C is for Centurion

Bit of a box-ticker, this one; another Sandown September purchase, and I didn't really take enough shots for a whole post, but it's been off to storage for a while. Nevertheless a useful beast to add to the pile, not terribly rare, but interesting, and it will need comparison with the Dinky one I picked up in that Charity Shop plunder, a few years ago . . . and the various Hong Kong plackys!

Not the US Premier (Premier Products Co. / Premier Plastics), the  Palmer subsidiary, of Brooklyn, on the opposite bank from Pyro, it's actually manufactured in Japan. The box is a bit tatty, and I need to track down the correct ammunition, which I'm lead to believe was plastic, but the tank itself has been well looked after and is very clean, it will be even cleaner after a dusting!

Arguably the Centurion was the best tank ever made? While others were very good at specific times or for specific purposes, the Centurion brought together everything we'd learned about tank warfare in WWII, combining the best of both British concepts - Cruiser Tanks and Infantry Tanks - into one 'main battle tank'; fast, yet heavily armed and armoured.

It gave rise to the whole post-war Vickers family of  Centurion-Chieftain-Shir-Challenger, and it's ideas, design concepts and DNA are to be found in the M48/60, AMX30 and Leopard I, it performed well against T34, T54-55 and 62/72, and the aforementioned M48/60's in wars from Korea, through India-Pakistan and the various middle-east conflicts, and went into Angola with the South Africans, who still operate a heavily modified and upgraded version called the Oliphant, while Jordan (and possibly the genociders next door) still use the chassis for various specialised or second echelon vehicles.

Aiming at the US market with the number sign, or 'octothorpe' (Bell Labs), now known as a 'hash' (British Telecom) or 'hash tag' (Chris Messina), rather than the '№' which would have been the acceptable symbol in the UK at the time, and online it seems to be known as the Premier #144 Tank.

It has a novel firing mechanism, with breech-loading from the turret-end of the barrel, and cocking via  a leaver which leaves a rather unsightly slash through the top of the turret, while firing is achieved by pressing down on the commanders head!

Somewhere between 1:50th and 1:60th in scale, only a side-by-side with the Dinky will settle that for me, unless you know for sure? It's a mostly die-cast alloy model, with a tin-plate baseplate, and what I suspect are silicon rubber tracks of some recipe/compound, due to their lack of drying, brittleness or deformation over, what, 50-plus years?

R is for Resin Rascals

I meant to post this last night, but I ran out of time, or, work ran me out of time, which is a different state of being altogether, if you know what I mean, but anyway, heeeeere's Horror! Brian managed a visit to another discount chain; Family Dollar, and found this pair of rather nice sets of ornamental poured resin delights!

 

Imported by Midwood Brands, LLC of Virginia, we just don't get little sets of small scale stuff like this over here, there are large boulders of resin crap in most of the supermarkets, and TKMaxx is good for a shed load of unnecessary, easily chipped crud in the several-kilo's category, but these are nice.

 

So many thanks, again, to Brian for finding them and shooting them, and it reminded me I had some resin downloads in the Halloween 'junk' folder (there's probably more on the dongles, but these (below) were to hand), so a post developed!

 

Dated to 2021, and I converted it from a bitmap, so I don't know how it will show on your machine/'device', but here's a whole group of similar, small scale, novelty Halloween stuff, including, front-right, a long-dead pirate!

 

And here's more pirates, which as we had a coronary-related non-ITLAPD this year, is about as good as it's going to get! These are apparently copyrighted Spoontiques, of China, and I seem to have found them a year ago (November '25). Real West Country gift shop (rather than specifically Halloween themed) faire, I suspect they are about 60/70mm, but they could be a little bigger, or even smaller!

C is for Civilian Contributions

I think these are all from Peter Evans, a mix of convenience store finds, car-boot sale's plunder, and the odd visit to the Toy Project store in North London, and they were in three folders, although they are in the order I shot them, which is vaguely the order they came in!

 

Fireman Sam figurines, from Simba, blind-boxed, there were a bunch of these, and I've saved them for another post another day, but here's a sample, with boxes, bag and figures, manufactured in a modern, PVC replacement, and quite nicely done I thought? And they seem to be clearance from a German series, you can find English language versions

 

Nice unknown firefighter with the 'jaws of life', a Corgi fireman from the Simon Snorkel, and a 'Christmas Village' figure - I've already promised myself I'm never going to try and annotate all of them, but hopefully by the time I get round to the A-Z pages, there will be enthusiasts pages to link to!

 

The other figure is from the Teamsterz sets, and is the third of four road menders (the other two came from Peter too), and I was only sorting them the other day, I now have four firefighters, four police, and with this, three road crew, although we may have seen the other in a shelfie at some point; I'm not sure how well they've been Tagged!

 

Another set of firefighters, red, is, as always, a bugger to photograph, but I suspect six of six poses from a rack-toy set, and not one we've seen before?

 

Funny, I found the post where these (Poundland?) wrestlers were shelfied on the cards, the other day, looking for something else, and, at the time, I said something along the lines of, they'll come in in mixed lots in a few years, and, indeed they are starting to turn-up, these aren't the first we've seen I think, just the first since I saw that old comment!

 

I need to sort all these out, but some are to hand, some are deeper in the unit, so it'll have to wait for another day, but I think we've now seen them all in both sizes, and all of them, bar the smaller set, with packaging, from three or four brands/brand marks (here PME), in teams of three-a-side with a referee, and seven-a-side, no referee!

 

This is interesting, and a nice box ticker, but these are the poor quality Hong Kong/China copies, commissioned by Hornby Hobbies, of their own, better-quality Scalextric product, from the previous Lines-Triang iteration, with a loss of details and basic painting. When the pit crew had matching cardigans!

 

More for the unknown seated/rider zone, except I know the big one is Tudor Rose, and he's in the folder I mentioned the other day as sliding into the long-queue, I'll dig him out as a follow-up!

 

Despite being in two colours these seem to be from the same set, and again would appear to be new to Blog? Although possibly copies of others we have seen already.

 

Cakeboards bowls playing cake decorations, I don't know if they are still going but they seem to have produced quite a few of these resin figures, between about fifteen and eight years ago? The missing sliver of the lady's hat is in the bag, so must have broken off on the journey back to Hampshire, I'll get it glued back on! We've actually seen her before, sans hand!

 

Compare this ice-cream or snack vendor from Scalextric, with the featureless figures above, I've never fully got my head round these, because as well as various generations, painted and unpainted, hard 'styrene and soft 'ethylene, there seems to be a set of scaled-down figures as well, and I've never understood where they fit in the line.

 

Next to him is a Timpo policeman, and I'm not sure which of the set I have, which I need, this one's leaning a bit, had a wee dram against the cold of a night-shift! Unknown motorcyclist, probably from an Hong Kong plastic jobbie around 1:25th, and another anonymous construction/road worker.

 

These might go with the four figures above, they were in the same lot?

 

And to finish, some smaller chaps, being three more of the Hornby plastics, which with the ones the other day is most of a loose set in a few weeks! A Dinky police officer and another Merit platform staff, moving a milk churn. Tanks again to Peter for all these, more useful stuff, and more images for loyal readers!

R is for Recent Stuff - Follow-ups 1

A few shots I've been taking as I try to sort this years plunder into the ever diminishing space at the end of my storage unit!

 

These are the 60mm Crescent Mohicans (oooh, spellchecker really doesn't like that!) I bought a while ago, four of six and I need the standing firer replaced with a better one, so fast forward to the pair I bought at the Plastic Warrior show in June, and . . .

 

. . . and I'm still short one! The archer with bow, but funnily enough I think I may have one or two of them in with the standard Crescent 60mm Indian sample, as I'm pretty sure one or two have come in with cheapo' lots, and I just put them in the tub 'with the others'! Time will tell, but we're getting there!

 

The Cherilea swoppets who have come in over the last 36-odd months, these are not the master collection, but in terms of the 1st and interim versions, probably excede the 'deep-storage' sample, but in the case of the final version, only a part figure, against a much better sample, seen here, a fair few years ago!

 

I think we've seen all these now, so time for a comparison line-up, I thought the chap on the left might be Husky/Corgi Junior but he's not, so possibly Galoob or New Ray drive-though ice-cream kiosk operative? Then the Corgi standard ice cream seller, then the giant, might-be-Lucky piracy we saw the other day. Then the Corgi streetlamp repair man, then another 'styrene scale up, from Hong Kong! PVC-PVC-PS-PE-PS

 

Interim line -up of French Marine's Fear! Missing a couple of key-rings I think, from the always-been-in-some-sort-of-storage zone, and the composition one we saw here years ago, but not bad, and mostly from Chris Smith, I bet! Still, the absentees will allow for a more definitive Welsh Ladies shot, another day!

 

The sublime (Tudor Rose) and the ridiculous, a hideous pile of Hong Kong tat, which I ended-up with because someone gave it to me, I think? Hong Kong did churn out some fuggugly stuff! I think it's marked JC on the base, but I don't really care, it's naff, kitsch shite, but . . . figures!

 

Finally I said I though the Airfix 1:35th Quickbuild 'Lego' Sherman was closer to 1:32nd, and here I've shot it next to the CTS/BMC one I got at last years PW show, and you can see it's a lot smaller. The difference being OK for a garden war game, but is seriously going to piss-off a purist!

BARC is for Big American Rolling Carrier!

No it's not! It's for Barge, Amphibious Resupply, Cargo, although it became the LARC, or Lighter, Amphibious Resupply, Cargo [60 ton], and this is something I'd always wanted to track down, not because it's of much use, Roskopf manufactured in a nominal scale of 1:100, and while some of their stuff actually stood up quite well next to Roco Minitank's 1:87th, a lot of it was too small for most wargamers, no, I wanted one, just to see it, it was such a weird choice for a model!

 

Although, define 'use'; that was when I fancied myself as a wargamer, 50-plus years ago, really I'm a collector, and as such, size isn't the main problem, although if it was die-cast and 1:32nd, you'd need a wheelbarrow to move it!

 

And at Sandown Park, last month, I found this!

It does exactly what it says on the tin!

 

It comes with a loose-leaf info' guide, which may or may not be the only one issued, punched for a folder which never existed? I have a reasonable sample of Roskopf models and haven't got any other such sheets, not that there's room in most of the boxes for one, even if they were folded very small?!

 

It also has a spare waterslide transfer (inset), whether that means the owner applied the other transfers, or they just included a spare, I don't know. And, as you can see the contents are ALL model!

 

19 feet high, 26 feet wide, 63 feet long.

 

Four engines, two propellers.

 

The Roskopf model is actually of the prototype, with the cab at the front, or the 'open end'! And (rather like all those British toy soldiers of the 1950's with demo' EM2 bullpup assault-rifles), depicts the demonstration vehicle, with the large fancy hull markings.

 

If you've read the Wikipedoa page (link above), and go and watch this video, you'll know as much about this bizarre vehicle as I do, but I've got one!

 

This was extracted from one of the two remaining Sandown posts, and I think I'll break it up, as I've taken quite a few shots of each of them, and it's just easier than trying to get them all in one post!

 

Unknown

 

1971

 

1975 / 2

Roskopf catalogue scans, note how the price rose through the late 1960's to the mid 1970's! Ohne panzer means 'without tank' When we look at the Roskopf sample, we'll see it again, with a tank!
 

K is for Kit Bashing

Funny, I got back last weekend from the show to find someone had 'found' an internet image previously seen here, and posted it without context, but with the usual 'What do you think readers?', and fair enough, this stuff is out there, but if we're going to change the rules to cover stuff like that, I'd just point out I can now repost about a third of everything he's posted in the last nineteen years, while he will struggle to reproduce about 1% of my Blog?

 

Probably not something he wants to establish, but thought and action need to be coordinated first, and they're clearly not being - what to you think readers?! Anyway, as that image appeared on a kit-post, here's the kit stuff I picked-up last weekend, while Bushy was following me, again!

 

I think these are mostly from the Gowland & Gowland 'Highway Pioneers' line of old fashioned car kits, later taken-over by Revell (UK), before going worldwide, through the parent company. Useful to get them without the large (1:43rd) vehicle kits, and most will be easy to ID, the red stuff might prove problematical though!

 

There is a variation between them, with the green chap bottom-right, having the post parts, at a six-count, while the dark green racers (?) are single mouldings, and you have everything in-between, with two, three, four and five-part figures.

 

Some (the really early [1951] ones?) having a cartoonish caricature look about them, while others are more realistic or anatomically correct. And there seem to be colour variations of one or two.

 

Funnily enough, given the premise of the post, I have a ton of these Aurora 'Snap-a-roos' in the archive (some used by Bushy, most not seen over there yet!), but they can wait a few more years, becasue I picked this up on Saturday, and it's arguably the best of the bunch, being space themed, while some of the others are more assorted 'transport' collections, taken from R&L.

 

And while I'm sure these have been credited to R&L elsewhere, there's no evidence of the Rosenhain & Lipmann mark on the frames, and, as we we've seen with both Rubenstein and De Gruyter, it's never that simple, plus, there were several Italian makers of these micro-kits, too. So I'm wont to 'call' on these, although the fact they called them Snap-a-roos, gives them an otherwise inexplicable Australian link!

 

Modern, and most of the contents are cheap cardboard tat, but a re-boxing of an old 1:24th Jeep kit, and it was half the going rate I've seen on evilBay! Commemorating a date in 2019, the instructions dated 2021, it apparently didn't hit the shops until 2022, so current really! Presumably, the production schedule got hit by Covid19?

 

The chrome-coated runner is for the civilian 'Surrey' version, although it you drive an open vehicle toward a monster Kaiju or two, you deserve everything coming to you! The card stuff will go with all the other paper/card stuff, when I get round to making-up the Jeep.

 

Right let's see how many feeBay space images I've 'saved', that I can post in the next 28 days . . . oh, hold-on, I've got so much original copy and imagery, I don't need to copy him, or hoover-up his Internet scrapings!

A is for Autumn Assortment - Gift Fair

Peter Evans, roving reporter in London, roved to Birmingham for the Autumn Gift fair, which I had hoped to attend, but Space, Time and Nathaniel waits for no man, and it wasn't going to happen, still, we do have these from Peter;

 

Possibly a bit big for war gaming, but in the garden the rules can change, they're only counters, when all's said and done! No figures though!

Variation on a theme, I don't think we've seen the packaging before, but we have seen the figures now, the ones with 'vignette' bases.

 

Kawong is a new name, so a new Tag! The stuff looks similar to the New Ray stuff (next shot), so fans of modern farm equipemnt can have a field day . . . field? Geddit? I'll get me coat . . . 

 

Just mentioned.

 

Dinosaurs, it seems you get a window-visible realistic dinosaur, and a dig-for-it skeleton, to match whichever Dino' is in the specific bag?

 

I think we've seen these before, but you can't have too many images of things!

All the above look to be from Padgett Brothers (A-to-Z) 

 

Definitely seen these before, I think several times, Tobar, House of Marbles and others, but we like a bit of paratrooper action here at Small Scale World!

 

Gotta get me one of these, preferably a Hugh? You don't always find a Hugh in these pre-personalised sets, but any company which does Anna and Annabelle, Ben and Benjamin, must surely do a Hugh? Also, note one of each colour are supplied with a blank lable (top of display), so you can write what you like - "Kiss my shiny metal arse"!

 

A Japanese merchandise store had a full range of Gashapon, including those which can be presented as Christmas baubles for placing on a tree (lower shot), although Peter noted "unfortunately, no Samurai". And many thanks to Peter for sending these over to the Blog.