N is for Not Jean, But Injectaplastic!

If you recall this post, I saved the two armoured cars for toward the end of the post and pointed out that they didn't 'follow the rules' as evidenced by the rest of the set, namely different wheels and no white wheels seen by me?

Now I'd been told by members of the 'old guard' in Germany (now supporting the PSTSM) that they were all Jean Höfleur production, so I make no apologies for miss-identifying them, while remaining pleased I highlighted a nagging query about them!

You will still find them described as Jean (or Manurba) on fleaBay, but equally if you search under Injectaplastic, you will find French and Portuguese sellers who knew - all along - what they were!

Here's the M20 (cheers Andy B!), as its component parts (with a deformed wheel/axle assembly caused by a stuck pin in the tool allowing product up the cavity/shaft) and assembled, note how the MG folds over using the ammo-belt as a hinge. I cut the protuding axle back after takinng the pictures.

While here it's pulling a rather large canon/howitzer which mirrors the larger piece in the Jean inventory! Non-firing, it's held together by a muzzle-ring and the mounting brackets. The gun-position was made by me as a kid from carpenter's dowels and a 'log' from a Majorette logging-truck!

Seen before, now known to be Injectaplastic, although Portuguese, there are strong connections with the French market through JSP (Jouets Super Plastic), Cle and Del, more on that in the next post. And . . . is it Portuguese? More and more stuff the 'old guard' stated as 'fact', has to be corrected these days, as catalogues or packaging turn-up, so Injectatplastic are Portuguese - as far as I know!

All new Kubelwagen, and it's the WWII one, not the 1970's hippy one! The gun is pretty fictional (and closest - as a donor - to some Hong Kong rack-toy ones), here sitting behind a piece of Bellona scenery, and the spare-wheel on the bonnet (hood) is more hinted-at than present!

Still quite ubiquitous with several NATO users when we were visiting Dad in Bavaria in the late 1970's, the Auto-Union DKW 'Munga', was a Jeep-like light-utility vehicle and here has the Jeep trailer of WWII vintage fitted, although the trailer went-on to be towed by M38A1's and the later M151 'MUTT's, so it's reasonable to assume it might have ended-up behind a Munga at some point! And all the towed items can be swapped around to give the trailer to the M20! Note also; the fold-up spare wheel/tyre and 'Jerry-can'.

The last time we had a 'Not Jean' post, it was the trucks (Noreda) we were sorting out, but so far I haven't found a truck, or a US jeep for that matter, in this range, but neither have I found a carded example yet, so they may turn up!

Scale between these is further-off than either the Jean or Noreda sets, from an HO armoured-car to a ear 1:32 Kubel', but build-quality is between the two, and if you threatened to torture me I'd say Noreda came first, these followed and the Jean came after, but as they are all following the hard-platics of Banner/Lido/Pyro/Tudor Rose's 'dime-store' stuff of a decade or two earlier, it's all a bit academic!

An old eBay lot tying them in to another brand; 'Plaggon Plast', but it's a tenuous link, the wheels on the six Armoured Car's are plug-on and sculpting is crude, so clearly piracies, although ironically, the wheels of the big 'beach-toy' truck are white, which brings us full circle!

There is another set of these post-war, ready-made, AFV's, can't remember now if they are a Belgian or Dutch maker, but I've seen them on evilBay a few times for silly money - dark, Buckingham green, and mostly British outline (as the railway collectors' put it!) on the AFV's, when I see some cheap ones, we'll get them up here to tick that box, for now; Injectaplastic - ticked!