B is for Bring It On!

"Whatever you've got?
We're ready!
Bring it on"

I managed to get several lots the other day which appear to have been hacked from the machine-gunner's mother-lode, who knew there even was one, but the evidence is clear! The UN guy isn't ready, he's never ready! We'll have a couple of 'T is for Two's out of them and the rest will be filtered away for the future.

E is for Eastern Promise - How They Come In

For reasons which should be obvious (but sadly don't seem to be for the uneducated), we're not looking at one eastern country's stuff at the moment, and I hope there's none here, but as part of Chris's recent donation to the Blog was a number of smaller scale or outside 'area of interest' to his own collection stuff which we are looking at in a single post here. Everything below is soft polyethylene plastic.

These are lovely! They are almost exactly the same size as the bubble-gum capsule tanks we looked at again recently, now the lot of Chris's from which these came, was a Hungarian lot and various clues suggest the bulk of it was Hungarian, so for now that's the 'call' on these!

As you can see; four parts with two little wheel/axle sets and loosely based on a late pattern T34/85, but when I say loosely I mean loosely! They look like Dalek copies of a K9 unit!

Now, Peter Evans gave me several of these, years ago with the message that they were Bulgarian, and with figures only, there was no reason to question that attribution (which would have come with the figures from the seller/hander-on), however, seeing the horses here, and knowing what Hungarian flats/semi-flats tend to look like against their neighbour's output/s, these may well be Hungarian, not just because of the origin of the lots, but those chunky eye-shaped bases.

And this is not to call anyone 'wrong', just to adjust the theory to fit the available evidence, and, indeed; I think I may have some more horses somewhere, which is useful as Chris sent a few sets of mounted legs, so when I've put them (Peter's, Chris's, spare horses) all together we'll have another look, and if it's a few years from now, we may have more empirical stuff by then - packaging maybe?

The odd's, now another reason for not accepting 'Hungary' willy-nilly as the origin for all of them are the facts that A) there was a few bits of Western stuff, including some Kinder, in the bag, and B) we've already learnt Progress had factories in Rus, and Bulgaria for certain, and I've been told, Poland and East Germany too, so some of this stuff, or the tools, were passed around the WarPact Bloc.

The three mounted figures are nice; a knight and two native American Indians, and match the ancient Romans I've been told were Hungarian, and which usually appear on Hungarian seller's feeds, note the same heavy eye-shaped bases again. While the racing [game?] figure looks eastern too.

But the white plastic French Foreign Legion figure could be either from the Soviet Bloc or French bazaar production? Likewise the yellow driver could be from anywhere, but both might well be Hungarian?

I think the large blue knigh knight may be from further to the East (Booo! Slava Ukraine!), he's a Lido copy/homage, with a touch of paint, but chunkier than the Hong Kong copies we've previously seen here at Small Scale World.

I'm pretty sure these are Hungarian, and further that we visited them briefly when we looked at the Atlantic Fort Riley/Abilene Town a while back (follow the link in that post), and have a possible/probably mark; Kassa György (house of George/George's house/firm? Or; Gregory?) courtesy of Kadmon, the commenter/contributor then.

These are copies of Atlantic's 7th cavalry from the General Custer sets, they are larger than the original 1:72nd scale set, so probably reduced from the 1:32nd scale figures, although as Kassa György copied the fort, they may have worked exclusively with the smaller range?

Note that there are two poses of horse is present; these have two distinctly different base types, with three stars on the rim of the heavier, formal cartouche sculpts, or thinner unmarked 'cloud' bases.

A nice set which probably isn't Hungarian, being the sort of output more closely associated with Poland, but I've recently learnt from Maciej Jasinski (who's writing a book on the subject) that some of the stuff credited with Poland, was actually imported from East Germany (common borders between the three), so until the book comes out, I'll just sprinkle a light dusting of question marks over these!

Obviously copies of the old Airfix Celtic war-band Ancient Britons, the archer had escaped from the pack during the sorting phase and so isn't in all the shots! The card shows ancient Greek/Trojan types and maker/brand is the Polish kiosk supplier Lew Prokofijev, the Polish spelling of Prokofiev.

So many thanks to Chris for this little lot, fills a few gaps and builds a better picture of the Hungarian end of things even if it's not all Hungarian, and thanks to Kadmon  and Maciej again for their help in the past/elsewhere.

A is for And so to London - Loot Bag!

While I'm up 'The Smoke' (which has been smokeless since at least the 1970's!), I always look around for a few things I might not find locally, and Peter takes me to his local discount store, to which end the results of my last trip 'up to town' are this post!

In the said discount store I grabbed a box of three capsule-eggs by a minor-make, imported by Unique Plus Ltd., and from a Turkish outfit called Global, but branded Candy Toys and 'Aras Eggo', I've only shot one, but it was a nice clip-together bicycle around the 54/60mm size. I can't remember if the other two were crap, or if I saved them for another day?

These were also there for a quid-each or less, Toymania from Hunter Price International (whose logo is a large bear riding a penny-farthing!), and looked like a bit of Dino-fun, only the two designs were available, I don't know if there are any others, and a soft rubbery polymer, probably filled with the same corn-syrup Stretch Armstrong was?

And this little babe was next to the Dino-sqishes! She's a bit weird, as she has two clip-on dresses, but ony the front/sides are modelled, so from the rear you can see her pink-underslip! Hence the stand and mini action-figure holder, she's for display, with the odd change of outwear! Also from Global Gida.

On the way to visit Peter's work, we passed a junky-antiquey shop and I asked if he ever got anything from it and Peter said occasionally (without much enthusiasm!), but after missing the bus past his work on the way back, I elected to walk up to the next stop, and the next (exercise is good for you and the weather was fine!), inevitably though; the  next bus went past while I was between stops!

Eventually I realised I'd walked back to where the shop was over the road, so I popped in, there was nothing of interest, but the chap there was determined to 'help' me, and when I mentioned I was looking for vintage toy soldiers, model figures or military/space toys, he went out the back and came back with this!

No brand, beyond a tomato in yellow shorts which may themselves be a Chinese character, and clearly not that old, but mid-to-late 1990's is old for some people! It's a space ta . . . err . . . armoured car!

Clockwork, the key's missing but I have a bag of spares somewhere, it has an eccentric wheel to send it off in odd directions, and a sparking engine-bay (so, much like most Russian tanks these days - Slava Ukraine!), and was a bit of fun so it came home with me!

Walking down to Charing Cross and cutting through St Martin's Place you pass a bunch of Touristy shops, and while there wasn't much, I saw these two in a stand at not-much each and grabbed them so you won't have to!

We've looked at animals with pencil-top holes very similar to this horse I think (they may be in the long queue?), so this is more confirmation than anything else, while the guardsman is a pen-dangler, and a little blob of super-deformed poured resin to boot!

When I went to pay for the toppers or the next lot (below, seperate shops) this egg was on the counter by the till, so I grabbed one on the off-chance and got a figural, Minion slinky . . . or 'slinky-Minion? I haven't noted the brand on this, but I saved the wrapper so it's in the 'archive' for future revalation!

Theseare both good and bad, they're good because they were dirt cheap, they're quite nice die-casts, wire brush-polished for that satin/silk look and then both anodised gold and antiqued with a dark wash, but bad because they are obviously drilled for pencil sharpeners, which haven't been fitted, so either a bloody swizz, or an ugly hole, you chose! Imported from China by Elgate Products - previously importing resin Pirates; see Blog passim, also courtesy of Peter Evans.

A is for And so to London - Pleasant Walk Across the River

No, no a toy soldier in sight, but I did purchase a few bits along the way which will be in the final post! After the disappointment of Forbidden Planet, I moseyed-down to - and over - the river at the Golden Jubilee bridge, across Trafalgar Square, skirting Whitehall and shooting a few shots of things which caught my eye.

Something going on inn the Vietnamese quarter?

 

Nigerian (above) and South Korean Embassies (here) flying at half-mast for the late Queen Elizabeth II, the whole of that part of the North bank; Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Victoria Embankment and Northumberland Av' was sealed-off and pedestrianised, which made for a quite and pleasant walk in an area of London usually teeming with angry traffic!

London Eye

Golden Jubilee Bridge, there's actually two, one each side of the old Hungerford

Bridge, which has always been rail-only, I believe?

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

'The Queue', I avoided it like the plague, and I just don't get it, in the 16-somthing's maybe, but now? After over a hundred years of compulsory education and two World Wars . . . ♫ Britons always-always-always will be slaves! ♫

A vista which has changed greatly in my lifetime!

The London 'I'!

 Trying to shoot aircraft at Clapham Junction!

 And then on to Clapham Junction and home, what I found is in the next and last of this sequence!

A is for And so to London - Forbidden Planet

After I'd visited Peter's workplace, which was an absolute Aladin's cave, but which I didn't think to photograph, I made my way back to Central London by ♫♪ London Transport, diesel-engined, ninety-seven horsepower omnibus! ♪♫, alighting at the top of Tottenham Court Road, to walk down into Charring Cross with a diversion off to the side to visit Forbidden Planet  in Shaftesbury Ave' on my way eventually - over the River.

Of course the first thing you see as a pedestrian in that part of the world is the famous/infamous (not a point of view; it is, and has been both, to most!) Centerpoint tower, the top of which is described by Old Bailey of Gaiman's Neverwhere as the one place in Central London where you don't have to look at it! But with the early autumn (second week of September), afternoon sun on it and a recent revamp, it was worth an arty shot!

And so to Forbidden Planet, which, to be frank - and you know I'm not backward at being forward - was a bit fucking shit!

I used to love Forbidden Planet; I discovered it decades ago, when it was round the corner in New Tottenham Court Road, a wood-floored warren of rooms and piles of boxes, mostly in the basement, run by a band of enthusiastic, aficionados (who probably took half their pay in musty tomes), with tens of thousands of old comics stacked tight in long, tatty cardboard boxed, imported graphic novels and sci-fi paperbacks in a mix of old 'brown-furniture' antique bookcases or splintery, pine warehouse shelving, with cartons, cages or flick-racks of posters, comic-art originals and other ephemera at the ends/corners of every isle/stack.

It was, not to put too fine a point on it; a nerdy bookworm's heaven and an early issue of Heavy Metal was a quid, or less, and I've watched it, slowly, over those decades turn into a monument to Mammon, supplying needy, pretentious Kidults with over-priced polymer shite of formulaic virtue, for signalling lifestyle choice to their acquaintances!

Gone are the old comics, gone are the old books; there's no paper on the top floor and in their place mountains of plastic most of which I wouldn't give house-room to if I was a millionaire! While downnstairs it's all new-issue and tame Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Titan.

The staff are friendly enough, and very helpful (I dealt with two), but they didn't have a clue what Heavy Metal was (it's not stocked anymore, despite still going), or it's role in ensuring they would still - or 'even' - have a job in 2022, and if I'd said Métal Hurlant, they would have assumed "The old geezer downstairs is having a seizure"! They are just employees, on shit money, with no emotional investment in the business they work for.

And, to add insult to injury, they didn't have Brian Heiler's Toy Ventures either; the wankers! Anyway, I took a few shots for Brian's Faceplant group, but realised the images were a bit shit too, some of them are a tad fuzzy or blurry, so I'm forcing them on you instead, with  few pithy remarks!

The only real bright spot was a couple of shelves of pop-culture books, among which were these three, I think I have the Tashen somewhere, and while I didn't buy either of the others, I will look for them going cheap on Amazon in about five years time, I bet I pick them up for less than six-quid each in a few years!

Pretty innocuous I suppose!

New generation of 'Micro Machine' stuff, now Hasbro
The only other bright spark!
I haven't got any for a while, I must check Basingrad - They'll be cheaper!

 

35 quid for plastic model kits? Madness!

26 fucking quid for a rubber fucking monkey!

You're 'avin' a laugh pal!

None of it's in-scale!

Urrruuh! Bleurgh! Ga-ga-ga-Wuurrrrp!

Take yer' Funko-pops and shove 'em where the sun don't shine!

Blind bags, blind boxes, blind packs, it's not fun, it's tedious and annoying and there's no central swap-hub, at least if you collect china shite you have the 'Bradford Plate Exchange' to help organise your over-priced idiocy and to get rid of it when the truth dawns!

 

Now, I can rant like a curmudgeon all I like, the fact is the core-customers (and - seemingly - the staff) love the place, and those of my generation who didn't 'put away childish things' are thin on the ground, and time moves on, one of the worst things about ageing is seeing your world disappear, first through cultural things like this, then the parents joining the grandparents in the hereafter, and eventually friends start dropping-off about the place, carelessly, it's the great tragedy of human existence - the inevitability of that existence ceasing to exist!

But come-on Forbidden Planet, you can carry Heavy Metal for fucks sake! And teach your staff what it means to the 'Hobby'!

A is for And so to London - Stopover

After we'd visited The Toy Project (previous post), we popped back to Peter's on the way to somewhere else, and I shot a few bits on Peter's 'bench' while he threw a small bag of goodies at me!

Following on from the mini-season of Supreme overview-posts in Rack Toy Month, here are a couple more, the rider is possibly from a Simba-specific set, but no doubting the horse or that rich, 'bright' gold as being Supreme's, while the foot figure (here oversized by dint of the collage process) is from the harder to find fantasy set, in the same style as the commoner pirates and skeletons (and believed roadworkers).

A semi-permanent feature of Peter's worktop was this rather fine Egyptian palace/temple frontage, with a mixture of Worlds Apart (Horrible Histories), K&M and what look to be Hachette and might be other resin partwork-type figures, Gods and artifacts.

Hong Kong originating mash-up of Britains/Timpo/Lone Star 'swoppet' style knight, I have some somewhere and meant to blog them but never got round to shooting them before they went to storage, I think we saw them in a larger image of stuff which came-in on the same day? I think the pair are ELC, or similar (Wilkinsons/Wilco have had a nice range on-and-off over the last ten or so years).

Peter also threw this lot at me; I particularly like the solid He-Man knock-off, while the footballer looks like a certain blubbing Geordie whose star shone bright, but not for long? Rabbits are from some 'in my pocket' line I think, or a kids comic/periodical, several titles have this kind of stuff on the cover regularly.

Star Toys Action Jack, next to a wrestler stamper, Kinder 'poppet' figure and some rack-toy wrestlers with a few useful PVC animals, which I'll hopefully make sense of in a single post or page one day, the blue fairies/Princesses are in close-up below.

In the style of or in-between the Blue Box fantasy set of a couple of years ago and that pink/purple set from Poundland or 99p Stores about eight years ago, I'm guessing some kind of rack-toy or cheapie-tub/toob, and it's always nice to get stuff like this which isn't the same-old Disney characters! Many thanks to Peter for this little lot!

A is for And so to London - The Toy Project

Back in September I managed a day up in London, ostensively to meet Peter and thank him in person for all the parcels he sends the Blog (two in the queue in the last three weeks!),  but also to visit The Toy Project's shop at Archway, I've blogged them before, so just enjoy the pictures;

A rather charming, oldy-worldy look to the shop, although it is a modernised building, but only to sort of 1970/80's standards, it runs right back and is filled with good things!

Details and contacts;

Shop: 81 Junction Road, Archway N19 5QU 

Opening Times:

Monday 11-6pm
Tuesday 11-6pm
Wednesday 11-6pm
Thursday 11-6pm
Friday 11-6pm
Saturday 10-5pm

Sunday–closed 

Email: j.garfield@thetoyproject.co.uk

Website: https://thetoyproject.co.uk/

Tel  +44 (0) 207 503 9590

And, because we have looked at these a few times now, it's a case of what can you spot, what do you like . . . 

Corinthian footballers!

Shopkin blind-bag and similar types

Bogglins on the left, 

Crazy Bones and similar on the right - in a home gum-ball dispenser!

A tub of Smurfs, a tub of Trolls

and more blind-bag and Kinder type stuff

Gormiti . . . or the other ones?

Another tub of Shopkin type stuff . . .

. . . and more Kinder and Gogo's!

Larger items, Britains farm

All sorts, I could half-empty this if I was feeling rich, 

just to top-up the novelty junk bags!

Ditto - a lot of Kinder bits here!

Big boys - Britains, Papo, Schleich, ELC, Supreme and Plastoy

More . . .

. . . and more!

My modest purchase; Papo pirate (bottom right), penguin-pirate, a few Phidal/Phidal-like's, a Kinder Robot, a 'funnimal' tiger and a small green alien/mecha', probably from a board-game, there's tons of this stuff on evilBay these days; originals, 3D-printed replacement parts and after-market expansion packs. I was most pleased with the mini coach - bottom, centre!

A 'thank-you'; one in every bag of bits!