R is for Rubber Round-up

I don't know when 'eraser' replaced 'rubber' or why, I vaguely remember the new wave of European rubbers from Pelican, Staedtlar Norica, Rötring and co., coming to the UK at some point in my childhood with 'eraser' on their little card wraps, and while much better that the old India-rubber ones which seemed to be made of either wood-pulp (the pink 'pencil' rubbers) or recycled sandpaper (the 'ink' rubbers)* I wondered at the need to change the name, after all they rubbed stuff out didn't they?

I ask because for a while they were interchangeable words or terms, but these days rubber is rarely used, and when listing on auction sites, or tagging on Blogs 'Eraser' is supreme and 'Rubber' carries the slightly giggly baggage of French Letters and English Overcoats!

* While ink rubbers had a tendency to drill holes in your exercise book, they weren't as vicious as 'typewriter rubbers' which seemed to be made from recycled concrete!

Anyway - as the trope of 'A is for . . . ' I stuck-with years ago continues ad nauseum (it was going to be a quick single run through the alphabet and then more normal post titles) it gets harder to find title-words which haven't been used for those things which keep coming-up.

All of which is a overly long-winded intro for bugger-all's worth but it's also sometimes hard to find an intro paragraph in a fuzzy brain . . . and it gets us to picture one!

As a follow-up to January's football mini-season, Terranova sent me this image of another Amscan rack-toy which - if nothing else - is fun! But it's also useful! I suspect the bar-hole that appears to run through the shoulders is designed with the placing of a pencil in mind, for the playing of school-desk-table-bar-football!

Brian also sent this which is similar to a set of four we looked at a couple of Christmases ago as a shelfie from Basingrad, but I think this chap is larger and more angular? Obviously one of four, he is distributed also by yesterday's new tag; MZB, as Imaginations this time, not Inc. He may be the same in individual packaging though, I can't find the images now, but will check when I upload the post!

Really meant for TLAP Day, but we can return to look more closely at the figures then; I picked this up in Woking on Tuesday in an end of January Sales clearance sale in Paperchase, in April??!! There's no way I'd give you four-fifty for a half a palm-full of erasers, but one-fifty? . . . Bargain!

Brian also found these . . . how f*****g cool are these? These are too cool for the International Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol School, that how cool! Imported into North America by the regulars here; Greenbrier (USA) and DTSC (Canada) I've got my eyes peeled until they hurt so's not to miss them if they turn-up this side of the pond!

Soldiers and erasers, erasers that are soldiers; "Rub him out Private!", I'd like to think my work here is done, but this is the Internet and you're only as good as your last post, so - more to come! And thanks to Brian for most of these.

P is for Pencil-Perched Poppets

Not really Erasers, but you may have noticed by now that I try to do a larger post in mid-morning and a smaller one in the early afternoon, scheduled times are aiming for nine-thirty and half-past noon, but it's a movable feast, and 'subject to change', so having looked at the pretty-reasonable 'dinorasers' this morning we're sticking with stationary for this rather shite post!

Look at them; they're shite, aren't they? Don't ever think that just because I post it I must collect it, but I am a collector and if something comes in with a mixed lot and looks to have potential for a blog-post, or to enhance a thematic post, I'll run with it! And there are dedicated collectors of both erasers and pencil-tops out there; today's posts are as much for them as anybody.

They are very small, with holes that normally wouldn't take a pencil, however, they are made from a soft silicon-rubber and stretch over most 'normal' writing instruments. There seems to be more than one set's contents here, with characters from various Disney films, although aimed firmly at the pinky-purple pound - being all from the 'girly' films!

There is also - one assumes - at least one metafleck'ed transparent set, from which the castle comes, The other glassy item (next to the pencil sharpener) is I suspect damaged and missing anything which may have been a clue to its identity other than 'squashed cone' or builders safety-hat!

Backs are marked and branded to MZB Inc., a New York based importer/jobber also called MZB Imaginations LLC. You can see how they squidge-over the ends of the pencils, becoming slightly portly in the process. And . . . err . . . that's it.

This guy has an equally small hole and is made of similar material, I think he may be an earlier tranche of moshling, or zomling or something - there seems to be dozens of the same kind of pocket-money, blind-bag collectable around at the moment, with more released over the last few years. But he's not marked, most are marked Moose or Magic Box or something, this chap is 'clean'.

The oft-mentioned - back in the autumn - post on the subject is still in the pipeline, but A) it's not a priority and B) it keeps getting added to, which far from making things clearer - makes them more confused! But I will do a brief 'overview' at some point.

This came in half an hour ago in a mixed lot (Friday A.M.); not so much of a 'find' as a 'waited-in and signed-for'! Soft PVC or similar, marked 'China' in the bottom of the recess and a little smaller than Britains' earlier moulding, it's obviously pretty current, but fun! I imagine zoo gift-shops have a selection of animals on [writing] sticks?