The Boys' Book of Airfix

The Boys' Book of Airfix
Author: Arthur Ward
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2009
Genre: Modelmaking industry
ISBN: 0091928982

Airfix is the most famous plastic model construction kit company in the world. This title packs with photos of the kits from the 1950s. It provides the story of the dramatic twists and turns of the Airfix saga.

Sixty Years of Airfix Models

Sixty Years of Airfix Models
Author: Jeremy Brook
Publisher: Crowood
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2015-06-30
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 1847979769

The best-known and most important manufacturer of plastic model kits in the UK, Airfix has been at the forefront of the industry since 1955 when the first Airfix aircraft kit appeared in UK branches of Woolworth's. The kits were made to a constant scale and covered a wide variety of subjects, from aircraft to birds and from tanks to dinosaurs. In 1981 the famous London-based company closed down and only the kits survived intact. For the next twenty-five years Airfix was run by Palitoy and later Humbrol, but suffered from a lack of investment. In 2006, Hornby Hobbies Ltd, the train and Scalextric manufacturer, bought the ailing company and transformed it. Money and resources were ploughed into the range, and today Airfix releases around twenty new kits per year, designed to an incredibly high standard. The old kits of the 1950s and 1960s are gradually being replaced by new state-of-the-art tooling, all bearing that most prestigious name - Airfix. Published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of the first Airfix aircraft kit, Sixty Years of Airfix Models, tells the full story, year by year, of the company and its products. Illustrated throughout with colour photographs.of kits, box art and completed models.

Airfix Kits

Airfix Kits
Author: Trevor Pask
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 57
Release: 2011-08-20
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 0747809755

With the aid of stringy glue and scalpel-sliced fingers, young and old have turned display cabinets and bedrooms into mini-museums, or tiny battlefields. This book looks at the fascinating tale of this British company a pioneer in the world of modelling as well as its products, its changing fortunes over the years, and its links with popular culture. Using colour images, Trevor Pask explores this thriving pastime, allowing Airfix kit lovers to indulge in a nostalgic journey and those new to the hobby an intriguing insight into its history.

The Other Side Of Airfix

The Other Side Of Airfix
Author: Arthur Ward
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2013-02-18
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 1473822319

Airfix is synonymous with plastic model kits. The brand name has virtually become a noun, occupying a special place in that lexicon of trade names alongside Hoover, Sellotape, Perspex and Aqua-Lung.Throughout the war years Airfix survived on government contracts for a whole range of plastic items and by virtue of Kove's tenancious apetitie for business and doing a deal. By the war's end Airfix was the market leader in plastic injection moulded combs in Britain. By the time Airfix had released its first proper construction kit, a tiny model of Drake's flagship Golden Hind, in 1952, the firm was well established as a leading toy brand. Indeed throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s Airfix invested heavily in developing new toys or manufacturing them under license for large US toy companies such as Hasbro. Very soon Airfix extended its activities beyond toys into games and arts and crafts and in short time famous names.Indeed so successful was Airfix at diversifying that by the 1970s the company had grown to such an extent that it had acquired other famous toy brands including Dinky Toys, Tri-ang, Meccano, and Romper Room. With its subsidiary Crayonne Airfix even harnessed the design talents of the then Terence Conranne in attempt to elevate plastic products to the rarified atmosphere of designer chic.So there's a lot more to Airfix than many might think and this book is the first attempt to document the myriad successful lines, outside of plastic kits, which contributed to the company's dramatic growth before a combination of factors forced it into brief liquidation in 1981. Written by someone with a lifetime's fascination for Airfix and who has written other books about the better known construction kit side of the business, The Other Airfix is a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

Encyclopedia of Play in Today′s Society

Encyclopedia of Play in Today′s Society
Author: Rodney P. Carlisle
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 1033
Release: 2009-04-02
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1452266107

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2009 "This ground-breaking resource is strongly recommended for all libraries and health and welfare institutional depots; essential for university collections, especially those catering to social studies programs." —Library Journal, STARRED Review Children and adults spend a great deal of time in activities we think of as "play," including games, sports, and hobbies. Without thinking about it very deeply, almost everyone would agree that such activities are fun, relaxing, and entertaining. However, play has many purposes that run much deeper than simple entertainment. For children, play has various functions such as competition, following rules, accepting defeat, choosing leaders, exercising leadership, practicing adult roles, and taking risks in order to reap rewards. For adults, many games and sports serve as harmless releases of feelings of aggression, competition, and intergroup hostility. The Encyclopedia of Play in Today′s Society explores the concept of play in history and modern society in the United States and internationally. Its scope encompasses leisure and recreational activities of children and adults throughout the ages, from dice games in the Roman Empire to video games today. With more than 450 entries, these two volumes do not include coverage of professional sports and sport teams but, instead, cover the hundreds of games played not to earn a living but as informal activity. All aspects of play—from learning to competition, mastery of nature, socialization, and cooperation—are included. Simply enough, this Encyclopedia explores play played for the fun of it! Key Features Available in both print and electronic formats Provides access to the fascinating literature that has explored questions of psychology, learning theory, game theory, and history in depth Considers the affects of play on child and adult development, particularly on health, creativity, and imagination Contains entries that describe both adult and childhood play and games in dozens of cultures around the world and throughout history Explores the sophisticated analyses of social thinkers such as Huizinga, Vygotsky, and Sutton-Smith, as well as the wide variety of games, toys, sports, and entertainments found around the world Presents cultures as diverse as the ancient Middle East, modern Russia, and China and in nations as far flung as India, Argentina, and France Key Themes Adult Games Board and Card Games Children′s Games History of Play Outdoor Games and Amateur Sports Play and Education Play Around the World Psychology of Play Sociology of Play Toys and Business Video and Online Games For a subject we mostly consider light-hearted, play as a research topic has generated an extensive and sophisticated literature, exploring a range of penetrating questions. This two-volume set serves as a general, nontechnical resource for academics, researchers, and students alike. It is an essential addition to any academic library.

Remembering the Cultural Geographies of a Childhood Home

Remembering the Cultural Geographies of a Childhood Home
Author: Peter Hughes Jachimiak
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317066707

Using an innovative auto-ethnographic approach to investigate the otherness of the places that make up the childhood home and its neighbourhood in relation to memory-derived and memory-imbued cultural geographies, Remembering the Cultural Geographies of a Childhood Home is concerned with childhood spaces and children's perspectives of those spaces and, consequentially, with the personalised locations that make up the childhood family home and its immediate surroundings (such as the garden, the street, etc.). Whilst this book is primarily structured by the author's memories of living in his own Welsh childhood home during the 1970s - that is, the auto-ethnographic framework - it is as much about living anywhere amid the remembered cultural remnants of the past as it is immersing oneself in cultural geographies of the here-and-now. As a result, Remembering the Cultural Geographies of a Childhood Home is part of the ongoing pursuit by cultural geographers to provide a personal exploration of the pluralities of shared landscapes, whereby such an engagement with space and place aid our construction of cognitive maps of meaning that, in turn, manifest themselves as both individual and collective cultural experiences. Furthermore, touching upon our co-habiting of ghost topologies, Remembering the Cultural Geographies of a Childhood Home also encourages a critical exploration of children’s spirituality amid the haunted cultural and geographical spaces and places of a house and its neighbourhood: the cellar, hallway, parlour, stairs, bedroom, attic, shops, cemeteries, and so on.

Churchill's Secret Defence Army

Churchill's Secret Defence Army
Author: Arthur Ward
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2013-03-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1783469358

By the spring of 1940, the phoney war suddenly became very real. In April Hitler's forces, invaded Norway and a month later began their assault on France and the Low Countries. The Anglo/French allies were routed. The British escaped to fight another day after evacuating the bulk of their armies at Dunkirk. When on 10 May Winston Churchill became Prime Minister he soon discovered that the nation's defenses were in a parlous state and a Nazi invasion was a very real possibility. By the end of the month, nearly a million British citizens had joined the Local Defense Volunteers, soon to become the Home Guard, of Dad's Army fame. Churchill, however, realized the Home Guard was initially of little more than PR value, an important morale booster. A more serious deterrent needed to be created if Hitler's panzer divisions and the full might of the blitzkrieg were to be thwarted. Consequently, to supplement the sorely ill-equipped regular forces (all of their tanks and most of their artillery had been abandoned in France) a new, British resistance force was required. The intentionally blandly named Auxiliary Units might have been the answer. Formed in the Summer of 1940, in great secrecy, this force of 'stay behind' saboteurs and assassins was intended to cause havoc behind the German front line should the Wehrmacht gain a foothold in Britain. Their mission was to go to cover, hiding in underground bunkers for the first 14 days of invasion and then springing up, at nightfall, to gather intelligence, interrogate prisoners, destroying fuel and ammunition dumps as they went about their deadly business. Each Auxilier knew his life expectancy was short, a matter of weeks. He also knew he could not tell a soul about his activities, even his spouse. 'Dads Army' they were not. Following the publication of his 50th anniversary history of the Battle of Britain, A Nation Alone, written in association with the RAF Museum, Arthur Ward looked deeper into the story of the Invasion Summer of 1940 and enjoyed unique opportunities to interview those involved with Auxiliary Units at the very top and in the front line, as volunteers in a six-man cell.

Action Figures

Action Figures
Author: Arthur Ward
Publisher: The Crowood Press
Total Pages: 522
Release: 2020-02-24
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 1785006886

Collecting Action Figures presents an alphabetical survey of each of the major toy manufacturers and the whole array of action figures they produced. Covering everything from old-school GI Joe and Action Man figures, including the fantastic toys of Louis Marx and Mego, right through to the game-changing Star Wars 3-inch action figures of the 1970s and 1980s, this is the must-have reference guide for enthusiasts and beginners alike. With over 200 colour photographs, it details the history of action figures arising from the launch of fashion dolls in the 1950s; it describes the industry and consumer reactions to the first action figures; it reviews the many different incarnations that came to market; it looks at film and television tie-ins and finally, provides an essential guide to where to find gems, what to pay and how to look after them.

Airfix's Little Soldiers

Airfix's Little Soldiers
Author: Jean-Christophe Carbonel
Publisher: Figures and Toys
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 9782352500896

Airfix was founded in 1939, initially manufacturing inflatable rubber toys. Now, they are synonymous with the modeling hobby. This book covers 50 years of the famous Airfix plastic soldier, from its production beginnings in 1958 through to the present day, detailing every figure Airfix has ever produced.

Classic Kits

Classic Kits
Author: Arthur Ward
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2004
Genre: Models and modelmaking
ISBN: 0007176953

This fun book treats you to a nostalgic look at the history of model kits from worldwide manufacturers over the last 75 years. Classic Kits revisits our favourite model kits whether they were tanks, ships, aircraft, spaceships or tractors. With superb photography of boxes, magazines, kits and ephemera Arthur Ward reminds us all of a time when pocket money was spent on a Spitfire after school, which was assembled by tea time and destroyed, in an imaginary but fierce air battle, by bed-time. Arthur Ward, with his expert knowledge, reveals the histories of the companies behind the kits we all loved, while at the same time giving us a fun look at our favourite models. Book jacket.