It's been a while since we looked at one of
these but toys are always in the media, for advertisers they are a double
winner as they have both instant 'brand-recognition' and nostalgia attached to
the imagery, upon which you tack whatever product you're pushing.
We've seen a few of these over the years,
using a frame-runner motif to illustrate a consumer story in the City of
London's business free-sheet.
'Rubber Ducks' (probably, actually; PVC)
being used to illustrate, yeah! The Brexidiocy; easy to see the obvious when
it's modelled in rubber ducks! I wonder how long it'll take the brexidiots to
get it? Count them; it's all 27! Looks a bit like me and the PSTSM,
but I'm facing the other way and giving better than I get back!
I'm sure most UK readers will have seen
these; there are various versions and they have been running as full, half,
quarter and eighth-page ads since before Christmas. Most of them seem to
include a near-naked Bat Man in a silk smoking jacket (or dressing gown?), I
can't think why - some connection to the recent Lego Batman movie no doubt, but a tad disturbing nonetheless!
Skeletor (the living dead) selling life insurance! Yeah, right! You're SO money-fucked-up
dot com.
I love this shot, it was illustrating some
tedious article on ISA's or something, but I recognise the railway (or
railroad) track-side signs, I think they are vintage Bachmann, but I might be wrong; Model
Power?. I've got some somewhere, but whether they were lose or on the card
I can't remember and they are definitely in storage at the moment.
The yellow colour of the signs says US
outline, our (UK's) railway signs were/are white, while the little jinks in the
bases (for fixing down with picture-frame nails) is a very 'vintage' model
railway thing. "WATCH CHILDREN",
it's like something from the Scarfolk blog! And
spot the Photoshop mistake with the
shadows!
Coming Soon
Plastic Warrior's 32nd Plastic Toy
Soldier Show
It's only a month to 'the show of the year'
for plastic figures! Keep the date free of encumbrances by dobbing your close relatives
into the authorities for something that comes with an automatic custodial
remand.
Other Toy News
Pepper
Pig
In the 'i'
newspaper it was announced that the Canadian-based, London-listed Entertainment One (eOne) group have issued 65 retail licences for Pepper Pig in the US recently and the character became the best
selling toy for pre-school girls in the same country over Christmas.
While Time
Out carried a two pager on Pepper Pig
last week which explained the 'crack for toddler's' appeal of Pepper and her brother
George.
Wilco / Wilkinson's
Erasers (35p for a set of three)
Crayola
Apparently 'dandelion' yellow is to be
ditched from 24-colour boxes of the famous wax crayons, the replacement yellow
is to be announced on 'National Crayon Day' (I kid you not!), this is only the
third time in 132 years that they have dropped a colour (maize, orange-yellow
and raw umber) and the first time they've binned one from the basic 24 set - although
I thought the 'basic' was the twelve-pack?
Now call me cynical, no, really; call me
cynical because I am and proud to be, but; could this be the beginning of
regular 'Hey kids; buy a new set, we've
changed another colour' announcements, maybe every NC-Day? Taking a leaf
out of Monopoly's book with all the
playing piece changes, leading to a necessity to get another big storage tub
from the local discount-store, to put all the duplicate crayons in!
Alien archeologists will discover that not
only did we consume our entire planet, but that we then stored it carefully in
large plastic tubs, car ports and shipping containers! The triumph of Crayola's marketing over common sense.
Metro Wednesday 2nd March
- and most other papers
Speaking of Monopoly, who saw the Monopoly
boards in the papers recently (this is the Metro)
helping launch the new round of the regular McDonald's
promotion?
Disney
Disney's Chief Executive (CEO) Bob Iger has extended his stay at the top for
another 18-months, now expected to depart in December 2019 and at the helm
since 2005, he's currently in line for a $5m bonus!
99p
Stores /
Poundland
Poundland (who bought 99p Stores
about a year and a half ago - see Blog passim), were themselves bought by the
South African Steinhoff conglomerate
a while ago now (September) and have just announced that the last of the 99p Stores (60-odd shops) are to be
handed to the receivers (Alix Partners)
as a stand-alone 'fail'. I've noticed that as Poundland they have been carrying some old 99p stuff such as the Toto
chocolate gift-eggs, but very intermittently and with the second buyout coming
so soon, are clearly still finding their amalgamated feet!
Gnomes
Walmart-owned Asda have announced
a 400% increase in sales of garden gnomes over the last year! They have further
announced an advance order of 800,000 incoming gnomes, so get the one with your
name on it while it's fashionably excusable! The phrases 'who'd of thunked*
it?' and 'over my dead body' spring to mind on this one!
Meanwhile in England, the Echillis Wood Model Railway Attraction
reported that vandals had broken into the facility for the second time and
decapitated dozens of gnomes, I may be no fan of them myself, but what sort of
fuckwitted, low-life, idiot does that? Twice? More than 60 were damaged, months
after the similar attack and the gnome village has been destroyed at the park
in Warwickshire.
* Thunked and Re-thunked - old family
'comedy' words, as in 'I re-thunked it
when I was sober and realised I was being a fuckwit'! Others are Rargee-kick
(rabbit) and the more common Heafferlump for elephant
Cards
Not toys per se, but both also stock the sorts of key-rings or other
novelties that can find a home in some of our collections so two news stories
that caught my eye recently was a piece in a Sunday-supplement type thing, the
other week, about how well Clinton Cards
have recovered from their mini-recession, in an interview with the boss.
Only for the City-AM to carry a story this week about how Card Factory are now suffering as profits fall, "Quell Suprise Rodder's"; there was
never the market for so many card, birthday and/or party shops and a lot have disappeared
from our high streets in recent years.
Hornby Group
Closer to home Hornby have announced a
pick-up in sales and issued an upbeat profits forecast, leading to a rise in
their share price, so hopefully the Samurai katana
that was flicked carelessly through the various catalogues (Airfix, Scalextric &etc.) this year might be left sheathed next year?
Who knows; they might yet get some new WWI stuff out before the various
centenary dates run out! If there was any joined-up thinking in the group,
Airfix and Hornby Railways could get a WD train-set out before September '18?
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