Korky

Dandy will discontinue its printed edition in December bringing to an end 75 years of printed history, although its characters will go on digitally the decline of its comic readers from highs of two million a week to just 8000 today is a sad loss.

One of the highlights of the year for children like myself of the 70's was the Christmas annual, basically a super sized edition of the comic you had been reading for the past 52 weeks packed full of all your favourite characters, a few puzzles, games and of course it became your bedtime reading material for the next few days. It's difficult to relate to today's generation just how important comics were during the 60's and 70's, amusement came in small doses so a weekly injection of illustrated imagination, strong stories and characters that made you laugh made all the difference.

The only thing looking back through the annuals is the casual attitide to many things that would not feature in comics of today. For instance you wouldn't get many characters other than in Viz called Dirty Dick or Spunky and his Spider both taken from the annual pictured above. Neither would your stories feature a crippled sailor beating a cat up with his two wooden legs, or indeed many characters either puffing away on cigars and cigarettes whilst others get spanked by various members of the public. Not to mention a darts match that ends up with the characters throwing darts at each others backsides. Shame, not that we should have more crippled sailors beating people up and it's not that casual violence was funny it was just that we knew the difference between fact and fiction and it was delivered in a kid friendly fashion that encouraged imagination and reading. A little bit naughty, silly and we wouldn't dare do some of the things but it was in a comic so it we knew it was fiction. Simple.

So the demise of the Dandy takes another step forward as it falls to the digital age. I know it was only a comic but it was a halfway house to a book and books built Britain, comics are fuel for imagination and at a young age its exactly what we should be stimulating as a whole rather than dumbing down. You can never replicate the feeling of holding a classic comic, its rough pulp paper and its inevitable smell after being in storage just like you can never relive your childhood so I bid farewell to Britains oldest comic as it joins cassette tapes, LP's, Watch with Mother and a multitude of other yesteryear objects in digital memories.

On a brighter note because of the Internet reading skills have risen over the last twenty years, after all you need to read to use the net, but here's the problem, only to a point. The Internet requires you to read but the use of txt spk makes one tlk like this and ultimately skills suffer. Which is exactly why you see posts like this "How do you spell droor, like the thing you put things in."

Reading skills according to a recent report have estimated that in some areas 15% of eleven year olds have the reading skills of a seven year old, so they would even struggle with my Dandy book and I find that quite sad.

Maybe, just maybe, pulling the plug on the net for just a few hours a week and having an old school pile of comics to read may just be the answer, now we will never know.

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Once Upon a Dramatisation

Gift number 5,653 from good old JD dropped through my door, the latest in a long line of history I have with JD since I idly filled in a beer mat sometime during the 18th century, such is the length of time these things have been plopping through my door. Previous items have included bottle openers, key rings, clips of varying uses, calendars and enough other items to fill a small JD related museum. I used to get a little annoyed and tried relentlessly but pointlessly to remove myself from its mailing list, but, times are a changing.

The latest is a bit different, thoughts have turned to food with a recipie book that uses JD as the main ingredient on all it's stuff of course and a nice packet of steak and rib seasoning. It's not everyday somebody sends you random spices through the post and I am now starting to warm to the twice a year plop of the envelope through the door and the silly excitement that wonders what on earth are the going to send next. Unfortunately it's never been a crate of the stuff itself but hey, when they do send it I will use my JD keying, hang up my JD calendar, open a beer with my JD opener and place it on my JD placemat whilst I fire up the BBQ for a JD food fest fronted with a JD spiced steak.

In unrelated news four new Impossimal prints will be released in a few weeks time as we swing towards Autumn, I'll bring you more on that a little later.

In even more unrelated news I recently purchased a small portable radiator for the studio, it's a simple affair, you plug it I and it gets warm, not hot, just warm so you could put your hand in it all day and not get burnt. Hey, you can even kick it over and it's safe and there are no nasty places to insert objects to cause injury. So I was quite surprised when I read the instructions.

The appliance apparently is not to be used by persons with reduced mental capacity, physical injuries or sensory deprivation. Sounds a bit harsh, basically if you're hungover it's a no, no then. I mean, what type of reduced mental capacity are we thinking of? Does that mean if you have forgot where you have put the car keys you cannot switch it on? It carries on too, lack of experience and knowledge is also listed as a reason not to flick the switch unless, get this, unless you have been trained by a person responsible for your safety.

Still, it seems to be a trend, I happen to catch an advert the other day for a product, I forget what it was but it's something like a toilet fresher or something but it was animated and featured lots of fairy tale stuff. Splashed across the bottom was a disclaimer. 'Product advertised features Fairy Tale dramatisation'

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought it was real when that unicorn flew out of the toilet and Rapunzel used her hair to clean the lavatory bowl. I'll certainly think twice when I sit down now and i'll be sure to shoo away Billy Goat Gruff first.

Honestly! I must go now, there's Pinocchio waving to me from the garden and I must join him as we are going to Cinderellas ball where she has got some glass slippers for me to try. Here's my pumpkin coach now pulled by six mice dressed as butlers. Bye!

*Today's blog features fairy tale dramatisation and reference to alcohol. Contains infrequent innuendo's, slightly amusing sentences and sometimes facts. We do not endorse cleaning any toilet with your own hair or the wearing of glass slippers, especially when under the influence of alcohol. This disclaimer is not for people with reduced little fingers, if your little finger is littler than your middle finger then please find a suitably digitally trained individual to train you to read this disclaimer. Hickory dickory dock, the mice ran up the clock, the clock struck one and the others got away with minor injuries. Humpy Dumpty sat on his ball, ouch!

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Half Naked Exploding Penguins

The other day I noticed another thing in a long line of mystifying things I notice only this time it was on the washing machine. It's the symbols they use that mystify me, this one looks like I'm about to receive a loaf of bread out of its circular door whilst the last symbol that you can just make out looks like the time machine vortex in Austin Powers. That aside though I was even more mystified as I left the supermarket a few minutes ago to see a customer carrying a brand new boxed vacuum cleaner called, wait for it, for it said it very proudly on the box, the Naked Truth. Yes, a vacuum cleaner that proclaims naked truth.

What a strange concept, I can imagine what went on at those meetings.

'Right then chaps, sales at Vacu-sucks PLC have take a bit of beating with this old recession malarkey so we need a new angle, you know, sex it up a little. Give it some of that Grey effect thats out there, any ideas?'

'I know sir, why don't we change the colour!'

'Not sexy enough Simpkins, we have a product that deals with filth, ramp it up a bit!'

'How about calling it the Sir Suckalot and make it all in chrome, or, or, paint it pink and call it the Dirty Girty?'

'Close Simpkin, you're on a roll, give it some more, really let fly!'

'Err, right then, the Sucking @!*??@&? Thruster with Pulsating Throbing Handles and Ramming Action plus our first ever crevice diddler attachment.

'Whoa! Too far Simpkins, too far! Come to think of it deeply worrying too, rein it in boy!'

'Sorry Sir, got a bit carried away with that one, sorry for thrusting in your face at the same time too.'

'Try again Simpkins, just keep your trousers on and get off the table.'

'That's it! That's it Sir, Naked! Naked as nature intended with all our bits on display so to speak, you want to see the action well now you can, all that sucking and pumping on display, it shall be called the Naked, the Naked Truth!'

'Well done my boy, well done. Genius. You know what the best thing is? We don't change a thing, just make it in see through plastic and write Naked Truth in red letters on the side of the box so even people in supermarket car parks will notice it and give us a mention. Have a pay rise Simpkins and oh, go and change your trousers'

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Running With Javelins

After such a great send off you all must be missing that Olympic feeling so why not create your own using this handy guide to DIY eventing.

Opening Ceremony - Pets make excellent sheep recreating the countryside feeling as in the real event, toilet roll tubes look a lot like chimneys and wearing a moustache will allow you to feel all Victorian. Pop the radio on Smooth FM for the right music, just turn it off if Hey Jude comes on so not to spoil the fun. Light 300 candles all strapped together for an Olympic cauldron and get the family to march in and out of your living room changing clothes in between to give you that authentic feeling that Olympic teams are passing by. A two pence piece makes an excellent bronze medal, a bottle top for silver and a chocolate coin for gold.

Marathon - place the finish line at the top of a flight of stairs, run on the spot at the bottom for approximately three hours then sprint up the stairs to experience 'the wall', collapse over the finish line with the same exhausted elation of a marathon runner.

High Jump - Using different sizes of furniture start with an stool placed next to your bed for a soft landing and jump over it, gradually increase the size of furniture until you can skilfully clear a wardrobe for the gold medal.

Long Jump - Similar to the high jump this time use a line of settee cushions or several mattresses to act as a sand pit, use a placemat to act as the final step to launch from and coat this in wet paint, this will allow you to see exactly where you landed on the cushions and avoid disputes with relatives. Alternatively order a few tons of builders sand and dig a channel in the garden, scatter bits of builders rubble in the sand for extra injury excitement.

Javelin - Take a broom handle and attach a piece of foam to the end for extra weight and to avoid injury for a remarkable safety javelin. Paint a target on the wall and dip your end in a bit of paint for a new event, Javeldarts.

Shot Putt - Fill a tennis ball with cement and let harden, voila, instant shot putt. Spin yourself on a swivel seat then pick up your putt and try and to throw it though a narrow doorway to simulate the safety net effect. Your miss timed throws will safely bounce off your plaster walls.

Show jumping - This event requires two people, one to be the horse and the other to ride piggy back style. Arrange furniture in the garden adding unusual things like a settee near a pond for a water jump and upturned beds for those leg breakers on landing. See who is the faster around your course without damaging furniture or indeed your 'horsy'. You may of course whip your human horsy using a length of garden hose should you wish or indeed enjoy for encouragement.

100m Sprint - Place a bed underneath your highest window, leap from said window to drop at the same speed as Usain Bolt and safely onto your crash mat, it's the only way your going to recreate his speed anyway. Alternatively using several friends run a real 100m with all your opponents shoe laces tied together to experience that winning with ease feeling.

Swimming - Fill your bath until the water is flowing over the top, jump from a stool for a fast start and begin to swim, your head will stop you moving forward when it hits the tap end and you can carry on swimming without moving. Every twenty seconds do a forward roll and flail about until you have turned around successfully. Repeat until your metreage is complete and with a splash reach forward touch the taps to finish.

Cycling - Use bricks to raise a child's bike off the floor. Get on and pedal with a cardboard box on your head for streamlining, get a friend to blow a hair dryer at you to simulate wind. Get them to scream 'come on Team GB' or something similar for encouragement after every lap.

Trap Shooting - Using a water pistol filled with paint get a friend to throw various crockery into a room as you attempt to take them down, misses will show on the wall to allow you to alter you aim accordingly and items will be marked when hit.

Use several training steps that children use to reach the toilet to act as podiums, instead of using National Anthems use appropriate popular songs like Prodigy's 'Smack my bitch up' for the boxing winner and The theme from Blade for the fencing winner.

You can of course Supersize your Olympics by offering a platinum medal, the only event in this field though is to fight Chuck Norris which is exactly why they keep this event quiet at the real Olympics.

Closing Ceremony - Cover your house in Newspaper avoiding page three of the Sun, drive a car through your front door with friends dressed as the Spice Girls for a dramatic entrance. Alternatively burst through the door naked to feel like Jessie J and sing anything by Queen. Put on any of your old LPs to recreate classic tracks, use 500 party poppers tied together so one string sets them all off to literally blow your roof off and impress the neighbours whilst flicking your light switch on and off to the music for a dramatic light show. Finally wear a scruffy wig and hand over the responsibility of clearing it all up to a random stranger and tell them in four years time its their turn.

Voila! Instant Olympics, as a second income you can sell raffle ticket based event tickets to rooms around your house and even make a few more bob by touting them yourself at your front door to passers by.

Go Team GB!

Tomorrow how to recreate Krakatoa and host a beach volleyball pool party in your kitchen sink.

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Rung

In a short series of one, today is part seventy six of Emergency! Your guide to safer living.

How often have you been trapped in a well, needed to reach a cat stuck in a tree, rescue people from a burning building or just wanted to clean those pesky high windows three stories up and only had a newspaper to hand? Well, struggle no more with our step by step guide to the Laddermagic'o'matic, you will be on the first rung in no time and you will never suffer from ladder lacking facilities again.

All you need is newspaper and a bit of sticky tape, or spit if none is available at your location. Place each sheet together as shown in the detailed instructions, beginners may need to be supervised at this stage to get the correct ladder height. Roughly each sheet will give you eight inches of erection and two rungs. In this example we are going to construct a rigid six rung twenty four inch, ideal for reaching those top cupboards.

Roll your ladder into a relatively loose roll, too tight and you will have trouble with your erection, too slack and your ladder will not maintain its erection.

To add your rungs slightly flatten your tube and cut out this rung shape, you may use a template if required to get accurate rungage.

Bend your ladder as shown in the above directions, keeping it pointed away from you at all times. Clear away small children and pets before erecting. Depending on your initial preparation and how many sheets you used its quite possible to suddenly get a twenty footer that may require two people.

Insert your finger in the exposed ladder tube and gently pull, do this both sides in equal measures until your first rung appears.

You should now have something like this, further working the ladder with more tugging will expose more rungs, pull until you can pull no more. You will know when you are nearly done as the ladder will start to go rigid.

It really is that easy, you can now see we have been left with a perfectly safe, strong ladder for everyday needs. I used this to easily climb over a shoe box, you can use yours to change that aerial, mend that broken roof tile or even let it help with all your decorating needs! *

*Paper ladders are for professionals only and will not replace the paper scaffolding shown previously. Maximum weight restrictions apply, if unsure use our toilet roll version for extra stability. Paper ladders are not recommended for ages 0-76, those over 76 do so at their own risk and must not overreach the ladders safety distance. Always use a stable surface to mount your ladder and avoid rain, fire and wind. Using different sheets of newspaper within the same ladder will generate weak points and is not recommended.

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Bill Stickers

And why do we need underlay? Well, take a look here, go on have a walk on it, this has no underlay, here is our medium one and here sir is our top underlay. It keeps the pile stiff and extends wear. True enough it felt better as I walked up and down a six foot bit of blue carpet in the middle of a carpet emporium but what was wrong with the underlay I already had?

Apparently underlay used to be made in the UK from old car tyres, a noble use for such a product but underlay today is more likely to be made of sponge with crumb rubber for high traffic areas, you can even buy underlay with, get this, a low tog rating. I want to walk on it not sleep under it. Apparently using things other than old car tyres is more ecological, personally I think reusing car tyres is just as ecological, what on earth would they use them for otherwise?

In America they once tried to use old tyres as a foundation for a highway, everything went fine until they spontaneously combusted and turned the highway into the equivalent of a roll of liquorice at least they behaved themselves when turned into comfy flooring.

Admittedly our underlay looked well sad and almost down to the paper it had shed so much rubber so we decided to replace it. You would not believe the amount of questions you have to answer, is it for heavy traffic?, Are you a wheelchair user? Do you have pets? Children? Shoe size? I made that last one up but I wouldn't have been surprised to have been asked it. Then comes the guilt, would you be happy with a bronze underlay or do you deserve the comfort of gold?

Frankly, when I have to answer underlay questions using an Olympic theme I think things have gone a little too far. What's below bronze? I asked hopefully.

Floorboards sir, we have nothing below bronze.

Oh.

So we eventually sorted out the underlay then went through the usual how much for fitting? When can you do it? And why do carpet places always have balloons outside and sell beds too? I wonder who first decided to say 'I know, I'll open a carpet shop up to sell the best floor coverings available, hmm, I need something else to entice people in, how about beds, yes, beds, they go together' As most carpets are usually layed at the same time as decorating wouldn't it have been more sensible to sell paint and wallpaper, after all you could then call yourself something like Wall2Floor, which sounds like what usually happens after a wee drinky.

If you wonder why there is a picture of a label on this page it's actually taken from our old underlay. I still don't understand it, why should the label be returned with any complaint when the label has nothing else on it apart from those instructions?

Answers on a postcard please I'm off for a lay down under our new underlay, apparently it's tog rating of 20 makes it feel like the finest eiderdown.

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Comic

After finding a few things the other day it set me off wanting to discover just what else I had tucked away for a rainy day. In the loft is a box I packed many many years ago when I left home, now was the time to open this little time capsule.

 

Joy! inside was my comic collection, all wrapped up although not in perfect condition. Sat on top was Star Wars Weekly from 1979, quite a comic of its time as over the course of its publication it managed to serialise all the Star Wars films and include some rather obscure adverts such as one in the first issue that proudly boasts 'Now See The Film At Home' what it really advertised was a K6 Silent Max Cine Projector for £19.95 and the chance to own a Black and White Silent 200' spool of approximate 8 minutes showing highlights from the film. Probably required a healthy dose of imagination to recreate that cinema experience but with video thin on the ground this was the best you was going to get.

Now a strange one, a comic edited by a Thargian, namely Tharg, the almighty 2000AD. This became a staple of my week with its incredibly artwork, story lines and of course the ever powerful Judge Dredd, which incidentally didn't appear until the second issue. Wish I had kept my Free Space Spinner though.

Going further back in time bought us to mighty Marvel, this issue from 1973 contained many odd items like a column dedicated to Stan Lee sounding off, adverts to convert you into a real He-Man and an unlikely villain for Daredevil in the guise of the malevolent menace of the Masked Matador which basically involved flicking around an overly large towel and taking a poke at Daredevil with a play sword that breaks on impact with anything harder than cheese. Still, kept me entertained.

The oldest item from this collection has to be the Disneyland Magazine from 1971, as far as I'm aware it was the first ever official UK magazine dedicated to Disney and although mine is a little battered It still stands the test of time with its characters, story telling and of course it's excellent artwork which at this time reflected accurately what the whole Disney experience was all about.

Just need to sort out my Shiver and Shakes, Whoopie, Whizzer and Chips, Cheeky and Mad Magazines, looks like I'm going to be here a long, long time...

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Sraw Rats

Sorting out a load of old magazines as part of my studio shift unearthed a few surprises that I had completely forgotten about. In 1979 I was in a local model shop when I noticed a special publication, for a whopping £1.50 you could by this sacred tome and learn how to model the famous spaceships you saw on the silver screen exactly as they appeared in the films and indeed real life in some cases. The list of spacecraft spanned many years, from Buck Rogers El Dorado to X-Wings, Tie Fighters and the Enterprise all the way to reality with Saturn V and the Orbiter.

Not only that, it went into detail on how to make everything look as realistic as possible using technical drawings and innovative techniques for the time, things such as adding fibre optics to the Battlestar Galactica Vipers, panel scribing to remove rough edges and add in extra details, in some cases they offer alternative constructions such as converting the starship Enterprise into a tug.

All nerdy I suppose but it was quite interesting to read all the studio notes contained, for example to show you just how nerdy it got, did you know the X-Wing Fighter is 29-foot long with a 25-foot wingspan, quad fuel burning rockes with air intakes... You get the picture.

Then I saw this. The Death Stars planet smashing laser canon and everything made sense. Forget Darth Vader and all that smoke screen, the Death Star was just a cover name, it's real name is Earth. What you are looking at is the Hadron Collider, we ARE the Death Star. Cool.

Set the phasors to kill captin' we have some planets to smash, a galactic princess to save and we all get to wear black and strut around breathing heavily.

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Build It

I realised I had never done a celebratory piece for special occasions and as it was a friends wedding coming up I decided to capture their special day the Impossimal way. It started off with this massive sculpture built out of plaster, cardboard, cocktail sticks and plenty of plasticine, it weighed an absolute ton.

But it gave me the desired look and feel that I was after and more importantly it allowed me to get the lighting just right as I also had the idea of gold heart shaped confetti to fall from above and a ray of light cast across from the top right.

So I began with a scaled sketch and painted in the pale background allowing me to show off the cake to its best, a neutral table was added and a few sprinkling of confetti to see how they work.

For the next step I needed to layer the cake making sure everything has its correct tone and colour, white icing for example has to have a grey undertone to make it look realistic. You can see I used photographs to get it to look right, one is turned upside down, this aids your brain to work out accurate lighting, most of my paintings are worked on upside down at some stage.

Once all the layers are in place then I can add in the Impossimals, detail and plenty of confetti, all followed with a week of glazing to get that final sheen to the piece.

Finished! Quite simply its just called 'Celebration' and its an original only but I'm sure it would have made a nice print :)

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Four and Three Quarter Inches Long

Toilet paper rubs me up the wrong way. Let me rephrase that, toilet paper is on the decline, for what is essentially a staple of the British household over the years it's changed and not necessarily for the better either. But let's start at the beginning and my first memories of a toilet roll. It may seem like an odd thing to blog about but I remember medicated toilet paper, a strange slippy stuff that came in unattached squares and crackled into lots of sharp edges so you could paper cut your bottom as much as you would like. It was often favoured by pubs and restaurants who obviously decided it was probably best to use this stuff when off ones trolley so to speak.

Next came a bit of luxury when lo and behold the first quilted paper was introduced, it was generous too, slightly larger rolls with bigger squares all thoughtfully joined together so small puppies could grab it and drag it around the house for you. On a different note they never did pan away on those commercials did they to show you the man with his trousers around his ankles desperately trying to catch the little mutt.

This was of course the toilet paper we know today but ever since the introduction of quilted rolls two things have happened. First it's started to become by weight, more expensive than petrol and secondly in each and every way it's shrinking.

I didn't realise that every roll of toilet paper has gone through many vigorous tests, things like water absorption, softness and even finger-breakthrough resistance. Yes, that last one made me gip too. I'd like to add another category, cheapness. Our usual roll has metamorphasized from a nice chunky 240 sheets to a miserly 175, not only that the sheet size has gradually shrunk too and over the years we have lost a few square centimetres. It doesn't sound a lot but add it all together and on any given roll it amounts to nearly a 7.8m loss of loo comfort. That's a lot of surface area and in the same period the price has tripled.

Finally today they have reached rock bottom so to speak, it's moved from 3ply to 2ply and with it replaced the softness with a roughness akin to using wire wool and dettol.

Ugh.

I just hope that the finger breakage tests held out!

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Making Living Life Laughable Direct

Welcome to the latest online catalogue for MLLL Direct, your one stop shop to make life that bit more laughable. Please use the code TWITiAM at the checkout to receive your bonus gift of the Personal Tazer System The Bodyshocker (ORDER ITEM SHOCKU2) absolutely free of charge if you place your order within the next three years.

Protect Eyes From Front, Top, Side and Bottom with these stylish Designer Morecombe.

 

Can be worn over spectacles!

 

The hip design of these designer inspired unisex spectacular spectacles are on the cutting edge of fashion. Protecting your eyes with our cheap bit of plastic will afford you no extra protection at all, we guarantee! With side arms that will fit no human comfortably and a nose rest that only Pinocchio would enjoy you will be the talk of the town at dinner parties, swish events and even shopping at the supermarket. Realised in sleek black plastic and finished with two small screws to hold it all together the craftsmanship needs to be seen to be believed. Great also for water sports, skiing, jogging or for the more adventurous, walking. They even make ideal driving glasses making sure you get that extra special wink at traffic lights.

Enhance your life today with our Designer Morecombe!

 

7353DSM Designer Morcombes £99.99

Tired of searching for that special gift? Then search no more. For the person that has everything give them something they will remember - The heart melting Box Of Sea Coal.

Hand gathered from the deepest regions of Skegness beach bring back the good old days of open fires, outside toilets and rickets with this classic gift guaranteed to bring a tear to the recipients eye. Professionally gift wrapped in a cardboard hat box this is the gift that keeps on giving. Each piece of sea coal is guaranteed, yes, guaranteed to burn! (FIRELIGHTERS, OPEN HEARTH, LOGS, MATCHES AND SCRUNCHED UP NEWSPAPER NOT INCLUDED) after you have finished all your sea coal why not order a top up for only £45, alternatively use the stylish cardboard hat box as a hand storage unit. (COAL DUST MAY STAIN, TAINT OR RUIN OBJECTS LEFT IN BOX, NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER 39)

 

1524BOC Box Of Sea Coal Giftwrapped £46

Wide eyed and simply adorable is some of the words used to describe the heart melting precious ornament. Who could fail to smile when they see this aspirational decoration adorning your mantle piece or coffee table. Creating a striking addition to any decor this Chirpy Guitar Playing Plastic Tart is beautifully finished with realistic detail. As a bonus the eyes have been skilfully painted with luminous paint to glow in the dark so you never need to not see it again. It has been described as once seen never forgotten, it really is that good!

 

5823TART Chirpy Guitar Playing Plastic Tart £19.99 + £8 P&P Courier and Insurance.

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Your workshop or shed will be complete and should you ever need a special 'L' Universal Release Actuator Tool you always know you have one to hand, one for the kitchen drawer and even with our special offer one to give as the ultimate handyman's gift.

 

7645URT 'L' Shaped URA Tool Offer £5.99

A simple way to store all your loose change and dead wasps this attractive Wasp-O-Changeamatic with delightful fat doll motif will keep all your deceased wasps and pocket shrapnel safe. Not only that but the handy divider (NOT SUPPLIED) stops them all getting jumbled up avoiding unnecessary annoyance. Used in combination with our Wasp Scissors (CUT WASPS IN HALF, QUARTERS, AND EVEN 4/5th's!) for neater storage solutions. Automatically groups coins together and even helps count them for you. (SIMPLY POUR OUT THE CONTENTS, REMOVE WASPS AND COUNT CHANGE, IT REALLY IS THAT EASY!) when you have no dead wasps to store or you have run out of loose change it can also be used as a handy receptacle for pens, an attractive vase for flowers or an emergency container if you are caught short.

 

This is one item our readers awarded ITEM OF THE YEAR 2011!!!

 

6829WCM Wasp-O-Changeamatic £19.99

 

Today's blog was bought to you by MLLL Direct, a subsidiary of MLLLLLL Direct, owner of established brand MLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Direct the creator of Spankaspider the worlds first spider repeller to use a hammer and butane gas.

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Video Killed The Flat Pack Star

My first experience of a flat pack was a cassette storage unit (remember cassettes? Primarily they were used to record the charts on Sunday night and were prone to getting eaten by your cassette recorder). It was a disaster, instructions written by a lunatic guided me through twenty tortuous steps involving nails, screws, glue, a few bits of flimsy hard board and a shredding of patience. I was left with a wobbling carousel holding a hundred cassettes that was prone to fall over regularly injuring small children and pets.

Household furniture was no better, a stereo unit, yes, I know that is old fashioned, never really fitted together correctly and finally lost its insides one night after loading it a little too heavily with LP's. Saggy bottoms or droopy drawers was the most common weakest point on most flat packs apart from the person constructing it that is. Instructions written in Cantonese and Danish only added to the confusion, you needed tools from Mr Greys box and always, always something was missing or the instructions showed something impossible to achieve without giving yourself a triple hernia or indeed getting arrested.

So imagine my dismay that the only office furniture we could find that was suitable was of the flat pack nature. My track record wasn't too hot so as I sat in front of five sturdy boxes and I felt a shudder run through my spine.

For a flat pack it was extremely neatly packed, every item had been carefully wrapped and every little screw, washer and bolt had been placed in little packets to aid identification. I gave a little shriek of delight as the instructions proved themselves to be of the readable variety and after a quick count not only was all the parts there but they had even thought to include spares and an assembly tool. My, how things had moved on.

So, two hours later everything was constructed, the instructions worked like a dream, everything fitted without injury or arrest and more importantly the things were so sturdy. I was impressed.

I still have that old cassette carousel somewhere in the murky heights of the loft, not long after its construction out came CD's requiring yet another storage system only to be followed by DVD cases, yet another storage nightmare. Thankfully in a digital age I no longer need a big wooden construction to flaunt my wares, just a degree in information technology, accounts with media providers, more equipment than they used in the first moon landing and a penchant to complain on how everything has changed since flat packs and cassette tapes.

Now, where's that video recorder the size of a battle ship? I must remember to record that old repeat of The Two Ronnies after I have used a bit of Sellotape to make it recordable again. There's a thought, I have never built a storage unit for my video tapes, I wonder if they will catch on, they are the latest craze apparently, imagine, being able to record television and get this, you can even rent films out.

How very decadent and rakish.

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Swivelsick

Now that the new office has been decorated and the nasty grippers are covered up its time to buy some office furniture. It's all new to me, with choices ranging from corner swept curves to ergonomic drawer systems and cup holders it's actually quite daunting when all you want is a desk. I mean how difficult can it be?

Very apparently. Not many places have a showroom as most work from a catalogue that you order from but call me old fashioned I want to see what I'm getting. I think this all stems from when I was a child, I remember looking longingly at adverts in superhero comics of the day that promised untold fun and excitement with amazing products such as X-Ray glasses that allow you to see through skin, portable ghosts (they actually float!) sea monkeys and magic metal ( it moves on its own!). You quickly realise after spending your hard earned pocket money that disappointment in advertising took hold at a very young age.

The X-Ray glasses were a plastic and cardboard mockup that trapped a feather through the small viewing hole, looking through this when your hand is back lit gives the illusion of an X-ray vision, admittedly I actually bought it to see through clothes so the disappointment was double for me. Portable ghosts, fortunately for me was revealed on the popular television consumer show 'Thats Life' to be nothing more than a white balloon, a piece of cotton and a cheap bit of white tissue paper. Blow up the balloon, tie on the cotton, drape the paper over the top and wait until your victim approaches. A quick tug on the cotton and you 'ghost' starts to float. Priceless, or worthless depending on how easily amused you are.

Personally Sea Monkeys were no better for me, I'd imagine a little monkey world underwater with performing creatures that would entertain for hours, a bit difficult for brine shrimp to live up to expectations but apparently they are still quite popular. Magic metal though was something else, literally, it was iron filings and a magnet. Sprinkle them on a table and watch it move magically as you place the magnet underneath the table. Wow, I had more fun trying to get the coloured ring out of the colour TV screen after holding it up to it in experimentation. Cathode ray tubes apparently did work as magically and this circular hue lasted for several days after.

See, I don't want to be disappointed and end up with two orange crates and a sheet of chipboard after ordering the super deluxe office pal with ergonomic hand cut workstation and innovative assembly system.

The real reason though is to try all those swivel chairs out. Twenty six times around before being sick is my record, can you beat that?

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal

Gripping

Shopping for a bargain off cut in carpet emporiums is a daunting proposition. Firstly you have oodles of options, colour, pattern, short pile, shag, nylon, wool, the list is endless and secondly you have to enter through a door way that is festooned with balloons and garlands like you are going there for a party. There was so much celebratory material outside I half expected to be met by Coco the carpet clown and shown the recently carpeted bouncy castle whilst children run excitedly through tubes of carpet caves eating carpet cakes.

Ok, that was a bit over the top I'll admit but really why are carpet places always festooned in such gaiety? I checked, there was not a sale on, it was not a anniversary for anything at the store and it wasn't anybodys birthday. It is and will remain a mystery.

Grippers, that's what I want to talk about. How lethal are they? Taking up our old carpet revealed a multitude of sins as it became apparent it should have been replaced many, many years before. Part of the carpet was wedged under the door way on a particularly gripping bit of floor. Extracting carpet from the jaws of these boobytraps requires a deft touch, a touch I fail to have and inexplicably at some point I know I will catch a part of my anatomy on them. Strips of wood nailed to the floor, each with fifty small angled spikes is like something from the middle ages to stop mounted troops, why on earth are they there for carpets?, surely carpets don't have a habit of running away when your not looking so have to be pinned down. I know, I know, they stop the carpet moving, still don't like them.

As usual the carpet wouldn't budge from under the door frame, cutting it out wasn't an option as we needed the new carpet to fit perfectly and not have a tuff of green between that and the hallway. Tug. Tug. No movement. Maybe a new tactic, a forty five degree tug.

It worked, I say worked in its loosest terms as the carpet tore away from the strip with a ripping sound catapulting me backwards bottom first into the corner. That is where I found the gripper as it tore into my cheeks like a fish hook. If you have ever tried to get up from a gripper injury you will find how hard it is. The spikes point towards the wall so you are left with two choices, either retreat more towards the wall to ease them off which in my case was going to be difficult seeing as my backside was already pinned there or secondly grit your teeth and stand rather quickly ignoring any ripping sounds and sharp pain.

I chose the latter and I now have a nice row of 'teeth' marks in my bottom.

Try explaining that one at the swimming baths.

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal