C is for Confirmatory Communiqué

I had an email from the Command Centre at PW Towers, courtesy of the editor himself; Paul Morehead, earlier today, with a firm date for the next Plastic Warrior Toy Soldier Show at Twickenham (Whitton), next year:

 

It's a bit later than previous shows, but won't clash with Sandown Park, while for those who don't do Sandown, it'll give you another Month to save-up plunder-funds! It'll be the best show of the year!

 

Brian's posted all the relevant details, and I'll probably do something similar nearer the time. It'll be the 40th aniversary of Plastic Warrior magazine too!

 

Paul also sent me an image which shed more light on the Lilliput shop-stock box we looked at the other day, with a final contents-total, so thanks are due for that!

F is for Follow-up - 'Guerreos Medievales'

As I mentioned when showing the donated image back in Rack Toy Month, Peter Evans had put one of these aside for the blog, and this is it, although I'm keeping it intact for now, so it's a case of a few suitably angled shots and some close-ups to tell a better story than last time!

A reminder of the set, imported into Spain as Guerreos Medievales (Medieval Warriors), by Arty & Mell S.L., however ,clues to older branding are found upon the contents, which are: copies of Britains Deetail knights and Crossbows & Catapults accessories, it's a lovely example of  'rack toy' fayre!

 

The 'H' mark previously seen on Hong Kong issued Deetail Saracen figures in packaging which looked 1970's but wasn't necessarily so (remember the anonymised Accoutrements/McFee reissues of earlier YF sets), but these are from whatever set of tools they were . . . Qwong Wah also producing Deetail copies with chromium spray coatings!

 

Unscrupulous dealers/sellers WILL use these to enhance lots of genuine Britains online, or even at shows, few have a jeweller's loupe to hand while rushing round a dimly-lit village hall! Just enough weapons for the figures, and in the case of this set, the distribution of the weapons is pretty-much determined by the available poses?

 

Close-up of the four H-marked foot figures

Mounted figure.

And a Britains Deetail horse clone, in all cases the die-cast bases of the originals are here rendered in the same polyethylene as the figures/weapons.

Here a China mark dates this to the 1990's or later, and you can see where the Hong Kong has been removed from the tool. The full history of these is still not clear, nor whether there was any connection between Kwong Wah and H, nor which (if different|) tool these later ones come from, but they seem to have been available for may years in various forms from Chromium-finished 1970's Kwong Wah, 1980's-'90's H, and these Arty & Mell-carried China troops from the 1990's!

The accessories seem to be polystyrene or 'propylene, and are copied from the game-playing pieces from Crossbows and Catapults, something mentioned in passing here several times over the years, but missing a proper post to date, primarily because it's a tedious chore I've been putting off indefinitely!

And many thanks to Peter for both the original image, and for donating this set to the Blog.

Y is for Yule Urchins!

Possibly my favourite animal if I had to choose one, and while there won't be a tree up for a fifth year, it hasn't stopped me looking for additions for the tree, and one of the themes became, not that many years ago, hedgehogs or hedgepigs, which used to be called urchins in medieval times, giving rise to sea-urchins, because they looked like land urchins!

 

This one came in a few weeks ago, found in Mark's & Spark's, it's a felt/wool body with metallic and sequinned 'spines' which aren't the most realistic, but give a good impression of a hedgehog anyway, and though rather large, he might have been the only one I found, so I grabbed him! He can go near the bottom of the tree, where the other bigger baubles end-up!

 

I then found two traditional glass ones in the same day (ostensively looking for a pair of shears!) in different garden centres, one from Gisela Graham, the other an outfit called Ascalon, and of which, one may be a duplicate (opposite sides of the tree when that happens, and facing the other way!), and then, most recently, about a week ago a layered felt one (who's also quite large) turned-up, branded to Kingfisher (owner of Screwfix), however, I think he came from The Range, but it might have been B&Q, although before the takeover announcement last week, so maybe they were already linked/working together?

 

Which gives us a line-up of four Hedgepigs, eagerly waiting their chance to shine on the tree, don't they all look happy! Childish, I know, but wasn't it the greatest Doctor of all time, Tom Baker, who said, upon being accused of being childish,  "I know, but what's the point of being a grown-up if you can't be childish from time to time"? And with a possible duplicate glassware one, and several similar nut-shell ones - Blog passim - about nine now, or three per 'turn'! Less than four weeks to Crimbo!

Hedgehogs are going extinct in the UK, and if you're looking for a charity cause this Christmas, please consider a Hedgehog charity - there are several - or your local Hedgehog sanctuary or rescue centre.

B is for Box of Britains Babies!

We looked at the Britains Lilliput 'Tr'oo'scale' figures, reductions of the larger Khaki Infantry, way back at the start of the blog, and today we're looking at the one form of packaging not seen then, the shop stock, pocket money dispenser tray.

The box is near-mint, with a couple of dinks and a small pin-hole on the underside, and you can see that it's quite small, smaller than a paperback, for instance, and one supposes it was kept very close to the shop's till/cash register or certainly within reach of the shop-staff/proprietor! Most toy shops I remember, of the period, had at least one glass cabinet near the till, and it would have been displayed in there.

 

I suspect the paper insert is a reprint, but a quite good one, with the Lilliput range on the reverse (you can just see the prices missing from the third column), and a full colour promotional image on the obverse, while the clear dust-cover sheet, with thumb cut-out, is almost certainly an original.

 

There are eight little compartments to display one-each of the eight figure sculpts, with larger compartments for the stock, which I think it's believed should contain nine figures (for a total of 80), but I've seen people suggest eight (for 72 figures) or ten per compartment (88). I don't think it's known for sure, but with things in those days often sold wholesale in dozens or grosses, it may be that each larger compartment should have 11 figures - a 96 count? There's certainly room for them.

 

We've seen them before, but it's always worth a second look as they are lovely little figures of the crossover from WWII to Cold War era, standard infantry, most in Fighting Order, but two in full Movement Order webbing, and with the Enfield EM2 semi-automatic assault-rifle, much discussed elsewhere, and 58-pattern webbing, and are probably based on the Warminster garrison demonstration battalion's troops.

 

This set came from Belgium, where the collector had two (I know!), and it's obvious he or the previous owner/s have built-up the contents of the tray, from occasionally encountered loose figures, completely separately from me/my sample, and from different sources, at different times, yet the sample has ended up with all the variants I've previously highlighted, gaining suggestions from some, that many of mine are home-painted.

But the gloss-green webbing batch would appear to 'be a thing', as would the very pale flesh batches, while others have the very reddish-pink flesh of the 'lozenge' (or Toblerone!) window-carton issue. Of particular interest here (given most examples have a version of the mid-green) is the kneeling firer on the left, who is the first I've seen with the same (correct for late WWII/early post-war) charcoal grey as seen on a few of the full-sized 54mm issues.

There's no obvious reason for the variations in painting, beyond home-painting of the unpainted 'envelope' set, but when you look at variation in the larger figures, which is not so marked, but is there, even to semi-gloss greens on some, I suspect something like the following;

It may be that Britains decided to give these diminutive figures to only a few of their better out-painters, one of whom was bad at stirring their green! While they were all trusted to mix their own flesh from red and white, with or without a touch of yellow? If the range was not terribly successful (it didn't last long), there would have been small batches with periods of inactivity between them, leading to an even grater range of paint-variants than the 54mm set? It's all pure conjecture though!

 

Final thought: someone at the show where I bought this immediately asked "Who would buy the 'being shot' figures?", and it's a fair point, but collectors, even one figure a week with their sixpence collectors', whould want one of each, wouldn't they?!

Three days later - Courtesy of Paul Morehead, editor of Plastic Warrior magazine, we see the Britains catalogue states only six of each figure, so five per large compartment plus the eight display samples, for a total contents count of only 48! Many thanks to Paul for this nugget.

A is for the Absent Minded Beggar; A Gentleman in Kharki

I said we'd return to this subject a few weeks ago when looking at the lead version, we also looked at the casein one a few years ago, here, and at that time I vaguely said "Believed to be a Boer War keepsake/trinket", well, the history is actually far more interesting, and the Britains lead one is the more 'accurate' while the apparently commoner surviving plastic one is not strictly the 'Gentleman in Kharki' but is the 'Absent Minded Beggar'

 

This (the subsequent Britains pose/sculpt) is the artistic rendition of the Absent Minded Beggar, by the artist Richard Caton Woodville, which was titled A Gentleman in Kharki, a generic called-up reservist, off to fight in the Second Boer War, taken from the poem by Rudyard Kipling, which would be set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame), all of which was part of a charity drive to provide for the families of those reservists, who were left behind, losing their only bread-winner to the war-effort - almost a precursor of the later Haig Fund.

 

A quick Googling reveals many renditions of both sculpts, but with this, the Gentleman in Kharki, being the more common in other materials, here the tin-plate clock revealing the budget or affordable nature of a larger piece, while more figural spoons can be found, than the plaque example above, alongside mugs, cups, medals (medallions) and many other typical fund-raising pieces.

 

The original poem having been donated by Kipling to the fund, set up by Alfred Harmsworth, proprietor of the Daily Mail. And ephemera featuring the poem/song lyrics/musical score make up a large portion of the surviving material.

 

While the casein renditions of The Absent Minded Beggar, the original subject of the poem, before Woodville's image became more widely known, were also used in a number of domestic objects, alongside a naval rating (to balance the thing!), although, as we can see from the vesta case and visitors card-holder, the Gentleman in Kharki got casein renditions too!

 

I now have one of my own in the pile, and he has been separated from whatever trinket, novelty or household item he might have been attached to (possibly the letter-opener?), and as can be seen in the previous, old auction-image, the tip of the rifle rarely survives; if I ever see a damaged one going cheap, I may purchase it, just to cut-out a sliver to restore mine?

The two together, on the left The Absent Minded Beggar in polymerised milk-powder, on the right A Gentleman in Kharki in very toxic, pre-Health & Safety 'white metal'! Britains ommited (for production reasons?) the fallen helmet seen on larger versions of the scalpt and all the casein examples.

 

I don't think a maker has been identified for the casein one, but it certainly looks as if one producer made them all and sold them to aftermarket firms who put them on plinths, pincushions, pen-holders, ink-wells, servant-summoning bells and etcetera?

The story - as known - and the poem is on Wikipedia

 

Nowadays - of course - we tend to say Khaki (without the 'r') and Daily Fail, Pail, Pale or Wail, it being, now, a nasty little tabloid rag, outpouring faux-outrage to give less-educated, meat-faced gammons a reason to vote Reform and undermine democracy, while keeping the new owners relatively tax-free!

S is for Shelfies - Smyths

I was actually in Smyths the other day looking for Halloween stuff (there was none) and the displays were pretty-much the same as these shelfies, which I actually shot back in August, but which I didn't get around to posting in Rack Toy Month, so, basically - all still available from Smyths!

This has previously been seen in B&M, seems to be a generic, but similar to HGL / HTI stuff we saw here a few years ago, I think I now have some of these in the loose stash courtesy of Jon Attwood's donations or charity-shop bags?

 

These are the sort of thing which will start turning-up in charity bags in about 18-months time, so worth knowing, simply to attribute, at a later date; Epoch Games, also gets them in the Tag-list! Seems to be a variation of Buckaroo or the old load-a-camel game!

 

Unbranded generic here, and again the dinosaurs look familier?

A full display of Schleich, with fantasy, dinosaurs, wild and domestic animals, both boxed and single-pick items. You can't fault the attention to detail and realism, but the price takes them out of the reach of poorer kids, in a way Britains didn't really?

Just Play have these out at the moment, there have been so many chunky vinyls of Disney's main characters, there's a book to be written on them at some point, in the meantime this will help ID five of the many thousands!

Pokemon blisters and boxes, again several ranges over the years, all quite small scale, and running to many characters/poses, I think these were Mindstorm Toys, but probably licensed from Tomy or Mattel, both of whom have had the properties for twenty/thirty-odd years now?

Cartoon characters in Hot Wheels cars . . . and things! A perennial favourite with younger kids, I have a small self-published tome in the library by a Don Elliot (Comic Character Cars), which covers these up to the 1980's, from many makers!

Finishing-up this batch with bubble-liquid bottles topped-off with hatching dinosaur eggs!

T is for Two - Rocketry

 I seem to have a whole bunch of images from two Sandown's which have - in the case of the earlier show - already been dipped into, and with several donation posts still in the queue, I'm just going to use piecemeal, as part of the oddments-folder plundering, or like this as a quick box-ticker!

Although box ticking is a bit rich for these two, both picked-up at the show two weeks ago, as they are more gap-filling detritus than box-tickers, yet. still, some boxes will be ticked, if you know what I mean!

On the left is an almost certainly incomplete pen-case or holder, while on the right is one of the rockets from the Mettoy 'Tank Battle Game', more on which below. Both cheap as chips, I think total outlay was £5.50p?

 

The pen-case is definitely missing a few pens, and seems to be missing some kind of central pole or mechanism, but it's not clear what, and Google has only found similar things, but not the same thing!

 

The three part tail includes a grey disc of plastic which is somehow connected to the free-spinning fin section, through the cup, but free spins itself, too, and I can't separate them without apparently doing damage, and you wonder at the smaller cup at the nose end of the rocket and what it might do, in relationship to the tail assembly, or not?

I'm pretty sure the pens are the commonly seen (back in the 1970's) generics from geometry sets, knock-off spirograph's and the like, so I may have some in the pen-zone (oh, yeah! Things we haven't even contemplated here yet!), so I might be able to replace the missing colours - a red and some blues?

[image removed!]

Courtesy of Vectis Auctions (their Christmas Toy Soldier auction is pending, but I didn't notice anything exciting, unless you're looking for boxed Timpo buildings and/or farm sets), this inage is the set the smaller red rocket belongs to, the mechanism is the same as the Tri-Ang Battle Space rocket-launcher, so it may well be fireable from the rail-car. But despite being the same company, they designed a new one for another toy, rather than reusing stock!

 

Right, that was all bullshit! Racing to publish before I went to work - in biblical weather! Actually the two Lines Group rockets were the same fat-nosed one (Mettoy game and Triang train-set), so they did reuse, and the person who told me they were 'from that game' must have been mistaken or thinking of something else, which leaves my second guess as it's being a Solido or similar 'unknown rocket'? Suffice to say, this post is now two unknown rockets!

L is for The Longest Yarn - Breakout & Aftermath

I went round the exhibition alongside a couple, with whom I got talking, as we danced round each-other, giving space for photographs to be taken or spending a slightly longer or shorter time lingering over a specific scene, and the lady was saying she had her Father's log-book, from his time serving as a landing-craft captain/pilot. He and his crew crossed the English Channel 50-odd times between D-Day and December 1944 - roughly, a four day cycle.

 

Among the more obvious military cargos, and returning casualties, was the fact that he did several laundry-runs, not something one would consider, but with the initial breakout being followed by another11-months of hard fighting across Northern France, the Low Countries and into Germany, laundry for hundreds of thousands of troops would have been a very real problem!

Following, very much, the narrative of the book and subsequent film 'The Longest Day' by Cornelius Ryan, one is left wondering, as one sees familiar scenes in the exibition, how many stories, heroes, events and names have been lost in the retelling, but isn't that all history?

 

I can't recommend this highly enough, it's quite an esoteric thing, but done with love, and I would urge anyone who gets the chance, to get along and view it. I will try to keep an eye on its progress and report any new dates, but for now these are the one's pencilled-in for the near future;

 

November 21st - December 5th 2024

Stoke Minster, Glebe St., Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST4 1LP

 

December 7th - January 10th 2025

Tewksbury Abbey, Church Street, Tewksbury, Gloucestershire, GL20 5RZ

January 13th - February 8th 2025

St, Makartins Church, Church Street, Enniskillen, BT74 7DW

February 10th - March 1st 2025

Norwich University of East Anglia

2nd Air Division Memorial Library, Millennium Plain, Norwich, Norfolk, NR2 1TF

March 3rd - April 1st 2025

Peterborough Cathedral, Minster Precinct, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, PE1 1DX

April 25th 2025 - ? (TBC)

NAS Wildwood Aviation Museum

500 Forrestal Road, Cape May, New Jersey, NJ 08204, USA

(www.usnasw.org)

 

Cheack dates before travelling!