Or...American killing American...what a to do! less than a hundred years after they turned on their king, and they've really gone and torn it...they'd clearly caught desireium frankoschisch or; the French disease, should have let them keep Louisiana and put a wall round it!
Following on from the above (if I’ve got the loading right!) article is the rest of the Blue Box ‘Wild West’ range, sort of…I’ve always had a soft spot for the ACW, it goes back to my mates brother having the Airfix sets in one of those little wooden cigar boxes with the inlaid decoration that a lot of people used as pencil cases in the early 1970’s.
Monday, May 23, 2011
A is for American - Civil War
All accessories are blue box, being mostly copies of early British plastics, or British Plastic-from-hollow cast moulds, the exception; the rock formations (inset close-up) which I’ve managed to carelessly trim-off in Picasa, so they’ll have to wait for another day now! [They are blow-moulded copies from Starlux cellulose acetate copies of Elastolin composition - I think!]
A minor rabble (bunch is probably a better word!) of Confederate troops career across the stack-yard toward a couple of equally ‘Thin Blue Lines’. One in cover as a firing-line, the other mounting a hasty counter-charge…it’s going to get bloody, so let’s leave them to it and go look at the poses!
Flags are all copied from the Britains Swoppets, although the designs carried through to the Britains Detail range, and are much copied by all HK producers. The range like most Blue Box large scale is around 50mm.
I’ve only found 6 poses, but they come in 3 distinct greys and several shades of blue, so must have been in production for some time, yet are not easy to come by in any numbers, so they must all be spirited away in collections?
Apparent pose variations in the photographs are down to bent figures, or shrinkage due to early removal from the mould, the Union standing firer and Confederate standard bearers at bottom right for example.
As we’re covering a minor make, and to extend the post to a reasonable length, here is another small range of ACW, these are by Lido, although I think the figure far right in the lower right picture may be Thomas Toys, he seems to be a harder vinyl with factory paint? The polyethylene bugler also seems to carry a simple factory paint scheme.
Two of the figures are made to be mounted although they serve as foot-figures as well, with that specifically, almost uniquely American contribution to the world of Toy Soldiers; the ‘Pod Foot’, although here more subtle than the old Barkley and Manoil dime-store slush casts. These are a large 54mm rather than a full 60mm in size range.
They don’t seem to have made them in a straight grey, rather some washy blue-greys, which must be meant to pass for Confederates? Still you can’t beat these old ‘Toy’ soldiers for charm, and with this year being the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War breaking out, I’ll try to get more ACW up in the next few months, but don’t count on it, there’s all manner of stuff going on in the real world at the moment, which I can’t discuss yet, but eventually I will tell all, as it’s not just Bernard Madoff who’s a crooked millionaire!
great post . I used some of your photos, you can of course use mine when you like. if prob I'll cut them.Saw Derek Malcopm by the way
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought that was him taking you from behind, have you had the full Op? Or just pretending to be a girl..I mean - not that you weren't always a big girls blouse!!!
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