Do people play conkers elsewhere in the world or is it a peculiarly British thing? No matter - the second half of the post dictates that the post shall exist, so further assuming that at least some visitors to the blog may be interested, I will introduce you to the world of conkers!
We've had a bumper crop of conkers this autumn, although if harvesting them while they are dropping; the American 'fall' is probably more apt!
The conker is the fruiting body/seed-container (a nut) of the Horse Chestnut tree, and it comes packed in a spiked, hard-foam, shell which you don't want dropping on your head! You can also see clearly where the colour 'chestnut brown' comes from, although they lose the shine after a day or two.
My mother believes they keep spiders out of the house so my Brother or I dully get dispatched to collect enough for a small tray in every room! Whispers: It doesn't work - the fault of all belief systems!
Since god knows when, they have provided the oldest form of toy - the homemade, handmade, look-around-you toy! Using a skewer to pierce a hole, the conker is threaded with a piece of string, and these are then used to play 'conkers', a typically violent and sometimes painful game which teaches young Brit's about gain . . . and loss! Attachment . . . and loss, winning . . . and losing.
In the best traditions of modern sport - think: English football, World cycling or Russian athletics, cheating has reared its ugly head, with people found artificially hardening their conkers in a low-heat oven (which actually make them brittle), or applying various unguents and potions, oils or secret preparations handed down the generations by word of mouth; to hopefully extend the life of the conker.
Once you are happy with your conker, you take it out and challenge other conker-owners to a game which basically aims to destroy at least one of the conkers, by bashing them, with each other, until one fails! 'Accidentally' catching the opponent's knuckles, is not only accepted, but actively encouraged in some quarters.
Rules vary in different regions, with some having a turn-for-turn play, some having three shots in a row each, while others play hit gets another shot, miss passes the turn to the opponent.
The receiving conker is held at arm's-length, and arm/hand movement is hawkishly looked-out for (lower left pose). The hitter being flicked downward (lower right pose), the string tensed over the thumb for 'aiming' - one-eyed, binocular and temper-tantrum techniques are all employed!
Victorious conkers accrue points (again in some parts of the country this is made more rewarding by adding any points the conquered conker [there's a lot of wordplay in this post?] possessed to the winner's total), and the trick is to retire a beloved favorite conker before it is smashed to smithereens.
Some aficionados favour larger size; some believe in lumpy, misshapen conkers, while others - smooth, rounded ones; some think a small one is better . . . I chose a nice round one for the photo-session!
But why wait until the autumn? I give you (courtesy of Brian Berke) the
Eagle Konka! See what they did there . . . with the spelling . . . very droll! In the 1950's polymers were going to take us to the next level of anthropological development; hover-boards, flying cars, interstellar space travel and year-round conker . . . sorry 'konka' tournaments!
Those familiar with British slang will realise there's a second play on words going-on here as another name for the nose is a conk, and the
Konka, has a 'nose' as its primary mechanism.
A very solid lump of relatively indestructible plastic is actually almost a jig-toy, with an added spring release that's triggered by the hitting of the red conk, by the opposing
Konka. Unlike conkers, where the aim is to get a solid top-hit; cracking the conker out from the string-hole, this design requires a glancing-blow to the side, which - if successful - presumably led to the blue 'hat' shooting up the string!
I've never seen these in action (although a vague memory of the odd one kicking around mate's houses when we were young was triggered by Brian's sending the shots), however, I see a built in flaw, if both conks come into contact with speed and vigor; then surly both
Konka's will explode, releasing all accrued points from both
Konkas to the realms of ghosts and the mythical 'ether'?
Presumably a mail-away offer/premium from
Eagle comic or
Eagle annual, and marked to an Eagle, so possibly connected to the whole
Eagalwall thing in Dorking, Surrey? The red-yellow-blue thing, while being a common combination of primary colours is also similar to the
Eaglewall Dan Dare figure packaging, ship kits and
Design-a-plane set.
I wonder if the design isn't actually/originally from someone like Potter's Bar's
Merit?
I can't search the patent databases at the moment, but if someone would like to? Meanwhile; many thanks again to Brian for contributing another classic old toy to the blog.
Of course you need more -
Wikipedia!
Top row are Clive Knight for Tradition, middle row are all Stadden's while the British Lancer is a Willie by Suren, an Airfix German feels rather inadequate while providing a size comparison! [See also; The two Prussians in the following post.]
Sky Birds 'Boche', I thought there were three poses, but I only seem to have two, as it's a large sample from dozens of sources over the years, I must have imagined the third pose!! As if to confirm the false memory syndrome; I can't even decide if I'm imagining an advancing pose or a standing firing pose!!! Doh! Unless I've got some more somewhere else, I guess it's just the two, these go with Airfix, size wise but are chunkier and from a different - later - period of the war.
The good old - complete with all faults - Airfix tank, made-up as per the instructions, with a couple of the Galoob Micro machines in the foreground. Airfix have in the last few weeks announced two new versions of this kit, with 'new parts' added, the female will NEED new parts, whether they will add new parts to the male, is another matter, and I think both will still have the rear steering wheels included.
This is relatively recent Hong Kong/China production, based on (but not the same as...) the fictional WWI tank in the (2nd?) Indiana Jones movie. Loosely representing the Anglo-American Mk VIII 'International' of 1919, it's a very unusual and pretty unique design for a HK company to come up with, and it came with a similarly coloured/camouflaged modern USMC LVTP!! Both in a reasonably usable 1:76/72 scale...Bargain!
We start with some siege artillery, the rear one (missing wheels) is by the American company of Tootsie Toys, who made vehicles and aircraft that were the die-cast equivalent of the old pod-feet era dime-store stuff, at around the time the switch-over from lead to plastic was gathering momentum. In front is a boxed-set 'enhancer' from Crescent, usually used with their 54mm range of hollow-cast lead figures.
I bought this the other day, I am hoping to make it a project on these pages, once I've set up a work area here at our new home. I have somewhere - in one of the many still unopened boxes, the original article on the A7V's in either a Military Modelling or Airfix Magazine, or one of the eponymous annuals, so intend to make it slightly more interesting by converting it to one of the versions not covered by the kit!
I bought this at the NEC on Sunday, from Mercator Trading
I think these are two of the character figures from the Tradition range of Imperial Prussians, but as to which two I'm not so sure (the one on the left may be; GK3 General of Cavalry in Lancer uniform). Again I've used the Airfix figure as a comparison, these go well with the Stadden/Knight/Willie figures in the previous post.
