Paul V's nice comment about making his Tamiya Samurai models whilst listening to The Year of the cat reminded me of a bloglet I wrote over a year ago, which was languishing in one of my dormant blogs and might be fun to post here now.
Not much stuff from my early childhood has survived but some from around 12 years old has, particularly martial arts stuff. I put this down to two things: I collected so much martial arts material and it was either in the form of papers or were small items, which I'd put in a large document case that travelled with me.
Two of my most important surviving martial arts toys are a pair of small metal Samurai figures (above - better pics to follow). There's a naginata [halberd] missing from the right one I think and the Ebira [quiver] has broken off the left. I remember so clearly getting the figure on the left, a ROSE kit, one Christmas in the early 1970's. It came in several parts in a small plastic bag and had a distinct and wonderful metallic smell once opened. Amazingly I have even managed to hold onto the colour scheme I worked out for this model, drawn on a school timetable! This has survived in an old handkerchief box I have pictured below, the 'Budo Box'!
Also in the box is a postal order counterfoil for Miniature Figurines, which I kept after sending off payment for another Samurai model. A postcard from the company, ARGYLL, has survived too. It all relates to either the metal RUBIN figure to the left in the picture above or the small metal miniatures, pictured below, which have survived in a wooden Indian box my Mum gave me.This box became the centrepiece of my Cha-No-Yu (tea ceremony) or Iai-do (Japanese Sword) paraphernalia back then when I was 13 and I wanted to be a Zen or Shaolin Monk! Happy days!
The far right figure is an Orc! [better pictures to follow]. I have some more Samurai model stuff [and tons of books] and will dig it out. Any more Ronin out there?
