T is for Toy Fair '18 Reports - Schleich - Bayala &etc.

I think I mentioned the pinky-purple section yesterday, so let's get that swiftly out of the way and save the relative safety of the animals 'till tomorrow. Bayala is the name of this game and it's very pinky-purple . . . and mauve . . . and sky-blue . . . and mint-green . . . and rainbowy!

Mermaids; in scallop-shells - except they don't look like scallops, they look like cheap rack-toy purses from the 1970's, or Polly-pocket compacts from the '80's? But Mermaids are mermaids and out of the shell they are nice sculpts if that's you thing.

Unicorns; I've said it before and I'll say it again: They're everywhere! Quite apart from the bandwagon of the unicorn-fest, it's a clear attack on whoever's got My Little Pony franchises, and there are quite a few of them.

Unicorns with fairies! Again; nothing wrong with them as sculpts, they are a bit big for figure collectors or modellers to do much with, but it's where the money is . . .

. . . the biggest section of the Schleich catalogue (after the Wild Animal section) is the Horse Club section, clearly going after girls' pocket-money or girls' parents money, and attacking Breyer - all these big companies are ruthless businesses, and if Breyer are doing well, they will be attacked.

As well as the DC & Marvel comic stuff (increasingly: 'movie' stuff!) I posted yesterday, Schleich have two other licensed product-lines in the early-year catalogue (everything we're looking at in these posts is good 'till June 2018), one being Peanuts, no surprises here, various companies have done PVC Peanuts over the years; with or without permission! We looked at the latest (Phidal) the other day.

Of slightly more interest (from a purely intellectual point of view - I'm not rushing out to buy them or anything like that!) is the Maya stuff. Without Google to hand I think it's an old European TV thing (Heimo or Bully did some figures ages [decades?]  ago - I'm sure), clearly with a Movie out (or forthcoming), which is nice.

Not because I like franchises, I don't; I despair at the state of the whole licensed-character 'thing', even though it goes back the best part of a century, with Betty Boop, Robinson's Gollies, Jonny Walker, various cats (Felix, Figaro, Fritz . . . ) and Disney - of course, but it's got to the point were there's not much else? At least the Bayala above seems to be a totally 'in-house' construct.

But in a world where Disney, Lucas, DC, Marvel and Nintendo seem to own half of everything cultural or toy-like, it's nice to see European (or Bwreaksit British!) things like Dr. Who or Pepper Pig getting picked-up and passed across the pond, or further afield like Japan. The irony in this case being that the Maya figurines aren't even available in the UK . . . Doh!

Still - I get to put Maya in the tag-list! More Schleich tomorrow.

Ph is for Yada yada yada . . .

Yep! Phidel again! Now I've got a system for finding them quickly they are turning-up everywhere, and when I say 'system', like some secret squirrel, it's quite simple, look for the logo!

The Phidel logo is a largish rainbow-coloured swirl of pastel P's, usually on a darker background than the above, which is easy to spot among all the tat in the kiddie's section of charity shops, whether among the board games, the books or the general toys.

With each charity shop or chain having a very different look or set-up, it's the easiest way to do it, just run your eyes over the shelves looking for the logo and if you spot it, check the spine text for My First... or My Busy if you also see ...Stick-on, ...Magnet or ...Puzzle you can ignore; the My Busy Books (with an 's') is where you'll find the pay-dirt!

A pound each, one was mint (Peanuts) the other a bit of a mess, but adding to the whole, the books gone to recycling before I'd got home, hence their being photographed on the verge . . . well otherwise it's like carrying half the Encyclopedia Britannica around for the rest of the afternoon!

One pocket got a mint set of Peanuts, nice, would never have bought them new, but now they ticked-off the lists, mental and real, and box-ticked here - favorites above, rest below.

They were a bit chewy for peanuts, but I got them all down! And I love how the kennel finally explains why Snoopy never got chronic back-pain; I always imagined he was balanced on the knife-edged ridge of a pitched roof!

The other pocket got what was covering for the frozen set, which was different from the previous one (also a part set - it's the male characters and the moose who keep going AWOL!), with smaller characters - I think I mentioned seeing it somewhere on-line the other day?

And I'm not sure if these are all from the set, nor if one of the trees might be from a second set? The girl with the purple cape won't stand-up and has to be propped so I suspect this is an older set, and things/designs have improved with better bases or chunkier, balanced figures?

This is actually quite useful, it would be OK for 28mm role play, or as a larger sled with a 2/3-man bench-seat (for towing by a light-tank or half-track) for WWII 'Ost Front' winter war games in 1:76th, put an AA-mount on the wind-cowl/arm-rest at the front, couple more guys on the back . . . bob's your uncle! It even has a ski-stick stowed down the side!

Picture 5

See 'Q is for Question Time' - published five minutes before this post (below) for what was picture five (it's now picture six but - hey-ho!) and its blurb.

IS is for IT'S Still Chriiiiiiiistmaaaaaaaaaaas!

All month! And a bit of January!

Again; judging by the shelving in the shelfie these are available from Wal-Mart in the 'States right now, how can you not want this peanuts nativity, on the sideboard or under the tree!

Not much blurb as I don't know any more about them than you can see for yourselves in the images, another treat sent to the Blog by Brian Berke in New York, where you can have Snoopy under the tree for the rest of the month - Christmas Bargain!