R is for Recent Purchases

Although I checked the image dates and one of them's from over two years ago, while another is over a year old now, but, sometimes I purchase a mixed lot, or a few parcels end-up being delivered on the same day and I shoot them for 'posterity'!

These were a few of the highlights of a big mixed lot I grabbed, for a single figure I think, or because it was going cheap? Anyway, I know there were more of the Weston's Mexicans, a lot more, but mostly the same poses, so presumably the ones the seller hadn't liked, used or wanted!

We saw the ex-flocked Womble when I posted the renovation/conversion, while the three Charbens African are useful, the Butch from Kellogg's Sooty set (probably by Crescent) is a slightly chewed box-ticker; I can never remember which figures I've got in which colours!

An LB cartoon American Indian is a bonus, the Palitoy (and others) kicking footballer is always fun, while the Imperial version of an Impro Triceratops is my first, I have all bar the Plesiosaur in the UK iteration, but Imperial's are harder to find this side of the pond! I think the Dylan is Corgi, but he's not the guitar one?

Seven parcels? French Albator boxing of Space Captain Harlock from Atlantic, and colour variations of - I think - the Goldrake Vega set, which I have on the runner in bright apple green (Brian Berke as sent shots of them in this sand shade, but they're still in queue, with 90% of everything!), above which is a bagged set of the Humber 1-Ton's with all six fire engine bodies, one of which is shared with the military versions (ambulance) but here in silver.

We saw the pair of die-cast Play-Me and 11resin pirates on ITLAPD, while the Hussar got sent to Plastic Warrior as a follow-up to Chris Smiths excellent article on Kwong Wah Industrial.

I can't remember if I've blogged the larger vehicles, but I'm not blogging that country's stuff if I can help it, at the moment, I was right to call out those promoting the wrong side of the Donbas line's products (earned me more opprobrium from the Morlocks and Yahoos at the time) when I did, and I try to keep to my own standards/principles!

So many ironies; Dave over at PSR has also stopped promoting/reporting on that nation's products for the duration (?) while some of the producers on the Ukrainian side are still operating - if they're not in the actual combat zones, they're desperate to keep their economy running as normal, while if we end-up in a nuclear exchange with Putler, you can guess the choice words - for some in our hobby - my last 'I told you so' post will contain, even if it never gets out to the ether!

These were a cheap 'small scale' mixed lot, which were about half-and-half non-Giant Cowboys & Indians I really didn't need, and other items, which I'll look at now:

I suspect these are probably accessories for a die-cast or plastic vehicle or play set of some kind, very similar to the sets on the back of the box of the space set we saw here, but a rival line - we've seen the firefighters and mechanics from the same line before, and they are a dense PVC to the other generic's 'styrene, with key-slots rather than peg-holes in the bases to lock them onto the cards. Obviously, yet more Monogram copies! 

Miscellaneous 'civi' types, most already in the collection, but again - from a plastic-colours point of view - you can't find too many of the Märklin HO track-gang, copies, nor the Dinky road-gang clones! The Matchbox hunter, on the other hand, is just boring now, he came with at least two 1-75 vehicles and I have a bag-full, one day I might paint a squad up as ACW Confederate volunteers!

These were what the bid/BIN went-in for. The Romans are poor quality Giant copies, but tracking them down is a slow process so finding seven at once is useful, and they came with a genuine Giant tower roof and flag which I know I need, a probably Giant medieval/Mongol horse and two yellow 2nd type Giant knights.

The Mongols only ever seem to appear in red or yellow, and I've never seen a 2nd version Knight in red, but alongside the common black & silver ones, these yellow versions do turn-up occasionally, where they're from the Helen of Toy 'Gold Crown' game/comic-offer with paper board, not Giant at all!

The other items of interest in the lot were the Airfix animal knock-offs, the farm have been pretty-much nailed now on the relevant blog page, with two or three generations and various pack types, but the zoo copies are still more of a mystery, with at least two generations, the flat colours and the washier, cream-coloured ones with the eyes dotted-in, or red-lips &etc.

And there's a few of each here, although one of the gazelles has been converted into a short-eared Llama . . or Alpaca, or whatever the other ones are called; Vicarious Guanos?

These only came in the other day, and were going unloved, again I have most of them already but as with the stuff Chris or Peter sends, it's the odd one you don't have which makes all the difference!

Here it's the HK copy of the Gem diver (top left), the runner, mid-left, the chap top right and the PVC Flintstone in brown - I have a few, but again - colour variations! The bloke who looks like a composition pirate in maroon coat is just a cut-about Spencer Smith AWI gunner!

Back to the chap top right - in the late 1990's/early 2000's, a company or companies unknown (there may be a brand on the die-cast forums) was producing these flesh/sand figures in various iterations and scales (at last four sizes?), which were sold as generics and home-branded to various volume sellers; supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury's), Woolworths/Chad Valley and etcetera, as well as other branding elsewhere

The only way to tell them all apart is by the base-markings which vary greatly between issuers, and must have reflected contract data, and the base shape. One day we'll look at them all properly, the commonest is probably the German firefighter (in fritz helmet) who seems to have been in everyone's range and every size! I annotated some of them at the time, which should help make sense of them, but I only bought them when they were on clearance! Smaller sets usually had one vehicle, but often with useful accessories like wheelie-bins, street-furniture, skips (dumpsters), recycling bins, etc . . .

There were also three of these Hong Kong flat railway figures, and this shot which I took a while back reveals that I needed the green lady with umbrella and red case, loose, to complete the line-up, now I have her!

I'd actually bought two lots of these mixed/vehicle accessory lots a few days apart and this is the other one, and while - again - not only do I have most of them, we've seen most of them in the mini-seasons onMatchbox and Corgi I did about ten years ago (still waiting for shouty-man's corrections?!!) 

These are the new, the better examples or the not sures. For instance I know I have the chap with the hose from Matchbox's airport fire tender, but I'm not sure about the chap with the axe, while to his right is one who matches the Monogram guys above. Can't remember if I have the green clown (Corgi), and there are about four versions of the Dinky Moon Rover/Chariot crew, so he may be needed.

Another of the believed to be Hornby rail staff/loco-crew, but in a new, lighter blue, with the boy from the late Corgi straw-stack next to him. The little black figure (probably a bomber pilot) is sculpted similar to the Kleeware/Tudor Rose Space Clipper or X-400 crews, so might be early 'something'!

The middle of the right is a cartoony character from something modern I suspect, but I don't know who or what and the skeleton will be one of those Mattel motorcycles, or a similar knock-off! It's all good stuff, which fills the holes in the story of 'Toy and Model Figures'. Lots more to come . . .