L is for Late Show Report - Civil and Sports

Often the section which throws up the more interesting figures, due to the vast numbers of accessory figures from other toys, die-cast vehicles, beach-stuff, tourist items and the like, and the last show was no exception with several interesting new pieces.

 

These, for instance, were totally new to me, presumably Spanish, and around the size of the Torres Maltas stuff, but the two riders are cruder and don't have swivel arms, likewise the bulls are similar to the Miguel Torres bottle-top mascots. But I don't think there's a connection. However, they do make you realise that there';s probably far more bullfighting stuff out there than the half-dozen or so 54/60mm makers commonly known to collectors?

Football; another genre with many examples, here we have premiums (2 cream/white), a Hong Kong cake-decoration (painted), board-game pieces from Waddington's (5, Soccer Boss) and Tomy (2) one as supplied, the other a 'paint your own team/spare, also supplied with the game (Electronic Super Cup Football), in a hidden drawer, and a couple of broken Airfix, front left.

'Allo 'Allo! It's thee leau! From the left; HIT/Teamsters, Timpo policewoman, Solido traffic cop and a currently unknown (I'll spot his set on Amazon or eBay at some point!) cop in a US style, who has the distinction of being a still warm piracy of the quite recent Teamsters accessory, or - at least - a very similar sculpt!

Other sportsmen include a snowboarder who's probbaly a cake decoration, a Marx and another premium, a teeny-tiny horse racer probably from mini-crackers and a baseball player from the 'States.

 

Dancers; they always look the same, donor wise, but that's just because there's only a few 'classic' or standard poses, which suit cakes, music boxes, make-up stations, charms and all the other places you find these!

 

The large charm/key-ring here is smooth-flat on the reverse, the purple is a new colour of the Euro-premiums/US comic Ad' set, and the fallen one may be missing a base or cake-spike, but seems to be a new size/pose, she's hard 'styrene, like the charm, purple is polyethylene.

Taylor and/or Barratt, most of the road crossing patrol set and a couple from other sets/toy vehicles, I think I have most in the collection, so it's a case of grabbing them to compare because they were cheap, or finding them in the donation bags when I got home, as they are all sub-scale, and tend to be sent my way sometimes, by the generous.

Bully (ex-Heimo) Bullyland farmers, a bit stumpy and juvenile, but a nice addition to tthe stash, and not a series I was familiar with, I now know there were animals too, and will have to check my piles for one or two!

Sort of civilian! Cheilea farmer, new production and Matchbox hunters, a Blue Box (or Redbox?), or, more likely sub-piracy zookeeper, taken from Britains and a French or Spanish (?) African native, possibly Clairet? He's missing a weapon, so a bit of a box-ticker for now!

Mixed bits, the two larger ones are from the closedown of the Elastolin factory a while ago now, and were probably supplied to someone else, Tipp & Co (Tippco/TCO), Bub, or a smaller maker? The smaller one has a metal locating-tab buried in the composition.

 

Not sure on the ringmaster, he might be quite new, or older (French?) but he's new to me/the collection, while we have a Corgi lab-tech, Leddo wagoneer, early stretcher-case (Matchbox or Dinky?), a Poplar (?) or HK-copy driver, and one of those tiny copies of the Britains cyclists, which come in smaller rack-toy bags and Christmas crackers.

Poor shot on the divers I'm afraid, but we've seen the bath toys before in quite full detail, with a fair bit of help from Brian Berke, and will return to them again, while the Triang boardgame James Bond diver is damaged, as - like yesterday's Wild West - they often are!

A comparison on the difference between the closest poses of new (behind) and Miguel Torres) bulls, the next post will go further on these. Many thanks again to Adrian Little, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Chris Smith, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul Stadinger, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, for contributions to this year's plunder-pile.