FMC is for Water Buffalo!

A lot of the purchases at Sandown Park, earlier this month, were suited to stand-alone posts, and this is a classic - in World War II, while we, in the UK, were melting down railings to make bombs, and German housewives were being told not to whine about a lack of bananas, the Americans could afford to make corporate desk-toy freebies, in bronze!

 

I'm not 100% sure which model this is actually representing, but I think it's the 'Amtank' (LVT (A)-1) (37mm main gun), or something similar like the LVT(A)-4 (75mm main gun), both built on LVT-2 chassis (there were lots of marks and body-types!), also known variously as an Amtrac, Buffalo or Water Buffalo, and this model appears to be a braised bronze model, of the desk-ornament/advertising variety, with a fixed turret.

 

And while the origins date back to 1935 and the civilian design 'Alligator', this is definitely a wartime, USMC procurement-driven version, so such a model is as conspicuous a sign of wealth/consumption, as you're likely to find! And, from the heft, a very useful paperweight!

 

The barrel of the gun is a steel rod, embedded in the mantlet and blacked-down to match the patina of the vehicle/model, which may have had a chemical dip, to get this antiqued look?

 

FMC is really for Food Machinery Corporation! A 'toolmaker' in common parlance, you can see the welts of the braising where the maker's plate has been added last. It could be welded steel, but it's too heavy, equally, it's not soft-enough to be a base-metal, so bronze is the obvious material, although it appears to have been slush-cast (bronze is more commonly sand-cast?), and then tidied-up with both the baseplate, and possibly an oval plate on the rear face of the hull? From the polishing on the left side, a copper-rich bronze!

 

 After a clean!

 

An oddity, a probable rarity, and over 80-years old, it's possibly not far off the same size as the Airfix Buffalo II, an open-topped troop-delivery vehicle, for which this is the fire-support variant, usually found on either wing/end of the landing line, to suppress enemy fire and engage bunkers. But it might be a bit bigger, people who know me, know how bad my 'scale eye' is, it might be closer to 1:48th or a round 1:50th?

 

If anyone with better maths than me would like to try working it out, the tape measure says it's 125mm long, 50mm wide and approximately 65mm high?

L is for Lots of London Loot - Four is for More (Sandown, Last September)

It all got a bit mixed-up through the second half of last year, so while this is 'the' Sandown Park show pictures/report, I genuinely can't remember if they are only purchases, some freebies, or Adrian bits which may be free or very cheap, so they're just going up as they are, and some of it might have been filtered out to other posts already, like the ceremonial one a while back?

 

Anguplas Mini-Car DUKW, I don't know what it's made out of, it seems to be a 'styrene, but I suspect - from the ongoing deformation - that it's actually made of a polymer from within the celluloid-cellulose acetate family?

 

It was re-issued by EKO, who inherited the tool in 1967, in a stable polystyrene, so a better version can be found, they are described as 1:87th scale (Anguplas) and HO (EKO). We've seen an EKO one here in the past, and I needed this one for a full - future - comparison!

 

Not 100% on this one, obviously Hong Kong knock-off of the Crescent Saladin in plastic, it's probably the M-Toy (May Moon-Marty) version, but there are several? You can tell it's copied from the Crescent matchstick-firer, as they have retained the channel behind and above the gun-mantlet where Crescent's trigger-bar sat in the fired position, although they have filled-in the cocking 'T' channel!

 

A small group of mini-vehicles to add to all the others, with the exception of the 'Manurba' wagon, they are all the slightly better and/or larger ones with separate wheels, to the moulded-in wheeled ones we looked at a while ago in more detail, but three or four manufactures are here, and I didn't take notes on any marks, so for now, just a pretty picture!

Nice painted paratrooper, probably a BR Moulds one, rather than the Airfix version (no pin-mark at the front of the base, slightly smaller), and useful parts for a whole and two half Kinder horses, although the connector is interchangeable, the colours not so!

 

Then a lovely Arab on horseback, in pretty-much 1:76th (HO-OO compatible) scale, standing on a box-plinth which could be for snuff, but it's more likely aimed for something like pills, or dressmaker's pins; matches even? The whole in a celluloid I suspect, and likely from Japan, although unmarked?

Four oddments, a Blue Box cable-car passenger, a Donald Duck, which from plastic and paint type/quality, I suspect may be an Argentinian product or piracy, and two Tin Tin figurines, from the Europeans, but I'm not sure which set and don't have the PW special in front of me!

 

Marx sentry, I can't remember if he was still a 'want' or if I'd got one a while back? Well, he carried two names in one of the issues, so I suppose two is the minimum required! A small novelty racing-car, probably Hong Kong, and chrome-coated, with another Processed Plastics Cadillac soft-top . . . I'm building a fleet! New colour!

 

Die cast wrestlers! Actually removed from key-rings issued by Placo Toys back in 1998.

 

These are a mystery, I think the mortar, which came with them is the Ougen issue of the Elastolin 40mm model, something about the paint maybe? But it could be the German original (painted metalwork?), I just don't know. When I bought them (off Adrian, I think), I assumed they were a home-modelled conversion set.

 

But the figures, don't look familiar, seem to match, may be home-painted but don't appear to be conversions, and that small-square base on the nearer one is ringing no bells, despite being close to some Cherilea stuff, while the guy behind him, shouting and pointing looks more Marx or MPC in the base department, but again, I don't recognise the figure . . . so anyone with any clue, idea or opinion, remarks gratefully received in the comments!

 

As a side note, the three figures are styled after the kind of fashion seen in Victorian or earlier depictions of Romans in art? The third figure is similar to one of the Charbens Greco-Roman, but I've rather hidden him in this shot. The helmets are very distinctive, but if they are the 'conversion', are very well done . . . ? Are they just some modern production which I haven't paid attention to?

 

Three pipes from a Matchbox 1-75 Series lorry - useful spares!

 

Love these! Four tinplate demi-ronde European infantry of a generic (but probably specific - if you know what you are looking at) unit of late 19th/Early 20th century troops, possibly Mediterranean or maybe South American, they might even be the Russo-Japanese war? I only have a handful of this type of stuff in the stash, and have photographed one or two more over the years, so to get four, cheap was a real treat!

 

The footballer looks like he could be home-cast, but the diminutive size says he's probably from a board- or table-game of some kind. The Timpo US Officer will be for comparison shots with the plastics and the mortar looks like a squat version of the Lone Star plastic one, did they do it in metal first, is it Crescent, or did someone clone it?

 

Classic rack toy! Jumping spider with air-balloon and hose . . . Brilliant!

 

Spanish rack-toy! The other 'Tin-Tin'! Funny, as someone else posted this a month or two ago, at Christmas time? And I saw another dealer with a box full of these last Saturday at Sandown's 1st show of this year, so like the Emirober Beatle's a couple of decades ago, or the Comansi rubber Thunderbirds, someone has found a warehouse full of these recently, it would seem!

 

These all came in a job-lot, with no riders and a fair bit of badly damaged stuff, in the 'car-boot' scrummage on the stands before the show's doors open, immediately dismissed by people in the know as worthless 'second grade', sub-scale Elastolin budget range.

 

I rather like them, and they are nearly a century-old, so there! AND, there's a motorcycle, and a medical vignette which is just as good as the 70mm range, and wasn't reproduced in the 40mm as far as I know, and if they are 'unloved' by the BMSS brigade, they may not survive in the same numbers as the 'posh' ones, which would make them rarer?

 

Thanks to Adrian Little of Mercator Trading, as he probably gave me some of the above, and if he didn't, he definitely gave me some stuff at the show, we've either already looked at here, or will be looking at in future posts, shortly!

H is for How They Come In - November Sandown Park - Transport Toys

I seemed to end up with a lot of wheeled toys at the last Sandown, which isn't that odd, as - for the longest time - it was primarily a die-cast and model-railway show, albeit now groaning under the weight of glossy new production for kidults and a ton and a half of Lego, Barbie and action-figures/LRG's, but I usually get the odd vessel or vintage plane, however the last show only produced a clean-sheet of wheels & tracks, with a post's-worth of land-based stuff!

I think this is APS-Politoys, but possibly via France where someone else carried it, it's in good nick, but missing it's five crew, however you will have seen loose crew going through the Blog over the years, from show-grabs, Chris, Peter, Michael et al., or the odd charity lot, so I'm sure I can crew-it-up, either with the Texas plug-foot types standing, fighting, slightly dancing-loons, or a fuller complement (3) of the plug-arse seated pose, of which there was one in Chris's last donation I think. Two of the locatinn holes are in the deck/well so will need standing/kneeling figures.

It's also quite a good model, until you get to the rear ramp - which is totally fictitious - and then realise it's the rocking-horse shit-rare 4x4 hens-teeth model, never photographed in the wild! There will need to be some hot-water action around the windscreen, which will probably require a balsawood former to hold everything in shape as the water is poured and allowed to cool?

A bag of small-scale AFV's also came home with me, but I can't now remember if Adrian gave them to me, or if he gave me some and I bought the others, but thanks to him anyway, and by maker we have a Kleeware copy of the smaller Pyro wrecker-truck, attending two late-production Beeju army lorries, one each of bonneted and cab-over-engine design, and both lacking their bodies.

However, I have a tub of smashed-up Beeju somewhere, where I know the problem is mostly broke chassis, missig wheels or cracked cabs, so I will have bodies for these in the fullness of time, and they are very useful additions.

While this lot of Tudor Rose gives me my first 'beetle' lorry with no marks or paint, all my others having either a painted roof and/or thermal-printed red cross or allied star, this one is as clean as a polished whistle! The 'Amphijeep' is also a good'un, albeit missing the windscreen but having a good aerial and both crew not mucked-about with. The Willy's is the same, just needs a windscreen off a bashed donor and I have a tub of broken TR's as well!

This was lovely, and quite cheap, it's 'only' Hong Kong, and unbranded at that, but look at the little figure! It's got a little figure with swivel-arms . . . get in! It's also in remarkable condition for one that's had so much play nearly all the silver paint's worn off the track-guards

It's almost a space-bulldozer with that light-up engine-bay and 'glass' bonnet! Lovely thing, but the tracks are thin and saggy, although still supple, so something will need to be done about them; involving old inner-tube I suspect! I have a selection of such tubing, for such jobs, but it might be easier to place tyres cut from cricket-bat handle rubbers over the wheels, to grip the insides of the track?

A small lot of Paramount farm were also procured for a few shekels, a rather grubby tractor from one seller and the rest from another, I had thought the trailer was new, but I think it's the standard one in FIM-2, of which I've only had the rear axle for years!

The tractors after cleaning! Actually I only had to clean the pale-blue one and I can't castigate whichever kid 'coloured it in' with Biro, as I have several memories of doing likewise as a small boy once I'd discovered that Biros worked on plastic! Note how the colour of the background (two right-hand images) totally changes the camera's view of the colour of the tractor!

Close-up's of the new trailer, the other one was a tipping model which we looked at here, thirteen-years ago, and a rather similar view of the rake-harrow I'm afraid, both clearly marked Paramount. There is a load of stuff about the European angle in the long queue, but it came in while everything else was happening and I've done little with it and lost touch with the contributor, but it'll all come out in the wash!

I did ask a few members of the old guard if they had a brand for this, and they didn't, so any help gratefully appreciated, I wonder if it might be Easter European, both because it's quite a heavy moulding, although nicely done, the single moulding of wheels and axle and also the silver plastic, but whoever made it, it's a perfect 54mm piece with a nice selection of accessories.

Pretty sure it came from Steve Vickers who had several I think, and he's on feebleBay as stevevickers if I recall matters correctly, so if you want one; try dropping him an eMail over there.

Marx AWI - cheers J - http://marxwildwest.com/revolutionary%20war/revwar3.html#cannons

The rest! The three multi-wheeled AFV's are from the 'robots' we had from Chris a year or two ago, which subsequently turned-out to be Bi-Trons,(Pikit Toys in the UK, Gordy in the 'States I think) the turrets of the near micro-armour can be attached to the stud-holes in the backs of the Robots/armour-suits. There is now a full set in the queue, and elements seem to be knocking-off Tomy-Takara's Votoms which we looked at here; geddit - bi-tron/vo-tom!

To their right are two shots of what must be an air-force/airfield tug-tractor, but by whom? Around 1:48th scale, Revell often had ground accessories in their kits (bomb trolleys, missile trolleys, crew-ladders and the like), so did Aurora (who also liked bright-colored plastic), while Monogram should join a list with both of them in it! But importantly - when buying this type of item - it's been put together well with no glue smears or obvious missing/broken/left-off parts.

Final shot is of a Wiking tractor (I think; it's been off to storage awhile ago without me taking notes . . . doh!) and a small truck, which is probably a German premium from Siku, Manurba or similar, but unbranded by whichever food, washing powder or tobacco company actually issued it.

M is for Micro-Mini Military Miniatures in Matchboxes

It seems to be an inescapable fact that the longer you collect and/or the wider you cast your eyes, the more obvious it seems that everything made by Western toy makers, under a certain size (about 4-inches), was pirated in Hong Kong at least once! Case in point . . .

. . . here we have the Triang-Minic push-and-go mini-tank (loosely, very loosely based on a Centurion tank) pirated in polyethylene, in a reduced size and sold as a ersatz Matchbox 1-75 type! Simplified with a pair of carpet wheels, it can't have come from anywhere else, as no one else made such a monstrosity of the accurists art!

To accompany it, here's a vague take on the Britains 'Beetle lorry', done as an ambulance. There's no obvious brand on either, a letter 'F' on the ambulance being probably a cavity mark, and an imagination-medal on the box ends holding no clue. A US pattern 6x6 truck and Jeep (probably ex-Dinky) were also available, to my knowledge.

These are in similar 'matchboxes', and are branded to ELM or Elm, a company which was known for producing small vehicular novelties for Louis Marx, in the Dinsneykin size. Indeed, some US sources would have it implied or have you believe Elm were a subsidiary of Marx, but these and what we're about to look-at, would seem to suggest they were only sub-contractors for Marx, free to issue their own production under different brand-marks.

As they are also sold under the Empress Toys label, as kits, now this is where this post falls-down somewhat and could have stayed in Picasa for another year or two, the photo's get a bit muddled/poor, shots weren't taken which I meant to take, and we'll have to return to them at some point, but heay! What the hell!

Anyway, here we have, from the box above, the dark green M44 ('ish) SPG with its corresponding kit, and a loose vaguely Staghound armoured car I had, with its kit. The bi-coloured A/C suggests a third issue at least, at some point?

2-days later - the other one's here!

From the left; French Panhard ERB; Staghound and the T34/85 (seen again below), the M44 seemed to get lost at this point in the photo-shoot, while I didn't do all the card-fronts, so the codes are missing, to which I must add; I never found the one or two I got from Ash, which may be in different packaging, so a bit of a fail overall!

The T34/85's compared, again this was a loose, unattributed sample in the collection until the packaged ones started to show-up, and neither of the boxed or loose pair have markings, but each of the bagged ones have a transfer sheet with basic markings. The kit has black wheels to the colour-matched wheels of the made-up one.

I have a loose turret, apparently from a smallT54/55 or T62*, which happens to sit on the armoured-car, while it waits for its body to turn-up in a junk lot (it will . . . one day!), the little one is an all 'ethylene, probably Christmas cracker/gum-ball novelty and we've looked at both the slightly churchill'ian one (probably a game-playing piece) and the Blue Box style DUKW, which is taken from the Matchbox 1-75 Series before. Finger for scale . . . and I forgot to get the Patton out and shoot it too . . . doh!

 

* When you have to start sending them to Ukraine, with called-up, old-man crews, you're scrapping the bottom of the war-losing barrel Vladimir Vladimirovitch you barking mad-dog fuck. We don't want a nuclear war, and if you start one we will vaporise Russia, you realise that?

DUK is for "APION" Amfibies Jeep!

This is an odd one; sometimes I just don't understand how the hobby works. What we have here is a never seen before, may never see again, South African toy of a military vehicle in 'around' a 54/60mm compatible scale, yet having shot it at length back in the early spring, [not] watched them not-sell on evilBay, watched them not sell at the Plastic Warrior show and bought an orphan - at the end of the show, I wonder how that happened?

Most 'large-scale' collectors, or at least the more generic or ephemeral collectors, the completist or competitive collectors or the curious (which is all bar the subject-specific collectors, i.e. most of them) would happily have a bright red Tudor Rose Land-Rover or bright yellow Pyro or Banner 'dimestore' Jeep in their collections, yet no one wanted these?

Yet, I also half-understand, as despite sliding the first image between the two introductory paragraphs, and sticking another above this continuation of my opening point, I am going to struggle to find enough blurb for the post, as there's hardly anything to say about them, but having taken a load of images when I first saw them and some more of my example (red one) I now have five collages to write up! Now obviously, the next paragraph can be all about the Box . . .

Which comes in at least two colour-ways, both are three-colour processes, but different colours, litho'd, not dot-matrix, so green/orange are reproduced by overlaying. Each box also has two panels and one end with the the written details in Afrikans and the other three faces in English . . . like the contemporaneous stamps!

This leaves maker and the vehicle to describe; but you've already seen it as I spread the images through the text! It's an amphibious Jeep in leery colours, reasonably accurate for an infant toy, and in a phenolic resin which is starting to distort - in the case of the yellow; particularly so. Opposite colours are placed as 'small parts'; red on the yellow vehicle and vise-versa.

Final image leaves us with the maker . . . African Plastic Industries (Pty) Limited trading as Apion and the price . . . three shillings and ninep'nce, for something this large, which has probably been sent half-way round the world on a tramp steamer, places them in the nineteen-fifties I suspect, while there's nothing on Google!

Phew! Got there, can't understand why no one wanted them, can half-understand why they generated so little interest, but . . . humans are weird! Still they join the Haarlem and SA marked SAE in the collection, what next from that part of the world?

S is for Still Going Strong

This set of three AFV's (677 Task Force Set) was really in Dinky's swan-song years, and with their simplified detailing, lack of consistent scale and plain decoration remind one somewhat of those clockwork railway 'starter sets' Hornby and Tri-Ang offered, they are only missing some track and a locomotive!

They are also some of few non-figural toys which have survived from childhood, I can well remember getting them, but I can't remember who gave them to us, however I do recall the instruction "You'll have to share them with each-other", so they must have come from a friend of the family, or a distant relative with no idea of children!

Of course - the fact they are still in MY possession, might be taken as evidence of a nefarious theft from my little brother! A big-wheeled Ferret, a Stalwart (Airfix did a bigger one, but you all know that!) and a DUKW. And while technically all 1:43rd, they seem to be a bit 'box scale'...'ish to me!

I believe the reason it's blue is because post-war, the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) retained a few for harbour work at NATO-resupply ports like Fleetwood as part of the Army's 'navy', they were actually fitted with built-up superstructures - if memory serves; looking more like the yellow ones which were doing duck-tours for tourists in London, I don't know if they still are, following the fire/sinking a few years ago?

The reason the Ferret has a burnt-out passenger compartment is down to the fact that my brother and I found it made an excellent crucible for the disposal of left-over black-powder after whatever other nefarious (twice in one article?) use for the stuff we'd previously been indulging in!

Three generations of wheeled AFV from Dinky, I painted the one in the middle as a child, it came from a church-fete stall and its factory coat was quite chipped, although looking at it, it could do with a third go!

O is for Odd's & Sod's in Olive-drab!

And other colours! The images in this post have been taken in four different years, on five or six occasions, by two people, and, to be honest; it doesn't amount to a hill of beans . . . but it may help you with some of the stuff in your 'unknown' pile! And if Chris Smith hadn't sent me a couple of them the other day, the rest would have sat around in Picasa for another year or two!

Odd's & sod's; Specifically figures from toy vehicles . . . from the left we have the Bren-gunner form the late Dinky Toys die-cast model of a Bren Gun Carrier, a 'troop' from Tri-Ang's Mini-highway amphibious troop-carrier and an unknown, up-scaled copy of an Airfix HO-OO (now 1:72nd!) artilleryman. I can't remember if he's been shown here before, we did look at his painted brother with some Marx stuff a few years ago (2011/12?) and I mentioned him at the time.

Inset bottom right is a comparison of the mounting spigots in the bums of the two figures. Duplication is a feature of this post as everything got shot in different configurations from time to time!

More Bren-gunners, I think the smaller ones are all TAT, but there are subtle differences between the two, the paler one being a heavier sculpt, and with all those HK plastic vehicle companies copying each other, they may be from two sources, I doubt it though, and suspect mould-cavities, or tool-tweaks as being behind the differences!

The respective drivers, the polyethylene Dinky driver has a fold-up steering-wheel on a flexible tag, the polystyrene TAT driver has his integrally moulded, which to do - in the way it's been done - must have had him sitting at an odd angle in the mould-tool, which was a three-part'er, lot of effort for a pocket-money toy!

The TAT are copied of the earlier Britains hollow-cast era, slush-cast Bren-carrier, and while we did look at one here a while ago, Chris sent me more images as I was editing this post, so there will be a quick look later today!

While the Dinky are from the Lines-owned period, so I would guess they are Stadden sculpts, probably from the Havent Minimodels plant, but I'm not going to keep bugging the younger Stadden with questions on such esoteric matters, so it's only a thought! And - even if they are his (the elder's) work, the criteria - being stuffed into a small space, in a die-cast toy, where accuracy is a question of compromise - means they are not his best.

Chris sent me these two shots of the Triang amphibious troop carrier and ambulance. They're loosely based-on the Stalwart amphibious artillery servant/logistics vehicle, and/or the 1-ton Forward-Control (FC) Land-Rover's both of which were newish vehicles when these toys first hit the selves. There's a bit of early Pinzgauer DNA in there too!

These are interesting in being 'crossover' toys from  the Minic era, being half-plastic and half-tin plate, there were 6 different upper body variants  with various numbers of the same figres and including an armoured car with none.

Both are suffering from melted wheel 'syndrome' as the phthalates leaching from the unstable PVC tyres/tires attacks the polystyrene wheel-hubs/rims. If you find good ones, it's best to remove the rubber tyres, coat the wheels with either a clear, matt enamel, or (less desirable an option) a matching yellow - which you would have to mix yourself (add a bit of olive-green to a 50/50 mix of matt and gloss yellow for the closest match?).

You could also try my new remedy for these plastics' problems - a quick coat of plumber's sealant? And if you have some real-world car/auto bumper-gel or dashboard shine (both silicon products) it might be worth a try wiping a small amount on the inside of the tyres before you replace them?

Despite the fact that this is supposed to be the once-in-a-blue-moon Odd's & Sod's round-up, there is a figure still absent, the Officer; who sometimes accompanies these (- lose; boxed he's always in the cab I think?), now I know I have one somewhere, but can I find him - can I hell! He looks like the soldiers but with a peaked cap and no '58 Pattern webbing's kidney-pouches.

So we'll have to return to these again one day, but in the meantime, like the three posts the other day (Lone Star Roadmasters, Kleeware crazy cops and . . . err . . . the other one!), these will be - for a good number of you - one of those 'what are they' questions marks you can now put to bed.

The mystery figures - both copied from the Airfix small-scale Artillery kits 6-lbr and 25-lbr - the pointing figure was in both kits, the guy with an empty shell case/blank was only in the 25-lbr kit.

One is painted to match hard-plastic versions of the Marx 45m figures, the other unpainted and missing a base? I think the painting is more coincidental than anything else; back in the day paint was gloss and came in about twelve colours! Similar painting styles (two, three or four-colour gloss) are found on made-up shop display models from Aurora, Monogram, Pyro and others.

I think they must be piracies, used for something like an early Crown or Aoshima kit, presumably an artillery piece or SPG? Aoshima did a bunch of 1:48th scale AFV's, while Airfix themselves bought-in a small range of 1:35th kits in the 1970's; where they included-in/added-to one of them?

Have you seen the other poses - drill-sergeant/SNCO with swagger stick (25-lbr), Standing at attention (6-lbr) and holding full, pointy shell - both kits; there's no reason to suppose they were all copied, but no reason not to . . . or do you know where they originate?

They have turned-up, a full set of poses from the 25lbr, owned by Nigel Lambourn and shown in Plastic Warrior Magazine 199, there's still no maker/packaging and he's not got their gun but that must be what they are for, they even have the sighter, except instead of free to sit at the gun he's fixed to the same base as the case-holder above, in some wacky 'yoga-joe' pose! And the pointing figure above HAS lost his base, while the 'set' of five seems to exclude the standing figure from the 6lbr kit.

So that's a few odd's & sod's from the vehicular 'khaki spectrum', more on TAT later today.