Donald D. Hood got in touch from the US of
A with loads of fascinating minutiae on the MPC
mini-ships, he has real life stuff going-on at the moment, but I'm hopeful that
at some point he will flesh out his revelations for the Blog.
In the meantime; it appears many of the MPC vessels are in fact copies of models
from other manufacturers, for instance - the Varicella was previously issued
as a die-cast by Tri-Ang Minic (along
with one of the tugs), several of the battleships seem to be copies of earlier Renwal mini's and the tramp steamer may
be from a Lindberg (Pyro) set, along with both ACW 'Ironclad'
vessels?
Anyway - hopefully more to come on this
one. He also confirmed that there was a retail issue, but of smaller-quantity
sets than the comic offers.
Other Ships . . . and cats!
While we're on ships, I found these decorating
pedestrian underpasses in Basingrad the other day.
I
don't know the connection (I'll Google it)** between square-rigged, three-decked
warships and landlocked Basingstoke, but I'm guessing that if the floods allow
either of these to hove into view, you'll be beyond the help of the
flooding-helpline!
**Nothing on Google, but it seems one of them is looking like HMS Victory?
The cat is a running gag in Basingrad
between one or more graffiti artists and the local authority; which seems to
tolerate the understated and artistic stencils! I photographed the other three in
a separate set of underpasses some distance from the mosaic ship murals, a
couple of years ago for my - then more-active - Faceplant page.
Bible Stories
This chap has been sat in Brain Berke's
Folder for too long, he sent it soon after I Blogged the others, shelfie of David
(of Goliath fame) from Beverly Hills
Teddy Bear (via Greenbriar/DTSC)
Maxxi Toys
Peter Evans has sent another Apache Clan Collection set to the Blog,
this one with the 'trotting' cowboy horse, and two new figures, there was the
same bag of candy drops, along with another two pieces of fence (so I can now
make a four-sided mini-corral) and palm.
While the figures are a bit semi-flat or demi-ronde
both would look very acceptable with a re-paint and the cowboy has a plug-in
bag of swag, which would make a useful piece of Stagecoach luggage!
I should also point out the cowboy has
suffered the same pants-failure as Mr. I. Wraite's Indian and further; that Stuart
Asquith had found the same figures in Funtastic
branded packaging in Poundland
stores; as reported in Plastic Warrior
magazine No. 159 a few years ago (20 months odd?), a full report in that
issue's letters (back issues available) shows four different foot figures and six
foot Indians not seen here - yet!
Artwork's apparently stolen for DVD's or Game packaging!
29-05-2018 - Now known to be being carried by Aliki on the continent and Liberty Imports in the 'States.
29-05-2018 - Now known to be being carried by Aliki on the continent and Liberty Imports in the 'States.
Smyths Christmas Stock
I was over in Farnborough checking out the
almost empty aircraft-hanger that is Smyths new superstore, looking for
Halloween stuff (they had none!) the other day, and picked up a catalogue, I
also took the above shelfie of the only thing on their half-mile+ of shelves
which caught my eye. It's the same Street
machine stuff we saw back in Rack Toy Month (and a recent News,
Views . . . it's the bottom-row which really interests), but without
the Pioneer branding, nor the Pro Engine Series stuff.
Of more interest are these four sets in the
Christmas catalogue; I'm sure there's more around if you Google them, but while
some 3D printing stuff is taking a while to get fully off the ground, it is
interesting to see really quite cheap aids to modelling (as these are) in the
kids stores. I might try 6 or 7? And if you've got kids, you've got an excuse
for buying!
They seem to be UV light-activation systems
with a reactive polymer-gel or paste, rather than liquid-deposition or
powder-based laser-sintering systems, but I can see applications there for war
gamers and modellers?
Building armatures, or building onto
wire-armatures for instance, scenic efforts, trees, barb-wire entanglements
maybe? And with the moulds on the magic maker looking to be flimsy styrene
vac-forms, you could develop your own moulds for repeat items, small bunkers,
sand-bag emplacements, conversion turrets, wheel/tyre halves etc...
Blog
Several records/near-records have been
broken in the last few days, with most posts in a year, 2nd best month ever and
definitely still on track for the 3-millionth hit inside 11 months - ten to go!
And I will post the 2,000th (visible) post here, any day now, if indeed this
isn't it, I've been busy away from the Blog this last week and got behind with
'housekeeping'!
News
Not much since the last News,
Views . . . ; all the quarterly results (which generate the toy-related
headlines) have been posted and caught by the previous few posts. I think there
was another Lego plug in the 'i' and there was more on the Toysaurus (US-side) but I haven't done
the cuttings this week yet.
One story which did grab me, although not
really affecting the hobby directly was the one about evilBay, Amazon and Co.
profiteering from overseas sellers not charging VAT, this is not about
second-hand toys or cack like that, but rather new goods, electronics and
higher-end consumer-stuff, which are offered at below high street prices by
sellers over the Channel or Irish Sea, and which should include VAT, to be
taken by the platform and handed to HMRC.
It's not an immediate threat to us, but -
as a bit of a scam - it'll become a stick for governments to beat the
silicon-valley people with, especially when old-media, establishment paper's
like the Daily Wail decide to crusade on the issue.
Link
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