N is for Nutcrackers in November, Naturally! 1 of 2

Brian Berke has sent his pretty-much annual batch of Nutcracker shots, from the Big Apple, and not to be outdone I shot a bunch up at Longacres Garden Centre the other day, which I'll post later today, I also seem to have ended-up with a couple for the tree, which will be in a Charity-shop plunder-post!

 

Fun ones!

 

Edibles!

 

The red one's a bit sinister?

 

Not for me, but 75 inches? That's over six-feet!

 

Paint your own from Strawberry Kazoo with Advent calender!

 

I know gay marriage is legal, but this is the odd couple!

Liberace (No, Gran', he really is!) and his Pirate Beau!

 

Cake hat? Hat cake?

 

Many thanks to Brian, it's interesting to see how things are elsewhere in the world, or how trends come and go, I've noticed this year, a larger number of Mushrooms, blown glass, wood and paper-folds, in various designs, all the purveyors of tree-hangers have had them.

S is for Shelfies - The Range

Shot these back in February, but like a lot of things, they got caught in the general malaise here at Small Scale World this year and languished, lost in Picasa! So, with a rather Easter flavour, here's what was trending in The Range, six months ago!

 

Paint your own Rocket, what's not to like - 

And the umpteenth cartoony-retro rocket this year!

 

I shot these out of a sort of nostalgic feeling, one of the first things I ever reviewed in PW was the encapsulated toys, imported, then, from the USA (circus, wild animals and dinosaurs), and facing stringent safety stuff, due not to the swallowing danger (the capsules melted in warm water . . . or throats), but because the foam would then expand and present a breathing difficulty, they are now around the place in several formats, with no hysteria! Although, these are larger and for print-stamp painting.

 

More paint-your-own!

 

Blobby infant toys, but might turn up in mixed lots in the future?

 

Again nostalgia bit and I bought these, reminding me of the old Pop-a-point pencils of my youth, I've since seen several other similar products, bears, pigs etc . . . as pencils, coloured crayons or felt-tip markers, so clearly another bandwagon trend this year.

 

I also bought these because while the main 'Iwako Eraser' fad, seems to have cooled off, pencil-rubbers remain a great favourite, and you do still get the odd set of Iwako clones or homage-copies, and with a section of them in the collection, it's worth adding to, occasionally, to keep a picture of the genre's trends. These are not direct takes on Iwako, and bent ears seem a defining feature of the set! Branded to i-Doodle, everything else was in-house for The Range or CDS Group.
 

A-Z is for Padgett Brothers - 2023

I don't have as much Padgett as other brands in the archive pile, as their stuff is always interesting enough to post nearer the time of taking, certainly all the London Toy Fair stuff has gone-up in the past, but with everything else going on recently, I did leave 2023's Gift Fair shots in Picasa, so this is they, and then we'll have this year's efforts later.

 

Paint your own Dinosaurs

I think we've seen these elsewhere, possibly in different packaging

 

Lots of other Dinosaur stuff, some, like the silly (not if you're a kid, I know!) vehicles, have smaller 'companion' dinosaurs. Some of this is branded to A-Z, some of it more generic, and as such harder to ascribe, especially if you've seen it somewhere else first!

 

Farm, zoo, sea-life and more Dinosaurs, in sets. I'm pretty sure I recognise the larger bears; Panda and Polar, and I'm sure that the odd-coloured sheep is in the pile somewhere, so I suspect a fair amount of this is already in the stash, among the unsorted stuff of the last few years.

 

A range of domestic dogs with what looks to be three sizes of card, six small, three-each mediums and larger, or is it a trick-of the eye, due to how they have been hung?. They are very reasonable sculpts, and well decorated in what is several colours for most of them.

 

The Insects clearly weren't ready, so get a colour print of the catalogue/online artwork! And another set/size of Dinosaurs!

 

More retail counter-display boxes - farm, wild animals and leery lizards!

 

Pretty sure these cows were in a donation from Jon Attwood or Peter Evans?

 

Likewise, I've already put one or two of these chaps in the stash, I think?

 

A BTR60pb/VAB hybrid? Nice-looking model for 54mm figures, though.

 

Another farm set, with different animals to the previous one, above. These have the look of those thin-walled, hollow dinosaurs we've seen here on previous occasions, but they might be solids, it's hard to tell from looks alone!

1 is for 1st Rack Toy of the New Year!

Just a quickie, picked this up on my rounds the other day, it's BJ Toys again, and a new one on me, sadly the four main figures are a disappointment, but I have been noticing more and more Paint Your Own sets, a trend spotted here a few years ago, with the cheapo'sets in The Works one Christmas, and which have since featured several times a year!

 

And, of course, the real interest here is not the handful of 45mm Matchbox GI copies, but the four 90mm Chinese Army figures, original sculpts, although, sadly hollowed-out behind, so after painting - for display only!

 

But they are dressed as they would have been through the war with Japan (second Sino-Japanese War) and the Civil Wars, in total from 1927-49, and which ultimately brought the Communists to power. A bit different, and hopefully, a sign of interesting things to come, from the Toymen of the Far East?

H is for Happy Christmas!

Welp, that all got a bit frantic in the last three days, but at least we were given today off, to start the recovery (before the four-day onslaught which is getting the booze out for New Year's), unlike another company's drivers who seem to have been out, delivering, today! Anywhoo; I was getting back too late and too knackered to post anything, and now, here we are, the 'big day'! It's gotta' be the Nutcrackers!

 

Earlier in the Month, or even late November, I can't think that hard right now, Brian Berke indicated he'd not seen many, and wasn't that enamoured of what he had seen, and I rather agreed with him. This post, the 'nutcracker round up' became a regular rather by accident . . . they are figural, they appeared to be having a comeback (in the UK at least) a few years ago, several quirky aspects had turned-up at around the same time, as had the life-size quiz-trail in Fleet, and with Brian's help and the odd news clipping, we had a regular seasonal theme!

 

But, let's be honest, they are very German/Eastern European, by tradition, and have only been marketed worldwide, in vast quantities, in recent years, to take our money for things made cheaply in China! And, frankly, the gloss has come off them; for every interesting or quirky one, there are four shelf-meters of generic, formulaic wood/resin/fibreglass or plastic shite in every store, which stocks them, for most of November and December!

 

However, I guess they will continue to pop-up at this time of year, not least than because they are in the Tags, which might as well be added to occasionally! So, bowing to the inevitable, here's six images, for this year!

Brian sent this chap with the thought that he looked like he was wearing a 'Demob Suit', which (for loyal foreign readers) was the complete set of civilian clothing, the short-service and conscripted soldiers of our 'Citizen Army' were given, upon demobilisation, in the late 1940's, so they would have something smart ('ish) to attend job interviews (or the labour exchange), go home in, or meet landlords &etc!

 

I replied that he looked to me like an Italian card-shark! The sort you might find on a Mississippi paddle-steamer, calling himself a count, without any genealogical right to do so!

 

Brian also sent both the above as an example of the "nah-yeah-NAH!" end of the market! About 20-inches high, and looking like they are about to do a dance-number for Sister Sledge on Top of the Pops, they are really pretty hideous, still, I can see the wife of the President-elect populating the White House with them, if she doesn't join Putin's ex' in Kaliningrad! We haven't seen or heard much from her, have we!

 

I did add two to the stash, the one on the left is a more traditional wooden one, in the vaguely 'smallest' common size, if that makes sense? And I have a few now, so they may get to make a mantelpiece line-up in future years, while the other is [whispers - another naff gold one!] a smaller sized (roughly 70mm), poured-resin, tree decoration, who will go in the 'miscellaneous ceremonial' section of the stash.

 

I shelfied these in TKMaxx's little brother, Home Bargains, and they illustrate the way the money-men target everyone, on the far right we have a traditional red, blue and green set, to their left is a set which is more 'chintzy', even to looking a bit Highland, despite the lack of actual tartan patterns, while on the other end, we have a wood-look or 'gingerbread' style, and a 'Christmassy' red and white!

 

While this plaster one appeared the other day, as a lone survivor from Christmases past, in a couple of boxes of oddments which the staff put-out in The Range, as they were starting to clear-off this year's decorations, last weekend. This is the quirky-fun end of the oeuvre, and joins all the other Paint-Your-Own stuff, on that Tag!

 

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And, yeah, a Happy Christmas to all Loyal (and not-so-loyal) Readers, all contributors, commenters and the more hidden supporters (they know who they are!), I would, back in the day say 'May we never have a worse one', which would cause some to pause for a second while they worked it out, but the simple fact is they have been getting steadily worse since 2020, and in twelve days, all hell might break out! So, have the best Christmas you can, given your circumstances, and pay heed to those close to you, while they still are.

P is for Prehistoric Paint-Your-Own

Checking the 'Paint Your Own' Tab, I see we have seen quite a few PYO dinosaurs over the years, and none of them seem to be the same, although I'm sure many of them get more commercial, decorated issues too . . . a comparison job for another day! In the last few weeks I've encountered two new lots, and bought one sample, so here's a quick report.

 

I'm pretty sure I shot this set in Smyths, as part of their small early-learning/craft section as you enter, four reasonable sculpts and six paints including all three primaries, only a fiver here, and Google says they can be found in Giant Tiger and Walmart over the pond.

 

These were in The Range, where we've seen PYO dino's before, but these are new sculpts (or new packaging?) and there were three sculpts, different from the previous pair. A T-Rex and Dippy/Bronty type were left on the shelf, but I got the third . . .

 

 . . . a Kentrosaurus or Chungkingosaurus, I think? It's not stipulated!

One of the new style of two-halves, glued together in the factory, soft polyethylene hybrid PVC replacement polymers, it's a lot of dinosaur for a pound-fifty, reasonably well-detailed/sculpted, and while a bit big for a Christmas-stocking, would fill a small hole under the tree!

Paints are a rather more specific set of pre-mixed shades heading toward the kingfisher school of decoration! But the brush is actually quite good, with a well-formed soft-bristle head, although the shaft is cheapo-styrene.

H is for Haunted Hallows Halloween Hangable . . .

. . . Plaster Paint Your Own Kit! Shelfied in The Range the other day, this chalkware/plaster Witch comes with a half reasonable paint brush, which is excuse enough to part with a quid?

 

From two angles, just because of the flash, and the store's own lighting, there's not a lot else to add, it's a figural, it's seasonally relevant, and it's out there now . . . fun for kids! Purple and orange paints too!