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 Ghosts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ghosts. Show all posts

Saturday, October 25, 2025

F is for Follow-ups - Recent Posts

A few 'matters arising', as it were; things to add to recent posts, which have come-in or been found since I posted the original stuff!
 
Power Rangers
 
 

I had the commercial art/shot in Picasa all along! And this white chap, who would seem to be a knock-off, came in some mixed lot and was shot separately by me, back in 2010, and I'm not sure where he is now, as he wasn't in the over-view post a few years ago?
 
True Legends - Mythical Warriors
 
 
Brian Berke sent this shot of his 'Goodly Hero' as they tend to be called on the gaming table, all painted-up, and fighting a mini-Godzilla from the Wicked Duels / SCS Direct sets, also painted.
 
White Ghosts
 
 

Confirmation of this year's trend for short, fat, funny-faced ghosts, with an odd plate and bottle-stoppers shelfied in TKMaxx, and some 'Illooms' or illuminated-balloons from B&M, and it's not ghosts per se, they've been a feature of Halloween stuff since before I was aware the event, it's this half-opened shroom-head design, which is so strong at the moment!
 
Rado Industries / Ri-Toys Centurion 
 
Purely a confirmation shot, tying the tank into Ri-Toys sets, where it did stirling service as a British, American and German WWII AFV!
 
Noddy
 
Mentioned in passing a couple of times recently, figures in one's or two's, this is a partial set of what I suspect is over 18, maybe 20-plus figures, and which I think are Marx? But were they a Swansea 'Kins' thing, or contract manufactured for someone else? I have a PC Plod somewhere, and the damaged Skittle, plus a couple of others I think?
 
Marx . . . check, Noddy . . . check!
 
https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2025/10/weve-found-noddy.html 
 
How desperate is he? And he didn't "pick it up", it was relisted on eBay the other day! 
 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/277455102102
 
So he's lying, to copy me, and scrape doll shite, off of evilBay without any apparent context, why? How threatened is he feeling? It's almost more fun than annoyance now! What an idiot! he also managed to check-off the unknown Power Ranger knock-off above, with some Mexican Luchador he knew nothing about, so when it's not faux ignorance (what do you think readers?), it's actual ignorance! And he did skulls the day after me, it's faintly tragic!

Friday, October 24, 2025

H is for Hoarded Hord of Halloween Horrors

Except none of them are remotely horrible, nor in any way horror inducing, which makes them all the more acceptable as fun figures/items you might use in gaming, or just chuck in the collection as box-ticking completers!
 
Indeed, if you want to hear something horribly frightening, or frighteningly horrible - I saw my first Christmas-lit house on Wednesday night, it's still October! And that's not including those few in our region, who have given-up taking their shite down every year, and just display a mawkish, illuminated-idea of a fantasy fairy-dell, 24-7-365!
 
I think we saw these a year or two ago, but I'm not sure if they went to eight colours last time? In The Works, and the only Halloween-related thing, of a figural nature I found there, worth a penny!
 

I shot these in Sainsbury's, but didn't buy them, as we did a whole bunch of these sets a few years ago, with various posts and comparisons between the contents, the differences between similar items, like the millipedes and such like, and I suspect these are re-issues of some of those, and I don't need them in the collection, nor the vast numbers in the bag, but I guess, for party 'scatter', they are good value. Credited here to a Rayland International.

But I did purchase this chap, about 6", so the top-end of the collection's range, and not very animated, he's a box ticker! The amount of safety information on the little card, for a single-piece moulding the length of a pencil-case ruler is daft, but that’s the times we live in!
 
TKMaxx gave-up this little gem of an eraser set, the ghost doesn't stand up, and could use a cotton-thread to hang him off something! In the Japanese, Iwako style, with multi-parts and ethylene inserts for eyes etc.
 
These are new, seen in The Range and too big a hole, for pencils, I wondered at the point of them, until I saw the boxes of glass straws! A sensible attempt to end the plastic straw problem, and invent a whole new genre of 'topper' at the same time.
 
The straws had year-round packaging, so I didn't shoot it - bad-enough I talked myself into buying straws I'd never use! - I thought, although I've since used one to get the juice out of the bottom of one of those prepared fruit-salads with separate compartments, so useful after-all, and luckily they also come with a useful straw-washing brush!
 
Also in The Range; figural 'pop-a-point' stacking coloured pencils, we saw a similar set earlier in the year, and there were others which were too big and or cartoony for the collection (similar in TKMaxx too), but these were figural fun in the smaller scale, or at least the ghosts are - box ticked!
 

Brian Berke sent these from New York, and they are definitely fun items from Forum Novelties, being those semi-sticky wall or window walkers, that jerkily shudder down flat surfaces!
 
I'd normally crop these sorts of images closer, but you can see pumpkin shaped treat-collection jars to their left, which are also quite fun, I've seen similar (in B&M I think?) but didn't shoot them.
 
I thought these were the same as the first item in the post, but bought them for the packaging variation, and the possibility there were colour variances too, only to find they were larger, but slightly less well-sculpted skeletons, in the style of, but all new mouldings. I guess the brand is Tell-a-Tale, but it's not clear, and I think I found them in a garden centre?

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

T is for Tricky Treats

I posted one of these a couple of years ago, but didn't see any last year, however, B&M managed to get another five out this year, although I ate the pumpkin without photographing it in close-up, soz!
 


Not as colourful as last time, but, like last time, I'd describe the flavours as 'tutti-frutti', yet, I did notice that they varied between the lollipops, and it would seem they are all supposed to taste different, nevertheless, there's no hint as to what the flavours are, or which lolly is which? Still in B&M, and worth looking out for instead of photographing all the piles of polymer, land-fill, shite!
 
As I entered the store, the couple ahead of me said "Oh, there's a spider on the floor" and we had a laugh about it, and as they wandered-off to look for whatever they were after, I though, it might need a good home, so rescued it from the detritus under the shelves! I think it had fallen-off one of those big polymer, land-fill, shite piles! There's a trend for 'spider's web' netting, pre-stapled with hundreds of spiders?

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

W is for White Buttons & White Ghosts

I shot the first of these in Sainsbury's a couple of weeks ago, found the second a few days later, and Brian Berke sent us the rest a few days ago, and they illustrate one of this year's Halloween trends - short, fat, stumpy white ghosts with cartoon faces!
 
The white button toys in Sainsbury's, among the only Bloggable novelties I found this year (there is another post's-worth), and technically, well, factually, they aren't white-button, they are pull-back & go, so I lied there!
 
I then found this Ghost candle (right) of similar size, both about 70mm high, in The Range, and this design of short (height-to-width ratio), fat ghosts with -  mostly - silly faces, is a real trend this year, with basically this design, found as soft toys of pillow-size, large ceramics of the TKMaxx decor-types, blow-ups and etc . . .

And these - branded to Daiso (of Japan) - are white-button's . . . I suspect, from the left, a jiggler or runner (the ghost), a jumper (the pumpkin) and, obviously, a walker Zombie? Not seen over here, maybe next year, or maybe in another region. And, we find the same basic design of the ghost, possibly with flappy arms? Thanks to Brian for the shots of this last trio.
 
Daiso/Seria seem to be a chain of 100-yen stores, like pound- or dime-stores, but a different value point, in Japan, and also operating to similar values in the local currencies of South Korea and Singapore.

Thursday, February 13, 2025

P is for Polymer Plunder Package - Everything Else!

Sadly, all good things come to an end, and this is what didn't end-up in the other folders for whatever reason! Mostly because they were mixed shots, although a fair bit of the TV/Movie stuff ended up here rather than in the sci-fi post, but, well, it's another post!
 
A Phidal dome-headed 'Mysterio' (one of the things I hate about Marvel/DC is that many of the heroes and villains are named by five-year-olds, like 1950's cleaning products, shine'o, cleanrite, rinsit, floorbrite!), a pair of Fortnite figures, the one on the left is a stamper, the one on the right might be from a key-ring, hard to tell.
 
The Archer is The Archer/Clinton Barton/Hawkeye from Marvel? The other three still have question marks, Mobile Man ?. . . Or Cellphone Man!
 
The surface of the previous shot wasn't level and I could only get two of them to stand-up by turning them round! So here they are leaning against the backdrop the tight way round! I think the chap on the left is probably a 'solid' from Kinder, they have many of these hard plastic figures, a subcategory to the dedicated collectors, and this may be a specific character, or part of a set I'm unfamiliar with, and I could try looking him up, or not worry, if you know, you already know, I'll have a session in the future ID'ing all sorts when I label them up!
 
While the red guy might be a stamper or a keyring, or another source altogether, there is a lot of this Fortnite stuff in the queue, both Peter Evans and me have located a fair bit, and it was mostly shot some time ago!
 
An Anime/Manga schoolgirl keyring, the closest match I can find are free images, but named characters with green uniforms do exist, however with green, black or red bows? Her interest here, to us, is in the over-moulding of the different colours of vinyl. She's a relief flat - which should be 2½D, shouldn't it; not quite 2D, not quite 3D!
 
Somehow escaped the military post, becase it was mixed combat and historical, I guess! A cake decoration figure, seen before here, a copy of Airfix AWI, scaled-up, two dark green versions of figures more usually seen in dung/khaki, a Marx 50mm Training Centre figure, and a premium flat ascribed to Bonnie Bilt in the 'States, a Timpo copy who might be Polish, or a BR Moulds piece, and finally a US 'comic flat' also AWI.
 
Disney bits, including two princesses, one of which may be a knock-off, a large LotR Elven archer (presumably Legolas?) from McDonald's, who apparently came without a bow, even though he's clearly firing a bow, due to 'health & safety'? The martial-arts chap on the end will be from Mulan or something similar, I haven't followed the recent releases, just become aware of them through social media or Phidal!
 
The guy on the left here is probably a driver from an omnibus/tram/streetcar model kit, someone like Pyro maybe or a smaller maker, Palmer? Someone like that? Although he's also quite Parker'esque! The heavy chunk of ersatz PVC on the right is from Harry Potter, and is a statue which came to life at one point I think, again, I haven't read or seen any HP stuff, but did get Steven Fry's excellent reading of the first book, one Easter on the Radio, years ago!
 
The small scale here consists mostly of Galoob, from pretty-much all their lines, but there's a Mattel or two in there too (Action Man or Batman villain with pistol, and the firefighter), and a Bluebird Snow White sitting on her own, while a Zizzle Cap'n Jack stalks her!
 
Kinder bits, to go in the Kinder bits zone! I think that monkey may be another from the set which included my CAD-monkey mascot! The helmet is a soft polyethylene knock-off of Lego, while I'm not sure about the large lady, but she's certainly Kinder-like enough for the shot!
 
Also Kinder, but mostly mucked-about with.
They'll go in the future project zone!
 
And bringing us to a close on these posts, the 'Halloween' shot! The two ghosts are also Kinder I think, or one of these sets we looked at a year or two ago, the spotted mushroom is a Go-Go Crazy Bone I think, not so sure on the blue (robo-elephant?) thing, while two earlier novelty flats, probably from 1970's (or earlier) Christmas crackers, finish it all off.

As always, very many thanks to Chris Smith for finding, saving and sending all this stuff to the Blog. It's not just that we get all these posts out of each parcel, with something for everyone and lots to ID, but that in the future, there will be more in specific subject posts, a better picture of everything or anything, and I am very grateful to all those who save or send stuff to/for the Blog/Archive/Collection, especially where, like the probably broken cat flat above, it might otherwise go in the bin, a first sample is a first sample, whatever the condition, so, thank-you very much Chris.

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

H is for Haversack of Halloween Horrors from Hobbycraft

Some years I do the Halloween stuff on the 31st October as if it's a sort of 'Pirate Day', but really I should post the stuff has I find it, or at least soon enough for those who want to go and look for it, to do so, so this is what I found in Hobbycraft the other day for a few quid.
 
 
It's in a net bag rather than the usual cellulose, polythene or vinyl bag, but I don't think there's any eco' message there, as it's a polyethylene net! A whole bunch of stuff for a reasonable price, I think it was only about 2.99?
 

Five large spiders and handfuls of the type of spider rings we've seen before at this time of year, in two colours; the rings are pretty-much knock-off's of those previous ones, but the large spider is a new sculpt and pretty mean-looking!
 
You also get four-each of the glow-in-the-dark skeletons, they are a bit crude compared to others, and not very 'glowy' as they are more transparent than glow-material, while the bats are pretty-much, much of a muchness!

 
However, as an addition to the various sets of finger puppets (described as 'toppers' here) we have also seen here at Small Scale World, in previous years, these are the bees knees! Although with my critic's hat on, I thought it was a bit of a swizz that there weren't two orange ones, a slight cheat there! Hobbycraft, now.

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

E is for Eerily Eatable Edibles

So, you need some energy to get through Halloween, cold nights and all that jazz, and certainly in the US, who have re-exported this nonsense to us, the bucket of sweets is everything, over here I think it's not been picked-up in the same way, we ARE a reserved lot, but I'm sure on the bigger coucil estates and affordable developements, the parents have lists of 'safe houses' or group tours . . . Luckily, the scrounging little bleeders have never come here . . . bah humbug!
 
We're not looking at normal brands with a cheap, naff, Halloween add-on wrap, but rather more dedicated stuff, which has been produced expressly for the season, and I only found two, there were larger things I wouldn't spend my hard-earned on, but these were both pocket-money, Halloweeny and figural!

So, the choccies were from Lidl, and had the taste of proper chocolate, not the veg-fat, plastic crap Mondelez are converting all our old favourites into! There were 16 figures, under the wrapper, all the same basic jelly-mould sculpt, and I assume you were supposed to get four of each, but I had a three (Dracula/vampires) and a corresponding five (ghosts)! One each of the wrappers was saved for scanning into the archive.

While these came from Morrisons and were all 'strawberry' flavour (a pretty innocuous tutti-fruity if you ask me), although the 'painted' detailing seems to have been dyed flour-paste and could be detected as bland moments on the tongue, before it was all chewed-up properly! And it was real tooth glue! Hey - we taste this shit, so you don't have to!
The bat failed to survive the unwrapping process and shot little bits of grey glass all over the floor of the flat, so that's a chunk of my deposit under threat! Fun, and given the lack of this kind of stuff, to be commended.

A is for All Hallow's Eve

So All Hallow's Day must be the 1st of November? Which makes sense as the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) is traditionally the 1st/2nd of November, although, apparently - depending on the church calendar (?) - the 31st of October can fill in, as can the 6th of Nov., or any other day between the two . . . a bit like Easter then!
 
But in America, the sweet, chocolate and toy fest chose a more rigid 31st, and that's what is slowly ingraining itself into the UK, courtesy of godless marketeers! I just wish we'd get more figures, and less straight-to-landfill-on-the-first nylon and rayon, LED-wired crap!

Although all the above is a bit of a legal technicality, as it's only just gone midnight, I'd suggest All Hallows Eve is a good twelve to eighteen hours away!

This was shot back in February, and may have been a purchase from the Clapham Junction shop I visit every Toy Fair evening, on the way home, but it might have been a donation or in a  mixed lot, I really can't remember, just a [-nother] stretchy skeleton!
 
The recent parcels from Jon Attwood had several Halloweeny things in them, among which were these superb novelty jumpers! Technically I should only collect full-figure jumpers, but once you have a few, they get a momentum (and zone within the archive) of their own, so gratefully received, and the bat is a whole bat, if hideously over-fed! One feels there's probably a pumpkin somewhere?
 
We looked at the left-hand one on ITLAPD, but I thought it also belonged here, and if I don't include the crown it will probably never be seen, and, well, Halloween is for dressing-up, why not a barbie princess! Jon repoted these were from Rinco.
 
These might also have been Rinco, Jon got them at the same time/from the same place, horror-themed erasers and/or halloweeny subjects. Although, I don't consider black cats to be anything other than normal!

My first purchase this year was a few weeks ago, it's Claire's, who have their own chain of stores for women's accessories, but this was in a supermarket, only I can't remember which one, Morrison's I think? Glow-in-the-dark skeleton earrings, too cool for seminary school!

These only came in a few days ago, courtesy of Peter Evans, about 40/45mm, and I don't know anything else about them, semi-rubbery and they would go well with the based ones Dolgen and others have been issuing these last few years at this time, but they are better sculpts, both a higher level of detailing and more realistic.
 
Peter also sent this peachy little undead parachutist fellah! Brilliant!
 
These were in The Range, and appear on the receipt as 80 Toy Spiders which is a commendable level of accuracy! We looked at some similar ones a few years ago and on that occasion all but two went to charity, this year I kept two of each, and the rest have gone to Blue Cross.
 
They have the type of bread-bag closure I used to use as Thunderbird 2 when I was a kid! Like last time, I'll cut the rings off and add them to the spider master-collection. I think the previous lot were in two colours, while these were 20-each of four.