News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

I'm literally snatching ten minutes on-line to post this, so if you've commented over the last few days, or eMailed me since the 20th, I won't be dealing with replies until the New Year, I'm actually enjoying a few days off!

Big disaster with one of the archive dongles corrupting over Christmas, 15,000+ files not attainable, I've managed to recover about fourteen-hundred (or less than 10%!) with the Piriform Recova software I have, but the rest will have to wait until the new year, they are still there; I just can't get at them 'till I find the right fix.

I'm sure it will please my enemies (or 'eemie' as he spells it!), but it's only a temporary hitch although it may prove to be a costly exercise in why you should always back-up! Once the dust has settled, I may run a post on the whole tale as it may prove instructive . . . of software, hardware and procedure?

No auctions but a nice bunch of shows and fairs over the holiday week;

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Friday 28th December 2018

Carmarthen - Chris Dyer Fairs

Carmathen Leisure Centre, Llansteffan Road, Johntown, Carmarthen, Wales, SA31 3NQ

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission - £2

Haydock Park - Barry Stockton Fairs

The Exibision Centre, Haydock Park Racecourse, WA12 0HQ

Web. - http://barrystocktonfairs.co.uk/
Tel. - 01513 343 362
10:30 - 14:30
Admission - Adult £2, Children £0.50p

Thornbury - Bulldog Fairs

Thornbury Leisure Centre, Alveston Hill, BS35 3JB

Web. - www.bulldogfairs.com

eMail - bulldogfairs@aol.com

Tel. - 01373 452 857

Mob. - 07917 125 641

10:30 - 14:30hrs

Adults £2.50p, under 16's free if accompanied, early-bird (from 08:30hrs) £5

Free parking, light refreshments

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Saturday 29th December 2018

Bexhill-on-Sea - SRP Toy Fairs

St. Barnabas Parish Church, Cantelupe Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, TN40 1JG

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail - srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Mob. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Bolton - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - Scheduled for the 6th Jan

Wirral - Barry Stockton Fairs - Merseyside Hobbies & Model Railway Show

Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight, Wirral, CH62 5DH
Web. - http://barrystocktonfairs.co.uk/
Tel. - 01513 343 362
10:30 - 15:30
Admission - Adult £4.50p, Children £1

Worcester - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs

Perdiswell Leisure Centre, Bilford Road, Worcester, Worcestershire, WR3 8DX

Internet presence unknown
Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

10:30 - 14:00hrs

Admission £2, free parking

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Sunday 30th December 2018

Doncaster - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'Doncaster Racecourse'

Doncaster Exhibition Centre, Leger Way, Doncaster, DN2 6BB
Web. - www.bpfairs.com
Tel. - 01604 846 688
Mob. - 07966 527 177
10:30 - 15:00hrs
Admission - Adults £4, Seniors £3.50p, Children £1, 'Early Bird' (from 8 a.m.) £10
Plenty of free parking

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

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Auctions

Still no Auctions

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

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!

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Nothing down here this time - I really am having a few days off!

M is for Mail Order

I picked this up on feebleBay the other day, it was going cheap and in searching I found several of the same set, some on silly 'buy-it-know's, others on 99p! It looks to be the sort of thing Studio Gifts carry (or carried - I haven't checked if they are still going![Google says they are!]), but the code label is similar to Argos of the now some-time-gone Index, so it could be anyone, or even a department store's seasonal Christmas stock?

The figures are big (we saw them in the Marx post on Tuesday) 100/110-mil; and I think they're based on Italian figure sculpts. Each is separately wrapped in a cellophane bag open at one end and ticked into the base hollow, which I though excessive until I realised it was doing the job of the tissue-paper we'll have to go back to in the near future.

Mary, Joseph and the Little Baby Jesus, he's an integrated moulding in one of the 'shoe-box' mouse-mangers I alluded to the other day! It is clearly marked Made In Hong Kong, which would date it to the late 1990's, but I suspect 'new-old' stock contemporary to the last five or ten years, no more?

At nine pieces it's around the average with three wise men (always three, the Bible gives no total, let have more, yadda-yadda!), two animals and a shepherd in addition to the Jesus's-family-surname family! The Arimathea's? That's it; box-ticker . . . box-ticked.

H is for How They Come In - Robot Erasers

Had a quick scan down the High Street last Wednesday (12th) and picked-up a pocket-full of plunder! Actually; I lie, some of them were Farnbourough in the morning (had to find cherry liqueurs and there are none in Fleet!), the rest Fleet in the afternoon!

The doll matched the Lifeguard I picked up a few weeks ago, with the same hand and head sculpts, and as I was planning a Beefeater round-up at some point, I grabbed him - not knowing an interesting one (Beefeater, not doll!) was in the postal-system from Chris Smith, although there was an interesting mini-doll from Chris too!

I have run searches for Morph figures in the past occasionally; feeling sure there must have been some, if only key-rings or similar so I was chuffed-to-nuts to find the big bendy toy! Bau-ouhh!

The SPG (as close to war as you'll get on SSW at this time of year!) is a late model (still in service) M109-upgrade, made in China, around 1:50th or 1:55th maybe? The 'Santa' is either the worst resin teddy-bear Santa you ever saw, or the worst resin mouse Santa you ever saw, it really isn't clear, but it was 50p!

The Robot! He' a bit simplistic, but he's a Robot, and an eraser, so into the collection he goes, made in a clever fashion too, the pieces are both extrusions and over moulds, achieved by setting several injector heads together, each feeding through a shaped chamber beyond the end of the injection nozzle.

The whole is then carefully laid on a timed-speed conveyor to produce a long, bi- or multi-coloured 'loaf' which is then sliced to produce the components. Easy'ish (I once operated an extruder at Rotamould in Camberly) on the arms and legs which only require two injectors, but the body  is far harder, although I suspect the control-panel was formed separately and then fed through a cold gate as the grey and black was formed around-it?

As I would have heat-problems with just the one nozzel at least twice a day, god knows how much down-time this lot generated, and that's before you consider the conveyor speeding-up and stretching the product, keeping several hoppers filled with base-material, watching the eyes move as the heat and pressure bends the fine shaped injector, etc . . . etc . . .!

But . . . it may be a cold-setting material, more like working with play-dough? I don't know how this eraser rubber is made! It would still need multiple shaped gates and extruders, so the long-winded bit above still has reason!!

He's a Tobar item so Hawkin's Bazaar and therefore might be Accoutrements/Archie McFee in the US?

Ha-ha-ha-ha-Haah! My Robot eraser army is invincible and you can add the Diener Industries ones we looked at ten years ago at the start of the blog and a couple of other smaller ones in the unknown robot box from storage to these!

These have all come in in the last two or three years, and with duplicates there are now nine here, so they were in need of . . .

. . . a new home! Standard deep-sided takeaway-tub will do for now.

L is for Loose Ends - Phidal

An odd 'season'; I have been storing these posts and bits up since we last looked at Phidal back in June/July (?) meaning to have a day or two day mini-season, but due to non-existant plans going AWOL over the last few days, they haven't even appeared in a block when I finally got rung to them, so they might as well have been published when they came-in or were ready, but such is sod's law when it comes to the aspirations of pink monkeys!

These are the current 'believed to be' Phidal pile, with a Marvel 'babe' (top left) we may or may not have seen in one of the sets we've looked at.

To the right; a bunch of Monsters Inc., including a 'woman' (I don't want to upset its sensibilities!) in purple furry moon-boots which I know is in a stash of unknown vinyl somewhere - when I get round to them; I know I'm going to find a pile of Phidal in the stash.

The lower line-up is the Disney set Brian Berke sent us shelfies of, back in the spring (or even late last year), I don't know what that Mickey Mouse outline thing with a wheel on a stick; it could be a record player? It could equally be a whacky unicycle or an instrument of torture!

Brain has responded by sending shelfies of another Disney set! For those who collect these as a separate 'field', they all fit in very well with all the old Comic Spain, Bully, Disney Store, Heimo, Mattel, and Schleich stuff, except they are new . . . and cheaper!

Shot as dated, both in TKMaxx. I think I've reported on WHSmith's reduceing their rip-off prices to something closer to 'max's? They now seem to phasing them out as stock-items altogether?

TK' however have carried more and more as the year progressed and the last time I was in there, they had moved to an aisle-end downmstairs with the Crimbo food, chockies and 'smellies' gift sets.

Note also that the lower shelves have other interactive books and similar packaged 'play-sets', while about 10% of the Phidal's are the magnetic or suction-cup things. The tins are mostly colouring-book (or other paper-media) sets, while the Zoomers look fun and the Frosen set seems to contain Lego-likey, compatible with the origianl Hestair-Kiddycraft Kiddybricks I'm sure!

The missing 'fatty-cat' from the Tinkerbell Fairy set the other day, I knew I'd seen it somewhere and with the delay to getting the Phidal posts published, it turned-up, and got shot!*

*No cats were harmed in the making of this post . . . but one got shooed-off the PC . . . twice!

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

Err . . . there almost aren't any! Well it is the quietest week of the year for shows; isn't it? The best show after Sandown is the NEC . . . their 'Boxing Day' show is on . . . a day late!

★★★★★  HAPPY   CHRISTMAS!  ★★★★★

Toy Fairs

Thursday 27th December 2018

Birmingham - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'NEC'

Hall 18, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, West Midlands, B40 1NT

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

Admission £7.50, early-bird (from 08:00hrs) £12, OAP's £7, Children £2

Free parking

★★★★★  HAPPY   CHRISTMAS!  ★★★★★

Auctions

 

None!

★★★★★  HAPPY   CHRISTMAS!  ★★★★★

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!

★★★★★  HAPPY   CHRISTMAS!  ★★★★★

I've not managed to get anything else posted this week, so there are a couple of bits tomorrow and one on Sunday that I scheduled a few days ago and that'll be it 'till next week sometime . . . maybe!

Cracked the 700-posts in a year but the 3-mill' hits will be the second week of Jan' I think? Next year will probably have fewer posts, but maybe some better stuff?

The new bears (right) meet the gang, prior to them-all going on the tree! They all look so happy . . . except the polar bears; all four of them look a bit quizzical!

Thanks for viewing, visiting or helping the Blog in 2018 and we'll start the eleventh year with a few days off!

Happy Christmas!

Q is for Question Time - Mary Mother of God!

This is the figure I mentioned the other day, and it's an odd one, not because I don't know what it is, not because I don't know where it came from, but because I'd like to know who handled it!

She's been smacked-to-life with an ugly-stick I'm afraid and in the hollow of her whole (an unfortunate phrase - I'll grant you!), she is clearly marked TALY (the 'I' miss-registered) and 2/6. She is a soft latex rubber, even a PVC or an early silicon-rubber, and is clearly a Precepi (Nativity) figure of Mary, mother of the Little Baby Jesus.

Now . . . here's the thing; the 2/6 can't be two-of-six, as she isn't holding the LBJ, so with a Joseph that's three? Which, if the count is six leaves room for either three wise men, or a shepherd and two something's? The minimum count of a nativity is seven - if Mary holds the LBJ or eight if the LBJ is in a manger, basket, beer-crate or shoe-box.

While as far as I can remember from my trips to Italy pre-Euro, they didn't have a sub-coinage, they only had Lira? Even if they had a sub-coin, two Lira and six-something's wouldn't buy you a sneeze at the time, while this figure would have cost you, what; 25 or 30p (?) in the UK in the seventies?

Go back to the sixties and the Ⱡ2.06-something's (cents?) won't buy half a sneeze, but this figure might be two-shillings-and-sixpence in Britain, which - following decimalisation - would become 25-30p in 1970? The evidence would appear to suggest this figure, although clearly Italian was mould-marked - exclusively - for the UK market?

Anyone know who carried it? Have you got this set, are they all priced individually? Anyone recognise the Italian maker/sculpt? Did they go elsewhere with other mould-marks? Was there an unpriced version? The rubber seems too-soft for Landi or Chromoplasto types, so any info gratefully received.

J is for Jungle Jinks

It's a long time since I saw the original film, but those of you with kids or grandkids will know it's still a great favourite on the DVD shelf, and but these are from the original rather than the current 'live action' (read 'GCI') version.

Front and back covers, with a shot of the play-mat; while of limited use whichever set you get, I've mentioned before; some have a game element, some a simple 'play' mat others - as here - get several stills from the movie, so different stories or a progression through each scene can be played-out.

Some of the main characters, from the left; Bagheera (Black Panther), Mowgli (the man cub), Baloo ([sloth] Bear), and a monkey who's name escapes me, but he's a Disney trope, in the books they are a tribe; The Bandar-log or Monkey Folk.

Sheer Khan (King of the [Bengal] Tigers) and two idiotic elephants (Hathi or Tha and/or . . . baby Tha?) I don't really remember, but I was quite small the last time I saw this!

I'm guessing this snake is Kaa, the Indian Rock Python? Although he is a bit too comical for Mowgli's friend and mentor? It doesn't matter, these only really go with similar figures and there aren't many of them, so it's more of a stand-alone sample [with-]in a collection.

The four vultures on the other hand would enhance the larger scale/later painted sets of Lucky Luck from Comansi/Comics Spain, being very similar in style (if not size) with that line's scavenger. Or even as new recruits for the Disney movie Robin Hood character's of the Sheriffs guards from Marx or Tatra! Probably the same cartoonist?

News Views Etc . . . Airfix Combat Group Knock-off

The posts on Chris Smith's surprise parcel are still in the queue and won't be 'till after Christmas now I suspect, just running out of time! But I couldn't wait to get this over on the Airfix Blog's Combat Group post/page.

It's always nice to find a new figure, or be given one (thank you Chris), but my further thoughts on it are after the jump on the above link! And it's only a few days since I added the Lone Star comic-sheet to that page . . . it grows!

D is for the Day of the Dead

2017's Halloween movie of choice for the younger audience was a strange Orpheus in the Underworld-like tale, re-told with guitars and re-located to Latin America! Coco; Phidal has a set about that too . . .

Front and back covers, I always shoot the internal pages, but there would be real copywrite issues if Ishowed you all those, and anyway they aren't terribly exciting being - for the main part - cropped movie stills with a simplistic paragraph or two to re-introduce a few - but not always all - the sets characters. In  addition I'd have to find a load more blurb!

Contents; they don't seem to be terribly in-scale with each other, but having not seen the movie, I can't be sure it's not meant! The really tall skeleton needs a hot water straightening session, one day!

It's a problem I've noticed with these, and I'm not sure why; they have to be painted so any post-mould distortion should be weeded-out there; they are always loose in the compartment so it's not squishing at the packing stage; there must be a moment where they are subjected to a lot of heat, maybe up against the wall of a sun-drenched shipping container? But around one figure per every three sets needs some work, usually those with bases, or thin parts.

A few close-ups, as I'm not familiar with the film (centred on the Central / Southern Mexican festival of The Day of The Dead), I didn't really know what to shoot, so you get the demented Scooby-like dog and it's . . . what . . . underworld version . . . doppelganger, opposite number? A madi-gras decorated party-dog!

By far-and-away the nicest piece in my book (and in my opinion!) . . . and in every Coco book (!) is this jaguar/ram griffon/cockatrice hybrid hell-cat in a metallic blue/green rainbow with purple and orange bits - to cool for fashion school!!

Returning to the contents point, this animal is not explained in the text at all . . . but if I was twelve this would be on my desk at school!

P is for Poplar's Popular Plastic Present Person and Pooches Pulling

Well into the Crimbo-spirit here at SSW, although I think I have a Highlander post still to come! I also think we looked at this briefly in a post ages ago, but I can't find it, and it would have been the one kept here, while this post is also drawing on the stored examples and wider oeuvre.

Originally a Thomas Toys (USA) model, or - more accurately; 'set of toys', I imagine they started to come here the same year or shortly after their debut in the 'States, so no more than the following year? Over here they were carried under the Poplar label.

Left - The best version; Santa and his sleigh, with Rudolph doing sterling-work 'up-front' and a spare seat - presumably for a bag of toys; sadly not included!

Inset top right - Rudolph's two components and a comparison between the draw-bars for reindeer and dogs! The deer get a pair of large rounded studs to locate in dimples in the shoulders of the animal, while the dog's version has two pairs of sharp-pointed pimples to hold the soft PVC hounds.

Inset bottom right - Both Santa Claus and the draft animal are PVC, the sleigh and seats being styrene; the PVC used by the Thomas-Poplar-Taffy group was a stable mix which mercifully means they don't eat the polystyrene parts, as cheaper/less stable PVC's would.

The Dachshund version in the upper shot, the passengers are Thomas/Poplar but not original to the sleigh, just a couple I grabbed for illustrative purposes, the slight should have two of the smaller infants, the girl here is from the play-equipment twins, while the doll/baby is a dolls-house accessory, I think.

Equally; I don't think it was ever issued with the other dog, and almost certainly never with the cat! But it fits and it's a bit of fun!

The full set of animals (to my knowledge) with a Hong Kong copy of the . . . spaniel? It seems to be quite modern, even current in that pink (?) and it's nice to see mouldings from the 1950's still enjoying a life, albeit as a gum-ball machine's capsule-prize or Christmas cracker's novelty clone!

Made in England is clearly marked on the chair-backs (are they 'thrones' on a sleigh? They should be!), except - of course - they were made in Wales!

Speaking of the chairs, they were also used on the swing, which was the natural hang-out (pun intended!) of the little girl and her twin brother.

P is for Peter

There's only one, and while I was worried when I heard the American's were getting their hands on him (visions of Pooh Bear getting a Mickey-Mouse nose flashed in front of my retinas), I'm pleased to say while the scriptwriters' DID shoe-horn a transatlantic character in, mercifully it wasn't a bunny!

Indeed, it (a cockerel) further; A) didn't get any clothes, so stays well out of the BP EU*, and B) was as good as stolen (as an idea) from the movie Chicken Run!

* Beatrix Potter Expanded Universe!

Also it's clear that the rights-holder F Warne (or their agents) kept a close eye on (and decision-making role in-) the film. As I haven't seen it yet I can't say whether the cockerel ruins it or not, but the stills I have seen (mostly in this Phidal set!) look very good and the figurines here, are lovely.

From the left; Peter, Benjamin, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail! The figures are slightly more realistic than Ms. Potter's original watercolours, more in keeping with the 'live action' (CGI'ed) movie.

Other characters include Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddleduck, Pigling Bland and Mrs. Tiggywinkle, although I think Pigling should have been a bit smaller and Mrs T a tad larger perhaps, especially when you see the next two - below.

There's no real scale in the books as each is a self-contained story, but the Tale of Peter Rabbit, does have a human in it, and that human is to scale with the rabbits, so I guess the movie had to tip a nod to that by making them more equivalent to each other in real life, but then . . .

. . . that doesn't account for the small [-er] size of Mr Brock or the Sandy Whiskered Gentleman (an eggcellent babysitter . . . not!)? Nor the relatively vast size of the international interloper!