E is for Edibles, Seasonal Edibles!

One of the few tropes not copied from Small Scale World by the two P's is our occasional look at edible figurals (it's only a matter of time, I'm sure!), and spellchecker hates the word, so, from Merriam-Webster: "of, relating to, or consisting of human or animal figures.".

 

So, a quick trip in time, back to Easter (Yes, I AM behind, but that's only because there's so much stuff in the queue!), and I picked these up from TKMaxx, a pound-thirty, it would have been rude not to! Chocolate bunnies, when we were kids Granny would always give is the little sets of five Lindt animals, and it triggers a certain nostalgia button, whenever I see such things, even if they are taller, thinner and not so Lindt'y!

Also from Easter, KitKat bunnies! Years ago (2007?) we had a taste-test on the difference between UK and US KitKat; one of my American colleagues wouldn't believe ours were better than theirs, so we had a blindfold tasting, in the office, after her mother sent her a US bar from New York, the UK bar won hand's down! I now think whichever corporate giant owns KitKat (Nestle I think) has adopted the cheaper US recipe, and there's no difference, the same blandness of that vegetable fat filler leaving one slightly disappointed?

And so to the season at hand and first purchase (we buy these nice treats so you don't have to!) was a Penguin 'cracker', actually following-on from the recent card-bus post, I wanted to see what was available these day, specifically from Double Decker, the answer was zilch, but I did find this!

 

A standard Penguin bar and a little pack of chocolate biscuits shaped like penguins on the other side, as the whole trope of Penguins is that they are covered in chocolate, these are hardley they? Still out there.

Maltesers are following the KitKat route with small figural versions of themselves, to be honest this was more like the KitKat in texture than a Malteser, but the mint version was yummy . . . Chocolate venison! Still out there.

There will now be an intermission while we ignore figurals and get pissed in the foyer! A seasonal treat in our house was a shot-glass of 'egg-nog', which started when I was too young to remember, probably helped us sleep until Santa had been? Drugging kids - top-parenting for generations!

 

Later, as younger teenagers, when Dad would take us down to Bavaria to do navigational or survival exercises with the Special Forces, one of the treats was going to the 'Huhnchenhause' in Neuhausen-ob-Eck, where we would get drunk on Phauenbrau, have a Chicken-and-chips bar-meal while ignoring the smell of the livestock overwintered downstairs (you became immune to the stench of manure after about 20-minutes, or the end of your first beer), and finish-off with an egg-nog, or a cherry-brandy, before the walk-home through piled snow and the hard frosts they have down there, under clear, starry-skies!

 

If the divorce judge had known what was going-on, I'm sure he would have put a stop to it, but I'm glad he didn't, as I had a late-childhood like nobody reading this, and I wouldn't change it for the world, not even crying with the pain of digging a snow-hole without gloves, we'd been told we'd be sleeping in that night! We didn't, we retreated to the Knorrhütte for more egg-nog, albeit with the smell of sweaty-socks and B/O replacing Neuhausen's cattle!

 

Anyway, so when I saw this Polish Wawel confection, going cheap in Morrison's cheapie/end-of-line/experimental foreign-lines display, I had to try it! It wasn't particularly egg-noggy, nor terribly alcoholic, but I finished it in one sitting, which I think can be taken as a vote of confidence and seal of approval, from here, anyway!

We've seen these before, but not with perforations and gift tags, I think? Lindt bears, in Christmas jumpers! They are not the same as Granny's sets of five, which were relief-flat solids, these are rotary-moulded 'hollow-casts'!

These appeared in my Faceplant feed the other day, an independent chocolate company; Chococo, who make all sorts of figurals, in milk, plain, white and caramel chocolate, so I collaged a bunch of them for the blog!

 

We've got fish, owls, dinosaurs, robots, frogs, gorillas, mice and sea life, and that was a few minutes searching! You can - of course - get lots of these moulds nowadays, in Hobbycraft or similar ( or Amazon/evilBay), and quickly set yourself up as a bespoke chocolatier!

Because I'd clicked on a bunch of Chococo's thumbnails, the Faceplant algorithm decided I was in need of even more tooth-rot, and started sending me links to every Tom-Dick-&-Harry firm doing the online 'your childhood favourites' sweet shop thang, so I grabbed a few more screenshots before marking all the posts 'unwanted'!

All the old favourites are here - pink and white 'sugar' mice, jelly snakes and less traditional deer, mini Lindt-bear knock-offs, caramel gingerbread men, mallow or jelly Santa's and 'milk-dud' penguins!

K is for Kick-ass Key-ring Kurassiers

I scored this pair for a song of-off that there feebleBay the other day, thinking "They'll go well with that knight" (I have a knight!), but in going to look for the knight A) found he was much smaller, softer and chunkier and B) that I had another from this series, so, as is often the way, the post grew from what might have been one collage into this - enjoy, loyal readers!

So my purchase, which was only a week or so ago - they came yesterday; Two rather over-dressed or flauxy, foppish chaps from the - vaguely - Napoleonic era, in all their finery trotting out to do some hawking or handkerchief-dropping or some such? They would complement the 'Prince' from Exin Castillos or maybe some of the Merten medieval court stuff.

Off to the 'unknown/unbranded pre-20th century military' box for the knight I knew I had and found both another of the 40mm'ish ones and that the knight was actually a bit of a stumpy-runt! The 3rd figure being in the same dense PVC Injectaplastic (and JSP) use while the knight is more of a silicon-rubber? I say that because . . .

. . . the 35/40mm European premiums of Wellintonian types also go quite well with the riders, and also have that Macau-sourced, via-Portugal, look about them! And bases in the style of the Wild West we looked at recently. Mine are both Bonbon-marked Napoleon-brand premiums (small sweets), but Nestle had a set, Kinder have been credited (pinch of salt there?) and Huilor as well.

I seemed to take more shots of the old figure than the two new ones - he was the only one who would stand-up before I took the chains off! After removing the key-chains; I used to cut the loops off as well, but that was when I was a philistine, now I just slip the ring out and leave the key-rings in the bag with the figures.

The funny thing was the seller had them listed separately, so it was 'shopping-cart and see what they look like together when they turn-up', then, when they turned-up, I wondered if they might be (from the colours) an old 1976 [1776] novelty opposing-pair, but after finding the third I'm now just wondering how many more there are in the set and/or; do colours change on the same figure? It's another rabbit-hole!

They would also probably go well with Spencer Smith as a bunch of foppish, Old Etonian, staff officers or ADC's, wot-wot! And they will look good with those cake decoration copies of Airfix's Washinton's Army?

Q is for Question Time - F is for Four Fierce Freebies and other Feathered Fellows

A bit of a follow-up to the previous post because for many years I had this chap . . .

How it nearly looked the other day!

. . . in the same bag as the Hong Kong chromium-coated Crescent chaps we saw the other day, as he looked to be a well finger-worn member of the same clan, but in fact he belonged somewhere else and is actually just marbled in grey and purple with a slightly metallic sheen.

He's actually a Clairet-copy, previously issued (from the manufacture) as a Nestlé premium at some point and copied by Starlux in more than one version. As far as I know both French 'commercial' types are based, rather than the tripod arrangement of this chap, while the Starlux have the left forearm raised (Indian doing 'How', backwoodsman holding an European pipe) and a taller, thiner log-seat, but this chap is a mystery to me.

Also and because I thought he went with those HK 'plated' chaps I'd assumed (never x-assume and all else my very great friend!) he was polystyrene, but I now suspect . . .

. . . that he belongs with these other three? They too had been mis-christened, and were in with the Koho's (also seen here recently) as the bases are similar, but more have turned-up now and all in the same subdued/darker colours, so I think they are separate.

The kneeling guy is a copy of a Linde coffee premium, while I think the running guy is taken from another (to Clairet) French make? I have seven or eight now (already put away!) but only the four poses and the same shades of cooked and uncooked meat! I suspect they are all premiums of some kind, probably French or one of the Low Country's (someone tell TJF that's a geographical reference, not a 'racist' epithet!), and I would love to know more about them?

In the meantime [this was supposed to follow-up on the Crescent post the other day but for a bunch of reasons the best part of three weeks have gone-by!] I have picked up an actual Koho pose (previously show to us here - as Koho - by Theo van der Weerden), but not in Koho's cloth, being clearly marked MIR, French laundry powder (and there's a couple more here).

The green one, which in common with the 'meaty' ones also looks (from the neat, thinnish, ovoid, parallel-sided base) like it could be Koho, also isn't! It's actually one of the old Siku sculpts (issued in various guises and two sizes), but is manufactured in soft plastic, and has more in common with those polyethylene copies/issues of the Lido 'Captain Video' figures we saw here . . . earlier this year? I mention that only as it may prove in the future to have been a clue as to who is/was producing these apparently modem soft plastic copies of old 1950's stuff?

A close-up of the mark, no doubts as to this one's origins, the figure is half-ruined by the mark - slap-bang in the center of his chest!

He is however a better 54mm than the Koho-proper's in my collection being halfway between their 40 and 70mm.

A bitty post, but hopefully of some interest?

P is for Persons of Interest - Chris's Parcel III

I could have done these as one post but it would have been long and unmanageable, I could extend it out to ten or more posts such was the quality and interesting nature of the contents (but would have been bound to still miss one of the things Chris might be expecting me to single out!), but it will all appear here eventually, the pieces we've missed in these three posts coming back after sorting, in thematic, whole-set or maker posts in the future, for now, these are the other items I feel are worthy of a quick spotlight . . .

 . . . by dint of their standing out as I was sorting, or making themselves photogenic!

Footballers, wiff-waff player and the two ice-hockey flats, the cyclists were more 'bits and pieces' for marrying to past or future finds. I think the guy in the packet (Nestlé?) is actually 'The Gazza' himself; Paul Gascoigne, or trying to be him? And I think the yellow goalkeeper (bottom right) might be a baseless example from the same set of premiums, the shirt-markings being paper stickers supplied with each figure?

While the blue figure - 'Ally McCoist' - having a good left-hook whack at the ball (bottom left) is a third player from the Crocco premium set I knew nothing about twelve-months ago, and have had to rely on others for all three - the other two coming from Peter Evans!

The Table Tennis chap looks more Wilton than anybody else, but that's only the look, there are no other clues, so; late'ish Culpitt?!

The flats are probably Eastern European (they share features with The 'Hungarian' Romans) and definitely aren't PJH Effelder! But (like the Russian/Bulgarian Progress cavalry sets) one would seem to be a second generation copy of the other. Equally; they could both just as easily be lower grade Spanish Sobres or unmarked, Hong Kong, gum-ball machine, capsule prizes!

The Divers; we've had these before recently, or at least two of them, which may be a sign of them coming on to the secondary market as a generation moves on from their toys, or a specific big-seller, and any information on either would be much appreciated, the two black ones presumably go with a boat in a play-set of some kind? The smaller, although an action-figure (of limited articulation) is a pretty prefect 54mm, giving you an idea of the size of the others.

Two biggies and an imprisoned Britains! The Welsh lady from Wales (it's not a seagoing mammal Mr. President) is made of slate, but ground-down to a powder and bound with - probably - a two-part epoxy . . . like cold-cast bronze, but slate!

The guards officer - I think - goes with the RHA Hussar-type Chris sent to the Blog earlier in the year/last year (don't know when these will publish yet!) and the Artilleryman is the better figure, this officer should be marching, with the sword out, or standing at attention, not wandering, 'wandering' isn't in the drill manual!

His duel decorations are a bit of a fiction too, but he's a new figure so I'm not complaining, and while officers don't 'stag-on' sentry boxes, it's a really nice box, which will have a wait before we do them again, as they stared here twice earlier in the year. I think the RHA chap will look better in it, and these would seem to be up-market tourist figures, could we be talking the Buck' House walks? Do they have a 'gift shop' in the nation's main palace?

The final piece is very interesting, clearly a Scott's tourist thing, he is a HK-production Britains Herald piper, held on a cork plinth with a piece of textured green Plasticine . . . and a blob of glue? The tartan band, other than hammering-home the Scottish nature of the item, is probably hiding a clever join at the base of the bottle, or a not-so-clever join bodged with glue?

Label says Frae Scotland (from Scotland) and I nearly bid on a mixed job-lot with one of these in it earlier in the year, but with flights to pay back I was a bit of a spectator to feebleBay this year, I did manage a few smaller lots where a BIN was going wanting or it was 99p with five-minutes to go on a Wednesday afternoon, but the worthwhile job-lots tend to be bid up to proper money, which makes Chris's sending of his duplicates and cast-offs to this Blog all the more extra-ordinary.

 

Dec.2025 - we now know it's Tringa Toys via Toyway in the middle, and a Northfield Products (of Edinburg) bottle on the right. 

This was nice; the pole was broken as it usually is with these by the time they get to the secondary (or subsequent!) markets. But finish is otherwise unworn and all the other likely breakables are still there, having sent the other two boatmen to PW earlier in the year/last year I won't bore you with all three now, but if I find a fourth . . . !

The highlights from the medieval pile include from the left; a Hong Kong copy of the MPC knights, we looked at them years ago here, but I don't think I've seen a mounted example from Hong Kong yet and; this one is marked.

Then another (we looked at the whole lot a few weeks ago) of the Cherilea sub-scale re-issue, a Hong Kong copy of an Italian (probably Fontanini) precepi/nativity figure, a Safari knight (toob-size unlike the Indian we saw in the initial post) and another 'girly prince' (there was one in the civilian line up in the same initial post), there are many of these originating in the pinky-purple section of toy stores!

I've a fair-few copies of Airfix Russians, and I think we looked at them earlier this year/last year, but I've never seen them in a cloudy-clear like ghosts! The kneeling soldier is either a short-shot or meant to look like that; it's hard to tell with the material he's made from, but the left wrist is definitely miss-moulded/hand missing.

And I have never seen Hong Kong or other (they are unmarked and could be Solpa from Greece) copies of either the Support Group figures or the Ghurkhas? The base on the Ghurkha is very like Solpa, but the spotter has a thinner one which is more Hong Kong'y

Clockwise from the top left; we've seen it mended, but this is how Hermes left it on the doorstep! It mended fine, but the interesting thing was that the damage revealed a steel-wire/rod armature holding the wings on/out; it's constructed just like its composition forbears, but poured rather than pressed and set in minutes without an oven!

The Gemodels Lifeguard cake-decoration/touristy-chap has been painted as a colonial trooper of some generic type but I think he's rather nice and Chris's loss is definitely my gain; I won't be paint-stripping him . . . indeed - mental note to self - Hampshire Yeomanry next? All blue and silver! The Houshold cavalry do have a khaki riding/barrack dress, but it's greener (based on No.2's) and is worn with a service cap al la WWI.

Twelve flags for twelve brothers! I have a tub of these flag-types somewhere in the garage with various sizes of pole or base and lots of flags, but most of the common flags are in this one lot from Chris! Along with some of the less common ones; oddly though, the US stars & stripes is missing, but is probably the commonest in the normal course of events (it comes with a lot of the Airfix US Marine piracies in small scale), as are both the German/Belgian Red-amber-blacks which I have previously seen.

Finally, I sent my versions of these to Plastic Warrior awhile ago in answer (or part answer!) to a query, but these have come in together, same paint, and it's better than the examples I had up to now so a nice upgrade, and I might re-paint the older top-hat pose as the elusive Dr Doolittle of the original query? but - while it's clearly based on the Doctor - I still think it's from a circus set?

I hope you'll all agree that Chris's generosity is a cut-above, and it's a pleasure to thank him again for this parcel, and nice to share it with the rest of you.

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

Lots of stuff going on this weekend, and there will be more news on the forthcoming James Opie at C&T December sale later in the week, but for now this is what the next seven days have in store!

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 24th November 2018

Didcot - Retro Ronnie

Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, OX11 7JN

Web - www.retroronnie.com

Mob. I - 07708 385 061

Mob. II - 07900 266 427

Hours unknown

Admission unknown

 

 

Henfield - Model Car Mart - Toy & Train Fair

Henfield Village Hall, High Street, Henfield, West Sussex, BN5 9DB

Web. - www.modelcarmart.co.uk/henfield

eMail - modelcarmart@gmail.com

Mob. - 07742 609 865

10:00hrs to finish

Admission £2

'Delicious' breakfast/refreshments available

[Note: not SRP Fairs as advertised elsewhere]

Shepton Mallet - Bulldog Fairs

Royal Bath & West Showground, BA4 6QN

Web. - www.bulldogfairs.com

eMail - bulldogfairs@aol.com

Tel. - 01373 452 857

Mob. - 07917 125 641

10:30 - 14:30hrs

Adults £4, under 16's free if accompanied, early-bird (from 08:30hrs) £10.

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Sunday 25th November 2018

Aston Clinton - Brian Chamberlain Fairs

Mob. - 07864 641 215

Web-presence unknown

Hours unknown

Admission fee unknown

Barry (near Cardiff, not 'island') - Chris Dyer Fairs

Barry Leisure Centre, Greenwood Street, Barry, Wales, CF63 4RU

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

Admission £2

10:30-15:00hrs

Catterick Garison - Jim Corr - Toy, Train & Sci-fi Fair

Catterick Garrison Leisure Centre, Gough Road, Catterick DL9 3EL

eMail - jim_corr73@hotmail.co.uk

Mob. - 07504 035 955

Admission £3, child/seniors £2, early bird £5

Free Parking

Café

Exhibition layouts

Haydock Park - Barry Stockton Fairs

The Exibision Centre, Haydock Park Racecourse, WA12 0HQ

Web. - http://barrystocktonfairs.co.uk/
Tel. - 01513 343 362
10:30 - 14:30
Admission - Adult £2, Children £0.50p

Kidderminster - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs
Guilt Edge Leisure Centre, Zortech Avenue, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, DY11 7DY
Web-presence unknown
Tel. - 01270 652 773
Mob. - 07825 631 323
10:30 - 14:00hrs
Admission £1.50p
Free parking

Kirkby-in-Ashfield - Townsend Toy & Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend)

Festival Hall, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, NG17 7DJ

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission fee unknown

Lincoln - J&J Fairs (John & Julie Webb)

The Exhibition Centre, Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN2 2NA

Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com

eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com

Tel. - 01522 880 383

10:00 - 14:30hrs Approximately

Admission £2.50p, seniors £2, 1st child £1.50p

Midhust - SRP Fairs

The Grange, Bepton Road, Midhurst, West Sussex, GU29 9HD

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

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

Hours unknown

Admission fee unknown

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Tuesday 27th November

Garstang - Janet Pearson - Garstang Evening Fair

Kirkland & Catterall Memorial Hall, PR3 0HR

Web-presence unknown

01282 439 009

18:00 - Finnish

Admission fee unknown

Tonbridge - SRP Toyfairs (evening fair)

Angel Lane, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1SF

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

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

18:00 - 20:00hrs

Admission £1.50p, Children Free

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Auctions

Saturday 24th November 2018

Elstree - Excalibur Auctions

The Village Hotel, Elstree, Hertfordshire, WD6 3SB

Web. - www.excaliburauctions.com

02036 330 913

Free Tea or Coffee

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Monday 26th November 2018

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

 

Britains-for-Nestle's 'World Cows'

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (1st day of a three day auction)

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
01642 750 616

Military, civilian figures, equipment and accessories sale; day one

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Tuesday 27th November 2018

Crescent - Mint Box

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (2nd day of a three day auction)

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
01642 750 616

Military, civilian figures, equipment and accessories sale; day two

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Wednesday 28th November 2018

Star Wars - Original Art

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (3rd day of a three day auction)

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
01642 750 616

TV and film-related memorabilia sale

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Overseas Events

Dublin - 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"?

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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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Links

As I mentioned elsewhere the other day, the best seller this Christmas is looking likely to be a glitter-slime pooping unicorn or Poopicorn! For more on this year's 'must haves';

https://www.toyretailersassociation.co.uk/press/dreamtoys-photo-gallery

Thanks to the ladies at Vectis for the three auction-day images