News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events - 7th-13th December 2019

Never mind . . .

. . . at least we have toy fairs! Actually the diary's a bit thin this week on most other events, but there's conversely a decent bunch of actual toy fairs, so something for everyone, if they go look, and a three day Vectis sale!

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 7th December 2019

Brentwood - J&J Fairs (John & Julie Webb)

International hall, Brentwood Centre, Doddinghurst Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 9NN

Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com

eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com

Tel. - 01522 880 383 (J & J Webb)

10:00 - Approx. 14:30hrs

Admission £3, seniors £2.50p, 1st child £2

Chalk Farm, London - Guideline Publications - London Toy Soldier Show

Haverstock School, 24 Haverstock Hill, Chalk Farm, London, NW3 2BQ

Web. - www.toysoldiershow.co.uk

eMail - kim@guidelinepublications.co.uk

Tel. - 01908 274 433

10:30 - 16:00hrs

Admission £6, early bird (from 09:30hrs) £10, late hares £4 - after 14:00hrs

Parking £5 (reasonable for London!)

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Sunday 8th December 2019

Ashington - David Parsons - Toy & Train Collectors Fair

Ashington Community Centre, Foster Lane, Ashington, West Sussex, RH20 3PG

Web. - www.modelcarmart.co.uk

eMail - modelcarmart@gmail.com

Tel. - 01424 846 676 (Pete)

Mob. - 07742 609 865 (David)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

 Adults £1.50, concessions £1

[Is he? Two shows on one day? I think one of the dates published elsewhere (Henfield - below) is a big fat error?]

Brecon - Chris Dyer Fairs

Market hall, Town Centre, Brecon, Powys, Wales, LD3 7LG

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £2

Chartham -  SRP Toy Fairs

Station Road, Chartham, Kent, ME13 7RA

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

eMail - srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Mob. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Cirencester - Retro Ronnie

Bingham Hall, King Street, Cirencester, Glousecstershire, GL7 1JT

Web - www.retroronnie.com

Mob. I - 07708 385 061

Mob. II - 07900 266 427

10:00-hrs 'till finish

Admission unknown, early bird (from 08:00hrs)

Refreshments

Exeter - Events Frontier - Devcon '19

Exeter Corn Exchange, Hele Road, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4JS, UK

Web. - www.eventsfrontier.com

eMail - eventsfrontier@hotmail.com

Mob. - 07508 548 938

Hours unknown

Admission fee unknown

Sci-fi, film and comic convention

CANCELLED

Great Bentley - R & G Toy Fairs

Village Hall, Plough Road, Great Bentley, Essex, CO7 8LD

Tel. - 01206 251 351 (Gary)

Tel. - 01255 473 509 (Richard)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission £2.00, under 16's free

Free parking, refreshments

Henfield - David Parsons - Toy & Train Collectors Fair

Advertised by some sources; this show was held on the 23rd November.

Kirkby-in-Ashfield - Townsend Toy & Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend)

Festival Hall, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, NG17 7DJ

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission fee unknown, aaccompanied under-16's free

Free parking, refreshments

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

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Monday 9th December 2019

Exeter - Events Frontier - Devcon '19

[Given this date in some sources, it's happening tomorrow - Saturday 7th December]

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Tuesday 10th December 2019

Elsecar - Newcomen Fairs Ltd. - Elsecar Toy & Train Fair (evening fair)

Elsecar Heritage Centre, Elsecar, Nr. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S74 8HJ

Web. - www.newcomenfairs.co.uk

eMail - sales@newcomenfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01226 744 425

19:00 - 21:00hrs

Admission £1.50p, children 50p

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Wednesday 11th December 2019

Burton-upon-Trent - Townsend Toy & Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend) - Evening Fair

The Town Hall, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, DE14 2EB

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

18:00 - 20:30hrs

Admission unknown, accompanied under-16's free

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Thursday 12 December 2019

Theydon Bois - Joe Lock Fairs (evening fair)

Village Hall, Coppice Row, Theydon Bois, Essex, CM16 7ER

Internet presence unknown

Mob. - 07866 641 215

19:00-21:00hrs

Admission £1

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Auctions

Wednesday 11th-Friday 13th December 2019

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (3-day sale)

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

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Friday 13th December 2019

Sheffield - Shefield Auction Gallery

Windsor Road, Heeley, Sheffield, S8 8UB

Web. - www.sheffieldauctiongallery.com

eMail - jmorgan@sheffieldauctiongallery.com

Tel. - 0114 281 6161

Viewing - Thursday 12th 09:00- 16:45, from 08:30 on sale day

14:00 - Finish

Engineered Live Steam Models & Railwayana Auction (from 10:00hrs)

Specialist Collectable Toys & Model Railway Auction (from 11:00hrs)

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Other Events

Selected dates from now to Tuesday 24th December (Christmas Eve)

Aylsham - Bure Valley Railway - Steam Trains to Santa

Aylsham Station, Norwich Road, Aylsham, Norfolk

Web. - www.bvrw.co.uk

Nothing much else around of the toy-related verity, lots of Christmas Markets setting up now, Leeds has a good one I believe, Guildford another one, and other towns have day-events, evening events and the like; Ironbride are doing a themed Victorian weekend, you can often find erzgebirge type stuff at the better (more European/Germanic tradition-following-) ones, so worth searching out if you feel a sudden need for wooden novelties!

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Overseas Events

Saturday 7th December 2019

Pinellas Park (USA) - Regal Railways - Christmas Show (trains)

Lopez Inc. Hall, 7177 58th Street North, Pinellas Park, FL 33781, Florida, USA (venue)

501 East Bay Drive, Apt. 1503, Largo, FL 33770, Florida, USA (promoter)

Web. - http://regalrailways.com/regal-railways-upcoming-toy-and-collectible-shows-sale/

Tel. - ++17 272 441 341

09:00-14:00hrs

Admission, $5.00 children under 12 free, 'early-bird' $7.00 (reserve between 08:00-09:00hrs)

Vendors and exhibition model train layout

Lunch Available

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Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th December 2019

Timonium (USA) - Greenberg's - Great Train & Toy Show

Maryland State Fairgrounds, 2200 York Road, Timonium, MD 21093, Maryland, USA (venue)

Greenberg Shows, 280 Carlton Drive, Carol Stream, IL 60188, USA (organiser)

Web. - http://greenbergshows.com/

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

Running alongside the Baltimore Stamp & Coin show

Thought for the day - they could do aluminium . . . if they wanted to?!!

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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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Links

Have we had this one before?

It seems everyone's using Chinatroops to commemorate real troops?

But the charity is reciprocated!

On both sides of the pond! And nice to see last year's news-link story has been scaled-down rather than cancelled.

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Received With Thanks

Parcels

Two - no less! Through the letter-box yesterday (Thursday), one from Mr. Evans in North London and one from Mr. Berke in North America! The London one was - I think - the rest of the last lot (more Star Wars Command and two more of those nice, shiny Britains copies, except one is Lone Star this time!), the NYNY one will be H is for...'ed in the next week or two.

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Pictures and Prose

An interesting shot came from Theo, it was going to be a future Q is for Question Time after both Kent Sprecher and myself failed to ID it, but I've sussed it out now and it will join a post (hopefully next Tuesday) made mostly of Angelo's latest shots, so a bit of synergy going on there!

And I should be adding a shot to the early Airfix page sometime next week after Danny O'Neil sent me more on the Feathalite figures from Oz. I've also had more on firefighters from Theo, along with bath toys and other bits from Brian B in NYC.

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Publication

As I was leaving the house this morning, I saw Plastic warrior 177 (an auspicious calibre for a magazine!) on the mat, so didn't have time to read it, however, due to the train strike, I did have time to quickly peruse it and can report it looks to be a pretty Pharaonic issue!

Thanks to all for everything, it all adds an extra dimension to the Blog.

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Other SSW Stuff

This Week I are bin mostly . . . Herdin' Deer

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My advent calendar has already turned-up a soldier, a tree and a bear! Twenty still to come - it's a naughty one with an extra 25th chocolate, on the 25th!

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Thumbs Up!

Five weeks tomorrow and it's almost back to its old self, but appearances are deceptive and it's still quite hert'y, it has a sort of painful pins-&-needles which I'm told by people who have been equally stupid suffered similar injuries that it might take a month or two for that to wear-off. I imagine it's all the internal cut-ends of little microscopic stuff worming around to find each-other and join back up? It's still quite numb as well.

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Z is for Stumps!

Another board-game, but this one has some age, as it seems from the box-lid blurb to pre-date the whole National/International Team Competition era, mentioning the Australian 'Test Team' as being a separate entity to 'English Teams' (isn't one of them from Wales? No Mr. President; no; not the big 'fish'!) without mentioning any other national country?

The contents consist of a playing board, rule-set, score-book, arrowy-thing, various cards for the batsman (who doesn't seem to get a representative figure which is a bit odd) and the nub of the set as far as we're concerned; a set of 23/25mm (HO'ish) figures in lead. De la Rue now - of course - famous for making a high proportion of the world's paper (and increasingly - Polymer) currencies, and based down the road, just outside Basingrad.

Of particular interest is the playing surface, which despite the lack of batsmen, bowling or batting apparatus (that's what all the cards are about) or balls, has been given a flocked surface in three colours, each immaculately printed with no fuzzy boundaries or colour-bleed. But then if this was made between the wars, in the Edwardian period, flocked wallpaper had taken flocking 'tech' to heights it has only retreated from ever since!

Close-up of the playing pieces, they can - with exceptions - be moved between balls or overs, and the reason there is a bowler when there are no batsmen, is that the fielding-player can vary the run-up and ball toss.

The figures are semi-flat and probably full of lead, with four poses, standing and squatting fielders, wicket-keepers and the bowler. A lovely set and many thanks to Adrain who let me shoot it at the recent Sandown Park toy fair.

F is for Follow-up - Lido Japanese

Chris Smith dug-out the Lido originals, which he has photographed next to the Hong Kong clones for us, condemning mine as smaller Hong Kong tat by the by, and as we've only recently had them here, there's not much to add beyond - enjoy the images!

Thanks to Chris, proper-box ticked! I'll add a note to the previous post pointing out the nature of their plagiarism and linking here, but I won't be able to do that until after this scheduled post has published.

D is for Droid-hunting on Dewbacks!

As I had the Dewback rider out for the Speeder shots the other day I took a few more to add to some carded-product shots which have been in Picasa for about eight years, the pink sheet I shot them on, is the back cover of the Johillco hollow-cast reprint catalogue, which may be pertinent!

Galoob's larger-scale line of Action Fleet sets had these little Battle Packs with incredibly complicated packaging, I think the point was that by the time you'd fought you way into them you thought you'd got more for your money (they weren't cheap first time round) than a few figures and a small accessory, but who knows!

On his correct mount, he still looks more like a drum-major than a dino-rider! A dewback is a sort of giant tadpole with quadruped perambulation from giant chicken feet, and it's never made clear if they are called dewbacks because they drink or filter dew from the sand in the mornings like grazing cows, or have slimy backs like tadpoles!

The set comes with two bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back and the sneak-thief Greedo from Star Wars/A New Hope, who gets his! The Action Fleet figures are really mini 'action figures' with two points of articulation - at the hips and shoulders.

This re-issue from 2002 came with the escape pod the two comedy-droids occupied for their trip to the salubrious planet of Tatooine, I have a lose one, but it's in with the other ships and vehicles, so can wait! Obviously pushing the new name of episode one/IV; was that when the fifth or sixth film came out? Or the first DVD issue? It's all so long, long ago and far, far away now!

Other sand troopers from the MicroMachines line on the left and Action Fleet on the right, with an alternate Boba Fett also an Action Fleet figure, between them. The diminutive dewback rider (on an even more diminutive dewback - scale-wise!) has a proper lance for poking recalcitrant dinosaurs and restores you faith in the imagination behind the story-line! Note also - he has a striped black & white shoulder-board?

Another forced-perspective shot; lost in a sea of pink!

V is for Variations on a Theme - Keep-Fit Santa's

This is the held-back and enhanced tail of a post from the summer on the Model Power sets Ed Burg sent me ages ago, as the more I dug-out, the more it looked like a whole other post, but first back to the obverse of the Model Power card;

The reverse of the card gives a hint at the range of sets available in this scale/size and the most interesting one is the Santa Land one, clearly designed to do seasonal front lawn or garden (front yard over there) displays in O-gauge/O-027, of the 'full Griswold' type! But they look familiar . . .

. . . not least than because I have Blogged one here years ago; under Culpitt or Anniversary House branding I think, might have been a smaller cake decoration supplier? We've also seen some of the second set (see below) under the Doric label before now.

You may have them as Wilton or Carrousel, but in 1986 two Hong Kong factories (from Bill B's catalogue) were both advertising them as 'new'! The truth is probably that Argeal made them and Greensward shipped them but a third contract manufacturer could have made them, with both Greensward and Argeal then taking them to load their novelty lines for wholesaling to Culpitt or Wilton . . . and now Model Power have them!

I only seem to have one (on shelf), I thought I'd got all of them, but they may be in with the Kinder stuff? A second, more modern set also exists, clearly influenced by the mid-80's set (possibly from the same source - decoration is spot-on - yet smaller belt-buckles), but six new poses, also doing things you;d expect to see in a gym, not from Santa Clause! We see three above . . .

. . . and the other three, with their icing-spike (pick)'ed twins. Whether the spike came first or second I can't tell you, but the spikeless set show no signs of the removal in the moulding (lump or scaring), and they may have been two sets?

The spikeless set are the ones we've seen before, I got them in a Christmas pop-up store in Basingrad a couple of years ago, probably as old stock, but not that old, so . . . last ten years? The Snowmen who accompany them have a large (almost but not quite pencil-top size) hole in them and each gets a crude'ish fir tree and a motto/sign for the cake.

A seller was offering them with sleds (sledges?) this time last year, but as 'assortments of three - six designs'. Looking at the sledges (sleds?) they are drilled for a string or wire (to a reindeer?) and might be the seller's marriage of two bulk purchases, rather than an original commercial offering?

A third set of six Santa's is out there, slightly smaller and probably another source, they either started life as gnomes, or where designed to be both gnomes and Santa's, having all the boot and hem trimming one associates with cake decoration Santa's, but clearly engaged in a spot of more gnome-like gardening . . . or mining - the chap with a lantern; is there a seventh pose somewhere?

Cheers again to Ed for the Model Powersets.