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.

Sunday, October 4, 2020

K is for Kioskowce II

Well, if TJF's gonna' copy my output I'll copy his! Only in nationality of subject though (and Morawski is in the queue!), it is amusing; he spent six days trying to think of something 'as good as' and ended up following my format but without the research, translations or links! We - loyal readers - are supposed to think this makes him a 'legend' and me the idiot!

Anyway; this isn't copying layout or anything, it's harking back to a previous post here at Small Scale World, when we looked at the 'Kioskowce' (tobacco kiosk's) production of Andrzej Kawecki, based in Lódź (thanks to Konrad Lesiek for the information on that occasion). Also this's been in the queue for five weeks and I said it would post in a day or two; those five weeks ago!

This time we're looking at very similar sets from another producer; Spójnia supplied by (and thanks to-) Maciej Jasinski who reports memories of these figures being produced in Poland between around 1985 and 1987. he's also sent very high-resolution imagery; so be sure to open them in a new tab or window to get the full effect.

14th Army; 8th Army; 8th Army Figures; 8th Army Toy Soldiers; Airfix German Infantry; Art Miniatury Cene Zl 150-; Atlantic; Atlantic Indian Brigade; Atlantic Stampede; Brygada Hinduska; Burma Campaign; Cowboys on the Ranch; Gdańsk; Hindu Brigade; Hobby EME; Kioskowce; Life on the Ranch; Matchbox 1-76; Matchbox German Infantry; Monte Casino; osagnicy Ameryki Poln CZ 1; Polish Production; Polish Toy Soldiers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Spójnia; Spójnia Stargard; Wild West;
Three sets today; each is in a little bag with a stiff card to pull everything together before sealing which has been done with a bread-bag heat-sealer. Card-art is of the same type as seen previously with these Kioskowce and figures are copies of Western makers' output.

14th Army; 8th Army; 8th Army Figures; 8th Army Toy Soldiers; Airfix German Infantry; Art Miniatury Cene Zl 150-; Atlantic; Atlantic Indian Brigade; Atlantic Stampede; Brygada Hinduska; Burma Campaign; Cowboys on the Ranch; Gdańsk; Hindu Brigade; Hobby EME; Kioskowce; Life on the Ranch; Matchbox 1-76; Matchbox German Infantry; Monte Casino; osagnicy Ameryki Poln CZ 1; Polish Production; Polish Toy Soldiers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Spójnia; Spójnia Stargard; Wild West;
This is lovely as it has a version of the Airfix 'Wagon Train' box art, but with contents taken from Atlantic 'The West' cowboy set's Life on the Ranch (larger figures and Longhorns) or Stampede (smaller figures and buffalo-bison) sets. The quality of these is better than some previously seen Kioskowce - check the coffee-pot and fire - and look as good as the original Atlantic product.

14th Army; 8th Army; 8th Army Figures; 8th Army Toy Soldiers; Airfix German Infantry; Art Miniatury Cene Zl 150-; Atlantic; Atlantic Indian Brigade; Atlantic Stampede; Brygada Hinduska; Burma Campaign; Cowboys on the Ranch; Gdańsk; Hindu Brigade; Hobby EME; Kioskowce; Life on the Ranch; Matchbox 1-76; Matchbox German Infantry; Monte Casino; osagnicy Ameryki Poln CZ 1; Polish Production; Polish Toy Soldiers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Spójnia; Spójnia Stargard; Wild West;
This is even more quirky, as the more original card-art suggests the 8th, slogging their way up the spine of Italy, while the contents are most of the poses from both Airfix's [2nd version] German Infantry AND Matchbox's rival set, and again quality is very good for such diminutive clones.

14th Army; 8th Army; 8th Army Figures; 8th Army Toy Soldiers; Airfix German Infantry; Art Miniatury Cene Zl 150-; Atlantic; Atlantic Indian Brigade; Atlantic Stampede; Brygada Hinduska; Burma Campaign; Cowboys on the Ranch; Gdańsk; Hindu Brigade; Hobby EME; Kioskowce; Life on the Ranch; Matchbox 1-76; Matchbox German Infantry; Monte Casino; osagnicy Ameryki Poln CZ 1; Polish Production; Polish Toy Soldiers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Spójnia; Spójnia Stargard; Wild West;
The final offering today is the 14th Army, or elements of it! Artwork and contents from Atlantic's stable and it looks like the collection of pirate cutlasses (in lieu of kukris) that came with the original were reproduced, but are equally easy to lose!

Maciej also scanned the cards separately at a higher resolution, so we'll look at them now in the same order as above;

14th Army; 8th Army; 8th Army Figures; 8th Army Toy Soldiers; Airfix German Infantry; Art Miniatury Cene Zl 150-; Atlantic; Atlantic Indian Brigade; Atlantic Stampede; Brygada Hinduska; Burma Campaign; Cowboys on the Ranch; Gdańsk; Hindu Brigade; Hobby EME; Kioskowce; Life on the Ranch; Matchbox 1-76; Matchbox German Infantry; Monte Casino; osagnicy Ameryki Poln CZ 1; Polish Production; Polish Toy Soldiers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Spójnia; Spójnia Stargard; Wild West;
While on one level Spójnia (also the name of a top (?) Polish football team!) is just a branding, translating it in Google lead to 'bond', 'connect' or 'couplings' so there's maybe a reference to kits or models within the brand-mark, or teamwork?

14th Army; 8th Army; 8th Army Figures; 8th Army Toy Soldiers; Airfix German Infantry; Art Miniatury Cene Zl 150-; Atlantic; Atlantic Indian Brigade; Atlantic Stampede; Brygada Hinduska; Burma Campaign; Cowboys on the Ranch; Gdańsk; Hindu Brigade; Hobby EME; Kioskowce; Life on the Ranch; Matchbox 1-76; Matchbox German Infantry; Monte Casino; osagnicy Ameryki Poln CZ 1; Polish Production; Polish Toy Soldiers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Spójnia; Spójnia Stargard; Wild West;
As well as the aforementioned Andrzej Kawecki post, I have put the Globus and Universal issued Kioskowce on the British Paratroopers page of the Airfix blog and reading the blurb on the Kawecki post, I still have Napoleonics from Spojnia to come . . . so - next time I pass that box I'll dig-it out!

They (Spójnia) were based in Gdansk (previously Danzig, home of Solidarity) and I believe were still going, also known as Hobby EME, as a more conventional kit-maker (aircraft and AFV's) into the late 1990's?

14th Army; 8th Army; 8th Army Figures; 8th Army Toy Soldiers; Airfix German Infantry; Art Miniatury Cene Zl 150-; Atlantic; Atlantic Indian Brigade; Atlantic Stampede; Brygada Hinduska; Burma Campaign; Cowboys on the Ranch; Gdańsk; Hindu Brigade; Hobby EME; Kioskowce; Life on the Ranch; Matchbox 1-76; Matchbox German Infantry; Monte Casino; osagnicy Ameryki Poln CZ 1; Polish Production; Polish Toy Soldiers; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Spójnia; Spójnia Stargard; Wild West;
I will organise some of the images a different way for use on the Wagon Train and German Infantry pages of the Airfix Blog for completion, another day and - in the meantime - many thanks to Maciej Jasinski for today's new to hobby, new to Blog and new to Internet, little-treat!

5 comments:

HOUSIK said...

MORE MORE MORE :)))

Hugh Walter said...

There's a little more to come on WWII I think (the image you showed a few years ago), plus the Napoleonics and I might re-blog the Globus here?

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Myślę, że będzie jeszcze trochę więcej na temat II wojny światowej (zdjęcie, które pokazałeś kilka lat temu), a także Napoleonics i może ponownie opublikuję tutaj Globus?

H

HOUSIK said...

https://www.mediafire.com/view/j8hjb82wf8ya3ms/BERLIN_1945_KOMPLET_1_GLOBUS.jpg/file

Anonymous said...

hi from warsaw. maybe im missing something but so far i ve read i dont know what "spójnia" mean ? cause there is no word like this, maybe you meant spółdzielnia ? https://www.diki.pl/slownik-angielskiego?q=sp%C3%B3%C5%82dzielnia as far i know the companies that produced these soldiers were called like that. about figs being produced up to 87 or 89 idk,i think ive saw early revell ww ii copies so it seems that these kind of figures maybe were still manufactured till early 90's. but its my asumption rather than a fact. about catalog as far i have seen on many polish auctions and with some examples from my father stash they literally counterfeited any figures that were availble to them. for example i have polish copies of hong kong scaled down 1/32 airfix japanese .... so for me personally is only interesting to search for knockoffs of rarest soldiers. i have some polish copies from airfix modern russians. the figures ranges from bad quality to acceptable so its hit or miss like with hong kong copies. personally i think that the idea why they made these copies was to have cheap erzac for orginal scale model figures, especially before the fall of iron curtain the orginals were sold higher than average price back. often by private people who bought them abroad and then reselled them on baazars back then, in 90;s i guess the demand evaporated when people gain access to orginals from scale model shops and the toy soldier market for children was dominated by hong kong/chinese figs. best regards michael

Hugh Walter said...

Hi Michael, Spójnia is the brand, I guess it doesn't need to mean anything, although you may be on to something with the co-operative link? If you click on the cowboy image with the card, or the Monte Casino one below it, you will see the Brand.

One of you compatriots is writing a book on them as I type, and all will become clearer I suspect! I am hoping to announce it here when it is ready (the book) but he's looking at 2024 as a publishing date.

H