Datsuncog

£15 was the top end of my impulse price-willingness, for sure - if it was £20, I would have just left it. Not sure why some tankers were £8 and others which differed only in livery were £18; I presume someone who works there just fires up eBay to get a sense of what each model's sold for recently, and goes from there. I think that's maybe why the current load of recent Matchbox and Hot Wheels are out for £4 on their shelves - despite the fact they're much cheaper to buy in bricks and mortar shops than they are to purchase online.

So, I buckled. Seems like buckling's even more of a hobby for me than diecast collecting. In my defence, I've been after one of these Ergomatic refrigerated artics for nigh-on thirty years now. I think the Walls was the first one to hit the range, maybe about 1995? It was the first one I remember seeing, and I desired it hugely when I saw it in the catalogue; the sheer size of the thing seemed amazing. I know the Ferrymasters version was a '96 release. Or maybe I have them the wrong way round? I couldn't quite stretch to buying the Walls one on my pocket money (an RRP of £30 sticks in my mind), but I managed to wheeler-dealer my way to the Siddle C. Cook Scammell Highwayman through cunningly swapping three mint boxed early-80s Corgis (Austin Maestro, Chevrolet Caprice racer, VW Polo) - and was instantly smacked with buyer's remorse. Not only did I get superglue all over it while trying (and failing) to affix the door mirrors, but the trailer turned out to be just the same as the one behind my childhood Michelin Ford Transcontinental. I later asked for an Ergomatic for Christmas, which came in an Eddie Stobart livery - it was okay, but once I later learned that Corgi's Stobart-liveried Classics range was pure fiction, my ardour cooled somewhat. As you can imagine, I'd far rather have my Mettoy-era Corgis back... I'll see how I feel about this Daniel Stewart AEC later, sure - it's probably not a long-term keeper, but it's reassuringly weighty and I'd like to run it up and down the kitchen table for a bit. And it'll go quite well with the MacBraynes TK from last year, as a kind of Caledonian haulers mini-series... This one, coincidentally, comes with the same plastic container as my Michelin Transcontinental... Recycling - truly, Corgi were ahead of their time.

Wet Monday lunchtime. Managed to leave my sandwich behind in the fridge this morning, so nipped out to grab a free* sandwich from Boots before their fridges were utterly stripped by the other office locusts. Which took me past Cash Converters... Oh, hullo. That's quite a lot of (mainly Corgi) trucks from the 1990s and early 2000s in the window there, at a baffling array of differing prices. Seems to be anything from £8 to £25 for most, with EFE stuff a bit cheaper and the Tekno artics prices mysteriously just out of vision. Hnnng... *Free, as in I have an unfeasible amount of Boots Advantage Points accumulated on an ancient battered card that dates back to my Halfords days, and can cash some in for a gratis lunchtime meal deal whenever necessary.

I really liked these when they came out; a giffer neighbour had a moderately high-spec example in that nice metallic red, and I thought it looked ace. And you've just had three arrive! More power to your elbow, sir.

Minitel or GTFO

Some Matchbox Action Drivers silliness, then - as promised. I just so happened to have assembled some of the latest purchases on the day the DanBox arrived, so that's broadly what populated them. Matchbox have made, licenced and sold assorted little garages and other accessories since their early days so kids can augment their play experiences - sometimes plastic, sometimes cardboard. Sometimes great, sometimes daft. Most of us here seem to have owned a few over the years, and after I let my much-loved Motorcity sets go sometime in the mid-1990s, I thought I was done with that sort of thing. I mean, detailed diecast cars are one thing, but brightly coloured plastic buildings are a different thing entirely, right? Too big, too simple, too kiddie-oriented. Not collector grade stuff. Not serious. Turns out I was wrong... last February I encountered the Auto Shop set over in Home Bargains at an attractively low price. I saw it, I had a vague thought along the lines of "oh, that's quite a nice little set", and then I went away again. I hadn't noticed any of the Action Drivers range before, had never heard of them, had no intention of finding out any more about them. But something had been set in motion, deep down inside. Over the next few days, a curiously strong desire for this set started to build. By the time the following weekend rolled around, I was almost sick with worry that they'd all be gone, and I wouldn't get to own one. Why? I really dunno. The heart wants what it wants, I guess. And I very badly wanted this. So I went over on a Saturday morning, early doors, and scythed myself through the weekend shoppers with a sense of rising panic in case all I encountered was an empty shelf. But it was okay. I found one, and for £6.99 it was mine. I love putting these things together. Somehow, applying the stickers and slotting it all together is a big part of the appeal. These are good-quality sets, too. I can recall being a little disappointed at how much cardboard was involved in some of my childhood Matchbox sets from the 1980s, which inevitably bent and tore and split after only a little use. These are all heavy-duty plastic, and the components snap together really firmly. There's always that sense of a 'point of no return' when the stickers are peeled off the backing paper and stuck on permanently. I tend to keep the backing sheet even after the stickers have been removed; I always have, along with all the rest of the packaging. The packaging feels like part of it. My rationale was that this model garage would be a nice background when photographing my various toy cars - better than just a flat table, right? Bit more interesting. I was very pleased with it. The whole thing with Action Drivers sets are that they have automatic mechanisms in them, and this adds to the playvalue - in this case, raising the ramp causes a little dude to scoot out rolling a tyre, while pushing a car into the adjacent bay brings a woman pushing a V8 engine block on a stand round to the front. Of course, I felt a bit self-conscious. Bashful, even. I didn't want MrsDC to see it, in case she found it a bit ridiculous and immature, even by my standards. I also felt that although she might tolerate me picking up the odd model here and there, acquiring larger sets like this might set her alarm bells off. The unpleasant memory of 2022's Diecastgate - when it emerged that pretty much our entire attic was crammed with my models and other rubbish, at the point we were urgently needing to move house - hovered unpleasantly. So I kinda kept this acquisition secret. After a few pics taken in the early hours of the morning, I disassembled it, repacked it into the box and hid it away under the bed in the back room. And then in June last year, I found some more, in a different branch of Home Bargains. The two Auto Shop sets were quite speedily dispatched to a fellow-shiter, but I kept the Bus Station set for myself. At £4.99, and with a Matchbox model included, it seemed pretty bargain-tastic. It proved mildly disappointing, however. Although the little passenger moving forward to hail an arriving bus was a nice touch, this set had less going on, since it was about half the size of the Auto Shop and seemed a bit more toy-like, with improbable parking spaces on the roof and a far-too-steep ramp. One of the road pieces supplied was also incorrect and the connector tabs couldn't line up, so it also looked a little incomplete. It went back in its box and under the bed too. And that was that. Until January this year, when... Aargh. Another one, encountered by chance over at an independent Toymaster branch. This time, the Fuel Station set. Three sets on the shelf, all the same. This set looked about the same size as the Auto Shop, but was quite a bit more expensive. For £6.99 I could see myself making an impulse purchase, but at £16.99... mmm. Seemed a bit pricey, for what it is. I didn't much fancy the generic 4x4 thing either. So I didn't. But a few days later I found it playing on my mind again... so I had a look online, in case someone else might be doing it a bit cheaper. Nope, if anything it was even more expensive on Amazon and eBay for this set - anything from £24 to £50. Crumbs. And of course, since capitalism is a finely tuned instrument these days, it didn't take very long before my YouTube 'recommended videos' feed started featuring people unboxing Action Drivers sets. And, because I'm easily influenced, of course I started watching them. And desiring them. Not all of them - some were a bit too juvenile for even my tastes, like the 'Canyon Adventure' set I'd encountered in TK Maxx late last year. But the ones featuring buildings - fire stations, restaurants, police stations, multistorey car parks, building sites - now those appealed. I think I held out for just over two weeks before scuttling back over to Holywood one lunchtime. I needn't have worried - all three sets were still there on the shelf. But I had worried. A lot. I'd tied myself in knots at the thought of missing out on one of these. The FOMO is strong. And y'know what? It's pretty good. Maybe not really good, but pretty good. The pumps swing down automatically when you drive vehicles over the little pressure switches, and the door to the mini-mart slides open when a car parks outside. The pumps are pretty toy-like, but good all the same. There's even an EV charging station. I guess the question has to be, why would a grown man want to spend time and money messing about with this sort of thing? I really don't know. But it feels like this appeals to my 43yr-old self in broadly the same way it would absolutely have appealed to my 8yr old self. That same very pure rush of joy at something designed to delight and amuse - even though you'd think that several decades of being an adult, and having to fill cars with fuel to get to work, might have soured my enthusiasm for make-believe play of this nature. So I dunno. Through watching the YouTube unboxing videos, I slowly came to learn more about the Action Drivers line of play sets. Of course, Matchbox have been making this sort of thing for decades, but the Action Drivers branding only started in 2020, when the Fuel Station was launched, along with a Fire Station and a slightly alarming 'Helicopter Rescue' set, featuring a helicopter that seemingly drops an ambulance through the roof of a hospital, where it crashes down two storeys through the building and out the front, straight into a barrier. Both of these others were available online; the fire station at about £25 and the hospital for £19. While the hospital seemed to be about the same size as the fuel station, comprising two square base units clipped together, the fire station seemed twice the size at four base units, and boasted light and sound features. The idea is that all the sets can be clipped together to form streets and junctions, to build a small but rather busy town. As seems to be Mattel's way of doing business, rather than just making the sets for as long as demand sustains it, the 2020 Action Drivers line were deleted and replaced with three new releases for 2021. These included a large multistorey car park with light and sound, about as big as the fire station (four base units); and an even bigger Airport Adventure set, with airport terminal, car park, runway and control tower (a whopping eight base units, I think). These can be found online for anything between £40 and £90. Additionally, as is Mattel's habit, they released an exclusive Pizza Hut restaurant in late 2021 which (I think) was only available through Target stores in the US. For 2022, a slightly different Pizza Hut set was released worldwide, which seems to command a bit of a premium (£30-£50), despite only being a small single base unit set. A whopping six new sets appeared in 2022, comprising another single-unit set, the Bus Station; along with the twin-unit Auto Shop; a twin-unit Construction Site; the four-unit Canyon Adventure shown upthread; a four-unit Police Dispatch Centre; and a large six-unit 'Volcano Escape' set. Busy times. 2023 saw five new sets - a single-unit FedEx Depot (which seems to be very sought-after, as I haven't seen any for sale anywhere), a twin-unit Ferry Terminal set with push-along ro-ro ferry boat; a four-unit Super Clean Car Wash set; a much bigger six-unit building site set styled as the Epic Construction Yard; and a slightly weird 'Transforming Excavator' which isn't a city-type toy, but rather a large plastic lorry with fold-out bits allowing you to play with smaller Matchbox on it. So far this year Matchbox has released a 'Tow & Repair Truck' set similar to the Transforming Excavator, as well as a more conventional Traffic Control Centre single-unit set, and a large 'Farm Adventure' set that looks like it might be a six-unit set. So far. I'll level with you - I don't want them all. Some of them just don't appeal much; others seem quite expensive for all they are. But I do like a lot of them. Watching the (predominantly US) YouTubers picking these sets up in Walmart or Target for like $8 or $12 made me a little indignant, as they're so much more expensive over here. FOMO and rage, what a great combination. Having scored well over at the Toymaster in Holywood, it occurred to me that the branch in Newtownards might be a good hunting ground for any other sets. But I was wrong. Just another fuel station, this one with the Questor car robbed out of the packaging. However, after another few weeks of YouTube, FOMO and bitterness at how UK collectors seem to get screwed over pretty much every which way, I remembered that there was another independent toy shop over in Ards. This one proved rather more fruitful, and of course I fell into it wallet-first. Yup, the 2020 release 'Helicopter Rescue' - for a few quid less than its online listings - and the 2022 'Park & Play Garage' came home with me. This store also had the Canyon Adventure set for £17, and the Bus Station set for £14, but I don't much fancy another bus station and the Canyon Adventure isn't my bag. But the multistorey car park is quite good, if somewhat overly-orange. There's barriers to get in and out, a lift with light and sound, and parking for a fair few vehicles. I'm not all that keen on the light and sound functionality, though it can be disabled on this set by taking out the electronics unit. Certainly not because it sounds very loud at 1am. EV charging points on the top floor. It's very appealing. Yet still, a sense of 'why?' nags at me. The hospital is a bit weird, and also makes something of a nonsense of Matchbox's 'real world play' tagline, as I'm not sure how responsible it is to teach kids that hospitals are drive-thru buildings. But it really looks well when they're all clipped together. And it was into the midst of this turmoil that the Airport Adventure set arrived from a courier; I'd been swayed by discounts applied into my Amazon wishlist item. £55 down to £49. Hnnng. I haven't opened it; apart from the fact I've some vague notion of gifting it to my brother's kids, I understand that once the airport terminal building is clipped together it can't be taken apart again, so will never fit back in the box. Not a problem for 99.999% of buyers, probably. But an issue for me. To the point that, once I realised the toyshop in Ards had another airport set for £35, I was giving serious consideration at the weekend to going back over and buying it as a second one. But - I didn't. Yet. So they're all back under the bed at the minute. You can be sure there was no trace of them in the kitchen by the time MrsDC got home. All the while, the Ferry Terminal and Fire Station are still sitting in my wishlist. But I don't know if I want them. Not really. They're very appealing, and very ingenious toys, but I keep looping back round to why I'm so drawn to these sets. Even as a kid, I found the idea of sets like these better than the reality; often there was that sense of "oh... so that's all it does" about 10 minutes after opening it on Christmas morning or whatever. So I know better. But I still like them. Ah well. It's probably fair to say this post hasn't exactly gone the way I intended it to when I started typing this morning. But thanks for coming to my TED Talk, however involuntarily. Hopefully the pics are enjoyable, and you can avoid the rambling.

Duly noted! Also noted... Still some more boxes to sift through, and I'll get everyone a heads-up before going live with the sales.

Nope, I didn't. Well, it's been a turbulent couple of weeks. This splashed down just when the £5 Mattel 5-packs dropped at Tesco, and I didn't know which direction to devote my energies. But a very large box arrived from across the water, with some very lovely things within... I'm an absolute swine for these Corgi Majors trucks, and I've been looking out for one of these Ford H-Series rigs for a while now. Unsurprisingly, this is part of the reason why a big box was needed! I did have most of a trailer at one point in the past, but not the matching truck - so I sold that on a few years back. This one's clearly seen some action in its time, but is largely complete and will make a nice companion for the car transporter version I turned up at the market a few weeks ago. Delighted with this! From one of Corgi's biggest models to one of their smallest, then... A very lovely Austin Mini in plain red, with just a few in-period stickers and Humbrol embellishments added by a previous owner. Generally these show up with the A-pillars cracked or entirely missing, so one that's structurally perfect is unusual. The floor seems to have been... undersealed? Most peculiar. The outer surface of the wheels have also been dabbed in black - and these may be relatively easy to clean up and take back to their original finish. But there's also something quite charming about this one just as it is, so I may leave it undisturbed. I'm not normally much of a one for farming models, but this Lesney King Size Fordson Super Major is one I'll make an exception for. There's a bit of the usual hub shrinkage here, but a drop of glue should keep things rolling. It's simpler than the equivalent Corgi and Dinky offerings in its construction, with no steering or suspension, but nonetheless an appealing little toy. And, to utilise that tow hook... A couple of trailers - a Dinky flat version, and a Lone Star conveyor lifter The Lone Star is actually in very good shape, and although the rubber belt has hardened a little over its 60-odd years, it still functions with some gentle encouragement and goes up and down on its 'hydraulic' rams. Some recent-ish Hot Wheels will likely be joining the others in the toybox: Mattel have been using some of these hot rod castings for a long time now. I'm also interested in comparing the Mercury Cougar with the Matchbox version from around the same time. Mazda RX7 is quite nice too. Then there's the Matchbox - beginning with these early 70s releases. I keep buying these Ford D-Series gritters and then selling them - so I intend to hang on to this one! Setra coach is one that's generally eluded me for a long time - not that they're rare, but more that whenever I see one there's generally something I want even more alongside it. The Superfast Miura is nicer than the one I currently have, so is an upgrade of sorts. The Security Van is one I owned as a kid, though unwisely I managed to remove the plastic roof with a hammer and screwdriver (I think I wanted to see what was inside?) and it was never quite the same again... The Rolamatics Badger in cola-cube metallic brown is one I generally disdained as 'made-up', but I've come round to these a lot more in recent years. This one is very tidy; most seem to suffer from terrible axle shonk but this is rolling well - and the little scanner on the roof's still spinning around too. The Bomag road roller is another I never had, and will go with my other construction toys that I've been quietly acquiring in recent months. I've always liked the long-running Mercury police car, and this is one of its later outings at the tail-end of the Lesney years (though it would reappear later still in the Roadblasters range under Universal, plus as a relatively uncommon Halley's Comet commemorative special release). The Holden HX Ute is one of my all-time favourite Matchbox castings, and it'll not surprise you that I've a few of these now. This red version is very clean with the sticker intact, and may even receive a pair of motorbikes to go on the back for display purposes... I had the military Jeep as a kid too, probably from a jumble sale, but it was missing its windshield as well as the cannon to the rear. This one's missing its weapons but does have the windshield, so I'm pleased. The Volvo FL lorry was one which excited me quite a lot as a kid, as it seemed very modern and detailed plus it was big. I'm not sure if I have any of my childhood examples remaining, but if not this'll be a good one to fill the gaps. The silver-grey Pontiac Firebird has good paint, though some mild crush damage to the windscreen surround that I've mostly straightened out, and a missing glazing unit. The black version alongside was a bonus car thrown in by Dan, and I'm 99% sure it originally came from me via the market! I think it's an ex-Frosties promo with the 'tiger stripes' removed, and may yield a glazing unit for the silver car... The Mack CH500 tractor unit is another one I used to have from new, and I remember being surprised to find it boxed individually as part of the mainline range, rather than in a Convoy pack with a trailer - I now know (through dedicated study of catalogues) that Matchbox packaged most of their truck units as regular mainlines, such as the Kenworth Aerocab and Peterbilt, but somehow this had passed me over at the time. The Land Rover Ninety is another of my favourite '80s releases - I received a blue and white version one Christmas, and was super excited as I didn't know this casting existed at the time. It seemed very true-to-life, in terms of colour and detailing, and it lived on my model railway for a long time - but unfortunately the white plastic roof went yellow from the sunlight. I've recently acquired a replacement blue version, and this red variant will make a nice companion piece. The Chevrolet El Camino is a much more recent casting, dating from the early 2000s I believe. Compared to recent releases it looks a little blocky in its proportions, but it was good to see this modelled. I believe this casting still gets wheeled out from time to time - most recently in the Coffee Cruisers IV 5-Pack set, wearing black paint and quite nice silver detail tampos. Moving across into Mettoy products now... A pair of Husky-era Guy bulk tippers, one carrying coal and the other hauling... cobbles? Potatoes? I've often been a bit lukewarm towards Husky commercials, but these were too good to miss. Likewise these two quarry tippers. I actually thought these were two versions of the same casting, but really they're totally different - the red and grey Husky with the remains of a plough is an Aveling Barford, while the (mildly incongruous) Whizzwheels is a Terex R-35, and the castings of both bodies and tippers have no commonality. Sometimes it's good to clear up these misunderstandings. As a kid, I owned the battered shell of one of these Whizzwheels S3 Land Rovers, but what became of the base or wheels is beyond me. It became a staple of my 'toy scrapyard'. The metallic green on the right was the civilian example, while the matt green I believe originally came with a clip-on plastic rear section and military ambulance stickers. I've never owned a BVRT Vita-Min before; when I was younger I saw them but simply assumed that Corgi's effort at modelling a Mini was somehow even worse than the Matchbox attempt, and shunned them accordingly. I was embarrassingly old before I twigged it was specifically modelled on the heavily modified Minisprint conversion, and that was why the body lines looked nothing like a 'real Mini'. Oops. This one has had some paint done, so I'll try to clean this up a little! I've had a few examples of the Whizzwheels Le Mans Sprite pass through my hands before, but not in such good shape as this one. I owned a fair few pale blue Renault R5 Turbos from the BP petrol promotion in the mid-1980s, but never had the dark blue Elf version. At these low, low prices I couldn't resist. The tipper also intrigued me - I remember having a cement mixer using this same chassis unit when I was very young, but the black glazing, lack of interior and seemingly generic casting led me to classify it as a low-grade toy, and so it never really featured in my play settings. I only found out quite recently that it was based on a real GMC commercial vehicle (I think?), and wasn't a generic. So apologies are due (though if Corgi had troubled themselves to state that on the base, I may have felt differently). The tipping mechanism's actually quite good, with a heavy diecast flap at the back so it's heavy enough to pivot and remain vertical; I sort of like this. Finishing up, there's this Minix Vauxhall Viva HA: I used to be mad into Minix; I had quite a few at one point, including rarer releases like the Simca 1301 and Morris Landcrab. A red Viva was one of the first things I ever bought off eBay, some twenty-odd years ago. I think I paid £5 for it, plus postage - and sent him a cheque in the post to pay for this. Yup kids, the days before e-commerce was a thing. When it arrived, the back bumper had an end corner missing, which the seller had unaccountably not mentioned in their description of it as 'excellent' and 'mint'. Lots of lessons were learned. I moved them all on a while back, but got a tug at the heartstrings when I saw this one looking a new home. And hey, it is excellent. Bit of a wildcard to finish with... Normally I'm not much into biplanes, or indeed planes in general, but this little Nieuport 101-3 appealed for some reason. I don't know who it's made by but I don't think it's very old; it's just cheaply made, using diecast and tinplate components that are assembled fairly crudely. The paper stickers are falling off, and it could definitely benefit from a trip around the sink, but I kinda like it. And that's kinda that... Oh, except for the knackered white metal Rover P6 which I forgot about and found at the bottom of the box a few days later, and haven't yet photographed! All thanks to @danthecapriman for yet another exceeding fine selection at very moderate prices! Which reminds me, I must really get some of my surplus stuff photographed and offered up here... And so the great game of pass-the-tat-parcel continues... Happy Easter, kids.

Honestly, they keep the butter in that place so refrigerated that it'd be easier to spread one of their candles on your scone... but 15 minutes leaning against the coffee cup did the trick! Unboxed... I don't think I mentioned the DanBox from the other week yet, did I?

Just to finish off on Saturday's adventures, then... The orange Hot Wheels Honda Civic custom came from Asda; I don't have that one, and £1.90 seemed not too unreasonable. The longcard Matchbox Chevy Nova - a 2020 release which seemed to bypass UK retailers, but has been dribbling through more recently as a grey import - was acquired at the Smithfield model shop, as was the 2024 version of the '66 Dodge Charger in dark green, which I like much more than the silver and orange 70th Anniversary release from last year. Of course, he wrote the price in marker pen on the packaging, as is his wont. But it doesn't bother me so much on these as it does on 40-year-old Corgis. I also picked up a not-bad Lesney Mercury Commuter with regular wheels from the loose selection for £2, and a very tidy My First Matchbox Rover Sterling for a quid. He actually had a fair amount of ok Lesney stuff this time round at similar pricing - yet also recent Hot Wheels priced at £3 or £4, loose. In some cases, he still had carded examples of the same models hanging over on the other side of the shop for only £2. Like I say, bewildering and unpredictable. I could have spent more, but only had a limited amount of cash on me. The Superfast Cortina has been discussed, but for me the star of yesterday's show was this: A minty US release of the MB22 Cavalier GSi, acquired from the collectables shop in Holywood. This is why I was uncharacteristically willing to forego the pretty good example I'd bagsied on Friday night from the @bunglebus sales thread. Funny, I'd been thinking about this model earlier too, because the Smithfield shop used to have a bunch of these 1980s US issues in a case for only a fiver - including a Mk3 Cavalier. Having stared at it for years, one day I went in to buy it - only to find it was just sold. Regrets, hey? So when I found this alongside a bunch of other boxed Lesneys from the 1970s and 80s on a shelf in the NO PHOTOGRAPHY PLEASE shop, I felt a strong yearning. It wasn't amazingly cheap, but I felt it was a fair price for what it is. More so than the other Matchbox, which on closer inspection turned out to often be rather less than mint, and housed in reproduction boxes. I dunno about you, but I don't think that £20 is a particularly reasonable price for a chipped Fiat 131 Abarth in a repro box. He also had a carry-case of fairly playworn Corgi Juniors and Matchbox Superfasts which were priced at £4 each, though he generously offered to 'do me a deal' on the entire box. It's a weird shop. But I think I did ok out of it. So after that, it was time to head back down the road to IKEA, and roundly tear the arse out of their free coffee refills policy in the cafe while typing some of this up, as I awaited my 'come and collect your shiz' text. Which eventually came through at 1.55pm. Ah well. I've had worse days...

Right then... as we know, one does not simply 'come home from IKEA' - there's then a few hours of banging together fibreboard cuboids and trying to get them securely attached to the wall in passably uniform fashion before it's possible to even think about little toy cars. But, y'know, it looks ok, I reckon. So then, Cash Converters? Yeah, it's always sad when store managers get hooked on crack, and set about them with the price gun. These are largely the same 2022 and 2023 selection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox that can still be found for between £1.49 and £2.50 in many stores a mere stone's throw from this very branch - but for some mysterious reason they're priced at £4 here. And the rest. Poundstretcher are still doing these green longcard Deltas for £2.50. There's a branch of Poundstretcher literally a two minute walk down Castle St from Cash Converters. So a tenner? Nah. I'd sooner have this piece of 1980s-looking plastic tat, for the same money. With no IKEA notification yet, I hobbled back to the car and on down the road to Holywood. Stewart Millar did us proud with some nifty Matchbox back in January, but alas no more. A quick squizz indicated no new arrivals, though I did briefly agonise over another DeLorean. But - there's a lot of charity shops in Holywood High Street. And I'd been lucky with the Cortina earlier. Most had nothing of interest, but some surprised me. In amongst the usual Lledo dross I was surprised to see this Corgi Warner & Swasey telescopic crane. Even at £5, I was moderately tempted - but missing legs and the winding mechanism, plus some axle shonk, cooled my ardour somewhat. But moving on down the High Street suddenly revealed these beauties, in an animal charity shop. Holy moly. Some pristine early blue-box Corgis (the Velox being a rarer mechanical version), early Lesneys, and a Dinky Austin Somerset (with the box missing a flap) were enough to get me in a flap. Although the presence of the Model of Yesteryear gave me some pause about whether whoever put them in the case actually knew what they were doing. But there were no prices on them. And no-one in the shop seemed to know what price they were. Although the cabinet did contain other things that were a bit spendy. Not just the £30 crystal ashtray in front of the Vauxhall. Like a tired-looking Kodak Box Brownie priced at £110. And a set of chess pieces for £200, with a sign saying that the same set was on Etsy for £400. These were not particularly good signs, literally or metaphorically. Eventually, at the point they were going to phone the manager to see if she knew what price they were, I just smiled beatifically and said it was ok, not to worry. These weren't going to be a tenner a pop or anything. They were valuable, deservedly so, and I highly doubted my pockets would be deep enough once the asking was revealed. Why torture myself? So off I went, round to the sort-of antiques and collectibles shop. You know the one. The one selling absolute tripe for £££. But, weirdly, today it wasn't all rubbish. Not quite, anyway. Ok, time to reveal.

Right, apparently IKEA's WiFi didn't like me uploading pics so banned me from its network. Cool cool. Means I can't post anything until I arrive home again, as signal is virtually non-existent out in Holywood Exchange...

Here, have a pic from the reverse view, for a change. The IKEA click 'n' collect timeslot was given as 10am-2pm, so that gave me a bit of leeway for hoking. A pit stop at Cityside Retail Park for coffee allowed leisurely perusal of a Home Bargains, Poundland and B&M, but there wasn't much to appeal from a diecast standpoint. The neverending Asda Living toy aisle jumble sale was surprisingly tidy for a change, and although their Hot Wheels selection was still stuck in mid-2023, I noted they had a much heavier metal rummage bin on the shelf, alongside one of the usual flimsy cardboard efforts. Fancy. I also took a spin into the Action Cancer charity shop located in the shopping centre; the scene of the upsetting Lesney-yoinking incident a few weeks ago. And, oh lookee... Well, no bags of cars - but a lone Cortina MkIV with some hand-painted stripes. So I did. With still no 'your order is ready to collect' message received from everyone's favourite Swedish megastore, I thought I'd see if there was owt in Belfast. I got parked beside Smithfield, and so, inevitably... Yes, the model shop. Yer man does keep quite a good selection of Matchbox and Hot Wheels mainlines, as well as harder to find lines like Moving Parts, Collectors Series and Superfast anniversary models. I used to not really bother my arse looking because his recent mainlines were generally £2 whenever Tesco and the like were doing them at £1 - but they're still out at £2, interestingly, making them cheaper than many retailers now. He had quite a few desirable releases too, like the MB Volvo 240 saloon in blue and the MK1 VW Golf in green, and the HW Proton Saga and slammed VW T2 transporter. Also, the usual loose stuff in a bewildering and unpredictable range of pricing options. Yes, I put my hand in my pocket, finally. And then left, while the experience was still relatively positive. Since I was near to The Entertainer, it seemed silly not to check... Dammit, they've got the Matchbox back on offer. And they had some that I'd just paid full whack on. Oh well. Ten packs had some nice colour variations, like the metallic black MGB, but I really mustn't. No Hitch n Haul, Working Rigs or Convoys to be seen, sadly, and just the same Moving Parts as before. Ah well. Since I was apparently now doing the rounds, I scuttled over to B&M - but they'd nothing to interest me today, ditto Poundland. Cash Converters seemed to be rejigging their store, and with no visible diecast downstairs, I went upstairs... [TBC - getting a lot of error messages here so dunno if it's the site or Ikea's WiFi acting up]

Some nice finds here recently; just goes to show that the Belfast market scene isn't quite the be-all and end-all... No market action yesterday either, I'm afraid, since I was waiting in for a sofa delivery which could have appeared any time from 8am onwards (typically, it didn't arrive until after lunch). Still, have an afternoon picture of the Tree of Tat, anyway. An early afternoon trip to Tesco to find some avocadoes tested my willpower to breaking point - as the local store seems to have finally replenished their Matchbox tub with the last 2023 mix: So, I broke. I rather suspect the 5-packs will come off their half-price Clubcard offer soon. Later, an unsuccessful run over to a retail park to procure a lamp instead landed me right beside a branch of Smyths. It did not escape my notice that their Matchbox mainlines are now reduced to £1, suggesting these are now considered an obsolete line. There weren't many from this selection that I don't have already. But there were some. I also picked up this Hot Wheels Premiums Toyota Land Cruiser - it was the only one left, there was no price on the peg, and I noted that a shelf above full of Big Air Bel Airs from the same off-road collection were down to a fiver... so I took a chance. Well, ultimately it scanned at £8.99 at the till, so no bargains for me there - but it's a cracking big weighty thing and I do rather like it regardless. I also nabbed another of the F&F Decades Silverline range, this time the '70 Chevy Nova. What's odd is that, unlike the El Camino and Grand Prix I picked up before, this has a metal base and is nearly indistinguishable from the much more expensive Premiums release. There's not even any extra tampo detailing or anything. The bases are identical, and the only difference seems to be the rubber 'Real Riders' tyres on the Premium, and the bumpers are chrome plated rather than just grey plastic. But not really a lot of difference, given the semi-premium retails at £3.49 and the premium at £8.99. I'm very pleased with these, and although I've unboxed them I haven't taken any pics yet. A turn through B&M netted me these... Two I nearly bought a few weeks ago, but didn't. The Dodge Ram is very nicely detailed, and the Forester... well, I have a soft spot for Subarus. Though not as soft as their sills, apparently. And a turn past an independent toyshop made my jaw hit the floor when I clocked the mahoosive Matchbox Action Drivers Airport Adventure set hiding up near the ceiling, and on sale for just £35. I'd been over in this store a few weeks ago, how the hell did I miss this?! This would have been a cracking bargain, but for the fact I'd already pulled the trigger on this one a week or two previously (having had it on my Amazon list for like a year), and it showed up earlier this week. I thought I'd got a good deal on this, seeing as how some eBay headcases are trying to wrangle £90 for them, but it was still a fair bit more than £35. Nominally, this is a birthday gift for my niece in September. Or so I keep telling myself. I haven't opened it, but we'll see how my famous* iron-will holds, shall we? It's quite a bit bigger than the smaller sets in the range. I did a bit of a photoshoot with my other Action Drivers sets last week; I'll put them up here at some point. The airport set comes with two vehicles and all. I don't know why I'm so smitten with these kiddies' toys right now, but I am. I daresay a psychologist would have some theories, though... And if that's not enough, I headed out this morning on an IKEA collection run...

Sun. Though I think I'll skip the market this morning, folks; will see how things are stacking up by lunchtime.

SATURDAY TAT SAFARI PT 2 Yes, there's more. Of course there's more. I'm like a dog with a bone when it comes to this sort of thing. There's probably not much point in giving you a blow-by-blow account of my perambulations between each store etc, so here's a summary: Cluster 5: This is Cityside Retail Park, and encompasses a few other retailers towards the north of the city. This has proved not a bad hunting ground in the past - especially on some less than stellar Friday mornings, since it's just beside the M2 on-ramp. B&M Cityside- smallish and cluttered store; one Hot Wheels shipper containing the dregs of the early to mid-2023 releases. A few early 2023 Matchbox on clip strips flanking the aisles, but mainly luggage tugs and those acid green fire engines. Home Bargains Cityside - big store, but light on Mattel. No Matchbox at all; no Hot Wheels mainlines either. Couple of Monster Trucks is the height of it. Does still have some Hot Wheels playsets at cheap prices, but they really do nothing for me (transporters shaped like sharks, things with snakes around them). Asda Home - as pointed out elsewhere, their toy section invariably looks like the aftermath of a church jumble sale after the Women's Institute shock troops have torn through it. Some old (late 2022/early 2023) Hot Wheels mainlines, but mostly unwanted fantasy stuff; some current semi-premium and premium HW releases too, but with any sought-after ones already snaffled. Majorette towing twin-packs, some buses and things as well. Lots of larger-scale Jada film 'n' TV vehicles too, but they don't do a lot for me either. Tesco Cityside - a small and rather depressing Tesco store that involves passing through an awful lot of barriers and scanners to get in and get back out again. Well, it is kinda in New Lodge, one of the most economically deprived wards in Belfast. Accordingly, no Matchbox at all and only a handful of very old 2022 release Hot Wheels still malingering in a creased shelf tub. Fun fact: New Lodge was the 'hopeless place' used to film the video for the Rihanna/ Calvin Harris track 'We Found Love'. Poundland Cityside - a very large, two-storey branch that was the site of the Great 50p Matchbox Mixup this time last year. Had been a source of significant quantities of excellent Hot Wheels last year too, but their peg allocation has shrunken down considerably in recent months and they remain stuck with late 2023 selections. A couple of 2024 Matchbox were still swinging on some very inaccessible pegs up top, so they must have cracked open a case recently, but there's none I'm still looking for. Missed out there. Tesco Antrim Road - scruffy mid-size store with low ceilings; probably used to be a Crazy Prices back in the day, before the carpetbaggers at Tesco bought 'em out in the late 90s. Not much in the way of toys; a few early 2023 fantasies loose on a shelf were the best they could muster. Asda Shore Road - similar to Tesco, but with a few 5-packs in addition to the dregs of the early 2024 Hot Wheels mainline selection. This seems to be the same case selection that the red Proton came in; obviously there were none of those left hiding in there... Which brought me to the top of the Shore Rd, under the M2 flyover, and into CLUSTER 6: This is the vast, sprawling retail hydra spanning Newtownabbey and Glengormley, right on the very edge of Belfast, comprising Abbeycentre, Longwood Retail Park, Abbey Retail Park, Valley Retail Park, and Northcott Shopping Centre. Poundland Longwood - recently opened store that had a lot of Mattel diecast this time last year - unfortunately this has shrunk down quite a bit. Some Matchbox remained, but again all just early 2023 releases like the AMC Eagle: Hot Wheels are stuck in mid-2023 cases, apparently. Nothing I'm desperate to add to the collection, unfortunately. Home Bargains Longwood - apparently the biggest branch of Home Bargains in Ireland, this was formerly a Homebase store. Had been sporadically excellent for Hot Wheels, and also stocked some very cheap Matchbox Action Drivers playsets last year - but alas not so much anymore. A few depleted pegs of late 2023 HW mainlines were the height of it. Meh. TK Maxx Longwood - fairly big store with a Homesense sub-store in it; this place has formerly given me jackpot finds of 1/43 magazine partworks, but not so much lately. Majorette and Siku mainlines and premiums crop up here occasionally, Hot Wheels less so, and I have seen some overpriced Matchbox sets on the shelves - but none of those things were visible on Saturday. Double meh. Matalan Longwood - bit of a wildcard, but hear me out; a few weeks back I was in here with MrsDC, and noticed they had Hot Wheels racked at knee height in the queue for the tills. Stupid place for them, as the queue's moving, so you can't really stop and crouch down to see what was there; and that's probably why it was all older stuff. Also, a £2.40 price tag was a bit spendy, BUT a three-for-two offer was flagged. At that time, I could see a Nissan Maxima drift wagon on the pegs (which I don't have), and a very green Audi A4 R-series estate (which I do have, but in a less appealing black colour), but I couldn't quite see an appealing third model that would make it worth my while - but then the queue was moving, and MrsDC was giving me a very particular sort of look, so I didn't. But on Saturday morning, I was back alone - and fully prepared to block the queue if need be. My first shock was realising that the three-for-two offer no longer applied, and that some poor sod had been tasked with going through the entire stock to tear off the no-longer-relevant part of the price sticker. The second shock was that the green Audi was gone. Did I really want to spend £2.40 on a Nissan Maxima? Well, I know I probably should have bought one back last summer when they could be found for £1.50 in Poundland, but hindsight is always 20:20, as they say. I hadn't seen any others anywhere lately... and I had been kicking myself for a while now... Finally, currency was spent. Tesco Abbeycentre - one of the first purpose-built Tesco stores built at the end of the last century, it now looks kinda small and dingy inside. Not much of a toy selection, with no Matchbox at all and just a handful of unwanted 2023 Hot Wheels mainlines rattling round a tub amid assorted detritus. Poundland Abbeycentre - a large, new store in what was formerly a Primark branch, this has been one of the best stores to find newer Matchbox. This is where I finally happened across a much-desired Volvo 240 in January, and recently bagged a number of 2024 release VW Golfs, Lamborghini LP003s and Ford Rancheros for the delectation of a few thread regulars (and myself, of course). More Matchbox here than Hot Wheels, unusually. But I think I have most of the items here that I'm interested in. I'm hoping that there's another fresh case out the back, just... The 1980 Chevrolet El Camino and the Rockin' Railer seem to be some of the most common peg-warmers to be found in most places - which is odd in the case of the Chevy, as it's really a very lovely model in a great shade of green. Ah well. B&M Abbeycentre - biggish store, which typically has one of the best Mattel diecast selections on offer locally. I got a lot of Matchbox here early last year, and it's also proved a surprisingly rich seam of Hot Wheels semi-premiums, with the bulk of my HW Flying Customs and Ultra Hots finds coming from within its walls - along with Anniversary releases and other special edition lines. However, there's fewer and fewer mainlines left warming the pegs now, all of them 2023 releases. However, I was in this store a few weeks ago and noticed they had some of the 2024 Fast & Furious 'HW Decades Of Fast' silver-line releases. None of the Jettas (obviously), but I did quite like the Buick Grand National and the weird Chevrolet El Camino with the (thankfully removable) cage around it. But there were no prices on the pegs... so, chary of a shock at the till, I left them behind. But on Saturday, possibly embittered and rather flattened by my unrewarded tat-hunting efforts, I buckled. £3.49 each for the F&F releases. That's not too bad, I guess... Definitely flagging at this point, I decide to sack off the Smyth's Toys superstore up at Valley Retail Park - I'd done well to find another Hot Wheels premium Mk2 Escort RS1800 on the pegs there about a fortnight ago, but felt it unlikely I'd be able to repeat that trick. Their Matchbox range is down to two half-filled pegs of early 2023 releases, so I doubt there's been much improvement since. Though now I'm doubting myself... Similarly, I couldn't be arsed hauling myself up the hill to Northcott; the morning's travails had done nothing to convince me that their Tesco Extra might have anything special on the shelves. Ditto The Range; if the Connswater branch was still displaying last year's releases, chances were the Northcott branch would be the same. So, I went home. I didn't think it fair of me to put MrsDC through the worry-mill any longer; I'd been gone for hours, and doubtless she'd be wearing a track in the carpet from pacing up and down, anticipating my safe return from Tatland. In the event, she was still asleep when I got back. Oh well. But at least I could make myself a coffee and pop the blister packs... ...then have a good ol' think about what I was doing with my life.

Been a funny old week, kids - could be that the effects of market tat withdrawal are kickin' in. As planned, I did head out on Saturday morning, early-ish, to see if I could happen upon a fresh case of Matchbox or Hot Wheels that had been newly stocked out. Also because out-of-town retail parks are famously lovely* places to be on a damp Saturday morning. I've been heartened by some UK sightings of the K-case Jaguar XJC and Chevy C10 longbed, and had high hopes that today could be my day of days... However, after scouring some twenty-six stores in the Greater Belfast area which carry Mattel diecast to a greater or lesser degree, I'm forced to conclude that, for 2024, it's probably only Poundland which are likely to be stocking any Matchbox mainlines - and even then, I don't think they're all that arsed about carrying them. God help me, I've started divvying the city up into clusters of retailers, so I can carry out precise, targeted strikes on stores. I know. What has my life become? Cluster 1 takes me the furthest away from home - focusing on Holywood Exchange and environs, allowing me to smack a Tesco Extra, a large Home Bargains, a big Sainsburys and an independent Toymaster store plus a Tesco Metro - should I wish to push my luck trying to park in Holywood town centre. Having already stopped off at the big Sainsbury's on Friday night, and made the fateful discovery that they carry Matchbox 5-packs and Majorette premiums (but not mainlines), I didn't bother going back in there again - though their two-5-packs-for-£15 offer was kinda tempting. However, the dark seed had been planted that there could be stuff out there, unbeknownst to me, hence taking an uncompromisingly rigorous and systematic approach to the act of procuring cheap mass-produced children's toys. Because, as any Fule Kno, this are Serious Bizniss. The big-ish Home Bargains proved a disappointment - no Hot Wheels mainlines at all, and only a handful of HW monster trucks huddled at the end of a shelf. No Matchbox whatsoever. I'd held out some faint hope that a few bargainous Matchbox Action Drivers sets might show up on the shelves, as they did this time last year, but nope. The big Tesco Extra at Knocknagoney had a few Matchbox left in a dump bin, but again it was the same early-to-mid-2023 dregs in torn boxes that my local store continues to carry: Not that these are bad - but I just have all I need from this range. There were quite a few late-2023/ early 2024 Hot Wheels in an adjacent tub, including the slammed VW T2 dropside which I probably should have picked up - but ultimately, I left the store empty-handed. Having hit up the Stewart Miller Toymaster store in January and again in February, with diminishing returns, I felt it more prudent to focus my attentions to stores I hadn't visited for a while. So it was over to Cluster 2, in East Belfast - Connswater Retail Park. There's the original but much-modified Connswater Shopping Centre on the site, dating from the 1980s - and the Poundland in the mall was the first stop. Okay, so five pegs of various 2023 case releases - though none of which I was mad keen on. So, so many of those pointless little luggage cart things. I very nearly picked up the blue Goodyear Tyres release of the Renault Kangoo - but I dunno, it just seems like quite a flimsy little thing. I kinda like it, but don't really love it. Especially not at £2. The few Hot Wheels left that weren't daft fantasy releases were ones I already have, too. Just across the concourse, Poundstretcher beckoned... With a dump bin crammed full of import 2021 Hot Wheels longcards they're plainly having trouble shifting, and a shamelessly lying sign. These are not 'great value' at £2.50 - not when Poundland directly opposite are knocking them out for £1.50. Looking closer, these seem to be Japanese-market releases, curiously with no import distributor details stuck to them. Well, okay then - I'll do my best to refrain from putting it in my mouth, or using the sun. No promises, mind. I'm still hoping these will go down to half-price, as Poundstretcher have done before with their slow-selling Mattel stuff, but maybe their corporate buying team cut a dreadful deal to acquire these, and Head Office won't authorise a reduction. They'll be sitting for a while yet, in that case. Further round, in the toy aisle, their 2023 Power Grab Matchbox mainlines were still kicking about, too. I really like these rectangular boxes, better than the blister pack equivalents, but again - I already have all I want from this selection, and I'm not buying any more duplicates just cos they're in different packaging... There used to be a mid-size Tesco store as Connswater's anchor retailer, but it packed up a few years back and there's now a branch of The Range where it used to be. The Range used to have Hot Wheels shipper displays prominently placed a few years back, but now they only had a handful of mid-2023 releases swinging forlornly on some sparse pegs. Other than the little Mighty K pickup in bluey-grey, with the skateboard in the rear bed, they were all mostly fantasy castings and so didn't really appeal... and I already have the teeny-tiny pickup in its earlier metallic pink iteration. I'm not gonna fall down the every-casting-in-every-colourway collector trap... Not today, anyway. So I bustled out past the checkouts, clinking my keys and trying to look confident - as I'm afflicted with this fear I'm going to be challenged as a shoplifter because I'm leaving without buying anything, despite my years in retail teaching me that minimum wage staff don't care - and made my way across the car park to the newer big-box stores. This branch of Home Bargains had a small number of Hot Wheels mainlines on about three pegs - once again, that coppery-coloured Ford Coupe gasser and the Cadillac Seville in two-tone blue were prevelant - but again, nothing I really fancied. The Connswater branch of B&M is one of the larger stores, with several aisles of toys, but they make relatively little of it available for diecast. Instead, there's a few pegs just inside one of the emergency fire exits, which are easy to miss as you approach it from the main entrance. Eh... nothing new, and although a Matchbox Subaru Forester in black and a Hot Wheels Dodge Ram in white did raise my pulse slightly above tickover, they just felt like I'd be settling for something out of desperation, rather than finding something I really wanted. So I left them. While wandering the aisles just in case I happened upon any clip strips, I thought these 10-packs represented quite good value for money, at £20 for two... Good to see the first release version of the Volvo 240 Drift Wagon making it into the multipacks now - although, with a high proportion of them either fantasy or exotic castings, I can't say I was very much tempted. So I left, still without anything small and with wheels. There were other places to try... [TBC!!]

@bunglebus Good to see the Gods of Tat have been smiling on you! Enjoy 😎

Bit of an oddity I happened to spot earlier today, sat atop one of those pop-up stalls that sells phone cases and chargers in the middle of the shopping centre concourse: Seems to be a plastic model of a 1955 Pontiac Star Chief that doubles as a Bluetooth speaker. Of course. It reminded me a bit of those terrible 'classic car' radios and telephones from back in the 1980s. I didn't see it out of the box, but it looks like it might be quite large. And the headlights seemingly come on. Possibly 'inspired by' the rather spendy 1/18 Sun Star version? I didn't see a price on the shopping mall example - but some light internet searching indicates that the 'WSTER WS-598 Music Car Speaker' can be obtained via AliExpress in the sub-tenner price bracket...

DanBox incoming! Something nice to open after my online meeting, anyway!

👍👍👍👍

Happened to be over at the Sainsbury's branch at Holywood Exchange this evening, and darn it if they don't have a significantly better selection of diecast than the lousy Carrick store: Matchbox 5-packs were on the shelves, and plenty of them, though no single mainlines. Still, two packs for £15 isn't a bad price - I was a bit tempted by the Autobahn pack with the brown Mercedes estate and pale blue BMW 2002, but couldn't see another set I particularly liked. Majorette too - first time I've seen these 60th Anniversary releases in real life. At £6 they're fairly pricey, but then they do come with a tin. Anyone urgently needing any of these? Plenty of all four were on the shelf... and I may be carrying out a bit of a dawn raid on potential diecast suppliers across the Greater Belfast area tomorrow morning soooo... We'll see what happens.

Fear not, today's not completely absent of small vehicles. This landed the other day: Yup, the slightly delayed February release from Corgi Model Club - it's the #490 Volkswagen Breakdown Truck. This is one I've been looking forward to for a while - in fact, the next few months are all models I've been looking forward to for a while. And this one is very appealingly rendered. It's basically a reworking of the #431 VW Pick-Up released in March 1964, which saw a metal winch unit, plastic towhook and moulded toolbox fixed to the standard unit in August 1966, to form part of the Gift Set 37 - Lotus Racing Team, featuring the newly converted VW T1, two Lotus Elans (one with detachable chassis), a Lotus Climax racing car, and a trailer. As well as being included in a few other Gift Sets, the VW recovery van was then released as a standalone model in December 1966, and had a fairly long spell in the line-up, surviving well into the Whizzwheels era with its last outing in the 1972 Corgi catalogue. It came in a few different colours; this is the mustardy-yellow version with no stickers. The tools and spares section is rather fetching, and quite cleverly done using a chromed insert covered over by a red top section with cutouts and an integral lid (a similar technique would be used on the Pennyburn Workmen's Trailer). Mind you, the plastic could be a bit fragile when exposed to determined kiddie curiosity, and most of the examples I've seen are missing at least the toolbox lid, if not the entire cover moulding - like my original example, in an alternative white 'Corgi Breakdown' colourway. Also highly unlikely to be found with all but the most untouched of original examples are the two small tyres, which fit into a moulded slot in the back and can be easily removed and quickly lost. All in all, a most wonderful package. The winch mechanism is quite cleverly done, with a spring inside the barrel to maintain tension when the hook's in operation, so you slide the tyre along and turn it to either pay out some winch line or take up the slack, and then it springs back and holds the line in position against some cast-in teeth once you release it. Or at least, that's the theory. While my original example still works nicely, the reproduction seems to have missed getting its spring fitted at the factory - so the mechanism just slides up and down and the hook drops down to the ground, unless you manually move it to engage the teeth and then don't touch it again. Annoying, but not the end of the world. Base is fairly true to the original, with the 'pick up' lettering erased for this version, and of course 'Made in China' now prominent. One other change is that VW now seem to insist on their logo being added to licenced products. The front of the box details all the special features, to help sway indecisive kiddies. I still love the packaging on these, even if the card is much shinier than the originals. As ever, a little collectable card is included. It shames me to admit just how much I enjoy putting this little cardboard square away in its special little tin once a month. Clearly, I'm an easily-amused sort of person. The model for March (which I doubt I'll see until April, most likely) is the Austin A60 Driving School Car, which I happen to have a lot of time for - so eagerly anticipating that too. Other forthcoming issues for 2024 include the Rover P6 with Golden Jacks wheels (oh yes); the Chrysler Imperial with golf clubs in the boot; the London-Sydney Rally Hillman Hunter (more Golden Jacks); the ski club version of the Citroen DS Safari, and the Oldsmobile Toronado (Golden Jacks version also? Not sure yet). I'm a bit less thrilled about another Bond Aston, or indeed another very slightly different version of the Thames Walls Ice Cream Van (this time without the chimes), but I guess it's good that I have the option to just skip these releases as they arise. Even if it does kinda nip at my completionist tendencies - I've missed out on the 'Lazy Bones' Corvette (for some reason I don't like it), the Fire Chief version of the Chevrolet Impala (too much like the previous taxi version) and the reissued 'Saint' Volvo P1800S with the non-faux-aged sticker on the bonnet and the correct Paramount licencing information on the box (which CMC apparently neglected to gain permission for the first time round). But every time I get some discount code sent to me, I find myself looking at them... Ah well. I should just enjoy what I have!

Yeah, it's a dwarf variety that we've had in a pot for about ten years - bit late this time, it normally it starts to flower around early February and is the first thing in the garden to come into bloom. Daffodils, crocuses, muscari, camelia and even a snakehead fritillary have appeared before it this year, but it's getting there...