H is for Hamleys, or Harrods . . . ?

OK, I'm presenting these as they are, recolouring renders them pretty awful, and 'adjust contrast' has little effect as they are firmly in the all-orange-brown spectrum! Among the odder things in the archive, and I'm sure there are better quality versions in the Library of Congress, or the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library service, but I don't have either of them, here, in a file! While Google suggests, this 'Junior' supplement for 1939 isn't online in an easily visible fashion, while you need valid Library cards to read the originals held by the aforementioned bodies!

 

Also, I don't know how big they will present, until I've hit 'Publish', but I hope if you click and click again, you should get a pretty mahoosive image to track-around, and hopefully read the less than helpful blurb panels for yourselves?

 

A minute after publishing - yes, the detail is actually very good, find the Adrien helmets hiding behind the logs . . . I've never noticed them! Later still - She's a 'he' (now adjusted, Brylcreem has a lot to answer-for!) and it may all be one piece, still in the workshop? The ornamental elephants in one background (probably real ivory) suggest it could be Harrods?

 

For Junior! See what the crazy Europeans are doing this holiday!

 

If he is working on the back of the big cliff, bottom left, then it could be an in-store display, rather than a window display? I suspect it's several dioramas on a theme (rather the aesthetics of the last/previous war, with the 'sci-fi' Maginot Line and half-tracks!), probably running along a line of pavement-facing windows.

This one recoloured slightly! They almost look like old Egyptian papyrus, which adds to their charm! But they are as brittle as old papyrus, too, so I didn't dare bend-back the little nick in the join on the Ack-Ack gun picture.

 

Within the blurb, credited at one point to British Combine, presumably a forerunner of today's 'press pools', and cleared by the British Censor, the only real clue to where these might have been is in the title-line "Offered in West End Shops", clearly then, this is the myth of patriotism, being used, as it always is, to get people used to and ready for war, a war which was - at the time - still in it's 'phoney' phase.

The hype surrounding the Maginot Line, was so strong that articles with lovely little isometric cutaway drawings, and maps of it, were still a favourite of 'Boys Own' books and seasonal annuals when I was still a kid. It's faded now, and while still controversial, most have accepted the truth of history - it was a very, very expensive white elephant, and complete failure, which tied-up tens of thousands of troops badly needed in Belgium, who never launched a counter-attack, nor got to Dunkirk, to be taken-off, either!

It'll mostly be Britains and Astra Pharos (?) I think, with the small tank from Hornby/Dinky maybe? And you would imagine they were in Hamleys windows, but Harrods were equally famous for theirs, and this could have been tucked down one of the side streets, where the windows have to be sought out, leaving the well-known frontage for fashion and household gifts?

 

The blurb also hints at animatronics, such as the mentioned elevators, another standard of such statement, seasonal window-displays back then, hell, Fleet Toys still had busy displays in the 1980's, think - a bunch of woodland animals playing instruments in the snow, Santa popping out of a chimney, an ammunition-lift to supply the gun, to kill Germans, all good, clean, Crimbo' fun!

I know, I'm over-thinking it, but isn't that half the fun of archivism? The what-if's, or what-actually's!

News, Views etc...Tatra Plastics, New Book and - sadly - Plagiarism!

But not in the New Book! More on that in a mo...

Tatra Plastics

First; I have been contacted by a Philip Gwynne from the PR company working with Tatra Plastics on their 50th anniversary celebrations, with the following message;

Last year you corresponded by email with Tatra Plastics Manufacturing ref plastic cereal box toys. You may be interested to learn that Tatra is launching a nationwide hunt for any of its toys that might have survived, as part of its celebrations mark the 50th anniversary.

Don't know if you and your fellow collectors can help with the search, so I'm sending you some info just in case. Please let me know how you get on...

As my collection of Tatra is all in storage and a bit non-get-at-able since my Volvo was written off by a petulant Audi TT driver, if anyone has nice examples of the sets mentioned on the original post, or complete sets they might like to lend for any events, or decent photographs, let Philip know, his email - suitably coded to cheat spam robots - is;

philip[at]thenakedcompany[dot]co[dot]uk

Especially if you live in West York's! The futher information is as follows;

TOY STORY!

Company marks 50^th anniversary with hunt for oldest cereal box toy made in Yorkshire

Do you remember when small plastic toys came free inside your box of cereals? And how you shook the box to make the toy fall out into your bowl? Did you know that they were probably made by Tatra Plastics Manufacturing, whose factory is in Norwood Green, near Bradford?

To help mark the company’s 50^th anniversary, Tatra Plastics Manufacturing want to track down any of their toys that have survived down the years.

"We’d like to hear from anyone who still has one of plastic toys,” says MD Karl Hesmondhalgh. “We know there are serious collectors of this kind of ephemera and there may also be a few plastic figures that have remained hidden at the bottom of old toy chests."

The era of free toys in cereal boxes was brought to an end by health and safety and “small parts - choking hazard” warnings. But for an entire generation growing up in the 60s and 70s, they were a special treat at breakfast… and a proven marketing tool for cereals manufacturers

"It would be nice to know if any survived,” says Karl. “Especially if the owner lives in West Yorkshire, because of the strong local connection

New Book

Barney Brown and Peter Cole, both known for their previous publications on the iconic brand that is Britians; Barney with his in depth looks at Farm, Zoo and Garden plastics and Peter with two editions of his comprehensive look at the history of Britians plastics; Suspended Animation - have come together to produce the next instalment in a growing archive; Herald Civilians - The Golden Years, which covers all the civilian figures not covered in Barney's previous three volumes.

 

Here's a book wot we wrote! (with appologies to Eric Morecambe)
Peter on the left and Barney, with their 'baby' and looking justifiably proud!

It is a lovely work, with all the little things that don't normally get covered in any great depth like the Ethnic and Ballet Dancers. However for those of you who like your gun-play they have covered all the Cowboys and Indians, which are technically 'civilian', however I have a slight point of order to raise with the authors...when a country has two armies - fighting each other - that doesn't make both of them 'civilian'!!

However - they are hard to catagorise and having the ECW figures covered (and photographed) in some depth, will be the best reason for your rushing out and buying it post haste...in fact, you don't need to rush anywhere, just write to Barney for details here;

Cobweb Cottage, Lyminster Road, Lyminster, West Sussex, BN17 7QQ, or eMail him here;

barney_brown[at]sky[dot]com

I believe he has some copies of the earlier publications left as well, so well worth a quick note if you are new to the hobby or missed them frist time round.



Plagiarism

It has come to my notice that a major UK publisher, known to a fair few of you has allowed one of it's authors to get a clear infringement of this blogs copyright past its editors. I will be taking the matter up with the publishers and trying to ascertain when a blog (started in 2008) becomes "pretty old", if the Internet as we know it is barely 15 years old, but in the meantime please make sure you've read (and understood) the legal notice at the foot of the blog-page. It's crap, I know, but it's to protect me and the effort I put into this, and it's not the first time.

Piracy - It's a bit crap! (ABC)

I have absolutely no problem with people downloading images, text or even the whole blog (as happens about twice a month) for their own use, against the possibility that the Internet will cease to exist some time after lunch tomorrow (which never comes), indeed there is no way to stop people doing so, and I do it all the time, but I try to rename anything I download with an 'X' to remind me I can't re-use it.

While it's very hard for me to pursue a private publisher over the pond - using my photographs without permission, to pad-out his interminable and error-filled list of new poured-resin -  it's far more easy to have a word with someone closer at home and I will pursue this.

Please - don't use the stuff without asking...Henk? Are you reading? You clearly visit or you wouldn't have been able to steal the vac-form pictures would you?..stealing my traffic at the same time! If you don't have the stuff to photograph yourself, you link to someone who has. Clearly you've misunderstood the meaning of 'Inter-Net', it's not a Trawl-Everthing-that-Takes-Your-Fancy-and-Drag-it-Back-to-Your-Place-Net! Bloody Dutch Buccaneers, always were a problem.

If you don't understand the [International] rules of/on copyright, intellectual property rights or plagiarism, the answer is simple...don't copy anything until you do! Rant over.

Y is for Your recomended reading today!

Gardian does Hornby