♫♪♪ 666 . . . the Number of the Truck! ♫♪♫

With apologies to Messer's Steve Harris and Co., of Iron Maiden! We're having a quick top-up on the 1-Ton Humber 'Pig' story today, with a few bits that have come-in over the last couple of years. I have in the past added a few images to the original eight-or-so posts on the subject, but as they have their own tag 1 Ton Humber Mini Trucks (which seems to extend to 18 entries with this post?), they can go here!

These are interesting and I've been after some for years, as you can see I only managed three crappily-painted ones, but they were cheap and I only needed a 'sample' to illustrate a point, or the 'missing chapter' of the original posts.

You can see the black paint (old school gloss enamel) has damaged the polystyrene substrate, as has the green to a lesser extent and where the black was laid over the green on the cabs the damage is worse, so the camouflage pattern remains visible, but I hope they will polish up when I find the time in the future.

They were manufactured - unpainted - by Hasbro, sometime in the 1970's (I think), possibly as part of a transporter, ferry or collapsing bridge type playset; I don't know? And are about 1:76/72nd. But the point is, however, they are not of the era of the Dinky original, nor the Pyro mini- or Sam Toy full-size copies.

They are - in fact - completely re-designed/sculpted, to a new degree of detail, and may be the donor for the NFIC trucks, and probably some of the sub-piracy generations of Hong Kong mini-truck. And when I say 'may be', both are slightly wider/flatter or squashed than the Dinky original, but we did see an interim one in a larger size from HK here?

I also picked this set up a while ago, these are the eponymous 666-marked trucks of the title, the type I originally listed as Type 4's, and they seem to be among the commoner variations of these mini-trucks.

The card-art actually shows those early Matchbox 1-75 vehicles known to have been copied by Blue Box, 'Blue Bow' and many others, in both soft polyethylene or hard polystyrene, but the actual contents are just the 1-Ton Humber mini-trucks.

Two cherry-pickers and two tipper/dump-trucks were the slightly disappointing contents, but random packing . . . I guess! 1 purple body, the rest are pink/yellow and more bodies/plug-ins do exist.

I also picked-up the full set of fire vehicles (also Type 4's), but can't remember if I got a card with them and forgot to shoot it, or if they came loose? But I think it is all the body-types for the 'set'?

Inventive if not terribly accurate as to the equipments available in the real world, and in the case of a couple, just construction-site bodies in silver rather than black plastic - cherry picker (top middle) and crane (bottom left), but nice to have them all and tick that box.

The modern holder of that novelty/pocket-money niche; Kinder's efforts from a few years ago, apart from a bit of flash on the basket of the cherry-picker, they are manufactured to a high level of detail/tolerance, come in multi-parts and are made in a more substantial material, with a higher degrees of play-ability through moving parts . . . just harder to find under the blind-bag [egg] model!

S is for Show Report - Late, Sandown, September, Purchases

So much stuff got put on the back-burner last year (a daft expression these days as the smaller 'simmer' rings are often the ones at the front or (in the case of the one here) to the right!), among which are several show reports, so we'll get get stuck into the new year with a bit of the old one!

First though, a note about the shows - I'm not proud of attending two shows in the autumn, and don't advocate doing so, as you know I haven't got back to posting forthcoming show news yet, and that is precisely because there is still a very real risk in putting-on or attending shows or events of any kind - I'm also penciled-in for the London Toy Fair trade show later this month too! Doh!

However, we were between Covid-variants, I wore a mask whenever I was close to anyone, went outside to remove the mask and get a bit of fresh air . . . and vape, and generally took care. Just as it was my personal 'right' to be a dick, it's each individual's right to be a dick, but not to promote dickishness in others!

We're all a bit stir-crazy now, I get that, I am too! But imagine - for a moment - if half the population of London or Southampton had decided it was their 'right' to ignore blackout-regulations in the early 1940's? Huh? It's not about OUR individual rights or perceptions, it's about the rest of our family, our friends & acquaintances and every stranger we might meet.

Now, the way the figures & stats are going-up, we'll all be looking at further measures in the next few days and I probably won't make Kensington-Olympia! But those backbench anti-regulation fans; the Covid Research Group, ex-European Research Group, ex-'Spartans' (the real Spartans would have eaten that shower of inbred-toff shits for breakfast and then ordered bacon and eggs - twice) are the equivalent of anti-blackout fans, and should be ignored, along with their friendly tabloids!

Anyway, that's what I think on the subjects! On to the toys . . .

. . . and I found two little rack-toys of the pocket-money size, a set of petrol pumps I already have loose, and some more civilian versions of the Humber-cab mini-trucks. The pumps - although in a generic pack - are almost certainly Blue Box, or at least Tai Sang (the parent)'s production as they are regularly included in the larger Blue Box sets. The mini-trucks are the type I've called 4A - with the 666 marking.

This was lovely; unmarked on the underside, but obviously an old 'Dime Store' plastic from the 1950's and probably a mould-share with a US firm, it has a little tool chest built-in with little (out of scale) tools, I suspect a spanner or wrench and maybe a drill or saw are missing, for a four-count? There's certainly room for a couple more.

The tractor-unit is from Triang Minic's range and will join a militray green one and a red example in the collection. The Daimler 'Dingo' scout car in nice for having a crew-member, while the windmill is fascinating, and might be British, despite the Hong-Kong'ishness of it's production.

I have several solid versions (which are HK piracies - and I often wondered what of?), while this - as you can see - is a stacking novelty (like this morning's Kazakh rocket!), or even a 'jig-toy' with the key-like central stem. Shot before and after cleaning, it could be early domestic production, by someone like Bell?

Bit of a story behind this chapter in the continuing LB-Lik Be story; I knew where I thought there was one of these, had known for over a decade, bought and sold by the same chap several times, always selling back to the same dealer, I last saw it with that dealer, and asked him to bring it to the show, if he could find it, and he said he's have a look.

Well, he couldn't find it, which was a disappointment, but in such cases you can then wizz round the stalls and find something else for the money . . . only I found another Clifford Toys branded Moon Explorers set (for less than I had been about to pay), so bought that! It was on a stall with some MPC XL5 stuff, but I had already got them, and shown them, although we'll be looking at them again soon!

I assume/presume/hope or guess the other four poses can be found in the same box for a 'pair' containing the whole 'set' - No27/5643B? Clifford also carried some of the Spacex sets in small scale, makes you wonder why Tri-Ang never carried these larger figures?

Half of me wonders why I bought the Tudor Rose wagon, but then the other half knows it was because it was in an usual colour-way I didn't think I had (we've seen them here before one than once, some courtesy of Michael Melnyk), it was very 'clean'; almost mint and it was cheap!

The HO gun team (not Giant) was mine, and I took it to the show after someone rang me three times in two days, getting me to promise I would do so (I think I quoted him a fiver?), only for him to not turn up, nor have I had another peep out of him as to why not! Some people are a waste of oxygen, and the older I get - the less patient with them I seem to be!

Been after these Bathing Beauties for a while, and the seller has had them in re-issue purple and green (?) or candy-pink (?) for a while, but at the September show he had this set (Marx) in a similar flesh to the originals, I think they are modern production, but they even have the chalkiness of the originals, so I'm happy enough with them!

G is for Guest Post - Sam Toys

This started life as an email which I thought was a listing, probably of more use on the much-neglected A-Z Blog 'pages', and I downloaded it to look at at home, thanked the sender; Angelo, and got on with whatever I was doing!

When I opened it at home I found the following article complete, with embedded images, and frantically wrote to Angelo the next day saying please send the originals so I can run it as an article!

Not only did he send them, but he took new images of most of them and some supporting paperwork, to the point where I now know as much about these as he does . . . in five minutes time - so will you.

I then suggested I post his article as he'd written it and further look at the vehicles in turn after Christmas, but have instead collaged the images and placed them where the single pictures were in the first draft, which is the only real editorial change . . . I hand over to Angelo;

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SAM TOYS - " MILITARY SERIES"

Sam Toys produced model cars in the late 50s and late 60s.

The Military Series was initially composed of seven vehicles which were the plastic copy of similar metal models by the French Dinky Toys.

Below is a copy of the catalog of the period showing the series and the description of each individual vehicle.

Art. 431 – CAMIONETTA MILITARE - copy of model 641 ARMY "1-TON CARGO TRUCK" by Dinky Toys

Art. 432 – AUTO BLINDATA - copy of model 670 "ARMOURED CAR" by Dinky Toys

Art. 433 – AUTOBLINDO PER TRASPORTO - copy of model 643 “ARMOURED PERSONNEL” by Dinky Toys

Art. 434 – AMBULANZA MILITARE - copy of mode 626 “MILITARY AMBULANCE” by Dinky Toys

Art. 435 – AUTO CISTERNA  - copy of model 643 “ARMY WATER TANKER” by Dinky Toys

Art. 436 – CARRO ESPLORATORE - copy of model 673 “SCOUT CAR” by  Dinky Toys

Art. 437 – JEEP - copy of model 669 “JEEP” or 672 "JEEP" (re-issue of 153a) by Dinky Toys

                              Note the error in the name in JEPP

Later, other models were added that were variants of the first series.

A first variant was the MILITARY TRUCK where 4 soldiers were added to the platform. This meant that the lorry remained uncovered because it was not possible to put the tarpaulin with the seated soldiers.

The next 4 models were created using the floor of the MILITARY AMBULANCE which on the bottom always showed the writing 434 Military Ambulance for all these models.

AUTOCARRO SCALA MOBILE

AUTOCARRO CON CANNONE

AUTOCISTERNA

AUTOCARRO MILITARE APERTO

Finally there is a model 443 - JEEP CON RIMORCHIO that the SAM TOYS inserted in the AUTOCARRI series, but that actually refers to a military vehicle.

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A few points I'll add, all from the material provided by Angelo, firstly, the lorry used for ambulance and plug-in bodies is now recognised as being the Truck, 3-Ton, 4x4, GS, Ford Ambulance (Spurling, Muliner or Duple [bodies]), AKA; Fordson-Thames GS-Lorry, and an excellent article on all the toy versions (we've had the diminutive Matchbox RAF version on the blog and the article attributes the MPC 'Mini' ambulance - also seen here - to the same marque) appeared in the October 2011 edition of Model Collector magazine, with Nigel Robertshaw in the author's chair.

The image from which Angelo cropped the 'civi' Jeep, also has civilianised versions of the same lorry, each in a 'wagon-&-drag' configuration (commoner on the continent, although a lot of haulage companies use them on their late night 'trunckers' so you often see them on the motorway network in the early hours), along with a wrecker-body version of the Humber 1-Ton, which is lovely!

Many, many thanks to Angelo for sending this into the blog, a relatively unknown series of non-Hong Kong copies, and I'm very fond of my one example, the Humber with passengers.

L is for Logistic Lorry Laager (or 'Leaguer'?)

Back to B-echelon for today's [late!] post; I thought that after Jeeps we might as well go up a class, vehicle-wise and these are mostly of a size that would be ideal for garden or carpet war-gamers.

These are mostly from Peter's Big Bag of Rack Toy loveliness, exceptions being the dark green one (which also came from Peter I think but a year or two ago) and the hard-styrene, vintage push-and-go which was - I think - a Sandown Park purchase at some point.

The six similar ones are the same as the truck sent to the blog by Martin a while ago, and as I think I mused at the time seem to be from the interregnum between 'Hong Kong' marks and the modern 'China' marks, but it may just be that someone forgot to stamp the tool!

The three with loads are ultra-modern mouldings; cheap, but well engineered/finished.

The vehicle park, from the other side and the three new vehicles, there is at least one other body-type (which clip to the load-bed with four ear-flap clips) as I saw a bunch in a mixed lot on evilBay about a week ago, but the shots weren't clear enough to discern, however it looked like a stack of gas-canisters, like an old barrage-balloon lorry.

Close-ups of the truck we looked at last time, passing itself off as a Ford but not looking like one I know (is it a recognisable US Ford-type?), it has features in common with some of the smaller Chinatrucks you find.

Close-ups of the interim boxed-front design, the dark green one has appeared on the Blog with very different accompanying stuff to the stuff the yellow one came with. The two holes in the load-bed suggest plug-ins for these as well as the clip-on bodies.

As the yellow one came in the 'Big Bag' I can't draw conclusions from what may (or may not) have gone with it, but the fact that the green one come with very different stuff (mini-tank; Patton, and jet fighter) suggests that the middle-man was not only ordering different configurations of contents for different sets, but either had possession of all the moulds, or was working with the same factory for all sets, who had a wide range of mould tools to work with.

This lorry also represents something different for Hong Kong/China; the exception that proves the rule! Usually, the quality of these rack-toys drops off as they go through the generations of copies of copies of copies . . .

. . . but in this case the original (smaller, yellow; 1970/80's) is the worst generation and the modern, third-generation (mid-green, printed bonnet; current) is the best with an interim design (sand and jade; 1990's-2000's).

The original looks like an old 70's chromed-up Studebaker or Chevrolet pick-up truck but with a stretched body, the first clean-up makes it look more 'Army Lorry'-like and the recent re-design (blocking the windows, something which happened with later copies of the 1-ton Humber mini-trucks - makes for a simpler tool) has turned it into something more 'future medium-lift replacement logistics vehicle programme' looking!

The Ford and the two same-sized Box-fronts. The new one has decent wheels and a return to the metal axles of the '50/60's toys, rather than the [tend to break, or miss-mould] all-plastic things which came-in in the 1970/80's as a cost reducer; as we saw with the jeep variations yesterday.

A couple of slightly different ones - the larger push-and-go is a copy of a Triang-Mettoy-Minic-Playcraft type (I think?) and hard styrene except for the wheels.

The smaller one is the old 1-ton Humber but in HO-OO gauge compatible size rather than the mini-trucks we looked at back in 2011. Now . . . I've never seen this size of the vehicle in Pyro-Kleeware guise (their bigger scale lorry's cab was more like the push-and-go), so this must be a copy from Dinky (or one of the other copies) or a scale-up from the mini-trucks (it has the same components as the mini-Kleeware's) and is clearly the donor for the lesser NFIC versions. Marx also pirated it but as a cleaned-up and slightly distorted, flatter, almost 'squashed' moulding.

This is clearly off the back of a recent toy, probably from a larger tub/bucket play set, until I've ID'd its carrying-vehicle it remains a UN storage hanger! Can anyone help ID the set or vehicle?

Rocket launchers, for completion really - we've seen two of them on the Blog already and the third is above!

I thought this (left-hand image) was from my old imageshack.com account, but I think it's a scanned photograph, so may have been seen here before, but again, it's 'ere because it's 'ere because it's 'ere! I particularly like the Vostok type rocketry, as both are militarised (with paint) versions of civil 'big rigs' it probably also exists as a very incongruous NASA type in an alternative play set! Small scale.

On the right is a bit of fun; have you seen the Movie Brazil? My dream-house!

M is for Monogram's Men Made Much Mangier in Macau

Not much blurb with these, being vintage (after all the new stuff we've been looking at) and un-branded generics; there's nothing TO say! They are all copies of Monogram's kit figures, which have been much copied and re-issued (by Revell) over the years and we will look at them all in greater detail on the Hong Kong Blog eventually as there are various types, we're looking at 3 maybe 4 different sources here. Enjoy the artwork!

The first four are all from the same source . . .

We looked at the vessels (loose) when I did all the mini-ships years ago, they are copies of the Triang Minic range in soft plastic. We also saw three of the sets when I did the 1-ton Humber posts. These sets are all dated early to mid-1960's.

This was sent to the Blog by Dario from Italy, and we looked at another one from the range on the Airfix Blog (8th Army - 1st Type), they are rather charming with the shaped blisters, but the contents are third-rate in the hierarchy of Hong Kong production - as are all the sets in this post, of course, that is the nature of Rack Toys! These figures are slightly smaller and I would imagine this set dates to the late1960's or the early 1970's.

Your eyes can tell you as much as I can waffle. Back to the earlier 1960's for this one.

Ditto! It's trying to be the same as the last set, but has a different mix of slightly different figures.

PS - probably not Macau!

A is for Army Moving Parts Vehicles!

Preparing stuff for a future page...actually: preparing stuff for the existing HK Khaki Infantry page and the Airfix Blog, I kept getting confused by shots in two folders, eventually I 'realised' I'd shot the same set twice..."But hold on" I thought..."One of these folders is for the Britains/Crescent stuff, the other is for the Airfix stuff...what's going on here?"

Well, those naughty pirates in 1950/60's Hong Kong were plagiarising each other with some skill and confusing me years later, so as an exercise in how devious they all were - I give you:

 Army Moving Parts Vehicles...parts I and parts II!

Side by side and a quick glance...they're the same set aren't they, artwork's a bit fuzzy on the right-hand one...or a bit sharp on the left-hand one, other than that, the same set. Aaahhh! But....the figures are different? Must have run out and bought some others in, to finish a contract?

Well, maybe, but it's a little subtler than that...everything is different...everything! Upper shots and left shots below are all of the left-hand set, lower/right are the right-hand set...

The mini Humber trucks are two different sizes and equate to two different classes in the posts I did on the subject, the left set having the little spoke-wheeled ones with black plug-ins (my 'Type 4'), the right set having metal-axles and solid wheels with green plug-ins (my 'Type 6A').

The artwork is done using different printing systems, one litho-plated, the other a form of three-colour screen-print, the artwork and font copied none-too-accurately, with only one having a stock-number.

One has the 100-figure card copies of Airfix, the other having copies of Britains Lilliput 'Trooscale' troops.

But this is where the depth of the piracy becomes obvious, if not incredible....the same two aircraft types, placed similarly on the card, but from two sources, the one pair being well detailed with stars on the wings, the other pair blob'ier with HONG KONG across the wings. That's a lot of effort to go to for what was probably little reward. But - any reward is worth whatever it takes!

Wheels and tyres...different!

Axles and chassis - different! Marks...

...gun-mounts, guns, even (slightly) the drivers; all different.

A close-up of the two artworks, this isn't based on photography or photocopying, this is carefully copying everything in the original...poorly!

I suspect the one on the right is the original, probably locked into an exclusivity contract with a Western importer/jobber, the one on the left was copied to be hawked round the toy centres. We'll never know, but it's a fascinating example of how they worked in HK back then...no honour among thieves! More on thieves in a week or two...