From magic wands to witches' hats and black bats, our new book about the great Lego spill of 1997 will reveal what else plummeted into the ocean on that fateful day. #oceanplastic

Man down.

Occasionally we find the roof racks that some of these wheels were once attached to. It's thought the roof racks are from toy safari trucks.

Some of the hundreds of plastic toy wheels from a cargo spill that have been picked up by beachcombers

On the strandline tonight, among a sea of plastic, another toy wheel from a cargo spill long ago. Over the years beachcombers have picked up hundreds of these.

It’s World Octopus Day. There were 4,200 Lego octopuses inside the shipping container that fell off the Tokio Express back in 1997. We found our first Lego octopus soon afterwards but didn’t discover another for 18 years. #WorldOctopusDay #oceanplastic

Old Bergen/Beton style toy horse, saved from the waves. Not sure how old this particular one is or who made it but these type of horses were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. #plasticarchaeology #beachfind

This is my story! That's my Palpatine!

While raking through some gravel in the lane beside our house as we searched for a buried water meter we found this small dinosaur head

This was flushed out of the sand dunes after heavy rain.

Here's an even older plastic bag that we found during a recent beach clean. According to the very helpful folk at the M&S Archive, this particular bag was in use in their food halls c.1973 – 1976. It even had the remains of a 50 year old tin inside, hence the discolouration.

As found...

Not sure how old this plastic bag is but Gateway supermarkets have been around since the 1960s. In 1990 they began to be rebranded as Somerfield. Exposed by shifting sands and found during one of our recent beach cleans. #plasticarchaeology #Anthropocene

First image: Greek Cycladic marble figure, circa 2500-2400 BCE. Second image: Plastic figure of Kronk, The Emperor's New Groove, McDonald's Happy Meal toy, 2000, found on a Cornish beach, early 2023.

Beauty and the Beast: a beachcombed Belle among a sea of plastic, all washed up together on 4th January 2022. #Anthropocene #plasticbeach #Cornwall

The Dentalux toothbrush shown here and found last week is from the cargo ship Wec Van Eyck, which lost a container of Lidl goods bound for Spain in Feb 22. Many years ago, a friend found 100s of unused toothbrushes washed up. He told us he had a lifetime's supply for his family.

The serial number on the mystery object is CJ33067. This morning AI suggested this was the 'internal product code for the Rambo Micklem Competition Rein manufactured by Horseware Ireland'. This evening it came up with something completely different.

And so another sort out begins. Just some of the many hundreds of recognisable items picked up from Cornish beaches last week, though we're not sure what the triangular object above the melon-scented lip tint is.

Not sea glass but fragments of plastic car tail lights, indicators and brake lights, probably washed into storm drains after heavy rain, eventually making their way to the sea. #oceanplastic

“I talked about the Lego spill and hung the Lego octopus from the organ loft – it looked like a spider hanging down!" Picture credit: Harriet Neale

Choristers at the Cathedral of the Sea in Portsmouth were set an unusual challenge on Sunday – they had to find a lost Lego octopus during the sermon. “We’re celebrating harvest so decided to have an unusual “harvest of the sea” theme,” said priest Harriet Neale.