Amazon Miniatures have joined my favourite bandwagon and started a range of Prehistoric Animals.

Three items are out now with at least five more coming soon.

• ANP01 Raptor (2) 3.25
• ANP02 Diatryma Giganticus (2) £3.00
• ANP03 Raptor and dinosaur eggs £2.50
• ANP04 Yangchanosaurus £7.50
• ANP05 Feathered Raptor (2) £3.25
• ANP06 Leaping Smilodon (Sabre tooth lion) £2.25
• ANP07 Short-faced bear standing £2.25
• ANP21 Neanderthal Warrior with bone club and spear

The plain raptors look like they would fit in well with the Jeff Valent or Ral Partha/Iron Wind Metals versions, and it’s very good to see someone tackling feathered raptors in this scale at last.

Amazon, being the kind of people who “think outside the box” (sorry, really, really sorry) are also stocking bags of plastic toy dinos for wargamers too embarrassed to step foot inside Early Learning Centres.

Anyway, I know where one of my first stops at this year’s Salute will be.

Very True Mood:  cheerful

Yesterday, I received a typical piece of link farming spam:

Dear Webmaster,

My name is Richard Volt, and I run the web site Online Dating with ManWoman.com.au | Find Your Perfect Match Online:
http://www.manwoman.com.au/

The other day I wrote you to let you know I’m very interested in exchanging links. I’m sending this reminder in case you didn’t receive my first letter. I’ve gone ahead and posted a link to your site, on this page:
http://www.manwoman.com.au/links/weblogs_3.html

…

Before deleting the message I clicked on the link to the page supposedly containing the link to my site (it’s safe to look at that page,I can’t speak about the rest of the site). As expected it did no such thing. However, I did spot one familiar link:

Stephen Pollard
A daily news commentary/blog, using newspaper columns and internet sources for analysis of the days events.

Now, it’s been stated that Pollard is an Ignorant Git, and who am I to argue with people who read his drivel regularly?, but in this case is he an innocent victim of the spammers? Or has he resorted to acting in cahoots with them in order to expose his hackery to a larger, unsuspecting audience?

[Update] - I spoke too soon, my site is linked to from the next page in the link farm. Damn, I was just too slow in getting around to dealing with my spam and it had been moved downwards by the flood of new submissions.

Very True Mood:  chipper