F is for Feelin' Feline!

An obvious title, I'm surprised I haven't used before now! We actually had a roundup of cat stuff not that long ago, and while half the stuff in this post is recent, some of it was found elsewhere in the unused archive!

A largish resin lump I picked-up at a charity shop back in '22, made by Sheratt & Simpson, I guess it's from one of those overpriced series of such stuff in jeweller's windows? But it's a reasonable sculpt, and when £20-something becomes 50p or similar, I ponce . . . like a cat!

Boysy-boy eyeing it with a modicum of suspicion! I still miss him every day, his weight on the end of the bed, his little complaints when he thought he ought to have a treat! But I miss both his Mum's too, and that's the burden of getting to this age, dealing with more and more death, in one's life.

Large Japanese blow-mould, marked on the other side with a three-leaved clover mark, and Japan in ink, and moulded on the body.

This is a modern set from Shing Hing, the people who brought a four-nation 'army man' tub to Smyths a few years ago. There's a lack of imagination in the decoration, but otherwise they are reasonable sculpts for a rack-toy type thing.

Three from Schliech, we looked at five back in October and I think two are duplicates, but the Egyptian-looking one is a definite paint variant, and the long-haired Persian is a new addition.

They are no better as cat's, than they were as dog's, who buys this shit?

Shelfied in Home Bargains.

Oh . . . I do! I actually grabbed these at Waterloo yesterday, a series of mini-adventures I could have done without - Travellers closing Charing Cross, football hooligans, and cancelled trains - led to my browsing the 'boutiques' on the new mezzanine, and I thought these were particularly stupid! The cord already hangs over the side of the vessel, how is a cat's tail going to make any difference, or improve things, one iota?

I found they preferred to sniff the fumes of sloe gin!

What? It's Christmas! 

R is for Retro Kitsch

The theme we've been revisiting all year, in fact the initial post was last autumn, so it's been over a year! NASA-type astronauts of a cartoony design with rockets of a retro, playroom wallpaper style! TKmaxx seasonal shelfies, I took these weeks ago, and I think they're all sold out now, not something I'd give house-room to, but a fun addition to the trend.

 

Delivering gifts!

 

Scraping the inside of the glass dome!

 

Regolithball fight!

 

I hope they haven't sold-out of these, as I would hope my fellow Brit's have more class, sense, taste and decency, than to spend a tenner on this shite, but I know I'm deluding myself, and Tanyachelle from Essex has already put them on the fridge! Nasty.

S is for Season's Shelfie Summery

Recently shot shelfies, nothing exceptional, just a few things shot over the spring/summer, which either missed other shelfie posts, or have only been taken recently, and typically after a couple of weeks of behaving itself, Blogger just unloaded them in reverse-order, so the less interesting ones are at the end now!

 

Shot in Poundland about a week ago, as with all similar shots, it's against future ID's, although they look familiar, and are probably under several brands already going back a decade or so, here 'Gear Box' with a Maisto/Jada style 'die-cast' cartouche!

 

I don't think I've had the Peppa Pig 'Busy Book' from Phidal here yet, but knowing these Tattle Tales are only half a set or less, I wasn't about to start now. Interestingly, I think this was in Morrisons, up at Elvetham Heath, near the DVD's!

 

The Works, thematic Lucky Bags, I did get a test purchase, which will get a post, but it was disappointing, as these things always are these days, human progress disappeared in a miasma of disinterest and rip-offery, years ago!

 

Currently, or still (I shot this in April) in B&M, and again, it's to ID insects in mixed lots years form now, and not something which came home with me, although, it's nice to see old favourites like fake poo, whoopee-cushions and snapping-gum are still of interest to modern kids!

 

Also April, TKMaxx, and it's a bunch of hares and rabbits (arbitrary ear-length!) in ceramic, got shot in passing, and should have been in one of the Easter posts, really!

 

The rest, all figurals, were shot with the cats we saw the other day, all in TKMaxx, all in the catering section, with bag-clips, bag-ties, tea-diffusers, a banana-tree and a fun potato-peeler!

W is for Wrangling Cats

Blimey, five out of the last six posts had a space theme, and the other was a political rant! If I'm not careful, I'll have to change the Blog's name to Spacebase One or something! So to save myself from that fate, here's a complete change of direction with a roundup of recent moggie-related purchases, and other such feline fun!

 

A white button jumping Tiger; I can't remember if it came from a charity shop or something more commercial, but seem to recall it was the only one of its kind in a basket with duplicates of a couple of other animals, so probably commercial a purchase, and I don't seem to have noted the brand, picked-up last August ('24).

 

Smyths had a whole bunch of the Schleich cats, the same month, so I grabbed one of each to tick that box firmly into the 'got' camp, possibly the best attempts at ginger-tabbies you'll find, and no horrid bald, wrinkled or skinny Human-ego breeds.

 

Last February I picked this up in Hobbycraft, thinking I might do something with it one day, I have some very small mosaic tiles, silver-backed, coloured glass, left over from some Art School project back in the early 1980's, which might look fun, if a bit kitsch, glued to this Papier Mâché foundation?

 

Left on the peg; but shot in TKMaxx back in March, you have to be some kind of hardcore cat-obsessive to buy some of this stuff, but it's fun, and figural, so I'll always get the camera out, when I see such things! Made by Joie, Kikkerland and unknown.

 

Back to Schleich, and this was on clearance somewhere, probably the Redfields garden-centre in Church Crookham? Schleich do these odd coloured animal finishes from time to time, to celebrate or commemorate things, either Schleich-related (90th year anniversary in this case) or something in the wider-world, and I think I shot a similar one at a London Toy Fair, which may not be on the Blog yet? They also do all-gold versions sometimes.

 

Definitely from Redfields, the Papo ginger-tabby, is not finished as well as the Schleich's, but is still a good effort at a difficult fur-type, and a nice sculpt, with plenty of character!

 

Toe Beans!