T is for Two - Tanks!

Hard to believe, but we don't seem to have had that title before! I managed to pick up two rather nice tanks at Sandown Park's last show, nice for different reasons, and a possible 'sublime to ridiculous' scenario, but which is which, depends upon the personal loyalties of the viewer!

 

This would be an antique toy enthusiast's ridiculous, but the sublime of a 'plastic warrior', being the large scale donor for a whole generation of pretty inaccurate US 'Patton' tanks (sometimes wearing German stickers), in various scales, materials and finishes. We looked at its own little brother here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/07/b-is-for-back-to-blue-box.html

 

Where it's found with three different muzzle-breaks, I don't know if the same will prove true for the larger one, but it's a nice box-ticking of a near-mint, boxed example, with friction motor!

 

While the antique guy thinks this is sublime, while a plastic warrior thinks it's a ridiculous novelty 'what tank IS that?' I think they both have their merits, and the beauty of this is it still has both tracks! A bit saggy and perished, and there is one break, out of sight, but getting these with tracks is hard, you see many examples of both Japanese and German tanks with their shiny, or surface-rusty wheels, but tracks are rarer, and while you do find modern replacement tracks, they are too new!

 

I guess it wants to be a Renault F17 or similar, and Japan took various early tank designs to China, before the World War was a 'world' war, so given the yellow-dun shade, I'm also guessing that's where this particular "Foreign" import came from, rather than Germany, where grey or 3-colour camouflage were the norm.

A is for Available in Any Colour, as Long as it's Fast!

I seemed to do quite well in the racing-car department, at Sandown, I rarely go to Sandown with anything like a shopping list, it's a question of what's there (and cheap) on the day! And, a month or so ago, it was racing cars, apparently?

Rather highfalutin instructions, and blurb, bigging-up a basic mechanism in this Maserati, which had been known to aficionados of balsa flying machines for several decades before this was issued? And the addition of a crown and bevel makes the 'starting handle' a harder wind than the propeller usually employed for the winding of rubber-band models!

 

To be honest, and given the quality of some more obvious 'facsimile' boxes I've seen recently, I have my doubts over the authenticity of this box, it's just too good, too clean? But the jeweller's loupe seems to suggest it's litho- or screen-printed onto an absorbent card, and shop stock stuff does turn-up, from time to time, but I'm not confident, either way?

 

This is my second FROG (Flies Right Off [the] Ground) Penguin (flightless bird), but is very different, the previously-found jeep being a heavy, vulcanised rubber, almost composition in consistency and weight, while this is a lightweight, plastic (early 'styrene?) and tin, novelty.

 

A future post (currently in storage) will be two of these helmets, one of which, in silver, is identical to the one depicted on this driver figure (the reason vehicles started to gain traction in the collection), with the set-forward or stand-off, drop-down perspex sheet, mounted around the front of a rigid visor.

 

They both came from 'Old Mr. Bening' (might be Benny or Benning), who was a silversmith, in a little shop/workshop, I think at the T-junction of the B3004 (Forge Road) and A325, just shy of Bordon, Hampshire, although the premises seem to have gone in a junction remodelling over the 50-odd years since he died, and we last visited him.

 

It may have been somewhere else, nearby, the memories are weak, and Google is no help with everyday, local historical stuff, there might as well have been no world prior to 1997! But he had been a racer in his younger days, and gave us a couple of his old helmets.

 

Ingap large scale Porsche F1, my first larger Ingap, and another in that classic fifties or sixties metallic blue plastic! I don't know if the box is original (packing from a larger carton?), or fashioned by a previous owner, but it fits well, and keeps the car protected, so I'll hang on to it! Both the above are about 1:43rd/48th scale.

 

Not a racing car, and closer to 1:35th/32nd, but just for fun, it was one of the items missing from my flood-damaged set, which we looked at prior to my discarding the packaging as beyond saveable a few years ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/08/ab-is-for-vidalis-brothers-joy-toy.html

 

And given the price Greek sellers on evilBay want, for everything, it was a bargain! I guess it's trying to be a VW Carmen Ghia, or early Porsche Carrera? Bonnet's not right for either! Equally, the Greek Hellas sports-car, might fit (after a quick Google!), but whatever it wants to be, it's still, a nice find.

C is for Corgi Copy Circus 'Car'!

So, I should try and get the Sandown stuff cleared before PW (two weeks today!), but there was a lot of the sort of 'stand alone' stuff, so it'll be a bit bitty for the next few days, but well start with a peach of a small-scale piece, of classic Hong Kong plastic tat!

 

I knew of the larger ones, but had no idea a small-scale one existed, so I was well-happy to find this the other week, unmarked generic and just the sort of stuff you found in the less-lit corners of a newsagent back in the late sixties or early seventies!

 

 

This is from one of those auction-aggregator sites, and I can't remember whose auction it was re-posting, but this is the Corgi original, a fully die-cast model with six circus horses in grey polyethylene which may have been domestic production, although a lot of Corgi's accessory pieces were bought-in from a certain far-eastern colony.

 

Telsalda did two versions, there are a few on evilBay from time to time, often with the animals mucked-about with, I think these are original and this in the earlier version, with the 'technically' Bedford type cab-unit. A later one had the classic Ford D-series, which is the one copied in small-scale. Interestingly, you may recall Jimson did two versions of their trucks, which is a sign HK was trying to keep up with both their Western donors and 'the times'!

 

With all three Hong Hong models the 'exhibition' horse-box, becomes a transparent roofed animal transporter, with six different animals, the big-cats seemingly facing way from the other four, to prevent nervousness? I don't think so! Box art with both generics and Telsalda marked boxes show the same solid/painted tops as the corgi original, so the clear tops might have been a last-minute idea?

 

If you didn't find the thing near-mint, you'd never believe the over-sized sea-lion belonged to the other five, but actually his stall has cut walls to accommodate his flippers, which shows how much effort they put into these toys, after casually selecting such a daft animal to include, far easier to find another small animal (see below) and not re-tool the whole body - all a bit daft really!

 

Polyethylene aginst the polystyrene of the vehicle, the five miniature animals, and slightly larger sea-lion with ball, a useful ID, as I have a sizeable bunch of these in the unknown section, and should be able to sort a few out/together, into a new bag! The camel is the smallest, scalewise, with the elephant very young!

 

I think the one on the left can be generic or Shackman of New York, while the Nesbit/Merri-Craft is similar to stuff from Unique, Grandmother Stovers, Carousel and others. They are not all the same, but rather sub-piracies of each other, the donors tending to be Briatins or Elastolin for the most part.

The baby elephant has many versions, with some from these sets, some, bought-in/used by Western makers, as safari or jungle board-game accessories. One I've yet to ID has a distinct 'A' on it's belly, but it is neither the Arco, nor the Triple-A!

U is for Useless Post Title!

It's one of those things, sometimes you think of something amusing (even if only to you), and then forget it and can't get it back. When I was preparing these posts (there were originally four), and I settled on the silent k-for-n gag with the first post, I hadn't given any thought to the other three post's titles, but after realising I could abuse another k (as a c) in the second post, I came up with two more k-related funnies for the other two posts.

 

I then had a couple of pretty mardy days, last week, took a couple of days to recover, and realised I'd forgotten both titles! And despite a few lazy days, during which I hoped at least one of them would come to me, neither has, and so, well, the above!

 

I've also combined the last two posts into one, deleted a couple of dozen shite images, and so this is the odds & ends, on the LB Wild West Children; that's LB for Lik Be, of course!

 

From the 1986 Lik Be catalogue image, we find these three figures painted to a higher standard than the '70's toys, and a music box, similarly decorated, with the mounted Indian, I would imagine that all are actually polystyrene, rather than the polyethylene of the earlier toys, with the separate figures being marketed as cake decorations, maybe?

 

In the US, Gordy International carried them, individually, in blister packs, and larger sets (below), whether this means Pikit carried them over here or not, is questionable, I suspect not, the dates don't seem to add-up, and just because two importers/jobbers carry the same thing once, doesn't mean they always do! Note the mounted Indian offered as a baseless foot figure, and another shot of the errant (from my set) Mexican.

 

The larger sets (of which I have only found these) include paired cowboys with one of the building fronts, you don't get the rest of the building, just the frontage, which Peter Evans pointed-out were closer to Britain's Lone Star than anything else, and a quick Google revealed the double front 'City Office - Land Claims / City Jail' to be a direct copy of the Lone Star design, so I'm hazarding a guess all three are?

 

Close-up of the Mexican, and a few duplicates, from evilBay, next to a Bergan-Beton 60mm, I've listed them in the Tags as 1:No Scale, given their novelty nature, and no clue as to the ages of the kids depicted, are they six, or ten?

 

Three more from feebleBay, the Britain's heritage of the damaged middle one being obvious. Given the number of plastic colours each turns-up in, they must have run the moulds for some time, and they should be commoner than they are, especially with Gordy's involvement, Cake Decoration and boxed sets in the mix?

 

Prior to obtaining the boxed set, a follow-up to previous appearances here at Small Scale World had been in the long queue (most of this post), for some years, and these are two of the girls I already had, as I said before, the four girls do seem to be more commonly found, but that could just be my own experience, and evidence of no real phenomena at all? No, I don't know what the unicorn is doing there! Summoned by a Reign Dance? I'll get me coat . . . 

 

Various base marking treatments, some mine, some feeBay, quite an eclectic mix, with clear similarities to both the Spacemen (shallow disc) and the smaller Astronaut pair, or War of Independence cake decoration stuff (deeper recess with chamfered sides) and 'funimals' (A-codes).

 

Almost the entire range was clearly marked, with the buildings having the awful 'Is it IDL, or is it LP? No, it's LB for Lik Be' logographic at the top of the shopfront/gable-ends, and while people can persevere with the LP attribution (some on evilBay are still using IDL!) out of stubbornness, they will look sillier and sillier as the years progress, and that stubbornness will eventually be rewritten as simple stupidity!

A couple of shots from 'Le Baye' I held on to, a few years ago, ID'ing a Totem Pole I thought - at the time - I might never acquire, just so I knew what it looked like! Although looking paler, I suspect it's the same colour as mine, and was, possibly like the Cacti, exclusive to the boxed sets?

 

When originally posting these I gave the impression I didn't know much about them, but I suspect it was just blurb-creation, as they had been something to be found in mixed lots and rumage trays for years prior to my obtaining a couple, and I'd seen plenty, while serving as a dealer's bitch, around the turn of the Century, but we didn't know back then, they were Lik Be/LB!

E is for Eye Candy - Indian Animals

I shot this back in February at Sandown Park, I should have bought it really, but the images will have to suffice, just as you can't know everything, so too, you can't own everything, but you can have a damn good try at it!

 

A nice set of Schneider type semi-flats, hand-painted and tied into a tray, in the 'old school' fashion, and there were 33 previous sets! Box ticked; Karachi Industrial Works under two forms of lighting!

F is for Fireman Pat, the Paw Patrol Builder

There's a ton of this infant oriented stuff out there, and in scanning the shelves I tend to filter it out, what with the American knock-off of Tomas the Tank engine starting to make inroads to British shelves, and Postman Pat now joined by similarly-cloned builders and firefighters (still called 'firemen', shock-horror!), even if you could argue Pugwash or Mr. Ben came first!

 

But luckily, Brian Berke spotted these in the 'States a while ago, and they've been in edit since . . . checks images . . . 2024, in fact, June, so two years ago, and well overdue for an outing here. Also, while flat erasers aren't necessarily a thing, we have had similar robots and dinosaurs, so by default, they are part of the Small Scale World oeuvre now! The law of unintended consequences!

 

 

Apparently direct-from-Turkey imports, or is that a version of Arabic? Zaini (LZ) are well known as a Kinder rival, and we've seen a few figural efforts or vehicles from them over the years, the likely prizes as illustrated on the box, weren't in the box! But do include two figures who may turn-up in mixed lots someday?

 

Instead you got flat-slab erasers with water-slide transfer-printed images of the characters from Fireman Sam on them, credited to a Prism Art & Design Ltd.* Many thanks to roving reporter Brian, for roving, and reporting!

 

*According to the Fireman Sam wiki - "Prism Art & Design Limited is a Welsh entertainment company currently owned by HiT Entertainment, itself a subsidiary of Mattel" - so, wheels within wheels! 

M is for Moon Scout

That's Moon Scout, Google, it might be Moonscout or Moon-Scout, what do the bot's think? Moon. Scout. There's quite a few Moon Scout's out there, this one is from the New Bright Industrial Co., Ltd., of Kowloon City Road, Hong Kong, purveyors of the finest Moon Scouts, and the latest addition to Operation Wind-up Russet Twig!

 

I bought it without really looking at it, as it was obviously in excellent condition, however, there was one disappointment; the driver, so obvious in the artwork, and who would have rendered the whole thing a Jeep sized 1:32nd'ish vehicle, was not actually there, the clear-red cab hiding the mechanism of the walkers! Boo!

 

Which means you can drop the scale, to a four or six-man mobile office/command centre or 'people-carrier', around the 30-40mm mark, something which is reinforced by the scale of the safari-ladder on the rear of the vehicle, which also makes it around the same scale as the Soviet walker we looked at here

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/04/p-is-for-popovs-patented-plastic.html

 

Which, obviously calls for a fuller comparison when they are brought together, but which makes the Soviet toy the reconnaissance 'Scout' to this follow-up bruiser! I've seen white-bodied versions of this, as per the box-art, on evilBay, but frankly, the silver-chrome effect is 'spacier'!

 

Unlike the clockwork of the referenced one above, this one is packing batteries, and with more 'up and down' movement in the legs, I'm confident it will outperform the Russian effort, as our tanks are outperforming theirs, in Ukraine, right now!

 

Both are quite common, I've passed-up two of the Soviet offerings in the last few years, unless I see one in the box, I don't need another, while I've been passing these, usually somewhere down the back-wall, at Sandown Park for over 30-years! Now I've a boxed one, box-ticked!

E is for Eye Candy - Tootsie Toys Boxed Set

I shot this at the Sandown Park show in September 2023, almost certainly on Adrian's table, when he was still Mercator Trading, and it's interesting for two reasons;

 

The first reason is that it ID's that funny little man, in die-cast alloy, who turns up infrequently at the older toy-soldier shows, in mixed rummage trays of lead and hollow-cast stuff, of whom I have a few in an 'unknown' bag, now known!

 

And secondly; it's got the same trucks as those Charbens ones we've seen (and did Johillco have some?), but as it represents the US Militor 3-ton truck, Ordnance Department Model 1918, or Mack AC, I think it's fair to say Tootsietoys were first, and the UK-produced examples are copies?

 

As you also see various versions of the 'plane (half eindekker, half Lindbergh) about the place, it can probably be assumed these sets were imported into the UK at the time - between the wars, making piracy of the elements easier?

D is for Donation - Peter - Wild West

Yee-haw pardners! It's the Wild West today, and again leading with Peter's stuff, some of which dates back to last autumn, and there are a few items of interest, so let's get stuck in;

An eclectic little bunch, with three relatively contemporary, and still findable in rack toys, Airfix Indian copies of the third or fourth generation, but cheerful enough, a Deetail original who needs a bit of hot-water treatment (and Deetail Wild West is an absence in my collection, no more than a handful!), the grey chap was Boley in the 'States and others elsewhere (Ackerman?), and is a sub-scale copy of an Airfix cowboy.

 

I think we had a wagon from this bunch, or possibly an Indian set, here marked-up to PMS, somewhat Britains Deetail in styling, and somewhat Supreme/SP in execution, and while the foot figures ARE Supreme copies, these - the mounted only, are, I think, all new sculpts? I'll have to check!

 

There was a recent debate about the chap on the left in Plastic Warrior magazine (issue 202 out now - https://www.facebook.com/PlasticWarrior?fref=ts), so suffice to say I think this is the UK version of a figure also seen out of Hong Kong, he should have a rifle through that loop and, I suspect, other accessories?

 

On the right, a common enough copy of Jean, from the 1980's/1990's, we looked at them briefly a while ago, there are several generations/issuers of these, from Hong Kong, and we'll return to them one day for a better overview.

 

I suspect the bulk of these are those flesh-coloured kits, as supplied to the 'States and pointed out to me in a past post on Elastolin stuff, when Ross Mac remembered they were sold from Henry Bodenstedt's shop in New England in the 1960's, the bases being uniform/flat yellow. The prone guy might be factory-finished, but I don't think so.

 

The mounted figure who came with them, another home-paint I think.

 

Picked-up the other day, the dobbin on the left is Cherilea I think, but missing a tail, and I'm not sure if the rider belongs on him, Wild West is a bit of a weakness with me, playing catch-up with the large scale since 2009, I've not paid enough attention to the West, and there's a hell of a lot of production, in all scales from many manufacturers!

 

A Tudor Rose late production figure in polyethylene, and a nice horse, probably from a French or 'W. Germany' novelty or premium wagon, or coach, and a lady who's lost her hands, see looks like she may be from a Christmas village, but has a huge lump of glue on her base, and might be from a music-box or something, but I'd rather have her in the stash, as a sample, than not know I didn't have her, if you know what I mean . . . oh my god, what else am I missing?! 

 

Culpitt's 2nd generation, I'm beginning to suspect the integral based eight, were not from the same source as the plug-ins also carried by Injectapalstic-JSP-AHM etc . . . but were commissioned by Culpitt, to undercut whoever they were getting the earlier ones from? Something Culpitt had a history of, doing the dirty on George Musgrave over at Gemodels, with his cake decorations.

 

Thanks to Peter Evans for all these, foot for thought, gaps filled and some nice ACW!