I is for Interim Invertebrate Index

It must be the best part of a year or more (last Rack Toy Month?) that we saw [toy] insects here at Small Scale World, but there haven't been any or many, still enough have come in for a yearly round-up, and these are they.

I kept not buying this at 3-quid, but when it was re-anointed with a £1.50p sticker it seemed like a better idea, and it's a shed-load of bugs! From regular visitors to these pages Tobar (Hawkins Bazaar) these were actually purchased in an independent general/hardware store.

The maggots are that clammy, soft, stretchy, silicone rubber, the spider is a bit small, the fly a bit big, but the ants are fun, the glow in the dark ones cover for termites, then you have black-ants, red-ants and errr . . . . 'Red' ants! Heliotrope-crimson-scarlet-red-ants; 'slot that Commie mo'fo and put a cap in his Soviet red'ass'-ants! Too funny! Did the factory have some lipstick pigment left-over from another job?

Also, it's often interesting with these multi-lingual packagings to see what familiar things are in other languages, but usually it's only curiosity sated, however with these they are all Excellent Dude!

Creepy Crawlies is a fine phrase, it says it how it is, not like 'door', what's a door, could be anything, but creepy crawly, you know you need to look out, tread carefully, probably shudder . . . you know what I mean, yet . . . Kribbel-Krabbler? Fantastic! And the French; Horribles Bestioles . . . even better!

I don't know if it's correct but I pronounce it Hor-reeb-ler best-ee-oles, and I can think of a couple of people I'll be calling bestioles before the year's out! That Boris Johnson - he's a Horrible Bestiole!

Giants - these have come in with mixed charity-shop lots over the last eight-months or so, the stag went straight in the recycling as it was missing three feet, while the other two are even bigger and they have gone in the big-ugly-stuff tub!

Actually I think we saw the spider at Halloween last year and I re-shot it for a size comparison?

Again from a Charity-shop lot; I thought these were old Gum-ball or Christmas cracker type novelties and they may [currently] be both, but I saw them the other day (a week or so ago) on a kids comic/magazine, so they are contemporary novelties, not old ones.

Shelfie from TKMaxx about two months ago, Melissa & Doug do vinyl-rubber; a bit big, a bit bright and a bit cartoony, but a bit of paint would improve them, not enough for me to take them off the tack though!

See what I mean about the translations - interesting; but they're no Kribbel-Krabbler!

Ohhhhhh! I should have done K is for Kribbel-Krabbler shouldn't I? hey-ho! Ich bin ein braindead bestiole.

T is for Toy Fair '18 Reports - Melissa & Doug

Relatively new to me; they joined the tag-list a few weeks ago I think, Melissa & Doug are about thirty-years-old, a US firm; they opened a UK office a year ago and were stalling-out at the Toy Fair.

Their display was mostly craft stuff aimed at youngsters, and I only took the shot because we have been covering paint-your-own here recently (how they snuck into the tag-list), and once the gods have loaded you with a theme, you can but follow it until it runs out!

I didn't shoot the owl as it was very 'infant-toy'-like, so are the dinosaurs really! But fun for the kids, I didn't shoot the horses because . . .

. . . I'd already shot them as a shelfie in TKMaxx after Christmas!

Melissa & Doug have had a set of horses in the past; 'Pasture Pals', but these are simpler sculpts and almost as daft as the dinosaurs! But they're out there, they are figural and they are small scale!

Remember also; Mr. BB  sent us a couple of Shelfies of these before Christmas, so this is tag number 2 for M-&-D!

F is for Follow-up to P is for Paint Your Own

Brian Berke responding to the 'Paint Your own' posts last week; sent these shelfies to Small Scale World earlier this week! Having thought there may not be Paint Your Own's on the other side of the pond he proved himself wrong by finding Decorate-Your-Own's and produced a follow-up post into the bargain!

From an outfit called Melissa & Doug, they are a bit cartoony and judging by the paint-pots; larger than the ones we looked at the other day, which explains the similar pricing, although these still come in a little cheaper than the UK sets we looked at, but equivalence in polymer used is there to be seen!

As with the more cartoony ones last week; paint will hide a multitude of sins, as the caricature'ness of them is mostly in the expression which can be hidden. Also note that the paint-strips looks very familiar, here we get lots of useful desert colours! And the brush too, is a better one than the old stiff craft things I mentioned last time.

Sea creatures, again, fill the goggle-eyes and paint well; you'll lose the slight daftness, and a lovely choice of colours with this set.

Thanks to Brian - as always; and are there any paint-your-own (or decorate!) sets in your neck of the woods?