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.

Monday, February 14, 2022

T is for Two - Hobbycraft Rack Toys

These are fun, one being a copy of previously seen stuff, the other a rather weird take on millinery! It's funny, you can go to one of these big-box stores regularly for several years and find nothing beyond a mould-your-own pirate fort to shelfie, or you can go three times in three months and walk away with something after every visit! I was in Hobbycraft the other day for a multi-compartment storage tray and left with three, and these two!

16 Pack; 4 Spring Pop-Up Toys; Bag of Aliens; Bag of Dinosaurs; Bonnet Embellishments; Dinosaur Models; Henbrandt; Hobbycraft (Farnborough); Hobbycraft Stores; Novelty Toys; Palm Tree; Pop-up Aliens; Rack Toys; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Foliage; Toy Plants; Unique Favours; Unique Indiustries; Unique Products; Unique Toys;
"Throw an egg in it; that'll make it Easter-bonnet'ty!" Yeah, seriously . . . but a nice set of mini dinosaurs married to a scenic space-taker and a couple of bits of greenery, Easter bonnet's are all about the greenery!

16 Pack; 4 Spring Pop-Up Toys; Bag of Aliens; Bag of Dinosaurs; Bonnet Embellishments; Dinosaur Models; Henbrandt; Hobbycraft (Farnborough); Hobbycraft Stores; Novelty Toys; Palm Tree; Pop-up Aliens; Rack Toys; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Foliage; Toy Plants; Unique Favours; Unique Indiustries; Unique Products; Unique Toys;
The two on the right are from forthcoming posts on kids comic giveaways, and while the Hobbycraft ones are similar they are 'new' copies rather than pantographed clones, and - it has to be said - of slightly poorer quality/finish.

16 Pack; 4 Spring Pop-Up Toys; Bag of Aliens; Bag of Dinosaurs; Bonnet Embellishments; Dinosaur Models; Henbrandt; Hobbycraft (Farnborough); Hobbycraft Stores; Novelty Toys; Palm Tree; Pop-up Aliens; Rack Toys; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Foliage; Toy Plants; Unique Favours; Unique Indiustries; Unique Products; Unique Toys;
The palm trees are fascinating - from a technical point of view - as they are a single moulding (that frond is growing out of the trunk), which must be shaped with heat, probably while still hot from the moulding process? The shrub is clearly a fish-tank thing with a weight-basket attached to bury in the gravel at the bottom of a tank!

And they both have this bi-colour single-shot moulding which pushes the paler colour to the extremities, which have looked at before, again coming our hobby via aquaria? 

16 Pack; 4 Spring Pop-Up Toys; Bag of Aliens; Bag of Dinosaurs; Bonnet Embellishments; Dinosaur Models; Henbrandt; Hobbycraft (Farnborough); Hobbycraft Stores; Novelty Toys; Palm Tree; Pop-up Aliens; Rack Toys; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toy Foliage; Toy Plants; Unique Favours; Unique Indiustries; Unique Products; Unique Toys;
While these are branded to Unique, who we've seen before as purveyors of fine novelty tat! They are smaller copies of the Henbrandt ones we saw here, the originals going to five poses, to which we added a sixth pose here.

I don't know if these knock-offs have copied all six sculpts as they are only sold in fours and all the bags had the same contents? That's it; a couple of rack-toys in Hobbycraft now.

I would add that House of Marbles are carrying the Henbrandt set in new colours, so we will see these again here at Small Scale World.

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