C is for Cool Car-Booty!

A week or so before the trip that provided the Invicta dinosaurs, but f-all else, I'd had a little more luck wandering about the same Car Boot Sale one Bank-Holiday Monday, and that's what we're looking over, in this post

 

This was a quid! It's the kind of stuff you find a whole shelf of at The Range or TKMaxx, in three colours, and I'd ignored it, until I'd realised how little there is at these sales nowadays - pretty well picked-clean over the years, or ravaged by the 5/6-am 'early birds', so I went back for it at the end, but photographed it first as it was on top of everything else in the plunder bag! It's a hollow ceramic slush-cast, modern, and about 7/8-inches!

 

These were a revelation, Toyway WWI Aeroplanes, new to me, Google's AI Overview came up with another corker;

 

"Toyway WWI aeroplanes" likely refers to model or toy aircraft of World War I vintage, rather than a specific brand called "Toyway"

 

Technically, 'World War I vintage' means manufactured between 1914 and 1919! Dumb, and the highlighting is a mystery, it wasn't a hot-link? AI is dumb, it might be good for specific tasks like finding new drugs, but that's more about programming a good algorithm, rather than free-thought, or compooda learnin'!

 

From the card graphics I'd say an earlier product of theirs, from the 1980's, and probably by someone like Universal (but not their inherited Matchbox stuff, Matchbox never did 'planes like this), but made in China anyway, and a nice pair, adding to the WWI air-wing!

 

I drew a snake a bit like this, many years ago, and thought I'd scanned the image with some other stuff a while ago, but I can't find it, so I can't show it to you! But due to its similarity with my little sketch, I couldn't resist it. Like the ceramic astronaut, it's quite big and may be a companion piece/accessory from a larger action-figure/doll type thing?

 

These are fascinating, from the same seller, who had a lot of 'genuine' domestic/house-clearance stuff, so these probably went together, we have a marked and painted version of the believed to be (or more accurately; 'probably') Siku moulding of a fawn, which ended-up as one of the Vitacup premiums, along with two actual, carved wood Erzgebirge horses, in the same style of scalloped whittling. 

 

This is why I collect, to join the dots, to look for, and hopefully find the bigger picture, and put it up here so other people understand the connections, a fascinating trio, to me at least! And there'll be a follow-up on the 'Vitacup' deer later.

 

Probably home-made, possibly an apprentice piece, or turned for a Lancaster Bomber model-kit, I believe this is a reasonable rendition of an RAF Tall Boy, or more likely Grand Slam free-fall bomb of the WWII era, and in silver-plate brass, a rather unique thing? Except there may be hundreds of them? Who knows! It is (if either of the mentioned bombs) missing its pointy-tail, but it looks like that may have been cut-off for some reason?

 

The seller of the biplanes, had obviously had some good stuff earlier in the day (early hours of the morning!), and was selling her late father's collection, piecemeal, there were a bunch of Micromodel card kits, i was tempted by, but I left them, however at 50p I took these three, which are a - probably - Hong Kong racing driver from a carpet toy, and two home-cast replacements of an old die-cast or lead toy driver.

 

I think these were 10p each, so I wasn't too bothered by them, the space-car seems to be missing half its whole? The Thunderbird 2 pod-vehicle is supposed to be a bulldozer or ladder truck I think, but as it's a modern Carlton effort, I thought it might make a conversion project! And three probably duplicate Bruder, but there's always colourways to find, with them!

P is for Polymer Plunder Package - Vehicles & Accessories

Continuing with the look at Chris Smith's recent donation, and there were a number of vehicles or non-figural elements/items in the recent parcel from Chris, and they were next in the stack, so here they are!

 

The plastic armoured car is one of those really cheap rack-toy accessories from the 1970/80's, and may be missing the central pair of wheels, however I may have one in a similar condition (more chewed?) from where I can nick the missing wheels to make a whole sample!

 

The wooden one could be a wartime thing, but I suspect later, we had such things, made from off-cuts of 2x1 batten, which Dad was using on the roof of Tai-Hirion, the cottage he rebuilt from the ground, up. Ours weren't painted though, and had 5" nails as gun barrels! But I suspect that what we have here, is someone's once much-loved homemade toy, lost like ours, but saved, unlike ours!

Two guns, the one on the right probably from a big-box infant toy/play set type thing, maybe knights, maybe priates, the one on the left a similar source but more eco-friendly, being all-wood, and possibly somebody like Le Toy Van or ELC?

Vessels includes a hull for one of the Euro-premium ranges, there are tubs of them, with various hulls or superstructures waiting for their oppo', so a useful addition, likewise the two larger blow-moulds, which come in many colours with lots of plug-ins like the 1-Ton Humber truck sets, so again, all parts gratefully received, against future matching-up!

 

Two of the Christmas cracker/gum ball type micro-minis, and a possibly Hong Kong-made, demi-ronde sailing vessel, which is so similar to both some Euro-premiums, and some very early Airfix toys, which were sold in little cigarette packet type boxes, that it may be either? And being unmarked and painted in a fashion which could be 'home' or play-worn, it's not possible for me to say, with any conviction!

Three of the less-common HK copies of MPC mini-planes, in red, an Airfix spitfire, odd paper 'something flying' and more current rack-toy helicopter, are joined on the apron by several carrier Aircraft which I think are all Airfix - seven from the post-war HMS Victorious and one from the WWII HMS Ark Royal?

Micro's and mini's, we've seen similar before, and they all have bags or tubs of like-for-like matches, against better, future posts. Highlights here are a Lone Star land-rover in need of a wheel, a cereal-premium station-wagon, an early'ish Kinder jeep, in clip-together form, and another of the early board-game racing cars in some phenolic or formaldehyde polymer which leads to them always being distorted now.

Three motorcycles, two Kinder or similar, and a larger flywheel 'push-and-go' rack-toy type, useful for ID'ing another rider, of the type we always get in the unknown/minor makes, seated figures, shot!

"A place for everything, and everything in it's place", or at least it will be once I've got everything together for the final time; soon I hope! But there's a box of street furniture, a tub of telegraph poles and bags of luggage, small tools &etc.

 

The telegraph pole is very nice, and being around N-gauge compatible, and rather fine, but apparently having some age, a bit of a mystery? The suitcase will be The Lucky Toys or similar, the drum is Merit, and the water pump is probably another 'big-box' generic, but rather nice.

 

And the spinner is a cracker novelty, as may be the small hammer, but it could just as easily be an action-figure accessory, or even from one of those dime-store tow-trucks, two of which we've seen here now, I think?

There's also a huge blob of Blue-Tac somewhere with all the sand-castle flags standing in it, so these two Swedish standards will end-up there! Very useful treasure chest, to add to a growing sample of them, most ID'd but not all, and a weather vane which must be from a farm building, but who by I don't know, I don't think it's Britains or Timpo, so maybe New Ray or somebody like that? Maybe a stable-block?

Finally, a very useful sample of toy pistol ammunition, which will all be ID'd in the end, from catalogues or feeBay, and of which there will be a full post one day, as I have a whole bunch of these somewhere, including the Airfix and Lone Star SLR/FN bullets and so on.

 

The clip is quite small, and the slots would only accept the thin vinyl belts that tended to come with cheaper sets, the pricier stuff tending to leather or suede holsters/belts, however, it reminded me of 'S-Belts, or Snake-Belts (which it might fit over), belts that were ubiquitous when we were kids, but which seem to have totally disappeared? Our school uniform included one in 'claret & blue' which was useful when I ended-up supporting West Ham . . . long story for another day, and no, I don't know which league/division they are in at the moment, but they do seem to migrate regularly, like exotic ducks!

Thanks again to Chris for all this, it really is all very useful, and we will return to it all, again, in the future with fuller, subject-specific posts.

F is for Found Objects - Two of . . . a Few

Continuing with this little bit of silliness, and I seem to have shot these in different configurations - as I was sorting and putting away I guess? More bits & bobs as found over the least three years.

A bunch of keys, with a PVC peanut, possibly from the old VW Golf Mum had many years ago? Lego bits and a marble, a cat's collar bell (which will end-up on the Christmas tree, they fill all the teeny gaps at the top!) and a plastic ring - probably from a Christmas Cracker's 'ring-toss' game - which will go to 'spares'.

 

An old Remembrance Day poppy stalk (we'll revisit them one day) and half a pistol grip from a small gun, its antler-horn finish has mostly been scraped away, and I suspect Mum was mid-way through reshaping it to replace a damaged or missing one on another weapon when that too was lost or broken? Mum was very handy at that sort of home-craft stuff.

 

A relatively modern looking box of crayons (99p in Woolworth's, they're about a fiver now! And have their own collector community), a plastic bullet (anyone know the toy it came from?), a playing-card joker, bouncy ball, Airfix Paratrooper and a wooden elephant of some style!

 

Two balls, and while I've only just added a collective image of balls to the Jig-Toy Page, these two have yet to be added to that page, although a reverse-colours football is there! The larger one has the same mechanism (i.e. 'simple') as the modern rubber one in that other picture!

Most seen above, but the gold-paper cracker-crown is an addition. I believe the elephant was made by my brother in woodwork classes at school, and may be a pattern some of you will recognise from your own past efforts? And I've mentioned before his private army of red/blue uniformed figures! It contained all his favourite figures from about four different sets, it was officer-heavy!

The card is somewhere between the very small ones you find in Christmas crackers, and normal or full size ones, and I have a small collection of mostly jokers and ace-of-spades somewhere, so this will join them, and I'll blog them at some point!

 

I believe the ball is a Wham-O original, it has that strange creaking noise I've observed with them before, and while I 'know' what the two neutral plastic pegs are from, I can't - right now - remember, and it may have nothing to do with toys, but I shot them together, so I think it must have? Maybe they just looked useful?

Liqueur miniature crates! Very useful for Action Man (beer) or larger doll's houses (milk, or something 'girly'!), I've put the cover in the spares zone as I though it might make a good roof for a sci-fi building or space-station at some point! one is old and has been hanging around for years (red), the other was from TKMaxx a year or two ago -blue one.

W is for When the Logistics-chain Breaks Down

F is for Follow-up - Cap-Bombs & Rocketry

So, we looked at cap-bombs the other day and I said there were a few still in the attic, but the brown one with a yellow spaceman seems to have been totally lost being in none of the places it might have been? And apart from the missing one there was only one other and a buckshee tail-section, but the whole one is different to the others so worth a shot or two.

It has an internal anvil, and exhaust venturi, which as they face forward would/could be seen as retro-rockets on an interspatial vessel! It needed a good clean and I used cotton-buds to remove the rusty gunk from the interior and an old flossing-brush to clean the venturi!

There's nothing to hold a cap or a section of cap 'tape' in place, so I suspect it was designed and/or issued with the plastic-drum caps in strips to place over the end of the hammer-bar. The anvil-plate seems to be set into the plastic, but it's very rusty so I'm not about to shove it around or pick at it to prove or disprove the suspicion!

And, if you're one of the older loyal readers of this blog it may look familiar to you; because it's a copy of the Merit (J&L Randall) one we saw here.

Before it was cleaned up (crap shot - sorry!), it's somewhere between the two common'ish sizes we looked at last time, and has a screw-cap where they had pop-on ones. In the comparison below we see the odd part in dark-olive, they all go in the tub together, and as bits which fit come-in they get put with each-other.

The two on the left are not cap-firers, but rubber-tipped projectiles. The smaller red one being from the rail-mounted 'Battle Space' launcher from Rovex Tri-Ang/Hornby-Triang, it replaced a short-lived die-cast alloy version (also with a rubber nose, but in oxide red).

The yellow one is annoying me as I'm sure I know (or should know) its origin or have ID'd its brand/maker in the past - possibly on this Blog - but I can't find it on the Blog, can't find it in the archives and can't find it on-line, so if you can tell me - kudos to you! Is it ammunition from a 'One Man Army' type thing?

An old internet image (possibly Vectis?) it's a bit fuzzy but you get the idea and we looked at mine years ago (over a decade ago! And I now know the yellow one in that post!), the real aim here is to use the connection of this and the 'unknown' yellow one to get us to this . . .

. . . sent to the Blog by Mr Berke, it's mintier than a minty-mint 'minter' from the Royal Mint! Crescent's rocket launcher; which carries a cap-bomb of epic dimensions, with a fully die-cast nose/firing mechanism on a polyethylene body. This baby would take six or eight caps and detonate with quite a flash, having a much heavier rod that the other's we've looked at.

Unfortunately, because we abused them with large charges, the tiny elastic-band which kept the 'breech block' in place quickly failed and the little piece of mazac is often missing. We looked at the rarer desert variant here a while back, but a temperate/tropical unit was also available . . .

. . . and Brian sent one of those too! Although obviously a cap-bomb, it was originally sold as the Mobile Space Rocket in the red/green combo', with this version normally having a white plastic body for its Corporal Rocket & Lorry (the real corporal was longer and thinner) and the 'civil' coloured truck carrying the yellow bodied rocket.

I thought we'd seen my paint stripped one on the blog, but I can't find it either, not can I find the HK copy's post, but I did re-show it (if I'd shown it at all? Maybe a show-report?) in this post, it's all plastic with a no-cap missile copied from another (Corgi) toy.

Going back a post (from the earlier link) Mr. B also sent this to compliment the spring-loaded rocket launchers of that post, it's the MPC rocket launcher, which is supposed to be rubber-band operated.

Although when I say rubber-band operated, Brian couldn't get it to work so I turned to Ed Berg (who has just Blogged the whole MPC space range) and asked him for help (or the instruction sheet), but he explained he had just as much trouble trying to get them to work, but told us how it should be done and Brian had another stab at it.

But - basically - it seems the rocket gets a little too comfortable in its mounting slot/groove and sticks fast, clearly the rocket designer and/or the launch-pad designer and the tool's 'pattern maker' weren't talking to each other with the clarity necessary? Or the  rubber-band 'interactivity' was a late addition to the toy's features? But it looks the part!

The gang at Moonbase have been running a Money Box Season through lockdown (among all their other stuff!) and I sent my German BAC Spaarraket's over there, so follow the jump for more on them or this link for loads of money boxes (banks), including at least four other rocket types, a spaceman, several globes &etc.

 

It seems BAC Spaarbank is actually a Belgian entity, part of the [now] Dexia combine, previously; Gemeentekrediet van België / Crédit Communal de Belgique

 

Three months later - and it's nice to see Collectors Gazette were paying attention!

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On another matter altogether, the Police Commissioner for Durham has just accused Grant Chapps (Transport Secretary) of "Making it up as he goes along" with regard to Dominic Cumming's shenanigans over the Covid-19 Lock-down . . . well, fancy that, fancy populist fuckwitts on the right making it up as they go along! History will reflect more kindly on my whitterings that mine 'eemies'! Have you injected your dose of loo-cleaner today?!

A is for Amorces - I Need'em for Mah'Forces!

The other (see yesterday's post) great "Take it outside before one of you blinds the other" toy was the cap-firing rocket-bomb, and while I don't have as many as I'd like; or as many as I'd like if money were no object, I have a few, and that's what we're looking at now.

The metal ones - were a common pocket-money thing; on the way home from school, pop-in to the village for milk and Chelsea-buns, receive a quick issue of pocket-money (6d) and grab a cap-bomb from Webb's the Newsagents! The commonest design was the one second from the left. I vaguely recall they came in some of the less reverent Christmas crackers as well?

The one on the far left is a modern one, sourced in Taiwan, which I grabbed with a newspaper (at the same time as-, not a freebie from the publisher!) a few years ago - Henbrandt, Play Write, someone like that?

Reading to the right, the middle one is a more ornate version of the common design (unfortunately with broken tail fins) which I suspect is earlier (1950's), while above them is an alternate head for which I have no body, so I don't know how it differed from the other two? Another variation is the little cockpit sculpted on one side (of the second one) to make it a 'plane rather than a rocket/bomb

12th May - Duh! Missed the actual bomb! Some of you will have known it as the cap-firing cargo from the Dinky Toys die-cast Junker's 87 'Stuka', dive-bomber! If you didn't recognise it . . . that's what it is, utilising the mechanism of the Britains shell . . . I had meant to say as I segued seamlessly to the next paragraph!

Second from the right is the Britains shell from the big howitzer, which uses the same low-tech, to provide a satisfying crack upon landing among the enemy lines. The final item seems to be some kind of anvil for similar ammunition; it came with a load of plastic and metal shells and bombs, but I don't know anything else about it and it could as easily be a crude milk-churn or a washing-machine component!

The plastic ones - I've only ever seen one of the ornate ones on the left so it was lucky I was there to see it and buy it, or did someone donate it? But somewhere, sometime, there were shop-stock boxes full of them, probably in three or four colors!

The blue one is a common-ish design, still around, but not so common with the brass (or more likely phospher-bronze) anvil on the nose. The yellow chap with an orange nose is South American, and clearly comes with the instruction to evacuate capsule before detonation!

The final pair are the common 'pocket-money' bombs of my childhood, they came in various sizes, and vaguely equate to WWI (blue nose) and WWII (red nose) 'standard' bomb shapes.

The carded ones - The Argentine version comes with an atmospheric card, suggesting it's about to land next to the 'Spacex' equipment in the crater (strangely - or; ironically - the old sci-fi landing system is now being employed by Musk's reusable launch-vehicles!), while to its right a card with both common designs in two sizes.

In the right hand image three littlies in a small header-carded bag; they're not 'triple-shot', but rather a trio (or triplet!) of single-shots; pedantry - I know!

They sit next to a very different beast - if you really want to "have an eye out", a good way to go about it is with a projectile of high-impact polyethylene, fired under a jet of air-pressure!

It's basically a hand-held pop-gun in the shape of a rocket-bomb! A wooden piston is pulled-back and thrust forward, forcing the red-end to fly off, at speed, with a pop-sound! I have a couple of khaki-plastic nose-cones in one of the 'odds bags', similar but not quite the same, which may be off an 'army' version of this toy.

This one is a bit of a mystery - clearly it's styled in a rocket-bomb fashion, but the firing pin is at the 'blunt' back and has no spring, plate or anvil, while the hole in the blue plastic cap suggests that this was somehow fired from a larger object (space gun?).

The paper cap being placed between the flat-end of the pin and the hole in the cap, fired by a trigger-pin in the missing object, through the hole? At the same time it was - presumably - shot-off, as a rocket, to land quietly? Anyone recognise it?

Ammo - The early ones were the 'Standard' caps as mentioned on the carded set above, pretty-much predating my childhood, there were still a few around, but with the coming of realistic feed-mechanisms in the die-cast output of people like the UK's Lone Star or Crescent , Rendondo 'pam-pam's from Spain and Italy's Edison the caps were placed on reels, and you had to carefully tare one off to place it in an older weapon, or single-shot toy such as these rockets/bombs.

By the 1980's it was mostly the plastic caps either in daisy-wheels as above or in strips as here, both of which are still around, although they could be used with some of the older bombs, by placing them over the tips of the firing-pins, the pin needing to be of a gauge which fitted tightly-enough to hold the cap in 'flight'!

You can also stack the paper ones for a bigger bang, but even as kids we quickly learnt that too many and they cushioned each-other and failed to go off (or flew, unburnt, out the side like confetti), while more than three tended to do damage to the more delicate bits (the two posts between nose and neck of the head-piece), ruining your new toy!

This post shows one of the other cap-bombs in the collection, I think there may be a couple of others with that one, but I haven't got round to combining them with the garage lot (this post) yet, so - another visit in a year or two? It also shows a Hong Kong version of yesterday's rocket launchers.

D is for Demolition Men

As the pond becomes hideously over-used I have found it necessary to look further afield for photographing wildlife and found myself on the Army land the other side of the Motorway this summer, where I encountered these . . .

. . . eleven sand pits, each a few feet across, and about 10/15-feet (five meters) apart. They are arranged on a well-mowed field, like the playing-pitch of some weird French ball-game no-one else has bothered to learn the rules to! The actual pit is only a foot or two but the 'spillage' makes them look bigger.

About a 150 feet away (60/70-odd meters?) is a similar structure or arrangement, this time of ten 'holes' arranged in a circle, as if someone from Central Planning has marked out the position of a Henge with sand, for builders, coming later with a load of Blue Granite!

The foreshortening of the photographs necessitated the rendering of this quick sketch to explain the above 'crop circle' and a sort of blunt arrow-head! However, scattered around the field and/or half-duried in the sand are the clues as to the sand's use;

Detonators . . . or their remains! These pits are for the young engineers to learn one of the tenets of their craft, namely; blowing stuff up! And further, to learn sequential detonations.

We often hear them at this end of town and in the past it was a case of thinking "Oh that's the engineers learning to blow stuff up", but now I count the explosions, and sure-enough; they often come in ten's or eleven's!

Presumably the ring is used for simple sequences or synchronised 'blows', while the arrowhead can be used for alternate detonations, or paired explosions running up to the point, or back from it.

And using just detonators or small charges, the whole can be observed safely by students and instructors from the hill on the other side of the road - you can see in the background of the first shot?

Some of the other paraphernalia associated with the exercises, which was lying around. To be fair - and given the frequency with which they can be heard - they do a good job of cleaning the site between visits, but once I was 'on the case', I quickly found these which had been blown about the field by wind or explosive-design!

I must stress that with the exception of the labels; which I posed for the camera, I didn't touch or move anything, it's just not worth the risk.

Possibly a piece of smoldering hessian from the sandbags they may place over the charges or maybe a piece of white phosphorous, if they also learn how to destroy munitions at the same location? It looks like something which came down from space . . . Thwaaak!

In high summer this is the sort of thing which starts 'range-fires' and leads to (or contributes to-) those dark, cloudy backgrounds on otherwise clearly sunny days, you see in old photographs of Barbarossa, or Kursk; two years later.

R is for Return - to Nazi Flats

So we looked at these a while ago and I asked whether they might be post-war, maybe East German or Russian parodies of Nazi's as part of some propaganda exercise, possibly cigarette premiums, but I had shot them hurriedly, at a show, and had not had time to investigate them properly.

Now that I have looked at them closely (they are in the collection!) the only fact remaining from the earlier musing would seem to be . . . they might have been cigarette premiums! Everything else is up for grabs!

The first clue is that they are all marked DRGM (Deutsches Reich Gebrauchs Muster = a minor patent or registered design), which was [one of] the German equivalent[s] (they had dozens) of the English 'Pat.Pend' or French/Italian Depose, and which ran from before the Nazi rule, until after it, so wherever they came from, the evidence says it was within the confines of either 'greater Germany' or the later West Germany?

The next clue is that the flag has a large swastika clearly visible upon it, and if you're wondering why I obliterated the swastikas on the Atlantic set but not here; it's simply that the Atlantic set is a weird modern 'homage' to a vile, murderous, militarised, yet 'civilian' political regime, while these - as we will see - are probably 'historical artifacts' - it's all about context!

Another possible clue is the short arms on the flag's swastikas, which could point to something? Did the SA use short arms; production likely during the NAZI period, or did the artist not know the correct dimensions because it was so new; production likely before the Nazis came to power?

Swastikas are also suggested on several arm-bands, and the reason this is such a clue is that the showing of Nazi iconography was made illegal soon after the end of the war as part of the de-Nazification effort, which means we can probably rule out West Germany, as we have now ruled-out the East.

Which leaves the figures as German-made and set in or just before the Nazi's came to power? Here we see that the helmeted figures have the side-studs for mounting things like face -guards/visors on, and - while the tops have been rendered slightly flatter by removal from the runner - still, the lines of the helmet are the squarer one of WWI Stosstruppen 'Boxheads', rather than the later, rounder/cleaner-lined one which 'soldiered-on' with the West German fire-brigade until quite recently.

Other clues include the grey-green coated figures; the Germans used a very similar coating on their steel training ammunition to prevent surface-rust (arrowed - where the varnish seal was broken extracting the black-powder) in storage, while it is a neutral varnish to the figures green, the thinness, with metal showing through, and the all-over, thin-wash, one-coat nature is the same, it's not conclusive evidence, it's a clue, and it allows me to show you a rare'ish piece of militaria!.

Bit of a departure mid-post, but I'd better explain; The rounds (stained pink for an unknown reason; mould inhibitor, 'live' status designator?) are wooden, they would not have travelled far, or done much damage, but at short ranges (indoor or pipe-ranges) might have marked a target, while on exercise; they would have provided realistic 'kick', noise and smoke/smell, and could launch rifle-grenades without mishap. However, the hollow in the wooden bullet, would have caused drag-turbulence and lost momentum very quickly - they are basically blanks!

The cases are steel (cheaper than brass; by '43 they were losing the war) and compared here with a modern 5.56mm SA80 blank-round (which is brass). They are sitting in the magazine re-loading clip they came with, which is very similar to the ones we used with SLR's in the 1980's (but then the cartridge bases are near identical on both rounds) but this is stainless, or a non-ferrous steel-like alloy , while ours were steel, painted gun-black and would rust in damp pouches!

They were de-activated many years ago by yours truly, who put the black powder to good use, that is; if you consider Tobin and myself nearly blowing our faces off with a home-made chair-leg cannon and then almost drilling a large hole in my brother's head with a tractor-wheel bolt-grenade 'good use', otherwise the black-powder was recklessly used in haste, dangerously, but all three of us had a brilliant afternoon - 41 years ago, summer half-term!

So, back to the figures; there are several possible scenarios, the first (1) still being that they were piss-taking parodies?

But now of German origin (rather than the Ost Deutsche or Soviet proposed last time) and from someone on the 'Left', satirising the early Nazi's; all that prancing about with Ernst Rohm and his mob of bully-boy, brown-shirt, boy-scout SA, happy-campers! And most of the figures are wearing the little SA kepi?

Being manufactured before they came to power, in which case it's a fair bet everyone involved in these figures may have ended-up in a concentration camp, a - likely - fate which would add a certain poignancy to the set.

But then -  Rohm was a bit of a short-arse? If the 'Hitler' character (third from left?) is a piss-take of Rohm, these could be SS or NSADP-sanctioned (2) piss-takes of the SA, in order to prepare the ground for The Night of the Long Knives? Or even - referring back to the same, in order to explain/excuse [propagandise] it, after the event?

I can only find this and while he was banned by the Nazi's, he wasn't killed, and his style is different?

Or . . . (3) that they were comedy figures - but possibly based on characters that would have been known to the populace at the time, perhaps from a newspaper strip-cartoon?

Taking the Mickey out of one's own military in order to humanise it (especially when it's rightly regarded as the instrument of a totalitarian, fascist dictatorship, busy 'disappearing' people in the middle of the night . . . or broad daylight!) has a rich history . . .

. . . one thinks of Old Bill and Woodbine Willy in WWI, the 'Two Types' in WWII, or Bilko, Beetle Bailey, Dad's Army, It 'Aint Half Hot Mum, ITMAR and The Navy Lark on radio or MASH, and all the great double acts; Abbot & Costello, Bud & Lou, Laurel & Hardy had/did military parodies?

This guy almost looks 'familiar', was he one of the characters in a series of Nazi propaganda posters, or have I just Blogged him too much?!!

Lined-up with a few known-WHW's, were they - indeed - (4) comedy WHW's?

From the left we have a bisque miner from a set of profession/occupation broach-figures (pin rusted to almost nothing), a composition pilot with string-hanger hole in his floatation collar (no Mae West 'boobies' for the Luftwaffe!) possibly from Elastolin or Lineol (?), two of the aluminium figures, one polished, the other coated, an unpainted WHW policeman, a painted 'historical uniform' figure (I seem to recall they were issued as Guard Regiments of Berlin) and one from the set we looked at the other day.

The police set has been tied-in to the Gau of Berlin (as issuer) also, but there are actually several versions, painted, unpainted and heavier-based, so like the commoner 'combat' set, there seems to be a history  of multiple issues and/or multiple issuers behind the set.

Finally (5) they could be 'just' post-war parodies, getting out before the ban on Nazi regalia and iconography took hold? But I think - now - we are looking at something earlier.

Unifying the animal samples for a comparison/completion shot or two I can report that they are all unmarked with the exception of the rhinoceros which is clearly marked 'FOREIGN', suggesting they (some or all?) were imported into the UK at some point, where they would most likely have been Christmas cracker novelties.

The similarities in base are unmistakeable, but the animals - both farm/domestic and zoo/wild are of a slightly poorer finish, so a late use of older moulds perhaps? Hanomag and Fokker are still going strong, Elastolin survived until the 1990's, no reason why a small toy-maker or metal-fabricator from the Nazi-era shouldn't have dug it's old animal moulds out in the 1950's or '60's and run them again?

Mine have come as two, small, mixed lots (farm & zoo together both times), possibly with the Rhino' separate (I've rather lost track of them all by blogging them in the wrong order!), so it's all only conjecture, but I think a common-source is quite likely, especially as flats are often ID'able from the nuances of the bases, not that these - injection-moulded alloy - are exactly 'traditional' zinn flats!