These all came from Adrian at Mercator Trading (who has more should you fancy some - link to right of page [all gone - sorry]), I have a side collection in all ammunition, whether inert 'real world' rounds, Drill or Practice or toy and model rounds, shells, suckers etc...and these three are a welcome addition to that collection.The Lone*Star ones were late production and I well remember as a kid being a bit miffed that they wouldn't go in all our existing cap-guns which took either the round loads (usually red plastic) or the paper strips. The Devil Bangers are those paper-wraps little boys still annoy people at bus-stops with to this day...and may even be current? The Italian set is totally new to me.
First purchase of the day was the bag of micro-vehicles during the car-park trading before the doors opened, simply marked 'MADE IN WESTERN GERMANY' twice and 'ASST 18' (presumably meaning; Assortment 18 - of how many?). I adore the polythene truck marked err...'POLYTHENE TRUCK' a title that covers both the subject matter and material very succinctly!The Chariot is a Hong Kong copy of the Thomas/Polar Plastics one with the old Bergan/Beton horses, while the tractor (also from Adrian) is a fair copy of the Britains [not Dinky!] number, and they've even copied the lifting mechanism on the hay-rake, but in plastic. This was surplus to requirements vis-a-vis a forthcoming book on farm vehicles, which I will plug until it's published in the hope of a cheep signed copy!
Finally; wandering around the halls during lulls, or on the way to get coffee I picked up a decent Britains Beefeater, I'm trying to get one of every version made - not hard; but it gives you a little goal within the world of "never collect it all". The flame-thrower in 50mm looks Spanish, but is made of PVC and I would love to know more about him [see; 'comments' on this one].The Skybrids figure I picked-up as I couldn't remember if I had him already or not...I think I have and had blogged him, but he's clean, so nothing lost. While the Action Man spanner came off the floor when we were clearing-up; Thanks Mr. Don'tcheckyourpitch Guy!
Hi Hugh, the 50mm flame thrower is Spanish, made by Teixido but it is rubber (or goma as they would have it) not PVC. He's from a set of Spanish infantry, why the blue helmets I don't know, maybe UN? They did the same figures in dark grey and both sets had a tandard bearer with the Spanish flag so maybe they were two sides from the SCW, I'm just speculating now.
ReplyDeleteBrian
Hi Hugh,
ReplyDeleteVery nice lot of toys. It's amazing how can you (or Brian Carrick) identify those plastic toys so easily. I would say, that the spanner is not action man, but Playmobil.
Thanks Guys!
ReplyDeleteBrian - Thanks for that, I knew they were Spanish but had no idea as to the make! It's a very dense 'rubber', if it is rubber it's vulcanised - like a car tyre, so hard to tell from PVC, being very like early Heimo stuff.
It's funny how they make all these figures with M1 helmets and American style uniforms, yet you can usually tell whether they were made by [and meant to represent] Spaniards, Italians, Turks or Frenchmen! I can even tell South American production...multi-coloured copies of other peoples stuff or old moulds in odd colours!
It must have been hard with their immediate History and rulers as to what they should represent, given that kid boys want war toys, especially in an environment like that...apparently during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia military toys and premiums were all over Serbia and Croatia, cigarette cards, bubble-gum stuff, cheepie toys, you name it?!!
Gog - I thought of Playmobile, but I'm pretty sure it's from the grey tool-box of Action Man as it has a flattened cross-section, while Playmobile are round handed like Legoland people?
As to knowing all this stuff...nobody knows it all and Brian knows a lot more than me!!!
H ;-)
Tell me if you find it out, here's a Playmobil's spanner:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.todocoleccion.net/playmobil-herramientas-hacha-llave-inglesa~x28124014
No - I think you're right, it looks like the same tool, not that I'm about to start collecting either Playmobile or Action Man, it's just nice when you get something for free off the floor!!! 8-O) H
ReplyDeleteGog, identifying toy soldiers is so easy because the hard part is the fifty years I've spent collecting them. ;-)
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