In this together

A message from tonies – “It’s not easy being cooped up inside as a family around Easter. Especially when you can’t find the words to explain to your little ones how and why it’s so important to stay indoors and be aware of social-distancing.
And why they can’t see their grandparents and friends?

We’ve teamed up with children’s author Giles Paley-Phillips to confront some of the most-asked questions children have at this time within an audiobook.

In this together

In our story, Rosie’s mum and dad are faced with the tricky task of explaining why she’s not in school due to the ‘microscopic bug’, why she’s not able to see her friends and how they can protect her grandparents and the elderly.

You can download the audiobook for free and upload it directly to your Creative-Tonie. That way, the next time the kids pop their creative friend on the Toniebox, they’ll be able to listen to Rosie’s story.
Why not try it out this weekend?”

Click here to download – In this together

AFV Club Churchill AVRE

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Thanks to PI for the images of his completed kit

BIG TROUBLE IN MODEL BRITAIN

Over the course of the last year, the business and many staff members at Hornby have spent a great deal of time in front of a camera, in order to give the world an insight into the business, the industry and the difficulties, which Hornby has faced over the past years. The filming has resulted in something very special, involving model railway enthusiast, James May.

JAMES MAY’S BIG TROUBLE IN MODEL BRITAIN The two-part documentary is hitting TV screens in the UK next Wednesday 6th and Wednesday 13th March on BBC Four at 9pm.

Two-part documentary, introduced and narrated by model train enthusiast James May, that follows a year inside Hornby Hobbies – an iconic British toymaker on the brink of collapse. But this is no ordinary business series; this is a series about model train and plane obsessives, both inside and outside the company, all of whom desperately need the company to survive. In Episode 1 we join Hornby as they face their biggest crisis in a generation. The company has lost £30M in the past five years and sales across all three of their major brands – Scalextric, Airfix and Hornby Railways – are down. A new boss, Lyndon Davies, has been appointed to turn the company’s dismal fortunes around and he has brought back some company veterans to help in the fight for survival. Simon Kohler, known affectionately as ‘Mr Hornby’ has been brought back after a four-year absence. He assesses the decline of his beloved company and attempts to reconnect with Hornby’s dissatisfied customer base and retailers. Meanwhile, in a bid to revitalise Airfix, Lyndon tasks a master amateur model builder, Jim Bren, with the biggest build of his model-making life – the largest reconstruction of the Hellcat plane ever attempted by the company. We get the opportunity to delve into the highly secretive world of the company’s design and development process. We meet Ken, head of the audio research laboratory, as he struggles to find the perfect cat sound as well as other veterans like Head of Archives Peter who has some very strong words on how he feels the company has been managed. We also meet the people whose pastimes are at stake, such as the members of the Double O Gauge Association. We will follow them as they prepare for one of the biggest events in the model railway enthusiast’s diary – The Great Electric Train Show in Milton Keynes – where their fictitious village of Batcombe is ready for its unveiling to the public.

Africa Twin

Thanks to Mr.C. who brought in this photo of his recently completed Tamiya Honda Africa Twin.

It’s good to know some of the kits bought from us are built!

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1st trains of 2017

Spring is here. Garden railway weather is too! (Thanks to KB for the photos.)

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SNOW!

Faversham, 30 years ago today…

photo by MG

Tamiya Operation Iraqi Freedom M1A2 Abrams

Thanks to PI for bringing in his recently completed Tamiya 1/35th scale M1A2 Abrams for display. This model is currently on show in our shop window… It can also be seen in various stages of construction on PI’s Youtube channel – M1A2 build – tanks alot!

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New Year Honours

In 2015 customers looked for over 10000 search terms on our website.

The top 3 weeks searched for were:-

1. jan154 with 3458 searches
2. aug154 with 2929
3. mch152 with 2789

The top 5 manufacturers searched for were:-

1. Heljan with 2313 searches
2. Minitrains with 1868
3. Herpa with 1399
4. Busch with 1059
5. Brawa with 758

The “Big 2” of Hornby and Bachmann had 355 and 217 searches respectively.

We also had 1 search for “Brother Sewing Machine”, 1 for “Her parents” (we think a little automatic spell correct came in to this one) and 1 (surprisingly!) for “if ‘sleep ’15’, null, null’, null,null,null.null,null”

Happy  New Year!

Elefant

Thanks to PI for sending photos of his recently completed Dragon Elefant.

and his next project…

Faversham 1966

Thanks to JC for this photo he took on 31st August 1966 showing BR Cl.71 E5018 passing Faversham’s wagon repair shop.