H is for How They Come In - New Name!

Actually I have mentioned Jon Attwood a couple of times already, as he has been partaking in the day-to-day life here (comments, feedback, emails etc . . . ) for a while now, sent canoes in time to catch that 'mini-season' and - as we will see in a minute - we've already seen some of Jon's contribution in the novelty animals post a few days ago, but first I find myself thanking someone for their supreme generosity in sending their odds, sods and chuck-outs to the Blog, rather than eBaying, car-booting or charity-shopping them.

 

And once they are sent, it is right I share them with you, as I'm doing here, that's half the idea, but the other half is in the strength all these donations contribute to the 'whole-picture' going forwards, as evidenced by that 'funnimal' post, which can sometimes take a little more time to work through, however, for now, many thanks to Jon, for the three parcels we shall be looking at in the next few days . . . and a fourth, which I'm still sorting/photographing for future sharing.

 

Somehow they have loaded in reverse order, I'm afraid Blogger is dying! Like the schools, courts, roads, water/sewerage systems, and even democracy itself, blogger is a little broken now - so-many updates over the years have rendered it glitchy!

 

But this was going to be the last shot, it has now (sniff-sniff) gone to charity, it went with the permission of Jon, because it's a little outside the parameters of the Blog, and very large, but it is figural, and it is fun, so I am very happy it came through my fingers, and I could shoot it first!

UK readers will instantly recognise it, but for our foreign readers, this is Bertie Basset, mascot of best-selling, household-name Basset's Liquorice Allsorts ("which sort of Allsort is your sort?" went the tag-line / ear-worm, for many years), here rendered as a CD holder, with secret drawer. The drawer would have contained a plain, crinkly bag of Allsorts, and has room for a few more CD's as you can only get a few in the round compartment.

It would have been a novelty item issued at Christmas, probably repeatedly over two or three years, or maybe at Easter, but you'd expect something more seasonal tying it into that latter holiday? All polystyrene, it's a survivor, that's for sure!

I think these must be garden-centre fare? Or florists/cake-decorators stuff, to which I suppose we should add window-dressers? Large, polystyrene dragonflies in two sizes of transparent plastic, there's no sign of a wire, nor a stick of some sort, but heat could quickly introduce such a thing to the underside, while florists wire or clear tape could lift/fit them into an arrangement/display?

 

Again, a bit outside the Blog's remit, but I've hung on to them as the insect zone isn't as well-represented with samples as other branches, and when the thematic pages come to be added to the A-Z Blogs, they will make a larger section for the dragonflies, and a better comparison shot with all the others! And they will be brilliant for fighting spacemen, with coloured lighting!

I adjusted the contrast to highlight the detailing, but collaged both images as the 'before' image wasn't that shabby really!

Getting into stuff you'll recognise; and with the porcine catapult ammunition from Horrible Histories (Worlds Apart) are the mini animals we looked at in better depth the other day, I'd forgotten when writing it, that these three had come in so soon, but the cat one is the most 'cermaic' knock-off looking, with a decorative finish clearly aping a glaze. The 'Roo with a Joey is Kinder.

 

I think all the dogs are new to Blog/Collection, while the laying sheep is early British, but I can't place him right now (he'll be on Barney's pages!), and the camel is a chunk of Wend-Al aluminium. The mini cow is a lovely wooden Erzgebirge piece, and I particularly liked the little white deer (bottom left), who is polyethylene and very well sculpted, but unknown to me . . . a die-cast farm, zoo, or hunting truck maybe?

Army types included a nice sample of home-painted comic-flat Washington's insurgents, who need to be finished-off (with paint!) at some point, so much effort has already gone into them, it would be a shame to strip them and throw them in Boston harbour?

 

Top left are the smallies, mostly Galoob, but the blue 8th army piracy is useful. Top right are mostly spares, but useful-enough, especially the Minimodels bits, which being polystyrene can not only contribute to the renovation of their brother figures, but also more esoteric modelling/scratch-building with other 'multipose' stock from Airfix, Tamiya, Historex &etc.

While the Roman is Blue Box (BBI for Poundland over here) and lacks a shield, and the chap lying in front of him is another of the Aurora Japanese AFV crew, and seems to have been painted by whoever painted the officer I've had for about 25-years! I'm sure it's coincidence based on the limited pallet available to modellers way-back, when!

Jon wonders if the firefighter is a Cherilea hollow/slush-cast, while the other two are from the Airfix kit I think. Loving the Mr Man, and a Lucky Toys mechanic is always useful, to compare with all the others, re. base-mark. The two colourful teenagers are Galoob again (untransformed Power Rangers).

 

The really interesting figure is the dancing girl, she is about 25/28mm compatible, soft but dense polyethylene or 'propylene, similar to the earlier (?) flat dancers ('Euro-premiums', 100 Dolls etc....), but fully-round and I can only imagine she is from a boardgame of some kind - as the archer next to her, is? At first glance I thought she might be a Merten unpainted medieval lady, but no; she's in soft plastic.

These are both interesting, on the left unknown mechanics, possibly from a kit, but they don't seem to be Aurora, Tomy or anyone like Preiser, so an ID, if you know, would be very useful. While on the right, are what I suspect are pretty recent (i.e. China not Hong Kong) copies of the old Triang Scalextric figures, and again, a positive-ID would be a positive advance! They may be late/currentish  Hornby, manufactured for them in China?

A very useful bunch of trees and foliage, including the three lead pieces to the right, a number of Britains pieces and three palm trees which I think might be above-average quality cake-decoration pieces, possibly from one of the Britains Hawaiian dancer/ukulele sets?

Vehicles and accessories; lovin' the eyes! They'll definitely make a come-back here in a Halloween post at some point, you can still get very similar items (I saw some in The Works the other day), while the ships are Manurba or Siku? There are hulls as well I think, but I have growing bags of such vessels from a dozen sources, and again they will come back here one day as part of a fuller overview.

The little green tri-wheel'er is Balaban Guida (a capsule toy issuer from Spain or Turkey?) and the blue wagon is a Hong Kong copy of the Preiser/Roskopf one. What else can you spot? It's all grist to the mill, and you can never have too-many Christmas cracker motorcycles!

Only a few days after I mentioned the product-placed Gogo Crazy Bones (Disney etc), here's two English Premier League footballer Gogo's! Beckham? who's he? There is a growing tub of cocktail-stick/toothpick pub/restaurant signs, very common when I was very young (1960's) they've totally disappeared now as a publicity device? I'm guessing they have their own collecting community and my sample will only ever be a 'sample', but this is a rather nice addition.

The Piratey bits and Halloweeny cat are by Rinco, (Yiwu, China), and the Post Office pillar-box is new to me, and might be touristy or from a die-cast set, while the antique wooden spinning-top will join that growing tub of tops and counters.

Finally, (and this was supposed to be the second image?*), a few boxed items; The Germans will get made-up one day . . . I have a bit of a stash of unmade kit figures; Tamiya, Heller, Airfix, Bandai and the Monogram family etc . . . and there will be a thematic 'ID' page on the A-Z's one day, to which these will contribute.

 

The Westair 'Mocherettes' are very useful for having a site specific packaging; Bath 'Baths'! While you may recognise that the Airfix Hussar bits are the third lot this year (there were two lots in Plastic Warrior's plunder), and there's probably enough to make up a whole figure now!

Many, many thanks to Jon for all this 'stuff', it really is all grist to the mill, in the best meaning of the word, and builds the bigger picture. It is amazing that people like Jon (and Adrian, Brian, Brian, Chris, Gareth, John, Trevor, Peter el al.) save this stuff for me, and I only hope I do it justice in sharing it with the rest of you, and will use it fully going forwards as it contributes to comparisons, overviews, thematic posts and company listings - Cheers Jon.

*Yes, I could move them all about, but life's too short, and if that's how they loaded, that's how I'll blurb-them-up!