Toy Fair Expedition

 Advertised as 'The Big One', the Bolton Toy Fair in the football stadium was something of a damp squib for me. Having visited it some years ago with Woodsy and Scoop, I had high hopes, but it was just one of the large event suites in the stadium, with a few stalls in a side corridor. I got around in 30 minutes or so, the majority was standard modern trains and accessories, big truck models and diecasts. 

The clientele were almost universally 65+ males, shuffling about and poring over the stock. Some stalls had recent and a little vintage Star Wars and there was a good showing of modern vinyl. Between the trays of battered diecasts were tables and tables of contemporary Hot Wheels, which seemed to be very popular with the 30-40 age group. Here and there, dads steered their young sons around the 50p trays, clearly using them as an excuse to come along and buy stuff themselves.

There were quite a lot of old Airfix kits, including two of the giant Saturn V models and a Lunar Module. I saw a boxed Colossal Mantis and one or two  Revell  missiles such as the Nike and Thor, but all excessively priced.

There was no real vintage plastic, apart from a couple of Hong Kong Formula 1 cars and a tipper truck. The only thing I might have been tempted by was a Topper Armoured Battalion set, in a really battered box, but as I have one there was nothing to worry about.

 Ultimately, I thought i'd go home empty handed, but in a box of cheap parts, I spotted a spare missile for the Topper set and on the way out, I picked up the Superfast Swing Wing Jet and a random propeller for a wind turbine! £3 well spent.

Again, the question of what 'vintage' or 'antique' might refer to, arose - as many items were listed as vintage but were no more than a scant decade old.