T is for Two . . . err . . . Four, Engines!

I picked up a couple of rather interesting aircraft models a week ago last Saturday, neither of which seem to be elsewhere on the Internet, so we'll look at them both and thoughts are welcome on these two mysteries, the first is a kicker for Brit's . . . 

. . . as I suspected first that Victory Toys were likely a US firm, before finding it (as an aluminium Jeep manufacturer) in the archive as being a Dutch/Netherlands maker, but the point is, it's inescapable that this composition B17 Flying Fortress is a world away from the lumpen models we've seen here previously from Zang for Timpo. I don't know if the dodgy-looking characters (possibly a dog, a human and a duck) have any significance, or are a further clue to anything?

 

I wondered if at first it was aluminium, Victory seem to have made figures in the same material, as well as the Jeeps (all around 60mm), but it's definitely a composition; you can see where light rust on the prop-shafts is just starting to split the cases on the port-engines. Also, the varnish, where it hasn't worn off, is starting to bubble, like the unit/nationality shield transfers on a WWII  German helmet I used to own - clearly reacting with the paint underneath.

 

Only, it's a very finely finished model, as you can tell from this comparison of another recent airborne discovery here at Small Scale World, the Zang B29 Superfortress, you can see it's a much cruder beast altogether, and you wonder if, at that level of finess, we don't still have composition toys, but that's forgetting the frangibility of the material, and the fact that it's only survived because the box has soldiered-on, getting a bit battered, defending the contents!

 

Typically, the B17's from Zang which we also only recently looked at, are in storage, but that will give us an excuse to return to the whole Air Wing one day, as there are some lead ones too, and a wax one!  Going by the scale on the wing of the next, below, these are about 1:300th scale?

 

The other 'plane I found that day was this cast-aluminium MR2/Mk.2 Shackleton, long range maritime-patrol/reconnaissance aircraft. The official recognition model was a 1:72 scale celluloid/phenolic model, made by Cruver, and most of the desk-models I could find are far more detailed/larger, so I was minded to suspect an apprentice piece, however, the 52/986 looks like a stock-code, so it may still be a recognition model, or perhaps a targeting-aid, but I'm not sure that I'd be very happy if our gunners were practising on models of our own aircraft?

 

Now, 52 could be the year, and 986 is close to codes used by Avro for both the Shackleton (696/716) and Lincoln Bomber (694/695), so this could be an Avro factory/design office model? I can see there's still more to learn about this!

 

The small recess shows no sign of glue or fixings, so seems to be designed to fit easily on a stand of some kind, and be removed again, while the yellow-brown paint is crudely done, compared to the all-over green, but seems to be original?

 

And here's another thought, the Shackleton has direct descendancy from the Lancaster, via the Lincoln, and I wonder if the fact that around the world, three Lancaster's have now (I believe) been rendered airworthy, is down to the number of Shackleton parts still kicking around here or in South Africa?

A is for A'h Done Did Me a New Poem!

 

I is for I Was Going to Post Something Toy-Related Tonight, But Went and Did This for Faceplant Instead!

The West is ethically and morally bankrupt, wedded to a broken economic system which is working for no one but a few billionaires, and sliding in to a sort of everyday-workaday, fake-news fascism!

 

E is for Excellent or Ephemeral Everything Else!

Bits & bobs, odds & sods, scenic & spares . . . the rest of the contents of Jon's parcel, and there should be something for everyone in this lot! Randomly shot, and then collaged to reduce the image-count on the page, it's in no particular order, but covers the whole gamut of toys and models and other things!

We might as well start with soldiers, that being our raison d'être here! A nice resin tourist piece from Norway, of a Viking, they celebrate their violent colonialist past too! And a WWI German (Airfix) who was so keen to surrender he escaped the box with the small scale (previous post) and was found under the arm of the Viking, in among the dinosaurs!

 

I think this might be Tamiya, although it could be Italeri or someone like that, basic wall sections for early experiments into diorama building . . . a lot of us went there with mixed results!

 

The significance of the booklet (actually a trade catalogue) will become more obvious, further down the page, but suffice to say it's an old school catalogue from the 1950's with explanatory pages, drawings and nomenclature. While the Viewmaster sheet will join a few others I have somewhere - there's often one in a mixed lot of exactly this parcel's type! It will help me remember where my Remco divers did or did not come from - depending upon their plastic colour!

Some random die-casts, the Majorette trailer (circus) is a lovely thing and ID's a loose lion I think I have somewhere, similar to the Matchbox, or Corgi (?) one, but a tad bigger, while the police car is one we had as kids, so lovely to see again, and in pretty-much the same condition ours was in, when I last saw it!

 

Having a driver figure in approximately HO, it'll definitely stay, another (The Austin/BMC 1100 I think) had a dog on the parcel shelf . . .

 

Thought for the day; Why were they called parcel shelves, when all they ever had on them were tartan 'picnic' blankets and/or boxes of tissues, in addition to the odd dog, or nodding fake dog! Parcels went in the boot or on the back seats?

The green racing car is Mattel for Burger King, and reminds me of a holiday my brother and I had once where we found some cheap, generic Matchbox 1-75 style racing cars in a local seaside shop and bough one each, black and yellow I seem to recall, and spent hours racing them down a steep dirt track we'd smoothed out, and built jumps over the exposed roots of!

While the larger one is the Corgi Yardley McLaren-Ford and, of course - both have diminutive drivers . . . bargain!

The greenery, pretty straightforward for those who know what they are looking-at, but the highlight is definitely the trio of single-piece piracies of the multi-piece Britains willow trees, almost a temple to the copyists' art, they must have been very complicated three or four-part mould-tools, too?!!

 

An eclectic mix, with a lovely Matchbox Yesteryear fire appliance, this is the big-scale brother of the Matchbox and Lledo smallies we've seen here in the past, and you don't often see it, I suspect because it's so nice people look-after and hang-on to theirs?

 

A Christmas cracker ship flat (polyethylene copy of 'styrene Euro-premium), a copy of a Bruder 'plane, a copy of the Minic waterline tug and a copy of the Spanish Play-Me parrot-rifle artillery piece.

A bunch of Hong Kong pull-back 'stocking fillers' which I may be able to ID from Bill B's catalogue, or similar stuff, and a lovely Penguin boat. The box is a bit knackered, but there's enough there to scan the important bits, and it's an interesting line as it includes a vulcanised rubber Jeep and other oddities, clearly Frog for older kids!

 

Cable drums! A late Hornby-Triang in brown (the earlier one was green with different transfers), the Randall/Merit pair, one open, one closed, and a poorly glued Airfix, you can find it with blue or black cut-outs to glue on, then a couple of lesser makes in the centre, the two-colour styrene one marked-up 'NordKable', the other possibly from a large set of boxes and crates etc . . . which Märklin's sub-brand Primex carried at one point, but which may have been Preiser or Faller or someone originally?

 

Which brings us back to the blue booklet at the top of the post - it's full of little details about cable drums, with sketches! Fantastic! Even though most of mine are in storage I'm going to do a cable-drum post, just to thank Jon for feeding my enthusiasm for these esoteric things!
 

On the right, street furniture and other bits and bobs, the long marbled grey/brown pieces seem to be polystyrene sections of split-rail fencing, of the sort you'd want if modelling the American Civil War, but I have no idea who made them, while the stop/go signs and silver accessories at the front are from the late Britains mechanics in the Deetail style, so very useful.

And then there was this! Bits of that, bits of the other, bits of Kinder, and a very amusing rugby game I will post separately! There's some Chap Mai I think, some Britains, pencil-tops and an Action Man knock-off pair of bino's . . . they all have their place, their bag, their 'zone'.

Many, many thanks to Jon Attwood for what was a huge parcel, and we'll be returning to bits of it for years to come. Indeed, to that end, there are already a few follow-ups/comparisons of both his and Chris Smith's stuff in Picasa, so along with Christmasy stuff and railway bits, December should be busy here at Small Scale World.

 

Something filthy later today . . . got to get it out before Christmas proper starts tomorrow!

P is for Playset of Polymer Performers!

A small victory for my research efforts with this one, as I've had the cutting in the archive since 2005, but have only recently found the set, badged to someone else, but I suspect they are one and the same, certainly the carry-case/tub-graphics seem to tie in, but more globally it may have been a common contractable 'generic' at the time?

 

 

On the left we have the original cutting from Lidl's weekly flyer, so my handwritten date would probably have been the due date, the following week, rather than the date I got the flyer.

 

For those whose countries haven't yet encountered such stores, they started life in Germany (there's a similar-sized rival 'Aldi'), where I knew of them from my time there, not as a kid in the 1970's, but as a soldier in the later 1980's, although I think the one local to Wavell Barracks was another store brand altogether!

 

They pile-high with a basic range at low prices, and enhance their offering with bulk-ordered household furnishings, goods, tools, toys and the like which are announced the week before in the little flyers or pamphlets which in a quiet week might be a three-page gatefold, and in a busy period like now might run to 16 stapled pages, with occasional extra flyers/validation periods (of a few weeks, or 'while stokes last') for meats, wines & spirts, or - now'ish - toys and sweet treats/cheese etc.

 

It is from one of those flyers that this page came, while on the right, we have a Padget marked tub, which seems to have the same graphics. But the label goes on to say Padget Trading Limited C/O [care of] Padget Services, so apparently not our more commonly seen here, Padgett Brothers (A-to-Z), but probably a similarly-named, similar importer, who 'got the gig' to supply these to Lidl at the time?

 

Obviously, our interest is in the figures, which are of a mixed quality, around 45/50mm, and PVC, the dancer/performer figures, being based on sculpts going back to at least the 1960's are quite good, and the magician (who has to double as ring-master) is passable I suppose, as are the clowns if you assume they have papier-mâché heads, and take into account the giant shoes, but the pair of acrobats are bloody-awful sculpts of some hidiousity! I suspect I got an extra figure, but luckily of the better sculpt!

Anatomically incorrect, clumsy-looking and as un-athletic as it's possible to be, she still managed to get across the high-wire while I changed films; Hee-hee! The high-wire consists of three parts, so you can have a single span (as here) or a double, they locate into the crossbars with little spigots, and the trapeze uprights can be two heights.

 

The animals are really more tub-fillers than anything else, with an inordinate number of tigers, given the lack of a big-cat trainer! Most of the baby giraffes won't stand up and have a completely different paint-treatment to the adults, and all are in a very stiff PVC-alike. The adult elephants would make very nice war-elephant conversions in the 1:72nd to 28mm range.

 

The stands combine into a half-circle, so two sets would make a full ring, but leave you with a lifetime's supply of rather leery tigers! And the all-male lion family in two sizes are hardly going to jump that burning hoop! As I'm sure you can see, scale is all over the place!

 

 

The stands are all in a 'styrene polymer, but the other accessories (and the shrubs) are polyethylene, so the fact that the clowns' cannon looks like it might be the same as Hing Fat's pirate cannon, probably suggest an origin for those (polyethylene) parts, certainly I think the shrubs are theirs too, and possibly the zoo-cage pieces, with the [softer] animals & figures, and [harder] stands possibly from another/other source/s?

 

In total there seems to have been six sets in that week's 'assortment', and this poor quality image should help ID jungle (larger animals by the look if it) and sea animal (mixed sizes) sets in the future, although from time to time one would expect one or the other to turn-up in some sort of played-with condition.

 

 

Thought for the day

If you write - the animals and figures, and stands, it reads clumsy, but if you write - the  animals & figures, and stands, your brain reads the ampersand as 'n or un, so; Animals n'figures, and it reads better? I don't know if it's something unique to English, but it's purely psychological, both lines are technically correct, however one scans in the brain as acceptable the other doesn't? Is there a word for this, or is it a known 'rule'?

W is for Well . . . I'll be Fucked!

A thought for the day, we haven't had one for a while!

Currently, experts know very little about where swearing gets its power, but power it carries!

What we do know about swearing:

• It can trigger the “fight or flight” function
• It helps with catharsis
• It might be located in/come from different parts of the brain from other speech/language-use regions.

https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-swearing-how-obscene-words-influence-your-mind-body-and-relationships-192104

 

I'm a hell of a fucking swearer, as some of you know, I inherited the habit from my father, who was terrible compared to me - when the mood, an over-officious nabob or some plain-old arsehole - took him, and it strikes me that those who dislike ALL swearing (or 'cussing' as they often call it?), tend toward fear of emotion in all it's forms.

It's not that they necessarily tend to religious faith (although a lot do) or tend toward conservatism per se, although many do, but rather that they are slightly afraid of life, and rich-life in particular. And, if the above article is to be believed; they are under-using one or two areas of their brains?

Non-scientific observation - by me! - seems to suggest non-swearers often have frightfully ordered lives, and that's actually sad - life is to be lived, not ordered into little grey tick-boxes, and when; in living life, it throws a curve-ball at you, a good expletive will help dull the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"!

Thought for the day - swear more! It's healthy!

Thought for the Day - Slava Ukraine!

One of the things which has annoyed me in recent months is the way some people; both overly well meaning but nonetheless; thoughtless idiots, crippled by Political Correctness on the Left and argumentative, ignorant trolls, crippled by their own stupidity on the Right, have taken to saying of the coverage of the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and / or of the way we - in the West - have responded with aid or by taking refugees, with a line that goes something like this;

"What about Syria/Afghanistan/Yemen/Congo . . . you didn't / don't treat them like this?"

Well. here's the thing . . . The Afghanistan's, Iraq's, Iran's, Tunisia's, Yemen's, Mali's, Sudan's, Rwanda's and Burma's of this World are (and often have been for some time/centuries) first and foremost squalid little spats between squalid little local chiefs, warlords, priests or witch-doctors, criminals, self-appointed 'strong men, or just those with the guns or the keys to the Treasury, all these other wars, conflicts or revolutions are the same hated track of humanity's B-side, playing over-and-over and depressingly getting us nowhere.

But, all of human history is about the slow and steady rise of liberal, tolerant, secular democracy, and while no one sensible would claim it's been easy, no one sensible would claim we are there yet - indeed we are in the middle of one of the periodical 'Right Wing backlashes' which make the rise of right-thinking so slow - and no one sensible would claim it'll ever be a 'done deal', not with capitalists fighting against it every step of the way, nevertheless, it has brought us - recently - over half a century of relative peace and prosperity at home; in Europe, North America and Australasia.

However, in Ukraine, the Orks of Mordor have come out of the backward-thinking, backward-looking back-woods of the East to attack civilisation and try to tear-down the very tenets of democracy which the civilised world hold uppermost, with brutality, ignorance, lies, fake news, torture, execution, rape, murder, looting and other human rights abuses not seen since Hitler's Orks swept across the same lands.

So god-damned right we're going to support Kyiv, we're going to help the Ukrainians, we're going to send money, arms and blankets and we're going to make a fuss.

G is for Gribeauval System - Limber - Historex No 651

You got guns, you need limbers (NOT CAISSONS!), and Gribeauval's limber is the subject of these sheets, there will be a caisson along in a while! Obviously while British limbers carried 'ready rounds', the French didn't, but I believe the box on the guns managed the wherewithal for a few rounds while the separate ammunition caisson could be brought up and distribute more? In he end, the French discarded the Gribeauval system (after Napoleon had his Waterloo) and adopted ours with full ammunition-locker limbers, which they gave to the Americans in time for their [un]civil war.

With a full team of four horses - see final sheet below.

It should be noted that this limber was also used on the French caisson and other drawn vehicles like the field-forge (both available from Historex), spare-wheel wagons etc.

 

* **  ***   ****    *****    ****   ***  ** * 

Thought for the day

If near-side (left) and off-side (right) were correct for French and American horse teams, and we Brit's still have the near-side closest the curb (and furthest from the driver) on the left, are the rest of the world 'actually, really' driving on the wrong side? I think the evidence of vehicular nomenclature says they are!!! Go lefties!

T is for Terracotta Troops

I can't remember if we've seen one of these before, or all of them on two occasions, or none of them or four of them in a large show-report shot of everything, but to find out I'd have to check back through the tag results, which I can't do until Monday, and I'm putting this together to post on Monday, so if you've seen them before . . . sorry!

Thought for the Day - If really very sorry and hurry have no 'e', why does Surrey?

Spaniards . . . from Spain! Little terracotta figures, I was going to say caricatures, but they differ for over-emphasising each subjects features? These are more consistent; 'cartoonish' maybe, they follow a stylisation anyway - bee-sting lips, short fat legs with big feet, offset, pool-ball eyes and relatively stationary posing.

State police (Civil Guard), Air Force and a soldier, I have no doubt there are sailors and other recognisable Spanish figures to be found; bull fighters? And they are probably (no 'e') or I assume; sold as tourist keepsakes? Both the policeman above and the Beefeater below have stiff-card enhancements, or detailing on their headdress.

But why would the Spanish sell British characters? If they do, must I start looking for Germans in lederhosen, French-bereted chaps with bunches of onions, RCMP Mounties? I would have guessed they were supplied to a British Tourist industry novelty (no 'e' - twice) wholesaler, but they all came together bar the Guarda Civil chap, suggesting they all came from the same place?

I can only suppose there are so many beered-up, misbehaving 'brits' in some parts of coastal or island Spain; they've found they can sell British icons to the British tourists as easily as their own Spanish ones? Especially (no 'e') those large numbers of regular visitors who are also [rather hypocritically (no 'e')] Bwreakshiteers!

Anyway, it's another Beefeater, and another Horse Guard, whom I prefer to Lifeguards! And thanks to Chris Smith or Peter Evans in one of who's parcels the latter four figures turned-up.

Second thought for the day - The gap . . . why don't Lifeguards or lifeguards have a gap, or; why do Horse Guards?

 

11th February 2021 - Now known to be craft figures (artesanos) from Alborox in Grenada

News, Views Etc . . . Passing through . . . gone!

Timpo
Barney has an update, lots of ACW and Wild West from Timpo just come-in....

Herald Toys & Models

"This week we have for sale a collection of early plastic (solid and swoppet-type) Timpo American Civil War and Wild West figures, including some mounted Civil War officers and a Wild West bank robber."

The Toysaurus Lives! Maybe!
They probably got some DNA out of amber? Will Jeff Goldblum play your dad? "Err . . . miss . . . please . . .  scuse-me, err . . how much are . . . humm . . . these toy soldiers please, err, I can't err, seem to find  . . . hur-hum. . . . the label?"



Thought for the day . . .

Maybe - Maybe Not
Ms May asked Parliament for some time yesterday, may I suggest; eight-years, no parole? Six weeks 'till we become Portugal-minus-minus! Minus the sun, minus the smiles! Even Luxembourg will be able to laugh at us . . .and they're just a  truck-stop on the way to somewhere else!

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

Firing into the New Year with a plethora of dates and events, not! It's a steady week though, with something for everyone . . . look out for the last date, which is the annual society member's auction of the BMSS (British Model Soldier Society), one of the best auctions of toy soldiers in the calendar, although tending to be heavy in painted white-metal kit figures, there are always lots of rare figures, hollow-cast 'cast-offs', flats, unpainted castings and other treasures. You can join at the door so even if you aren't a member, you can be bidding later the same evening!

It's the 11th already, it's 2019 . . . now! Get up out of your rocking-chair Grandpa, and go; buy toys!

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 12th January 2019

Hawkinge - SRP Toy Fairs

Hawkinge Community Centre, Heron Forstal Avenue, Hawkinge, Kent, CT18 7FT

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail - srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Mob. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Ludlow - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs - Ludlow Toy & Train Collector's Fair

Ludlow Racecourse, Bromfield, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 2BT

Web presence unknown

Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

10:30 - 14:00hrs

Admission £2

Free parking

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Sunday 13th Jaunuary 2019

Great Bentley - R & G Toy Fairs

Village Hall, Plough Road, Great Bentley, Essex, CO7 8LD

Web presence unknown

Tel. - 01206 251 351 (Gary)

Tel. - 01255 473 509 (Richard)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission £2.00, under 16's free

Free parking, refreshments

Stafford - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'Stafford Showground'

The Preston & Argyle Suites, Stafford County Showground, Weston Road, Stafford, ST18 0BD

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

10.30 - 15.00hrs

Admission £4.00 (early-bird £8), OAP's £3.50, Children £1,

Free parking

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Tuesday 15th January 2019

Wootton Basset - Steven Clements Fairs - Wootton Basset Evening Fair

Memorial Hall, Station Road, Wootton Basset, Wiltshire, SN4 7EN

eMail: clementfairs@aol.com

Tel. - 01380 725 322

Mob. - 07958 101 891

18:30 - 20:30hrs

Admission charge unknown

Free parking, café

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Thursday 17th January 2019

Thatcham - Steven Clements (evening fair)

Thatcham Catholic Hall, Bath Road, Thatcham, Berkshire, RG18 3AG

eMail: clementfairs@aol.com

Tel. - 01380 725 322

Mob. - 07958 101 891

18:30 - 20:30hrs

Admission charge unknown

Refreshments, free parking

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Auctions

Wednesday 16th January 2019

Tunbridge Wells - C&T Auctioneers

The York Suite, The Spa Hotel, Mount Ephraim, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 8XJ (Venue)

Unit 4, High House Business Park, Kenardington, Near Ashford, Kent, TN26 2LF (Auction House)

Web. - www.candtauctions.co.uk

eMail - enquiries@candtauctions.co.uk

Valuations - jamesopie@yahoo.co.uk

Tel. - 44 1233 510 050 (from abroad)

Tel. - 01233 510 050 (within the UK)

Viewing from 08:30hrs, sale starts 10:00hrs

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (1st day of a three day auction)

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Specialist die-cast sale - "The Specialist Sale to be held on the 16th of January features seven private owner collections plus other vendors. The Northern Collection features Solido racing cars; Dinky cars, trucks, service vehicles, and aircraft, plus Corgi vehicles and TV and Film memorabilia. The Bus Collection features 20 lots of boxed and unboxed buses from Minialuxe, Gamda (Israel), Tekno and Dinky, plus others and The Hampshire Collection includes Dinky cars, motorcycles, South African, and French Dinky. The Borders Collection, The Hereford Collection - Part 1, and Part 2 of The Puerto Rico Collection all include boxed and unboxed Corgi and Dinky cars, commercials, haulage, military and aircraft plus many others, and the French Dinky from The London Collection features a number of buses and military vehicles"

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Thursday 17th January 2019

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (2nd day of a three day auction)

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Specialist die-cast sale -  "The Specialist Sale to be held on the 17th of January features a number of boxed and unboxed groups and single models from Corgi, Dinky, French Dinky, Siku and others, including cars buses trucks and lorries, military and Gift Sets. There is a large collection of Matchbox Superfast, Regular Wheels, King Size, Super Kings, Speed Kings, Accessory packs, twin packs and gift sets plus The Colin Davison Matchbox Collection. The "Big" North East Collection - Part 2, contains 1/18th, 1/16th, 1/12th, 1/8th Scale models plus other various Scale Models & kits, radio-controlled cars and Figures. The Surrey Aircraft Collection features 29 lots of Franklin Mint, Carousel and other boxed Aircraft. Further lots include TV and Film related vehicles, Buses, trucks and Matchbox models of Yesteryear"

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Friday 18th January 2019

London - BMSS - Members Auction

Church hall, St. Saviour's, Lupus Street, Pimlico, London, SW1V 3QW

Web. - www.bmssonlineee.com

Telephone unknown

17:30hrs - last call

Viewing from 17:00hrs

Admission to members only; re-up on the door

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (last day of a three day auction)

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Trains/model railways - "The Model Train sale to be held on the 18th of January features OO Gauge British Outline, HO USA & Continental Outline, N Gauge and Triang. Plus, OO Gauge Brass and Kit/Kitbuilt OO Gauge, and Gauge 1 & Larger. Part 9 of The Chris Broos Lifetime Collection features further interesting locomotives, coaches, and accessories. The sale also includes a fantastic collection of Garden Railway Centres Limited ex Shop Stock LGB & G Gauge Locomotives, Rolling Stock & Accessories, plus Hornby, Modern and Further O Gauge, Modern American Outline O Gauge and Scratch/Kitbuilt O Gauge Finescale. The sale concludes with Meccano & Other Constructional Toys, Live Steam, Railwayana, Books, Magazines & Catalogues, Pictures & Prints and our usual good selection of General Trains"

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here - FOR FREE - or linked to; please eMail me -

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!

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A box for a box!

Joining an Internet trope here! You see these memes all over the place at the movement, mostly pertaining to Amazon deliveries, but this was waiting for me in my local Ryman's the other week! It's packed like medical equipment for a disaster zone, and contains approximately 75% space!

It's been used for the combined paratroopers to be sorted into as the first phase of preparation for a/soon-to-be 'the' parachute-toy page.

Thought for the day - this sort of thing has to stop. The scientists gave us ten years to make major changes in every aspect of human existence; that is - if we want to exist further-forward than the next 35 years. They did so about 6/8 weeks ago, so we have already spent wasted 1% of the time available to us - to start saving ourselves . . . from ourselves - doing nothing!

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Churchill's Toy Soldiers to go on display at Chartwell