B is for Big Box of Bounty - Ancient, Medieval, Historical & Ceremonial

Another interesting assortment of figures from Chris Smith's latest parcel, and it's all the other 'Toy Soldier' periods. I keep meaning to do a post on the classification of these things, as it's never an exact science, do you put Huns with ancient, or medieval periods, what about Aztecs, or Ninja/Samurai, when are ceremonials also soldiers (1850's say), or further afield; the whole sorting of civilians, is a nightmare!

 

So, I'll put the Asians first! The Budda votive statuette is a nice piece of scenery for HO/OO type figures, it can even be an objective for your ANZAC's on the war games table! The large figure is actually marked Marx, with the full Hong Kong disc-mark, and is from a set of tea premiums.

 

The guy carrying the straw bundles is from a Hong Kong rack toy called 'Villagers', which we have looked at here, and another of the Kinder Samurai archers, this one complete, will get the base off one of the damaged/painted ones, in my determination to have one of each, in all three (?) colours!

 

Three Ninja's, two from Hasbro, one painted, one in a clear, blue polymer, and the other, smaller one in the middle, from the Panosh set of Lucky Bag giveaways, and other sources? I have tried finding the Hasbro's, but with little success, and suspect they aren't actually Ninja or Samurai, but from something else entirely, Star Wars semi-deforms? Anyone know?

 

Two Crong medieval horses, sans riders, and there's a post in the queue on developments there, courtesy of a Loyal Reader, a Kinder musketeer, Hong Kong copy of Britain's Robin Hood, probably sold as a cake decoration, colours tie-in with things like the Britains arctic explorer piracies, and a contender for 'best in box'. A Hong Kong clone of the MPC small scale medieval knights, and one of the little Blue Box 'Hidden Adventures' castle figures.

 

The little blob in front, is the jester-puppet, from the tip of a jester's wand, as there are very few such figures in the entire canon of toy figures, I guess it must be Starlux, Mokarex or Café Storm? As they often break-off, it may prove to be a very useful spare, one day?

 

Two lead chaps who've lost their armies, on the right looks like he's probably Minifigs, the one on the left looks to be 'a cut above', and might be someone like Stadden or Suren? But I may just be being over-enamoured of his helmet! Equally, he has an interesting detail in the tin-can sword-fist thing, is he a known character from history?

 

Giant-like but no Giant, the reason I didn't attach two of the towers to the wall ends, is because the wall is from a different issuer and the locating studs don't match up with the holes in the towers! We looked at the different types here (https://butisitgiant.blogspot.com/2021/08/golden-trojans-non-giant-gold-plastic.html), but I didn't think to measure the holes/studs; next Time!

 

Three Euro-chaps, the one on the left, I think, is by the maker located in Monaco, and is a Crescent knock-off, the other two probably premiums, and possibly in JC Peiffret's book on the subject - Les Figurines Publicitaires.

 

The Imperial Guardsman has a furry plume, caused by the fraying of a layer of plastic, which cooled quicker than the core (cold tool?), and has lifted and frayed! I could probably restore it with a pass though a lighter flame, but think I'll leave it as it is, as a fortuity?

 

In a similar vein, these plug-ins are part of a series of similar French and Italian types, from the better known Texas, through to several premium issues, each with different bases, but many figures in common, one day I'll cover them properly, but I haven't the time to try and tie-down these, or the previous ones, right now!

 

A lovely Napoleon, possibly made of casein, and a real treat, as I know Chris has a sub-collection of such things, so this must be a duplicate he's kindly sent us, it did feature here in a question-time, and I think Chris is still looking for a formal ID on the figure.

 

The larger figure I think we've seen before and is a . . . no, it's gone, I'm sure he's been ID'd here, or had his ID told to me, by someone, at some point, but it's escaped me now! I thought he might be Tringa, but he's not in my flyer?

 

The big one is almost certainly missing a sand-timer, off the right-hand spigot, and utilises a Deetail figure, unusual as it's more often seen with Hong Kong Herald figures, but he's meant to be in there, he has a large hole in his posterior for the plastic spigot seen in the second image, which is pushed through from the back of the chalkware sentry-box.

 

To the left, one of the sucker blokes, he's in a bit of a state, but rather a sample, than no sample! The little chap looks like he was made yesterday, and is polystyrene, so he may be, as he's absolutely mint, possibly an accessory for a tourist die-cast vehicle set which has avoided me, or is he a doll's house toy, as in from the playroom of a doll's house? A lovely little chap in any event, but ID needed!

 

Uncivil war, with a marked ABC figure fighting slavery, and a small lead figure (Hinchliffe?) fighting the Norman landed-class for a smidgen of democracy - they went a bit over the top on protestant dourness though, they sort of banned Christmas for several years!

Crescent conversion OBE, and a figure which could be home-made, or one of those 'Oojah-Cum-Pivvy' figures imported by Shamus Wade from India, between them is what I believe is an ocean-washed, sand-ground, or smoothed, Deetail Arab horse rider!

 

Many thanks again to Chris, some interesting stuff here, and still at least three posts to come. 

B is for Box-ticking Bountiful Bags from the Boot!

I picked these up at the last BP toy fair at Sandown Park  . . .

 

. . . Dulcop bagged Wild West sets from Italy, and I think this might be how Plastic Warrior magazine imported them, way back when, but I could be wrong about that, they may have got them all loose, hence the melty ones Brian Carrick gave the Blog a few years ago?

 

The tall slim one is the Indians, with totem-pole and wigwam, the cowboys (to the right) get a tent and the short bag is American Civil War, with a small selection of cavalry from both sides.

 

The ACW set, I think it's two mounted from each of the Union 'Blues' and Confederate 'Grays', a pretty basic set compared to the other two? I have a cross-section of the loose figures, which we looked at here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2015/09/d-is-for-dulcop.html 

 

Not clear what's in the tent, but I think it's four foot and two mounted (same as the ACW), but it might be three mounted and five or six foot? You also get a camp-fire to cook your beans on, outside your tent!

 

While with the Indians you get a full set of foot figures, I think, six, eight? A mounted figure, the same camp-fire and a totem pole. There's also something which looks like it might be the sticks for the Tipi, and there's a sort of weapon-stand thing, which is plug-in decoration for the Tipi, other accessories may be hidden under the figures/inside the Tipi, which could be a selection from a stretched skin, carpet, sack, cactus, tree with vulture,  &etc.

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! Historical & Ceremonial

This post gets off to a good start, with the third boxed set I got from Adrian, and then goes downhill! No, I'm joking, there are several interesting bits here, but originality of text for the opening blurb-o-graph of repeat posts, like these, is not always obvious, to an amateur author!

 

It would be lazy to assume that these too, are Torgano, like the two Western sets in the previous post of this series, they are A) thinner flats, altogether less robust, B) they have thin, oblong bases, C) decoration is, if anything more leery than the previously-seen, already pretty-colourful samples D) the generic gift-wrap 'foil' covering on the box, is nothing like the set-specific artwork of those other sets E) they are slightly smaller, and F) the subject-matter is altogether more fanciful!

 

Definitely Italians though! Shades of Captain Nemo?

 

Also shades of Captain Video with the American-football/1930's tank-crew helmets!

 

Three figures duplicated, in different colours, everything else is a one-off, and there’s a lot going on, paratroopers, artillery, flying-boat, early rubber boat, spacey guys, a Tom of Finland sailor (everyone loves a sailor!), yacht, battleship and a sinking (?) liner, this set would have been a fantastic exercise of the imagination muscles! And there's a man fighting a giant octopus!

 

The Noris Ivanhoe game has similar unpainted flats, however Torgano's own mini's (space and 'dolls') do have oblong bases, while people like Tibadabo and Co-Ma must have started somewhere? What were PRB or Sam doing in the 1950's? I have the two earlier Italian toy soldier books, and a couple of maker specific things, but I don't have the most recent one, are they in there, can anyone give us a branding on these? 

 

American Civil War, a right old mix here, with 'China' copies of Hong Kong 'solid' clones of Timpo Swoppets, actual Swoppet clones, enough Blue Box for a skirmish and a Waddington's game-playing piece - all grist to the mill!

 

Back to Italy and a nice sample of the Nardi Union/US Cavalry types, you look at these and wonder if they didn't borrow one of Cherilea's sculptors! But their charm is the stronger for the dancing-loon look!

 

The Confederate sample is smaller and lacking more hats, as well as 'kerchiefs and heads, which explains the outcome of that war! Lack of logistical support and fighting men!

 

Ceremonial assortment here, with one of the just mentioned (BMSS post) Monaco guards, sans plug-on base, a broken metal figure, three HK copies of lone Star, a trio of Sacul musicians, four Café Storme Imperials, a Hong Kong highlander, and two Hilco, who rather confirm the Band-Major in that previous BMSS post! And a sucker-guard!

 

Three pirates, too early for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, these are the Fontanini smallest version, but in an usual colour of plastic, and polyethylene, rather than the PVC resin of my other samples?

 

More Café Storm.

 

Two early British-made Arabs, I can't remember who's these are (BMS?), we have looked at them all previously, in dribs and drabs, and I intend to do them all together one day, when they are all in one place!

 

Two probably Fraser & Glass, and one early Herald - polystyrene horses.

 

From the left, a kit figure, Pyro or Revell maybe, another of the growing sample of Spanish terracotta caricature figurines, a French (?) Santon, and a very French-looking sailor, from the novelty stacking sets, we've seen clowns and policemen here, and there are US versions of the same stacking figures.

 

There’s more on this in a follow-up, but here sold as Walco Products Inc., a similar outfit to Grandmother Stover's or SSCO, dealing with both craft items, novelty tat, and cake decoration stuff!

 

Small-scale bits bring the post to a close, with a few Risk board-game pieces and three of my favourite Christmas Cracker prize guardsmen!

 

And again; thanks are due to - Issack, Graham Apperley, John Begg, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Peter Evans, Adrian Little, Michael Mordant-Smith, Trevor Rudkin, Steve Vickers, and with no emails since the intro-post, anyone else who gave me stuff, I've forgotten to add! Many thanks.

News, Views Etc . . . Blogging

You wait ages for one and then two come along together! As well as a bit of a post-fest here, I've been posting elsewhere two;

 

♫♫♪♫ Cap-Tin Scar-Lurt! Hees In-Di-Struc-Tabul♪♫♪♪

I've added quite a bit to the following posts on the Airfix Blog

 

ACW Artillery

http://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/2010/06/1962-american-civil-war-artillery-s14.html

 

Cowboys

http://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/search/label/Cowboys

 

Guards Band

http://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/search/label/Guards%20Band

 

Guards Colour Party

http://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/search/label/Guards%20Colour%20Party

 

 

 

I've also added three posts to the But is it Giant Blog, which, with the first being published on the 15th, was, I think, before the recent flurry of Giant-related posts elsewhere, always better to be found leading than following!

 

But is it Giant

 

And there's more to go on both Blogs in - hopefully - the near future!

B is for Better Beneficence Bag!

The same week as the bits in the previous-but-one post, had me finding two more charity-shop bags, which was pretty synergetic as you don't often find one, or you find several bags of animals, but two bags of figures, a couple of days apart, was quite unusual!

 

I seem to remember this was a fiver, so a bit more than twice the other one, and sadly the same problem with brittle early British figures, but they made-up a smaller portion of the lot, while the combination of Timpo and dodgy Hong Kong Swoppet copies was obvious.

A quick sort on the hotel table gave this breakdown, nothing exciting, but when you're in a bit of a collecting dessert, any bag of bits to sort gets the archival instinct flowing! And it's all useful stuff with Britains Swoppet spares, a few usable Eyes Right bits and other interesting items.
 

There was also a bag of the modern version of Gogo 'Crazy Bones', but with the weird bases, I really only bought it for the packaging samples, both the green bag things and the blue/purple boxes, I won't subject you to them in detail now, but one day they will need their box-tick moment!

 

The highlights, three Timpo Romans, ACW from both sides and different sculpt-generations, Crescent Mexican clones and a rubber Swoppet knock-off, not too shabby for five-quid!

S is for Seen Elsewhere and Sharna Ware (Cherilea)

Posted these elsewhere a while back, the figure pages from a larger Sharna Ware catalogue, dated 1974, Sharna being the buyer of Cherilea. I nearly wrote 'buyer and last iteration', but the solids all reappeared in recent years (Marlborough-Dorset-Imperial, Monty and Rommel are now in metal, shock horror!) while some of the swoppets (not in this catalogue) went to Italy (Tibidabo) and others were pirated in Hong Kong!

 

Typically, they've loaded in reverse order and I can't be arsed to sort them out, these (top two) were bought-in from Timpo, while I have a similar triangular flag in white, very crude. I'm not sure if the fort even got issued, it looks to be an original design (if plastic) or routed-wood, probably a particle-board, but I'm not sure if I've seen one with walls that high, however I do stand to be corrected, I can't know everything?

The medieval fort was sometimes sold in a Sharna box, and the knight we saw here as one of my early 'star purchases' after I began collecting the larger scales (when the blog made it inevitable, we discovered with One Inch Warrior magazine, that once you've covered a few rarities and some smaller makes, you rapidly run out of sufficient copy to keep a small-scale thing going!), had the same dragon as the flags on the fort, hanging from his lance, and despite not being in the shot above, probably came with the fort as it's 'Lord and Master'?

 

Below it, is all Timpo product, presumably as they got into difficulties they looked to expand the range without the expence of production-costs, and Timpo would have been happy to shift more stock, even/especially to a rival! Note the gun team kept both their Timpo horses and riders.

I think I'm right in saying the Covered Wagon/Buckboard was an earlier all-Cherilea design, albeit quite similar to Timpo's, while the Stage Coach was later bought-in from Timpo, but given Cherilea's bigger horse team and driver?

I have a few of the ACW, and one or two Crusaders, but I've not sought-out the Mexicans, I always thought they looked a little silly, and will wait 'till they are part of a mixed-lot or bulk-purchase, one day, if ever? I might have some dodgy Hong Kong copies though, somewhere, all semitransparent cloaks/ponchos in purple and pink?

Love the 'Commandos', and have decent examples of all three generations now, while the space sample is growing, and I've a couple of the Union, on foot. The spacemen have been much copied over the years, but the others are stand-alone!

Love the knights and I almost can't stop buying them, but I do stop myself if they are plain silver, the other colours however . . . I'm a sucker for them! While the Wild West I'm not so enamoured of, they aren't the best anatomically, and while not as silly as the Mexicans, I'm in no hurry to fill a quota!

From Companies House;

Solarprior Leisure Limited 30 Dec1957 - 10 Jan 1992

 

T/A

 

Sharna Ware (Mfg.) Limited 30 Dec 1957 - 09 Jun 1983
Sharna Tri-Ang Limited 09 Jun 1983 - 20 Dec 1988
Tri-Ang Leisure Limited 20 Dec 1988 - 09 Oct 1990
Dissolved 17 Mar 1994

 

Liability/debt litigation carried on until at least 2020!

P is for Peter's Perfect Post-Christmas Parcel! 1 of 2

Back at the start of January I got a suprise in the post, a donantion to the Blog from Peter Evans, roving-reporter for Plastic Warrior magazine and keeper of the knowlage! And we're going through it's contents in the next two posts!

The opening of these parcels, whoever from, is always the best-bit, as everything is fresh and unknown, even if it's grubby and duplicate, if you know what I mean, and it's all in a jumble, prior to any sorting, so you spot stuff among stuff, under stuff, next to stuff!

 

Three more of the smaller cake-decoration footballers, I've been looking out for them, but so far I haven't seen a retail set, and both Hobbycraft and my Clapham Junction haunt still stock the larger ones! The other guy is a rubber/PVC chap we have seen before, but possibly not attributed and without the base, he's been ID'd but is another of those I keep forgetting the maker of, similar figures are found on springs as more generic 'table football' games.

 

A couple of cave men, we've looked at similar, we may have looked at these and there is a folder of sets from evilBay and sucklike waiting for the great sorting out session! While the Hong Kong version of Cavendish's policeman will be a useful addition, as they are always different when you find one, different pain usually, but sometimes different plastic.

 

Three khaki infantry (Britains and Lone Star - actually a Para') and that pesky naval-gunner/MTB crew-looking chap again, really starting to bug me now, I now have about four here, and several in storage, so whatever toy he came with, must have been quite common, but what the hell was it?

 

China-farmer, as found in the Padgett Brothers (A-Z) sets, and others, a Britains lamb and Barrett & Sons (B&S) calf, along with a larger calf, which may be modern or a clean earlier example, unknown to me.

 

Nice polyethylene Hong Kong swoppet Confederate who's stolen a Unionists hat, he'll need ID'ing against the folder of such things, and one of the PVC Toyway Indians sans plug-in disc-base.

Love this! Semi-relief flat of Santa Claus and his sleigh, obviously meant to be laid on the icing, I managed to stand it up in a moulding detail on the lid of the scanner! Santa looks like one of the Elf on shelves!

 

Firefighter from a large carpet/garden/beach toy, and a bunch of the Lucky (et al) figures form the large-scale plastic copies of Western road vehicles, they will all need to be checked against the 'master collection' for variation, new base-marks etc.

 

The usual gaggle of seated figures and road-workers, the red chap on the right is a marked Buddy L figure, the left-hand one is a short shot, while the three in the front look modernish.

 

Two Hasbro Star Wars Command figures, I'll have to have a go at painting some up, one day! And a novelty 'Munch bunch' style, or actual, pencil-top, who will join all the others in another 'To Be Sorted' project, he's missing a hat or greenery frond, and there are many generations of sub-piracy!

Thanks to Peter for this pile of treats, more to come in the next post.