P is for Persons of Interest - Chris's Parcel III

I could have done these as one post but it would have been long and unmanageable, I could extend it out to ten or more posts such was the quality and interesting nature of the contents (but would have been bound to still miss one of the things Chris might be expecting me to single out!), but it will all appear here eventually, the pieces we've missed in these three posts coming back after sorting, in thematic, whole-set or maker posts in the future, for now, these are the other items I feel are worthy of a quick spotlight . . .

 . . . by dint of their standing out as I was sorting, or making themselves photogenic!

Footballers, wiff-waff player and the two ice-hockey flats, the cyclists were more 'bits and pieces' for marrying to past or future finds. I think the guy in the packet (Nestlé?) is actually 'The Gazza' himself; Paul Gascoigne, or trying to be him? And I think the yellow goalkeeper (bottom right) might be a baseless example from the same set of premiums, the shirt-markings being paper stickers supplied with each figure?

While the blue figure - 'Ally McCoist' - having a good left-hook whack at the ball (bottom left) is a third player from the Crocco premium set I knew nothing about twelve-months ago, and have had to rely on others for all three - the other two coming from Peter Evans!

The Table Tennis chap looks more Wilton than anybody else, but that's only the look, there are no other clues, so; late'ish Culpitt?!

The flats are probably Eastern European (they share features with The 'Hungarian' Romans) and definitely aren't PJH Effelder! But (like the Russian/Bulgarian Progress cavalry sets) one would seem to be a second generation copy of the other. Equally; they could both just as easily be lower grade Spanish Sobres or unmarked, Hong Kong, gum-ball machine, capsule prizes!

The Divers; we've had these before recently, or at least two of them, which may be a sign of them coming on to the secondary market as a generation moves on from their toys, or a specific big-seller, and any information on either would be much appreciated, the two black ones presumably go with a boat in a play-set of some kind? The smaller, although an action-figure (of limited articulation) is a pretty prefect 54mm, giving you an idea of the size of the others.

Two biggies and an imprisoned Britains! The Welsh lady from Wales (it's not a seagoing mammal Mr. President) is made of slate, but ground-down to a powder and bound with - probably - a two-part epoxy . . . like cold-cast bronze, but slate!

The guards officer - I think - goes with the RHA Hussar-type Chris sent to the Blog earlier in the year/last year (don't know when these will publish yet!) and the Artilleryman is the better figure, this officer should be marching, with the sword out, or standing at attention, not wandering, 'wandering' isn't in the drill manual!

His duel decorations are a bit of a fiction too, but he's a new figure so I'm not complaining, and while officers don't 'stag-on' sentry boxes, it's a really nice box, which will have a wait before we do them again, as they stared here twice earlier in the year. I think the RHA chap will look better in it, and these would seem to be up-market tourist figures, could we be talking the Buck' House walks? Do they have a 'gift shop' in the nation's main palace?

The final piece is very interesting, clearly a Scott's tourist thing, he is a HK-production Britains Herald piper, held on a cork plinth with a piece of textured green Plasticine . . . and a blob of glue? The tartan band, other than hammering-home the Scottish nature of the item, is probably hiding a clever join at the base of the bottle, or a not-so-clever join bodged with glue?

Label says Frae Scotland (from Scotland) and I nearly bid on a mixed job-lot with one of these in it earlier in the year, but with flights to pay back I was a bit of a spectator to feebleBay this year, I did manage a few smaller lots where a BIN was going wanting or it was 99p with five-minutes to go on a Wednesday afternoon, but the worthwhile job-lots tend to be bid up to proper money, which makes Chris's sending of his duplicates and cast-offs to this Blog all the more extra-ordinary.

This was nice; the pole was broken as it usually is with these by the time they get to the secondary (or subsequent!) markets. But finish is otherwise unworn and all the other likely breakables are still there, having sent the other two boatmen to PW earlier in the year/last year I won't bore you with all three now, but if I find a fourth . . . !

The highlights from the medieval pile include from the left; a Hong Kong copy of the MPC knights, we looked at them years ago here, but I don't think I've seen a mounted example from Hong Kong yet and; this one is marked.

Then another (we looked at the whole lot a few weeks ago) of the Cherilea sub-scale re-issue, a Hong Kong copy of an Italian (probably Fontanini) precepi/nativity figure, a Safari knight (toob-size unlike the Indian we saw in the initial post) and another 'girly prince' (there was one in the civilian line up in the same initial post), there are many of these originating in the pinky-purple section of toy stores!

I've a fair-few copies of Airfix Russians, and I think we looked at them earlier this year/last year, but I've never seen them in a cloudy-clear like ghosts! The kneeling soldier is either a short-shot or meant to look like that; it's hard to tell with the material he's made from, but the left wrist is definitely miss-moulded/hand missing.

And I have never seen Hong Kong or other (they are unmarked and could be Solpa from Greece) copies of either the Support Group figures or the Ghurkhas? The base on the Ghurkha is very like Solpa, but the spotter has a thinner one which is more Hong Kong'y

Clockwise from the top left; we've seen it mended, but this is how Hermes left it on the doorstep! It mended fine, but the interesting thing was that the damage revealed a steel-wire/rod armature holding the wings on/out; it's constructed just like its composition forbears, but poured rather than pressed and set in minutes without an oven!

The Gemodels Lifeguard cake-decoration/touristy-chap has been painted as a colonial trooper of some generic type but I think he's rather nice and Chris's loss is definitely my gain; I won't be paint-stripping him . . . indeed - mental note to self - Hampshire Yeomanry next? All blue and silver! The Houshold cavalry do have a khaki riding/barrack dress, but it's greener (based on No.2's) and is worn with a service cap al la WWI.

Twelve flags for twelve brothers! I have a tub of these flag-types somewhere in the garage with various sizes of pole or base and lots of flags, but most of the common flags are in this one lot from Chris! Along with some of the less common ones; oddly though, the US stars & stripes is missing, but is probably the commonest in the normal course of events (it comes with a lot of the Airfix US Marine piracies in small scale), as are both the German/Belgian Red-amber-blacks which I have previously seen.

Finally, I sent my versions of these to Plastic Warrior awhile ago in answer (or part answer!) to a query, but these have come in together, same paint, and it's better than the examples I had up to now so a nice upgrade, and I might re-paint the older top-hat pose as the elusive Dr Doolittle of the original query? but - while it's clearly based on the Doctor - I still think it's from a circus set?

I hope you'll all agree that Chris's generosity is a cut-above, and it's a pleasure to thank him again for this parcel, and nice to share it with the rest of you.