L is for Lots of London Loot - Sandown February - Vehicles

Two of the best pieces, which covered both vehicles and figures went straight to 1970 in Picasa and won't be seen until September, if I remember, but, if you've worked it out, they'll be well worth the wait! In the meantime, after a couple of quirt Sandown's in the second half of last year, I actually picked-up quite a bit the other week, and there were a fair few vehicles, several from Adrian, so many thanks to him as I got them cheap as chips!

 

This was the first thing I bought, from Alkwyn I think (?), during the 'car-boot' phase out on the terraces while everyone waits for the doors to open! What I loved about it, it's otherwise a pretty standard road-roller from Triang 'Minic', is the fact that it's a crossover piece with tin-plate body and plastic wheels, that the smaller details are turned-brass is just the icing on the cake!

 

A small sample of Hong Kong cars, unusual for being brittle polystyrene, less common for having metal axles, and, the more observant among you may have noticed, the same as four Chris Smith donated a while back; same colours but some different mouldings - an MG-type roadster and a drop-gate estate/station-wagon.

 

If I already have a few in the main collection, the three lots (or two - if I don't) make a better sample, and that's why I love this stuff - there's so much out there, finding it all takes an eon, and we don't get an eon, we only get an age - four-score-and-ten if we're lucky!

 

More conventional US-originating dime-store stuff, with one of 'those' cars (Banner version I think), at the back, and a similarly coloured one in the foreground which may be from another source/set (blocked-in windows), all have the simple moulded-on wheels.

 

I've had a knackered example of this in the stash for a while now, no trailer (which I didn't know about), missing the gun and steering wheel, possibly windscreenless too, so, it's nice to get a decent one, even if the box is a bit shot! Generic, or, if the HK in the shooting star is a brand-mark, related to all that ABC/CMV/HK piracy of Britains stuff we've looked at a few times here, over the years?

 

The trailer is pretty fictional, I don't know if it is based on any post-war camping/outdoors press-release, but google suggests they never actually got made/sold (too many ex-military trailers if you needed one, and fully-covered camper-trailer designs, for those who wanted to stay dry and relatively bear-free!), but one of the dimestore makers did one, and various rivals copied it, until Hong Kong picked up the design too!

 

Two Kellogg's Frosties Land-Speed record attempt cars, it was all the rage when I was a kid, I'm not sure Rochard Nobel/Andy Green's attempts have garnered the same place in public discourse, but it's a different age now, then it was all boys-own-annuals and cigarette cards, now it's the whole known universe on a hand-held device?

 

More here - they are all 'Campbell' cars!

The yellow one is more of a generic pocket-money job, probably German or French, or a Hong Kong copy of the same?

 

This is a step-up, in the world of dimestore vehicular modelling, he says in that faux-poshness he employs occasionally! Not marked, so, again, I hope it's in Hanlon's book, or somebody recognises it, the driver (not brilliantly shot) is a bit Pyro-like, but they didn't tend to this level of detail with the opening doors and boot? You feel Dick Tracy chased this down a canyon while someone shot at him, out of the back window!

 

Treats and treasures! The broken plane is a copy of the German premium/promotional we've seen before, so just for 'sample', while the red racer also seems to be a copy, of the yellow Rosedale we saw a few years ago, but this one is unmarked.

 

Behind them, two real veteran survivors, a carded Kleeware locomotive whisle, and what I've been told is a Poplar Plastic's novelty performing clown, but I'm not sure on the mark, and it may be a long-forgotten smaller maker? All four are polystyrene.

 

While this is definitely Poplar, it says so! Needs a good clean, what is it with ships, those MPC Minis from the James Chase collection had the same black smuts? Some sort of marine-subject only, polymer-loving mould! Bathrooms?

 

The red White's Scout Car seems to be an unmarked variant of the Gilmark, so possibly Bell? We saw a silver one in the Bell/Banner/Merit-related boxed set, along with a similarly red armoured car. So a mould-swap rather than a copy I feel, and it's on another Pyro-like piece, a fire appliance, missing its ladders?

 

The Silver Morris-nosed van is unmarked, as is the sports car, but while the van is hollow, the car has a matching maroon baseplate with engine/drive-train/axle details etched into it, I think it could be British, but I don't know?

 

Noreda; I think I have both vehicles already, but this was a new (to me) packaging, so in the stash it goes, in order that the A-Z will be that bit more complete when I get round to it! I need some thin (ship-in-a-bottle or crochet?) tools to hook the bucket back on to the lower arm!

 

The second carded item was this Raphael Lippkin train in the Pippin line, a bit of fun, and early'ish plastic, I think it's wheels would fit the plastic Playcraft infant train sets based on Brio, and later copied in Hong Kong.

 

The card will need to be straightened, at some point, and I think the gentlest way to do so, will be with a wood-frame and clamps, overnight, or for a few days?

News, Views Etc . . . Jig Toy Page

I've had a photo-session on the 'master collection, and will be adding stuff to the 'Jig Toy' puzzle page over the next few weeks or months as time allows.

To that end, and allowing for some duplication with stuff already Blogged, I've shoved the ships and vessels on there today.

T is for Three of a Kind & Then Some!

A post which is neither as complete as it might have been, nor as short as it would have been if it was complete as originally planned, so a real bit of a curates egg, despite having a tight parameter, subject wise! Hoping the opening line is suitably cryptic - let me explain;

I picked up the later-version Merit gun in the course of the year, can't remember where or when, but it's probably in one of the 'H is for...' posts, the same as the one we saw boxed a few years (?) ago, but with plastic wheels rather than the wooden ones we looked at last time.

I put to one side intending to shoot the two together, forgot to do so and managed to put it away back in the summer as I'd uncovered the Merit box in the garage doing the Rack Toy Month Blue Box shots.

However I hadn't shot the boxed one which was buried in the attic, so the photo's for the new one sat here for a few months. The other week I dug out the old one, shot it separately and collaged the two closest-similarity shots together, otherwise there would have been a single image here; either way it would have been 'end of post'!

But after I'd finalised the above images I then remembered I try not to post military stuff in Christmas week (try not very hard if you check past Christmas posting here!), although these are exactly the sort of thing you'd get in a stocking 40 or 50-years ago, so put the pictures on 'hold' . . . I then got an eMail from Chris Smith who had no inkling of the above, literally about 48-hours later, showing this silver Hong Kong copy.

Anyway I'll schedule it for 12th night, which is still within the 12-days, but suitably far from Christmas-week to salve my soul!

What interested him was the fact that it has Empire Made on one side and Made in Hong Kong on the other, clearly a crossover or interim piece from the point where the Americans started to get more heavily involved in the colony's toy industry and the HK toymen realised they needed a less specific - or even less limiting - moniker on their toys, less 'British Empire' and more 'we're here and we make toys'?

Chris also commented on the numbers of copies you can find of this gun, and those who got Plastic Warrior's Charben's special last year will see one (non-firing) on the cover, with red wheels, while we've looked at sub-scale silver and gold-styrene ones from the Crown Colony here in the past, a few times now.

Anyway, that got me thinking, and I dug them all out and now we've got a full-post! Although, I must admit; the above and the next three are re-used images; mostly from the Airfix blog.

While Chris's is roughly the same size as the Merit version [point of order - if it's Merit chances are the 'original' original will be someone like the USA's Pyro or even the UK's Bell], these other ones are all HO-OO compatible, less than half the size of the big ones, but unlike the Charbens copy, do retain a rudimentary firing-mechanism.

Woolbro contracted to have their guns sprayed gold!

These generic sets will give you two guns with nobody to fire them or one and a rudimentary crew, although in both cases you also get a ship!

This is one of my favourite HK carded sets, dating from 1969 it has two men riding an Honest John tactical nuclear missile into ground-zero, bright-blue paratroops, four of the little guns, a bunch of Airfix piracies, some Giant space-men copies and a Beechcraft serving the Imperial Japanese Air Force . . . and if that's not enough to shut little Johnny up for an hour or two; look at the artwork - it's the end of two worlds! It's the Trigan Empire invading one of their neighbours! It's the end of Blazing Saddles with a navy and space-rockets!

It's madder than a bucket of frogs on the top-table at a wedding reception . . . there's a another Beechcraft, on the tail of an intergalactic spaceship, in a sky filled with paratroopers, Dakotas a Stratofortress or two and several Mirages, one of which - apparently serving with the International Red Cross - is about to crash into the beach having been brought-down by field guns!

Meanwhile, behind the plastic Beechcraft something terrible seems to be happening to a Bruster Buffalo or similar carrier prop-job? One day I'll carefully remove the staples and scan that card for posterity . . . or comedy-effect!

My thanks to Chris for his timely email, expanding this post from two, to eight frames, and thanks to James Opie for several of the Hong Kong, small-scale sets.

G is for Guns

I was sure I'd Blogged this, but there is no sign of past images on the dongles, and I couldn't find any post to link to when I posted yesterday's Bell set last week, so this post is by way of 'being overdue'!

Not a false memory in the normal sense of falsely imagining a set of figures from childhood, or a wrong scale due to the growth of the hands in adulthood, but rather more simply (or simplemindedly!) convincing myself I'd photographed, edited, collaged and published something I hadn't . . . I wonder what else I think I've publish but have yet to show?

No matter; it's here now . . .

. . . looking much like yesterday's gun - at first glance - but in Merit cloth, not Bell, this is a common design from the 1950's 'dime-store' oeuvre, I'm assuming it's a Pyro design originally as the other vehicles in the Bell set were, but this gun wasn't issued in any of the large Pyro boxed sets, and other makers carried a similar beast.

Indeed - one of the frustrations of having the bulk of the collection in storage is that I have several versions of this gun, in various sizes and both hard and soft plastic; which would go well here - ne'er mind, it's an excuse to return to the subject another day!

The various components of the gun, it's quite a fictional piece, loosely based on (or vaguely resembling) the weapon that was Gunner Milligan's 3-inch howitzer part in the Second World War! Missing from my example are both the small rubber dental-band used to provide fire-power and a runner with 12 of the small shells.

This one has wooden wheels, requiring a complete redesign of the underside to take a copper-plated steel axle. There are other differences between this version and the earlier Bell model, not least the 'hammer', which is smaller, flat topped and less well defined as a moulding, suggesting that the Bell may well have been a mould-swap, while the later Merit was a copy, re-cut from left-over stock?

An old evilBay auction shot of one with hollow-backed, soft-plastic (polyethylene) wheels, a year or so younger than mine (?) but with the same box, along with the one we saw yesterday, with the 'Pyro' tractor wheels. The Merit plastic wheels were also deeper than the HK copy.

Looking at the shells in what appears to be an old cap-carton rather than a Merit 'thing' reminded me I might have them somewhere?

A selection of Randal stuff (as I had the box out) in styrene, ethylene and propylene with metal and wooden parts (both the bomb and the pistol have spring-actions). Between their known brands; Bell, SEL and Merit, they produced a vast range of toys, playthings, hobby accessories, educational/early-learning products and scientific instruments from their HQ in Potter's Bar, over about  a half-a-century - there's always a decent enough selection on 'the 'Bay'.

I then went into the attic to look for the shells, and while I found some and they are in twelve's  and do look 'right' and might be by Bell/Merit, they aren't the right colour, however the smaller, silver ones reminded me that not everything is in storage!

So a three-shot post becomes a nine-image round-up! First-up; we’ve looked at this set on the penny-based khaki-infantry page, where it comes with Britains piracies, it's about the same size as the Merit/Bell gun, and the wheels are copies of the fuzzy Merit one I snapped from evilBay.

While this smaller one is quite common having been included in/with several sets around the end of the 1960's, these two versions sharing the same backing card and mini-ship, but one having a few Airfix-copy figures while the other comes with two guns.

Both of these sets were dated to 1969 by James Opie; we have seen them here before as well I think, or on the Airfix Blog, but 'in context' gives us the excuse necessary to look at them again!

The Woolbro set - clearly considering itself above 'the rest' - has posh, gold-plastic guns, the poor-old generic set gets the commoner silver polystyrene weapons.

D is for Dimestore

Well, this is a pretty thing, is it not? Went to the Autumn/Christmas show at Sandown Park last weekend, I didn't take any 'show' photographs - too busy, but I did shoot a couple of nice bits on Adrian's stall, and also bought a few bits of interest for December's posts.

I presume they are copies of the US maker Pyro's 'dimestore' vehicles and figures; as the later Merit jeep was a copy, and this set seems to be a Bell offering, the earlier brand of Randall, parent of Merit.

One or two of the vehicles were marked BELL, the big red gun (shells/bullets missing? Certainly missing for the smaller piece) had 'A BELL TOY' while another just had a partial 'MADE IN ENGLAND' and with no label remaining on the box, it's hard to call whether they are copies or licensed/mould-swap types.

Certainly, as Merit, the gun would reappear [link]**, but with a metal axle and wooden wheels rather than the heat-welded stub-axles used here. The figures have been issued by several companies over the years and we will return to them one day, but as seen here always flat and - in this case - only the single figures present; the stretcher team and mounted officer of the original set not included/copied.

The tractor is in the US-specific 'row-crop' configuration with the front wheels brought together to make an almost tricycle undercarriage arrangement, as far as I know such a layout was never used in the UK. So not the most useful artillery-tractor either, with its agricultural-specific wheel set-up, but, hey, they were toys!

A couple of the marks and the machine-gunner; clearly designed as a gift-set with the red boxing, wouldn't you have loved to find this under the tree at Christmas? Did you get one? If you did you're older than me!

 

** The red 'link's - should you ever encouter another - are supposed to be note to me reminding me to add the link when I'm uploading the post at the library (then I remove the red text!), in this instance I can't find the bloody post?!! I'm sure I have posted both the gun and the box, seperately, but I might be getting confused with the Jeep/gun combination, so I will dig it (the gun) out this weekend and post it for Tuesday . . . if I have it here? Doh!

J is for Journey Into Space

We haven't had any poured-metal for a while and when it comes to poured-metal it doesn't get much better than this.

Thanks to Martin Hills for letting me photograph this find before it went off to its new owner...

Journey into space...with Cherilea! I've seen smaller sets of these figures before, one each of the main poses, a rocket and two robots, that sort of thing anyway, but this is pretty special.

Better shot of the contents, I'm afraid they're not my best photographs as it was a hurried opportunity at the last Sandown Park toy fair, and I wasn't quite in focus with them.

These figures were later run (by Hilco?) in a very chalky white polyethylene which is now very brittle, and therefore even bags of broken bits exchange hands for a fiver or more!

To get two-each of most of the elements is quite enough, but there is a pose here I've never seen before...

...the prone figure in the centre; totally new to me.

The robot on the other hand is one of the most common figures out there and it would repay the effort just to collect them. Well...I mean he's not that common, but there are many versions of him to track-down and collect.

In the US he appears in various sizes in hard and soft plastic, in the UK as well as this figure and the Hilco plastic shots (which tend to survive due to the sculpts 'chunkyness'), there are larger versions, probably from the US moulds via mould-sharing deals?

Then there are the arm-down versions from the Bell/Merit magnetic 'Answer Robot' games, which were reproduced three Christmases ago by House of Marbles, and literally dozens of versions of the same game existed all over the world, over several decades - lots of which are on that BGG link.

In addition to these there have been many rubber and plastic gum-ball machine prizes, key-rings, erasers and the like coming out of the Far East, the robot would make a nice, compact, single-subject collection.

J is for Jig-toy

When I last looked at these back in 2008 I said we'd come back to them, and here we are - doing so! But these aren't the ones I was thinking of at the time, which are now in storage, these are some I photographed at Sandown park last Saturday (pine backgrounds), or that have come into the collection in the last year or two (black backgrounds), so we will come back to them again!

If you click on the above link, this post will reappear at the top as it's the same search tag.

 When we looked at them last time (days after I started the Blog!) I stated that Bell/Merit went from phenolic plastics to ethylene leaving Hong Kong to styrene (although pointing out that Peter Pan also used polystyrene), it's now clear that some intermediate J&L Randall stuff was styrene as well, such as with this helicopter - lower shots.

The upper image is two of the Kellogg's freebies, being copies of a Merit helicopter and a donkey/pony/foal/zebra? This is missing its ears, as was the one we looked at way back when, as are all my examples and most of those (of these) I've ever seen, it slots/clips into the little chink at the bridge of the nose and is easily lost. I would imagine 99% of the ears that ever left a factory have been found by vacuum cleaners and were sent to landfill/incineration decades ago!

These are all in the style of Kellogg's issues, but two of them probably aren't Kellogg's; the Fire Engine which is a Hong Kong copy and the two-tone car. The other three are Kellogg's. The car was one of the puzzles copied by an - as yet - unknown (by me) Hungarian maker during the days of the Cold War in polystyrene, along with a tilted army-truck.

Two of my favourites, the little tank has a stump for a gun-barrel, and a very simple action which is not so much puzzle as a click-together! But I keep buying them when I see them in order to make single colour ones from all the pieces- I've now got enough for an all-red one!

The rocket I'm really pleased with, it was not a lot, despite all space-themed toys commanding an unnecessary - in my opinion - premium just for being 'space' toys, and although styrene, I think it's quite early. Like the tank its mechanism is not so puzzle-like, and it's a bit loose and floppy, but for 50's pulp, it hits the spot.

We've looked at most of these before, but you can't have too many! I wonder if the duck/penguin thing is a cartoon character of the time (1950-60's), I'm pretty sure I've seen other toys/playthings in a similar style/shape? In the version found in America and those from Hong Kong he has an obvious duck's beak and is wearing a top-hat, but an early version with a thermo-printed face on what is otherwise a bowling-pin with feet was called Smook...does that mean anything to anyone?

The car is a new design on the blog, while the Scottie-dog is similar to both the elephant we looked at last time and a cat still waiting in the wings, but has a different part-order to the elephant. The cowboy is another favourite and this is an earlier version, as are all this group - bar the dog.

On the left are comparisons between ethylene, one-colour (Kellogg's) and styrene versions, which may or may not be Merit originals. The tractor is also Merit; a David Brown and the metallic mauve section is very unusual. The exhaust stack is broken and a slot on the seat hints at a driver figure I've never seen...maybe it was considered and then dropped?

The wagon, this is probably a Kellogg's one, there are so many differences with these it's hard to know what's what, I have several and the side detailing is different on all of them, so even if the Kellogg's supplier had several different cavities in the mould, it can't explain all of them.

Listing

Transport
Covered Wagon - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Covered Wagon - polystyrene - Merit
Covered Wagon - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1959 and 1970
Steam locomotive - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Aeroplane (twin-engine) - polystyrene - Merit
Aeroplane (twin-engine) - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1959
Aeroplane ('lolly-stick wings) - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Aeroplane (simplified version of above) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Aeroplane (egg-shaped) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Jet Fighter - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Nic-Nak Novelties (Freeport, NY)
Jet Fighter - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Space Rocket - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Space Rocket - polystyrene - Merit
Flat-bed Lorry (Guy/ERF flat-fronted cab) - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1959
Tipper-Lorry (Volvo long-bonnet cab) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Tilted Lorry (Mercedes/Tatra rounded cab) - polystyrene - Hungarian and Hong Kong (Puzzle Top)
Ocean Liner - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1959 (might be the same as the next listing)
Ocean Cruiser - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1970
Destroyer - polystyrene - Merit and Albers Carnation (Men of Annapolis)
Battleship - polystyrene - Fairylite (larger puzzle)
River Ferry (two stacks) - polystyrene - Best (Hong Kong) and Lionel (US)
Ocean Liner (simplified version of above with one stack) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
River Cruiser - polystyrene - Hong Kong (like Monopoly boat)
Helicopter - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Helicopter - polystyrene - Merit
Helicopter - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1959
Jeep - polystyrene - Merit
Jeep - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1959 and 1970
Tractor - polystyrene - Merit
Tractor - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1970
Saloon Car - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1970
Sports Car - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Sports Car - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Racing Car with Driver - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Racing Car with Driver - polystyrene - (Hong Kong?)
Racing Car (large cart with driver) - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Racing Cart (looks like shoe!) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Old Fashioned Car - polystyrene - Lionel (and Fairylite? Larger puzzle)
Jeep - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1970
Artillery Gun (25lbr?)  - polystyrene - Merit 
Artillery Gun (25lbr?) - polystyrene - Hong Kong (Action Puzzle)
Artillery Gun (6" Howitzer?) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Fire Engine - polystyrene - Merit
Fire Engine - polyethylene - Hong Kong
Fire Engine - polystyrene - Hong Kong (usually single colour; pink or red)
Motorcycle Cop - polystyrene - Peter Pan Playthings

Animal and Figural
Cat (in profile) - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Cat (in profile) - polystyrene - Merit and Hong Kong
Elephant (chunk) - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - (Bell/Merit?)
Elephant (chunk) - polystyrene - Merit and Hong Kong
Elephant (running) - polystyrene - Merit and Hong Kong
Scotty-dog (chunk)  - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Scotty-dog (chunk) - polystyrene - Merit and Hong Kong
Scotty-dog (chunk) - polystyrene -Roddy (Southport, UK)
Scotty-dog (chunk - scaled-down version of above) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Bulldog (in profile) - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Bulldog (in profile) - polystyrene - Merit and Hong Kong 
Long-nosed Puppy (chunk) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Dolphin - polystyrene (?) - (Fairylite? large puzzle)
Owl - polystyrene - Hungarian
Smook (printed face) - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - (US make?)
Duck/Penguin (small beak) - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Duck (large beak) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Horse/Donkey/Pony/Zebra (..of Troy?) - polyethylene - Kellogg's 1970
Cowboy on Bucking Bronco - polystyrene - US make and Hong Kong
Indian on Bucking Bronco - polystyrene - US make and Hong Kong
Indian on Standing Horse - polystyrene - Hong Kong (Chemtoy)
Cowgirl on Trotting Horse - polystyrene - US make and Hong Kong
Cowboy/Mexican on chunky horse - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - (Bell/Merit?)
Cowboy/Mexican on chunky horse (with pigs head/face) - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin (US make?)
Cowboy/Mexican on chunky horse - Hong Kong
Baseball Hitter / Baseball Player - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Wrestler  - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit (and US make?)
Wrestler - polystyrene - Merit and Hong Kong (and US make?)
Wrestler (scaled-down version of above) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Robot - polystyrene - Hong Kong

Firearms
Ray Gun (side-arm with telescopic sights) - polystyrene - Merit
Ray Gun (egg/rocket-shaped side-arm) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Ray Gun (really fat side-arm) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Ray Gun (clear sleeve over barrel, side-am) - polystyrene - Hong Kong (in capsule egg)
Ray gun (rifle) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Tommy Gun (Thompson SMG) - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Revolver / 6-gun- cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Revolver / 6-gun - polystyrene - Hong Kong

Geometric and Objects
Cube - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Ball (large) - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit
Ball (small, on lucky-horseshoe key-chain) - polystyrene - Peter Pan Playthings
Football (as above but sections arranged in football 'patches') - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Heart Shape - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Rugby Ball - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Egg - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Bowling Pin - polystyrene - Hong Kong
Pressing Iron / Steam iron - cellulose acetate/phenolic resin - Bell/Merit

Puzzle Puzzles (not really Jig-toys as they are sealed-units)
Rubik's Cube (3x3x3 cubes) - polystyrene - Hong Kong and Hungary
Rubik's Triple (3 in-line cubes) -polystyrene - Hong Kong and Hungary
Rubik's Drum - polystyrene - Hong Kong and Hungary
Rubik's Mini-Babylon (sliding balls) - polystyrene - Hong Kong and Hungary ('Magic Tower')
Ball (spherical version of Rubik's cube) - polystyrene - Hong Kong

Only one or two of these (following collage) are mine, the rest are hoovered-off the Internet for the archive, while they were all copyright-free or lacking any obvious copyright, I present them for research purposes, small, and cut-up to help you with the above list, not to be of commercial use to anyone.

We will return to these one day, as they are a favoured side-collection of mine and I will photograph most of the rest in close-up then!

B is for Bell

And so to a mates house with two other friends for a chin-wag and an all-day breakfast in the local cafe, one of our number bringing a few items from his private collection for a bit of a 'show and tell', among which was this beauty.

I don't know how many of you remember the Jig-Toy puzzles I covered way back at the start of this blog (Here), but one of the companies was called Bell and they had a distinctive logo. Bell went on to leave/sell/donate their puzzle moulds to Merit, whether they ever left this mould to Merit is another question...probably never to be answered!

A near mint (given it's likely to be between 50 and 70+ years old?) boxed set of British soldiers in an early plastic which could be a styrene polymer or a cellulose acetate or even one of the phenolic compounds, it was hard to tell and there wasn't much smell to go-on as they had travelled some distance that morning and been properly aired, not to mention - the almost total paint coverage meaning there was little to release a smell from. [See note below...]


Although there is nothing to indicate such an act on the packaging, I wonder if they were issued as part of a war-bond drive or other fund-raiser, as the lack of poses and crude detail when other better soldiers were readily available in metal and composition (pre-war) or metal and plastic (post war) would suggest a tight window of saleability between the late 1930's and late 1940's...making this among the earliest sets of British plastics composition figures.

They are around 70mm and somewhat reminiscent of the products in composition made by Brent or - more specifically; Zang (for Timpo) and when he first got them out that's what I thought they were - a set of Zang standing infantry!

Having now obtained a scruffy one for my own collection, I can confirm that while they look plastic, they are actually a pumice-based 'Elastolene / Timpolene' type composition, tag list changed to reflect that!

P is for still more Puzzles!

Continuing a theme...or tearing the arse out of it, depending on your point of view! The most sought after by collectors are those with a space connection, or the various weapons....

These would all appear to be by the same manufacturer, an unknown Hong Kong producer, the Robot and 'plane are both set-up as key-rings, the ray-gun is one of two designs I know of, while the Tommy-gun is damaged and glued (there should be a bit of the orange sticking out of the bottom and twistable), I do have a revolver but I will cover that when I look at the British manufacturers another time.

The Lorry on the left is a soft plastic Kellogg's one, the other is a hard plastic HK copy. Another design of Lorry has the long bonnet (hood) of a Volvo type truck. There are also several versions of car around.

These are by Peter Pan Playthings and Bell, the Elephant by Bell is in the same Phenolic plastic as the multi-coloured wagon in the previous post, hinting at the origin of the otherwise unmarked wagon (and unmarked instruction sheet). The Peter Pan toys are in Polystyrene - hard plastic, the motorcycle cop is about 35mm, the traditional ball puzzle is also a key-ring with plastic fob, not something designed to last much beyond Christmas day!

I will cover both these manufacturers and Merit in greater depth another day, but feel you've probably had you fill of puzzles for now!!!