December 2025 Christmas Traditions Fun, there are some things I don’t do on the Christmas holidays, as I want to share them with someone. Fortunately, there are a few I can do alone. This past weekend, I was able to do two of them.
December 2025 Christmas Traditions Sines 5 and 1o Cent Store
One place I like to go during the Christmas Holidays is Sines. It’s one of the last five-and-dime stores left. The store helps me with a certain problem, getting some toy soldiers for Christmas. This goes back to my childhood, when I thought I would get some toy soldiers instead I got clothes. I took my Christmas money and went out and bought toy soldiers.
Since then, I have always gotten myself figures for Christmas. Now, I can buy on the internet, I still like the thrill of going into a store. Sines fit that desire. This year, I started with their models and discovered that they had some old stock. One of them was the above Airfix MPC box of 1/72 Scale Afrika Corp. I also got a couple of other models.
Figure Surprises
I was able to purchase two new figure sets. The first was a set of Roman figures, which was a mix of knights and Greek figures. The other set was the Medieval Armor Set. This set has a catapult, a crossbow (ballista), and a cannon.
I have shown the cannon before; this time it comes with shells.
The catapult comes complete. The crossbow requires you to assemble a few pieces. Likewise with the cannon. The sets are made by Zhong Shan Tanzhou Fuliduo Toys Factory of China.
Flea Market
From Sines, I went to do another tradition go to a flea market. This goes back to my family were in Florida for a vacation. I was asked what I wanted to do on my birthday. I replied that I wanted to do a flea market. I have tried to do a flea market ever since.
As the market was near, I went to see what I could find. The outside tables were sparse due to the cold weather. I went into an inside building that has permanent dealers. There is one area that has toy dealers. One dealer, I got the above loose figures.
I went over to the stall opposite, where I purchased the figures. The stall is run by Todd, whom I have bought from before. There I found a Marx hard plastic tractor driver.
Exiting the stall, I spotted a bag of figures. Looking over the bag, I spotted two of the Ideal train figures and silverized Hong Kong copies of Britains Deetail Civil War figures. The price was fair.
Getting the bag home, I discovered some more treasures. The main one was a Timpo solid Indian chief. Despite missing part of a finger, I am keeping him. The Manurba Indian will get a weapon. A nice cap to the day.
December 2025 Christmas Traditions a Possible New Christmas Tradition
Go around the building one more time. I ran into Macho Santa. The gentleman has a stand selling wrestling items. I will go back next year and get my picture with him next year.
Siege machines and medieval guns were originally made under PRESSMAN in the 90, then copied, cloned, or sold under license by many others.
Nice finds and report.
That is so cool about that 5 & 10 store! I haven’t seen one in SW Ohio for 20+ years. Those photos brought back great memories of my Grandma working at one in downtown Hamilton, Ohio. I think it was called H. L. Greene and Co. It was a good place for MPC header cards! She always let me buy something small when I visited. Thanks for posting that!
Mike
My favorite aunt worked for Woolworth’s. I have many great memories of these stores.
The American boozka team look great. Do you know who made them. We used to love Woolworth’s as kids. We was only talking about the Thompson machine gun they used to sell and the F.N. rifle. We was telling our mate about the cost of the plastic bullets for both weapons. We saw a bag of them on EBAY for £83.00. All our toys came from Woolworth’s as there was nowhere else. Terrible when they closed down in the UK. We miss their chicken croquettes that they sold.
The bazooka team was made by Monogram. It came in some of their first armor and vehicle model kits. it is about 1/35 scale, maybe slightly bigger. Bobby Moore
We had the 1/35 Monogram G.I.s back in the’60s & they are great poses with good animation. I have a set of the re-issues and would love to scan them to STL files & re-print them as 54mm-57mm range figures.
That would be cool if you did that. I have always liked the poses and played with them with my Marx WW2 troops, ect., but now their scale makes it impossible to mix with TSSD, Conte, CTS, Scavenger, ect.. Let us know if you do reprint them in a larger scale. Bobby Moore
Revell made a similar group of 1/40 scale combat G.I.s which would complement the Monogram figures as well.
Perhaps a correction is in order…upon closer inspection & comparison the bazooka team pictured above is not from the 1/35 Monogram kit, nor from the 1/40 Revell kit! We need more expert input here…
Yes, it is true that it is not the same “bazooka team” that is in the model kit of the 18 pose G.I.’s, it along with several other poses came in their first armor and vehicle model kits. Monogram later discontinued using some of those poses witch included the above pictured “bazooka team. I have several of the above pictured original “bazooka teams”, as well as a few other of the discontinued figure poses. Bobby Moore
Bobby, thanks for the updated info –
That explains the other similar looking 1/35 scale G.I.s I see on eBay. I suppose a complete collection would include those additional poses plus those which came in the various 1/35 vehicle kits.
Glad to help. I am like everyone else, learning things as I go. To me the older poses look slightly bigger and rounder than those in the 18 pose model kit. I also like the facial expressions on the above bazooka team. To me, I can picture them hiding, already taken a shot at a German tank and damaging it and the loader trying to hurry and load another round before the tank figures out where they are at. Take care. Bobby Moore
Really like that Cannon, nice addition !