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.

Monday, August 20, 2018

M is for More Armymen!

A few loose-ends from recent activity here at Central Processing, all from the lower-end of the spectrum as far as Toy Soldiers go!

1 Aldon Army Set Pocket Money Plastic Toy Soldier Set DSCN7576 Airfix; Army Men; Armymen; German Soldiers. German Infantry; Jeep Toy; Made in Hong Kong; Plastic Toy Soldiers; Rack Toy Month; Rack Toys; RTM; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Tank Toy;
These came in a year ago with the gun set we looked at last RTM, but they aren't worth a detailed look, being very generic despite the branding to Aldon, unremarkable copies of Airfix German Infantry with vehicles that might help sort loose stuff one day, but the artwork is similar to several other sets of similar age (early-mid 1980's?) and contents, Hing Fat's 'Action Heroes' for instance, so probably not.

2 Unknown Plastic Toy Soldiers Made In China DSCN8128 Airfix; Army Men; Armymen; GI's Russian Infantry; New Ray; Rack Toy Month; Rack Toys; RTM; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Timpo GI's;
I bought these at the snowed-under Sandown Park toy fair back in March, where Joanne Christensen (who normally stalls-out between halls 1 & 2 with far superior old toys) was up in hall 3 with a table full of toy and model figures.

Gareth and I had several trips to her stall, and these were in a five-for-a-pound basket. I've since found a few more so assume they are pretty contemporary, but have yet to ID the set or branding.

The green ones are a mix of Airfix Russian Infantry sculpts and Timpo 1st version swoppet poses, both of which have been around for donkey's-yonks, while the silver figures are more takes on New Ray's sculpts.

Some irony there - as it's amusing one of the first decent set of original rack-toy figures to come out of the Far East in recent years is already as heavily pirated as Airfix, Britains or Elastolin ever where!

Bases don't match, but they are protagonists in the same set.

3 HTI Halsall Toys International Action Mission Plastic Soldier Set DSCN8582 Airfix; Army Men; Armymen; Battle Tank Set; M2 Bradley MICV; M3 ARV; Made in China; Paratrooper Toys; Paratroops; Plastic Toy Soldiers; Rack Toy Month; Rack Toys; RTM; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Troop Carrier;
Shot these a couple of weeks ago (Smyths? Asda?), furher variations of the HTI sets we've seen here a few time now, this time with a larger M2/3 'Bradley' MICV. The vehicle has been kicking around since at least the 1990's; originally coming with the larger (35mm) copies of Galoob's sci-fi troops 'X-panders', themselves recently reprised in larger, cleaned-up sculpts by Lanard.

The shtick with the APC is, by the time you've opened all the doors, ramps and hatches you find there's no engine, no transmission, no turret basket, no ammunition, no seats, no nothing! It's a tracked carry case . . . or armyman plastic carrier!

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