The Little World

I’ll confess it – I’m at a loss when I go to many retail outlets and look at the variety of goods on offer. I might go there with some problem in mind, but I fall apart when I see that the shop has half-a-dozen different solutions to it and a further half-dozen brands of product for each technique.

It’s the same with the bottle shop. A wall cabinet filled with different beers is far too many to decide upon. Sheer habit and frugality compel me to go for the cheap six-pack that I know.

This also happened in my recent visit to the hobby shop. I went with the intention of replacing the broken plastic sprue cutters you read about last time. With the thought in my mind to avoid the Excel brand this time I cruised to the rack that held Ustar, Tamiya, and other brands …and I stood aghast at the vast array of hand tools. if they did not stretch to the horizon, they at least went out past where my spectacles prescription finishes. Which to choose?

Well, the prices ranged from $ 15 to $ 65 dollars so that was a good point of differentiation. I might have been uncertain about the quality of the cheaper ones but I was positive that I didn’t want to pay $ 65.

Then the brands – Tamiya is always dearer, though sometimes no better. They have a name, you see. I can avoid this with paints by buying from their rivals, GSI Creos, but there were no Mr. Hobby nippers on offer.

The other point of interest was the spring arrangement on the nippers themselves. The Excel onse that fractured were a bent coil with a leg down each arm of the tool. That was still on offer from other makers, but you could also get spring legs that just rode over the arm’s edge or coiled springs that nestled between the back of the tool jaws.

As this type of spring could be replaced with the insides of a ball-point pen, I determined to get one of this style. Then it was a case of thick jaw or thin jaw.

Well, I have a pair of heavy nippers if I want to cut thick or hard objects so I opted for thin ones.I’ve always liked the Ustar brand goods and I chose that. $ 39 as opposed to $ 65 was not too bad, and I headed for the till to pay up.

As they say in the internet ads – you’ll never guess what happened next…