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New Model Navy
In the 'i' on Monday the 22nd of May, there
was an interesting editorial article/'infomercial' about how in 1667 our then
Master Shipwright, one Peter Pett, in the panic of a Dutch attack up the River
Medway decided that as he couldn't save the real vessels (all tied-up and
crewless under the orders of Charles II while he negotiated the end of the
second Anglo-Dutch war), he ought to save the exquisite models, which showed
how to construct the 'new' Navy's vessels.
One
of the saved models
Those who have visited the Maritime Museum
in Greenwich (pronounced 'grenn-itch' - for my foreign visitors!) in the past
will know just how exquisite they are. Anyway; long-story, short - the saved
models and the tale behind them is being told in an exhibition 'Breaking
the Chain' at the Royal Chatham ('chat-um') Dockyards until the 3rd
September if you're looking for something to do with the kids over the
holidays.
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General News
On the 25th June a stationary chain called Smiggle has announced plans to increase
its workforce as sales increase, but not to open new stores - yet. I mention it
therefore only because I don't know the chain (big cities?), but it may well prove
to be a source of new or different erasers, pencil-tops and novelties, and we
like that sort of stuff here!
Our glorious err . . . not quite leader
(yet?) 'gettin' down wi' da' kids' during the recent election campaign, I was
struck by the toy which seems remarkably un-different (is that a word?) from
stuff companies like Tudor Rose were
chucking-out 40 years ago! ♪♫"We'll-keep the yell-ow truckroll'ing"♫♪! That's it . . . you
can read the rest later, off you go to work now - humming the anthem of
revolution, my work here is done for the day!
The Hornby
story rumbles-on with further press releases on the 23rd and 27th of June and
the 5th of July, all concerning the management's urging of shareholders to
reject the mandatory takeover-bid by Phoenix
Asset Management - itself a major shareholder and the group who's management
coup failed a few weeks ago.
The Stanly
Gibbons story also continues to make the money-pages, with an approach by
private equity firm Disruptive Capital,
following the failures of Gibbons'
own efforts in the last couple years, and of the plans of recent months.
Further news also on the Go story with the computer AlphaGo beating the current reigning
world champion (Ke Jie) for a second time, the human claimed the computer was
playing "Like the God of Go"!
Once they are truly smarter than us, they will identify us as THE major
threat to the planet's future.
Rod Stewart, yes the crooning popster; collects Scottish toy soldiers (and model trains!), so if you're a dealer with a particularly fine sample of Scots, or 'Highlanders', might be worth a try getting in touch with his PR people, you may be sitting on a Christmas bonus - if you know what I mean!
Rod Stewart, yes the crooning popster; collects Scottish toy soldiers (and model trains!), so if you're a dealer with a particularly fine sample of Scots, or 'Highlanders', might be worth a try getting in touch with his PR people, you may be sitting on a Christmas bonus - if you know what I mean!
Poundstrecher (an occasional source of useful clearance toys) is in sales talks
as it struggles with the slowly gathering Brexit recession - as we haven't
recovered from the last [Banking] recession, that'll be fun!
Mattel have announced a whole bunch of Ken
Dolls, including one with a 'man-bun' and another with corn-rows, I'm not
exaggerating when I say we are in the end of days; Barbie's going to an gang-bang! Although the six CGI'd models in
the 'i' newspaper on the 21st of May all looked mildly demented and incapable
of satisfying Barbie without bursting
into tears and needing therapy.
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Toys in the media
This has been used to advertise the Guardian's jobs edition in recent weeks,
a CGI of a table football team which manages to cover every base as far as
political correctness is concerned, well; it's the Guardian, you'd expect nothing less!
Tim'Maaaay!
Paul Morehead - editor of Plastic Warrior magazine -sent us
this from PW Towers the other day, it's a whole battle! You can't beat 'Army
Men' in articles, proper reading!
The downside of polymers in the environment
was highlighted in this article in the 'i' a week ago - more here: Seafieldview Blog
Lego seems to be a main offender, but you can see here that Airfix and Hong Kong are not far behind,
with Matchbox and Kinder both contributing - you may love
this stuff, I may love this stuff, but this stuff will have to end. We must
either find the strength ('good sense'!) to make these toys out of short-life,
bio-degradable, vegetable-based, pseudo-polymers, or go back to wood and metals.
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Pepper Pig
Two Pepper
Pig stories were left off the last 'News, Views' (buried under other
stuff!), one being good news (if you're a Pepper
Pig fan or a corporate bastard) in that Entertainment
One (owners of PP rights)
announced it was to produce 117 new episodes and had signed new licensing
deals.
The other was also good news (if you're a
hater of Pepper Pig or an anarchist)
as share-values dropped 22% in Entertainment
One after the Canadian-owned, British registered firm took a £47-million spending-hit
on global restructuring and the investment announced in the other story - easy
come, easy go, it's only money!
Lego's Bid for World Domination
Lego have announced that Merlin
Entertainment will be opening another Legoland
Discovery Centre, this time in Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena building next
year, construction has started.
In a separate story, Lego are to work with Mencap the disability charity to find
employment for learning-disabled people.
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Publishing
In mid-June Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl overtook Harry potter to regain number-one spot in the top 10 books for children list, suggesting the decline of pottermania is acelerating apace.
Under the headline 'Tolkien's Lord of the Wins' daily free-sheet The Metro reported the other day that his family have settled a law
suit with Warner Brothers.
Obituaries
Obituaries
Still on publishing - obituaries this time sadly include Michael Bond, the creator (finder surely?)
of Paddington Bear, while Grotbags actress Carol Lee Scott, Geoffrey
Bayldon: Catweazle and Andy Cunningham of Bodger the Badger fame have all sadly passed.
The news
yesterday that George A. Romero has
gone too means that it's not just our childhood which is being buried but - increasingly - our teenage-years too.
Health and Safety
Not something I normally consider or think
about, but a little girl died in April after swallowing one of those tiny
little coin-like batteries, not some tragic suffocation as you might think, but
because the stomach-acids break into the batteries, the acid's of which are far
more powerful, and can do fatal damage, worth a thought if you have younger
children. The lithium-cell was from an electronic car key-fob, but similar
batteries are in a lot of toys these days, Lego mini-fig LED torches spring to
mind.
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A Few Links
This is one of the more amusing things I've
seen recently related to toy soldiers
Looks like fun if you can get there
This is a salutary lesson for arrogant
people like you-know-who, more comments in three days than any five Toy Soldier
blogs get - together - in a week!
Best pictures ever of one of my favourite
toys
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Finally - Best Bath Bomb ever!
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