About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Friday, January 26, 2018

P is for Papo - 3 - Animals

Photo's aren't so good, so I'll just chuck them up here as a guide to what's available, the circus trainer is the standard 70mm range, while the parrot is out scale, but many of the animals are - while there is a range of a half-dozen or so 'Giant Figure' animals, for infants, but within the animal range there is a large variation with small animals (birds, rodents, lizards etc..) being sculpted larger and large animals (humpbacked whale) being sculpted much smaller.

New for 2018 in the flesh.

All the animals and civilian additions for the 2018 season as seen in the catalogue (there's three more new dinosaurs and a caveman missing), the arctic native is lovely and if they weren’t so big, they'd be more useful for 'old school' figure collectors, although that accessory set of tools may be of use to diorama modellers in 1:35th/32nd scales?

Wild Animal Kingdom shop display-stand

Marine Life shop display-stand.

Both the above are pre-cut card dispensers for the retailer to fold and slot together, each coming with a compliment of animals to match the illustrated frontage-cards, there are also more substantial particle-board stands with  metal fittings display in various sizes, and a revolving, wire-hook tree for some individual animal models - available as key-rings.

P is for Papo - 2 - Toy Fair Video

I shot this at the Toy Fair and I'm afraid it's fighting both my inabilities to take vaguely professional-looking video in a hurry, which leaves some of it jerky or fuzzy (or both!) and the resonance of the strip-lights being used on the display stands, which leads to flickering, but there's some stuff in focus or well-lit, or even both!

The forts are wooden and in the catalogue, as are most of the pirate ships; however there are also heavy pressed-card 'play-sets' at a lower price bracket. Whether wood or compressed-card, they mostly seem to be a joint venture with another company, or sub-branding called Isiploy or Isiplay?

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Thought for the Day 25

And sadly; education's losing . . .


Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe

- H. G. Wells

P is for Papo - 1 - Brain's Met' Visits

Mr Berke, friend of this parish, sent us some of these shots a month or so ago, after he had popped-up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY (one of the benefits of living in/near a major city is that you can 'pop-up' to world beating venues!); they following the little lot I found before Christmas, I - wondering what size the monochrome ones were -  asked him for more details and he kindly went back and got the answers, which came with more images last week.

Since when there have been a few developments, and as a result we're going to have a Papo mini-season, but we'll start with the 'follow-up'.

These are the same size (the 'Mini' line) as the set we looked at the other day, but in a monochrome finish of silver and gold, there is a set of knights as well, but Brian shot the fantasy set, as much to illustrate the weird juxtaposition of selling fantasy 'things' in a museum dedicated to actual, antiquey, 'things'! And yes I made up the word Antiquey! Turns-out I didn't; Spellchecker just didn't like it!

As we will see later in the mini-season, there are painted versions of this set, and some of the poses are based on figures from the larger sized range, such as the skeletal warrior and the Ork-like, Schreckanator!

A close-up of the header-card showing clearly the design features of the figure most closely answering to the title 'Ring Wraith'!

When Brian B returned to the Met' he managed to pose the set next to a full sized one for direct comparison. Papo themselves (I was chatting to them on Tuesday - as you do!) don't give them a scale or a specific size, describing the new ranges as 55% (Mini+ 56mm) and 45% (Mini 40mm) of the size of the 'standard' (70mm) range.

These are the 45% figures (as were the ones the other day) and they weigh-in at about 40mm.

Another full-size one on display in the Metropolitan, the heraldic charge in the background (of a Griffon?) makes him look a bit like a wing'ed avenging angel!

More fantasy in the museum! There are several nice dragons on-sale alongside the skeletons, Orks and co., and while I guess anything which might encourage the kids back for more has to be applauded, one does wonder why the shelf-space isn't just given-over to more [factual] knights!

I'm not sure if these are both Papo, the silver one was available from Papo last year in a brown paint-scheme, is also available in Gold, and a new version for 2018 is in a green scheme, I can't find the blue one at all, so it might be worth picking-up either of them if you're passing the Metropolitan and happen to be into large dragons!

The real McCoy - being actual, factual knights! They look a bit familiar, and while one suit of armour looks pretty similar to another suit of armour (of the same period) I'm wondering if these may have been used as the basis for some of the Aurora plastic kits or the Marx polyethylene large-scale figures?

Thanks to Brain for the shots and there's more Papo on the way.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Thought for the Day 24

For all those who have! . . .

Every man thinks meanly of himself 
for never having been a soldier

- Dr. Johnson

News, Views Etc . . . Breaking - "A load of old rubbish - but is is art?"

Received from Tom Clague in Oz earlier today . . . brilliant!

Hi Hugh,
There is an art exhibition on here in Sydney I thought you might like. It's called 'Jurassic Plastic', and its basically dinosaurs made from thrown out toys!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ulperc33jo2oadw/jurassicplastic.jpg?dl=0&raw=1

Closer in on the dinosaurs face, you get to see how many bits they're made from:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/btwicgwub6or95u/head.jpg?dl=0&raw=1

There are about a dozen dinosaurs roaming the floor. The landscapes across the floor were amazing too, colour graded into various toy types:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gx6t9rtemkq7qy1/landscape.jpg?dl=0&raw=1

No small scale stuff unfortunately (i found one Matchbox US infantry clone in amongst things), but some Japanese anime oddities. I wondered if anyone can id this bloke, about 1/50th scale:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v52ces9g2b90oo0/mysteryfigure.jpg?dl=0&raw=1

Hope you like it, exhibit is Jurassic Plastic by artist Hiroshi Fuji, if folks want to Google more.
Cheers,
Tom

=================================

Sydney Festival Page
Tom's Blog

Thanks Tom, we love this stuff! 

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Thought for the Day 23

For those who don't believe the hype . . .

Where there is light, there is always darkness.
And it is because the darkness runs so deep
that the lights burn so bright
 
- Clive James
(on the city)

S is for Sort-of-Unknown - Game Playing Piece

Last time we look at the Warthog for a while - promise! I know what this is, it's a game playing piece, I know it's on one of the dongles somewhere, but I can't find it . . . can you?

Every 'beach-buggy' needs a hippy! Pudding-bowl/Page-boy hair-cut, and possibly a cartoon-related game, I seem to recall it has a 'get your team home' mechanism, with four each of these figures in four colours, but I may be wrong, and I also suspect it was aimed at the under-12's, but then so was most of the stuff we collect!

He reminds me of the weird little medic/doctor in the Albatore strip sets from Atlantic! Can you jog my memory of the real source?

Geoff eMailed me with the answer - Parker  Games Take the Brain, three poses but only two colours so not quite as I had remembered it!

S is for Sort-of-Unknown - Rubber Knight

I had a lazy weekend (still recovering from that pesky flu!) and there's nothing got ready for tomorrow and not much for today, and I'm actually in London all day today, so I'm leaving you with a couple of puzzles you may be able to help with, if you've got a bit of time on your hands; this is the first!

A nice model of a knight, similar to Soma, or Papo minis,  and coming-in at a straight 50mm, he's a very soft PVC type polymer and he is marked . . .

. . . "Safan Knight with Halberd China". Now it's definitely Safan, not Saban (who licence Power Rangers stuff to Galoob and other Anime/Manga characters to the Zaini/LZ capsule-egg people), but I have nothing in the files, I have really tried to make it Safari but even with a jeweller's loupe it's not '...ri' it's an 'n', so; your mission - if you chose to accept it - is can you find out anything else about Safan?

Another later!

Monday, January 22, 2018

Thought for the Day 22

For those who demand the right to say whatever they like . . .

People demand freedom of speech 
to make up for the freedom of thought 
which they avoid 

- S. A. Kierkegaard

S is for Starship Troopers, Not!

I said the other day I should have tried some figures with the Halo UNSC 'Warthog' from Mattel's Hot Wheels, and that I could only think of the Starship Troopers as being vaguely suitable, the Galoob ones are still in the attic, but it turned out I was thinking of something else anyway and . . .

. . . yesterday (Sunday) I found (courtesy of Peter Evans) these copies of Galoob's Xpanders looking for something else, so a quick photo-shoot ensued. The running figure is 28-mil. I think they came together with the dino's and there was a larger sample overall.

Compared with the larger (32mm for same figure sculpt) and - I think - commoner set of equally poor rack-toy copies which came with hollow M2/M3 Bradley/ACAV type things in tubbed sets about 12/15 years ago, although probably still findable in seaside type discount stores.

From the archive - I don't have the Xpanders which are the basis for the china-troops, but I do have a small sample of the similar Galoob Starship Troopers, with the Micro-Machine size above and the Action Fleet size below, I don't think either is a particularly complete sample, and as is often the case with these things; Shaun has covered them in far more depth, and his repaints must be where I got the Halo idea from!

The larger set's figures are - like the Star Wars Action Fleet (and similar Playmates Star Trek) - semi-action figures, with two points of articulation - through/across the shoulders and at the waist; they also have a magnet in the base, the use for which I haven't looked-up!

Stadswatch - Chiding TJF - Apparently!

Of course I've been chiding him, ever since he thought it was advisable to correct me on two figures I said I was 100% sure I wasn't sure about, he's been getting things wrong and I've been correcting him!
 
His latest is to suggest that Bum re-issued Pech GI's; they didn't. Full stop.
 
They re-issued Montaplex copies of Pech, copies which ran alongside the Pech y Hermanos originals back in the day, as French bazar figures ran alongside their Starlux donors, as Blue Box/Redbox animals ran alongside their Britains and Elastolin prototypes. It's amazing how often Stadinger gets it wrong! Bum inherited Montaplex moulds not Pech moulds - we looked at them here Montaplex pirated everyone, Airfix, Matchbox, Atlantic, Quiralux . . .
 
. . . however, today we're looking at the Jabbering Fuck's recent twin-whines that I was 'chiding him' the other day, and the details of it . . .
 
This appeared first, boy he must have some long days if that's the amusing highlight!
 
Followed a few days later by this.
 
Now the laugh of the week (a-million-and-one sad laughs - the extra laugh is all important when you're engaged in this level of schoolyard language) is that Paul 'the Jabbering Fuck' Stadinger's laugh of the day is entirely of his own invention and only in his own head.
 
We know this for several reasons,
  • 1) It doesn't really make sense as he's written it - in either version (and I mean general sense, they are both only semi-literate)
  • 2) He provides no link, quote or screen-cap by way of proof or evidence
  • 3) I am happy to admit to any/all my chastising of the old fool, so would only deny doing-so if I was pretty sure I hadn't, and in this case; I 'aint!
You see, while I have fully intended to attack him for his egotistical ways, I know I haven't had the time yet (now he's accused me of doing-so - I'm just about to!), and even if I'd got round to it, I wouldn't equate it to his showing his collection, because another criticism of him I have (and have hinted at once, or twice) is that he doesn't actually show his collection at all!
 
In other words my criticism of him is (and has always been) the opposite of what he's claimed twice in a week I actually said.
 
Because it's in his head! He's made it up, it's false. He was sat in the bath (or something) imagining what I might have said, OR might be about to say about him and he seems to have convinced himself it had actually happened? OR he's getting confused by something else, possibly said by someone else (we've established in the last 12 months he's fallen-out a fair-few people over the years and he hints at falling out with another in his FAQ's)? OR he was just lying for the cause of dramatic effect? How he came up with it is immaterial, it's bullshit and bollocks!
 
However, he said I chided him for being egotistical . . . well . . .
 
. . . I challenge anyone in the wider hobby still alive today, to find a more egotistical comment made by anyone in the hobby since its inception in the 1900's!
 
He thinks, he dares, he declares himself to have (or be?) a legend! Or a piece of one . . . or one in pieces! It really is TOO funny!
 
I shit you not! Like the ancient Mesopotamians! The Greeks, mighty Rome, the Carolingians, the Norse, El Dorado, the Wild West, the Marie Celeste, the Zulu's at Isandlawana or the US Marines at Iwo Jima . . . he has a legend! That man . . . the Jabbering Fuck . . . is the most egotistical fucker on the fucking internet . . . after his fucking President!
 
"One of the pieces of my legend"!!!! How many pieces are in the fucking legend! Ten? Fifty-six? Two-hundred-&-thirty-eight? Are some of the pieces in pieces? Hahahahahahahahaha! This is the joke of the day, this is the joke of the fucking month!!!! I'm cryin'here!
 
So - no I hadn't attacked him for his ego, but now he's raised it, I'm happy to do so - Paul 'the Jabbering Fuck' Stadinger of Stad's Stuff is the most egotistical person I know in the hobby, by a country-mile, and then some.
 
As to his other point, I would never have admonished him for showing his collection, as I show mine and all bloggers show theirs, it's such a stupid lie to try getting away with? I know a few of the PSTSM'ers have gone along with both his recent comments, but then; clearly, they are as stupid as their mighty 'Legend' Hahahahhahahahahaha!
 
One said 'keep doing what you're doing', well, yes I can agree with that; keep giving me sticks to beat you with and I'll keep thwacking yo'ass! Keep trying to be Small Scale World (badly) and you'll be no threat to me! Keep putting typo's (surpises - priceless!) in your title bar and Google will keep ignoring you! Keep-up with the lies, the idiocy, the competitive bollocks, the invented quotes and see what happens to [the pieces of] your legend!
 
What I have hinted at is that while - if he wanted to - he could show his collection, and (going only from what other people say) could blow me and all other blogger's away with the quality stuff he's supposed to have ferreted away . . . he doesn't, he shows crappy little scrapings of inconsequential stuff he's shoving on feebleBay! Presumably in the hope that by showing it on his blog first, it may get bid-up . . . by the desperate!
 
I don't know and I don't care, what I do know is that in the last year, there were two posts on Stad's worth a second look, one with the 2 Speedwell armoured cars (from his collection) only useful for the image, the other was the autumn post on Marx swappable figures, which seems to have been the work of three other people (?) and was very interesting and added to the hobby's 'sum total of knowledge'. Other than that, nothing leapt out . . . nothing!
 
Now; to be fair; I post a lot of shite too, I post a lot of crap, page-filling, box-ticking shite, but I don't pretend it's anything other than what it is (mass-produced polymer shite) and I hope that amongst it, last year, I published more than two useful posts!
 
And - I promise I'll never declare myself a legend!
 
Or even; a piece of one! Hahahahahahahahahahahah! Fuck! You can't make this shit up, TJF can, Erwin can, but normal people . . . no!

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Thought for the Day 21

It is believed . . .

It is believed that when left alone with a tea-cosy
98% of men will put it on their head! 

- Unknown

B is for Basingrad Strikes Back!

And so to Basingrad, no superhero interactive figure/book combo's in TK Maxx I'm afraid, but I did run into a couple of Imperial Storm Troopers escorting a Carbonite'ed Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt's Palace!


All the details you'll need and well worth a visit of you happen to be in the area or passing through, the museum is right in the middle of town (five minutes from the M3 and A30), and the best thing to do it climb to the top of the one-way / circular and grab a space in one of the open-air car-parks there, then it's a couple of minutes walk, if you're on foot you probably know the place as well as me and don't need my wittering confusing you!


I only took a few shots to give you a flavour of the exhibition, but will return and get some more later in the month. It's basically a very good collection of the first series figures up to 'The final 17', with a fair amount of Palitoy packaging, but there are also film cells, concept artwork, lots of photographs and publicity material, foreign packaging, lobby cards and adverts and such like; I'm no Star Wars nerd, but I know enough to recognise both high-quality and wide-knowledge in one place, when I see it and there's plenty here.

There's a little pohoto-booth 'corner' where younger fans can dress-up or be taken for Yoda!

"This is not the museum-goer you are looking for!" Your author doing a poor job of trying to look as menacing as a Storm Trooper, I think the Spanish have a phrase for this kind of shenanigans (so do the Irish!); Sombrero Loco! I only had five minutes or I would have squeezed into the full suit and arrested someone Tory-looking!

There are several of these stand alone cabinets with really rare stuff, absolutely mint stuff and rare/mint stuff! All of it is from that early three-film era of 1977 to 1983. With some of the rarest pieces on show being from that late '83 period, when; after seeing the toys get 'Toy of the Year' (again); the toymakers - thinking the movies were done - cleared the remaining figures, loose, in bulk packs through good old Woolworths!

There's a looped DVD display next to the generosity box (the exhibition is free to enter) with old promotional videos, TV toy adverts and contemporary news items on the Star Wars 'craze'.

And there's a smuggler! Under guard! Looking a little unwell!

The walls are lined with lots of these cases showing every figure (even the really rare ones - there are two different walrus-men for instance), although; if I have one criticism it's that the significance of each pair is not explained, so you have to guess whether you're looking at a Palitoy/Kenner pairing, or a Palitoy/Madelman pairing or a Kenner/Brazilian knock-off pairing?

I can see that level of nerdiness would be too much for little kids or casual browsers, a quick key by each cabinet however, would enhance the experience for some?

As is almost de rigueur these days - there are masks to cut out and take away after the show, and while I grabbed a couple for the flavour, there were all the main/favourite characters . . . good and bad-guys!

Both the local papers gave full coverage to the opening event which looks to have been fun with the usual gang of enactors (I don't think you can call them re-enactors when it's fictional!), an original commercial/poster artist and the collector himself - Matt Fox - all present.

A nice surprise to find on a particularly cold, grey, winters day, and I can heartily recommend it, I spent maybe five/ten-minutes getting a flavour of the event and grabbing the above shots and flyers, but if you read all the info-cards and take your time you could easily lose an hour, or two?

P is for Picasa Clearance - Banner and Pyro Trucks

Just a quickie, this was in the folder with the spaceships - which is a bit daft, so let's get them out and away!

Both 'dime-store' vehicles from the late 1940's or early 1950's with Banner's cross-over plastic/tin-plate lorry behind and the larger size of Pyro troop-carrier in front of it.

Kleeware carried the Pyro vehicles in the UK, but this is a US moulding, I think you can tell - in the photo - from the sharpness and shade of the figures (?), in 'life' you will find different markings of course.

I don't know if Banner had a similar UK partner? Damp (these were from a collection kept in Florida) has attacked the tin-plate [canvas] tilt with surface rust which has to be watched, because once it's got a  hold it will always threaten to spread.

Another old picture from a sorting session at the old house back in 2009, we looked at the Tudor Rose at the time I think and maybe one or two others (Kleeware), but most would go back to storage, however we may well have them all back here by July, so there may be some in the autumn, but with everything else coming out of storage, it may be a while before we get round to some things in any event!

It's a fuzzy, long-shot I'm afraid, but you can spot another Banner truck with squarer tilt, along with a station-wagon and HO road-grader, in the mid-distance. Next to them are the other marked Pyro military (the Kleeware being out of shot or in one of the tubs) . . . what else can you recognise?

There's a Gilbert fire-monster from Dr. No.(the dividing/splitting yacht is hiding somewhere?), a rather warped Ideal jeep, Aurora window-display Patton, Tim Mee, the Raphael Lipkin tank transporter (we also looked at, at the time) and Conqueror, a few space-tanks, lots of 'Empire' and HK polymer, Thomas, a Tudor Rose battle-group in the foreground, Majorette hiding by the table, Manurba civil trucks (pale green blobs to the left), Auburn, Wannatoys, Irwin, Reliable, Wells-Brimtoy, Tomte/Galenite, a boxed 'old bill' bus and a whole tub of artillery!

All good fun, most still to come on Small Scale World! And no - I can't remember why a half a pirate ship is in evidence, their tub was elsewhere!

Added at the last minute, from another folder, this is the Kleeware marked, 'military' plastic version of the Pyro smaller-size drinks-crate wagon! We've seen it with the others, here before, but it gets it out of Picasa and off the laptop!