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.

Thursday, July 12, 2018

S is for Shelfies

A quick round-up of shelfies I've taken over the last few months and not used in specific articles . . .

54mm Figures, 6 Piece Set, 60mm Figures, Boxed Toy, Farm Animals, Farm Girl, Farm Hand, Farm Play, Farm Toys, Farm Tractor, Farmer, Ram, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, The Works,
Currently in The Works, there seems to be only the three variations and the only variation is the figure, so to get all three you need £18, and will end-up with a lot of duplicate stuff, so a Shelfie seems to be the answer for future identification when they turn up loose.

The figures are around the 54mm mark, with two subscale tractors and animals in various sizes. The square 'tube' is quite long - you can see about a third in this shot - as there is a play-mat in the lower section.

Boxed Toy, Castle Keep, Castle Play Set, Doll's Furniture, Dolls' Houses, Fantasy Figures, Fantasy Models, Plastic Novelty, Plastic Play Set, Poundworld Plus, Princess Castle, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, Sparkle Sweethearts, Toy Furniture, Toy Princess, The Box, The Whole Play Set,
Going, going . . . fire sale at Poundworld will end soon, these are - clearly - a bit 'pink and girly' but they are solids, around 80mm, and again, should they turn-up in mixed lots in a year or a few; label them ITP Imports!

Boxed Toy, Castle Keep, Castle Play Set, Doll's Furniture, Dolls' Houses, Fantasy Figures, Fantasy Models, Plastic Novelty, Plastic Play Set, Poundworld Plus, Princess Castle, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, Sparkle Sweethearts, Toy Furniture, Toy Princess, Close-up Of The Figures,
Twins! Vacuous-looking twins at that!

Accion de Ataque, Action Figures, Baxter, Boxed Toy, Construction Toy, Donatello, Laboratorio Mutante, Lego Construction Toy, Leo, Mega Bloks, Megabloks, Michelangelo, Mutation Lab, Raphael, Slashing Action, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, TK Maxx, TK Maxx, TV Tie Ins, TMHT, TMNT,
I think I shot these in TKMaxx and I just like the fact that other brands are fighting back against the hegemony of Lego with cool licenses of their own, Brian B has sent me a fantastic Bending Unit which will go in the next Lego-likey post!

Animals, Cheetah, Giraffe, Monkey, PVC Figurines, PVC Vinyl Animals, PVC Vinyl Rubber, Rhinoceros, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, Store Dispenser, Toy Animals, Wilkinson's, Wilko Stores, Zebra,
Wilco-branded (Wilkinson's - the real reason Woolworth's died), these are large, mixed scale PVC type animals, and again will help ID them in the future.

Carded Toys, Construction Site, Die Cast Toys, Fire Department, Fire Engine, Header Cards, Helicopter, Jeep Wrangler, Motorbike, Motorcycle, Plastic Toys, Play Set, Police Interceptor, Poundworld Plus, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, street Furniture, ITP Imports,
Back to the closing-down sale at Poundworld Plus here in town, these were reduced to 80p so I got the blue one . . . motorcycle! The vehicles are really 'cheap and nasty' and typically - for these days - no military option, but a motorcycle is not to be sniffed at; for less than a quid!

Boxed Toy, Castle Keep, Fairy Tale Crayons, Japan Wax, King and Queen, Novelties, Novelty Figurines, NPW, Princess, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, Soldier, Stationary, TK Maxx, Wax Crayons, Witch and Wizard,
These are statuette crayons, with a pointed-bit hidden behind the battlements of the catchy packaging. With a King, Queen, princess, wizard and witch; that soldier's got a lot of guarding to do! But they're figural! NPW, who's novelties have featured here several times in the last few years; these were shot in TKMaxx.

Ballerinas, Ballet Dancers, Dancers, En Point, Glass Drying Mat, Household Goods, Kitchen Equipment, Novelties, Novelty Figurine, Ra-ra Skirts, Rubber Figurines, Silicon Rubber, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, TK Maxx, Tu-tu's,
These . . . TKMaxx . . . I just don't really get? It's apparently a glass drying mat, but with four semi-flat ballet-dancers. How are you supposed to dry the glasses? If you catch the dancer as you place the glass over it with wet hands you may drop the glass, what about shallow glasses? What about narrow champagne flues, or champagne bowls, why only room for four? Or do you place the glasses between the dancers, in which case; why have them? And even if that's the case there's only room for about six, and no mugs, the handles will get in the way - the whole concept is just daft!

A triumph of farty-art idea over practicality, hundreds of people were involved in designing, tooling, producing, packing, procuring and shipping this Caca!

It seems to me to be a sublime example of everything that's wrong with consumerism, as espoused by Thatcherite-Raganomics and the mantra of 'market forces' for the last 39 years. A totally impractical, ill thought-out, relatively unnecessary product, packaged to appeal to a certain type of 'lifestyle' cretin or brain-dead fashion-victim! People with bows behind their family pictures, matching his'n'hers anoraks and pink loo paper! The same people who've been buying waistcoats over the last two weeks.

The figures have fully-round skirts and plinths, but chunky block-flat bodies, they are silicon-rubber (I think), around 50mm (not counting the base) and could be fun; taken off the mats and displayed with the Britains, Gem and other dancers, but they represent our need to keep consuming until there's nothing left, it's not a good sign.

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