Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 7 November 2016

Interesting finds

Bikes !
Another week and more visits into the world of Poundbargainlandworld, well quite a few visits if truth be told. I regularly visit two "Poundlands" after my hospital visits (of which there have been quite a few recently), my local "Poundland" and "Bargain Buys", more frequently (Mostly for glue, matt spray and sweets) and I only occasionally visit "Poundworld" as it's a bit of a trek to get there.

The packs as they come (yep, I know it's a shit photograph)
However, I have had the opportunity to tour all five shops in the last week and this post shows the  results of my wanderings.
First up then are these two packs of bikes, three different colours per pack, so I bought two packs to include each of the four colours available.
I'd spotted these a while ago and didn't get the there at the first opportunity, I was very happy to find them again as I missed out so many times not purchasing something the first time around!
Sid with the bikes, showing how good (imo) they are scale-wise.

Sid showing the scale isn't bad at all.
I have to confess, I love Helicopters,I really love helicopters and I 've looked at this particular one for a very time. It's a push along kid's toy and I wasn't sure if I likes it or not, as it comes with in-built 'features' I really don't like.
I decided though that it would be worth a little effort to 'sav' it (and for a £1 I  thought it was worth a punt)
Have you spotted the unwanted "feature" yet? 

How about now ? (The arrow shows the pull-string thing)
The underneath reveals the monstrosity that shows this s the toy it really is.
Once out the packaging it's revealed as a pull the cord and watch the this 'fly' along the floor, couple that with the truly awful wheel assembly sitting on the underside.
I foresee a lot of sawing and filing to get this into any semblance of a usable model.
I haven't a clue what make it's meant to be either, which won't help with the paint-job it'll need (maybe it'll just end up black!)
The close up view -aaarrrghhh!
A bus!
Another, rather cheap looking vehicle (It's a bus- surprise, surprise!) was this 'Greyhound' bus.
There were several,  differing only in the stickers that had been applied and the one I plumped for was the one with the US flag on it (naturally), the other choice being Australia!
Whilst it's very basic (no interior detail etc.) the scale is quite good. It will add to the general gridlock chaos on my roads and shouldn't look too out of place.
A bus' rear end!
Out of interest I showed this particular purchase to my wife (and not for any reason to try and justify my flagrant spending, oh no!)  and asked her what she thought , as I really didn't quite know the original purpose.
She thought they were either dress  'buttons' or cake decorations.
I on the other and saw cabbages and flower beds!
I didn't think to take a photograph of them sans-packaging, with Sid for scale, another time maybe.
Photoshopped to show all the 'intersting' sheets (and photographer's shadow)







Though maybe not immediately apparent from my photo collage these are pages from a "Basic Art" design pad (or so the blurb says).  It consists of 30 sheets 6" x 6" with three sheets of each different one. I've shown the ones with what I consider the most interesting ones  from my viewpoint would be very useful as wall paper for some of my scratchbuilt buildings. The sheets not shown are rather bland colours but still usable.
A second collection of potential 'wallpapers' also grabbed my eye and these can be seen in the photograph on the left. There are only eight sheets in the pack each 6" x 4", but they are adhesive backed and feel like a very thin cotton. Once more hey could be used as wallpapers or carpets (they really do have that feel). Other than the rather 'meh' black and white striped one, the others all have great modelling possibilities.
There is at least one other pack, but with different designs.



My final purchase was the pack shown on the right, a collection of plastic see-in-the-dark glowing dinosaur bones/fossils.
Despite my best efforts at using photoshop the pieces are very difficult to see.
I though of particulal interest to some gamers would be the mammoth (bottom right) which maybe would be a little too small for 28mm figures, is probably near enough in scale for 15mms, the other dinos less so.
I have no actual use for these, but having missed out in the past I did think I would purchase the pack anyway and to my delight I got it for 50p ! Poundlandbargain world after all! 

So, two weeks ' worth of pocket money just frittered away, but I was very happy with all my 'bargain' buys.

That's it then for another week, but I would like to add that I have ticked off another item from my 'Bucket List',  namely taking part in the  'Gladiatoris kickstarter!.
You can read more about this on my other blog (Zabadak's Gladiator World) HERE.

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

22 comments:

  1. Some nice hauls there Joe ;-) I need to go check out the bargain store (Dollar Tree) down the street from me, to see if I can find some goodies to add to my gaming collections.

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    1. Yep, I've been a bit jealous of some of the ifnds others have made in Dollar Tree stores - especially this time of year with model Halloween cemeteries (railing headdstones etc.) and lots of interesting stuff in Xmas villages - both of which we seem to miss out on. Oh, and cheap US squad cars (still looking out for thos too).

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  2. A beautiful example of "Must Have" toys for the discerning adult modeler/gamer.

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    1. Haha, some were indeed 'must have', but most were @I'm sure I can use that for something"!

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  3. You do have an eye for a bargain Joe, the helicopter is great and I can't wait to see what you do with the Dinosaur skeletons.

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    1. Thanks you Michael, needs must as they say. I had no intention of using he Dinos for anything, but realised they'd make a great exhibit in a museum!

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    1. Thanks Michal, if nothing else, I'm fullof ideas!

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  5. Nice one. I went to both Poundland shops in Bishop Auckland t'other Wednesday. Didn't get any hobby-wise from them, but I did notice that one shop carried more, and differing stock than the other - This being the High Street shop having more range than the retail park outlet. I thought it would have been the other way around.

    Did go into Boyes, however, and bought some cheap but decent TSS drill-bits for the hobby. £1 for a pack of 10. Cheaper than buying from a DIY or proper builders merchant shop. I do get some good bits from Boyes.

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    1. The variety and availability of different things wis wildly different between outlets,. The three Poundlands I visit never have exactly the same stuff.
      Boyes sounds good too !

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  6. Get that undercarriage sorted and the helicopter will look aces Joe :-)

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    1. I think so too, dGG and if it turns out OK imay have to get another so I can have a civilian one, a black ops one and a militray one. Damn, I'll need another two !

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    1. Thanks Clint, all useful for me at least!

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  8. Excellent, some cheap but very effective additions! I mean were would you be able to get hold of motorbikes like that and how much would they cost from a figure manufacturer???

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    1. HAha, hey're allheap!
      Plstc motorbikes for ProjectZ (Warlords) £25 for 2 - just saying.

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  9. Great finds there Joe. I am also a big fan of helicopters but they are not so hard to scratchbuild and then you can also make them really personal.I really envy the bikes.I am also looking for items to build my own bikergang and I have found three bikes so far but no figures to use as riders.

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    1. Thanks Ptr.Helicopters "are not so hard to scratchbuild"? Really ? I think you must be a much better modeller than myself!
      The bikes are agreat find imo, I intend tobuy the Westwind byker gang (10 bikes and riders for £20 iirc). I was going to use only five of the riders and bikes, making duplicates for when the bikers dismount. These bikes will com in very handy as rides for the others.

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  10. You always amaze me with how inventive your finds are. Most people (well me anyway) wouldn't look twice at half the stuff that you see, very inspiring.

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    1. Thanks Benoic, in my case it has really been a case of "needs must".

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  11. What a wonderful collection! Truly, you are the master of "pound-shop-bargain-jitsu", Joe.

    In my occasional visits to this type of shop, I do look for gaming possibilities. However, either your shops are better stocked for this kind of thing or you have a better eye for it than I do!

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    1. Thanks C6, I just them I'm better at being thrifty !

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