D is for Donation - Chris - Historicals and Ceremonials

A bit late with part two today, as it's tomorrow already, but I crashed-out after work. At the grand old age of 62, doing 80-odd miles, stuck behind hesitant fuckwits in KIA's whilst also doing deliveries, rather takes it out of you, and I keep nodding-off after work, waiting for the weather forecast, which I then only half-hear! Anyway, they can stay up for a bit, with maybe just a Capsule toy post later today, and another donation-pair tomorrow proper - Thursday? Chris's older era and ceremonial toy soldiers and model figures, sent to me, to share with you;

 

Medievals defend against a Roman attack! The de rigueur shot of post-Giant and Giant knock-offs, I've been quite fortunate, in accruing these over the years, especially as a small-scale only collector for years, and it's the only way to obtain enough of them to start drawing conclusions, sorting their horses from the many Wild West sets, working out which lot go with which fort, & etc., so the more, the merrier, there's often a Quaker in the mix, and red horse is he, this time!

 

As if the cowboy pencil sharpeners weren't enough of a find, these, also 'Germany', are lovely things, a bit outside the toy soldier sphere, but absolutely within the whole lucky-bag, Christmas cracker, dime-store novelty oeuvre.

 

I'm not sure the two 'stakes' go with them, and I haven't worked out how the triggers work, they don't seem to hold the band, and may need reversing or inverting, but very interesting things! The channel is match-wood dimensions, so careful with those eyes, kids!

 

A few days later, after an email tutorial from Chris - The notch at the thin end of the bar collects the rubber band (red is original, manila is a replacement), then one of the flat edges forward of the notch, locks behind the trigger, pushing the trigger down, when you touch the trigger, it pushes the bar 'arrow' back up, and the - tensioned - rubber-band does the rest! 'Health & Safety' disc on the business end suggests mid-1970's onwards?

 

And eclectic bunch here! The Piper is a modernish tourist keepsake, as is the Lifeguard, who, almost matching the Horse Guard I got at November's Sandown Park show, is another of the - previously seen here - G·G ones, to join the Guardsman we've seen in the past.

 

I love the Russian (?) OBE standard-bearer conversion, from a Herald Guardsman, and the little chap is a rubber key-ring, but can anyone ID the Mountie, I assume he's a Canadian Tourist thing, from the size, and casual pose, he's hard 'styrene plastic, with a quite thin base for his size/scale? Or, is he an accessory-figure from a 1:24/1:25th model vehicle kit?

 

Two of the many figures accompanying various versions of Noah's Arks, not Blue Box, not Holly, and not New Maries, nor the Arco one (which was also another brand's - RAE), who's Noah was fatter than the pink one in the middle, and moving on to him, although similar, and having one of the three-digit codes, I suspect he isn't Holly or LB (Lik Be) 'funny animal' stuff, either! So the search goes on for both origins!

 

Ah, not sure if these were Chris or Peter, I suspect Chris, but I found them down the back of the bed a few days after I had finished sorting both Peter's third tranche, and Chris's latest parcel! One of the newer discoveries on the right, he's missing the 'styrene icing-pick, one of my favourites in blue, from Christmas crackers, and a 1990's Lucky Bag jobbie, with a shit-ton of flash!

 

And it's the first time the two on the right have been compared side-by-side, they go well together, and are marching off the same foot, a big band could be possible! Equally, those cake-spiked red plastic ones we've seen here a couple of times, are lacking a bass-drummer, I wonder if they are the same size . . . but they are standing at attention? 25-30mm between the three of them, all polyethylene.

 

Two MPC original 35mm's on the floor, and a victorious Hong Kong copy, in what I think is a new colour, to me at least. I've said before I thought I'd blogged these years ago, but it seems I just imagined an article in my head, while handling them, back in Berkshire, and didn't even shoot them, so that article has yet to come, but will be worth the wait, as there's packaging for both types, but I'm pretty sure my HK sample only adds black as a third colour to the MPC red and silver? So blue is all new!

 

This is fascinating, Chris said he'd seen them described as wood (it's obviously plastic), and by Van Brode, I couldn't find anything online, until I added 'wooden' to the search terms, and then found chapter and verse on them. They were made for the Van Brode Milling Co., by an unknown company in West Germany, a sticker on the base stated, for the cereal offer 'Sculptured Treasures of History's Immortals', which was a mail away, one bust (of twelve) per request, for which 50 cents and 2 Crisp Rice wrappers had to be sent first, presumably if you had multiple cents and wrappers, you could 'request' more, at one time?

 

The source (Worthpoint! So ex-evilBay), stuck with the carved wood fallacy, but they are antiqued plastic, possibly polystyrene, although the sample sent by Chris is now cracking in a very convincing old-wood drying out fashion! The cracks are not crumbly, and there is no dust, nor stickiness, so a new form of plastic death? Too large a single-shot or density of moulding? But, given all the Cleveland, Kellogg's and Total busts around the same time, a lovely addition to the collection.

 

As is this, presumably a US tourist thing, it's a slush-cast pewter/whitemetal bust, around the same size as the Van Brode Napoleon, around the 3½-4 inch mark, and over-painted in a silver, which may have been brighter once?

 

A capsule-toy ninja, a rather nice knight, in the style of Schleich-Papo-ELC-Wilco, and possibly from the latter's now defunct range, and one of those possibly, originally Fontanini or Manurba (?) gnome sculpts, but common in various forms, materials and sizes, and various formats, here as a key-ring hanger.

 

The knight's 'heraldry' reveals his origins in China, where they've given him a very ornate and oriental embroidered surcoat, which is not following the laws of heraldry, or the rules of the Collage of Arms! Unless someone was granted five wind-wraiths, on a field azure, matallique!

 

Two, probably factory-painted, Assyrian flats, almost certainly German, but without the catalogues in front of me, I couldn't begin to guess the maker! The horseman's lance is too far-bent to risk bending back, but they still make a nice pair with some age.

 

A nice sample of the separate head guardsman, we looked at their fort, a long time ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/t-is-for-tower-fortress-with-soldiers.html

 

I'm after a bigger sample of these, while the rest are buried in storage, as I'd like to do a photo-shoot of all the 'legal' drill poses, possible with these, the At Ease, can only go on the Easy legs, but the officer, Slope Arms and bugler can go on three different legs for instance, and there is half-a-post in the queue, on that subject, but involving the larger figures with oblong bases! So thanks again to Chris, for these and everything above . . . and below!

 

Pirates . . . come back in September!

N is for Nearly the Nativity!

It's the 20th! I don't know where that month went in such a hurry, but it did! I haven't shot any Nativity sets this year, nor have we had a chance to clear any of the unused stuff from last year, or the years before, all sitting down the bottom of Picasa at 1968! But, to prevent anything else joining them, there are still a few bits from this year to get up here, and this is Brian's Nativity finds in a store in New York.

 

The Archangel Gabriel getting busy with Satan! Two sizes.

 

The family shot, then they were off to Egypt as asylum-seeking refugee migrants!

 

OK, got it!

 

But did they pay?

 

13 pieces is a fair count, and beautifully presented in gold silk!

 

Quite a few styles, from the super realistic miniatures through to the mawkishly sentimental cartoonish baby-faced stuff, but nice that you can 'pick and mix' off the shelf, or slowly add items, year to year. Mostly resin, but it looks like some may be china? Many thanks to Brian as always, for sending these into the Blog.

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! Ancient & Medieval

So, the 'Ancient and Medieval' vein was both rich and numerous, although I've got them down to ten images and a close up. Probably my favourite section, after space, and maybe ceremonial, although you find a lot of interesting Wild West stuff, and new civilians are always turning-up to amaze, farm, zoo, jungle . . . Pirates, pirates are my favourite, or they bloody-well should be? Anyway, we've got the opening paragraph; Let's play show repooooort!

 

Small-scale; Another bag of our Auther and his mounted Roman Gladiator Knights! To be compared with the other bags, as I think there was a hint at one point, the content's supplier changed, or the horses got diluted with a second type or something, none of it's actually Giant, but the story still needs to be accurate!

 

A few of the other Hong Kong knock-offs, Quaker and Elastolin Romans, and a Britians Trojan War figure, along with a broken Airfix and the ex-Montaplex runner of BuM Slot's Vikings. The mast and furled sails on their cross-spar have to be made from the central tree-runner!

 

Someone came and asked me about it, and I told him what I knew, then I either bought it off him later, when I found I still had cash in my pocket, or he just gave it to me, toward the end of the show? But he's not in the credit list? One of the Liverpool or Birmingham 'gangs'?

 

Hot on the heels of the three we saw the other day, both blog wise and literally, as the show was a couple of weeks after I acquired the others, came a fourth Marx 6" Egyptian pose, on the right here, and a broken duplicate, on the left. The good one needs a bit of a clean to match the others, while I intend to give the broken one a Kopesh curved sickle-axe-sword, and I'll use quite thick Plasticard, to match the chunkiness of the originals.

 

Between them, a Gashapon Samurai (not well shot!) and one of the Lik Be/LB cavemen. 

 

Hong Kong Timpo piracy on the left, also carried by Ideal in a fort set I think? Cherilea in the middle, and another Hong Kong (Britains 'War of the Roses' swoppet-copy) on the right. All good stuff!

 

These are very interesting, copies of the Lone Star/Hubley/Kresge 'Metalions' (it's increasingly unclear just what the history of those die-casts is/was), I think someone did give me some info' on them at the show, but so much goes-on, on the day, I'll be damned before I can remember what they said! In the style of some French reissue/Bazaar stuff and may be by Norev?

 

Did I say fourteen Richard I's the other day? Make that fifteen! And Bonux here, have simplified the folds of the cloak to such an extent it's getting back, closer to the Lone Star original, and further from the Jem/Norev it was copied from, for these washing-powder premiums!

 

Dom Landsknecht, Lone Star medieval and three Cherilea's, two of the early 'swoppets' and a solid in a nice greeny-yellow plastic. There is a forthcoming post on the swoppets, as you may remember I got four at the previous year's show, and have since obtained more besides.

 

More modern stuff, the old Marx/Tudor Rose knights, and the Romano-Greek motorcycle-raider 'knights' currently still findable on Amazon and similar platforms, all grist to the mill; colour variations etc . . . 

 

A bunch of Starlux, I think I picked a few of each a few years ago, from the same seller, but they went on clearance near the end of the show, so I just bought them all, doing him a favour, really, you understand, I didn't need them, they don't even look good en masse!

 

Bloody-lovely, that's what they is! And the unpainted one is a Starlux moulding, but perhaps issued as a premium, by a third party? We saw the white, polyethylene ones from Spain years ago.

 

Me box-ticking, or bag-ticking (playing catch-up) on Replicants!

 

Biblical figures are a difficult one, they can go with the civilians, or get their own section (which they often do at Christmas!), but as they are ancient, they might as well go here, two Marx nativity animals, home-painted (?), a French Santon, looking a bit like Mary, mother of the bloke standing next to her! He is also Marx, and was called Jey'sus'ah!

 

Again, many thanks to - Issack, Graham Apperley, John Begg, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Peter Evans, Adrian Little, Michael Mordant-Smith, Trevor Rudkin, Steve Vickers, and with no emails since the intro-post, anyone else who gave me stuff, including the BuM Vikings (?), and which I have forgotten to add.

R is for Roman, but not Roman's!

I had an interesting chat with the couple manning the Roman stand at the NEC last month, not stuff I need to pass on, as they knew little of the history of Fontanini, had never heard of the elusive Fonplast, and were really just trying to find customers for their US-based stock, of whom I clearly wasn't one, but I shot a few of the modern 'Precepi' while I was chatting to them.

 

They've come a long way since the hand-crafted terracotta being prepared village by village between the wars, but it is now mostly poured-resin, and most of it wasn't worth shooting, as it just wouldn't have interested any loyal readers! And I think the Joseph's Studio stuff is 100% American in any case?

 

Company website;

https://www.roman.com/products/nativities/

L is for Lots of London Loot - November's Shots

Pretty sure this lot is all courtesy of Peter Evans, with some obvious bits from the late Michael Hyde's collection, but I've just found a whole box I hadn't photographed, which I have now done, and underneath which, was another box with a shed-load of Atlantic, which I think might have been part of this lot, anyway it is now photographed and will appear as a future part of this sequence!

 

A couple of Dinosaurs!

 

We've seen this chap before, more than once, in Keycraft and House of Marbles packaging, and a generic or two I think, here's another, these are the newer ones with the inverted net cone instead of shroud lines, which then necessitates a larger parachute to cope with the weight of all the extra fabric!

 

The trio to the right will be for a single set, probably a small 'toob' or tub, maybe a carded bag, the Rhino from a similar set and the Jaguar was a Schleich, isn't it beautifil?

 

Clearly from Mike's stash! A Marx Moses, a homemade Franciscan friar, who is doing a pretty-good job of doubling-up for Obi-wan Kenobi! A sub-scale hollow-cast type, actually a solid I think, but maker unknown, looks British C-of-E, though? And a small after-market whitemetal one, which is a European Catholic, I think, it's O-gauge compatible, and I haven't a clue who made it (O-Men?) or whether it's home- or factory-painted?

 

Lovely Hong Kong copy of Britains Highlinder on the left, a quite clean Cherilea on the right while the guy in the middle is a bit of a mystery, I guess he's a mascot for a commercial product, but Google didn't really help, shoes or perfume might be in the frame, the latter leading to soap, but I couldn't find anything solid, and the spelling is the incorrect use for a ceremonial?

 

He might have been a key-ring, but it wasn't obvious and in a flexible rubber which was more natural than PVC, so my guess is an item from the USA or a US-made product, there IS a Colgate-Palmolive shampoo, it was short-lived (1978+) and confined to the Philippines, but they had a human mascot; Charlieng Balakubak, (Dandruff Charlie), so possibly connected with cleaning or hygiene, and having some age; 1960/70's?

 

A set of ebony, or 'ebonised' carved wooden elephants - tourist keepsakes.

 

In researching what is actually 'Harry's' Animal Planet, I've managed to ID the show-jump and rider we've seen in the last few weeks, this sign and probably one or two of the horses in Jon Attwood's big donations, although they are currently in about four stacks, in two storage units, one day they will all be labelled-up and brought back together!

 

The sign is directing a late vinyl Britains sheepdog, a rather clean Crescent (?) sheep and a dinosaur which looks similar to some of the dinosaurs which I recently shelfied in B&M play sets.

 

From the left, Corgi Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, unknown street character (two points of articulation, arms), a hollow-cast mechanic from Timpo, missing his spare tyre, but I've never seen one with it! And a racing driver, probably from a sports car, but who . . . Monogram, MPC, Pyro, Revell? Someone like that!

 

French bazaar / premium Indian, cheapo-motorcycle, DFC knock-off knight, home-painted, an over-moulded capsule novelty chick, and a Viking / barbarian type, who I think we may have seen before, but possibly in a different colour?

 

A few bits of war-games detritus, all useful, and as well as the Atlantic, I think this was the lot with a quantity of 'lead' which I haven't photographed, it was heavy and went to storage the next day, but there was some useful stuff among it, Alberken, Higgins, Laing, etc . . . 

 

This was a bit of fun, a novelty Fungus the Bogeyman tin (which will end-up next to the sentry-box money-box Chris sent a couple of few years ago (I think Mum was still alive, so over four?)), on my future-past desk.

 

I love the strategically-placed splash announcing Jelly Bogies, as let's face it, if you're the age that enjoys a tin of snot, you're probably too young to be having the Birds, Bees and Bogeyman's Knees talk! Issued by a Hunkydory, and almost certainly a seasonal / novelty gift type thing?

 

Most of an OBE nativity scene? From Airfx! I can see Romans, Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin Hood, Bedouin Arabs, Tarzan and Station Accessories, have I missed any? Also a couple of Preiser-type N-gauge wagon horses.

 

This was fascinating, as I'd not seen it before (I've since found several on feeBay, so it's not rare), but in conversation with a reader who contacted me though Rusty at Playset Magazine, a while ago, the connection I've raised before, in a 1"Warrior article and a later one here, many years ago now, between Marx and Blue Box is becoming stronger as a theory, both because of some images I've seen of Miniature Masterpiece sets issued in the States but not here (format rather than contents), and this set.

 

It's not Marx, it's not sold as Marx, but I think they are based on the Marx sculpts (they're around 40mm), and with Rado Indistries (RI Toys) ending up with both Blue Box and Marx tooling (as I've mentioned before), the idea that Blue Box, or more correctly perhaps, the parent; Tai Sang, was involved with some of the early Marx hard-plastic, painted-production, looks more likely.

 

Obviously sold as a keepsake, for display, once I'm settled I'll obtain one of the complete ones for another look, or even a couple-more in this state, so we can study the figures without the guilt of ruining a set - they are heavily glued-in! I've seen several incomplete sets, and I suspect people take their favourite Saint to put in the car, or another room or something, maybe send one to a child at Uni', or they keep touching one for a prayer, until the paper under the glue tares?

 

Nuntastic Nun-chucks mate! Still available from revolving display-trees in Waterstones, we've seen a few others in this range of pester-power novelty games and figurines over the years!

 

Finish as you started! With a large dinosaur! And an Airfix Centurion!

Thanks as always to Peter, and thoughts wander to the memory of Mike, who I'd actually got to know a bit in the last few years, even being allowed to see his collection, so I'm pleased a few of his lesser pieces have come into the pile - I suspect the Nuns were probably from his stash too!