About Me

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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.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

V is for Empire Forces . . . or . . .

. . . is Empire Forces for V (is for Victory)? We just don't know, and if Adrian Little hadn't recued them for some mixed auction lot, we'd know even less! New to hobby, new to Blog and probably new to Internet, I don't think they are mentioned in the works of Garratt, Harris, Joplin or Opie, but we can at least look at them here, now;

Boxed Composition Soldiers; Boxed Sets; British Army Toy; British Khaki Infantry; British Paratroopers; Composition Machine Gunners; Composition Paratrooper; Composition Tank; Composition Toy; Composition Toy Soldiers; Early British Composition; Early British Toy Soldiers; Early Paratrooper Toys; Empire Forces; Empire Forces V; No 125 Machine Gunners; Paratrooper Set; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; V Composition Toys; V Empire Forces; Vintage Composition Toys; Vintage Empire Forces; Vintage Toy Figures; Vintage Toy Soldiers; Vintage V Sets; Wartime Composition;
The full-colour box-art holds some clues to dating the set with uniforms more colonial than modern-war, a tank from the 1920/30's and a paratrooper who looks more Soviet or German than British, both those nations (along with Italy) having done the early-work on parachute troops?

One of the figures seems to be a French colonial, but may be intended to represent our Indian forces in their 'best kit' . . . Delhi Durbar? The feeling is it's a war-time set, produced after the material rationing had been introduced, but before the Army had modernised to D-Day fitness, like most of these pumice sets?

Boxed Composition Soldiers; Boxed Sets; British Army Toy; British Khaki Infantry; British Paratroopers; Composition Machine Gunners; Composition Paratrooper; Composition Tank; Composition Toy; Composition Toy Soldiers; Early British Composition; Early British Toy Soldiers; Early Paratrooper Toys; Empire Forces; Empire Forces V; No 125 Machine Gunners; Paratrooper Set; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; V Composition Toys; V Empire Forces; Vintage Composition Toys; Vintage Empire Forces; Vintage Toy Figures; Vintage Toy Soldiers; Vintage V Sets; Wartime Composition;
Two sets have turned-up; No 125 Machine-Gunner Set and an unknown-numbered 'Paratrooper'. The inset holding-card is the same for both sets as are the contents save for either four prone Vickers' gunners or four parachutists in the same cavities.

Boxed Composition Soldiers; Boxed Sets; British Army Toy; British Khaki Infantry; British Paratroopers; Composition Machine Gunners; Composition Paratrooper; Composition Tank; Composition Toy; Composition Toy Soldiers; Early British Composition; Early British Toy Soldiers; Early Paratrooper Toys; Empire Forces; Empire Forces V; No 125 Machine Gunners; Paratrooper Set; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; V Composition Toys; V Empire Forces; Vintage Composition Toys; Vintage Empire Forces; Vintage Toy Figures; Vintage Toy Soldiers; Vintage V Sets; Wartime Composition;
Again, the paratroopers look more Soviet than anything else, even to the sub-machine-gun, while the tank is trying to be a mid-war, lend-lease Grant; sans hull-gun in sponson, while they all have the look of US dime-store figures.

If I had to choose a date I'd say 1942? Thanks to Adrian at Mercator Trading for letting me shoot these; the lighting was poor, so they've been worked a bit in Picasa to get the colours back.

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