About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

G is for Gomarsa

Not much to be said about these, they are Spanish and are quite common. I like them as they are all marching poses and will make nice displays. Originally made in polyethylene by Reamsa they would go on to be sold under the Soldis (soldier) label by Gomarsa in a PVC type compound, which could be a vulcanised rubber like the Texido figure Brian identified the other day.

[Major re-write after comments, some of the less well painted ones may be Reamsa]

These are all presumably Naval figures and are the later Soldis mouldings in the rubber-like material, nearly all the figures march-off on the right-foot so can follow each other across the mantle-piece in step with each other!

Naval figures in Summer uniforms to the right and a couple of Air Force (?) figures to the left. These all seem to be late ones.

My favourites, the Spanish Legion and a lone Frenchman, they all seem to have a Spanish CETME assault rifle, which is a tad anachronistic for a Foreign Legionnaire!

Two military types and two of the Spanish Gendarme (Reamsa originals?) with their distinctive hats. The policemen are - needless to say - marching-off on the other foot...something that anyone who's ever done a large parade involving police units will know is par for the course!

4 comments:

Jaime Pla Soler said...

I think is not Oliver figures .
There are Gomarsa soldiers maked with the old moulds of Reamsa.

Hugh Walter said...

Thanks Jaime

You're right of course, I've just looked at them on your blog, and the set you've got in the red tray is the same one I'd seen with a lid on elsewhere...and it's Soldis not Soldat!

I'll change all the entries and the title, it's too big a mistake to leave to the comments section!

I wasn't to sure myself and asked a couple of collectors at the Sandown Park fair this weekend, but they both thought they were...must have been my description...

Cheers
Hugh

Javier said...

Hello, nice blog. I'm sure the soldier that you called "Foreign Legionaire" is in reality a soldier of Regulares. Today they are stationed in Ceuta and Melilla although in the beginnig of the twentieth century they have "cuarteles" in other cities like Tetuan or Larache that today belong to Morocco. They were created with the idea of recruit natives from north Africa with Spanish Officers. They still exist today and use white capes in the parade of the Day of the Armed Forces. They usually march next to the Legion at a slower pace.
Saludos.

Hugh Walter said...

Thanks for that Javier, I'm not that 'Au Fait' with French regiments, let alone Spanish ones! I have some 35/40mm figures with the white capes on somewhere, I'll try to find them and put them on the blog, but it will be awhile as they are in storage with the small scale stuff at the moment.

Hugh