Christmas is coming, and Hornby's last boat before the holidays will soon be in, full of goodies.

Some time ago I toyed with the idea of buying some shares in this famous, British brand. I knew their history, what they did, and they were doing well at the time (see share price 5 years). I am glad I did not. The Hornby management went on a European wide, 'rivals' buying spree and bought into some very poor marketing tie-ins: The Olympics for one. They bought the enlarged group to its knees.

But my original concern before this, was their wholesale shift in production from Margate to China and the long term issues with that. They provided fantastic models and kept price inflation low over a decade. The central problem was the planning, communication and supply issues. They could never hit their deadlines and customers and retailers assumed all delivery date promises were fictions. Their customers also could not grasp how expensive it was to develop and tool up every new product they promised to bring to market (£100,000+). On the hobby sites some cool heads, who knew the tooling up problems, tried to calm the frustrations. In this context then, this anecdotal caught my eye on a blog: *Kader is a giant toy manufacturer

As people from factories in China talk to each other, it need hardly come as a surprise that A knows a little about what B is doing, it need also not comes as a surprise that C lets drop a hint that he is doing it just to test the water. Hornby now buy stuff through a multiplicity of factories, at least one of which has some ex-Kader folk working for it; some factories are known to be making models for several (widely different) concerns which happen to have 'a presence' of some sort or other in the British market so it is hardly surprising that word might get around.

If Hornby happened to have a concern that - not for the first time - a competitor is working on something which they are also working on it strikes me as good business sense to 'let slip' hints about what they are doing and where they have got to with their version. Hornby have had a vast amount of panning on here in the past (some of it from me) about not responding to what many of us consider they should be doing or what 'the market' wants (or what we think it wants).

Hope it works, but that seems a funny old version of the free market if true.

"Clintons Cards axed Virgin Mary from Nativity scene after fears of poor card sales, says graphic designer"

From The Guardian:

Shane Black, Christmas card designer, has said he was forced to change the gender of Jesus' mother from female to male after pressure from Clinton's Cards, which feared cards would not sell as well.

In an interview with Uproxx, Black said his original sketches featured Virgin Mary, a traditionally female character.

“We had finished the design and we were given a no holds barred memo saying that cannot stand and we’ve changed our minds because, after consulting, we’ve decided that cards won’t sell as well if there's a prominent female character. So, we had to change the entire design because of card sales. Now, that’s corporate.”

Black said in the original draft he had hoped audiences would assume the character was male, before her true gender was revealed. “I liked the idea, like 'Junior', you think a man has given birth but at the end, it turns out that it was a woman. They just said: ‘No way.’ ”

"Dad complains after daughter's talking doll blurts out innocuous phrases... "

From The Daily Mail:

Mark Wadsworth couldn't believe his ears when his daughter's Barbie doll started speaking with language completely appropriate for children.

Mr Wadsworth, 48, claims that he could hear the doll belting out the phrase "Off the hook!" However, Mattel, which makes the £10 toy says the doll is simply being misheard, and is actually swearing.

The doll which is based on Barbie’s web reality series, Barbie Life in the Whorehouse, was expected to launch into a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse when his daughter played with it. But the middle aged father says his eleven-year-old daughter's new toy just launched into platitudes.

"I can tell you definitively that this is not a phrase Mattel would knowingly allow the doll to use," said Alex Clark, a spokesman for Mattel, to The Mirror.

The company claims the doll is actually saying "What the f***!", a catchphrase from the from the web series Barbie Life in the Whorehouse.

"It's understandable that the phrase may be heard differently by some who are not familiar with the show," Mr Clark said.

"First ever Scalextric set from more than 50 years ago is given to inventor’s disappointed grandchildren as a Christmas present"

From The Daily Mail:

* Callum, 4, and Luke, 2, unwrap slot circuit kept in storage since 1957
* "How do we connect this to the telly?" asked Callum
* Freddie Francis launched the racing kit at Harrogate Toy Fair
* Twenty years ago somebody invented games consoles which were a lot more fun
* Kept it hidden but dying wish in 1998 was to give it to his daughters
* They didn't want it
* This year, widow Diane decided it was time to pass it to next generation
* Set which originally cost £5 is now worth more than £1,500
* Callum and Luke plan to sell it and buy themselves an XBox One and a ton of new games

"Two more 'victims' come forward to accuse Elmo of grooming them for underage sex"

From The Daily Mail:

Two more alleged victims have come forward claiming that Sesame Street's Elmo sexually abused them bringing the potential total to four.

Speaking exclusively to Mail Online, Jeff Herman, attorney for Cecil Singleton, 24, one of those claiming abuse at the much-loved puppet's hands revealed that he has been contacted by two further young men.

He said: "I have been contacted by a couple of young men who allege similar facts to those alleged by Cecil. I'm still vetting them - they're not sure whether it was Elmo or Murray - so cannot go into too much detail but their allegations are very similar." He added, "Let's be clear. We're not talking about underage sex here. There is no such thing as consensual sex with a puppet. There is sexual abuse'.

Amid a flurry of accusations, the 53-year-old Sesame Street star resigned on Tuesday when Mr Singleton became the second young man to step forward with tales of inappropriate and underage sexual relations.

A spokesman for Animal pointed out that he featured in The Muppet Show not Sesame Street and denied any possible knowledge of or involvement with behind the scenes abuse on Sesame Street.

A spokesman for the Pope called to say "Ha! You can't pin this one on us! Sieg Heil!" and then slammed down the phone.

I don't want to grow up

Here's the pale imitation:
Here's the original and best cover version (the original was by Tom Waits, but even though I heard that one first, I prefer The Ramones' version):

"LEGO for obese children is a huge success, despite claims of stereotyping"

From The Daily Mail:

* Toys based on five overweight figurines who love barbecuing and pasties
* Company attribute 35 per cent jump in profits to the Lego Foodies range
* Consumer groups say they make obesity seem acceptable

LEGO has shouted down criticism that its range for overweight children encourages obesity by identifying it as the reason behind a huge leap in profit. The Danish company's Lego Foodies include five rotund characters and sets that include a restaurant, an ice cream parlour and a bakery.

The popular manufacturer has attributed a 35 per cent leap in its first-half profits to the toys, describing sales as 'astonishing'. The Lego figurines - Mia, Stephen, Olivia, Emma and Andrew - dress in track suits and enjoy meeting up for meals together...

When Lego Foodies launched, it was met with protests from some consumer groups saying the toys did not promote healthy lifestyles. In the U.S., the SPARK movement organised a petition with more than 50,000 signatures calling on Lego to change its marketing strategy.

My son's Nerf collection

The two 'shot guns' are not actually Nerf, they are Buzzbee, but they are just as good.While I'm downloading pictures, they're building an office block next door to me. They've spent the past two weeks putting down this rebar for ground floor:I watched a block of flats being built in Germany (also next door to where I lived, but I lived somewhere else then) and they used to do a whole reinforced concrete floor in rather less than a week. And their rebar looked about twice as solid.

Fun Online Polls: Stuffed toys & Chris Huhne

On a good turnout, the results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Which stuffed toy is cooler?

The PG Tips Monkey -44%
The Bird's Eye Bear - 16%
Other, please specify - 3%
Don't ask me, I never watch the adverts - 38%

So, well done PG Tips Monkey (formerly known as The ITV Digital Monkey) and thanks to everybody who took part.
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This week, let's put Chris Huhne to Trial By Internet, vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

If you really want to know a bit of background you can read up here.

Fun Online Polls: West Ham's next manager and The Bird's Eye Bear

On a low-ish turnout, the results of last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Who'll be the next manager of West Ham?

Chris Hughton - 12%
Steve McLaren - 4%
Sam Allardyce - 4%
Martin O'Neill - 3%
Neil Warnock - 1%
Gus Poyet - 1%
Other, please specify - 3%
I've never heard of any of these people - 71%

The 71% 'don't knows' cheered me up no end, so let's see whether Mr Hughton actually gets the job.
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On an even lighter note, there are currently two stuffed toy vying for the consumer's attention, the Bird's Eye Bear and the PG-Tips Monkey, see examples:Which one do you think is cooler?

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

More Swearing Toy Fun

From The Metro:

The cuddly puppy, which was bought by mum Leigh McPherson from Asda to help her daughter Mia learn to speak, sings songs when you squeeze its paw. However, Ms McPherson was left stunned when the creature turned the air blue with what sounded like barrack-room language.

It sang: ‘If you’re happy and you know it f*** with me.’

The 20-year-old single mum from Banbury, Oxfordshire, told The Sun: 'I couldn't believe it. I played it back three or four times. There is no mistaking what Violet is saying. The biggest problem I’ve got now is my friends, who all want to play with Violet because they think it’s hilarious.’

The manufacturer has claimed that the hound is actually saying ‘bark’ but has issued the toy with a new recording, just in case.
PS, the last time these toys were on sale was in May 2010.

Toy Story 3

Her Indoors took the kids to see this last week, but they talked me into taking them again today.

The animation and 3-D effects were awesome, but you're sort of used to that by now. I was warned that grown men cry at the end, and must report that my eyes prickled a bit when Lotso The Bear welcomed them to the Sunnyside Daycare centre (before he turned out to be a megalomaniac dictator); a bit more when the toys thought they were going to be incincerated and all held hands; and when Andy handed over his collection to Bonnie (pronounced 'Barney' in the film, heck knows why) a big fat tear rolled down each of my cheeks.

Luckily that scene is about five or ten minutes before the end, so there is time to compose yourself again before you leave the cinema.

One In A Million*

From here:

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in cooperation with Family Dollar Stores Inc, of Charlotte NC, is announcing the voluntary recall of 1.8 million toy dart gun sets, due to an aspiration hazard. CPSC and Family Dollar have received reports of two asphyxiation deaths involving a 9-year-old boy in Chicago, Ill and a 10-year-old boy in Milwaukee, Wis.

If a child places the soft, pliable plastic toy dart in his/her mouth, the toy can be inhaled into the throat and prevent the child from breathing...

* Bonus points for the first person to point out that technically, this is one-in-nine-hundred-thousand, not one-in-a-million.

"Toddler picks up F-word from talking toy dog"

It's been over a year since the swearing toy parrot incident, but at last, the wait for the next episode is over - see today's Metro for details (the title is self-explanatory).