This started life as a quick 'Follow-up'
post on the other two vignettes I've mentioned as being in storage, but sort of
grew as things came out of that storage pile and were brought together with
more recent acquisitions.
Mau's beside manner was dimmed somewhat by
his instance on reading from a tedious little red book of aphorisms! Meanwhile
nurse Crotchet decided to take the bed apart?
This is the 'Ward' vignette; we looked at
the Surgical Theatre last time. There's a wash-basin, bed, table and chair
with a bedside locker, bowl and lunch/puzzle-doing tray!
The other scene is of the Convalescent Ward
or Day Room and is populated with the walking wounded and Nurse Ratchet poking
someone in his wounded shoulder because he dared to ask for more at tea!
Now, following my pronouncements on arks, origins
of infant toys, Trojan paratroopers
and the forthcoming posts on Charbens
cake decorations, I feel I'm on a roll and would like to suggest the sculptor (in
Hong Kong?) of the mono-colour passengers in Multi-Toy's wacky Love Boat
was also responsible for these figures, the fluid, smoothed-off sculpting is
remarkably similar for both sets . . . as it is on a slightly 'stag' golf-tee, I
also have in the collection!
The chap with the crutch has been very
cleverly manufactured to hold his crutch's pad in a pinch-point, yet from the
rear it seems that at one time he was being designed to have two crutches, or
the ability to wear the one under either arm? That second hollow has been
filled in from the front, but remains at the back.
A comparison with the Britains wheelchair
began the expansion of the post into something - hopefully - worthy of the sum
of its parts, the undersides of the furniture (most marked 'Hong Kong') being
originally the last shot!
A further comparison of some of the other
nurses (or matrons!) shows Toyway's
to be well over the odds at 60mm+ while the two painted Mettoy's are from another (earlier?) set from the Ward 10 licensed franchise, but seem to
have been home-painted, a near-mint box appeared on feeBay a while ago, and
they were all (+ two doctors and a patient) in predominantly white plastic,
with a few painted highlights.
Despite the fact that O'Keefe's syringe kit
was probably original paint, I used the occasion of having them all out to get
the pair of them steeped in oven-cleaner for a couple of hours, then scrubbed
them with a tooth-brush and I think you'll agree that the exercise was worth
the effort!
I have no idea what the faintly disturbing
lump down the front of her gown is, but it seems to be some kind of production
problem thing as it's absent on others I've seen, yet it's not a shrinkage
mark; she's otherwise perfectly formed?
It may be due to overly high pressure at
the injection-heat forcing extra plastic into the mould, extending the
solidification time to the point where it expanded upon mould release, or it
may have been an attempt to suggest a towel held in her waist-belt, which was
removed from a second version of the sculpt - because it was faintly
disturbing-looking!?
And the sculpting on these suggests they
were all-UK in origin.
I already had a third figure from the set;
a doctor, 'un-doctored' by semi-gloss PVA , but recently picked-up the other little-one,
it had had a frightening price on it (which I won't share with you has it may
have come my way as a favour) and was described as Mettoy, however, I couldn't
believe that they had a third line so out of scale with the other two? And -
Yes, that is the colour of her lipstick!
But as the outer-box, which had the two
medical tubs in, was the 'Civilian' box, I had also found the Police tub . . .
. . . where I remembered seeing another
pair of brown-based dwarves! The reason they were in the Police tub is down to
their dark uniforms! It's clear that the nurse has been repainted, but I won't
be stripping her back to bare . . . ooo-err! . . . plastic as - apart from the
mouth - she's bearable as she is.
A quick perusal of the likely suspect's
various 'PW Specials' didn't get far
because Speedwell comes before Trojan, Una and VP! So I only had
to wade through one-and-a-half tomes (Kentoy!)
to find them.
PW's appraisal is that they are "probably"
Speedwell, but could be someone else,
and while they are similar to the German soldiers from Speedwell, they are unmarked. Their box however (get the Speedwell Special!) is VERY Speedwell!
As I now had the Kentoy publication out and the police tub in front of me and
because the ambulance men looked a tad familiar I shot this quick line-up of
Norman Tooth's work and piracies of it! The reason there's trojan on the screen is 'cos I was working on the Para' Battalion article at the same time!
The Policeman (4th from left) was one of
the first figures Mr. Tooth designed for Kentoy,
the figure was similar to the one he had already designed for Timpo (1st) and the mould went-on to Cavendish, due to the quality of paint
on mine I suspect Cavendish [12-03-19 - now suspect it's actually a Kentoys - matt paint base], but as
they probably also took the remaining-stock, as well as the moulds; who's to
tell!
The two Hong Kong figures may have been
sanctioned - much later - by Tony Kite at Cavendish,
and he certainly carried them in his business as a purveyor of finest tourist
trinkets!
But with or without his say-so; they are
copies in hard styrene against the polyethylene of the other four - British -
mouldings, one losing a millimeter or two in the reproduction process, the
other enlarged to 70mm. The smaller ones were sold in sets of five with similar
copies of the household troops (Guardsman, Lifeguard, Horse Guard and
Beefeater), while I believe the larger ones were sold singly as stand-alone
figures.
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