M is for Miscellaneous Modelled Miniatures

This lot dates back to March of last year, when a group of us had our Christmas breakfast and 'show and tell' a tad late, well, a quarter of a year late! Anyway, while indulging in friendship, good home-cooked food and a bit of reminiscing, both Adrian Little and John Begg gave me tubs of bits . . . I respond well to tubs of bits, bags of bits, boxes of bits . . . !

 

These were from Adrian, who had noticed the similarity between the old MPC sculpt and the Hing Fat 'NASA-nauts', with simplified sextant and skien of rope. A green-washed (verdigris!), probably Kinder Napoleonic/colonial era staff officer 'mocherette' completes the line-up.

 

You can also see that the better-marked Hing Fat (or copy?) is the worst sculpt, and while I've lost the reference, I know there was a better yet, Hong Kong marked one, although the definite Hing Fat, on the left, was also originally, Hong Kong rather than China marked. Hing Fat did - of course - also issue straight copies of the MPC chaps in their slighter Mercury/Gemini suits.

 

I think John gave me this chap, large, around five or six inches (in storage now!), and possibly Marx? But I don't know, and lots of manufacturers had a stab at larger beach/garden wagons, stage-coaches and the like, which from his posture is what he might be from, rather than a horse rider, but I don't even know that for sure?

 

This seems to be an ex-Imperial Toys moulding, you can see where all consumer information has been removed from the chest area. Twin-headed dragon/monster in a softish PVC or similar polymer, does anyone recognise it?

 

An articulated baby, in a soft polyethylene, in a Kinder style, but possibly too large for Kinder, so another question-mark? Damaged Britains Jesey cow, probbaly Kinder elephant (Disney's Jungle Book?), and a Blue Box (or Redbox?) crocodile.

 

Poor shot I'm afraid, but they will mostly return here one day in other round-ups or comparisons, the plastic truck is nice, the old-fashioned car is probably Kinder, can't remember on the black space vessel, but I think it was marked?

 

Bottom left is a pull-back-and-go motored novelty from the pocket-money shelf, the white die-cast is a sub-piracy of something better I suspect and the Matchbox Jeep with recoilless rifle completes the group.

 

Having seen the Cosmix knock-off of MUSCLE the other day, here's Remco's answer to Mattel's import from Bandai, they are original sculpts, slightly larger (heading for the full 54mm), and more recognisably wrestlers, that some of the MUSCLE figures, who presaged Skibidy Toilet or Brainrot, by being made out of spanners, chains, bolts, shop tills, tyres, Rubik cubes or whatever, one was a pile of combination-locks!

 

Mixed lot of Nottingham Mafia output, but in these coloured plastics probably from a Milton Bradly tie-in board-game, the Space Marine's Space Hulk maybe? Or one of the add-on/extension packs?

 

Odds and sods for the spares boxes, aircraft kit parts, a base from something (anyone recognise it?), a Kamley/KS gun in need of a wheel/axle assembly and a ball-bearing puzzle, apparently given away by a railway company as part of the forced privatisation which has proven so successful, against all the naysayers had to say at the time!!! Although it might just be an 'Intercity 125' giveaway?

Thanks to Adrian and John, all useful stuff, one way or another! Plastic Warrior in less than Five Days!

C is for Corgi Copy Circus 'Car'!

So, I should try and get the Sandown stuff cleared before PW (two weeks today!), but there was a lot of the sort of 'stand alone' stuff, so it'll be a bit bitty for the next few days, but well start with a peach of a small-scale piece, of classic Hong Kong plastic tat!

 

I knew of the larger ones, but had no idea a small-scale one existed, so I was well-happy to find this the other week, unmarked generic and just the sort of stuff you found in the less-lit corners of a newsagent back in the late sixties or early seventies!

 

 

This is from one of those auction-aggregator sites, and I can't remember whose auction it was re-posting, but this is the Corgi original, a fully die-cast model with six circus horses in grey polyethylene which may have been domestic production, although a lot of Corgi's accessory pieces were bought-in from a certain far-eastern colony.

 

Telsalda did two versions, there are a few on evilBay from time to time, often with the animals mucked-about with, I think these are original and this in the earlier version, with the 'technically' Bedford type cab-unit. A later one had the classic Ford D-series, which is the one copied in small-scale. Interestingly, you may recall Jimson did two versions of their trucks, which is a sign HK was trying to keep up with both their Western donors and 'the times'!

 

With all three Hong Hong models the 'exhibition' horse-box, becomes a transparent roofed animal transporter, with six different animals, the big-cats seemingly facing way from the other four, to prevent nervousness? I don't think so! Box art with both generics and Telsalda marked boxes show the same solid/painted tops as the corgi original, so the clear tops might have been a last-minute idea?

 

If you didn't find the thing near-mint, you'd never believe the over-sized sea-lion belonged to the other five, but actually his stall has cut walls to accommodate his flippers, which shows how much effort they put into these toys, after casually selecting such a daft animal to include, far easier to find another small animal (see below) and not re-tool the whole body - all a bit daft really!

 

Polyethylene aginst the polystyrene of the vehicle, the five miniature animals, and slightly larger sea-lion with ball, a useful ID, as I have a sizeable bunch of these in the unknown section, and should be able to sort a few out/together, into a new bag! The camel is the smallest, scalewise, with the elephant very young!

 

I think the one on the left can be generic or Shackman of New York, while the Nesbit/Merri-Craft is similar to stuff from Unique, Grandmother Stovers, Carousel and others. They are not all the same, but rather sub-piracies of each other, the donors tending to be Briatins or Elastolin for the most part.

The baby elephant has many versions, with some from these sets, some, bought-in/used by Western makers, as safari or jungle board-game accessories. One I've yet to ID has a distinct 'A' on it's belly, but it is neither the Arco, nor the Triple-A!

E is for Eye Candy - Indian Animals

I shot this back in February at Sandown Park, I should have bought it really, but the images will have to suffice, just as you can't know everything, so too, you can't own everything, but you can have a damn good try at it!

 

A nice set of Schneider type semi-flats, hand-painted and tied into a tray, in the 'old school' fashion, and there were 33 previous sets! Box ticked; Karachi Industrial Works under two forms of lighting!

BMSS is for More Plunder, 2 of 2

The other half of the BMSS plunder, I literally split the folder this morning so there's no theme to either post, but this is by coincidence both mostly small scale, and mostly stuff Adrian gave me in a little tub, as a mixed lot.

 

Seen better days, with Plasticine bases and glued arms, but small scale'ish (o gauge), chalkware composition, in the style of Drevopodnik, and new to pile. They might be from the Soviet Bloc (post-war) or earlier, and German, I'm hoping they will be findable in my Schiffmann Sammlekatalog, next time I have it out?

 

Two Spot-On's to add to the stash, and two of the Kinder 'Mocherette', based on the Lone Star Metallions which might not be Lone Star (given that Hubley, Kresege, 'Hong Kong' and others, also issued them), one copper 'chromed' over the base metal, the other bronzed to an almost black-olive.

 

Reduced-size copy of the Brtiains Llama, a Hong Kong pack mule and one of the Torres wine-bottle giveaways, make an interesting trio of animals in polyethylene.

 

When I first started finding these, years ago, well, about 40 years ago, I was intrigued, I would get one or two at each show, and it took maybe a decade to get the last colour, they then became one of those things I'd seen the origin of, so 'knew', but could never remember, so didn't know! Eventually they were remembered long enough to blog (charity shop purchase I seem to recall), as Waddington's Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs figures.

 

And I now have so many of them I don't know what to do with them! They would paint up nicely as ranked war gaming pieces, but they have officers pistols, not rifles, so don't lend themselves's to ranks, or files! And how many role players (28mm) need slightly small (25mm) explorers, and what would they pay for them, when you can find up to 16 in a charity shop! The law of unintended consequences!

 

Odd smallies here with a Sistema Cadillac from Italy, in an odd scale of 1:77th. A few of the Slaters/Merit (Collis Plastics), home painted, and the weirdest of the three mico-AFV's which various rack-toy issuers used as filler in their sets in the 60's and 70's, joining the obvious Daimler armoured car and 25lbr type gun is this odd little amphibious landing craft/jeep/pop-up target/carrier hybrid, which has never been explained!

 

A bit of Thomas Wild West, an LB caveman, Matchbox Space 2000 'future warrior', and a kit figure in 1:48th scale of a WWII German tank crewman, alongside a later Briains head, farm, I think?

 

Atlantic, Davy Crockett figures, he survived an enraged bear, Indians and two demented donkeys, only to fall to the dastardly Mexican forces of General Antonio López de Santa Anna!

 

Three of the gold, post-Giant Greco-Romans we looked at on the other Blog, from two of the sourses, a Meccano for Hornby policeman and a larger firefighter, taken from Dinky, I think, or Corgi, but here probably from a larger plastic beach/garden toy?

M is for Mixed Magnanimity Mound

I know! But after nearly 20-years, even the thesaurus starts to fail you! It's a charity lot; soon after the last posting in this vein, I popped into a couple of the charity shops in Fleet and managed to come away with five things of vague interest, and these are they!

 

Another duck! It wasn't until a guest post back in 2012, that I had fully appreciated the whole sub-branch of ducks, since when I've probably added as many ducks to my own stash as were in that post, with a similar range of sizes and materials, they are - in the most part - real tourist kiosk/gift-shop/overpriced 'boutique' type stock, but they are fun, and one day we'll look at them all together!

 

A teeny-tiny hedgehog, which is so small it can keep the [believed to be] Playmobil one company! And a gape-mouthed, Chinasaur, rubber-jiggler, who may well be from the same set as the one Chris sent, which we saw here a few days ago? There were several sets of these sculpts, back in the day, and they occasionally still turn-up, so, hard to age.

 

A slipware porcelain cat, probably a fairing, or cheap, corner-shop/local hardware store ornamental, I thought the colouring of the glaze was quite good, even if it has a rather daft face with anthropomorphised eyes!

 

I think these would have been called Empathy Counters, and while you don't seem to be able to get this exact set any more, there are several other similar sets, and these five mouldings are still found in a larger early learning/maths/coordination set, in a yellower yellow!

 

From Edx Education, they fill the same role as that old set I was pleased to track-down a few years ago, or the Houghton Mifflin stuff in the 'States, and gets five more animals in six colours into the stash! Made of 'eraser' rubber, they would be mistaken for such, if not known.

Y is for Yummy Gumi

An odd one these, I got my first last autumn, and two more a few weeks ago, they seem to be bigger in the 'States, and might have recently been pulled here, by The Range (where I found all mine) or Zuru, or they're proving so popular they've sold out? Online I found a piece claiming Zuru were fifth-biggest toy manufacturer in the world, they're not even in the top-ten!

 

The earlier Gumi Yum has a more generic lid, but states the contents are wildlife, while the latter two are more specific to their contents, with another wildlife one, and a Transformers one, you can also see the egg, with its jelly jacket!

 

A particularly weird concept, from the fevered mind of someone paid to come up with new concepts, who has run out of sensible concepts, but has a presentation deadline, like, tomorrow! The jelly strips (and red and purple 'buttons') are [sprayed?] on the outside of the eggs, the yellow strip covering the join-line in the egg. They are then covered in fine sugar (not castor sugar, just that fine stuff you get at service station coffee stands) to reduce the stickiness, for transport and consumption.

 

This, of course, results in sugar going everywhere, as you try to start a 'peel', continue a peel, and/or move on to the next one! Some residue remains on the egg, so you have to lick or suck the egg clean, yes, it's a choking hazard! With no air-holes. The 5 pieces advertised are a four-piece model and an extra accessory, in a little pillow/bag, because the planet needs more polymer-laminated packaging.

 

The first one I got was a reasonable crocodile, the accessory being a baby crock', and they're manufactured from a dense polyethylene, or a propylene of some kind. I say 'reasonable' as the rest are quite cartoonish;

 

The rest of the set, only a few of the animals come with a baby, the rest get scenic items, food or food animals, or, in the case of the vulture, the remains of their last meal! There's also a golden lion with crown accessory, who may be intended as a rarer 'chase' figure?

 

I forgot to shoot the flyer from the Transformer one, but you get four Transformers, and their four transformations, plus a gold version of one, for a nine-count to the set. Luckily I got the 'space tank', which I think I already have a solid Micromachine-style one somewhere, so a future comparison? Also, around the size of those Iwako style, eraser tanks, so a future micro space tank battle1

 

I won't get any more, not just because they have either been withdrawn, or run-out, but because this is the kind of stuff which will be in mixed lots for years to come, which will be chucked in bags of Kinder, LZ and Balaban stuff for years to come, and because . . . the box has been ticked, for years to come!

 

And don't forget, Sandown Park toy fair tomorrow, best in the UK! 

D is for Donations - Peter - Animals

The sorting of the animals is going to be one of the bigger tasks, one day, the hobby is probably bigger than Toy Soldiers, certainly, it supports several vigorous forums, and there are as many makers, if not more, while mine are rather in an anonymised heap within the bigger stash, but they keep coming in, and here's some more!

 

A nice cat, which looks like it might be an accessory from a non-animal set of some kind, the lizard is from the little small-scale, rack-toy play sets from Toy Major/Ackerman, while the bear is both a bit crude and a bit unusual!

 

A whole sub-genre are this smallish scale, softish vinyl sets from toobs, tubs or bags, which are sort of 35/40mm compatible, but really 'bag-scale' or unit scale, and while some are marked, other's easy to ID, many sets are to be found on FeeBay-Amazon-Alibaba, as generics or under obviously phantom brands. These seem to go together, but a couple of them are questionable. Nice, different, cactus!

 

Two generic rack toys, over-stickered to Toys As Fun, which I could have saved for Rack Toy Month, but I think there's plenty for then, and this is the next size up, again, a bit unit-scale (elephant undersized, pig oversized), but mid-sized animals are coming out as 54mm-compatible, which is useful for dioramas and vignettes . . . big cat stalking a patrol, that kind of thing!

 

A couple of proper antiques, I love these! The pressed-wood farmer seems to match the common girl feeding chickens we've seen here before, in point of fact, she or her chickens, turn up so often she must have been from a popular set, for several years, but this chap I've not seen before. Although the blue paint has suffered badly, the other colours remain in sufficient quantity to give a good idea of what he looked like new!

 

While the horse in tin-plate might be a cigarette premium, while we, here in the UK, had cards and silks, as giveaways, some brands on the continent had tin-plate flats, prior to replacing them with the numerous plastic flats used as premiums with other products too. You fold the base out, after the item has been slid out of the packet of cigarettes.

 

From a more recent pick-up in London is another Toy Major lizard (used as a dragon/monster/dinosaur in both the cavemen and medieval sets), two tree frogs and a very daft-looking sauropod!

 

Some larger animals, I think a couple were Triple-A marked, and the green pony is from the Tupperware interactive building blocks, we looked at here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2017/11/g-is-for-great-grey-green-greasy.html

 

Where they were used as, removable, playable rattles, in opaque blocks, unlike the transparent ones from Airfix and others.

 

A large lump of dense vinyl, makes a rather nice Hippo', and these are starting to grow as a side collection, purely by accident, and we did look at a load in a lazy post a while ago!

 

This is from PMS, and I ummed-and-arrred over whether or not to open it, in the end I though I had to, or I wouldn't know what I was dealing with, and was quite suprised to find a gold mokey!

 

I don't know wheather it's a 'chase' figure, or if the whole range is finished in a similar fashion, nor do I know how many there are as there;s no flyer/leaflette . . . probably a £1-shop thing, and therefore stripped to the minimum on unit-price!

 

Another group of - probably - related small vinyls - wild!

 

And another - domestic!

 

Mentioned the other day I think, and seen with a few others a while back, oh yeah, it was the post on mixed shots, a week or so ago. Anyway, here's the farm one, courtesy of Peter, and these sets annoy me, nice animals in a vague scale, so why add huge dogs and ginormous poultry! They haven't even got the excuse of box-scale, because there's plenty of room occupied by the plastic end-filler!? I know, it's a cost thing!

 

Again, many thanks to Peter for all these, they're not just grist to the mill, but also 'bricks in the wall', gaps filled in the archive.

L is for Loose Lots - Sandown - Everything Else

Last of the purchase posts from Sandown Park, it's funny I've mentioned the stash/pile and Battle of the Planets in the last 24/48 hours, and Bushy managed to name-check them both in the last few hours (the irony being, he doesn't have a pile), almost like he can't bare me to post original stuff, but that's all I do; original images, original copy and original opinions - isn't that right readers? While someone else has commented, forgetting what he said about me a few years ago, but stupid people have the brains of goldfish!

 

A nice bunch of Charbens circus. Circus, like Pirates, have become a bit of a side interest for me, but then so have dime-store vehicles, parachute toys, LB, stationary novelties, Cracker & capsule toys, and, and, and! I think the Tiger is quite unusual here, and the different colours of the dogs costumes, and horses furniture, make the sample more interesting.

 

Speaking of dime-store vehicles, here's a couple more of the small, US pattern, row-crop wheeled tractors, Western plastic crap, predating the Hong Kong plastic crap by a decade or two! As you can see, these are basically the same model, but different sizes, and I have near-on a dozen now, nearly all different, so when they're all together, we'll have a proper look/comparison.

 

The blue one is marked Banner, and is the same as one of my military ones, the yellow, is not the smallest, so may be the same as the Merit/Bell ones, but marked Tudor Rose?and possibly the same as the unmarked pair we saw last September? That's a check I can make one evening this summer, when sorting over at the storage unit, where I think there's four or five of these?

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/09/l-is-for-last-mays-lots-of-lovely-loot.html 

 

Action Man command post field telephone set, which was in the biscuit tin from Isaac. This would be connected to landlines (the origin of the phrase, predating the mobile telephone!) connecting the forward trenches/positions, with a platoon net, company net and 'chat net', set at the evening O-group (Orders). Sometimes, on Salisbury Plain, in the middle of the night, you'd pick up Russian spy trawlers in the Channel, due to the power of their sending sets, and the aerial properties of all the D10 landline network!

 

Tomte Laerdal Renault Floride Cabrio sports car, note how much better the wheels are moulded on these than on the Galanite ones we saw the other day;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2026/04/l-is-for-local-loot-2-of-2.html

 

A couple of interesting Animals, Adrian found the horse, I think, which is similar to, but not the same as the Britains Shetlands, longer, thinner legs for a start! The composition squirrel is damaged, but was always a small delicate moulding, and squirrels are another thing I have a soft spot for, along with elephants, and hedgehogs!

 

Better Hong Kong copy of Lone Star, than some (but may be Spanish, South American or even an actual Lone Star, hard to tell, until I compare), and a kit accessory, possibly from a Jacques Cousteau ship model of Calypso?

 

Upper lot are Holly or Holly-like, we saw some of them in the recent Gary Gygax posts;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/search/label/Gary%20Gygax

 

While the lower shot shows their 'rubber jiggler' clones, as part of my favourite childhood set, indeed, the Dimetrodon to the right, is pretty-much how I remember mine to be, prior to my tearing all the spines free of each other, and ruining it!

 

Random, newish Dino', which turned-up during the course of the day!

Thanks to Adrain, Gareth, Isaac and Steve for bits at the show.