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Friday, January 31, 2020

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
Mob. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)
10:00 - 14:00hrs
Admission charge unknown

Rettro Ronnie Collectable Collectible Fairs Shows West Central England
Didcot - Retro Ronnie - Didcot & Oxen Toy & Train Fair
Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 7JN
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
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
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
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

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
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
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)
Tel. - 0161 774 2984 (venue)
10:30-17:00hrs

Leeds - Retro Games Fair
Marriott Hotel, 4 Trevelyan Square, Leeds, LS1 6ET
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
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
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




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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