News, Views Etc...Plastic Warrior No.169

The issue has been out for a week or so, and if you don't subscribe you may just have time to get a copy before the holiday season, but get your skates on - the PW links are below the main body of the review.

This quarter's delights include . . .

Articles

* Andreas Dittman kicking-off the issue with a look at boxed sets of Dom Plastik landsknechts, which is very useful - helped me ID a halberd, now I just need the figure to hold it!

* Part 2 of Cherilea's plastic animals by Barney Brown finds us studying the larger animals and people

* PL Cuna covers the recent issue of Portuguese and Spanish General Staff from Chintoys

* Echoing recent posts here, Peter Watson inspects an HTI (Halsall) rack-toy set of knights and compares them to their diminutive donors

* A lovely Gulliver set of Brazilian Revolutionary figures, recently offered through an auction-house, is shown in an editorial

* Gerald Edwards returns to Kellogg's and Crescent with an update on medieval cereal premiums

* For Airfix aficionados there is a fascinating piece of previously unknown information on pp21 . . . no . . . subscribe!

* The second part of Adrian Norman's Scalextric articles deals with the 'long box' figure sets in the original painted ethylene series'.

* Alwyn Brice's Elastolin at 40 (part 7 9) is similar to parts one to six eight, only . . . a bit different - Huns now.

* Another editorial piece builds on contributions to illuminate the relationship between Lido and Selcol through the knights (one of whom - in my collection - is currently in possession of my Dom halberd!)

* Peter Evans closes the issue by comparing horse-flesh sandbags and Christopher Columbus; if that sounds more than a little cryptic, you still need to subscribe!

Regulars

* This issue's 'Converters Corner' has Brain Carrick creating a 'forlorn hope' from Marksmen British Grenadiers (ex-Marx) for enlisting in the Seven Year's War, while Claude Hart supplies a nice vignette/diorama of Replicant's smuggler's being apprehended by revenue troopers!

* 'What's New' covers recent releases from:

·         Engineer Basevitch - 70 years of the Soviet Army (actually all late WWII/early Cold War poses, but presumably part of a series)

·         Mars - Ex Lintek Napoleonic figures, ARVN (South Vietnam) forces

·         TSSD - Roman testudo vignette

·         Chintoys - ACW Staff for Union and Confederates

·         Expeditionary Force - French Napoleonic Fusiliers and Grenadiers

·         all available from Steve Weston (Weston Toy Soldiers) now

* There is no room left for 'What The !&*$?' this quarter!

Editorial Bits

* 'NEWS and VIEWS and other stuff ' has news of . . .

·         Games Workshop facing a lawsuit, and not for small potatoes

·         The ongoing Toy 'R Us bankruptcy

·         The availability of the last of the late Geoffrey Ambridge's Lone Star Books

·         Toy logo key-rings

·         And a brief obituary for John Clarke*^†

* 'Readers Letters' is particularly busy this issue with . . .

·         A report on ACOTS 30th annual shindig down-under from James O'Connell

·         Musings on the figures in the Dulux adverts on TV from Norman Nevard

·         More on left-handed figures from Les White

·         Erik Keggings reports on Retro-branded figures which look like a new source of the Poundland/99p Stores 30mm stuff)

·         David Buchanan asks about Britains Trojan moulds

·         Acedo moulding and other re-issues are provided by yours-truly as a follow-up to PW's passim.

·         A Robinson Crusoe from Kinder is provided by way of another follow-up, Daniel Lepers the contributor; also asks about Cherilea horses.

·         Peter Evans recounts an interesting memory of Timpo, concerning the (apparently: ever less rare!) prone type-3 cavalrymen

·         Bob Baker requests Barzo articles

·         Paul Stadinger reports on Barzo news

* Feedback on previous issues 'What The !&*$?', includes contributions from Peter Cole, Daniel Lepers, Jean-Marc de Vion, Erwin Sell, Paul Stadinger and O. Adamsberry; between them identifying Speedwell, JSF, PZG and Heimo's Travels of Gulliver set.

Plus all the usual small-ads

Front Cover (and recipe) will need pun'ishment directed at one P. Evans

Back Cover - An interesting Timpo catalogue scan with Lindberg tie-in

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*^† Saddened greatly by the news of John's passing he was a lovely man, he carried the enthusiasm of three, incredibly intelligent and friendly despite treading a rocky road, and his loss is proof of the old adage that 'the best go first'.

We once had a minor disagreement about the contents of certain Monopoly sets (some of us are living right on the edge!), a couple of weeks later he sent me a letter through our mutual friend John Begg (because he didn't have my address and John had been party to the chat), apologising for being slightly wrong, and this wasn't a three-line whip, this was a full, handwritten, page of prose, explaining how he had gone about proving the facts, a REAL letter in the age of the email missives -  like wot peepel rote in the oldun daes!

Truly a charming man; we're the poorer for his passing.

There is a cryptic hint at John's diorama's having been shot by the PW editor so hopefully they will be forthcoming in future issues of Plastic Warrior?