T is for Two - Far West Frenchies!

The last Sandown Park show was quite good for Wild West stuff, and in addition to the sets in the opener, and some Dulcop in a future post, I managed to pick this French production up, with established sellers Steve Vickers and John Begg , both stalled-out in the main/first hall, extracting not-many of my shekels, for this pair.

 

Starlux boxed stage coach; the trouble with boxed items like these, is that they are only ever box-tickers, by which I mean they sit there looking pretty, but can't be played with either in a child-like fashion, or something more formal and war-gamey! They can't be handled like loose figures, or compared closely with others, or not without getting them out of their packaging which can often lead to damage to the inserts, mounting cards, trays etc.

 

I believe I read somewhere that the coach itself was bought in from someone else, Manurba (?), or someone like that, and given Starlux horses and outrider, but I, or the person who said it, may be making that up, because the slip-in trays for the horses, are similar to other makers systems, like my own Cofalu set?

 

I also picked up this bag of 'bazaar' figures from France, as close to a generic as you can get, with graphics only for some child-safety outfit, which may or may not be official, and the contents, cowboys only, so assume bags of Indians too somewhere, being copies of Elastolin 70mm stuff from Germany.

 

 Some close-ups.

Hugonnet, Feral, LSP, 'PIH'? . . . Someone else?

 

1980 catalogue page.

 

The guy running with loot bag, shooting behind him, seems to be not only a late addition to the Elastolin line-up, but to bear a remarkable resemblance to the pre-existing Britians swoppet and/or Herald Hong Kong bank-robbers, not that it matters when the French rack-toy guys were copying everyone, including the other French producers, by the mid-80's!

M is for May's Visit - Historical Bits

We reach the penultimate post in this series, but there's still July and September's lots to go through, so there will be plenty more of these mixed posts, which do seem to get the traffic, even if it fell off a cliff on the 1st October, and probably ain't coming back, something called the 'The &num=100 Parameter Change', which, as I've never chased traffic, doesn't concern me, I post stuff even AI isn't interested in!

 

Two 70mm's from Papo, both women who lived and died [young] in a man's world run by men who didn't like 'uppity' (that's 'successful') women! Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc), and Cleopatra, and I can imagine her, wandering about her palaces, with a cat in her arms, a mini-God for a God-Queen!

 

Nice pose sample of Spencer Smith Miniatures 30mm Wellingtonians, with a colour/mould-purge gun-carriage. It's funny, but when you encounter a sample like this, you know he saved-up his pocket-money, and bought a few of each, just to see what they were like! We all did it!

 

Lido on the left, Hong Kong on the right. The Hong Kong goes with those copies of European wagons and coaches, while the Lido are usually found bi-coloured, but with a clean and dirty yellow, I suspect these halves were unioned years after they left the factory!

 

At last! Loyal Readers who've been with the Blog for a while may remember several posts on these a few years ago, as both Chris Smith and me, kept finding another, then another, then another pose, and it ended-up with Chris having one more pose, the tied explorer above!

 

Which raises the question of the nature of the - as yet - unfound set, one of the Great White Hunter's is free to wander about with a gun, the other is tied up? Shades of H. Rider Haggard or Burroughs about the whole thing! And he looks like a 'Bad Guy'!

 

Papo 40mm pirate and the painted version of the lady we saw, bagged, as a generic, in Rack Toy Month, and whom we had seen before, unpainted in the Webbs' sets, it took me a while to work out she hadn't got her hands tied behind her back too, but is hiding a pistol, to either defend her honour from a pirate, or slot a Revenue Man, if she is a pirate!

 

Three 15mm war games figures, may be one for Gisby? They look to be a command group, with officer, standard barer and bugler, all mounted, for the English Civil War? Thanks again to Peter Evans for all these.

M is for Mighty Morphin's!

A new Toy Shop opened in Basingrad, while I wasn't paying attention, Toytown, in the big precinct, I think I have mentioned it before, but I bought these there, and kept going back to see if head office had sent some more down, although it was clear they were a discounted end-of-line thing.

 

As I clearly needed the Blue Ranger! Even thought they were clearly old stock, I thought maybe if the parent was supporting the new store with discounted stuff, to get the punter's in, maybe they'd have a couple more strips of these, but after over a year, they hadn't tuned up, and I'd blogged whatever else it was that caused me to mention them before, while the above shot languished in Picasa!

 

However, while visiting Peter Evans back in May, attending the Toy Project charity shop, and filling a few bags with bits, I managed to find these two, and thought "Hum, oversized Power Rangers, which ones do I need?", but, not remembering, I bought both as I was pretty sure I needed one, and indeed it was the Blue Ranger, while Yellow confirms they are the same set, without me needing to remove the others from their cards, or dig them out of the storage pile!

 

A bit big, at around 70-mil, but solids, and quite reasonable sculpts compared to some of the fatties we saw last time;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/09/mmpr-is-for-mighty-morphin-power-rangers.html

 

And, might go quite well with the based ones, we saw a couple of (red & black) in Rack Toy Month from Brian B. Interestingly, despite an ocean between them, the artwork on these baseless-figures' cards, is similar to the black-based ones sent to the Blog in August, so maybe the same prigin/factory?

W is for Welgar

Also in the Nabisco section of the folders (see previous post) was this from the 1950's, credited to Welgar, the original branding of the Shredded Wheat factory, Shredded Wheat being a US licensed product, which Nabisco bought, Shredded Wheat is now part of the Kraft group, while Nabisco is owned by Mondelēz. Welgar is a portmanteau word for Welwyn Garden [City], where the factory was established.

Part of a set, the rest can be seen here, but sadly only as thumbnails. I might cut these out one day and stand them up with a few Britains Polar Bears or something! Not really to scale, the two figures are around 60/70mm?

T is for Two - Taffy & Thomas!

Except it's only the one gun, and it's a Poplar Plastic Product, but we're returning for a third/fourth (?) time to the Poplar-Taffy-Thomas 5.5" gun, and hopefully sorting out the difference between them, which I highlighted here;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2017/05/t-is-for-two-taffy-toy-and-twin.html

. . . a while-ago now! And worth a quick revision, so you can see what's being said here!

 

I actually shot this at PW's show I think, and had the opportunity to look at it more closely at Sandown Park the other week, and while it's a nice set on any level, it's also an explanation of the two types we looked at back in 2017, where a piece or two were missing, compounding the mystery then!

The [now] obvious screw-thread on the end of the barrel of the Thomas (?)/Poplar gun actually takes a pretty substantial moulding; the 'Flash Eliminator', which needs to be substantial, as it houses a firing cap, and needs to hold and direct the mini-explosion into the back of a 'shell'.

 

  

As per the instructions!

We sorted the Thomas (et al) Jeep/Jeep-driver out with the help of Chris Smith, around the same time, and here's another, pulling the under-scale (for the Jeep) artillery piece, note the hole for the plug-in's, one of which we saw in that post;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/07/p-is-for-problem-solved.html

Not terribly clear, but we have seen them in a plunder-post, I think, and I know I have some in the 'unknown ammo' zone, so we'll return to this subject again, just to cross the final t's and dot the i's! They look like micro' space-ships, little squat domes with four shallow fins toward the 'skirt' end, they obviously go over the heavy flash eliminator, and are propelled by the small charge of the cap.

Sometimes as kids, when you were firing-off a roll of 200 caps at your brother/mate, from behind cover with your little die-cast six-shooter near your face, you would get the odd bit hit you in the face, and - whether bits of powder or bits of paper - they stung, as they were/are coming off a mini explosion, and the power was/is there, if only in miniature!

Box end; and thanks to Adrian Little for letting me shoot this.

"Carefull, or you'll have somebodies eye out with that"

Is probably, now, the true reason for the second, simplified Taffy version!

P is for Polski Sklep . . . They're Everywhere!

After posting those others an hour ago, I remembered I had this chap in the queue, so went off to find the shots in one of the 'Eastie' folders, then thought there were those other three, which I think we've seen before, but anyway, more shots have been fired-off and uploaded, so here's more Polish-made Wellingtonian cavalry!

He's 70mm, with a more 'Spanish' (production) looking horse, and is a lancer officer I think?

 

The other 40mm trio included another-one of the white cuirassiers, so I now have seven of them, and he had a slightly different horse which I gave to the trumpeter, further swapping resulted in this pair being odd-men-out, and the six cuirassier troopers match! Ulan and Hussar here, I think?

 

 

Quick comparison shot!

2 is for Not 3 Men From Outer Space

Returning to a perennial favourite, a line we've definitely had more than once as an opener! And it's our blow-mould copies of the Giant minis we're looking at again today, with a couple of new snippets of information to round the whole.

This was a evilBay lot about 18-months ago, showing the pose I actually only noticed as I was Blogging them last time;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/09/3-is-for-men-from-outer-space.html

The back of the card is overprinted to JBZ, or Joseph B. Zahn & Bros., a US importer ('Jobber'), who carried all the usual fantastic plastic from Hong Kong and repackaged the cheaper/smaller pocket-money tin-plate from Japan.

Then, about a year ago, I picked up a two'er myself, with the errant pose, and . . . blue lenticular eyes, not the common black, sometimes rendered as a grey, so, there's a variant to add to the story, as well as the 'new' branding! My card is the more-common unbranded generic, though. I wonder if they did 1's? Or 4's!

 

Close-up of the new guy, with his lady-charmer eyes!

O is for "Oojah-Cum-Pivvy"

Which is the word I've been searching for in past posts on this subject, as was also I searching for the name of the importer, who was the famous Shamus Wade, he went on to use the word/phrase for a range of lead figures made by/sold as Nostalgia Models, while the phrase itself has a very complicated etymology (in our family it's always been '[H]oojah-mah-flip'), well worth the crawl through the rabbit hole, and is currently the name of an alternative or 'indie' band.

One of the Oojah-Cum-Pivvy sets, as originally imported by Wade (while he was still in Ireland?), it was a part-set of these, my late Mother found in a charity-shop for me, which made the first post on the subject, and got me paying more attention to charity shops after a bit of a hiatus.

 

But this post has its own chequered history, as the images below are all from Brian Berke, and he sent them ages ago, around April '22, I found them in a folder at Christmas last year, and excitedly told him I'd found this folder with all sorts of stuff in and would move it up the queue, only for life to intervene - as it does - and they didn't get posted that Christmas or in the new year, and while there were quite patches, overall, last year was pretty prolific for publishing, they just never got the attention, so I had hoped to post them over this Christmas, and looked at them a few times, but in the end, it happened just now!

Brian spotted these in a little store in New York (I think, or Connecticut?), and as you can see it's an interesting collection of British imports (Britains and Hornby 'O' I think I can see), and domestic American production including a Comet Authenticast (? Grey overalls) and early Beton plastic, front-right. There's also a rather nice Indian-made chalkware, in the back-right corner.

Which was obviously from this lot, in a neighbouring compartment! And . . . we have a brand! Only the third I think for India, a shameful situation given it's a nation of over a billion, but it is mostly either this craft-stuff, or the more-commercial, imported Western/Hong Kong-China shite.

They appear to be made by Ramdass of Lucknow (I once lived in Lucknow Barracks in Tidworth!), are slightly larger than Wade's Oojah-Cum-Pivvy's and as mentioned, chalkware, rather than the terracotta of the musician sets. They each represent a given trade or function, which is written on the base in English and - probably - Hindi?
 

Here we see the marking, which is simple pen & ink, as per similar figures seen on the blog from both Brian and Adrian, I think. And they are probably decorated in powdered poster-paint, so you wouldn't want to be getting them damp, for two reasons - paint and material!

 

Three more.

The jeweller, before and after having his hand fixed!

Along with a scaler - they are a good 70/75mm, without the bases.

 

I've also had this in the folder for a while, it's an old auction shot (Bonhams maybe?), and shows what are 'composite' toy figures, also from India, being a mix of wood, wire, cloth and plaster or papier-mâché? I love the cushion ticking/fringe on the elephant's howdah!

Q is for Question Time - Seasonal Subjects?

Right! So that's the Bird in, with a carrot and a parsnip and a red onion, it's had half-an-hour on 190° to soften everything, I've basted it, covered it and put it back for another half at 200°, then I'll get it out for a bit while I do the spuds, which I'll squeeze a white onion in with 'cos I ran out of room!

 

Tray prepped with pigs-in-blankets and some very posh stuffing balls because I nearly forgot them, and all they had were rather smart ones with rosemary and a cranberry crown wrapped in bacon! And I've added a beetroot to roast with them, while I sort the rest of the veg out! No leeks, I forgot leeks!

In the meantime, and assuming you've consumed the previous post in full (there's been two hits in half-an-hour - everyone who ate early is asleep in front of the fire!), here's a quick question mark . . . 

 

We may have seen these before in various posts, and at least one is probably from Chris Smith? Plastic on the left, Hong Kong, composition in the middle (with a wood-slice base) and an all-wood, erzgebirge on the right, but who, what, when, where and why?

 

The Hong Kong one (approximately 75mm) is holding a key, which here in the UK might make him a 21st birthday-cake decoration, but normally that's just a key, set in the icing, and he's more of a wizard or even a Santa'? The one in the middle is probably a Noah, but he looks a bit prophet-like as well, St Peter? And the lady on the right is probably Mrs. Noah, so it's the one on the left I'm really keen on more info' for? Any ideas, as you digest your Crimbo' feast?

B is for Bergan and Beton!

This is both a quick box-ticker and a bit of fun! In the parcel from Jon Attwood, there was a Bergan Toys (Beton) figure, which didn't seem to have been photographed either in the lots we've seen, or another still in the queue, and when Jon mentioned it the other day I got worried in case I'd not shot a bunch of figures, but I found him in the first post, I just didn't mention him in the blurb, anyway by then I'd shot everything I'd found, so we can have a quick-look

 

This is what has come in over the last 18/24-months; less any which went to storage last autumn, and they are an ecclectic snapshot of some of the variations you can find of these figures.

 

With - from the top left - A Plastic Toys copy in hard 'styrene, another hard plastic early figure with paint, one (from Jon) with the leachate you sometimes find on these figures, in soft 'ethylene, a similar soft one in blue (for Navy or Army Air Force?), and a later stable-green one with no leachate below.

Bases, the one from Jon lacks the formal information in the middle depression, but you can see the clear 'B' intertwined with a 'T' of the logotype on all three of the Bergan/Beton bases, the Plastic Toys copy is unmarked!

 

This rather dented chap has been hanging around in Picasa since I shot him in 2013, and is another copy, from Reliable of Canada, in soft polyethylene again, he's suffering a bit of sun-fading in addition to his surface dinks!

While two of them came-in just under year ago, along-with an early seperate-based cowboy, and they were also in Picasa! It's a measure of my lack of imagination that I'm still using the same sheet of black cartridge-paper!

We looked at my existing small samples here, while the last (and best) words on the subject are on Ponylope - this link is to the 'WWII' page, but then click on 'WWI' and '*Beton Variations' in the left-hand menu to get far more than I will ever be able to show you!

2 is for 'Men From Outer Space'!

Picked this up a while back, ostensibly for the 'missing' pose, from this post (was it really five years ago? I don't know where it goes!), anyway, because I spotted the pose I didn't give much more attention to it beyond noticing it has the same card-art as the previously-seen set, but with a 2 instead of a 3 . . . begs the question; was there a 4 (with one of each pose), or even a single 'Man From Outer Space'?!

So, what I missed, was that the lenticular eyes on this pair are printed in a Nordic-blue, rather than the black/gray ones I've seen hundreds of times over the years, possibly on every other example I've seen - which still had the eyes, tatty ones are usually missing them! So, that's a rack-toy variation on two counts, Giant copies, box ticked!