Welp, four hours sleep, but everything that could be painted was, and everything else was washed or hoovered and the house in on the market! I'm having the afternoon off to relax, and this was next in the 'new queue', or 'ready rounds' on the desktop, so with much gratitude to Brian Berke, lets have a look at the contents of his recent parcel!
Marx President Hoover (of the dam, not the vacuum cleaners!) who is very useful as there's a whole bunch to collect and I only have about five! And a horse which I think is the Ajax version, again very useful as there's a major update on that Bergan/Beton horse page in the pipeline, although technically it's a Britains Hollow-cast cavalry horse which B/B copied.
The ubiquity of Britains in the early 20th Century, throughout the developed world, colonies and Empire (upon which the sun never set!) means everyone copied that horse in metal even, before plastic was even used for toys - you find it a lot in South America, for instance, solid or hollow, and then plastic!
Under them two Van Brode figures and a ger'nome . . . because!
Lovely O-gauge samples from Marx on the right and Bachmann Plasticville on the left I think, I have the latter in HO-gauge, and possibly some factory painted in O', but it's nice to have the raw ones for future comparison.
Below which are some of the comic flat mail-order 100 Dolls figures. I was hoping - as I waded through everything this last two years or so - to find the sticker-sheet for them, but it hasn't turned-up yet, although I think I know where it is, so we will look at it one day.
Is this another Mold-a-Rama, or a beach toy? It's sort of in the same style, heavy-walled blow-mold (or rotary mould? I don't know exactly how the machines work), but without a plinth for promotional messages? It'd be funny if I'd got two in a few weeks, after waiting forever for one! Whether it is or not, it's a cool and unusual piece, not much smaller than the elephant
Two Carzol Tanks, co-incidental for two reasons; Moonbase only covered the history of this Canadian firm the other day, and they are from the US Mohawk mould tools, of which I have all but the Tank, in Khaki plastic! The New York yellow-cab is unmarked (It's marked MADE IN USA, and is Marx, see comments) while the red cars were Renwal, one family saloon (No.143), one 'space car' (No. 150). Except, I think it might be based on a concept car from a 1930/40's motor-show, but it's a space car to me!
Brian mentioned that some of the items in his parcel were covered here, while it was in transit, and it's true we had a 'Space Car' at the time, from Thomas, but the Rewal one he sent is much spacier, when you see them side-by-side! And a decent shot of the cab's graphics.
How to Train Your Dragon figures from Spinmaster/Dreamworks, I think I have a few duplicates of these now (Peter too has donated some), so I will have a stab at painting a few when I'm settled in my place of decrepitude!
Interesting mix of figures here, the MPC African is particularly nice, as I only have the metallic gold/bronze ones, and a couple of grey reissues, the Hippo is a new sculpt to the collection, and I like the goose and the little 'plane!
Oh, wow! I think the large diver might have been a baking-soda toy? He's a bit damaged now, but seems to have had a large compartment (possibly with a missing slot-in powder box) with a small air/water hole, if he was, it's the biggest such toy I've encountered outside the submarines, and much heavier, being quite a chunk of polyethylene!
The two Hong Kong copies of the Lone Star mini-sub/two-man torpedo are lovely, and it means there must be a (more colourful?) sub' out there as well! I don't normally collect things like the mini-fig (Bonkers
for the Ryan's World franchise), but given how the 'sub-collection' of divers has grown, he's a welcome addition, for completist’s sake!
While the creamy-white chap seems to be a hang-glider pilot (I'm old enough to remember the hype and excitement over their 'invention'!), and is probably from a quite sophisticated kite of some kind? Very useful and will make an interesting addendum to the parachutists page when I get back to that . . . I know, I know - the Airfix blurbing-up, the Khaki Infantry page, the A-Z's!!!
A spoon-rider! I think it might be Christopher Robin? Quite the American thing, spoon-riders, I don't think UK cereal issued many, or any at all, nor European brands, but in the 'States there's a load of them;, TV/Movie-related tie-ins, brand mascots and others, so a nice thing to get in the post - my first!
I've still to ID the baseball player, rubber lady and caveman, all-three around 45/50mm.
Finally, Brian sent us images in time for last year's Halloween, but now he's sent the packaging! Which adds the witches to the stash! He also reminded me that the content-count on the skeleton warriors has gone down to match the newer sets, which is a bit of a swizz, but, life as we know it!
Many thanks to Brian as always, this will all enhance the collection, and enhance future posts, and the thematic pages I plan for the future; Divers, paratroopers, there's a firefighter one half-ready in the queue somewhere!
Now. I'm going to have a snooze, then have an evening off decorating/cleaning/sorting to go round to the flat and photograph the stuff Jon Attwood has sent to the blog!
10 comments:
The Yellow Cab/Taxi is either an original MARX or a reissue from the original mould from 20 or so years ago.
Oh cheers Terra'! I did look, but I think it only had a cavity-number in the roof? Looks original, it has a bit of age to it, I think, thank you!
H
The caveman in the second to last picture is a Timmee/Processed Plastic figure. I can remember them in "dinosaur mountain" playsets in the 90s. Back in the teens Jeff Imel at BMC reissued them in bag sets.
Hugh,
If the scuba diver is polyethylene, would it work as a baking-soda diver? Doesn't poly float (so he would never sink)
Yes Dan, and I think he's a reissue? It was going to be that, MPC or Hing Fat!
I really don't know Gisby, he's very heavy, almost too heavy the other way, and might be Polypropylene or a nylon? I should have shot the cavity against a dark background if I'd been thinking? He's so heavy I wasn't even going to suggest it until I remembered the submarines (Airfix and others) which were a bit of weight, and the 'box' cut into his back could hold more powder than the subs, if there's a missing lid of some kind? Equally, he could be a daft parachute toy, but he'd need a big 'chute to not drop like a stone!
Cheers both!
H
And Dan, I think the other two in that shot are both Marx?
H
Yes, I believe the woman in the picture with a caveman is a Marx farmer's wife and the boy, missing a hand and mitt is a kid from a playhouse set.
Ah, I thought he might be from the sports set, but yes, he looks more like a kid!
H
Hi Hugh,
I have fond memories of that diver figure as he was included as a premium when I got my very first watch back in the sixties. He should have a tank in black on his back as mine was the opposite-a black figure with yellow tank. Also, you were correct in that they came with compressed baking soda tablets that made them dive and rise in water. they were also sold under the name 'Flippy Frogman' in either cardboard tubes or a twin pack with both colour variations. There is a YouTube channel called 'Alec Pierce Scuba' who does a (ahem!) deep dive on them and other Scuba themed toys and games-might be useful.
Have a good weekend!
Steve.
You shine again, Steve! Thanks for that, I'll look the vid's up, and when I do a diver page the links can go there.
H
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