V is for Very Fine Sight!

During Brian Berke's recent sojourn in Italy, he bought this pair of larger scale items, as rather brilliant toy-related mementos of their visit, and nothing more iconic than a Vespa moped . . . with added babalicious babe from Babalonia!*

 

In Brian's own words;

"The two wheeler riders in Naples and surrounding area are positively demented.

This may be part of the universal road rage post Covid lockdown, though I suspect they were this way before.

The roads are narrow, which does not deter 2 wheelers from passing cars both into oncoming traffic and curbside at the same time. They go down pedestrian only streets. There are the equivalent of Zebra crossings. The custom is walk across and ignore traffic? Do not make eye contact. It was quite unnerving. Two wheelers don't stop they weave around you as you cross.

So I had to purchase this as it represents the most notable memory of the trip. The scale is larger than I would like but I wanted to buy it in Italy rather than later. The figure was the only one I could find, bought in the US which surprisingly it pretty accurate in terms of rider dress code near the beach!

It has gone on display temporally while the trip is fresh in the memory."

For a speculative purchase, they work very well together, and at 1:18th scale (approximately 90/100mm or 3-inches) the bathing beauty from American Diorama looks perfect on the Maisto moped, and one can imagine her posing in the warmth of the evening's setting sun, in one of the Piazzas, while her beau fetches a soft-scoop ice-cream cone!

We have a scaler, with the Crescent shooter, it's a trope which has rather fallen by the wayside in the last few years, not least because of everything else which has been going on, but I intended to have a couple on the planned, dedicated photo-station, once I'm fully settled, and we'll get back to 'berserker' comparisons!

As part of an eclectic display of odds and ends!

Brian shot an actual one in situ!

Many thanks to Brian for these, it's nice to have something a little left-field, and with a first for American Diorama (poured PU resin), it also adds to the underused Maisto (doe-cast) Tag . . . and, it's a babe in a bikini!

* I think I nicked that from Bill & Ted!

B is for Bwahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaa!

 No comment!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333954611338?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=333954611338&targetid=879842586457&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9046429&poi=&campaignid=9445986154&mkgroupid=95782681917&rlsatarget=aud-381667280803:pla-879842586457&abcId=578896&merchantid=232685721&gclid=Cj0KCQjw16KFBhCgARIsALB0g8JbsOMnDG7zITAAvlwOAYk_tKeSVpFi6Kssd_miDJToN87RcTb5cHQaAu3_EALw_wcB

 and for when the listing has long gone . . . 

 

Madness!

And that's with 5% off . . . Bargain!

T is for Two - Taffy Toy and Twin

When I said on Thursday (Friday's post) that I'd post the gun I thought I'd posted, I wasn't considering there might be a reason for my having not posted it in the first place! Anyway, we'll look at them as I said I'd post them and it adds to the on-blog Taffy archive!

Taken on the 24th February 2007 (just over a decade ago!) in poor light with my nearly-new, first-ever, digital camera (the first shot is DSFC0220), I still hadn't worked out how to set Macro, didn't remember the flash and seem to have lost any pictures I took of the whole of the other gun!

This is cropped out of the original on the old Taffy post and turned to give a vague idea of what the Taffy 5.5 Inch Howitzer looks like, a staple of the late war and used through to the 1970's by the British Army before being replaced by the 105 of Falkland's fame.

But there is another one out there and I can't call it a copy or clone, pirate or usurper; as it may have come first, indeed the fact that the Taffy one is non-firing would suggest it's the interloper? The 'twin' is the field-grey'ish one in each shot.

The muzzle is obviously different, the wheels are a little smaller (only a mm or so, all-round) with a deeper tread pattern, there are changes to the breech between them and the loading-tray. Otherwise there is little to tell the two apart. Given the similarities between the two AFV's - Taffy's Patton/Pershing and Kleeware's M55 SPG - which I mentioned the other day (and which ended-up with Tudor Rose in primary colours), one wonders if there is a connection between the two manufacturers and whether the firing-gun is a Kleeware piece?

To be honest, the wheels (of both) bear more relationship to Poplar's oeuvre, but while that makes sense - location/name wise - it takes u away from the similar firing mechanisms the other day! There was a lot of cross-pollination back then, and some interbreeding?

T is for Two Coaches

A couple more bits photographed at the recent PW show, both wheeled, both on the large size for what they are, one a British rendition of an American vehicle, the other, hummmm.....

As far as I know this is the largest size of Stagecoach Tudor Rose made, like yesterday's SPG, it's 'beach-toy' scale and exactly the sort of thing you'd find in the seaside kiosks when I was a kid; in a poly-bag or net, with a cardboard header and a couple of the larger mounted figures from the same maker.

It is marked Tudor Rose but it doesn't show in the photograph and I assume the bar has been taped-in to strengthen the draw-bar/centre-pole manufactured in TR's usual soft ethylene polymer.

This is from Wilton in the 'States, clearly a cake decoration (as that's what Wilton does do in'nit!), it was lacking a team, but I suspect it never had one (there's no obvious way of attaching one anyway), or if it did they were probably unicorns or something daft like that; Pegasus's (Pegasii?)!

I guess (that's like an assumption but less firm!) it's aimed at wedding cakes, but 'trailer-park' rather than 'society'! Anyway it's about the largest thing I've seen in the cake decoration stakes at around 1:30th. You might be able to read the marks - Wilton - Chicago - Made in Hong Kong - on the hard styrene body.

H is for 'Howitzer Tank'

Yeah! Kids just don't feel the same about 'self-propelled' artillery; might as well just call it artillery and watch sales tank . . . heh-heh-heh! "Better add 'Tank' to the box Dave"

I shot this at the PW show on Adrian's stall, what a peach; and an interesting choice for a model as this M55 was part of a relatively short-lived family of post-WWII SPG's with common parts, quite quickly replaced by the M108/9 family.

The model's big too, around 1:24th, maybe 1:18th? - It's about a foot-long anyway, and all in a dense silver polyethylene, what I call beach-toy scale!

The more interesting aspect than it's age (as a toy) or good condition is the shell-rack over the engine compartment, just like the Taffy Toys 'Pershing/Patton' tank we looked at back at the beginnings of the blog which was of a similar size. There are differences, the Taffy has no moulded track-link detail on the inward-facing 'walls' of the moulding and its shells are blunter-ended, but the firing mechanism is near identical, even to the flat blade trigger.

It raises the question as to whether Taffy were part of the Thomas group (as previously suggested - by me, on advise) or part of the Tudor Rose group of equally interconnected companies/entities as evidenced by the similarities with this SPG?

We looked at the two very similar yet different 5.5-inch guns last time too [Just checked, looking for the above link - no we didn't but I have the photographs, so I'll do a follow-up in a day or two! Tuesday!], it's as if there were two parallel lines, possibly designed to be sold side-by-side or at least - to complement each other?

C is for Contribution Week - I - Circus from Brian

The recent news that the world renowned Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus will soon close its ticket booth for the last time was a timely reminder that these were sat in Picasa from the Autumn waiting for me to do something with! I slightly cropped a couple and err . . . posted them here, now!

Brian said "Last weekend my wife and I went to Florida for a wedding. The town was Sarasota which contains a group of museums called The Ringling founded by the founder of the Ringling Brothers Circus. One part of the museum is called The Tibbals Learning Center which contains the massive model of a travelling circus at 1” to 18” scale. My photos do not do credit to the model so go to the website."

1 & 2 "...show figures on the workbench. They are based on plastic German made dolls house figures that were obtained in bulk when SEARS stores discontinued the range. I mention all this in case you can identify the brand? As you can see working from a photo they are making a diorama of workers standings outside a railcar."

A fascinating shot of a professional's workbench, not that a lot of you don't also have tools, paints, reference materials, lights, magnifiers and several works in progress scattered around or piled about! Although one feels this table's been tidied somewhat for the public who are allowed to look.

"Original figures were carved in wood . . . [...] . . . Presently a Mr. McGarvey and his wife are on site building figures to fill the gaps . . ."

These look to be commercial Italian nativity figures, possibly Composition (from the strange angle of the tails) but could be plastic? I can also see a novel use for kids pink, fluorescent, craft pipe-cleaners. The camels have also been enhanced with various items of craft and 'carding' materials, trims and baubles!

These are wonderful, I suspect a latex (?) wrap-around moulding to convert - again commercial - horses into 'sea-horses'; the mirror crates an army of them!

This is wonderful; I believe the balding gent showing the kids how a sea-lion is handled was once a novelty pencil-sharpener, possibly sold by Archee McFee/Accoutrements, about ten years ago?

Note also how the pinking-sheered edge of the model marquee almost matches the real one visible in the background and the top of the shot. I vaguely recognise the girls, are they an old, [failed?] line of 'pink' Lego?

Many more people along with a fleet of scratch-built animal wagons with what looks like one of the rings, in the background, but closer inspection reveals it's the elephants enclosure.

It would be nice to see a few comments on this one - can you ID any of the commercial figures origins, what interests you on the worktop, what do you like best, I love the sea-horse army!

Wikipedia

Thanks to Brian Berke for sending us something a little out of the ordinary.