P is for Perfectly Packed Parcel of Polymer Presents!

Briefly mentioned before the holidays but arriving just as I was winding-down from the break; Chris Smith sent the Blog a wonderful parcel of odds, sods and unknowns, which I will address in the next few posts, as it was chocker-block with lovely, interesting or quirky stuff which demands an audience!

The first thing I pulled-out was the pooper-trooping parachuters! However there were all sorts of nice things in the box and it was definitely a Christmas-comes-early moment!

Those parachutists in full - duplicates excluded we have a nice selection of current (blue and yellow Airfix clones, and the 'Max Headroom' and mate), vintage (green blow-mould and red pair) and mid-era 1980/2000's; the green blow-mould and the Lion Brand shooting set one (dark Green), which, as a parachute-toy page is on the cards for 2019 have come at just the right moment!

Above them are some of the 'larger-scale' figures in the box, of which the highlights are the two to the left, the first is a 4" motorcycle cop/MP of some kind in a soft rubberised material which may be a silicon or a PVC.

Chris said he was rejected from Chris's collection as he thought the figure was wearing a fez (and therefore some interesting Turkish or Italian/Spanish fascist-era figure), and so was disappointed when a rack-toy biker turned up! I - conversely - was delighted by a new, squidgy, sculpt!

Next to him is a very interesting figure. Around 5-inches, he looks to be quite modern, possibly from a part-work which has escaped my attention? Looking like a Hussar, I think he's actually an RHA or even HAC officer/outrider, and therefore if not a part-work figure, some sort of tourist keepsake - they fire the Royal Salutes in London/Windsor or elsewhere on the Tourist trail?

Well painted he has some elements in common with the Supreme 30mm figures from the 1990's including the glossy, black, oval base, but is in a much firmer PVC material than those quite soft figures and far-better painted.

On the left we see the silver PVC Samurai/Chinese warrior type with a matching gold spaceman, the fact that the silver one is hard to place in Japan or China seems to be because he's from space! I'm pretty sure I have the gold space-shooter somewhere with factory paint; silver-grey with red and blue highlights?

A nice Beefeater who was new to the collection (for about 24-hours, see forthcoming post!), two hard polystyrene Crescent piracies, both damaged, but workable due the material and one has already been fixed with a Timpo sword blade. Panda pencil-top, Marx sailor and a couple of ertzgibirge make up the rest of the shot, along with a very . . . alright; 'quite' . . . a quite interesting Gum-ball machine capsule prize of a cartoon-caricature of Stan Laurel, which is interesting for looking older (1970's?) than he can be, as he's a copy of a two-part plug-together from Kinder which itself, was only issued in the 1990's!

An equally interesting line-up on the right includes all sorts of little gems! I like the beetle belly, I wonder how many years . . . or decades it will be before I find his separate plug-on carapace! The two policemen look brand-new, but clink-together with a clunk suggesting an earlier phenolic resin of some kind, so they may have some age?

The stretcher is the second to turn up, this one wedged in a Dinky trolley-bed or 'gurney' and I think it must be from the Spot-On Ambulance? The blue donkey's from Merit, the yellow driver from the R&L clip-together racing cars. The teddy bear is brilliant - similar to the bee-bear we saw a while ago and there are various other cereal premiums included along with a glass cat!

Again of interest is the green plastic chick with an umbrella which is a Hong Kong copy of a cake decoration, usually issued factory-painted on white-plastic for Easter cakes, and the green 28/30mm infantryman who's new to me. The fireman (a die-cast vehicle accessory) is common in junk lots but this one still has his hose spout!

The wizard type in the previous image has a central core consisting of the legs (behind a cloak) and a head with two (similar, skeletal) faces, spin him to change the face and change his sash-cord to a belt-buckle and back again! I've no idea where he's from? But he's clever!

Useful bags which will be filtered into existing corners of the collection for future posts or follow-ups, or, in the case of the top-left bag, return this afternoon! Also a nice three-colour copy of the old Blue Box Patton tank (itself a copy of larger battery-operated toys), an actual Blue Box Bedford, doors are AWOL along with a couple of the delicate hinges, so I'll try to remove the body and use the cab/bed to repair another damaged one. The Bonux guns will get their own post.

On the right are more vehicles and scenics, some seem before, some to come, and at some point the bulk of the ex-storage HK stuff will turn-up and we'll have a series of posts on the various AFV's.

A really nice diver, who might be a Tin Tin character, but I think he's probably from a cheapie play-set or rack-toy, he's a hard styrene though, so unusual? Next to him is a pile of kinder bits to be sorted!

Below them are some of the other 'interesting' figures from the lot, mostly modern or modern'ish, the seated guy in the dungarees is from the old 1970's battery-operated or push-n-go toy fork-lift trucks, of which there were several designs/issues.

You can't beat a decent HK, polythene, tat-shite, rack-toy, 'gator . . . except . . . by adding wheels! How cool is this . . . too cool for traffic school! It's a crocodile with wheels! Brilliant; when you constantly search for the unusual, it just doesn't get any better than this turning-up in the post - without warning! Cheers Chris!

There were several space vehicles included in the lot among which were these three, the new-shape T4 (a bit nasty, design wise - but a nice model), a Klingon bird-of-pray type from Soma and a space tank!

The space tank is more of a robotic turret, and Chris reports that it did Stirling service with his son's Games Workshop armies for years, it's marked JD which currently means nothing to me? It looks 'Orky' with its hand-riveted, uneven-cut, plate construction!

I'm pretty sure these are catapult ammunition for executive desk-toys! Which will make them Tobar-Hawkins Bazaar here and Archie McFee-Accoutrements in the 'States, there are other forms of ammunition available including penguins, nuns and tarts (net-stockings not pastry)!

♫♪♪ Everybody was cat-foo fight-ting, dah-lah, dah-lah, daa-laa, Dha-la DOO, those mog's were as faaast as lie-hight-nin'! ♫♫♪

There was also a bag of arms . . . which I think may be from Merten? I have some Merten ACW, we looked at a few ages ago . . . but they don't need arms, however I can check the unmade ones - when they turn-up - and see if they match?

Guess who invited herself to the party within minutes of the seal being broken! Chris also sent me a lovely Christmas card but it's well within copyright, so I'll try to get permission to show it another day!

It reminds me of my favourite Giles cartoon;

Where the family (with granny) are in a department store's toy department at Christmas (possibly during the Cuban missile crisis or - more likely - one of the Berlin stand-off's), and there are three huge tea-chest/display bins next to the sales-counter, one has "Merry Festive Bears" written on it and contains a pile of large teddy bears with Santa-hats.

The second bin is marked "Ray Guns" and has a stack of Pyrotomic Disintegrators and similar hardware, the third bin is marked "Merry Festive Bears with Ray Guns" and is full of 'John Rambo' like teddy bears in Santa-hats, grimly holding the heavy hardware!

There's lots more than I've shown here; Commonwealth 'dolls', Waddington's, Manurba, all the usual Corgi, Dinky and Matchbox, some nice modern Chinese copies of Franco-German (Cofalux/Elastolin) medievals, Wild West, more sci-fi; all sorts - and we'll look at more in some of the next few posts, but for now . . . many, many thanks to Chris, this stuff really is grist to the mill, and the mill is the blog; it will all prove useful going forward; group shots, comparisons, gap fillers, quirky posts . . . there was a crocodile on wheels peeps; you can't run from a crocodile on wheels - it just doesn't get any better!