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!

C is for Crazy Cartoon Kids

Yeah, I'm giving that K a battering! This set came in back in January, but I didn't get to shoot it until February, It's funny, 'cos Bushy keeps asking his readers to send him their 'LP' lists, while I keep posting the LB lists! We've had the Dinosaurs and Cavemen, did the Gygax knock-offs and skirted round the farm sets (and musicians); not quite ready to do the definitive on them or the other Funimals yet, but I thought I'd better do the Wild West, which will leave the Christmas cake decorations for another day!

 

The box had seen better days, and there is at least one item missing, but otherwise this seems to be a complete rendition of the Wild West line, a similar 'circus village' was seen on Faceplant a couple of years ago, with all, or most of the Funimals, if only we could find something similar for the fishermen . . . throw them in with the divers, and a boat!

 

Cowboys!

 

Mexican!

 

Only five foot cowboys and the missing Mexican (he'll be in the next post), for a six-count (the Indians get eight), I love how some enterprising out-worker has painted the skin of the flesh-coloured figure ashen-grey, for a contrast . . . so he looks like a zombie cowboy kid!

 

The Stage Coach

 

I suspect it should have the sticker on both sides, not least than because the box shows it on the other side! But, like the Mexican it's been lost somewhere between Hong Kong, Italy (from whence I purchased it) and here, so I'll have to keep an eye out for a damaged one going cheap, with at least one sticker I can transfer!

The horses are in the same arrangement on both wagons, as per colour distribution (it's a single moulding), as they are on the box-art, but a different pattern, so, I guess each out-worker got into a different rhythm, but all got one of each colour! Wagoner is the same moulding on both, increasing the cowboys to seven sculpts.

 

Boys!

 

But the cowboys are outnumbered by the Indians who have eight foot figures, four each boys, and girls, while there are no cowgirls? Fluorescent pink is probably not quite historically accurate, and you may be noticing a similarity between some of these poses, both cowboys and Indians, and the Britains Deetail range, not that they are direct piracies, but some of the poses have been used as a guide, which means these can't be older than around 1972?

 

 Girls!

 

Not so with the girls, and I have to apologise to a mate of mine, as I sent him one of these as a 'Little Plumb', a few years ago, and it turns out she was a Little Plumbette! You know who you are, and I'll sort out some boys as soon as I have some duplicates! For reasons I can't begin to explain, these four seem to be far easier to find, loose, at shows, or on-line, than either the Indian boys or the cowboys?

Raising the count to ten!

Looking similar at first glance, these are completely different sculpts, although they have reused the body from the neck down. But a lot of effort went into the whole set, as shown with these two. Opposite arm sculpts to match, and it's clear the body tool and arm tools were different as the plastic-colours don't match, which happens if you're adding the pigment by hand, to neutral granules at the final stage.
 

Final count 9/11

The demented horse is different from the wagon animal, but was used for both riders.

 

Three buildings are included, which are half-Timpo/half-Atlantic in execution, with a shallow rear assembly (identical for all three) attached to different facades, this is the Silver City Bank, but when you're outnumbered by the locals you haven't got time to rob a bank!

 

Construction follows the Timpo model, but as shallow 'theatrical scenery' in heavy polyethylene blocks, which is more like the Atlantic 'Abilene West City' buildings, from Italy?

 

Frisco Bar

City Office - Land Claims / City Jail

 

All the free-swinging doors are factory fitted, but the back 'box' requires assembly.

Another Britains copy, this one Herald, and an umteenth-generation one though, with many better ones coming before it, including the hard-plastic one we saw as part of a cake decoration set a while back.

 

The distinctive LB fence sections, you get six in two bags of three, presumably because three was the number added to other sets, like the My Farm sets we saw, or the Animal Fun Fair set?

 

As far as I know, the two cactus vignettes are unique, rather than copies of anything else, and while I'd previously ID'd the righthand one and listed it in the Lik Be master list, the left-hand one here, was a revelation, when I got hold of it earlier this year.

 

The tree is a common Hong Kong item, and while carrying an LB A-code, is a fourth-or-more-generation copy, as is the ex-Crescent monkey-puzzle tree.

 

Two scenic vignettes, both taken from Britains Deetail, which nicely pulls it all together, re my comment above, and the well! We looked at various versions of the well a while ago, and I don't remember even looking for marks in the roofs!

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/09/d-is-for-ding-dong-bell-pussys-in-well.html 

 

But I bet it'll turn out that the slightly smaller ones are all LB cake decorations, that chromed one is similar to the spacemen from Culpitt, while the slightly larger one (on the left of the two shots) will be a donor, from someone else? But it's nice to be slowly pulling all this stuff together, I got a lot of help with those well-posts from Chris Smith and Barney Brown.

 

Finally, a unique, but very childish design of Totem pole, to add to that oeuvre! Apart from the base sticking out, it's a slab-flat with a smooth, blank reverse.

 

Nearly everything in the set carries a standard Lik Be A-code, which, with a few exceptions among the scenics, and with the addition of two Rhinoceroses, are in several blocks toward the end of the main LB A-prefix numbering, as known to this author. But there are a few 3, 4, 5 and even 600's before the B-codes, with probably more to discover, much of the below was only added a few weeks ago.

Listing

Wild West

≈

No. A149 - Wishing Well (two-part, marked in roof only)

[unmarked] - Farm Fence Section (x6 in large set) 

≈

No. A153 - Tree/Shrub with Clump of Grass 

≈

No. A219 - Teepee / Tipi / Wigwam (ex-Britains Herald, polypropylene, might be bought-in, but has LB code) 
No. A220 - Totem Pole (unique, but juvenile design) 
No. A221 - ‘Clancy Claim’ Sign (Britains Deetail piracy) 
No. A222 - ‘Dead Mans Gulch’ Sign (Britains Deetail piracy) 
No. A223 - Stage Coach (Multi part kit with 4x A225, marked on one half of body only) 
No. A224 - Cowboy Waggoner (for stage-coach [A223] and Wild West Wagon [A234]) 
No. A225 - Cart Horse / Wild West Coach-Wagon Horse (MADE IN . . HONG KONG .)

[unmarked] - Horse-Trace/Furniture

[unmarked] - Base for Four Horses

[unmarked] - Small Wheel/Axle Assembly

[unmarked] - Large Wheel/Axle Assembly

No. A226 - Native American Canoe (hard polystyrene) 
No. A227 - Indian Girl Canoeist (one feather in headband, earrings, pigtails) 
No. A228 - Indian Girl Canoeist (two feathers in headband) 
[unmarked] - Canoeists Arms (dipping oar to left) 

[unmarked] - Canoeists Arms (dipping oar to right)
No. A229 - 
No. A230 - 
No. A231 - 
No. A232 - Rhinoceros (very male!)
No. A233 - Rhinoceros (female?)
No. A234 - Wild West Wagon (Multi part kit with 4x A225, marked on underside of wagon-box) 
No. A235 - Silver City Bank (three part building frontage) 
No. A236 - Frisco Bar (three part building frontage) 
No. A237 - Land Claim Office / City Jail (three part building frontage) 
[unmarked] - Building Roof Piece 
[unmarked] - Building Rear Wall 
[unmarked] - Building, Left Side 
[unmarked] - Building, Right Side 
No. A238 - Monkey Puzzle Tree (Crescent copy, x2 in large set) 
No. A239 - Group of Cacti & Succulents (x2 in large set) 
No. A240 - Prickly Pears (x2 in large set) 
No. A241 - Indian Girl with Tomahawk (pirated by SK as No. 194) 
No. A242 - Indian Girl Dancing 
No. A243 - Indian Girl with Tom-Tom Drum 
No. A244 - Indian Girl with Bow & Arrow (shooting up) 
No. A245 - Cowboy with Lasso/Lariat 
No. A246 - [Mexican Boy with Six Guns] (should prove to be A246?) 
No. A247 - Cowboy with Six-guns, One Pulled, One Holstered 
No. A248 - Cowboy Boy with Rifle

≈
No. A263 - Mounted Indian Boy, Lance & Rifle 
No. A264 - (Possibly unused horse code, replaced by No. A267?) 
No. A265 - Mounted Cowboy, Two Six-guns, One Pulled, One Holstered 
No. A266 - (Possibly unused horse code, replaced by No. A267?) 
No. A267 - Wild West Horse (for both riders)
≈
No. A280 - Cowboy with Six-guns (right level) 
No. A281 - Cowboy with Six-guns (right high) 
No. A282 - Indian Boy ‘Little Bear’ with Lance 
No. A283 - Indian Boy with Tomahawk & Rifle 
No. A284 - Indian Boy with Bow & Arrow (shooting parallel) 
No. A285 - Indian Boy with Tomahawk and Shield (pirated by SK as No. 195)
≈
Sets
No. 1104 - Cowboy & Indian (large set containing one each of everything, with multiples of scenics, building parts, and draft-horses, along with six pieces of farm fencing)

G is for Gashapon - Bandai Namco - Ultraman Cityscape

It is the bane of blind or random selection that you won't always get what you want, what you hoped for, or what you need to complete a run or set, and while this set has three nice figures, both Adrain and I ended-up with the same simplified, micro-building, hay-ho!

 

The machine!

 

The capsule, and prize, I couldn't work it out until I'd got it out of the packet and studied the sheet! It's a small (1:600th or even 1:1200th) type micro-bulding, to be made-up, with five others, into a cityscape, for the 'Giant' Ultramen to stand amongst as they battle Godzilla or Mothma, or something equally daft and rubber-suit sized!

 

Paperwork, I don't know if the three figures are different heros. different generatuons/movie-versions of the same guy or what? Having never really followed the franchise (I haven't seen any of the recent big-budget Hollywood takes either, and I'm not in a queue to!), it always struck me as a kid's daftness, and while you can have nostalgia for your own (I wish someone would find a stash of Hector's House recordings), I don't think you can retro-establish a love for something aimed at kids, as a cold, cynical, logical adult?

 

Powered by a sealed watch battery, the novelty has a limited life-span, in its illuminated form at least, but you can, hopefully, from the right-hand image, get an idea of how a bunch of them would look with one or two of the figures looming out from the midst of them!

B is for Benevolent Buys - 3 of 3

Along with the cats and turtle/tortoise (you'll agree it wasn't clear, but flatter = turtle?), came this bag of shrapnel at the start of October, nothing special, but all fun!

 

A Fiver's the top-end for this kind of thing, but it'd been a few days since anything joined the stash, and withdrawal was starting to itch, so what choice did I have?!!

 

A near-complete set of the 'Nabisco' Magic Roundabout, and in a follow-up I'll explain way I haven't italicised the Nabisco, and have placed it in single-quotes, but for now, strange that it's all in red, with no sign of the other colours normally associated with the 'cereal premium'?

 

Standard Erzgebirge houses and church, but larger than previous ones we've seen here, with an extra window each, The Church/Public building with Zwiebelturm (onion tower, one of the first German words I learnt, the dreaded Umleitung came second, Bummelzug third!) is one from our childhood, I've been after for years, so really pleased to add this to the pile!

 

 

Other wooden stuff of the Erzgebirge type, with the train possibly a later Kinder one, and the car probably from a board game. Some of it may go with the cottages in the previous shot, but it's not obvious, while styling, paint, varnish &etc. . . suggests several sources, and many years between oldest and youngest samples.

 

Mostly 1970/80's rack-toy scenic stuff, but the greenhouse is from the New Ray HO civil/model railway accessory range, and the two Poplar trees are new to the collection, and - with those huge bases - probably from something more infant-oriented, and also, probably more modern.

 

Odds & sods; the barrow looks like it should have a pencil-sharpener attached, but there's no sign of such an accoutrement having ever been attached, and I don't know what the blue-cap is from, or if it's even anything to do with toys whatsoever? 

News, Views Etc . . . White Tower Miniatures

Matt posted this yesterday;

"Sad day, we have done our quarter one review. Sales are down quite a bit. It must be a combination of three things, firstly the world climate is stopping people buying due to costs and fear. Secondly ebay has added costs to our products, more of that later. Thirdly we are possibly making too much.

So something will be changing, our products will no longer be on ebay. It is marking up prices, gouging on postage and making listing very difficult. Its not worth it, so go to our website to gain free shipping cheaper prices and the full range of our products. Secondly the price of metal has skyrocketed so production costs are beyond sales, so we need to tread more carefully. This means we will still release the next two batches but after that until we start to break even I will use you good people to pick what gets made, I will sculpt figures and put them to a vote.

Sad but needs must till things balance out. Please help me find new customers by sharing our Facebook and website with people you might think will be interested. And you at least will have a say in what goes into production as I will not be able to subsidise the width or figures I sculpt into production. A bit gloomy I know but as a one person operation I can not bankrupt myself for a hobby."

So grab anything you need off of evilBay if you use that platform, before he delists it, or remember to use the website from now on; https://whitetowerminiatures.co.uk

 

You can get hold of him on Faceplant too; https://www.facebook.com/whitetowerminiatures

F is for Farm Friends - Odds & Sods

I haven't photographed my LB (or other) farm 'funimals' yet, and with the bulk of them in storage that'll be a project for another day, but I have found a few bits around and about, which we're looking at here, with one or two shots I have taken while sorting or whatever.

 

Pretty sure these are all Lik Be, as I said in a previous post, there are more than one sourse of these cartoon animals, and different sets (like the band, and the circus sets - smaller animals riding/climbing on larger animals while wearing hats!) within makers, and many similar smaller sources, so it's not an exact science.

 Even within the oeuvre of LB's offerings, where the A/B- coded numbering helps, it's complicated by unmarked examples and the fact that the winter-sports funimals, band, cake decorations, dinosaurs, cavemen, wild west and 'Gygax monsters' (six posts - coming soon . . . I hope!), are also within the list, quite randomly, although usually in blocks, with the unnumbered fishermen, spacemen, astronauts and robot/aliens and others, probably accounting for some of the gaps (also blocks) in the list!

 

Colour variations of the rabbits we saw in the other post.

 

One shot I did take, to show colour variations of the pig!

From Mike B's catalogue image, the trio of chicks is sometimes broken-up and sold individually, or as individuals, I should say, the other three are from a sub-set of more anthropomorphic animals with items of clothing or human accoutrements. The farm boy on the music box will be a hard polystyrene version, and came a little later than most of this stuff; in the mid-1980's

A better sample of the farm range, with both cows, both donkeys (one with loud, pink-paint detailing), separated chicks (two of each), the goat and an adult duck, who's huge! If I recall correctly, the seller had multiple sets, but had opened one for the sales shots, but it was before I was an active buyer on evilBay!

The set we looked at in the previous post, but I think this was the seller's image, although I take similar images, I rarely use the same colour of both surfaces, and try to hide gaps! But it worked, as I bought two of them, a few months apart!

This is from the 'box'-something guys in Germany, still available, but, after a few successful purchases from them, it all went a bit pear-shaped - after Brwreakshit-proper (Boris the clown's 'deal'), they cancelled an eBay sale, didn't reimburse me, and bombarded me with eMails, in German, trying to get me to make an off-eBay sale (against feeBay's rules) elsewhere, so I've never bought from them again, and they got my fifty-odd quid, but have lost more over the subsequent few years? Branded to both Wello and LB.

The 'farm kids', there are a rarer farmer and wife, who are more realistic, still cartoony, but slimmer or more proportionate, and so go better with the tractor driver, found in a larger set or sets - no pictures yet!

A tragedy! Some people shouldn't be on feebleBay! This was the sum-total of the sellers images? They look to be two further examples of the same sized card as the Wello-contracted set above, but this time all-Lik Be. And that says "Paint High Impact, not Taint - Ooh-missus!
 

 

I'm not going to look at the other vintage makers here, but this is the modern take from someone called NPRC (something-People's Republic [of] China?) on Amazon, clearly a made-up-name! Twelve animals with more than a hint of homage to the oldster funnimals, Lucky Luke and a bit of Hanna-Barbera!