U is for Undying Undead!

This must be year eight, maybe year ten? Our roving reporter in North America, Brian B, has managed to visit three of the 'household name' discounters, to see what they had on offer this Autumn, and he's found a darn slight more than I've managed to, over here, and we're starting with the new packaging for an old favourite.

 

They've lost their blister-cards, in favour of card-headed bottle-bags, and there seems to be the one card 'Skeleton Army', despite the fact that some of them have the Mummies, but only the two types were to be found in New England!

 

Now claiming to be made in Vietnam, and imported by the Old East Main Co., Dollar General is carrying them. Thanks to Mr. Berke for shooting them for us, like the cyclamens under the cedar, they just keep popping up every year!

Q is for Question Time - Reamsa Copy?

A simple one today; can anybody ID the maroon plastic figure?

 

The figure on the left is clearly marked REAMSA 68, from Spain, and, unusually for Reamsa, it is in a rigid polystyrene polymer, rather than the vinyl of early production, or the polyethylene of later mouldings

 

The one on the right, also 'styrene, seems to have dropped the scalping knife, and may be French in origin. Note how they have both not only scalped, but cut the whole face off, and are both looking pretty pleased about it!

R comme Régal Pour les Yeux à la Française - Beffoid

Back to work on Monday, so no real excuse to not post something! Easing back into it with a simple one, a few Beffoid figures, from France, they're French, you know! Gets them in the Tag list!

Mainlanders, with two of the Alpine troops (I think, I''ve got it wrong in the past!), in berets, on the left, actually the same pose, with a later, stable polystyrene damaged on the left, and a complete, earlier one next to him, sporting a bit of shrinkage and a sticky paint-job! The two other stable figures to the right, one about 45mm with Zouave (?) parade uniform and the other 54mm in the WWI garb, are both in 'Adrian' helmets.

 

Three colonial troops, and either a fourth, in parade finest, or a Cossack? Again the first two are the same figure, with a much shrunken and crystallising figure to the far left, and the more stable later version next to him Some are fully marked Beffoid France, others just France, but all in the same Roman typewriter style typeface.

PZG is for Polish Zone of Goodness!

Because I've not been posting any of the stuff from Putlerland, I've rather neglected the Polish stuff too, because all the Eastern European folders are in the same bit of Picasa (1982!), so, by way of redressing that imbalance slightly, here's a load of Wild West stuff from Poland, which has come into the collection in the last three or four years.

 

Some of it has been seen elsewhere, some of it has probably been seen here, in show reports, some of it I can't remember where it came from, or why I didn't blog it sooner, and some of it may be from Adrian, Chris or Peter, so thanks to them for all their help and support. And some of it got multiple photographs, mostly back in 2022.

 

And while most of it IS PZG, some of it probably isn't, and I can't remember what's what, and am no longer on the Faceplant group where I can check, so just an 'eye-candy' overview, to get some more Polish stuff tagged-up!

 

These are probably the oldest, and I kept re-shooting them as they came in! I think they're all the same maker, but possibly not PZG, I seem to recall the two pin-marks being associated with another brand, by the Polish collectors on the Freinds of PW Faceplant page?

 

I think these are earlier PZG, they are bigger and based on old composition figures, again they came in as the ones and twos of the collage, and then I shot them as the upper image later! All a bit damaged or incomplete (except shiny-minter tomahawk guy!), they are, nevertheless, 1st samples

 

Possibly PZG, from the larger-scale 'plinth' range (60/70mm), which also included figures from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (which included a non-Russian Ukraine . . . just sayin' - history is not what the Kremlin claims it is!), along with some lovely medieval knights, we've seen one or two of, here, in the past.

 

These are all the common, late PZG, which seem to have had an export to the UK, probably in the late 1980's, under the loosening of Glasnost, as they turn up quite often. Very colourful; but a tad smaller, maybe between 48-54mm, but with nice accessories - I'm pretty sure we've seen the semi-flat Teepees/Tipis before now? And note the Britains Deetail scenic copy.

 

I think the campfire set, lower collage, actually came in first (and may be mixed makes or lines), then the big lot, and finally a year or so ago, the five and the pair from the middle collage, with the three in the base-shot, taken from the big lot, these go surprisingly-well with the Herald Hong Kong vinyls, as the size and colours tie-in! But, I need a horse, for hop-a-long!

A is for Arch of Minor Victory!

Now, I think the seller told me who these were, but I'll be fecked if I can remember what he said, and we have seen them before;

 

With the larger hard 'styrene from Flan Imperial on the left, in this archive-shot, a smaller painted one in the middle (which I previously mused might be Starlux and nobody corrected me, but I wonder if it's actually Rene Fisher (RF) or Jem, which would make the identifying of the below a bit easier, as they'd be Norev?), also polystyrene, and a Beverly aperitif premium in polyethylene to the right.

 

But it's not that easy, as Cofalu did them, also in a soft plastic, in red and blue, but not the same shades as the Beverly ones, and sans Beverly mark, while another set in the same cream-white as the Flan Imperial, is also out there, in the smaller size and softer ethylene, while the below recently came in.

 

I've posed them against a rather diminutive Arc de Triomphe, I picked up at the show, last weekend, hence the title of the post! Which is presumable a touristy memento/craft thing - make your own triumphal arch? I could send it to the orange loon, he wants one!

 

Although, as an afterthought, it also has the simple properties of a cheap, easy-construction 'prop', maybe for window dressing, jewellers' windows, something like that maybe? There is some wood-strip reinforcing in the interior corners, though, so home-craft from a printed stamping, is more likely.

 

There are only ten of the twelve poses known to be from the set, seen here. The other two may just be missing from this ample, or not part of this version of set at all? And painting is as simplistic as the later Norev issues of the Rene Fisher (RF)/Jem medievals, so that would be neat and leave me with only two unknown issues, instead of the current four?

 

However, I can't find any as RF or Jem, and if Flan Imperial are the original/donor sculpts? And going on the base design/shape, of all the samples, Starlux or someone connected with them remains in the periphery of the picture? Anyway, I've tagged all of them in case someone passing knows the truth!

T is for Tattle Tale

Mentioned at the time, but not included in the post, the third Tattle Tale from Phidal I bought back in 2023, it still needs to be cleared out and ticked-off, so here it is;

 

As with the others, it contains four figures from one of the larger sets, and we'd only just seen the 10-figure 'Lightyear' set at the time, hence it's being held-over for a bit (three-and-a-half years!), and again, I don't know if some of the other figures are in another Tattle Tale, and would advise not buying any of these if you already have the larger sets.

T is for Two - D-Day Dudes

Just a quickie, these are probably one of the last packaging changes/variations from Starlux, and were produced in 1994, for the commemoration of D-Day, and the 50th anniversary of the worlds largest ever, pretty much everything!

 

Largest preliminary air-assault, parachute drop, glider invasion, amphibious assault, air-cover on the day, troops landed in a day, countries taking part, naval armada, vehicles present, stores delivered; it really was the most amazing undertaking, an extraordinary feat of human endeavour, and must have been a hell of a sight, as the dawn gloom cleared, and the battleships opened fire, while thousands of landing craft bobbed through a heavy swell toward the continent of Europe.

 

The figures are slightly anachronistic, as while they produced Germans for both wars, and Pilous in their blue serge uniforms, Starlux never made decent sets of Brits' or Americans, relying on these, who while equipped as Americans, always carried post-war stuff, like French SMG's and, so, which I always equate with the loss of Indo-China or the North African adventures.

 

Ten items per bag, with  nine figures and a piece of equipment, an MG in one, a stretcher in the other, and it's the late/2nd versions of both sets of figures.

 

"Le jour J" translates to 'D-Day' in English. It literally means J-Day (where J stands for jour, meaning day) . . . so 'day-day'! And, while some people like to think the D is for 'decision', I think D-Day is also day-day? Although technically they can both be 'The day, day', which is a bit easier on an autistic brain!

 

Footnote - apparently, one of our Nazi's was killed today, fighting for Russia against Ukraine? Oh dear, never mind, worse things happen at sea, what’s on the telly later?

L is for Louche Lucite Layabouts!

We seem to often arrive at Lik Be during Rack Toy Month, and while I tried to resist poking the Northern cow-pat of competitiveness this year, reader Keith Harrison mentioned he had all the missing clear-plastic 'Vitrine' LB robots, of which we saw the other three of, here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/07/lb-is-for-lik-be.html

 

And he kindly sent some fantastic images of them to the blog; 

 

Family Photo!

 

Base marking - clear as mud, as usual!

 

Wotan's favourite; 'Wotan'!

 

'Rocket Robin', with a partial 'Lobster', whose paint has mostly worn off, but I suspect these may have been decorated with spirit-based art markers, or something equally susceptible to rubbing and fading?

 

Keith also sent this and the next two images, these look like they might be from the same batch/source/origin as the 'eraser' set I got a while back now, as a trio;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/10/s-is-for-serious-score.html

 

But here as a full sextet, and with 'Traffic Cop' being in a semi-transparent dayglo green, rather confirming my suspicion back then, that they are some kind of silicon, not really an eraser rubber, but rather a smudging rubber! However, sold as Dragon Master Fantasy Figures, not erasers like my sample, by what looks to be Tiarri Management Sevices?

 

We've seen these Moon Platoon chaps before, and they were both poor shots, here we can see they are carried by Imperial Toys, (updates to those posts by the time I post this) who, although a US importer, seem to have got a lot of their stuff into the UK, but whether by design, or some back-of-the-warehouse accident I don't know, maybe a buyer's tie-in with one of our novelty importers, like WHC/Success? However, not necessarily this set, just other Imperial stuff.

 

While these are the 'Tesco Finest' version of the sucker 'bots with the - as yet - unascribed mark which may be ATS, AST. STA or SAT, but probably isn't T-anything! I've seen these before, occasionally, so they do seem to have been a 'thing' compared to the commoner ones with airgun blasted blobs of colour, so someone obviously stipulated a better level of paint on their contract? The point here being, it's rare to find them this clean and paint-complete.

 

Many thanks to Keith for all the above, and it got me deep-diving into the image banks to see what was waiting for next-time, which is this time now, or what I could add from the archive;

 

So sticking with the robots first, and this image was sent to another Blog, upon request, many years ago, and got lost in a lack of tagging, or got deleted, it doesn't matter, there's no meaningful relationship with the strange little men over there, now! I suspect the falling-out is more about Bwreakshit than Blogs!

 

We have, in the intervening years, seen all the gaps filled, and then some, but as a guide, it's a new image here at Small Scale World, and from the top shows;

• 54mm hard polystyrene, chrome-type finish
• 25mm hard polystyrene, chrome-type finish
• 54mm hard polystyrene, brushed-aluminium finish
• 25mm soft polyethylene, gunmetal plastic (as supplied to Culpitt and HG)
• 54mm sucker types (marked with a crude HONG KONG)

Here's a gum-ball capsule-machine window card, with 'Stern Gang' as what looks like a pencil top (bottom right), in the same flexible silicon as the sucker chaps. Note also, the cracker-toy motorcycle, the troll, the other robot and a bisque Wade Whimsy knock-off, among other things . . . the mini abacus!

While this looks like the 25mm, polyethylene, gunmetal plastic ones, as Spaceimens! Also supplied to Culpitt and HG Toys, so we have them as play-set accessories, cake decorations and gum-ball prizes! We only need to find them in Christmas crackers for the full "House"!

Which brings us to the Astro-Spacemen* element of that/those original donation post/s, with the same treatment, we have;

• 54mm hard polystyrene, gunmetal plastic, painted both sides
• 54mm & 25mm soft polyethylene, gunmetal plastic, painted one side
• 54mm soft polyethylene, various colours, painted both sides
• 54mm soft polyethylene, white plastic painted one side (as supplied to Clifford)

* I have mentioned on several occasions I have trouble pigeonholing these, as they are armed (spacemen), but wearing NASA kit (astronauts)!

 

• 54mm & 25mm soft polyethylene, various colours, unpainted
• 54mm Nylon or a propylene, and 25mm (as supplied to MPC, Pipin and Tri-Ang), all finished in silver or gold chrome-effects, which can be removed with a five-second dip in TFR or oven cleaner.
• 25mm hard polystyrene, painted matt-white. 

The previous two lots, all being LB (for Lik Be) production, while this last lot is mostly clones/copies/piracies, with the LB additional poses for the MPC, Pipin and Tri-Ang issues, off to the bottom left, which are taken from MPC's own figures, split between their 54mm and 70mm sculpts.

 

Also, the pair between the first two rows are the 54mm, soft polyethylene fakes, and marked Hong Kong, under domed bases, one pretending to be an LB original, even down to the paint, the white one being from the Shimmel blister-carded Flash Gordon sets. The four more obvious rows are;

• 50mm, soft polyethylene, various colours, unpainted
• 23mm, soft polyethylene, various colours, unpainted
• 50mm painted & 25mm unpainted, both polyethylene soft plastic
•  25mm hard polystyrene, brushed-aluminium finish

There's a more blobby, silver/gunmetal one below that last row, of unknown origin, and an unpainted figure above the MPC group. What sets that last row apart from the other LB output, is that they are unmarked, as are all the MPC mini-clones, but, a lot of the Tri-Ang supplied ones were marked. However, the late Nylon/'Propylene 54mm ones, still in bakers and cookshops in the 2000's, were also unmarked, so a late thing, or a Culpitt (or similar) takeover thing?

We have since (recently) added 45mm copies in at least two plastics, so both sets of previous overviews (and these originals) will need to be superseded by a new round of posts, in a year or two!

 

One of the sources of the - at least four types of - sucker figure, are to be seen on these gum-ball sample cards, from 'Liberty', and, at 25¢, not that long ago? Also of interest are hard plastic 'vitrine' animals at the tops of the cards, micro-mini dinosaurs and sports 'monsters', both probably of a PVC-alike material.

 

While the whole bunch appear to be available here, as Star Warriors, on an unbranded, generic card, I think we've seen better images of them close-up before now, but these cards carry their own nostalgia! And we have all six robots and two poses of the Astro-Spacemen.

 

And, thanks again for Keith's kicking off this deep dive! Best rack toys ever . . . in the moment!

B is for Bunk House

I mentioned in the first part of the Wild West plunder from last month's Plastic Warrior show plunder posts, that I'd got a post in Picasa's 'long queue' on the subject of the orange log-cabins. In fact, it was down in 1971 with the rest of the RTM stuff, and as a fortuitous post elsewhere has just covered them in passing, we might as well have them now - it's nice when a plan comes together!

 

 

Three of the boxes I found in the garage, when I was sorting everything back in 2021-'23, and combining (or part combining!) garage and attic with bedroom stuff, and the large number of purchases I was making at the time (a story for another day).

 

With the heavy box being all the Skybirds and similar, while the middle one is just loose Greeks in sets and part sets, conforming to known runner ('sprue') layouts, but the other one is the 'small scale' log-cabin, in orange polyethylene, with about 12 complete and a dozen or so spares to which, two ends are obviously about to be added, in the above image!

 

I've used small-scale in inverted commas as it's only turned-up in sets with larger figures, but is ideal as a bunk house for 20-25mm US cavalry or ACW scenarios, although it can equally be used for a gold-rush trading post, or mine accommodation, even a Midwest, claim-stake shack. Josey Wales, turf roof, porch made out of barrels?

 

And it comes in various shades of orange, from a quite dark mandarin or Chinese Orange (my favourite shade of Windsor & Newton gouache!), through to a bright, almost international 'emergency' orange, with wishy-washy versions.

 

Now, Ed just added a set to his collection with one of the log cabins in it, ascribed to a Basic Line;

 

https://toyconnect.blogspot.com/2026/08/basic-line-corp-f002-cowboys-and.html

 

While we saw a similar set contents from Pikit here;

 

https://smallscaleworld-n-o-p.blogspot.com/2023/08/moneyitem-limited-pikit-toys-limited-pt.html

 

Both with the very-poor 'final generation' of the Jean copy figures, also associated with Hong Kong Toy Exporters . . . 

 

1986 catalogue image courtesy of Bill B.

 

. . . where the contents are pretty-much the same; however, accessories differ between them slightly, so each jobber, whole-seller or importer had their own ideas about what constituted a 'Cowboy & Indian' set, or value for money - while remaining profitable, or just having sufficient playability?

 

 

These have been harvested from feebleBay over the years (both in 2021 as it happens!), and now we have the windmill (post on that, in this Blog's future!), and one of the Blue Box water-well clones, along with a copy of the Britains Hong Kong trapper canoe, in the upper set, which is otherwise a generic, there's an unreadable importers sticker (top right) and what appears to be an obliterated branding, from the original (?) artwork - top left.

 

But a fundamental difference is the figures which look to be second-generation Airfix 54mm copies? The first generation tend to the same cream/white as the Airfix origianals and can confuse newbies. And another set, has a common-enough wagon, also found in other sets of the era, the 1980's

 

You can also see (as I didn't expand on the photoshoot of the boxes, with anything as sensible as all the pieces, or an assembly!), that it has six parts, a rear, with two firing slots, a front with two windows and a door, two identical gable-ended short sides, also with two windows, and two identical roof pieces.

 

The four sides interlock, leaving the ragged corner of a log-cabin, while the roof sits on four blobby studs, which can rip off on more played-with examples. There are also similarities with a Wing Wah set we saw a while back, but hatchets have been buried there, so I won't link back, and no log-cabin, anyhoos.

 

 

The smaller, soft plastic version, seems to be based on the 1970's Star Toys 'blockhouse', which forms the corner of the hard polystyrene fort, with two deer-skulls over the gate, itself a copy of an earlier European fort, with four corner towers, possibly also sourced in HK, but I'm not going there, we're doing log cabins today, not forts, or windmills!

 

This, of course explains the firing loopholes in the rear wall, it's the outside of the fort's corner; however, it also highlights a flaw in the Star Toys fort - the Indians can force the two windows on the outer end! It also has a chimney, not reproduced in the smaller clone.

 

There is a third version, which, size wise, is between the Star and the generic, and while is otherwise the same as the smaller one (orange 'ethylene, four stud roof, no slots, interlocking corners), has painted highlights, the windows and door frame being painted blue, or red, I can't remember, but I do have a couple, so we can look them when we have a better look at the components, next time!

 

And returning to my boxful above, I tend to colour-match them, as I make up complete examples, but I've seen them with different shades together, so clearly there was a huge stock of them, possibly with one of the smaller family concerns in the Kowloon slums, with their single tool and a hand-pressed injector, and they were supplied to the end-users, bulk, in mixed shades?