J is for Jungle Shooting Match

Berwick Games attic find! Very redolent of its time, hunting big-game is just not something you'd make a game off now! This was absolutely filthy and nearly went in the recycling; the roofing-felt in the attic is a fluffy variety about 130-years old, and for some time has been collapsing under its own weight having dried to the consistency of cold-war Eastern-Bloc fag-packet cardboard, covering everything in the attic in a black snow.

But, as you can see it cleaned-up OK and was in better nick than I expected, so it's gone to storage for now, and I will chuck it on feeBay at some point in the future. I can well remember this, we had hours of fun on wet winter's days, lying on our bellies and sniping*(1) some of the rarest animals on earth!*(2)

 

The animals were (are!) only vac-formed polystyrene sheet, and it wasn't long before we literally blew one apart, so Mum, who was nothing if not ingenious, made them all backing cards from corrugated-cardboard, and here they are 50-odd years later, almost as good as new . . . Except the gorilla!

 

Not so the cork-firing pistols, one has absented itself entirely (decades ago), and the other is broken across the barrel, but I will try to fix it up at some point, maybe get a post out of that exercise? Quite a James Bond looking thing, I think?

 

Same mechanism as most toy artillery, pull back to the catch, and then fire, the plunger is near flush with the end of the barrel, propelling the cork with enough force to pop the animals out of their little die-cut card catch, and blow the feet off the gorilla! The animal then shoots up with an over-dramatic death throw, due to its elastic thread!

Two pea-shooter tubes were supplied to stand it up on a flat surface, but it's easier to prop it against a wall or piece of furniture. And I think this is a rare survivor, as I haven't seen one on evilBay yet, despite looking quite often, hoping for replacement parts?

 

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(1) Kids; it's not good to shoot things!

(2) No animals were harmed in the making of this post!

B is for Brief Board-game Bonanza!

Another box which got shifted from the garage back to storage was this one, but it was jammed at the bottom, and while I like to carry-on like I'm still 25, the simple fact is - I'm not! So I had to break the tape and temporarily empty-out the horizontal games laying on the top, to make it light enough to jiggle about while lifting, 'cos it's a big box; it had a boiler in originally!

A mixed bunch, the Star Trek only has large 54/60mm card flats, and I think I picked-up a lose set a while ago, so this will probably go at some point, but there's a few treasures in here too, we saw the Formula 1 game ages ago, and the Belagerung with Marx figures (I can't remember if it was here or One Inch Warrior magazine though?) and we've seen the 3M Feudal figures, loose.

Tri-Tactics (Gibsons) is also card flats; beautiful old litho'd ones, we've seen the Show Jumping plastic flats once or twice I think and the Keys to the Kingdom figures? While there's so much on Axis and Allies now on-line I may never bother with a full post, but they're there for comparison shots and the A-Z!

I photographed the contents of the other box back in the summer of 2020, and a couple of those posts are still in the queue (although I don't think Shogun has turned up yet?), but I'm going to quickly look at three of these, which have already been sealed back-up again and gone-on to the store.

Waddington's Camelot, we have seen the pieces here already, they have been in one or two mixed lots, but we may return to them here, to compare with some black & white ones I think I have somewhere.

Dean's second - bi-lingual - version of the Peter Rabbit Race Game, original sets had hollow-cast lead figures, fully painted and supplied by Timpo, the tool for which these polyethylene plastic ones were moulded from, a third 'heritage' version was issued a few years ago with 'antiqued' chrome-finished mazak-alloy pieces. I think the lead ones have been seen here? Squirrel Nutkin is the odd one out, with a full/all-over coat of paint, on cream-white plastic.

This came from Matt Thier of White Tower Miniatures, who saw it and saved it for me nearly 20 years ago, and he let me have it at his cost, which was car-booty pennies I seem to recall, so many thanks to Matt, for that!

An Italian-language (Noris toys or games) one or two-player game, you are Ivanhoe (or Roger Moore; even if he looks like Tony Curtis!), fighting the baddies of King Prince John!

Figures are semi-flat, in the European premium style, about 25mm and hard polystyrene. The TV series was actually an early ITV joint UK/US co-production and Roger Moore hated doing it apparently!

C is for Collie-dog

Having to work out why there are definitely two types of collie dog, I discovered there are actually four . . . ish! If you are interested I can only send you here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collie, but suffice to say in polymer there are basically two, the long haired Border or Farm Collies, and the even longer-haired (and more pointy-nosed) Rough Collie. I used to think Border and Welsh were the same, but Welsh are short-haired (my cousin's endless line of unrelated 'Rovers' - saves learning a new name!).

From the left and all basically Border/Farm Collies with one exception; Britains 1st type, Timpo (the exception, he/she's more Rough Collie), Britains prone, Britains 2nd type and finally; Britains Hong Kong - to which you can add the Spears 'A Shepherd and His Dog' board-game copy, although I decided it was probably Britains supplied, unlike the sheep.

Of the three designs Britains ran from the '50's (?) to the mid-1960's, the running one is more Rough Collie than the other two, and is probably a second 'exception'! However the later HK-manufactured version (far right) is defiantly Border/Farm with the thicker muzzle.

The Timpo Collie has the longer fur of the Rough, and while early ones had a touch of white paint on brown or black plastic, later examples are unpainted in black, white or brown. The darker-brown dog is a Hong Kong copy with a spray-painted white belly.

The Hong Kong clone has been copied with some skill, to the point where there is little size variance and the 'E' of England on the original is still readable on the knock-off. If it wasn't for the slightly blobbier feet and tail and different join-marks (in a three-part tool), one might think the HK maker got hold of the old Timpo mould!

Britains running pose, started life as one of a 'family' of three, with standing and prone kennel-mates, but by the 1970's only the runner remained in the catalogue. The top row shows those early dogs (another yellow-brown one came in today - 17th July - with a charity lot!), definitely 'Lassie' type Rough Collies, they can have dry-brushed highlights on the collar or plain-white shoulder-stripes.

Middle row compares the earlier sculpt (outer pair) with the later Hong Kong supplied replacement (inner pair) which is definitely the Border/Farm type, while the lower row is a variety of those late versions, with a washy grey-white plastic Tomy example fifth from the left and an unpainted example on the far end. Star Toys of Hong Kong copied the later design in all-black polyethylene with a battery-operated, big-rig, horse-box/animal transporter.

The earlier poses obviously sold well before they were dropped from the inventory, and they don't seem to be much less available, although the standing poses is a little harder to track down.

The right hand prone dog is a Hong Kong copy with the same purplish-brown as some pretty-common rabbits from the colony, which came in Home Farm sets, but the Holly type, not Blue Box, although some (at least one?) of the 'generics' below will probably be Red- or Blue Box.

Note also that the far-right standing dog has a gloss finish, against the commoner matt of most; a failure of the out-worker to properly stir the new paint?

Marked with a simple 'ENGLAND', this is Crescent's entry into the sheepdog trials; and they've paired a clear Rough Collie with . . . a  . . . ? . . . phffffff . . . Springer Spaniel . . . kennel mongrel? Tail's odd for a spaniel! Early painted - later unpainted, always black I think, but there may be white-plastic shots?

In the foreground Crescent's sculpts are here both pirated as Christmas cracker or gum-ball machine capsule-prizes, both marked with a blocked 'HONG KONG', to the right is a very crude sculpt (but new pose, see below), not Star Toys' one which was the Britains running pose, but of similar end-use as the Crescent copies and probably quite modern.

It's a Rough Collie, while the large (probably Chinese) one in a Schleich/Papo/Bully compatible size is clearly a Border/Farm Collie, it's unmarked and a soft PVC-replacement against the polyethylene of the other three.

This post's photograph folder grew over a few months as I tried to get everything together, with most of the above from storage, the previous image is recent - mostly Charity shop - stuff and this image is also storage stuff; the Far East 'junk'!

Three more Crescent copies at the front (green boxes in the key), a unique sculpt (purple) marked 'Hong Kong' and copied by the black one in the previous image and two marked 'China' (red boxes). Crescent's are Border/Farm types, the rest more Rough Collies. The other larger one (2nd from left back/top row) has a neat 'Made in Hong Kong' mark.

This lot was the 'here' stuff and we have another three Crescent cracker/gum-ball types (the 'spaniel' doesn't seem to have been copied so prolifically?), another Britains standing, a brown Timpo with the remains of paint, two more prone-copies (with purplish-paint) and along with three PVC types are another bunch of generics (various marks or none) to make up the pack.

Those PVC types here include; back left marked 'China 8' (or B), the next one along is marked plain 'China' and while it looks more like an Alsatian/German Sheppard, doesn't look-so, when placed with the other Alsatian/German Shepherd toys, so I've put him/her here for now and when I get round to German Shepherds will show him/her against them too, so everyone can make up their own minds - both are original sculpts!

While the large Britains ['ish] running copy (front middle - brown & white) is unmarked and might be a European die-cast/farm vehicle accessory. The two dogs (behind him and third from the left on the back row) over-sprayed with dark orange-brown may be from a Berwick board game, but I don't think so.

...The Hounds of Hell milled-about on the lawn outside Professor Farquhar's study, they knew he only had the one silver-bullet left and a small phial of holy-water, but he'd need them both - for himself - before the night was over or the fire dimmed, and cooked meat was as good as fresh!

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events; Saturday 22nd - Friday 28th June 2019

So it's between Hunt, and we all know what the Health Sector thinks of him (and indeed what his colleagues have accidentally called him - in Parliament!) and the lying, racist one? Meanwhile the orange loon; Trumpton not Boris, has 'announced' for a 2nd term and Fort Bragg is to stop doing toy-runs (see news - below), call me a cynic - but I think we can conclude that we are now in the 'end of Anglo-Saxon hegemony' phase of human history! 250/300-odd years; it was a good run?

Meanwhile having lost the Witch-hazel to last summer's drought and the dry winter/spring, we've now lost the Bramley to the soak, just keeled-over and snapped at the base, and it was well-over 100-years old, the last tree from the orchard which was here before the railway came. Climate change - as predicted - making itself felt everywhere now, and Brazil's monkey-in-charge wants to log the last of the Amazon forests!

Toys are struggling to cheer, but see what you can find this week . . .

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 22nd June 2019

Carmarthen - Chris Dyer Fairs

Carmathen Leisure Centre, Llansteffan Road, Johntown, Carmarthen, Wales, SA31 3NQ

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £2

Gloucester - Steven Clement Fairs

Churchdown Community Centre, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL3 2JH
eMail: clementfairs@aol.com
01380 725 322
10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown
Refreshments available

Maidstone - Maidstone Vintage Toy Fair

Lockmedow Market Hall & Leisure Complex, Barker Road (Hart Street entrance), Maidstone, Kent, ME16 8LW

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01622 298 159

Mob. - 01732 840 787

09:00 - 15:00hrs

Admission £2.50p

Park & ride, pay and display parking, refreshments

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Sunday 23rd June 2019

Bolton - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'Macron'

The Premier Suite, Macron Stadium, Bolton, Lancashire, BL6 6SF

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

Hours unknown (probably 10:30 - 15:00hrs)

Admission £4.00, early-bird £8, (from 08:00hrs), seniors £3.50, children £1

Free parking

Worthing  - SRP Toyfairs

Charmandean Centre, Forest Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 9HS

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

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Auctions

Saturday 22nd June 2019

Newark - Northgate Auctions

17 Northgate, Newark, Nottingham, NG24 1EX

Web. - www.northgateauctionroomsnewark.co.uk

eMail - auctions@northgateauctionroomsnewark.co.uk

Tel. - 01636 605 905

Fax. - 01636 612 607

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Wednesday 26th June 2019

Lot 4402 - Be your own Dalek, just remove your legs!

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Starts 10:30am

Viewing 08:00-10:30hrs on the day of the sale

TV & film related merchandise sale

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Thursday 27th June 2019

Lot 5613 - Roy Cross original artwork

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Starts 10:00am

Viewing 08:00-10:00hrs on the day of the sale

Military & civilian figures, equipment & accessories sale

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Other Events

Saturday 22nd 2019

Duxford - Imperial War Museum - Vintage Evening
Web. - www.iwm.org.uk
Air and ground displays

Currently Cancelled - may be due to (now improving) weather, so worth keeping an eye on the website? If not; next show is Saturday/Sunday 13th-14th July 2019

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Saturday 22nd & Sunday 23rd 2019

Kenilworth - English Heritage - Legendary Joust

Kenilworth Castle & Elizabethan Gardens, Castle Green, Kenilworth, Warwickshire

Web. 1 - www.english-heritage.org.uk (Home)

Web. 2 - www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-on/kenilworth-castle-legendary-joust-22-23-jun-2019/ (Venue)

10:00-17:00hrs
Medieval jousting

Weston-super-Mare - Various - Weston Air Festival

Seafront / Open Air

Web. - http://westonairfestival.com/

Free

Red Arrows, Battle of Britain Memorial Flight

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Sunday 23rd June 2019

London (Central) - Royal Academy - Big Architecture Family Day

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London

Web. - https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/event/the-big-architecture-family-day-2019

11:00-13:00hrs - Sky Creatures Drawing Workshop 

14:00-16:00hrs - Lego Architecture Challenge

Admission Free

Three leading British architecture practices will be competing to build with Lego

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Overseas Events

From Friday 21st June 2019 (today) - Saturday 27th July

Lisbon (Portugal) - Norman Cook - Underdogs Gallery 'Smile High Club'

Underdogs Gallery, Rua Fernando Palha, Armazém 56, 1950–132, Lisbon, Portugal

Web. - https://www.under-dogs.net/exhibitions/smile-high-club-group-show/

eMail - info@under-dogs.net
Tel. - +351 218 680 462
14:00-20:00hrs - Tuesdays-Saturdays 

Exhibition curated by Fatboy Slim, yes - the Trance-Techno guru and ex-lucky-husband of Zoe Ball (when she was still cute and grounded!) - showing both his 40-year-ammased collection and of other people's 'Smiley' memorabilia and artwork pertaining to Harvey Ball's culturally-famous, instantly recognisable, yellow peace symbol.

Saturday 22nd & Sunday 23rd June 2019

Parsippany, New Jersey (USA) - Veteri Productions - ToyconNJ

Parsippany P.A.L. Building, 33 Baldwin Rd., Parsippany, NJ 07054, New Jersey, USA

Web. - https://www.toyconnj.com/

10:00-17:00hrs, 16:00-finish on the 23rd, 'Early Bird' from 09:00hrs, games room stays open 'till 19:00hrs on the 22nd.

Admission; Saturday: $15.00, Sunday: $15.00, Early Bird: $20.00 (each day), VIP weekend pass (unlimited access): $25.00, cosplay'ers: $8.00 (each day), veterans: $8.00 (each day), under 10's free.

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Missed

Last weekend there was a massive attempt to re-set Waterloo in 25mm, nothing obvious in the press last week (printed or on-line) so I didn't cover it, but after the event it was in all the papers, BBC online and elsewhere; Ce la vie as the French say, and they know what they're talking about - they all speak French!

Organised by the University of Glasgow, 20,306 painted figures were controlled by teams of over 120 'players', the whole thing being in aid of Waterloo Uncovered, a charity for ex-military personnel. The game was conducted on a 2,066sq.ft. map on four tables with historians and archeologists on-hand, none of the reports state a win for the Sardinian, so I guess the outcome was never in doubt?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-48639233/mini-armies-gather-for-massive-waterloo-war-game?

BBC link courtesy of Paul Morehead at Plastic Warrior magazine

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here -  FOR FREE  - or linked to; please eMail me -

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!

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News

Link

Fort Bragg 'drops' Charity Toy Drop [https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20190607/does-fort-braggs-annual-toy-drop-have-future] - Five-thousand toys which won't go to needy kids and another mealy-mouthed excuse from a 'spokesman' for more undoing of all the good things we used to do, same month as the D-Day commemorations too; if there's one thing you can count on from the 'moral Right' and conservative 'silent majority' it's that they'll kick you when you're down! The 'U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command' . . . they sound like propagandist bean-counters don't they? Make America not so great . . . ours is the more informal KAPE - Keep the Army in the Public Eye; which - in my day - used to involve marching through Bristol, getting paint thrown at you!

Hornby

The railway maker has announced that losses have halved, which to city gamblers is good news, so shares are up on the news that losses this year will only be £5.2m! Sales are also down from £35.7m to £32.8m which is also good news apparently, as it's due to an end to discounting! Call me a cynic - but capitalism's mad.

Smiggle

Who I discovered with those dinosaurs a while back (checks - still in the queue!) have announced a slow-down in 'aggressive expansion' after opening 133 stores since 2014, the Australian-based stationers will concentrate on market share and other such boring, grown-up stuff in the near future!

Lego - Turkish Airlines

The national carrier has adopted the song from the Lego movie 'Everyone's going to have a good time in the air tonight' as part of their in-flight entertainment, I think (I'm not sure) that it's been redone so the singer is now in TA's trolley-dolly attire?

Mattel

The toy maker and parent of Barbie has rejected a hostile merger-bid from MGA Entertainment, the background and details of which are such tediously boring accountancy-speak and legalese; we'll leave it there!

Charity Shops

My find of the Dinky's the other week is apparently part of something called the 'Marie Kondo effect', she seems to have a televisual programme somewhere among the 400-odd channels available to some of you, concerning de-cluttering, which has led to much donating to charity; I'm all for it, you take your treasures to charity - they're in the way aren't they - and I'll pop-down and pick 'em up!

Which brings us to . . .

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H is for How They Come In

A handful of - mostly TV/movie related - stuff this week, along with a vintage Waddington's board game and an evilBay lot (the lot I thought I'd missed two weeks ago!), which will both get their own posts in the fullness of time. The green Michelin man/Hulk'y key-ring is a second (recently found) and along with the three 'phone-string' superheroes (and the pterodactyl) is/are probably Kinder.

There's a Phidal Thor, two more McDonald's Smurfs (I picked-up three a while ago) and a Schleich PVC one. No idea on the unmarked leaf-head while the two small superheroes are probably capsule toys too - LPFToys?. The large 'Torch' is a duplicate from the bigger Zuru capsule toys we looked at a year or so ago. Finally, the Splinter (is he Splinter?) in a Lego-likey/Megabloks style is also Kinder I think?

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Toys in the Media

Fridge magnet numbers being used to illustrate an advertisement for some financial 'thing'!

Two cake-decoration brides are employed to accompany a piece on the first lesbian marriage as part of the hype surrounding the build-up to the recent BBC (?) Gentleman Jack, it'll annoy small-c conservatives, but anything which annoys them is OK in my book!

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