P is for Panits Laszlo, or is it Laszlo Panits?

There are four things I can say about these, and with little else to say, I might as well get stuck in without a long opener!

 

The first thing is that I could have sworn we had these on the Blog about 15-years ago, but I'm damned if I can find them now, they are not in the Tag List, yet the above image was taken before I ever had a Blog, and had gone to the dongles as 'done', so they must have been posted somewhere, maybe they were on my long-defunct Imageshack account, which I had for about 18-months, about 16-years ago! In which case they may have been posted to a long-gone HäT Forum article or something?
 

I think the upper ones are copies of Preiser, the lower set a mix of Esci-Ertl and Airfix sculpts.

 

The second thing is that I genuinely don't know if the firm/shop/chap is called Panits Laszlo, or Laszlo Panits? In trying to research the company (Google has got shit in the last ten years), I discovered quite a few of both, but without the comma we'd use in English - Hugh Walter or Walter, Hugh - it's imposible to work out which is commonly the surname or the forename, how they are typically presented, or if, indeed, in Hungarian, there's no difference, but the fact that there are quite a few, suggests it's the equivalent of a John Smith, or Andy Brown.

 

And neither point is meant to upset any Hungarians reading, I'd love input from them, to explain the points? But it's Panits Laszlo on the back of the card, so that's what we are going with.

The third point is the obvious stuff, they are factory-painted, HO/OO sized (1:76th scale), whitemetal piracies of Airfix, mostly RAF Personnel, or Esci NATO Ground Crew, here, I suspect, painted up as Warsaw Pact Hungarians, with the other sets painted-up as WWII USAAF-USAF, and with at least one figure taken from Airfix's set of that American title.

 

Set contents also vary from card to card, so you could - presumably - choose a card that would most closely allow you to set up your diorama, with whichever kit you were making? And I think the message stamped on the front just says "Model Figure Card" (blister/pack).

 

And I've forgotten what the fourth point was going to be, but it's worth mentioning that Panits Laszlo were probably responsible for the other Esci copies seen here in the past - which I also can't find, Doh!!

 

So, we'll have it 'again'? Also copies of Esci, also factory painted whitemetal, not seen on these cards, and here not divisible by six, there may be some damaged ones in the bag taking the sample to 24? But they otherwise seem to be the same idea/concept as the air force figures above?

And that's it, that's them, box ticked, I don't know a lot, I suspect it/he (Panits Laszlo) was also a model shop in Budapest, and if anyone can add anything, their input will be welcome.

B is for Bahnfiguren

A quick overview, or overfly, there's not much, of Roco's non-military figure sets, In which, with a donation from Jon Attwood and some dodgy scans of even more dodgy 20-plus-year old photographs, we get to where I think we need to be . . . a ticked box!

 

So, Jon sent me a nice pack of the Roco figures in one of his parcels, and these are they, sort of, this is one of each pose, which left me one figure short, with two spare, duplicate figures, so I shot them like this, and after a few weeks shot them again, with the two extra figures off to one side with the intention of musing on possibilities, when I remembered . . . 

 

. . . I had a couple of Roco railway catalogues, and all became clear! You can see, on the left-end of the bottom row, two ladies waving hankies! And twenty-two other poses.

Which means the second shot was rather redundant, but could be annotated to explain the situation! A nice set of sculpts, I would hazard a guess that it's one of the sculptors being used by Preiser at the time (mid-1970's), as the figures look familiar without actually being Preiser figures - although Preiser did supply several other brands.

 

So, main image is a scan of the early card as sent by Jon, and dating from that mid-70's 'Roco International' catalogue, and 49p in Beatties? An Airfix set at the time was around 18/20p, so they were always a bit pricey! Below which is the 1990's iteration, renumbered from 4466 to 40000, and joined by three-pairs of half-torso loco crew, at 40001, these may still be available?

 

Then to their right are the WWII Army Leader's we've seen before, and a comparison with early (US price code) and later header cards for the military sets. We will return to them all one day, and get everything to the same image quality!

P is for Pop-Picking All Time Top Five Favorites of All Time Top Five Mates!

But sadly Lord Bachmann, the Right Honourable Turner or Noble Overdrive won't be putting-in an appearance! Being; my five fave' hits of this year's PW show, closing the show-reports/plunder-posts for now.

This sat on Adrian's stall until the hall was nearly empty, unloved and unwanted, now . . .  it is damaged and has a replacement spear . . . but it's already one of the top-ten figures in my entire collection - and bear in mind; I have all eight tiny Trojans - twice!

It’s a French-made Clairet Greek Hoplite and to be honest the replacement spear - for which the hand has been drilled - only enhances a superb sculpt, the undamaged original is furnished with some double-barbed stick which looks like it was borrowed from an Esquimaux who previously used it to catch seals! This one though, is about to ruin a Persian's afternoon - forever!

This is a beautiful figure . . . isn't it? Stunning! Best of show.

Who knows? A blow-moulded, semi-flat, celluloid Indian, clearly removed from a larger piece; possibly a decorative picture or mirror-frame? I think it may be pre- or between-the-wars rather than a post-war piece?

As well as the cut-mark/hole at the back of the stump where a backing was, he has also been removed from something below his feet, the hole being neatly covered-over with a couple of wafer-thin slices of ivory or bone, previously board-game counters or tiddlywinks, which only raises the question, why wasn't the damage behind similarly patched?

Nothing too exciting, an Elastolin figure for the neighbouring Austrian market, where the bought-out Tipple-Topple's brand-mark was retained for continuity, or to appease the locals - stop them starting another war! The seller had several poses, but I chose this as an iconic example.

Could be nothing, could be something? Wintershilfswerke (WHW) maybe, or 'from hollow-cast'? The white trousers rather rule out British? He's a glassy or brittle polystyrene, semi-flat, or - at least - somewhat sculpted in one plane and a ceremonial from somewhere? 50/52-mil? I like him!

Really pleased - but a bit gutted. I posted this along with a kneeling firer last year having shot them at the show. This year I managed to get this one, but the kneeling figure - seemingly - had already been bought by someone else! Although the kneeling one had a silly smile and a bent barrel, so I'm happy with this one really.  An Argentine (or 'believed to be Argentinian') copy in polyethylene of a Lineol composition-made, WWI late-type German Infantryman.

Smine . . . sorll'myne!