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.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

D is for Dispatches

Just as I suggested the other day it wouldn't be Rack Toy Month without some paratroopers, so I think it's fair to claim it's not a full RTM without some motorcycles!

Brain Berke coming to the rescue again; although he actually sent this some time ago as confirmation of the third colour when I blogged his previous contribution back near the start of the year.

He then sent this the other week and I'd love to have a go, who remembers the Corgi Pink Panther car which had the same mechanism? Indeed - some diminutive Kinder toys also have a pull-through powered kinetic-motor, while the Evel Knievel toys were more popular than either of the aforementioned!

Also branded to FunTastic, it now looks as though both the US FunTastic and the UK Funtastic are the same company, but it doesn't explain the logo differences, the Poundland exclusivity or where that will go now Poundland have been bought, but as we will see with the die-casts in a day or two, it's all as clear as mud and of little or no significance!

Rack Toy Month has room for smaller novelties and these Christmas Cracker/Gum Ball types are another recent purchase from the Swagman's Daughter and while the charms to the right (hard polystyrene) will be of limited interest to most, the figures on the left (soft polyethylene) should be of interest to any war-gamers exploring WWII.

Especially anyone using the plethora of Italian figure-set issues in the last ten or twelve years and the parallel AFV releases to build Italian armies; as they are almost perfect for North African dispatch riders - sculpted as if wearing shorts and with a leather side-flapped helmet and at a pretty good 1:76; you'd be daft not to get a set while they are still available.

A comparison with some of my existing sample, the blue ethylene one is the same as the Swagman's one, but the two styrene ones are variations of the recent acquisition - the brown one having a larger charm loop, the green one slightly better (??!!) sculpting and [apparent] factory paint on a loop-less helmet.

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