Come in Number Six!

Having recently been driven past the turn off to the Slough Trading Estate, my brush with the background of 1960s popular culture continued today.

I don't think I've seen the complete The Prisoner series since I watched it on first run in the late 60's. So over half a century later, I finally got to visit the very odd town where it was filmed.

The village of Portmeirion in Wales was built specifically as a tourist attraction. It's weird mixture of different architectural styles is not to everyone's taste and even I viewed it in person, with the word kitsch uppermost in my mind.

But I have to say I loved the human scale of it all and the random quality in which different buildings are shoved together is quite impressive.

The legacy of Patrick McGoohan's spy fantasy hangs heavily over the place, just as the actual show drew some of it's weirdness from the setting it was filmed in.

There is even a Prisoner gift shop, with several vintage Dinky toys on display and a nice bronze bust of the actor/creator himself.

And on the way out, a sign reminds you that you can check out any time you like, but you can never really leave!

Looey

Portmeirion

Wales

TEDS, TEDDIES, BEARANDAS AND EDWARDS

 Teddy's have always been big with kids.

We had Tingha and Tucker this morning courtesy of Century 21 licensing and Gerry Anderson's organisation had more too, namely the Bearandas who drove Stripey the mini and ran the magic toyshop in Candy/ Candy and Andy comics and Annuals. 

Just 9d every Wednesday!

Did you have anything to do with Candy and Andy or Tingha and Tucker?

Among countless telly bears here's one I never knew, Teddy Edward, a neat play of words as Teddy is already an Edward. here's an annual I've just freecycled to someone from 1975. By Christmas 1975 I was 15 and dreaming of cuddling girls, not teddies!

Did you know Teddy Edward?

And maybe a much more famous telly teddy is SuperTed, the welsh bear. We used to watch it on S4C in the early 80's with our one year old daughter when we lived across from Puffin Island.

Superted is making a comeback this year by all accounts and his spotty friend too.

Do you remember SuperTed?

Just what is the universal appeal of teddy bears readers? Do you know?

Did you have a teddy?

WELSH TOY MANUFACTURING

This is an interesting 2016 BBC article about toy manufacturing in Wales and its decline.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-35535265

TEMPTING TOYS TUGGED MY WALLET

 Continuing my look behind the dusty curtains of dead stock here are two snaps of a store in Llandudno, which was closed when we visited the seaside spa town, a jewel on the North Wales coast.

The reflection of the window is awful sorry but you may make out a very nice boxed Fisher Price toy garage, which might have drawn me through the door.

There's also a Marvel Legends Spidey figure boxed, a Run DMC carded figure and a Spidey pickup truck.

Everything appeared to be £20 each.

Anything of interest?

I also saw two 12 or maybe 18 inch articulated Star Wars figures in a Charity shop. A Stormtrooper and a Darth Vader. They were marked Disney so were modern. In fabulous shape and working order I was tempted but the £10 each price tag put me off. Similarly, £5 for a large die-cast Polistil vintage blue roadster loose was too much.

Would you have passed?

Concluding this journey into holiday toying I was chuffed to hold a modern version of Twin Mill in our local Lidl on the way home.

Twin Mill was one of my fave Hot Wheels as a kid and its great to see the redline classics getting a whole new generation excited. When my Grandson is old enough to appreciate the names of redlines I'll get him the re-issues down at Lidl or Aldi!

Do you collect Hot Wheels re-issues?

DEAD STOCK COMBAT SOLDIER: CHEAPO THRILLS IN BORTH

After posting about old dead stock shops yesterday I realised that I may not have ever posted my fave bit of dead stock.

Its this Combat Soldier.

A cheapo Action Man knockoff in a bag. I loved this guy when I saw him and his two buddies. They were awaiting orders on a dusty shelf in the seaside resort of Borth in North Wales way back in the summer of 2014.

It took me right back to buying toys like this as a kid in Zodiac Toys around 1967.

The old shop was called Hubbards Gift Shop. Their price tag is on the back.

I adored the header card artwork. It was like a small painting!

The rack toys were unpunched too!

Old Combat Soldier has quite a friendly face too. 

Since I would never leave a man behind, I bought all three!

Also at the store I bought an old doll as well called Susie, who became a Star Maiden homage in later years and also a set of old plastic baby counting bricks by Codeg bagged with a neat header.

I can't find any pics of the Codeg toy in my archive but Susie I've blogged before and she now lives with Arto.

Alas, Combat Soldier became a victim of my compulsion to sell toys on Ebay back in 2014/15 and joined the lost boys of the everlasting knockoff war.

Have you found any old dead stock shops or dusty old fancy goods stores leftover from a bygone era readers? Maybe you don't want to say! ha ha

FINDING OLD DEAD STOCK BEHIND THE CASTLE WALLS

Well, we're back on Moon Base and our journey to the mountains and the sea in the land of dragons is sadly over.

North Wales is uniquely beautiful and our spiritual home as we spent a fantastic three years there studying and working in our early twenties. We fell in love with the place.

We've visited North Wales many times since and I always nip into the occasional discount store in case ancient toys linger still as I did in Borth a few years back. I look out for these places wherever I am in the world. These aren't vintage toy shops but rather stores selling ancient fancy goods, hardware and toys for whatever reason.

Well, this trip's find was Bargains Galore in the castled city of Caernarfon. This old budget dead stock shop was stuffed with rack and boxed toys from the late 80's and 90's I would guess. Alas, the Missus was on a mission to explore the world-class castle walls so I didn't get long at all before having to leave. If you are in the area it might be worth rummaging and delving to see what's there among the dust, including a few dark corners and alcoves I noticed.

What I did see were: a boxed Barbie Make-up head, window boxed Action Man type cheapo figures [1990's I would say], very large bagged plastic Knights armour set with header, Superted boxed sets of some sort [Superted is a Welsh cartoon character], rack toy Hong Kong brush and dustpan sets, marble rollercoaster boxed plastic toy, plastic toy guns and rifles and a rack of carded rack toys like a small child's American Policeman and motorbike set on bubble card.

It amazes me that shops full of old dead stock like this still exist but I'm always thrilled to find them. I didn't see anything that took my fancy but as I said I could have done with a lot more time.

Let us know if you go in and find anything!

There were some other vintage toys in the charity shops we went in, which I'll describe later.

With our stay in Gwynedd sadly over we drove home the hundred plus miles being entertained by the Fantastic Four on Power Records courtesy of Kid.

I shall report back on this later too as our dog is arriving now from the dog-sitter! Woof!

GLACIAL BIRTHPLACE: CWM IDWAL

In 1983 me and Mrs. Moonbase moved to Snowdonia in North Wales so I could study Countryside Management at Bangor. Whilst there I discovered what was probably the most dramatic single place I had ever seen, Cwm Idwal. 

As part of a short break this week and seeking inspiration for a new Sarge storyline we visited Cwm Idwal again on Monday! Imagining mountain SWORD wars I took these short video clips as a reminder of our visit.

At the start

On the path

Mountain cow

Mountain herd

Reaching the Cwm

The far wall

The cwm reflecting in its own lake on our way back to the start

Do you like mountains readers?

Welsh 101: cwm = corrie, cirque [birthplace of glaciers], Llyn = lake

Cwm Idwal is on the Nant Ffrancon pass, Snowdonia, Gwynedd.