Firemen are, as we all know, potent, smoke-stained icons of manliness. Anyone who's ever called them out to tackle a chip pan fire, or to get a wayward cat out of a tree, will recognise that they generally look …

Though this vale of tears we call the world is plentifully stocked with bleak places and spaces - Abu Ghraib, Chernobyl, Auschwitz-Birkenau etc - the most dismal environment I've encountered was a sitting-room full of unemployed lads and lassies in …

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Another year, another head-butt in the nuts. This blog's sixth and seventh Irish Blog Awards nominations went the same sorry way of the previous five. End result - diddly squat. I think …

On February 27th (yes, this very day) last year I 'penned' a Manky Toy post about the delectable Maureen - a doll beautifully described by Kirstie (of Beaut.ie) as "Mullingar Beef …

A Manky Toy double-bill for you on this glorious Monday (glorious because the sun has his/her hat on and I'm off work). Through no conscious design on my part a "Jesus" theme seems to have sneaked its way into proceedings. …

When I was but a small, nervous, big-eyed child (in the late 70s/early 80s) two parental fears dominated all others. One concerned the possibility of me (at some time in my life) …

Sings *Every day is like Monday, Every day's a manky fun day"

Yes indeedy, Tuesday is the new Monday - or at least it is for the …

Back when Manky Toy Monday was but a weak and mewling infant I suggested (by way of a partial mission statement) that:
Special attention will be paid to those delightfully crappy knock-offs and pastiches of …

If there's one lesson I've learned from my numerous trips to charity shops (on both sides of the Irish sea) it is (alas) to expect the expected. For while such places hold out the slight promise of rare oddities and …

9.00 - Hup! Hup! Quiet down now.

Welcome dear friends, lads and lassies, boys and girls, mices and meeses, to the first ever fustar.info Manky Toy Show. We have a great live program (un)prepared for …

Like many unwashed, barefoot children of pre-SUV Ireland, the Late Late Toy Show was (far more than the birth of a certain Nazarene) what Christmas was all about for me. Uncle Gaybo & Star Wars merchandise (yay!), Wooden Toys, Billy …

Today's manky journey takes us back to a mist-enshrouded lost world that time forgot. A land where Beastmasters stride about like be-loin-clothed titans while barbarians drink mead from dragons' skulls. A time of wizardry, necromancy and smashing …

Many longish years ago, when I was but a young fella, I had (like many children) a number of persistent fears. The most dominant of these concerned, a) My parents untimely death, and, b) The catastrophic …

Even by the modest standards set by previous entries in the Manky Toy archives, last week's featured object (Super Pedestal Ball) represented something of a new low - failing (as it did) on almost …