S is for Ships at Sea, and Sky Surfers

The other half of the vehicular element of this year's Plastic Warrior plunder; only a few, it is - after all - a figure show, but I took loads of photographs of one of them, because it was such a cool find!

 

 

 

 

TN Thomas Toys boxed jem: Submarine Base with Rocket Battery! I was very pleased to find this, I think it was my first purchase of the day, along with the smaller bag of Hong Kong smallies, and while I soon worked out it's missing a launcher, a missile and all the torpedoes, they are things which I will be able to replace, possibly from 'the pile'?

 

I've found examples online, and I think I recognise the torpedoes from the ammo-stash, of interest is that the launchers and rockets are of finer, and sharper finish, than all the others we've looked at, notably here

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/05/s-is-for-spring-powered.html 

 

But we have looked at one or two others which came in, and I think one might be from this set, or just from Thomas? But it would suggest that the Thomas one is the granddaddy of all those from Jean, Kellogg's, Unimel and - obviously - the Hong Kong ones.

 

The missile will be the hardest thing to source, because it looks like they were paired white, charcoal and mid-grey (all marbled), so I'll not be happy if I don't find a dark one, but the tool ran, so they must be out there somewhere!

 

This came in one of the mixed bags, and I thought it might be from one of the Hong Kong bath-toy sets, but I suspect it's just a badly painted model-kit, possibly from one of the early Japanese makers, someone did two destroyers in a box around 1:1200 if I recall a corner of the hobby I didn't pay much attention to!

 

These are interesting, a lot of kit-figures came in at the show, for the 'combat' post, and they were mostly sub-scale, but none seem to match with these plastic-colour wise, so they remain a mystery, although they could be from a river-craft kit? If anyone can ID them, than would be cool, they are around 1:48th.

 

A few small-to-micro 'planes, the little metal one keeps turning up, and is probably a cracker prize, but might have been from a board-game, but possibly one with multiple aircraft? I think the small red one is from one of those aircraft-carrier toys with a flick-catapult, I think?

 

The transparent, but damaged plane is early, probably taken from those Lido/Pyro sets, but even it this state, is a 'place holder', while the delta-type (Dart II?), is the earlier, better version of one you can still find occasionally, I think I got one in that short-lived cake-decoration store in Fleet about ten years ago, and they are in the cheaper crackers, which are slowly disappearing now.

 

Which leaves the red, spacey lump, which is totally unknown to me, and bares no clues as to its origin, accessory from a larger play-set? Blind-bag thing? I haven't a clue! But there's plenty of that kind of thing in the collection!

 

Finally, we have two Hong Kong copies, a Gloster Javlin and Sea Vixen I think, and I suspect they were taken from early British plastic toys (the ones in the red, white and blue boxes, were they Mettoy?), a slight dink on the Javlin's tail-plane will be mendable with that two-part epoxy 'metal' you can get from Halfords (auto-parts place for our foreign readers), or even a scrap from the spares box, plenty of wing, tail and fin parts in there!

 

thanks to Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans or Trevor Rudkin, for everything here, except the Thomas set! 

T is for Two - Diver Sets

I picked these two up from a friend of Isaac's, over the phone, I won't bore you with the details, but as soon as I saw them I knew I needed them, if the price was right, which it was, as they are one of those things which brings several threads of the whole Rack Toy oeuvre together, while half-ID'ing some bits.

 

We've seen this card before, and most of the contents, one suspects they all shared pegs in little independent newsagents and corner-shop/convenience stores for a few years, in the mid-late 1960's, and sold well enough, despite the poor quality of the contents, as there's still a lot of play value in a relatively cheap set, for the era?

 

The ships are really quite common, but here we have mid-quality copies of the Lone Star divers, instead of the Monogram figures we saw last time;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2016/08/m-is-for-monograms-men-made-much_10.html

 

Trucks have been associated in previous posts, but now I can find the correct mini-subs and rubber boats from the larger, unknown Hong Kong samples, and, possibly of more interest is the hard polystyrene plastic submarine, which I would never have assumed went with the soft plastic surface vessels.

 

Although, thinking about it, they have come together in mixed lots, or donations of the sort Chris Smith, and particularly Trevor Rudkin have given me over the years, confirming patterns that were already hidden in the background wallpaper!

 

Fewer total contents in this slightly smaller card, which is a new addition to the series, and which may also include some of these;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/01/b-is-for-beachead-hong-kong-style-part_01.html

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/01/b-is-for-beachead-hong-kong-style-part.html

 

They don't solve many questions, but they do thin-out the various other bags and tubs of unknowns, with the Lone Star clone divers now associated with the commonest of the 14-odd different copies of Monogram GI, the ships and Humber 1-ton mini-trucks brought together with the smaller vessels and submarine, and one version of equally common aeroplane type added to the whole.

 

These both need a careful opening, and re-threading with rubber-bands, at which time I'll dampen and iron the cards to stiffen them up, and restore them to something like how they looked sixty-odd years ago. A task which will be easier on the second set, it's pretty obvious what went where, there will be more guesswork involved in getting the upper set shipshape!

E is for Eye Candy - Tootsie Toys Boxed Set

I shot this at the Sandown Park show in September 2023, almost certainly on Adrian's table, when he was still Mercator Trading, and it's interesting for two reasons;

 

The first reason is that it ID's that funny little man, in die-cast alloy, who turns up infrequently at the older toy-soldier shows, in mixed rummage trays of lead and hollow-cast stuff, of whom I have a few in an 'unknown' bag, now known!

 

And secondly; it's got the same trucks as those Charbens ones we've seen (and did Johillco have some?), but as it represents the US Militor 3-ton truck, Ordnance Department Model 1918, or Mack AC, I think it's fair to say Tootsietoys were first, and the UK-produced examples are copies?

 

As you also see various versions of the 'plane (half eindekker, half Lindbergh) about the place, it can probably be assumed these sets were imported into the UK at the time - between the wars, making piracy of the elements easier?

D is for Donation - Chris - [Not] Paratroops!

The exception which proves the rule! As we saw Chris's most recent parachute toy finds/donation in a post at the end of April, I thought we'd look at the civilian vehicular portion of the last parcel, and there haven't been any in the three recent tranches from Peter, so it all sort of balances out!

 

Vessels, and we have an all new - to me - sailing ship, possibly a game-playing piece, or just a novelty? A variation of Hong Kong mini bath-toy to its right, both versions of cereal premium baking soda submarine, and  Marx Miniature Masterpiece rubber boat, all good stuff!

 

Five of the Quaker cereal premiums at the back, two of the commoner Hong Kong Minic knock-offs. but in the less common blueish-sea green, and another of the forward sloping prow vessels, which were new to me, when we saw a silver one recently (probably also from Chris), this pink suggesting the bottom-end of rack toys, such as those parachutists who would come in a bag with a couple of aeroplanes and a cyclist or something . . . something like this ship?!

 

Another pair of cereal premiums, this time the R&L plastic-kit types of US locomotives, from different sets I think, and a similar Hong Kong effort in black, all three are in polystyrene.

 

A couple of Kinder or Kinder-like racers in the foreground, with something more interesting behind, it's in the style of a blow-mould, but is actually PE mouldings, plugged-together, however, what Chris would like to know (as I would), is . . . 

 

. . . who made it? It's clearly marked 'Made in Finland', and there can't be that many Finnish toy makers; we've heard of one or two, in the Space Toy business, courtesy of a loyal reader, on the Blog passim, but does anyone know who made this?

 

Micro-stuff included a Star Wars Micro-Machine, and one of the MPC 'minis' copies, out of Hong Kong, all useful grist-to-the-mill, and one day we will look at all the Micro-Machine stuff in better detail.

 

Vehicular jalopies aplenty! Game-playing piece, back left, I think (one of those car-park/traffic jam puzzle-games?), bits of some Kinder or similar model railway vehicles, a soft-plastic copy of the old dime store 'Morris Mini-Minor', the die-cast is a Hong Kong take on a Marx or Tootsie Toys mini, I suspect, while the charm-looped actual 'jalopy' is probably a cracker toy.

 

It's funny ironic too, as it's probably taken from those Japanese slush-cast minis carried by Shackman and others, while it is also aping the actual silver, or plate charm objects, of the sort well-to-do young ladies collected on a bracelet?

 

Back, centre is an interesting, all-plastic American muscle-car type (or Japanese sports type?), marked 280 ZX Fairlady, which Google revealed is a Japanese model - the eponymous Datsun-Nissan to be accurate, I don't know anything about the maker of the toy version though, do you?

 

Interesting, but very large, and will probably end-up on the swaps page, this is a Play Craft [sic - usually Playcraft] large-scale ('Big', G-gauge or LGB) hopper-car, for an all plastic floor/garden railway, the wheel-base however seems to match the soft ethylene infant railway, which shared the gauge of Brio wooden sets!

Heading to the card and paper tub (a Really Useful Box 35lt job), these are a pleasant mystery! Not apparently configured for slotted-wooden stands, but having clearly had the home-cut fragments of magnetised rubber sheet added by an owner, I don't recognise the characters, but they would seem to be recognisable comic creations? Can anyone add anything that might serve as a further clue? Batman?

 

A Gerry Anderson tie-in from Allen Industries; Super Car, see comments.

 

Thanks again to Chris for all these, the highlights, for me, are probably the pink vessel and the card bits, it's always nice to see things you've never seen before! Although a racing car from Finland is pretty special!

M is for Memories of the Old Toy Shop

If we've had Scully & Sully, we must be into the festive season, but there's another box to tick, before we can consider the season complete, if you know what I mean, and so, earlier than some years, here's the display in Fleet Library of the annual toy-related exhibition by the Fleet & Crookham Local historical Society.

 

A coincidence, I'm sure!

 

Loved Fuzzy felt when we were younger!

 

Seen on the Blog, in three colours? Rosebud - bought by/swallowed by Mattel.

Rushden has its own Local History group;

 

https://rushdenheartsandsoles.co.uk/commerce/rosebud-mattel.html 

 

They're just very expensive Gonks for a generation who never had Gonks!

 

Mon'Kay! He has a very complicated history, involving two brands!

 

I've noticed that while Johnny Vegas can mention the monkey, he has 'lost' him,

and apparently can't legally discuss anything else about him!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_(character) 

 

Our gyroscope had a metal 'Eifel Tower'!

 

The tin-plate racing car looks modern?

 

New to me.

 

Nope! That Dinosaur isn't 48-months old, and never sold for shillings!

 

Stegosaurus in a generic (department store Christmas stock?) Triceratops' box?

 

Solido behind, don't recognise the one in front?

 

Not quite half-way through the month, and that's me done for the year! Sixth-best year ever for posts, despite two and a half months off, in April-May, and July, but don't worry, there's too much in the short queue to quit now, maybe I'll have a quiet January!