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.

Thursday, August 27, 2020

USMC is for ABC Box Ticking!

It's one of those things isn't it; time moves on when you're enjoying yourself! This, as a smaller post might have published a couple of years ago, I took the first shots within days of getting the storage stuff into the garage, two Augusts ago, but I didn't know what to say about them, then I lost the images, then I took a couple more (or found one in Picasa? I have this habit of forgetting I've shot something and shooting it again!) but wasn't very happy with them, only for someone; Blood, Pugh or Shalatain (?) to publish them in Plastic Warrior magazine (link), so the post got put on the back-burner, as if it wasn't there already!

ABC; ABC Copies; ABC Hong Kong; ABC Toy Soldiers; Britains USMC; Dress Uniform; No 1 Dress; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toy Soldiers; Plastic Toys; RAF Paratroopers; RAF Regiment; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; United States Marine Corps; US Army Uniforms; US Marines; US Navy; US Plastic Soldiers; USMC;
I'd always thought of them as RAF regiment, despite (and indeed - ignoring) the fact that they kept turning-up with white trousers! But the contributor to PW (. . . it was Jack wasn't it, Jack Shalatain, who also showed some lovely pith-helmeted colonial Infantry read-coats, which I haven't found yet) made the connection (as I suspect other people had, while I wasn't listening . . . JB?), anyway, that was them and there's not much else to add, but I have found a few different ones over the years and can stake a claim for the 'Rock Apes'

ABC; ABC Copies; ABC Hong Kong; ABC Toy Soldiers; Britains USMC; Dress Uniform; No 1 Dress; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toy Soldiers; Plastic Toys; RAF Paratroopers; RAF Regiment; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; United States Marine Corps; US Army Uniforms; US Marines; US Navy; US Plastic Soldiers; USMC;
The original of shot on the left has vanished, but after I'd done the collage, so it's been left in a folder somewhere, or accidentally moved to another, but it's definitely my laptop they are shot on! They are re-issues and could be quite recent?

On the right are two newer shots with base variations below (we'll return to in a minute) and paint variations above. There are two iterations of unpainted (who can be RAF regiment as they aren't dark-blue enough to be № 1 Dress), with the US Marine Corps to the right.

Second to last was always an anomaly (there's more, I just tried to pick the better ones for the shots) as he has a red cummerbund and trouser stripes, and looks like an inaccurately-painted Colour-Sergeant from the British Army, the cummerbund intending to be the cross-sash in heavy red linen?

ABC; ABC Copies; ABC Hong Kong; ABC Toy Soldiers; Britains USMC; Dress Uniform; No 1 Dress; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toy Soldiers; Plastic Toys; RAF Paratroopers; RAF Regiment; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; United States Marine Corps; US Army Uniforms; US Marines; US Navy; US Plastic Soldiers; USMC;
Then, recently this chap joined the fold, he is similarly marked, so I think at least one issue tried to represent a British regiment in № 1 Dress uniform, but with the wrong blue? As the original Britains USMC in hollow-cast would pre-date the RAF Regiment's creation, I assume they were pirated from the American Marine sculpts though. And the marines (US) have all-blues but with a white hat . . . home-painting could do a lot more with these figures!

ABC; ABC Copies; ABC Hong Kong; ABC Toy Soldiers; Britains USMC; Dress Uniform; No 1 Dress; Plastic Toy Figures; Plastic Toy Soldiers; Plastic Toys; RAF Paratroopers; RAF Regiment; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; United States Marine Corps; US Army Uniforms; US Marines; US Navy; US Plastic Soldiers; USMC;
There are two main base types, the ABC, and another which may be a separate company running alongside, or just blank base inserts for ABC to use on contract-production. The arrowed two are the ABC lozenge-marked ones, while the other have a similar MADE IN HONG KONG but smaller and closer to the rim of the base - the ABC's quite centralised with the lozenge below the message.

Both have a US Marine painted version and an unpainted version, but the red-trim guys are both of the second, non-ABC version? All have the swivel-arm of the original hollow-casts.

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