P is for Potpourri of Plastic Peeps! Introduction

So . . . Having some idea what was coming down the tracks toward me, Chris Smith actually sent me his 'next parcel', a week or two before Plastic Warrior's show, and in the end I pretty-much shot them altogether, the week after the show, which was three months ago now, so well over-due for Blogging, as they are sent, in part, for you to enjoy too!

 

The de rigueur shot now associated with these posts here at Small Scale World, of the amassed parachute toys/paratrooper figures, and this lot didn't disappoint, with what I think is a new size (or colour) of large blow-mould, a Brabo knock-off caricature and a possible new sculpt of blow-mould in the middle!

Keenly diving into the box (which I forgot to shoot in its entirety this time), and balancing piles of interesting bits on the back of the sofa! We'll be looking at it all again in the forthcoming posts.

More goodies in the bottom of the box . . . I'd run-out of perches to balance stuff on, and resorted to putting it all back in the box, until I'd cleared the table, a week or so later for the photo-session! What can you spot?

They did go back-in semi-sorted, in self-seal bags, some individually, some thematic, so they could be further sorted (and amalgamated with the PW show stuff) more quickly as they were all put away a week or so latter.

This was actually the 'photo-booth' at the flat, so I was rather stuck for backgrounds, once I'd started putting thematic piles on it - the need to feed the addiction take all self-control away! Here are the parachute toys, racing-cars, aeroplanes and others.

Bits and pieces, the camp-fires, hay/straw-bales and treasure/pirate chests are becoming sizable side collections, and at some point we will have posts on all three, the pink ice-cream sundae will be from some modern thing, Polly-Pocket like maybe, or a Lego knock-off? Shields and weapons have their own bags, while the pink wheel will go in the spares until ID'd/needed, it looks like a central wheel from a plastic aircraft toy, so could prove very useful, maybe years from now?

This is extraordinary, because I could swear we had this as kids, I mean, I know we had them (it was part of a set), but this actual one seems to have all the same warps and marks as the one I last saw in the late 1960's/early 1970's, I don't suppose it is, but . . . it all has to come around again, if it hasn't gone to landfill/incinerator?

 

If I recall correctly they were for drawing round, and then filling in with the minor details laid out as lines, and there was a sort of pale blue star with halo maybe, like the USAAF roundel of WWI/II, and a pushchair/baby-chair possibly, in pink? But they might be false memories created by seeing this after 50-odd years! Fun thing, and a nostalgia hit, for me!

Equally interesting, Chris doesn't make a habit of sending non-figure or figure-related stuff in his donations, but this was - upon inspection - an obvious inclusion, as not only is it plastic (our core interest here - he says, the day after a lead-article!), but it's marked Dibro! The same people who made the push-and-go 'space tank'/SPG?

Clearly they had a nice niche producing high-quality plastic novelties alongside the usual suspects of Kleeman/Tudor Rose/Lipkin, before Hong Kong's lower grade rip-offs took the market away - see also Cle, Siku et al! They are still going, unlike Tatra who have vanished during the lifetime of this Blog!.

The other standard shot these days is the assorted seated figures, all divorced from their plastic, tin-plate or die-cast vehicles, planes etc . . . and here's another nice sample, with the blue lad in the middle all-new I think, a pair of the Revell/Monogram GI's to be reunited with their Jeep at some point and a Tudor Rose dumper-driver!

 

A collective of Kinder, or Kinder-like; I'm not sure on the moped? A near complete pirate and the same torso in another colour, some kind of Sport Billy (?) athlete with press-on cardboard kit, another Samurai, to be stripped and matched-up with the other bits in a bag (or two) somewhere, and a Viking!

 

This was a lovely surprise, minor damage was what probably got him into the box for us, because whole, they are not cheap, it's World Cup Willie, from Marx, as a 'Rolykin', from the pig's bladder kicking competition held in 1966, which some of my compatriots spend a little too-much time reminiscing on!

 

What was left after I'd taken all the other, forthcoming, photographs! A Hong Kong knock-off of Manurba's minisub pilot, an infant toy figure who's a bit faded in the printing department and a Weetabix Puff-Kin!

As always it's impossible to sound grateful enough for these parcels Chris (and others) send the blog, but, believe me, I am very grateful, as many missing links, missing pieces of the bigger jigsaw and other interesting items appear in them, as if by magic! So thank you, Chris.