Said it before and I'll say it again: bloody amazing lot of items there, Michael. That is one special vintage Christmas and what an incredible achievement by Frank. There wasn't a for sale thread online that he wasn't all over when putting that together but what Frank's done there is find the best of the best. Just brilliant.
Love the Luke FB 12 back. Very nice.
Anyone sick of seeing Palitoy DS playsets yet? Pffft! How could that ever happen?? Tough, going to subject you to this one that Rich safely brought down from Vectis for me (along with other bits and pieces).
It was a bitter-sweet purchase when I came to look at it: described as "fair to good" it was pretty far off. The largest wall section was in two pieces and a hair's breadth from being 3. Another pieces was also torn in two. Previous repairs to both had failed but caused further damage. The stands were also missing. However, thanks to Vectis being very reasonable to deal with and also thanks to the forum's own maxdude I was able to replace the two badly damaged pieces with two very, very good ones. The end result is bloody brilliant and it's lifted the set by a good couple of grades. The canopy is so clear I had to check with Rich it wasn't a fake.
The box, as you can see, is now the weak link. It's a lot worse than in looks in this picture, much, much worse. I have a plan, well, 12% of a plan, actually. Having seen someone else achieve amazing results with an iron and spray starch. The box is on the brink, to be fair. If it was any better I'd leave it alone but it will not survive much longer. It's in three pieces already and I don't want to have to pick it up with a dustpan and brush when I want to look at it. Should my wife ever allow me the time I'm going to do a little, very gentle and sensitive, reviving. A little specialist paper glue, a removable inner brace of cardboard and a little spray starch should transform it. Will take some photos and write a thread when done to share the joy/sorrow of the results in time. The underside of the playset is not shown enough. Would love a round poster of this. May just settle for a spare beater base and frame it up sometime.