B is for Bearskins, Busbies and Bright, Shiny Helmets!

It's the ceremonials! And the emphasis being very much on the British Guards, but there are others, and among them a couple of really interesting figures, and one diminutive chap who is jostling for best of show!

 

Marx recycling-fodder, better than cannon-fodder, they may still become something useful! But shown for completeness, I used to just show the highlights of donations or show plunder, but these days I've got into the habit of shooting everything, warts an' all! Two Household cavalry, one Mexican and a West Point Cadet, I think, but they've all been in the wars!

 

Likewise, these are all a bit tatty, but I thought the Christmas cracker guard would make a useful officer (absent from the set which is otherwise all musicians), with the simple addition of a pin-sword, after I remove the remains of his colour-pole. The resin home-production attempt (Eyes Right musician?) is an 'only sample', so stays, but who thought gloss-white was a good undercoat?

 

However, front, middle is . . . . 

 

. . . . bloody brilliant! He's obviously a charm-bracelet charm, and 'gold chrome' on base-metal, so a budget piece from Ratner's, F Hinds or H Samuel, but still? He's not the smallest figure in the collection, that record is still held by some of the spacey figures in that little tub from Brian Berke a couple of years ago, but he's the smallest guardsman at about 8mm, or is the one in the Britains' B smaller? Future post, we'll have to check, with our own eyes!

 

And I know I'm writing this with the Polish Hussars and submarine set already blogged, and the Rocco and other treats still to come, but arguably best from show, just because he’s so easy to miss, or to lose, if you have found him, or to forget if you've put him to one side! And he was in the big-bag of HK small-scale stuff from Trevor R.

 

More of the cake-decoration jobbies, I've got so many now, I'm going to have to do something with them, and it may involve making some other instruments from brass-wire, and placing them on a foam-board parade-ground, perhaps with a few road-markings across one corner, if you can picture that!

 

Wot! Metal? At a plastics convention - how very dare they???? I don't know if there's a word for these, other than penny-toys, which several probably were? They are too thick to be semi-flat (or demi-ronde), yet not so fully-round as to not have some sort of flatness, in the title stakes? Possibly Crescent on the far right, otherwise unknown? And they are all solids, possibly some of them are actually a die-cast alloy too?

 

I have a feeling I got one or two of these a couple of PW shows ago, but someone beat me to the majority of the poses, so nice to pick-up a few more. Obviously Hong Kong production, and probably after the Charbens set (actually, they're the Crescent/Kellogg's poses, aren't they, just with angled bases like the Charbens! Have we had this conversation before?), but size-reduced, to a 45/50mm.

 

Germany's finest . . . probably, certainly in the style of other Erzgebirge, but with those trousers, aimed at the Danish tourist market rather than ours? Also, could be a [part] set of mini-skittles, although more likely to be playability makeweights, with a smaller wooden fort?

 

More metal! Jonh Hill & Co's coronation figures, they keep coming in, often with a few Skybirds. And I'll eventually have enough for the whole parade, without having to shell out a small fortune for a boxed set at Wallis & Wallis, or somewhere similar!

 

Four Johnny-foreigners and a Brit' bloke! Starlux marine/sailor is grist to the mill, I have a decent sample of the 25mm's, and a few of these 54mm's, so it's box-ticking the sample, if you know what I mean?

 

The Guardsman, is, I believe, one of the still unknown question-marks in British figure collecting, and while I have one or two, this is the first one with grey bearskin and trousers? Only a thought, but could they be Rocco? They turn-up as rarely as the Karki Infantry, or little mounted figures, are the same size as the combat chaps, and are often as brittle, as most other Rocco?

 

The next figure (centre) is probably Polish, depicting a Russian? But he's about four times lighter than he should be, at that size, if moulded from Nylon-66, the preferred material of choice in that part of the former Soviet Bloc?

 

I think he's not the first I've found, the other is something completely different, (medieval or Wild West), so it would seem at least one of the Polish makers found a way to foam their plastic into something lightweight, yet solid . . . he weighs like he's Papier Mâché.

 

Two French Colonial types to finish, I could spend an hour or two looking them up, but there's a lot of this stuff, building-up, so I'll do proper posts another day! Thanks again to Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin.

BMSS is for More Plunder, 1 of 2

And so to Reading, what was only about five weeks ago, but already seems like ages ago, where I managed to fill my boots with bits and bobs, despite there only really being three vinatge sellers present, Adrian, Paul and Steve, and it's to Mr Vickers' overburdened table we go to, first . . .

 

. . . as he gave me this! It's a bit of Hong Kong tat (Tim-Mee copies?), probably from no earlier than the 1980's, and to Steve, rather bringing down the quality of his whole table, more used - as it is - to a better class of commodity all together, but to me; another brick in the knowledge wall! Cheers Steve!

 

And the sort of thing I used to give to charity shops regularly when I was a small-scale only collector, and they'd come-in with mixed a lot. Indeed, more modern stuff like this, 20-odd years ago might have gone straight in the brand-new, shiny, Rushmoor Borough Council recycling bin! The horror, the horror!

 

30 and 40mm policemen from Starlux with a tin-plate sentry-box, of generic nature, only because I don't know the maker, I imagine, either a German or Austrian producer, and probably an accessory in a set of painted flats, or maybe lead solids around 30-50mm? But - equally - it could have been an accessory with a wooden fort set?

 

Speaking of sentries, these are Greek, Athena, and real box-tickers, I may already have a few, but there do seem to be a number of variations in uniform, and red or blue versions of most, so I grabbed one-each while they were going cheap. The cymbalist is to replace a damaged one, which I shot to hide the damage, last time we looked at them.

Likewise, the mounted, I need a better horse for the trumpeter, or a base at least, to balance him on, but he's lost a couple of the studs, so it would only, ever, be balancing! And all these, rather like their UK equivalent (the Hong Kong Herald guards), will benefit from the hot water treatment at some point!

 

A trio of Pilots, the chap on the right seems to be a modern, probably home-painted figure, in the middle is a bisque chap, who may be a World War sweetheart keepsake thing, or maybe a cake decoration, it's certainly in the style of bisque cake-decorations, and there would have been many marriages, as men went off to war, the bride would have been in the inventory already?

 

The big guy on the left is more of a mystery, as he's pretty huge, and not really 'toy soldier' compatible, so, maybe a character piece, Charles Lindburgh wears similar kit in some of his photographs? Jumper isn't lumpy enough for Amelia Earhart, and Cody was earlier, but there must have been other popular aviators back in the day?

 

A couple of home-made sci-fi figures in around 35mm, they seem to have been modelled in Plasticine, with brass and brass-wire detailing, on brass-wire armatures, do you know who made them and why? Was this your work? They seem to be exploratory rather than belligerent?

 

A bit of fantasy, I've mentioned the Crossbows & Catapults stuff a couple of times recently, and their main post is well overdue, but probably still a few years away, there's plenty on t'ut Internet for those who need it, and a few of the 1980's big-box fantasy figures, which are still waiting for their big sort-out!

 

A nice Crescent cowboy I couldn't remember if I have or not, and a couple clowns from Charbens, which are probably both duplicates now, like Pirates, I've been concentrating on a subsection of circus stuff, so there's quite a bit of it somewhere!

 

Some gash (repainted) metal from Adrian's rummage trays, I think he said one of them (chap on the far left?) is an arm swap and wasn't actually issued by Britains in that 'at the trail' configuration? And very much box-ticking, my knowledge of this stuff is minimal. I split 18 images into two posts, to help with Tagging, so more later!

D is for Donation - Chris - Historicals and Ceremonials

A bit late with part two today, as it's tomorrow already, but I crashed-out after work. At the grand old age of 62, doing 80-odd miles, stuck behind hesitant fuckwits in KIA's whilst also doing deliveries, rather takes it out of you, and I keep nodding-off after work, waiting for the weather forecast, which I then only half-hear! Anyway, they can stay up for a bit, with maybe just a Capsule toy post later today, and another donation-pair tomorrow proper - Thursday? Chris's older era and ceremonial toy soldiers and model figures, sent to me, to share with you;

 

Medievals defend against a Roman attack! The de rigueur shot of post-Giant and Giant knock-offs, I've been quite fortunate, in accruing these over the years, especially as a small-scale only collector for years, and it's the only way to obtain enough of them to start drawing conclusions, sorting their horses from the many Wild West sets, working out which lot go with which fort, & etc., so the more, the merrier, there's often a Quaker in the mix, and red horse is he, this time!

 

As if the cowboy pencil sharpeners weren't enough of a find, these, also 'Germany', are lovely things, a bit outside the toy soldier sphere, but absolutely within the whole lucky-bag, Christmas cracker, dime-store novelty oeuvre.

 

I'm not sure the two 'stakes' go with them, and I haven't worked out how the triggers work, they don't seem to hold the band, and may need reversing or inverting, but very interesting things! The channel is match-wood dimensions, so careful with those eyes, kids!

 

A few days later, after an email tutorial from Chris - The notch at the thin end of the bar collects the rubber band (red is original, manila is a replacement), then one of the flat edges forward of the notch, locks behind the trigger, pushing the trigger down, when you touch the trigger, it pushes the bar 'arrow' back up, and the - tensioned - rubber-band does the rest! 'Health & Safety' disc on the business end suggests mid-1970's onwards?

 

And eclectic bunch here! The Piper is a modernish tourist keepsake, as is the Lifeguard, who, almost matching the Horse Guard I got at November's Sandown Park show, is another of the - previously seen here - G·G ones, to join the Guardsman we've seen in the past.

 

I love the Russian (?) OBE standard-bearer conversion, from a Herald Guardsman, and the little chap is a rubber key-ring, but can anyone ID the Mountie, I assume he's a Canadian Tourist thing, from the size, and casual pose, he's hard 'styrene plastic, with a quite thin base for his size/scale? Or, is he an accessory-figure from a 1:24/1:25th model vehicle kit?

 

Two of the many figures accompanying various versions of Noah's Arks, not Blue Box, not Holly, and not New Maries, nor the Arco one (which was also another brand's - RAE), who's Noah was fatter than the pink one in the middle, and moving on to him, although similar, and having one of the three-digit codes, I suspect he isn't Holly or LB (Lik Be) 'funny animal' stuff, either! So the search goes on for both origins!

 

Ah, not sure if these were Chris or Peter, I suspect Chris, but I found them down the back of the bed a few days after I had finished sorting both Peter's third tranche, and Chris's latest parcel! One of the newer discoveries on the right, he's missing the 'styrene icing-pick, one of my favourites in blue, from Christmas crackers, and a 1990's Lucky Bag jobbie, with a shit-ton of flash!

 

And it's the first time the two on the right have been compared side-by-side, they go well together, and are marching off the same foot, a big band could be possible! Equally, those cake-spiked red plastic ones we've seen here a couple of times, are lacking a bass-drummer, I wonder if they are the same size . . . but they are standing at attention? 25-30mm between the three of them, all polyethylene.

 

Two MPC original 35mm's on the floor, and a victorious Hong Kong copy, in what I think is a new colour, to me at least. I've said before I thought I'd blogged these years ago, but it seems I just imagined an article in my head, while handling them, back in Berkshire, and didn't even shoot them, so that article has yet to come, but will be worth the wait, as there's packaging for both types, but I'm pretty sure my HK sample only adds black as a third colour to the MPC red and silver? So blue is all new!

 

This is fascinating, Chris said he'd seen them described as wood (it's obviously plastic), and by Van Brode, I couldn't find anything online, until I added 'wooden' to the search terms, and then found chapter and verse on them. They were made for the Van Brode Milling Co., by an unknown company in West Germany, a sticker on the base stated, for the cereal offer 'Sculptured Treasures of History's Immortals', which was a mail away, one bust (of twelve) per request, for which 50 cents and 2 Crisp Rice wrappers had to be sent first, presumably if you had multiple cents and wrappers, you could 'request' more, at one time?

 

The source (Worthpoint! So ex-evilBay), stuck with the carved wood fallacy, but they are antiqued plastic, possibly polystyrene, although the sample sent by Chris is now cracking in a very convincing old-wood drying out fashion! The cracks are not crumbly, and there is no dust, nor stickiness, so a new form of plastic death? Too large a single-shot or density of moulding? But, given all the Cleveland, Kellogg's and Total busts around the same time, a lovely addition to the collection.

 

As is this, presumably a US tourist thing, it's a slush-cast pewter/whitemetal bust, around the same size as the Van Brode Napoleon, around the 3½-4 inch mark, and over-painted in a silver, which may have been brighter once?

 

A capsule-toy ninja, a rather nice knight, in the style of Schleich-Papo-ELC-Wilco, and possibly from the latter's now defunct range, and one of those possibly, originally Fontanini or Manurba (?) gnome sculpts, but common in various forms, materials and sizes, and various formats, here as a key-ring hanger.

 

The knight's 'heraldry' reveals his origins in China, where they've given him a very ornate and oriental embroidered surcoat, which is not following the laws of heraldry, or the rules of the Collage of Arms! Unless someone was granted five wind-wraiths, on a field azure, matallique!

 

Two, probably factory-painted, Assyrian flats, almost certainly German, but without the catalogues in front of me, I couldn't begin to guess the maker! The horseman's lance is too far-bent to risk bending back, but they still make a nice pair with some age.

 

A nice sample of the separate head guardsman, we looked at their fort, a long time ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/t-is-for-tower-fortress-with-soldiers.html

 

I'm after a bigger sample of these, while the rest are buried in storage, as I'd like to do a photo-shoot of all the 'legal' drill poses, possible with these, the At Ease, can only go on the Easy legs, but the officer, Slope Arms and bugler can go on three different legs for instance, and there is half-a-post in the queue, on that subject, but involving the larger figures with oblong bases! So thanks again to Chris, for these and everything above . . . and below!

 

Pirates . . . come back in September!

L is for Loose Lots - Sandown - Military

Military and ceremonial now, with a few interesting items, one of which is annoying me, but maybe you know what it is, or where they are from, but let's look at the pièce de résistance first!

 

A pretty clean Kentoy stretcher team, I may already have one, but this has good paint, and being new to market is properly 'clean' if you know what I mean, and I think it's a darker brown blanket than my existing sample.

 

I think these may both be duplicates, but I love a bit of [affordable] composition, and we have an 'olin' gunner from Germany, possibly a minor make, or from the budget ranges of one of the big-two, the other, more likely the duplication; it looks familiar, in pumice or plaster, and maybe British or French?

 

This pair are the ones that are bugging me, I'm sure I've seen chapter & verse on them, possibly in one of the glossy mags', but I can't recall, and/or didn't take notes, but equally, it might be on the dongles as an internet download? Poured resin, with wire armatures in the trumpets, I have a feeling they are scenic background for a poured-metal or 'new metal' solid set, from someone like King & Country, Figarti or Frountline?

 

Again, I can't resist a bit of litho-printed tin, when it's affordable, and these were on Steve Vicker's table, I actually picked the six better ones, but he sent the two casualties over, a few minutes later, via a mutual friend who was passing, and, to be honest, the red-coat could replace one of the Germans, if only for a future photograph.

 

From the left we have - I assume - a khaki Brit, two Germans, with possibly an Italian between them, and a couple of Russo-Japanese war types? On the ground are both Brit's I think, and all late 19th/early 20th century, in depiction, beween the two wars, in execution? 

 

Odds - A Timpo horse, which may have started life pulling a wagon or gun, but which has been married to a mounted figure's base, and a Britains Herald Highland officer. All play-worn, but useful spares or 'grist -to-the-mill'!

 

Crescent, with two of the darker-red plastic, behind, and a sand-textured one in front.

 

Not the best (signs of repainting), but a useful comparison shot between two similar poses from Lone Star (black bases) and Britains Herald (green bases), At Ease (left), and Royal Salute (Present Arms), on the right.

 

Cherilea - Highland pipers.

 

I don't think these are repaints, I think this is how Lone Star issued them, with simple, all green kilts, I also think they were on the wants list? So, a useful addition to the massed ranks of the Highland samples.

 

Paints quite good, on these Harald Lifeguards, but sticky fingers have reduced them to 'dirty', so someone had full play-value out of them! Having recently seen Argentinian (?) ceremonials in similar uniforms, they may get a strip and repaint with paler (than the Horse Guards) blue jackets, or something equally exotic from one of the Blandford books?

 

Odds & sods! There's a Skybirds rangefinder (for which the operator has been waiting several decades! https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/s-is-for-skybirds.html), and pilot torso in the left foreground, and various useful 50 and 60-mil fellows from Cherilea, Crescent, Hilco and Britains.

M is for Master Figure

This is an odd one, it's 'believed to be', so not 100% accurate, which is not the best start, but it is a lovely figure, which deserves a horse, and painting, but if it is a Master Figure, it should really be left alone, however, I can't find it in any of the HM of GB catalogues, flyers or colour post-card type things I have in the archive, so . . . Can anyone confirm this as an HM of GB sculpt?

 

There are three parts, an ornate sword in sheath, a head & torso and legs/saddlery, and I think -from the jacket/frock coat - that he's from the Indian Raj period, but he could be a Janissary or Marmaluke? Although I don't think HM were noted for the latter periods, but they did cover the Egyptian campaigns, and a Jubilee procession?

 

The two halves assembled.

Believed to be sculpted by a Nigel Farnhill, for HM of GB, it's fashioned from a hard material, possibly the two-part epoxy, neutral grey, Milliput, with hints of a wire armature, in addition to the locating pin.

 

Was he an extension, or planned extension, to the On Foreign Service range, or something more Delhi Durbar related? If anyone can add anything to this less than informative post, that would be great, maybe the sculptor's right, but the figure ended-up in another brand's range?

E is for Eye Candy - Crescent Highlander Swoppets - Late Follow-up?

I have a folder simply marked 'George K', dated July 2020, which I suspect might be the follow-up images mentioned in the comments, last time we looked at these, back in 2018;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/11/s-is-for-swivel-not-swoppet.html

 

Or related to them in some way (there are two years between the events), in which case, this post is a follow-up which never happened, but it was a bloody odd year, and, with Mum and Girly-Girl both leaving this world, over Christmas, a rather shit one, in which I had other things on my mind, but many thanks to George K for sending them, and here's the officer who was missing last time.

 

This time the marching rifleman's the missing chap, Crescent's 60mm 'swoppet' Highlanders, marching, fighting (the Officer) and dancing, I think that sums-up Glasgow on a Saturday night? Thanks again to George K.