T is for Terra by Battat - 2025

So this year I didn't see any Terra at Birmingham, but did shoot these in London, on an after-market suppliers stall, again I didn't note the company's name, but they had mostly third-party, early-reader books and soft-toys, if I recall correctly.

 

Taller, thinner versions of the fat tubs, now 'toobs' and probably with fewer duplicates or a one-of-each pose count, or something like that?

 

The huge buckets again!

 

The larger tubs of smallies are still out there, but they are having their flimsy 'cartons' and lids replaced with more substantial, long-term storage 'jars' with coloured lids and carry-handles.

 

I don't think I've had much, at all, of this make, come into the collection, since Brain's original shelfies in 2017, but I will keep an eye-out for the new, thin toobs, and grab them if I see them, just for the sample. I suspect there may be some of it among the unknown sea-life or insect zones?

N is for New Face!

I don't know how many Toy Fairs I've been to, not that many, probably less that twenty since I went to my first one in . . . the late 1990's? But I can't remember ever having seen Safari? Schleich and Papo are near each other on the wrought-iron edged mezzanine/balcony and have been for over a decade, while the others - Bully, CollectA, K&M, Mojo etc., are more on and off, with Battat being found on several other people's stands, but Safari never seem to have bothered, or at least not the years I've attended?

 

So it was a bit of a surprise to find them at Kensington Olympia this January past, with what looked like a hastily-prepared stand, mostly draped orange cloth over trestle tables (next time take a steam iron guys!) and pin-board/divider panels, so whether they got someone else's cancellation slot, or intend to build a presence in future years and just left preparation to the last minute, I don't know, but there were two newish things on display.

 

But first, the classic Toob's;

 

Trying to study these using Amazon is an exercise in both frustration and futility, one of the follow-up posts on the horses in Jon Attwood's donations was going to be a set of Safari, only they turned-out to be from several sets, and several more were on Amazon, so I rather gave up and put them back in the long queue!

 

Also, my recent misidentification of the Arctic vignette, lead me to discover there are two versions of that set, an older 12-piece set with two human figural items (in different scales), and a newer 'shrinkflation' version with only the ten animals.

 

I tried raising the difference with the display-team member who was guiding me round the stand, but he wouldn't be drawn on the subject, while on Amazon (and similar platforms) some traders are still selling the older versions of these sets (it's not the only one with a 12-10 cut, when you start looking), some are selling the newer sets, but off the old images (so a disappointment will arrive), and only fresher, or newer dealers are selling off the new 10-count images.

 

Which means that A) at some point in the future, some items will become 'rarer' and/or therefore, more sought-after, and B), there is a remaining window of a year or two, in which you can track-down the older sets, before they are replaced totally in commercial stock inventories.

 

One of the surprises for me, although I was led to believe they have been around for a while now, are larger animals, following the CollectA-Papo-Schleich market. I don't think I have any yet, not even in the Charity shop bundles which sometimes contain one or two of the others, although the Prehistoric Hominids set Brian Berke sent us, a few years ago, was a clue to larger scales braking out at Safari!

 

I need an albino hedgehog! But there are some nice subjects here, lizards modern and prehistoric, fantasy and domestic farm animals, something for most tastes? That octopus looks great too, and would make short work of pirates!

 

The other new item, actually released last year, I think the chap said, were these mini animals, which would have be going head-to-head with the Schleich-Minis, but I don't think Schleich offer them any-more?

 

Being 'unit sized' some will be useful for HO-OO use, some better suited to larger scales, some may even hold their own against N-gauge or something? They were actually hard to shoot, given the way their display stands had been positioned.

 

A few other shots;

 

The newer issues, from one end of the display table.

 

Not the world's best photograph, I'll grant you! I've checked the butterfly set against the Insect Lore set, and they are not the same, in the middle is the set Brian drew to our attention back in 2020, while a set of Planets is actually a Sun and eight Planets . . . poor bloody Pluto!

 

Also heading for a slice of the novelty market?

 

Useful larger-scale figures.

 

The other end of that table!

 

All-in-all, despite the Lothario's just-got-out-of-bed-sheets in tangerine, there was a lot of good stuff packed into one of the smaller stands, and while I may give the show a miss next year (? The plan is to alternate, but it's a nice day out, and I get to meet friends), I look forward to seeing what they have next time I do visit?

 

Safari's website;

https://www.safariltd.com/

I is for Insect Lore - More Recent Imagery

Quickly getting the rest up here - see previous post!

 

2023

 

Thinking I'd published the previous post, in the previous two years, I just shot a couple of confirmatory shots of the Toobs, seeing nothing else new on the stand! Trying to count the Insects, I get to about 14-likely, but with some hidden in the heap at the bottom of the tube, and behind the labels, I suspect they are both a 16-count?

 

2025

So, fresh from this year's Toy fair, and we have now got the life-cycle blisters extended with Ants and Honey Bees, the Ladybird's card graphics have been brought into line with the other four, and sets with squishy Ladybirds have been added.

 

So, if you weren't familiar with Insect lore, you now know as much as I do! I didn't see them at the Birmingham Spring Fair, on either visit, but they may have been there, perhaps in one of the Halls I didn't bother with?

 

Websites -  

US https://www.insectlore.com/

UK https://www.insectlore.co.uk/

S is for Sluban

Along with the Chinese Pantasy we saw the other day, another Lego-likey with a notable presence in the Toy Fair at Kensington Olympia, was this outfit, Sluban, indeed they had a bigger stand and a glossy catalogue, with a varied range, some being Cobi-like military subjects, some more obviously seeking tourist destination traffic. 

 

Sluban is another Chinese brand, with the European opperation based in the Netherlands. Second shot's a bit fuzzy!

 

Not a lot I can add, Google will reveal to you, the same data it would allow me to parrot. It's compatible with Lego, looks - aesthetically - more like Cobi and is something I won't be collecting personally, having off-loaded half my modest collection of Lego on friend's kids over the last decade or so, the other half to Timpo-Dave but I might hang on to any figures or accessories that come my way in the future, as I also have to my Lego and Megabloks figures!

Note the flowering plants, on the bottom left shelves, Lego are now doing flowers too, not the first time it's followed where it's rivals lead!

 

European website;

https://sluban.nl/en

P is for Popup Games

Another new name encountered at the Toy Fair in Kensington back in January was Popup Games, a clever use of paper folding to produce games which can be taken with the players, mid-action, and carried on with at the other end [of the journey] by the simple expedient of opening the game up again, and finding the previous state of play popping-up, as it was left!

 

Ludus latrunculorum, latrunculi, or simply latrones ("the game of brigands", or "the game of soldiers" from latrunculus, diminutive of latro, mercenary or highwayman) was a two-player strategy board game played throughout the Roman Empire. It is said to resemble chess or draughts, as it is generally accepted to be a game of military tactics. Because of the scarcity of sources, reconstruction of the game's rules and basic structure is difficult, and therefore there are multiple interpretations of the available evidence.

 

- Wikipedia

Five Lines (Greek: πέντε γραμμαί, Romanized: pente grammai) is the modern name of an ancient Greek tables game. Two players each move five counters on a board with five lines, with moves likely determined by the roll of a die. The winner may have been the first one to place their pieces on the central "sacred line". No complete description of the game exists, but there have been several scholarly reconstructions, including Schädler's and Kidd's.

 

- Wikipedia

 

Tafl games, also known as Hnefatafl games, are a family of ancient Northern European strategy board games played on a chequered or latticed game board with two armies of uneven numbers.

 

- Wikipedia

As you can see from the Wiki' quotes, there is a pattern here, as well as being fold-away games, they are specialising in games which, while maybe not familiar to the man in the street, have been known to mankind for centuries, or millennia! I didn't see the Game of Ur, but it may only be a matter of time?

 

A more traditional game, instead of the playing pieces (which you will note were all figural), slotting down into a box-like structure, with the chess set, players get pieces with three-dimensional box-bases, where, provided one player keeps the boxes toward him and the other away, all will fold neatly, and tightly into the playing surface, at any point the game needs pausing.

 

Quite apart from the idea of folding games, and the plethora of ancient games re-imagined, there is also the ecological aspect of a 100% paper/card product, so I hope Popup Games do very well, and a couple of them rather reminded me of all those inter-war/post-war games like Tri-Tacktics and Dover Patrol.

 

Some pop-up retailers took the Popup URL a year earlier, so they can be found under the owners name, here;

https://www.hawcockbooks.co.uk/pop-up-games

T is for 'There Be Dragons'!

Probably a title we've had before, but whatever, we're over 5000 posts now, so you're bound to lose track of a few, or at least I am! Had a nice chat with the Westair guys at Birmingham the other week, unlike Ancestors of Dover who wouldn't allow photography . . . you go to a fair to promote your products, hire a stand to display your products, and then don't allow attendee's to cover your products?

 

But while I was chatting I shot off a few pictures of things which caught my eye, and this is them;

 

Various busts and things, busts are a side-arm of the hobby I've not really travelled to, although there are a few plastic ones in the pile, mostly the old famous/historical persons or footballer/Wild West cereal premiums, and a number of tank crew/commanders, but I know some people almost specialise in busts - for their display potential, if nothing else.

 

We saw these a while back, but worth another shot, they offered me one as a sample, however, I reminded them they had given me one last time, and I'm really, really not at the shows for the scrounge, but to genuinely see what's happening in the hobby, or to the hobby's advantage/disadvantage!

 

Necklaces! It's funny, but they could just as easily be key-rings, phone-hangers or luggage-tag ornaments, and, in the case of those little plastic guardsmen, all four and more - earrings and snow-shakers! Once you move away from the purism of Britains, Timpo, Elastolin, Marx or Starlux, and throw your eyes wider, there so much of this stuff, you'll never find all of it!

 

We've seen all three on the Blog now, in one form or another, but not the Pyramid, which I shall now be looking out for! Many versions of the gun over the years, and I think I have more than one design of the trebuchet, so copies-of-copies abound!

 

Figural, sculptural, Teddy Bears and Rodin's 'Thinker'!

What's not to like?

 

These were all new, I have a feeling the Rep' said they were retailing a lost cheaper than the Schleich/Papo stuff, but price is always down to the end-seller, and if the trade price is low, it could encourage scalping? 

 

Also I think I was impressed to find they were a substitute PVC, rather than resin, so quite robust, but I'm now not sure if that's a false memory or wishful thinking? But twelve, out there now, and excellent enhancers of a Nottingham Mafia game table!

 

Westair Reproductions website

https://westair.co.uk/