Friday, 5th December, 2008 @ 9.00 p.m.

Pencil that date and that time into your diaries. If you don't have a diary then sprint madly out the door this instant and buy one. If you don't have a pencil…then, God help us, the recession must be shafting you most brutally.

So what's so special about Friday, 5th December, 2008 @ 9.00 p.m? Well, that's when the 2nd annual (Live) Manky Toy Show kicks off. The date chosen is not entirely random or arbitrary – being exactly one week after RTÉ bores us all to slow and painful death with its own Lame Lame Show version.

So if, tomorrow night, you find yourself compelled to put your boot through the TV (in a vain & desperate attempt to utterly destroy Pat Kenny's fat, monstrous face) then join us here on the 5th for a jolly antidote to the Late Late's festering poison. There's nothing like 2 Euro mank to put a seasonal spring in your step. It beats succumbing to impotent rage and gnawing your fists into bloody stumps at any rate.

Don't forget that I'm also encouraging active audience participation. If you happen to stumble across a Manky Toy that you feel warrants inclusion then please don't hesitate to send it to Fústar HQ (address available on request). It'll help foster the right collaborative spirit…and save me money.

Friday, 5th December, 2008 @ 9.00 p.m.

Cancel all other plans.

Related Posts:
The Toy Show: An Alternative
To Whom it Concerns…It's The Manky Toy Show (Live)!
The Manky Toy Show 2008: The Countdown Begins…

By my mid/late teens, however, a combination of "Fuck the man!" cynicism, and Pat Partridge's tragic defeat of Gaybo in a steel cage death match (thus winning the right to sit on his throne), meant that the Toy Show no longer defined the festive season in quite the same way. The priority now was bush drinking and getting rat-arsed.

The sad decline of this once proud institution was recently documented by Copernicus, as he bravely took one for the team and "live blogged" this year's offering. Given that his text descriptions were, almost certainly, far more entertaining than the real thing, the thought occurred to me that I could try and offer my own alternative to RTÉ's annual disappointment.

And so I give notice. Tomorrow (Sunday) night – from 9-11 p.m. (roughly) – I will present the first ever "Manky Toy" Toy Show. Reactions will be "live" and unscripted. Wine will flow. Toys will (probably) break. Festive mirth and good cheer will be unconfined.

I encourage any and all of the blog's readers to go forth and purchase their own Manky Toy. They can then send me images and comments of same to the email address in the sidebar. These offerings will be woven into the post as the night goes on, as will any amusing observations added to the comments section. Though the rules of "Manky Toy Monday" state that no more than 2 Euro can be spent on each item I think, given the season, that we can let this restriction slide just this once. Anything up to a (grossly ostentatious) 5 Euro is fair game.

It may be fun. It may be rubbish. But, sure, we'll give it a go.

See you then and there (i.e. here).

Sunday, 23rd December 2007, 9.00 -11.00 p.m. (ish).