News, Views Etc...Bits, Bobs, Blue Box and a Battleship

I've so much for a 'News, Views' post that I'm going to hold back the links for another day, although I've been sitting on them for so long now, some have been published elsewhere, so I'll get this one out of the way...

Takara-Tomy (assuming everyone has a smart 'fone and high-speed link, this takes ages to load)
Japanizer (quicker loading Blog)
Little Plastic Man (has adopted them as his banner image and taken new pictures)

Little Rubber Guys, Plastic Warrior magazine and others have also covered them and evilBay dealers are selling complete sets.

Andy Warhol once said that "Pop will eat itself", and this is a prime example of what he was getting at. Minions or Turtles? I know, lets make Super-dooper Teenage Hero/Ninja/Mutant Minion-turtles! You can't have two sets of characters from two imaginary universes combined, it dilutes both, and to a certain extent....breaks the fantasy.

There's a lot of this around, I've seen Star Wars Turtles, Simpson's Minions, Super Hero Minions of the Marvel/DC variety and almost every day there is a new take on a couple of old memes.

Those who think I'm being a humourless stick-in-the-mud are missing the point that it represents a lack of imagination, a lack of new ideas, a need to regurgitate two old ideas to sell more crap to consumers in order that the 'Bread and Circus' take their minds off the coming storm of likely extinction within the lifetimes of people already born...because of that consumerism!

Weird search-terms department: Concept Art Foreign Legion Buckets! Brought someone to this Blog! I hope they found what they were looking for...

Many thanks to Nazar Marchenko of Russia, who kindly sent me these two, back in March; the missing poses from my sample of Blue Box Japanese Infantry. He didn't want anything in return, just thought I should have them in my collection! I have got a 'wants' list out of him and will try to find something nice to return the favour...Thank you Nazar.

Andrew Boyce emailed me with images of a ship he's looking for a maker's name for. I've run the usual suspects past him conversationally; Comet/Authenticast, Trafalgar and Wiking, but it's not really detailed enough for them I feel?

It's quite large, and hollow-cast at about 12cm long. As Andrew points out the profile is quite good, but from other angles it's toy-like with a single gun moulded on the axis-line of each turret.

Can anyone suggest a name/maker for this rather nice looking toy. Could it be a board-game piece, or an under-scale accessory for a boxed-set of flats?

In Andrews words...

"The original was in about 3 colours, grey, green, brown sprayed on. It may have been original. I have repainted it in a water-based grey paint which should be removable. I have seen about 3 other models in this series.

Suggestions for it have included a wartime toy, a recognition model (the profile is good, although the top view is not- one gun in turrets where there should be two) or a model used on a plotting board as seen in many old war films.

There are lengths of wire for the masts. I actually like it for its crudeness!"

So do I Andrew!

Having slagged-off their ridiculous pricing of the old (and simplified) gun emplacement in a rant a while ago, I feel I should balance my neutral credentials by pointing-out that this new play-set reissue is a bargain, only by a few quid, but nevertheless it is a cheap way of getting the whole Napoleonic oeuvre from Airfix, including the farm and the accessory set.

The various links to this set on press releases and the Hornby website don't make clear that the accessory set is included, but it definitely is.

Finally - some toys in advertising and promotion seen recently, magna-whatevers used in some financial 'vehicle' bollocks and toy soldiers on a book.