I is for Image Dump - Gift Fair 2023 - Christmas Baubles

Taken nearly three years ago, more for my own interest, so the products of several stalls/stands, none of which I recorded the names of, so just more bauble eye-candy as we creep closer to the big day, less than four weeks now!

 

TKMaxx have had these dogs, or something remarkably similar, this year.

 

Resin

 

Pumpkin coach!

 

Bees and bee-keeping related, my late mother would have loved these!

 

Fruits, a bear and a soldier (wantone!), the now defunct Paperchase used to carry the more kitsch stuff like these fruits, but theirs were often very big.

 

Glass drops, give extra structure to the tree, and prevent layering.

And, for those who were asking, I delivered a card several days ago, because I may not see the recipients again before Christmas, and I wouldn't trust the privatised Royal Fail to deliver a turd from their own arse. 

 

The first Christmas sections appeared in stores in mid-August, and while that's ridiculously early, that's capitalism, which is also responsible for the depressing daily-news which Christmas helps us hide from for a while, especially after the quite sudden onset of Autumn this year, nothing wrong with a bit of whimsy, fantasy or tradition in one's life.

E is for Elgate - Spring Gift Fair 2025

As last, another image dump, but many more figural items on display, this year. With Scotland and Wales having a bigger presence in the various lines, and Paddington putting in an appearance!

 

Poured resin

 

Those non-sharpening pencil sharpeners again!

Not for the collection, but could interest someone? Christmas trees?

 

I've seen a boxing Kangaroo in the last few days, don't know if it was Elgate (didn't look), but they are a bit naff, fun for kids though, which is the main function of novelties!

 

 

 

Nothing of the 'piper' about them, just Guardsman on decorated pens!

 

Roman big 'ed!

 

Keyrings, might be one of the new soft/foamed rubbers? Rather in the style of the old Xandria keyrings from the Netherlands, but modern and made in China.

 

Metal keyrings, if I see the guardsman, I'll grab one for that novelty stash, but the rest can stay on the peg, being more bottle-opener than figural!

 

Egg-cups!

 

The resin parade again, and more egg-cups.

 

A 'Photoclip', what the novelty industry calls a place-name holder, when everybody likely to buy place-name holders have bought a set (or two!) of place-name holders! Also, selling them singly, results in a higher profit-margin per unit . . . and more packaging for a planet which just hasn't seen enough packaging yet.

 

The resin bears!

 

All, also seen before!

 

The big-heads have been replaced with rubber Leprechaun keyrings.

 

Nessie - die-cast Mazak/Zamak

 

Scottie-dogs and a bear!

Close-ups of the snow 'eggs', I think the thinner one is manufactured from poured-resin, the chubby chap may be plastic or a synthetic rubber compound?

 

Various Welsh Dragons in die-cast alloy or resin, mostly smallish, baby 'Game of Thrones' dragons (the die-casts), the larger poured-resin examples could be useful for Role Play, or fans of the Nottingham Mafia system.

 

Paddington!

 

Mostly novelty stuff and pretty ephemeral, but, that's given Elgate a decent presence in the Tag list, and covered most of what they have, which may be of interest, currently, but they're not the only purveyors of this kind of stuff, and we'll look at another soon.

E is for Elgate - Spring Gift Fair 2023

Having mentioned them the other day, in passing, and because their stuff is, if not actually rack-toys, at least within that pocket-money, novelty, touristy branch of the figural tree, I think it's time to clear the queue of the Elate pictures, call it an image dump!

 

The bulk of it is poured-resin 'touristicas' with a bit of plastic and die-cast in the mix, and the post is blurb-light, as it's all pretty self-explanatory. For some reason they've loaded in reverse again, keeps happening, but there's no narrative here so it doesn't matter . . . the Internet slowly getting worse, like everything else!

 

Small resin bears.

 

Bobble heads, no room for them in this collection, unless they are glow-in-the-dark aliens - nobody knows what aliens look like! And the guardsman would probably be allowed in, just because the novelty guardsmen is a side branch with a life of its own!

 

More resin!

 

Not so much pencil (or pen-) tops, as jackets or holders for replacement Biro-ink inserts, again poured resin, and when things like this come into the collection, I saw them off the long body and put them on bases.

 

Orks!

or Goblins?

 

 

Fairies, I know where a few of these ladies hang out, and they are very similar to the Pucator ones, which we saw here, when they were kicking around, about a decade ago.

 

Standard tourist fare, we've seen the pencil-sharpener figures (sans pencil sharpeners), at the time of the Queen's death, I bought a set of three, whilst navigating my way from the North bank to the South, avoiding the miles-long, whimpering queue of simple-minded sycophants.

 

The luck O' the Irish!

 

Snow-globes/snow-domes (and snow-eggs!) of Edinburgh Castle, Highland pipers &etc...

 

Nope!

 

Better! I think we've seen one in the collection now, and if not we've certainly seen several similar beasts, some courtesy of Chris Smith or Peter Evans.

 

There's a whole lot more to come on these, from this year's early Gift Fair, so I'll try to get them up tomorrow . . . .that's later today now!