O is for Other Books

When I showed the new additions to the collectables' library, I mentioned a few other books I'd bought recently, half in the Alton second-hand bookshop, most of the others in Waterststones, and a couple in TKMaxx, of all places, not toy soldiery, not toy'y at all, but it gives you a better idea about who I am, or what I'm about!

 

Old Shire Albums, but specifically, the Natural History sub-set, which have more colour images than most Shire's, certainly the older ones, and looking at a small field in some detail, snails perticularly tend to get passed-by, unless they are perticularly colourfull in the shell department.

 

Same Alton shop, different day, and they had these two, even more academic works (same author on the Ants), and Hoverflies are among my favourites, there is a wide number of them, and they can differ quite a bit, even within local populations, so photographing them never gets boring . . . like is does when, for instance, you find something covered in domestic honey bees - after a few good shots, you just stop shooting them!

 

I also grabbed this, it's a truism for a lot of reference works, even military ones, the text of the old ones is better, the illustrations of the new ones is superior, and with everything in storage, I picked-up this spiral bound work, going cheap, just so I'd have something here, the best feature of it being the open/closed artwork.

 

This was the Waterstones, not that pricey, and I've since been back to get the matching volume on wild flowers, as I always get confused by all the white umbel-flowered types, some of which are deadly poisonous (hemlock), others totally safe (cow parsley).

 

This book has a good range of insects, covered in some depth, with most of the European visitors included, as assumed summer finds. Not much on the North American visitors, and I've encountered two in recent years, both beetles (longhorn and pine), blown over by storms.

 

This was a bit of fun, I think I remember it from junior-school, and nostalgia is a powerful tug on the wallet sometimes, also you can find poses, colour-ways or now debunked physical features in these early works, which you can match to specific, contemporary toys, as the sculptors or art departments used the same books!

 

I bought a batch of raffle tickets at the BMSS's annual show in Reading and won these two. Both related to post '44 France, in World War Two, you can't go wrong with Ospray, and while I tend to collect the uniform works, these will be an interesting read, and once read, can always go in another raffle!

 

The first was an impulse buy, in the Basingrad TKMaxx, only for me to find the other at Farnborough Gate's store, a week or so later. They are supposedly academic 'fan' works, looking at an aspect of the Tolkien world, comparing it to the world Tolkien lived and wrote in, and tying all the loose ends together . . . kind of things?

 

I've only briefly dipped into them, but I think they will prove interesting, and anything which simplifies or explains in a shorter-form, or in a language I can follow, all the tediousness of the post-Silmarillion books, and the 'Tolkien Universe' stuff issued by the son, is a good thing, but the fact it appears there are still five to find, has curbed my enthusiasm somewhat!

 

What triggered the impulse of the first purchase, was the feel of them, they have a sort of faux-leather, which is almost micro- or nano-flocking, so they feel soft somehow, but colder than leather, so a treated polymer foil of some kind? They also look a bit like the ancient world library I built, from Folio Society books, years ago.

 

But anyway I have them now, and with a small sub-library of Tolkien books, including a few bestiaries, and fantasy art-books, they will add to the oeuvre, and enhance the eventual auction-lot, before I leave the room permanently!

Character Games Limited is for CGL, Not GLJ!

Wouldn't want to get them confused, that could lead to all sorts of awkwardness, you would not know if you were coming or going, had seen them or not, or whether they were what you thought they were, all very confusing, what with GLJ, the makers of those cheepo Hong Kong space vehicles we've seen here a couple of times in the last few years, looking a bit like CGL! Anyway we're definitely looking at CGL in this post, not GLJ which we haven't looked-at, at all today, all day, no need to mention it really!

Shot last year on the way to storage, and what can I say about it, it's a chess-set, for chess-players to play chess with, it's modern, the pieces are a dense resin of some kind, quite heavy for the faux-ivory they are aiming at, but injected, not poured, so relatively robust and nicely detailed.

Tied into the second movie - 2002

The tray

Set-up, have I got the kings on the right colour?

All that effort on the figures and the board's a bit naff!

Boooooo! Boooooo!

Raaaay! Raaaay! Lovin' the Ents!

White wins because it's a morality tale!

Black looses because it's fiction!

N is for Nottingham Mafia

Which by now I'm sure you've worked out is my moniker for Games Workshop! It's not that I dislike them in the same way I dislike the management at Lego, and I love their products more than I love Hestair Kiddy Bricks.

But they are a bit of a cartel, and they do milk their more sycophantic followers (it's more than a fan-base, it's a cult!), and they have contributed to the inflationary drive of adult 'hobbying'. Still it's a successful strategy . . . hell, through last year's lock-downs their shares were giving better dividend returns than the best guilt-edged bonds!

Anyway, because they are self-aware enough of their failings to realise some people may have trouble investing fully in the 'franchise', all at once, at the start of the exercise, to - from time to time - issue card figures or scenic items in their magazines, to give you something to play-with/around, and here are a few of those figures.

The big blue 'Magnificent Sven' sheet came within White Dwarf magazine decades ago, I think, and you get 12 characters and a killer-wolf-dog-lion thing, all decorated in a cartoony style reminiscent of contemporary graphic novel stuff from the same era, you also get three figures and a couple of weapons to colour yourself . . . or use as wraiths!

The Lord of the Rings sheets use photographic images of someone else's professionally painted miniatures to encourage you to greater heights, they were 'army-builder' sheets in early issues of the part-work which were meant to be replaced by actual figures from later issues of the part-work.

While these four Orks (or whatever they are) are more recent, but I can't remember where/when I added them to the collection? I've probably got the details in the hand-written archive/manuscript notes and I suspect they were just taped to the cover of a White Dwarf in a little bag.

The three samples have different fixing systems, with Sven's mob and enemies being a  single sheet printed both sides with a fold-back base, giving a reversed L-shaped cross-section. The LotR and ork sets have two prints and two bases which can folded into an A-frame tent, or an upside-down T, depending on preference, the T however will benefit from a piece of scrap-card laminated to the base - dotted line - to provide the same rigidity/stability you get doubling-up the two layers on the A-frame.

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events - Saturday 12th-Friday 18th October 2019

Well Mr. Trump's economic genius is starting to look good now he's used-up the boost he inherited from Obama isn't it, toy prices going through the roof just before Christmas, blue collar lay-offs . . . meanwhile the people of Northern Syria are loving his military genius!

There really is a pee-pee video, somewhere, isn't there? He is slowly surrendering American influence in the Middle East to Russia, while slowly falling-out with Europe, yet his genius as a statesman is coming along much faster elsewhere, he's falling out with China very quickly!

Both him and Boris refusing to co-operate with their own parliaments or their own courts, and while the cats misbehave, the mice are out of control; Brazil, Hungary, Poland and Turkey, sliding into gentile fascism as fast as they can learn what to get away with, from the two blond-buffoons and their coteries!

It's tragic, but as the planets dying anyway, I suppose it's all a bit academic; something for historians to argue over before the end - I watch with bemusement and buy old toys . . .

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 12th October 2019

Chester - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs

The Cheshire Country Club Sports Club, Plas Newton Lane, Upton, Cheshire, CH2 1PR

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

10:30 - 14:30hrs

Admission £2.00

Free Parking

Hawkinge - SRP Toy Fairs

Hawkinge Community Centre, Heron Forstal Avenue, Hawkinge, Kent, CT18 7FT

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail - srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Mob. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Nottingham - Townsend Toy & Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend) - Nottingham Toy Fair

Bluecoat Academy, Nottingham, NG8 5GY

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission unknown, accompanied under-16's free

Light refreshments

Free Parking

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Sunday 13th October 2019

Kempton Park - RM Toys Ltd.

Kempton Park Racecourse, Staines Road East, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, TW16 5AQ

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 02392 381 529

Mob. - 07957 823 507 (Russell Martin)

10:00 - 15:00hrs

Admission - £4.00, seniors £3.50p, children £1.00, early bird (from 08:30hrs) £10.00

Plymouth - Events Frontier - 'Devcon' Sci-fi and Comics Convention

Plymouth Guildhall, Guildhall Square, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 2BJ

Web. - www.eventsfrontier.com

eMail - eventsfrontier@hotmail.com

Mob. - 07508 548 938

Hours unknown

Admission fee unknown

Rayleigh - SRP Toyfairs

Sweyne Park School, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 9BZ

Web. - www.srptoyfairs1.co.uk

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Stafford - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'Stafford Showground'

The Preston & Argyle Suites, Stafford County Showground, Weston Road, Stafford, ST18 0BD

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

10:30-15:00hrs

Admission £4.00 (early-bird £8), OAP's £3.50, Children £1,

Free parking

Wincanton - Toy Trac - Model Farming Show

Wincanton Racecourse, Wincanton, Somerset, BA9 8BJ

Web. - https://toytrac.xyz

Tel. - 01278 785 925

10:30-15:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Licensed bar, Disability friendly

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Auctions

Saturday 12th October 2019

[Runcorn] On-line Auction - British Toy Auctions

The Auction Centre, 9 Berkeley Court, Runcorn, Cheshire, WA7 1TQ

Web. - www.britishtoyauctions.co.uk

eMail - enquiries@britishtoyauctions.co.uk

Tel. - 01928 579 032

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Monday 14th October 2019

Lewis - Wallis and Wallis

West Street Galleries, Lewis, Sussex, BN7 2NJ

Web. - wallisandwallis.co.uk

eMail - toys@wallisandwallis.co.uk

Tel. - 01273 480 208

Fax. - 01273 476 562

General Toy Sale

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Tuesday 15th October 2019

Newbury - Special Auction Services (SAS)

Originally there was a ' Collector' sale pencilled-in for the 15th, it seems this sale is not now going ahead, replaced by a 2-day event on Tue-Wed. 29th/30th October 2019

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Friday 18th October 2019

Ledbury - John Goodwin

Bromsberrow Village Hall, Albright Lane, Bromsberrow, Ledbury, HR8 1RT (venue)

3-7 New Street, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 2DX (office)

eMail - rupert@johngoodwin.co.uk

Tel. - 01684 593 125 (office)

Tel. - 07968 694 746 (18th October only)

Viewing - Thursday 17th October 15:00-19:00hrs and morning of sale from 08:00hrs

Sale starts 10:00hrs - finish.

'Toy & Transport' sale, trains, ephemera and advertising goods

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Toy & model railways & trains

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Other Events

From Yesterday 'till Sunday 13th October 2019

Ironbridge - Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) - Brick Bridge World Record Attempt

Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire

Web. - www.ironbridge.org.uk

hands-on building with 'a market leading brand' of brick-block to create the world's longest model-bridge . . . hopfully!

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Saturday 12th October & Sunday 13th October 2019

Harrogate - Yorkshire Event Center - The Great Yorkshire Antiques Fair

Yorkshire Event Center, Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrowgate, North Yorkshire

Web. - www.eventcentre.co.uk

Antiques, vintage and collectables

Swansea - Swansea Museums - Book Swap

National Waterfront Museum, Oystermouth Road, Maritime Quarter, Swansea

Web. - www.museum.wales

1-for-1 book swap

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Saturday 12th - Sunday 20th October 2019

Hastings - Local Authority + - Hastings Week

Various locations

Web. - www.hastingsweek.com

Classic car show, town crier competition, re-enactments, parade, stalls, other events

Celebrating the anniversary of 1066's crown-change

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Sunday 13th October 2019

Theydon Bois - North London & Essex Transport Events (NLETE) - Transport Bazaar & Vintage Bus Displays

Theydon Bois Village Hall, Coppice Row, Essex, CMI6 7ER

eMail - nleevents@outlook.com

11:00 - 15:30hrs

Admission £3.00, accompanied children free

Free rides around Epping Forest.

No public car parking, refreshments, stalls etc . . .

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Overseas Events

Saturday 12th October 2019

Houten (Netherlands) - R. Hobma - Train & Rail Fair

Euretco, Houten, Netherlands

Tel. - ++0481 353 288

Toledo (USA) - John Carlisle - Ohio Collectors' Toy & Model Fair
Sylvania Exibition Center at Tam-O-Shanter, 7060 Sylvania Ave, Sylvania, Great Lakes (Toledo), OH 43560, Ohio, USA (venue location)

Old Toyland Shows, 6996 Chestnut Ridge Road, Lockport, NY 14094, New York, USA (organizer)

Web. - http://www.oldtoylandshows.com/

09:00-14:00hrs

Admission $7.00

Valthermond (Netherlands) - Martin Klein - Die Cast Fair

eMail - mailto:martin.klein@planet.nl

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Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th October 2019

Ohrdruf (Germany) - Leokadia Wolfers - Doll & Bear Show

Schloss Ehrenstein, Ohrdruf, Germnany

Tel. - ++01785 335 668

Paris (France) - Automedan - Die Cast & Tin-plate Fair

Parc Exposition Le Bourget, Paris, France

Tel. - ++++0164 465 222

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Sunday 13th October 2019

Bergheim (Germany) - J Hörner - Toy Fair

Tel. - ++0210 351 133

Dublin (Republic of Ireland) - Brian Collins Enterprises - 'Collectables Toy Fair'

Collinstown Suite, The Carlton Hotel, Dublin Airport, Old Airport Road, Cloghran, County Dublin, Republic of Ireland (Eire)

Web. - www.briancollinsenterprises.ie

Tel. - ++00353  879 827 712

[Findable on Facebook - Brian Collins]

Admission "Small charge"?

Nanterre (France) - Philippe Albaret - Eurofigurines

Espace Cheverul, 97-109 Avenue de la Liberté, 92000 Nanterre, France

Web. - www.eurofigurines.com

eMail - albaretphilippe@orange.fr

Tel. I - ++0614 611 618

Tel. II - ++0148 033 343

08:30-13:00hrs

Admission free . . . yes; FREE

The biggest show for little figures in France?

Olten (Switzerland) - Oltnerboerse - Toy Fair

Stadthetre / Konzerthsaal, Olten SO, Switzerland

Tel. - ++0627 914 289

Tournefeuille (France) - CCAM Toulouse - 'Retrojouets (Old Toys) 2019'

Salle 'La Phare', Tournefeuille, France

Web. - http://www.retrojouets.com/

Tel. - ++0561 765 607

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here -  FOR FREE  - or linked to; please eMail me -

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!

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Toys in the Media

Two action figures, almost certainly enhanced by CGI (beyond the obvious sparks) and being used to illustrate a story about sports clothing store chains and their incestuous scraps!

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Other Toy News

No real toy news this week, something about recycling Lego, in Germany I think, but I wasn't paying attention!

Missed

A toy show in Lisbon, Portugal, another in the 'States last weekend and Bertoia Auctions (today, if you're near it; Vineland, New Jersey, but a bit late now); blame the promoters!

And Birmingham . . . again! AND Phil reminded me with plenty of time But I only found his mail just now . . . blame the promoters . . . Cheers Phil, thanks for trying and sorry I missed the eMail, I hope the three of you found 'stuff'!

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Links

One hates to denigrate anything for a good cause, but I'm nothing if not constant,and have no sacred-cows, so  . . . I think the UN funded something pretty similar a few years ago, linked to here (and elsewhere at the time) so while worthy; not quite as original as made out

https://musebycl.io/advertising/mccann-made-40000-toy-soldiers-based-real-wounded-veterans

and

https://www.keyc.tv/40000-toy-soldiers-emphasize-conflicts-of-veterans-transitioning-to-civilian-life/

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H is for How They Come In

For most of the week this was it! 50p each, totally unrelated to each-other and I'm not sure if the realistic one is LotR or GoT? Or whether or not he's had his head repainted, I suspect it's something-omire, the bad one who dies coming good, saving the little 'Blooody' Hobbits from the Forlorn Hope!

While the fox may be Phidal, is marked Disney but isn't the one from Peter Rabbit, isn't the one from the cartoon Robin Hood, isn't the one at war with a bird ('cos he was a coyote anyway and not Disney), looks far too laid-back to be trying to eat three little pigs and isn't the other one so must be another one?

Then I had a bit of luck today (Thursday); another LotR figurine, this one an elf, via McDonald's and a resin Teddy Bear playing cricket . . . why not! Legolas hasn't got a bow so he may have been part of a larger 'interactive' firing-toy/premium/freebee thing?

Giant knights marked China also came in at the last minute, they have certain similarities with some of the past output of Pioneer, Soma or Supreme, and are probably from some big-box generic thing shoved through TKMaxx or one of the Department Store chains at Christmas, maybe with a slot-together card fort or wooden thing?

23rd April 2020 - Now known to be Red Box from a castle playset 

In addition to the above bits, a bag of stuff for a future post was purloined (or sorted out from the large rubber knights) and a little thing was put to one side against a specific job!

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Other Stuff

The staff behaved herself this week, only because there weren't any boxes involved in the week's blogging activities, she did sit on Thursday's bag! But I caught a couple of insects with stories attached.

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I noticed this creeping very slowly across the bedroom ceiling the other morning and managed to get it to drop into a jar. I suspect it's more of a maggot than a caterpillar (they're all larvae), flies tend to find bodies in the eves (bats, tit-birds or pigeons), and the odd maggot finds a way into the house (we once had them raining-down on the patio at the place in Berkshire!), so, as the weather has turned now, I put it in the compost heap as I figured it would be warmer, and it would find something to eat as it must have used too much energy getting to where it was to successfully pupate? I just hope I haven't saved a clothes moth!

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This was caught in a spider's web outside the bedroom window on Wednesday, and with the sun behind it I could only make-out a stripy belly and couldn't work out what it was. I got the high steps and the longest cane I could find and managed to get it free, whereupon it fell on the sill, bounced and fell on the bay-window, bounced and fell on that sill, bounced and fell again, onto the paving, bounced and finally ended up in the undergrowth next to the drive, still wrapped in a few strands of the web!

It quickly freed itself though, once it had terra-firma to brace against, and clearly wasn't something a spider would normally tackle; The garden spiders set up these big sail-webs at this time of year and the various Atlantic squalls rip them to shreds every few days, but so do large insects like this, bumble-bees or hornets, who just fly through them with what sounds like threats if they get temporarily caught.

The problem was that in part breaking-free it'd been left hanging on a few threads with nothing to brace-against to break the last few strands as it'd fallen in-line with the brickwork, leaving a gap to the glass pane, so it was just swinging there waving its legs about!

It's not in the book, but I suspect a capsid of some kind, or mirid-bug relative, having some features of them and some shared with the related shield-bugs, but it has an elongated head and was big, well-over an inch in the main, more than two at full leg stretch. Possibly blown-in by this string of weather-fronts we've been having . . . Europe or North America?

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