News, Views Etc...

Daily Mash
As I'm sure you've heard by now, toys will be removed from the destructive reach of pesky kids, who can all go and look for strange-looking men in ghost-costumes instead!

Adults Only

Posting
I might take a break for a week or two as I need to get a couple of real-life rants together and send them to my insurance and IT provider. Capitalism . . . it's grinding to a halt in front of our eyes!

I've put a few more posts on the Hong Kong blog, but only more easy stuff! The 1st draft for ZZ is nearly ready published for on the A-Z blogs, and I was going to update the Arco entry, but the amount of info, and the way it falls, means I need to do Arco, Sarco, Giant and the Rosenberg Toy Co.  at the same time and it looks like the companies will just get 'listing' entries, with all four cross-referenced to a 'Rosenberg's' entry for the full history.

[The above was written a month ago, and I think it's all happened/been announced!]

There are a couple of updates for the early stuff to go on the Airfix blog and I need to kick start the 54mm posts, so I may do some of that in the autumn, but I think I said that a year ago and did pretty-much bugger-all, so don't count on it - only so many hours in a lifetime!

There's also a nice set of Hong Kong Britains copies going on the Khaki Infantry page courtesy of Brian Berke, with individual close-ups of all six common poses; unusual for HK to do all six.

[Also happened; but not yet announced - I've still got to do some text on that page, just call me fuckwit!]

Paddingteddy Bears
As a follow-up to a resent post while-ago post on the subject, Brian's wife sent us a couple of images of Paddington Bears, all of which were new to me. In Brian's words:

"The red coated one is 2.5" high, flock covered, made in Hong Kong by H.C.F., purchased in UK mid 70's. Blue coated flock bear grips if you squeeze arms. Bought in US mid 70's, made in Korea for Eden Toys who held the US Paddington marketing rights. [Pair of] Plastic Pencil Sharpeners made in Hong Kong, purchased in London 1976. Marked Paddington & Co/Filmfair Ltd who made the animated Paddington TV show."

You may recall we've looked at both Robertson's 'Golly' pencil-sharpeners by HFC, and pencil-top Paddingtons here before, so the 'whole' becomes greater!

Plong Bubblegum Toys - Moon-Panorama Cards
Can anyone supply a shot (flat or straight-on) or scan of card number 6, I have managed to stitch various combo's together in Picasa over the years, then in May I was able to shoot 1-5 in a row and 7 & 8 as a pair, all I need is a six and I can show the whole panorama!

Say it Like it Sounds Department
The end of the human race right there! That's a hundred years of compulsory schooling and the 'information-age' in action . . . and fifty dollars for a tourist-trinket ash-tray; really?

Things to Come
With Rack Toy Month well and truly over, I've got about 23 things in the queue, with contributions from four or five people, but I may not post every day in September so we'll see how it goes, and only about three weeks to the next PW (by my reckoning?), so there'll be another post there if I pull my finger out!

Rack Toy Month only half-emptied Brian's folder, and Picasa is still stuffed full of odds and sods, so we'll have another 'RTM', probably next August but maybe sooner? I've got some more novelty type stuff for Christmas, and five other posts 'in the bag' so busy, busy!

Unknown Combat GI's
Can anyone help put a brand or set name to either of these; the upper trio are a dense but soapy polyethylene or -propylene and seem to be from the 1990's with the 'fritz' helmets. The lower three are a medium-density PVC-rubber in the style of Supreme, but unpainted and with an Italian 'feel' to them. Both lots are about 35mm - could be 40-mil, it's an old photograph.

"When I grow-up I wanna' be a flat-top with a nuclear engine, four steam

-catapults, some Chinooks and squadrons of Navy Raptors"

Another follow-up to recent goings-on here; we've seen them both before, the large Ja-Ru one the other day, the smaller one back in December '15, but I forgot to bring them together in the rack-toy post!

Speaking of the forthcoming PW: I took this at Plastic Warrior's show back in May, a Lever washing-powder (?) premium, with more than a nod to Crescent, but of the same size and style as the Solido figures. I think it's thanks to Adrian at Mercator, for letting me photograph this.

And Finally . . .
I wondered if I shouldn't rename News, Views . . . to something like 'Bits & Pieces, Odds, Sods, Bobs and All Other Stuff &Etc.'? Heehee, only joking - nice to know I'm so influential! But some people seem to think it's a competition, and so, not for the first time this year; It's not a competition and if you think it is; you're probably heading for a fall.

With a couple of breaks, I've been here for a while now (longer than you - oh competitive ones!), and I'm not going anywhere, I've posted the same stuff in the same fashion (the 'voice' changes a bit over time) and I intend to continue to do so, although I haven't had a rant for a while, hummm . . . maybe I should have a rant! Google's algorithms seem to like it, the visitors keep coming back - so live with it; oh competitive ones!