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, September 4, 2018

P is for Parachute Battalion

And I mean IS!

I was struggling to convince someone of my theory vis-à-vis the Trojan Parachute Battalion figure next to the Airfix donor-sculpt the other week, hopefully this will convince him (and others) and put the matter to bed?

50mm Figures; Airfix 50mm Figures; Airfix Early Plastic Figures; Airfix Paratroopers; Early Airfix Figures; Early Airfix Toy Soldiers; Early Airfix Toys; Early British Toy Soldiers; Early Paratooper Toys; Early Timpo Figures; Early Trojan Figures; Old Airfix Figures; Old Plastic Figures; Old Plastic Toys; Old Toy Soldiers; Old Trojan Soldiers; Parachute Toys; Paratrooper Toys; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Timpo GI's; Timpo Solid GI's; Timpo Toys; Trojan Paratoopers; Trojan Paratrooper Figure; Trojan Toy Soldiers; Vintage Plastic Figures; Vintage Plastic Soldiers; Vintage Toy Figures; Vintage Toy Soldiers; Vintage Toys; Vintage Trojan Soldiers; 1 Airfix Trojan Paratrooper Airborne Soldier Early Plastic Toy 1193 Parachute Battalion DSCN8920 Comparoison between figures close up
One the left we have an Airfix 'early figure set' compatible example, 60mm high,  like others in the set, mould-release pin-mark showing front-centre on the small, round, domed base, as the rest of the set do and it's oozing age. He's soft polyethylene, earlier examples are found in hard polystyrene or even earlier semi-synthetic polymers like cellulose-nitrate or cellulose acetate.

On the right we have a smaller copy, painted to match other figures in the "Trojan" Series of Modern Khaki Soldiers, he is a soft polyethylene also, and has lost some of the detailing of the original in the copying process, including - as I pointed out last time - the helmet netting.

He's also lost the 'shorts' effect of pulling the smock-hem in to the legs with the fastening of the crotch-flap. You can see that all the differences I highlighted last time are clear when they are side by side.

By the time you read this a rear-view will be up in the Trojan section of the Khaki Infantry page.

50mm Figures; Airfix 50mm Figures; Airfix Early Plastic Figures; Airfix Paratroopers; Early Airfix Figures; Early Airfix Toy Soldiers; Early Airfix Toys; Early British Toy Soldiers; Early Paratooper Toys; Early Timpo Figures; Early Trojan Figures; Old Airfix Figures; Old Plastic Figures; Old Plastic Toys; Old Toy Soldiers; Old Trojan Soldiers; Parachute Toys; Paratrooper Toys; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Timpo GI's; Timpo Solid GI's; Timpo Toys; Trojan Paratoopers; Trojan Paratrooper Figure; Trojan Toy Soldiers; Vintage Plastic Figures; Vintage Plastic Soldiers; Vintage Toy Figures; Vintage Toy Soldiers; Vintage Toys; Vintage Trojan Soldiers; 2 Airfix Trojan Paratrooper Airborne Soldier Early Plastic Toy 1193 Parachute Battalions Catalogue Scans
Trojan mention quite a few items in the 'Airborne' line of Parachute Items and we can see from the catalogue that there are two clues to help us ID the figures/items; one - the price per dozen (or unit) and two - the numebr of items in a unit.

50mm Figures; Airfix 50mm Figures; Airfix Early Plastic Figures; Airfix Paratroopers; Early Airfix Figures; Early Airfix Toy Soldiers; Early Airfix Toys; Early British Toy Soldiers; Early Paratooper Toys; Early Timpo Figures; Early Trojan Figures; Old Airfix Figures; Old Plastic Figures; Old Plastic Toys; Old Toy Soldiers; Old Trojan Soldiers; Parachute Toys; Paratrooper Toys; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Timpo GI's; Timpo Solid GI's; Timpo Toys; Trojan Paratoopers; Trojan Paratrooper Figure; Trojan Toy Soldiers; Vintage Plastic Figures; Vintage Plastic Soldiers; Vintage Toy Figures; Vintage Toy Soldiers; Vintage Toys; Vintage Trojan Soldiers; 3 Airfix Trojan Paratrooper Airborne Soldier Early Plastic Toy 1193 Parachute Battalion-001 Various parachute toys
None of these is likely to be 1136 Air Commando Tommy Gunner, but he probably looks like some of them! In other words he will be a blow-moulded parachute toy like the Red Devil (1127 - below) being the same unit-price per-item.

50mm Figures; Airfix 50mm Figures; Airfix Early Plastic Figures; Airfix Paratroopers; Early Airfix Figures; Early Airfix Toy Soldiers; Early Airfix Toys; Early British Toy Soldiers; Early Paratooper Toys; Early Timpo Figures; Early Trojan Figures; Old Airfix Figures; Old Plastic Figures; Old Plastic Toys; Old Toy Soldiers; Old Trojan Soldiers; Parachute Toys; Paratrooper Toys; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Timpo GI's; Timpo Solid GI's; Timpo Toys; Trojan Paratoopers; Trojan Paratrooper Figure; Trojan Toy Soldiers; Vintage Plastic Figures; Vintage Plastic Soldiers; Vintage Toy Figures; Vintage Toy Soldiers; Vintage Toys; Vintage Trojan Soldiers; 4  Airfix Trojan Paratrooper Airborne Soldier Early Plastic Toy 1193 Parachute Battalion DSCN9258 1136a Paratrooper (With Raised Hands) close up)
I don't know if this - specific figure - is Trojan or another of the makes this figure has been ascribed to over the years, but a version of the sculpt is generally acknowledged to be 1136A Paratrooper (with raised arms), a bit costly for a smaller figure, but he's not part of the Khaki range, is a tad larger and comes in a  range of what would have been toy-like colours (when new), I've seen blue and green as well as this red (PW reports grey) and the - dare I say - commoner white and browns. If he isn't 1136A, we'd be looking for another blow-mould?

Also the expense will include the parachute, which we can see is very similar to the Red Devil below and seems to have been folded to fit a similar card.

50mm Figures; Airfix 50mm Figures; Airfix Early Plastic Figures; Airfix Paratroopers; Early Airfix Figures; Early Airfix Toy Soldiers; Early Airfix Toys; Early British Toy Soldiers; Early Paratooper Toys; Early Timpo Figures; Early Trojan Figures; Old Airfix Figures; Old Plastic Figures; Old Plastic Toys; Old Toy Soldiers; Old Trojan Soldiers; Parachute Toys; Paratrooper Toys; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Timpo GI's; Timpo Solid GI's; Timpo Toys; Trojan Paratoopers; Trojan Paratrooper Figure; Trojan Toy Soldiers; Vintage Plastic Figures; Vintage Plastic Soldiers; Vintage Toy Figures; Vintage Toy Soldiers; Vintage Toys; Vintage Trojan Soldiers; 5 Airfix Trojan Paratrooper Airborne Soldier Early Plastic Toy 1193 Parachute Battalion DSCN6597 1127 Red Devil paratrooper Close Up
Finally, we have 1127 New Red Devil Paratrooper, which leaves 1128 Moon Rocket - yet to be ID'd and the 1193 Parachute Battalion. Their coding comes within the OO-gauge Tiny Trojan line, and while they (OO) would be too small for parachute toys, do share some of the paint and plastic colour features of the chap at the top of the page. Both he and they share those same features with the Modern Khaki Soldiers who have a changing code-sequence, unlike most other lines.

The Parachute Battalion is priced at one-shilling & sixpence for three figures; all 50/54mm figures in the Trojan catalogue with the exception of the Japanese* are priced at sixpence-each, three sixpences were one-shilling & sixpence! Ergo; Parachute Battalion must contain 3 standard-sized figures.

Last time I posted this; I was "pretty sure", and apart from disagreeing private-emails, there was no feedback, this time - I'm telling you . . . the figure at the top of this post, on the right-hand side of the pair is from the "Trojan" Series 1193 Parachute Battalion and he can't be from anywhere else.

50mm Figures; Airfix 50mm Figures; Airfix Early Plastic Figures; Airfix Paratroopers; Early Airfix Figures; Early Airfix Toy Soldiers; Early Airfix Toys; Early British Toy Soldiers; Early Paratooper Toys; Early Timpo Figures; Early Trojan Figures; Old Airfix Figures; Old Plastic Figures; Old Plastic Toys; Old Toy Soldiers; Old Trojan Soldiers; Parachute Toys; Paratrooper Toys; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Timpo GI's; Timpo Solid GI's; Timpo Toys; Trojan Paratoopers; Trojan Paratrooper Figure; Trojan Toy Soldiers; Vintage Plastic Figures; Vintage Plastic Soldiers; Vintage Toy Figures; Vintage Toy Soldiers; Vintage Toys; Vintage Trojan Soldiers; 6 Airfix Trojan Paratrooper Airborne Soldier Early Plastic Toy 1193 Parachute Battalion Close Up of ex-Timpo ex-Airifx Trojan Figures
Photo' courtesy of Barney Brown

The question still remaining is - was there three of the same pose (he's certainly commoner than the Airfix original), or maybe two of these and one of the Timpo-copy with binoculars? As the binocular guy isn't listed under the Modern American Soldiers, my guess is one of them and two of the Airfix piracies?

That doesn't actually matter as it was this pose which was the real mystery, while a carded set will turn-up one day, probably - like the Red Devil - for a reasonable buy-it-now with no watchers!


* back in the 1950's British trade (and elsewhere - I'm sure) still held on to Victorian (or Edwardian) principles, and therefore if you made anatomically smaller figures (less plastic) you charged less; profit margins normally aiming to be between 1 and 10% - anything more being considered greedy and not a little vulgar! Consequently the diminutive Japanese were only 5d-each, actually a bit of a pain when we worked in sixes, pre-decimalisation!

Nowadays - of course - you have the Russians wanting a working-man's half-a-week's wages for half-a-handful of figures, while Lanard will sell you a bucketful for a fiver!

2 comments:

Terranova47 said...

Unit Price Per Item. In the mid 1950's there was a shop on Highgate Hill in London that sold locally made metal Guards Bandsmen. The drummers cost more per figure because they weighed more.

Hugh Walter said...

How it should be Terra, how it should be!

H