D is for Der's Morrr!

Is this a third, or fourth return? The sample which was, once, two duplicate spacemen, keeps growing! At the recent Sandown Park show, Isaac gave me a tin of stuff for free (the rest will be in the eventual show report!) as part of a deal on some other figures, and he did so, I think, partly because I got most excited about what was, probably, to him, the nastiest thing in there, but Loyal Readers know me by now, and what I was excited about was this beauty;

 

It's another of the HF, jumping, hollow-backed, novelty takes on the Lik Be (that's LB of course) robot/aliens, which makes three now, along with the spaceman, who has appeared as the same ray-pistol equipped 'officer', but in different colours, which means the answer to one of my earlier questions; there may be up to, or more than six sculpts so pirated, but maybe only the one spaceman?

 

Earlier finds/donations were still get-at-able, so here's a group shot, remember the blue one only still exists due to the vast quantity of baking powder and superglue I shoved in his cavity! Added to this is the Surrender robot in another colour and the pink and red spacemen! Eight examples in four poses.
 

 

F is for Follow Up . . . From Ages Ago!

Do you remember when we looked at the Nazi board game Friegur;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2012/05/f-is-for-friegurwhatever-that-means.html 

 

Well, I managed to pick up a few of the pieces at the BMSS show last weekend, they weren't cheap, but well worth it, to add them to the stash, and they also add something to that previous post, being unmarked and introducing a new colour, useful, as the link to the Leipzig set found by Paul at the time is now dead?

 

A full squad of twelve infantry, with the standard-bearer.

One each of the German Army's poses, the officer has lost his hand, maybe his Mauser exploded! And we can see the oxblood red of the mounted figure (in German helmet . . . ish) must be from another set, as we saw with the whole game, last time, each army is one colour.

 

Likewise, there are 'Frenchies' from two sets, but there were only three items, two foot officers and one mounted, again in the oxblood red.

Comparison between the not very German helmet (the foot figure's helmets are a better shape, as can be seen in the previous images), and the more obvious Adrian helmet of the 'French' side, and a difference of base design, one's thicker too. So we have examples from at least two sets, possibly three, and none of these were marked, whereas there were clear base-marks last time we looked at them.

 

I'm guessing here, but I suspect the different tech' involved in producing Bakelite mouldings, over the later petrochemical-polymer injection processes, might have led to larger tools or bolsters, for oven finishing of whole 'sides', with all the pieces required of a game, being made in one colour batch, then another, and the two opposite sides swapped for contrasting colours, at the packing stage?

 

Certainly the larger components made in the phenolic material for the electrical industry would suggest such large tools/components were not rare, although nowadays, Bakelite is, or can be injected, in quite small moulding machines, so I guess it's a moot point!

Howitzer, trench mortar and the 'lozenge' tank, as seen last time.

 

Notice on all these, the uneven finishing/sanding of the bases, as opposed to the marked set we saw last time, where they were all clearly ground level, in a uniform fashion, here they've just been touched to the sanding belt, to remove high-spots. It would be interesting to know if these are earlier or later production, I suspect the latter, maybe licensed to another maker, the Leipzig connection from last time? Although I've tagged them Denkmeier and Fischer to keep them together with the previous post.

 

The cockpitless Messerschmitt Me.109 'drone'!

 

So, marked or unmarked, in black, khaki or oxblood, I still have a few to find before I'm happy with the sample, given that an actual game will stay well outside my budget parameters! But this is a nice start! 

L is for Last Year's Theme!

A bit slower this year; what with us being four months in, a third of the year gone already, and the smell of Christmas barely out of the woodwork! I managed, however, to find a new space-themed bit of stationary in Waterstones on Monday.

 

Designed by Nick Lerwill for Suck UK (who provided the astronaut climbing a pencil last year), it's a shuttle eraser! With the main tank an orange clone of the old BiC Biro four-colour jobbie, with the booster rockets being basically a white pencil (plain graphite lead) sharpened at both ends and cut in half. A plastic (nylon or 'propylene?) moulding of the manoeuvring engines, doubles up as a belly-clip for the three engine tanks. There's also a probably 'styrene or plexiglass ruler.

O is for Oops!

One of those slightly admissive parables today, most of us have been there once or twice, making a mistake, whether because there's one born every minute, or because we were all born one, and of course, these things happen, in the pressed time of a toy fair, or under poor 'village hall' lighting, or, in the case of evilBay lots, because scale or background are unfamiliar, or colours skewed by lighting or flash, but, this was one of my recent boo-boos, which, as it was not inexpensive, I was lucky to escape a few hours later, with nowt but my pride dented!

 

I saw these Cherilea dancers in the poor light of a winter morning at the February Sandown Park pre-show car-booty rummage, on the terraces of the main stand, and thinking they were the plastic ones, asked the seller what he wanted for them, a price was floated, which I'm not disclosing, but suffice to say it was in three figures, and I thought "Well, the whole point of coming to a show is to find a couple of stand-out or rare pieces, so; what the hell?", handed over the required shekels, and reached for them, only to realise, instantly, from the weight, that they were the lead ones!

 

But the seller was already busy with another punter, and the argument (about shows and rarities) remained valid, so I thought "What the hell?" (again!) and slid them in my jacket pocket. Adrian thought I'd done OK when I showed them to him, and he knows more about the lead stuff, than I do, but he thought it was 'all the money', so a profit was never going to be in there!

 

Interestingly, though, they are not the same sculpts as the Harbuts set, we saw a while ago (https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/06/b-is-for-best-show-on-earth-11.html), and which I had mentioned at the time, but nice to have them in front of me, if you know what I mean!

 

Fortunately, a well known metal dealer, who can remain nameless, came round while I was holding the fort for Ade' and chatting with one of the Paul's, and in conversation, because we're happy to admit our errors among friends, I explained the over-exuberant nature of my commercial faux-pas, and he offered to give me what I'd paid for them!

 

So in the end, I got four nice images of some pretty rare figures, in even rarer packaging, and it didn't cost me anything, beyond that bit of dented pride . . . Phew! . . . Doh!

SPV is for Soapy Persuit Vehicle!

Heads-up, it's the BMSS (British Model Soldier Society) show tomorrow, in Reading, Berkshire, And, it's a full moon tonight, so lock up any lycanthropes' in the family, lest you fall out with the neighbours, big-time! I happened to need to go to Reading last weekend, and managed a quick trip to a couple of old collectables shops I know . . .

 

. . . of which the first, to be fair, is mostly comics and the usual Star Wars action figure type stuff, while the latter is a more eclectic shop. They are both next door to each other in one of the few remaining Victorian covered arcades. We used to have one in Aldershot, but it was ruined, blocked-off at one end, and replaced with a rebuilt fake, a couple of decades ago.

 

However, I did manage to find one of 1993's Captain Scarlet SPV soaps from NAPA Products, which had seen better days, but was, nevertheless a bit of fun, and which, being modern, in my eyes at least, will probably end up being used in the bath!

 

The dust of ages, or, at least, 33 years!

 

The vehicle - marginally smaller than the Corgi model - was more battered than the box, but you get the idea, and there's not a lot I can add to the photographs, it's a soap, with no rope! But I thought the colour was well-chosen?

 

After a bit of a wipe with a damp cloth!

 

If you do happen to go tomorrow, both shops will be open, and are minutes, or hundreds of yards from both the station and the show venue.

L is for Local Loot - 2 of 2

It looks like I might be picking-up two lots of donated loot at the BMSS show this Saturday, if I can swing my carcass out of bed, early enough, something I have been struggling with recently! So at some point I'll have to get back to a more regular posting, but with over a million hits since Christmas, the Blog seems to have reached a self-supporting momentum, based around it's existing content, which is nice, but may be one of the [subconscious] factors contributing to my lack of motivation? Never thought I'd accuse myself of sitting on my laurels! Anyway, in continuing the plan of some weeks ago - there was a second successful trip to charity shops at the start of the year . . .

 

A bag of bits, a bag of animals and a couple of Stegosaurii . . . Stegosauruses?

Before and after cleaning - three Galanite infant-toy vinyls from Sweden, the poorer brother of Tomte, Both in accuracy (although the BMC 1100/Mini is quite good), and the wheels, which are no way as nice as Tomte's, or even the cheap 'W.Germany' (Stelco, Vinylline) and Hong Kong (Miniflex?) clones which were around at the same time. But collectable nevertheless, and there's a tub of them all somewhere!

 

There was also these . . . they went to 'Recyche'!

 

I'm pretty sure these are from the Corgi Chipperfield's Circus sets, and will need to be compared to the others, there's a bigfull somewhere, to get the best samples in the 'master collection', then the others can be disposed off, probably to charity! They all suffer from paint loss due to play-handling.

 

I suspect these are Corgi too, I don't remember a Zebra, but the same Hong Kong identifiers, and lack of marking, suggest they go with the giraffes? Close to the Britains sculpt, they are also very close to the various Blue Box, Redbox, Holly and New Maries zebras, which I'm one day going to have to try and sort out!

Likewise, note-wise, these two yellow tigers, the white one being marked and probably Holly? Again, someone, someday is going to have to sit down with all the boxed, carded and bagged sets, any catalogue images and all the loose examples, and try and sort them all out and get them annotated correctly by plastic colour, paint, markings etc . . .

 

Britains Llama, Corgi Rhino; a later vinyl moulding, and the bear, which again, may be Corgi, it's quite common in mixed lots, and has a lot in common with both the Rhino and the Corgi Bull from the Lamborghini, so it may be another Corgi, but I'm not sure I have it listed?

 

Modern, Chinasaurs, two makes, both unknown, but we may have seen them in show-reports, or carded acquisitions/donations, all to be sorted another day!

 

 

 

I also picked up this for next-to-nothing, a couple of the figures are damaged, but they just join a growing sub-branch of the collection . . . Box in the recycling bin, and I kept a couple of the accessories, as a sample!

 

Popular movies or other licensed productions, TV, Comics &etc, produce a plethora of crap over a shortish period (unless they really take off like Star Wars or TMNT), and while there's a lot of Minions stuff around at the moment, in 30-years, they'll be more like Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Brite or Richard Scarry animals are now - half-forgotten, and "What was all the hype about?"!

J is for Jährliche Osterhasenparade

Did you anticipate this post? I'd totally forgotten . . . again! But Brian Berke has done one of his regular photo-essays for us, by heading down to Scully & Scully, at 54 Park Avenue, an address, to Americophiles, as prestigious or exciting, as something on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées would be to a Francophile, or Park Lane to an Anglophile! And why has it taken me nearly a decade to look that up?

 

Brian had real problems with reflection this time, hence two visits were called for, and he even tried different cameras, and while I've done what I can with cropping and contrast, you can see a camera in three or four of them, and I cropped the mice out of a larger image, so that one is a bit fuzzy, because they were background!

 

As always, the sculpts, and their painting are exquisite, and while we've seen some of them before, it's all new painting, and/or some new vignettes, along with new trees, I think. I didn't reject any of the images, so there's a bit of duplication.

 

Nothing else to add, as they are a perennial here, now, so please enjoy a bit of Easter magic from the Big Apple.

 

Many thanks to Brian for these, they are a real treat!