A is for Advent Calendar

Another occasional regular at this time of year! B&M was the only place I found doing a cheapie generic, with the sort of non-licenced or product-placed chocolates I consider traditional, although they were an import from the continent in the mid-1970's, quite exotic to us kids, back at the time!

 

My own 'hopes' for the coming year are best not divulged right now, although you may get to read them in the next few days, but, yeah, I wish you all the best for what promises to be one of the most interesting years of my entire life, probably the most entertaining too, but happiness may be in short supply for most!

O is for One for Fun

I was going to add these to the end of the Christmas cracker post the other day, but I realised they are very different really, being not small monochrome blobs, but a more sophisticated product altogether! I know! But they can go here, in their own little eraser post!

 

I bought these in a supermarket but can't remember which (Tesco or Morrisons I think, Home Bargains as a maybe?), however it should be available elsewhere or online, as it's an HGL product  from One for Fun, who are the over-brand now, holding Ozzbozz and Tobar in the same stable.

It was less than three quid I think, and for that you get quite a lot, with three plug-together Iwaco knock-offs, two flowers (tulip and rose) and a stegosaurus, three other monobloc dinosaurs which we may have seen before from The Works, three 'flat' sports balls and two space flats, an astronaut and a rocket, all five are polychrome extrusion slices, and another five; random items of over-moulded, miniature domestic household goods/food items. So quite a mix, almost a 'starter pack' for someone new to erasers. Bargain!

T is for Third-Party Theory?

Following on from the previous post this one is of interest, if only for further muddying the waters of Hong Kong's contribution to toy production in the 1960's and '70's, and illustrates how impossible it is to ever fully know the whole history of that former colonies activities, and therefore proof of an eternal hole in the history of toys . . . or novelties!

 

A quick reminder of the latest recruit to the stash, courtesy of Chris Smith, and I'm only reproducing it as - not collaged - it's easier to see that the polystyrene figure has been glued to a polystyrene sheet, so effectively it had to be cut out, or rather I suspect it was broken out, deliberately or in an accident is a moot point, but an accident would have more likely broken him off at the skate.

 

I suspect he was glued to something, probably with his lady friend, which would have looked like this . . . 

. . . pair of ne'er-do-well's from Toytown! These are more often encountered as stand-alone figurines, but were, I think, sold as cake decorations, but I'm not sure, and they are one of three sets of Noddy characters I know of in 'our scales', the other two being the smaller set of polystyrene figures from Marx and the Kellogg's from Crescent polyethylene cereal premiums.

 

You sometimes find these described as Marx too, and they may be, I don't know what licence relationship Swansea had with the Estate of Enid Blyton, but it would have been a Marx UK 'thing'. This set has about eight or ten characters, while the smaller one may extend to ten or twelve (we've seen one or two here, but there's better samples of both in the collection, against a future post or two). I've also seen them credited to Codeg I think?

But here they have been glued to a Happy Birthday decorated plastic plinth, and by whom and where may never be known. However, they are almost certainly a third party, buying-in the figures and the plinths, and marrying them together, with added paper stickers, to create more attractive pieces, which looks more substantial, and can therefore be priced at a higher rate than the cost of the components, when sold separately!

These were on feeBay a couple of years ago, and seem to suggest that the third party, or one of them (?), might have been based in the UK, because the Tom figure is clearly the Gemodels original in soft polyethylene, but if Culpitt were behind these novelty decorations, they could have sent UK produce to Hong Kong to have the work done, again - we'll probably never know?

But here we have artificial foliage, UK and HK figures in two polymers, and a wire/brush-fir in a wooden barrel, all added to the same plinths and given paper labels, one Birthday themed, the other a Christmas piece, neither requiring any creativity on the part of the cake-maker, just plonk the vignette on the icing!

And then I found these, adding to the chapter on KT, with an all-Irish line-up of novelties, where, again, the right-hand Leprechaun has been glued to a thermometer! On a similar base to the above, and obviously from the tourist trade, I have no idea whether these were from the Republic or Ulster, if one, I'd favour the former, but I dare say they were seen/available for purchase on both sides of the boarder?

 

Now firstly, we have two new sculpts to add to the KT listings, which have already enjoyed a bunch of these plinthed ones, mushrooms, a smaller astronaut and the larger Diddyman, but secondly, we can see the Leprechauns here are based with smaller, chunkier bases matching their stature, while the Irish Dancer has the finer steps to her base of the other figurines in the oeuvre?

 

And, in adding a thermometer to the already found pen-holder and pencil sharpeners, it means we may well be looking for sand-timers, letter racks, money-boxes, jewellery stands/music boxes and so on. And it may be that KT were behind the larger copy of their beefeater, even if not named on the HCF set?

 

I've also added the KT tag to a couple of the earlier 'unknown' figure posts, and in doing so, you can see how help from Chris Smith, Brian Wagstaff and Adrian Little has been invaluable in revealing the KT story, with links on the KT posts revealing Brian Berke helped with the old hollow-cast cowboys who also became pencil sharpeners! Many thanks to all of them.

M is for Musing on Models - Gemodels . . . and Festival!

We've visited them before and will again as it's a fascinating subject, not only was George Musgrave one of the most prolific designers/sculptors for other people, but he was also a great innovator and experimenter, so the full list of his output continues to grow, as the history of his company, it's apparent love/hate relationship with Culpitt, and the Hong Kong pirates, produces more and more to digest or collect.

 

A couple of shots of stuff which came in over several lots at the end of last year, and were going to be a simpler version of this post, then! The upper shot being both sledge designs with the three different configurations, the two snow babies on the smaller toboggans are melted-on, but I don't know how and wasn't going to force them to find out, which will be more relevant below!

The girl playing in the snow is a previously unrecorded sculpt, and seems to be from or connected with the carol singers, in being more Dickensian/Victorian in styling, than the sixties-kids in the woolly jumpers and baby-suits of the other sculpts.

While the Huskies again, seem to include a new sculpt, the one on the left is the brown-polymer version of one of the common set of three, the one on the right seems to be new, and larger, but I need to compare with the others, who are in storage.

 

As some larger woodland animals have turned up, we've seen some here, as candle-holders (fawn and squirrel), and as stand-alone's, so it may be he's part of a different set - I've seen another squirrel without candle hole which looks 'Gem' or Festival in mixed online lots?

 

The lower shot has all the travellers out on the ice, with two skiers and a lonely skater!

This one is marked Festival, I can't remember if we've had Gem marked examples here, but we have looked at a bunch of Hong Kong copies in three different polymers.

 

I've posted the link to the debate elsewhere on the subject of Festival before, but I'm now happy to assume and pass on that Festival was a late project of Musgrave's, set up after he fell-out with, and in direct competition to Culpitt. And that it ran for some time, with some success.

Sadly, he barely mentions them in his interviews with Plastic Warrior magazine, nor was there much, or anything (?) in the museum, but they are obviously Gem style, some Gem sculpts (or re-sculpts), and Gem painting. And because they are all Birthday/Easter/Christmas themes with smart, modern boxed packaging and newer polyethylenes (racing car and train candleholders), were specifically a cake decoration 'line', against the waning of Gemodels with their full sized figures, scenic items and buildings.

The larger sled, the two riders are meant to be both facing forwards, but you can arrange them with one absent-mindedly trailing his legs, or maybe they are waiting to start-off! And if you want them rushing down an icing slope, just remove the puller and rope!

These two have spigots on their feet which have been pushed through the skis and melted back with a hot tool, for this we have a second design of ski, which is wider - previously I had suggested distortion due to the heat, but I think they are shorter and wider, or flared, in the middle?

While these have been attached by what might be the same spigots or separate scraps of polymer, leaving a doughnut of plastic 'flash' around the feet, these are not the over-moulded ones, which leave a very neat weld-mark when separated, this is a cruder 'glueing' with heat, and a fourth version of ski-attachment.

 

There are also two types of stick; the earlier hand-tooled slightly lumpy Gem one (?) and a later, finely-machined Festival one.

The skater's partner turned up in a later lot! The yellow guy and the trio on grey fabric were shot just now, and are the first examples from Chris Smith's latest donation to the Blog, a mass of good stuff I haven't even looked at properly, or had my customary eMail exchange with him on, but I have managed to sort them into bags, thank him, and dig these three out for a quick photo' or two! The rest will follow in January, probably?

The new yellow one is a Hong Kong copy, as procured by Culpitt, from the Gem designs they had been carrying . . . bastards! You can see it's a crude copy with a loss of detail; lazy pantography and no finishing! His base looks clipped in some way, but that's because he's been glued to and cut away from a larger plinth-base (see next post) in white, his own base, in yellow, follows the outlines of the Gem/Festival original.

 

Santa is a generic, and the other Gem has come away from his base at the skate-blade line; a testimony to how fine the sculpting was!

 

Gem flourished in the 1950-60's, Festival were active from the '60's through 'till around the end of the 1980's, while this Hong Kong effort is probably a 1970's replacement for the copy seen above, simplified for mass production it's almost a demi-ronde!

 

They could all be found in bakers shops as recently as the 2010's, but are now getting hard to find as the supermarkets and Gregg's style chains have finished all the old independent or family bakers.

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Finally as a Brucey Bonus, we are off to Thomas/Poplar for a shot of the official Santa's sleigh, with Rudolf! This has a rigid set of poles integrally moulded, so only fit the reindeer, whereas the other design, with two seats, seen here several times I think, has hinged poles, so can be wedged to the PVC-rubber cats, dogs or deer, but may only be meant for the kids, even though I've posted it with Santa . . . I think I once posted it with two Santa's just for the hell of it!

F is for Flat Figures, Finger-Fancies, Fables, Fripperies, Flibbertigibbets and Fine Family Favourites!

If not actually an annual, at least an occasionally perennial, here at small scale world, is the look at Christmas Crackers and their little novelty playthings, gifts and joke items, this year it's two sets of mini or tree crackers, which tend to contain the smallest of gifts, and a few similar items which have come in.

This set, which I think must have been a bog-standard Tom Smith set, was held over from last year, as I ran out of time! In fact, most of the stuff held-over from last year is still waiting, and won't be looked at agin for at least 10 months! We also had these as kids, they replaced the earlier set (with the micro ships), when they finally began to fall apart.

 

The little decorative paper stickers of trees and candles were to be found on the larger 'family' sized crackers, and ran for many years I think, no hat at this size, but you do get a joke and a little polystyrene novelty charm.

 

I found them in a Charity shop, two packs of ten, and promptly worked my way through them, and the results were pretty meagre, but make a good sample of one brand's product at this budget level. They are harking back to the earlier metal ones which we recently saw here as cake-inclusions, and themes are common, locks and keys, guns/weapons, boots and strangely, skulls!

This lot was found at the first Sandown park of the year, which was September's due to clashes with the May one, and we've seen all these before I think, so for now just a group shot, but as I've said before, we will look at them all again properly in a year or so. Mostly polyethylene, the thimble is in a frangible polystyrene, while the jig-puzzle ball maybe a polypropylene?

 

Another set of mini tree-crackers, another Charity Shop purchase, and these were made for Safeway stores (bought by Morrisons in 2004) and are oozing that kitsch 1980's feel, people had (some poor miserable souls still have) whole bathroom tile suites of this silver/gold, sometimes with red stripes or patches of grey or black, the 80's were the start of The Decline!

 

 

But the toys are a little more interesting, being the same as you might find in the cheaper, full family-sized crackers, they would have been next to on the shelf. And more tropes with the mini-ship, ring, joke nail and hair-clip. While three of the figural toys (Troll, Angel musician and cat charm), which got me on to cracker toys, as a collection extension, in the first place! And all soft 'ethylene, unlike the harder 'styrene ones above.

 

This came in recently, I can't remember if it was something from Adrian, Peter or the late Michael Hyde, or even a large charity lot I got a while back, but it's clearly the same kind of cheapo-cracker fayre, and consists of a dollar loot-bag! It's soft polyethylene, which has probably saved its loop!

 

 

An evilBay (which has just locked me out again!) lot of similar items, this time showing musical instruments, animals and the sort of 'good luck' symbols which are also found rendered as traditional tattoos! The hedgehog seems to have more age than the others, being a much finer-etched sculpt. they look to be hard polystyrene, but it's hard to be sure.

F is for Festive Figural Fur-Baubles

Yes, I know we've had the Bears, because they are every year, we've had the Nutcrackers, because they've become every year, and the Hedgepigs because they are getting annual, not forgetting the Astronauts, newest theme, but with two new sculpts; also becoming regular now, but I did pick up a few other figural baubles this year, more than I probably should have, but there always seems to be more room on the tree . . . it's a question of putting the largest on first, and the smallest last, after the dangly ones!

 

This actually breaks a couple of the self-imposed rules, as far as baubles go with me, specifically, the slightly anthropomorphic adoption of a Christmas jumper, and the appliqué pom-pom headdress, however, it was the first one I saw (in the big Marks & Spark's down at the Meadows, Camberley), and not knowing what else I might find, by the end of the season, I bought it, and it's grown on me, so will stay, in fact it looks very smart, but . . . M&S!

 

Not least because it revealed a trend in the sales/marketing of baubles this year, and - as a result - gave rise to a new theme, which already has four members - Big Cats! It's probably supposed to be a Leopard, but as we will see in a minute, I'm calling it the Cheetah, because of the more moggie-like face!

I then found these in a Charity Shop, i Farnborough, I think? I bought the deer when I first found them, but went back for the other two, as the tree also has a bird theme, and I thought the oak-leaf would be a nice foil to all the pine-cones. They were modern generics with no makers marks or consumer information on their individual boxes, and you wonder what sad tale led to them being 'discarded'?

Speaking of cones, these both came while the hedgehogs and spacemen were being procured, and I can't remember where either was found, but probably both garden centres? The cones are legion, and we may look at them all one day, as there are ancient and modern, and meany designs, while the gingerbread man is a departure for the tree, but he'll be at home with the snowmen and Santa's.

I got this the day I rejected the 'Starman', from the garden centre near Woking, it's another Gisela Graham, and they also had spotted ones, but using the same Tiger moulding, which was daft as the stripes are sculpted-in - lazy marketing! So I left them on the peg, thinking this would be a better foil for the Cheetah!

Then this came in while I was having a frantic, last-minute two-day search for the star-holder astronaut (whose location, I had forgotten!), and a couple of duplicates to send to a friend, it was a TKMaxx, late stock addition, and will have to be a Leopard, even if it's meant to be a Cheetah, because . . . see above!

And it came in this set, branded to a Rachel Zoe with a Lion, so we went from no Big Cats, to four, in one season! But the Lion and Zebra are very pink, more than the photo's suggest, so they will be going to the little white 'gay tree', with all the other pinks.

 

Leaving the Elephant, who's almost as round as a conventional bauble! I'm not desperately enamoured of him, he's a bit too cartoony, but he has a right to live, and is a bit of fun! All the above are traditional blown-class ornaments.

M is for More . . . stone!

We've seen this before, or another example, but it's one of those thing I always admire when it turns up, if only for its faint daftness, but also because it carries the same clown 'design' that the Frazier & Glass sets of Crazy Clowns also feature, a point I'm mused on before.

Nobody's peddling, or able to, and trusting a dog (replacement casting) to do the steering, seems the height of faith over stupidity! Die-cast mazac/zamak and not in scale with any of their other lines, it would have been sold purly as a novelty, aimed, I don't doubt, at this time of year.

H is for Happy Christmas!

Welp, that all got a bit frantic in the last three days, but at least we were given today off, to start the recovery (before the four-day onslaught which is getting the booze out for New Year's), unlike another company's drivers who seem to have been out, delivering, today! Anywhoo; I was getting back too late and too knackered to post anything, and now, here we are, the 'big day'! It's gotta' be the Nutcrackers!

 

Earlier in the Month, or even late November, I can't think that hard right now, Brian Berke indicated he'd not seen many, and wasn't that enamoured of what he had seen, and I rather agreed with him. This post, the 'nutcracker round up' became a regular rather by accident . . . they are figural, they appeared to be having a comeback (in the UK at least) a few years ago, several quirky aspects had turned-up at around the same time, as had the life-size quiz-trail in Fleet, and with Brian's help and the odd news clipping, we had a regular seasonal theme!

 

But, let's be honest, they are very German/Eastern European, by tradition, and have only been marketed worldwide, in vast quantities, in recent years, to take our money for things made cheaply in China! And, frankly, the gloss has come off them; for every interesting or quirky one, there are four shelf-meters of generic, formulaic wood/resin/fibreglass or plastic shite in every store, which stocks them, for most of November and December!

 

However, I guess they will continue to pop-up at this time of year, not least than because they are in the Tags, which might as well be added to occasionally! So, bowing to the inevitable, here's six images, for this year!

Brian sent this chap with the thought that he looked like he was wearing a 'Demob Suit', which (for loyal foreign readers) was the complete set of civilian clothing, the short-service and conscripted soldiers of our 'Citizen Army' were given, upon demobilisation, in the late 1940's, so they would have something smart ('ish) to attend job interviews (or the labour exchange), go home in, or meet landlords &etc!

 

I replied that he looked to me like an Italian card-shark! The sort you might find on a Mississippi paddle-steamer, calling himself a count, without any genealogical right to do so!

 

Brian also sent both the above as an example of the "nah-yeah-NAH!" end of the market! About 20-inches high, and looking like they are about to do a dance-number for Sister Sledge on Top of the Pops, they are really pretty hideous, still, I can see the wife of the President-elect populating the White House with them, if she doesn't join Putin's ex' in Kaliningrad! We haven't seen or heard much from her, have we!

 

I did add two to the stash, the one on the left is a more traditional wooden one, in the vaguely 'smallest' common size, if that makes sense? And I have a few now, so they may get to make a mantelpiece line-up in future years, while the other is [whispers - another naff gold one!] a smaller sized (roughly 70mm), poured-resin, tree decoration, who will go in the 'miscellaneous ceremonial' section of the stash.

 

I shelfied these in TKMaxx's little brother, Home Bargains, and they illustrate the way the money-men target everyone, on the far right we have a traditional red, blue and green set, to their left is a set which is more 'chintzy', even to looking a bit Highland, despite the lack of actual tartan patterns, while on the other end, we have a wood-look or 'gingerbread' style, and a 'Christmassy' red and white!

 

While this plaster one appeared the other day, as a lone survivor from Christmases past, in a couple of boxes of oddments which the staff put-out in The Range, as they were starting to clear-off this year's decorations, last weekend. This is the quirky-fun end of the oeuvre, and joins all the other Paint-Your-Own stuff, on that Tag!

 

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And, yeah, a Happy Christmas to all Loyal (and not-so-loyal) Readers, all contributors, commenters and the more hidden supporters (they know who they are!), I would, back in the day say 'May we never have a worse one', which would cause some to pause for a second while they worked it out, but the simple fact is they have been getting steadily worse since 2020, and in twelve days, all hell might break out! So, have the best Christmas you can, given your circumstances, and pay heed to those close to you, while they still are.

T is for Thunderbirds are Tiny!

And need glue! Continuing the British Sci-Fi theme of the last few posts; I bought this Imai model-kit of the Thunderbird pilots, at the last Sandown Park toy show, it was going for a song, and while the figures will probably stay on the runners, I have every intention of making up the five micro-Thunderbirds in the nearish future!

From the Amerang sticker it looks to have some age now, but is still what I consider a modern kit, dating from 1992, however, it's a bit of fun and will add to the growing micro-Thunderbird fleet!

 

It's also interesting to be reminded of how the Anderson's gave the lads very American-styled hats (think American veterans or 1960's fast-food/restaurant staff), to appeal to the overseas market for TV rights licensing.

 

Five (or ten!) mini-kits in one box, each a separately-bagged, sub-kit of two models; a Tracy brother figurine and the relevant piloted mini-Thunderbird is in three colours, blue, flesh and the dominant colour of the pilot-specific Thunderbird, with some parts of each vessel on the other two runners. It's a bit of fun!

F is for Future-Past Freight Fleet

Once you have your Space/Airfield, you will need a train, because - as I'm sure we all know - in the future-retro-past of the 1950's, most industrial or commercial hubs of any size had a railway service and/or sidings, before the fall of Dr. Beeching's axe, even funny little places like Tongham, near Aldershot used to have a loading dock and sidings, so it was no surprise that in discussing the transfers Brian had on his Convertiplane (previous post), a liveried Spacefleet railway was revealed!

Shades of Triang's Battlespace, but in a clean 'NASA' aesthetic, and bedecked with the Spacefleet logo, with slightly 1984/Big Brother'esque 'wanted posters' of the Mekon on the wagon ends - know your enemy! Again in his own words and first answering my question about the transfers, here's Brian;

 

"The decals are homemade. The art was scanned from one of the Dan Dare reprint books and lazer printed onto decal film. A while ago, I created a freight train of Spacefleet vans and containers using the same decals . . . Dapol has a small range of undecorated rolling stock. When I found out, I couldn't resist."

 

And while I will often crop/edit images from contributors, even Brian's, I've left these at the full, standard 4x3, as the backgrounds are so interesting and full of stuff, mostly a whole London Bus depot! Which we've seen shots of before, here, with rampaging dinosaurs, I think!

 

Thanking Brian for the above, I thought the army in the background of the Helicar landing platform was well-set, in the same future-past, with late war Cromwell's and Quad's, supporting post-war Saracen's and Saladin's! There's even a matador there, and they soldiered-on for many years, ending up as local garage (service station) wreaker/tow-truck or yard crane conversions, well into my childhood.

 

The cars, which I was equally taken with, Brian explained are the Hot Wheels Dream Mobile, which is a recreation of an earlier 1950's Mattel toy; the Dream Car, a 'space age' or concept car. There's a kingfisher-blue one which might have my name on it, in the near future . . . past?

S is for Spacefleet's Spiffing Speedplane!

I'd forgotten asking Brian Berke for pictures of one of his future projects, once it was completed, and the other day, he sent me these! A Spacefleet marked McDonnell XV-1 Convertiplane to rush Dan Dare from his still warm rocket, back to Headquarters with some devastating report on the nefarious doings of the Mekon and his minions!

 

 Brian's cover-notes; "Here is the McDonnell XV-1 Convertiplane. I built the Kleeware version back in the 50's. I saw the actual aircraft in the Smithsonian reserve collection back in the 90's. A few years ago some Frank Hampson reference sketches for Dan Dare turned up referring to the craft. Here's my Spacefleet rendition."

 

It really looks the part, and got me thinking that a couple of Fairy Rotodynes and a Bristol Beverly in equal markings would produce a fine Spacefleet Air/Space Port, with a few Helicar's and Helijets rushing about! Perhaps a line of Bell X1's in the background . . . the future we never got! And the cockpit/body looks like the Edgley Optica which was doing well until one crashed, crossed with a Gazelle!

This version is (was?) produced by Glenco Models, who have managed to reissue some pretty rare birds over the last three decades or so, and not just 'birds', although it doesn't seem to be in their current kit line-up, so you may have to shop-around for it?

 

Aircraft history at Wikipedia -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XV-1

 

Frank Hampson - https://frankhampsonartwork.co.uk/

 

Also, it's amazing how futuristic some of these 1950's & 60's designs actually still are, a weird kind of future-retro-past! And many thanks to Brian for sending these.