PW5 is for Best of Show - Warrior Types

As well as the themes which develop as the show progresses and the plunder grows in several bags, there are the stand-alone pieces which won't otherwise be Blogged for years, or which may already have been blogged in a lesser form, and which therefore can go here!

Although we'll start with something which was anything but 'best' of show, they are intriguing, unusual, but - and let's be honest here - f**king hideous! Clearly aimed at little kids (not that most of what we collect wasn't; in its original retail form) and/or Terracotta Army tourists, these are actually in Russian packaging and being imported by one of the German dealers . . . but . . . Oh Boy! Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Vases . . . semi-flat, tinny, chalky-plastic, leery colours, stab-and-hope paint job, one figure per pack, childlike poses, poor anatomy, faces that look like a horse just mounted them (in the Biblical sense) . . . they have NO redeeming features beyond depicting a previously un-covered era.

Smart Toys Creative of Yiwu, China, carried in Russia by Trading House Mirika, they're not nice and that's a box ticked - we won't see them again here very soon or very often!

Hee-hee . . it's funny how something keeps growing; forth (?) appearance since Christmas on the Blog, and there's more to come - Chris Smith also found the hunter, at around the same time - despite missing the show!

So we have a new native pose (now have to find his load) and the hunter; a clever take on the much-pirated Britains farmer with shotgun, and this one is smaller than most so probably a copy of an old Blue Box or Holly copy-farmer rather than a Britains original?

Already seen today, but this was one of the highlights for me, most Polish production is quite large, starting at 54/60mm and going in steps (like Fontanini) up to five-inch stauettes, so this 45/50mm semi-flat in the margarine premium style was a lovely find, and paint looks original, yet near-mint, but it may not be that old, a lot of the Polish stuff was still in production in the 1970-80's?

Similar in several respects to the previous figure, this has to be French? But it's a weird dence yet soft plastic; polyethylene, nylon, polypropylene . . . even a PVC? Seems to be factory painted, seems to be relatively modern. French Foreign Legion, unusual, plastic version of an old lead figure?

I keep finding them! Another Drevopodnik, and not one I was looking for; I know I'm looking for a carded set of Napoleonic/ceremonial dressed figures and staff officers as I've seen one, but this guy is A) new to me and B) clearly sold individually as a tourist trinket - from the little label? Bulling boots, probably not a great seller, and he's a sly-looking fella'!