The beautiful Japanese woodblock prints created by artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige inspired similar works across the world and most famously the paintings of Van Gogh.

Unless you have been in a galaxy far, far away for quite some time, you will have heard of Luke Skywalker, Ewoks and Han Solo. But have you heard of a Vlix?

The beautiful Beatrix Potter children’s books are highly collectable in themselves but the author’s world provides a far wider and very popular collecting scene.

With the heroics of ‘the few’ in the Battle of Britain more or less guaranteeing auction interest, it is easy to overlook the incredible bravery of bomber crews.

The plastic fiver has become a familiar sight in the UK since it was issued last September and this summer the tenner version will follow. It seems unlikely that glass coins will also appear – but that was not the case in the US in 1942.

“I am not a number, I am a free man,” was the cry of Patrick McGoohan in TV series The Prisoner. The important number at the Charterhouse auction house on February 12 is £20,000-25,000 - the estimate for a 1963 Lotus Super Seven S2, the model made famous by appearing in that 1960s cult favourite show.

English wines are steadily gaining a reputation for decent quality, with sparkling styles in particular starting to challenge Champagne as an alternative patriotic option. Back in 1889, it was Welsh whisky throwing the gauntlet down to Scotland in the hope of supping long-running success.

Pete Waterman, Neil Young, Roger Daltrey and Peter Snow all do it. Frank Sinatra and Peter Sellers did it. Rod Stewart apparently hires extra hotel rooms on tour to indulge in it. ‘It’ being the innocent and highly popular pastime of model railways.

Most collectors have a burning passion. For John and Patricia McKenzie, the items that fired their interest were vesta cases, the small portable boxes made to contain matches and keep them dry.

Plastic money has been a bone of contention recently thanks to the strange revelation that the new UK £5 notes include animal fat. But one day the polymer notes will surely be as normal and accepted as the existing paper examples, assuming physical money has not all but disappeared anyway by then.

If you want to imagine what a bulletproof vest might look like if designed in the 16th century, a couple of fascinating pieces of very rare armour bought by the Victoria & Albert Museum give a clue.

As you peruse this story on your computer, smartphone or tablet, take a look at the keyboard on said devices and spare a thought for the Rev Rasmus Malling-Hansen (1835-90).

“Zulus, Sir. Thousands of ‘em”  - one of the classic lines from the 1964 film starring Stanley Baker and Michael Caine that brought the heroic defence of Rorke’s Drift to public attention.

Uniforms can be a hard sell at militaria auctions. Medals for example are nice and easy to display, while guns can sit high on the wall or in a cabinet, but what do you do with a full set of battledress unless you happen to be a re-enactor or happen to live in a mansion with lots of room for mannequins?

Medals specialist David Erskine-Hill has left Dix Noonan Webb to rejoin former employer Spink.

In September last year Wayne Rooney hit his 48th goal for England, overtaking at last Sir Bobby Charlton’s scoring record. But the achievements of a much earlier England star will be celebrated on December 15 thanks to an auction in Cornwall.

Star Wars, Action Man and plastic soldiers are just three of the toy collectable fields growing in demand as buyers get all nostalgic about their childhoods. Another biggie in this market is Lego.