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Sunday, May 22, 2022

Britains Knights of The Sword Lion Castle Playset No. 7792

Well, I do believe this will be the last post for Britains medieval toys for a while. It was meant all along to be a gap filler while I was working on other photos and posts. Hopefully I can re-engage the subject in the near future with better set-ups, but - being easily distracted - I would really like to start working on another series of toys for the blog.

This Britains Knights of The Sword Lion Castle Playset No. 7792 came to me nearly complete. As far as I can tell it's only missing one flagpole and flag. Generally speaking, most of the little accessory pieces tend to be easy to find - I still can't find a replacement flagpole LOL Oh well. The castle is fairly large in order to accommodate the 54mm figures and includes a cast-in obligatory moat along with a nice portcullis that raises and lowers.. I had taken the set out and photographed it, but then put it back as other things caught my attention and the board it's sitting on in the photos was used for other things. Enjoy! Opa Fritz



On the left is an R.E.Dwyer Fort-Builder castle I haven't yet posted



Marie Kondo and KonMari The Art, Science, and Nerve Wracking Process of Declutterization - A Follow-up

Almost exactly three years ago on 17 May 2019 I wrote a blog post about my efforts at 'declutterization' - my word, one which you won't find in any books about the subject of trying to remove clutter from the house. What brought me back to the subject? Reader 'im-hamsa' recently wrote a kind comment about the post. The comment did two things: a) reminded me about the post - I had totally forgotten about it and b) spurred me on to continue my efforts.

So what has changed since the post was written? Well, 2019 was a busy year for declutterization and boy-oh-boy did we get rid of a lot of crap! Not only things like old clothes and pillows (pillows? we had that many? - yup), and chachkis', but furniture as well. Our living room was home to a huge shelving unit we had bought while I was still stationed in Germany. It was a nice set of shelves but ultimately had to go because it was really just one big dust collector! We live in the desert, and anyone who has lived in this environment knows just how dusty it can get - IT'S HORRIBLE! In its place we settled on a small TV stand with drawers, and a cabinet for the grand daughter's toys - both from the IKEA store here in Vegas. Other furniture like a large coffee table and mis-matched end tables was replaced as well with more IKEA pieces. This took care of a lot of mess and clutter in the living room (okay, that is when we can get the grand baby to pick up her toys!!)

But then...

The end of 2019 saw me get busy with the train layouts and taking care of clutter took a back seat. Then 2020 came around and brought with it a pernicious little bug: COVID! I spent much of the year in telework status and 'worked' from home (a misnomer because my job requires me to be on-site, I can't do a damn thing at the house!!!). One would think that it would be a perfect time for decluttering but ultimately that's not what happened. Boredom and lack of self-control meant I did a lot of impulse buying. Yup, more clutter, but mostly confined to The Cave - no spillover into the rest of the house.

2021 came around and eventually we came off of telework and I got back to working, albeit in  odd shifts: two days going into work one week, then three days going into work the next week, then repeat. It was an odd sort of 'disconnected' time. My mind was 'disconnected' too. I just couldn't get back into tackling clutter. But I was awfully darn good at buying things! arrrrgh!

Welcome 2022! And welcome COVID! In January of this year the bug caught up with us and the whole family came down with it. I physically missed two weeks of work, but when I went back I was drained and very little got done! If that weren't enough, the same week we came down with the bug our clothes dryer went kaput. In order for the technicians to get the new dryer into The Cave, a whole bunch of boxes had to be relocated into the house temporarily - more specifically, I put them into our bedroom. Now you see, that wouldn't have been necessary had I been diligent in clearing out The Cave during the COVID lockdown period, but it is what it is. BTW, I did in fact sell a lot of toys that were in The Cave, but they were all small items, and made very little dent in the overall insanity out there!

That brings me back to decluttering and my original post back in 2019. With the bedroom now a mess from having moved boxes into it from The Cave, that room had to be tackled. My original spreadsheet for keeping track of my progress was accidentally deleted and a new one started. Why keep a spreadsheet? For no other reason than it gives me a way to track progress and is a sort of mental butt-kicker. I have it, I know I have it and it provides incentive to keep going by making updates. I bought a nice shelving unit - also from IKEA (can you tell we like that store?) - for the bedroom. Onto these shelves went all my 3-ring photo binders (a system I started while stationed in Germany for storing negatives and prints vs. putting them all in boxes) that were relocated from the hall linen closet. Bettina was against putting any shelves in the bedroom for many years but when you live in a small house you really have to utilize space as best you can. She finally relented to the shelves and it made a big difference. Towels and linens previously stored in the bedroom went into the linen closet where they belong. Photo binders went in the shelves in the bedroom (a better place may have been in the living room but that would then make the living room feel 'busy' again'), and most of those boxes from The Cave relocated back out there where they belong (still have a couple to go through). While working on the shelf and the photo binders and linens I was able to either toss out or give away nearly ten bags of 'stuff' (old bedding, clothes, blankets, etc.). Good Lord where does all this stuff come from?? 

Sooo, thanx to the latest decluttering efforts, the living room looks much neater than it did, the hallway linen closet now holds linens like it was meant to, and  the bedroom has far less stuff in it than it did - but is still a work in progress. Also in the hallway is a small walk-in utility/clothes closet that we've been using as video/DVD and photo album storage. Once the bedroom is finished, that'll be the next project.

Decluttering is a lot of work, but is doable if you just set your mind to the task. Don't expect all that extra junk to go away overnight - it takes time. To borrow a line from the movie Finding Nemo:  "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming"

Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Britains Knights of The Sword Power Knight's Pack

Here's a set of Power Knight's which came in a box most probably used as a counter display/ I'm not sure if Britains would have sold this whole box as a single retail unit.  In any case, these packs tend to get pricey and it was that way back in 2019 when I bought this and took the quickie photos, so I must have gotten it for a good price otherwise I would've just passed it up. Enjoy! Opa Fritz





Monday, May 16, 2022

Britains Knights of The Sword Power Dragon

The Britans Knights of The Sword range of toys introduced a series of riders and figures with pull-back (or pull-&-go) motors in them. This figure was called the ''Power Dragon' and was sold on a blister card as No. 17550, a boxed set with a Power Knight No. 7755, and as part of Britains' castle playset. Enjoy! Opa Fritz















Sunday, May 15, 2022

Britains Knights of The Sword Ballista Set No. 7785 - No Box

On the one hand, buying these sets in their original boxes is really cool. On the other, there's a twinge of guilt taking pristine toys out of their packages. You don't get that when buying loose pieces. The photo here shows an incomplete ballista set that found it's way into the collection. The number for the boxed set is 7785 and would have included two ballista operator's and two silver knights. As the knights would have been any of the poses Britains made, I could've culled a couple from my stash and included them in this photo but chose not to. As you can see, a 'ballista' is little more than a really big crossbow and would have tossed outsized darts at the enemy or the enemies' fortifications. Enjoy! Opa Fritz



Saturday, May 14, 2022

Britains Knights of The Sword Siege Set No.7769

Here's another boxed set I got some years back. These boxed sets tend to get pricey but I have managed to find sellers that offered them for very reasonable prices and did end up buying a couple. Okay, okay, I know that sooner or later I'll have to break these out of the box and take more photos but for now this is what I have - sorry! Enjoy! Opa Fritz





Thursday, May 12, 2022

Britains Knights of The Sword Catapult and 2 Figures Set No. 7746

Over the past few years the collection has gotten a few sets from Britains "Knights of The Sword" range. There seemed to be a whole lot of them and it only took a little research to find out more - there's a reason there's a whole lot of them! I'll post what few sets I have but probably won't pick up any more than a few more sets :-) (just a 'few more'...where have I heard that before? LOL).  I culled this off the Internet:

KNIGHTS OF THE SWORD

In 1986 Britains re-branded their Knights and Turks range as Knights of the Sword. The range remained in production until the end of Deetail production in 1998. The figures previously known as Turks and The Black Knights are now called Storm Knights. The Knights of the Sword range has the largest number of sets of any of the Deetail series.

courtesy: https://deetailtoysoldiersbritains.wordpress.com/2020/04/12/knights-of-the-sword/

Enjoy! Opa Fritz




Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Gaily Bedight

I was watching John Wayne's "El Dorado" the other night and as one of my favorites I always look forward to when James Caan recites this poem by Edgar Allen Poe (written in 1846). Caan does so throughout the movie, one verse at a time. Sooo, with that poem stuck in my head I had the hankerin' to get on the computer and cobble together a little something. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Gaily bedight,

A gallant knight,

In sunshine and in shadow,

Had journeyed long,

Singing a song,

In search of Eldorado.

 

But he grew old—

This knight so bold—

And o'er his heart a shadow

Fell as he found

No spot of ground

That looked like Eldorado.

 

And, as his strength

Failed him at length,

He met a pilgrim shadow—

"Shadow," said he,

"Where can it be—

This land of Eldorado?"

 

"Over the Mountains

Of the Moon,

Down the Valley of the Shadow,

Ride, boldly ride,"

The shade replied—

"If you seek for Eldorado!"





Sunday, May 8, 2022

Britains Deetail Mounted Turk No. 712

Here's the last of the 6-pose set of Britains Deetail Mounted Turks. One thing to remember about these figures - for  those who are unfamiliar with Britains - is that the horse colors, horse blankets, and weapons were all variable, and you could get any number of variations depending on how they got packaged that day on the assembly line. Enjoy! Opa Fritz


















Saturday, May 7, 2022

Britains Deetail Mounted Turk No. 710

Here's another Mounted Turk from the batch I got in this week. Enjoy! Opa Fritz