Site Updates

Jul13

LaToya's Newsletter July '09

Categories // Site Updates

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Welcome to the July newsletter! Summer's usually holiday time, but it's still all go here at Toy Collector, with lots of new stuff to tell you about...

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THE AUDI CENTENARY AUCTION

It's Audi's official 100th birthday on Thursday, July 16thwhich means our last Audi promotional blog entry will be coming out that day - and the charity forum auction will also be ending. Now, we've said that the auction ends at midnight UK time on the 16th, but for several reasons, we're going to allow bidding to go on until the Friday morning. For one thing, we know a lot of you are in different time zones and for another, we know that last time we held a forum auction, the auto-extend was a little haphazard given that peoples' computers aren't all set to the exact same time.

Also, we want to discourage sniping and hope that this way, people will enter their max bids well ahead of the end time! Remember, this is for charity and it's a very good cause - the Helen & Douglas House Hospice for Children & Young People.

There will be a total of 33 lots in the auction, from Audi themselves and manufacturers Amalgam Fine Model Cars, Bub Premium Classixxx, CMC, Kyosho, LookSmart, Minichamps, Neo, Revell, Schuco, Siku and Wiking. Extra thanks once again to Audi and to all these makers for helping to boost the auction. With so many great models on offer, it's easy to lose track of what's been listed, so we've put together this handy gallery displaying the models! Just click on the pic to go straight to the auction forum.

You can also find the auction by going directly to the URL www.planetdiecast.com/AudiCentenaryAuction, so if you know anyone else who'd be interested in bidding, please forward that on to them too!

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NEW STUFF

We've added a number of new things to the site, and there's more coming. Firstly, Member of the Month is back after a break. The hiatus was due to some behind-the-scenes technical stuff we were doing ‚  but which we're done with for now. As such, please congratulate blueflamechevelle, this month's Member of the Month who's also moderator of the new Major Matt Mason and Captain Action forums. And speaking of the forums, we've just upped the size of the images you can post there. Previously, you were limited to 150K. Now, you can post pics of up to 500K!

Over in blogs, the big news is that Toy Collector is now hosting Tales of Toy Cars! Doug Breithaupt has been running the hugely-popular TOTC webzine about 1/55-1/72 scale model vehicles since 1998 and has now decided to convert it to blog format. We're very honoured that he chose Toy Collector to do this on, and look forward to helping him find even more happy readers. At present, new content is going up alongside "reprints" of older articles as we convert them all to the new blog format, giving new readers a chance to see more older material and regular readers to review old favourites.

In addition to TOTC, we've also got two other new Special Blogs, The Dinky Toys Blog, which will look at all things Dinky-related including series, values and individual model profiles, and Medieval Times, which focuses on figures depicting the medieval era.

Elswhere, we've also added a couple of new sections. The Special Offers section will (obviously enough) feature money-saving specials on partner sites that we're making available specially for Toy Collector members. Our first offer is a 10% discount with Veloce Books, and keep checking back because we hope to be adding more soon and on a regular basis.

The other new section we've added is Hosted Sites. These are standout toy, model or collecting-related sites owned by members that we're now featuring on Toy Collector either because they're highly informational, highly enjoyable or - as in most cases - both! So far, we've added three sites, Animobil, which is all about Playmobil animals, GI Joe Rocks and Staffan's Toycar Museum. We hope to be adding more on an ongoing basis, so if you have a site you'd like us to consider, or one you'd like to recommend, let me know via PM. Please do bear in mind that this section is primarily for sites that are informational and an enjoyable read, so we can't feature any site that's purely commercial, although we'll be happy to consider informational sites which have a commercial element to them.

Lastly, there's something new in Profiles too. We've added sections for you to fill in your city and country. New members can do this at registration, and existing members can do it by clicking on My Toy Collector and then on Update Your Profile. This is optional info, but a little further down the road, it'll help us to show you more local content like events (ie, if you're in New Zealand, we'll be able to show you stuff that's going on in New Zealand). Plus it links to something else special we've got planned for the near future, and about which there should be more information shortly.

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COMPETITIONS

The end of June also saw the end of the Second Quarter Blythe Doll contest, and Model Car Kit Contest. Congrats to DollStudioByEaki, whose entry My Little Princess took First Place among the Blythes, all of whom looked fabulous. The Third Quarter Blythe Competition will be opening shortly.

Congrats also to Red000878's Junk Yard Jewel which gets Special Mention in the car kit category since he had the highest score. However, we had some slight confusion, as his entry came in early - but all the others came in right at what should have been the end of the contest, and as such there was no time for anyone to vote on them. Under the circumstances, I've decided that the best thing to do is roll everyone who entered over into the Third Quarter. We're always happy to receive your competition entries, but when entering, please do try and do so early enough that members have a chance to see and vote on your entry. And also, please vote on other members' entries, as we can't have a winner without votes!

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THE NUMBERS, THE BLOGS & THE FORUMS!

Time for our traditional look at the site stats! There are now 2,187 Toy Collectors on the site, 13,686 blog entries, 93 discussion forums with 4,704 forum posts and we've broken the 40,000 barrier over in the galleries, as we now have 40,743 images! Not to mention the 474 videos!

Over in the blogs, we've seen how to build a Ford Flathead Six Engine, learnt about the complexities of the Hornby & Airfix relationship, heard about the early days of Victory Industries and the exhaustive variations of the Corgi Batmobile as well as seeing some Penny Toys that are now worth a pretty penny. And in the forums, we've had Major Matt Mason's Power-Cat, the Cararama Austin Cambridge, Pinched Axles, a bit of Lego colour history and a request for info on Tutti, Barbie's sister.

And with that, I shall sign off for the month! I'll be back in August, so if you're off on holiday in the meantime have a good time and as always...

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Happy Collecting!

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LaToya

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Jul07

Member of the Month July 09

Categories // Site Updates, Member of the Month, Roll of Honour

Major Matt MasonAfter a brief hiatus due to technical issues, Member of the Month is back!

Our Member of the Month for July is blueflamechevelle, who's an authority on Major Matt Mason, and who has kindly agreed to moderate our new forums on Major Matt and Captain Action! We look forward to plenty of action in both! There are already plenty of his own great items on display there, including some awesome custom-made stuff, so fans of these great action figures are advised to swing over and check it all out ASAP!

Jul05

Competition Winners for Q2 2009

Categories // Site Updates

The competition winners for Q2 2009 have just been announced. Thanks to everyone who entered!

There was a slight complication in the Car Kits section, in that we had one entry early in the day - and then two that came in at the very last minute and which nobody had time to vote on. As such, I'm giving special mention to the early entry and rolling everyone over into Q3. See the above link for full details.

LaToya

Jul05

Competition Winners Second Quarter 2009

Categories // Site Updates, Competition Winners, Roll of Honour

The Q2 2009 Blythe Doll and Model Car Kits competitions have ended. Here are the details of the Blythe winners and the slight complication on the car kits!

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My Little Princess

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Blythe Dolls

  1. My Little Princess by DollStudiobyEaki
  2. One Fine Day by St4rl3t
  3. Autumn Leisure by Kathya

Model Car Kits

The Car Kit contest has a slight complication. We had one entry early on in the contest, and then two that came right at the end. So close to the end, in fact, that the system actually registered them as coming in right after the official deadline, which gave people no time to vote.

As such, I'm giving special mention to Red000878's Junkyard Jewel, and am rolling all three entries on into the Q3 contest as that seems to make the most sense.

I'd also like to remind everybody that when entering the competitions, please vote on other peoples' entries (And, obviously, please vote honestly! I'm sure you're all above trying to manipulate the voting by giving others unfairly low marks, but if anyone did, well - just bear in mind that I'm a redhead and according to legend we have extremely bad tempers!) And also, please do try to get your entry in early. I do try to remind people when the competitions are ending so they can get their vote in, but they don't always have time right at the last minute!

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Jul02

Tales of Toy Cars is Here!

Categories // Site Updates

We're very honoured to have been chosen by Tales of Toy Cars creator Doug Breithaupts as the new home for his popular webzine.

Tales of Toy Cars has published monthly at it's own site since 1998, but will now be taking advantage of Toy Collector's blogging software to run in blog format, allowing more frequent (and more easily-uploaded) updates and quicker communication between writers and readers. All the site's older content is moving over as well, so the archives will remain and a whole new audience will get a chance to read these older pieces.

TOTC is focused on 1/55 - 1/72 scale model vehicles. You can go directly to its new home here.

Jun30

Special Offers Section Launched!

Categories // Site Updates

To help members beat the credit crunch, we've started up a new Special Offers section! Just like it says on the box, the section will showcase money-saving specials for Toy Collector members available from partner sites. Check back with it every so often, as we hope to be putting up new offers on a regular basis.

To kick things off, we've got a ten-percent-discount offer from Veloce Books on all their books featured in the review section. Veloce are, of course, publishers of numerous great car titles, including many of the brilliant toy car reference guides we've featured on the site.

Jun29

Toy Collector Joins The Dinky Toy Collectors Association

Categories // Site Updates

Toy Collector has joined the Dinky Toy Collectors Association, just in time for Dinky's 75th Anniversary!

We joined at the association's event at the Whitewebbs Museum in Middlesex on Sunday June 28th. The association runs plenty of events throughout the year and from now on, you'll be able to find all of them in the Toy Collector Event Calendar. They include the currently-ongoing 75th Anniversary Dinky Exhibition.

The club has 250 members and brings out its own magazine quarterly. Named The Journal, it's packed with articles and information by Dinky experts that are a must for the collector. ‚  (One of the association's expert members, Tony Murphy, has kindly agreed to help ToyPedia with listing the 25 Series.)

If all that wasn't enough of an incentive to join, the association has just commissioned three replica Dinky models in white metal to mark their anniversary; a 28-Series Delivery Van replica in orange-and-cream "Dinky" livery, a Holland Coachcraft replica in blue and a Streamline Bus in red-and-maroon. Just 250 will be produced and all the models will only be available to association members.

We're glad to be aboard!

Jun16

LaToya's Newsletter June '09

Categories // Site Updates

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It's June and I'm not kidding when I tell you that I think May was the busiest month we've ever had at Toy Collector!

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AUDI CENTENARY PROMOTION!

Last month, I told you all about our Audi centenary promotion, and no doubt you'll have seen all the great Audi stuff that's been up on the site for that. To recap, we've teamed up with Audi UK to mark the company's 100th anniversary, and we're running a special weekly blog that traces Audi's history by looking at significant Audi cars and diecast models of them selected from Audi's own accessories catalogue. All the models are then going up for auction in a special section of the forum that you can find‚  here, with all the proceeds going to the Helen & Douglas House, which provides hospice care for children and young adults. The auction and the blog run until July 16th, Audi's actual birthday.

Well as it turns out, lots of diecast makers thought this was a great idea, and have donated further Audi (or Audi Group) diecast, which we're adding to the auction. Excitingly, Amalgam Fine Model Cars, makers of amazing 1/8-scale hand-made models have donated one of their limited-edition models of the 2006 Le Mans-winning R10 TDI. It's number eleven of a limited edition of 199, and you can read all about it here and bid on it here. If 1/8 is a little too big for you though, there are also plenty of other additional smaller-scale models already up, including an Auto-Union from Schuco and Audi Coupe from Neo Scale Models. And more are coming from Bub Premium Classixxs, Minichamps, CMC, Siku, Wiking and others!

We're currently talking to lots of other companies about doing similar themed promotions on the site, so if you have any suggestions for brands you'd like to see showcased, let us know. And remember, it doesn't have to be car-makers, we're also open to any toy-related ideas!

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NEW STUFF

One of the reasons why May was so busy for us was because we've been making a few site alterations to improve the user experience. You can now access the forums directly from the red menu, so you can get to them directly from the homepage - or any other page. We've also redesigned the Blogs section to make that directly accessible too, and to split things up a little better between the member blogs and syndicated blogs and we've made it easier to access your "My Toy Collector" page, with a direct link and no landing page.

We've got lots more stuff in the planning stages too. You may also have noticed that Member of the Month hasn't been updated for May or June - don't despair, you'll still get a chance to grab the title, we're just doing some behind-the-scenes software-type stuff to that section, which is affecting our ability to do updates. Rest assured it'll start updating again as soon as we're done.

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THE NUMBERS, THE BLOGS & THE FORUMS!

Breaking news! Right after I updated the stats on the homepage at the start of the month, we broke the 2000 members barrier! We now have 2,011 members! We're very glad you're all here and here's to the next 2,000! We've also now got 13,046 blog entries, 91 discussion forums with 4,213 forum posts and an incredible 39,455 gallery images! There's now also 453 videos too, if you like your images to move under their own power!

Over in the new Dinky, Corgi and Hot Wheels forums, we've had pictures of an amazing Dinky exhibition, windowless T-Hunt Rockster and a fantastic find of a rare Corgi Gift Set. There have been plenty of members' other new finds too, including a Redline Lola and Tonkin Peterbilt. We've also had a couple of new mysteries, including a fantastic UNCLE spy briefcase playset and the quest for a certain half-size gun!

It's not all cars over in the blogs, either as, we've had debate on the future of Bratz Dolls, fun with Britains Gun repairs, Bayko's 75th Birthday, Les Etains du Graal soldiers and Steiff facts. Oh, and last but by no means least, we've also had an incredible Lego Audi TT!

Well that's it for June - except to say don't forget that the next round of our Blythe Doll and Model Car Kit competitions end at the end of the month, so you've still just got time to enter and/or vote! I'll be back at the start of July with the results of those plus all the next round of TC developments and in the meantime, hope you're getting some good early summer weather for scouring outdoor fleamarkets, toy fairs and car-boot sales! And, of course, as ever, don't hesitate to drop me a line with any questions about anything site-related or if you want to offer suggestions or feedback!

Happy Collecting!

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LaToya

Jun16

LaToya's Newsletter May '09

Categories // Site Updates

Welcome to the May newsletter! Summer's on the way and we've got some great things going on to usher it in..!

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AUDI CENTENARY BLOGS & CHARITY AUCTION!

First off, we've teamed up with Audi UK to mark the company's 100th anniversary. From now until Audi's official birthday on July 16th, we'll have a special weekly blog running that will look at significant cars from the firm's history in the form of scale models specially selected from Audi's own accessories catalogue.

There'll be twenty different cars covered in total, from the stunning 1935 Audi 225 Front Roadster up to this year's awesome R8V10. And you'll get a chance to own them all, as every single model featured will be up for grabs in a special charity forum auction that you can find here, with all the proceeds going to the Helen & Douglas House, which provides hospice care for children and young adults.

We'll be kicking off today, Thursday May 7th with the abovementioned Audi 225 Front Roadster and the equally classic 1938 920 Cabriolet, both of which have been modelled in fantastic detail in 1/18 and 1/24 scale by CMC! Read all about them here.

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THE TOY PEDDLER

Over the last couple of months, we've been hanging out over at The Toy Peddler more and more, and liking what we see very much indeed!

Obviously, we don't have our own on-site market-
place up and running yet, so whether you're looking to buy or sell and if you want a change from that certain other well-known auction site, I'd strongly recommend The Toy Peddler.

The site has thousands of Hot Wheels, Matchbox and other diecast cars and toys listed in Buy-It-Now format, and it's super-quick and easy to sign up for membership and either buy stuff or list your own items for sale. There's a special section for items that are super-high-value (ie. worth over $1,000) and best of all, there's no Final Value Fees on stuff you sell - you just buy listing credits in advance! Paul, who runs the site, is a Toy Collector Member and a collector himself, so he knows what's important when buying and selling collectable toys and has geared the site towards this specialised market, so toys don't get lost in the crush!

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NEW STUFF

We're still responding to the feedback you've given us via the Feedback Tool and, of course, it's still there (red tab, left hand side of the page, remember!) So keep on using it!

Our latest alterations include easier access to your own personal Toy Collector command centre (ie your profile!) This is now accessed directly from the "My Toy Collector" link on the homepage, meaning one less click to get you to your mail profile page. So why not take advantage by filling in more about yourself, your collection and anything else you feel like adding!

We've also done a little tweaking in the discussion forums. We've redefined a few of the threads in the Cars Section and have added individual forums for Dinky Toys, Matchbox, Corgi and Hot Wheels, as well as a Tips and How To Section. This will feature advice for diecast and model kit building, customising and restoration, so if you've got any hints or tricks to share, feel free to come in and do so - or if you're wondering how to remove axles, fix baseplate rust or dismantle gluebombs without destroying them, ask away. All the best "How To's" will also be added to the ToyPedia "How To Guides" section.

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THE NUMBERS, THE BLOGS & THE FORUMS!

Which brings us to our regular monthly look at the site stats! At last count, we're up to 1,830 members, we've got 11,867 blog entries, 88 discussion forums with 3,669 forum posts and a massive 37,221 gallery images! Thanks to our friends at IC Toys and the cases of Hot Wheels and Matchbox 1-100 cars they provided us with, we've also seen more product reviews going up - I've still got a few cars left if you'd like a couple free in return for reviewing them. Click here for details!

Over in the new Dinky, Corgi, Matchbox and Hot Wheels forums, we've had a motorbike-riding Pink Panther, Dinky Catalogues, Steering Rigs and the Milbro-Lesney Bait Press! Elsewhere, we've also had some amazing bootsale booty, Corgi Mini restoration, a Mystery Doll and some Space Trucks!

Over in the blogs, we've had the usual assortment of fascinating things too, including Pocher Cars, Arthurian Figures, Hot Wheels Beach Bombs, The Prussian Army, Jo-Han Kits, the 2009 Toy-Museum-For-a-Day, Marklin Crocodile Trains, a Phastron Meter formerly owned by UNCLE, Hasbro's GI Joe, a windowless T-Hunt Rockster and a seriously flaky '70 Plymouth Fury III!


Well I think that's it for now - I better get blogging because those model Audis aren't going to write about themselves! As ever, don't hesitate to drop me a line with any questions about anything site-related or if you want to offer suggestions or feedback and until next time...

Happy Collecting!

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LaToya

May04

New Discussion Forums & Easier "My Toy Collector" Access!

Categories // Site Updates

Due to popular demand, a couple of site tweaks have been made to the Discussion Forums and the My Toycollector profiles!

It's now quicker and easier to access your My Toy Collector profile page. All you have to do is click on the My Toy Collector link on the front page red menu, and you'll now go straight to your profile, with no landing page in between.

Also, the Aviation Discusison Forums and Model Cars Discussion Forums have both been revamped with new categories to make for easier chatting! The Aviation section has been re-organised slightly, while the Cars forum now has dedicated sections for Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Dinky and Corgi.

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LaToya

Apr17

Toy Collector Will be Getting Faster

Categories // Site Updates

Tonight (Friday 17th April), Toy Collector will be moving to new hosting which will drastically improve the loading speed of the site.

However, I wanted to make sure everyone is aware that over the next 24 hours or so, the DNS servers have to update. This may temporarily result in the site being a bit extra-slow for some of users. However, everything should be up to speed and working faster for everyone by Sunday 19th.

LaToya

Apr09

Free Hot Wheels or Matchbox 1-100, Anyone?

Categories // Site Updates

Would anybody like a couple of free 2009 Matchbox 1-100 or Hot Wheels cars? If so, read on!

To kickstart the product reviews section, our advertiser IC Toys has sponsored two cases of brand new 2009 Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. I'm looking for ten people who will get two cars each FREE, on condition that you register on the site (if you're not registered already) and write product reviews on both of them. Then you get to keep them!

If you'd like to participate, click here and send me a private message and let me know whether you prefer Hot Wheels or Matchbox (or one of each) and what sort of vehicles you like (ie classic sports cars, muscle cars, trucks, earth moving equipment, etc.) I'll pick ten people and let you know back by PM too - the models will be chosen at random, but I'll try my hardest to make sure you get something of the type you specify.

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

LaToya

Apr07

New Guidelines for Member Blogs

Categories // Site Updates

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Hi everyone,

First of all, I wanted to say a quick thank-you to all our member bloggers for contributing their fantastic articles. The vast majority (in fact 99.9%) of these are absolutely great, but we want to ensure that the blogs remain what they are now - an enjoyable and informative read for all the site visitors, so as such, I'm putting in place three rules/guidelines;

  1. Please try to avoid making one-line blog posts. Short posts are fine, but please try to make it at least a paragraph. Obviously there's some leeway with this: if you have a really great picture you want to share and all you want to write is a one-line caption underneath it, or if you have just bought something new and just want to write a few lines about it with a couple of small pictures, posts like that are fine. What we want to avoid are posts that just say things like "Check out the new arrivals at my site!" and then give a URL link with no further text or pictures at all.
  2. Using the blogs to blog about your own products or services as an advertising tool is fine, but as above, please don't just post one sentence and a link to your site. If all you want is to have a link from Toy Collector to your site, put up a free listing in the Yellow Pages, add your homepage link to your profile and/or contact us about taking out a banner ad. If you want to use the blogs to advertise, please take the time to create a post describing your item, services or whatever else you would like to advertise, add pictures etc, or use a pre-prepared press release or similar text. That way, it will be both enjoyable for users to read and a better marketing tool for you.
  3. If you already have a blog elsewhere, and would like it to appear on Toy Collector, please let us know and if it is suitable, we can syndicate it for you. Please don't post one-line descriptions and links to your offsite blog posts - it's much better to have it syndicated as the entire content will then appear on Toy Collector automatically and any comments made will be sent directly to you.

Please help to keep Toy Collector a fun and informative site by respecting these rules. If posts are made that break the above rules, I will let the posters know via PM and suggest what needs to be done to fix the entry. If this is then not done within a couple of days, the entry will be unpublished until amendments are made.

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Thanks!

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LaToya

Apr03

LaToya's Newsletter April '09

Categories // Site Updates

April's here (did you spot the April Fool's Day joke?), so it's officially spring and first quarter of 2009 is done. As ever, we've had all sorts of great stuff going on here at Toy Collector, and there's a huge amount to tell you about...


TOYPEDIA

Hot Wheels Custom CamaroOne month after it's launch, ToyPedia has hit 10,000 items! A variant of the Hot Wheels Custom Camaro became the 10,000th item to be uploaded just a few days ago.

We've now got listings for all sorts of great companies and product ranges, including Hot Wheels, Matchbox Regular Wheels, Airfix and more are coming every day. We've also got great non-catalogue pages, like bios on famous toymakers, articles on the materials toys are made from and collecting themes being added all the time.

However, that's not to say that we don't still need all the volunteers we can get to fill out more information spreadsheets, so if you know your stuff about any toy range and would like to help, then drop us a line. Also, do remember that while you can't yet upload lists of items yourself yet, you can now edit item descriptions, add non-catalogue pages and do all sorts of stuff on there yourselves, so feel free to start filling in any info you have for the items that are up there now.

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NEW STUFF

We've got a couple of new things for you to play with on the site, the first being the Feedback Tool. Across the site, you'll notice a tab on the left side of the screen that says "Feedback" on it. Click it and use the interactive menu to let us know what you think needs improving on the site. You can vote for the things people have already suggested or add your own thoughts if you've got an issue that hasn't yet been mentioned.

One of the main things that we've been getting feedback on through this tool is the speed with which the site loads. We're aware that it runs slow and we're pleased to announce that we should be moving hosts in a week or so and once that's done, it'll speed up drastically!

The other new section is one we hope you won't ever have to use, but in the wake of the recent museum thefts in Stockholm, we've added a Theft Report Section where, if you are unlucky enough to fall victim to thieves, you can alert the collecting community so people can be aware of what's been stolen if it gets offered to them.

And lastly, we're now on Twitter, so if you'd like to listen to my Tweets about what's new on the site on a more regular basis, go right ahead and follow us on there!

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DIECAST AUCTION

March also saw us testing the selling waters with a forum-based diecast auction which, I'm pleased to say, went very well indeed! You can see the results here, and stay tuned because we've got more selling-related stuff in the pipeline. In the meantime, feel free to use the commerce area of the discussion forums to advertise your own sales, or let me know if you're interested in auctioneering yourselves...

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COMPETITIONS

Blythe in ScotlandMarch 31st was also the end of our fist lot of 2009 competitions. Thanks to all who entered and everyone who voted. We've had fantastic entries across the board and especially in the Blythe Dolls and Model Kits sections (including the phenomenally successful Pickup Truck Playoff one-off competition. Many thanks to our member and moderator Hippie for organising that and making it such a smash hit!) You can check out all the winners here.

Now that we've had a chance to see which the most popular competitions are, we've also made a few changes, with some now set to run longer and others staying quarterly. This way, we think everyone can get more out of the competitions - there'll be more entrants for you to rate and people will be able to have their stuff up for longer so more users can rate it. If you haven't tried reviewing and voting on entries yet, it's very easy to do. Just click the big red button marked Add a Review on the entry's page and fill out the form!

New rounds of the contests that are staying quarterly will be starting up in a day or so, so stay tuned for those! In the meantime, though definitely make sure you check out the new Ugly Toys competition..!

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LINKS & YELLOW PAGES

One of my big initiatives right now is to get more links going to and from the site. As such, if you've got a site you'd like to do a link exchange for, let Marie know on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and we'll be happy to give you a slot in our Yellow Pages section in return for your linking to us.

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THE NUMBERS, THE BLOGS & THE FORUMS!

And that brings us to our traditional monthly look at the site stats! As of last count, we're up to 1,629 members, we've got 10,322 blog entries, 78 discussion forums with 3,291 forum posts and a massive 33,817 gallery images!

We've added several discussion forums since last month, and these include two on paper model kits (vehicles and aircraft), one of the most fascinating and fast-growing areas of modelling - a big welcome too, to our moderators for these forums, UKPM and pdmccool. We've also seen plenty of action in the 50 of... section in the car forums - I think we've almost gotten to 50 VW Beetles, Citroens and Double Decker Buses by now...

On the blog front, we've had all sorts of great posts, including articles on teddy and doll values, a highly unusual Hot Wheels prototype, lead figure scouts, Legoland Windsor walking like the Egyptians, Yat Ming cars, Joan of Arc and Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder, among other fascinating things!


Phew! It's been a manic month alright! I think that just about wraps it up for now, though, but as always, feel free to get in touch with me about any questions on anything on the site or if you have suggestions or feedback. Until next time...

Happy Collecting!

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LaToya

Apr01

Members of the Month April 09

Categories // Site Updates, Member of the Month, Roll of Honour

Modelik FV101 Scorpion Paper KitProdigious paper modellers UKPM and pdmccool are our Joint Members of the Month for April.

Since joining last month, they have helped bring more of the fantastic world of high-detail paper modelling to Toy Collector, moderating our new forums for paper vehicle kits and paper plane kits and blogging about how to assemble the fantastic kits that are gaining in popularity. It's always exciting when a new form of modelling appears and starts to take off and we're lucky to have these two to guide us on this one! Thanks, guys!