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 Plymr - Mixed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plymr - Mixed. Show all posts

Sunday, December 21, 2025

C is for Cone'ucopia - 2 of 2

This is still out there, I've seen it quite often in petrol stations (service stations), and some of the smaller convenience stores, or at least those which carry stock from BJ Toys, such as the Premier store in Pirbright, which seems to have replaced the NAAFI, and from which I got mine, at about the same time Peter Evans also found them, and mentioned them to me.
 

BJ Toys; blue cone is for blokey kids, pink is for less-blokey kids! I got a blue one!
 
A real cornucopia!
 
Clockwise from top-left; Rocky keyring and collector/backing card; sports themed puzzle and colouring book; a self inflating light-stick (read 'lightsabre'), which I haven't inflated yet; a multi-hole bubble-wand and bottle of bubble liquid; three packs of fizzy candies; a Dino' mini-set, which contains stuff we've seen in BJ carded sets here at Small Scale World; and, finally, a Letrabot blind bag.
 
The dinosaur, comes with a ridiculously over-sized egg, which is more chicken than dinosaur, so clearly the egg came first! And a new take on the current palm-tree design, in that it's a single moulding, with bi-colouring, dwelt-on before, here.
 
I see a lot of this stuff in the fish departments of pet stores or garden centres, even at The Range, and I suspect that industry might have had a hand, along with the fake flower people, in the multi-colour shot techniques becoming so common now.
 
Rather aptly, I got the letter H, and it's a simplistic transformer 'bot'.
 
Sub-branded Planet White, which may be a wave-indicator (?), the Letrabots (or Letr-A-Bots) are from an Italian outfit called Ciciboom Srl., and Letranimal, Kartbots, Numberbots (with symbols) and Letrazoo also exist!

The cones retail at £4.99, and with the equivalent of three rack-toys, and several other novelties, I think they are worth the money, for kids that is; this sample will be enough for me! Remember, sometimes we buy this stuff so you don't have to, otherwise we'd probably be desperately scraping flying saucer pictures off of that evilBay!

Sunday, December 14, 2025

T is for Two - Christmas Plastics

A couple of plastic sets turned-up in The Works back at the start of September, which was a bit too early for crimbo' posts, but it's not often you see new, plastic cake decorations these days, so here they are now!
 
Two different sets, each providing for a typical vignette for the cake, only a vignette from a 1970's cake! I don't think people do cakes like that any more, or if they do, they use the 'family' decorations, to do the same traditional cake each year?
 
Looks to be a mix of polystyrene mouldings (the two figures), poured resin (tree) and air-dried-clay - the candy-cane, so ancient and modern in the one teeny bag!
 
Penguin delivering Christmas prezzies!

M is for Memories of the Old Toy Shop

If we've had Scully & Sully, we must be into the festive season, but there's another box to tick, before we can consider the season complete, if you know what I mean, and so, earlier than some years, here's the display in Fleet Library of the annual toy-related exhibition by the Fleet & Crookham Local historical Society.
 
A coincidence, I'm sure!
 
Loved Fuzzy felt when we were younger!
 

Seen on the Blog, in three colours? Rosebud - bought by/swallowed by Mattel.
Rushden has its own Local History group;
 
 

They're just very expensive Gonks for a generation who never had Gonks!
 
Mon'Kay! He has a very complicated history, involving two brands!
 
I've noticed that while Johnny Vegas can mention the monkey, he has 'lost' him,
and apparently can't legally discuss anything else about him!
 
 


Our gyroscope had a metal 'Eifel Tower'!
 


The tin-plate racing car looks modern?
 











New to me.
 
Nope! That Dinosaur isn't 48-months old, and never sold for shillings!
 
Stegosaurus in a generic (department store Christmas stock?) Triceratops' box?
 
Solido behind, don't recognise the one in front?
 
Not quite half-way through the month, and that's me done for the year! Sixth-best year ever for posts, despite two and a half months off, in April-May, and July, but don't worry, there's too much in the short queue to quit now, maybe I'll have a quiet January!

Thursday, December 11, 2025

S is for Seen Elsewhere - Kinder Animals

I put these on the animal forum, in two tranches, some quite a while back, some more recently, but good to get them off the PC and onto an archive dongle! Kinder animals, older and newer!
 

1980's, I think these were from a set of four buffalo - African (black), Asian 'Water', N. American Buffalo and Wisent, but which is which (on the green one), and whether that's a true fact (set of four) are both open questions! Simple four-part clip-together toys.
 

Also the 1980's or maybe the 1990's, lift the tail and the head drops, push the tail down and the head rises - clever!
 

Deffinately the 1980's, I had one for a long time, which came with my packed-lunch egg! I lost a hoof, and it was years before I found another one! This is a polystyrene, ten-part, clip-together 'kit'.
 

A more modern take on the giraffe, his head also moves, but without the complicated hidden-gear mechanism.
 





These last four are more contemporary; since the late 2000's Kinder have had an almost constant series of animal sets, some more realistic, some more cutesy, some downright cartoony, but all under a theme-umbrella of wild-life, endangered, save the earth, kinda' stuff. The reindeer may be from a Frozen line?