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, April 28, 2020

M is for Military Force from 'Mini Wheels'

The moniker used by a variety of sets from the small generics we looked at here, through this intermediate sized 'play set' to the big-box huge-box sets Wilkinson's (Wilco) carried each Christmas for several seasons around the turn of the century. Twenty years . . . this shite's been in the collection for twenty years; where does the time go!

01 GH 87 MTG; 1950; Bradley ACAV; GTM 01 GH 93; Half Price; Head Quater; M.P. Headquater; M1 Abrams; Military Force; Military Head Quater; Mini Wheels; ML-24/s66; NATO Toy Soldiers Modern Infantry. MLRS; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Toys; Supreme Brand Army Men; Supreme Toys; USA PT-339; Wilco; Wilkinsons;
In its entirety; there are 29 items, small and large, 32 if you count the tractor/trailers and rocket separately, and at half-price I must have paid £2.49p or - more likely - £2.50p! Which is no more than 8p per item . . . bargain!

01 GH 87 MTG; 1950; Bradley ACAV; GTM 01 GH 93; Half Price; Head Quater; M.P. Headquater; M1 Abrams; Military Force; Military Head Quater; Mini Wheels; ML-24/s66; NATO Toy Soldiers Modern Infantry. MLRS; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Toys; Supreme Brand Army Men; Supreme Toys; USA PT-339; Wilco; Wilkinsons;
Shipped-in by Ackerman, this is SP Toys/Supreme's sojourn into small scale, with decently scaled 1:72 scale AFV's (for the most part), but with oversized figures and undersized aircraft.

01 GH 87 MTG; 1950; Bradley ACAV; GTM 01 GH 93; Half Price; Head Quater; M.P. Headquater; M1 Abrams; Military Force; Military Head Quater; Mini Wheels; ML-24/s66; NATO Toy Soldiers Modern Infantry. MLRS; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Toys; Supreme Brand Army Men; Supreme Toys; USA PT-339; Wilco; Wilkinsons;
The whole caboodle came in sand (as here) or green plastics/paint-finishes and the jerry-cans are a triple-moulding (only useful for vehicle-loads or enhancing SAS jeeps!), but the oil drums are separate, both are more suitable to 1:35th scale modelling, while the figures are the poorest thing Supreme have churned-out to date and were only ever going to be box-tickers' in collector's lists!

01 GH 87 MTG; 1950; Bradley ACAV; GTM 01 GH 93; Half Price; Head Quater; M.P. Headquater; M1 Abrams; Military Force; Military Head Quater; Mini Wheels; ML-24/s66; NATO Toy Soldiers Modern Infantry. MLRS; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Toys; Supreme Brand Army Men; Supreme Toys; USA PT-339; Wilco; Wilkinsons;
Because we've looked at the AFV's (a long time ago, but fully; Tracked AFV's, Wheeled 'Softskins', Articulated Trucks and Engineering/Plant) and the figures (link at the start), and because I junked all the aircraft from the sets I broke-up (leaving the one above!) the only things left to look at are the street furniture (another day, there's a tub-full somewhere) and the low-relief building fronts.

The small sets got one of the little US-style 1930's urban 'station houses' with attached garage-door, with red and blue versions for fire and police sets, the medium sets all got the equally American-looking 'small-town municipal' town hall/public library type, while the huge trays Wilkinson carried had two or all three, which sometimes included the European barrack-style vehicle/MT shed or Fire Station with three garage units.

The flag is more often absent than present, I suspect that due to its propensity to break-off, it was discontinued? And note you get both unit command buildings and places where Henry VIII could store the cerebral body-parts of his victims!

01 GH 87 MTG; 1950; Bradley ACAV; GTM 01 GH 93; Half Price; Head Quater; M.P. Headquater; M1 Abrams; Military Force; Military Head Quater; Mini Wheels; ML-24/s66; NATO Toy Soldiers Modern Infantry. MLRS; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Toys; Supreme Brand Army Men; Supreme Toys; USA PT-339; Wilco; Wilkinsons;
An alternative inclusion in the larger sets was a ruined central-European farmhouse which came (as here) in dun and cream, or a more traditional black timber on white, with red roof. There were other buildings for the civilian sets, some of which we've seen, but there was also a larger service-station/garage type thing.

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