A is for A Few More Follow-ups

Some things which have come out of recent acquisitions and/or donations or which have been covered here before one way or another, and all PVC, except the resin cats;

 

You may remember when we looked at fishermen a while ago, Chris sent a picture of his complete key-ring guy, equally converted to a stand-alone piece as my - suddenly incomplete - chap, well, I had another damaged one come in (far left), which I kept quiet about! And then a whole one . . . Phew!

Also on key-rings passim, this would appear to be the commonest figural key-ring out there, and I have had these three come in recently, one of which has been fully converted to standing piper, with the removal of his ring-loop and the addition of a base. He also seems to be an earlier one, with better paint?

Those poor cats are still for sale with their holes in their noses, a year after I first saw them in The Range, to be fair I think they are now greatly reduced, but FFS people! No one is going to buy damaged cats, no matter how cheap they are, put them out of their misery.

 

I had a version of the dragon Jon Attwood sent us, with the wings in a totally different pose, and hot-water (or transit) doesn't seem to be the explanation (the wing-root is too thick), so they must have either changed the mould for technical reasons, or had two different mould-tools?

I have, once or twice over the 15 years of the blog, mentioned the over-moulded badges of post-war Italy, and here are three versions of the paramilitary mechanised brigade of the Carabinieri, you can see how the three colours of PVC have been 'wealded' to the cloth underneath. These were obtained, as surplus, in about 1978?

Heller is for Forma-plast and probably not Xiloplasto...

. . . but they might still, also be Chromoplast, but not now actually Heller! And they may only be Forma-plast in late, unpainted, rack-toy style carded bags? This is pulling together everything from two or three (?) previous posts going back to the early days of the Blog, along with my efforts in Google Translate and leaves just as many questions hanging as previous stabs at it, but also . . . maybe . . . a little more clarity?

The box again but collaged more sensibly than last time! This was why I had pencilled them in as Heller (and why Heller will remain in the tag list!), but translating the text below the giant 'a' gives us;

Auguri di mondadori, Per dipingere I soldatini si consigliano le vernici Heller

(actual text)

Mondadori wishes, To paint Toy soldiers are recommended Heller paints

(direct translation)

Mandatory advice

For painting the figures we recommend Heller paints

(full translation?)

So it seesm Heller were only mentioned in passing, although the large logo being included would suggest money crossed palms somewhere?

Also we have the large a-logo, as none of the brands (Forma-plast, Heller, Landi-Cromoplasto, ROplast Partenopea, Xiloplasto) previously linked with this set start with an 'A', that only serves to confuse? Is it a logo; does anyone know the branding?

The contents of the box; As unpainted figures, they are not rare, appearing as these boxed sets (I've seen or know-of four or five over the years), as rack-toys on runner and as rack-toys loose in sets and singly-packed with the artwork of the specific figure on the card. They are a dense 'Hong Kong' style polyethylene or -propylene and depict Italian Carabinieri through the ages.

From left to right the figures are

Carabinieri

012 - Carabinieri in Cavalry Uniform, 1814
013 - Officer in Full Dress, 1833
014 - Carabinieri in Cavalry Uniform of 1838
015 - Marshall of Carabinieri, Foot, 1876
016 - Carabinieri Officer in Dress-down Uniform, 1927
017 - Carabinieri Officer in Full Dress Uniform, 1938
018 - Carabinieri of the Viceroy's Guard, Occidental Africa, 1939
019 - Carabinieri Officer (Colonial Administration), Africa 1939
020 - Officer in Cavalry Full Dress Uniform, 1940
021 - Carabinieri Staff Officer, Foot Guards Dress Uniform, 1940

I despair for the state of the pink monkeys!

Carabinieri [Carabineers] are (or were) heavily-armed cavalry of the Napoleonic (and other) periods, but I think I'm right in saying they survive in modern-day Italy as a Gendarmerie-equivalent national or federal police, or paramilitary police-force.

Carabiners or Karabiners are climbing aids!

The painting sheet included in the box; also reproduced on the backs of the card hangers of the rack toys, or singly with the individually-bagged figures. A correspondent in a previous post suggested there was never a painted issue, but I disagree, as the figures depicted here in the photographs are as-good-as if not identical to . . .

. . . these figures, and both others I've seen elsewhere and others further down the page! The painting is also too constant, too practiced, yet too formulaic to be an amateur's work, whether a good painter or bad! These are commercially painted by the same workshop/team who painted the figures for the card, the only difference is the lack of 'coverage' of the dark blue paint.

Also; there's the obvious link between these and the sculptor of the Atlantic Greeks (probably also the Egyptians) and late sets in the WWII and Wild West lines, which is why I raised the ROplast connection, as they cleared old/surplus Atlantic at some point.

I happened to number the small scale versions of the next lot first, so I'll lead with them and then we'll look at the larger ones. Again I originally though these (or some of them) might be French (St Cyr, Presidential Guard or plain Cuirassiers), hence the keenness to link them with the logo'd Heller!

At least I got the cavalry type right -

Cuirassiers

037 - Cuirassier in Service Dress, 1910
038 - Cuirassier in Campaign Dress, 1910
039 - Cuirassier Officer, Ceremonial Parade Uniform, 1910
040 - Cuirassier Brigadier, Ceremonial Parade Uniform, 1910
041 - Cuirassier Trumpeter, Ceremonial Parade Uniform, 1910

The smaller yellow ones are from the Carabinieri set.

This quintet are clearly larger than the Carabinieri, and while the tallest of one and the shortest of the other are close, they are - as sets - two stand-alone groups; the masters may all have been to a similar size, but the pantograph or human pattern-maker/s used to produce the commercial moulds set them to different scales!

Another thing I missed last time - the fact that this whole set has different coloured bases! And the first of the last two (second from the right) could be home-painted.

Another set, they were actually five lots of feeble bay about 15 years ago, but I've collaged them a little better than last time. These may well be home painted with the extra gold on the helmets and some uniform differences from the others we've seen.

While the two sets are interchangeable for the purpose of display, if lined up by set they are different sizes, and above was my original picture with approximations, below it a more fastidious measuring of those which are closer together.

The green figure - looking more Cané or Atlantic-like - is still apparently a rarity, I have yet to see another, despite the commonness of both the harder grey ones and painted examples, he is manufactured in a softer 'Airfix' polyethylene

How they come-in, in the rack-toy bags; still on the runner and arranged according to the artwork on the cards, the smaller ones likewise but with a different runner, they (runners) tend to be machined, quite brutally, straight into the tool. Some bagged sets of the larger scale have loose figures.

Various other figures were announced and this (above image) translates (less than fully-accurately; any help appreciated) thus;

Collection of Italian Uniforms

Series 1) Carabinieri - 10 poses/pieces

Series 2) Cuirassiers - 5 poses/pieces; doubled

One Set

Series 3) [10 poses]

·         Grenadiers - 3 poses/pieces

·         Bersaglieri -  4 poses/pieces

·         Alpine Troops 'Alpini' - 3 poses/pieces

One Set

Series 4) [10 poses]

·         Carristi - 2 poses/pieces (Carlists?)

·         Paratroops - 2 poses/pieces

·         Lagunari - 2 poses/pieces (divers, spacemen?)

·         First series of cavalry - Academy - 4 poses/pieces (?)

One Set

Series 5) [10 poses]

·         Second series of cavalry -  Lancers - 5 poses/pieces

·         Third series of cavalry -  Heavy Cavalry - 5 poses/pieces

One Set

Series 6) [10 poses]

·         Officers of the State Maggiore - 5 poses/pieces (Magistrati - magistrates?)

·         Officers of Artillery - 5 poses/pieces

The artwork on the box contains most of the figures from the two sets listed here (also in the common paint scheme, but with all green bases), and the odd Bersaglieri appear on feebleBay from time to time, but it seems, or looks like the rest were never issued? But they may well have been mastered?

Comparison with a lone Lintek they happen to share a tub with, like an idiot I put them away without adding the Lintek set which came-in a while ago . . . ho-hum, next time!

When I looked at them the second time here at Small Scale World, and after a series of possibly less than accurate comments (he went off to run a hideously plagiarist site using text verbatim from Wikipedia or other historical websites/travel sites, using everyone else's images, while pretending to be a woman!), we ended up with this as a provisional listing;

25mm - Hong Kong (?) - ethylene (Yellow and ...) [No. of poses unknown]
30mm - Formaplast (?) - ethylene (White, Green, Orange) [3 poses (?)]
60mm - Cromoplasto - harder styrene/ethylene alloy (factory painted)
60mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?)- unpainted (various colours - 50's style!) [50 Poses]
60mm - Heller - grey nylon type plastic [14/20 poses (?)]

This can now be rewritten as follows

Carabinieri [10 poses]

30mm - Forma-plast - ethylene (red, yellow, orange, blue, green, white - bagged)

60mm - Forma-plast - harder polymer (grey - bagged)

60mm - a / Heller tie-in - harder polymer (grey - Boxed)

60mm - Cromoplasto - harder polymer (factory painted - packaging unknown)

Cuirassiers [5 poses]

35mm - Forma-plast - ethylene (red, yellow, orange, blue, green, white - bagged)

35mm - Forma-plast - harder polymer (orange, green, white - bagged)

65mm - Forma-plast - harder polymer (grey - bagged)

65mm - Cromoplasto - harder polymer (factory painted - packaging unknown)

65mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?) - ethylene (pale blue, mint green - packaging unknown)

Bersaglieri [4 poses (with 3 each Alpini and Grenadiers?)]

55/60mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?) - ethylene (pale blue - packaging unknown)

And (in my inquisitive mind at least) ROplast are still hovering in the background somewhere possibly with Cané, along with between 35 to 41 additional poses? Forma-plast will do for now!

The only other text on the box not yet translated is the colorami e gioca which means 'Paint & Play'.

C is for Carabinieri

Or...how all good things come to an end!

I first became aware of Micro Machines in 1993, when I found them in Betties in New Oxford Street, I thought they were silly, however the Star Wars figure sets caught my eye and I started collecting them. But the 'normal' sets left me cold, little squashed out-of-scale-with-each-other cars and trucks and stuff, just silly! And a half-mile long Star Destroyer having less mass than a twin-pod Bespin taxi? Silly.

Clearly though; the guy who came up with the idea understood the 90's kid, as they took off and became very popular and not just the Star Wars and military sets, the really silly stuff did as well! Poor old Galoob can't have had the funds to keep up with demand, so deals were done with the sharks, Kenner started to muscle-in and eventually the little guy got eaten by his partner, who then got swallowed by Hasbro.

Hasbro didn't seem to understand the concept or the customer base (or maybe the customers had changed?), and some pretty risible tie-ins resulted with Action Man being a notably forgettable one. Increasingly desperate to make the line work again led Hasbro to produce these...

Exclusive to Italy (well, who else would buy them?) where Hasbro was also getting into chocolate premiums by putting figures from their UK Subbuteo purchase into Kinder-style eggs. They must have made vast quantities of them though, as a warehouse full was issued in the UK last year as clearance through independent discount stores.

The bulk of the range were simply repaints of old/existing moulds - I bet half these vehicles have never been seen in Carabinieri livery, nor indeed been seen in Europe in any guise...not-yellow school-bus anyone?!! However, someone obviously realised something would have to make Italian kids want to buy them, so a few motorcycles were painted-up (always a good seller) and at least one new casting was knocked-up.

A mounted Carabinieri with cloak. The two officers on foot are also old sculpts, but again figures definitely add to the play value of a set like these. there were in fact about 7 sets, but I've already opened the ones with figures in!

A perfect size for HO railways as seen by the comparison with a Preiser ACW Union officer, it's a pity they didn't make the vehicles to match?

I have lots of the motorcycles from the 'silly' range, and we looked at the military one way back at the start of the range, we will look at them all one day (they're currently in storage) but my collection tells me these are also re-paints. And would the Carabinieri use a Harley-D Elecra-Glide in the country that makes Ducati? I don't think so!

That was pretty much it for the Micro Machines, there was - at about the same time - a re-issue of some Action Fleet Star Wars stuff - the AT-AT in a stupid snow-splashed paint job was one - but somehow Hasbro had killed a golden goose!

H is for Heller (and others)

Covered some smaller versions of these a while ago, Here and dug out the original photo I took a couple of years ago.

Picture shows painted versions (could the painted ones be Cromoplasto as in 'painted plastic'?) in 60mm hard plastic, an unpainted original in green (Xiloplasto/Landi ?) soft ethylene and a complete Heller Paint-your-own set in a dense nylon'ish plastic. Formaplast has also been mentioned in relation to these. Thanks also to Ron Chiasson.

Although Heller are (were!) French and a couple of the figures look like Saint-Cyr cadets, the rest do have an Italian feel to them, anyone got any ideas? I'm pretty sure they are all modern (ish) ceremonial figures rather than Napoleonic era officers but what do I know!! Indeed - more info on these would be gratefully received and posted here with acknowledgements.

For instance there are 14 poses here, last time I hinted at a possible 20. Anybody know the true total?
So - Following a protracted session of comments, and what came to light last time, we have a potential list of manufacturers-to-figures as follows;
25mm - Hong Kong (?) - ethylene (Yellow and ...) [No. of poses unknown]
30mm - Formaplast (?) - ethylene (White, Green, Orange) [3 poses (?)] *
60mm - Cromoplasto - harder styrene/ethylene alloy (factory painted)
60mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?)- unpainted (various colours - 50's style!) [50 Poses] **
60mm - Heller - grey nylon type plastic [14/20 poses (?)]
* Previous article Unknown Military
** Green one above

while R.O.Plast Partenopea had nothing to do with them!

Added 01:09:2010

The left hand one is a 15th pose, and some are in 'alternate' paint schemes, they seem to be factory painted again?

Added 02:09:2011

The long lost Heller box which started this post has finally turned-up, so a couple more pictures to add to the mix.

Both sides of the Heller painting guide sheet included in the box, and being the 10 unpainted figures above.

The covers of the box, again hinting at only one or two more poses (the photographs) while listing around 50, (printed list) some of which sound like Atlantic or Co-Ma figures ...'paratroops'... which would bring R.O. Plast back in the frame!