O is for Odds and Ends

Well, it seems we're having a second football mini-season this year, purely by accident or coincidence I can assure you, I thought I'd cleared the decks of footballers back in January, but then I regularly think that about insects, dinosaurs, fish, motocycles and various other perennials - which are all back in the queue!

This is from Terranova, who sent it after the January mini-season, so it started the follow-up folder! A printed card or plastic flat figure included in a goal-keeping/scoring game of the 'executive' toy or table-top game variety. It's almost a scale-up of one of the Yorkie Easter-egg premiums from Hasbro/Subbuteo we looked at a few years ago, or a variation of 'Blow football' wich tends to have two goalies and not much else.

Franklin also do a mini Table Tennis game. Cheers Brian!

These two came in recently as well, one possibly at PW, the other - I think - was in the lot which turned-up out of the blue from Jim, but they may both have been from Jim?

The one on the right is a cake decoration, there are several generations with or without balls, with or without textured bases of the swoppet type and with or without shirt-numbers, figures and/or bases being PVC, 'ethylene and/or polystyrene.

I will be looking at them fully after everything's out of storage as the master-collection of these is there! This one is obviously missing his base, but there'll be spares in storage, so I should have him back on his feet by September.

The other is a converted (loop removed!) key-ring, one of a set of maybe four poses, each pose however . . .

Old eBay shot

. . . seems to have been sold singly in multiples of 12! The Henry Ford school of team-picking, you can have any 11 players you like, plus a substitute, but they must all be the same!

As you can see the carded set has a reverse of the above guy - dribbling with the left foot-  in a blue/white strip  and I've also seen a guy striking with the right foot in red strip with a white ball.

Although - I say 'maybe four' because I've seen a better-sculpted figure striking with the left foot, slightly more anatomically correct and with a realistic and more-proportional head, so suspect the short fat ones are bootlegs of the taller, thinner ones (also key-rings) with both sets/series having two dribblers and two strikers, but that’s all conjecture and there could be more, or less!

I love the card too, a German man-child taking-out a British goalie (in a clown mask), with 'Footballers' in a Kellogg's font and 'Key Chain' in a Chinese take-away, shop-front font . . . it's SO rack-toy!

Shot taken after I'd edited to this point, a blow-football figure as mentioned above (which did come-in at PW), there are dozens-upon-dozens of variants in tin-plate, printed card, wood or plastic and I haven't the faintest where this chap's from, but if I had to guess I'd say Merit or Spears?

Below him are three of the also mentioned cake decorations (which should have been seen here in January?) next to the new one, they are all 'styrene (with polyethylene bases) against the PVC of the new one and have unpainted numbers as opposed to the blue-chap's lined-in number.

It looks like they may all have balls, but I'm pretty sure some striking and saving poses don't - we will return to them! Also I seem to recall some figures (sub-piracies) don't have numbers at all?

 

Four . . . Years . . . Later . . . !

. . . and Deadleaf Hairband 'Strongly Suspects' they might be key-rings! Bwaahaahaahaahaahaahaa! They are so funny; these PSTSM guys - we KNOW he follows this blog, but somehow he's having to guesstimate it all by his little old lonesome! It's just too funny.