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.

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.

B is for Benevolent Buys - 3 of 3

Along with the cats and turtle/tortoise (you'll agree it wasn't clear, but flatter = turtle?), came this bag of shrapnel at the start of October, nothing special, but all fun!

 

A Fiver's the top-end for this kind of thing, but it'd been a few days since anything joined the stash, and withdrawal was starting to itch, so what choice did I have?!!

 

A near-complete set of the 'Nabisco' Magic Roundabout, and in a follow-up I'll explain way I haven't italicised the Nabisco, and have placed it in single-quotes, but for now, strange that it's all in red, with no sign of the other colours normally associated with the 'cereal premium'?

 

Standard Erzgebirge houses and church, but larger than previous ones we've seen here, with an extra window each, The Church/Public building with Zwiebelturm (onion tower, one of the first German words I learnt, the dreaded Umleitung came second, Bummelzug third!) is one from our childhood, I've been after for years, so really pleased to add this to the pile!

 

 

Other wooden stuff of the Erzgebirge type, with the train possibly a later Kinder one, and the car probably from a board game. Some of it may go with the cottages in the previous shot, but it's not obvious, while styling, paint, varnish &etc. . . suggests several sources, and many years between oldest and youngest samples.

 

Mostly 1970/80's rack-toy scenic stuff, but the greenhouse is from the New Ray HO civil/model railway accessory range, and the two Poplar trees are new to the collection, and - with those huge bases - probably from something more infant-oriented, and also, probably more modern.

 

Odds & sods; the barrow looks like it should have a pencil-sharpener attached, but there's no sign of such an accoutrement having ever been attached, and I don't know what the blue-cap is from, or if it's even anything to do with toys whatsoever? 

R is for Return to Wooden Jolly Boat!

Brian took a few more shots of his wooden boat with those slightly 'deform' PVC pirates, from some infant toy, I think, and I found another in my files, along with a couple of Guttenberg Project images, so quickly . . .

We had a swimming-pool at school, which was an old outdoor, unheated, circular thing with no shallow-end, and a low wall round it, with half-round bricks on top. It was freezing, even in the summer, except '76, it got quite pleasant in the heatwave, but started to go green and got over chlorinated, making everybody's eyes sting!

 

But we were allowed to sail/float boats in it, in break-times, supervised by the 'duty' teacher, and while the rich-kids all had big battery-operated things which inevitably filled with water and sank (to huge cheers)*, and would need to be recovered with the leaf-net, us poorer kids would have wooden vessels of various kinds, of which this is very reminiscent of some. I had a little green Star yacht, which actually worked when it was breezy, but otherwise just bobbed-about, becalmed!

 

* The biggest cheers were kept for when someone reached too-far trying to get their toy boat out, and fell in, fully clothed - usually several times a term! Always funniest in the Winter, when their teeth would chatter like a cartoon skeleton's, as they were marched off to Matron!

 

 

I don't know why I took this shot? But I did, I don't know if they came with the ship, I can't remember? Neither can I remember if I've Blogged it, nor do I have the time to check - I'm supposed to be getting changed for work! But it's the same figures, and I think four poses have appeared so far, in varied paint versions?

 

I went off last night and found these on the Project Guttenberg, from Ships of the Seven Seas by Hawthorne Daniel, in order to try and ID these, but they are all toys and don't quite fit any of the outlines. The illustrations here are all 'full sailed', and I think Brian's is more of a sloop with light sails?

W is for Wooden Jolly Boat

Actually, with triangular sails, I think it’s technically a yacht? Brian Berke has been busy getting his Pirates shot for Pirate Talking day, and these are his Hing Fat's, crewing a high-speed raiding schooner, or sloop?

 

The 'Yellow Peril'!

 

Pride - Plundering!

I think we saw a rather dodgy/fuzzy shot of  Hing Fat's own bottle-bag with header card (upper image), in a past post, so better ones are gratefully received, and vaguely remember even poorer shots from the defunct Marshall's wholesale catalogue, we've also seen a better Billy V version, but the lower image here, D&D Distribution's carded bag is new to blog, so new to ITLAPD! We shall return to this boat later! And thanks to Brian.