Fairys Faeries Ceramic Nancy's Fairy Figurines are Surprisingly Lifelike!

April 12, 2019

#302

Dear reader,

Nancy read a book on organizing and simplifying your home. So she has begun. She handed me a box of ceramic figurines to put on eBay. Then changed her mind.

I have featured Nancy's collections in the past, but it's been a while. After she took a second look at them, and I voiced my admiration of the incredible detail in them, she decided to keep them. Since I'd already photographed and edited them, I decided to write a post about them.

Two different angles of the wee girls.

This one and one other were made by Munro Enterprises, I suspect they were all made in China.

To me, she resembles a girl of about 12 who is a ballet dancer.

Except for the wings, of course.

Just look at the detail and realism of every aspect! Except for the wings. Such talented artists they are.

This little one is called "lipstick" and she too is a Munro creation.

Again, the most minute of details, wow.

This one is quite clever, using a ladie's compact as the basis for it. She too appears quite young. The shape of her eyes and ears seem almost elfin. 

Her wings are more butterfly-like than the ones above which are translucent.

The cover is weathered to appear worn and aged. The little marks on the bottom are "2003" and a maker's mark which is hard to read.

This one and the next seem to be from the same makers. Any information in the form of stickers has been removed.

They even painted her toenails.

They look better with the naked (or glasses covered) eyes than they do enlarged via photography.

The photos because of limited depth-of-field leave areas out of focus. 

Viewed at arms length, they really are remarkable. Go ahead and do a search: "ceramic fairy figurines" and you too will be astounded by how many have been put on the Internet. Also the variety of realism or lack thereof in the designs.

I believe the next article I do will be of all the little figures and figurines that we have. For a while I had a collection of modern (verses the 1960's) 1/6th scale military action figures, which can be seen here. They've all gone to new homes.

In the 1960's it was G.I.Joe. Now it's..................  

And last year, or the year before, I bought a one-of-a-kind figure of Timothy Olyphant's character from the TV series Justified which can be seen here.
Justified's Raylan Givens, Timothy Olyphant, immortalized in 1:6th scale!

We SO got into that series. What DID we do before we could stream series into our homes?

I hope you enjoyed this brief article featuring these amazing little cuties.

I greatly appreciate your taking a look at this and any of my articles. Your kind words and comments are what keeps me creating and sharing them.

Scott

April 12, 2019

#302

Comparing Milton-Bradley's The Game of Life: 1960's to 2010's

April 2, 2019

#301

Gentle reader,

Millennials are finding out about things that they think are cool which are in fact very old: LP records, books made of paper, film cameras and board games. There are more to the list but you get the idea. The ONE thing that ties them together, not one has a screen or requires WI-FI, or for that matter has a lithium ion battery. And they are enjoying themselves.

In fact, there is a book, The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter by David Sax, if you are interested, read it, I did. A real hardback book. One of the many things I learned is that there are, in many countries, former stores that have become board game parlors. Young people line up for hours for a chance to get inside and play games!

I was born in the 1950's, and grew up in the 1960's and 1970's. Being a geezer now (at 62) and having three sisters and one brother, we played with each other as kids. One thing we loved to play were board games. We are all still very close.

Milton Bradley's THE GAME OF LIFE was one of my favorites. My wife is 8 1/2 years younger than I and yet we did many of the same things as kids. The difference is her sisters are ten and sixteen years older than she. So, there wasn't much they played together.

NOTE: Click on any photo and a new window will open over this page. You may click or use your left and right arrow keys to view the photos much larger. I do not know how that works on "devices", only computers.

We each had a number of board games which we combined when we married and played with some of them with our combined six kids. Then they all grew up and have their own lives now. So, we donated them. Then began to miss them.

For years we loved thrift store shopping. I came across a deluxe Monopoly game and bought it. That got us started again. But we never saw LIFE available in all of our trips. So we bought a new one, shown above.  

That image (above) shows the size difference between the modern Hasbro version's box and the original one.  

I came across this original edition on eBay and it is in fantastic condition for nine dollars. Many of the blue and pink "people" are still attached to the molding trees.

Man pictured on the cover was America's morality compass, his name was Art Linkletter.  He "Heartily Endorses This Game". Many years later, he had a TV show called, Kids say the darndest things. Many years after that Bill Cosby did the same show. Not that he is a moral compass.

Above shows the boxes contents once the board is removed. The two red things are spacers to keep the folded board from moving around. The colored number strip is used in the game.

Above shows what one sees inside the newest version of LIFE. Below is with the board removed. All the pieces came in little zip-lock bags as seen below. 

Below shows the old board on the left and the new on the right. One has to attach the spinner to the smaller board. It is part of the board as are the buildings in the original. It is larger as well.

EVERY space on the original has words on it in the original which makes the game much more fun and interesting. 

Many of the tasks are the same in the newer version.

Check out the differences in the money, especially the denominations and details on the old ones. 

The boxes in the original have lids that are slotted and labeled to hold all the money as well as promissory notes and various insurance documents.

These two photos compare the differences in each box. Those are small rocks in the boxes below to hold the stacks of newly folded certificates down for the photo. (My wife paints small rocks with sayings on them and leaves them for others to find. It's a thing. Search "Manassas Rocks".) The certificates were still flat for nearly sixty years. See the "people" below still attached?

This is the original price tag on the 1960's box. Try as I might, I could not quite tell the price they paid.

The point of all this? Sometimes older IS better. Yes, if I were to get in and drive any of the 1960's and 1970's cars I once owned, I would think what crap cars they are, yet I loved them so then. Modern cars are SO much: better, safer, reliable and economical. Not to mention more powerful. Oh and they have cup holders.

We were not happy with the new version of LIFE. So, eBay came to the rescue.

Our ten-year-old grandson likes to "Hang out with Grampa" on teacher work days and holidays. So, I got him interested in board games. We've played: Monopoly, LIFE and one he really likes, Mille Borne. I have an original one of these French "driving" games. He (and his younger siblings) are REALLY smart and he quickly learned how to win in all three games. It's what he most wants to do when he comes over. This is a boy that had a flat screen TV of his own at an early age and has several game consoles, tablets too, and loves to "game" and stream shows. But not a cell phone, yet.

So, go ahead and go to a thrift store or two and pick out some board games and bring them home. Or, buy new ones. Whatever, get yourselves AND your kids away from electronic screens and really have fun, TOGETHER.

Thank you once again for taking the time to read my humble words and view my photos. Your kind comments are what keeps me going. We are rapidly approaching one quarter million page views! It blows my mind and truly humbles me.

Scott

April 2, 2019

#301

 

Movin' on up! Panasonic Lumix TZ-ZS Series Cameras. TZ3 to ZS5. Episode Number 300!

March 14, 2019

#300

Gentle reader,

Yes, it's been a couple of months since I last wrote to you. This is due mainly to having not bought anything of interest.

I have been a fan of Panasonic Lumix cameras for many years. I coveted them when they first came out and wanted a BLUE compact zoom model way back then. I mean, they had Leica lenses on them!

You see, Leica had plenty of expertise making film cameras and lenses, but little experience with digital cameras. So, they formed a partnership with Panasonic. Panasonic would build the cameras and Leica the lenses. BOTH sold them under their own brand names. Now get this, physically, they looked the same, they performed the same. YET, the ones with the little red LEICA dot on them sold for around 50% more! "You pay for the name" as the old saying goes.

Thanks to a lively used market and eBay, I've owned a number of them and loved them all.

For more information on Lumix cameras, Wikipedia has a wonderful informative and long page on them:

Lumix - Wikipedia Plus, they have links to individual model's pages within the articles and graphs. Don't you just love the Internet?

Here are the boxes for the two of them:

Some time ago, I came across the DMC-TZ3 still having the box and everything at a flea market. I wrote about it here:

Panasonic Lumix Cameras Leica Lenses Without the Leica Prices. New to me DMC-TZ3.  

Prior to that, I wrote a three-part series about using classic film lenses on Micro Four Third cameras. Below is the third chapter, both previous chapters are linked in that article.

Using Vintage Film Camera Lenses on Digital Camera Bodies PART THREE.

And way back, I first wrote about my love for them here:

And Then There Were Three. Panasonic Lumix Cameras, that is! 

My favorite as far as compact LUMIX cameras go, is my LX3, with it's superb and fast f2.0 Leica Vario-Summicron lens it creates awesome images. But it won't fit comfortably in a pocket. And, it's only a 2.5X optical zoom from 24mm to 60mm (35mm film equivalent).

You see, I do not have nor do I want a "smart" phone. Oh, yes, they are marvels of technology. Not interested, my flip phone works fine, and it's "camera" is crap. So, I always carry a Lumix camera with me.

If you read my previous articles, you know that I started carrying them with this ZS7. Yes, I know it is "better" than either of the cameras that I'm profiling here, but I do not make videos and thus it's HD video capabilities were useless to me.

That being said, let's get started talking about these two cameras.

The image below displays each camera's capabilities neatly printed in little boxes in two languages. Note that the older box does not show Panasonic's "intelligent automatic" logo but the older camera does have it. Just not as advanced.

TZ "Travel Zoom" cameras also come with the model name starting with ZS "Super Zoom". Mostly, the ZS-branded series are sold in North America. Aside from the names, they are the same. A ZS5 is identical to a TZ8. 

The TZ3 came out in 2005, the TZ8, TZ10, ZS5 and ZS7 all came out in 2010. The ZS7 and TZ10 are identical.

Five years in digital technology is a LONG time as far as capability is concerned.

At first glance, these two look identical. The older TZ3 is on the left. It starts at 28mm (35mm eq.) with a 10X optical zoom or 28 to 280mm (35mm eq.). 

The ZS5 (TZ8) starts at a wider 25mm (35mm eq.) with a 12X optical zoom which equals 25-300mm (35mm eq.). 

The views above and below show how much thicker the older body is. The newer model has the tripod socket closer to center.

Controls are similar and similarly placed.

Until you get to the back. On the older model, to view captured images, one rotates the knob on the top. The later model has a switch on the top right of the back. My LX3 is set up the same way, so I am used to it.

Note also, that the older model has the larger screen. The ZS7 and TZ10 have the larger screen because of their HD video capabilities which are superior to the less expensive ZS5 and TZ8 models. Both make PC HD video, however. But, as I stated, I don't make videos.

Side views demonstrate how much thicker the older models are.

Strap mount (left) is more traditional on the older model.

The older model has the option of using a "wall wart" AC transformer to power the camera. If I remember correctly, the ZS7 (and TZ10) also offer this. It makes sense if shooting video indoors and/or on a tripod to use the house's current to run the camera rather than have to keep changing batteries.

Placement of the LUMIX logo differs as does the zoom ratio labeling. The newer model also does not have the company name on the front. 

Physical length of the zoom is the same. The thickness of the body makes it look as though it is longer.

Not much difference in their looks above. The differences are inside, older model is 7.2 megapixels verses 12.1 for the newer. A significant difference. However, the only visible differences in the images can be seen on a PC monitor zoomed to 100%. Also, the larger sensor allows for larger prints to me made. 

Now we get to a weightier subject. 

That thickness also adds weight to the camera. 

The ONE thing I wish my point-and-shoot Lumix cameras had is an optical viewfinder. I'm a geezer at 62 years old and aside from a cheap green plastic camera which used roll film (seen below) I was given in the 1960's and a J.C.Penney 110 film camera when my kids were little in the 1980's, I did not have any camera whatsoever.

In April, 1995 I bought my first "real" camera, an Olympus OM-10 that I obtained for $100 at a pawn shop, (seen below).

Later, I started collecting cameras and had more than 200. Thus, I am used to having and using a viewfinder. I chose a Lumix G1 M43 body (because on the used market, they are cheap) mostly because it has an optical (albeit electronic) viewfinder, verses the equally capable and more compact M43 bodies that lack that feature. Like my FZ40 and G1 below.

Frank quitely*, I mean, quite frankly, I would have preferred a BLUE ZS5 or TZ8, but this one I bought was (used only once or twice) according to the seller. It appears to be brand new, and at $59.99 with free shipping, I jumped on it.

Aside from one test shot, I have yet to even play with the new ZS5. Since it is so similar to the now departed RED ZS7, I am certainly familiar with it.

So, there you have it. What I did not describe about each can be gleaned by clicking on any image and viewing it larger.

I salute Panasonic for creating and providing quality digital cameras with real Leica lenses for amazing prices.

Thank you once again for taking the time to read my humble blog and viewing my images (all made with my LX3). I truly appreciate all the encouraging words and comments.

Scott
March, 14, 2019
#300