A trip this week to a nearby Barnsley emporium was fun.
Amidst the thousands of send hand treasures on two huge floors I spotted a few for the blog.
This array of die-casts caught my eye.
I've always liked Matt Allsopp's superb design for the MUTO, the Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism, which was pitted against Godzilla a few years back. Its pointed claws, angular features and square jaw have an almost Alex Toth feel to them.
Matt also gave Mothra a similar look, creating a striking crab-like creature.
Whilst browsing Todocolleccion I saw these neat space toys.
This is some sort of 8 wheeled space crane.
This Spanish Rescate Lunar is very swish. A moon rescue craft. But which moon?
It's clearly some sort of futuristic pedalo.
This is an interesting set I saw online from Japan. It appears to be a gadget set inspired by the 1961 James Bond movie Thunderball.
The gadgets seem to a small cigarette lighter, a wristwatch and a penknife, all weaponised.
Its a basic looking set but I like it. You?
This is a beautiful toy space capsule I saw on auction.
Not one I have but I can appreciate how nice it must be to have in a collection.
Simply called SPACECRAFT this large plastic toy was released by blog legends T in a Circle aka Tai Hing of Hong Kong. Their moniker is the T in a circle pictured on the side of the box.
Let me in!
Is this one you like readers? Have you any capsules?
This year I've been selling on eBay a lot again. As in times before, one thing always baffled me. What happens to lost mail?
Where do all the thousands of mislaid parcels go? They must go somewhere? To neighbours or dare I say couriers themselves? Where?
I imagine a vast hill of packages somewhere between continents, the address labels slowly greening over and desperate gulls ripping them open. Occasionally a tin robot or wind-up spaceship will spill out and attempt an ascent, the gulls pecking at their bent antennae and flashing lights as they stagger towards the sun.
My reverie over, a more serious sub-genre of lost property is the relatively new and quite baffling phenomenon of tracked but mislaid.
Tracked but mislaid? Surely this is an oxymoron, like wet fire or bright dark: things that can't exist. Or so we thought. Tracked but mislaid is the latest insult to eBay sellers totally reliant on couriers of one kind or another, whether national or private.
I have refunded five buyers this year already for lost mail. None were tracked, which I aim now to change, but it appears that that also offers no guarantee of delivery.
The biggest implication for the seller of lost eBay goods is the refund, sometimes substantial, leaving them out of pocket and without the goods.
For the buyer, well, they've got absolutely nothing either.
Have you experience of this readers?
