T is for Two - Briefly "Blue-Box"

A couple of smallies from the archive . . . starting with one of the smallest Blue Box sets in my collection, not THE smallest, but one of 'em!

A late'ish (for that era's production or course, the company is still going!) version of the 50mm US infantry in their unpainted form along with the ubiquitous Blue Box copy of Crescent's WWI 18lbr field-artillery piece and a set/runner of gold-bronze shells. A shilling was pricey for 1969; we were getting - intermittently - sixpence . . . if we 'were good' and if it was 'the holidays'!

Dated to May 1969 (it's just had its fiftieth birthday!), and stated (in Mr. James Opie's unmistakable hand) to have been purchased in Stephens of Droitwich; oh, for a time-machine and ten minutes in that emporium with a handful of sixpences - huh!

This is the one I mentioned the other day as possibly being also the soirt of card some of the ACW sets may have turned-up in?

The [clearly not that] hard-to-find small scale (only scale for these!) resistance fighters, who always seem to come accompanied by a Bedford RL troop-carrier/GS lorry. The artwork on the mounting card is the same, but there are differences between the card's other graphics, with the all-celluloid/cellophane box having the information from the outer of the window box round the sides on the insert, while the insert for the window box has plain blue edges.

I say that as you might otherwise think is was a simple matter of changing the outer, but in fact they are tweaked versions of each-other. The sample bottom right (no price label) is a spare, for swaps, should anyone want it; something of similar age/value/condition will secure - eMail me, in the next week or so.

A comparison between the two to prove to those who think they didn't exist; that they did, although - of course - I had Blogged them, as Blue Box, several years before a certain newbie started informing us - as fact - that they weren't!

Thanks go to James Opie for some of these too.