P is for Perfect Plastic!

I don't, as a rule, 'rate' Timpo, Britains, Airfix, Marx, MPC, Starlux or Elastolin, nor the tranche of smaller companies immediately at their heels, simply because they were huge, popular and ran for a while, churning out millions of figures, from, often, ever-changing line-ups.

 

This is not to say I don't enjoy them, or appreciate them, just that it's box-ticking stuff which is all over the internet, in all the books, and the first things to be waded-through on Blogs or forums! Tables often groan under the weight of them at shows!

 

But, I do have a soft spot for the smaller-scale output of Elastolin, Merten and Starlux, so it's always nice to add a few to the master 'samples', and I bought this little lot at Sandown Park the other week, all Elastolin, and all 'clean', with no damage, little or no play-wear, and the correct weapons.

 

Romans

 

Huns versus Rus!

 

 Normans / Anglo-Saxons

 

Medieval

The sculpting of the plastics was a high-point of toy soldier production, although the price of Elastolin was always at a point where the use of the word 'toy' was a moot point! I do have a reasonable sample, indeed, a Journalist, sent to my home many years ago, went through it, and talked me out of one of the better Normans! But they are regularly added to, and one day they'll probably be used to illustrate the A-Z blog-entry, when I get round to it?

F is for Follow-up - Combat Plunder Post

Basically looking at the 'who are they' figures, I'm afraid it doesn't add much, but is a useful reminder of where we're at with these. I had a couple of other supporting images in Piacsa, so I've put a few up, at the end of the post.

 

This is a shot of the versions I was originally told were Galoob, and which are copies of the Galoob Micromachine smallies, or were pantographed-down for them, but there is no evidence to date that the 40mm versions were actually, ever sold by Galoob, however they are quite common as Realtoy, Daron or Sky Mark. I'm now pretty certain these came from whichever Chinese factory was supplying Galoob.

 

While this set is the softer copies, which I have pencilled in, with the minimal of circumstantial evidence as being from Pioneer, or whoever supplied Pioneer, given they were primarily a die-caster. Here in Imperial/Buddy L branding, we have also seen them as Stonegalleon and Woolbro/Toy Leader, while the smaller, unpainted copies, are more likely Pioneer. This is a poor shot, which I think must be the seller's picture of a set I bought, as . . .
 

. . . I have managed to scan the lining-card! You can see several of the firefighter figures which have come in with mixed lots, and some construction workers, I hadn't even made the connection on! The prone figure is not a Galoob sculpt.

 

Shipped into the UK by Titan, which puts Supreme in the frame too, but only loosely, they had their own sculpts, the larger Ackerman et all., set. I'll try to remember to do a follow-up or 'roundup' on them too, once the Chris donation posts are done.

 

The best way to understand it (or not!) is to click the Realtoy Tag, but it's all getting a bit confused, and I'll need to bring everything together in a larger post, with all the sets, and the many loose figures (no duplicates so far, due to three sizes, two materials, and a dozen or so plastic colours and/or paint-ways), set side-by-side.

 

And then, are the bigger (50/54mm) ones we saw from Greece (Zita Toys) also Pioneer or another supplier, the evidence is they are Pioneer, and they have some of the firefighter poses too. The fact that the rough, oblong based versions are now being found alongside the smoother, ovoid 'Galoob' bases, suggests one source for all bar the Realtoy, and what evidence we do have, is that Pioneer (or their supplier) may be that supplier?

 

Some more of the poorer copies of Marx's 45mm GI's, in two shades of green, I have a few of these too, somewhere! We looked at them quite early-on in the Blog's history, here

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2012/07/l-is-for-late-thanks-to-blogger.html

 

The hard-plastic, painted-polystyrene versions turn-out to have been a troop supplied with this battery-operated ("Bateries not included"!) Power Mite truck. A similar yellow truck with (I think?) cement-mixer OR aggregate-tipper bodies had the six (?), very finely sculpted, 35/40mm construction workers, like Blue Box's copies of Dinky, but much nicer, and very brittle. They may also have had a later, window-box issue? I think a comment on that old post may have been confusing these with the smaller Miniature Masterpiece sets?

 

A reminder of the smallest packaging variant of the Supreme/SP Toys issues.

T is for Two - Four-Wheeled Wonders!

Between civil, military and space, there were lots of vehicles in the last lot of Sandown show plunder, but that's not such a surprise, given as how it started life as a train/die-cast show, those tables groaning under the weight of Furby 'plushies', Bratz dolls, Lego and Transformer stuff you see these days, are far more recent additions to the halls!

 

In its day, this must have been a common-enough pocket-money toy, as it's at least the third to be added to the stash I think, and while this isn't the best one, it comes with the driver, which previous examples were lacking, but which I probably have in the loose passenger/rider zone, so will hopefully now be able to properly crew the others with! It's a pretty-standard Poplar/Thomas PVC figure, but in white rubber, rather than the usual flesh/pink/brown tones; possibly to match the wheels he was shot with?

 

While this, Jean Höfler or Manurba (?) toy is another Mercer, and it could be the Mercer all the other plastic Mercers are copied from, but I don't think so, it's not even the best moulding out of all those US, French and Hong Kong ones we saw here at Small scale World, a while ago, so I suspect it's a copy too, from whichever was the better Mercer, one of the French ones, Schuco, Matchbox 'Yesteryears'?

 

I don't recognise the boy-logo, and Jean used a drum-logo, but the text is very much in the style of either maker. I've found the rest of the set on a locked foreign-language site, associated with the name Rosenberg, and have possibly ruled-out early Siku and Bruder?

P is for Papo's Pot of 40mm Plastics

Picked this up, reduced, at a garden centre a while back, I visited a couple this afternoon and picked-up some useful tree decorations, but nothing Halloween, nor any new toys, or novelties, but I like to keep an eye on them!

 

I think we saw these when they were first released at the London Toy Fair at Kensington Olympia, but that particular lot of shots may still be in the long queue . . . Doh! Anyway, we've seen the 40mm Pirates, probably not all of them yet, but most now? These are the farm!

 

Horse rider and horse, I think we've had her come-in with a mixed lot at some point, so she can go in the swaps pile, once I've everything together and sorted, the poultry, however are a tad big in my opinion, they could chase that calf 'till its heart gives out!

 

Heavy horses.

 

Everybody else! That's it box, or Toob, ticked!

L is for Little Jolly Boat!

This year's ITLAPD is, despite the first three posts, actually about pirate ships, more than the pirate figures, although all posts have figures, most of the remaining posts will be featuring boats, and that's the correct term, as they tend to be small, and the old ruling is "Ships can carry boats, boats can't carry ships".

 

I picked this up just after Christmas, and it's the boat for the smaller of the Thomas-Poplar pirates, in this case very definitely Thomas, not Poplar! You get one each of four figures, scaled down from the larger set, and lacking the tools/weapons of that larger scaled bunch of scallywags! There are four advertised, and four receiving holes for their foot-spigots.

 

The 'classic' seaside kiosk 'big bag', now very tatty, but clearly marked-up to TN Thomas, of Bridgend, Glamorgan . . . a very Welsh part of 'Great Britain', it has to be said! Now it happens that this year saw the latest (third or fourth) issue of Plastic Warrior magazine's Poplar Checklist/Special Publication, (and it's very good!), in which the previous relationship between Thomas and Poplar was rather divorced, and I think, as this is the third TNT product from the UK seen on these pages, that the relationship will have to be restored, in the next update, as clearly Thomas issued some of the stuff, as Thomas.

 

Sail and mast, showing how the scull & crossed-bones motif just plugs in!

 

Three poses, we looked at two previously, duplicates of these here, and I pointed out on that occasion they were still a bit of a mystery, so this post is very-much a revelation, confirming previous musing on the subject. It looks like only three of the five larger-scale poses were copied though; the Captain and two of the crew, although one hopes the others may turn-up?

 

The underside of the boat reveals a clear MADE IN ENGLAND (Wales!!) mark at the rear/stearn, and what appears to be the same message in a different font, deliberately obscured, near the middle, but toward the front/bow, which is not so clear in this shot, but I assure you it's there.

 

In comparison with one of the larger figures, we'll be looking at them later today.

They lose the hat/hat-spike as well as weapons/tools. 

 

Likewise, the boat, is a smaller, simplified version of the larger vessel.

C is for 'Collector Pack' Corsaires!

So, the biggest question mark hanging over ITLAPD, was actually answered in the spring of 2024, when, quite by chance, looking for something else, I encountered not the Zizzle Pirates I've been asking about for years, but the superheroes tacked-on to the end of this post. The answer to the question being . . . They are Disney theme-park Collector Pack figures. But I ran-out of time last year, so they didn't get posted!

 

Five additions to the collection, I think one or two may be duplicates, but as they turn-up infrequently, and seem to have some value, when listed correctly (I've been lucky with mine, and the three or so prior purchases has always been unknown, undescribed, or just PotC type listings), the duplicates should sell-on eventually, and it's going to be the only way to get all of them!

 

 

Not that I have any idea how many there are, yet, and decent websites on the collector packs are hard to find, like, I haven't found one! I did find that in around 2012 (or earlier, Zizzle ceased trading in 2009?), the size changed, and the chap in the middle here, is from a set of 16, which includes three micro-ships, sized for board games!

 

An Internet shot with some of the figures I still have to find. It seems the Collector Packs, are like blind bags, or Gashapon, and only available in the theme-parks, possibly as you arrive, or leave? And the reason nobody managed to ID them all these years? I think the average toy soldier collector is two cultured to spend his or her days praying to the corporate money-pit of self-referential Mamon, which theme-parks represent?!

 

Another of the new, smaller figures, 40mm against the 54mm'ish of the older sets, depicts Captain Hook from Disney's Peter Pan, again, I don't know which set he’s from, or whether it's a set of Pan characters or mixed Disney staples, Micky, Sleeping Beauty etc . . .?

 

However, I did find out that newer franchises/Disney properties are represented in both sets, and ended-up with these Superhero figures in 54mm, also by Zizzle to go with the Kinder and Res Plastics types! I still don't know the significance of the base marks and wildlife silhouettes, and if this now rings any bells with anyone, we still need all the other questions answered!

• How many sets
• How many figures
• When were they issued
• How were/are they obtained 
• What's the story with the base marks

and, I guess;

• If Zizzle made the old ones, who's making the new ones?

But, at least we now know they are Disney collector packs, and I'll try to find time, in the next few days, to re-Tag the previous outings of them, here at Small Scale World.

S is for Shooting Swashbucklers

DO NOT AIM AT FACE . . . "You'll 'av someone's eye out with that!" Further to the set of four Accoutrements pirates in the intro' post, they had been commissioned, earlier, for the long-running series of catapult novelties, from Accoutrements/Archie McFee - we've seen the cats here, and there have been nuns, grannies, dogs, tarts, I think, all sorts, over the years.

 

A good friend of mine has been sorting his late brother's estate, and found this in a damp corner, and as a friend of the brother, I'd rather have this than a minted one off-of that feebleBay. A target on the back of the card gives you something to aim your Prates at!

 

The figures, in a better resolution than the previous image, you get the four, they're a semi-rigid, replacement PVC type polymer, and I think the blue-jacket is a lady, so there's no sexism in the human ammunition!

 

A flinging firearm, the catapult pistol! I think some of the later sets have a more simple device, or am I thinking of the small-box novelty displays in Waterstone's? Anyway, all a bit of Pirate-projectile fun!

L is for Lord of the Jadas

I can't remember where I found this now, I have a feeling it was discounted, so probably TKMaxx, but I can't swear to it, it was in the last few weeks though (July shots), so may still be out there, if like me, you do regularly irregular sweeps of all the likely sources!

Having waxed lyrical about these Jada die-cast figures in the past, and specifically their decoration/paint-finish, I have to say I don't think these Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) figures, are quite as nice as some we've seen, but the green cloak guy has the lustre I liked so much on my first figure, while the silver chap could march straight into any 28mm biblical force, although at 40-odd-mm he'd have to be a specific Philistine!

F is for Follow-up - LB Spacetronauts!

I picked this set up in the November toy fair at Sandown Park, and it's interesting for a couple of reasons, one wouldn't necessarily get from online images, or, without the benefit of poring over it and comparing it to other examples.

 

Whole set.

 

Full extant of the graphics.

 

Card slid-out and opened-up.

 

Moon-shot landing module, and this is the first interesting aspect. Obviously it's missing its little antenna-dish, but I think I have a spare one, possibly in white, but there may be a chromed one kicking-around somewhere, so? And, if I only have a white one, you can get this media in paint-marker pens now, the Ad's keep appearing in my Faceplant feed!

 

However, you can see from the off-white at the hole, this seems to be the same lander which came as a cake decoration with the late NASA suited pair & flag, from Lik Be (LB), via Culpitts, which matched the robot aliens. Something that may not surprise the average viewer, as the figures look to be the larger LB figures?

 

But, as you can see here, they are actually the smaller ones, which were new to me with the little chromium-plated one we saw last time we had a catch-up of these old favourites. The original is on the left with a dodgy paint-job!

 

And, as a reminder that there's no fool like an old fool, a friend picked several of these out of a bowl I'd already ignored at a show (actually the September Sandown!), because I thought I had them all, but then I looked at these two remaining ones, and under the show lighting, they looked to have different paint, so I grabbed them both slightly chagrined I'd missed the other six, only to get them home and realise in the cold light of day, that the red, the gaiters and the silver on the rears, are all some other Muppet's home-painting! Hay-ho - a full strip awaits them!

 

But, by the time I realised my mistake, I'd already shot this comparison with an Athena spaceman from Greece, a UK knock-off of Premier's fellow (I don't know for sure, if the paint is home or factory, but they do turn up like this, occasionally) and one of the diminutive copies of Ajax/Archer, both of which may be Tudor Rose or Kleeware? All of which, I picked-up at the same show.

 

This all, above, led me to shoot a couple more comparisons the other day, and here, only from the stuff which has come-in over the last 24-months or so, we can see various treatments of the LB (for Lik Be!) and clone figures.

 

Of note here is that the hollow-based copy (forth from the left, is copying the earlier LB paint, which extended to the rears, and was dropped (probably as a cost-saving) on later LB issues, before all painting was dropped around the time the robots/Aliens were converted to chain-hangers.

 

While the yellow issue is a solid based version, despite hollow based monochrome examples also existing in yellow, and the small chrome chap (middle-right), is the same as the painted trio in the new set.

 

Coming with the lander, there is a strong possibility that it/they (set/figures) may be later, reduced-scale production from Lik Be, for a specific client/contract. But equally, one has to maintain the possibility that a pirate just bought-in some LB landers? Until I've compared with the known Culpitt stuff in storage, I'll sit on the fence!

 

The robot/Aliens, we actually had a very similar shot, not that long ago, but with 90%  of the LB & clones in storage, since before I shot the space-tanks, it's only the recent stuff I have to work on!

 

In both cases I've used the same sucker on the jumper and while previously seen here as a clearer HF, on this one, it looks a bit like it could be a poorly registered HE, so I've annotated both images to that effect! Personally, I think it is HF, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Every time I post Lik Be (LB) stuff (or even mention them in the text), one of two or three individuals will post an 'LP' article, usually within two or three days, as their stubborn refusal to accept it's an LB logo, apparently knows no bounds!

 

Their logic being backed up by the fact they think (with no empirical evidence) that it (the 'LP') is arrived at from;

The Lik Be Plastic And Metal Factory Limited,

 

. . . which totally ignores all the rules of English, and/or abbreviations, acronyms, initialism or shortened form/shorthand! By their own logic it should either be LPM, LP&M, LBP&M or LBP&ML, it's not any of those, because it's LB for Lik Be, but stupid is, as stupid does.

 

Just as it's not [technically] Spacex, but LB for Lines (Triang-Hornby and Raphael Lipkin), or LB for MPC, or LB for Ward, Sears, or LB for whoever, and Lik Be went on to produce many other versions/formats/packagings, with other Hong Kong numpties responsible for all the many copies, some also bought-in by Western branding's. Lines, Multiple, Culpitt, Clifford and co., just bought-in limited parts of the range from a catalogue, or, after a sales-rep's spiel, from Lik Be, from a Lik Be sales-rep'! well, Clifford might even be an LB branding, or partner?!!

 

One of the 'LP'-stubborn brigade has even used one of my clearer LB images (with the heavy corner where the bottom of the B's lower loop is), without permission, to try and maintain it's an 'LP'! But stupid is, as stupid does, and it's LB.

 

The new boxed-set with the more recent carded LB and other acquisitions (the hollow-based yellows are in the Space Patrol set).

 

You can copy all the feebleBay, Worthpoint, Scalemates, SAS, Vectis or wherever, whoever's images you like, but if you're not holding the stuff, looking at the stuff and comparing it in the palm of your hand, you're pontificating half-blind. . . Sigh!