F is for Festive Figural Fur-Baubles

Yes, I know we've had the Bears, because they are every year, we've had the Nutcrackers, because they've become every year, and the Hedgepigs because they are getting annual, not forgetting the Astronauts, newest theme, but with two new sculpts; also becoming regular now, but I did pick up a few other figural baubles this year, more than I probably should have, but there always seems to be more room on the tree . . . it's a question of putting the largest on first, and the smallest last, after the dangly ones!

 

This actually breaks a couple of the self-imposed rules, as far as baubles go with me, specifically, the slightly anthropomorphic adoption of a Christmas jumper, and the appliqué pom-pom headdress, however, it was the first one I saw (in the big Marks & Spark's down at the Meadows, Camberley), and not knowing what else I might find, by the end of the season, I bought it, and it's grown on me, so will stay, in fact it looks very smart, but . . . M&S!

 

Not least because it revealed a trend in the sales/marketing of baubles this year, and - as a result - gave rise to a new theme, which already has four members - Big Cats! It's probably supposed to be a Leopard, but as we will see in a minute, I'm calling it the Cheetah, because of the more moggie-like face!

I then found these in a Charity Shop, i Farnborough, I think? I bought the deer when I first found them, but went back for the other two, as the tree also has a bird theme, and I thought the oak-leaf would be a nice foil to all the pine-cones. They were modern generics with no makers marks or consumer information on their individual boxes, and you wonder what sad tale led to them being 'discarded'?

Speaking of cones, these both came while the hedgehogs and spacemen were being procured, and I can't remember where either was found, but probably both garden centres? The cones are legion, and we may look at them all one day, as there are ancient and modern, and meany designs, while the gingerbread man is a departure for the tree, but he'll be at home with the snowmen and Santa's.

I got this the day I rejected the 'Starman', from the garden centre near Woking, it's another Gisela Graham, and they also had spotted ones, but using the same Tiger moulding, which was daft as the stripes are sculpted-in - lazy marketing! So I left them on the peg, thinking this would be a better foil for the Cheetah!

Then this came in while I was having a frantic, last-minute two-day search for the star-holder astronaut (whose location, I had forgotten!), and a couple of duplicates to send to a friend, it was a TKMaxx, late stock addition, and will have to be a Leopard, even if it's meant to be a Cheetah, because . . . see above!

And it came in this set, branded to a Rachel Zoe with a Lion, so we went from no Big Cats, to four, in one season! But the Lion and Zebra are very pink, more than the photo's suggest, so they will be going to the little white 'gay tree', with all the other pinks.

 

Leaving the Elephant, who's almost as round as a conventional bauble! I'm not desperately enamoured of him, he's a bit too cartoony, but he has a right to live, and is a bit of fun! All the above are traditional blown-class ornaments.

M is for More . . . stone!

We've seen this before, or another example, but it's one of those thing I always admire when it turns up, if only for its faint daftness, but also because it carries the same clown 'design' that the Frazier & Glass sets of Crazy Clowns also feature, a point I'm mused on before.

Nobody's peddling, or able to, and trusting a dog (replacement casting) to do the steering, seems the height of faith over stupidity! Die-cast mazac/zamak and not in scale with any of their other lines, it would have been sold purly as a novelty, aimed, I don't doubt, at this time of year.

H is for Happy Christmas!

Welp, that all got a bit frantic in the last three days, but at least we were given today off, to start the recovery (before the four-day onslaught which is getting the booze out for New Year's), unlike another company's drivers who seem to have been out, delivering, today! Anywhoo; I was getting back too late and too knackered to post anything, and now, here we are, the 'big day'! It's gotta' be the Nutcrackers!

 

Earlier in the Month, or even late November, I can't think that hard right now, Brian Berke indicated he'd not seen many, and wasn't that enamoured of what he had seen, and I rather agreed with him. This post, the 'nutcracker round up' became a regular rather by accident . . . they are figural, they appeared to be having a comeback (in the UK at least) a few years ago, several quirky aspects had turned-up at around the same time, as had the life-size quiz-trail in Fleet, and with Brian's help and the odd news clipping, we had a regular seasonal theme!

 

But, let's be honest, they are very German/Eastern European, by tradition, and have only been marketed worldwide, in vast quantities, in recent years, to take our money for things made cheaply in China! And, frankly, the gloss has come off them; for every interesting or quirky one, there are four shelf-meters of generic, formulaic wood/resin/fibreglass or plastic shite in every store, which stocks them, for most of November and December!

 

However, I guess they will continue to pop-up at this time of year, not least than because they are in the Tags, which might as well be added to occasionally! So, bowing to the inevitable, here's six images, for this year!

Brian sent this chap with the thought that he looked like he was wearing a 'Demob Suit', which (for loyal foreign readers) was the complete set of civilian clothing, the short-service and conscripted soldiers of our 'Citizen Army' were given, upon demobilisation, in the late 1940's, so they would have something smart ('ish) to attend job interviews (or the labour exchange), go home in, or meet landlords &etc!

 

I replied that he looked to me like an Italian card-shark! The sort you might find on a Mississippi paddle-steamer, calling himself a count, without any genealogical right to do so!

 

Brian also sent both the above as an example of the "nah-yeah-NAH!" end of the market! About 20-inches high, and looking like they are about to do a dance-number for Sister Sledge on Top of the Pops, they are really pretty hideous, still, I can see the wife of the President-elect populating the White House with them, if she doesn't join Putin's ex' in Kaliningrad! We haven't seen or heard much from her, have we!

 

I did add two to the stash, the one on the left is a more traditional wooden one, in the vaguely 'smallest' common size, if that makes sense? And I have a few now, so they may get to make a mantelpiece line-up in future years, while the other is [whispers - another naff gold one!] a smaller sized (roughly 70mm), poured-resin, tree decoration, who will go in the 'miscellaneous ceremonial' section of the stash.

 

I shelfied these in TKMaxx's little brother, Home Bargains, and they illustrate the way the money-men target everyone, on the far right we have a traditional red, blue and green set, to their left is a set which is more 'chintzy', even to looking a bit Highland, despite the lack of actual tartan patterns, while on the other end, we have a wood-look or 'gingerbread' style, and a 'Christmassy' red and white!

 

While this plaster one appeared the other day, as a lone survivor from Christmases past, in a couple of boxes of oddments which the staff put-out in The Range, as they were starting to clear-off this year's decorations, last weekend. This is the quirky-fun end of the oeuvre, and joins all the other Paint-Your-Own stuff, on that Tag!

 

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And, yeah, a Happy Christmas to all Loyal (and not-so-loyal) Readers, all contributors, commenters and the more hidden supporters (they know who they are!), I would, back in the day say 'May we never have a worse one', which would cause some to pause for a second while they worked it out, but the simple fact is they have been getting steadily worse since 2020, and in twelve days, all hell might break out! So, have the best Christmas you can, given your circumstances, and pay heed to those close to you, while they still are.

T is for Thunderbirds are Tiny!

And need glue! Continuing the British Sci-Fi theme of the last few posts; I bought this Imai model-kit of the Thunderbird pilots, at the last Sandown Park toy show, it was going for a song, and while the figures will probably stay on the runners, I have every intention of making up the five micro-Thunderbirds in the nearish future!

From the Amerang sticker it looks to have some age now, but is still what I consider a modern kit, dating from 1992, however, it's a bit of fun and will add to the growing micro-Thunderbird fleet!

 

It's also interesting to be reminded of how the Anderson's gave the lads very American-styled hats (think American veterans or 1960's fast-food/restaurant staff), to appeal to the overseas market for TV rights licensing.

 

Five (or ten!) mini-kits in one box, each a separately-bagged, sub-kit of two models; a Tracy brother figurine and the relevant piloted mini-Thunderbird is in three colours, blue, flesh and the dominant colour of the pilot-specific Thunderbird, with some parts of each vessel on the other two runners. It's a bit of fun!

F is for Future-Past Freight Fleet

Once you have your Space/Airfield, you will need a train, because - as I'm sure we all know - in the future-retro-past of the 1950's, most industrial or commercial hubs of any size had a railway service and/or sidings, before the fall of Dr. Beeching's axe, even funny little places like Tongham, near Aldershot used to have a loading dock and sidings, so it was no surprise that in discussing the transfers Brian had on his Convertiplane (previous post), a liveried Spacefleet railway was revealed!

Shades of Triang's Battlespace, but in a clean 'NASA' aesthetic, and bedecked with the Spacefleet logo, with slightly 1984/Big Brother'esque 'wanted posters' of the Mekon on the wagon ends - know your enemy! Again in his own words and first answering my question about the transfers, here's Brian;

 

"The decals are homemade. The art was scanned from one of the Dan Dare reprint books and lazer printed onto decal film. A while ago, I created a freight train of Spacefleet vans and containers using the same decals . . . Dapol has a small range of undecorated rolling stock. When I found out, I couldn't resist."

 

And while I will often crop/edit images from contributors, even Brian's, I've left these at the full, standard 4x3, as the backgrounds are so interesting and full of stuff, mostly a whole London Bus depot! Which we've seen shots of before, here, with rampaging dinosaurs, I think!

 

Thanking Brian for the above, I thought the army in the background of the Helicar landing platform was well-set, in the same future-past, with late war Cromwell's and Quad's, supporting post-war Saracen's and Saladin's! There's even a matador there, and they soldiered-on for many years, ending up as local garage (service station) wreaker/tow-truck or yard crane conversions, well into my childhood.

 

The cars, which I was equally taken with, Brian explained are the Hot Wheels Dream Mobile, which is a recreation of an earlier 1950's Mattel toy; the Dream Car, a 'space age' or concept car. There's a kingfisher-blue one which might have my name on it, in the near future . . . past?

S is for Spacefleet's Spiffing Speedplane!

I'd forgotten asking Brian Berke for pictures of one of his future projects, once it was completed, and the other day, he sent me these! A Spacefleet marked McDonnell XV-1 Convertiplane to rush Dan Dare from his still warm rocket, back to Headquarters with some devastating report on the nefarious doings of the Mekon and his minions!

 

 Brian's cover-notes; "Here is the McDonnell XV-1 Convertiplane. I built the Kleeware version back in the 50's. I saw the actual aircraft in the Smithsonian reserve collection back in the 90's. A few years ago some Frank Hampson reference sketches for Dan Dare turned up referring to the craft. Here's my Spacefleet rendition."

 

It really looks the part, and got me thinking that a couple of Fairy Rotodynes and a Bristol Beverly in equal markings would produce a fine Spacefleet Air/Space Port, with a few Helicar's and Helijets rushing about! Perhaps a line of Bell X1's in the background . . . the future we never got! And the cockpit/body looks like the Edgley Optica which was doing well until one crashed, crossed with a Gazelle!

This version is (was?) produced by Glenco Models, who have managed to reissue some pretty rare birds over the last three decades or so, and not just 'birds', although it doesn't seem to be in their current kit line-up, so you may have to shop-around for it?

 

Aircraft history at Wikipedia -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XV-1

 

Frank Hampson - https://frankhampsonartwork.co.uk/

 

Also, it's amazing how futuristic some of these 1950's & 60's designs actually still are, a weird kind of future-retro-past! And many thanks to Brian for sending these.

P is for Prehistoric Party Packs

Right, I'm two days behind, not that there's ever much of a plan here, but this should have posted later the same day as the previous post, with Dan Dare returning by now (hopefully tomorrow/later today), but I realised I hadn't shot the contents of one and had forgotten the origin of the other, so among other rushing around's in the last two days, I tried to track-down/tick-off those queries with little luck (I bought a duplicate of the one I have shot properly!), so I'll chuck the images I do have, here, first, and tie them together with a bit of blurb at the end!

The set with the blue ones, which I found second, was from/is from The Range, while the other set were from Home Bargains (the budget end of the TKMaxx empire), The Range still have them on display, the HB ones have disappeared, whether because they've taken them off for the Christmas season (the party bits seemed denuded) or because they've sold out (they are perfect Christmas stocking fayre) I don't know, but worth checking your local store/s, if you're taken by them.

 

The really noteworthy thing about them is that after years of the tired old Tim-Mee, MPC or Marx knock-off mini's which we have seen here before, that have been the staple of Hobbycraft and the party shops for years now, these are two sets of new, realistic, well sculpted and cut models, in the same bright colours and small sizes as those older ones.

And I use size because scale is a moot point at this size, and with the varying final size of the different species, these are all juveniles or babies in 1:76th, but artistic licence is allowed when you bring this stuff together!

The sealed set (Home Bargains) has eight different, slightly larger models, in a harder polyethylene, paired in four colours, while the other set, also four colours has only seven sculpts, which are more randomly packed (in both colours and pose numbers) as tens, of a modern, softish, PVC-replacement polymer.

P is for Prehistoric Paint-Your-Own

Checking the 'Paint Your Own' Tab, I see we have seen quite a few PYO dinosaurs over the years, and none of them seem to be the same, although I'm sure many of them get more commercial, decorated issues too . . . a comparison job for another day! In the last few weeks I've encountered two new lots, and bought one sample, so here's a quick report.

 

I'm pretty sure I shot this set in Smyths, as part of their small early-learning/craft section as you enter, four reasonable sculpts and six paints including all three primaries, only a fiver here, and Google says they can be found in Giant Tiger and Walmart over the pond.

 

These were in The Range, where we've seen PYO dino's before, but these are new sculpts (or new packaging?) and there were three sculpts, different from the previous pair. A T-Rex and Dippy/Bronty type were left on the shelf, but I got the third . . .

 

 . . . a Kentrosaurus or Chungkingosaurus, I think? It's not stipulated!

One of the new style of two-halves, glued together in the factory, soft polyethylene hybrid PVC replacement polymers, it's a lot of dinosaur for a pound-fifty, reasonably well-detailed/sculpted, and while a bit big for a Christmas-stocking, would fill a small hole under the tree!

Paints are a rather more specific set of pre-mixed shades heading toward the kingfisher school of decoration! But the brush is actually quite good, with a well-formed soft-bristle head, although the shaft is cheapo-styrene.

C is for Colouring In!

Mentioning - as I did earlier - circa-1975 colouring books, this is dated 2024!

 

Note the rockets! I popped into McDonald's back in the spring, and found a bunch of these left on one of the tables, presumably some kid's party had been and gone, anyway, the girl cleaning the floor said I could have one if I wanted, so I did!

 

In my dotage I may even have a crack at it, but with proper pencils rather than the supplied set of four wax-crayons, (ham-fisted, for the use of), which bear a remarkable resemblance to those seen from Henbrandt in a previous post here at Small Scale World.

F is for Follow-up - Starmen and Sticklepins

So, I went back for the third spaceman bauble, and have picked up a couple more hedgepigs in the last week or so, I think when I finally get the tree up again it will promptly collapse under the weight of its decorative load!

The new one is in the middle, giving a decent idea of the size difference between them, plastic on the left (fourth colourway now) and two blown-glass traditional.

 

He's a Gisela Graham, so should be available in most of the larger garden centres, mine came from the Edwins in Woking, on the Guildford road. Gisela Graham are also responsible for the rocket, which I rejected earlier in the season, and rather regret getting now, so it's probably going to charity, for next year.

 

Wrapped in the moment, and rushing about, I didn't see or remember from the previous viewing, that the jewels are glued-on appliquéing, as are the resin fins, which aren't even straight, and have poor glitter flocking, so all a bit cheap and tacky, but it's there, if it presses your buttons! The body is blow-glass, and it's sort of half Wallace & Gromit, half Tin-Tin and all kids colouring book, circa 1975!

 

I've also given home to three more hedgehogs! And my maths was out in the previous post, I had eight, and added four, now here's another three, making fifteen, or five per turn, six or seven on view at any given moment - we turn the tree regularly so it never gets boring! With an albino (from Alderney!) on the left!