A is for A Bit of Fun!

Picked these up the other day, an end of line I'd missed in The Range, I saw them and thought "Well, I'd better 'av some a'that", and took them home with me!

 

A stack of Robot highlighters! The pad-reservoir is only about a centimetre long, so they won't last, and will dry-out quite quickly, even without use, but it's six more Robots, and it's funny, whether it's white-buttons, erasers, Christmas baubles stretchies, or other novelties; Robots always seem to join the collection in multiples!

 

The upper shot is colour true, after which, my new, hideously expensive Canon camera started to misbehave and is currently shooting in the 'cold' spectrum of white, and I'm having to recolour in Picasa?

 

While I was there I noticed they had the dig-for-space-stuff balls, seen here a while ago, back in stock, and having satisfied myself they did ONLY have the two designs/combo's (Jupiter/Shuttle and Earth/Astronaut), gabbed another of the latter and dug the astronaut out.

 

Colour is a bit shot on this one too, but you can see, A) it's a darn-sight messier than the plain gypsum-plaster ones, as the (presumably) powder paint used to colour the mix and decorate the outer ball is all powerful!

 

B) there are a bunch of buried 'jewels' which aren't even mentioned in the packaging blurb, and C), the astronaut is larger than I was expecting, at around 28/30mm, and a softish polyethylene, who cleaned-up but had slight staining, which will need bleach - it's all water-based colour.

 

So six Robots and another spaceman in the collection, sorry the images are a bit shit.

A is for Animated Animals in Amniotic Afterbirth!

I may be over-egging it slightly, but it's still a rather odd thing for anyone to think might make a toy, even a toy for older kids, as one presumes these were aimed at? They literally come in a rubber amniotic sack!

 

Made of stretchy-rubber, probably a silicon, and various colours, designed to produce a sort of limited-colour rainbow effect, with the 'smoked' bicolour eggs, which are a hard propylene, or flexible hybrid-styrene, the amniotic sack IS what constitutes the afterbirth, isn't it, I'm not making this shit up?

 

These were a charity-shop purchase back in 2018, who have been sitting in Picasa while I tried to find an angle on them, but I'm not sure if I have, really? Anyway, we're going to run through them quickly as a box-ticker!

 

There are two parallel lines, one more Dinosaur recognisable, the other more Monster'ish, and both had five models in the first tranche, although I don't know if there was a second wave, and they were issued by Canadian Mega Brands (of Mega Bloks), and may have been designed to enhance that companies little Lego-like 'minis', which at the time (2006) included fantasy stuff, and - if memory serves - rather overblown Vikings.

 

Plasma Dinosaurs

 

The two Dino'types, a steggi' and a tricerah', they are well-made and decorated for what they are - pocket-money'ish, plug-together fantasy toys. Made of a dense but softish PVC substitute, and dry-brush weathered over a two-colour, basic scheme.

 

They plug together from seven parts, remarkably like the Blue Box Gormiti we saw here;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2014/03/n-is-for-new-finds-pt4-sci-fi-and.html

 

And may well be manufactured in one of the Tai Sang plants, for Mega, who knows, they are certainly the same material, as well as having the same plug-in construction?

 

An eighth part takes the two dinosaurs off to the realms of pure fantasy, being sets of wings which plug-onto the back, at the shoulder joint area. But to get the wings you have to have the full-on dragon-monsters too!

 

Plasma Dragons

 

Construction of the two monsters is similar, and if you studied the scanned ephemera on the way down the post, you'll see the idea is to collect all ten, and then twin them; one each, dino'monster, with it's dedicated full-fantasy monster, to create even larger monsters, through mix-and-match of the various parts!

They all came with a collecting card too, and I'm sure if I dug deeper, I'd find there's more to them, I have a tin of Orks (Tolkien not Kremlin) somewhere (their own tin, illustrated like the paperwork here), from Mega Bloks, which are far more adult-oriented toy figures, than even the current Lego stuff, yet they are similar age (20-odd years old, or thereabouts), and there may have been gaming elements or rules, to, or between the two lines, in an attempt to muscle-in on the Nottingham Mafia's action, but I don't know?

A is for A Friend Returns

There's nothing worse than losing something, especially when you know where it is, and losing books is particularly annoying, I am still missing two Soviet recognition manuals I lent to a friend years ago, so his wife (TA) could complete the same Soviet Studies course I had done a few years earlier, and after I ran into him about six years later, and reminded him, it's a bit galling that that conversation, where he promised to look them out, was, itself, now, 25-years ago!

 

Another book I leant to a friend, because I thought her kids would enjoy it, never to see again, was this, and, yes, it was probably silly of me to lend a book to kids, I should have either given it, or kept schtum, and they do say "Never lend a book [or money] you can't afford to lose", and while I'd written it off years ago (not so the Soviet manuals, they have emotional connections and I still hope to get them back one day!), I found another-one, in the Blue Cross charity shop yesterday!

 

Larry Gonick is well known in the 'States, for these ambitious tomes, educating through cartoons, and humour, he has done many on a variety of - mostly - scientific subjects, over the years, but this is a sweeping history of the Universe, up to the world of Alexander the Great, it's the first of several volumes, and arguably, the most fun one?

 

The style is slightly irascible, and a bit Horrible Histories, but predating that franchise by nearly two decades! Indeed, this volume, which covers the Egyptians, is dated 1990, three years prior to the first HH, coincidently (?) on the Egyptians!

 

I seem to recall getting mine in one of the remaindered bookshops which were quite common in the 1990's/early 2000's (they've all gone now, even the chains), probably on the Wandsworth Road, or up at Charring Cross, and I guess, that’s where/when this one originated, as it's not the one I lost, and I think it was only, ever, an import? But I'm enjoying re-reading it, and can recommend it to anyone who'll listen to my advice!

L is for Last Ball

There are some follow-up or related posts, but this is the last of the samples of my figural inclusion-balls, with a summing up shot, comparing those we've seen over the last few days, and a non-figural 'also-ran'.

 

There were soldier balls!, At about 15/16mm, they were a tad small for compatibility with other popular scales (except 15mm war games stuff), but, being baseless would be really useful for filling open-topped vehicles, which are always short on space, due to overscale slab-sides reducing scale 'space'.

 

I don't know how many poses there were, as I found the last few, but I would imagine with three here, at least four would be a starter, probably eight or ten! And they are late-1980's US/NATO type,s in the then still newish, kevlar 'Fritz' helmets.

 

Using the left-hand of the 'mirror' as a key - on the left we have, at the top, the Keycraft Global dinosaur egg, with a plain red opaque background half, and the same issuers semi-transparent green ball. In the middle, a pack-ice/slush inclusion scenic Polar Animal ball, the footballer ball, with a half football as the other half of the ball and a full iceberg Polar ball on the right. While the lower pair are a skydiver ball with multicoloured chunks, and the soldier ball with camouflaged chunks. All branded to Hembrandt.

 

The FA ball (link in earlier post) was larger, and included a larger figure, a previously seen snowman Santa (with icing pick), had a clear ball with glitter included, while Keycraft were offering butterflies last year at the Spring Fair (I didn't attend this year, but may try the Autumn show), and wild animal balls, alongside the dinosaur eggs back in 2020.

 

While this non-figural, franchise-licensed, movie tie-in, came in with a job-lot from a charity shop (I think? Or one of Chris's parcels?), and you can see it's beginning to delaminate along the plain of the card disc, which would have caused it to fall in two if the previous owner continued to use it as a bouncy-ball! 

 

It looks to be a two-phase pour, like the dinosaurs, or FA ball, while most of the others would have required three phases to suspend the figures above the other inclusions/scenic discs.

A is for Animal Balls!

No, not a study of gynaecological gonads, so you can fuck-off, you weirdo! But rather, a continuation of the overview of inclusion toy bouncy-balls, through the imports of Henbrandt and their Harlequin lines. The guys who started it, as I found them first, and actually two lots, the Polar Animals, whose tub I kept, to keep them all in, and a set of cetaceans, which, with other issuers/carriers can be intermixed, either with each other, or with other sea-life, sharks or more conventional fishes.

 

There are three types of these, and, after the card disc type and PVC landscape type, represent three other types, of four really, being plain, large iceberg (upper-left), pack-ice-slush (lower-right), iceberg with snow (below) and half-and-half clear and opaque, with the opaque half providing the backdrop, which we have seen already, with dinosaurs.

 

Airfix Zoo size! But only if they are all juveniles! So small, so easily lost, and with probably 90% of them either incinerated or in landfill already, it's lucky I've got some to show, although they are still available, from Chinese wholesalers and importers like Ravensden.

 

Snow over iceberg, two seals, and unfortunately, the method of construction, or properties of the materials means that while I could extract the tiny animals, or figures, the other inclusions were fully melded with the clear ball material, and broke-up with it, instead of coming out whole.

 

Although described as PVC in the Tags (the animals and figures are) the balls are made of something else, like polybutadiene, or polyvinyl acetate (PVA (like white glue/woodworkers glue)) adulterated with borax, (sodium borate), or a silicon/cornstarch mix, and even when formed in separate layers, they become one entity, which I had to scalpel to pieces, to extract the inclusions of more interest!

 

Underside of one of the icebergs.

 

My full sample, less the cetaceans, a range of sea lions, seals and a walrus, with penguins and a polar bear, most of them not longer than the width of a thumbnail, yet really quite well-decorated. They would have been an absolute in our Christmas stockings as kids, but seem to be a late-1980's-onwards thing, unknown to the parents or kids of the 1960/70's?

 

Another sizer, 'ball scale', the penguin's maybe 10mm?

 

Tub sticker!

A is for Another Book Plate!

I'm working through a folder of over 800 scans, and came across (became reacquainted with!) this, which probably should have been in the posts on bookplates a while ago!

It's actually printed into the front flyleaf of an 1879 imprint of Goethe's Faust, translated by Anna Swanwick, the blank area being for the owner of the book to sign or print their name, as a form of pre-printed bookplate. I've worked on it in the contrast tool, to make it a little clearer, the original is quite feint.

The signature below the etching is that of the artist Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch (1779–1857), a German painter and etcher known for his outline illustrations of classic literary works, especially those by the aforementioned Goethe, and Schiller. There are another 40 etchings "engraved on steel after the works of Moritz Retzsch" in the book.

 

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moritz_Retzsch

 

As I go through the folder I'm also adding various minor-make entries to the A-Z Blogs, and there's been a couple of disambiguations added too, so I may concentrate on the A-Z's, this year?

A is for Another 'Lucky Bag', and Some Seasonal Stuff!

A few other purchases in the last few weeks, and after the blind surprise 'Lucky bags' we saw from The Works earlier in the year (October), I noticed similar bags in Poundland the other day, and again got the Dinosaur themed one as the best chance of a figural, and as a comparison with the disappointing inflatable of the last example.

 

A task made slightly easier by the fact that the contents are illustrated on the outside of the bag! Stickers, puzzle, skeleton, collector cards and a 'bonus' key-ring . . . if it's listed, pictured and included in every bag, it's not a bonus, it's a priced element of the contents!

 

A few minutes later I popped into the aforementioned The Works, and bought these, as apart from the fact I thought they would make nice additions to the wooden-trees subsection, they might also prove useful as photo-shoot accessories in the future?

 

To that end, here they are, both artfully arranged (!) in the fashion of an interiors' magazine shoot! You have to imagine they are on an immaculately-polished, white piano, with a recognisable supermodel, just out of focus and staring intently at a Hockney, on the wall!

 

Mostly duplications of one sort, or another, I also picked these up on my day's shopping in Farnham a few weeks ago, they sort of complete what Opie calls a cameo, in that we have previously seen the Santa's in individual bags the same as those the snowmen are in, here.

 

We have also seen the snowmen in the red and green scarves, along with a mauve version, so this blue one is new. And we saw a copy set of the Deer, red-Santa sleigh, snowman (red scarf) and tree, also from The Works, so that's pretty much all known versions of originals and copies, now, in several variations of packaging!

A is for Another Retro-Rocketeer!

This one's courtesy of Peter Evans, I said we'd probably see more, before the end of the year, and this is current, PMS carried, and a slightly different take on the pull-back motor/white-button oeuvre, but again following the trend this year, for deformed NASA astronauts, and/or cartoon spaceships.

 

You push down on the Rocket racer's head, and an energy storage spring is set to fire, a quick release and off he whizzes, release slowly though, and you get a limp phutt! It's a bit of fun which will probably get passed-on to charity, but imagine getting this in your Christmas stocking, as a kid!

A is for A'maze'ing!

I ventured up to my Alma Mater in Saffron Walden at the beginning of September, a dispiriting move, as it's all being developed into posh flats for London commuters (which only means the M11 will get worse!), but I had some time, well, I was literally, in my own time, so I took a trip down to the town, and checked out the old Maze in the corner of the park!

 

Seems to say as much as I could, after a Google, especially if AI started making it up! We used to walk it occasionally as kids, first as younger kids, in daylight, later as 'seniors', with perhaps a little embrocation of the not so medicinal kind, helping us . . . or hindering us, in the task! 1.5km is a few hundred feet shy of a mile, so it takes a good 15-20 minutes to complete.

 

Start

 

Finnish, about 5 yards from the start!

 

The fair was in town, the same fair which was in Aldershot a few weeks earlier!

 

A drone's eye-view from the council's website!

 

I spotted this on a service cabinet/enclosed pilaster, at Highbury & Islington tube/overground station, when I visited a mate later in the month, it is a simplified version of the same concentric pattern, with the start/finish in line.

 

I don't know if it has any significance beyond helping people pass the time while they wait for friends, colleagues or a taxi pick-up? Nor if there are others, elsewhere on the networks, can any Londoners help us out with that one?

 

Mazes have always been a side interest of mine, along with labyrinths, which is what we're actually looking at above - you can't 'go wrong' so long as you stay on the path. And I'm minded to try and find/visit one every year, and chuck the shots up here, for a change of pace, or 'bucket-list' quest!