About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - House of Marbles


Taking up some of the slack from the demise of Ackerman, House of Marbles had a few nice things on display this year, we've seen the eraser-troops already, but here's the rest of the stuff I though all or some of you might be very or vaguely interested in!

015505; 2020 Toy Fair; Beetle Game; Childhood Memories; Dino Key Ring; Dino-Keyring; House Of Marbles; Kensington Olympia Toy Fair; London Toy Fair; Made in China; Mini-Zoo; Novelty Figurines; Novelty Toys; Pocket Money Toys; Retro Range; Sky Diver Extreme!; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Teeny-Tiny Mini-Zoo; Toy Fair 2020; Toys And Games;
They seen to be carrying two colours of this chap whom we've previously seen carded under the Tobar tag in green, I took more shots and he/they'll soon be on the new parachutists page, so this will do for now, I like the tag line; Shoot up, chute down!

015505; 2020 Toy Fair; Beetle Game; Childhood Memories; Dino Key Ring; Dino-Keyring; House Of Marbles; Kensington Olympia Toy Fair; London Toy Fair; Made in China; Mini-Zoo; Novelty Figurines; Novelty Toys; Pocket Money Toys; Retro Range; Sky Diver Extreme!; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Teeny-Tiny Mini-Zoo; Toy Fair 2020; Toys And Games;
This is lovely (I mean it's the poorest grade of ex-HK shite you can find, but its 'throwback/retro' existence is lovely to someone like me!), I know I have these with various HK-era marks, and you may remember about seven or eight years ago I bought the Farm version in a department store (Debenhams in Newbury?) at Christmas, also in HoM branding - so it should be on the 'tag'.

015505; 2020 Toy Fair; Beetle Game; Childhood Memories; Dino Key Ring; Dino-Keyring; House Of Marbles; Kensington Olympia Toy Fair; London Toy Fair; Made in China; Mini-Zoo; Novelty Figurines; Novelty Toys; Pocket Money Toys; Retro Range; Sky Diver Extreme!; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Teeny-Tiny Mini-Zoo; Toy Fair 2020; Toys And Games;
The best thing is the Black Panther; the rest are pretty standard old, much sub-pirated sculpts, half Britains Herald (Tiger, baby Giraffe, Pelican etc.), some Timpo (Llama) some more generic with an old cake-decoration pine-tree and some zoo fencing which probably owe more to Blue Box than the Britains originals!

But - despite the age of the sculpts/tools - it's hours of fun for a youngster, and they've packed a lot into a tiny box.

015505; 2020 Toy Fair; Beetle Game; Childhood Memories; Dino Key Ring; Dino-Keyring; House Of Marbles; Kensington Olympia Toy Fair; London Toy Fair; Made in China; Mini-Zoo; Novelty Figurines; Novelty Toys; Pocket Money Toys; Retro Range; Sky Diver Extreme!; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Teeny-Tiny Mini-Zoo; Toy Fair 2020; Toys And Games;
These are a bit 'deform', but could pass for fat little baby-saurs! Key-ring novelty dinosaurs; there sem to be four sculpts, a stegosuarus, a carnivor/'Rex type a Proto- or Tri- ceratopsian and a dimetrodon who looks like a cross between a Spinosaur and a  Baryonyx!

015505; 2020 Toy Fair; Beetle Game; Childhood Memories; Dino Key Ring; Dino-Keyring; House Of Marbles; Kensington Olympia Toy Fair; London Toy Fair; Made in China; Mini-Zoo; Novelty Figurines; Novelty Toys; Pocket Money Toys; Retro Range; Sky Diver Extreme!; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Teeny-Tiny Mini-Zoo; Toy Fair 2020; Toys And Games;
Finally, I couldn't pass this by without snapping a picture; we loved this as kids and managed to play it for years without breaking any of the pieces. These retro games are being carried by various brands and both sides of the pond, so you may find them in different graphics?

They are weird animals; the tongue of a butterfly, the antenna of a slug, the head of an ant, the body of Thunderbirds 'Mole' and legs removed from a trio of can-can dancers while their eyes seem to have been removed from the back of a washing-machine! Timeless toys!

The rule in our house was . . . you can build multicoloured ones but the legs, eyes and antenna must match the same components' colour!

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