“I live in a madhouse …” Home Casting Humour

As well as EBay there are other maker and vintage listings out there, ranging from

the international Etsy with its often expensive ‘vintage’ toy soldier offerings and unusual international toy soldier offerings (great for window shopping)

to the more British based crafting site Folksy.

Here I spotted and bought this rather apt fridge magnet that home casters might enjoy.

https://folksy.com/items/7160996-I-Live-In-A-Madhouse-Magnet

Luckily I tore off the Folksy maker’s name from the invoice and stuck it roughly in the back, so I could find them again.

I thought it goes well with the contents of a recent mostly Schneider vintage metal mould casting session and some very cheap Pound Store conversion plastic soldier Boy Scouts.

Eagle eyed readers may spot two ‘half casts’ who were missing heads, so these colonial flats got a plastic flat head modern Fritz helmet from the Specia forces figures.

(Small) World Domination plans

It reminds me of a rough sketch outline I did for a finished postcard in a local art event in the anonymous Post Secret / Secret Squirrel confessions postcards project:

Rough sketch by Mark Man of TIN – based in Prince August 54mm toy soldier moulds

This postcard blog post from my first month of blogging here in 2016 with some thoughts on homecasting https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/15/

Blog posted by Mark, Man of TIN on 8 May 2021.

Man of TIN Advent Calendar Day 3 – Vintage 1980s Polish Toy Soldier Airfix clones on Etsy

Man of TIN Advent Calendar Day 3 – Looking up “Toy Soldiers” on the Etsy website is an easy way to lose several hours of an evening (and hopefully not lose or spend too much money).

The Etsy prices are generally not cheap (it is a retro, vintage, crafty, antique sellers platform site) but you do see some fascinating metal and plastic Toy Soldier figures from all over the world including Eastern Europe and America.

Perfect for online “window shopping”.

Shipping sometimes obviously adds prohibitively to costs from outside the U.K.

Disclaimer: Man of TIN cannot be held responsible for the loss of your time or hard earned cash from mentioning toy soldiers and Etsy. Searching for ‘toy soldiers’ on Etsy also occasionally brings up ‘adult’ material / figures.

I have bought from Etsy several times from UK and overseas sellers with no problems.

One set that caught my eye but I didn’t buy (no longer available – ships from Bulgaria http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/RETROne?ref=si_shop ) are these interestingly blue uniformed versions of the Airfix 1:32 British paratroopers with very thick bases – Eastern European clones or copies?

I took a screen shot of these for my toy soldier scrapbook, so that now when they are sold and gone from Etsy, I still have the memory. All good reference and research.

Are these Airfix copies from Eastern Europe or an interesting paint job?

I’m thinking James Bond super villain defence of secret base forces …

Close up shot of Polish made  Airfix paratrooper clones from Etsy supplier  RetrOne 2018

Interesting Imagi-Nations colour scheme for these Airfix British paras?
I hope whoever bought them enjoys them.
I hope that all who see them on this blog or browsing on Etsy enjoy the looking!

Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN, Advent Calendar Day 3, Monday 3rd December 2019.