About Me

My photo
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.

Sunday, August 4, 2019

S is for Shilling

The following appeared in the letters section of Plastic Warrior magazine - issue 170 (1st quarter/March; 2018) just over a year ago, I reproduce it verbatim below;

" Dear PW
Re issue 167, New Zealand figures. As well as collecting toy soldiers I also collect cereal toys. I wrote to Craig L Hall about the New Zealand figures: he has written and published a book called Breakfast Barons, cereal Critters and the Rosenhain & Lipmann Legacy.
I enclose the letter he sent me in reply.
David Pye.

We quote from Craig's reply as follows [Ed.].
"I think the author of the article, Paul Stadinger, has done a great job on the research and is correct in what he says except that these were not made by R&L, as there was another company, more established in the 1960s, called Consolidated Plastics, who made this type of toy."  "

Now, if you live in an entirely non-digital universe, it may well appear to you to be pretty straightforward, although you might - almost at once - use your own logic abilities to ask A) why would a modern publisher be operating in a non-digital world and B) why do these two seem to need to hold each other's hands . . . it's not quite kosher, is it? Still, this post is in the digital world, so presumably these two idiots (above named) won't see it!

And - on a purely obvious level; nice plug for one's book, by the other! Why only quote a section of the reply, why the middle man? Plug your own book! Well, the answer is, shilling! Not the currency; ex-Empire and still used in Kenya, but the issuing of an aggrandising shill letter, to support TJF, probably (no evidence!) with the knowledge and/or input and/or instigation of The Jabbering-Fuck himself?

The facts are;

21st February 2016 - After much independent research over about three years, and with full acknowledgement of all relevant sources (and a few irrelevant ones!), I published the Dolls of the World/Dancing Dolls page. I didn't acknowledge Mr. Hall's book, as I haven't got it, haven't seen it and therefore hadn't used it in my research (and still have no clue what he has, or has not said on the subject). As part of that research I revealed that the [still] mentioned elsewhere as 'Unknown Australian' figures, were from three sets of figures issued with Sanitarium breakfast cereal, AND, on the separate, supporting A-Z Page entries published three days later, posted links to some of the Antipodean sites that were doing great work publicising the Sanitarium stuff we (in the West) had missed.

November 25th 2016 - TJF published his colonist's set, pretty much claiming to have solved the problem of his unknown figures all by himself, and discovered Sanitarium . . . with the help of an Aussie seller, of the kind I had pointed out! We now know - after early denials - that he follows this Blog '...very closely...'!

June 16th 2017 - I posted the Colonialist set on Lodoprimofiles - nicer figure-colour spread!

June 19th 2017 - I posted the NZ set on the Blog as well - new photo's more text, box ticked!

June 2017 - The naked emperor reposts his article in PW167 with no new imagery and no new blurb.

July 7th 2017 - Stadinger (TJF) mentions the dancing dolls, still describing some of them as 'unknown Australian' (they're New Zealand!) and claiming they don't interest him!

March 2018 - the shill letter appears, crediting TJF with the work actually done by . . . well . . . quite a few other people!

If these two muppets knew so little about the background to the reposted article, why did they feel the need to put pen-to-paper? And/or to have the results of that mutual cud-chewing published? It's not like we see a mass of letters congratulating all the other authors of all the other articles for their '...great job on the research' in either PW or all the other magazines; whether the articles are accurate - or not? Nor - it has to be said - do we see a regular stream of such factually inaccurate letters!

If it was to get the book plugged, then it only needed one of them? If it was to get the book plugged, then; well done, it's got another mention here; three-cheers for me!

If it was to correct the false accreditation to Rosenhain & Lipmann, it fails, as it only seems to 'suggest' an alternative? I looked at a couple (of possible sources, to which you could add Toltoys) in the original article and we mentioned a couple more the other day (January posts) - there were lots of plastic manufactories in that part of the world at that time. If you are to correct someone, you need to be firm in your correcting, the last line in the quote only seem to offer 'an' alternative? And again - only requires one author!

Does that make sense? What I'm saying is . . . IF you know; correct the idiot TJF's "... strong working knowledge..." (he was calling early Zang-Herald "Crescent" the other day - it's tragic!), but if you don't know, why the need for the fucking letter in the first place? It's the idiocy of people in a very small hobby pretending they have no knowledge of and/or haven't seen several large chunks of it (the hobby generally, and/or specifically; the war with me!), when they almost certainly have intimate knowledge of it!

No; this was a concerted effort to 'big-up' TJF's self-appointed 'legend', with ignorant or deliberately unfounded 'facts' which bore no relation to the actual course of events. I've never met either of these fools, they've never communicated with me - as far as I know, and therefore their actions were designed to credit the one person who did the least research into the matter!

On the way; subjugating the efforts and integrity of Mr. Hall himself, the other Antipodean website or blog-owners and myself, and - call me a conspiracy theorist if you have to (TJF has - several times without justification - at least this time he has good reason to scream 'fake news' like a deranged president!); it is damaging to the hobby. Damage I predicted would be forthcoming, two and a half . . . nearly three-years ago.

Do you see? I found - and credited - the Aussi and NZ sites in my research, they in turn may or may not have used Mr. Hall's book in their web-building - and/or credited it. Equally he may have used them? While Mr Standinger played no part in any of it, except to use the existing, published information, but then tries to take the credit, with the help of a ('the') shill letter; I - as always - claiming no credit for myself!

Apparently written by people drawing lines or choosing sides (within the hobby) they didn't need to or have to, because the naked emperor or his minions' asked them to! Worms; they're a couple of worms!

Let Mr. Paul Stadinger have the last word . . .

1st Quarter; ACOTS; Aussie Toy Soldiers; Cereal Givaways; Cereal Premiums; Colonial Dignitary; Consolidated Plastics; Craig L Hall; Dancing Dolls; David Pye; Dolls of the World; Farmstead Couple; Issue 170; Maori; March 2018; Native Levy; New Zealand Figures; Plastic Warrior Magazine; PW Magazine; Rosenhain & Lipmann Legacy; Sanitarium; Sanitarium Colonial Set; Sanitarium Premiums; shitestuff; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Stadinger; Stads Stuff; Stadsshite; Stadsstuf; TJF; White Settlers; World Dolls;
Is that like a very small Tribble? I don't have any Tribbles, I gave them all to that 'Bones' chap, I don't know what he did with them, but I heard a Federation Spacefleet engineer ordering an awful lot of Starship corridor ducting-plates and inspection-hatch covers the other day? Spacefleet list Tribbles as vermin, you know? If only we could likewise register TJF, the PSTSM and their associates!

No comments: