B is for Benevolent Buys - 1 of 3

Clearing out a folder of Charity Shop purchases which seem to have escaped some of the other Charity Shop purchase posts over recent months, and nothing exciting here, but all grist to the mill!

 

Actually, from the tail-end of '24, and I can't remember where, a resin jobbie of the sort that fills and has filled window-space in high-street jewellery chains for decades now, it was in good-nick, and pennies to charity, it goes in the box of such stuff!

 

I think this and the next two were from a rare trip to Camberley, I undertook back in February, looking for something else, but it might have just got shot with the others, but be an earlier find in - probably - the Blue Cross shop in Fleet?

 

A couple of the expanded-polystyrene glider novelties, we've seen before here, and of which two more are in the queue, this pair marked-up to Henbrandt, but likely to be the same poorly printed ones we saw a while back in various packagings.

 

Three Disney Princesses, these were definitely from a large basket of such stuff, in a Charity Shop in Camberley, obviously ex-shop, or other 'stock' (NOS in feebleBay parlance), and probably from capsule dispensers of some kind, but could be off a Disney Store hook-tree?

 

While I vaguely remember these, as larger rope/string-dolls, enjoying a brief 'craze' of popularity back in the 1990's (?) As they came with the above Princesses, in a similar quantity, capsule stock, or something more independent is the likelier for both, than the Disney Stores thought, but never rule out what you can't disprove!

 

Two semi-deforms from a while ago, probably the DEBRA shop in Fleet, more Fortnite franchised stuff, and with quite a bit of dust on them, some age, a few years on a shelf at least, rather like the Skibidi Toilet stuff, a youth-culture which has grown, almost organically, away from the figure collection hobby.

 

They look like the kind of quite expensive stuff you find in those funny little t-shirt/gaming/metal 'head' shops in the quieter corners of shopping malls? But as cheap buys in a charity shop, provide 'reference samples' I'm in no hurry to add to.

 

Another Wimsey from Wade on the right, we've seen the one playing with a ball of wool before, but this one looks like it's foil, waiting a chance to grab the ball! On the left two resin, cartoon cats, with kittens, from crafty/gifty shops rather than jewellers I suspect, but maybe both sources? And I believe they are Peter Fagan sculpts from Scotland.

C is for Charity Shop Round-up

A quick round-up of recent Charity shop finds, I haven't been as diligent this last two-and-a-half years as I had become, in checking the shops, too busy running about, or sorting stuff back at the house. But as the end-game creeps nearer I have got up to town with a few minutes to spare more often in recent weeks, and this is what I've found since the last post of this nature!

This was no money at all - two punds I think? The shots aren't brilliant, but then none of it is likely to interest most of you, but it will all prove useful in comparison, round-up and thematic posts or pages going forward, being mostly figural, and it's an eclectic mix of  pieces in ceramic, wood, resin, glass and mixed-media.

 

While I paid a little more than I like to for these, there are actually four posts in the long queue on these, and several other posts on similar recent or current blind-bag 'playground' collectables (Panosh, Zomlings, Moshlings, Shopkins etc), which have been building since we last looked at these, here, back in  . . .  2014/15? But they aren't a priority and can wait.

 

In the meantime, here's a reminder of the variety of both the shapes and colours of these Gogo Crazy Bones, which date back to the 1990's (frighteningly, if you're my age; some 30-odd years ago!), and aren't hard to find in quantities like this, you may remember a jar-full at The Toy Project charity in London.

 

I had this tin in a previous purchase, not sure if Blogged or queue, but it was full of the coloured ones and only one or two of the gold-chromed, so the previous owner had obviously swapped some out, however as a commercial set, it's probably not worth as much as some of the earlier individual ones can go for, if deemed 'rare'.

 

In the queue articles I have now got Star Wars (I think?), Disney and Israeli knock-off's, among others, so they were very popular for a while, and one day I will get the rest out of the queue, maybe as a stand-alone page?

 

Mixed lot of mostly 1980/90's Kinder toys, a couple of superhero/Barbie types and a few of the more recent luggage/mobile 'phone hangers, but I thought the frog pencil-top had a bit of age . . . although, he may just be dirty!

 

A whole tub of animals for a fiver the other week, it's an odd selection with very modern cheapies rubbing shoulders with vintage, mid-range Safari, and Schleich top-end stuff, all good gap-fillers!

 

Can't say "No" to happy cat fairing types and the Schleich Dino' was a quid, so this trio came home with me.

 

While this lot was three purchases last week, a bunch of Whimsies from Wade, which brought back memories of childhood (we used to have ours from Christmas crackers lined up on the narrow shelf above the curtains in our shared bedroom), a nice, probably Indian figurine of a musician in wood and Compo from Last of the Summer Wine, who I think goes with a recent Corgi-branded die-cast vehicle - he's a lump of whitemetal.

Q is for Quintet of Queerish Questors

Yeah, I dun'know, it sort of started with Quartet and just grew! At one point it was diving divers di . . . it got samey! Just a quicky; it's been a long day! We're looking at a group of pretty diverse divers - oh, could have run with that?!! - I picked-up in the autumn and spring.

It's the five on the left we'll inspect in a minute, but I shot them with a few commoner plastics (trio to the right) to give some idea of size/scale and bulk/sculpt. From the left we have Manoil's hollow-cast US lump, a fully painted/matt-glazed bisque from Japan, Argentinian plastic cake-decoration (seen before) and Britain's own ceramic classic from Wade, the last is a Murano style, hand-made/blown vitreous example of the glass-carftsmann's art.

So Manoil's lump, and I don't call it a lump in a derogatory fashion, just that it's a heavy chunk of post-war lead-rich solidity! For it's time, it's a surprisingly modern suit with no cage-windows; although he seems to be carrying his air-hose, so deck or dock-side?

Also carrying his hose, this chap makes a quite good alien, being unrealistically short with a huge head, and fanciful suit-design . . . pressurised rubber? Slip-cast hollow-bisque and marked 'JAPAN'.

Wade's is similarly as fine a material as bisque, but a solid cast with a full, translucent glaze which settles after firing like a heavy wash. Not a Whimsy, but a larger, stand-alone piece aimed at the tourist keepsake/seaside market I guess . . . I shouldn't have to guess, I have the Wade book somewhere, but currently in a storage unit!

The fourth of the new additions and what a peach! Probably not as difficult to produce as some of the little animals, but still, it's all very clever . . . one of my secret pleasures at the moment is watching glass-blowing and twist-marble manufacturing videos on YouTube! So I have some idea how he's been rolled out and split, the colours added as hotter blobs, the fins squished down with steel pinchers, and so on!

We did see this chap, not long ago, but he was still around, so he gets a second outing! A polyethylene cake-decoration, with icing-spikes, under his feet and simple paint; that silver again, the Argentines like their silver paint! But a unique sculpt, as far as I know?

A second group shot, the number of photographs is due to the fact that I shot 'an article' . . . twice! Only a few days apart, I totally forgot the first photo-shoot - when I uploaded the SD-Card, there they all were; a few hedgehogs apart! Doh!

O is for Odds and Sods

There are always a few things in the queue, which aren't really in the queue as they can only be used singly or wait forever for something to help them contribute to a larger post; these are two of they - as it is said in Bristol!

We start with a Gnome from Peter Evans, who - some of you may know - has just put his out to summer pasture; he kindly sent a duplicate my way!

Branded to Tobar so probably also a Hawkins Bazaar item at some point, he's a reasonable 54mm and manufactured from a dense polymer which could be anything, but probably isn't polystyrene.

Posed with a 60mm coloured polyethylene Manurba for Heinerle 'Wundertüten' (Studio Heinerle Spiel- und Süßwaren GmbH!) copy of the originally white PVC Fontanini dwarf, a common, blow-moulded Hong Kong garden ornament/cake decoration and the two recently acquired Irish factory Wade Leprechauns to give you a sense of his size - he's definitely eaten all the pies!

Now, terrible to report, but Peter needs to keep a close eye on his Gnome Ghomes as there is such a very, actual, not-so-jolly 'thing' as gnome rustling, and it doesn't involve a bloke with leaves on his head, but rather; leaving gnomes!

The Daily Torygraph reported on the 8th May that a lady in Angus had had all her gnomes removed over several days between the 23rd and 30th April - batch-snatching!

In total 37 gnomes have gone walkabout, described by Police Scotland's Arbroath office as "small" and the "usual garden type", the elderly lady had collected them over 30 years and is genuinely bereft, the theft - believed to be a prank - is being treated as a 'not funny crime'.

Meanwhile these were sitting in Picasa waiting in vain for something similar to make a 'T is for...' post . . . although they could have been tacked-on to yesterday's Taffy post? Doh!

Sent in by Gog/Juan Angel, he's hoping someone can give him a brand name, brand-mark or set title, they presumably came with an toy ambulance or emergency-set of some kind and are quite modern, but rather nice sculpts, and it's always nicer when the two bearers are posed separately, rather than a duplicate pair.

F is for Follow-up - Fish!

I know I said it'd probably be a while before we returned to fish, clearly I lied - one should never assume! Nor 'do' policicticicic . . . Apparently! However; it's nice when you're proved wrong if it means an earlier return to something!

And with the Wade / Not-Quite-But-Probably-Irish-Factory-Wade Leprechauns fresh in the mind when I saw these in a charity shop for 50p-a-piece, it would have been rude not to!

These are definitely Wade (Whimsies) and - guessing again! - Brown Trout (Oncorhynchus) and Common Carp (Cyprinus Carpio)?

C is for Cats, Chats, Mats

The Brit's 'll get it! We are back to lumps of plastic that are not toy soldiers, which will pee a few people off, but they probably need peeing-off occasionally, keeps them grounded in reality! I'm a cat person, so this post is fine in my book.

Brain Berke sent me a couple of shots of cat related rack-toys; sounds like they were mongeese or civets or something! Start again; Brian sent me some shots of rack toys with cats, and nothing un-cat in them!

A few weeks later - when I got those insects and stuff - I found a set of ten cats for a pound, well, that's half what it cost to make them and ship them 14,000 miles by truck and container vessel, so it would be rude not to buy them . . . a whole pound!

When I got them home and compared them, one seemed to be the same as one of the cats in Brian's MTC blister, but over here they were Amscan. As Amscan have a US office and are FoB'ers, I guess they probably facilitated the MTC deal, separate from the Milton Keynes based UK office issuing them under their own Amscan branding.

My ten were actually seven poses, with four of the foxy-looking breed top right making-up the total. As Brian's 'mere' four has three poses I don't (well actually I do now because he sent me the blister - thank you Brian!), I am guessing, these are from a larger pose-sample maybe 15 or twenty, possibly originally arranged for a kids magazine as a cover freebie (like a lot of the smaller Chinasaurs are), so I will return to the Party Shop they came from and pay greater attention to the little bags and see how many I can find, they'll make a nice post for December!

Brian also sent pictures (and then the bag - Thanks again!) of this Hunson/JPW bag, with what looked to be larger models of smaller kittens, they are definitely fluffier, and they look more recognisable as the Euro-tabby mongrels I'm used to (is the pale one a 'rag-doll'?), the MTC/Amscan set has some odd-looking breeds in it!

Look at the face of the ginger-tabby in the right-hand/reverse artwork . . .

. . . That's a real face, which real cats make at real humans!

After the two sets arrived I could take a comparison shot to confirm the above musings. Apart from the odd breeds (another clue to a part-work type thing going on there) in the adult cat series, these are all quite nice sculpts, but are all let down by the eyes . . . I suspect a Chinese cultural thing might be in the background and they have that 'Lucky Cat' thing, and I think . . . no; no I don't know what I think and rather than throw a paragraph together full of question-marks, I'll leave it hanging. . . possible reason for big eyes . . . cultural?

These were in Picasa from a year ago, not really Rack Toys either, a rule broken in Rack Toy Month - Doh! Schleich kittens playing on a rug, well; on AND under a rug! Their eyes are a bit OTT too! The Tabby paint-jobs are better, but as they are also made in China, it's all about budget, and these are $4, 5, 6.99 each, not £1 for ten!

Well - now the rule's broken lets go for the full witches brew (is that even a proper saying? I have been up a ladder all day, in the sun! Posted 12/08/16!), two more kittens playing on a coir mat, watched by two adults, several puppies and a grown Alsatian . . . along with a hedgehog . . . all Schleich, and still an improvement on a parachuting penguin!

I think we've seen most of these before, a badge, some charms, a large resin kitten and a Whimsy from Wade in pottery, all compared to one of the cats in the first set. And thanks to Mimi for two of these.

That's it for cats for a while, rack toys or not; nice aren't they?

C is for Christmas Past

There are many thing's in Picasa (or on the dongles) that languish there because I've forgotten about them, or because I've forgotten exactly why I've photographed them, or that I haven't taken enough/suitable images to get a post out, or make a post work, there are even a few that have just lost their relevance...if I don't post these now - while I think about it - They will be joining the lost stuff in Blog limbo!

So, a round-up of the toys/toy related bits that came my way around the 25th, three months ago...

Presents from Mim were two cats for the Cabinet of Curious Things, including the Wade Whimsies kitten and a resin tabby, two antiqued metal examples of recent (but dated) technology, which I was expecting to have pencil sharpeners in, but they don't, so just 'trinkets' in the best traditions of the 'under a fiver' section of the museum gift-shop! Also destined for the cabinet.

And at the top; a set of Christmas decorations from Fiddes Payne, which - in heavy resin - are better used as cake decorations than tree ornaments and have already lost their gold thread loops!

Presents for myself; a dunny-bunny thing from a charity shop in Alton, there were two, but the other was hideous, this one was painless, if a little pink! having mentioned them on one of the pages I thought we'd better have one up here at some point, I don't know what series/make/type he his, but as a generic example of a Kubrick, he'll do!

I love Christmas for the buying of presents for the kids, and not having any myself, always look forward to spoiling those of my friends, in recent years blind-bag Lego and Mega Bloks have become a staple, and I always get an extra one...for me! Also shows how much bigger the Kubricks are. Finally an old Erzgebirge type tree decoration of a Santa-sleigh that came as a make-weight in a 5-for-a-pound charity shop bauble splurge in Basingrad.

This Giraprendi Madball water-squirter (called 'Fleabag') was found in the street after the Bin-lorry had done it's post festive-season round, making room for newer stuff no doubt, anyway, it made a bid for freedom and - for now - resides in the 'what the hell do I do with these' box!

From the same mentalities that produce designer toys and Kubricks, but aimed at kids, it really is a awful thing, without a redeeming feature (it's ability to wet someone?) and as a measure of human achievement would suggest we are entering either the end of days, or the period of decadence that - like Paris at the turn of the last Century, or Berlin in the 1930's - tends to presage a big war?

Saw this in...you guessed it...The Works for 99p, and had my mother wrap it for presentation on the day! Not much of use to toy soldier collectors, but plenty of nostalgia, two relevant entries and some useful company histories, particularly on Asian and 1980's electronic toy manufacturers.