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.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

K is for Kidney-Base (again?)


I think we had that title on the small-scale 'Khaki Infantry' posts!

I'm on shakier ground with these - in pretending to know that much about them, that is - if only because I know I'm missing a few (who could have different or new base marks) and because the two largest groups of Lucky figures have either these bases or the ovoid ones we will look at tomorrow, so there's more likelihood that some of them (such as the first two below) might only have appeared with a single brand, and/or that there are still base-mark variations to be found?

These two came in some of the pit-stop sets or racing-car workshop vignettes, and both carry the 1112 mark and as yet haven't turned-up without it, so may only have been produced for a specific contract? Equally - I don't know if they have sculpt-origins elsewhere or are original designs, anybody got any ideas? I would pencil in a lesser US make maybe?


Race Crew
495 - Running with toolbox and extinguisher
496 - ?
497 - Kneeling with extinguisher

And those missing numbers I mentioned when looking at the gap in the firemen numbering? Well we have another gap here which could well be a missing pose?

These are a mix of influences, the race crew are (or seem to be from) a US maker, I have Marx/MPC? as the attached note (I'm sure they're on Kent Sprecher's ToySoldier HQ somewhere, but haven't time to look!) but they may be PP, while the commentators, press/media guys and spectators (most tomorrow) are from Tri-Ang/Mettoy's Scalextric range.

Note that the guy top left has a little nipple on his base which is for a spare-tyre which he's rolling across the forecourt/pits, I may have one in the spares bag, but it's in storage!

The other weird (or 'odd') thing about these is that having dealt - up to this point - exclusively with hard or brittle polystyrene plastic (and a bit of softer, flexible polyethylene among the smaller generics and Blue Box 50mm's); there is a PVC vinyl-rubber issue of some of these (probably all of them, but I don't have all poses in both materials) which makes storage a pain as you can't put them in the same bag, they will melt their frangible clone-cousins!

The top shot shows all my PVC versions with both base marks (below), while to the bottom-left we have a PVC cameraman to the right of a polystyrene version, the size difference has nothing to do with pantographs (or pantograph operators!) and everything to do with the shrinkage of PVC against styrene polymers.

One of the reasons PVC is such filthy stuff to work with (and for the wider environment) is the fumes it gives off, those fumes have mass, the loss of that mass causes the figures to be smaller; from the same mould. Also: he's slightly bent!

The camera carries the same code number as the operator and I haven't found one in PVC yet, but have seen a chromium-plated one which looked a bit naff! Most of the 'absent' figures are in a later post, but this one (camera-car catalogue image) was collaged-in with the other cameraman before I decided to break the page into parts/posts.

I have a feeling I've seen a figure which could be him, so he may have been loose and removable; I suspect the camera was fixed to the car, but again haven't seen one to know. If anyone has this figure going spare I'd love to track one down.

The two base marks, I have both types with the left-hand one in styrene only, while the PVC examples in my collection carry both marks.

My Laurie Toys VW Carmen Gia and Caravan (one of several caravan designs from the extended Lucky-and-others fleet), now in storage but fortunately photographed years ago before it went away (you may recognise the old Berkshire flat's carpet!), two holidaymakers or sightseers (campers? Caravaners in this case but I've seen them with 'just' cars), unfortunately I never shot the bases, nor made a note of the numbers, so these are among the 'unknown number' list - if anyone can tell us (the wider readership!) the numbers or confirm the mark-type that would be useful!

Race Crew & Media Types
430 - Rolling wheel/pushing something
431 - Holding lap-board
432 - ?
433 - Interviewer
434 - Camera operator with tripod camera
435 - Announcer with microphone
Unknown Holidaymakers/Sightseers/Spectators
? - Man with Binoculars
? - Woman in Skirt with Hands on Hips

2 comments:

Dan Foley said...

I had these figures when I was younger. The cars were cast metal and of the Formula one stylr of the 50s or 60s.

Hugh Walter said...

You may have noticed Dan - the internet shots I posted on Saturday (just gone) had a couple of F1 types and one of them did look to be above the usual plastic average for Lucky, so thanks for that!

There will be a couple of follow-ups, I shot various vehicles and a couple more figures at the Sandown Part toy fair!

H