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

So, as a follow-up to the previous post this was the 'tower of nutcrackers' at Longacre garden centre in Bagshot about a week ago, compared to the New York display, I think less razzmatazz and more fur!

I think they're dogs? Could be bears, but I think they're dogs!

 

The hall of the Mice Kings!

 

The Tower of Nutcrackers!

 

Ethnic nutcrackers this year, but no highlanders!

 

Jesters!

 

I've seen many, but only shot this lot, and there's a tendency for each venue/outlet to have a different theme, one of the garden centres out beyond Farnham had mostly white/silver 'minimalist types, and we still have a couple to come here, in addition to the drumming bear we saw the other day!

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.

P is for Plastolin Plasticine!

These may be the only examples in existence, or rare survivors of a small production run, we just don't know, but they are listed on the new Composition Page, so I need to get them up here, in order that a wider audience is made aware of their existence!

 

The label reads;

 

PLASTOLINE

Model Manuf: Co:

Set X1. Gestapo H.Q.

With Officer at Desk

NO.03.

Plastoline - Hand Made, enamelled,

Hard and glossy, copyright, patent.

 

And one has to assume the '03' is the number in a series of similar vignettes? There is nothing on the 'web to suggest any of it was ever patented, and copyright's a long shot, given some, most (?) modellers could copy it to a much higher standard!

 

This is the item described above, he has broken-off at ankles and stool, the shaft if which has been lost. The whole made from Plasticine, probably hardened with Banana Oil, otherwise known as 'Dope', or isoamyl acetate (also known as isopentyl acetate), painted and vanished in a deep gloss to give a lacquered appearance in the 'Old Toy Soldier' style.

 

Also in the box is this WWI'ish (?) machine-gunner, listed as (3) in the list below, as WWII, and which differs from the previous example in also using embedded wire for the machine-gun, not that it's prevented the gun from curling slightly over time.

 

Which, by a process of elimination, and considering the fact that no other suitable figure was in the unknown 'Question Time' post, also dealing with this make's figures, here, must be the number two item - Mexican irregular from the wars of the turn of the last century?

On the underside of the inner box, we have further clues as to the originators of these figures (the Mexican is really quite good, albeit a tad 'footless'), with this label, origianlly in Biro, but added to at a latter date in pencil;

 

(1)GERMANY-GESTAPO   -   C 1940

(2)MEXICO - IRREGULAR   -   C 1900

(3) GERMANY - M. G -    C 1940

(1) By  .  D. BROWN .

(2) By     M, LEECH .

(3) By  .  D  BROWN .

IN PLASTOLINE  .

 

So the clues, would suggest that a D Brown, and M Leech, attempted to manufacture, in Plasticine, a small range of figures with a commercial bent, when and for how long were they in production is anyone's guess, except those who might actually know?

 

And the three figures from Chang-Kai-Chek's Imperial Chinese forces, and the odd chap in a respirator, seen previously, were also stuffed in the same box. Anybody know anything else about them?  I believe, although I haven't found them yet, that there were adverts in the back of the periodicals of the time - Military Modelling, Battle, and/or . . . the other one . . . Campaign?

T is for Tilnar Art

Something completely different now, chunky 'arty' aluminium, but we don't get many chances to get the Aluminium Tag dusted off, so it's overdue! I saw these Tilnar Art products, at the Spring Fair in Birmingham, back in early February, and loved the fact that they had the same deep, metallic lustre as those Jada figures I like, so here they are!

 

Various products, including dinosaurs and penguins.

 

Longhorn Cattle, or not so shaggy Highlanders!

 

Deer.

 

Also drilled for keychains.

 

Love these, deep, almost glassy-red Elephants, in various sizes!

 

Art Deco'esque Elephants!

A blue family of the other design, just visible in the background. 

 

Puffins.

 

relief-flat Angels.

 

I had a chat with the chap behind Tilnar, and it seems to be pretty-much a one-man band, although there were staff, so a growing enterprise, and by using recycled aluminium, helping to try and save the planet!

Obviously aimed at the gift and tourist markets, expect to find them in little bijou boutiques about the place, or gift-shops, while on your travels.

I is for Insect Lore - Archive

I thought I'd posted these guys, literally years ago (these are from 2020), but they are all still in Picasa! So I'm posting this here, and then I'll combine the smaller numbers of shots from '23 and '25 in a single post later. This was from the London show, a couple of months before the Covid lockdown, which - time has, I think, shown - changed all our lives, more than we thought it was doing, at the time?

 

!!!! Effing annoyed when the images loaded in reverse, which seems to happen quite often these days and I don't know if I should be blaming Windows 11, Blogger/Google or Lenovo! But in fact, it makes sense to use the poorer images (which were going to be at the end) for the introduction to the company, then look at the figural products!

 

Insect Lore are a kind of 'early learning' schools-support / craft outfit, where you buy the kit, and/or any supporting products, then sent away for the Butterfly (or Ant?) eggs, so you can raise them to adulthood, learning the egg-pupae-lava-adult cycle along the way, and then release them, or do an ant-farm?

 

In 2020 they were raising Painted Lady's (or Ladies? No, some of them must be men!), which - while not native to the UK - are a regular summer visitor around the Southern and Eastern coasts, and with nowhere in the UK further than 51 miles from a beach, it means you can find them pretty-much anywhere in a good year, and also means that after any release, they can complete a typical life-cycle.

 

The kit here consists of a jar of feed, instruction booklet with details on how to raise them and find the food plants, along with a jar of the special feed etc . . . and the 'butterfly net' netting cage, in which to observe the metamorphosis of the chrysalis phase and emergence of the adults.

 

Blister carded life-cycle sets of rubber (modern PVC-substitute) polymer animals are also sold, and these may be bought in or commissioned specifically, I don't know, and am no expert on toy insects, but they look a little different, so may well be exclusive to Insect Lore?

 

Toobs of mixed Insects and Butterflies are also in the catalogue, along with all the expected stickers, booklets &etc. Again I don't know if these are unique to Insect Lore, or bought-in generics, they look more familiar, so may be the latter, however, they are both reasonable samples with about 18 Butterflies in the first image of this sequence - Insect Lore, box ticked!

 

Websites -  

US https://www.insectlore.com/

UK https://www.insectlore.co.uk/