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, May 6, 2021

ITC is for the Ideal Toy Company but . . .

. . . ICT is for the Ideal Cannon Truck! Except these are Kleeware!

Lucky score on evilBay the other day, and off a friend so all the sweeter to get some cash to a mate! They needed a bit of hot-water treatment and while I was at it they all got a scrub as they were made of that plastic late Bergen soldiers are made of and were filthy with leachate as if they had been weathered with oxide-orange powder and then oiled!

120mm Flats; 120mm Toy Soldiers; Artillery Cannon; Artillery Gun; Artillery Piece; Big Bertha; Cannon Truck; Fall Down Soldiers; Gun Truck; Ideal Toy Company; Ideal Toy Soldiers; Imported Plastic Figures; ITC; Kleeware; Kleeware Toy Soldiers; Made In America; Shooting Game; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; US Toy Soldiers;
Now quite the parade but only a half-company, they nevertheless tick a box in the collection and one here I guess! Imported by Kleeware from Ideal (there's nothing between them bar the packaging - I was bidding on the searchlight truck recently, but not seriously - too big!) and presented as targets in a shooting game . . . Chris Smith reminded me they were in Plastic Warrior a while ago, so it really is only box-ticking on this one!

The middle one has a permanent headache, due to having had his helmet split through with a big axe . . . or something! And the jacket is more Nazi tank-commander than cannon-fodder?

120mm Flats; 120mm Toy Soldiers; Artillery Cannon; Artillery Gun; Artillery Piece; Big Bertha; Cannon Truck; Fall Down Soldiers; Gun Truck; Ideal Toy Company; Ideal Toy Soldiers; Imported Plastic Figures; ITC; Kleeware; Kleeware Toy Soldiers; Made In America; Shooting Game; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; US Toy Soldiers;
Kline's store catalogue from 1968 USA has the whole caboodle for five dollars, which - back in the day - was less than two quid, a lot less! Full company is six figures, six cannon-balls, a huge 'Big Bertha' cannon and the truck which is used for other toys with body-changes or trailers, the canopy hasn't been included in the shot, I think the PW one had it present?

120mm Flats; 120mm Toy Soldiers; Artillery Cannon; Artillery Gun; Artillery Piece; Big Bertha; Cannon Truck; Fall Down Soldiers; Gun Truck; Ideal Toy Company; Ideal Toy Soldiers; Imported Plastic Figures; ITC; Kleeware; Kleeware Toy Soldiers; Made In America; Shooting Game; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; US Toy Soldiers;
"I'll 'av yer'rover yer' top'evy wazzock!" 

Obviously one-sided relief flats with a reinforcing bar at right-angles to the figures, and around 120mm, manufactured in the previously mentioned soft polyethylene.

Added 14-12-21 - The same set in its British catalogue guise, to all extents and purposes the same set as the US one, but with the canvas-tilt visible, which wasn't included in the Kline's image. As there is nothing to tell when these turn-up on evilBay, it would appear to be shipped product rather than mould-share, which would have been expensive for one party or both, depending on how they agreed to share the tariff bill! Also with the Kleeware catalogue ten-years older than Kline's, one wonders in which direction that traffic was?

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