S is for Sandown Park

I've never really done a follow-up from Sandown, which I attend pretty regularly, but here's one!

O-my-god- it's-early-o'clock. The 'car-boot' on the steps before the show, there's a strange milling around period at some shows and at Sandown that's been used by a few dealers to set-up boxes of stuff on the terraces and get a few deals under their belt before the doors open!

While others try to save five minutes (on an seven+ hour day?) by blocking the entrances with their stock!

'Big Ticket' items; I don't often mention money, it's filthy stuff at the best of times, but I think this lot came to thirty-three quid, which is pretty reasonable. We looked at the blow-moulds yesterday, the Airfix knight should be on the Airfix Blog by the time I post this, the three Mertens will join the stack, but we'll look at two of them soon.

The three Hong Kong vehicles will be held for a while as they are all destined to be compared to things - or Blogged with things - currently in storage; The friction-motor army-lorry (possibly TAT, but unmarked) is half Pyro/Kleeware and half Dinky/Blue Box so needs to be compared with them and they were all Blogged early in the Blogs history.

The rocket-launcher is lovely, an all ethylene copy of the Crescent die-cast vehicle, with copies of the Lone Star launcher and a Corgi rocket! I do have the die-cast, so we'll put them side-by-side one day, while the motorbike will be saved for a large-scale bike post.

A big-bag from Gareth (1) which he didn't charge me for (thanks Gareth!) and two tubs (5) likewise from Adrian (thanks Adrian!), with a sad tale attached - see below. (2), (3) and (4) were things purchased around the show and (6) was the floor-sweepings at the end of the show!

Initial sort of Gareth's bag, a few useful bits hidden in there, an Elastolin roman copy needing paint-stripper, some interesting bits hidden in the animal pile, a teeny Tiger-tank from a board game - I guess? Some more ME109 bits for the bag of comic-giveaway aircraft we looked at a while ago, trees (you can never have too many trees!), a 1970's monster'saur, Kinder bits, Poky Man type things, Noah figures - all good!

A bag of animals I bought; highlights include the bendy gorilla! Isn't it typical, we've only just done bendy things on the Blog (thrice with follow-ups!) - so he'll go in the long-term wait queue, but it's a decent enough shot for now?

The comic animals were on Moonbase a while ago and have since turned-out to have been Imperial tub-sold, although I know I have two (different) magazine add's for them, both from the 'States, both from the late 1950's/early 1960's, also as you start to study them, you realise there are four (?) types/sets!

Two cereal premiums and a green Merit camel add value, while the HK pile includes Blue Box, Arco and some sub-piracy crud!

A 50p bag I got for the guardsman and the piano eraser, although the Dinky copies will be useful, I've already got them in the Picasa queue, and I'm not going to re-do the photographs for two new figures! [Quickly checks Picasa; I've got a yellow digger, but photographed a green driller, need to paint-strip the red one anyway!]

Another; more of those unpainted pink versions of the Tri-Ang HO-gauge railway accessory figures we looked at ages ago now. There's evidence of marbling in some of these.

Adrian's tub and a bunch of HK copies of MPC 40mm knights which appear to have been factory painted, the rest of it is grist-to-the-mill HK small scale and a bit of Blue Box.

But it appears these came as shrapnel in farm/zoo auction lots the other day, and I have the sorry task of reporting the passing of Dave Scrivener.

I didn't know him well enough to do a full obituary, but he had been a regular eMailer and provided photographs of several nice items for the blog, a few of which languish in the Composition page, unpublished.

I don't know if his passing is known to the STS Forum people, but if not perhaps someone could let them know, as I can't log-in there at the moment and he was a regular contributor to the forum.

It appears he died round about Christmas/the New Year, maybe more recently? But the sobering lesson to all collectors it that his collection, which I believe was of importance, has been broken-up, auctioned (poorly lott'ed, poorly described, poorly estimated) or otherwise disposed of, and lost as far as a group of knowledge is concerned.

Indeed knowing how old farm and zoo buildings look to the uninitiated (especially all the inter-war stuff with nailed wood and straw roofs, chicken-wire and sawdust), I suspect a lot of it has been trashed. I know he had done important work on early farm and zoo buildings, civilian hollow-cast and latterly; early British plastic including military and it's a crying shame that that knowledge and the collection of buildings has just gone.

Glad I got to chat with you Dave and sorry you're gone. I know you wouldn't have bothered painting HK knights that badly, and I know you would have kept one of each pose/colour 'for the archive', so will keep them likewise - with your name on them; nice find Dude!

Found on the floor after the show - it's all useful!

The lesson being: you MUST have easily-found, clear, concise instructions for your collection and any archive; on what to do with it, re. disposal, should you cease to have a living interest in it.

I know this is a regular thread-topic on the War Gaming Forums, but those conversations tend to be concerned more with the value of the vast armies, or the faff presented to those left to deal with the bulky stuff, but with a vintage collection it's about how to keep it together, or indentify the - sometimes financially-valueless - rarities.

It's about ensuring filed 'paperwork' is reunited with the relevant objects, or objects with their boxes, before sale or onward disposal, or that a part-set on display, or on the 'lab desk' goes back with its other parts; it's about describing the stuff properly, if it is to go to auction, or making sure beneficiaries are named.

Dave was about my age and happily chatting-away a year ago, I don't know what happened (I have an idea, but that's private), and the belief that it won't happen to you is no excuse for not leaving a few notes about the collection for your executers, relatives or landlord.