Its the little things I remember the most from childhood, those small bits and pieces that came with toys.
One such trinket would be the stickers that came with Major Mat Mason toys like these control panels.
These were some I saw online so I saved the snap. They could be repro. I imagine most real stickers were peeled off the paper and put on the various MMM vehicles and the Space Station.
Did you like these stickers? Would you say decals [or deecals]?
RAINBOW-1 is a spaceship satellite I don't know.
I really like the colourful and glitzy photo box top.
What do you think? Anyone got one?
Our time in Germany is nearly up. The Ferry home's tomorrow. Back to Blighty.
Looking back over a month here I recall a theme I've blogged about afore. How countries have distinct popular cultures. Logical I hear you say. I guess it is.
In the UK we expect some space toys at car boots, lots of old toys made in Hong Kong, American TV merchandise and Marvel and DC comics.
Not so Germany. The car boot pop culture is quite different and distinct. Tons of Playmobil and I mean tons. Mountains of Kinder toys. German TV character toys that we never had in the UK ( for example Lurchi the Salamander) and libraries of German comics, a thriving scene in its own right: Asterix, John Sinclair, Perry Rhodan, Zack and countless more.
Other than Playmobil, I didn't see a single space related toy at any boot sale.
Obviously there are international brands. Barbie, He-Man, Transformers, WWF but your as likely to see some old French toys. I saw a lovely boxed Charlie Chaplin in a French or Belgian box.
Beyond toys, two things stood out for me. McDonalds isn't the mammoth fast food presence here. It seems muted against the local competition of an entire Wurst culture, Currywurst being almost a national dish, which you can get everywhere.
The other thing is Monsters. As you know I'm a monster nut. I grew up on a strict diet of Universal Monsters and Hammer Horrors as a baby boomer in Britain. It's in my blood.
So when I saw an book about visiting castles along the Rhine I was amazed to see Castle Frankenstein! Wowzers! A castle with the name of the most famous monster of all. Surely there's a connection even if it's just the name. I expected a footnote making it clear.
Nada. Nichts. Nowt! Not a word. I couldn't believe it. Surely it was an error.
I discussed this at a meal with our two baby boomer German mates and their big young family of thirty somethings, a decent enough sample group of the country. I was sure they would agree. The castles book has simply made a mistake missing out something about Frankenstein's monster.
Who?
Our mates actually said Who?
They had never seen Frankenstein the film and even worse never heard of the famous novel by Mary Shelley!
It just wasn't on the German radar.
I was gobsmacked. The monster has a German name for Gott's sake!
I staggered out of their house later, after several biers, imitating said Creature with my outstretched arms and Karloff walk but I might as well have been the invisible man!
Is Frankenstein well-known in your neck of the woods readers?
Here's prolific modeller, Richard Ashton's latest creation - the Narcissus shuttle as seen in the film, Alien.
As I've reported before I do like to come away from a Car Boot sale or Charity shop run with at least one Gen1 Transformer, my current must-haves.
Yesterday the Missus and ich had our final car boot ( Flohmarkt, as in flea market) stand at the local Samstag venue. It was huge but arriving at 6am we were given a decent pitch with bags of space, which is a good thing given the fee is steep by British standards at €27, around £25.
Having a wide assortment of my Missus's late parents' belongings - both collectors of sorts - our triple wallpaper table braced itself under all the glass decanters, wooden ornaments, wall plates and a myriad other nick backs, walking sticks and small tools.
Beside the table we sold clothes on a clothes stand and on the other side larger items were proffered such as a mobility walker, bathroom shelving, plant pots and a sombrero!
The first sale we held two weeks ago with our daughter at the helm we made €250 profit. This second sale came in second at a respectable €160 net.
Money was never important. We needed a way of off-loading all these belongings without having to enlist a house clearance firm or indeed binning stuff. Less desirable tackle has been taken to the local Diakonie charity and hundreds of bits of clothing have gone into clothing banks. As I said my late Parents-in-Law were collectors. Some might even say hoarders.
Anyways, as is traditional when two are staffing the stand, each gets a couple of breaks to mosey round the market and grab a Kaffee.
On one of my haunts I spotted something on my Wants List, a pentagonal Playmobil space Station from the 1970's. Full of accessories and spacemen, it was loose and just €15. Walking on ruminating about it I then spotted something even higher up my Wants List, a Pretender! A GEN1 Transformer no less and not just one but two!
Was soll es Kosten? I enquired.
Zehn Euro die Stuck.
So that would be 10 each, twenty together. About £18
In great shape but without contents they were still at a good price.
Ruminating even more I returned with Kaffee for the Missus and plunged straight into my plea for one final treat for each other. I know what I would like and she should choose something too.
It didn't work!
We have enough stuff to take back and you have already bought loads of toys! I heard her cry!
I knew this argument well and my only recourse was the tried and tested end strategy of wearing the Missus down with constant reminders of how much of a bargain the Pretenders were and that I wasn't pretending!
I don't know about you but I seldom have any cash on me. The Missus is the Bank Manager and a good thing to. I'd fritter everything we have away for a bag of tat! As such my final appeal struck gold and the Missus went in herself. I'd challenged her to get the two Trannies cheaper! She accepted the Mission and headed out.
Ten minutes later I was the proud owner of two Hasbro Pretenders, the latest and best recruits on my GEN1 shelf back in Blighty and just 15 Euro the pair! The Missus had done it again!
Erfolg! That's success to you and me!
Have you had to cajole the Bank Manager for your treats?
Here's some more photos from last weekend's Cromford event, and this time it's just some of the Anderson related models on display.
First on the scene is this studio scale SHADO Mobile, built by Mamas Pitsillis.
This UNCL Master Elevator Car was built by Doug Stirling-Stewart.
An original SFX prop of a Cruiser as seen in Space Precinct, courtesy of David Sisson.
A ZEAF from Terrahawks, built by David Sisson.
Stingray and Skydiver built by Mamas Pitsillis.
