T is for Two - Cheapie Chinasaurs

Two recent purchases, both at the bottom-end of anyone's budget, but fun nevertheless and out there to be found!

On the left a set of Chinasaurs imported by Toys Mart of Southall, shipped by Yingxin Toys and apparently manufactured by Wangshu; how much of that is 'phantom' is open to further exploration I simply can't be arsed with, but the latter-pair are sharing an address!

On the right the 'World Animal Collection' or 'Museum Piece' phantom-branded gape-mouthed Chinasaurs imported by CJL Ltd., of Essex, which are actually from Toy Major's catalogue and dated 2009.

Both lots from the other sides, the Wangshu's aren't annotated so you'll have to christen them yourselves, some are obvious, some less so, but they are more realistic than the Toy Major's who are clearly gasping their last at the end of the great mass-extinction, or singing the anthem of the Valkyrie from Wagner's Ring cycle, it's not clear!

The Toy Major sculpts are marked with a full set of consumer information, among which the following can be ascertained;

Toy Major 2009

Set 111-P4

A - Dimetrodon

B - Tyrannosaurus

C - Dilophosaurus

D - Stegosaurus

Set 111-P5

E - Triceratops

F - Spinosaurus

G - Ankylosaurus

H - Styracosaurus

The Wangshu animals are made of two thin-halves (much thinner than say - the halves of an aircraft kit), probably a polyethylene but it could be something with higher properties like a propylene polymer? And, while they all needed pressing together properly when they first came out of the pack, they do look very good for cheapies when done, and it's all friction, no glue. They have the same hollow leg-insides as those farm sets we saw back in a Rack Toy Month.

Why they are called gape-mouthed Chinasaurs!

The Wangshu can almost be paired-up; by colour or type, the odd 'ones' out being the skinny green one and the triceratops, but otherwise there are pairs of kerthunkersaurs, meat-eaters, para-fersopholophdopolus . . . 'duck-horns' and the sauropods? . . . 'Big-veggies' - a sub-scale; as always!

The two sets between them give up a trio of kerthunkersaurs and three 'ceratopsians, and all make up what I consider the medium size-bracket of Chinasaurs, paint's basic on both sets (price-bracket!), and I think the Toy Major's are taken from older tools than the 2009 now etched in their tummies.

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis; Later This Week

The blurbs were in on all four sales yesterday, but I was running out of time - as always! - so here are the other three, the first (Thursday 29th - actually the second day of the four-day cycle) also contains the stuff covered in this post from the former Palitoy worker's archive/collection.

Lot no. 5027

"The TV and Film Related sale to be held on the 29th of January features Part 4 of The North West Autographed Memorabilia Collection, which includes autographs on displays, photographs, books and leaflets from stars such as Peaky Blinders actors, David Bowie, Elton John, Heath Ledger, Paul McCartney and many more. Further items in the sale include Action Man figures, outfits and accessories, Batman, Thundercats, Masters of The Universe and Gyper Man Accessory sets. Plus, Mark Gonzales Communion Priests, Iron Man Collectable figures, Star Wars figures, vehicles and accessories plus My Little Pony, Dr Who and Transformers. Additional items include comics, books and DVD's plus a unique ex-Palitoy employee history."

Lot 5056

"The Specialist Matchbox sale to be held on the 30th of January features a large selection of Regular Wheel and Superfast models. Lots include boxed and unboxed, single and group models, including road and racing cars, commercials, military, emergency vehicles, and Gift sets plus Accessory Packs, Superfast Racing sets, display stands, Disney series, promotional models, blister packs and many harder to find models. Further items include Major Packs, King Size, Super King, and Battle King. There are a number of model makers' resin pre-production prototypes, plus shop signs, display cards and ephemera including clothing, and collectors' catalogues."

Lot 7012

"The Matchbox Models of Yesteryear sale to be held on the 31st of January features predominantly boxed cars and commercials mixed groups, with many collectibles series, Fire Engine Series, Factory trade boxes, Holden Utility models and trial models, Lesney giftware range, reference books and catalogues. Further items in the sale include Matchbox the Dinky Collection, Matchbox "The Perfect Toy" Models; Code 2 and 3 groups, pre-production and colour trial models and chassis', plus Atlas Editions Dinky Toys boxed groups, Eagle Moss Opal Collections and others."

H is for How They Come In

Another box from Peter Evans, which he kindly brought to the recent show in London for me, and even more kindly; reported that some of the figures are from his late mother's 'cabinet of curious things'.

We'll look at them all in a minute but I'll just draw your attention to the Panda on a park bench as I rather cut his head-off without noticing in the second image - nothing lasting, just poor photography!

He's sitting on a park bench and reading a copy of the China Daily! Whether he represents the detent following Nixon's visit or one of the many baby-panda exchanges of my childhood, each of which, single or pair, used to generate more headlines and column-inches that Trump and the Windsor's do now, put together!

Equally he could be an early Beijing tourist souvenir, his China Daily has very Chinese stories?

If we work snail-round, anti-clockwise from the panda (you can see what I did there!) we have 'enry from Westair in a 70mm poured-resin with factory paint, another micro-racing car (we've seena  rather chewed pale-blue one in polyethylene, this one's styrene; cracker's the pair, I suspect) and a police-bear with Harrods on his tunic!

A safari bust from the Egyptian toob, two 'winterval' cake-decorations either side of St. Francesca Romana the patron saint of drivers, who has a dash-board sucker (starting to perish with age but still usable), and might be made of casein under the paint? Below the Iwako eraser (sample from Toy Fair 2020 in the wrong shot!) is a small vinyl, probably from a safari set or Jurassic Park knock-off in Matchbox 1-75, Majorette or Hot Wheel size?

A small carousel/roundabout from a funfair as a bracelet charm, a probably-Kinder penguin and then two characters from the Wind in the Willows. I think they are from one of those board games I keep bookmarking and doing nothing about, like that Dougle game, Chris sent some-of the other day! Anyway, there is probably a Mole and Badger to find?

Snow White and the six dwarves! . . . in terracotta; she seems to be a new'ish sculpt (with a very porcine face), but I think the little fella's are cast from Marx's Disnykins and I will track down the seventh . . . some day! One of my great regrets [now] was selling a set of all eight in Japanese blow-moulded celluloid, but they went to a good home and I didn't collect that scale at the time . . . hey-ho!

Three cartoonish Buddha-types, clearly enjoying life, in antiqued 'ivory' plastic take us back to the top where we find a rural or farm-couple spinning wool, a memento from Junin, Peru, they are constructed in the same way as the teeny-tiny worry-dolls, but much larger and obviously another touristy thing.

Finally another, new Phidal busy-book character; I have ceased to be amazed at the number of these, I'm pretty sure he's not a duplicate and I saw another (new) one on the Toy Project's stall the other day, so heaven knows how many sets there have been now? He's (Iron Man) standing over two of the 40mm Papo-Mini sea-monster/pirates in the centre.

Another fine sample of eclectic stuff, mixed toys and novelties, tourist souvenir figures, trinkets and mementoes in fabric, metal, various plastics and terracotta to filter into the pile, with some definitely destined for a return under one theme or another and as always; many thanks to Peter.

J is for Jolly Jeep

Picked this up on Friday in the local independent toy shop, it used to be called Fleet Toys when I was a kid (at one point they had three shops within sight of each other; FT, Fleet Cycles and Fleet Models!), but I think it's now part of the co-operative buying group known as Toymaster? Anyway, it could have gone in next Friday's H is for..., but as it was a retail purchase, it should have a post of its own!

This is it, they had about four of them, no counter-box, no packaging, around 1:32nd scale/54mm figure-compatible and looking quite Cararama-like (but they were mostly 1:43 or HO, made in China by Hongwell) in the manufacturing quality. Separate tyres and a tampo-printed plastic windscreen which doesn't fold down.

The small load-area is filled with two ammunition crates to hide the screw-fix construction, which is driven through from the other side.

It's actually made by another of China's prolific contractors; Welly, also overprinted to Peterkin (who we last saw on the blog, hiding-out at TKMaxx) and you can see the method of fixing the wheels is a bit odd, I guess it reduced the material used in a hidden section?

A couple of bonnet-numbers from the spares-box would help, and you may have noticed mine has caught the printing pad on the edge of the bonnet (hood), so could do with a bit of weathering to hide the damage!

V is for Empire Forces . . . or . . .

. . . is Empire Forces for V (is for Victory)? We just don't know, and if Adrian Little hadn't recued them for some mixed auction lot, we'd know even less! New to hobby, new to Blog and probably new to Internet, I don't think they are mentioned in the works of Garratt, Harris, Joplin or Opie, but we can at least look at them here, now;

The full-colour box-art holds some clues to dating the set with uniforms more colonial than modern-war, a tank from the 1920/30's and a paratrooper who looks more Soviet or German than British, both those nations (along with Italy) having done the early-work on parachute troops?

One of the figures seems to be a French colonial, but may be intended to represent our Indian forces in their 'best kit' . . . Delhi Durbar? The feeling is it's a war-time set, produced after the material rationing had been introduced, but before the Army had modernised to D-Day fitness, like most of these pumice sets?

Two sets have turned-up; No 125 Machine-Gunner Set and an unknown-numbered 'Paratrooper'. The inset holding-card is the same for both sets as are the contents save for either four prone Vickers' gunners or four parachutists in the same cavities.

Again, the paratroopers look more Soviet than anything else, even to the sub-machine-gun, while the tank is trying to be a mid-war, lend-lease Grant; sans hull-gun in sponson, while they all have the look of US dime-store figures.

If I had to choose a date I'd say 1942? Thanks to Adrian at Mercator Trading for letting me shoot these; the lighting was poor, so they've been worked a bit in Picasa to get the colours back.

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis Tomorrow

A quick press-release from Vectis on tomorrow's auction, the first day of a four day'er!

Lot 4005

"The Doll and Teddy Bear sale to be held on the 28th of January features predominantly Charlie Bears, and mainly from the Isabelle collection, there are also Mouseketeers, Scarecrow Teddy bears, Christmas stockings, prints and catalogues and Minimo Collection. Other bears include Pedigree, Merrythought, Chiltern, Artist Bears, Steiff and Kosen. There are also a number of Dolls in the sale; Vinyl dolls including Blythe, Strawberry Shortcake, Tiny Tears, and Teenage fashion dolls including Barbie and Sindy; plus composition, bisque and artists dolls. Further items in this sale include collections of gifts, ornaments, jewellery, gothic ornaments, pottery, annuals and books, plus much more. "

News, Views Etc . . . Paratrooper Page

The third part has been held-over as I ended-up with a load of stuff to add to the second part, which was uploaded the other day, so I've just added to that as an early update.

Kicked-off by some images from Brian, I added a few screen-caps of current offers and shots from the recent Toy Fair 2020 in London.

H is for Happy New Year . . . You Rats!

Courtesy of the free sample I received from Jonathon's, the designers/importers of Mojo animals into the UK (and Europe?) from China . . .

. . . here's wishing all the Blog's Chinese (do we have any?), Asian or Cinophile readers a Happy New Year of the Rat!

It's their standard rat - normally in white (lab-rat!), but now painted gold for the New Year and given a key-chain, so you can carry your 'luck' with you all year!

T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - D is for Dongles

Quick 'Stadswatch'

Untrained ventriloquist? Hahahahahaha . . . Priceless!!!! I was a [trained] machine-gunner once, do I get extra points for that? He's so far up his own arse he probably needs to be a ventriloquist just to communicate with anyone! Still he is posting more, better stuff now, so we're wining . . . a slow battle, not that his bursts of improvement ever last - too much effort!

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One of the changes over recent Toy Fair's compared to those I attended in the past has been the slow and steady uptake and application of IT to the whole business, most obvious this year with several big names not even bothering with catalogues, although I think that's short-sighted, as it is a tangible link with customers, helping maintain brand recognition because it's 'free' advertising which hangs around in the consumers own environment?

However, the biggest change I noticed between the twenty-tens and the twenty-teens was the provision of dongles (data-sticks, flash-drives, pen-drives, USB-drives, key-sticks &etc . . . yadayada!) with the press releases for both companies and the Toy Fair organisers - BTHA (British Toy & Hobby Association).

There were only three in 2018 (but I was late getting there!), while last year there was a shed-load (small, Playmobile shed maybe!), of which the best were the 8GB Pinstripe's from Verbatim of which I ended-up with two (black ones, bottom right), put straight to more useful work holding bits of the 'archive'!

They were given away by the Green Board Game Co., who weren’t there this year, and I wonder if their use of such large dongles had anything to do with any subsequent cost-cutting? Most use a half-gig' (512MB) or at most a 2GB drive.

I also thought the credit-card one from Mind Power in '18 was rather clever.

last year there were two uncommon designs which seemed specific to the companies, of which the Jumbo elephant was the best, although you can't use it on a multi-bus but why would you, I geep them as back-ups after copying everything to the archive dongles anyway.

This year there were less than last, and one (Gibson's) didn't happen, while another (Hornby) had to be asked for on their stand? University Games, an established US firm seem to have taken-over or merged with Paul Lamond, although both brands were on the stand, the corporate stuff was all UG, not that it affects figure collectors much, there are a few games from both with figures, and they carry the new Subbuteo.

Really, these dongles are minor curiosities as they contain little for the Blog, however they usually have an image folder with both this year's releases and some corporate or sub-brand logo stuff which will be useful on the A-Z pages in time, and who's to refuse a freebee, especially very small ones which take up little space and can be used for other stuff after formatting!

Already mentioned in the early (not dragged-out for six-months!) overview, the most interesting one this year was an ecologically-woke one, it's not to say you can dump it in the ocean, or any part of the environment, as there are still polymers in the actual drive part, but it has a much-smaller 'footprint' than the others!

And the accompanying press-pack is a throw-back to 1950's bureaucracy as well, with its card-disc/string-tie system, but we'll all be seeing more of this in the next decade, plastic has to be minimised and - indeed - limited to essential uses, while re-usability/longevity needs to be built-in to more 'stuff' . . . in the meantime; hats-off to the Paper Engine - practicing what they preach!

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events; Saturday 25th-Friday 31st January 2020

Well? What a week, still too much going on to single one thing out; Boris has told his ministers they must come up with brilliant ideas for post-Brwreakshit Britain or get sacked, which would suggest he/they don't have any good ideas for what they've spent nearly four years pushing through? Starting to panic? All political careers end in failure!

The Home Secretary had a brilliant idea almost immediately; we wouldn't match EU regulations after all. Jaguar/Land-Rover announced lay-offs, one of the biggest banking groups stated it would send half its team to the Paris office and the Pound fell . . . some more, the Home Sec' then did a U-turn and said maybe we'd follow some rules after-all and the Pound rallied . . . a bit!

Meanwhile, the PM (our very-own impossible-haired, almost-orange loon) told some African leaders we'd take more of their people, now we've fucked-off all the Europeans, and stopped the 'Easties' coming here to work . . . after all, we still need nurses and plumbers, and apparently the building-sector is about to run-out of ground workers (what they used to call labourers!)

Now, loyal readers; I don't know about you, whether Brwreakshiteer or more inclined to my position, but I recon people who voted Brwreakshit in the first place, and then voted for more Tories are less likely to tolerate more Nigerians or Ghanaians than they are to welcome Poles or Hungarians . . . we are talking about our own racist underclass here! So good-old Boris is building-up a whole heap of trouble for himself, methinks!

Meanwhile over in Davos, the end of the world was rubber-stamped by Trump, then they all went off to Israel to commemorate the holocaust while ignoring the Rohingya and Uighur and the endless killings of Amerindian ecologists and activists - they got the protector of the Monarch butterflies this week, god-damn their fascist eyes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/disappearance-of-mexican-monarch-butterfly-advocate-in-alarms-rights-activists/2020/01/21/1ebecc68-3c5c-11ea-afe2-090eb37b60b1_story.html

And with Lincoln Brower already gone at the other 'end' of the migration . . . 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/lincoln-p-brower-scientist-and-protector-of-the-monarch-butterfly-dies-at-86/2018/07/21/aedcbdd8-8cf8-11e8-85ae-511bc1146b0b_story.html

 . . . that's the Monarch heading the way of the Dodo, thanks Trump!

Still . . . there's a mountain of old toys still to be found!

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 25th January 2020

Bristol (North) - Chris Dyer Fairs

BAWA Health & Leisure Centre, 589 Southmead Road, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG
Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk
Tel. - 01643 702 757
Mob. - 07966 694 579

10:30 - 15:00

Admission £2.00

Windsor - Maidenhead Static Model Club - 51st International Toy & Train Fair

Windsor Leisure Centre, Clewer mead, Stovell Road, Windsor, berkshire, SL4 5JB

Web. - wwwwindsortoyfair.co.uk

Mob. - 07825 564 960

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £3, concessions £2.50p, early bird (from 09:00hrs) £7, last hour free.

Refreshments

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Sunday 26th January 2020

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

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

Haydock Park - Barry Stockton Fairs

The Exhibition Centre, Haydock Park Racecourse, WA12 0HQ

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

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

The Exhibition Centre, Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN2 2NA

Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com

eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com

Tel. - 01522 880 383

10:00 - 14:30hrs Approximately

Admission £2.50p, seniors £2, 1st child £1.50p

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

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Auctions

Sunday 25 January 2020

Elstree - Excalibur Auctions (day 2 of a 2-day auction, day 1: yesterday)

The Village Hotel, Elstree, Hertfordshire, WD6 3SB (venue)

Chiltern Business Centre, Woodside Road, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP6 6AA (office)

Web. - www.excaliburauctions.com

eMail - enquiries@excaliburauctions.com

Tel. - 02036 330 913

Free Tea or Coffee

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Tuesday-- 28th-Friday 31st January 2020

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (4-day sale)

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

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Sales commence at 10:30hrs

Tue. - Dolls, bears, soft toys &etc.

Wed. - TV and movie memorabilia, licensed & related toys' sale

Thurs. - Specialist Matchbox die-cast sale

Fri. - Specialist Matchbox Models of Yesteryear (MoY) die-cast sale

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Other Events

Saturday 25th-Sunday 26th January 2020

Leeds - Royal Armouries - Fantasy Heroes

Royal Armouries, Leeds Dock, Leeds

Web. - www.royalarmouries.org

Activities/Characters

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Overseas Events

Wednewday 29th January - Sunday 2nd February 2020

Nuremburg (Germany) - Spielwarenmesse eG - Toy Fair '70 Years'

Nuremburg Exhibition Centre, Nuremburg, Germany

web. - www.spielwarenmesse.de

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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 a link; if the event or your organisation has a web-page.

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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Stadswatch - A Song!

♫♯♪♪♫ . . .  

I was forty-posts, he was nine

January running out of time

A dealer, not collector be

He thought he'd have a pop at me

Bang bang. He shot me down

Bang bang. I hit the ground (or; fell-to-floor-with-laughing-and-x-all-else)

Bang bang. That awful hound

Bang bang. My 'rival'* shot me down . . .

The facts, he claimed; those posts of mine

Were dragging out six months of time

He wrote for laughs and then to say

He'd post his own, as sooner as a day!

Bang bang. He'd shot the ground

Bang bang. I knocked him down

Bang bang. The truthful sound

Bang bang. My 'rival'* is a clown!

The fact to tell is hard to bear

Bereavement was the background there

The Blog-posts had been put on hold

Their 'News' not really needing to be told

Bang bang. His foot He'd shot

Bang bang. A marksmen not!

Bang bang. The public sight

Bang bang. My 'rival's* not too bright!

. . . ♫♥♪♪

*His word; not mine, I have no rivals, I'm too-busy doing my own 'thing', which is pretty much the same thing I started doing back in December '08, but a little better and more industrious - output's up but profit's still zero!

As highlighted earlier in the week, the irrepressible fuck-that-jabbers, one Paul Stadinger had a pop at those who drag out show reports? Really? Yes; really! Let me explain something, well, a few things actually; to the dunderheaded, blowhard-gobshite.

Over here (where I make the rules), show reports, toy fair reports and the like are a low priority, they tend to get average or below average traffic on the day, and very little subsequent traffic, although the company specific reviews do get the same sort of traffic as other tagged posts in their 'class' or genre - over time. Not that the Blog is about traffic per se, but unpopular post-subjects are - obviously - a consideration.

Consequently, the main report (for say, or in this instance - the London Toy Fair) gets dropped-in where there is a gap in the days (or weeks) immediately/soon'ish after the event, the other reports and reviews are used as filler through the year, being as how they don't contain much of import . . . I mean how many of you really care how many new lions Schleich have this year, or what new colours Papo's stegosaurus has been given? Exactly!

Added to which . . . it's new production! It's not going anywhere for a while and will be findable on store shelves, in dealers lists or on the dreaded evilBay, whenever I post it - and/or for a year or two. It will have corporate coverage, influencer coverage, industry or trade-organisation coverage . . . if you're that interested in it - as an individual - you will find it yourself - the YouTube video's of box-opening, the press-releases, the Amazon listings - it's just not a priority!

Last year, specifically, I took three months (or nearly?) off, to await the passing of my father; this meant few of the reports appearing in the first half of the year and indeed . . .

. . . I still have enough material for about ten posts, there also remain a couple of folders from 2018 I think, but I'll just cannibalise the imagery in/for other posts! I have tons of Sandown stuff going back several years, probably 40-posts worth and an unused PW show-report from 2017 or 2018; I've already started putting those images in other folders . . . it's all ephemeral, IT DOESN'T MATTER!

Which raises another point - when the idiots started their picky-little war against me, I had maybe 40 folders in the Picasa 'queue', I now have over 600; I have more than I need for several years of the kind of mediocre, grey pap we get from shitestuff, and the company reviews are just another part of that editorial archive, more grist for the mill.

TJF invests far too much importance in such posts, he over-values what he does and seems to believe he should have exclusive access to certain tropes, genres, subjects or areas of the hobby, this all points to a man with serious issues of self-importance vying with some kind of inferiority-complex?

Neither the world nor the hobby will stop-dead if I post rare British composition tomorrow, or Henbrandt's latest novelty alien-imports or some unknown capsule toys, but I try to mix-it up, following the Reithian principles - inform, entertain or educate!

What I do know, is that that if I posted two shaved lesbians covered in custard, pissing on each other tomorrow, it would certainly be the PSTSM who would get the most excited, first! Although Donald Trump would probably eMail me for a copy - I promise they wouldn't be Russians Mr President!

If my output was as piss-poor as stadsshitedotcom, I'd be in a better position to use-up what little I might have (in that situation), but it's not and I'm a collector not a dealer, with plenty to post so I move and juggle stuff about so as to not get too stale, end-of.

The man's an idiot, and should improve his own Blog before casting aspersions on other people's; showing us stuff which - in his own words; 'was posted on Facebook two days ago' or which; 'was put on their [the company's own] website last weekend'; or which a Russian dealer has been selling on Yandex for the last three weeks (or three months!) is NOT news, nor is it 'discoveries', it's just customer announcements (I hope they pay him, they charge enough for the stuff!) because he has nothing else!

But don't misunderstand me, there's nothing wrong with endless Russian customer announcements, and I'd far rather he stuck to Russian customer announcements than sat in my dust following my posts with a single figure, which only go to prove that he can sit in my dust confirming what I've just said with a single figure!

♫♯♪ Bang bang. The old dog's no new tricks! ♫♫♪

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Toy News

RSPCA

The funniest story this week was the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal's annual report, including some of their 'comedy' call-outs, among which was attending to a 'Caged tiger' which turned out to be one of those highly realistic life-sized stuffed tigers, who was keeping several rabbits company in their pen!

Other cries for help were;

·         An owl stuck on a roof - a statue

·         A snake on a wheelie-bin - rubber toy

·         A salamander on a flat's balcony - stuffed toy, with labels

·         A stuck snake - an elephant hawk-moth caterpillar!

A real one as seen on the Blog passim

Basingstoke canal 29th August 2014

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Toy Fair 2020 - Kensington Olympia

The major trend/s this year can be summed up as 'woke' environmentalism, with more wood on show, more recyclable/disposable or bio-degradable polymers/materials, and at least four charities in evidence, including our friends from North London; The Toy Project. One company actually issued their press-kit on a cardboard data-stick/flash-drive dongle! Mattel were also talking-up 'sustainability'.

Clementoni had infant scooters made from 100% recycled plastic, cuddly stuffed-toys from Keel included teddy bears, a whale (it's not a country Mr. President) and an orang-utan (orange man - Mr. President!) made out of old plastic-bottles (as fleeces have been since the 1980's!) while an early-learning series of book/toy combo's (Mark Makers) included a rainbow who gender identifies as a boy and wants to be called Archie . . .

Heay, it's called toleration, and if you don't, if instead, you let them come for the Gays, or the 'Blacks' or the Jews, or your disabled neighbour, they will eventually come for you, even if you voted for them . . . even if - as Leon Trotsky, Robespierre or Erwin Rommel discovered - you're wearing their uniform.

Another obvious trend was large scale, realistic animals, with two or three rivals to the Schleich/Papo combine showing and with ranges as large as the two dominant market-leaders, but retailing considerably cheaper; even HGL (Grossman) had some high-quality stuff which will be at real budget prices. I also shot more Terra by Battat and spoke to one of the nephews of the designer. Funny thing - I realised the B&S tubs I shelfied the other day were rebadged Terra product!

Catalogues were problematic with several companies telling everyone to go online, Hornby Hobbies only printed one this year; the Bassett Lowke Steampunk 'launch' leaflet, all the rest (Airfix, Corgi, Hornby, Scalextric) are on-line only, while Schleich's was just a horrible design, that is of little use to either a Blogger or a fan/collector.

Revell had some nice, new AFV's with more of the Matchbox 1:76th tools (magically rendered 1:72nd with an art-workers pen) in the catalogue than for a long time, and some lovely new tooling, but no figures at all, not even the 6" ceremonial range which had been growing the last two years, Airfix had bugger-all on display, and I haven't checked the [on-line only!] catalogue yet, but suspect there's going to be not much there either!

After the construction-toy posts the other day you may be interested to here I saw another brand at the show with 'Meccano' Dalek, K-9 and TARDIS models on display! The same company also makes military vehicle and aircraft kits branded to the Imperial War Museum for their gift-shops.

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Toy And Game Innovation Awards (Tagie's)

Having mentioned the Holocaust once already, you may be interested to know that at the recent awards ceremony - held in Chicago (nearer to Allentown than Fleet; maybe he's dragging the news out for six months to show he can be as tardy as me; he copies everything else I do!), Illinois, the winner of the lifetime achievement award was Ivan Moscovich, who survived the concentration camps of Nazi Germany to invent toys in America for the next 70-years . . . probably the best work; if you can get it!

Mattel won the big award with a radio-controlled DC Comics' Batmobile, which is also a Transformer^TM . . . very Warhol's 'pop eating-itself'!

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Ackerman International Trading & Re:Creation

Ackerman International were wound-up in December (Christmas Eve - crap present for any remaining staff), the rack-toy importer's outstanding orders were partly picked-up by Padgett Bros. (A-Z), leading to a temporary shortage of wooden toys in Hong Kong apparently (no, I can't imagine either, but I got it from the horse's mouth!).

Strangely, you-know-who, recently covered Ackerman (or 'Ankermann' as they called them before being corrected) but neglected to tell us of the bankruptcy? They (for it was  a team-effort error) failed to credit the kind fellow who corrected them, but that might have something to do with the helpful-chap's corrective-comment having got past the toasty-boast or ask-me-yet software and including the esoteric term "fuckwitted-fuckwits" in the text?

Re:Creation have also filed for bankruptcy after two separate attempts to sell the company - as a going-concern - fell-through in the autumn, KPMG are handling the wind-down.

Going back to Toy Fair 2020 for a moment . . . Battlefront Games (Gale Force 9) weren't there this year? I'll have a dig; see if there's a problem? They may just be sticking to the big games-conventions or even war-gaming events like Salute?

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H is for How They Come In

Locally it was quite a quiet week with - in the order of acquisition - a novelty wooden guardsman almost certainly from Fiesta Crafts . . . more on whom latter, then three of four Teletubbies, the green one probably being eaten by the large black cat! He's interesting in that while I thought he must be poured-resin, he seems to be a solid lump of polystyrene or a similar hard plastic.

To make up the numbers I ordered the 2nd-hand Dover book on Friday and it arrived this week, the figures are between 54 and 60mm but due to the thinner bases could be used - as designed - with the former 1:32nd's, or after packing with card; the latter US scale of 1:30th.

Toy Fair 2020 then gave-up a pile of stuff, which is unusual; normally you may get a novelty dongle (Jumbo Toys last year!) or a single free smaple of something small, even two (last year Battlefront gave us all a PzKfw IV on the runner, if you remember), but this year I left with a bag of Haribo chews (gone before the photo-shoot!), a wooden pen with a wood & string knight (the aforementioned Fiesta Crafts) and a Schleich blind-bag 'mini' which should be an Eldrador troll thing but which turned-out to be a Daisy Duck! Clearly shifting back-stock!

There were the usual bunch of press-kit flash-drives, a card toy sample from Build Your Own, a Games Workshop starter magazine with figure, two inclusion-toys of dinosaurs; one ball, one egg (Fumfings from Keycraft), a gold mouse (seems to be hidden in the shot, but we'll return to him in the company-post - Mojo), some wacky-water Gelli Play stuff in a sachet (think dyed wallpaper-paste and save a lot of money while amusing the grand-kids!) and a green 'Army Man' eraser from House of Marbles.

I always drop-in on the big Party store at Clapham Junction on the way home from the Toy Fair, and while I was cutting it fine this year, managed to spend six-pounds something on five smaller Amscan paratroops, two larger (one generic, one Play Write) and six on a DGI card along with four Henbrant insects and a capsule toy (novelty turtle).

Then this afternoon (Thursday) I picked-up this dinky little bone china trinket, I think it's best described as a toothpick-holder, but similar things in the past would be for matches; modern matches aren't long enough. It was made by a Phildale of England, and probably quite recently? So in the end; the week was another pearler for Blog-post stock!

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And Finally . . .

If it's empty, I'll fit!

(new collar for Crimbo!)

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