Simon

:laugh: Brilliant! :laugh: Two lanes or four... :laugh: Maybe i was a bit adrift with Tim being normal 'per se' marky.... Sean does help write the English dictionary doesn't he? ... the picture version....

Tim, welcome to the club of not understanding women in the slightest.... that makes you officially 'normal'! [bet you never thought you'd be called that!]

Right howlers up here .... nothing at all like the ones in South Herefordshire & Gloucs....

Likewise Simon, there is something about them.... And as Tris says, that little one with the loader is lovely ...

You're not wrong... my wife sells cosemtics and when this recession came along we bricked it a bit, I suggested that luxury purchases such as cosmetics and cushions would be the first things to collapse.... how wrong was I?!!! Doesn't seem to have affected it at all.... there are loads of new girls signing up and they all appear to be doing well.... go figure!

Massey looks a bit 'over tyred' to me..... And never seen one of those little ones before, what market was that for and what 'was' it...?

You make a fair point Alex, but Harry Potter?! Unlike many of us you have the benefit of extensive and, by the sounds of it, a high standard of study. Lots of us don't have that insight and we form opinions only by what we see and experience in our daily lives of 'pay in, pay out, what do we get for it' Lots of us still think students are hippies.... :laugh: That being said, you're right, our economy is not anywhere near as bad as many other near neighbours' and if we refocus our borrowing & spending, [both as a nation and as individual consumers] we could well be 'all square' relatively quickly [one must look at exactly what the GDP consists of though before taking a final judgement, many of these countries with higher debts as a % of their GDP don't perhaps have the same levels of recirculatory economy [like that one? I made it up! ] that we do here... for instance they may not have huge public sector employment which we do which could twist the figures somewhat.... the NHS is the nation's largest employer isn't it? That must have a bearing on things somehow? I wouldn't stake my life either way but I wouldn't 'trust' any published figures 100%...] The secondary issue is, a country lives and dies by export and differentials in the standard of living. We only really manufacture premium products.... our customers must be affluent for this trade to continue... we might be OK, but if our customers are bust, then so are we.... granted, Greece has never been a huge buyer of XKR's, DB9's & supercharged Range Rovers, but it's something which needs to be taken into account, particularly as more of us start trying to save to purchase rather than borrow, that will cut our personal spending at home as well.... Back to the subject in hand.... yes, it has then surely affected the hobby.... Not least because it has seemingly exploded in the last couple of years, just like house prices and technology.... More people became involved with the hobby seriously and more of us curbed it pretty quickly when things got tight. If we had a sales graph for the UK the last 5 years [maximum] would probably see a huge spike. This has likely affected those retailers who bought a lot of stock on the back of the rise in popularity more so than the smaller traditional toy shops who had a steady market of only mildly interested collectors.... I have bought sod all in the last 18 months, whereas I used to happily spend 2 or 3 hundred quid each at Spalding and Toytrac, not to mention the 80 quid or so travel & subsistence costs associated with it..... I was also picking stuff up off the shelf and ebay throughout the year, but for a long time now, nothing. I went to the Brum show the other week because it was close and didn't cost me a lot to get there.... but I didn't take any money with me! There have been sooooo many lovely blue things I would have bought in the last 12 months had i the money, but I didn't so I, well, didn't! We're not on the breadline, thank god, I've still got my job and our order book is stacked out for the summer, the mortgage is always paid on time and I haven't defaulted on the finance on Mrs H's car, the Disco is bought and paid for and we are getting by fine, there are many far worse off than us and I thank my lucky stars we've held it together... it got close in the winter.... but it has made us refocus things drastically.... come the end of the lease my car is gone and I'm out the company car scheme, it's just too much of a commitment for the business, and for what? A new number plate and fancy wheels? on a GERMAN car?! Second hand JLR product for me next.... We haven't been able to afford a foreign holiday, but with the Euro-zone so expensive why would we want one, we had an early season week in rainy Devon and that was lovely.... I think we are all just being more careful, even if we don't realise it, and for me, cutting out my splurges on toy tractors was the first thing to be done!

Harry can't be that small anymore Mandy?! They don't half grow up quick, George starts school in the autumn!

Ben, do you live on the moon? :laugh:

I think ours at home is a '58 model too, just what I've been waiting for!

I reckon that's one for you Rich as you've just proved yourself to be something of an expert!

I don't see why not! Maybe I'll tackle it over this bank holiday weekend....! Be nice to write some inane opinionated drivel again!

Ohmygod I hope they do the Dexta in 32nd!

Thank god for that Graham, thought I may have to call the RSPCTB....

Presumably if we crossed her palm with the right sort of silver Rich, your mum would probably get some for us right? And I'm bound to be close by to you or vise versa sometime very soon so I could get hold of it from you.... I am formulating what some may refer to as 'A PLAN'....

Best start with your local KV agent, we used to be able to get replacement decals as standard parts orders... Alternatively, if they're not available anymore and you have one as a pattern then get a local sign company to do them for you....

No matter if the model is out dated to the production machine, nice to not skip a range anyway... There are lots of hoops to jump through to getting a model to market... don't know if it's the case with this one, but when UH launched the 5480 they were all geared up and sent the pre-prod to MF at Stoneleigh [which I got my paws on] where it got a few thumbs down and had to have some minor changes made, something like that can add months to a programme, even if it's just something simple like the mirrors being the wrong style or the decals aren't quite right, as a whole new mock up needs producing, sending to the licensor, approving, sending back, putting into production.... cue months of thumb twiddling waiting for confirmation.... and after one thing gets picked up, more people take an interest in making sure subsequent improvements are correct, exponentially increasing the time taken to get it resolved.... aaahhh, the joys of business...!

Forgive my obvious ignorance, which model is that Dave? Is it a Precision 8*30 or something else....?

Fortunately the weather was nice so there were plenty of short skirts floating around above my head....

Interesting, thanks Robert, I was only thinking about chopping one of these last night to fit a Britains 5000 bonnet & floorpan to it... maybe I'll stick to ackermanising the front axle on the Britains and fitting a decent hitch.... \

Resurrecting this thread for a moment... has anyone tackled the rear axle to get it to steer yet? If so, what did you do and how did you get on? If not, why not and hurry up!!

Haha, sharper than you look!! :laugh:

Everyone was so disappointed you weren't there Tris I had to step into the breach and play the part of resident mini me for the day.... I don't know how you do it, I have an imtimate knowledge of people's knees now! :laugh:

Just having a hunt through to swot up on straw bales and this thread came top in the search. Love the teddy bear fur ones... that's what I'm after....! How did you come by the fur Graham..? Please tell me you didn't have to shave a teddy bear! That would just be too weird!

And all without taking it out the box! WOW! Like that Stevie.... Would that be one of those 40k 'box ones...? Where did you get the buckets from?