News, Views Etc . . . Composition Page

Welp! I have finally published - with all faults - the composition page I started editing about fourteen or fifteen years ago! It was near-ready about ten or eleven years ago, and I sent off edits to a few people to proofread, and I must thank Paul Morehead of Plastic Warrior for being the only one to get back to me, with an edit (which I hope I've corrected in the current draft!), the other's know who they are, and have disappointed, but that's pink-monkeys for you; always disappointing when they can!

 

 

Brent - smaller version

After the above, was ready to go, the whole article disappeared, poof! Like some negative-reaction magic trick! And I never got it back, while Blogger/Google have yet to reply to my eMails of ten-odd years ago! Anyway, while I started again, I was rather disheartened by the whole business, and rather left it on the back-burner!

Luckily, I had the draft I'd sent out, and could get the images back off the dongles, although by the time I was about to publish, I'd reworked most of the second section, and that's now quite different, and probably not as good at it was first-time around, these things tend to flow better in the initial attempt? Or they do with me?

It's incredible! He has to have the same story, a better story or something similar scrapped off evilbay! Like the braggart in the playground, who won't be bested, yet always, only reacting!

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2025/11/sometimes-great-lotion.html

I mean, I'm not saying he made it up, but timing's everything, so no sympathy here! I lost a bigger, better, more erudite document, not five minutes ago . . . not! Little tosser.

Japanese composition Wild West

While I know I've lost some links, and I've since added most of the British makers here, in individual posts, but they're not linked to, on the new composition page yet, so there will be more editing, and there are a couple more to go up here, to finish-off what I have on early British composition. But I have checked the links there, and updated one, although, the STS Lineol link keeps defaulting to Kinder here, but I think that must be a 'me' or 'my machine' glitch, if it happens to you, 'copy' the link and go through Google.

 

Three lead and a bisque pilot, with variations of Timpo/Zang 'Timpolin' airmen

The page remains a guide only, and 'work in progress', with the 'Rest of World' maker's list particularly poor and bitty, so any help there will be gratefully received, but at least it is 'live' now, which is an advance on yesterday! Much shorter pages will appear at some point on ceramics and tin-plate, with polymers and size/scale/ratio/gauge, still some way off!

 

 

Unknown leopard - a plastic copy of a probably Lineol animal,

heralds the end of composition. 

 

I must also thank Adrian Little, who has let me shoot all sorts of interesting things, on his tables, over the years, not least a lot of the stuff on the Composition Page;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_25.html 

F is for Follow-up - Brent, and Zang for Timpo

I've had a few more British composition come-in over the last couple of years, and with my 'master' samples in storage, these are here, waiting to be compared and sorted into them. The Military were 'seen elsewhere' a while back, the mechanics are a newer image.

Nearly two of each, so a shot which leaves little to the imagination, and these are the smaller size of Brent's two sizes, early war 'Expeditionary Force' uniform with the respirator case high on the chest, I think the marching guy might be new to collection?

 

 

And this is definitely new to the collection, but I think the stretcher is taken from another maker's hollow-cast figures, Brent's stretcher teams when I've seen them before, always have a paper stretcher, with two stiff wires, this is a lead moulding, but the casualty is correct I think.

 

A nice set of matching mechanics, who actually came in two lots, and a pretty clean chauffeur, in blue, I can't remember which colours I've got of them, I think there are four to find - Grey, Brown, Green and Blue - and I hope this is one I needed, if not he'll end up on the new swaps page, especially as by the time you read this the only swaps on that page will have been handed to a new owner at the London Toy Soldier show!

D is for Déjà Vu

Chris Smith sent me these a while back, with the possibility that they are related, as the Lilo are generally believed to have been sold as beach-toys, and therefore definitely 'rack toys', we're going to have a quick look at them if only to put the question-mark out there!

Chris wanted to point out the similarities between the Lilo figure (there's still only the one pose known) and those unknown larger-scaled composition figures we looked at here which was mentioned then.

There are slightly more cloth-folds in the composition figure, but that could be put down to the figure being deliberately smoothed for plastic production, as it was still a 'new' technology and mould-removal was an early identified problem (and remains-so, to this day), but away from the sculpting of the clothes we have an almost identical respirator-case on both chests, almost identical SMG, the same 'deep sea diver' treatment on the boots, and while the chin strap is deeper on the composition figure (and the helmet play-worn) that too can be put down to the material intended for/of the final product.

The overall size, the slightly two-dimensional approach to the figures and even the faces, are also similar. No one is saying - for certain - that these are from the same maker, or even necessarily the same sculptor, but it's fair to say both Chris and I are suggesting the latter, which may also point to the former?

Also it's worth noting, if you haven't already clocked-it; one of Chris's figures is painted (I've only ever previously seen unpainted figures - as you would expect from seaside kiosks), and even that painting mirrors the painting of both sizes of Brent figures' and the unknown composition maker's? Thanks to Chris for noticing the similarities and bringing them to our wider attention.

Q is for Question Mark - Scenic Composition

Possibly going-with (they accompanied) the unknown figures in the previous post, but looking quite inconsequential next to them so more likely to have been aimed at figures in the standard 54mm range are these two scenic items;

The sandbag-defence 'wall' would provide cover for a Brent prone figure, but that's about it; the figure used is the Brent 60mm standing firer. Five well-modelled sandbags piled on some nondescript lumps which could be more sandbags or a bit of stony mud!

The Gabions, too, are beautifully sculpted for the kind of material they're made from, but aren't going to give cover to much beyond the kneeling Brent or an HO/OO gun-team, posed here is the unknown 'British' composition Machine-gun in 80mm! Adrian Little is to thank for allowing me to photograph both from his own collection.

Q is for Question Mark - 'BRITISH' Composition

I posted one of these the other day as a comparison with the larger Brent figures (the opposite shot is below) and said at the time - we'd be looking at some more, which is what we are about to do, not many but enough.

These are they, and only the four have turned-up so far, now, this post was originally going to be entitled B is for Brent, Not!, for the simple reason that if you saw these alone, being maybe not that familiar with actual Brent, you'd be forgiven  for thinking they WERE Brent.

Points of similarity include the early war uniform with respirator-case on chest, the brown/green, contrasting-blob, paint-job on the bases and the nails/panel-pins for weapon-barrels.

But, Brent use the heads of their nails for muzzles/flash-eliminators in both sizes, this outfit hasn't; the uniforms date the figure manufacture to the war, not necessarily to a maker; while a lot of toys, both sides of the channel and the pond had contrasting-blob paint-jobs at the time, reflecting the types of camouflage found on vehicles since the First World War, and - at the time these were made - being applied to military installations, civil port and aerodrome facilities, hangers and whole factories the length and breadth of the land/s.

The front bi-pod is certainly Brent-like, or after-Brent, but Brent never marked their figures (or I've yet to find a marked one) while these all have a proud 'BRITISH', prominent on the edge of the base.

When he saw one the other day Chris Smith made the acute observation that they look a bit like the Lilo plastic lumps of the post-war, beach-toy era, and I think he's got a point! Not maybe the firm; Lilo (PB Cow & Co., traceable to 1815) were a rubber manufacturer, and even if affected by wartime privations, would have been too busy with respirators, rubber boats and life-preservers, to have the time or inclination to tool up for a few composition toys in an unused corner of the factory - and these are - overall - a better quality finish than Brent's production, partly due to their size, but nevertheless, decent tooling would help and that didn't come cheap.

So it's probably that the same unsung sculptor jobbed both sets of figures, particularly as the Lilo figures (which one would probably place after 1947?)* have the by then anachronistic uniform also seen on these. Certainly Chris's observation holds water - I'll tack the Lilo figure on at the bottom to compare.

* Graces have them exhibiting at the 1947 British Industries Fair, they had registered an inflatable air-bed in '36, but went on to become leaders in Air-sea rescue equipment (above mentioned boats and vests), as well as manufacturing parts for the De Havilland Mosquito, the air bed is in the '47 catalogue, and advertised in a beach-setting in the '49 (which does list "Toys & Games"), but (polyethylene?) plastic buckets don't appear until '52, a more likely date for other beach-toys which may have included the military figures, but Garratt (JG) does recon '49.

The opposite of the shot we looked at the other day; Brent's 60mm 'big-boy' is dwarfed by the unknown 80-mil giant, who is arguably better proportioned and has ears . . . and fingers!

The Lilo's (also around 75/80mm if memory serves?) in my collection, sorry; it's an old image we've seen before, but I've brightened it up a bit. To back up Chris's theory, he has the same Chuchillian 'boiler-suit' (so do the Brent's) and the weird 'step' in the respirator-case the unknown composition's also have, but the Brent's don't - in either size . . .

. . . while against; the Lilo has finer detail and almost no puttee, but it's a different technology and - if it is the same guy - the sculptor presumably had the best of half-a-decade to improve his style/technique?

And maybe he was going for a bloused-trouser end; there was a lot of it about at the end of the war you know, I think we got it off the Yanks? Bloody Yanks - coming over here, teaching us how to dress properly and dance the Swing; it was a slippery slope that's ended with Boris's daily-lies and Brwreakshit!

C is for Civilian Composition

Again we have Adrian (Mercator Trading) to thank for the boxed set shown here, which is also a Brent product and probably also from the war years; between 1939-45.

The lid is gorgeously reminiscent of 'Boys Own' annuals or hard-back novels of wild adventure for the younger readers of the time, with their inset colour picture on the cover, even the later Rupert annuals, which seem to had had an affiliation with those bright, yellow-greens!

The original contents of the box seems to have been six larger animals, the two seated figures (milk-maids), two stools and something in the central slot, possibly the three other figures, but clearly other animals (and possibly the poultry) have been added and I didn't get them out and shoot them all separately, so the next five images are shots from various angles, to which you can add your own thoughts!

Whether the added items are fom another (smaller?) set or could be purchased individually from a counter display or wall cabinet I don't know, but we have ducks and hens, the prone cows and some extra cows and horses buy the looks of it?

My Brent consists of a farm hand and two farmers; one of whom has a smaller stick (and way more playware!), all three show signs of the pumice having been dyed or stained black before setting and painting.

I did shoot the two ducks, they both look to have a fair bit of auk or even vulture DNA! That's Brent, on the Blog, with many thanks to Mr Little.

E is for Elastolene . . . Geddit?

Not Elastolin; those filthy enemy toys only still available from Yorkville's Importhaus. Oh; no, no, no . . . these are good British toys, British made by plucky Brit's in stand-alone British Britain don't-yer-know!

Hurrumph! Fussa-russa! . . . you can see where Brwreakshit came from!

"Practically unbreakable", actually quite frangible! Although - to be fair - you don't see these with the same damage you can find on playworn Elastolin or Lineol, but that may be because once they start to go, they go all the way, quickly?

The work of Brent, these are the smaller - 54mm - figures and dated by the gas-mask cases on their chests, take us back to the early years of the war; to the BEF and Home Guard, but presumably after the war-privation of materials had come into effect?

I assume the fluffy padding in the Stretcher Bearers set is a modern addition, they would have been sewn onto card-inserts or set in wood-wool or something, the farm (coming next) had a slotted card but with a much deeper box.

The 'Group' set has slightly random contents with two duplicates (grenade thrower and advancing with respirator on), while missing two poses.

There were eight poses in total, I don't have the grenade thrower yet, and actually don't have all these now (swapsies), but within the sample you can see colour variations and the size/pose differences you'd expect from oven-dried [inedible] 'dough' figures!

Five of the poses in close-up; note the colour variations of the ready/sentry challenging guy (bottom right), weapon barrels are provided by small panel-pins, the head used to give the idea of a muzzle or flash-eliminator, I've never encountered Brent badly damaged-enough to reveal whether or not there is a whole wire armature, but I suspect not?

Three more; clearly there is an armature for the machine-gun, which is less Vicker's own and more Bugsy Malone's splurge-gun! The prone figure is similar to several hollow-cast shooters, but not connected to the 'unknown' early-British plastic prone figure I've had a stab at attributing in the past.

Also missing from my collection (and manythanks to Adrian Little for letting me shoot his, from/and also the boxed sets above), the stretcher is a simple affair of cartridge paper wrapped round a couple of stiff wire 'handles', the casualty seems to have been involved in the same incident as Timpo's swoppet, maybe they banged heads getting out of little Johnny's biscuit-tin!

Differences between two examples of the same pose, I thought the shorter pack was down to a misplaced thumb or finger catching the top and squishing it down a bit! But in fact it's shorter at the bottom end, so different cavities, or separate moulds, these may have been produced with hand-clamp type tools?

Despite their crudity of manufacture, they are OK figures, and with no lead available, you'd be happy to find these under the tree at Christmas; if you were a toy soldier fan . . . did anyone do composition footballers?

I also have two of the 60mm versions (upper shot), we have to assume they did all eight combat poses in both sizes, but I don't know about the stretcher teams, nor do I know if one line replaced the other, or if they ran alongside each-other?

The lower shots compare one of Adrian's Brent 60mm's (left of each picture) with an unknown figure (stylistically different, they're probably not a third Brent line) marked 'British' (we will look at them in a separate post), who is closer to 80mm and has lost his rifle tip.

This lot was in the recent Vectis sale, I don't know if Brent produced the 'egg-box' papier mâché dug-out/bunker, but it's a beautiful thing, and god knows how it has survived in that condition! If you return to the top, you'll see there are various lines mentioned along the top of the box, maybe Chris's ceremonial Guardsman is among them?

B is for Buried, Better, Burger King, BMC, Brent, Bandai and Benbros

As this is the season for getting as many things on your plate as possible (without letting the gravy flow over the edge!) I thought it was the ideal moment to cover a few minor makes or smaller samples from my collection, so here are some minor 'B's'.

On the left (and marked "MADE IN ENGLAND") is a pawn from the Buried Treasure ice cream (?) chess set. These were also sold in the states both as Buried Treasure (?) and Sherbet Surprise. The question marks are down to my not knowing if Buried Treasure was ice cream or some other edible product, and not knowing if they were available in the states as BT or just Sherbet watsit!

On the right and dateing from 1949 is a joke/stag-novelty of a naked woman from Better Novelties Inc. of the US of A, who will only stay in her bath for the person who knows the secret - a sliding magnet. I have similar toys of naked women in [on] a bed and the kissing dolls I think I've covered somewhere in the 450 posts now gone below?

This is apparently a very early Burger King toy from the 1950's or 1960's and consists of the King (himself!!? Who knew or remembered he originally existed?) riding an air-powered go-cart/cartie. Coming as a kit of 4 parts in a nylonish plastic, maybe a polypropylene? His only mark is the R in a circle so favored of Giant - this must have been an American thing, we had the Copyright 'C' and the Patent 'Pat.' but the Registered sign was never of legal worth in Europe and didn't appear on our products.

Above are two bits of hollow-cast I've ended-up with; a Benbros calf and a 30mm BMC penny-toy of a mounted Life Guard, with below; the only other 'volume' producer of composition figures in Britain (we looked at Zang the other day) was a company called Brent, who produced these generic WWII British types with picture-frame nails as weapon barrels/muzzles.

There were about 3 sets of small scale Pokemon, these are by Bandai, I think I've also got smaller unmarked ones and same sized ones by Tomy probably from their gumball machines.

As these are yesterdays 'fad' now, and space needs to be made for Ben10 stuff, there might be good pickings for this sort of stuff at car-boot sales this year.