About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

V is for Vanity Case

Here's something completely different. I was in TKMaxx the other day, still looking for the broken astronaut - I don't think that's going to happen! And I discovered they had some aftershave gel, a rarity these days, common as muck fifteen years ago, but bloody-hard to find these days (possible subject of a future rant), and while grabbing that, saw these;
 
Now, my first thoughts were, why on earth would young-men today, feel the need for a set of tools such as these? In the age of hot & cold running water, exfoliating facial scrubs and textured cloths, sponges, loofahs, pumice-stones and Japanese scrubbers, why would you subject yourself to medieval instruments, last seen in Edwardian bathrooms? My second thought (I'm not interested in the answer to the first), was five-quid for ten useful sculpting/fine-modelling tools?!! Take my phuquing money!
 
Ideal for sculpting Plasticine or modelling materials such as air-drying clay or Milliput, fine etching, particularly in plastics, and getting old paint out of tight folds and undercuts in otherwise stripped figures, and at a pound a tool, a bargain, I thought!
 
To which I've added these, mostly inherited from a bathroom which did have it's origins in the Edwardian era (my Mother's), although I suspect the two twisty ones (silver, or silver-plate) may be pipe-cleaning tools, subsequently used as tooth-picks? Below them are a strange, small, bladed-tool and a more conventional nail file, cleaner and quick-shaper, in ivory - I think? With a steel insert.
 
The former may be a surgeons bone knife? A once very sharp blade and now equally blunt chisel-end, but both thick, heavy blades, on a short, possibly stainless-steel, but substantial handle, suggest the finishing of bone, after amputation? While, on the subject of bone, I feel if the nail-file was bone it wouldn't hold that curved point, or the fine scoop for pushing back quicks, in the way the finer material presented by ivory can?
 
Anyway, they will be going in with the modelling tools, for what's left of my natural term! I wonder who else has unconventional modelling tools?

Thursday, September 4, 2025

I is for Irreverence!

Time for another collection of Internet memes I've sidled away for such a rainy day, and it was a very rainy day today! I nearly published than last night, but gave up and went and did something else, somewhere else (photographed toys), however I found the last one, just now on Faceplant, and it spurred me to action!
 
Can't shoot, won't shoot!
 
The revenge of Tim Mee was brutal!
 
There are several R2D2 one's like this kicking about, but Bungle is priceless!
 


Noooooooooo!
 

I love his grin!
 
One of my oldest friends is taking parcel after parcel of HO-OO stuff in, for his brother, so the brother's wife (no names, no pack-drill!) doesn't cotton-on to how bad it's got, they are both in their 60's, so it's no great crime, but I immediately thought of them when I saw this!
 
Ooops!
 

Hot off today's internet, I thought the following comment, from a Gary Karst deserved to be wider-shared;
 
"It's commemorating the courageous efforts of the U.S. Army Corp of Landscapers in this underwhelming battle. Semper Ficus."

Sunday, June 8, 2025

News, Views Etc . . . PW Feedback

So, 4am here, and I've run out of puff, sorting the plunder pile! Yeah, I had a snooze earlier! There were three new Plastic Warrior Special Publications launched at the show this year, and the embargo has been lifted on them being announced, so they are:

A brief look at VP, not much added since the last issue, but all now in full colour for the first time, which with the sister volume . . .

. . . on UNA, means all five (Kentoys, Speedwell, Trojan) of the problematic Britains/Timpo-copy Khaki Infantry issuers have now been updated and colourised, I think? 

While this overview of Poplar Plastics, and it's relationship with Thomas, is also an update of a past title, with much more added, and again, in colour for the first time. They areare available separately for varying prices, or all three are in a bundle for £15:00, but I don't know how long that offer will last, before they revert to individual list items, or one of them runs out, so get your order in now!
 
 
 
eMail - pw.editor3@gmail.com (pw.editor@ntlworld.com)

Tel. - 01483 830 743
 
********************************** 
 
Peter Cole and his label Replicants had a 40th Anniversary (of Plastic Warrior magazine) figure, and four pairs of English civil War cavalry on his tables.
 


In a departure for Replicants, there is a new horse with separate base a' la Britains/Timpo, and the 40th Anniversary figure is of a spy, saboteur or 5th columnist, with headphones, using a morse-sender/receiver, in a suitcase. Whether this is a metaphor for PW's revelations on the secrets of plastic toy soldier production over the years, I didn't ask, but it seems apt! He may, of course, just be getting the football results?
 
********************************** 
 
Graham Apperley reminded me he has a Blog now, which I had read on Brian Carrick's pages, but forgot to action, so this is the URL:
 
 
Away from the show, Tom also has a new blog:
 
 
and sent me a link to an interesting 3D print source for civil/railway figures:
 
 
And I'm hoping to get commenter John's Blog-link shortly. 
 
 
It's nice to see a resurgence in Blogging, especially in our field.
 
It was a fantastic show as always, and credit is due to Paul, Peter and Brian for putting it on, I don't know when I'll get the plunder posts out as there's a ton of stuff in the queue before it, even if I get stuck back-in, which I'm not sure I'm ready to, but it'll all be here in the end!

Friday, June 6, 2025

N is for Not Really Sociable at the Moment!

I'm not 'people'ing' right now, too much other shit going on, but I will be my usual cheery self tomorrow, at the world's best Toy Soldier show, being the . . .

Usual contact details and travel stuff from the usual sources:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PlasticWarrior?fref=ts
Blog. - http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.com/
eMail - pw.editor3@gmail.com (pw.editor@ntlworld.com)
Tel. - 01483 830 743

. . . and Brian posted all the relevant details a while ago.

And, given the success I had last year, pre-mentioning the need for a blue astronaut/paratrooper, this year I'm hoping to find . . . No; you don't tempt fate!

Here's some eye candy for stuff you may find though, and I will get round to answering comments/eMails, next week if I can.

Airfix window display, circa 1949!

Thursday, February 20, 2025

News, Views Etc . . . Blogging

You wait ages for one and then two come along together! As well as a bit of a post-fest here, I've been posting elsewhere two;

 
♫♪♫ Cap-Tin Scar-Lurt! Hees In-Di-Struc-Tabul♪♫♪

I've added quite a bit to the following posts on the Airfix Blog
 
ACW Artillery
 
Cowboys
 
Guards Band
 
Guards Colour Party
 
 
 
I've also added three posts to the But is it Giant Blog, which, with the first being published on the 15th, was, I think, before the recent flurry of Giant-related posts elsewhere, always better to be found leading than following!
 
 
And there's more to go on both Blogs in - hopefully - the near future!

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

News, Views Etc . . . Blogger?

Haven't had one of these for a while!
 
Trying to find the Kennedy space set on Ed's Blog, now found here (cheers Robert) - https://toyconnect.blogspot.com/2012/06/marx-4625-action-cape-kennedy-carry-all.html - I found his Tags were stuck at Hing Fat, mine are stuck at Maerklin, I hope this is a Blogger/Google thing, and that they are working to fix it, the other day my Tags were stuck in the B's, so they seem to be making progress, it only seems to be affecting those who have adopted the marginal, linier, alphabetical-list format, people with blocks or the random size-for-number ones (cloud/frequency stuff) seem unaffected? But for now, you'll have to use the search-box, which is quite good, I often use it myself!
 
Also, might as well remind you now - Sandown Park's Toy fair on Saturday! Be there or be unable to spot the bargains!
 
Random toy shot!
 
I bought these back in March '23, and never got round to Blogging them! They are part of a long-queue project to look at all these! Interestingly, the bright-coloured and white ones are soft polyethylene re-issues, dating between the originals and the Glenco set. While the dung-green one is a hard polystyrene version of the usually soft Hong Kong copies!
 

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

A is for Advent Calendar

Another occasional regular at this time of year! B&M was the only place I found doing a cheapie generic, with the sort of non-licenced or product-placed chocolates I consider traditional, although they were an import from the continent in the mid-1970's, quite exotic to us kids, back at the time!
 
My own 'hopes' for the coming year are best not divulged right now, although you may get to read them in the next few days, but, yeah, I wish you all the best for what promises to be one of the most interesting years of my entire life, probably the most entertaining too, but happiness may be in short supply for most!


Wednesday, December 18, 2024

C is for Colouring In!

Mentioning - as I did earlier - circa-1975 colouring books, this is dated 2024!
 


Note the rockets! I popped into McDonald's back in the spring, and found a bunch of these left on one of the tables, presumably some kid's party had been and gone, anyway, the girl cleaning the floor said I could have one if I wanted, so I did!
 
In my dotage I may even have a crack at it, but with proper pencils rather than the supplied set of four wax-crayons, (ham-fisted, for the use of), which bear a remarkable resemblance to those seen from Henbrandt in a previous post here at Small Scale World.

Saturday, November 30, 2024

C is for Confirmatory Communiqué

I had an email from the Command Centre at PW Towers, courtesy of the editor himself; Paul Morehead, earlier today, with a firm date for the next Plastic Warrior Toy Soldier Show at Twickenham (Whitton), next year:
 
It's a bit later than previous shows, but won't clash with Sandown Park, while for those who don't do Sandown, it'll give you another Month to save-up plunder-funds! It'll be the best show of the year!
 
Brian's posted all the relevant details, and I'll probably do something similar nearer the time. It'll be the 40th aniversary of Plastic Warrior magazine too!
 
Paul also sent me an image which shed more light on the Lilliput shop-stock box we looked at the other day, with a final contents-total, so thanks are due for that!

Saturday, October 12, 2024

News, Views Etc . . . London Show Tomorrow

Well, this is new, I was going to write 'weird', but it's not really weird, just 'new', I'm coming at'cha from a car-park on an industrial estate having paid 4.99 for an hour's internet, which seems excessive but that's end-stage capitalism! However, I happen to have an hour to spare, and remembering to tell you about this at midnight, would be a tad late!
 
Going to give the London antique toy fair a go tomorrow, I suspect it will all be wooden games. barley-twist marbles, balding Teddy Bears and old dolls, but there might be something of more interest, and it beats sitting at home avoiding showers, and definitely beats going to work!
 
Kensington Town Hall
Hornton St
W8 7NX
 
October 13th 2024
 

Sunday, September 15, 2024

L is for Late Show Report - Odds & Sods

Getting towards the end of the plunder posts from May's Toy Solder show in Whitton/Twicker's, and it's the bits and pieces which didn't really belong in any of the other posts, but there's a few interesting things among the detritus, dingbats and doobries!
 
Vehicle parts and hand-tools; these will all go to the spares zone until needed/matched with their owners, although of course I know the searchlight mount is Airfix and the horse furniture is Lone Star. The larger machine-gun is actually a copy of the early Airfix one from the Attack Force APC.

I think the two hands are from a Koala bear stuffed toy, they could be from a similarly described mole, but there was a range of tourist keepsake Koala's back in the 1960's, where the Koala's were stuffed rigid; more like taxidermy, rather than 'cuddly', and I suspect these hands are from one of those? We looked at a similar Kiwi from across the straits, here.

Mostly Christmas cracker charms and similar novelties, probably from the very cheapest crackers, or the mini 'tree decoration' crackers. The blue thing I don't know, the khaki piece - some kind of removable hatch from a vehicle or building, with a couple of larger novelties and an old Toy Show badge.
 
I seem to have a large tub of toy show badges, both my own 'earned attendance' examples and a bagful from Brian Carrick, once, and there's a quandry as to what to do with them as they slowly gather in an ever growing pile, they have the nostalgia of past shows, but no real use?

This was in one of the donation bags, and is interesting for being an obviously early piece of plastic, clearly a dolls house item, and it will need careful paint-stipping, there is a sprung-loaded mechanism, which allows the baby chair to switch between rocker, low chair and high-chair, for meal times and has a built-in potty! It's un-marked, and obviously I don't collect this stuff, but it clearly has some historical value, which is probably why it was given to me?
 
Large, rigid, foamed-rubber (or a similar material) scenics, I think they are modern, possibly Early Learning Centre (ELC) or a similar source, and certainly scaled for the larger figurines, they will nevertheless prove useful as future photo-props or display back-drops.

A few more scenics, there's a whole box of the orange log-cabins somewhere, and a growing post on them in the queue, as they come with or without paint, in two sizes, and from several 'names' as well as many generic sets, we saw them here previously in a Pikit Toys set, I think?
 
Lego bush/shrub, a Hong Kong poplar tree which has been home-painted, a pond in need of a railing, and a railing from something else, a vehicle, I think?

 
In Brian C's bag were these glass-tablet WHW tokens, not military, they consist of two from a set of landmark buildings, and a pair of runes, from that set. Ironic, as, being runes they are of interest to lexicographers and etymologists, but, they - the runic symbols - were, by the time of the set, being bowdlerized to provide iconography for the Nazi party and it's war-machine, with various civil and paramilitary unit formation signs, logotypes and SS divisional/unit flashes being based upon the old Nordic runes!
 
Both sets seem to come in many colours of glass, and a couple of variations of paint/layout/final decoration, so we can assume several glassworks were involved, either over time, as separate//repeat issues, or just in providing the hundred's of thousands, or millions, necessary for such a promotion.

These - from Trevor - must be from those mini tree-crackers, they are officially the smallest-scale item in the collection now, I believe, and while I have obviously, and absent-mindedly, placed Admiralty Arch upside down (I initially thought it was a crude 'White Tower' I think!), the icons of London's skyline are pretty clear, with St. Paul's Cathedral, The clock-tower for Big Ben and Tower Bridge being included in a set of otherwise unknown number.

Obverse and reverse of the Lone Star horse furniture from the articulated draft-house we saw here, with my earlier (brown plastic), damaged, collar compared to the new, complete one, and the non-seating saddle for cart/wagon/implement poles.

Many thanks again to Adrian Little, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Chris Smith, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul Stadinger, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, for contributions to this year's plunder-pile.

Sunday, August 4, 2024

I is for I Think I'm Back . . . But for How Long?

So . . . the light finally expanded to fill the view, as I escaped the tunnel, but there is the small matter of another tunnel ahead, the find-buy-move tunnel, which I'm sort of ignoring for a few weeks because I just need a breather! Having Asperger's, I find it all very stressful, it's too complicated and multilayered to compartmentalise in the way autistic's need things to be, we like logical steps, not multiple layers of chaos!

And it's funny, because while I sort of think, or like to think I'm going to blog it all one day as a warning/guide to others, the fact seems clear that, A) everyone's been here, and B) having escaped/moved on, there is a tendency to never revisit it all, so it remains a mystery that each person has to experience anew!

Plenty of people will - after the event - come out with "I could have told you that", or . . .

"That happened to me/us"

"HMRC always do that"

"Watch the agents, they all prioritise the buyer"

"Where there's a will, there's a relative"

. . . and a hundred other epithets, but . . . nobody comes to you at the start and warns you about any of it! I don't think I've properly grieved for my late Mother, I haven't had time, nor for Boysey-Boy, who died last October, or even his mother who started the miserable sequence in the autumn of 2020, so a stable situation which had existed for about ten-years has left me in a dodgy bedsit, after two expensive weeks in a Holiday Inn, with three container storage units, girding my loins for house-hunting, something I've never done and don't know where to start with!

In the meantime, the local foxes have decided to use my car as their new lookout . . . oh Christ! What have they done to the image-upload system? You take three weeks off and everything changes . . .




And this was after a dry night, last week, so god knows where it/they got all that muck on their feet, but one feels a marker was put down, so I haven't cleaned it!
 
Also, we are obviously in Rack Toy Month, for which I haven't got much lined-up, and while there is the stuff carried-over from previous years, I will probably find the same procrastinatory reasons to carry them over again! Moreover, I have all the Chris Smith donation stuff, Plastic Warrior show stuff and some stuff from Peter Evans to post, so I'll just dive in with a mix of articles. Brian Berke has also sent some nice things to the Blog, and new names from the readership have sent 'follow-up' material (Christmas cracker rings, Monogram Pocket Force and home-casting moulds), so there's plenty in the near-ready queue!

And many thanks to Adrian, Gisby, Tim and Jan for showing concern over the last few months, and Paul and John for favours; you find out who your friends are when you're going through the mill, and they certainly aren't on fucking Moonbase! Hay-ho, still; 'sincerest form of flattery' and all that, and I'm not the only blog who seems to be providing them with ideas! While a hatchet was buried on the 18th May!

So, watch this space again, I'll try to post something later tonight, but I have to go and move plant-pots now . . . still a few loose-ends!

Monday, April 8, 2024

O is for Ornamental . . . Forts, Palaces and Shrines

The same funny-little four page AHM catalogue/trade update, also had the first shot here, showing five of the initial six Ornamental Shrines from Funimimokei (better known as just Fujimi), which reminded me I had some more somewhere, so another lazy-post was born!
 










 
I think the AHM is about 1968, the loose-leaf trade catalogue from Fujimi is the 1970/71 one, and the last page, mostly forts/palaces is from the 1985 (or 1995?) retail catalogue, but the beauty of them is the nature of the architecture means they can be used as war-gaming accessories, even if the scale's off! Or the parts can be used to make smaller structures in figure scales?

I also love the quirk of a Japanese model-kit company making a replica of the Coronation crown! Question is, would it fool the Yeoman Warders long enough to get the original melted-down and fenced to 'Fast Eddie'?