About Me

My photo
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, June 16, 2022

F is for Fanciful Fellows!

Bit of a box-ticker, literally as it's the contents of the Charbens & odds ancients tub! I don't have many, but have managed to find most types (I've just realised I think there's a blue Hong Kong copy missing?) and all the poses.

ΑΘΗΝΑ; Ancient Greeks; Ancient Romans; Argentinian Toy Soldiers; Athena Greeks; Athena Toy Soldiers; Charbens Greeks; Charbens Romans; Chess Set Roman; Conte Collectables; Conte Collectibles; Greco-Roman Warriors; Greek Sentry; Poseidon Figure; Ray Harryhausen; Roman Legionaries; Roman Legionnaires; Roman Soldiers; Romans On Foot; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
My two originals, paint's a bit thin on the ground these days, but then the ground is shiny polymer which never held paint well, and although some early Charbens were chalky for the reason of pain adhesion, this set was a late addition to the range and didn't get a chalky iteration.

ΑΘΗΝΑ; Ancient Greeks; Ancient Romans; Argentinian Toy Soldiers; Athena Greeks; Athena Toy Soldiers; Charbens Greeks; Charbens Romans; Chess Set Roman; Conte Collectables; Conte Collectibles; Greco-Roman Warriors; Greek Sentry; Poseidon Figure; Ray Harryhausen; Roman Legionaries; Roman Legionnaires; Roman Soldiers; Romans On Foot; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
Unpainted/home painted, they may be from one of those home-paint sets, I don't know, but it would make sense? Flesh plastic and another two poses, you may have noticed they are all fighting over the wild strawberries . . . in their scale; the size of watermelons!

ΑΘΗΝΑ; Ancient Greeks; Ancient Romans; Argentinian Toy Soldiers; Athena Greeks; Athena Toy Soldiers; Charbens Greeks; Charbens Romans; Chess Set Roman; Conte Collectables; Conte Collectibles; Greco-Roman Warriors; Greek Sentry; Poseidon Figure; Ray Harryhausen; Roman Legionaries; Roman Legionnaires; Roman Soldiers; Romans On Foot; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
He's just helping himself with an axe swing! They were sold as Romans, but everything about them screams Greek, and a rather fanciful, pre-Classical era, Trojan War/mythical Greece at that!

This one is unpainted hard polystyrene, and may be a Prindus (Prison Industries) figure who avoided the painting phase in his hurry to find giant strawberries?

ΑΘΗΝΑ; Ancient Greeks; Ancient Romans; Argentinian Toy Soldiers; Athena Greeks; Athena Toy Soldiers; Charbens Greeks; Charbens Romans; Chess Set Roman; Conte Collectables; Conte Collectibles; Greco-Roman Warriors; Greek Sentry; Poseidon Figure; Ray Harryhausen; Roman Legionaries; Roman Legionnaires; Roman Soldiers; Romans On Foot; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
Duplicates from the recent/current form of re-issue, a dense, rigid polymer in a neutral grey. You may have also noticed the kilts are a bit short? The greaves look a lot like pantomime booties as well, so there's a quite theatrical look to them, but they have plenty of charm, and might work as Etruscans against true Romans?

ΑΘΗΝΑ; Ancient Greeks; Ancient Romans; Argentinian Toy Soldiers; Athena Greeks; Athena Toy Soldiers; Charbens Greeks; Charbens Romans; Chess Set Roman; Conte Collectables; Conte Collectibles; Greco-Roman Warriors; Greek Sentry; Poseidon Figure; Ray Harryhausen; Roman Legionaries; Roman Legionnaires; Roman Soldiers; Romans On Foot; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
Because there's a bit of room in their tub, they get the odd's which are - from the left; an Athena Greek . . . Greek tourist figure, not that rare, but finding the spears intact (polystyrene) is always a bonus.

Then a chess-set pawn, who's a bit more Roman. I think you can still find these in various finishes on Amazon, as whole (and not cheap) chess-sets, in metal or plastic, but these older ones are often to be found in rummage trays at shows, and while not a copy, his shield seems to have been influenced by one of the Marx 60mm set. Finally a modern Greek from Conte Collectibles, I think.

ΑΘΗΝΑ; Ancient Greeks; Ancient Romans; Argentinian Toy Soldiers; Athena Greeks; Athena Toy Soldiers; Charbens Greeks; Charbens Romans; Chess Set Roman; Conte Collectables; Conte Collectibles; Greco-Roman Warriors; Greek Sentry; Poseidon Figure; Ray Harryhausen; Roman Legionaries; Roman Legionnaires; Roman Soldiers; Romans On Foot; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com;
This guy's also in the same tub, a bit bigger than the others around 60-65mm (I didn't check at the time!) and from the liberal quantities of gold and silver paint; probably Argentinian! The fish-plate or scalloped armour has me thinking of Poseidon, was he from a set of gods? Also quite Ray Harryhausen'esque!

No comments: