G is for Guards - Taken from Hollow-cast Moulds

A few figures were produced in plastic from old hollow-cast moulds, or maybe from moulds taken from Hollow-cast figures - as most of them seem to remain 'unknown' when it comes to maker. here are a few I've picked up;

Both in the 19th Century dress of the Crimea or Post-Crimean War era. I suspect the kneeling one is from a Britains mould? The other has some similarities the the Hilco figure of an officer walking I posted yesterday, but equally doesn't fit totally.

These are quite common, appearing from time to time painted or unpainted in cellulose acetate, polystyrene or soft polyethylene. The four on the left and the highlander seem to be a stable cellulose acetate (but it could be an early - tinny - styrene) and are courtesy of Adrian Little. 

The standing firing chap has the same paint as the others, but a green base, so in this case might be from another set?

They are about 50mm and again one of them has the full webbing straps of an earlier era, when Line Regiments as well as guards wore this type of uniform.

B is for Buried, Better, Burger King, BMC, Brent, Bandai and Benbros

As this is the season for getting as many things on your plate as possible (without letting the gravy flow over the edge!) I thought it was the ideal moment to cover a few minor makes or smaller samples from my collection, so here are some minor 'B's'.

On the left (and marked "MADE IN ENGLAND") is a pawn from the Buried Treasure ice cream (?) chess set. These were also sold in the states both as Buried Treasure (?) and Sherbet Surprise. The question marks are down to my not knowing if Buried Treasure was ice cream or some other edible product, and not knowing if they were available in the states as BT or just Sherbet watsit!

On the right and dateing from 1949 is a joke/stag-novelty of a naked woman from Better Novelties Inc. of the US of A, who will only stay in her bath for the person who knows the secret - a sliding magnet. I have similar toys of naked women in [on] a bed and the kissing dolls I think I've covered somewhere in the 450 posts now gone below?

This is apparently a very early Burger King toy from the 1950's or 1960's and consists of the King (himself!!? Who knew or remembered he originally existed?) riding an air-powered go-cart/cartie. Coming as a kit of 4 parts in a nylonish plastic, maybe a polypropylene? His only mark is the R in a circle so favored of Giant - this must have been an American thing, we had the Copyright 'C' and the Patent 'Pat.' but the Registered sign was never of legal worth in Europe and didn't appear on our products.

Above are two bits of hollow-cast I've ended-up with; a Benbros calf and a 30mm BMC penny-toy of a mounted Life Guard, with below; the only other 'volume' producer of composition figures in Britain (we looked at Zang the other day) was a company called Brent, who produced these generic WWII British types with picture-frame nails as weapon barrels/muzzles.

There were about 3 sets of small scale Pokemon, these are by Bandai, I think I've also got smaller unmarked ones and same sized ones by Tomy probably from their gumball machines.

As these are yesterdays 'fad' now, and space needs to be made for Ben10 stuff, there might be good pickings for this sort of stuff at car-boot sales this year.