F is for Follow-up - Fresh Fellows from B&M Stores

These arrived in my inbox within the hour (at time of writing] this evening, but as I was clearing follow-ups today, they can go up right away! Cheers to Chris Smith for sending these, which are a follow up to this shelfie post of last Christmas. Chris's blub will more than suffice, after the shots;

"... you had these as a shelfie Dec 21st in a tub from B&M. Already appearing in mixed lots! 8 poses in two colours, yes some based on Matchbox, the crawling figure the most obvious and then 3 based on German and Afrika Korps that retain the cylindrical gas mask canister. One officer in my lot has a sticker  on the underside of the base. Possibly useful as military Junta or mercenaries? Better quality than a lot of cheapo stuff but weapons a bit cartoonish."

And it just remains for me to thank Chris for the update and close-ups - out there now and already cheaper than the not-much B&M Stores were charging three months ago (£5) . . . and probably still are!

P is for Postscript on Plasticom and Their Polish Pals!

Return or follow-up wouldn't compute once I'd decided on an alliterative heading and 'Pandect' would have flummoxed most I fear! Anyway, Plasticom were first seen here a long time ago now, and we have re-visited them several times AND looked at Polish versions, so this is another view, with more Polish figures (courtesy of Chris Smith) and, and . . .

I took a lot of pictures, and Chris sent a fair few, so we're starting with line-ups of his new Polish takes on the Plasticom 'Soldabar' sugar-candy/lolly-handle WWII figures above and below from two different angles, and  - the middle - the current rainbow of polymer colours from my Plasticom sample.

Note also slight variations; offset holes, smaller base and deeper reinforcing round some of the holes, also the orange-red 'short-shot/miss-mould' at the back left.

Chris's Polish knock-off's compared with the Plasticom, these would appear - from below - to be from two makers, but I think they are all of the same origin and although we've looked at similar figures here from Konrad Lesiak, and Wojciech Gudaczewski recently covered them on a Faceplant group, the maker/s remain anonymous! Wojciech did say they were mostly produced around Warsaw though, and would be what have been described here before as Kioskowce - cheap 'tobacco kiosk' novelties.

The standing firer is quite an original pose, with a serious attempt to replicate the Plasticom base; a shallower rim to the lolly-socket giving him away, while the 8th Army officer is a straight lift from Airfix's set. We've seen the two Plasticom's before, they are a Crescent (firer) and Britains (officer) clone respectively.

These are Chris's Matchbox clones, to whom belongs the firing figure from the previous image, we have 8th Army and Afrika Korps. Polish troops fought with the Eighth Army, but in Italy when they had gone into long trousers I think (and there weren't many Highland Bren-gunners in the Polish formations!), but still the affinity is there, and it gets round making hated Russians?

While Airfix are plundered for more 8th Army poses and - unusually - Ghurkhas, with both these and the previous, the colours are very hard to photograph under any conditions, and more worryingly - in the case of the center four - made to look almost as edible as the candy-lolly they were holding!

I wasn't thinking when I did this collage, so we have Wild West above (US Cavalry) and WWII below! The bazooka-man is taken from the late Britains Hong Kong output while the advancing pair in the middle are Crescent again with another Britains (damaged) on the left. The cavalry which I didn't recognise last time were ID'd by someone a while back (Vichy?) as Jecsan I think, but it's a fleeting similarity, with the Plasticom's far more naturally stance'd.

Image on the left here is from Theo van der Weerden, with two of the Cofalu clones (one each beret and helmet) of French infantry, more Britains and another US cavalryman, while I have the same pair (lower right) of Frechies, with another, stabbing pose, in various colours - above.

My four together, we've seen this shot on the Khaki Infantry page, but for the sake of completeness it might as well be here too!

Chris kindly sent me three duplicates from his collection, and I will eventually use them in comparisons on the Airfix Blog, but for now, one of each; Ghurkha, 8th Army and DAK above, order reversed below.

And to the wild Wild West! Top left (they too, came from Theo) and bottom are the Platicom from Belgium. The other two shots are all Polish figures from Chris (oops, I've only just realised one of them is WWII British!). Note the higher collar on the two top-right, which may be another maker's work?

There seems to be a bit of mix-and-match with these, but I'm not so au fait with Wild West figures . . . Theo's red figure is taken from Britains Herald Hong Kong, the green chap from the same maker's Swoppet range, the high tube pair might be based on ex-Jean or Manurba poses, the two six-gun chaps (bottom left) Herald (similar) again? The standing riflemen are quite nice poses/sculpts, albeit a bit flat; like most the Polish figures.

All Plasticom and a mix of Britains and continental sculpts being lifted here, I think we've seen them all before, I recognise the four interesting poses but can't place them (French?), while the standing firing and kneeling archer are both Herald HK. The standing bowman looks a bit like Rambo!

Two Polish Indians, again courtesy of Mr. Smith, and clearly a new manufacture for the blue figure, who might be mistaken for 'just' a Kioskowce but that base is hollow and too large to not be for a lollypop to sit in! I don't recognise either pose and the green one is missing a hand.

This chap came in the other day and I thought I'd better add him here for the full overview! He's similar to the Herald Hong Kong one, but the legs are slightly different, I think.

Plasticom's scenics, with a Britains original to the far right, you can see the Plasticom tree is greatly simplified. I think we have Chris to thank for one or two of these as well, but some time-ago now!

The Plasticom 'Czech hedgehog' tank-trap, compared with the Britains Herald Hong Kong accessory, and it's an early marbled one on the left (matching the previously seen tree), with a later plain-brown one to the right.

You may have noticed that the ex-Matchbox advancing pose has what looks like a sign on his base, and I asked Chris about it, as a 'supplemental'! He studied it in depth and took tons of shots to try and get a few good ones (which was all 'a call above' for the blog) and sent me the best results. Stopping the shadow setting down 200% (that's the same figure in both shots) made it clear the 'HQ', 'Tobruk >>' or 'Achtung Minen' I had hoped for is not there!

Moreover, it's not that clearly a sign at all, and Chris wondered if it might actually be doing the job of what I call 'sprulettes', allowing material to pass beyond the products original cavity design, so the figure itself gets fully formed. Chris noted most of the other figures are more balanced with a leg either-side of the lollypop hole, while this was a one-sided sculpt, and it seems to me he might be spot-on? Although the bayonet has still short-shotted!

The last time I mentioned Plasticom online someone stated they were available in Germany from Trawigo, Bloomberg list Trawigo GmbH & Co KG (founded 1953) as an importer and wholesaler of confectionery & related products, not a manufacturer, so they didn't make them, they imported Plasticom's Soldabars, and repackaged them.

As I've mentioned them (Trawigo) now, I'll tag them and anyone searching in the future can come here and read > click here or on the Plasticom tag below this post or the tag down the right-hand side of the page for the - currently- seven other posts on these and the previous looks at Polish production/similar figures < !

And it gets them in the tag-list! Indeed, as we now know they got as far as Poland, and seem to turn-up most in mixed lots from France, Belgium, Holland and even the UK (occasionally), they must have had/carried several brand-marks, do you know your local one?

Many thanks to Chris Smith for help, images and figures, thanks to Theo for images, to Konrad for past images and help and acknowledging Wojciech's input, that's them, again, for now!

R is for Russki Rack-toys of Red Russians from Russ!

Arriving just before I lost Internet, but in time for Rack Toy Month, are these fine examples of the oeuvre from Russia's Biplant, a newish company who have taken Hong Kong's baton of piracy and run with it!

With all the hideously expensive figures coming out of that part of the world, these ship anywhere in the world - with postage - for less than 20-quid (they were £7-something, all-in to me I think, as $6 plus post) and were here about two weeks earlier than the estimate!

You get eight figures and two scenic accessories, the later being two sprigs of synthetic fish-tank pond weed with separate bases, while the former consist of five figures clearly copied from Airfix's Afrika Korps!

Stripping off the personal equipment, adding jackboots and converting the helmet to one of more Russian lines hasn't worked terribly well, as the Mauser rifles haven't been touched and the split-tailed jackets aren't terribly Soviet-looking!

With five of the figures being poorish copies, one had to assume these too would be from someone else, possibly King & Country or Del Prado, but in fact they are direct copies of otherwise expensive figures from Pervublivus (or whatever they're called these days!), and plastic versions of metal (or overpriced plastic) figures are a boon to our collections, not that one should encourage piracy . . . but once it's happened . . . !

Winter troops (against the 'summer' kit of the other five) we have a chap in a quilted jacket, and officer (who is a bit Starlux-like?) and another soldier in the loose snow-suit. Other sets have the figures in reversed plastic colours from this set.

All together; I like these! They are proper rack-toys, proper 'toy' soldiers! They tick all the boxes - cheap, copies, two colours, naff accessories, header-carded bottle-bag . . . I hope we see more from Biplant in a similar vein - I know of knights and a set of more modern Speznaz / internal security types from the same maker, also eight figures but all one colour with three bits of pond weed!

News, views Etc . . . Paratrooper Page - Airfix Derivatives

I've added the Airfix rip-offs to the Paratrooper page, I got an attack of verbal diarrhea after the last, additional image, but it's all grist to the mill, and may have some useful ideas for newer collectors?

F is for Failed Fighting Force

With one dying, one wounded and crawling away hors du combat and another already surrendered and walking from the field unarmed, while an officer stands there doing very little, this has to be one of the most hopeless sets for army-building ever made, but the box still needs to be ticked . . .

. . . for Cherilea's Germans. They came in various shades of grey (as Wehrmacht or Waffen SS) or green (as Deutches Afrika Korps), and were reissued more recently by the Marlborough-Dorset-Hill's enterprise in an interesting shade best called field-turquoise! Six poses becomes seven with a wardrobe change for the Officer!

Colour variations of both paint and plastic exist, although I have yet to track-down any dark-grey Germans I know they are out there. Also a base-shot from one of the reissues, it's the standard full set of marks you find on a lot of the earlier figures, especially the 60mm ones.

The DAK chap is the copy, he's smaller and has lost detail from his pockets, badges & decorations and on his face, where the monocle has become a nasty scar on his cheek! By pantograph or other method they copied their own figure and gave him shirt-sleeve order with baggy shorts.

Comparison with a few other German infantry; as well as being a useless fighting force, they are two large for most other figures you are likely to have, except the Marx Warriors of the World, but they are very different looking.

B is for Box-ticking - Matchbox Afrika Korps

Working through the DAK tubs in the WWII box we've come to these chaps, who are a solid-enough crew of not-so-Nazi chaps (it was the 'gentleman's war' apparently, if that wasn't always an oxymoron and I suppose you wouldn't feel much like a gentleman, dying in the sand with half your face missing, covered in flies?) from Matchbox, who - to us kids - appeared suddenly as a rival to Airfix, with lovely new sets, and then  . . . sort of petered out almost the same instant!

12 decent figures, short's aren't worn in this unit so it can be painted-up for other theaters and provide reinforcements to other units, although as with the Kepi = Union / Slouch-hat = Confederate rule of ACW toy soldiers; these guys are mostly wearing the cap, which may have been worn day-to-day but wouldn't have been worn by Infantry in action.

The most interesting figure is the guy waving at the back, who seems to have begun life as a motorcycle rider (note the goggles) with the polystyrene 1:76th scale model-kit range! My sample consists of a mix of older, played-with figures, and some near-mint ones with their little 'sprulettes' still in place.

I've mentioned before (when looking at the small scale versions?) the phenomena of some Matchbox figures leeching a deposit of a greasy powder, which seems to be a combination of pigment and lubricant?

These days it has mostly become a relatively stable substrate, which can still be removed (with TFR or a similar ammonia-based heavy-duty cleaner, or just a soak in warm, soapy water, and a scrub), it first presented quite soon after the figures were made, as a more transferable grease which would wear-off with handling.

Here we see on the left two such figures, next to perfectly stable versions, still shiny-new, with a similar officer to the left of one with the deposit, which these days gives a dry-brushed effect to the figures; rather than clean them I keep them as a 'variant'!

The 'Rommel' figure is more theatre-specific with the high lace-up boots and sand-goggles.

On the right is a 'scaler' of prone figures, with the Matchbox fully compatible with Airfix, albeit slightly better-fed, while Atlantic's is closer to 60mm; he clearly had a lot of 'muck in his boots' as a child! His equipment is roughly the same size as the other two's however, and that only heightens his lofty dimensions.

I have a set of nice copies from the colony at Haitch Kay in the same tub; only the eight poses, and quite reduced in size, they'd probably go better with Tamiya's 1:35th universe. I think we have seen others here at Small Scale World already, possibly from Brian B, but I may be confusing with the Highland 8th Army (which I know we've seen several versions of now), however we will look at all the copies one day, once they are all in the same tub, and if they have appeared here they will be under the Matchbox tag.

T is for Teutonic Tropische Toy Troops in Tunisia

Some more box ticking I'm afraid, it all needs to be done, if only because some people are only interested in the mass-produced stuff (shock-horror!) and couldn't give a fig for all the novelty treats I Blog! And, because it trips the nostalgia buttons . . . AND because it should have been in the tag-list years ago!

Charbens! The 'command' group includes a very busy mine-detector and officer with two broken arms* While the gun seems to have been captured from Timpo's 8th Army, even to the stuffing of the belt into the working-parts/trigger mechanism, rather than the feed tray!

 * I served with a chap who had arms like these, he'd got them both broken as a kid, trying to steal milk-bottles off the back of a milk-float when it drove off, dragging him behind it! He used to be jailed every Monday morning on Battalion muster-parade, the RSM didn't even look for him, he just marched onto the square and shouted "Jail that man Corporal Thomas!", and Tom'o would double him down to the guardhouse as he struggled to remove his belt! The crime - you could see daylight between his arms and his torso when he was stood at attention!

Once in the guardhouse he was given a cuppa, and instead got to avoid standing-around on muster, listening to some 'uplifting' crap from the RSM like the rest of us! It was a standing joke which was supposed to raise moral in the rest of us raw recruits - the Army's alright . . . even the RSM has a sense of humour? Really it was the singling-out of one man for a physical disability/abnormality!

The Charbens riflemen are a better prospect, four of them and all looking pretty enthusiastic, the weapons are rather non-descript, and let's face it; short trousers with jackboots is not a flattering look, but it would get you a drink or two down the Blue Oyster Club!

I have a heat-conversion, which came from the Portsmouth purchase I think, both elbows having been heated (probably with a hot pin) and moved, the pin-holes, or whatever marks, then smoothed over with a heated knife, from the new positions of the arms, one feels he's been converted to stand in a truck or half-track, possibly the Airfix or Dinky machines?

The central shot shows them both with the Lone Star version to whom they are very similar, however I think - given the differences between the other troops - it isn't a case of same sculptor, just co-incidence?

There's a small variation in plastic colour with some being a faded pea-green rather than the pale grey of most of my sample. Had I known how much the flash would wash them out I probably wouldn't have bothered, but you can still get some idea of the greener shade from these.