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.
Showing posts with label Confectionary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Confectionary. Show all posts

Friday, May 15, 2026

Y is for Yummy Gumi

An odd one these, I got my first last autumn, and two more a few weeks ago, they seem to be bigger in the 'States, and might have recently been pulled here, by The Range (where I found all mine) or Zuru, or they're proving so popular they've sold out? Online I found a piece claiming Zuru were fifth-biggest toy manufacturer in the world, they're not even in the top-ten!
 
The earlier Gumi Yum has a more generic lid, but states the contents are wildlife, while the latter two are more specific to their contents, with another wildlife one, and a Transformers one, you can also see the egg, with its jelly jacket!
 
A particularly weird concept, from the fevered mind of someone paid to come up with new concepts, who has run out of sensible concepts, but has a presentation deadline, like, tomorrow! The jelly strips (and red and purple 'buttons') are [sprayed?] on the outside of the eggs, the yellow strip covering the join-line in the egg. They are then covered in fine sugar (not castor sugar, just that fine stuff you get at service station coffee stands) to reduce the stickiness, for transport and consumption.
 
This, of course, results in sugar going everywhere, as you try to start a 'peel', continue a peel, and/or move on to the next one! Some residue remains on the egg, so you have to lick or suck the egg clean, yes, it's a choking hazard! With no air-holes. The 5 pieces advertised are a four-piece model and an extra accessory, in a little pillow/bag, because the planet needs more polymer-laminated packaging.
 
The first one I got was a reasonable crocodile, the accessory being a baby crock', and they're manufactured from a dense polyethylene, or a propylene of some kind. I say 'reasonable' as the rest are quite cartoonish;
 
The rest of the set, only a few of the animals come with a baby, the rest get scenic items, food or food animals, or, in the case of the vulture, the remains of their last meal! There's also a golden lion with crown accessory, who may be intended as a rarer 'chase' figure?
 
I forgot to shoot the flyer from the Transformer one, but you get four Transformers, and their four transformations, plus a gold version of one, for a nine-count to the set. Luckily I got the 'space tank', which I think I already have a solid Micromachine-style one somewhere, so a future comparison? Also, around the size of those Iwako style, eraser tanks, so a future micro space tank battle1
 
I won't get any more, not just because they have either been withdrawn, or run-out, but because this is the kind of stuff which will be in mixed lots for years to come, which will be chucked in bags of Kinder, LZ and Balaban stuff for years to come, and because . . . the box has been ticked, for years to come!
 
And don't forget, Sandown Park toy fair tomorrow, best in the UK! 

Sunday, July 25, 2021

N is for Nostalgia Hit "Yeah! Hit it!"

There will - over the next few years - be more general nostalgia here at Small Scale World, as I'm finding all manner of stuff both in my late Mother's estate and in the combining of the stuff here and the stuff in the garage (which was in storage), and one of the first things to turn-up has been this old toffee hammer!

Blue Bird; Confectionary; Confectionary Brands; Nostalgia; Novelty Hammer; Sharp's; Sharps Toffee; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Toffee Hammer; Toffee Tool; Walkers Nonsuch;
Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the patented [not], not sharp, Sharp's Toffee toffee-thwacker!

I saw another one online the other day, but can't remember the branding now; it may have been Blue Bird, or some Australian brand on Worthpoint? Strangely the commonest in junk shops seems to be the Walker's hammer, not the crisp-people (chips to heathens!) but another Walker's altogether I think!

They are not rare, indeed you can still get them on Amazon, but it's nice when an old friend turns-up, and why don't you seem to see sheets of hard toffee anymore? Did you have a toffee hammer, what branding did it carry?