9 is for "On the Ninth Day of Chrissssstmaaas, His True Love Sent to Hiiiiiiimmm . . .

. . . Snow-ma-a-a-ann Num-beeeerrr Niiiine!"

Gina was late this morning; they'd rather 'hung one on' in a little bar where everyone else seemed a lot younger and more vigorous! But they had fun . . .

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Culpitt's again, but larger, in older packaging and a styrene polymer, also issued in unmarked grab-bags from display-bins as generics!

T is for Three - Knights of Old

Except one is anything but a knight and the other is a lowly man at arms!

I've a whole bunch of medieval figure-photos still in Picasa from a photo-shoot I did back in 2011/2012, and this was one of them; three 'misc.' figures who didn't fit into anything else.

From the left we have . . .

• ·         Evil Guy de Whatsit (see Blog passim) from Britains with his locating-studs removed, he stands quite well and looks the part! 54mm

• ·         A white-metal 're-sub' freebie originally in kit-form, from one of the glossies, I don't subscribe any more, to either of them, just grab a butcher's in WHSmith occasionally and purchase if there's anything useful in there. There never is these days, just endless poured-metal, painted well, but stylistically, in a mile-long factory in China!

I painted him in a flat style which has left the sword-cuts on his shield a bit cartoony and the base is becoming a disaster, I tried a herbal tea-bag for 'autumn' scatter material, but it's worn off round the edges and the glue has whitened, so, along with his too-pink cheeks he now looks like he's struggling in the winter snow . . . hardly Acre in the summer sun huh? Yes - I know it gets cold in the dessert, but I didn't intend it to be night-time either! 58mm

• ·         An unmarked 60mm copy of a 40/70mm Elastolin 'gunner' from the catapult in hard polystyrene. Probably from Hong Kong, but the lack of a mark and the material suggest he could be French, Spanish or even further afield?

8 is for " On the eighth day of Christmas" etc . . .

. . . Snowman eight was delivered.

Gina came early as she wanted to get finished 'as soon as' . . . they'd agreed to go out for a drink later . . .

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Sugar-craft from Fiddes Payne, the 'tardis' packaging being the newer by a year or two, I think I got the 'toob' about three years ago and the box (from Sainsbury's) the other week - although they both look like old stock!

L is for Lolloping Leo the Laminated, Layered, Log Lion!

Probably a wartime or immediate post-war toy from someone like (but not necessarily or actually-) Forest Toys. It could even be home-made; following fret-plans from Hobbies Annual (?), either as a one-off, or a small-scale commercial venture.

The lion is a laminate of three main 'layers' with a central fret giving the nose and tail and then two carved blocks attached to either side giving the body and legs, while two further, minor additions sculpt the lion's outer-mane, either-side - like mines on a mini-sub!

7 is for . . . have a guess . . .

. . . I guess you guessed right!

So, Gina's boss had given her several out-of-area drops in Berkshire so she went to his place last, after finishing her 'phoned-in collections...like the delivery was a surprise to either of them! Day seven of twelve - Snowman seven of twelve?

Anyway, Gina stopped-on for a festive tipple and they had a good chin-wag . . .

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Ah-ha! Cupitt's at last, and a nice dense 'toy soldier' polyethylene, this is part of their current line-up and nothing to do with the old connections to Gem or Festival, being straight-shipped from China and carried by other brands!