B is for Airfix!

I said Bachmann were next, and this is next, so Bachmann it is, except it's really Airfix! In fact, let's get that out of the way first, I have read, several times, that these figures are "Airfix copies" or "copies of Airfix".

 

But in point of fact, Airfix during its heyday, had irons in many fires, including a foam-fabricator in Potter's Bar, and among its properties was the German Plasty outfit, who had got close by importing Airfix in the early 1960's, so it's no surprise that as part of the general toy range, we find Airfix imported the Bachmann Mini-Planes and joint-branded them Plasty Airfix.

This (left-hand images) is the 1969 announcement flyer/leaflet, and they would continue on in the toy catalogues for a while, while on the right is the Bachmann booklet from late 1971 (an earlier issue had announced the Spring '71 new releases), these aircraft - which my brother and I had about four of, and really enjoyed, even though they were very delicate - ran through both makers catalogues, at the same time as Bachmann's listing of the Airfix Figures.

The figures therefore were almost certainly either licenced, or more likely from tool cavities supplied by Airfix under a share-deal; "We won't re-export yours back to your territory, if you don't re-export ours to here" type thing. The heavy, glossy paint on PVC makes the Bachman versions resemble the PZG output (which were piracies) from Poland, and I've seen them confused in that manner, but the bases are the thinner Airfix originals, not the thick ones from the East.

 

Packaged in three's and singly in true rack-toy style hanging-cards, this is not the same as the previous post's image, but it might as well be, not many ways to photograph something like this while avoiding reflections!

The full range, as seen in Bachmann's 1974 catalogue, 24 figures, with the 'British Infantry' being taken from the 2nd version Paratroops, as the lack of actual British Infantry was a bone of contention back in the old country, at the time!

 

These vac-forms however, were all Bachmann, if they existed? It states they were sold unpainted, and I don't think I've ever seen one, but they run through the catalogues, so I guess they must have been, I've seen something similar to the machine-gun nest, but Atlantic and Dulcop both produced similar stuff in approximately 1:32nd, so it could have been either of them?!

The two on the left are actually 1:76th, and I was going to leave them out, but what the heck, the only thing of note is that Eidai, Nitto or Fujimi (?) copied the strangely two-dimensional dragon's teeth, as polystyrene solids a few years later!

The 1976 catalogue crams them all on to one page, which suggests they were winding down the line, but it's a smaller pocket leaflet/flyer than the A4 magazine catalogue of '74. I also have half an idea that they were sold briefly in full sixes, but that may be a false memory, and I'd have to check the other files!

L is for Lun'un Taarn!

So back to July's London Toy Soldier show, and I was supposed to be on a tight budget, and - to be honest - thought I'd done quite well, but there seems to be a lot of plunder here, although I think I was lucky with cheap bits, but let's have a look at it all, anyway!

I'll stress now that I can't remember who all this came from, and the photography isn't making any sense, so thanks here to Adrian Little and Peter Evans, as Peter brought me a bag of bits, and Adrian had a tub of stuff too, and I had some cheapies off him at the end.

For instance, I don't know where this mixed lot came from and while I'd like to think they were all in Peter's bag, I suspect the metal figures were in Adrian's lots, and that this was just shot like this, while I was tired?

 

Suffice to say it's an ecclectic lot, with a solid Star Wars Wookie from the 'Clone Wars', not sure of the set, maybe Disney Store, or Hasbro, an earlier Lord of the Rings figure of similar quality, an MPC German I may or may not have, but even if I do have him, there's a 50/50 chance I have him in the darker grey, so he stays untill I can check!

I think the tall chap may be from a chess-set, but he could be a licensed property? The headless Man Bat is a re-shot of the Cherilea one (from Dorset/Marlborough?), and now that recent finds/donations have completed the origianl pair, a nice 'next chapter' sample for that group.

Finally the two metal Lone Star soldiers are oddities, the helmeted kneeling firer seems to be a home-cast copy of the plastic figure, but the other is more of a mystery, I thought I was being thick when I couldn't find Lone Star in Joplin, but he lists them under DCMT and has a small handful of mostly plastic, while all searches for the figure (which I don't recognise) have failed to reveal him in plastic or metal? Is it a cut-n-shit from Japan or Argentina?

 

He's not from the Lone Star poses, having more of a stick that their EM2 Bullpup rifles? Answers on a postcard please - I haven't got a clue! They both seem to be painted by the same person/organisation, but whether home-made or commercial I just don't know.

 

Next Day - from Peter E "The kneeling paratrooper and soldier with foot on the rock are resin castings by me The kneeling paratrooper was never made by Lone Star in their series so I did a version The foot on the rock pose was from a hollow cast by Charbens Painted up by me also" Which is why they both struck me as odd, and a lesson to take notes, a softish plastic resin, not metal! And it means all the above were from Peter, and I've now credited everyone correctly I think!

 

These are more thematic as a shot, three probably Japanese (Bandai or Tomi/Takara?) figures from some kids TV anime or computer/video game and another of the Avatar II figures we've seen here. complete now I think, from Kinder.

Above shot is the show lot, and I think these did come from Peter, a collection of familiar-looking footballers; modern China-made and older Culpitts cake decorations, but as you can see from the lower comparison shot, the larger figures aren't as large as those we've seen several times here, now, under several brand-names.

 

Being both smaller, and less detailed, they seem to be 2nd Generation knock-offs, and I will need to find the rest and any colour variations, for another look at them . . . a growing 'family' of figures!

Terrible shot I'm afraid, I haven't quite got used to the lighting over at the flat and some of them get washed-out with the back-light, I don't know why as it's mostly the trees screening the M3 from the building, but, moden fancy self-cleaning glass or something?

No matter, it's only a top-up of small scale, mostly Marx/Blue Box or Crescent/Britains clones with a few Airfix G.I.'s, and they'll all get their day on the But Is It Giant Blog in the fullness of time!

Mixed lot here, probably also from Peter, the farner is from the A-Z/Padgett Brothers farm import sets I think, drum-set from Culpitts is very useful, it seems to only come in red, while I have yet to find red musicians, but yellow, green, light blue and two browns have turned-up and one day we'll have a 'battle of the bands' post with all of them, but a couple more side drums (one missing here) and cymbals are needed before that shot can be taken!

 

These are all rather nice, two really 'clean' Lone Star African Warriors I got from Steve Vicker's stall at the start of the show, a quite uncommon Cavendish Drum/Band Major, mercifully in one piece*, who came from a rummage tray and the Marx six-inch caveman is not exactly common either!

 

The Africans, are those I didn't remember having, but I'm now not sure if I had/have any, so I probably should have got the rest, I know we looked at the Hong Kong pirates in some detail with Chris's help a year or two ago, but I'm not sure what I have in the way of originals, I think I have the Cherilea, and most of the Charbens, but not sure on the Lone Star chaps!

And I wonder if showing the Marx caveman will lead to a sudden rash of them elsewhere, Deadleaf showed his BIG's again the other day, twice in five months, he must have the attention-span/memory of a goldfish!

 

And between showings managed to find the audacity to friend-request me on Faceplant; I kicked that in the bin, assuming he'd clicked it by accident while poking around in my details! paint may be home-done, or point to Swansea production?

*The relief over the Cavendish, is not just because it's my third pose now I think, but because years ago, I was helping JB sort some stock when we found two of these in a little box, and as he lifted (carefully - fingertip and thumb) one out of the box, it imploded/exploded under some tension-stress like a grenade, and flew all over the room in front of us, we didn't touch the other!

 

All three of mine have these [Airfix M5?] brown bases I think, the fragile ones had slate-grey bases if I remember them correctly, which may or may not have significance, my own - unscientific - observations are that early blacks (and dark reads) can lead to brittleness, and grey would have black pigments in it?

This is a nice group, some cheap lead from Adrian's rummage trays, I have quite a side-collection of metal/hollow-cast machine-gunners now (some in the old guard melt this stuff down you know!), but the rear three are the more interesting I think?

The Hilco grenade-thrower is not rare, but I thought this example in gray/mauve marbling was a bit different, the Kentoy standing firing pose, is - I think -  a glaring absentee on the Khaki Infantry page, so well overdue, while the musician is rubber?

Now, he's not the hard, dense, shoe-sole rubber of Bata's figures, and I have a feeling he may be of Belgian manufacture, but I have no idea where that feeling came from; have we seen them in one of Joplin or Opie's books? But, yeah, possibly 'best of show' can be awarded to this chap, rather than the Cavendish, or Leopold III.

 

Although, when I say Leopold III (middle figure), I'm not sure, it's hard to find pictures of him in a this uniform (by 'hard' I mean I failed to), but his surrendering of Belgium in 1940, rumours of Nazi sympathies and abdication in 1951 have - I suspect - conspired to leave him a little airbrushed from, if not history, then - at least - the Internet? he has a plug-in plastic dress-sword.

But I think that's who he's supposed to be, I recall a white, summer-uniform version in Jean-Claude Druart's toy soldier magazine 'Les carnets du Sergent Ginger', the same plastic as the doctor on the left above, a more common figure, but one I knew I needed, both from Steve V, who also found and gave me another of the odd Confederates (far left) we saw in the Plastic Warrior show reports back in May/June?

While to the right, a couple more of the soft, polythene plastic 'Euro-premium' versions of the ubiquitous flats we looked at again, only the other day, I can't remember why, but I'm sure there was a good reason for doing so!

A mixed group of animals, a bit disappointed by the tiger, I thought it was some modern PVC thing, and didn't realise 'till I was home, sorting them, that it's just the poxy Atlantic Circus/Christians one, home painted! A mistake of the kind we all make from time to time!

 

The Polar bear is hard polystyrene, and probably French in origin, while the dog's new, the Dino' is welcome grist to the mill and the horse - Reisler - will prove very useful at some point, indeed; I think I have a Reisler Mountie in need of a horse?

In the multi-figure picture we have two Kinder, one of the swivel-part 'super-deform' caricatures, of a cowboy and a plug-together 'Steckfigur' as the Germans call the Italian figures, he may be missing weights or dumbbells? A Corgi milkman, another of the ex-Crescent cowboys, and a better-than-average Hong Kong tractor (copy of Britains Lilliput I think), and a Legoland trailer with a few bits in.

Among the bits are a three-part seated figure who I suspect is Thunderbirds Lady Penelope, she could only be from a FAB 1 Rolls-Royce, but the Dinky and Century 21 are both in pink, and while the recent Corgi Classic is in brown, she seems to have her hands in her lap, with white gloves, so this must be from a Hong Kong knock-off . . . anyone know for sure?

I have another one somewhere, also polystyrene, where she's in a lime-green 'flapper' dress? So there are a few around, but the 'swoppet' elements of this figurine rather tickled me! And she may not be Lady P' anyway? 6th Nov - She's from the Mattel movie-related Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, where she's one of four similar figures

Bachman set of three Airfix US Infantry,

- we'll be looking at these next

 

These are interesting; the six above came-in at the show, while fortuitously, the three lots which have come in, in the last few years, happened to all be here, so below, is the six newest, one freebie from Adrian (the first I'd seen) and four I found on evilBay about a year ago.

 

Now, my initial thought when Adrian gave me the first one was probably Canadian (or American) cereal premiums, but the four off feebleBay were being sold in the UK as British cereal premiums, which in conversation someone else said that had happened, but I don't think they are on Cerealoffers, or, at least, I can't find them, and the ones on feeBay at the moment are all in Canada (and shocking prices!), as Kellogg's Canada, issued 1956/57, so for now we'll assume Canadian cereal premiums!

I'm definitely missing a goalie, and with six poses in my sample, can guess at an eight-count, pose wise? They are also found in grey plastic, and are standard polyethylene of the Airfix/Marx/MPC type. Don't they look a bit Rubenstein . . . heehee!

Seemingly based on MPC's Prehistoric animals and dinosaurs, these have hollow bodies, and while unmarked, may be Hong Kong stuff? The seller had a large stock, but only these eight poses and three colours. Despite having the whole show to pick these out, I managed to pick two damaged dino's, so I'm hoping the seller has them again in December! Premiums of some sort?

This bag was a bunch of rumage-bin finds;

 

Cherilea 60mm guards, which I think are, or were (are still a partial -) gap in the collection, I have the riflemen, but not the musicians, they're in good condition except the paint (and a broken trombone), but even the paint is better than most of the type, these days!

 

Wild West types, with several of the Kwong Wah (or similar - flatter bases) chromium-finished Lone Star Metalion clones, two Giodi for Kinder or just plain Giodi (a decade earlier) ACW; one near-complete Federal and a parts donor, from the armed insurgency! The green one looks like that Yugoslavian outfit, and there's a Paramount, bottom right.

Finally; a nice Cherilea knight, he's on a Timpo horse base, but given the fact they often turn-up like this, and given also the relationship Timpo had with them at the Sharnaware end of things, it may be meant, as also; some of those knights struggled to stay-up on the standard bases! I'll leave it like that for now and sort it out another day.

Behind him is a Tim-Mee European-factory gunner, a Starlux Alpine Troop's horn blower and a nice pair of Charbens paratroopers, I always buy the latter when I see them going cheap, as there are dozens of paint-schemes and plastic colours, with variation within schemes - as here, where the camouflage blobs are very different colours.

H is for Harvest Moon

Not the greatest shots, but I managed to get these shots of the last 'Harvest Moon' through the light-pollution of the M2/M4 corridor last night!

I don't think it was as close as it was at the beginning of the month, but we had cloud that night and the next, so I only managed a chopped moon a few nights later;

 

I drove out to a more secluded area for this one and got a better level of detail, resting on a farmer's gate! All taken with my Nikkon pocket-jobby!

C is for Contributions to Charity Coffers!

I've not been 'doing' the Charity Shops in the last few years with the same diligence I used to, not enough time/inclination, and a different life-routine means I just don't pass them like I did, but there have been a few small purchases in recent weeks/last couple of months, and this is a quick view of the resultant plunder!

 

A few bags in the Blue Cross, which I always check as that's where I got those Britains Herald ECW when I first started checking Charity Shops again after a hiatus of a few years, and the other week they had a bunch of nice bagged animals, from which I selected three (the lady in front of me in the queue had a nice bag of Dinosaurs!), to which I added a resin Hippo from the 'White Elephant' (ox-blood hippo!), or knick-knack shelves.
 

Clockwise from the top left; A bag of Britains in various states from very play-worn (tiger) to quite mint (baby hippo), then that lump of resin mud-lover, a nice group of Chinasaurs, including two gape-mouths, and a new version of my favourite childhood rubber Dimetrodon, but in a more ridged PVC-alike, than the usual silicon-rubber of the originals, but nice to know the tool is still out there and in use!

 

The last bag had a mixed lot of smaller animals, and while I'm not sure about the orange pig, the other three in that corner (green and blue) probably do go together and look like they might be modern lesser-brand or generic chocolate egg prizes. The startled lion-cub is probably Kinder?

While the larger bag was a whole bunch of MEG Kitty in my Pocket toys, which gave a whole shot each of gingers, black & white and/or or floofy types, smudgers and a more oriental looking group of greys! I have a few in with the cats, but always knew they'd turn up cheap eventually, so nice sample for pennies!

 

I was actually passing the next day and popped-in to see if there were any left, I don't like to be greedy and had only grabbed the more interesting looking bags, the day before, and found two more bags, while a couple of larger animals were procured next door!

The biggies from DEBRA UK; I can't remember now which was which, but there were a Papo, Schleiech and Triple-A among these, and I think this is a Schleich rhino and generic elephant? It'll all come out in the wash, when we look at them again in more thematic posts, another day!

 

Again I can't remember which brand the tiger was, or the elephant, but the moose is interesting, as it's Kinder, but far too big for the normal eggs, so it must be a Maxi-Egg toy? I've noticed they are gaining popularity, especially at Christmas/Easter.

The other bag was a right-old mix, with farm and zoo, branded and unbranded, for some reason the pig-shot snuck into the collage twice, so you can see what they look like, before I sort the contrast! Doh!

These - found in Phyllis Tuckwell  a few weeks ago - weren't really Charity-shop priced, but lacking only the backing card, were a clean sample and I've since seen what people want for them on evilBay, and decided they were a bargain! And the rest of the packaging went to recycling weeks ago, so the missing card - was not missed!

 

Being Disney Stores, they are more tourist oriented, lacking firm set/line lists, coming and going, not necessarily found in all territories and unbranded beyond the carrying store, who isn't a toy manufacturer. one of the other sets online - for instance - is much bigger, while some small die-cast vehicles (Luke's 'landspeeder') are in the rather bitty range!

 

They look very similar to the Applause set, so maybe there's a connection there, but they are - at least - solids, so 'toy soldiers' rather than action figures, although action figure size at about 100mm!

Finally, this pair came in a week or so ago, £1.10p for the lot, and it's for charity!

The sea-life are all equipped with pencil-topping holes, the dragon is another capsule/Christmas cracker looking type and the two Fairies are, I think, from the Flower Fairies (Interplay - IP) which we looked at in a London Toy Fair revue a few years ago, and which, again, I suspected would, if successful, end up in mixed/charity lots, so more samples procured against future thematic posts!

W is for We Do This Shit . . .

. . . so you don't have to!

You may remember when Peter Evans sent the home-making moulds by Irwin RX to the blog? Four years ago, where does it go! Anyway, having not bought a couple of the 'ovens' in charity shops because they were too expensive (I'm not paying 20-quid for a second hand novelty-toy in a broken box!), I did find a cheap one, so we can now look at them properly!

 

 

A reminder of the set Peter sent to the blog, although the 'oven' is prominent all over the box, you actually get a few plastic moulds with reminders to buy a "3D Magic Maker available separately"! Which I had previously shelfie-shot, in TKMaxx I think?

The 3D Magic Maker, it looks like an oven and while there is nothing in the instructions (or online, then (2018/19) or now), I am 100% sure it is nothing more than a couple of small ultraviolet (UV) 'tanning' lamps!

 

The gel is quite soft, think mayonnaise, and here you can see an empty cavity on the left, new 'squeeze' in the middle and smoothing the gel into the cavity on the right, I used a cocktail stick, but something like a credit-card would be better, a Plasticard offcut, something like that?

 

Once you are satisfied that the moulds are prepped as good as you can get a semitransparent gloop, into the 'oven' it goes, and after a few minutes, out come the slightly warm, soft rubber figures, as halves!

After trimming ('fettling' the 'flash') you glue the two halves together with a slip of the gel, and give them a couple more minutes under the lamps, a single base needs to be manufactured twice more, and if you're still persevering with the project, similarly glued. I think we can assume I won't be making any more.

I can see this being fun for kids between about seven and maybe eleven years of age, but the fun will be in the doing and the mess, not the finished product! The gel however, in combination with the 'oven', may have further uses for hobbyists, for scratch-building, by producing specific parts, bits or scenic items?

 

There are other ranges of UV-setting resins out there, so A) there must be other similar products and B) you could extend your available pallet and even mix shades before 'cooking'? So I may well have a go at something more 'free hand', at some later date!

 

Most of the data online pertains to 2016, so they were probably already in clearance by the time I found the one in TKMaxx, and while there are a few other moulds out there (sea life etc...), Irwin RX seem to have had a better launch/presence in the US than Europe (distributed by Boti), although Russia seems to have got them as well.

As always; many thanks to Peter for the donation of the moulds.

T is for ♫♪♪ "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines . . . " ♪♫♫

An odd one here, as reader Brian Berke sent me some images in relation to a post, a while ago, and I can't find the post, or whether I posted one of the images, since when I grabbed a few from Adrian's rummage tray, and as a result a post with 50/50 Brain's and my images!

 

Brian's group, with what I hope is a Sopwith Camel, if not it's probably a Spad? Brain was wondering if they were Johillco (John Hill & Co.), which they were, or are! And we have a pilot in leather overcoat, a rigger (in blue greatcoat) and a mechanic with a spanner, a rather large spanner, more suited to the bolts on a sub-soiling plough - I was going to say, sarcastically (having worked the bleeder, with two extension poles!), before realising that propellers and the drive-shaft behind them would probably have huge nuts - fnaar-fnaar!

Brian's above mine below, all marked COPYR for copyright, across the shoulders. The base colour is a known variant, and Joplin doesn't state it, but I suspect the green bases are earlier, the uniform-matching colour later, as a cost measure? And if you think my mechanic is looking thinner than Brian's . . . 

. . . it's because he is! If I'm right about the bases, then we can further deduce/assume, there was a re-jig/re-sculpt of the mechanic toward the end of the run? He could be a copy, of course? Those hollow-cast chaps did a lot of plagiarism! As well as a thinner head, he's looking forwards while the [earlier?] figure is looking up and to the left - toward 'his' pilot?

 

Many thanks to Brian for kicking this one off!

B is for Brenner?

Sorry, got a bit lazy after the Pirate-fest! It's always nice to add a new name to the tag-list, or sum-total of the hobby's knowledge, and to add two, unrelated lines in the same post is a bargain-bonus! Except there is a US Toy in the tag-list already

 

One of those situations where I sort of knew I knew, but couldn't remember where from. Turned-out it was an old dealer list from the 1990's which either Paul Morehead or John Begg gave me a very 'black' (no contrast whatsoever) photocopy of a copy, years ago.

 

Warrior Ants from US Toy (Brenner) is what I have, and of course, trying to Google US Toy just gets you a million US toys, same on evilBay and Etsy, so what was a patriotic company name back in the pre-internet days, is now a liability lost in a miasma of Adsense, Google-Ads, spam Ad's, hidden-Ad's. pop-up's and all the other marketing shite which has been tacked-on-to/embedded-in the Internet in the last 15-years!

 

However, they are still going and have a lot of novelty/party/rack toy stuff, including some of the figures featured in Plastic Warrior magazine (courtesy of Les White in the magazine, Brian Berke, here, the tag mentioned above - firefighters), a few years ago, but not, sadly, either of these sets, I don't know the significance of the Brenner in brackets, as annotated in the old dealer list, but will add it as a seperate tag?

Aren't they brilliant, probably taking-off the insect movies of the 1990's; such as Bugs Life  and Antz (both 1998, which may help date them) rather than the earlier Hasbro/GiG franchise Army Ants/Kombatini, there is also something of the Trigan Empire about their Greco-Roman get-up, but I accept it's a tenuous link, verging more on wishful thinking!

 

As is often the case, Shaun at Fantasy Toy Soldiers is the only other source of info' on them and he has had them as unknown, for some time, which I've just been over and solved, but a larger sample, with a better selection of colours.

 

Also credited to US Toy (Brenner) is this set of anything but grey 'Grey Aliens', in a palate of lovely metallic shades. A bit bigger that the Warrior Ants at around 54mm vs. 45mm, and both sets are supposed to have eight poses for a full set, ants in four pastel shades (I have no green ones, yet!) and hopefully each of the aliens available in all six of these shades?

 

Seen elsewhere only the other day, a quick alien comparison with, on the left an unknown 65mm, glow-in-the-dark figure (I may have a note on them somewhere?), the silver chap is a pencil-top, we saw the next two here (Soma on the left, Imperial on the right), then the US Toy (Brenner) and finally a counter-top/point-of-sale type, pick-tray/carton novelty, 45mm alien of unknown brand'age!

M is for Matters Arising!

Well, I've pulled the last big post, which happens to be one of the posts pulled last year! The other was the Premium Pirates, so very convenient that Kent moved first! I'm not pulling it because I've run out of time or got flue, but because I couldn't be arsed to finish it off this afternoon, went and did other things and am now looking forward to a late chicken stew which will take 'till midnight (needs deboning), if I get this out quick!

And what this is, are a few shots I took as a sort of follow-up a couple of hours ago while I was round at the flat getting the tins of chicken soup and mushrooms for the base of the stew!

 

The yellow one here is the Webb's Supertoy pirate one, but I've had several of the pink ones from Peter Evans, and while I suspect something more 'princessy', the figure makes a good period C18th lady-pirate, or pirate's moll, and an ID would be nice, the embarrassment may be that she's on the blog in one of those pinky-mauve sets from 99p Stores or Poundland around ten-years ago! Anyone recognise these pink ladies?

Having waited years, over a decade to get a full set of these (finally managed a year or so ago), five came along at once - the Supreme / SP undead pirates!

 

I mentioned the likely compatibility, and you can see here the eight Crazy Pirates from New Zealand and Aussie-landia (there was a Peruvian issue too), do fit in well with the other set of twenty, so even more fun, pity nobody knew that in 1970! Many thanks to Glen again for those.

 

Comparison between the PVC-alike production of Papo (50mm), Plastoy (45mm) and the Pirateology game-piece figure (40mm), all a bit 'ish, but all out there now, and relatively affordable!

 

This (Supreme for Halsall - now HTI) should have been covered in the ITLAPD into' post last year or the year before, but a loose boat came in, and I had the spare figure here, so posed them both together!

 

And that's it for this year, much gratitude to everyone who's helped and/or contributed; Brian Berke, Peter Evans, Glen Sibbald, Chris Smith, John Begg, Jon Attwood, and you, if I've failed to mention you . . . no, not YOU, you ate all the biscuits and wandered off, I'm not even inviting you next year.

Ah'haaarrrrr mee arrty felloows! Until next yearrr, may the wind get behind yerrr sails and yerrr mast stay up! Ooo-urrh missus!