C is for Confirmatory Combat Canon!

This is one of those useful pieces, which consolidate that which we know, but seem unable to prove, and should come as a relief to those of us who have developed a tendency to mutter 'could be one or the other', when dealing with unknown plastics, on the understanding we are referring to Rosedale/Tudor Rose and/or Kleeman/Kleeware.

 

Speaking as someone who was a younger member of the follow-on force in the hobby, but who is now looking at himself as an older (or ageing!) member of the next generation, watching younger people come into the hobby with weird notions on the intrinsic value of Lego or WWF action figures, I don't know why I just 'trust' the older guards insistence in a relationship, beyond, that they said so, and that the one, Rose-, bought the other, Klee-, but finding things like this underline the closeness of the two, as fact! Especially as those insistences were always about mould-tool sharing.

 

We previously saw this M55 post-war US self-propelled gun (SPG), three years ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/05/afv-is-for-absolutely-feckin-vast.html

 

Clearly marked with a full set of Tudor Rose markings, and, in fact, have seen this Kleeware version before, as a show 'shelfie' nine years ago, so I was already pretty confident of the cast-iron connection, but still needed some introductory blurbiage!

 

The central mark above the reinforcing bulkhead is the same on both AFV's, but where the T*R model has two more ID discs either side of it, the Kleeware has a longer, untypical (for either make) mark, parallel to the discs, but below the bulkhead. However, and unlike some of the space crossovers from these two makes, there is no sign of the missing marks as faint, blanked discs, which you often find on the spaceships.

 

It may point to a rule - marked T*R is IS T*R, unmarked; probably Kleeman? It'll be worth a post one day comparing all the marks, as there are other marks, Kleeware having a small disc mark, and Tudor Rose having a longer written mark.

 

Anyway, I now have enough ammunition for both guns, and given that the Rosedale 25lbr came green with silver shells, it's likely some Tudor Rose M55's got them too? That's it, short and sweet, another chapter in a story which still has the odd question mark!

T is for Timely Manner . . . No! Toy Show Report . . . No! Torres Maltas! Yes, T is for Torres Maltas!

I am back from Camden! Remembering the criticism of me from 2019, when we were burying Dad, by you know who;

 

"There are three items we can not delay reporting : new figure news, collectible toy shows, and toy trade fairs."

 

I thought I'd better get the reports of yesterday's Toy Soldier Show out, in a 'timely manner', I'd hate to delay the importance of the occasion!

 

I picked this up at the show yesterday, I thought I'd got a mega-bargain, and to be fair I sort of did get a bargain, as it's a rare and usual survivor of old Spanish toy soldiery, but once I'd got it home and had a good look at the damage to the box, and its repairs, I figure it was a fair price, but it WAS, not a lot.

 

We've seen the figures before here, they also did Air Force personal, and there is a definite relationship between these 40mm Torres Maltas ('Maltese Towers') and the larger 54/60mm stuff from Manuel Sotorres, in the styling, the movable arms and the subject matters, but I don't know the exact link, or if I do, it's on the dongles somewhere!

 

The tank is fascinating, filling both the 'space tank' role as a purely fictional vehicle, albeit with shades of M46/7-48-60 in the nose/front glacis-plate, and looking very Hong Kong'y - if you found it in a mixed lot of loose-stuff, you would happily assume it was Hong Kong. The body/hull a blow-mould, the turret, however, injection-moulded.

While the marbled-plastic gun is closer to 54mm-compatible (here posed with a Crescent GI gunner - I got the Joplin big-book out, to save TJF 'having' to make the effort), and has a matchstick-firing capacity with hidden-spring mechanism.

 

Obviously more to come . . . in a timely manner! Very, very important, that you get this stuff out in a timely manner, apparently?

AFV is for Absolutely Feckin' Vast!

Well, they're not THAT big, but pretty-much the next size-up is Action Man/GI Joe, so they are about as big as I'm ever going to go! We're talking Tudor Rose here, although we've previously seen one of them marked-up as Kleeware, and I'm pretty sure I've seen the same SPG (an M55) under Ideal branding in the 'States?

 

There was a lot of Tudor Rose showing at PW's show a fortnight or so ago, and some of it got a second outing at Sandown Park the following weekend, and I did buy some, but that was all civilian and will be seen in those forthcoming show-reports, in the meantime, this truck came in a while ago now . . .

 

. . . and I shot this quick shot; at an odd angle, seen elsewhere I think, to show off the Blue Box box of Blue Box BB boxes, which Chris had sent in one of his lots, along with a Blue Box four-inch figure, or just under, he's actually 95mm. Well, you'd need a military escort for that load, it's almost a cupboard-full of Blue Box toys!

 

Then these big babies came-in, not that long ago, and while they did go through to storage at the time, I found them the other day while looking for something else, and knowing the truck was still in the flat thought "Well, OK, we can cobble something together here I think!" As you can see they are almost as grubby as the truck, so cleaning as well as photographing was the order of the day.

The M55 got a spray with TFR (traffic film remover) watered-down at about 50/50, and then a drying with kitchen-paper, and I took the opportunity to strip it down to its constituent parts . . . I meant to do a 'parts-shot' for all of them, but kept getting too-keen to reassemble them after I had a pile of dry parts, so forgot to do the others!

 

Apart from the wear to the 'fighting compartment' deck, it came up pretty mint, but I knew it would as the underside looked like it was made yesterday, so it was mostly surface dust. I also re-cut the tab of the firing 'pin' and the furred edges of its receiving slot, as they had had enough play, in the past, to round-off slightly, making it hard to fire without a two-handed faff!

All back together and it's looking like the beast it was, briefly in the 1950'60's, The shells which just sit in the rack on the engine deck were mostly missing; there was only one! And it may be missing stickers (see below), but it's a 1950's beach/garden toy survivor, so I think it's looking good!

The 25lbr, as it's described when you see it in its box (there's one on feebleBay as I write), doesn't look much like a 25lbr! And is a very different beast altogether, not least that while the SPG is 100% soft polyethylene, this is mostly hard 'kit' polystyrene, this to hold a more powerful firing mechanism with metal trigger, securely in the moulding, by having it sealed round the trigger and spring. Wheels are 'ethylene though, with steel axles. It's actually a breach-loader, with a pull-back slotted-tray to take the shell, as the trigger is cocked.

The two, together with their ammunition, there's a bagful for the 25lbr, but only the one for the M55 . . . sniff! However, I can report - after extensive testing against the end of the bed - that both will take each other's rounds, the 25lbr's are snug in the SPG's barrel but fire efficiently, while the smaller rounds of the M55 roll-about a bit in the breach tray of the howitzer which could affect accuracy over garden ranges!

The Jeep completed the trio, and we're back to all-polystyrene, with the exception of two steel axles. Not the best rendition of a jeep, but not the worst either, it gets the 'look' right, but is a bit boxy or square, and lacks the rear quarter-bumpers/fenders/foot-steps, which help with the distinctive lines of a Jeep.

 

Mine is missing it's spare, and like an idiot, in order to shoot one in situ, I took the back one, instead of a front one, so had to prop it up with my fingers! Yes, I could have quickly sorted it out and re-shot it, but what fun is there in such sensible conformity?

Then it was go fetch the truck, and give it the same treatment, with this I didn't remove the rear cargo-bed from the frame, as it looked like I might damage it if I forced the six clips, but the cab came off and the seats came out, while tail-gate and headlight bar both popped-off.

 

It's not a recognisable mark, but more of a generic . . . Bedford? And scale-wise, sits between the larger Jeep and smaller M55. It has a towing hook, but isn't as happy taking the 25lbr as the Jeep is (tighter space), so I may be looking for a smaller gun, or trailer for it?

 

The other obvious difference is the two-tone colouring and I think I've seen civilian versions with red, yellow or blue superstructures as 'tipper-trucks', was there a builder's/road worker's generator trailer or cement-mixer, maybe?

You can see the PVC door stickers didn't survive cleaning, one is lost forever (down the plughole I fear), the other fell off while drying, they were both time expired, the stars however (being a separate contract/print run) survived much better, and leave the question, should they all have/did they all have stickers, or were they added from other toys/models, to this truck? Stickers aren't normally a feature of Tudor Rose, nor did the Kleeware version M55 have any.

Still cleaned-up nicely. It's slightly bent, which is more of a construction thing than an age thing; as the frame gets heavier (as in a heavier moulding) under the cab, where the front wheel-arches begin, the frame has curved slightly and could do with a bit of hot water on the long spars with a press-down at the cab-end of the bed to get it all parallel with the road surface, but it's not bad enough to worry about really!

 

Interestingly, there seems to be a missing steering-wheel, well, that's not interesting, that's annoying, but there are two receiving holes (that's the interesting bit!), so an export version must have been sold with left-hand-drive? Across the Channel or across The Pond?

All cleaned and reassembled, if I had to scale them off the top of my head I'd say about 1:20 for the Jeep, 1:24/25 for the truck and 1:30/32 for the M55, it's about the same size as the Airfix Abbot SPG.

 

Hopefully if I find a cheap, maybe knackered Jeep (perhaps missing its windscreen, or chewed-up), I'll be able to take a wheel as spare for mine, and use the steering wheel for the truck - it looks like it would fit? Trouble is, one knackered-enough to be cheap is likely to be missing its steering wheel too!

The marking is clear on all four items, with 'Tudor Rose' repeated on some, if you recall (or followed the link just now) the Kleeware 'Howitzer Tank' retains the central 'Made in England' disc, but looses the other two, having a heavy KLEEWARE raised on the underside of the deck floor/rear step, aft of the bulkhead.

 

Which conforms to the fact that after they had taken them over and as Tudor Rose concentrated on more trade-related matters (raw materials and machine tools), they handed production of some of their old models to their [Tudor Rose's] new Kleeware 'brand mark/division'.

Last minute checks before setting-off, a runner is sent up from the back to speak to the convoy packet-commander, who looks ready to shoot him, if he says anything too stupid!

 

The figures used are all about 95mm, or just short of the full four-inches, and are an earlier painted Blue Box, a later unpainted Blue Box, both with the same mark as the soft ethylene issue of the 25mm GI's, and the third, unmarked is almost certainly a Rado Industries (Ri-Toys) issue, from the same ex-Blue Box (or ex-Tai Sang!) mould tool.

"Gentlemen! Start. Your. Engines!"

R is for Recent Addition!

Picked this up at a recent fair, nothing about it in the books, but you can't have everything . . . 

One wonders if it was destined for the 01741 Astronauts, or was there a range of more fictional Sci-Fi stuff planned? Anyway; it fills an obvious gap in the collection - Space Tank!

O is for Old School!

This is a fun piece, Theo van de Weerden sent me this shot with some items he was hoping I could ID (some, but not all!), and while it didn't need ID'ing itself, it's clearly marked . . .

. . . Dulcop of Italy; I couldn't work out from the photograph if it was complete, incomplete or smashed-up! Nor was it clear how it was supposed to work, so I asked Theo if he could explain further!

He then kindly re-shot it and found a link to one on evilBay with the bullets. The second set of shots are odd-coloured due to the remnants of what seems to have been a uniform coat of silver paint (mostly now worn off) reflecting back at us - which had gone some way toward confusing with the upper image too. Once you've seen these shots, the first one become equally clear!

What we actually have here is a nice, probably early production, Dulcop novelty piece which fires two large shells (which clip onto the two strange cut-outs in the shield) using a sort of 'pop-gun' action and may not have been connected to their later toy soldier line at all, but rather sold purely as an interactive, if slightly violent plaything.

It would though, make a lovely howitzer or mountain-gun for old school set-them-up-and-knock-them-down carpet wars. Thanks to Theo for sharing it with the rest of us.

B is for Best Toy Ever? Working Machinegun

It's time for another Best Toy Ever post, and like the last one, thanks are due to Adrian Little (Mercator Trading) who took this along to a show where I was able to get a few shots off. Not 100% sure to the maker, but some of the ammunition resupplies are marked Märklin which is probably a good clue to the original maker too.

The contents were less than pristine having obviously been played with, well; you'd want to play with a best toy ever wouldn't you! Basically, it's a firing machine-gun, and I don't mean it makes a noise like a machinegun, I mean you feed it a belt of pre-loaded ammunition and it bangs . . .  as it fires rubber-bullets; it's too damn cool for the SF-Cadre!

A scaled-down feed mechanism and cap-firing hammer are operated by the turning of the handle, which is not far removed from the handle found on a Gatling Gun. Painting is similar to pre- or inter-war toys, but the two instruction sheets are cruder than you might expect from a 1930's toy, also at least one (the pink sheet above) seems to be that purpleish thing which I think we used to call  a 'roneo' (spell?) copy.

So I suspect it is just post-war? But using a pre-war tool, and painting style, just to get a product up and running in a blasted economy, and apart for the unconvincing clues to a post war sale, there's nothing in it.

This was the best bit! An exquisite chain of small brass turnings each of which can take a cap-gun charge at one end (top), and a rubber bullet at the other end (bottom), all tied together in a series of sort-of Morbius-loops or - more accurately - figure-of-eights, which allow for flexibility and a 'belt' feel, but which arrangement keeps the strings tight to the 'rounds' so they don't foul the mechanism, it's very clever!

The original bullets were small vulcanised rubber (tyre rubber) shells, but seem to have been replaced - due to loss - with small wooden splints which could be jammed in the blast hole between the cap-charge and the barrel, which must have worked because there were enough for the whole belt (with signs of jamming-in) which you wouldn't bother with if it all didn't work.

I couldn't try it as we had no caps on site, and you wouldn't want to break something like this if you hadn't paid for it, not to mention the cotton 'belt' arrangement looked like it might need replacing with some newer threads! But I can imagine what it must have been like spurting rubber death at ranks of composition or hollow-cast toy soldiers - best toy ever . . .

. . . 'till next time!

H is for 'Howitzer Tank'

Yeah! Kids just don't feel the same about 'self-propelled' artillery; might as well just call it artillery and watch sales tank . . . heh-heh-heh! "Better add 'Tank' to the box Dave"

I shot this at the PW show on Adrian's stall, what a peach; and an interesting choice for a model as this M55 was part of a relatively short-lived family of post-WWII SPG's with common parts, quite quickly replaced by the M108/9 family.

The model's big too, around 1:24th, maybe 1:18th? - It's about a foot-long anyway, and all in a dense silver polyethylene, what I call beach-toy scale!

The more interesting aspect than it's age (as a toy) or good condition is the shell-rack over the engine compartment, just like the Taffy Toys 'Pershing/Patton' tank we looked at back at the beginnings of the blog which was of a similar size. There are differences, the Taffy has no moulded track-link detail on the inward-facing 'walls' of the moulding and its shells are blunter-ended, but the firing mechanism is near identical, even to the flat blade trigger.

It raises the question as to whether Taffy were part of the Thomas group (as previously suggested - by me, on advise) or part of the Tudor Rose group of equally interconnected companies/entities as evidenced by the similarities with this SPG?

We looked at the two very similar yet different 5.5-inch guns last time too [Just checked, looking for the above link - no we didn't but I have the photographs, so I'll do a follow-up in a day or two! Tuesday!], it's as if there were two parallel lines, possibly designed to be sold side-by-side or at least - to complement each other?