T is for Teeny-Tiny Taiwanese Trucks, Tanks and Tippers!

I picked these up a few weeks ago, as a cheapie on that there evilBay, I don't know anything about them, and the only clue is a small, uneven 'TAIWAN' on the underside of each vehicle/a single component.

I suspect they are [earlyish?] examples of what the Japanese call Gashepon, or vending-machine toys, but - obviously - Taiwanese in origin, and as we will see, very much 'box scale' and simplified, but charming for that. They are also quite idiosyncratic, so we'll start with the easy one!

It's basically a 6x6 Pinzguaer high mobility all-terrain vehicle/artillery tractor, or similar militarised 'mini-van' type vehicle, and comes in at around the 1:90th mark, which would make it an additional asset to a Roco or Roscopf army! It's even in a similar olive-drab colour, and consists of five parts; three clip-in wheels and two body-halves.

The Gepard-decorated box actually contains a late-mark (1A5?) Leopard MBT with a pair of carpet wheels for perambulation. As the build-instructions are for the same, I don't know why they went with a Gepard SPAAG for the artwork? But I did say the set was idiosyncratic!

An idiosyncrasy which continues with this pair, where each has the other's exploded construction view on the back of the box! The heavy ore-truck was lacking a pair of wheels, but they are the same mouldings as the 'Pinzgauer' so I nicked a pair of them for the shots, while the bulldozer will need tracks made-up, which I will do one day from old inner-tube and cyclist's rubber cement.

The final two are a really rather good jeep (basic wheels mind!) and what is best described as a simplified Stridsvagn 103 'S-Tank', but it could just as easily be an attempt at a Scorpion CVRT! It comes from the box with a Tiger I as artwork! You can see the underside is the same as the Leopard's.

The whole line-up, with the dump-truck retaining the spare wheels! The boxes shout 1970's at you, but at least two of the vehicles depicted are screaming 1990's, so your guess is as good as mine as to when/where these first appeared, and I suspect - from the limited number of duplicated parts - there are more to the full range.

J is for Just a Quick One! F is for Follow-up, T is for Two . . .

. . . Three . . . Four? We looked at this oddity here ages ago, can't remember when now, but I know I've highlighted the weirdness of a Pz.Kfw. II 'Luchs' (lynx) light-tank chassis on a M4 Sherman medium tank, however I was convinced mine had a broken driver (Matchbox Battle Kings piracy), so when I saw one in a charity shop days (or hours?) before the latest Lockdown . . .

. . . top left, I bought it. I got home to find a parcel from Chris Smith, which had another (top right), and they were different, so I dug-out the third (bottom-middle, to find the driver was fine!), and found more differences, not great, but they are there.

Chris's on the left here has the Hong Kong in a sort of 'postmark' cartouche, the Charity shop purchase has added carpet-wheels, while the old one is a hybrid of the two, sans wheels but with the same mark as the wheeled one.

Like I say, not great differences, but they confirm the evolutionary nature of such things, as we looked at previously with the pencil sharpener/tourist figurines. I have no idea which order they go in, so it's only for curiosity's sake . . . and 'completism'!

The current iteration of these common-enough tourist trinket/gift shop/museum novelty pencil sharpeners, as far as armour goes, is an M1 Abrams I believe, but there was also an M60 with an ERA (Explosive Reactive Armour) suite, and I've picked-up one of those at some point. Its running-gear is not much better to be honest, having more in common with those cheap Pioneer knock-offs of Matchbox 1-76 type die-casts.

The two together, they're 'box-scale', but might suit 1:100th scale war-gaming? I won't bother with branding on these; there are maybe 20+ boxings around the world, most of the main importers/jobbers and some odder firms more normally associated with dolls house accessories, games and such-like have also had a go, although Play Me in Spain (tag'able) may have been originator on some?

While the superstructures on my three are the same, when we get on to the canons (yeah . . . one day!), we'll see that there are different versions as well as variations within one version, with two or three different Mortars, Naval Guns, Catapults, Trebuchets or Battlement canons, so it's quite complicated!

Thanks to Chris for my third [different] M4 Sherman pencil sharpener!

T is for They Were Verh'verh'ry Drunk!

This one took me a while to locate and pin down, but I am now satisfied enough to share it with you, despite the fact that I may be wrong, but given how little we seem to know about some Western manufactures, researching the Eastern ones is no easier!

The following was - I now believe - manufactured by The People's Soviet Socialist Republic of Russia's Medical & Labor Dispensary №.1 Tambov Region, Zelenyi Settlement but I stand to be corrected . . . and may have extended the title somewhat, for comedic effect!

First, however, a rant; a small rant! We have all been lied to, and are continually lied to by those in power, and those who control the media or have other 'vested interests'. There is no difference between 'them' and 'us', which is not to say there aren't differences in funding, or finance, in political will or behavior, in economic model or philosophy, but ultimately the Russians ("the 'Commie' Sov's") and us were far more similar than you might think from what we were told.

Today's toy (below) was basically manufactured by recovering alcoholics, they could just as easily have been disabled people, or ex-servicemen, but that 'meaningful, gainful employment' by way of therapy or as a means to aid convalescence - in the Soviet Union - is (was!) no different to the work being done by the blind at PZG in Poland, by ex-servicemen at Enham Alamein or Linburn (both latterly: Remploy) or (because a lot of the drunks were at Tambov custodially) Prindus (Prison Industries).

Now, there are two points to take away from this, the first is that the Soviets had a rehabilitation system for habitual drunks . . . they didn't send them to Siberia, they didn't 'disappear' them out of helicopters (a trick of US backed/funded/trained regimes in Central and South America), no, like any normal, day-to-day society, they had a rehabilitation program for troubled (or troublesom) citizens; just like ours.

The second point is that the facilities at Tambov (which is how I'll refer to it for the rest of the article, as otherwise their title - any other way you cut-it - is a mouthful!) are now derelict, as PZG seems to have ceased producing toys, as Linburn disappeared, as Enham was swallowed by civilian (state funded) 'charity' bureaucracy and has now lost it's Remploy unit. So the parallels of good programs under social responsibility are mirrored in the later neglect of today's Thatcherite-Raganomic 'free-market' Capitalists . . . everywhere!

All simplistic (and a bit muddle-headed), I'll grant you, but you know what I'm trying to get across and to do the above properly would require a wordy tome on nuanced-parallels of socio-economic conditions in differing political systems, which only academics would read! But, if Tambov, PZG, Linburn and Prindus were still making toys; what a nicer world it would be!

And if Remploy (all units, Britain-wide, closed without warming by the Cameron-Glegg administration) were still going last December, they could have scaled-up and been producing the PPE we needed, before we needed it, negating the need for Boris to give £122m for PPE to a company with no assets formed seven or eight weeks ago . . . by someone he gave a peerage to!

You see, as well as there being no difference between us all at the bottom, there's no real difference between them all at the top!

This is the item in question, a towed field-gun with caterpillar-tractor, all as a one-moulding 'readymade'. Similar to the solid ones we looked at a while ago from Chris (both rockets and large howitzers being towed on that occasion), but hollowed-out to lessen material costs, and the heat shrinkage.

It was in a mixed lot with some other stuff, among which was this chap, who being the same semi-transparent polymer which - after recent conversations with Polish collectors - is probably nylon66 (what in the past I have called a nylon/rayon type or Polypropylene!) and a similar scale, is I suspect part of the same set? They go well together anyway!

Foreshortening from the camera-angle has made him look a lot smaller than the Airfix figure, he's not, but he is only HO-compatible to the Airfix 1:76th scale.

This was the logo, and it wasn't in the list of 160-odd I use as a first point of reference for these things (many thanks to Nazar Marchenko for that heads-up), so I had some days looking, but in the end I think I've called it right . . .

. . . for the Tambov 'clinic' (on the left here), while other contenders were both too circular and the toy-vehicle's mark lacks anything which might be the tree's trunk (Roshal Chemical Plant 'A.A. Kosyakov')* or the lettering of the Mercedes/Pizza Hut-hat (Moscow Factory 'Spetsstanok'), so I think the rather crude mark on the toy (carved with an engineer's chisel straight into the tool?) is the one we're after? But . . . I stand to be corrected!

* Also now derelict (I like the construction guide-board for a noddy-suit respirator, all laid-out like an O-Level lab-rat!) and like Tambov; known for colourful sets of blow-moulded figures; manufactured on an armaments site!

S is for Shrunken Stone!

You know how it is . . . the neighbours get all the tribes together, six-summers running and build a bloody great henge-a-ma-bob down the road, and you think it would be nice to get Jeff the odd-job bloke to knock you up one between the parterre and the ha-ha? Cost is an issue - of course; you've been taxed the fuck-out-of to pay for the big-chief's one, so you go with a bit of a downsized 'replica'!

This was a charity-shop job earlier in the week, and I was trying to gauge the size of the thing from the very small box, and whether it was the same as the one I bought years ago, after another Blogger (who I'm afraid I've forgotten the name of) highlighted them on his Blog (The Works it was). I reckoned it couldn't be the same; in addition it was only 95p, so I figured it was worth a punt?

Once I'd shot the pictures for Friday's 'News, Views . . . ' I began to suspect it was the same, the puzzle-mat seemed the same and the stones also felt/looked familiar as they fell into place, especially the L-shaped ones in the outer circle, but once it was all in place I thought it looked too small to re-do the battle I'd done on the previous posting. Also I couldn't find the old one on the dongles!

Eventually I found it on the Airfix Dongle as I'd posted one image there (reproduced above as I still haven't found the original sample!), and it's odd, but clever . . .

. . . both sets are by the same maker/publisher; Running Press, and to the eye, the stones seem to be about the same size, but the puzzle-disc base is about 30% smaller, and the whole thing has been contracted - the inner circle are all closed up (you wouldn't get a chariot through the new gap!), while two big gaps in the outer circle have been done away with to pull the whole thing tighter.

But closer inspection reveals that the stone may be smaller too. I will dig the old one out and do a proper comparison at some point (soon'ish - I think I know where it is), and I suspect the stones will be the same 30-odd% reduced. It's hard to judge as these are in a very small box while the others were spread-out in two or three layers of blisters.

Looking at the stones they (or some) look similar but not all identical and it may be that pantographing, or a scaling down of a CAD .dwg for 3D printing was employed in the production of new masters? Their finished state, like the earlier set is poured, cold-cast, two-part epoxy 'polyresin'.

I think these are part of a range of novelty 'things' (toys, games, pastimes and executive trinkets) in little boxes, that you find in places like Waterston's in a dedicated rack-tree; we've seen a Dalek here, and [foam] paper-planes? While the other was a kiddies activity book, but between the two, I may be able to produce a better 'complete' example one day, as it wasn't in its current state when the Romans arrived!

Although for those finding this one only, there were lots of stone circles once, with none of them the size or scale of Stonehenge, so imagination is the only limit and it'll make a great focus-piece of scenery in war-gaming . . . the message of the original post elsewhere I think!

S is for Salute the Bear!

I had one of those rare moments the other day, as reported recently by Bob Legget in Plastic Warrior No.173, of purchasing a cheapie from evilBay on the off-chance, and having more delivered than was expected, not a lot more, but enough!

I'd bid on what appeared to be four loose AFV's and an aeroplane, only for both the original bag and the packing slip to turn-up - having not been in the photographs!

The Logo is similar to the Odessa cultural goods/metal-works factory (Kultbyttovarov) logo we looked at a while ago with the help of Nazar Marchenko, but while that was a cat-bear or bear-cat (?) this is definitely a teddy-bear's head (it's all in the ears!), and the work's title translates as Salute Factory (завод Салют = zeaveode Esaelyute = zavod Salute = Salute works).

The four AFV's which I'd looked for after posting the other rocket-launchers and things a while ago (it's nearly March FFS!); a nice mid-Cold War grouping of 2 WWII/post-war SU's, and a - then -more up-to-date T54 and a PT76, in a size which [we will see below] comes-in at a reasonable HO-gauge compatibility.

The two plastic colours fall either side of the Kultbyttovarov FROG, but these are unmarked, I wouldn't say they weren't from the same tool-maker's though! There is as much duplication among these Soviet toys as there was in British khaki-infantry, French bazaar toys, or US derivatives of Tim-Mee!

The turrets (and gun-breaches) are held-on but allowed to move by having the ends of their locating-studs/breeches melted-back with a hot screwdriver (the breaches are actually melted-in a bit more firmly), creating a retaining 'mushroom', here the operator has got the angle wrong or pressed too-hard and left his mark in the hull!

The four heavies are accompanied by a twin-engined Illyushin Il28 'Beagle' (? - copied by the Chinese as the Hong/Harbin-5) for a bit of aerial support. As you may already have cottoned-on; the paler of the two greens is possibly the most un-photogenic colour I've ever tried to shoot, it sort of soaks-in the flash and spits it out again, as glare, all in the same millisecond - I've deleted dozens of poorer shots, yet the dark-green ones are in proper focus - they're all similarly surface-detailed; promise!

The hull in the top-left shot is the Battlefront (GaleForceNine)'s Pz.Kpfw.IV in 1:100th scale, the T34 is Roco-Minitanks' [rather too-tall] early effort in a nominal 1:87th, while the PT76 is Roskopf's which should also be 1:100, the evidence - as you can see - puts the Soviet Salute stuff closer to the hundredth than the eighty-seventh!

So; with the previously seen stuff, I've now got quite a few Russian Bears in the Right-Revolutionary Ready-made Russkie Regiment! I'll track-down a few more (I know there's a KV II still to find) and then we'll look at them all together.

R is for Roskopf

'Redhead' and I think I'm guilty of nearly always using Roscopf with a 'c' in the past, and will probably do so again in the future, my bad, but I'll try to get in right in this post! A post which is really only a small-scale box-ticker; looking briefly at the figural output of this Austrian maker's military range.

How they came in! Each set was available painted or unpainted and seem to have been removed from the runners in the factory or at the out-painters, unlike their German rival Roco Minitanks' which tended to be sold on the runner, but unpainted only. RMM stands for Roskopf Miniatur-Modell.

Marching and advancing infantry; Set 181 - 8 Soldiers with Weapons (set 181a painted) consisted of only four figure posess, and they are quite thin and crude sculpts, but when they came out there wasn't so much opposition and very little in the nominal scale of 1:100th, although that is a moot point as we will see in a forthcoming post.

There's a possibility that the unpainted set is also numbered 151 in some catalogues, either as a foursome or, possibly from before (or after?) the painted sets were offered, or even just a typo?

185/185a Five Soldiers with Infantry Weapons, this set reveals exactly the era it was issued in, with the now anachronistic bazooka and the ground-launched, wire-guided missile operator on a camp-stool (ammo-box!) with his clear line-of-sight to the people firing-back at him! They are based on other figures around at the time (Monograms 40mm and Roco's copies) but I think it's more familiarity of the others leading to similarity, rather than any direct piracy?

I have lost the two Sagger-looking rockets which accomany this set in the unpainted lot, and the painted lot's are both damaged!

Sets' 183 - Sitting Figures & 184 - Drivers and Passengers and 183a/184a were seated figures for the AFV range the figures were designed to accompany, and I only have partial samples of each.

With drivers and co-drivers/convoy sentries (184/184a) on the left, and 'loads' for troop-carrying trucks etc . . . (183a) on the right. Again there is a hint of Monogram/Roco in the trooper and again; these also seem to be the basis of the similar EKO set, which also produced them in the same dark-green polystyrene.

As well as being pretty crude, these figures are also quite generic and could be used with NATO, Soviet or neutral state equipment, especially after a bit of paint - both the lack of detail and the diminutive stature hiding a multitude of sins!

I suspect I still have to track down the contents/examples of a 182/182a unless they are the rockets for 181?

T is for Toy Fair 2018 Reports - GaleForce Nine (GF9) - Battlefront

This is the final last-year's Toy Fair report, both it and the other days Battat post had gone into a self-imposed exile, and I didn't find them until I was clearing out the 'My Pictures' folder. It happens sometimes with Picasa - that it arbitrarily decides you don't want to view a folder anymore and it hides it!

Also I don't know what to say about all this, which will be hopelessly out of day any day now, and of which those gamers who may be interested have much better blogs to go to, while those who don't won't be that bothered!

Battlefront are a New Zealand outfit, GaleForce Nine seem to carry the stuff over here and I think it's all 1:100 AFV's with 1:144 aircraft, and not many figures - which would be a tad fiddly for what appear to be quite formulaic tank-warfare systems.

I think these are Team Yankee which seems to preclude figures all together, so a chess-like (without the skill), systematic slugging-match from rule-book fire & movement-tables?

Ditto

Catalogue pages.

Tanks? A WWII version of Team Yankee? Most of the scenery would scale-up for other 'small-scale' gaming in '76th or '72nd?

The absence of figures is odd; all wars are won or lost on the ground-gains or losses of the infantry! And there's a lot of GW-type emphasis on buying into the whole experience with team-dice and such-like.

Catalogue pages.

The third system in offer - Flames of War actually seems to allow for some soldiers to join the fray! Although this outbreak of largess seems to be limited to anti-tank artillery crews or the odd driver?

Catalogue pages

There are more figures on the boxes than are otherwise in the catalogue!

GaleForce Nine also supply 1:100 (described as 10-15mm) scenics under the Battlefield in a Box label for all their systems and more besides (note the sci-fi gun-towers).

Although smallish at 1:100, some of these modern designs would make very useful background-buildings on HO or OO-gauge model railways, where sub-scale can help give a sense of depth.

Brand-logo's to look-out for.

4D is for Tank Killer

I had an odd experience this week (just gone), on Monday there was a tray of eight different 'generic' clip-together aircraft models for a pound-each in the Blue Cross animal-charity shop, I bought one for the record - as it were - and thought little more about them, beyond the forming of an idea for the article you're reading, until the Wednesday - when the odd bit occurred.

This is the whole set, there was one of each in the tray, and they appeared to be new production (rather than a 'member of the public' donation), at a pound each it was worth a punt on one of them and I chose the AH-64 Apache.

Eight little boxes; each containing a bag of bits and a rudimentary instruction sheet. They seem to be about 1:100 (or box-scale?) and branded - as imports - on the blank panel to Candy Toys, who keep popping-up these days.

The bag of bits contains two small runners, one a frame-runner with transparent pieces and the other a branch-runner with the rotor blades, there's also a two-part stand and a handful of helicopter body-parts; both de-'sprued'.

More interesting is the fact that the bag is marked-up for 4D, but I suspect not the same 4D Master who was responsible for the PVC-type tank available from The Works a few years ago, the recent Kangaroo and other stuff seen around.

The packaging also usefully tells us what the model is made of; ABS (Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene); probably the rotors, and GPPS (General-purpose polystyrene) also known by the trade name Akurate; the green parts and transparencies.

They (4D) have been seen on various (antipodeans'?) Blogs issuing simplified, but useful AFV's in similar hard-plastic materials. Note: they are using the bags from Oker, also seen here at Small Scale World in relation to other brands/makers toy packaging!

It's a reasonable model, although a bit small, construction being similar to 4D Master (who they may be a part of, it's only a suspicion they're more clone'ish) and an excellent budget source of air-power for some of the modern 'corporate' gaming systems?

What was odd about it? On Wednesday the same tray appeared in the Scope charity shop, but with a price of £1.20p per set, that's another £1.60p per dispenser's contents which seemed a little greedy!

The Apache was still there so it wasn't a question of buying the remains of the tray from next-door but four and marking it up - obviously there's a batch of these doing the rounds of the charity community as some sort of corporate clearance/tax write-off; there's similar card-construction sets from PMS (one of the defunct 99p Stores' brands) in Help The Aged [Age Concern] at the moment, in both cases - get 'em before they're gone - I got a haunted house; with six figures!