About Me

My photo
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.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

DUK is for "APION" Amfibies Jeep!

This is an odd one; sometimes I just don't understand how the hobby works. What we have here is a never seen before, may never see again, South African toy of a military vehicle in 'around' a 54/60mm compatible scale, yet having shot it at length back in the early spring, [not] watched them not-sell on evilBay, watched them not sell at the Plastic Warrior show and bought an orphan - at the end of the show, I wonder how that happened?

African Plastic Industries; African Plastic Industries (Pty) Limited; AFV; Amfibies Jeep; Amphi-Jeep; Amphibious Jeep; An Apion Product; Apion; Bath Toy; Beach Toys; Drye Op Water; DUK; Floats On Water; Jeep; Jeep Bath Toy; Jeep Beach Toy; Jeep Toy; Made In South Africa; N Apion Produk; Plastic Amphi-Jeep; Plastic Jeep; Plastic Novelty; Plastic Toys; Red; Rides On Land; Ry Op Land; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Vervaardig in Suid-Afrika; Yellow;
Most 'large-scale' collectors, or at least the more generic or ephemeral collectors, the completist or competitive collectors or the curious (which is all bar the subject-specific collectors, i.e. most of them) would happily have a bright red Tudor Rose Land-Rover or bright yellow Pyro or Banner 'dimestore' Jeep in their collections, yet no one wanted these?

African Plastic Industries; African Plastic Industries (Pty) Limited; AFV; Amfibies Jeep; Amphi-Jeep; Amphibious Jeep; An Apion Product; Apion; Bath Toy; Beach Toys; Drye Op Water; DUK; Floats On Water; Jeep; Jeep Bath Toy; Jeep Beach Toy; Jeep Toy; Made In South Africa; N Apion Produk; Plastic Amphi-Jeep; Plastic Jeep; Plastic Novelty; Plastic Toys; Red; Rides On Land; Ry Op Land; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Vervaardig in Suid-Afrika; Yellow;
Yet, I also half-understand, as despite sliding the first image between the two introductory paragraphs, and sticking another above this continuation of my opening point, I am going to struggle to find enough blurb for the post, as there's hardly anything to say about them, but having taken a load of images when I first saw them and some more of my example (red one) I now have five collages to write up! Now obviously, the next paragraph can be all about the Box . . .

African Plastic Industries; African Plastic Industries (Pty) Limited; AFV; Amfibies Jeep; Amphi-Jeep; Amphibious Jeep; An Apion Product; Apion; Bath Toy; Beach Toys; Drye Op Water; DUK; Floats On Water; Jeep; Jeep Bath Toy; Jeep Beach Toy; Jeep Toy; Made In South Africa; N Apion Produk; Plastic Amphi-Jeep; Plastic Jeep; Plastic Novelty; Plastic Toys; Red; Rides On Land; Ry Op Land; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Vervaardig in Suid-Afrika; Yellow;
Which comes in at least two colour-ways, both are three-colour processes, but different colours, litho'd, not dot-matrix, so green/orange are reproduced by overlaying. Each box also has two panels and one end with the the written details in Afrikans and the other three faces in English . . . like the contemporaneous stamps!

African Plastic Industries; African Plastic Industries (Pty) Limited; AFV; Amfibies Jeep; Amphi-Jeep; Amphibious Jeep; An Apion Product; Apion; Bath Toy; Beach Toys; Drye Op Water; DUK; Floats On Water; Jeep; Jeep Bath Toy; Jeep Beach Toy; Jeep Toy; Made In South Africa; N Apion Produk; Plastic Amphi-Jeep; Plastic Jeep; Plastic Novelty; Plastic Toys; Red; Rides On Land; Ry Op Land; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Vervaardig in Suid-Afrika; Yellow;
This leaves maker and the vehicle to describe; but you've already seen it as I spread the images through the text! It's an amphibious Jeep in leery colours, reasonably accurate for an infant toy, and in a phenolic resin which is starting to distort - in the case of the yellow; particularly so. Opposite colours are placed as 'small parts'; red on the yellow vehicle and vise-versa.

African Plastic Industries; African Plastic Industries (Pty) Limited; AFV; Amfibies Jeep; Amphi-Jeep; Amphibious Jeep; An Apion Product; Apion; Bath Toy; Beach Toys; Drye Op Water; DUK; Floats On Water; Jeep; Jeep Bath Toy; Jeep Beach Toy; Jeep Toy; Made In South Africa; N Apion Produk; Plastic Amphi-Jeep; Plastic Jeep; Plastic Novelty; Plastic Toys; Red; Rides On Land; Ry Op Land; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Vervaardig in Suid-Afrika; Yellow;
Final image leaves us with the maker . . . African Plastic Industries (Pty) Limited trading as Apion and the price . . . three shillings and ninep'nce, for something this large, which has probably been sent half-way round the world on a tramp steamer, places them in the nineteen-fifties I suspect, while there's nothing on Google!

Phew! Got there, can't understand why no one wanted them, can half-understand why they generated so little interest, but . . . humans are weird! Still they join the Haarlem and SA marked SAE in the collection, what next from that part of the world?

3 comments:

Machiel said...

Good day, I read your post and, indeed, it is very interesting. I stay in "that part of the world" as you ended your blog. This is also an interesting story... but we rather stay with the toys.

I am busy putting all our SA toys to book as far as possible. You are correct. It is hard to get any info about our toys. One thing I noticed is the following:

We recognized Afrikaans as one of our official languages in 1961. Before that, it was all in English. So, my first impression would be that the toy was manufactured in the early 60's. But, we also changed our currency to Rand in 1961, away from the English system. This brings the question exactly when was this model made. I would argue that it must have been very early in 60's and then probably 1961 with all the confusion of changeovers. The only reasoning that would change my mind is if we can find something with Afrikaans and English and we can establish it was before 1961.

If you would, I would like to buy one yellow box, or trade it for another green box. I don't have the yellow in my collection.

Anyway, we had many quality toys made in the '50s going to the 60's. You can certainly find PMI Massey Harris on Google.

Machiel Odendaal (South Africa)

Hugh Walter said...

Hi Machiel

Thanks for that, very useful and trenchant information. You need to speak to this lady (quickly - she only has six left, but seems to still have all three colours)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WW2-DUK-Amphibious-Jeep-Plastic-Toy-in-Original-Box-made-by-AFRICAN-PLASTICS/174242606995?hash=item2891ab2f93:g:dVYAAOSw4tJei1hf

I think she was the source of mine. I have dealt with her before and she will sell via PayPal from her non-eBay shop, and is good on colors/box types etc, if you ask. I only have the one, the others were shot at the Sandown Park toy fair, and I have actually ended up with a box and jeep which don't match, but are both good, some jeeps are quite warped, some boxed are tatty, but she will help, she's helped me with animal flats and things in the past.

Let us know when the book's ready, I'll definitely want one!

Hugh

Hugh Walter said...

Sorry Machiel -

You need to go through her shop

https://theswagmansdaughter.com/

That'll allow you to discuss off-eBay!

H