L is for Lazy Lizard Lounges in Lucky Bag!

So, I said in the shelfie-post the other day, that I'd bought a test one, and I dare say those of you who know me well enough, might guess which one it would be, farm? Unicorn? Noooooowh! Dinosaurs, of course! But it turned out to be doubly disappointing!

 

The first disappointment, it was mostly flat, paper product, and yes, I know kids love colouring, kids love stickers, kids love puzzles, but in my day it would have been a plastic or rubber dinosaur, some sweets, and something which made a noise! We buy this shit so you don't have to!

 

One small surprise was that the stated eight items, were in fact nine; they clearly think coloured-pencils and a colouring sheet count as one item? And it was also interesting to see some of the contents branded to both Playwrite (WH Cornelius, ex-WHC / Success) and Henbrandt, who are rivals in the same pocket-money, novelty field.

 

The second disappointment though, was that the otherwise, kitsch, but cool-looking inflatable dinosaur, was so cheaply made, it leaked air from a half-welded seam, and I had to try and carefully close the cap (no valve) without pushing so much air out, it wouldn't stand up! You win some, you lose some, and now we have half-an-idea what all the bags contain . . . no figures, no sweets, no whistles, rattles or blowers, except a blown blow-up!

H is for Heraldry

Not the products of Messrs W. Britains, but something which was in the queue, and of which I was reminded by the anon' commenter on one of the recent bookplate posts, namely: the reproduction of coats of arms on medieval toy soldier's shields.

Some of you may have come across the above sheets on fleaBay, sold separately and for little outlay, the sheet on top is replacement paper shields for the earlier designs of Britains Deetail knights, with six each of the first designs (I remember them hitting the shops) and three each for the slightly later additional designs.

 

The sheet below consists of one each of twenty-five new designs, some of which are probably real, only by dint of the number of arms issued over the centuries? By which I mean that the maker (0arron0 on feebay) is inventing them, but by following the rules of heraldry, some may well have been extant in real life; or, 'IRL' as the brain-dead generation puts it!

I thought to contact the seller (Arron Wood) after my purchase with the possibility of getting the family arms done; a conceit, but harmless, and he was amenable to the idea, therein began an eMail exchange, and a few draft versions, before the lower sheet here appeared on evilBay, with a quick note from Arron. He did 12 of the one I use from the bookplate (it’s a dodgy right to do so mind, inheriting through the female line; I think they should have a diagonal line over them?), and a few others which we found on Google!

He has also done another sheet of 'imaginobles' for those looking for some variety with their Deetail knights, or any others fitted with similar sized/shaped smooth shields - some of the vintage French hard-plastics, Herald Hong Kong, Accurate/Revell or possibly the Gemodels set?

 

The reasoning behind the alternative designs are twofold, firstly; the surplus (after my purchase) sheets needed to sell to people who probably wouldn't want 30 identical shields and secondly; when a landowner gets the call to turn-out for his king or liege-lord, he turns up with various other members of the extended family, sons, brothers, cousins &etc, and they - under the rules of Heraldry - have different shield designs, but following the family theme. I think the three black-on-white is almost the default or generic one for Sussex Halls?

 

Google produced various Halls and a few which upon closer inspection proved to be Hallstons or Hallburgs or something, one was just Bauman! Anyway, there were several with the three Talbots in black, and while they are more commonly black in heraldry, some Halls do use the white ones, hence Arron's sheet choice, and while we ignored the 'swans', actually Cranes (Irish Halls from Donegal) on the sheet, we do have Irish relations, and we're Catholic, on Mum's side (I think?), so there may be a closer connection. I rather like the Canadian-looking dragon.

This isn't going to become a history lesson or a lecture on heraldry, both of which are convoluted affairs, but it seems the Scottish Halls are the oldest (similar to the Irish arms but brown field), ex-Norman knights, settled in Scotland in the 1360/70's, and a branch of them gives the chevron with Talbots, while our 'Sussex Halls' are probably a sub-branch of the Essex branch (1700's)?

The one I used for my Favicon years ago is on the left, and the one I sent Arron to work with is on the right, neither are brilliant, but at the sizes they show, they look fine, and Arron cleaned them up and gave them the correct little red tongues.

 

Arron is open to commissions, but only if you're serious, so I have his eMail if anyone has a bright idea for a sheet of new/personalised shield designs for Britains Deetial, eMail me for his details, don't approach him on eBay (as I did) as evilBay may get pissed off if they think there's off-platform stuff going-on, not that there will be; Arron will get a dozen or so printed off (or more if you arrange it with him?) and tell you when they are ready to buy, so what you don't purchase will be available to others, therefore you don't need a fortune.

And many thanks to Arron Wood for putting-up with my backseat designing, and for producing a brilliant sheet. When I get round to it, I'm going to have a squad of Halls Templer all in black and white, to fight my Saracens!

B is for Bioki

Typical . . . this should have posted yesterday sometime, but having congratulated myself for sorting out the nightmare folder, I attempted to close the not-a-user 'user' folder, by combining it with the actual user-folder and found that I'd lost all my settings and had to re-do everything, all my bookmarks, all my Firefox add-ons, all my saved log-in's and passwords, sometimes you do wonder just exactly what you did in a previous life?!!

Anyway, just a quicky from Brian Berke, on a new branding of capsule egg he found Stateside recently . . . Bioki (which I've been mispronouncing 'boy-key' in my head prior to actually typing it!); they're quite large eggs with printed faces and hand-clamps to lock them closed.

Sadly nothing too figural, with a packet of candies, an interactive toy (press the button/lever and the deign showing on the inner-ball changes view), a novelty ring and a sticker animal, Brian was going to open the other with his grandson, so there may be something more interesting to report from its contents? Another box-ticked, many thanks to Brian!

'West' is for Panini Sticker Album - Plus!

Previously issued in the 1970's as either a sticker-only exercise or with other (commercially available) figures - it's not terribly clear - the Sticker Album 'WEST' was re-issued in the 1990's with a figure included in each pack of 6 stickers, today we're having a look at them.

I imagine you could also purchase the whole set (with card fort frontage and figures?) from the UK page of the website for a while-after (link at end of post) as you can order complete sticker sets for some foreign issues (50-quid-plus for a sticker album!) to this day, but I don't know how well-developed, or 'international' the site was in the 1990's?

Mounted figures for the cavalry, six different poses, of which only two are engaged in any sort of fighting, which may be a clue as to what happened at the Little Big Horn . . . too much saluting, bugling and carrying of small flags, not enough fighting-back!

Joking aside; I particularly like the Indian scout while the chap in buckskins could pass for General George Armstrong, but he'd need a bottle of Grecian2000 'Blonde' first! Am I right in thinking only the scout is wearing his braces correctly?

The US get eight foot poses, each of which is numbered (the mounted poses are unmarked), here we are looking at - top row from left;

23. Kneeling Shooter

24. Sentinel

25. Soldier with Gun

26. Standing Shooter

. . . and the figures are sized to around 50mm or 1:35th scale

Again using the top row, from the left we have;

27. Standing Shooter

28. Standing Shooter

29. Running Soldier

30. Standing Shooter

. . . and all the figures are manufactured from a  softish PVC replacement polymer with decoration mostly done through stencils, although there's some hand-painting.

Horses are probably the poorest element of the set, suffering from the softness of the plastic and slightly effete sculpting. There are three poses, which are also marked on the bases;

A2. Cavalry Horse

B2. Cavalry Horse

C2. Cavalry Horse

. . . two of the poses are very similar (either end), with only the feet reversed while the other seems to be pacing or high-stepping in a formal fashion?

The Indians get very similarly-posed horses, but with blanket saddles;

A1. Indian Horse

B1. Indian Horse

C1. Indian Horse

. . . their decoration is also more muted with various over-sprays on the same hazelnut-coloured animals. And as they are numbered ahead of each Cavalry version, I'm not saying they followed, but probably lead?

They also get six unmarked poses of rider, three in leggings/trousers, the other trio in just loin-cloths. The figure on the far right is particularly fine, shooting over his forearm, downwards into the/an - unseen - mêlée, and they are all more active than their cavalry counterparts.

The natives get ten foot poses, and just as the riders are more animated, so too are the foot figures more imaginative. Again from the left;

13. Indian with Gun

14. Indian with Bow

15. Indian on Ground

16. Indian with Dagger

17. Kneeling Indian

The base-titles however are just as lacking in imagination with these as they were with the US troops, with several having duplicated text!

18. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

19. Indian Lance/Shield

20. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

21. Indian with Bow

22. Indian with Bow

Base marks for - clockwise from top left - cavalry trooper, crawling Indian, Indian horse and foot Indian; the fact that the prone Indian is marked (down his leg) makes it all the weirder that none of the mounted poses have any marking at all? All marked items also have a 'CHINA'.

Thanks to John Begg for these which scraped-in under the 'small scale' parameter (perimeter!) back some time in 2006-7 and have just slid-out of storage..

A useful link with more information;

http://www.paninimania.com

While, in numerical order;

Set Listing

Horses

A1. Indian Horse

A2. Cavalry Horse

B1. Indian Horse

B2. Cavalry Horse

C1. Indian Horse

C2. Cavalry Horse

Riders

1-6. (?) 6x different Indian riders

7-12. (?) 6x different Cavalry riders

Foot Natives

13. Indian with Gun

14. Indian with Bow

15. Indian on Ground

16. Indian with Dagger

17. Kneeling Indian

18. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

19. Indian Lance/Shield

20. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

21. Indian with Bow

22. Indian with Bow

Cavalry Figures

23. Kneeling Shooter

24. Sentinel

25. Soldier with Gun

26. Standing Shooter

27. Standing Shooter

28. Standing Shooter

29. Running Soldier

30. Standing Shooter

Other Items

?. Relief Card Fort Frontage ('stage set' in log 'stockade' construction "Fort Apache")

?. Sticker Album

K is for Kellogg's Knights; Knot Krescent!

These were issued in 1994 by Kellogg's, pretty much the last time anyone issued 'proper' figures in breakfast cereal, although they were a tad small at around 45mm.

The figures are all in pretty casual or 'at ease' poses, either waiting for the battle to hot-up, or for their turn at the joust, you got one per pack (whatever size/weight of box) and each came with a sheet of four stickers.

The sheet was the same for all of them so you could build a unit of six identical servants of one 'house', or end up with two duplicates if you used them all at least once!

Backs; the relaxed stance of the figures is probably also - in part - explained by the need to reduce undercuts and have simple, shallow moulds, producing simple product with a fast cycle, resulting in a minimal unit-cost. But - they will still paint-up nicely, and one day I may have a pop!

They're not rare!

These were on evilBay, not that long ago either, and you often find complete sets of six, the trick is getting the sticker-sheet, but you only need one-and-a-half of them for maximum effect! It's a box-ticker; box ticked!

News, Views Etc . . . New Content - Airfix Blog, Galoob, Football, Card Collector's Flyer +

New content has been added to various small-scale posts on the Airfix Blog today, including horse/base comparisons on the Bedouin/Nap. French Infantry/AWI Grenadiers posts, new content on the 1st & 2nd version WWII Eighth Army, 1st version WWII German Infantry, Civilians and the Infantry Combat Group, while the Lone Star/Airfix comparison shots have finally been added to the 1st & 2nd versions of Afrika Korps & WWII German Infantry and to the British Paratroops. Most have had some text, but it's only reminded me of how behind I am over there!

I've also added two pairs of new pictures/screen-capchas to the Galoob page - numbers 40; pilot, and 41; a new carrier-deck bib-colour/base variant.

_ᴥ­_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_

For any fans or collectors of tea, gum and cigarette cards, The Card Scene magazine (formerly Card Times) is the one for you - if you've not found it yet? Six issues a year (each with up to 36 pages) for £17 seems reasonable value for money compared to other publications of the same type.

Contact:

[cheques payable to Ace Card Ents]

Ace Card Enterprises (C/O J. Devaney)

10 Yelverton Road

Whitley

Reading

Berkshire

RG2 7SU

johndevaney222@btinternet.com

_ᴥ­_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_

Football News

The first casualty of the current pig's-bladder kicking contest in Putin's war-mongering gulag may be Panini's UK-distributor Connect. After some negative publicity earlier in the year over how many packs you'd have to buy to guarantee a full set following - what seems to be an act of pure profiteering - a price hike from 50p to 80p (about a Dollar or Euro), sales dropped, leading to an ironic - if you accept my charge of profiteering - profits warning last week!

Although this is not to mistake a profit warning as equating to a lack of success; with or without a price hike the two packs (single and x6) were the second and sixth best selling items in the toy sector; week-ending 19th may, according to analysts NPD Group.

Nevertheless, Mark Cashmore the CEO of Connect has resigned and WHSmith the High Street newsagents (themselves, recently declared worst shop on the said High Street by the consumer watchdog Which?), felt the need to organise an in-store 'Swap Event' (Saturday 2nd June) encouraging kids (or dads?) to come in and swap their duplicates with each other, in order - presumably - to minimise purchases, in the normal course of events I'd say "You can't make this shit up" but in the new Trumpundbrexit 'world order' it seems anything goes while we wait patiently for the end!

The cause of all this was a work published back in March by mathematics Professor Paul Harper who calculated the cost of obtaining a full album to be a eye-watering £773.60p which is probably about the same as my total toy-figure spend in two or more years.

With 32 squads to collect plus the special-page and whole-team stickers it could be more, I'm not sure he's calculated the potential inequality of the 'randomness' of packs contents (vis-a-vis batches or waves) given that a sheet (seen at the printers - in the i newspaper; Thursday, 7th June) only had 200 stickers on it (A1 sheet, 20x10), suggesting different batches will have different duplicates - if you see what I mean?

As far as other football playthings go, Match Attack and Top Trump football sets are also selling well at the moment. Apparently football-related toy-sales have doubled in recent times for the periods of each World Cup or Euro-Championship, making up 6% of toy sales in those years, for a seasonal industry relying on Christmas and summer 'super-soakers' - that's not small beer.

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Toys in the Media! This is a current flyer locally my friends got sent, for the central heating firm undertaking checks for Vivid, who are the new name for several local authority's preferred housing association. It looks to be a library shot, possibly available on-line somewhere, as it's unlikely a central heating company in Farnborough would have access to a HO-railway model of an alpine chalet, but you never know! Anyone recognise the model/maker/brand?

_ᴥ­_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_ᴥ_

Returning to Galoob; my assistant - being as helpful as always - decided that sorting the Micro Machine G.I's numerically by base-mark is just not the sensible way to go at the task, in her own words -

"Hughman - You need to sort them leastest lastest, mostest firstest, and the red & white ones can go on the floor for now, look, here; I'll do it for you, you're obviously 'busy' faffing about with that camera!"

News, Views, etc . . . a Couple of Links

= Are they defending healthy food, or are they launching an advance to contact a juicy burger out of shot? Maybe they are guarding the - basic salad  - ingredients for onward placing in a burger! I think this is healthist, fake-news, alternative-fact, bogus, evil entity propaganda!

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/military-toy-soldiers-defending-healthy-food-127970519?src=B936E7CC-804C-11E2-9B6C-EE6D9EA4A24C-22-49



= Mending toys, mending hearts

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/toy-soldiers-adelaide-mens-shed-helping-to-heal-hearts-and-souls-of-abused-exservicemen-and-women/news-story/4dd59d62800457a90ce8e90432ae13c8



= Have we had these before? Kids'll love 'em, but why is something so London-centric being offered in a dollar price?

https://r-atelier.myshopify.com/products/journaling-planner-stickers-02



= Future of gaming?

http://www.techsqrd.com/tag/toy-soldiers/