of the two generations of piracies.

So, someone made the original Legione Spaziale and may have given them helmets (which have been lost?) but I've never seen them, then someone-else copied them, with badly or heavily glued-on helmets (which do survive!) and issued them singly (?) as some kind of premium/giveaway or capsule/pocket-money toy? Then a while later; they (or a third party) found (or obtained) the tool (of the copies) and re-released them in candy-colours without helmets (there were no helmets in the big stock-bags from which my previously-seen sample came from) on a copy card of the original Space Legion. But . . . that is all, mostly conjecture?

Ghosts in the machine!

M is for More Model Power!

It was when titling the folder for the Model Power HO rack-toys (looked at earlier today) the other day and watching it default to 'Model Power_1' that I knew there was something wrong! I had a hidden 'Model Power' folder in Picasa, with two sets Ed Burg sent me ages ago, so first an apology to Ed for not Blogging them sooner, and second, let's look at them now!

I feel doubly guilty as I believe Ed went out and bought these especially as part of an exchange, I'd mentioned railway figures in passing in an eMail as I'd noticed he was thinning out his Marx and . . . whoever (Aurburn?) in a post on his Blog a few days earlier, then these turned-up! And he's chosen carefully to find two very different but interesting sets.

They are O-gauge or 027, which is a strange railway system where the rolling stock is nominally scaled to 1:64th (even more confusingly - 1:64th is US HO in the die-cast and slot-racing world!), while the figures are scaled to 40mm which is also O-gauge compatible, although strictly 1:45th, usually referred to as 1:48th . . . if I've understood it all right; basically they are O-Guage model-railwy, 40mm figures!

In fact I feel triply guilty as I have an O-Gauge set from ................... in ............. which he sent to the Blog a decade ago and which isn't even in Picasa yet - I keep meaning to do a Preiser versus Merten O-guage post and have never quite got round to it, both boxed are so full it's hard work dealing with one let alone two, and when I did the wagons and things a few years ago I put off the O-stuff!

Set No. 6193 Prisoners (Black & White Stripes); suggests other colour-ways are probably available, and looking at the HO-gauge compatible 'Roco' and Chinatroop sets earlier only reinforces that suspicion. In this style of uniform they are pretty-much 'steam era', but you can re-paint them to any, or your local prison or penitentiary!

All the tropes of a jail or gaol are covered, we have a Hispanic 'gang-banger' doing weights, a guy contemplating his crime with a ball and chain, two guys in a chain-gang (or are they digging a break-out tunnel . . . it's your layout, you decide!), someone waiting to see the governor with his hands cuffed behind his back and a Hannibal Lector type in full chains waiting for supper and a nice Chianti . . . ffth'ffth'ffth'ffth'ffth'ffth!

The other set is also interesting being the modern take on a set which - had it existed forty years ago - would probably once have contained all national postal workers, but which now covers the full gamut of people who come to your door these days.

The figures include a traditional postal worker in blue uniform, a UPS guy in brown, an internet gig'er on moped, a US Mail (?) guy with trolley and an owner-driver in jeans and a T-shirt subbing for a major carrier. You also get a posting 'stand' (pillar-box) and one of those uniquely-American end-of-the-garden-path post/newspaper holders, with the little tin flag (that gets flipped-over if there's something in it) printed on it.

The reverse of the card gives a hint at the range of sets available in this scale/size and the most interesting one is the Santa Land one, clearly designed to do seasonal front lawn or garden (front yard over there) displays of the 'full Griswold' type! But they look familiar . . . however we'll wait 'till Christmas for that one!

And many thanks to Ed for these two.

R is for Return to Captain Video et al.

Not exactly a follow-up as the other days post was adequate enough for what it was, but I said at the time that I would re-visit these when I got the rest out of storage, as there are more of the smaller premium sized ones there and a few of the human/spaceman sculpts (I think . . . it's a while since I saw them!), but then I picked these up the other day . . .

 . . . so we might as well have another look at them now! The rest of the Reamsa tinny-ethylene re-issues at the bottom, a duplicate bird-man in rubber, also from Reamsa (top left) next to a totally new one on me, a Heudebert European food premium based-on but reversed from the Lido robot and five of the clunky-styrene or phenolic ones from the anonymous maker of 'Winco Condar's Interplanetary Spacemen!'

So ♪♫♩♬ Meet the gang, 'cos the boys are here, the boys to entertain you . . . with robots an' ail'iee'ens to help you on your way...♩♫♪♬ The 'gang' may be bigger than the storage sample now, but I don't think so and there's still a shortage of the smaller versions and the humans here.

The ray-gun guy in green I 'restored' with a coat of plumbers sealant a while ago can now be seen to be one of the smaller ones though, as he's considerably smaller then the Reamsa, who's brothers are all the same as the Lido/British versions.

The blue cat-man/gasmask guy has his weapons intact as does the new green trident guy (or should that be bident!) unlike their twins.

The above image was originally just the picture on the left, but I think I got one (or two) of my colour-matched cube's wrong last time, so I've added a legend to the right (don't temp me!) which is correct, bearing in mind that those marked Lido could be from any one of several sources (Dumont, Rex, Techniplast), the four Reamsa's may have been issued by one or two other brand-marks (Alca Capell, Puchol) in recent years, and - indeed - the silver robot is so clean he may be a more recent 'pressing'?

As I said last time, without the base marks of the Reamsa or Trovador examples "It's very hard to say with any degree of definitiveness which figure is by which company".

The spare rubber Reamsa is available for a straight-up swap for any of the other three poses if you have one of them duplicated and need this bird-man - eMail me on maverickatlarge [at] hotmail [dot] com. Compared to the re-issue there's nothing in it, they are from the same mould and all four are numbered under the base as per the catalogue listing.

The Heudebert as I say; was unknown to me, and there doesn't seem to be much on that there inter'mah'web-thinggy, he can be seen - or said - to have either had his arms reversed or had his face put on the back of his head, he's also a lot smaller, so rather a 'son of robot'. He's a sharp, 'kit' type, polystyrene like Heudebert flats, in a slightly washy, metallic-gold polymer.

Q is for Question Time? Pig Parcel!

As we're looking at girly, civilian type, larger-scale stuff today, perhaps someone can help ID this weirdness - which came in for the princely sum of 10p the other day? It's a swine of a query!

It appears to be a (possibly . . . probably (?) still alive) piglet wrapped in brown-paper and tied-up with string!

It's a soft polymer, so not likely to be a Playmobile accessory; unmarked, and if taken as an adult pig; would be 54mm-compatible, if as a piglet; around 80/90mm-compatible, so possibly an action figure accessory?

I tried throwing it to see if it was a variant of Pass the Pigs, but it just keeps falling on a side, so I don't think Pass the Porcine Parcel's a line of further inquiry!

Anyone got any ideas, it's such an odd thing I feel it must be a known character or represent a memorable incident from some comic or movie scene?

It will fit the Horrible Histories pigapult!

 

Postman Pat playset, see comments, Thanks Anon!

B is for Birdmen, Bots and Something Else Beginning with B!

Captain Video was a kid's TV show in the 'States in the 1950's, although as the brand seems to have 'travelled', particularly to France, it may have had a wider audience? Running against shows like Tom Corbett Space Cadet and Space Patrol, they were the equivalent of the previous era's movie-matinee Flash Gordon and Buck Rodgers serials; or later era's Dr. Who, Star Trek and err . . . Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon again! That makes it about time - or even overdue - for someone to resurrect Captain Video!

I don't know if the figures bare any relationship to the TV series, but as they all look humanoid (and could have been 'worn', as costumes) I guess they are representative of some of the characters from some of the episodes? I'm sure TJF can correct me!

We have looked at them before here, but these are recent additions, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to have a closer look. It's very hard to say with any degree of definitiveness which figure is by which company, however it’s fair to say glossy polystyrene ones in primary colours (1 & 7) are probably from Lido's stable, or their French importer, however there may well be a UK source for these, Bell or Kleeware would fit nicely but I don't know. I'm sure TJF can correct me!

Reamsa (PVC; 6) and Trovadore (polyethylene) kindly mark theirs (if only Pech did!) but the mark carried over to a more recent re-issuer (2), phenolic/cellulose (5 & 8) types are (if found here) probably UK copies while the unmarked metallic's (2 & 3) prove more problematical.

The figures are also a rather amorphous group of poses which are from a set of twelve original or 'base' figures, but have been issued in different sizes and configurations, with Lido themselves seemingly not issuing the 'straight human' poses in the same numbers as the 'aliens' especially in the larger sizes, in the smaller size all 12 are as common as each other and the humans turn up more frequently compared to the more exotic creatures/robots.

They break down into four groups;

Humans - Four Poses (yellow figure, small scale premium, damaged)

Birdmen - Three Poses

Cat People with Respirators - Two Poses (metallic-green figure above)

Robots - Three Poses, although there are two similar 'pulp'-bots and one which looks more like a knight-in-armour (other two green figures above), with a ray gun!

The two Reamsa's in this current sample, although the grey one is in a modern-day tinny polyethylene and is almost certainly a re-issue probably from Capell? The earlier one is a PVC rubber as used by a few Spanish companies in the 1950's (Teixido and Pech y Hermanos spring to mind!) and the gold coating he (she, it?)'s been given has - over-time - reacted with the substrate to produce a sandy texture which makes it hard to clean, and you can see how while the figure photographs quite silver, the very bright light of the scanner has revealed a golden-brown residue of the factory finish, deeper in the surface.

Showing some base variation; there are also pod-foot and 'twin-baselett' types out there. I think the robot may be a re-issue as well, as he's impossibly clean, but he could be an unloved/un-played-with Lido survivor?

Some shots I took a while ago, the two on the left (now in my sample and also pictured above) have been cut-back to their footwear by a previous owner, on the right are a 'twin-baselett' Birdman and a whole version of the Lido marching robot.

Provisional listing

Known

Alca Capell (or 'Al-Ca' or 'Capell')

Were probably responsible for the more recent reissues of the four [still base-marked to-] Reamsa copies of Lido, having a history of purchasing other moulds - they also inherited some of Casanellas' metal moulds, I believe.

·         42 - 'Knight' with ray gun?

·         43 - Robot striding?

·         44 - Robot waving with syringe-tool?

·         45 - Bird-man with side-arm?

Shusssh . . . can you hear TJF and his cock-wakin' monkey-lizard rushing-off to see if it says Puchol on page 200-and-something in some tome? I don't care; they're tinny, soapy reissues!

Dumont Plastics

Licensed the Lido figures for a large gift-set which contained 18 figures; taken as twos or threes from three poses of the bird-men and two-each of the cat-men and robots.

·         Captain Video and his Video Rangers (window gift box with pop-up display-back)

Lido

Invented the line, producing it in various configurations of carded and boxed set, and is credited with the smaller, scaled-down figures supplied to other sources. From O'brian (via Kent Specher) we know that Lido was created by brothers Effrem and Seymour Arenstein in 1947, and produced 'dime store' toys and novelties - quite prolifically - until 1964 when the company was sold to a Bala, who themselves ceased trading the following year, Gabriel Industries bought the rump but most of the moulds were sold for scrap, and given that the US figures all date from before this time we can be confident the Captain Video mould/s were among those lost at that time.

·         Atomic Cannon (boxed 'dragster')

·         Pursuit Ship (boxed 'A'-frame)

·         Rocket Tank (boxed twin-tailed spaceship)

·         Troop Transport (boxed 'zeppelin')

·         Missile Patrol with Rocket Launcher (assorted vehicles, figures and accessories, carded and bagged)

·         1403 - Moon Shot (four figures and cork-pistol, blister-carded)

Post Cereals

Issued the 12 Lido scale-downs in their Raisin Bran breakfast cereal, Kent Specher dates them to 1953.

·         Captain Video Space Man (one per pack of cereal)

Puchol

See Alca Capell (above) and Reamsa (below)

Reamsa

Issued four of the Lido poses (as copies) in their Saturn Patrol Interplanetary War (Patrulla Saturno Guerra Interplanetaria) sets, gold-decorated figures being named Marcianos (Martians) and the undecorated; Lunaticos ('Lunatics' - Moon Men) in a PVC rubber, the gold paint giving the Martians a sandy texture over time. Modern re-issues in bright gold and plain grey ethylene were issued a while ago, possibly by Alca Capell or Puchol, depending on whether Oliver inherited the mould first. Each figure is numbered on the base below the Reamsa lozenge.

·         42 - 'Knight' with ray gun

·         43 - Robot striding

·         44 - Robot waving/throwing with syringe/grenade-tool

·         45 - Bird-man with side-arm

Rex Jouets

Produced [probably pirated] copies of Pyro X-100 spaceships (with French-language wing titles Terre (Earth) and Mars) and helmeted spaceman of a derivative (ex-Bonux) style, none of Lido design, untitled, but all in the manner of the Techni-Plaste Captain Video carded sets.

·         [Two Figures] (bent-stand carded with spaceship)

·         [Three Figures] (bent-stand carded with spaceship)

·         [Four figures] (bent-stand carded with spaceship)

Techni-Plaste

A French company were supplied by Lido with bare mouldings for their lovely boxed set 'Captain Video and his Equipment' (Capitaine Video et ses Equipages), they also issued them on smaller cards with a vehicle and three figures in the Lido style.

·         M436 - Capitaine Video et ses Equipages (12 figures, 4 vehicles and other accessories in Dumont style gift box)

Trovador

An Argentinian company produced eponymous base-marked copies of Lido's figures titled Explorers of Space.

·         Exploradores del Espacio

Unknown

UK

Sets in a phenolic or cellulose resin, copied from Lido and branded to Winco (abbreviation for [Air-]Wing Commander) Condar; an obvious take on Captain Condor the Lion comic strip and a definite candidate for a Star Wars name!

·         Winco Condar's Interplanetary Spacemen (4 figures on card)

USA

The smaller figures (which may or may not be Lido-supplied) have been issued as premiums or gum-ball capsule prizes.

News, Views etc . . . couple of bits . . .

. . . as I failed to get today's post texted-up for Saturday so couldn't load it, it should appear here later today.

There is a proper 'News Views' in prep. for September, but these both came out of the blue the other day and are already 'old news'!

Stamps
Royal Fail have issued a set of toy-related stamps, one of which has two Britains Herald Trojan figures on it! They are also available as postcards. They could have used nice, well-painted, early ones, not these shiny-PVC shitters from Hong Kong! The first version archer is one of my favourite figures.

Bricks
Lego continue with their intention to take over the world with a TV show which first aired on Thursday last. I can't tell you how much Lego publicity there is around at the moment, too much, anyone would think Christmas was coming and there's no news coming out of the real world . . . day-by-day account of David Beckham taking three days to build a fort that should have taken an afternoon anyone?!!

News, Views etc . . . All Sorts!

It's funny, I thought I was doing too many 'News, Views' this year, but looking at the dates on some of these newspaper stories it's a while since we had one, I must have filled the Blog with other stuff? So anyway; well overly time for another!

In one of those synergic acts of coincidence which happen from time to time, and - indeed -have only recently happened to this very brand (Noki) on the Blog already this year, I saw the other set in a charity-shop window the other day (right-hand shot - the same one my Fontanini came from a few months ago!), which happened to be the day-after I found an old Amazon sales image of the same set it different packaging on the 'unknown' dongle - left hand image.

Seen before - just Picasa clearance!

They both confirm my assumption in previous posts that the bread 'soldiers' cutter would be the same as the one in the E1 tank we looked at last time; not the first time an educated guess has won-out here. Worth noting also that there are slight differences in the old sales image over the actual retail version (different spoon, sharper nose), this is often the way with catalogue images or press-release/sales shots, as they call upon pre-production items to photograph so that artwork is ready for the launch date.

The first catalogue image of Airfix's 1:32nd scale Stalwart amphibious artillery re-supply vehicle was very different to the finished product, as was the contents of their HO Waterloo Assault Set, even on the sides of early boxes; one of the reasons for the 'Items may differ' disclaimers many catalogues and packagings carry.

Colin Penn - who most of you will know from the pages of Plastic Warrior as a collector who uncovers some real treats in his searches - was corresponding with me the other day on a pretty special find of his which I won't detail here as it is destined for Plastic Warrior itself (so subscribe - if you don't already!) but if anyone knows anything about a toy company called (or logo-branded to-) F&G / An F&G Product; he'd like to hear from you (almost certainly not FG Taylor & Sons), and I can pass info on or you can go direct to PW. 04-04-2019 - Now known to be Fraser & Glass!

He also kindly sent me the above two shots of Vitacup animals he's obtained, including a gazelle/deer (with curved horns) which wasn't in previous posts on the range, nor - I think - was it in the listing, so this set continues to grow! Thanks Colin.

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Having just looked at WHW's again, an interesting recent snippet in the press at the beginning of May concerns the auctioneer Breker in Koln (Cologne), Germany who were visited by the police with a view to removing what sounds like rare 70mm Lineol or Elastolin's from a forthcoming sale. The Nazi era figurines - including Goebbels and a moving-arm Hitler - had been flagged-up as banned Nazi 'memorabilia'. The auctioneers were ordered to 'cease & desist' the distribution of the sale's catalogue, while Astrid Breker, current boss of the company stated "Those were normal toys in that time - you cannot deny history", it seems however that the catalogues had already gone out and Breker now wait to see if they will face prosecution, as some of the toys had not had the swastika's obliterated from the images.

Also connected to WHW's is this, or at least it reminded me very much of the wooden flats issued as WHW's in such sets as the VDA (Verein fur das Deutschtum im Ausland - aid for Germans abroad) Schoolchild Collectors issue of 1935 or 1937's German Fairytales & Legends, both of which involved plain, block-painted, figural, wooden flats.

These however are life-size and of mostly Afro-Caribbean subjects, something that wouldn't have got past Goebbels! Actually these are by Lubaina Himid from her work 'Naming The Money' from 2004, Himid is one of the four shortlisted contenders for this year's Turner Prize, and the oldest ever nominated, being 62 years of age at the time of the press release.

Getting back to the Breker story and breaking in the tabloids today is the tale of a cashe of Nazi memorabilia found in the posh Buenos Aires suburb of Beccar, Argentina which includes toys "...used to indoctrinate German children of the time..." that's the language of the small-sheet press for you! But it does make you wonder if there is lickly to be a bigger backlash against the ElastolinLineol type toys?

Previously on Small Scale World

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A good walk spoiled, but look at that trophy! I believe it represents the clubhouse at the Augusta club where the 'National' was held this year? I can only see it in use as a fine full-veranda 'Southern plantation house' for the centerpiece of an ACW war game! You'd have to chuck the plinth, and obtaining the - probably solid silver - piece of scenery might be problematical!

March of the PC brigade

PC's and Laptops are gaining ground again after a few years losing-out to Tablets and dumb-phones. Having recently inherited a iphone4 which seems unwilling to talk to my Laptop by either Bluetooth or USB cable, and which won't allow me to the save music files on it to my Laptop in a Windows compatible form, I do wonder at the use of it and am therefore glad we may see a return to the more established and trusted form's of bigger, easier to use, larger memory devices

Could we hope the next generation of Laptop/Desktop will have built in mobile telephony technology, rather than the clumsy VOIP? If I can download music or view smallscaleworld on a dumb-phone, why can't I use the keyboard of my laptop to make a call - it's not rocket science!

Still on computing - I've seen (and heard) stories about the new Windows X-Box One-X, Nintendo Switches and the other things, along with the news that Atari (who have been out of the game - pun intended - for years) are to stage a come-back; so I guess we're about to go back to the console wars of the noughties? Can't say I'll do much but ignore the whole over-hyped business - as I did last time; but an ear will be kept to developments!

Other News

No longer a significant 'player' in premiums anymore, so a bit leftfield, but some may be interested to hear that Weetabix have just been sold again (to Post Holdings of the US), for £1.4bn, that's more than you can spend in a particularly extravagant lifetime!

As a fair few of you carry-out your hobby from your sheds, you might want to know that Cuprinol - the wood treatment people - have narrowed this year's entries for 2017 Shed of the Year, more info can be found at readershed.co.uk where voting is now over - sorry! I voted for the Tardis!

The Muppets - or fans of them - are seeking funding for their continued existence, albeit only as museum exhibits. New York's Museum of the Moving Image is seeking crowd-funding for a preservation package of around 32,000-squids at current exchange rates.

Stanley Gibbons have been in the news with three angles on a sorry story of the 'fallen mighty' in recent weeks, first it sold its stake in Masterpiece London (organisers of the Art fair) through it's subsidiary Mallet & Sons in order to restructure, then about three weeks ago it announced it was in takeover-talks, then - as they fell-through - it announced last week that it was putting itself on the open market.

While for teddy bear fans planning summer-holidays with younger children; the Spanish rental site spain-holiday.com is offering a reuniting service for teddies left behind (quite common apparently!), see details on their website for #NoTeddyLeftBehind.

Hornby Hobbies are expected to reveal profits down 6% this week, but given their tribulations over the last 18 months (specifically) and in recent years more generally, that will be a good sign of the restructuring going according to plan! However, the slim-line stock marketing-model is set to continue for some time, so no new lines for a while I'm afraid.

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Alibaba who have a retail platform model and are under-reported in the Western media and all but ignored by our hobby despite being bigger that eBay and Amazon combined; have seen their share-price rocket on the news of strong grown forecasts for the next twelve-months, around 47%! Coming on the back of a revenue increase of 56% (below expectations!) in the year to March; Trump and Brexit won't stop the march of China. The machinations surrounding Yahoo/Altaba are also interesting but I won't bore you with them!

However I will suggest that the news should be read in conjunction with China's new 'big idea' the Silk Road trans-continental rail link. At the moment there is a delay adding a day or two to the journey as gauge-changes lead to trans-shipping of each train's load twice en-route and locomotive/driver changes to boot. However, with The West pushing Russia and China closer with every speech, it's only a matter of time before a new correct-gauge direct route is established, and seeing how quickly they've (the Chinese) built the first part of their East African railway - we need to look out.

On the loss of Western hegemony and the rise of the - no-longer - 'Sleeping Dragon', a computer has played Go better than a human, a Chinese computer, that is; winning a complicated Chinese game (one of the last games to be bettered by AI) against a Chinese champion (Ke Jie, 19).

Which leads us neatly on to chess, also beaten by computers, but a while ago! The Association of Teachers and Lecturers have called for Chess to be taught in all schools in England as a 'mind sport'. This follows a similar call three years ago which fell on deaf ears in Westminster - too busy wreaking the country and flogging everything in the larder to their mates?

A story itself linked to one stating that school lessons should be broken-up with periods of juggling or Plasticine model-making! The research revealed that learning is best carried out in 15 minute bursts of information, with periods of ten minutes of 'unrelated activity'. This is a non-scientific study but seemed to gain results for schools in Sheffield under the Hallam Teaching School Alliance.

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No additional text needed! Seeemples!

The only event I've noticed recently is that the medieval fayre and jousting tournament which featured in a  pre-Easter 'News Views' will be at Herstmonceux Castle for the bank holiday weekend of August 26/28th with falconry, fire-play (?), costume and folk music, tag line: Party Like it's 1499!

Leo Baxendale, creator of the Bash Street Kids and Minnie the Minx for The Beano comic has sadly passed away. He was also responsible for Sweeney Toddler, Little Plum, The Three Bears, and Willy the Kid along with the co-creation of both Wham! and Beezer comics.

We've also lost Adam West the proper Man Bat, Peter Saliss (voice of Wallace from Wallace & Grommet), John "Down Shep, DOWN BOY" Nokes from Blue Peter and Play School's Brian Cant - the passing of the five all serving to make me feel a little older - but no wiser!

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Finally - who remembers these? On the backs of early-to-mid 1970's era Britains Herald long boxes, we have panels depicting - from left to right - Mini Sets, Herald, Herald, Eyes-Right and Swoppets, although - from the scenery - the second one can't decide whether it is depicting Herald Khaki Infantry or Mini Sets US Infantry?