About Me

My photo
No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

M is for Merit

This is one of Merit's less well known sets, and is one of the few things I remember having as a kid. The Traction-engine has a push-and-go 'motor' using kinetic (or stored/fly-wheel?) energy to keep going after junior has let go, and each wagon has an animal. The animals are the same as the animals in the Merit Noah's Ark (with certain provisos; see next post!). Colours varied and the engine is approximately 1:48th scale

As with anything in the '50's and 60's, once the guys in Hong Kong got their hands on one for five minutes and fired-up their injection moulders there were more to choose from! The larger one has copies of the Crescent/Kelloggs circus range in 22/25mm, while the smaller set is a copy of a copy with the pulling horse being based on an Elastolin or Starlux medieval horse, and the cage-wagon being the one not copied by the other firm, but the card is a direct copy!

No comments: