T is for Teixido Return!

Yes, a rather too-cheerful title given my views of bullfighting, but they have to be posted, and while I hate the 'sport' and the idea of it still being a thing in the 21st Century, I take heart in the fact that another Matador was gored to death the other day (at least he got to feel how the bulls felt), and two others have quit, publically, in the ring! One breaking down and sobbing, at the enormity of what he'd been doing, all his adult life, to innocent, proud, confused animals.

 

We'll start at the end . . . of the bull. It's all about the killing of bulls, and, the longer the fight, the weaker the bull gets, so the final flourish, and the applause of the bloodthirsty crowd is utterly pointless, as the bull's so weak by that point it's almost a mercy killing, for what the fighters have been doing for the previous . . . twenty minutes; hour; two hours? I don't care how long the fights take, they are barbarous.

 

These are the Teixido figures (I think? They may go with the Jecsan below?) we last saw on someone else's table with me pointing out I didn't have any, I now have a decent sample, and we're going to look at them now, along with a few others, that have come-in over the last couple of years!

 

Two more mounted figures which I think go with the Teixido set, but I'm not sure, some of them are more rubbery, others are 'ethylene, and while some have separate arms, others don't! And all the horses were polyethylene, but not all the riders went on all the horses!

 

Theses are all Teixido, and there was some judicial swapping of arms, between shots, to get everyone looking correct, and a few bodies didn't get photographed as their arms clearly weren't here! The last one is correct, I think, but the camera-angle makes him look like his plug-in arm is growing out of his back!

 

The guy on the right in the first shot, can be posed to be dragging his red-rag behind him, as we saw last time we looked at these. 

 

I think these are all Jecsan, although one has a more Reamsa style base, so I stand to be better informed on all these, but the whole 'bullfighting zone' sample is quite big now, and when it's all brought together we'll have a proper look at all of them, and compare with the various catalogue images in the archive, to get them all grouped correctly! In fact, I think the standing bull is the Teixido.

 

Jecsan horse, I think, not sure on the rider, who seems to be some kind of referee or officiator? He has a separate cloak, so may also be Teixido.

 

Comparison between a Comansi (?), unknown, unpainted one (which keeps turning up and may be a touristy thing?) and the Teixido horse, his padded-armour/blanketing is of finer etching/sculpting.

 

Jecsan with a Reamsa'ish base, a tourist keepsake, we saw another one (white, plug-on base), years ago, and one of the Teixido's. The tourist one is a polystyrene, hard-plastic solid, with metal pin inserted.

 

Further comparison, with the Torres wine premium on the left and one of the unknown small-scales from 2024's Plastic Warrior show plunder on the right, for some reason I swapped out the Teixido but not the Jecasn?

 

Hong Kong
Seen before, but cropped-tight and lacking the now-dead link to the auction!

 

I had the Jecsan stuff here, but the Comansi and Reamsa stuff is in storage, or on a dongle I can't be bothered to look for, right now! The reamsa'ish base one is it the ring, facing the other way, so he is Jecsan, but no sign of the towing vignette, the Referee, or a dead bull, so that probably is all Teixido after all!

 

While the two we saw yesterday aren't in these scans, so probably are Reamsa, as the Comansi's have bigger bases - it's not made any easier by them all four using the same gloss orange on the bases! I guess, after a thousand years, all that bull's blood has darkened the sand?

 

Please donate.

Imagine if these colourful, dynamic, civilian figures could still be collected, but as 'historical' subjects, rather than examples of man's ongoing cruelty, and inhumanity to everything around him?

L is for London Toy Soldier Show - 2 of 2

I must confess I didn't stay long at the show, and wasn't carrying much cash, but I bought a few bits off everyone I knew, and ended-up with enough for two posts of mostly interesting stuff!

 

I can't veer into 'new painted metal', but one should support one's mates in their endeavours, so I try to buy the odd piece off Matt from White Tower, and this lovely Mongol/Hunnish horse-archer came home with me, beautifully wrapped in tissue paper by Matt!

 

Three Reliable interwar 'doughboy' infantry from Canada, these used to be considered copies, but I think everyone now accepts they were a licensing deal, or cross-boarder mould-swap, as there's nothing in them bar the different marked bases.

 

Marx on the left, in the box, I believe he's called Bill Mason! Lido in the middle, the rider's lost most of his lasso, so I think the kindest thing to do, will be to pare-away the remnants, so he can concentrate on fighting the bucking bronco! An early kit figure, on the right, is the third American here!

 

Three from Eastern Europe, with two of the Drevopodnik figures from the former Czechoslovakia; a railway platform guard and a medic, while I think the third is what we call a fake, a deliberate attempt to deceive - I stand to be corrected, and he's marked Elastolin Germany.

 

But the material is all wrong, and I think this is an East German fake of something which, by then, was the other side of the wire? It looks to be a pumice type composition, not the correct wood-chip and linseed? If I'd been doing it, I would have stained the base with coffee before I painted the green on!

 

 

Obviously removed from a very big, probably mostly tin-plate jeep, this guy is a 'dolly' rubber, probably PVC, with a mostly-polystyrene gun, which had a glowing-tip at some point I suspect, there's the remains of wiring up the barrel (so also battery operated/supplied)?

 

And there's what appears to be the remains of a mechanism for traversing, probably as the jeep went along? The figure's roughly in the four-inch bracket, and his toes are pined-trough the plinth and the pins have then been heat-sealed.

A Starlux diver, bought to compare with the smaller ones, the Dinky one and the unpainted (Solido?) ones, he's the full 54mm, while I don't know the maker of the colonial soldier, but he's another French figure I think?

A Charbens press-ganger, LB (for Lik Be of course) Indian girl and one of Cherilea's Elizabethan types, an eclectic trio, but all nice enough samples, clean and with good paint!

 

Another trio of the Vilco copies of old Cofalu aluminium figures, except these are in a rather nice marbled red, hard polystyrene, so may be by someone else, I thought maybe Toumoulage, but without any evidence! I have a feeling, though, that I did get an ID for them in silver & bronze hard plastic at some point?

 

Whatever the truth, I have a growing sample of these now, in hard and soft plastic, painted and bare, and think they are among my favourite French figures, although only the four poses (the standing firer is missing here), so far?

 

A couple of Spanish bullfighters to finish, Reamsa I think, the one on the left is very brittle, and has been repaired and repainted at least twice, and is to be considered only a pose-sample, until a better one appears, and there may already be one in the stash?

T is for Toro, Toro, Torres!

We first looked at these 15 years ago, here at Small Scale World, and while I've reused the main image in this post (brightened and cropped slightly for a better user experience!), it's still worth a link for the oddments, in the lower image of that older post, before we get into the subsequent developments.

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2009/03/t-is-for-torres.html

 

And by developments, I mean that in addition to the ones we looked at earlier today, in the show-plunder post (below this post), which although similar in execution, probably have no real, direct connection with the Torres ones at all; I have also obtained the second series, a colour variation, and a few other bits which deserve a second look!

 

So, first to compare with the ones we saw in the post below, they are similar, but only for being the same sized models of the same thing; a male, fighting bull. Just as the British art world is known for its renditions and sculptures of horses, I would imagine Spanish artists know their 'bullflesh'.

 

I don't think it's the same sculptor, nor the same manufacturing source, and with comparisons to the older Torres (lower image), and newer one (upper image), both as close, pose-wise as I could get it, the touristy ones are rougher sculpting.

 

They are moulded in black or white plastic with horns in the same white for both animal types, the white ones painted with black splodge-patches, black examples overpainted with white, and the horns differ from the Torres set in being two identical-parts glued into small holes in the sides of the head, rather than Torres' one-part unit, slipped through a tube in the skull, and you can see from the size of the sample in the background, I'm pretty sure there's only the three poses, two with sash-collars, painted red or red.black.

The older shot, cleaned-up, there are four poses here, and I may have had a few more come in, but not to be seen here right now, and it's become clear that they weren't always on all the wines from Torres, nor where they always on any given brand or vintage, but have been used as promotional freebies/collectables, just like ice-cream, bubble-gum or cereal premiums, from time to time.

This has also been found, and would likely have been something given away by salesmen, or included in a whole box/crate/order, or something like that, rather than an item you could buy seperately, It's interesting for a second reason as it's 'TORRES' moniker has been picked-out/highlighted in white paint, maybe a whole tranche of them was on some bottles too? If so, I would imagine an earlier iteration?

But, even as I was posting them last time I'd found a newer set of sculpts, only one or two, on evilBay, so I've been quietly waiting for this post to build for a while! These are smoother, and have a slightly Art Deco look about them, with some quite stylised sculpting, particularly on some of the legs/hooves.

 

Note also, the first one on the far left, is a comedic sculpt, with his arms folded behind his head, and one leg crossed over the other, as if he's sunbathing or waiting for the bullfighter to get a grip of himself!

 

If you look at the upper middle pair you will immediately notice that while one has the TORRES mark, most of these are actually marked ST which is for Sangre De Toro, or Bulls Blood, which I understand is a 'first pressing' or new season wine, like France's Beaujolais?

All eight known sculpts of the newer ones, removed from all packaging and tags/tabs, the horns are the same as the older ones, a single piece which is slipped-through the hole running across the skull, and you can swivel them slightly to further vary a heard of these, although I'm not sure if you can keep fighting bulls together? Their 'wedding tackle' isn't obvious though, so maybe you could use them as a herd of long-horn chonkers, on a model railroad!

A few lose ends, I'm pretty sure I saw a blue version of the 'art deco' ones when I was looking 15-years ago, but might have imagined it, and I haven't found a gold one on the newer sculpts yet, but this red or burgundy one has turned-up, probably a Bulls Blood promotion, although not with the ST mark?

 

The tabs on the ST versions have what we used to call bogie-tape on the back, the same stuff they attach free-samples to magazines with, and, while there is no sign of the ribbons found with older versions, the tab for them is still at the base of the 'plant label'!

Who would have guessed you could get so much info' on one small set of freebies, but the Casa (House) Miguel Torres Carbó (established 1870) have been issuing these on-and-off for many years, certainly since before the 1960's, and with periods of hiatus between issues, changes were bound to creep in, leaving them as an interesting side-pursuit!

A nominal listing is;

 

1960's? [string]

- Celluloid (provisional)

 

Approximately1970-90's [ribbon]

- 1st version polyethylene (painted 'Torres', round tab, also/only key rings?)

- 1st version polyethylene (unpainted, round tab)

- 1st version polyethylene (gold, round tab)

- 1st version polyethylene (angular tab)

 

 2000's to recent time [plant label]

- 2nd version polyethylene 'Torres'

- 2nd version polyethylene 'Torres' (burgundy)

- 2nd version polyethylene 'ST'

- 2nd version polyethylene '?' (blue, provisional) 

Obviously all those above without tab, tags or tings have had them removed to imporve the lines of the animals as stand-along figurines.

L is for Late Show Report - Civil and Sports

Often the section which throws up the more interesting figures, due to the vast numbers of accessory figures from other toys, die-cast vehicles, beach-stuff, tourist items and the like, and the last show was no exception with several interesting new pieces.

 

These, for instance, were totally new to me, presumably Spanish, and around the size of the Torres Maltas stuff, but the two riders are cruder and don't have swivel arms, likewise the bulls are similar to the Miguel Torres bottle-top mascots. But I don't think there's a connection. However, they do make you realise that there';s probably far more bullfighting stuff out there than the half-dozen or so 54/60mm makers commonly known to collectors?

Football; another genre with many examples, here we have premiums (2 cream/white), a Hong Kong cake-decoration (painted), board-game pieces from Waddington's (5, Soccer Boss) and Tomy (2) one as supplied, the other a 'paint your own team/spare, also supplied with the game (Electronic Super Cup Football), in a hidden drawer, and a couple of broken Airfix, front left.

'Allo 'Allo! It's thee leau! From the left; HIT/Teamsters, Timpo policewoman, Solido traffic cop and a currently unknown (I'll spot his set on Amazon or eBay at some point!) cop in a US style, who has the distinction of being a still warm piracy of the quite recent Teamsters accessory, or - at least - a very similar sculpt!

Other sportsmen include a snowboarder who's probbaly a cake decoration, a Marx and another premium, a teeny-tiny horse racer probably from mini-crackers and a baseball player from the 'States.

 

Dancers; they always look the same, donor wise, but that's just because there's only a few 'classic' or standard poses, which suit cakes, music boxes, make-up stations, charms and all the other places you find these!

 

The large charm/key-ring here is smooth-flat on the reverse, the purple is a new colour of the Euro-premiums/US comic Ad' set, and the fallen one may be missing a base or cake-spike, but seems to be a new size/pose, she's hard 'styrene, like the charm, purple is polyethylene.

Taylor and/or Barratt, most of the road crossing patrol set and a couple from other sets/toy vehicles, I think I have most in the collection, so it's a case of grabbing them to compare because they were cheap, or finding them in the donation bags when I got home, as they are all sub-scale, and tend to be sent my way sometimes, by the generous.

Bully (ex-Heimo) Bullyland farmers, a bit stumpy and juvenile, but a nice addition to tthe stash, and not a series I was familiar with, I now know there were animals too, and will have to check my piles for one or two!

Sort of civilian! Cheilea farmer, new production and Matchbox hunters, a Blue Box (or Redbox?), or, more likely sub-piracy zookeeper, taken from Britains and a French or Spanish (?) African native, possibly Clairet? He's missing a weapon, so a bit of a box-ticker for now!

Mixed bits, the two larger ones are from the closedown of the Elastolin factory a while ago now, and were probably supplied to someone else, Tipp & Co (Tippco/TCO), Bub, or a smaller maker? The smaller one has a metal locating-tab buried in the composition.

 

Not sure on the ringmaster, he might be quite new, or older (French?) but he's new to me/the collection, while we have a Corgi lab-tech, Leddo wagoneer, early stretcher-case (Matchbox or Dinky?), a Poplar (?) or HK-copy driver, and one of those tiny copies of the Britains cyclists, which come in smaller rack-toy bags and Christmas crackers.

Poor shot on the divers I'm afraid, but we've seen the bath toys before in quite full detail, with a fair bit of help from Brian Berke, and will return to them again, while the Triang boardgame James Bond diver is damaged, as - like yesterday's Wild West - they often are!

A comparison on the difference between the closest poses of new (behind) and Miguel Torres) bulls, the next post will go further on these. Many thanks again to Adrian Little, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Chris Smith, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul Stadinger, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, for contributions to this year's plunder-pile.

S is for Seeing Through, Seeing Double!

Found this on eBay a few minutes ago, postage is a bit rich for UK buyers, but North American/Canadian readers may fancy a punt!

 

Bull & Bull Fighter

I've nicked the image because I've produced a link-back, it's the right thing to do when the item is still live! I think it's a loose copy of one of the Jecsan poses?

 

They've obviously run out of stuff to say about space, so they want to park their tanks on my lawn, but learning 90% of what I've posted here will take them longer than they have left, so five-editors or not, they're on a hiding to nothing? More Gerry Anderson when I get in form work, tonight, I think? What do you think, readers!

M is for Magnetic Miniatures

I can't remember if we've had this on the blog or not, but I shot it (again?) in passing the other day, so here it is, clearly a magnetic novelty like the coffin skeletons, naked bath/bed ladies, kissing couples or sarcophagus Pharaoh, there's only one problem . . . it doesn't work!

The trope is either that the bullfighter is supposed to chase the bull around, or drag him around, depending on the polarity of the magnets, but actually they do nothing and I know why; both magnets have lost their magnetism!

There are two versions, unmarked on the left of each pair and marked Hong Kong on figure and cloth (right-hand), but these two - who both have their magnets clearly visible - don’t affect each other nor a needle I tried them on.

The magnetic material is that rubberised sheet used for travel-chess and draughts sets back in the 1970's and some early fridge magnets, which you may have discovered are also starting to fall off and not go back on!

As a result of this loss of magic-power, and because the bull is two firmly-glued halves, I can't even say with certainty if there is a magnet in it, whether it's toward the front or to the rear or - therefore - even if it's the correct animal! It came with the marked man, and is equally well-marked so I'm confident enough in myself, but without packaging (empirical evidence!) you'll have to judge your own call from the pathetically non-magnetic evidence!

Might I be able to 're-charge' it/them with a really big magnet? Airfix Guardsman scaler

06th June 2020 - they are credited to a Chemtoy in the states, but were probably sold by many outfits as a bought-in novelty?