London Area Report & Museum Visits

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:15 pm

Well, now I'm back to posting on the board after a brief, week-long visit to London!!

Much of my time was taken up touring and revisiting many of my favorite London musuems and sights as well as a few new ones. The weather, save for the past couple of days, was pretty mild and over the Easter weekend, there were some closures and delays on the Underground - but that was all part of the fun! Here are a couple of links to some pictures I took in the RAF Museum (just north of the city in Colindale) and at the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth (south London). I have been to these museums many times before on earlier trips to London and highly recommend them! The photos represent only a small portion of what all is displayed in the museums:

Imperial War Museum:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shampts@s ... /my_photos

RAF Musuem:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shampts@s ... /my_photos

There was little time to do a thorough scouting of the small scale military products, but there is an ample supply in London. The Hamley's Toy Store on Regent Street had a decent collection of Corgi planes and armor, as well as most of the currently avaliable FOV tanks and planes There wasn't really anything new concerning these lines. Hamley's also had a sizeable offering of K&C products, which look nice and are outrageously expensive. I'm not sure whats new or not or how representative the collection was...

The RAF Museum had the best selection of Corgi Aircraft, but again most of the pieces are also avaliable in the US. There was a 1:32 Corgi Mosquito on display and that thing is huge! The RAF Museum shop had tons of the Corgi XD 1:18 planes, including the DWK & NKK Spitfires, RAF P-40, Yellow-nose Stuka, and Galland ME-109. These were marked for sale at £29.99, which is approximately $60 US. Here's some of the Corgi XD on display:

All in all, a great place to spend spring break and hope you enjoy the photos

Website · Post by **Teamski** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:55 pm

Wow! That is a steal!! I gotta tell my buddy about that!

Yeah, going back to Hendon rocks every time I go. I'm happy you had a good time! It seems like the Brits aren't biting on XD over there. It must be because of just how small the houses are over there..... Shame really....

-Ski

Mr. Football · Post by **Mr. Football** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:18 pm

Corgi certainly does have nicer packaging don't they?

I think they do some of the neatest package designs in the business.

Post by **aferguson** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:24 pm

you know it's interesting what a difference packaging makes.

Take the BBI LAV for example. I openend it recently but have had it for quite a while. I thought it was very bland looking and not sure why i even opened it but i really like it now that i have. I think it looks really cool.

But in that ugly blue and orange box it just did nothing for me.

BBI really needs better packaging if they want better sales...

immeww2 · Post by **immeww2** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 9:56 pm

I agree on the packaging, but they did a nice job when they repackaged the Sherman for the on-line retailers.

graycap · Post by **graycap** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 4:51 am

tmanthegreat

Glad to hear that you had a great trip to London. Its some time since I last went up to Hendon, your account has spurred me to plan an early visit.

Next time you are over I recommend the National Army Museum in Chelsea and of course the IWM out at Duxford.