T is for Two - Treasure-Hunting Terrors of the High Seas!

A couple of items which seemed too-small for separate posts but which I then found myself collaging-down to four images from an initial folder-full, and there's still a couple on the 'unused' sub-folder!

These shots came from Brian Berke, not something I'm collecting, as they are a tad big - and cartoony. They are interactive PC/Video-game pieces, or 'it is...'! Brain sent a few a couple of years ago, and I got-up some articles with Toy Fair and retail catalogue stuff, but they are languishing in the long-queue with me not confident enough about them to produce worthy blurb! But a pirate? Well, that's a different thing altogether . . .

. . . and if the figure in question is Captain Jack Sparrow himself ('Captain' of what remaining less than clear, through a four-film franchise!), he must appear! He thinks he's Captain of the Black Pearl, but several people think he isn't or shouldn't be!

A lovely figure, if both over-cartoony and a bit effeminate, but that was definitely the persona Johnny Depp wanted to get across, so it works. The figure will have electronics in the base and is part of a much larger range of Disney characters going back through the years of their cinematic output. I love the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and think I can say with some confidence, that the raised finger is a sign that an unbelievable excuse or complicated plea for mercy is about to come-forth! "Now . . . a'bout thaaaat . . . yer'see, it was like this . . . "

From the we-buy-this-so-you-know-what-you're-getting-if-you-buy-them-too department comes this bag of polyethylene 'solid' pirates, currently findable on feebleBay. I could tell the images were deliberately 'cloaked' so knew it might be disappointing, but they were 2.99 or 3.99 or something, fo five and I could make out at least two, so bought them anyway just to see what they were.

They were three separate sculpts (less than 1.50 each?) and two duplicates of the 'captain' figure. They are also quite large and have a self-tapping screw-hole in their backs, so may have started-life as decorative items or knobs for children's furniture or something? More likely a manufacturing 'thing' left visible on [cheap] cake decorations!

Totally unmarked/unbranded (including the cellophane bag - no labels), they were a pleasant surprise for not being as disappointing as I had prepared myself for! What you get if you do look for and buy them are three slightly chunky pirates with a poorish paint-job of the stab-and-hope style, who would - nevertheless - paint-up better and go with theSchleich/Pappo/ELC stuff admirably!

These are on the Kipp Brothers website (wholesale store in Indiana, founded 1880! Store currently closed for Covid-19) at $2.95 for four poses in slightly alternate paint schemes but the same silver polyethylene, it puts the pose-count to six.

Thanks again to Brian for the Cap'n Jack pictures.

T is for Tsarist Troop of Terracotta Tree Trinkets

I love these, they may be [quite?] modern, but they are so charming, and this is proper collecting of proper toy soldiers, sadly outside my budget, but I shot them before they had all gone, thanks to Adrian Little for that opportunity and let's look at them;

I don't know where Adrian got them from (and wouldn't ask, trade secrets are trade secrets!), but he did say one had broken which was unfortunate for him, but it means we know they are made of a very thin slip-cast terracotta, but fired beyond the 'composition' of the Spanish figures we looked at the other day, to a fine ceramic which rings just like glass decorations. They may be double-fired as the painted decoration - while fine - seems to be a glaze, but they are then dipped in a thick varnish so may only have been painted and covered?

The Cossack is supposed to hold something, a (wooden?) sabre? The chap on the far right is a Lancer (?) the other three are regular Russian infantry of different ranks or employments, I think; from the left - Officer, Line Infantry, Grenadier?

They are finally mounted on a wooden plinth which gives them the appearance of Central European nut-crackers, but obviously stylistically different, being accurate renditions of the uniforms worn by the Russian army in the Wellingtonian period!

For readers not familiar with the Wellingtonian period (I don't use the term as often as I used to), it is that period in history at the beginning of the C18th, when Lord's Wellington and Nelson ran around Egypt, the Iberian Peninsula and Belgium, or the nearby oceans, giving Frenchie a few good spankings, which he'd asked for, so that was nice! Sadly (and not for the only time) the Russians had to handle the eastern-end of the enterprise by themselves, a job they managed ably, with the aid of General Winter - not for the only time!

I didn't have a tape measure at Sandown Park, but you can see the figures are 140mm with a 10-mil slice of finest larch or birch (?) at one end. They have a loop at the other end which must be for hanging, and I know some of the nicest glass tree decorations come from the former Soviet Union (along with some pretty kitsch awfulness, but the same is true of any large amount of random decorations anywhere [TKMaxx yesterday!]; taste is a strange mistress!), so I assume these are tree decorations. Given there were other regiments/uniforms available; they must look stunning in numbers!