EXETER TOY FAIR (new acquisitions)

Here are the items picked up at the Exeter Toy Fair

A member of my family was travelling near Exeter and kindly provided a lift to the Matford Centre. The entrance fee is £4 after 10.30am but as I arrived rather early I took the 'Early Bird' entry of £10. To be honest, I was keen to have a morale boost and the idea of waiting outside for over an hour was something I could do without. 

I had prepared a small pack lunch, and compiled a list of wants. I wish I could report having successfully cleared all of them but ..... not quite. Nevertheless, it was a useful and enjoyable outing. OK, the number of toy soldier traders was not large, I would suggest five or six, but a careful rummaging furnished some nice items.

I would like to particularly mention the trader Kevin Duggan. I have purchased and swapped with this fellow on several occasions (and he does view this blog). On this meeting he really made an effort to support my 'gunboat diplomacy'. I was able to pick up an admiral and a midshipman for £3 each, and a contingent of naval ratings for £2 each. Thanks Kevin! My plan was to recruit two mid-19th century gunboat crews suitable to represent Prussian or Danish navies. I know some of you will be horrified to read this but I plan to paint the sennet hats black.

Another trader had a pack of two archaic lead artillery pieces which I've been wanting to acquire for some time. I think they look great. They cost £4 each. I suspect these were penny toys, but have only ever seen a handful, some wheeled while others are without. Any more information readers have on them would be most welcome.

That same trader also furnished three Charbens milk churns needing some repair work for £2, and a recast town civilian for £2.50.

A third trader furnished one of the above naval ratings and this William Grant's Whisky freebie for £2 each. This was actually the only firearm carrying figure I purchased that day.

Now another trader has regularly brought boxes of £1 damaged lead, which I search through with great anticipation. But this time the boxes were rather diminished. He acknowledged, his sales were mainly plastic these days. Nevertheless, he allowed me these four items for £5. I have been searching for a swan ever since viewing some Apperley Towers holiday snaps. 

On a second perusal of his stall I spotted this damaged chimney sweep's hand cart. Not sure who made it but I picked it up for £4, which seemed fair. Just needs the wheels and suspension sorted, and a suitable chimney sweep

Finally, I spotted a box of Scalectric figures for sale. 50p a figure. Lets see what we can do with them.

WORKING ON THE NEW ACQUISITIONS

First job was to remove any remaining paint from the lead items. Next step was to file away any untidy flash. A quick prime exposed any casting holes or damage needing some Milliput work.

The chimney sweep's handcart required more time than I expected to repair. A fine model, full of detail, it had collapsed on its intricate suspension. I want models which can take handling so I decided to reduce the suspensions and then superglue them back.  I then drilled both the wheels and the axil holders to take a thicker piece of metal wire...... and then added hubcaps, much better! I decided to repaint in a clean black, and could not resist some yellow ornamentation. Will have to seek out a chimney sweep, they normally wore black clothing!

The small but rather splendid garrison-naval guns have been sorted. As much as I would have liked them in bright colours, I feel black just looks more appropriate. Would love to know who manufactured them. Only one of the two had drilled holes for wheels, and this matches a pair I'd seen on Ebay several years back. The two guns are actually slightly different castings too.

This Britains admiral required some hat repair work. I've repainted him as a Danish naval officer. Interestingly, they continued to utilise red in their naval officers' uniform facings.

(For purposes of education, no profit made below.)

And here are my two new naval crews. The black hat and shorter sailor shirt looks much more continental. These can now serve as Prussian, Danish, or even small Italian states.

Papal Navy

Two Sicilies Navy

My simplistic German gunboat with a new crew.

And here is a Danish paddle-steamer fully manned.

I was finally able to include a Britains midshipman in my three Royal Navy gunboat crews. A very nice casting.

Manning the gunboat HMS Spitfire

Those Scalelectric figures are not to be mocked, I think they will work rather well in WW2 games.

This is the town figure painted, and have also completed a seated figure and bench.

And finally, here are the four items purchased for £5, now reduced to three. I already had a complete stile, so this broken one was perfect to use with the elegant gate. I drilled metal rods to secure it.

MORE LIVESTOCK ARRIVE

Spotted a W.Britains and a Johillco lead cow in a clearance store for £1 each. Will have to repaint but nice to see their horns are undamaged. This will increase my Friesian herd to six.

SOME SEATED CIVILIANS

Working on two seated civilians. The farm lady casting in overalls was donated by Graham Apperley. The other I picked up some time back is painted to look like Sergeant Jones in Dad's army.

                                                                              MGB

PS. Kind supporter of this blog Donnie McGibbon entered Hospital in January. I know I'm not the only one wanting to wish him well, and with God's grace.

FRENCH CAVALRY, MOTOR GARAGE, and more

                                                FRENCH CAVALRY ARRIVE

Over the last few years I've been steadily raising a French Army (1870-1914) collection. Most of these are traditional lead, but a few battalions are plastic, mainly French Foreign Legion figures. One aspect to the collection which has remained severely understrength has been the cavalry arm. My collection only comprised two (4 figure strong) squadrons of colonial light cavalry, using Dorset castings, and two heavily converted squadrons of mainly plastic cuirassiers. To be honest, the latter looked good but suffered from being somewhat large, the truth was I wanted some traditional looking toy cavalrymen.

I spotted this auction on Ebay and decided to place a bid. I won, but they were not cheap. They cost £22.94 plus £4.95 postage. I'm taking comfort knowing my plans don't require large numbers of French cavalry so this purchase will place me very close to the four or five squadrons I need to recruit.

A closer inspection showed that the two cuirassiers were different. the figure with a saddlecloth is the W. Britains officer. I also discovered that two figures presently serving in my original cuirassier units are metal and will be suitable for drafting as buglers, and one more as an officer, so this will help reduce my costs. 

The three pale blue cavalry are probably French hussars, but I'm dubious they ever wore pit helmets, and with a spike. I have seen some French colonial cavalry wearing tropical helmets but hussars rarely served outside Europe. I'm thinking of replacing the heads with something more French. (Would welcome opinions on these figures.)

                                                  The EMPIRE MOTOR WORKS 

                                          now opens up for trade 

A new business has just started in Georgetown, providing repair work for all forms of transport. The owner has also confirmed that petrol pumps will soon be operational, it certainly is about time.

Decided to create some suitable posters for both the Empire Motor Works and the Railway Inn. These are photocopies of originals I found on the internet. I wanted to choose my own, and size them onto a single sheet of A4.

And some posters for the Railway Inn.

FOLLOW-ON

A visit to the collectables shop on February 12 furnished another addition to my Garage & Repair Shop. It's a W.Britains garage water pump. Will have to see about finding some flexible rubber tubing to represent the hose.

He's Irish, so he is!

Picked up this metal farm figure for £2 in a charity shop. I haven't a clue who produced it, but it's 54mm in scale, and I only need to paint the hands and provide a metal base. Both arms came strangely with fibreglass pins. Viewing the style of the hat, and the bright red hair I'm convinced he is meant to represent an Irishman.

Restored

HAVE YOU PAINTED ENOUGH RED HAIRED BRITISH?

As a follow-on to the previous entry, the British Isles has the highest levels of red haired people in the world. It is not the same as other light coloured hair but rather a 'special' mutation which assists in vitamin D absorption from the reduced sun's rays reaching the British Isles. All the British Home nations are high in the three variant MC1R gene. Some 46% of Irish carry it with 10% having red hair. Even 30% of English carry it, with 4% having red hair. But the Scots hold the record with possibly 13% showing red hair. This led many to believe it is an Irish-Gael trait.  However, this view is now changing. New data has slightly reduced the Scots percentage. And, high levels of MC1R are still found in old Welsh and Saxon descended regions of Scotland too. (Only about 40% of Scots are actually Gaels). And now new data for Wales is indicating it may have the highest levels of red hair!

The gene is considered recessive, so mixing with others may reduce red hair over time. But I suspect we will still carry the gene. Unfortunately, it makes us Brits more susceptible to skin cancer from the sun. I have to use a factor 50 gently rubbed into a WW2 Tommy helmet for my sun protection. And not forgetting camouflage netting in August.

A BOX RECENTLY ARRIVED FROM GRAHAM APPERLY

Graham was having a clear-out of some lead and plastic items and wondered if I would like to try my hand at using them. Most of the items were lead floral pieces, some were fine, others would require a bit more imagination. A bit of fun!

First move was to divide the lead floral pieces into their distinct plant varieties. 

The most damaged variety, not shown, was broken up to furnish something for the toy cold frame, which Graham had also kindly provided. A hard piece of card was fixed to the underneath, and holes were drilled to take the glued plants. Hardly anything went to waste! Using most of the sunflowers, I've constructed two profusely flowering shrubs, and one sunflower plant.

Among the other items kindly forwarded were a few metal figures, and some fun extras.

Thank you, Graham!

EXETER TOY FAIR, FEBRUARY 14, 2026

                                                                          PART ONE

Have just got back from a day trip to the Exeter Toy Fair, held at the Matford Centre. Yes, I have spent some money. I really needed a morale boost and the event coincided with the first sunny, non-raining day of this year! I will be discussing the new acquisitions in my next post. For now, here are some general photos from the event.

Roger, a fair number of train stalls, and some very competitive pricing, I believe.

Only a handful of toy soldier traders, but I found some useful pieces!

Concerning the numbers attending, I'm not sure the public were that great, and the 'Early Birds' were almost as numerous as the post 10.30am cheaper ticket arrivals. But when has February been any good to any retail traders?

Part Two will be devoted to my toy soldier purchases, not that there were a lot, but some very useful additions that I'm rather pleased with!

MGB