Better News - Boris is crying foul because
he was replaced by a block of ice in a roundtable hustings he failed to turn-up
for, complaining it was a bias attack on him or his party, an official
complaint has been sent to OffCom,
but as Nigel Farage (rhymes with c**t) also failed to turn up, receiving a
temporary ice-doppelganger too, I can't see how Boris's argument can be found
to hold much water . . . except; until it melted! The arrogance of the Right is
really equalled only by the Right's hypocrisy, self serving, pocket lining and
inhumanity!
Gisela Stuart has called for people to vote
Tory, this Labour MP (ex) who is actually German, came over here,
promulgated her Brwreakshit-shit, and then (like a lot of the Brwreakshiteers)
resigned to run away and not take responsibility for her divisive actions;
Gisela - fuck off!
Trump? Well he's just spent the week being
Trump, that weird comedy gift which keeps on giving!
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Toy Fairs
Saturday 30th November
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 1st December 2019
Colchester - SRP Toy Fairs
Langham Community Centre, School Road,
Colchester, Essex, CO4 5PA
Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/
eMail - srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk
Mob. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)
10:00 - 14:00hrs
Admission charge unknown
Eastbourne - Eastbourne Historic Vehicle
Club - Toy & Transport Collectors Fair
Polegate Community Centre, 54 Windsor Way,
Polegate, East Sussex, BN26 6QF
Web. - www.ehvc.biz (note change of .url)
Telephone unknown
10:00 - 14:00hrs
Admission£1.50p, children free
Club event
Falkirk - McLaren Models -
Scotmodel
Tel. - 01324
624 102
Kempton
Park - RM
Toys Ltd. - Kempton Park Toy Fair
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
Newton
Abbot - Ray
Heard Train & Toy Fairs
Newton Abbot Racecourse, Devon, TQ12 3AF
Internet presence unknown
Tel. - 01823 480 097
10:00 -15:30hrs
Admission £2.00
Free parking, refreshments
Shepton
Mallet - Bulldog
Fairs
Royal Bath & West Showground, BA4 6QN
Web. - www.bulldogfairs.com
eMail - bulldogfairs@aol.com
Tel. - 01373 452 857
Mob. - 07917 125 641
10:30 - 14:30hrs
Adults £4, under 16's free if accompanied,
early-bird (from 08:30hrs) £10
Southport - Barry Stockton Fairs
Splash World, Dunes Leisure Centre, The
Esplanade, Southport, PR8 1RX
Web. - www.barrystcoktonfairs.co.uk
Tel. - 0151 334 3362
10:00 - 14:30
Admission £2.00, children 50p
York - J&J Fairs (J&J
Webb) - 'York Racecourse'
The Knavesmire Stand, York Racecourse,
York, Yorkshire, YO23 1EX
Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com
eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com
Tel. - 01522 880 383
10:00 - 14:30hrs
Admission £2.50p, seniors £2, 1st child
£1.50p
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Auctions
Saturday 30th November
Poole - Cottees Auctions Limited
Mannings
Heath Road, Poole, Dorset, BH12 4NQ
Web. - www.cottees.co.uk
eMail - info@cottees.co.uk
Tel. - 01202
723 177
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Tuesday 3rd December 2019
Essex - Sworders Fine Art
Auctioneers (day 1 of a 2-day auction)
Cambridge Road, Stanstead, Mountfitchet,
Essex, CM24 8GE
Web. - wwwsworder.co.uk
Tel. - 01279 817 778
Sale Starts 10:00hrs
Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis
Auctions (1st day of a three day auction)
Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17
9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel. - 01642 750 616
Specialist die-cast sale
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Wednesday 4th December 2019
Essex - Sworders Fine Art
Auctioneers (day 2 of a 2-day auction)
Cambridge Road, Stanstead, Mountfitchet,
Essex, CM24 8GE
Web. - www.sworder.co.uk
Tel. - 01279 817 778
Sale Starts 10:00hrs
Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis
Auctions (2nd day of a three day auction)
Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17
9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel. - 01642 750 616
Specialist die-cast sale
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Thursday 5th December 2019
Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis
Auctions (last day of a three day auction)
Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17
9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel. - 01642 750 616
General toy
sale
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Friday 6th December 2019
Taunton - Greenslade Taylor Hunt
(GTH)
The Octogon Saleroom, 113a East Reach,
Taunton, Devon, TA1 3HL
Web. - www.gth.net
eMail - antiques.saleroom@gth.net
Tel. - 01823 332 525
Collectors sale (includes a number of
large-scale civil car model-kits)
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Other events
Now until Friday 8th December 2019
London (Central) - Barbican - International Animation
Festival
Barbican, Silk
St, Barbican, London EC2Y 8DS (venue)
London International Animation Festival,
Hungerford Road, London, N7 9LF (promoter)
Web. - www.liaf.org.uk
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Now until Sunday 22nd December 2019
11 Dukes Lane, Brighton, BN11BG,
'Urban Artists' take's on model railroad
elements, all brought together in a wacky and somewhat dystopian
diorama/exhibit, possibly as a foil to the event below?
[If you do manage to go; pictures would be
nice - hint, hint!]
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Saturday 30th November 2019
Brighton - Brighton Toy Museum -
The Great Vintage Model Train Running-day
Brighton Toy & Model Museum, Trafalgar
Street, Brighton
Web. - www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk
An excuse for museum curators to play with
their train-sets I think!
London (W. Central) - KDF - Kensington Dolls Festival
Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street,
London W8 7NX (venue)
The Studio, 70a Lawford Road, London N1 5BL
(promoters)
eMail - Kdf@dollshousefestival.com
Tel: 0044 (0)20 7812 9892 (promoters)
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Sunday 1st December 2019
Basildon - Dolly's Daydreams -
Doll & Bear Show
Holiday Inn Basildon, Waterfront Walk,
Festival Leisure Park, Basildon, Essex SS14 3DG
(venue)
Dolly's Daydreams, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
(organiser)
eMail - dollysdaydreams@btinternet.com
Facebook - www.facebook.com/dollysdaydreams
Tel. - 01945 870 160
Mob. - 07860 517 048
Open 10.30am to 4pm.
Admission £2.00 (half price entry after
13:00hrs), seniors £1.50p, accompanied children under 16 free
Free parking on site (please register your
vehicle registration at hotel reception)
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Overseas Events
Saturday 30th November December 2019
Kalamazoo (USA) Kalamazoo Antique
& Collectible Toy Show
Kalamazoo County Expo Center, 2900 Lake St,
Kalamazoo, 49048, United States
Web. - https://k1025.com/events-kalamazoo/kalamazoo-antique-collectible-toy-show/30-november-2019-kalamazoo-county-expo-center/
(a bit 'dynamic' but it settles-down!)
Email - unievents1@aol.com
Tel. - ++2623 661 314
0 9:00-14:00hrs
Admission $8.00US adults, under-12's free with adult
Vancouver (Canada) - Fun Promotions - Vancover Swap Meet
Scottish Cultural Centre, 8886 Hudson
Street, Vancouver, BC V6P 4N2, Canada
11:00-16:00hrs
Admission $3.00Can., children12 or under free
Free Parking
Free gift for the first 100 visitors
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Saturday 30th November-Sunday 1st
December 2019
Edison (USA) - Greenberg’s Great Train & Toy Show
New Jersey Expo Center, 97 Sunfield Avenue,
Edison, NJ 08837, New Jersey, USA (venue)
Greenberg Shows, 280 Carlton Drive, Carol
Stream, IL 60188, Illinois, USA (organiser)
Web. I- http://greenbergshows.com/
(organiser)
Web. II - http://www.trainshow.com/edison
(show)
Tel. - ++6302 794 087
Fax. - ++2405 974 482
10:00-16:00hrs
Admission is $10 Saturday (for both days) or $9 Sunday (on-site ticket sales cash only), children 11 and under free
10:00-16:00hrs
Admission is $10 Saturday (for both days) or $9 Sunday (on-site ticket sales cash only), children 11 and under free
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Sunday 1st December 2019
Gent (Belgium) - Dipro BVBA - International Collectors
Fair
ICC, Gent, Belgium
Web. - www.dipro.be
Tel. - ++032 395 638
10:00-17:00hrs
Toy, Train, Die-cast, Doll & Bear Show
Herne
(Germany)
- PB Toys - 47th German Plastic
Soldier Show
Kulturzentrum, Willi-Pohlmann-Platz 1,
44623, Herne, Germany (venue)
PB Toys, Wickeder Straβe 32, 58739 Wickede, Germany (promoter)
Web. - www.ksfb.de (venue)
eMail - peter@pbtoys.de (promoter)
Tel. - 02377 787 9322
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If you are
an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model,
collectable, military, historical 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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Toy News
The Nottingham Mafia
Games Workshop sales are up for the first
half of the year which prompted a rise in the share price. Pre-tax profits are
estimated to hit £55m, which astounds me, but they have a slavish following,
who take the entire rule and army-list changes on the chin by hammering their
plastic cards!
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Rod Stewart
Who you may remember from his support of
the vandalised club exhibition earlier in the year, has a six-page spread in
this month's Railway Modeller
magazine, in which he shows-off (and why not - I would!) his finished
meisterwerke; Grand Street and the Three
rivers Station diorama, a vast display of US rustbelt from the steam era.
Says Rod - "A lot of people laugh at it being a silly hobby, but it's a
wonderful hobby" I wonder if he'll be attending the Brighton
exhibitions . . . either of them?
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Poundland
Has ditched it's £1 model and started
offering things at less than a pound The
Metro told us the other day, but A) they had already ditched the model the other way (offering things for more
than a pound - see Small Scale World passim), B) will now stuggle to make a profit
as their model relied on making thing 'up' to a pound which were less than a
pound elswhere and C) like The Works
(see story here two-weeks ago) has ceased to feature on the Blog as it used to
. . . so we don't care if it goes under, we want someone to take-up the baton
of carrying our 'Armyman' rack-toys!
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Waitrose
Speaking of novelty tat (as I just was!), Waitrose supermarkets (John Lewis Partnership / JLP) have a
budget mini-cracker set (Mini Sprout
Christmas Crackers) with traditional capsule-toy type tat in them! Expect
French flat cars, pencil sharpeners, lucky-fish &etc.
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Hasbro / Entertainment One
The seemingly endless takeover of the
latter by the former went to the Competition
& Markets Authority (relatively toothless Tory replacement for the
too-successful Monopolies & Mergers
Commision!) for investigation. It was announced that the inquiry is to last
two months (the MMC would have said
it'll last as long as it takes!) from last Friday; expect bugger-all
difference.
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H is for How They Come In
It's been a funny week, lots of non-toy
soldier, non-blog running about, Basingrad on Tuesday, Farnborough today
(Thursday), not much Blogging, but lots of sorting, a fair bit of consolidating
and some parcels out, consequently I A) haven't had spare case for Charity
shops, and B) have sent-out more than I got in! But; a few pieces joined the
pile . . .
. . . including three rubber jigglers and a
Schleich mallard, which were
purloined in Basingrad, both from Waterstone's
book shop the 'Finger Frights' further
branded to House of Marbles.
These came from the craft superstore in
Farnborough, there was very little in the way of cake-decoration stuff, but -
having gone there for [overpriced] Swann-Morten
blades - I spotted these and though they looked to be different colours to the
previously seen Henbrandt ones (background
screen-shot), so took a punt (£1.50p I think?) and luckily - as you can see -
they are different treatments.
Whether they've (Unique) had the fifth pose included in their contract is up for
grabs, but Unique operate in the US,
and also supply party favours to Sainsbury's
supermarkets, so if bendy-blunt-horns-guy is out there - he'll turn up!
And that was it this week - seven novelty
monsters and a monster duck! Oh, plus the stuff I posted on Saturday last (evil
bear, mosherettes, gun and wooden bits)
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Links & Thanks
Held-over 'till next week - it's gone four-o'clock and I'm out of time!
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Thumbtastic!
The piece of floating-nail came off last
weekend (after I got the scissors under it!) which lead to a rapid healing of
the last of the damage, and earlier this week the outer layer just peeled back
after I'd put the surgical spirit on it!
So I trimmed it back with the nail-clippers
and underneath was a new thumb! It's even going to have the finger-print. So that's
not bad for five-weeks, and I didn't go to A&E and bleed all over the floor
while bitching about queues, nor did I use superglue . . . . although I
considered it at one point!
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National Tree Week
This is my legacy . . .
. . . I planted all the Poplar Niger (black poplars) down this
path, along with all the trees of similar size in Manor Park (Aldershot), along
with well-over a thousand or two other trees in the Borough of Rushmoor. Nobody
really knows I planted them, no one will remember I planted them, they don't
have my name on them, but they will be there, in the landscape, for hundreds of
years to come . . . and that's why you should plant a tree . . . or two!
The mortality of young saplings is reckoned
by commercial growers, local authorities and such like to be 50% for the
purposes of ordering and planting, and the above 20 or so are actually the
survivors of (from memory) an avenue of 105 or 115? And then various 'odds' which
went at the bottom, we probably planted that pretty one to the right, all in
all we (and the other teams) planted about 200 in Manor Park.
Winter shot
You can see the attrition-rate is well over
50% on the path, probably closer to 80/85%, but at the bottom they've nearly all
survived? Natural drainage would have given them more water, but they sort of
protected themselves, their numbers providing a kind of anonymity absent from
the ones up the path, which I can tell you for watching them over 31 years
(this was 1988/'89) stood out and were mostly vandalised in the first two
years!
Kids! Poorer kids in that part of the
borough; their parents complaining equally of their tax burden and the lack of
local amenities, while their kids are out, un-accompanied, un-guided,
un-educated; snapping the new saplings off at the base! But, they, now in their
late forties will all be voting UKIP, Brwreakshit or Tory in two weeks time, as
will their surviving parents - Rushmoor, like Heart here, are 'safe' blue.
To my shame I can't remember the name of
the chap I worked with, his dad was a councillor - which might have had a hand in
our having a brand new truck! But between us we planted trees in all the parks,
some of which I can't remember the names of, but Manor, Crem', Sycamnore Road,
King George V Playing Fields, Ship Lane & Redan Road Cemeteries, Boundary
Road, the brook (Whitewater?) on the boundary with Surry Heath, the one at the
back of Farnborough Station, various scrappy corners, verges and roundabouts,
the Brickfields (?), Prospect, all over the bloody place!
They had been funded (or part funded) by
Central Government to replace the trees lost in the great storm of '87, which
I'd missed in Berlin (catching Chernobyl flu instead!), the ironies being that
A) Rushmoor hadn't been hit like the coastal belt or the Downs, and B) several
of the bigger trees in Manor Park came down in a storm in 1990, having probably
been loosened in the '87 event!
Me and . . . errh, I thought I could trick
myself into remembering his name! We'd load twenty-odd trees into the truck
with two spades, a long wedgey-diggy-thing and a knife along with (I think it
was-) two bags of compost, a post and two heavy-duty rubber-ties per tree, then
drive round the borough with our blown-up street maps, doing a different
species each day; flowering cherry, sycamore, maple, willows, acers (lots of
acers) and the black poplars, all common 'municipal' fare!
Dig a hole, cut and empty a bag of compost
in, lift the tree in (they were all 8-10 feet with a biggish root-ball, some
were two man lifts), cut the root ball sacking, another bag of compost and then the
earth back on top, bang the post in, tie the tree, then it was off to the next
one! I don't remember watering them? Maybe the greenhouse gang were following
us around with their watering trailer?
And some of them will be there longer after
I'm gone, than I will ever have been here! The Blog will die within twenty
years of my death; coding will change, software and hardware will change,
service providers and platforms will change, images will fail and one day the
Blog just 'won't be' any more, but the trees . . . the trees will still be
there . . . plant a few trees . . . go on; it hurts no-one!
*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
The best time to plant an
oak tree was twenty-five years ago.
The second best time is
today.
James Carville
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Late News - Barney's Herald Toys and Models
Christmas sale news
"Today sees the start of our mega *** CHRISTMAS SALE *** with 62 pages of Special priced sale items, with each page having 9 different sale items, making over a staggering 550 special items in total...! So "Get Them While They're Hot!"
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