N is for Nostalgia - Badges!

OK, well, after a seven-day figure-fest, let's have something completely different with a bit of a nostalgia hit to boot, after all if we collect toys we already have an interest in juvenile popular culture!

Another of the magic drawers shot on the way to storage, it's where all the badges that come in with mixed-lots end-up, after the drawing-pins, building blocks, broken chalks & crayons, buttons, Lego, lumps of hairy, brown Plasticine, marbles, Meccano, and other detritus have been removed!

This might . . . I stress MIGHT . . . and only 'might' . . . be the only surviving example of the badges in this Giant Plastics Corp., set (third image down), but it may be from another source altogether! A photo-realistic (because it's a 1:1 photograph, as a print!) army badge, reproduced as a paper sticker. It's actually quite an unusual higher-function/rear echelon logistics/construction unit - ADSEC Wikipedia.

Figurals; A cat stamped from polished sheet steel (stainless), a relief-flat setter, a similar Tyrolean/Bavarian [very-]young couple stealing a kiss, the two dogs came from Bulgaria, while the rabbit is channeling both Miffi and Hello Kitty (or even the new Chi) but is none of those franchise's characters, but rather a generic; possibly a gum-ball machine prize?

Finally the National Children's Homes (NCH) crocodile/alligator in Santa suit is a teeny-tiny example of multiple-shot moulding, a technique akin to over-moulding, but with each colour laid side-by-side, originally; separately, increasingly now; at the same time.

Also figural, this is interesting both for being a motorcycle (speedway memento?) and being marked on the back with the Injection Moulder's logo, whom we last saw selling Thomas cord-pull helicopters here.

This is a lovely little thing, a simple pin-badge in pressed, tin-litho, not sure if the alphabet is Chinese or Japanese but I think the latter, and the equivalent of a 'penny toy'? The sort of thing 1960's or early '70's parents would buy a whole card of, and hand out as 'attendance' prizes to all the kids at a birthday party . . . "I'll be ya' best friend . . . "

Oh, if I had a decent sample of these I'd need a new Blog! Brass, die-cast alloy, plastic, card . . . stars, medallions, shields, name-plates, we all had several of these on our way through childhood, Sheriff, Deputy, Posse, Marshal, Fire Chief, Police, or here (in plastic) 'Special Agent' . . . where would a 20th Century adolescence have been without at least one of these?

I hate this creature with such a vengeance he's got 'air-pellet receptacle' written all over 'im! However, some, many, were taken in by the Disneyfication of the whole planet, so just for them . . .no, I'm not going to clean the little shit!

Look at his dimwittedness, shining, beacon-like from his fizzog, listen to his whining voice (it's there, in your head, right now! "Oooh! helloooo pluuu'tooo!"), wonder at his inordinate earning-potential, imagine my extra Google-traffic - whatever I say about the horrid, mawkishly-sentimental little fu . . . deep breath Hugh, deep breath . . . calm down; go and have a coffee!

At the other end of the badge spectrum from anthropomorphic plastic twats are these, given away by arms manufacturers, to adults, at defence shows! Heavy alloy, base-metal or pewter models of whichever killing-machine they are flogging that day, here we have a faux-gilded 105mm howitzer (presumably from BAE Systems) and an Oerlikon ship-defence auto-cannon.

I may have some more of these somewhere (tanks, helicopters and 'planes), I've had a lot of luck with the Farnborough Airshow over the years; Dad used to get us all-area tickets when the Tiger Moth was on display, while in the 2000's I was working as a chauffeur and a lot of our work was for BAE or their clients, so we were in and out, all day, for the whole gig and got given a lot of stuff.

 

At that level of corporate hospitality the stuff is given-away like rain, indeed; umbrellas (full size, posh ones) were another common freebie, leaving me and family possessing a lifetime's supply of them - I recently took half-a-dozen to charity! Once I had a party of Turks visiting Thames Water facilities for a whole week (8-seat V-Klass) and they left all their umbrellas with me and I struggled to give them all away! We (they - the rich and powerful) have killed the planet with this shite!