U is for Undying Undead!

This must be year eight, maybe year ten? Our roving reporter in North America, Brian B, has managed to visit three of the 'household name' discounters, to see what they had on offer this Autumn, and he's found a darn slight more than I've managed to, over here, and we're starting with the new packaging for an old favourite.

 

They've lost their blister-cards, in favour of card-headed bottle-bags, and there seems to be the one card 'Skeleton Army', despite the fact that some of them have the Mummies, but only the two types were to be found in New England!

 

Now claiming to be made in Vietnam, and imported by the Old East Main Co., Dollar General is carrying them. Thanks to Mr. Berke for shooting them for us, like the cyclamens under the cedar, they just keep popping up every year!

Q is for Question Time - Reamsa Copy?

A simple one today can anybody ID the maroon plastic figure?

 

The figure on the left is clearly marked REAMSA 68, from Spain, and, unusually for Reamsa, it is in a rigid polystyrene polymer, rather than the vinyl of early production, or the polyethylene of later mouldings

 

The one on the right, also 'styrene, seems to have dropped the scalping knife, and may be French in origin. Note how they have both not only scalped, but cut the whole face off, and are both looking pretty pleased about it!

S is for Sandown Park - Animals

There's a lot of lose stuff to clear, from the last Sandown, from Peter Evans and from Adrian, and with the next Sandown Park show only three weeks away, I guess, I need to clear the last lot, sharpish! Here's the animal element of the last show's plunder!

 

A miniature set from Rado Industries, with both the Ri Toys tree-logo and a Laurie Toy moniker, having previously seen a Lucky Toy in Laurie graphics one might be tempted to think there's a connection between Lucky and Rado, but really it's just that Laurie were an importer/jobber, putting their name to various other peoples stuff, whether known or unknown. The beauty of these little sets (we've seen a long thin one before (in Linda graphics?), is that they help separate the Blue Box/Marx (Sunshine Series) stuff from the Ri Toys copies!

 

This was an excellent find, as it's only a year or two since I discovered this knock-off Muffin the Mule from Gantoy, courtesy of one of Chris Smith's donations to the blog. I now know there are other colours too, and the one from Chris didn't have the integral base of this one, nor signs of it's removal, so there's  two versions, but for now, box ticked!

 

The accompanying plants in the first image are from the Corgi Magic Roundabout playset.

 

Odds and sods to be sorted!

 

Dinosaur flats, with three British cereal premiums (left, Nabisco), and two Warner marked, German versions on the right. I believe there are French variants too, and with soft polyethylene re-hashes (seen here passim), some from the antipodes, quite a sub-section now!

 

More flats, with the white ones probably all from Europe, the Elephant (missing a gun or circus wagon?) marked Munsterland, the cat 'Carstanjen' and the puppy something unreadable, while the other two, coloured ones, are more capsule toy or cracker prize type fare.

 

These are from a board game, not unreasonably called the Donkey and the Carrot! From Spears Games, there's a red one missing from the line-up, and these are interesting as they may connect with the sheep we saw in the Shepard and his Dog game. There may also be a connection with all the Prior/AHM/Cullpit stuff (they are vinyl), and Arco (some Rae marked polyethylene animals seem to be the same as the Arco Noah's Ark stuff), so another useful find, toward future, more definitive posts.

H is for Hobbycraft Horrors

Yes, ''Horrors' is a bit strong, mildly enduring maybe? I didn’t find - or haven't, there's still a week or so, but it's already being concentrated to one or two shelves/tables, to make way for the Christmas merchandise - found much Halloween stuff this year, but there are a few bits to look at, and some bits from across the pond, to come.

 

Not much in Hobbycraft beyond the usual craft stuff, paint your own and purple pipe-cleaner stuff, but they did have these at the beginning of the season (sold out when I went back a week later), resin decorations of the cake variety,, although so small, they are almost 'sprinkles'!

 

There appears to have been a tweak in the world of poured-resin technology, with both a glossy glassiness to these, and transparent, coloured resins contributing to two sets of ghosts and the pumpkins,, the cauldrons being a more standard polyethylene, or polypropylene?

 

I found this in a charity shop in Frimley, and initially thought it was a 'styrene cake decoration, in the style of our Christmas stuff, but after cleaning, it was clear it too was this newish, pure white glassy resin, obviously Ganesh (Ganesha, Ganapati, Vinayaka, or Pillaiyar), the Hindu god, a four-armed elephant, also revered by Jains and Buddhists, and is probably aimed at miniature home shrines? He was probably on his way to someone's home for the festival of Ganesha Chaturthi in the month of Bhadrapada (August/September), so almost overlapping Halloween!

R is for Recent Reading

Not from the last few weeks of enforced sabbatical, but earlier in the year, or even last year, but new purchases, rather than the stuff from the 2021-'23 sorting photo's folder, which we have been looking at in thematic lumps, and I can't remember where they all came from, but I suspect a couple of visits to the old bookshop in Alton, and a couple of charity shop purchases?

 

Ironic, as I'd forgotten it, and it has a whole page on the Gowland & Gowland vehicles, whose drivers we looked at a while ago! A useful little primer on 'Old Fashioned Cars', in both die-cast metal and plastic, along with sections on the larger collector models. The cover image includes some of the European plastics we saw a few French examples of, in some posts a year or two ago, here at Small Scale World.

 

This is a fascinating 'document', I can't work out if it is some kind of facsimile, or the actual Bassett-Lowke catalogue of 1968/9 (or for 1969), I suspect the later, but it's very modern-looking for a late-60's tome. It has all manor of sections, including hundreds of old adverts going back to their inception, what appears to be their - then - current range, other makers collectables, in the London shop (including a lovely boxed set of European toy soldiers), future plans, and various other bits of company history, and tech-spec' stuff.

 

I tend to only buy doll, doll's house or Teddy' books when I see them going for a song, as they are well outside my main areas of interest, but they often have useful annexes or appendices, and anything with an index can have a use, if only to look up company or individuals' specifics. And Christies are a better class of auctioneer - if you know what I mean!

 

This is a bit 'coffee table', but without the large format or colour imagery! It's a rambling meander through certain aspects of popular culture, with a bias toward design, and will complement several similar works already in the library. Again more use as a reach-for/dip-in reference work, than a definitive guide to anything!

 

Three more for the 'same size as Shire Albums'' section! There is a bunch of the Miller's somewhere, not seen when we looked at this format and the Shire's last year, because they we shot separately, while the Louis Wain is a catalogue of known collectors/vintage postcards. The other is a glossary of old auction terms, and panders more toward my interest in language and words, than toys, but there's some collectables stuff in there!

 

This seems to be in a similar size and format as the Manga guide, I bought (and posted) a few years ago now, so they can sit next to each other when they are finally set up (was there a superhero volume as well?), and provide a ready-reckoner for stuff I know so little/less about, although I know a bit more about this than Japanese cartoons, I prefer the Euro-stuff which begat Metal Hurlant, or the 2000AD inspired UK output, and often find I need help with the more populist US stuff, and modern 'Indy' publishing!

 

A trio of actual Shire Albums, there is an 'Other Collectables' post on walking sticks in the long queue, playing cards come under toys & games, and will add to several other works on the subject - there's even a book specifically on boomerangs in the library!

 

The tile work will enhance a separate library on the subject, other interests of mine include both the Art Nouveau/Arts & Crafts tiles, and mosaics; ancient and modern. Although I'm also interested in the bi, or tricoloured clay tiles of the medieval period (Church floors), their modern copies (Victorian/Edwardian hallways and lobby's), and the somewhat unscientific science of repeat patterns and mirror-symmetry which drives some forms of tiling/tile design (or wall papers/wrapping papers), which can quickly get you into Fibonacci, fractals and quantum weirdness!

 

This was a brilliant find, coming too late to crib on this Brian Berke contributed (nine years ago!) post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2017/01/c-is-for-contribution-week-i-circus.html

 

And it's clearly the tourist/visitor keepsake, for the exhibition which Brian visited. It contains a history of both its building, and how it ended up where it is, and has lots of images of the various elements while they were being built. Interestingly, there's no sign of the sea horse/merhorses, Brian shot, so they must be a newer addition, from the hands of the Mr. McGarvey and his wife, whom Brian mentioned at the time?

R comme Régal Pour les Yeux à la Française - Beffoid

Back to work on Monday, so no real excuse to not post something! Easing back into it with a simple one, a few Beffoid figures, from France, they're French, you know! Gets them in the Tag list!

Mainlanders, with two of the Alpine troops (I think, I''ve got it wrong in the past!), in berets, on the left, actually the same pose, with a later, stable polystyrene damaged on the left, and a complete, earlier one next to him, sporting a bit of shrinkage and a sticky paint-job! The two other stable figures to the right, one about 45mm with Zouave (?) parade uniform and the other 54mm in the WWI garb, are both in 'Adrian' helmets.

 

Three colonial troops, and either a fourth, in parade finest, or a Cossack? Again the first two are the same figure, with a much shrunken and crystallising figure to the far left, and the more stable later version next to him Some are fully marked Beffoid France, others just France, but all in the same Roman typewriter style typeface.

W is for Where to Start?

At the deep-end, I suppose! I had a massive Heart Attack on Thursday gone, and when I say massive, I was fighting the fucker for an hour before I agreed with my friend Julie (who almost certainly saved my life) that an ambulance probably did need to be called!

 

And this is not to paint me as the macho hero, valiantly fighting death with the sword of survival and the shield of unfinished projects, but rather that I thought I was having an allergy attack of some kind, and kept telling Julie it would "...pass with a couple of decent deep breaths,, it always does"! Which requires going back further . . .

 

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About six or seven years ago, I can't remember if it was in Lockdown, or the year before, but certainly while Mum was still alive, I had an attack of hives, in the early hours of the morning, not something I was familiar with, but similar to a post-sun attack I'd had as a teenager, so I had a quick cold bath and rubbed some camomile lotion in and that seemed to deal with it.

 

After wondering if it was sweat related, as it was a humid night, I gave no more thought to it, for a year or two, until, sometime after Mum had died, I had another, when I got home from work, and again, cold shower seemed to surface. They then started to come quite frequently, sometimes a mild rash, confined to the soft inners of the lower arms, or thighs, sometimes getting to the waistband, which tended to exacerbate them into a full blown attack, which could be quite debilitating, some even coming with nausea, or trouble breathing, and other stuff, you can guess at.

 

Now, the typical human response is to Google hives, and start looking for patterns which make sense, and while all the hive pages make the point that the main/underlying fault is stress, I was trying to identify the foodstuff or environmental effect that was triggering the attacks, as there wasn't much I could do about the stress (three years of a lazy brother and dodgy step-mother [in my own personal opinion, of course], HMRC, court service, and venal estate-agents, lawyers, auctioneers and antiques dealers), and it was the hive attacks which were the pain in the arse!

 

New game - geological-demerara-layers!

Of course I'm juvenile - I blog infants' playthings!

 

I tried cutting a few things out, and because I knew I'd lost some of my fitness since Lockdown, I was doing practical things like switching-out white, 'ultra-processed' sugar, and I had some limited success, first with a few red-herrings (cheap sandwiches, mini-Melton Mowbray’s, certain snack-foods), then with what I decided must be McDonald's and Burger King (assuming some kind of dodgy mineral oil or E-number?)! And I had succeed in cutting-down on the number and severity of the attacks, so, food allergy - problem semi-solved!

 

Anyway, I noticed last autumn ('25), that I'd get a tight chest if I took a staircase too fast, but as a lifetime smoker (albeit vaping the last 12 years), who was getting the same feeling during these hive attacks, I didn't think much more of it, and it faded through the winter, and wasn't a problem, until the other week, when it returned, in the autumn, again, so the logical human, goes 'Oh well, some seasonal phenomena, we don't have to worry about!'. you know . . . pollution, hives, stress, fitness, whatever!

 

Now, first week of September, I was getting the tight chest, going to the car to drive to work, and it was sticking with me though the shift, fair-enough, we're climbing stairs or banks or steep paths to get the crates to peoples houses, that fat git in [redacted to keep my job] having six crates of 4lt drinks bottles to the six floor of flats with no lift - you expect it!

 

I'd get back to the van, have a few deep breaths (and a bit of a vape!), and be off to the next drop, fully recovered, and this 'routine' continued into last week with my shifts on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, all following the same pattern, but a few deep breaths seemed to sort it out each time!

 

One of the managers, Tuesday evening, asked if I was OK, as he caught me catching my breath at the Hub desk after my shift, and I said, "Yeah, fine", then Paul (who I had a row with, a few months ago, but we now get on well), had a similar conversation with me on Wednesday, as he finished his route and I was loading mine, and he made me promise to go over to the Health Centre/drop-in thing at Bracknell, which I said I would, and I'm a man of my word, only, I thought I'd cut a hedge on the way over, on Thursday, my day off!

 

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That little orange-pink spot, by the wrist knuckle, is where the stents went in.

The rest is bruising from the anti-clotting pressure pads.

  

So, there I was, up a ladder, hacking-away with the sheers when I started to feel a bit woozy, for the umpteenth time in recent years, climbed down, claiming the need for a breather, sat on the wall, until the wall started to feel less than substantial, slumped to the pavement, where various neighbours and passers-by asked it I was OK, to which I kept saying "Yeah, fine, it keeps happening, I'll be OK in a minute, thanks!", only for a fair few minutes to go by without me feeling any finer!

 

In the end, Julie, whose hedge it was, suggested a sit-down and bottle of water, which I accepted, and it all gets a bit hazy! I know that by the time she talked me into allowing her to call for an ambulance, I had deteriorated to the point of not talking sense; I was convinced I was trying to get a four word phrase out to her, and while I had the first two words, I couldn't remember the other two - I now realise the first two were also gibberish, anyway!

 

Now, this had all taken over an hour (seemed like minutes, mind), and the ambulance guys decided I was having a heart attack over the 'phone, so when they arrive about four minutes later, they just fired liquid morphine under my tongue, which sent me off to Happy-Planet, and dragged me into the ambulance, and off we went to Frimley Park!

 

They had already prep'ed a theatre, and the ambulance went past A&E, down a side ally to some steel blast-doors, and I was wheeled into the op'. Next thing it's 9PM? Seemed like 20 minutes, but a whole afternoon and half the evening had gone by, and while I seemed to be lucid, and remember various aspects of the surgery, equally I lost several hours!

 

I do remember the surgeon started before the local aesthetic had kicked-in, and I screamed and leaped off the table, only for him to shout "Shut-up and keep still, we're trying to save your life!", although to be fair, he then said in a quieter voice "More local here please" to someone, and it stopped hurting!

 

I also recall more than one stent, and conversations around that, and a balloon, and self-inflating O-rings, or something, but 24-hours later, everyone was assuring me only one artery was treated, so I don’t know if I imagined some stuff, or if one stent (1.8mm?) wasn't big enough, and they had to replace it with another (2.5mm?), but given that my own four-to-nine-PM seemed to have taken about an hour-and-a-quarter, who am I to trust on the narrative of events!

 

They have a special bin for Trumps, angry Pepperami's and Jim Davidsons,

which is nice!

 

Anyway, and this may surprise you, but I'm rather glad it happened, I mean I'm not glad I'll have life-long health issues now (which I will/which I have), nor am I glad I nearly died, which I sort of did, but that I experienced something most people never experience, and which some who do, don't survive. As someone who's always lived life with a 'Try everything once' philosophy, it was an amazing experience, although, ultimately, slightly underwhelming?

 

And that's part of the reason for writing this, when I know others have kept such things private.

 

We are taught that a heart attack is presaged with numbness or tingling in one arm/hand, or droopiness in one side of the face, and 'chest pain' is mentioned, but - as far as I can recall - nowhere does it say hives or breathing? Equally all the pages on hives, UK or US, official or amateur/charity based, talk of stress, and allergies or reactants, but not about the fact you might be having a heart attack.

 

However, in fact, it's about a tightness of the chest (more like a stitch in athletics,, but higher-up) and (in my case) a fatigue in BOTH upper arms, as if I'd overdone some chainsaw work, or weight-training, along with the deep breathing of oxygen starvation (why I was talking nonsense . . . more like a stroke, which is completely different), and maybe, hives, or similar anaphylactic type symptoms, which might have been occurring for years, prior to the main event?

 

♫♪♪♫ We are the Robots! ♪♫♪♪

 

Indeed, 'angry doctor' on the Friday said she thought most of my 'hive attacks' had actually been heart attacks, and it looks like I had been having heart attacks on seven of the previous ten days, and maybe more than fifteen or twenty, over the previous two years or so - I wasn't counting? But scaring, viewable on the ultra-sound scan, suggests a series of heart attacks, over some time.

 

So, if you have something which you can't explain, get it looked at. If you have got short of breath, get it looked at, if you are tired all the time, fatigued, not bothered, out-of-sorts for a prolonged period, have a check-up, if you've started getting hives, or what might be mistaken for allergy/immune-defence incidents, go to your doctor.

 

Because surviving a heart attack is pretty cool, not having one at all, is eminently more preferable, but not surviving one, is really, really shit. We're only here for 70 or 80-years of productive life, and there is nowhere to upload your memories or personality, and there probably never will be, so we owe it to ourselves to make the most of what we get.

 

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So, that explains what has been happening for the last few days (and years!), but, of course, it was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, on Saturday, and technically, I was a much healthier person, on the Saturday, than I had been on the Thursday, but that cut no ice with the medics, who wouldn’t even let me go home, grab my laptop and return in a taxi, with gown and sticky-pads apparel!

 

Because I had gone in as an emergency-case, I had no laptop, no 'phone, and no reading glasses on me, and my car (and keys) were the other side of Farnborough! So, I was going spare, I literally had to stare at a magnolia wall for three days, buzzing stir-crazy, which did nothing for my stress! I kept schtum, to begin with, as there was a chance of a Saturday release, but some heart-related enzyme decided to spike, and suddenly, I was stuck there for another day!

 

Which means that while we've had a ten-year run of uninterrupted ITLAPD's, a heart attack did prevent this year's being observed properly. As it happens, I only had two posts lined-up for this year, a long, 20+image post of the usual round-up/catchup variety (with all the Chris/Peter/show figures), and a short dedicated subject post.

 

But I was pretty sure there'd also be something from New York, and there was, but I couldn't/didn't get to it until late on Sunday. However Brian thinks he might have enhanced the post'ability of it by 2027, so hopefully a bumper year, next year . . . Ah-haaar! Gotta get your priorities right!

 

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As to the hospital itself, I've had about seven interactions with Frimley Park, since I left the Army in '88, the first three, '89 (twice in one week, also cutting hedges!) and around 2000/2001 were good, the three more resent ones were anything but good - Mum's death and two trips to A&E, however, I can't fault my care or aftercare, over the last few days.

 

'Angry doctor' on Friday morning's ward-round, was a little unnecessary, announcing she didn’t know my story, in a tone of voice which also announced she had no intention of reading it up either! One suspects I was filling in for some other over-confident, middle-aged man, who may have recently departed her life? Her No.2 gave me a couple of conspirational grins later in the day, so she knew boss lady had overstepped the mark, but the two young lads who covered the weekend's rounds were very helpful . . . except they wouldn't let me pop-home!

 

All of which leaves me with a collection of drugs sufficient to open a small, and rather specialised pharmacy! As I write - Wednesday - I seem to have got the rhythm, even getting up early (more oxygen?) and taking the 2nd orange one a couple of hours (eight/nine'ish) before the fucking huge great torpedo one, at bedtime!

One of them is only for a year, it's designed to bed-in the stents, another is only there to protect my stomach from a third! Statins I know about, and Ramipril has had it's moments on Radio4, although I haven't noticed the dry-mouth thing yet?

 

And I dare say, I'll end up sourcing the aspirin as a generic, it'll be cheaper, and save the taxpayer a few quid, And, US readers - I haven't been charged a penny for any of this, first-aid, ambulance, surgery, three days in hospital with food, snacks, and a washroom kit, along with 28-days worth of seven drugs - you're really not as 'free' as you think you are.

 

And a huge bag!

 

The real negative was the food, the food was pretty awful, and I've already confirmed with people who've been at Frimley in the recent past, that it's been awful for a while. Bland, teeny portions of beige/grey food which left me constantly hungry; very odd. And I've had plenty of institutional food over the decades, school, army, collage, Uni', works canteens etc . . . this was up-front, above and away the worst! The staff were lovely, it was the food which failed.

 

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Which leaves me reappraising various things, and realising I really must get a home by the end of 2027, not an easy task with Asperger's, and it's the stress of the last four or five years which seem to have got me to this position, so, I guess, a deep girding of the loins and relying on the drugs to keep me going!

 

I've managed to negotiate a month off at work, with two weeks statutory sick-leave, on Frimley’s orders, one day off, and two weeks holiday, which I had in hand, and hopefully, I'll be ready for the Christmas period with a new energy?

 

I've not to drive this week . . .  

 

 . . . but when they let you go, they really let you go, so I had to get a bus, to pick--up my car! I was going to get a taxi, but there were none, except a guy picking-up, who wouldn't get his office to send another car, pointing out the phone near the main entrance, but the phone wasn't working, was it, for fucks-sake! 

 

Anyway, I knew Sunday was going to be sunny and free of pirate posts, so I had intended to go over to the storage unit and do some sorting, which - having lost all other plans over the three days - I still managed 'on the way home'!! Three boxes emptied and a couple of bits brought back here to photograph!

And next week, I'll have to finish the hedge . . . Doh!

 

If you've had a similar experience, and there were things you wish people had told you, or things you wanted to tell others, but didn't get round to, even anonymously chuck something in the comments, as it's the right kind of advice which saves lives.

PZG is for Polish Zone of Goodness!

Because I've not been posting any of the stuff from Putlerland, I've rather neglected the Polish stuff too, because all the Eastern European folders are in the same bit of Picasa (1982!), so, by way of redressing that imbalance slightly, here's a load of Wild West stuff from Poland, which has come into the collection in the last three or four years.

 

Some of it has been seen elsewhere, some of it has probably been seen here, in show reports, some of it I can't remember where it came from, or why I didn't blog it sooner, and some of it may be from Adrian, Chris or Peter, so thanks to them for all their help and support. And some of it got multiple photographs, mostly back in 2022.

 

And while most of it IS PZG, some of it probably isn't, and I can't remember what's what, and am no longer on the Faceplant group where I can check, so just an 'eye-candy' overview, to get some more Polish stuff tagged-up!

 

These are probably the oldest, and I kept re-shooting them as they came in! I think they're all the same maker, but possibly not PZG, I seem to recall the two pin-marks being associated with another brand, by the Polish collectors on the Freinds of PW Faceplant page?

 

I think these are earlier PZG, they are bigger and based on old composition figures, again they came in as the ones and twos of the collage, and then I shot them as the upper image later! All a bit damaged or incomplete (except shiny-minter tomahawk guy!), they are, nevertheless, 1st samples

 

Possibly PZG, from the larger-scale 'plinth' range (60/70mm), which also included figures from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (which included a non-Russian Ukraine . . . just sayin' - history is not what the Kremlin claims it is!), along with some lovely medieval knights, we've seen one or two of, here, in the past.

 

These are all the common, late PZG, which seem to have had an export to the UK, probably in the late 1980's, under the loosening of Glasnost, as they turn up quite often. Very colourful; but a tad smaller, maybe between 48-54mm, but with nice accessories - I'm pretty sure we've seen the semi-flat Teepees/Tipis before now? And note the Britains Deetail scenic copy.

 

I think the campfire set, lower collage, actually came in first (and may be mixed makes or lines), then the big lot, and finally a year or so ago, the five and the pair from the middle collage, with the three in the base-shot, taken from the big lot, these go surprisingly-well with the Herald Hong Kong vinyls, as the size and colours tie-in! But, I need a horse, for hop-a-long!

Q is for Question Time - Stretchers / Casualties

A couple of unknown items today, one I have half a clue on, the other is reportedly French, both posed with the hard-wearing, long--surviving, late production, PVC jobbie from Corgi.

 

So, Corgi on the left, the one in the middle seems to be a Lucky-like Hong Kong effort, in lightweight 'model kit' polystyrene, with the hollow-moulded casualty glued to the trolley-stretcher, but it is quite large, so maybe not Lucky, but one of the other Hong Kong plastic vehicle makers, which could mean more than one brand, as several of them were re-branded. Unusually for such a piece, there's no Hong Kong mark.

 

While the pair on the right who may or may not be missing separate stretchers or hospital beds are heavy lumps of what appears to be 'styrene, but could - especially if French - be some other polymer, in the cellulose, formaldehyde (Bakelight) or phenolic groups?

 

Also dug-out this, posed with the Starlux 25/30mm pup-tent, might also be French, but has been in the queue for a year or two, is also looking for an attribution, and is also quite a heavy, hard-plastic, and has a quite steep pillow angle, which may be a clue as to any casualty, possibly even the pair above, and while I don't think so (different polymer), equally I'm open to correction!

 

Can anyone help with these?

W is for Who's Got The Shoot'ahs?!

I have! A couple of thematically linked purchases on the 5th of the month, and I think they came from two tables next to each other, in that Isaak had one, which he brought over to me, and his friend at the next table had the other when I managed to get over the other side of the hall!

 

Parashoot . . . geddit! Already added to the parachute page, this is one of the common blow-mould parachutists, given a bit of a prosthetic, up the jacksie! There was already a shot there, and this is a bit sun-faded, but it'll help with future comparisons or overviews elsewhere!

 

While this has no parachute, but neither does it have targets or an obvious scoring system, so it sits halfway between the other shooting sets. The tip of the blow-moulded rocket comes off, but there was no obvious place for "harmless caps", so I'm guessing the cap goes at the other end, and is fired by the launching plunger, but I didn't think to look, and it's now up an the storage unit.

 

The polystyrene gun is damaged and will need glueing one day, but it perfectly illustrates how frangible, and ephemeral some of this stuff was, and why Mum banned us from having it . . . 'No, why don't you get some more Airfix soldiers, not that rubbish!'