Q is for Question Time - A is for Are They Kleeware?

You may remember the last in the series of posts from last-year's Sandown Park shows . . . checks . . . no, this February's; included a whole bag of mini- and micro-aircraft, the mini's having some properties in common with early Airfix production, but no evidence to link them so I'm leaving them for a while - I've seen them (mostly silver) on evilBay recently described as Tudor Rose, Kleeware and Tudor Rose/Kleeware, so no consistency or agreement there!

But I said I had different types of the smaller 'micros' and would return to them - this is that return, but it really only serves to clear things to the colour of mud!

The 'common sculpts'

The sample I had here turned out to be two, a few in with the aircraft and a few more in the Kleeware crate? Now, I'm quite a diligent collector and don't tend to put things in accredited 'zones' of the collection unless I've had some evidence they belong there, so we will proceed along the lines that, on one level, they were Kleeware or I have been led to believe such by one of the 'Old Guard!?

However it's never as simple as that with this early 'dime-store' plastic; All three of the samples just mentioned have only four sculpts, namely - as written on the upper wings and listed from left to right in the above image:

• ·         Navion - NC-37104 (the Ryan (originally North American) Navion)
• ·         DC-6 - NC-10747 (Doulas C-118 Liftmaster in United States Air Force service and as the R6D in the US Navy)
• ·         DC-3 - NC-1149W (Douglas C-47 Skytrain in military service; the 'Dakota' in Empire/RAF service)
• ·         C-69 - NC-6461H (the C-69 in military service, the Lockheed L-049, L-649 and L-749 Constellation in civil service)

Navion - NC-37104

North American/Ryan 'Navion'

But . . . the cereal premium site (1957 - Shredded Wheat Cubs Air Fleet Model Planes Free in Packets) have three of the same aircraft along with several (an unknown total?) others, the additions being:

• ·         XF-89 Jet
• ·         F-80 (?)
• ·         Canberra
• ·         Hawker Hunter
• ·         Vickers Valiant
• ·         DH Sea Venom
• ·         Vulcan
• ·         Folland Gnat
• ·         Sabre
• ·         English Electric Lightning

Based on the two different sculpts of Shooting Star visible? [The addition of the Constellation would give a fourteen count? The X-15; fifteen!]

You may remember that we saw a damaged Lightning in this post, which also contained a soft plastic DC3, which I now assume is one of the cereal premiums? However, my lightning is hard polystyrene, while Cluck doesn't list them at all?

DC-3 - NC-1149W

Douglas C-47 'Skytrain' / 'Dakota'

In America, Lido are credited with a set of five:

The Constellation, DC3, and Navion from the common 'menu', the F-94 (Lockheed Starfire; the same sculpt as Nabisco's XF-89) and an X-15 (North American 'X-plane'; the fastest air-craft ever!). The source also credits Irwin sculpts to Lido, so can't be taken as the 'last word' on the subject?

But they are acknowledged to have copied them from Caldwell/Empire, who presumably got the tool as a mould-share from Kleeware (or whoever was the originator of the expanded 'Nabisco' line), but did themselves add the XF-89 as a fifth - with/to the common four.

C-69 - NC-6461H

Lockheed L-049 / L-649 / L-749 'Constellation'

Now, the previous link's post was part of an MPC round-up, and some of the aircraft types are in their 'MPC Minis' set, but only a couple of them and in different sizes/sculpts, given they were all - in the most part - well-known 'planes in the popular imagination at the time, that's as far as I believe any connection with MPC goes.

Note also - the different lengths of the engine nacelles, some extending back to the wheels others not . . . possibly a tool-cavity thing, and a feature shared with the DC-3 mouldings.

DC-6 - NC-10747

Doulas C-118 'Liftmaster' / R6D

Another question is; what is the significance of the 'NC' coding on the hard-plastic forms found here, the codes are present on the three (probably; all four) duplicated in soft plastic for the Nabisco set, but none of the other 10/11 (?) seem to have one, some being unmarked, some having a full title spread over both wings?

I can't think of a toy firm offhand who would fit, but neither is it an early London postal zone (pre-postcodes); it would be 'North Central' which never existed, although once there were calls for one; it became N1C!

However, before moving to Durham (via a castle? Bit of topical humor there!), Kleeware's factory was in the Welwyn Garden City 'new-town', a minute or two's walk from the Nabisco Shredded Wheat factory (and near ICI's plastics plant) . . . well fancy that - as Private Eye would say!

The reason I said we'd return to them is that I knew I has some differences between the samples, even before remembering the soft plastic one. Some have a marked dimple which is part-spherical and might take a ball (from a ball and socket type joint) as part of a stand arrangement?

Some have two smaller but similar depressions at either end of the slot common to all, while the example on the far right (Lido) has two obvious mould-release pin-marks, although also retaining the slot . . . which is a notable factor as . . .

. . . the Lido sculpt - as stated - is a copy, not - as you might expect - a mould share? It's a good one, as it's almost same size, but the fine detail is slightly cruder and the wing-tips fatter.

Which is odder when you consider the evidence for direct mould/product share between Lido (and Pyro) and Kleeware on other occasions, and it may well be that Lido had permission to use the Empire product as the basis for their own?

As in - with the knowledge of the sender, and it's worth remembering that the mould-sharing which went on was due to US economic tariffs, and that therefore in may have been far more expensive for them (US firms) to receive moulds, than to lend them?

We did look it all up years ago on the HäT Industrie forum -  the page is long deleted - but a few aircraft could be exchanged at a toy fair or international convention and 'smuggled' past 'homeland security', moved via the Canadian office (of Kleeware), via Empire or just sent in a small parcel as gift/samples?

Lightning and Orphan 'Scooting Star'!

So; we haven't learnt much, but it would seem that someone (probably Kleeware) had a tool or tools with mini-aircraft sculpts, of which four seem commoner (and multi-cavity?) than the (probably fourteen, possibly fifteen) Nabisco cereal premiums, that Lido in the US carried three of them, after Empire; probably as pantographed, re-etched/re-finished copies with two additional marques, that some hard plastic copies of the soft plastic premiums have turned up and . . . err . . . that's about it!

But if the Kleeware attribution is accepted for now and/or proved in the future, it will make my provisional attribution of the 'other' set to Airfix a little stronger, as there aren't that many hooks to hang these particular hats on?

As you can see I dug the Lightning out, late; it's hard 'styrene, clearly with a different sculpting style (raised panel lines, sharper edges) and marked on the underside only, as the first of two prototypes which reads 'pia' to the eye, but is 'P-1a'. I also found another of the 'stars', marked USA, but I don't know who made it, it's clearly a Shooting Star, but has 'Scooting' on the wing!

A table, pulling the above together as a sort of check-list for anyone wanting to track them all down. However, you will need to find polyethylene and polystyrene versions of both the Nabisco and Lido sculptings?

And you can bet there'll be Aussie/NZ or Canadian versions/colours somewhere!!!

S is for Smart Toys

In the recent parcel from Chris Smith was another one of the 25mm versions of these (he sent most of the others previously), and I'd just seen the Smart Toys box tucked-away in the garage, so I dug it out and shot my small sample for a box-ticker, as I think I mentioned them when doing the PVC round-ups last  . . . October?

I encountered them in the mid/late-1990's as HO-gauge compatible sets of civilian farm and construction vehicles, or Micro-machine clones, both with HO figures of the 18/20mm bracket. These are some of the military sets in the two sizes I found them.

Plant, with some of the civilian figures, there is a definite parallel with the contiguous production of New Ray at the time, and there may be some cross-fertilisation, but I suspect just 'copying' for the same market/price-points?

A couple of tractors from the farm range and a blister of aggregate piles, clearly aimed at the model railway layout people, what you would do with that many identical piles is anyone's guess, but the sculpting is so crude and lumpy they could double for potato's or sugar-beet on a farm . . . with a bit of paint!

Every military set in the 20mm range came with a tent bearing a red-cross on one end, so they will be a feature of mixed lots till the dusk of time!

In the meantime the marked figures in a 28/30mm bracket have started turning-up in loose lots, and I've found a few of the vehicles (to look at, not buy) on feebleBay; an odd mix of late Cold-War stuff in approximately 1:72nd scale - German Unimog, French-looking tanker-lorry (ex-civilian?) that kind of thing, I haven't found heavy AFV's yet?

Both samples are of limited pose-range, and one suspects that as a pocket-money/rack-toy line, they weren't expected to gather in 'collected' numbers, but rather to be more impulse/pester-power purchases at checkouts or in corner shops (where I was picking them up back at the time? And rather nicely showing how a smaller size allows for a larger campaign!

The smaller figures are definitely aimed at Galoob Micro Machines customers, the larger ones are not so close to either size of the 'believed to be' Pioneer we looked at last time, so more stand-alone? Obviously the MG fits in a vehicle mount, but is super-glued to the operator's hands!

New Petition on 38degrees

I've started a petition on 38degrees to have Dominic Cummings sacked, please sign and share if you've had enough of his arrogance and heartless disregard for you and yours. [case closed!]

Sack Dominic Cummings

Why is this important?

If This cretinous buffoon with his obvious contempt for the people, the electorate, the Civil Service and the media, his total disregard for democracy, Parliament or the rule of law and his terrible wardrobe isn't dismissed forthwith, the contract between people and state will be irrevocably broken, and the Covid-19 legislation rendered no more than equivalent to the lavatory-paper which was in such short supply as the government dithered a few short weeks ago.

Update - Still Sack Dominic Cummings!

There would appear to be some rule at 38degrees that you can't call a cretinous person 'cretinous', or at least you can, but not in a petition! No matter, I only started my petition because I couldn't find one on 38degrees, the reason for which is that they won't allow one . . . because he's unelected! However, had I looked harder, I would have found the Change.org petition with the same aim which being a couple of days older has reached 200,000+ 400,000+ signatures and I would urge you to sign that one instead.

http://chng.it/P2H8b8kKPs

I'm currently listening to his self-justifying bollocks press-statement and he doesn't quite seem to understand that millions of other people had equally (or BETTER) reasons for breaking the Covid-19 legislation, but CHOSE NOT TO! And you can hear in his voice how sorry he feels - for himself! Sack him. Peston could barely get his question out he was so stunned by the brazenness of it all!

F is for Follow-up - Cap-Bombs & Rocketry

So, we looked at cap-bombs the other day and I said there were a few still in the attic, but the brown one with a yellow spaceman seems to have been totally lost being in none of the places it might have been? And apart from the missing one there was only one other and a buckshee tail-section, but the whole one is different to the others so worth a shot or two.

It has an internal anvil, and exhaust venturi, which as they face forward would/could be seen as retro-rockets on an interspatial vessel! It needed a good clean and I used cotton-buds to remove the rusty gunk from the interior and an old flossing-brush to clean the venturi!

There's nothing to hold a cap or a section of cap 'tape' in place, so I suspect it was designed and/or issued with the plastic-drum caps in strips to place over the end of the hammer-bar. The anvil-plate seems to be set into the plastic, but it's very rusty so I'm not about to shove it around or pick at it to prove or disprove the suspicion!

And, if you're one of the older loyal readers of this blog it may look familiar to you; because it's a copy of the Merit (J&L Randall) one we saw here.

Before it was cleaned up (crap shot - sorry!), it's somewhere between the two common'ish sizes we looked at last time, and has a screw-cap where they had pop-on ones. In the comparison below we see the odd part in dark-olive, they all go in the tub together, and as bits which fit come-in they get put with each-other.

The two on the left are not cap-firers, but rubber-tipped projectiles. The smaller red one being from the rail-mounted 'Battle Space' launcher from Rovex Tri-Ang/Hornby-Triang, it replaced a short-lived die-cast alloy version (also with a rubber nose, but in oxide red).

The yellow one is annoying me as I'm sure I know (or should know) its origin or have ID'd its brand/maker in the past - possibly on this Blog - but I can't find it on the Blog, can't find it in the archives and can't find it on-line, so if you can tell me - kudos to you! Is it ammunition from a 'One Man Army' type thing?

An old internet image (possibly Vectis?) it's a bit fuzzy but you get the idea and we looked at mine years ago (over a decade ago! And I now know the yellow one in that post!), the real aim here is to use the connection of this and the 'unknown' yellow one to get us to this . . .

. . . sent to the Blog by Mr Berke, it's mintier than a minty-mint 'minter' from the Royal Mint! Crescent's rocket launcher; which carries a cap-bomb of epic dimensions, with a fully die-cast nose/firing mechanism on a polyethylene body. This baby would take six or eight caps and detonate with quite a flash, having a much heavier rod that the other's we've looked at.

Unfortunately, because we abused them with large charges, the tiny elastic-band which kept the 'breech block' in place quickly failed and the little piece of mazac is often missing. We looked at the rarer desert variant here a while back, but a temperate/tropical unit was also available . . .

. . . and Brian sent one of those too! Although obviously a cap-bomb, it was originally sold as the Mobile Space Rocket in the red/green combo', with this version normally having a white plastic body for its Corporal Rocket & Lorry (the real corporal was longer and thinner) and the 'civil' coloured truck carrying the yellow bodied rocket.

I thought we'd seen my paint stripped one on the blog, but I can't find it either, not can I find the HK copy's post, but I did re-show it (if I'd shown it at all? Maybe a show-report?) in this post, it's all plastic with a no-cap missile copied from another (Corgi) toy.

Going back a post (from the earlier link) Mr. B also sent this to compliment the spring-loaded rocket launchers of that post, it's the MPC rocket launcher, which is supposed to be rubber-band operated.

Although when I say rubber-band operated, Brian couldn't get it to work so I turned to Ed Berg (who has just Blogged the whole MPC space range) and asked him for help (or the instruction sheet), but he explained he had just as much trouble trying to get them to work, but told us how it should be done and Brian had another stab at it.

But - basically - it seems the rocket gets a little too comfortable in its mounting slot/groove and sticks fast, clearly the rocket designer and/or the launch-pad designer and the tool's 'pattern maker' weren't talking to each other with the clarity necessary? Or the  rubber-band 'interactivity' was a late addition to the toy's features? But it looks the part!

The gang at Moonbase have been running a Money Box Season through lockdown (among all their other stuff!) and I sent my German BAC Spaarraket's over there, so follow the jump for more on them or this link for loads of money boxes (banks), including at least four other rocket types, a spaceman, several globes &etc.

 

It seems BAC Spaarbank is actually a Belgian entity, part of the [now] Dexia combine, previously; Gemeentekrediet van België / Crédit Communal de Belgique

 

Three months later - and it's nice to see Collectors Gazette were paying attention!

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On another matter altogether, the Police Commissioner for Durham has just accused Grant Chapps (Transport Secretary) of "Making it up as he goes along" with regard to Dominic Cumming's shenanigans over the Covid-19 Lock-down . . . well, fancy that, fancy populist fuckwitts on the right making it up as they go along! History will reflect more kindly on my whitterings that mine 'eemies'! Have you injected your dose of loo-cleaner today?!

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis Auctions; Week 22

There are three sales in Northumberland next week, all online only, the first - Wednesday 27th - being another 'Specialist die cast' sale;

Lot 1435

"The specialist Sale to be held on the 27th May starts with The Herefordshire Emergency Vehicle Collection, 186 lots from Neo, Minichamps, Ixo, Rai's, Vanguards, Corgi and many others. The sale continues with Private Owner Collection #1, 106 lots of boxed Lansdowne models. Further items in the sale include WSI Models, Tekno trucks, including Superhero and Picasso paintwork models; Vanguards, Corgi, 1/18th scale models from Minichamps, Auto Art and Sunstar, plus further Lansdowne, Brooklin and mixed modern diecast groups. The sale concludes with 93 lots of slot car Models from Fly Car Model and Fly Car Classic, including boxed sets; Mini Models (UK) Scalex tinplate keyless clockwork cars and a selection of Scalextric cars, including tinplate; parts, track and original technical drawings."

Catalogue download here.

The next day - Thursday 28th - gives us a general toy sale;

Lot 2163

"The General Toy sale to be held on the 28th May features large groups of mixed vintage and modern diecast, including Corgi, Lledo, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, EFE, Solido, Franklin Mint and many more, The sale will also include Corgi Aviation Archive models and other aircraft, Corgi Heavy Haulage, Hauliers of Renown and others, plus Corgi Gift Sets and military models, and a number of Corgi Thunderbirds FAB1 cars. There is a large selection of sports and racing cars from Auto Art and similar, plus Airfix and other kits. The sale also includes a number of books, magazines, comics, soft toys, DVD's and video games, plus posters, prints, football programmes and further general and novelty toys."

Catalogue download here.

While the run finishes on the 29th (Friday, next) with a toy and model trains and railway sale;

Lot 4247

"The Model Train sale to be held on Friday 29th May features OO Gauge British Outline, HO/HOe USA & Continental Outline, N Gauge and Wrenn, plus Triang & Triang Hornby and a Hornby Dublo Single Owner Collection. The Chris Freeman Meccano & Vintage Toy Collection Part II includes Models, Dealers Cabinets, Outfits, Cars, Boats & Aeroplanes, Clockwork & Electric Motors, Parts & Empty Boxes, Magazines, Display & Other Items, plus, Marklin Construction Sets, Marklin Steam, Marklin Constructional Vehicles, Erector Sets , Primus, Structator, Structo, Hornby O Gauge,  and Finescale O Gauge. Further items in the sale include Meccano & Other Constructional Toys, Exley, Live Steam, Gauge 1 & Larger, G Gauge. Hornby, Further and Modern O Gauge, Finescale/Kitbuilt and American Outline O Gauge, plus Railwayana, Books, Magazines, Catalogues & Miscellaneous, Railway Photographs, and our usual good selection of General Trains."

Catalogue download here.

Contact Details

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Sales commence at 10:30hrs

News, Views Etc . . . Blog Updates

The re-tagging slowed to a 'lost the will to live' pace, with the Space tag reduced from 227 to 80-something before grinding to a halt! I'll try and get it finished this weekend. I have however finished the abbreviations pages on the A-Z Blogs, they all have one now which is up to date with whatever I've found around and about.

There are a few typo's, I spotted some as I was uploading them, but they'll do for now as a guide, and I will correct over time as I spot them.

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I've also sorted the 'favorite links' list after a reader was sent to a porn site! I tried it and went to a less salubrious sales page for white-goods or something (fussa-russa!) but it was obviously going through an aggregator when you watched the .url's toggle through automatically!

It's sad to see old friends dead (some have actually passed, but I meant the destination pages not the owners?), and while I'd left Maggie's Zowies up there for years, knowing it was defunct, because it could still be found - in parts - on the waybackmachine, that is no longer the situation, so it's gone.

Also going were James Opie's site, which seems to have been replaced by his 'area' on the C&T Auctions website, while the 'George Martin (knights)' entry was, errr . . . 'that' George Martin; George . . . RR Martin, who has obviously become a little more well-known than when I added the link back in 2008/9! Consequently a dead-link proved to be sign of a moved page on a vastly enlarged website, rather than a dead page, and I've updated the link to that one, but the link still takes you to the knights, so if you want Game of Thrones stuff, you'll have to navigate away from the knights - shock horror!

Arthur's Men in Miniature and a Jecsan site have both died a death, along with one of the Marx sites and Mr Klimtov's Belgian Durso site. The BMSS site needed a new link although it is still there, but Richard Camp's toy soldier moulds' site has gone along with one of the Britians sites, but I slipped Barney Brown's site into the same slot!

Holly Loves Toys has been excised as it's now a very different concern, still out there, but a very commercial thing, more suited to another place (maybe some A-Z page-holders are the next unfinished project!). Airfix Soldiers has disappeared (as have most of the Airfix pages linked to on the Airfix Blog, so that's another job!

Harfield's was sadly retired, and the comic-book '100-things' site went down ages ago, Mikes Tanks and the Diecast 72 pages have also vanished while Ludo's site link has been changed for the forum address - which is also in the forums list.

Strangely BoardGameGeek had a new landing page, as had the Waddington's site. Seven Wonders is lost along with that fine listing of all known 6x6 truck models? Ships had also migrated to a new server, while we've lost a decent dinosaur site and I haven't got round to replacing it yet. However I have added the Lettraset site as a start to re-filling that links list.

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Speaking of the waybackmachine; I've updated the useful sites list as well and sadly replaced Bablefish with the Google-translate page, it's always sad when the little-guy with a good idea gets steamrollered by the corporate giant with their juggernaut of convenience!

So things are bumbling along, it's not like I've claimed to be a professional, or a legend or anything silly like that!

H is for Here's a Bit of Fun Again!

And here's one of those Toy Fair reports I've dragged out, but only the four months, this time though? I must be slipping; I'll leave you to decide if it's date sensitive; and I really should have ignored everything-else to get it out in a more timely manner? Once you've reached the inevitable conclusion you can have a laugh at TJF and his pomposity!

I shot these as I had obtained the guardsman (below) a few weeks earlier in a mixed lot and it's always nice to ID something, even if it's something a bit frivolous! They are similar to some of the earlier stuff on this Blog, being simple constructs of basic wooden shapes, with the addition of fabric, wool and coloured rope highlights.

Fiesta Crafts (for that is who they are) do a range of pencil-topped pencils, fridge magnets and stand-alone figurines, following a similar pattern but with or without holes drilled in them or magnets glued to a flat area.

All the common tropes are covered; guardsman, pirate, princess, dragon etc . . . and seasonal stuff as seen in the left-hand of these alternate counter displays, I'll be looking out for the snowman!

I was enthusiastic-enough about them to garner me a free gift of a knight; is he a Templer, a Teutonic or a Toughguy? I don't know enough about my crusaders to commit to an answer on that one, but it's definitely a cross on his surcoat - unless he's a steam-punk robot with an integrated arrow-slit in his chest!

The guardsman who had come in with a mixed charity-shop lot only a few weeks earlier is the magnetic variant; he has no pencil-hole but a flatter area on his back with a small, inexpensive, composite-material, disc-magnet.

That's Fiesta Crafts, they're out there, they're fun, especially if you have young kids, or grandchildren, nephews/nieces &etc. I can see them filling the same story-telling role as finger-puppets too?