One word. Decals. It’s hard to imagine a time when we hadn’t heard of them; a time, perhaps, when we could see or think of RAF livery without immediately picturing one; a time before we soaked one in a bowl of warm water, slid it off its backing paper and placed it on the wing of a Spitfire or a Wellington Bomber. But that was in those elusive and pre-evocative days we tend not to concern ourselves with here at TVC Towers. So there it is: a word that only exists for us in the context of one thing, Airfix models. ... more>>>

One of those things an overtime-weary lab researcher possibly stumbled across by accident in some multi-national petro-chemical conglomerate, we reckon (see also Silly Putty and Slime). The basic premise rested on the implicit (and flawed) expectation that any child would be interested in watching small multicoloured stalagmites form as if by “magic” over a period of hours or, indeed, days inside a large liquid-filled glass bowl (or, more realistically in the Cream era child’s household, a Nescafe jar). As if that in itself were somehow edifying or educational. ... more>>>

Winner of the award for “Largest Disparity Between Portrayal In Advertising Materials And Reality”, it is with some pleasure we see these fishy fraudsters continue to be sold to this very day. Yet, who has ever owned a family? Far from the apparent hierarchical society of tiny grinning mermen and mermaids presented in illustrated form on the packaging, Sea Monkeys were, in fact, tiny - and we mean microscopic - crustaceans of the Artemia Salina family. Yet we were, as youngsters, encouraged to believe that they inhabited a mysterious world of sunken treasures, kings and queens, castles and adventure, in a brazen example of spin that should have surely invited the full punitive powers of the Advertising Standards Authority. (Actually, an episode of That’s Life was devoted to an expose!) ... more>>>

Shrinky Dinks sat at the end of the hobby scale marked “high concept”. We can only imagine the phone call that took place when these puppies were pitched over the phone. (Alternatively, we could just bastardise the famous Bob Newhart “Walter Raleigh” monologue. Which is actually what we’re going to do. Here goes.) ... more>>>