About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Show Report - Plastic Warrior 25th Anniversery

Quick show report from the Plastic Warrior show in Richmond, with some of the guilty and a shot of my booty pile! Among noticeable trends this year; Prices were down, usefull if you are a buyer, a couple of major collections are being broken up and coming on to the market, and both 'rarities' and 'large-ticket' items were in evidence. Buisness was brisk, the 'gate' was good and all those under 12/13? (Paul?) were given a free gift at lunchtime, which is becoming a regular feature of the show and is a valid attempt at getting a new generation of collectors on board. Paul and James Morehead flank the unstoppable Peter Evans as things begin to quieten down in the afternoon, Peter - in the best traditions of Theater-land - turned up on crutches 'cos 'The Show Must Go On'! James did Stirling-service on the door all day, helped by Paul's grandson Ben, who - while I was taking this - was probably helping himself to the 'Free-gifts' one dealer had left behind under his table! Peter H; You need to carry a dustpan and brush, you're giving it away!! John Begg of PTS collectables (eBay; pts52) keeps one eye on his premium 'Timpo, loose' and the other eye out for a bargain! He also had some nice Britians Swoppet Knights, a range of Airfix and other goodies, and some interesting Nurnburg Flats. Atlantic 'Big Tickets' E100 each! Reasonable, and the Circus had gone when I took this, but packaging was still being arranged! These were on Jean Claude Druart's table (Toy Soldier Museum - Belgium), anyone who is interested in the Egyptian palace can eMail me as I have an eMail for him but I'm not sure if it's right, and wouldn't publish it here due to the old spam/phishing problem. A fine load of Plunder! There's a bag of Brazilian copies of Britains Herald Khaki Infantry on Timpo style bases and two Vac-forms missing from this shot! Barney Brown signed a copy of his 2nd book for me which was kind, and - as you can see - I got far more large-scale than small, indeed another trend is that 'new' (to market or me) small scale is getting very thin on the ground these days, apart from all the new production, but that's not going to be 'collectable' for a decade or two yet! Although, having said that, my first purchase, an hour in, was the Dark Dreams European Knights which I let Peter from PB Toys talk me into!!! (They are lovely figures).

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