Category: Toys
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” It’s Very Toy-Like “
Ever hear that said when someone is looking at a die-cast product in the shop? Or a plastic kit with only a few parts? Ever hear it when someone is looking at a painted scale model? And said with a sneer in the voice? Well if it is ever said to you, or of your models,…
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Toy And Doll Collectors Fair
I went to the Toy And Doll collector’s fair yesterday at my local exhibition centre. I’ve been to many events at this building and am impressed with how convenient it is, how well suited it is to the average small display, and how ugly the interior is. It was not always this, but someone with…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Seven – The Heliflopter
Walter, the toy industry is the lifeblood of the Little World. We often forget that what we adult modellers make is toys. Oh, we call them scale models and we join clubs and have exhibitions and spend scandalous amounts of money on the kits…but they are toys in the end. The sad thing for adults…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Six – Garbage Night In Canada
The pictures you see today, Walter, are of a Dinky Toy Bedford dust cart…the British word for garbage truck. The model is one I picked up in England on a holiday in 1995. I’m the sort of person who shops on my holidays and not for tourist souvenirs, either. No postcards or tea towels for…
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Hot Wheels
An internet group that I once enjoyed featured die-cast model cars and planes as seen through the lenses of the collectors – some of the photos taken were quite dramatic and artistic. I participated for quite a while until I noted that there were some rather odd restrictions being placed upon the participants. Unless one…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Four – Lead Us Not Into Temptation
Whitemetal us…or Zamac us. But no lead. You are lucky these days, Walter. Many of the hazards of the olden times are gone. No more Hitler, no more smallpox, and no more lead soldiers. I was never in any real danger from the first two but I was exposed to the last ones. And I…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Three – Steel vs Wood vs Plastic
Walter, you and your Mum may have been wondering why I went off on a tangent about Meccano, Erector, and Dux sets last time we spoke. Let me explain. We live in a world of plastic. It’s a wonderful material and can be made to simulate nearly anything – from bricks to steel girders, to…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part One – We Get To Building
Walter, I see your Mum has written a column about you and your life – I just read about your first visit to the dentist. I’m glad it was a good one -I used to be a dentist a decade ago myself. This column is about what I like to call the Little World –…
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Sandown Park 2019 – Part Twelve – Three Laughs And One Sober Moment
So far my internet image searching has not turned up a plastic kit that has the exact characteristics of the flying shark seen at Sandown Park. I am undecided as to whether the builder cobbled it up out of other parts or just assembled a kit. In any case the painting is excellent and the…
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The Different Modellers
I don’t mean the ones that come to the modelling club wearing fishnet stockings and the basque. That’s only to be expected from some English migrants…Just don’t make eye contact. No, I mean the modellers who elect to do something different with their hobby. Here’s some: a. The person who researches completely obscure equipment that…
The Little World 