Because I’ll forget again, I’m sticking it here. Have tried to link to where I got the images. Due to imgur now banning the UK (because of the stupid age verification law that doesn’t work, they pulled out of the UK), I’m putting the images here for if/when they disappear.

We grew up in Hanwell (we’ve all long left the area). Every year we’d go to the panto at The Beck Theatre (image from https://harrowonline.org/2024/12/17/beck-theatre-in-hayes-saved-but-how-did-we-get-here/)

On the drive, we’d drive through Southall Broadway. I was very young then in the early 80s, 8 or 9 and we’d play a game. In the shops on the broadway there was always a little Indian model in certain shops. If you spotted one, you got a point. Roll on 2026 and I thought about this again and couldn’t find any info on it. Couldn’t remember what the model was, just remember it being a small, short model. So I turned to Reddit. Its not all that bad, its useful for asking questions like this (they also helped find the old magic shop that was in Northfields, more on that in another post).

And someone found it or remembered it. It was Air India’s Maharaja mascot. There were of course, larger models that this small one from Ebay as found on this blog post:

https://www.outlooktraveller.com/celebrating-people/air-indias-maharaja-memories-of-a-beloved-mascot

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286680592015