Play-Deco paper and wood crafting construction kits

This was my favorite group of products at the Toy Fair for 2013, 

other than my first love for all things Funko. 

Play-Deco by magnote.com

With a combination of light-weight bass wood and printed paper templates, these kits are reat gifts for office workers and I really want to get one of everything, so cool! Play-Deco kits come in 5 different single sets (Catherine, Tamaro, Break, Robosuke, Devio) and 5 combo sets (Postman and Wagon, Kenji & Airplane, Junko & Supercar, Nancy & Sexyshark, Owlman & Owlmobile).

Break and Robosuki

Brownie and Citron are fine-tuned robots that perform tasks at your desk

Hold 250 paper clips, 83 jelly beans, 92 M&M's ^®, sticky notes, and even hold notes and pens in the grips of their little robot hands. Combine stickers, bass wood and paper craft in one piece.

Catherine - loves music, nature and animals.
Her monkey and parrot always fight over the best spot (on top of her head)

Piperoids unique paper craft robot toys - Original paper toy kits for the office

PIPEROID paper craft robots

The whole lineup of recently released Piperoid robot toys from magnote.com 

First time I've seen these toys and I can't think of anything cooler to give my niece and nephew the next time they need something to do for an hour when they come to visit (their Dad needs some down-time while the kids play games) Octo (mischievous octopus) and Deca (mischievous  crab) (not pictured) were released in time for Toy Fair. The rival chefs Salt & Pepper are great for any would-be connoisseur. "All you need is a pair of sissors." Check Magnote on facebook.

 

The webpage has full support for end-users with Instructions, Assembly Tips and an FAQ. In this case FAQ stands for Freekin' Awesome Quality toys - see the videos. All you get is several tubes of paper and pictographic instructions without many words. Yet, all these complicated toys with movable limbs and multi-points of articulation. These are so simple and cool as to be elegant.

Xiaorenshu: 小人书 Collecting "little picture books" nostalgia | xinhuanet.com

Little picture books: nostalgia in palms:

一箱老旧、泛黄的连环画册开启了我的记忆之门。
A box of old, yellowed comic book opened the door to my memory.

"It is not unusual for collectors to shell out as much as 400 yuan (about 62 U.S. dollars) for a single picture-story book; the same books used to go for just 0.2 yuan over 30 years ago. The most expensive volumes fetch more than 10,000 yuan apiece.

Lin Rongqiang, a 46-year old businessman in Beijing, has more than 13,000 such books in his private collection. "In my childhood, I had few hobbies other than reading xiaorenshu," Lin recalls.

Lin's most recent purchase was a 700-yuan xiaorenshu that he bought o complete a series within his collection. When he began collecting in 1999, picture-story books could be purchased for just one yuan apiece. Speculators have driven prices up since then."

Xiaorenshu, which literally means a little picture book of scenario drawings, consists of highly detailed panels accompanied by a text of about 90 Chinese characters. The books were often adaptions from literary classics, such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Journey to the West".

Jiang noted that xiaorenshu used to play a significant role in mobilizing the masses, shaping public attitudes and opinions, particularly during the 1950s and the 60s.

Between 1925 and 1945, picture-story books dealing with the theme of land reform, as well as China's battle against the invading Japanese, were published in areas that had been liberated by the Communist Party of China (CPC). "Xiaorenshu was then a vehicle to carry the government's policies," Jiang says.

Xiaorenshu continued to enjoy a "golden age" of sorts, thanks to the late Chairman Mao Zedong who employed it to encourage people to support the CPC's practices and policies. For this very reason, over 260 million xiaorenshu were published between 1951 and 1956, Jiang recalls.

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Road Maps: 1898 first automobile road map (via Road Map Collectors Association)

Maps of their times-1

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Beatles stamps: Unusual Postage Stamp Collection - odd perforation

Unusual Postage Stamp Collection:

"Most stamp are regular rectangular or square stamps and can be easily removed from a sheet of printed stamps by simply tearing along the perforations in a neat straight line. Not so these weird shaped stamp"

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Archival techniques for your collection: April 30 in D.C.: How to manage and preserve their collections - The Library of Congress

Pass It On: Personal Archiving Day - The Library Today (Library of Congress):

"Pass it On: Personal Archiving Day at the Library of Congress will be held on Saturday, April 30, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in LJ 119, first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington D.C. The event is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are needed.

Library staff will be on hand to talk directly with individuals about how to manage and preserve their collections. There will also be videos and printed information available. For security reasons, attendees are asked not to bring collection materials to the event. No appraisals will be provided. For information about visiting the Library go to www.loc.gov/visit/."

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Unusual Litter Contest: Spring 2011 Litter Sweep Roadside Cleanup April 16-30

Richmond County Daily Journal - May the cleanest road win: (North Carolina)

"This is your opportunity to demonstrate your support by organizing a cleanup between April 16 - 30 by taking part in the Spring 2011 Litter Sweep Roadside Cleanup.
                        
Litter Sweep is a NCDOT biannual statewide roadside litter cleanup event.

You also have a chance to win monetary prizes in the Unusual Litter Contest.

Last fall, the first prize winner of the Unusual Litter Contest found a jewelry box with a diamond ring inside."

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Upcycling articles: Re-imagining and re-inventing the waste stream to make good

www.outlookindia.com | How Rags Are Really Riches:

"Reuse waste like tetrapak containers and coffee cups to make stationery items, pen stands and CD cases. Their design innovations include beautiful lampshades created from bottle caps and futuristic furniture from tyres. Their range of fashion and decor accessories, priced between Rs 80 and Rs 2,300, can be bought from hi-end boutiques such as Mother Earth, Bombay Store, People Tree and Amethyst."


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Collecting old and rare newspapers that dished the dirt… | History's Newsstand Blog

The early muckrakers – collecting newspapers that dished the dirt… | History's Newsstand Blog:

"People collecting old and rare newspapers will give you many different reasons for their
hobbies. For some it’s about owning a little piece of history, for others it’s a way of connecting
to important date in their life – say a birthday or marriage – to something real. For some it’s
just that wonderful sense of smell and touch you get from handling something that was meant
to be thrown away – fragile, disposable, but now wonderfully evocative."

Image via Wikipedia

Collecting trolleybus tickets at new museum in the Ukraine - An unusual hobby /ДЕНЬ

An unusual hobby /ДЕНЬ/ The Day Weekly Digest

"A “Museum of trolleybus tickets” was opened in Kyiv (Prorizna street, 21). This is no joke. Its initiators wanted to create something that didn’t exist anywhere else in the world, and it seems they succeeded. So far the collection comprises around a hundred trolleybus (trolleybus only!) tickets from different countries (Portugal, Bulgaria, Belarus, Russia, Poland, etc.), but their work is far from over."

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rock 'n roll, punk and new wave graphics at dotpattern

Letter Took 66 Years to be Delivered + The art of writing letters | Gather

The Letter that Took 66 Years to be Delivered | Gather:

Generic image via Wikipedia

The letter that took 66 years to be delivered appeared on Saturday. Carrier James Patrick picked up his daily batch of mail and spotted a rather yellow envelope. The address was typed and there were four 1-cent stamps still in very good condition.

"Have you ever been to a yard sale and purchased a mystery box? Perhaps someone did just that and found the old envelope and decided to drop it in the mail. There are dozens of explanations of where this letter has been, who had it and why it recently showed up. Most of us would prefer a romantic ending to this story, but we shall never know."

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Lapel pins from the Russian Space Race >> The Space Pin Collector #Memorabilia

The Space Pin Collector:

"Growing up in 1960s Soviet Union, Mark Perelman’s heroes were Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova and a dog named Laika. Today he boasts a collection of more than 4,000 lapel pins commemorating a half century of space exploration."




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Collection of Letters from famous scientists, &tc. + Excerpts from Famous Love Letters

A man of letters -- famous letters | SouthCoastToday.com:

"Mel Yoken, UMass Dartmouth's Chancellor Professor Emeritus of French Language and Literature, shows off his extensive collection of letters from famous scientists, politicians, writers and actors, housed at Brown University's John Hay Library in Providence."

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Rare Newspapers… What to collect? | History's Newsstand Blog

Rare Newspapers… What to collect? | History's Newsstand Blog:

"There are an infinite number of ways to approach collecting rare newspapers. The History’s Newsstand Blog is pregnant with suggestions. Over the course of the next several months we will begin to explore the topic in earnest. For those who are new to the hobby, and are anxious to explore what has been written to-date, the following links are to help bring you up to speed:
Collectible Themes…
Rare Newspaper Collections Within Collections…
Historic Newspapers: the “Crossover” Collectible…
Videos Regarding The Hobby of Rare Newspapers Collecting…
Collectible Themes… A Few Suggestions…
The Themes, Eras and Additional Categories of the Rare Newspapers Website…
Most Collectible Issues"

Call for submissions: #Cereal Boxes | @UPPERCASE + More Stories

UPPERCASE - Participate:

"Issue 9 of UPPERCASE magazine (spring) explores how food inspires creativity. For this open call, you are invited to submit your cereal box designs and illustrations! ... You can redesign an existing cereal box or feel free to come up with a new name and concept for your cereal.

I plan on making mockups of the best submissions and photographing them for inclusion in the magazine."

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Articles about rare & #Antiquarian #Books > #Manuscripts and the Worthiness of Collecting

Manuscripts and the Worthiness of Collecting - Articles about rare books, antiquarian books, manuscripts, autographs, first editions, illustrated... - ILAB-LILA:

"Collecting undoubtedly serves many people beneficially during their lives in these respects. However there is also a higher scheme of things in terms of collecting. This involves considerations of the past, the present and the future which have significance for the individual involved as well as beyond him or her. An interest in his past is an inbuilt response in Man. ‘How will we know it’s us, without our past?’, John Steinbeck asked. How else can we make sense of our lives unless we discover ourselves to be part of the continuum?"

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World’s Largest Paperback Show #Collector - Chatsworth, CA

World’s Largest Paperback Show Is the Creation of Chatsworth Collector - Chatsworth, CA Patch:

"What is billed as the world’s largest paperback show is the brainchild of Chatsworth attorney Thomas M. Lesser. And it is coming back to the Valley on March 27.

The 32^nd Annual Paperback Collectors Show and Sale will feature free book signings. Among the nearly 40 guests scheduled to appear are authors Karen Anderson, Peter Beagle, John deChancie, David Gerrold, James Glass, Barbara Hambly, George Clayton Johnson, Michael Kurland, Richard Lupoff, Richard Matheson, William F. Nolan and Larry Niven. Artists include illustrator, author and movie-maker Don Glutand illustrator and author (yours truly) Laura Brodian Freas.

“It began in 1979, and the first show was a very small one at my home in Chatsworth,' he said. 'The second show was held in Burbank where there was a small kiosk on what was then a walk street [without traffic]. We held the show there for four or five years.' It is currently held at the Guest House Inn in Mission Hills."

April 3: Antiquarian Book & Paper Show Lancing, Michigan

53rd Michigan Antiquarian Book & Paper Show:

"Michigan Antiquarian Book & Paper Show.
This massive hunt for hidden treasure is happening again on Sunday, April 3, at the Lansing Center in downtown Lansing, Michigan. From 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. over 70 dealers from across the country will be offering for sale an incredible number of items in nearly every category."

trading card collectors abbreviations + advice + news

Collectors advice and information - Blowout Cards Forums:

"BV = Beckett Value

SV = Street Value (eBay prices)
PC = Personal Collection
CMB = Check my bucket
DLVD = Delivered
GU = Game-Used (Obvious)
FS = For Sale (Obvious)
FT = For Trade (Obvious)
WTB = Wanted to buy (Obvious)
WTT = Want to trade (Obvious)
WTTF = Want to trade for (Obvious)"

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NBA Card #Collector + News - Message Board Basketball Forum - #Hoops

NBA Card Collector? - Message Board Basketball Forum - InsideHoops:
"NBA Forum NBA Message Board - NBA Fan Forum"

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