SS is for Shelfie Session

Try saying that when you're drunk! I had a quick whizz round all the usual suspects the other day, and managed to shoot a few shelfies of stuff which may be of some interest to some loyal readers, or not, as the case may be!

 

Shot this pair in Hobbycraft, and I may go back for the Sherman, if only to compare it with the CTS and Airfix ones? It's the Lego-compatible range of clip-together 'kits', but differing from Lego and Cobi, in not having any studs showing on the finished article, the top layer is all 'site specific' and fully-moulded/sculpted on the final, visible faces. These were new, about two years ago, and I venture to say, at 20-quid-a-pop, all the money!

 

Off to The Range for these, I think we've seen the Harry Potter one previously, but no matter, a reminder is as good as . . . something witty I can't come up with? Hard to pin down, but I'll try - branded to RMS, brand-marked to Project Craft and imported by CDS Group "...a third party logistics (3PL) and supply chain solutions provider!", so there!

 

While these were shot in B&M the other day, Magic Box have clearly moved-on from Crazy Bones, but there's still a blind-bag element to collecting the line, they are too unpiratey (spellcheck says I invented that word!) to save for ITLAPD, so here they are.

 

It's funny, because Bushy the Twig over at planetcamp has started going to B&M, and The Range, he'd better get himself to Smyths and Hobbycraft if he really wants to copy me! And a few garden centres, and Flying Tiger, and the other one! And he needs to stop showing us the stuff he leaves in the charity shops, which he also now visits, because that’s the shite nobody's buying!

Still, he does live castles now, as well, and he's finally added a Blog archive, after nearly 20 years! He added a link-list too, a couple of years ago, but managed to avoid this Blog, and has already cut it down and placed it where nobody can find it - doesn't like sharing, see!

 

But then it took him several years to start tagging, and only after one of his readers (guess who!) kept pointing out the lack of a tag-list! And then never did it that systematically, so it's still hard to find anything, nor did he retro-Tag the first few years' stuff, so that's lost!

Don't get me wrong, there's no exclusivity to any of this stuff, I can't expect to be the only person doing this, that, or the other, and a good idea, nicked, is the purest form of plagiarism, therefore - the sincerest form of flattery!

And so soon after the 'ossuary' thing, he managed to squeeze in a Shogun reference, the day after me (literally the next day!), but I was talking about the MB Games game with the five armies of different-coloured miniature figures, not some nerdy, cerebral time-waster, for a rained-out caravan holiday!

 

It's tragic how threatened or envious he seems to be of what was originally, a completely different Blog, but they increasingly look the same, because he keeps doing what I've already done! In a few years, the only discernable differential between our two Blogs will be that all the eBay scrapings will still be over there, and all the original copy and images (mostly of a [vaguely organised] collection) will still be here!

Anyway, I promise you, you'll never find me making dollies accessories out of hot glue and toothbrush handles, ever, he can keep that! What do you think readers!

W is for Weird Science!

Sadly not Kelly LeBrock at her finest, or even in her finest underwear, but rather; maggots and a worm-mould! Another Halloween post, even though this wasn't being specifically sold with the season in mind, it's the sort of stuff we see at this time of year, as well as being a useful addition to any insect/invertebrate collection, and would make nice 'going-home' presents at Halloween parties, or alternative trick-or-treat prizes.

 

Totally nasty weird science! I think I got this in one of those independent or small chain Poundland lookie-likies, but I can't honestly remember, so I'm not naming anyone, but they are out there somewhere, I did study the other bags in the dispenser and conclude that this was it, whether another carton would have bags with different contents remains to be seen, but I suspect not, this seems to be a one-off novelty item.

You get a bag of maggots to start playing with straight away, and to keep playing with if the moulding exercise proves less than successful, a small, simple mould of two worms (or a worm and a caterpillar?) a spider and a pile of eggs (or a pupa?), and a bag of powdered gel ('goo') mix, not edible jelly thought, rather, I suspect that dentists moulding compound, some small-batch toys soldiers may be being made out of at the moment, not a long-laster?

Those maggots in full! Similar to other maggots seen here at Small Scale World! Out there now, somewhere! Issued by RMS International (previously seen here with a horse-transporter), Google revealed a larger boxed version of this set, and other products under the Weird Science brand-marking.

O is for Odds & Sods

Probably had that title before, but the hours draw on, and I want to get this up before I go to bed, for an early start, as it's the London Toy Soldier show in a few hours, and a T is for Two would be a bit over the top for a couple of shelfies, so I added a window bag!

Out looking for Chocolate rabbits (ongoing bit of Easter fun) I also found a couple of bits worth a shelfie, these were nearly purchased, however I managed to stop myself, but they will turn-up in mixed lots in the future, so worth a shot for the archive. The history of Ideal's logo over the last few years is very complicated, but here in the UK, I think these are actually Hasbro sell-through.

 

But the two Gormiti character figures are non-articulated solids, around 54mm, albeit sort of sci-fi-fantasy. They were for sale in the Poundland rival, Poundstretcher, and at about 4 & 6-quid, quite affordable, the other figures, were printed-sticker flats though.

While this I shot, again for the fact that the horses will turn-up in odd lots, not because we've been looking at show-jumping, which was coincidental, and there were only four crude horses in the truck, no figures or jumps that I could see.

 

Those horses, I think they may be hollow polyethylene, like some of the BJ Toys or Red Deer stuff, but it wasn't clear and they may well be solids? Branded to Toy Hub and RMS International, they are also around 50/54mm compatible, the truck however, is instantly forgettable.

This was a purchase, the other day somewhere, I can't remember where, but coming after the Schleich blind-bags (I saw in Smyths), and the apparent ex-blind-bag dinosaur I got as clearance somewhere, also 'the other day', it seems they are now using window-bags, so you can see what you're getting, a far more civilised way of doing things.

 

But back to the show tomorrow, Central London/Camden, so plenty of touristy stuff to do before or after the toy-soldier buying, including Camden Market and the Lock! Details are here;

 

http://www.toysoldiershow.co.uk/index.php?CONTENT=23