L is for Lots of London Loot - November's Shots

Pretty sure this lot is all courtesy of Peter Evans, with some obvious bits from the late Michael Hyde's collection, but I've just found a whole box I hadn't photographed, which I have now done, and underneath which, was another box with a shed-load of Atlantic, which I think might have been part of this lot, anyway it is now photographed and will appear as a future part of this sequence!

 

A couple of Dinosaurs!

 

We've seen this chap before, more than once, in Keycraft and House of Marbles packaging, and a generic or two I think, here's another, these are the newer ones with the inverted net cone instead of shroud lines, which then necessitates a larger parachute to cope with the weight of all the extra fabric!

 

The trio to the right will be for a single set, probably a small 'toob' or tub, maybe a carded bag, the Rhino from a similar set and the Jaguar was a Schleich, isn't it beautifil?

 

Clearly from Mike's stash! A Marx Moses, a homemade Franciscan friar, who is doing a pretty-good job of doubling-up for Obi-wan Kenobi! A sub-scale hollow-cast type, actually a solid I think, but maker unknown, looks British C-of-E, though? And a small after-market whitemetal one, which is a European Catholic, I think, it's O-gauge compatible, and I haven't a clue who made it (O-Men?) or whether it's home- or factory-painted?

 

Lovely Hong Kong copy of Britains Highlinder on the left, a quite clean Cherilea on the right while the guy in the middle is a bit of a mystery, I guess he's a mascot for a commercial product, but Google didn't really help, shoes or perfume might be in the frame, the latter leading to soap, but I couldn't find anything solid, and the spelling is the incorrect use for a ceremonial?

 

He might have been a key-ring, but it wasn't obvious and in a flexible rubber which was more natural than PVC, so my guess is an item from the USA or a US-made product, there IS a Colgate-Palmolive shampoo, it was short-lived (1978+) and confined to the Philippines, but they had a human mascot; Charlieng Balakubak, (Dandruff Charlie), so possibly connected with cleaning or hygiene, and having some age; 1960/70's?

 

A set of ebony, or 'ebonised' carved wooden elephants - tourist keepsakes.

 

In researching what is actually 'Harry's' Animal Planet, I've managed to ID the show-jump and rider we've seen in the last few weeks, this sign and probably one or two of the horses in Jon Attwood's big donations, although they are currently in about four stacks, in two storage units, one day they will all be labelled-up and brought back together!

 

The sign is directing a late vinyl Britains sheepdog, a rather clean Crescent (?) sheep and a dinosaur which looks similar to some of the dinosaurs which I recently shelfied in B&M play sets.

 

From the left, Corgi Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, unknown street character (two points of articulation, arms), a hollow-cast mechanic from Timpo, missing his spare tyre, but I've never seen one with it! And a racing driver, probably from a sports car, but who . . . Monogram, MPC, Pyro, Revell? Someone like that!

 

French bazaar / premium Indian, cheapo-motorcycle, DFC knock-off knight, home-painted, an over-moulded capsule novelty chick, and a Viking / barbarian type, who I think we may have seen before, but possibly in a different colour?

 

A few bits of war-games detritus, all useful, and as well as the Atlantic, I think this was the lot with a quantity of 'lead' which I haven't photographed, it was heavy and went to storage the next day, but there was some useful stuff among it, Alberken, Higgins, Laing, etc . . . 

 

This was a bit of fun, a novelty Fungus the Bogeyman tin (which will end-up next to the sentry-box money-box Chris sent a couple of few years ago (I think Mum was still alive, so over four?)), on my future-past desk.

 

I love the strategically-placed splash announcing Jelly Bogies, as let's face it, if you're the age that enjoys a tin of snot, you're probably too young to be having the Birds, Bees and Bogeyman's Knees talk! Issued by a Hunkydory, and almost certainly a seasonal / novelty gift type thing?

 

Most of an OBE nativity scene? From Airfx! I can see Romans, Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin Hood, Bedouin Arabs, Tarzan and Station Accessories, have I missed any? Also a couple of Preiser-type N-gauge wagon horses.

 

This was fascinating, as I'd not seen it before (I've since found several on feeBay, so it's not rare), but in conversation with a reader who contacted me though Rusty at Playset Magazine, a while ago, the connection I've raised before, in a 1"Warrior article and a later one here, many years ago now, between Marx and Blue Box is becoming stronger as a theory, both because of some images I've seen of Miniature Masterpiece sets issued in the States but not here (format rather than contents), and this set.

 

It's not Marx, it's not sold as Marx, but I think they are based on the Marx sculpts (they're around 40mm), and with Rado Indistries (RI Toys) ending up with both Blue Box and Marx tooling (as I've mentioned before), the idea that Blue Box, or more correctly perhaps, the parent; Tai Sang, was involved with some of the early Marx hard-plastic, painted-production, looks more likely.

 

Obviously sold as a keepsake, for display, once I'm settled I'll obtain one of the complete ones for another look, or even a couple-more in this state, so we can study the figures without the guilt of ruining a set - they are heavily glued-in! I've seen several incomplete sets, and I suspect people take their favourite Saint to put in the car, or another room or something, maybe send one to a child at Uni', or they keep touching one for a prayer, until the paper under the glue tares?

 

Nuntastic Nun-chucks mate! Still available from revolving display-trees in Waterstones, we've seen a few others in this range of pester-power novelty games and figurines over the years!

 

Finish as you started! With a large dinosaur! And an Airfix Centurion!

Thanks as always to Peter, and thoughts wander to the memory of Mike, who I'd actually got to know a bit in the last few years, even being allowed to see his collection, so I'm pleased a few of his lesser pieces have come into the pile - I suspect the Nuns were probably from his stash too!

I is for Insect Lore - More Recent Imagery

Quickly getting the rest up here - see previous post!

 

2023

 

Thinking I'd published the previous post, in the previous two years, I just shot a couple of confirmatory shots of the Toobs, seeing nothing else new on the stand! Trying to count the Insects, I get to about 14-likely, but with some hidden in the heap at the bottom of the tube, and behind the labels, I suspect they are both a 16-count?

 

2025

So, fresh from this year's Toy fair, and we have now got the life-cycle blisters extended with Ants and Honey Bees, the Ladybird's card graphics have been brought into line with the other four, and sets with squishy Ladybirds have been added.

 

So, if you weren't familiar with Insect lore, you now know as much as I do! I didn't see them at the Birmingham Spring Fair, on either visit, but they may have been there, perhaps in one of the Halls I didn't bother with?

I is for Insect Lore - Archive

I thought I'd posted these guys, literally years ago (these are from 2020), but they are all still in Picasa! So I'm posting this here, and then I'll combine the smaller numbers of shots from '23 and '25 in a single post later. This was from the London show, a couple of months before the Covid lockdown, which - time has, I think, shown - changed all our lives, more than we thought it was doing, at the time?

 

!!!! Effing annoyed when the images loaded in reverse, which seems to happen quite often these days and I don't know if I should be blaming Windows 11, Blogger/Google or Lenovo! But in fact, it makes sense to use the poorer images (which were going to be at the end) for the introduction to the company, then look at the figural products!

 

Insect Lore are a kind of 'early learning' schools-support / craft outfit, where you buy the kit, and/or any supporting products, then sent away for the Butterfly (or Ant?) eggs, so you can raise them to adulthood, learning the egg-pupae-lava-adult cycle along the way, and then release them, or do an ant-farm?

 

In 2020 they were raising Painted Lady's (or Ladies? No, some of them must be men!), which - while not native to the UK - are a regular summer visitor around the Southern and Eastern coasts, and with nowhere in the UK further than 51 miles from a beach, it means you can find them pretty-much anywhere in a good year, and also means that after any release, they can complete a typical life-cycle.

 

The kit here consists of a jar of feed, instruction booklet with details on how to raise them and find the food plants, along with a jar of the special feed etc . . . and the 'butterfly net' netting cage, in which to observe the metamorphosis of the chrysalis phase and emergence of the adults.

 

Blister carded life-cycle sets of rubber (modern PVC-substitute) polymer animals are also sold, and these may be bought in or commissioned specifically, I don't know, and am no expert on toy insects, but they look a little different, so may well be exclusive to Insect Lore?

 

Toobs of mixed Insects and Butterflies are also in the catalogue, along with all the expected stickers, booklets &etc. Again I don't know if these are unique to Insect Lore, or bought-in generics, they look more familiar, so may be the latter, however, they are both reasonable samples with about 18 Butterflies in the first image of this sequence - Insect Lore, box ticked!

L is for Lambert . . . or Their Toys!

I shot this on Mercator Trading's table at Sandown Park last November as a new to hobby name, so it should be newish to Internet and is certainly new to Blog! Lambert Brothers of Acton, North London, nothing else known!

The farmer appears to be a poorer copy of the Fylde one (Joplin, pp127), the fencing a sub-copy of Britains, while the chickens seem pretty unique, but the larger animals look like Benbros (Joplin, pp23) who also do the farmer, so a better clue there, as to where Lambert's may have got their (Christmas?) stock. Thanks to Adrian for letting me shoot these.

B is for Banner . . . and?

Also shot at Sundown Park in November, but not purchased (because I think I have them in the collection already), was this series of comparison shots between a clearly Banner-marked 'row crop' tractor, from the US and two probably British copies, of unknown origin, and both unmarked.

 

The Banner is larger, and has better sculpted tyre treads on the front wheels, it also has a towing hitch missing from the smaller copies. I don't know who made the copies, but when we saw a similar copy, it was more close (with tow-hitch and marked Made in England), and came stitched into a gift box, with Gilmark-copy vehicles, 'Bonnie Bilt' figures and a Bell gun, which probably rules them out of responsibility for these smaller ones?

L is for Lots of London Loot - Sandown Park, November 2024

Not much in this one, but I think we've seen some on combined posts over Christmas and the new year, some has gone in the long queue, as it was manufactured in the country of Trump's puppet-master, and we don't Blog them at the moment . . .

 

. . . and some more of the items in this folder were 'shot at' the show, rather than purchases, so I'll do them as separate posts, but there are a few bits of interest, so let's see some of what we got back in November;

A lovely Codeg (Cownan-de Groot) earth-mover, or wheeled shovel, it's marked-up to them, but would have been bought in from someone like Tudor Rose, Kleeware, Rafael Lipkin or another of the early users of polystyrene. The design is similar to one I have by 'believed to be' Manurba, and I've just picked-up a military one from Noreda, so a future comparison of plastic heavy-plant beckons from the archives! It's quite small, a nice OO-gauge railway-compatible piece

Seen before, and mentioned twice, I said last time we looked at these (https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/12/very-much-follow-up-to-this-old-post.html) I thought it had joined the stash, but obviously that was the Cheerio one! This has now joined the stash, so it is - following the language in the previous post - the six-and-a-half'th, with the KUM being the half!

 

A lovely flocked Timpo bison, given the passage of time, and the lack of packaging, we won't know if it was flocked for Timpo or by Wend-Al or someone for zoo gift-shops, and we probably never will!

 

These were fun, and odd, they would seem to be knock-off's of Tom & Jerry, the 'Tom' being a pink blow-mould, the 'Jerry's being solids, one with a bum-spike, one without (there's a clearly undamaged join-line), all three polyethylene, and my guess is they came, out of Hong Kong (or Japan?), with some larger novelty, possibly a tinplate or 'styrene vehicle, where they had different positions, or functions/jobs?

 

A vintage die-cast Midgetoy half-track, it makes the same mistake of one or two toy half-tracks, in depicting the M16 GMC Quad .50-cal, with the drop-down sides and cut-outs for the gun traverse, but without the gun. It does - as a/the toy - tow a small semi-fictional gun, which I think I have somewhere, but in the darker green!

 

I will thank Adrian again, as I suspect some of the above came from him, and if it didn't, other stuff at the show did. In fact, the helicopter and shovel both came from him!