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.

Friday, October 19, 2012

F is for Farm, Farmers, Farming

So to the last of the Blue Box articles for a while, these are - like most of BB's production - taken from a number of sources, including Corgi, Dinky, Britains and Starlux, and my sample is pretty small consisting of the contents of a much-mashed Blue Box 'Home Farm' in the larger scale. Missing most animals and probably some accessories, it therefore looks mainly at the figures and vehicles.


The combined-harvester and bucket-mounted tractor will be copied from die-casts in the larger size (Corgi or Dinky?) and come with two slightly different drivers, the tractor driver is a lift from Corgi, I don't know for sure where the combine operator is taken from.


The calf is also a Corgi item which we looked at the other day I think? If we didn't we soon will. I'm not sure where the lorry is stolen from, I think it may be a Blue Box cut-n-shut with the Corgi trailer and a different push-and-go cab-unit?


Although looking a bit Britains'y, the cart may be based on one of the smaller makes such as Barratt or Taylor? but the figures come straight from Britains oeuvre, and we again find both based versions and the plug-in base we've been encountering through all the recent Blue Box posts. I particularly like the card load!


These do seem to be unique to Blue Box Triang Spot-On - see comments. Blow-moulded farmhouse (upper two shots) and barn (lower pair) with front and back views of both, these were also included in the small-scale versions of the various Home Farm boxed sets.


More blow-moulding including the copies of the Starlux* rocky outcrops (bottom left), sacks (scaled-up from the Corgi elevator sets, two hay-ricks of indeterminate origin (due to my ignorance - Britains hollow-casts? Triang Spot-On again) and - in injection ethylene - the fence panels taken from Britains and copied by just about everyone in Hong Kong who ever issued a set of farm or zoo animals...and quite a few found themselves in bags of toy soldiers!

* 31/10/2012 - I'm sure I've seen these as Starlux mouldings in their usual dense plastic, however I tracked down the original at the Birmingham show, this weekend just gone, and it's Elastolin, so I may be wrong on the Starlux thing?

Update Here

2 comments:

David Scrivener said...

The Blue-Box barn, farmhouse and haystacks are copies of items from the Spot-on by Triang 'Cotswold Village Series', to go with their toy cars etc. Their originals were made of rubber, hollow inside but quite thick & heavy.

Haystack & Farmhouse are the same as Triang, except for shorter chimney. Spot-on barn has steps/small door on left, main doors on right.

Hugh Walter said...

Thanks David

That's very useful, I have only ever seen a couple of those buildings, and I'm sure you can guess the semi-brittle semi-melted state of them! The Pub and the Oast-house/Brewery(?).

It also explains the slightly drunk nature of the Blue Box copies!! I'll add that to the post.

Cheers
Hugh