As we have seen before on the Blog;
Montaplex are not too bothered about scale when it comes to the contents of their little envelopes and The Battle of Salerno is no exception!
We get a Spanish copy of a Hong Kong copy of a
Manurba fast patrol boat and a small four-engined bomber, there are other contents - see below - but first let's look at the other fast boats...
A carded set of the Hong Kong effort, but look at all the little figures...bargain! From the colours and weapon/accessory types, you can tell they tie-in with some of the mini-trucks I looked at back in the Autumn. They are roughly HO scale (the figures) which makes the boats no bigger than Lake Geneva motor-launches!
Close-up of the HK boats, with a few other MTB's; the bright green one is a modern
Kellogg's premium, re-issuing an old 60's toy, the black one is a
Manurba original, the dark green one is a variant of the HK ones but with an ensign instead of a figure, the pink-decked one is another HK design entirely and the little silver one is unknown but probably HK. All between 50 and 60 millimetres.
The other contents of the
Montaplex set are these two sprues of little mirco-vessels, about the size of the board-game playing-pieces in the next post (part 7), they have been 'worked-on', but the name '
LIDIA' remains of a couple of the ships, and must point to a company before
Montaplex got the mould?
We get a Spanish copy of a Hong Kong copy of a Manurba fast patrol boat and a small four-engined bomber, there are other contents - see below - but first let's look at the other fast boats...
A carded set of the Hong Kong effort, but look at all the little figures...bargain! From the colours and weapon/accessory types, you can tell they tie-in with some of the mini-trucks I looked at back in the Autumn. They are roughly HO scale (the figures) which makes the boats no bigger than Lake Geneva motor-launches!
Close-up of the HK boats, with a few other MTB's; the bright green one is a modern Kellogg's premium, re-issuing an old 60's toy, the black one is a Manurba original, the dark green one is a variant of the HK ones but with an ensign instead of a figure, the pink-decked one is another HK design entirely and the little silver one is unknown but probably HK. All between 50 and 60 millimetres.
The other contents of the Montaplex set are these two sprues of little mirco-vessels, about the size of the board-game playing-pieces in the next post (part 7), they have been 'worked-on', but the name 'LIDIA' remains of a couple of the ships, and must point to a company before Montaplex got the mould?
Hi Hugh, very nice series of articles dealing with ships and boats. I comment here because this part about Montaplex is the one I found the most interesting.
ReplyDeleteI like this set very much. I'm sure I must have a very similar one at home. I already promised to take pictures of my "sobres" as soon as I can. I made a quick search about lidia, and I found nothing, so I guess it is not an old company who had those casts, since nobody has ever heard of it. As enigmatic as the name (I guess you know this, but Lidia is a woman's name, the same you write it with "y"), is the date: 9-2-61... 9th Febr. 1961?
The plane is also a "classic" piece, included in many many different sets, but the boat is rarer. I guess when I got my "sobres", they had already discontinued that boat, maybe because it was just more expensive to produce... it seems to have at least 4 parts.
By the way, last time I was in Sevilla, a guy was selling a few "sobres" in a street market. He had quite a few from 3 or 4 different types, but he wanted like 5 Euros each (or was it 3?), which seemed to me very expensive, and didn't buy them. So it is still possible to find them! "Cheap" toys are more likely to end up in the dustbin after a few years hanging in a shop, or taking space in your basement, so it surprises me to see them after so many years.
BTW, amazing sets of plastic figures and boats...
Cheers!
Thanks Gog -
ReplyDeleteYes the 'plane does turn up a fair bit in Montaplex bags, as does the Jeep, at least having an aeroplane in with ships is a bit better than having a Jeep in an ACW set!!
I would have said 3/5 Euros wasn't too bad, I know they are not as rare as people thought they were - say 15? years ago - as they were mass produced for a hundred thousand kiosks and news-stands, but there are lots of variations in packaging, plastic colour and such like...next time get them - I'll be happy to take them off your hands!!!! Have you seen the ones I've put on the Airfix Blog?
Hugh
Wait Hugh... which Airfix blog?
ReplyDeleteand second question: are you serious about collecting every variation in plastic colour, package, etc? :-o
http://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteand...no not every one ever, but there are so many it doesn't hurt to collect a goodly sample!
Click on s23 on the above blog and you'll see what I mean - they had two completely different sprues, and issued them in different colours/sets
H
Nice! I'd like to see more of them in your blog. Definitely!
ReplyDeleteWhat about the other blog? you don't update it anymore? Should I follow that one too?
Well - It's not for me to say what you should or shouldn't 'follow'!!
ReplyDeleteIt's not that I don't update it, I actually tweaked a few entries the other day, but I've pre-loaded 160-odd entries (in 'Draft'), the idea being to have early hard to date stuff at the top (mostly started), the 1:32 and 1:76/2 (HO/OO) sets then in code/date order and anything else (kit figures) at the end when I know how many posts I have 'spare' at the bottom...and then just to keep updating/adding to them like a scrap-book or filing-cabinet!
So I only publish a new post there when I'm announcing a new update!