News, Views Etc . . . Crimbo Roundup

Not the usual format today, there's only one date I know of this weekend;

Sunday 22nd December 2019

Orpington - SRP Toyfairs

Crofton Halls, Orpington, Kent, BR6 8PR

Web. - www.srptoyfairs1.co.uk

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Gerry's shows are always well run and I think I'm right in thinking Orpington is one of the bigger venues in his itinerary, so if you've any spare cash after investing in a stash of mince-pies it might be worth a mosey-on-down, and traffic should have eased a bit by Sunday?

Then there's a bunch of shows after Christmas, which I may post earlier in the week if I get my finger pulled-out over this weekend?

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Firefighters

One of the more obvious developments this year on the Blog has been much more feedback to some articles, which is lovely, but it presents a quandary or two, due to the 'felt need' to get contributions up as quickly as possible, both by way of thanks and to encourage the individuals sending the items, images or other information.

Follow-up's to the follow-up!
(thanks to Brain, Chris and Theo for the above) 

Case in point was the resent series of Hong Kong company ID posts and the latter Firefighter posts, which due to a number of firefighters in the former have sort of morphed into a twin-fork of fire stuff and road worker stuff! Further enhanced by the two fire-engine posts the other day.

Firefighting contents of the miscellaneous emergency-personnel box

So I got-out a follow-up out to the first set of articles, but more stuff came in, which I put to one side and then added to after the second - fire engine - posts, and I think I'm beginning to understand why the editor of a certain magazine I know, has articles of mine going back years . . . I think it's called editorial control! If you keep doing follow-up's to follow-up's, there'd be no end to it, so at a certain point you must/have-to drop that subject and move on.

Mixed with firefighters

But, this is not to say you can't return to it as a new subject, months or years later, so don't think I'm not, or won't still be grateful for anything or everything sent, I am and I will be!

And to that end, with 460 folders in Picasa (one of which; Latest Toy Shots has 766 images in it today) and another 20-odd on the desk top (including Follow-Ups and Scans - 170+ images), I am now creating thematic folders which can be repositories of similar stuff, for future posts, both on specific themes and more general stuff. It's not an exact science, does Tarzan go as Tarzan, or with zoo for instance, but something workable is formulating.

The Firefighters, for instance will get a page, I haven't however decided whether to put it here with the other 'pages' at the top of the page, or give it an entry on the A-Z's under 'F'?

And to add to the stuff in the above images will be the stuff we've seen before (Corgi, Dinky & Matchbox, the Blue Box/Lucky stuff plus a few other bits which have been posted!) and the contents of a couple of tubs of larger-scale/recent additions.

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Toys in the Media

Sort of Duplo/Playmobile clones helping advertise an Apple i-Phone10 contract, the 'i' stands for idiot, now they (the owners of idiot-phones) have taken my favourite 'dumb-phone' moniker to refer to other mobiles, I will bow to common-usage and change to idiot!

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This Week I Are Be Mostly Sorting . . .

More deer!

But it's taken so long, it'll be next Christmas that benefits!

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Edible Advent Calendar Update

Good week for figurals compared to last week, with an angel, gingerbread man, penguin, and Santa sleigh, alongside a stag's head and something which might be a Blue Meanie, might be a vital part of a tower-crane, might be an alien lander, might be an Egyptian cat-god with a comedy-moustache . . . but which we decided was probably John Lennon doing a Biblical Wise-man impersonation?

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H is for How They Come In

Slow start this week but a few bits have been acquired for pocket-money, or less, although it was all money in my pocket, which might be the decider as far as the 'pocket money' designation goes, rather than the/a specific amount!

A couple of stand-alones; being a smallish ceramic Santa Clause 'fairing' type ornamental figurine and a Triple-A rabbit. The rabbit is actually much larger (1:6th?) than the Santa', but they collaged to the same height! He's a modern, softish PVC-substitute.

A House of Marbles retro' board-game brought-in four more micro racing-cars! Also credited to 4moreideas, I thought the board itself was lazy-design; racetracks don't cross each-other like snakes & ladders!

A bag of Ja-Ru 'Army Men' as imported by the - now extinct - Toysaurus in 2006, so predating the various sets shelfied and/or donated to the blog by Brian Berke in the last three or four years, and adding to that maker's known-output here. Unlike the current Ja-Ru 'fritz-helmet' set which are soft and marked on the base, these are polyethylene and unmarked. They reprise the old Tim Mee copies; a bag of classic Army Men for Christmas? What's not to like!

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Wot? No Bears!

This year's additions; 54 items

but I found room on the tree for all of them!

I'm winding-down for Christmas now, and while I'm working on all sorts of stuff, I don't know what I'll post or when over the next week or two, so here's wishing all loyal readers a Happy Christmas, and thanking everyone who's helped and contributed this last twelve months. Even with a near-three month hiatus while Dad passed-away, I managed the second best posting rate/year ever, here's to an even better 2020 - the Blog's 11th year . . . and second decade!

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