F is for First Show of the Year - I

And so we all trekked-off to Sandown Park for the first show of 2024, a lovely day in the end, given it seems to have rained every other day since the beginning of February! I didn't buy much, but there are some nice bits among all the make-weights!

 

How cool is this? Adrian gave me this Fairylight magnetic-novelty at the end of the show, when I asked him what he had on it? We like cats here, and there's a surprising number of mice in the stash too; rubber, cartoon, Erzgebirge/wood, I think we saw some musician mice one time, so adding one of each, in the same box - bargain!

 

These are under embargo until they appear in the ongoing Railway figure posts!

 

Two early Wiking 'planes, I think we looked at a good one a few years back, these are missing bases and the wire hanger, along with their little clear acetate 'propeller sweeps', which clip over the nose-cones and can be replaced. Both dive-bombers/ground-attack types, a German Junkers Ju 87 'Stuka' and what I suspect is a Japanese Nakajima B5N'Kate' or, because the tail's not right, a Grumman TBF 'Avenger'?

An eclectic mix here, which, from the top left includes, a Linde premium buffalo/wisent type, a Barrat & Sons flocked cow, and an interesting use of the Impro tooling; an eraser-rubber version, with the full marking of the originals, also left on the brightly-coloured Imperial reissues.

Below them are two Vitacup animal premiums, one in a darker than normal ivory shade (which may only be a smoker's house jobbie?) and two Kellogg's premiums of Sooty characters, actually sweep and whatsit-cat . . . Googles frantically . . . Kipper! Kipper the cat.

And I'm sure most of you will recognise the Charbens circus elephant, it's easy to ID from this side!

 

A couple of cheap lots of smaller (35mm) flats, actually the upper lot are technically semi-flat, being a bit fatter, German troops painted as Fins, by the simple expedient of painting the flag Finnish! I'm not sure on the lower flats, but they do have base markings under the paint, which I shall address at some latter date, there is a fair bit of material to dig into on these.

And this was also a gift, Christian Hatley had mentioned them a while ago, and not recognising me with my Spring haircut, it took him a while to realise who I was, then gifted me this Diddy Man, who, I found when I got home, is another KT novelty figure! And there are probably at least three more to find, if they are aping the Cherilea ones?

N is for Nostalgia, Noddy and NOT rare!

Over at Moonbase Central they have just posted a nice nostalgia piece on TV related sweets, so I quickly dug these out before I bugger-off for the weekend!

These are Crescent for Kellogg's and depict Noddy, Big Ears, PC Plod, Golly (who in these PC times has been airbrushed out of the re-issued books!), Mr Tubby Bear and Miss Fluffy Cat (who was actually 'Pink Cat'in the books, but Crescent weren't set up for a small production run of pink!).

Issued with Ricicles twice; in 1962 and 1967 the PC plod and Big ears are the later colours. Mr Bear is from the earlier set as is Noddy while Miss Cat (orange) could be from either issue. These used to catalogue at around £5 each, but these days there are some on eBay nearly every day and you can pick them up for 99p.

Equally easy to obtain now are the Sooty set which came with Cocco Crispies or Puffa Puffa Rice, and were a set of 5 - I haven't tracked down a Sue yet. The 1973 issue my Brother and I collected were issued in red, orange, yellow or blue, however other colours point to either a second issue, or other commercial availability, most likely - Tom Smith Christmas crackers. These are unlikely to be Crescent, the colours and plastic type are slightly different from anything Crescent did.

Characters are L-R; Sooty, Butch, Kipper and Sweep. Be aware when buying - Sooty needs a wand, if that's missing he's just a stuffed bear with a man's hand up his....errr....trouser-leg!