P is for Postponed Plastic-Plunder Post

I think 'P' only ever gets used for Plastic and Plunder! Over three weeks ago now, the first date in a calendar which these days only really has five dates in it, it's ages (eight or nine years?) since I went to the Kent or Birmingham shows, I caught a London show a while back (two years ago?), but really these days it's four Sandown Parks, Plastic Warrior, the charity shops and maybe one or two evilBay purchases per month.

So the shows are quite important, both for the collection and for the Blog; but before we see what I got, I think it's equally important to thank the organisers (BP Fairs) who moved mountains to save the show from the weather, and succeeded - in my opinion.

It was clear that a lot of stall-holders had cancelled, but by the time people started to arrive all the tables had been re-jigged to account for those cancellations (which can only have been short notice, the weather was only really bad from the previous Wednesday evening) in such a manner as to mean the hall-maps were still reasonably-accurate to where people where, and - as more sellers didn't turn-up on the day - they continued to spread the load - as it were -  to ensure than the day was still worth attending, which several buyers I spoke to said it was, and while traffic was down, it was still brisk and busy to the mid-afternoon.

The whole stash! You'll recognise quite a bit as we've had some of it on the Blog already, this was mostly from mixed lots, rummage trays, 50p tubs, one was a ten-for-a-pound tub, I had several quid out of that, and then there was a bag from Adrian I've previously mentioned (the whale Ahab; the whale!). I managed to find a handful of nice civilians on Abid's tables, I was tempted by some of his trains too, but I can't run to those budgets when there are figures everywhere!

And! A bag of put-asides had travelled down from the Midlands from Graham Apperley, which was very kind of him and a nice surprise for me! I can't remember everything in it (or Adrian's) as they were all sorted into the below without separate photo's, but it had all sorts of nice things in, much of the game-playing fantasy stuff for instance.

We've looked at the Lido stuff so moving swiftly along - the right-hand stuff is all composition apart from the hollow rubber or semi-perished latex British soldier. A few tatty 40mm Linol's that will need new rifle tips, a couple of train staff, one is in Schiffmann - Band 12 as unknown, the other seems even more unknown - bargain!

A couple of Brent's WWII (one of each size) and an export type, small-size (54mm), Elastolin (British head on German jack-booted legs, painted as an American!) make up the batch.

'Early British' or similar on the left, nothing terribly exciting, along with the VT wagon we looked at here the other day (it seems to have got itself into two shots!), while on the right were the animals - including the Whale . . . it's a whale; that dives and floats; too cool for cetacean-schools!

The two sheep are marked Italy, but a soft PVC so newish precepi I think? A Lucky donkey, a pug-dog which is interesting but has poor paint and a bit of hollow-cast in the rabbit and poultry department, although I think the white hen is a solid lump!

Vehicles and War Gaming sections; the vehicles are all pretty run-of-the-mill stuff, but the cereal premiums are in uncommon colours and the bag of green stuff (Lido HK copies) will reappear in rack-toy month, I was probably most pleased with the marked-Kleeware locomotive whistle, and I never say no to board-game flats, especially when they are also motorcycles.

The war gaming being a bunch of rather brittle Spencer Smith and two Willies . . . or were they Suren's, I've put them away now!

Civilians and Sportsmen on the left, medieval on the right, we've looked at the better of the medieval stuff, while the civi' stuff held no real surprises, apart from the bag bottom-right, which I took the shots of last night (Wed 21st) and will hopefully post sometime next (this) week.

Fantasy, carton, silly and gaming pieces on the left here, 'Interesting Misc' on the right, mostly Euro-polymer with a couple of early British and some 1970's small-scale space!

On the left the highlight is the plaster Christmas cake decorations, even though one is a bit molasses-stained (the plaster draws it out of the cake!) as I think they are both new sculpts to the collection.

Also in the fantasy lot the bottom-right bag is Havok, and figures I didn't have, no bases, but anyone following the blog back in the day will remember a bunch of extra bases, so hopefully I'll have another set out of it all?

Army-men and ancients, the big bag of Chinatroops will also return in RTM, the smallies are just colour variations of the sub-Blue Box stuff looked at before here, I think I have the HK-marked 8th army chap but two are better than one!

Now - does anyone know for sure which kit the cavemen come from, I tend to assume Aurora, but I'm not sure which kit (until I get the Aurora book out of storage), simply on the number of them that turn-up, but other people did kit-type 'playsets' including Revell and Marx I think and I'd like to get him labelled, there's a her as well - if memory serves - running?

See! The wagon snuck across the bedspread and got itself into another shot, like one of those 5th-formers or NCO's who used to run around the back of the school-/company-photo; to appear at both ends in the final print! I notice also te non-animal flats have escaped a close-up, but we’ve seen them on the blog.

The Gun has figures and is for RTM, the tub has something for a future post the black and multi-coloured bags are pieces from a board-game I have to research before posting (thanks to Graham Apperley for those), while I took the shots of the gum-ball charms last night with the ethnic dancers, so should post any day now.

All in all a useful haul, it all adds to the whole, thanks again to Adrian and Graham for the put-aside bags; that's where the real treasures and ephemeral oddities turn-up!