K is for Kingly Kings King'ing-it!

I know we keep returning to this chap but he needs returning to...we'll it's 'chaps' from now on . . . these two came together the other day in a 'new to market' lot (with a Cherilea saloon-barman!), they have clearly been painted at the same time, by the same person, with the same paint. I think all previous mentions of the one being converted from the other (here on the Blog and elsewhere) can - in future - be discounted.

I guess what happened was (clicks-into fantasy, alternate history mode . . .) the sculptor wasn't happy with one attempt, so re-did the sculpt, someone from the factory came to look at them and said "They'll both do" and ergo - they both went into production?

Or it was simply a deliberate act to obtain a Richard II and Prince John (they're brothers - they should look similar)? Or a Richard and a Sherriff; remember the opposite (even: 'opposing') set for the Lone Star knights was the Robin Hood figures? Whatever the reason, I think it's clear now that these two were contiguous production.

Ultimate Explorers were a series of interactive book/craft sets, published as One Inch Warrior magazine was at its height, two of which containing mostly small scale, they were covered at the time, in that organ, although we will return to look at them here one day. Paul at PW Towers may have back issues of the mag.

The Castle set (published by Design Eye) contained about 20 18mm'ish figures in three poses, a nice clip-together catapult and this figure for painting. I believe it is based on an actual statue, but don't believe me, I originally thought it was the Alfred one in Winchester, and it wasn't! Does anyone know if it is a copy of a real statue, and if so: which one, where?

[A quick Google while posting finds a similar statue of Riched II somewhere - Bradford?]

There was a second set called Ancient Egypt also with small figures, it was however - while still an 'Ultimate Explorer' - published by Portico Publishing and so - in case both sets were re-published - I'll add both to the tag list.

There were four, then there were five and then there were six, now there's eight!

P is for Pencil Punishing Panzer

I got another pencil eraser from WHSmith . . . how cool is this? Too cool for school, no . . . I mean it this time: far too cool to take to school and use to rub-out pencil errors!

Four rubbers and a plastic tube, in a bag, it's a tank . . . and a rubber! Four rubbers and an AFV . . .

. . . it's a bit of a page-filler, that's what it is; but after a week or so of pre-loaded articles, I've not got much ready to go, lots in preparation, but this is just to get through the weekend! I'm gonna' bore you with my appalling Farnborough Air Show photography before the week's out as well . . . although, 'photography' it 'aint.

M is for Many Modes of Medieval Men

This really is a box-ticker; Timpo's 'solid' knights and men at arms . . .

. . . on the left are original shop-stock and boxed-set painted figures, with the green bases being earlier, the unpainted bases a later simplified or austerity paint job.

On the right are a few of many later unpainted issues, including a home-paint. Timpo sold them as bagged and boxed figures, then Toyway had I go as well I think, there are other colours out there, these are just a sample.

T is for Tresco's 'Triffic, Tube-operated Tepid-Tub Toys, or . . .

. . . S is for Suck-it-up You Suckers and Blow-off!

Brian Berke's name keeps cropping-up at the moment, but that's because he keeps sending me brilliant images and examples to work from. Today's is a case in point . . . he sent three images of his divers, and I wrote back saying I'd dig out what I have here to 'fill-out' the post (knowing I had a submarine), well, turned out one of my Hong Kong divers was different, and I had two slightly different 'subs', in addition I found a couple of old feeBay images in the archive, I wouldn't usually use, but as the story is told by the stuff already in the folder, I've added them for research purposes and completeness.

If you didn't get one of these from your parents - and I'm talking to anyone between the ages of nought and about seventy here, as they are still available - you probably have a case against 'mum and dad' for mental-cruelty, deprivation and abuse of position as parents in order to prevent you obtaining your full human right to an unencumbered childhood!

Brian's two divers; on the left a Hong Kong copy (both British - see comments), and on the right a Tresco original from the 1960's with its box to the left of them both. My memories of these were that you had to really blow to get him to rise, and really suck to get him to dive, the result being that you got itchy ears . . . and the odd mouthful of soapy-water!

Brian's Crescent 'berserker' giving us a sense of scale, they are about 75/80mm depending on the origin. Below is an evilBay image of the box I remember from the 1970's, we definitely had these as 'consolation' prizes at someone else's Birthday party.

Birthday parties were a win-win when I was a kid, you took an Airfix kit - he probably already had and was only going to ruin with too-much tube-glue and gloss bottle green paint - which your parents had paid for and you left with a bath toy, a Marx six-inch Indian, a balloon and a bag of sweets or a giant-lollypop . . . Bargain!

I have a Tresco (on the right) and a Hong Kong figure that has been upgraded from the traditional deep-sea diver, with a modern pressurised helmet and scuba tanks . . . if you have scuba tanks you don't need a line to the surface do you? Clearly that didn't occur to the sculptor!

There was also a Submarine, again originally made by Tresco, and much copied by HK makers, I have definitely seen this recently somewhere, I tried The Works but it wasn't there, I'm sure Google/eBay/Amazon will provide, if you have youngsters of your own and don't want to be sued!

If you got too much water in them, they would eventually split, as the weight was a ferrous lump of cast-iron and flaked to twice its size once the rust had got a hold. The other feeBay image shows the Tresco box. The original has finer-etched details, but is otherwise no different to the clones, as the clones were kept (and priced) with the pocket money novelties, it's easy to see where all our toy companies went . . . to the knackers' yard . . . or should that be Kowloon Knockers' yard!

Everybody had one of these . . . didn't they?

Thanks to Brian for all his help and contributions.

H is for Hidden Hideaway Harassed by Horrible Harpy

Brain Berke sent me another of his dioramas, this one is not as sombre as the subject matter of his returning 'little ships', and I love it . . .

It's an old volcanic caldera, with sea access, a beach, a railway, a shelter made out of a pirate-ships living quarters and a signalman's hut - for the railway; of course! It has a small jungle, a jerry-built jetty, a set of steps (from an Airfix signal-box?), a float-plane and err . . . a bloody great octo'squid killer-monster on the attack!

Airfix provides the adventurers using the base from its Australian Infantry set, and they are responding to the threat. I think this is charming . . . it needs rolling stock though, perhaps Hornby-Triang's small crane, to lift treasure to safety, or to drop blocks of pumice, or palm-tree trunks on the octo'squid, or just hook it like a giant cat-fish!

News, Views Etc...Plastic Warrior No.163

A couple of weeks adrift catches me almost 'on the ball' . . .

Articles

* The issue kicks-off with Debbie Stevens' article on Marx Cowboys

* 'Hollywood Conversion' sees some superb figure modelling (the Kirk Douglas is stunning) from Graham Eyles

* An editorial round-up of several Britains giveaways is found in the section called...er...Britains Givaways!

* Alwyn Brice's Elastolin at 40 (part 7) is similar to parts one to six, only . . . a bit different.

* This issue's 'Converters Corner' has a plethora of French Foreign Legion troops, all modelled on Britains Detail by Les White

* 'New for 2016' by Peter Evans is a round-up from the Toy Fairs and brings news of products by Varto, Miniworld, Papo, Star Images, and most welcome: Bachmann-Toyway-Timpo

* A company new to me; Brohm presents a fort play-set, courtesy of Andreas Dittmann (that's another copier of the Beton horse for the list!) with Polistil and Dom contents

* P L Cunha give illustrated advice on how to build ingenious narrow, removable shelves that can sit in front of books on a book-case

'What The !&*$?' has two question marks this quarter;

·         A running Highlander similar to, but distinct from: Hilco is forwarded by Joe Bellis

·         Steve Pugh is asking about some vehicle loads which look 'helicoptery' to me?

* 'Meet Your Maker' meets Sergey Zabashta from Mars, of small scale fame, now moving into larger figure production.

* Tom 'the dull' Barker (I'm not being rude; he admitted it in the last issue!) tells the tale of his IKEA tie-in and illustrates it with lovely stuff - Starlux, Timpo, Lone Star and other lovely stuff

* 'From The Archives' looks at 1956 and what Cherilea and Crescent were doing

Regular Features

* 'NEWS and VIEWS and other stuff ' carries stories on BMC Toy's new plans, new Russian sets, a call for Samurai articles and acknowledgement of receipt of the latest Eurofigurines magazine.

* 'Book Review' looks at 'Toy Forts & Castles' by Allen Hickling

* 'Readers Letters' this time is limited by space and obituaries to feedback from Steve Morris, Joe Bellis and Peter Rushton, with the obituaries for Ian Walden and George Hill

* 'What's New' covers recent releases from:

·         Engineer Basevitch - Ancient Assyrians

·         Mars - Ex-Oritet Mujahedeen, Russians in Afghanistan and Vietcong Insurgents

·         all available from Steve Weston

Plus all the usual small-ads

Front Cover is a fine space diorama from Tom Stark

Back Cover - Travis at the alamo by G. Eyles

Remember also; for subscription details or to 're-up', for contributions, letters or queries, Plastic Warrior is now on-line through various platforms:

Facebook

Blogger
eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com

And they are on Paypal.

The old website is to be run-down/retired.

G is for Gift Egg Updates - 5 - Tarco

We first looked at Tarco here about a year ago, but there is another set or Dr. Who out (actually the third - I seem to have missed one!), and other sets to look at.

So the Dr. Who Figures Part 3, flyer/insert and two figures with the K9 we looked at last time, this set is all new version characters and that's about all I can say?

This lot is more blurb-worthy, as they are also branded to Tarco, but were being vended from a standard, stickered Tomy stack in the local Sainsbury's? Whether this is a legit licence between Tomy and Tarco or an old machine being filled with locally sourced product by a supplier of easy ethics I don't know.

Give him a sword on a baldric and cut those pointed toes down and he'd make an excellent adventurer hanging around the bars in Riverdeep...do people still play proper D&D?

Now . . . I've had these for ten years or more, they were in the Galoob box, not because I thought they were Galoob, but because Hasbro ended-up with Galoob, and Hasbro issued new type Action Man licences, so it made sense to put unknown Action Man figures with the Galoob/Kenner/Hasbro stuff of similar ilk!

Also, Hasbro were responsible for the Subbuteo figures which appeared in Italian gift-eggs a decade or so ago (Can't remember if it was Zaini or one of the others now?), so these figures may be from those Italian eggs. However, the Hasbro mark is the same as the BBC and Disney marks on the other sets above, as far as size, font and the like, so Tarco are also a likely candiate?

G is for Gift Egg Updates - 4 - Balaban 'Toto'

Toto has become one of those 'Eurowords' that sort of means 'play' somewhere; 'playing' somewhere else, here - I think - 'plaything'? And these were the 'house' eggs of choice for the recently demised 99p Stores.

Only sold in packs of three; the same as Kinder are retailed as in larger stores, or - a little cheaper - in Lidl and Aldi. Following the merger they were cleared through Poundland for a few weeks but seem to have vanished now?

A pound (or 99p) for three eggs is considerably cheaper than the best price you'll find Kinder at, and at least a  third (per egg) than any of the rivals, you might expect the toys to be crap, given the Bonbon Buddies and Dracco contents, but actually these Turkish Balaban eggs have comparable contents to Kinder.

Here two decent mini goods-wagons and two (of four) small boats, a 'pirate' raft and a little jolly-boat, with Airfix sizer!

Compared to other rail-stock from Kinder, if anything the Balaban are better models?

G is for Gift Egg Updates - 3 - Giochi Preziosi; World of Warriors

In the UK actually handled by Flair, these were in one of the lots from the Plastic Warrior show in May, there are supposed to be two figures per 'hut', but I only got one in each?

With 60 sculpts and 126 variants these will take a whole childhood to collect! However, they are quite fun if you like that kind of thing. What are known as deforms or super-deforms now (I think?), they seem to represent all sorts of ancient/ medieval or 'primitive' soldier/warrior types from around the world, covering a period from about 3000BC to 1900, although some of the Polynesian types were still giving people trouble in the 1950's I believe!

There is a semi-transparent version of each sculpt, with six further super-rare ones to find and they are in a polystyrene type hard plastic - probably a better wearing polymer, they have the feel of good dice; acrylic, ABS, Perspex? In fact they are like those Crazybones things that were all the rage a while ago.

I won't be seeking any more (I've seen them available in several locations) but they will be turning up in mixed lots for the next 40 years (I'm getting quite a pile of Crazybones already!), so at least the cropped flyer image will help ID them.

The huts are different, and with four 'armies' (I think there's a simple 'top-trump' game element to the whole concept) I assume four hut types? The huts can be stacked and the figures can be displayed on the plinth under the roof (with the door turned out of the way) or on the top, using a locating stud on the plinth or roof.

As I say, they're not for me, but if you have young kids, these would be a fun way to get them collecting, they look like they could be fun, and there's history in there as well if you dig a bit and ignore the cartoon-caricature elements in favour of the tell-tale signature armour and headdresses?

G is for Gift Egg Updates - 2 - Dracco and Bon Bon Buddies

I buy them so you won't have to; let's get the real shite out of the way, so you know what to avoid.

There are several sets of Star Wars eggs around at the moment including some with figures in and others with figural key-rings, these - from Dracco Candy of Spain - have an enticing enough wrapper, but. . .

. . . are the pits, a sheet of stickers, or a styrene-sheet key-ring, I don’t see a pound there, do you? Maybe kids today like this sort of stuff and I'm just looking at it from the point of view of an adult figure collector, but I seem to remember knowing when I'd been sold a pup when I was a kid too!

I gave this a punt too, we looked at a Mickey one a year or so ago (little red pencil rubber I think?), and this was no better, a very naff key-ring and a paper sticker from Bonbon Buddies.

G is for Gift Egg Updates - 1 - Overview

I didn't know whether to use this as a last post roundup, or a first post intro, but guessing a lot of the die-hard 'Toy Soldier' purists will quickly get pretty sick of little novelties (and it's not December so I can't use that excuse!), especially five posts of them; I figure if we start with the bits and pieces, we can end with a short post...with proper figures!

In the beginning there were gift eggs, and they were egg shaped and full of gifts! Originally these were made of waffer-thin wood, by the inter-war period tin was common (and is making a comeback as trinket storage/jewelry boxes) with papier-mâché and heavy, pressed card also popular, but by the 1970's it was another item of human construct ripe for a plasticisation!

Kinder themselves (still the market leader) have made two changes to packaging in the last year or so, firstly the wrap-around was changed to two foil halves (of which one is shown flattened above) joined pole-to-pole, and more recently they've been turning-up with two moulded plastic halves or 'clamshells' like a lunch-box snack-pack dip! Because when the world is knee-deep in plastic waste; let's find more things to make out of plastic!

The Ziani Frozen we looked at a year ago (I got the little dwarf thing, you may remember) but I've since had a session of scanning the paperwork into the archive, while these two Trolls (one of which I think we looked at in the novelty posts last Xmas) are both imported by CBG of Belgium (not Minot!) from WF Industrial of China. The paper slip of the earlier being replaced by, yes, you guessed it...a printed plastic sheet - that's not going to find its way into the environment between the sweet-shop and home/school is it!

The drag-racer in the upper shot was broken, some of Kinder's suppliers in the 1980's used a silver plastic which was very frangible, and is almost impossible to glue, however I have a method...I coat both halves in a cyanoacrylate 'super-glue' gel, then put a blob of that plumbers-sealant between the two and wedge them together.

The sealant evaporates away to nothing in minutes but bonds and fills nicely, being mixed with the super-glue gives the whole thing added robustness...or at least I like to think so! Time and chemistry will tell if it's a busted-flush?

Below is a bunch of Kinder motorcycles and such-like (pedal trike!) from the 1980's and 1990's.

From that same lot (I got at the PW show back in May) came most of the ships, I've left them in the bags as they are a real bugger to set-up for photography and I have a bunch-more in storage, so one day we will come back to them and do them justice.

Below them a selection of lorries and vans, we looked at a couple of them with the other novelty mini-trucks in December-last, sorry! Another racing-car for the project...but I think I already have the yellow one, so it can stay on its low-loader.

This is brand-new, bought last week for a quid in Wilkinson's (Wilco) and branded to them; it's an egg full of rubber dinosaurs no bigger than a fingernail! Four poses and four colours, packed as two each of two each, I suspect you would only need two eggs for all four of all four, but one's enough to give you the idea. Same new crumbly rubber as other things we've looked at though.

D is for Dragon Roundup

Dragons are building-up in Picasa, and given their volatile nature, best to get them up here and away in the attic before they do any real harm!

From Ubisoft who I think we've visited before (might even be these dragons?), but all in Spanish so obviously clearance - here in the UK. Imported by Heathside Trading and sold through The Works about a year/18months ago, I seem to have taken some shots (which may have appeared here?), then got another dragon or two.

Each comes with a flyer/rule sheet in Spanish and Portuguese, three game cards and a jewel, there are a total of 30 dragons to collect.

This may have appeared before, or he may be the addition (or I may not have Blogged them yet!), with the limits of the Library for posting I can't check. They are a cut above the rack-toys below, but they're not that good either, trying too hard to be as spiky as the characters in the World of Warcraft franchise, if you ask me.

The full set of 30, some sculpts seem to have been re-used several times, others are unique, there's no real reason for this I can see, but it may be a familial thing hidden in the rules?

Imported into the US by JPW, these shots were sent in to 'Smallscaleworld Towers' by Brian Berke and this is a current rack-toy on the far shores of the pond. Standard 'Chinasaur' type dragons, they would look better for a proper paint-job, but as fantasy air forces, you can't get them cheaper!

Key Ring I got last Christmas, a 'proper' Chinese sea-serpent style dragon coiled in a heap, don't know for sure if it's modern or vintage, but I suspect (from the simple ring and chain) mid-1970's to the mid-1980's?

[added at library - yes, I've blogged them once already...click Ubisoft in the tag list...at least I know there are 30 now!]

L is for lifesize

I know we've had that title before, but i'm not feeling inventive today and I haven't posted wildlife for ages, these were shot in an hour or so on the 7th of this month, between rain showers!

This first one is a bit of a mystery, it looks a bit like a weevil, or a scarlet lily beetle and was found on a day-lily, so you might think it's a green domestic version of the red intruder, but I can only find a more weevil-like thing in the books called Byctiscus Populi which lives on Aspen...anyone recognise it?

Buff Ermine moth, he/she had a lovely orange and black tiger-striped (stripped? The one the doesn't involve the removal of clothes!) thorax, but it was difficult to photograph as you could only see it when it was fapping it's wings, which is when you can't get a decent shot in focus!

Emperor Dragonfly, sitting and in flight, our best dragonfly by a mile! Snail on the march and a Ringlet Butterfly. I also took loads of shots of various slugs - who knew we had so many species of slug! - but I've spared you those pictures.

A female Beautiful Damoiselle, our largest damoiselle, the male is bluer. Yes; it's official name is 'beautiful', how nice is that!

M is for More Superheroes

I know I said that would be it for superheroes for a while, but I also said I'd look-up the ID of the new eggs I got in The Works...and then another set turned-up!

These are the insert-slips for the Hulk/Disney Princess ones we looked at a week or so ago, branded to Disney, Marvel, STL (UK importer) and TPF (manufacturer) you can take your pick where to place them in your data storage/information retrieval system!

I actually got a couple more in another store last Wednesday, some independent 'pound' store in Aldershot, so they are clearly current stock with at least one of the clearance wholesalers, being originally from the £1.99 bracket, and now at a pound with two sources to my knowledge.

 

Then I found this huge capsule from Chinese firm Zuru - who's given address is a few doors away from Blue Box's HQ - with a full 54/60mm figure, one of five, with no picture of the range we must assume Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and err...one of the others! Again, currently a pound, probably originally priced around 2.99 or 3.99, get them when you see them, they'll be another end-of-line.

News, Views, Etc . . . Odds and Sods!

So a few loose ends, contributions, questions and stuff which doesn't make for separate posts.

As a follow-up to the Figurines Historiques post the other week, it turned-out that I had one original in the 'various-flats-that-have-come-in-in-the-last-few-years' tub and with it being a bit late to add to the other post - here it is!

From one of the Napoleonic sets, not seen in the recent post, you can see how the different base variations we looked at the other day were produced as a result of blanking-out the original Mokarex base-mark.

Following-up from the Timee post, Brian Berke sent me this shot of his figures painted-up as UN troops (with a Crescent 'Berserker' for scale!) from an African country such as Nigeria. A first glance at the thumbnails in the eMail and I thought I was looking as some French figures I have, which look very similar with the camouflage!

Having looked at what may be the world's smallest Noah's Ark a couple-of-few years ago, I keep meaning to post this which I shot back in 2012. It's in the local shopping precinct (Farnborough 'Meads') and I assume there are others around the place [country]?

I was going to explain the sorry tale of the vile fucker who stole one of the monkeys, but I noticed the other day he is back (the missing monkey, not the thief), after an absence of several years, whether that was down to guilt, or another ark being taken out of service somewhere else I don’t know, but who'd steal a large, wooden, flat, charity monkey? The sort of selfish idiot who votes Brexit, I'll bet!

Common fault with many arks: gay lions, no lioness? Gay, fecund lions too, as they are still with us so they must have bred successfully! If you believe that sort of thing! Every other of the tens of thousands of gods in all of human history were fairy-tale fuckwits, but yours? Yours is the one true, but strangly intangible, pan-dimensional mega-being, huh?!

Some of you may have noticed that there is a six issue gap in the chronological PWxxx listings in the tag-list/index, from PW140-146 I think? This is due to the house-move back in 2011, and I have got together with Paul Morehead to do reviews of the four missing issues, and the two I found in the attic here.

I haven't decided whether to do six separate posts or one combined, and/or whether to do them here (as new posts) or schedule them to appear where they should be, but I will get on it. Also the new issue (PW163) will be reviewed soon and is out now - if you don't yet subscribe, or . . . shock horror . . . if you have let your subscription lapse!

This is a cast-iron door-stop of no particular age which I shot through the window of a charity-shop the other day, I couldn't tell you if it's a regimental uniform or a generic civilian piper, I suspect the latter, but as toy figure collectors - we should all have one!

Had an eMail last week from 'Martin' asking about this truck, as I said to him in my reply "Looking at the thumbnails, it looked like Jean or Manurba, but looking at the close-ups - especially the wheels - I'd say Hong Kong, but nicely done and uncommon..."

More than that I couldn't add, does anyone have anything else they can give to Martin? I am familiar with Tootsie Toys, but I don't know the whole range, could this be a copy of one of their larger-scale, simple die-casts; in the slush-cast style? The specificity of the 'FORD' on the front bumper (fender) and overall quality of the moulding suggest it's a copy of something a little above the usual HK fare of what looks to be mid-1970's-mid-'80's production?

Or is it something altogether 'better'? Timee; another US or European minor-make? I know as you scroll through Kent Sprecher's site, you keep seeing things like this pass up the screen! Although having the canvas tilt extend to the bed is a bit odd/naff?

We looked at these a while ago (twice - I think?), here's another one! East Asian, painted, plastic I think (it's painted all over in a thick lacquer), but they used to be wooden, ceramic or a pumice composition and this is toward the larger end of the size range for these miniatures, at about two inches.

This arrived the other day: a gift of a running man from Konrad Lesiak, for some help I tried to give him, ID'ing some figures, he came all the way from Poland - and he was duly liberated - none the worse for his journey.

I wonder how many evilBay bottom-feeders voted 'Out' the other day, not thinking what it would do for their European business and postal costs . . . at the risk of repeating myself - idiots.

Here he is 'out of the box' as it were, he's an old European 1950's/60's premium issued by several companies in various colours and is one of a set of sports figures in a fully-round style quite reminiscent of the old WHW military sets. The figure below, which I've cropped from a larger .png image, is painted by Konrad . . . would that be the Polish team-colours Konrad?

I don't know who came first, but they seem to be linked to Unimel (gold figures), Van Houten (orange), Café Martin (gold'ish? Bronze?) and Codec in this grey/gunmetal. The Codec ones would seem to be copies as the Van Houten ones are definitely better detailed sculpts; this is of no surprise - as we saw - their World Dolls were also plagiarist.

Konrad is also looking for more information on these, I know they were in a 'toob' a few years ago as I remember looking at them and thinking nice touch with the fire-pole, but I didn't collect larger scales at the time so let them go, which puts them in the 1990's/2000's.

They are not Arco, Fishel, Imperial or Jaru, nor are they Hunson (coming soon!) and are too late for Blue Box, Lucky (who copied Mecanno/Dinky anyway) or any of the usual earlier suspects, but they will have been associated with at least one branding, probably several, can anyone help Konrad? . . . DFC? Funtastic? Larami? Titan?

Finally - as I've mentioned Arks and mid-period HK stuff above - Adrian Little (Mercator Trading) let me photograph this a while ago; it's a nice 'unknown animal' identifier from 1985 (when it was retailing for 50p!), and you may be more familiar with AJP from their rip-offs of Blue Box and Marx arks and 'Home Farm' sets, often sold through advertisements in Sunday supplements, TV listings mag's and women's 'lifestyle' publications.

28th April 2020 - the logo is now known to be HP for Holly Plastics, not AJP or EJP, Tags corrected accordingly.

I reckon that circus lion-tamer has A) failed to tame his lions and B) got about 30-seconds to live, and he knows it . . .and who the hell put a tiger in there; lions and tigers go together like cobras and mongooses! The same person who would introduce a zebra to a giant bobcat, or let a lion talk to a gorilla with the cage-door open . . . no doubt.