News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events; Saturday 1st - Friday 7th February 2020

"Global Britain will be a beacon for free enterprise, free trade and free people across the world", says Liz Truss, I hope she is right, although if she isn't I get to say 'told you so' for the next 41 years!

Although when she talks of 'free people' I guess she's not including the Uighur, Rohinga, Karan, Tamils, Palestinians, Democratic Syrians, Democratic Egyptians, Brazilian natives . . . the natives of Nicaragua, Peru, Columbia, Mexico . . . Libyan slaves, ethnic Ukrainians in the Donbas or Crimea, trafficked nail-bar girls in your local high street, the car-wash guys at the edge of town, the Catalan's, the Catholics in Ulster or - even - the Scottish . . . among others?

We leave the world's largest trading block, as we fall out with America on several issues, as China's Belt & Road snakes into Africa and through the 'stans to Eastern Europe, as Russia is handed the Middle East by Trump and as Canada, Australia and New Zealand make it clear they will be negotiating for deals more favorable to themselves than those they had with us - as part of the EU?

I see th't that Farage (rhymes with c**t!) chap was being predictably awful again this week, while Trump, days after the commemorations of the Holocaust, unveiled a map which seems to confine the Palestinians to ghettos (or concentration 'areas'), linked by barbed-wire corridors! As we also commemorate (and indeed celebrate) the Warsaw Uprising, will we be celebrating the next - and inevitable - Intifada?

Still with any luck this Chinese corona-virus 'snake' flu may give us all a bit of Lebensraum, if we survive it! And remember; the Spanish-flu epidemic a century ago, had actually come-round once already; in 1917, but it was the return-performance in the winter of 1918/19 which did the damage.

On that happy note . . . it's off to look for old toys while our lungs are still working!

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 1st February 2020

Bexhill-on-Sea - SRP Toy Fairs

St. Barnabas Parish Church, Cantelupe Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, TN40 1JG

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail - srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Mob. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Didcot - Retro Ronnie - Didcot & Oxen Toy & Train Fair

Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 7JN

Web - www.retroronnie.com

Mob. I - 07708 385 061

Mob. II - 07900 266 427

Hours unknown

Admission unknown

Exeter - Ray Heard Train & Toy Fairs

Matford Centre, Matford Park Road, Exeter, EX2 8FD

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01823 480 097

10:00 -15:30hrs

Admission £2.00

Free parking, refreshments

Gateshead - Jim Corr Fairs - Toy, Train & Sci-Fi Fair

Gateshead International Stadium, Neilson Road, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, NE10 0EF

eMail - jim_corr73@hotmail.co.uk

Mob. - 07504 035 955

10:00 - 15:00hrs

Admission £3, children/senior citizens £2, 'Early Bird' £5

Merthyr Tydfil - Chris Dyer Fairs

Merthyr Leisure Centre, Methyr Leisure Village, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, (it's not a marine mammal Mr. President) CF48 1UT

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

Admission £2

10:30-15:00hrs

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Sunday 2nd February 2020

Bolton - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'Macron'

The Premier Suite, Macron Stadium, Bolton, Lancashire, BL6 6SF

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

Fax. - 01604 771 070

10:30-15:00hrs

Admission £4.00, early-bird £8, (from 08:00hrs), seniors £3.50, children £1

Free parking

Falkirk, Scotland - McLaren Models

Tel. - 01324 624 102

(All other details here)

Kempton Park - RM Toys Ltd. - Kempton Park Toy Fair

Kempton Park Racecourse, Staines Road East, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, TW16 5AQ

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 02392 381 529

Mob. - 07957 823 507 (Russell Martin)

10:00 - 15:00hrs

Admission - £4.00, seniors £3.50p, children £1.00, early bird (from 08:30hrs) £10.00

Malvern - Bulldog Fairs

The Seven Hall, Three Counties Showground, Worcestershire, WR13 6NW

Web. - www.bulldogfairs.com

eMail - bulldogfairs@aol.com

Tel. - 01373 452 857

Mob. - 07917 125 641

10:30 - 14:30hrs

Adults £4, under 16's free if accompanied, early-bird (from 08:30hrs) £10.

Worthing  - SRP Toyfairs

Charmandean Centre, Forest Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 9HS

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

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Auctions

I don't think there are any this week, certainly I've not found any, nor been told of one?

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Other Events

Saturday 1st February 2020

Cheltenham - Nightshift Films - True Believers Comic Festival ('Troobs')

Jury’s Inn, Gloucester Rd, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 0TS (venue)

13 Westland Road, Hardwicke, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 4QH (promoter)

Web. - http://oktruebelievers.com/

Tel. - 0161 774 2984 (venue)

10:30-17:00hrs

Leeds - Retro Games Fair

Marriott Hotel, 4 Trevelyan Square, Leeds, LS1 6ET

Web. - https://retrogamesfair.com/

10:00-16:00hrs

Admission £2.00 adults, £0.50p under 16's, under 6-y/o free

Southport - MM Fairs - Dolls House & Miniature Fair

Southport Theatre and Convention Centre (formerly The Floral Hall), The Promenade, Southport, Merseyside, PR9 0DZ

Web. - http://www.dollshouse-fairs.co.uk/Our_Fairs.html

10:30-15:.00hrs

Admission £3.00 adults, £2.50 for concessions, £1.00 for children (7-y/o or over) under seven free

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Reminder

Still running until Sunday 23rd February 2020

Cardiff - St. David's Shopping Centre - Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N.

St. David's Shopping Centre, Wales

Web. - www.avengersstation.co.uk

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Overseas Events

Saturday 1st February 2020

Jackson (USA) - L & J Promotions (Mid-Michigan Supershows) - Jackson Toy Show

Jackson Fairgrounds (Keeley Park), 200 West Ganson Street, Jackson, MI 49202, Michigan, USA

Web. - https://www.midmichigansupershows.com

Tel. - ++ 5 175 248 899​

​9am to 3pm

09:00-15:00hrs

​Admission $3.00 per person kids under 10-y/o free (with adult)

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable, military, historical or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here -  FOR FREE  - or linked to; please eMail me -

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc. And a link; if the event or your organisation has a web-page.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!

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Toy News

Hong Kong

Supplying crappy clones and knock-offs for half a century-plus, they have now added to the cannon of figures in art with the Lady Liberty Hong Kong installation. Consisting of a crowd of 150mm figures of a female democracy protestor in white, among which is the black one carrying a flag, based on the lone protestor known only as 'Alex', the work is hoping to raise funds for the protesters, a previous statue having been vandalised by pro-government 'tong' thugs . . . probably!

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The Works

Previously reported here as having difficulties, their shares jumped last week on the news their own chairman had sunk his own money into the firm as a confidence measure . . . more 'Army Men' and Chinasaurs; less multicoloured sewing-buttons and poo-slime please!

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Toy Fair 2020

Made page 13 of last Wednesday's 'i' with a 2/3rd's spread on the toys to watch-out for this year. Max Mindpower (the 'woke' bear, and clever credit card USB from two years ago) has made steady inroads and is expecting to do even better this year, only one item I'll be covering made the list - 15 Minutes to Self-Destruct a board game.

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Hawkin's Bazaar

Have gone into receivership for the second time, the first time was near the start of the blog . . . about nine or ten years ago, I think, so they may be saveable again, as they got a decade out of the last rescue package!

I don't know how it will affect Tobar but there's been less and less Tobar product in HB for a while now, and the last time I was in there, they had no Hornby and the Iwako had disappeared, so if I was ever considered any part of an adult target market/demographic, they've been failing - both ends of that likely budget - for a year or so now!

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H is for How They Come In

That's it this week, two red squirrels and a rather idiotic-looking fox-cub! All poured-resin, and if another charity shop hadn't also had a squirrel, I wouldn't have gone back for the other two, but fun, and one's a Tetley Premium!

I also bought a feeble-bay lot which isn't here yet, two monster trucks (with figures - forthcoming separate post) and something else I've already forgotten . . . thus it is! Oh, it was a stuffed ginger-tabby kitten in a tartan-basket which is destined for presentation to someone else on their Birthday! It meows when you press its tummy!

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Links

In the shed? Don't leave them in the shed!

A Poem with toy soldiers

Not toy soldiers but 'toy soldiers' and my kind of politics y'all!

BMC's playing catch-up! Seen before here at Small Scale World (last March), but there's another shot halfway down the page.

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Received with Thanks

Brian Berke sent a load of shots to the blog from New York over last weekend, and there was the previous week's little lot from Peter Evans, which has already been Blogged; many belated-thanks to both. And Chris sent me an interesting thing to look at, but it'll be  awhile before I can show you! Thanks Chris.

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Missed

Jersey Shore Toy Show last Sunday . . . . obviously New Jersey, not the Channel Islands! They didn't tell me in time - or at all - so I couldn't tell you!

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T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - The Age of Sigmar

It can't have escaped the notice of those concerned - gamers and specific fans of the Nottingham Mafia - that Games Workshop changed their entire business model a year or two ago (and did very well out of it if their share's performance is any guide), for which changes, another of the 'freebies' at this year's Toy Fair 2020 was a starter kit for the Age of Sigmar in the shape of a magazine, which we're going to look at quickly here.

Again, like yesterday's erasersaurs; no hurry, and this has probably been out for a while (© - 2018), and will be around for a while to come, but you get a White Dwarf type publication with a free figure attached. My sample being a show-freebie is printed with a blind price panel, so I can't say for sure what it costs, but you get 108pp with covers, and a frame-runner for a 'Stormcast Eternal'.

It's one of the more basic such frames, with no extras for the spares-box . . . shock horror! As far as I can tell it's a perfectly good sculpting, up to GW's usual standards of detail and build-quality, and from what I can see, the whole game is set in a 'verse somewhere between Warhammer 40,000 and the older LotR stuff, having both the interplanetary element of the former, and the fantasy olde-worlde Norse mythology of the latter?

No surprises here; it's exactly what you get in any issue of White Dwarf - army building guides, protagonist guides, potted histories, modeling tips, painting hints, a move-by-move sample game and lots of professionally-painted miniatures in wonderful technicolor.

But that's the thing . . . if you've ever bought into any sector of the Nottingham Mafia's systems you don't need this, won't need this and can move straight to the rule-book and army lists for your chosen faction, but for younger readers coming into the hobby from the hype surrounding Game of Thrones (or the Hunger Games maybe?) it's probably a good place to start.

T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - Iwako Dinorasers

Timely or not, this stuff will be available in one form or another for some time, and has been around for a while already, but we like our regular visits to Iwako and/or erasers and/or dinosaurs here, or at least I do, so it's timely enough for me!

Seen briefly in the initial round-up of the Toy Fair last Friday, so he may as well go first . . . this was a sample of a new sculpt, but only new to me as round here the Iwako stockists have only had the four sculpts seen previously.

This is a Parasaurolophus, and there are three colour-ways to find, each in a pastel body with contrasting darker spine - yellow, pink and mauve. Paperchase haven't carried the dinosaur sets at all, while the pick-bins in Hawkin's never had this as a singly?

The sets on display were numbered 40 and 52, but the 52 is numbered 57 in the Iwako catalogue, which may be down to differences between the Japanese domestic and Euro/Western export markets, we don'r get the Lego-likey sets either.

Also, the large Brontosaur is only available in the carded sets, not as a single figure. Other animals not seen locally yet include the Spinosaur (also three colour-ways) and the Ankylosaurus (two versions). Of more interest perhaps are the mini raptors and Archaeopteryxes, both of which seem to be the additional animals in the little eggs we've seen a few times here now?

They must have been added as copies to those mini-micro sets after Iwako added them to these carded sets? There is a whole page in the catalogue on how to spot fakes, and in chatting to the girls on the stand I think both the Wilko and The Works' versions (including the Christmas set on the Blog this year) are knock-offs.

A small display on the stand at Toy Fair 2020, I think they are both being stalked by a large yellow & white monkey, but it might have been a chipmunk!

I knew there had to be a second Tyrannosaur colour!

They're not rare and they never will be rare, but they are fun, they are well made and they are a global collecting phenomena, with a vast number of official colour-ways, the many possible combinations . . . and the copies to find; it's box-ticking on a grand (but equally - quite small) scale!

The 'collection' now; the Dimetrodon (which we may or may not have seen in an update) seems to be a discontinued model, as I've never seen it in H's Bazaar and it's not in the current catalogue? I would expect at least one colour variation?

If you can't find them try Green Elephant Trading for your nearest stockist. 

E is for Eye Candy - Atlantic Boxes

Not much to this post, but Atlantic aren't a big-priority here, they're not as rare as some people make out, they're not as mysterious as some people think and they're definitely not as mythological as some people would have you believe, but these shots have been kicking around since 2014, so it's time they got off the laptop!

The four sets in the Wild West accessory or scenics range were an eclectic assortment of buildings and 'vehicles', with a chunky fort, small village of timber-frame commercial properties, a wagon train and some Gatling-guns!

The artwork for Abilene West-City makes the content look much better than they are, the wagon train (with misplaced comma and dodgy syntax) tends towards brittleness when found these days, which seems to be down to a lot of 'minters' coming back from the Middle East in the 2000's, it also has the same cavalry crew as the Gatling-gun limbers.

The fort paint's up better than the heavy moulding would suggest while god knows what's happened to the gun-battery, but they've lost a team or two, with one man crushed under the horses - dead horses - and corpses littering the battlefield, the remaining teams rushing in two directions and a last-stand happening in the background . . . how can you be having a 'last stand' with four Gatling-guns at your disposal, you should be destroying the opposition!

The backs of the boxes are very-much 'after' the pattern of Airfix's forts and play-sets with a basic assembly diagram in black-line, but on a 'scroll'; both Abilene and Riley (the earlier pair issued) also get their titles on the back and Riley benefits from some red arrows!

They suffer here from flash-reflection (one reason they've sat in Picasa for so long!), and next-time I'll scan them, but I need to source an A3 scanner with depth of field first!

R is for Reminiscent of Rambo the Rampaging Recce Renegade!

Dooooorrntpuusshhhmeeeeee! Brian Berke sent these to the blog the other day, and with some catalogue scanning and the Toy fair; I've cobbled together a rack-toy post even though it's not rack toy month!

I sort of recognised the TC-334 code-format and in searching for something similar, ended-up with the stuff for the rest of the post, but not the name of the maker/importer I think they may be from?

Anyway; as you can see, a carded bottle-bag rack toy with artwork from another source (Tamiya?) and a set of figures which are drawn from Airfix, Matchbox and modern (JaRu type) rack-toy sculpts.

When I say Ja-Ru, I think their large rubber ones were among the first with the 'Rambo' M60 pose and the guy with the little Uzi/Ingram's thing and radio, but there are so many of these around now, and who was first is a moot-point. Mixing 'Fritz' helmeted GI's with Matchbox's WWII Americans and Airfix's Rumanian-helmeted para's isn't that novel either as there are several versions of them around too!

Their size also places them closer to the earlier issues, but not necessarily; as the overall quality of the sculpts is screaming sub-sub-piracy! The weapon is best described as belt-fed combat-shotgun I think - for when you absolutely, positively have to kill every living thing in the woods!

Similar sets with similar sculpt-mixes are all over the place at the moment (we've looked at dozens in RTM) and a few have surfaced in the last few days.

The older (2017) Henbrandt (A) set is very similar to the unknown US set, and while the two images may look the same, the Ackerman set is clearly 'supplied by' as their image is 57KB to Henbrandt's 250-odd  megabytes, so it's been through the eMail system a few times to have got its file-size so reduced. Still finable on Amazon under a search for Ackerman, but rebranded to other phantom sellers.

In the middle is the current (or 2019) Henbrandt set, more poses, but same low quality.

The upper shot is the Henbrandt listing in full, while below is D&D Distributors (similar stock-code to Brian's set, but no banana as it's prefixed TY for 'Toys') catalogue image, of particular interest in that the figure-shot shows similar Matchbox clones, while in the toob-shot they are full of Hing Fat product (codes 1800/1860), but with generic packaging/artwork!

Tobar have been running with these for several years (and supplied Debenhams's a couple of Christmas's ago), they are also larger than 54mm , but stick with a better quality all-Matchbox clone selection!

While they are also in this year's Keycraft line-up; with the same bag and box, but different artwork. Both sets (Tobar and Keycraft) might be via-Jaru (three spellings - one post!) though; I seem to remember one of the original sets sent by Brian (or shelfied) was these figures? Actually - I think the box is thinner and the count's dropped from 48 to 32 figures!

Maybe after I've got the Paratrooper and Firefighter pages sorted it will be time for a rack-toy 'Army Men' ID'ing page? Many thanks to Brian for the shots, and past rack-toy clone stuff.