Cheap thrills

I have a rather attractive model of a 2003 Range Rover by LCD models on order. Always a nice feeling of eager anticipation when a classy purchase is due to arrive. Unfortunately I have been eagerly anticipating for six months now, and I suspect the model may still be sitting in a container ship somewhere in the Strait of Hormuz.

So, like a hard core junkie so desperate for a fix that he can be tempted by any kind of cheap s**t, I headed for a local charity shop I've mentioned before, which specialises in kiddie stuff.

And there sitting on a shelf was a nice little Ferrari 360 Stradale. OK, so it's a toy, but it looked suitably bold and convincing and I thought it was worth having.

The glazing is blacked out because there are a lot of gubbins hidden inside. Not just a pull-back motor but a battery-powered sound generator which apparently produces a "highly convincing engine sound" when the model is in motion.

The little button batteries were dead on my specimen so I can't say whether it sounds "convincingly" like a Ferrari, or a Vespa scooter, or a camel with flatulence. Who cares, when the model cost me 50 pence?

And sitting right next to it was a 1:43 model of a Lamborghini Sian, their first hybrid offering. Once again it's just a toy but the shop staff must have decided it was worth serious money and wanted £2.50 for it. In the interests of charity I couldn't bring myself to haggle the price down.

So excited was I by these finds that I went back a couple of days later and found this Jeep Renegade in Italian police livery.

It is let down by its rather crude wheels but it sits nicely enough in the company of some other Italian police vehicles I've picked up over the years.

I have derived such outrageously childish pleasure from these purchases that I fear I could be rapidly regressing to an infantile state. If this goes on I may soon be handing over folding currency for some of their yellow plastic bath ducks and multi-coloured rubber dinosaurs.

Oh, and I saw in passing that they were doing a good price on replacement rubber teats for feed bottles. Must make a note of that before I forget. (Never know when I might need them).