T is for Two . . . More!

Having mentioned them twice today, I might as well chuck them up here now, for the thème du jour! Two charity shop finds earlier this week, both from the Debra store in Fleet, I've done all the charity shops in the last few days (week off!), and they have proven pretty disappointing, and quite a few have gone/closed down now, but I found a few bits to show, and this is two of 'em!

 

Having already picked-up the one below, I grabbed this one too, squeezed his feet together and thought, "Oh, it's one of those new vinyl ones?", but in the clear light of day, or at least when I got it home and had a proper look, I realised he's a repurposed Fortnite character, to which a metal eye has been added for a hanging cord, so he'll lose both and join the other Fortnite stuff - stampers and key-rings - in the main figure collection.

 

Three of my favourite colours; heliotrope pink, kingfisher-blue and apple green, you'd think they wouldn't go together, but look at this column of magnificent, technicolor madness and agree to differ! Psychedelic Nutcracker rocks!

 

Except he's clearly incapable of cracking a nut, and, unusually for these, in any material, is carrying a musket, with bayonet, and has a base, so he's 100% a 22-carat, blown-glass, toy soldier, baby!

 

This year's finds together.

B is for Benevolent Buys - 1 of 3

Clearing out a folder of Charity Shop purchases which seem to have escaped some of the other Charity Shop purchase posts over recent months, and nothing exciting here, but all grist to the mill!

 

Actually, from the tail-end of '24, and I can't remember where, a resin jobbie of the sort that fills and has filled window-space in high-street jewellery chains for decades now, it was in good-nick, and pennies to charity, it goes in the box of such stuff!

 

I think this and the next two were from a rare trip to Camberley, I undertook back in February, looking for something else, but it might have just got shot with the others, but be an earlier find in - probably - the Blue Cross shop in Fleet?

 

A couple of the expanded-polystyrene glider novelties, we've seen before here, and of which two more are in the queue, this pair marked-up to Henbrandt, but likely to be the same poorly printed ones we saw a while back in various packagings.

 

Three Disney Princesses, these were definitely from a large basket of such stuff, in a Charity Shop in Camberley, obviously ex-shop, or other 'stock' (NOS in feebleBay parlance), and probably from capsule dispensers of some kind, but could be off a Disney Store hook-tree?

 

While I vaguely remember these, as larger rope/string-dolls, enjoying a brief 'craze' of popularity back in the 1990's (?) As they came with the above Princesses, in a similar quantity, capsule stock, or something more independent is the likelier for both, than the Disney Stores thought, but never rule out what you can't disprove!

 

Two semi-deforms from a while ago, probably the DEBRA shop in Fleet, more Fortnite franchised stuff, and with quite a bit of dust on them, some age, a few years on a shelf at least, rather like the Skibidi Toilet stuff, a youth-culture which has grown, almost organically, away from the figure collection hobby.

 

They look like the kind of quite expensive stuff you find in those funny little t-shirt/gaming/metal 'head' shops in the quieter corners of shopping malls? But as cheap buys in a charity shop, provide 'reference samples' I'm in no hurry to add to.

 

Another Wimsey from Wade on the right, we've seen the one playing with a ball of wool before, but this one looks like it's foil, waiting a chance to grab the ball! On the left two resin, cartoon cats, with kittens, from crafty/gifty shops rather than jewellers I suspect, but maybe both sources? And I believe they are Peter Fagan sculpts from Scotland.

T is for the Third Time of Asking!

I post steam, he shows . . . err, was it steam? It was far, far away! I post books, he posts books, I show football game figures, he mentions football game figures, I show a Pirate's mountain top, he does . . . Dinosaur poo? I mention Casdon, he namecheck's Casdon, it's childish! Invicta (original copy) for Invicta (feeBay scrapings!), you get the picture, well he does, usually from somewhere/someone else!

 

23,000 toy companies, millions of toys, but he seems glued to my Blog. Is he really that insecure, or does he think he's being funny, is this what passes for comedy up there on the Wirral? They do like to refer to themselves as Scallies, the little Wags! I must be missing something, but it's a game which can be played both ways, especially if you're going to copy me umpteen times a fortnight, or should that be Fortnite! He did Fortnite, so I'll do Fortnite!

 

Of the six Tagged visits to stampers, two of the most recent three, have featured the Fortnite stampers, and I did mention a while ago there was Fortnite stuff in the queue, so shall we get these out of the way, and do the key-rings over Christmas? See, that's a heads-up for him to go and scrape some key-ring shit off of evilBay!

 

The broken blind-bags (which aren't blind - it was a poor joke, the first time!)

Contents - predominately female.

 

Outer.

 

Flyer.

 

Comparison between the stampers and the keyrings.

65mm (75 with base). 

 

Three loose ones which came in a charity-shop, something else he seems to have picked-up from this Blog, where I was showing you the shit I took home, even if it is 'shit', from early-on, while he didn't use to do charity shops, and now shows us the shelves of shit he left behind! How many crushed boxes of Connect-4 or Operation do you need to be shown in a given period?

 

 Group shot!

 

When they were in The Works, back in 2019 (I guess stupid people have poor memories, or was he concentrating too hard on not recognising Buck Rogers erasers!), we saw the blind bags, five-figure 'pack' cards and two-figure boxes, and to be honest I can't remember where this four-figure set came from (in 2023), possibly Peter?

While my not-so Blind Bags, came from Poundland (store-closure program expanding), in 2021, so they've done the rounds for several years, if you've kept your eyes open, and had several formats of retail presentation! Note also, how both types seen here, state '36 to collect', yet we have a 37th?

 

The guy on the left is not in any of the artworks? 

 

Again, females are central to the gender-mix, so I was guessing Fortnite is a game played by both sexes, divided relatively equally, but AI (who we've discovered can't be trusted) says, no, mostly males, so I guess they must like dressing as 'Tank Girls', don't tell The Donald, he'll have it banned, and them, arrested and deported, for un-American, gender-bending, 'woke' activity!

 

You'll also notice, there are similarities with the clothing of the two women, this is even more noticeable with the key-rings (whenever I get round to them), and is probably a result of characters 'skins' being chosen from a menu, and populism, the default of the majority of humanity, dictating people keep choosing the same gear!

 

The stampers (red, blue and indigo ink on mine, so far, I've also seen yellow-orange), only give you the head of the character (like the Nina Turtle set), which when other stampers seen here (Thundercats, Action Man and bug-eyed Alien) have had whole figures - albeit, very small - seems a bit of a swizz!

 

Spare shot, slightly better colours!

Now, when you find this stuff going cheap in either The Works or Poundland, you tend to think 'end of line', but in fact, with these, I think now, it was more an exercise in clearance to make room for the 'Battle Royal' Series Two wave (red cards), and to get as many people as possible hooked on them by making them so available? They are now up to series three - purple cards.

 

And, as well as two or three series of key-rings, there are some mild 'deform' figures, a pair of whom will be seen here shortly, not scraped off the internet, but in the collection!

 

And, yeah, anyone can post anything on their Blog, and if you want to turn what was once the best space toy Blog on this planet, into a pile of shit internet scrapping, fine, fill yer' boots, after all, you were doing a fair-bit of that from day one, but we sort of ignored it, for the - in context - space toys, however, if you want to continue this constant niggling, point-for-point copying, I'll give it back in spades.

H is for How They Come In - Charity Shops

Just a quickie, there is a ton of Charity Shop posts going back to Lockdown somewhere in the heap of half-lost stuff in the 'User' folder, which isn't a user folder! But these are some of this year's more recent purchases!

The fourth of January, I ventured out to get essentials between Christmas and the New Year, only to find M&S were selling-off their mini Christmas puddings for 50p, so I filled my boots (I still have one, which is pencilled-in for my birthday treat!). At the same time I picked-up the three figures on the left, I think they are all from the current Fortnight craze, two key-rings and a stamper, all about 54mm.

To their right are the following Wednesday's ( the best day for toys in one of the charity shops) finds.

Which consisted of four apes in three sculpts, one is branded I think, but in the chaos of the moment I didn't note it at the time and they are away for now, but one day we'll look at them all again!

 

Not sure if these are more Fortnight, Laura Croft or some Barbie thing, but three TV/Movie (or gaming!) type babes in a vinyl-like soft polymer, looks like they should have separate weapons/accessories? Anyone recognise them?

 

Normally with these ceramics/fairings, I'll buy cats or the odd dog, elephants (see below!), and some branded stuff like Wade, but this caught my eye as it looks like Peter Rabbit. However, there was no branding and the colours are a bit off, so I suspect an unlicensed knock-off.

 

Nice PVC or similar bear, keyring, some age maybe, 1970's? Not much else I can add, if it was marked the above note about a lack of note-taking applies!

 

Small china elephants, probably from China! Consisting of a family group with matching graphics, in incrementally smaller size. They can be arranged to touch the tail of the one in front, with the tip of their trunks, along with one outlier who has different graphics and may have lost a similarly incrementally-sized family? He looks sad with his trunk down . . .

S is for Shelfies - Fortnite

Drawing the curtains to a close on Shelfie weekend we have a couple of long-shots I took in Smyths in Farnborough the other-day, after the clearance Fortnite in The Works a while back (at not-clearance prices - why I shelfied them too!), it seems there are several other lines/ranges of Fortnite stuff out there at the moment, a lot of it aimed at younger users as the game appeals to younger gamers.

Epic Games have issued these, they are action figures, but in a smaller 60/70mm (?) compatible size like some of the Lord of the Rings sets or the smaller Zizzle pirates (although they weren't articulated - but you know what I mean!), each has a separate weapon and while definitely not 'my thing' they may be 'a bit of you' sufficiently to be worth a look?

These are also Epic and are semi-deforms, but they are 'solids' so may be of some use to fantasy/sci-fi fans? I'm sure I've seen (and not/forgot to shelfie) some Mattel branded Fortnite stuff, and due to its being the current 'big thing' in gaming, I would expect more toys to appear.

B is for Broken Blind Bags

They're broken because you can see the contents!

In the news all the weekend just gone, as there was a major competition in the US (New York?) with millions in prizes - I shelfied these in the Works, where the full range (including the 'really rare's) all seem to be on clearance, I don't know what they cost first time round, but they weren't cheap enough for me to 'invest'!

Five-packs, I think I've seen two different ones, but in different stores! Figures are about 75/80mm, I'm not farty enough to get the tape-measure out in a discount store . . . although as I don't carry a tape-measure that would be hard to do, even if I was farty-enough!

Two-packs are more affordable, yet more expensive at £2.50 per figure against the two-quid of the five-packs. I know nothing about Fortnight, but have seen various references of it in the media to know it's one of the big games (online?) at the moment, and presumably these are the better-known thirty-six or favourite download characters/'skins'? 

The single 'blind-bags' which aren't, are the most expensive way to purchase them, but the easiest way to fill-gaps, clearly the marketing model is for you to purchase the five-lots, then the pairs, then finish off with the singles, but - if you are tempted - I'd look for the 'rarest' first wherever they are (one is in a twin-pack), as they will be in smaller quantities, then grab the commoner ones later!

The whole set; the image embiggens to reasonably large - but a bit blurry - if you click on it! Epic-PMI/Kids Works-Sinco Creations, that's how it is these-days, with this stuff; licenses within licenses!

A word of warning though, if you are tempted, but are also an ethical buyer, these may be made in china and licenced to various intermediates, but ultimate profit channels-back to an Israeli firm.