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.

Saturday, July 30, 2022

TITM is for Toys in the Media - Soldiers

Being a round-up of toy soldiers in advertising and the wider world which I've been stuffing in the Toys in the Media folder for a while now, both modern stuff and some vintage bits.

Bill Crider; Blackadder I; Cook Craft; Dead Soldiers; Iceing Plaques; Indigo; Peter Neville; Road Sign Sentries; Signpost Sentry; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Soldier Earring; The Black Adder; Toy Soldiers; Toys In Advertising; Toys In The Media; Waterloo; White Horse Whiskey; White Hose Wiskey; Yvette Mayorga;
This is a book I found on Amazon looking for something else, I rarely read novels (other than sci-fi) so it didn't interest me particularly, not that that doesn't . . . what I mean is; it's here for the cover not the contents which may be very good, but I don't care/didn't bother to find out! Modern 'army-man' pose, sinisterly blured, off-centre and allowing the shadow to do all the talking - good stuff!

Bill Crider; Blackadder I; Cook Craft; Dead Soldiers; Iceing Plaques; Indigo; Peter Neville; Road Sign Sentries; Signpost Sentry; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Soldier Earring; The Black Adder; Toy Soldiers; Toys In Advertising; Toys In The Media; Waterloo; White Horse Whiskey; White Hose Wiskey; Yvette Mayorga;
Someone in Eastern Europe (?) is commando-bombing street signs with army-men, purpose unknown (road-sign sentries?), but it must be fun looking for them if you know it's going-on in your locale!

Bill Crider; Blackadder I; Cook Craft; Dead Soldiers; Iceing Plaques; Indigo; Peter Neville; Road Sign Sentries; Signpost Sentry; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Soldier Earring; The Black Adder; Toy Soldiers; Toys In Advertising; Toys In The Media; Waterloo; White Horse Whiskey; White Hose Wiskey; Yvette Mayorga;
Another book cover, this one seems to show old Stadden designs for . . . Tradition? Old Guard? Probably from the 85mm or 120mm ranges? These have been painted, but silver, chromium-plated or polished pewter versions of many pieces exist. Again; the book and its contents are of no consequence to me.

Bill Crider; Blackadder I; Cook Craft; Dead Soldiers; Iceing Plaques; Indigo; Peter Neville; Road Sign Sentries; Signpost Sentry; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Soldier Earring; The Black Adder; Toy Soldiers; Toys In Advertising; Toys In The Media; Waterloo; White Horse Whiskey; White Hose Wiskey; Yvette Mayorga;
This lady has a credit attached to 'Indigo' which means little, I think she was found on Twisted Sifter or Dangerous Minds, or off the back of a link from one of them? Modern Airfix copy (Afrika Korps officer/Rommel figure) parachute-toy converted to an earring! Although "converted" is a bit highfalutin' for cutting the strings and adding a wire-loop!

Bill Crider; Blackadder I; Cook Craft; Dead Soldiers; Iceing Plaques; Indigo; Peter Neville; Road Sign Sentries; Signpost Sentry; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Soldier Earring; The Black Adder; Toy Soldiers; Toys In Advertising; Toys In The Media; Waterloo; White Horse Whiskey; White Hose Wiskey; Yvette Mayorga;
A well known (in its day) advertising campaign for White Horse Whiskey included this image, in various crops, which ran in the early 1970's in the Sunday newspaper colour-supplement magazines and on street hoardings I think.

I assume the figures will be something common (and relatively cheap) such as Minifigs (Miniature Figurines) but could be home-cast or something earlier like Alberken, while the farmhouse looks like, but isn't the Airfix 'Waterloo Farmhouse', I thought it was, but close-ups reveal enough differences to rule out the plastic kit. The descriptions and sketches of the time are many and enough to build similar farmhouses!

Bill Crider; Blackadder I; Cook Craft; Dead Soldiers; Iceing Plaques; Indigo; Peter Neville; Road Sign Sentries; Signpost Sentry; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Soldier Earring; The Black Adder; Toy Soldiers; Toys In Advertising; Toys In The Media; Waterloo; White Horse Whiskey; White Hose Wiskey; Yvette Mayorga;
This is an icing plaque from crafter Yvette Mayorga and is all icing, but in a frame, not on a cake! Not sure if it's an army-man or a cowboy, but again a modern Hong Kong/China figure has been skillfully modelled.

Bill Crider; Blackadder I; Cook Craft; Dead Soldiers; Iceing Plaques; Indigo; Peter Neville; Road Sign Sentries; Signpost Sentry; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Soldier Earring; The Black Adder; Toy Soldiers; Toys In Advertising; Toys In The Media; Waterloo; White Horse Whiskey; White Hose Wiskey; Yvette Mayorga;
The first series of Blackadder (The Black Adder) was the least celebrated, yet set-up all the tropes for the future works and is probably my favourite after the trenches of the last full-run. In one episode Richard IV (Brian Blessed) is war gaming 'diplomacy' with one of his lieutenants, using large (Papier-mâché, plaster?) figures on the floor, I took a few stills last time I watched it.

Then I thought where are The Avengers stills I took, only to remember I posted them ages ago!

2 comments:

Gisby said...

I wouldn't bet the farm, but every horse I see says 'Hinton-Hunt' 20mm Napoleonics in that ad. I could be wrong, and indeed on one occasion, I was. (I thought I had made a mistake, but didn't)

Hugh Walter said...

You're probably right Gisby, back in the day their ad's were as prominent as Minifigs in Military Modelling? Well spotted!

H