O is for Other Books

When I showed the new additions to the collectables' library, I mentioned a few other books I'd bought recently, half in the Alton second-hand bookshop, most of the others in Waterststones, and a couple in TKMaxx, of all places, not toy soldiery, not toy'y at all, but it gives you a better idea about who I am, or what I'm about!

 

Old Shire Albums, but specifically, the Natural History sub-set, which have more colour images than most Shire's, certainly the older ones, and looking at a small field in some detail, snails perticularly tend to get passed-by, unless they are perticularly colourfull in the shell department.

 

Same Alton shop, different day, and they had these two, even more academic works (same author on the Ants), and Hoverflies are among my favourites, there is a wide number of them, and they can differ quite a bit, even within local populations, so photographing them never gets boring . . . like is does when, for instance, you find something covered in domestic honey bees - after a few good shots, you just stop shooting them!

 

I also grabbed this, it's a truism for a lot of reference works, even military ones, the text of the old ones is better, the illustrations of the new ones is superior, and with everything in storage, I picked-up this spiral bound work, going cheap, just so I'd have something here, the best feature of it being the open/closed artwork.

 

This was the Waterstones, not that pricey, and I've since been back to get the matching volume on wild flowers, as I always get confused by all the white umbel-flowered types, some of which are deadly poisonous (hemlock), others totally safe (cow parsley).

 

This book has a good range of insects, covered in some depth, with most of the European visitors included, as assumed summer finds. Not much on the North American visitors, and I've encountered two in recent years, both beetles (longhorn and pine), blown over by storms.

 

This was a bit of fun, I think I remember it from junior-school, and nostalgia is a powerful tug on the wallet sometimes, also you can find poses, colour-ways or now debunked physical features in these early works, which you can match to specific, contemporary toys, as the sculptors or art departments used the same books!

 

I bought a batch of raffle tickets at the BMSS's annual show in Reading and won these two. Both related to post '44 France, in World War Two, you can't go wrong with Ospray, and while I tend to collect the uniform works, these will be an interesting read, and once read, can always go in another raffle!

 

The first was an impulse buy, in the Basingrad TKMaxx, only for me to find the other at Farnborough Gate's store, a week or so later. They are supposedly academic 'fan' works, looking at an aspect of the Tolkien world, comparing it to the world Tolkien lived and wrote in, and tying all the loose ends together . . . kind of things?

 

I've only briefly dipped into them, but I think they will prove interesting, and anything which simplifies or explains in a shorter-form, or in a language I can follow, all the tediousness of the post-Silmarillion books, and the 'Tolkien Universe' stuff issued by the son, is a good thing, but the fact it appears there are still five to find, has curbed my enthusiasm somewhat!

 

What triggered the impulse of the first purchase, was the feel of them, they have a sort of faux-leather, which is almost micro- or nano-flocking, so they feel soft somehow, but colder than leather, so a treated polymer foil of some kind? They also look a bit like the ancient world library I built, from Folio Society books, years ago.

 

But anyway I have them now, and with a small sub-library of Tolkien books, including a few bestiaries, and fantasy art-books, they will add to the oeuvre, and enhance the eventual auction-lot, before I leave the room permanently!

P is for Potted Plant Problems and Phuqing Phungus Phlies

We haven't had as much garden or insect stuff as I'd imagined I'd post, but that may change at some point, as it's all piling up on the PC, but here's one I've been battling with which might be of some help to some of you.

 

One of the most depressing things of the last few years has been the loss of the garden, which will obviously go to the new owners of the house, and while I managed to get as much as I could to Mum's friends and neighbours, I've ended-up with 20-odd pot plants which are down the bottom of a neighbour's garden, but they need to sell now, too, so I may lose them, unless someone knows someone in North Hampshire/Surry with a quiet corner of a farm or estate where I could leave them for a few month 'till a year or so?

 

In addition, there were houseplants and cacti which wouldn't survive down the bottom of someone's garden, so I gave away as many as I could, and brought the rest to the flat, where I have one of each I think, with a few duplicates where the flowers or foliage are different, like the Geraniums which apparently aren't Geraniums (Pelargoniums), I think one of the Cacti has finally died, and the Amaryllis is looking poorly, but I think they always do at this time of year, and I should cut off the floppy old leaves and wait for it to go-again, later?

 

But in the biggest pot was this thing, I think it's some kind of Iris or Lily, but a non-hardy one, it may be perfectly happy outdoors though, I don't know, however it was in the 'summer-room' (a fancy kit of plastic panels and oversized Meccano I built for Mum, with Mimi's help, about 14-years ago), so it came here, and as you can see, a week ago it was not looking very happy.

 

Six months ago this pot was full of greenery, up to 8-inches tall in the middle, but shortly after I moved it here, one of the last to arrive, I started noticing these little flies, and took great delight in dealing with them every evening after work four, one night, eight, another, Ohh, more than ten, I've lost count!

 

However, I soon noticed that the plant was dying off slowly, and I'd water it, it would put out a few new shoots, but a dozen old ones would die-off! Google revealed the problem was these little fruit flies, called Fungus Gnats, and I re-started my efforts at eradication with more earnestness, getting dozens every night, and a bunch in the mornings before work (my PC table is next to the plant, so I was 'on site'), days-off were fly-carnage!

But still the plant ailed, as you only have to miss a couple of adults long enough for them to get together and do the jiggy-thang, get the eggs in the pot, and another batch of grubs has to be waited for, until they hatch, meantime they are eating the roots of the plant! So war was declared, more Googling done, and the little yellow thing above is part of the campaign.

The first purchase was these sticky pads, from the cheapie-hardware store up in town (Fleet Essentials, previously Ziggy's, but with one of the Ex-Baker's staff now helping them get in the right stuff), and this was the 'right stuff', look at it!

 

You have a single line of sticky on the back, which you peel to stick the sheet down, then you peel the backing sheet off the front (almost an oxymoron there?), and all the little flies go "Wha-hay a sunflower", and die, slowly, and quietly, producing little guilt as you can see what they and their kids have done/are doing to your precious plant!

Yet, it was a slow process, and I was still killing lots of flies by hand, every day (f'ousands of 'em since December Sah! F'ousands!), so after a return to Google I spent £4.50 on this at B&Q, chemical warfare had come to the flat!

Ladies and Gentlemen, two months later, and it hadn't killed a single fly, the plant was looking as it does in the first shot, and I was clearly losing the war . . . against phuqing flies! Indeed, the only use I will ever get from it is as a possible rocket-engine on a scratch-build!

The apparently non-toxic (and non-attractive to Fungus Gnats) liquid went down the drain, revealing seven glass beads? The magic ingredient in this complete rip-off of a fake solution (in both senses of the word) is the remains of some shot-blasting, sunk in snot? Somebody should go to jail for this scam!

Yeah! In the spares pile they go, they're not even the same size - so not much use for anything!

I then took the pot back to the old house, took it down to the bottom of the garden, and dug-out the remains of the plants with a desert-fork, carefully, as the greenery is very snappy. And with two bits of root (Holmes, Rhizomes?) and three plants, drowned them while I was at work, to kill any hidden larvae or eggs.

 

You wouldn't believe the pot-sized ball of dried, hollowed-out, root remains, that tumbled out, it had been fighting the grubs for years, and while looking OK on top, was being absolutely decimated underneath. Another couple of weeks and it would have been gone.

 

Heading off to Redfield's garden centre, which I discover has become not a garden centre, but a multi-function, high-end, leisure-destination/tourist-facility, mall, restaurant and day-care centre, for the young and old? 

 

Almost single-handedly responsible for the death of half the shops in the High Street, including the aforementioned Bakers (another post for another day), they even have a clothes section, not out-door or garden apparel, but chic, fashion and everyday-wear? A toy shop and grocery store, it's like the world's most expensive Trago Mills!

AND, you are forced by shelving, and displays, and phuqing little-phences, to go round 9/10th's of it! Fortunately, a fifth-columnist in the houseplant section let me go through her secret passage, direct to the tills, so I got a fresh-bag of compost, and saw a surface layer, expressly for Fungus Gnats!

This was all last week, and I re-potted last Thursday-night, after washing the pot (and crocks) with bleach, and drying thoroughly, before the remains of the plant drowned as well as the larvae/eggs, and after pay-day last weekend, I went back for the surface treatment, a crushed pumice, which I applied as above, about a centimetre deep (that's about half a banana stalk for our N. American readers), on Saturday last.

 

As you can see, three fresh shoots are already up/out, and I'm hoping the two little pieces will germinate in a few days, they are buried at 4 and 7 if you know what I mean; on the clock face as viewed. There will be a follow-up photo' if anything happens!

 

Now to maybe being of some help to you - 

• Don't buy the liquid traps, they are just another capitalist rip-off.
• Do buy the sticky-traps (there were four in the pack, about a fiver), the second is now on the window, just in case!
• Understand the sticky-pads won't cure the problem, but they'll hold it in check for a few weeks while you work-up the will for the serious bit of faffing!
• The pumice would make ideal model-railway ballast, and there's a lifetimes supply in one 9-quid bag, ten times cheaper than modeller's scatter, and probably the same stuff?
  

Over the next few days I killed another four flies, which were probably lone operators who'd meandered to other parts of the flat, and came back looking for a feed, or somewhere to lay their eggs, but since last Monday or Tuesday, it has been fly free!

H is for Hexbug!

Just a quickie before I go to work, a post from 2022's Toy Fair, which clearly I haven't got out in a timely manner, because it really doesn't matter! I won't be going this year at all, although I think it was last week anyway, so I didn't go this year!

Hexbug and Hexbug Nano (or Nano Hexbug) are brands of Spin Master, bought by them with all properties this time last year, from Innovation First International, who continue to trade with other non-toy brands, and which has, at its core, small battery-operated 'robotics' which move about and provide motive power for various lines, aimed both at STEM for younger kids, more generl fun toys, and pet novelties.

I'd become aware of them a year or so earlier, following a charity-shop purchase (more in a subsequent post), so was interested to see them at the show, but as you can see, little to interest Loyal (or casual) Readers, beyond the insect carcases being quite realistic as stand-alone models, without their Hexbug 'innards'.

Catalogue imagery, well, more of a trade 'flyer' really!

Packaging of the basic Hexbug units, in one's or sixes.

The insects

As you can see they are very good, and follow real life patterns of 'wee bestie'

Larger arthropods, and a sort of gecko-dragon thing!

Insect packaging also comes in singles or multiples

Cat toys!

C is for Cracker Crustaceans and Other Novelty Flats

I stated writing this last night, but realised I could barely keep my eyes open, and went to bed after the title (which isn't very good, but meah!), anyhoo's, here now and fit to go, more of a follow-up to the cracker posts, of a couple of days ago, and a fun thing for the Crimbo' season!

The rump of the late and still sorely missed Boysey-Boy studiously ignoring the goings-on, his equally missed mother would have been trying to stuff herself into that box, which is just too-small enough; perfect!

 

This is me sorting a bunch of 'cracker flats' into piles by colour, a few years ago, the duplicates to the left went to charity, god knows what they did with them! As you can see, there was a yellow for every animal, but shortages of green, white and red. Those on the right/lid stayed as a 'master sample'.

Aquatic critters

I don't know if it's by design or co-incidence, but the animals in the set break down neatly into four relatively distinct groups of four-each 'type', for a total pose-count of sixteen? You should recognise most, if not all of them, from your own childhood experiences with cheap cracker (the best, for this kind of thing), or from the many H is for How They Come in posts where one or two of these have featured!

The not-quite Insects

Who wants a tick in their Christmas cracker!

What struck me about both sets of full-sized crackers the other day, or indeed, the two mini-sets, and that whether the set with toys and puzzles or the other, there was no real duplication of boxes to tick, and for that to occur, I am imagining, there was a belt running through the packer's stations, where each packer has a bag of say, these insects, or rings, or curling prediction-fish, thimbles, wire-puzzles or whatever.

And with each operator (almost certainly women back in the day) practised to about the same speed of completing a cracker and putting it on the belt, you should with thirty-odd stations maybe, end up with a prefect mix of thirty different items travelling down the belt to the packers, within each 24-cracker group, arriving in line at the end?

Reptiles

I think the little-green is a gecko?

So, whether you have two, four or even six girls at the end of the line, and whether they can (with practice) pick 2, 3 or even four crackers per hand, as they pack the usually 10's or 12's, the chance of duplication is almost zero.

Where you do get duplication of contents, it's usually a 24 or more-crackers box, and then you find a different design/colour of insect, thimble, ring or whatever, there’s still an almost zero likelihood of a full duplication?

Proper insects

There WAS, often, duplication of hats and jokes, but that would be explained by the hats having a smaller variance, usually only five or six colours, sometime with different crown-cuts sometimes not. Bi-coloured crowns reduce full-duplication slightly?

 

While the jokes tend to be on sheets, and each packing-girl would need a bag, box, tote or stillage of cut jokes to grab one of, randomly, with each toy and crown, so A) she could, herself, put the same joke in two of her crackers, consecutively, and B) include the same joke, at the same time as one of her near neighbours, or anyone else on the line, which would be the same thing on a larger box of 18 or 24 crackers?

 

 Lobster and tick on evilBay

 

It's not that I lose sleep over this stuff (plenty of more important things to lose sleep over these days!), but I do like to know, or have an idea how it all works, because it's clever, isn't it?

Different sculpts

Probably newer, possibly a rubberised elastomer?

 

The ingenuity we show, and practice in ensuring there are no novelty/toy duplications in boxes of 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 24 or 32 budget Christmas crackers, is clearly wasted on us if we can't sort out fair pay, fair taxation or the state of the State of Palestine/Israel?

 On the beach!

 

This is what's here, in the TBS (to be sorted) boxes, the black spider is clearly from another set, as is the smaller crab in a fetching mauve! The red spider seems to be an injector-head purge, or colour-changeover figure, rather than sunlight damage?

Upsidedown!

 

And while the two 'stags' are from the same source (as each other and the above set), the red spider is apparently a sub-piracy by another maker. Like Airfix 'army men', parachute toys or Britains farm/zoo animals, there was a lot of copying of copies, of copies going on in the former Crown Colony! Although not the same level of variance as you find with the cat, Scottie-dog or elephant charms.

I is for Interesting Invertebrates or Insects

There were lots of Insects in Mr Attwood's parcel, so an unscheduled insect overview ensues now, another much ignored corner of the Small Scale World 'archive collection', there are lots in store, a few in the growing 'next overview' folder, and many downloads of sets to help ID them all one day for the A-Z pages, while there are good websites out there, for those who want to search for themselves, the STS Animal Wiki being the first place to start.

Spiders, this - like the cheetahs - was another one I had to re-shoot, as I found smaller spiders lurking under other things after I thought I'd found them all! A mix of the novelty/joke type and more realistic species identifiers, the stripped one on the left, for instance? But none are branded, with a smattering of CHINA marks, they will all need further research!

 

Big beetles; the khaki/dun and grey & white ones are from a set, while the two real biggies are probably (like the two big spiders) counter-top pick-me-ups, there is a consistency of marks/undersides within the contents of these five images, which suggest the majority of them are from two sets which should be easy'ish to ID one day.

 

Colony insects with a wingless ant facing-off against all his winged bred'rin! A couple of houseflies have snuck in under the 'wing' qualifier, but I'm not too sure on either of them, both larger than the usual novelty/joke flies, they have some bee/wasp qualities, and the red-eyed horror (a green-bottle, or green-arsed fly!) is more bee than fly!

 

Creepy, crawly critters (ooh, that would have been a better post title!), we have seen similar centi-milli-peades, but as we saw then, they all vary, and we may have seen the catapillar, or something similar, but I think most of these are new to stash?

 

With the exception of the little dragonfly, these all seem to be from the same set, with two issues of the devil's coachman and centi-milli-pede! The coachmen are both damaged, which makes them look more different!

 

Closing with scorpions, I've listened, all-night, to someone who's been stung by a scorpion, not an experience I ever want to repeat! The large damaged one (happily retained as 'first sample') seems to have always had two less legs, but scorpions do come in 6 and 8-leg (or 8 and 10-leg if counting front gloves) types.

The medium-sized one goes with the two medium-sized beetles in the second image, and the smallie goes with the chaps and chapesses in the previous image!

As always, many thanks to Jon for all these, they will be better sorted one day, and all have a place in the collection!

DD is for Dig Den

Once I had decided to take shelfies I looked around ofr other stuff to shoot, and this was the only other figural than which wasn't a full-on action figure type thing, and also exactly the kind of figures which will filter through in mixed lots and rummage trays in a few years time.

Again a generic branded to B&M so likely to be also found nearer you under another make or marque if you're not near a B&M! I could have saved it for Halloween, but that's a while away, and theses were 2-for-£20 in the run-up to Christmas (or 12-quid each?), now reduced to seven, if you're tempted to shell out three-fifty each for two zombies before they all go!

It's all on the box so that's it really, the zombies would make better aliens, and look to be the same pose/sculpt, possibly pantographed to two sizes, one of which glows in the dark and you also get six small insects of two species and four-x-two larger bugs.

What struck me about the set is that it's clearly been designed for two siblings to share, which I thought was a nice touch?

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events - Saturday 12th-Friday 18th October 2019

Well Mr. Trump's economic genius is starting to look good now he's used-up the boost he inherited from Obama isn't it, toy prices going through the roof just before Christmas, blue collar lay-offs . . . meanwhile the people of Northern Syria are loving his military genius!

There really is a pee-pee video, somewhere, isn't there? He is slowly surrendering American influence in the Middle East to Russia, while slowly falling-out with Europe, yet his genius as a statesman is coming along much faster elsewhere, he's falling out with China very quickly!

Both him and Boris refusing to co-operate with their own parliaments or their own courts, and while the cats misbehave, the mice are out of control; Brazil, Hungary, Poland and Turkey, sliding into gentile fascism as fast as they can learn what to get away with, from the two blond-buffoons and their coteries!

It's tragic, but as the planets dying anyway, I suppose it's all a bit academic; something for historians to argue over before the end - I watch with bemusement and buy old toys . . .

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 12th October 2019

Chester - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs

The Cheshire Country Club Sports Club, Plas Newton Lane, Upton, Cheshire, CH2 1PR

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

10:30 - 14:30hrs

Admission £2.00

Free Parking

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

Nottingham - Townsend Toy & Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend) - Nottingham Toy Fair

Bluecoat Academy, Nottingham, NG8 5GY

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission unknown, accompanied under-16's free

Light refreshments

Free Parking

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Sunday 13th October 2019

Kempton Park - RM Toys Ltd.

Kempton Park Racecourse, Staines Road East, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, TW16 5AQ

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 02392 381 529

Mob. - 07957 823 507 (Russell Martin)

10:00 - 15:00hrs

Admission - £4.00, seniors £3.50p, children £1.00, early bird (from 08:30hrs) £10.00

Plymouth - Events Frontier - 'Devcon' Sci-fi and Comics Convention

Plymouth Guildhall, Guildhall Square, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 2BJ

Web. - www.eventsfrontier.com

eMail - eventsfrontier@hotmail.com

Mob. - 07508 548 938

Hours unknown

Admission fee unknown

Rayleigh - SRP Toyfairs

Sweyne Park School, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 9BZ

Web. - www.srptoyfairs1.co.uk

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

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

Wincanton - Toy Trac - Model Farming Show

Wincanton Racecourse, Wincanton, Somerset, BA9 8BJ

Web. - https://toytrac.xyz

Tel. - 01278 785 925

10:30-15:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Licensed bar, Disability friendly

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Auctions

Saturday 12th October 2019

[Runcorn] On-line Auction - British Toy Auctions

The Auction Centre, 9 Berkeley Court, Runcorn, Cheshire, WA7 1TQ

Web. - www.britishtoyauctions.co.uk

eMail - enquiries@britishtoyauctions.co.uk

Tel. - 01928 579 032

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Monday 14th October 2019

Lewis - Wallis and Wallis

West Street Galleries, Lewis, Sussex, BN7 2NJ

Web. - wallisandwallis.co.uk

eMail - toys@wallisandwallis.co.uk

Tel. - 01273 480 208

Fax. - 01273 476 562

General Toy Sale

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Tuesday 15th October 2019

Newbury - Special Auction Services (SAS)

Originally there was a ' Collector' sale pencilled-in for the 15th, it seems this sale is not now going ahead, replaced by a 2-day event on Tue-Wed. 29th/30th October 2019

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Friday 18th October 2019

Ledbury - John Goodwin

Bromsberrow Village Hall, Albright Lane, Bromsberrow, Ledbury, HR8 1RT (venue)

3-7 New Street, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 2DX (office)

eMail - rupert@johngoodwin.co.uk

Tel. - 01684 593 125 (office)

Tel. - 07968 694 746 (18th October only)

Viewing - Thursday 17th October 15:00-19:00hrs and morning of sale from 08:00hrs

Sale starts 10:00hrs - finish.

'Toy & Transport' sale, trains, ephemera and advertising goods

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions

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

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Toy & model railways & trains

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Other Events

From Yesterday 'till Sunday 13th October 2019

Ironbridge - Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) - Brick Bridge World Record Attempt

Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire

Web. - www.ironbridge.org.uk

hands-on building with 'a market leading brand' of brick-block to create the world's longest model-bridge . . . hopfully!

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Saturday 12th October & Sunday 13th October 2019

Harrogate - Yorkshire Event Center - The Great Yorkshire Antiques Fair

Yorkshire Event Center, Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrowgate, North Yorkshire

Web. - www.eventcentre.co.uk

Antiques, vintage and collectables

Swansea - Swansea Museums - Book Swap

National Waterfront Museum, Oystermouth Road, Maritime Quarter, Swansea

Web. - www.museum.wales

1-for-1 book swap

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Saturday 12th - Sunday 20th October 2019

Hastings - Local Authority + - Hastings Week

Various locations

Web. - www.hastingsweek.com

Classic car show, town crier competition, re-enactments, parade, stalls, other events

Celebrating the anniversary of 1066's crown-change

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Sunday 13th October 2019

Theydon Bois - North London & Essex Transport Events (NLETE) - Transport Bazaar & Vintage Bus Displays

Theydon Bois Village Hall, Coppice Row, Essex, CMI6 7ER

eMail - nleevents@outlook.com

11:00 - 15:30hrs

Admission £3.00, accompanied children free

Free rides around Epping Forest.

No public car parking, refreshments, stalls etc . . .

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Overseas Events

Saturday 12th October 2019

Houten (Netherlands) - R. Hobma - Train & Rail Fair

Euretco, Houten, Netherlands

Tel. - ++0481 353 288

Toledo (USA) - John Carlisle - Ohio Collectors' Toy & Model Fair
Sylvania Exibition Center at Tam-O-Shanter, 7060 Sylvania Ave, Sylvania, Great Lakes (Toledo), OH 43560, Ohio, USA (venue location)

Old Toyland Shows, 6996 Chestnut Ridge Road, Lockport, NY 14094, New York, USA (organizer)

Web. - http://www.oldtoylandshows.com/

09:00-14:00hrs

Admission $7.00

Valthermond (Netherlands) - Martin Klein - Die Cast Fair

eMail - mailto:martin.klein@planet.nl

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Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th October 2019

Ohrdruf (Germany) - Leokadia Wolfers - Doll & Bear Show

Schloss Ehrenstein, Ohrdruf, Germnany

Tel. - ++01785 335 668

Paris (France) - Automedan - Die Cast & Tin-plate Fair

Parc Exposition Le Bourget, Paris, France

Tel. - ++++0164 465 222

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Sunday 13th October 2019

Bergheim (Germany) - J Hörner - Toy Fair

Tel. - ++0210 351 133

Dublin (Republic of Ireland) - Brian Collins Enterprises - 'Collectables Toy Fair'

Collinstown Suite, The Carlton Hotel, Dublin Airport, Old Airport Road, Cloghran, County Dublin, Republic of Ireland (Eire)

Web. - www.briancollinsenterprises.ie

Tel. - ++00353  879 827 712

[Findable on Facebook - Brian Collins]

Admission "Small charge"?

Nanterre (France) - Philippe Albaret - Eurofigurines

Espace Cheverul, 97-109 Avenue de la Liberté, 92000 Nanterre, France

Web. - www.eurofigurines.com

eMail - albaretphilippe@orange.fr

Tel. I - ++0614 611 618

Tel. II - ++0148 033 343

08:30-13:00hrs

Admission free . . . yes; FREE

The biggest show for little figures in France?

Olten (Switzerland) - Oltnerboerse - Toy Fair

Stadthetre / Konzerthsaal, Olten SO, Switzerland

Tel. - ++0627 914 289

Tournefeuille (France) - CCAM Toulouse - 'Retrojouets (Old Toys) 2019'

Salle 'La Phare', Tournefeuille, France

Web. - http://www.retrojouets.com/

Tel. - ++0561 765 607

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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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Toys in the Media

Two action figures, almost certainly enhanced by CGI (beyond the obvious sparks) and being used to illustrate a story about sports clothing store chains and their incestuous scraps!

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Other Toy News

No real toy news this week, something about recycling Lego, in Germany I think, but I wasn't paying attention!

Missed

A toy show in Lisbon, Portugal, another in the 'States last weekend and Bertoia Auctions (today, if you're near it; Vineland, New Jersey, but a bit late now); blame the promoters!

And Birmingham . . . again! AND Phil reminded me with plenty of time But I only found his mail just now . . . blame the promoters . . . Cheers Phil, thanks for trying and sorry I missed the eMail, I hope the three of you found 'stuff'!

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Links

One hates to denigrate anything for a good cause, but I'm nothing if not constant,and have no sacred-cows, so  . . . I think the UN funded something pretty similar a few years ago, linked to here (and elsewhere at the time) so while worthy; not quite as original as made out

https://musebycl.io/advertising/mccann-made-40000-toy-soldiers-based-real-wounded-veterans

and

https://www.keyc.tv/40000-toy-soldiers-emphasize-conflicts-of-veterans-transitioning-to-civilian-life/

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H is for How They Come In

For most of the week this was it! 50p each, totally unrelated to each-other and I'm not sure if the realistic one is LotR or GoT? Or whether or not he's had his head repainted, I suspect it's something-omire, the bad one who dies coming good, saving the little 'Blooody' Hobbits from the Forlorn Hope!

While the fox may be Phidal, is marked Disney but isn't the one from Peter Rabbit, isn't the one from the cartoon Robin Hood, isn't the one at war with a bird ('cos he was a coyote anyway and not Disney), looks far too laid-back to be trying to eat three little pigs and isn't the other one so must be another one?

Then I had a bit of luck today (Thursday); another LotR figurine, this one an elf, via McDonald's and a resin Teddy Bear playing cricket . . . why not! Legolas hasn't got a bow so he may have been part of a larger 'interactive' firing-toy/premium/freebee thing?

Giant knights marked China also came in at the last minute, they have certain similarities with some of the past output of Pioneer, Soma or Supreme, and are probably from some big-box generic thing shoved through TKMaxx or one of the Department Store chains at Christmas, maybe with a slot-together card fort or wooden thing?

23rd April 2020 - Now known to be Red Box from a castle playset 

In addition to the above bits, a bag of stuff for a future post was purloined (or sorted out from the large rubber knights) and a little thing was put to one side against a specific job!

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Other Stuff

The staff behaved herself this week, only because there weren't any boxes involved in the week's blogging activities, she did sit on Thursday's bag! But I caught a couple of insects with stories attached.

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I noticed this creeping very slowly across the bedroom ceiling the other morning and managed to get it to drop into a jar. I suspect it's more of a maggot than a caterpillar (they're all larvae), flies tend to find bodies in the eves (bats, tit-birds or pigeons), and the odd maggot finds a way into the house (we once had them raining-down on the patio at the place in Berkshire!), so, as the weather has turned now, I put it in the compost heap as I figured it would be warmer, and it would find something to eat as it must have used too much energy getting to where it was to successfully pupate? I just hope I haven't saved a clothes moth!

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This was caught in a spider's web outside the bedroom window on Wednesday, and with the sun behind it I could only make-out a stripy belly and couldn't work out what it was. I got the high steps and the longest cane I could find and managed to get it free, whereupon it fell on the sill, bounced and fell on the bay-window, bounced and fell on that sill, bounced and fell again, onto the paving, bounced and finally ended up in the undergrowth next to the drive, still wrapped in a few strands of the web!

It quickly freed itself though, once it had terra-firma to brace against, and clearly wasn't something a spider would normally tackle; The garden spiders set up these big sail-webs at this time of year and the various Atlantic squalls rip them to shreds every few days, but so do large insects like this, bumble-bees or hornets, who just fly through them with what sounds like threats if they get temporarily caught.

The problem was that in part breaking-free it'd been left hanging on a few threads with nothing to brace-against to break the last few strands as it'd fallen in-line with the brickwork, leaving a gap to the glass pane, so it was just swinging there waving its legs about!

It's not in the book, but I suspect a capsid of some kind, or mirid-bug relative, having some features of them and some shared with the related shield-bugs, but it has an elongated head and was big, well-over an inch in the main, more than two at full leg stretch. Possibly blown-in by this string of weather-fronts we've been having . . . Europe or North America?

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