H is for How They Come In - Playing Catchup!

Some of these go back to January, when I wasn't shooting as detailed a set as other times, and all are the regular 'red cross' parcels from Peter Evans, who rarely tells me he's sending a parcel until it's arrived and more than one of these lifted my spirits on a mare-of-a-day, which I have mentioned elsewhere, when some of these got a quick show, but now, again, and in vaguely chronological order;

I think this actually arrived in time for Christmas, but that may be the next shot, this was photographed on the 20th Jan, but the next was shot on the 24th, and one had been hanging-around unrecorded for a while?

The carded sets from Toys As Fun (a phantom brand sticker!) include large wild animals, medium-sized dinosaurs and more normal-sized farm, all good box ticker stuff. The French bazaar bagged set will be looked at in better detail one day, and had Lido/Tim Mee clones I think . . . I just tried working it out from the photo, but the plastic is too foggy, and they almost look like MPC clones, which I'm pretty sure they weren't? Doh!

There was nice stuff in the two little bags, but they didn't get shot as I was busy trying to get this place finalised, yet here I am six months later with at least three days painting ahead of me and a lawn to mow for hopefully the last time?

The card/paper bridges (middle, right) are odd, I suspect some Japanese thing, but they could be from a board game, with the three road/trackway colours? AFV's and grist to the mill 'Army Men' make up the lot.

The other December/Jan' lot was a smaller jiffy, but full of nice things! Dr. Who, Kinder, novelty frogs, a nice tree, a pirate's moll, Lido Knight copies, and other HK Britains Swoppet clone in need of a sword! There were also a few 1:76th/72nd bits and some interesting farm animals. The half-hidden cowboy is Safari.

 

In February this lot turned-up with a bunch of New Ray clones in two colours, a Henbrandt aliens in bag, a mini dinosaur with a generic label which may tie-in with one of the many bags of such miniatures, some Halloween stuff, a lovely beefeater in resin, a 'funnimal' donkey, Kinder space, rack-toy farmer with lamb . . . all sorts!

 

April brought another parcel with some very useful stuff, and it was one shot but I cut it in two to get the thing more manageable! I'm not sure but I think I have the cab-unit for the US trailer, albeit with another trailer configuration, you know I love the one-horse wagons and there's a nice mix of Wild West in the centre.

The paint-your-own deform Halloween thing is fun, you can never have too many rubber guardsmen or parts of rubber guardsmen, and both scenics are useful! While a bag of Marx knights may be a bit chewed, but they are hard, glueable styrene, and I intend to tackle a whole tub of damaged Miniature Masterpieces one day with a view to enhancement/conversion!

The Mattel 'Heroes in Action' chap (top left, early 1970's?) is really an action figure, and I used to not rate them, but enough have come-in over the last few years for me to now have a tub-full, and therefore to be contemplating the sorting of a 'sample' at some pint in the near future!

 

There is a post in the long queue on Tamiya/Aoshima Samurai and others (bag, top left), but I haven't shot everything in the stash for the post, so it'll be a while yet, this bag's are nicely done, they just need a bit of renovation with liquid glue.

 

Various bags of animals, civilians, micro-vehicles and HK knock-offs with the highlight probably being the Swoppet Wild West, who seem to be a clean sample from one source and one of the better (earlier?) sources. Two nice Herald ACW clones and likewise a pair of comic flat Romans.

 

Now, I bought a bag off Peter at the PW show, the contents of which were in the 13 show-reports we saw recently, yet two weeks later these arrived! And I think he brought a bag to the London show, which I haven't shot yet!

Highlights here include the Corgi duo, who are in the less common pale brown, the two Africans are very useful, while with the Airfix copy Wild West; lots of people had a stab at them, mid-1980's saw Ri-Toys, Hing Fat, Kwong Wah, Wing Wah, Wing Luen and others, carry various qualities of clone, but these, as well as unusual colours are quite well-copied copies!

Many, many thanks to Peter for all these, each parcel has something new, something interesting, something unusual, and they all add to the whole picture.

I've still to photograph the lots from Jon and Brian, another lot from Peter and the London show stuff, which I'm hoping to do in the next week or two, once I move into the new flat I intend to spend three days shut-up there, sorting stuff (even if there are still a few bits to do here at the house), in order to try and convince the cat we've both been imprisoned by a third party! I've taken him over there a few times, and he's not keen . . .