T is for Two - H is for Hong Kong Hovercraft

We haven't had as many hovercraft as we should have done, given their box was in the attic this last 11 years, so I'll have to redress that when I get to final [alive] resting place, but I can make a start here with two bog-standard rack-toy brands, one in Picasa for a while, the other sourced off feebleBay a week or so ago.

Woolbro's Hovercraft with Friction, is more of a whacky Intergalactic US Space Marines space-car, although with the body entirely filled with two large turbines, of limited use beyound getting two humans from A-to-B in a uncomfortably noisy fashion!

I actually have the Jane's Surface Skimmers and Hovercraft tome (and a tome it is, good for bodybuilding) and it is amazing to see how quickly Hovercraft went from British post-war excentricity in the 1950's to hundreds of designs all over the world by the 1970's (I think I have the '72 edition), and some of them do look a bit like this I think, but the forward perambulation isn't clear and the book's currently buried!

Carpet wheels aren't part of a real hovercraft which would have a hollow-belly to fill with pressurised air! Branded to an MMF and numbered 812, mine is obviously missing an ariel, but I will look out for another, better one as it also has that yellowish staining on the starboard side.

Learning something every day; although it sounds like the sort of thing Mum would have told us as kids, I learnt the other day that before 1844 it was Larboard and Starboard, but the Roayl Navy changed what was an obviously confusing (under fire/in a storm) convention, in that year.

The other reason to look out for another one is that the box on this one is shot to bits. The Woolbro stamp looks like the kind of overprint a few of their earlier sets carry, so there may be a generic version of this out there somewhere?

On safer ground with the SRN6 (Saunders-Roe, Naval, Type Six), this is another regular rack-toy star; Clifford Toys, and would seem to be a copy of the Matchbox die-cast, in military colours (which Matchbox also did). The Royal Marines used these for years, and the Griffon's they use now are quite similar in design.

I have the die-cast black & white civil one in the under-visited box, and this copy must be a slight scale-up; because, although small; it wouldn’t fit in the standard 1-75 range's box? It's also all plastic and like the Woolbro/MMF one, mostly polystyrene.

S is for Show Report - Late, Sandown, September, Purchases

So much stuff got put on the back-burner last year (a daft expression these days as the smaller 'simmer' rings are often the ones at the front or (in the case of the one here) to the right!), among which are several show reports, so we'll get get stuck into the new year with a bit of the old one!

First though, a note about the shows - I'm not proud of attending two shows in the autumn, and don't advocate doing so, as you know I haven't got back to posting forthcoming show news yet, and that is precisely because there is still a very real risk in putting-on or attending shows or events of any kind - I'm also penciled-in for the London Toy Fair trade show later this month too! Doh!

However, we were between Covid-variants, I wore a mask whenever I was close to anyone, went outside to remove the mask and get a bit of fresh air . . . and vape, and generally took care. Just as it was my personal 'right' to be a dick, it's each individual's right to be a dick, but not to promote dickishness in others!

We're all a bit stir-crazy now, I get that, I am too! But imagine - for a moment - if half the population of London or Southampton had decided it was their 'right' to ignore blackout-regulations in the early 1940's? Huh? It's not about OUR individual rights or perceptions, it's about the rest of our family, our friends & acquaintances and every stranger we might meet.

Now, the way the figures & stats are going-up, we'll all be looking at further measures in the next few days and I probably won't make Kensington-Olympia! But those backbench anti-regulation fans; the Covid Research Group, ex-European Research Group, ex-'Spartans' (the real Spartans would have eaten that shower of inbred-toff shits for breakfast and then ordered bacon and eggs - twice) are the equivalent of anti-blackout fans, and should be ignored, along with their friendly tabloids!

Anyway, that's what I think on the subjects! On to the toys . . .

. . . and I found two little rack-toys of the pocket-money size, a set of petrol pumps I already have loose, and some more civilian versions of the Humber-cab mini-trucks. The pumps - although in a generic pack - are almost certainly Blue Box, or at least Tai Sang (the parent)'s production as they are regularly included in the larger Blue Box sets. The mini-trucks are the type I've called 4A - with the 666 marking.

This was lovely; unmarked on the underside, but obviously an old 'Dime Store' plastic from the 1950's and probably a mould-share with a US firm, it has a little tool chest built-in with little (out of scale) tools, I suspect a spanner or wrench and maybe a drill or saw are missing, for a four-count? There's certainly room for a couple more.

The tractor-unit is from Triang Minic's range and will join a militray green one and a red example in the collection. The Daimler 'Dingo' scout car in nice for having a crew-member, while the windmill is fascinating, and might be British, despite the Hong-Kong'ishness of it's production.

I have several solid versions (which are HK piracies - and I often wondered what of?), while this - as you can see - is a stacking novelty (like this morning's Kazakh rocket!), or even a 'jig-toy' with the key-like central stem. Shot before and after cleaning, it could be early domestic production, by someone like Bell?

Bit of a story behind this chapter in the continuing LB-Lik Be story; I knew where I thought there was one of these, had known for over a decade, bought and sold by the same chap several times, always selling back to the same dealer, I last saw it with that dealer, and asked him to bring it to the show, if he could find it, and he said he's have a look.

Well, he couldn't find it, which was a disappointment, but in such cases you can then wizz round the stalls and find something else for the money . . . only I found another Clifford Toys branded Moon Explorers set (for less than I had been about to pay), so bought that! It was on a stall with some MPC XL5 stuff, but I had already got them, and shown them, although we'll be looking at them again soon!

I assume/presume/hope or guess the other four poses can be found in the same box for a 'pair' containing the whole 'set' - No27/5643B? Clifford also carried some of the Spacex sets in small scale, makes you wonder why Tri-Ang never carried these larger figures?

Half of me wonders why I bought the Tudor Rose wagon, but then the other half knows it was because it was in an usual colour-way I didn't think I had (we've seen them here before one than once, some courtesy of Michael Melnyk), it was very 'clean'; almost mint and it was cheap!

The HO gun team (not Giant) was mine, and I took it to the show after someone rang me three times in two days, getting me to promise I would do so (I think I quoted him a fiver?), only for him to not turn up, nor have I had another peep out of him as to why not! Some people are a waste of oxygen, and the older I get - the less patient with them I seem to be!

Been after these Bathing Beauties for a while, and the seller has had them in re-issue purple and green (?) or candy-pink (?) for a while, but at the September show he had this set (Marx) in a similar flesh to the originals, I think they are modern production, but they even have the chalkiness of the originals, so I'm happy enough with them!

D is for Dennis

Although this has no moniker, it has the look of the Dennis Fire Appliance's I remember from my later childhood? Also I'm not that sure of scale (about 1:24th?) as there's none given and there never is with these Hong Kong vehicles; even when issued in 'sets', they were meant as stand-alone toys and scale wasn't an issue - it's one of the things that makes following them so hard, with three sizes of Jaguar (for instance) you're not always sure what you're looking at on-line!

Clifford carried a fair bit of Lucky's stuff, but they carried other stuff as well, so nothing definitive, but it all adds to the whole. The artwork shows the back door opening along with one of the side-shutters, and that's what you get, the other doors are all integral to the moulding except the crew door, which is absent on both the models below, although there are signs of it having been there.

The real reason for photographing it! Two figure sculpts, driver and sit-arounder! They are the best gauge of scale, being 70/80 mil, which gives a size between 1:22 and 1:25th scales. Made out of the same colour plastic as some of the smaller Lucky firemen, it's another clue both to this being lucky and to Clifford's relationship with Lucky being a further clue to the LP link.

Branded to neither Lucky nor Clifford though, it carries a base-plate for WS Toys! I'd like to think it's a made-up brand, but as I said above: nothing's definitive with these plastic vehicles, and has we've seen with both the figures and the London Bus, and base mark can change or dissapear!

L is also for Laurie Toys

were going to be having American War of Independence (or colonial terrorist-insurgency - depending on your viewpoint - and you all know mine! It's tongue in cheek you humourless....) stuff today, but I thought I'd tie-up a loose-end from the 'Lucky week' thing, by clearing these from the dongle

The item itself is in storage, while the photographs I do have were taken back in 2010 or something for an eMail exchange and somewhat fail to show the vehicles off to their best! Still; after yesterdays post you probably won't mind a short one with few details!

The box! Laurie seem to be a wholly owned brand-mark of Lucky, but which I mean that while Clifford or Fairylite were independent import firms ('jobbers') with the products from other sources under their brand (I have somewhere an image of a polyethylene boat 'made in England' [possibly a Rafael Lipkin/Pippin piece] with a Clifford card), Laurie only appear with a Lucky Toy in the box!

 Despite water damage the box was otherwise 'unused', and the contents were still in two poly-bags, the failing of me to shoot a decent shot of the vehicles will be the excuse to return to it when it's released from its prison, but you can just see the figures stuffed lengthwise into the caravan for storage!

The interior is reasonable for a cheap toy, but note the flash stretching up from and down to the holes in the floor, these are a necessary part of the moulding process (undercuts and stuff) with such a complicated single-shot tool, but they provide a weakness for pressurised hot-polymer to squeeze out of.

I don't imagine you can get a much leerier colour scheme than candy-pink and apple-green, but maybe bright yellow and sky-blue could beat it, however the icing on this 'pop-art' cake - has to be the tangerine-orange car!

Lucky mark on the Laurie caravan mirrors the car and an interesting feature is the retracting tow-bar, making it harder to damage in play.

A small chromium-plated excuse for the 'Volksengine' is crammed-up against the housing of the pull-back motor, and the same shot of the car's mark we looked at the other day.

Only a box-ticker, and box ticked; Lucky - for Laurie!

L is for Lucky Toys!

At last we get to the justification for my banging-on about Lucky with little or no empirical evidence for the last five posts!

This is the full Lucky base-mark, variations of it are used on branded packaging and can be found under the bodies of Lucky's toy vehicles, the vehicles of its own subsidiary brands (Laurie Toys for instance), as well as the vehicles of other brands or 're-box' importers such as Fairylite and Clifford.

Here we see the mark employed on one of today's 'ovoid based' figures, one of the square based figures from the other day and the underside of my VW Carmen Ghia, otherwise badged (by its box) to Laurie Toys - the same mark appears on the floor underside of the accompanying caravan.

Another figure-set I know I don't have all the members of, or I suppose 'figure batch' is a better term as all these figures appear with the other 'batch' figures in the larger sets, even the firemen sometimes get one of the generic drivers.

Missing from my parade are the guy with a large 1950's style motor-racing engine oil or fuel (very dangerous if so!) can/pourer and a guy with a smaller lap-board or larger clipboard than the two we've previously looked at.

The 'lucky' base also undergoes various changes as it's anonymised for sub-contractors or other reasons, first the whole Lucky element (horseshoe and 'L') are scratched out, then a ¾-blank is employed, that's all cleaned-up and the '№' is removed while the code-number is reversed and centred, finally the whole base is re-cut to conform more to the kidney-based figures, there seems to be no 1112 issue of these figures - so far!

Race-goers and Officials (from Tri-ang/Mettoy 'Scalextric' - originally Stadden sculpts?)

540 - Race Official with Finishing Flag

541 - Kneeling Mechanic/Scrutiniser

542 - Spectator Camera

543 - Spectator Waving with Binoculars

Unknown Numbers

? - Guy with Large Oil/Fuel Can/Pourer

? - Guy with Notice Board/Clipboard/Lap Board

K is for Kidney-Base (again?)

I think we had that title on the small-scale 'Khaki Infantry' posts!

I'm on shakier ground with these - in pretending to know that much about them, that is - if only because I know I'm missing a few (who could have different or new base marks) and because the two largest groups of Lucky figures have either these bases or the ovoid ones we will look at tomorrow, so there's more likelihood that some of them (such as the first two below) might only have appeared with a single brand, and/or that there are still base-mark variations to be found?

These two came in some of the pit-stop sets or racing-car workshop vignettes, and both carry the 1112 mark and as yet haven't turned-up without it, so may only have been produced for a specific contract? Equally - I don't know if they have sculpt-origins elsewhere or are original designs, anybody got any ideas? I would pencil in a lesser US make maybe?

Race Crew

495 - Running with toolbox and extinguisher

496 - ?

497 - Kneeling with extinguisher

And those missing numbers I mentioned when looking at the gap in the firemen numbering? Well we have another gap here which could well be a missing pose?

These are a mix of influences, the race crew are (or seem to be from) a US maker, I have Marx/MPC? as the attached note (I'm sure they're on Kent Sprecher's ToySoldier HQ somewhere, but haven't time to look!) but they may be PP, while the commentators, press/media guys and spectators (most tomorrow) are from Tri-Ang/Mettoy's Scalextric range.

Note that the guy top left has a little nipple on his base which is for a spare-tyre which he's rolling across the forecourt/pits, I may have one in the spares bag, but it's in storage!

The other weird (or 'odd') thing about these is that having dealt - up to this point - exclusively with hard or brittle polystyrene plastic (and a bit of softer, flexible polyethylene among the smaller generics and Blue Box 50mm's); there is a PVC vinyl-rubber issue of some of these (probably all of them, but I don't have all poses in both materials) which makes storage a pain as you can't put them in the same bag, they will melt their frangible clone-cousins!

The top shot shows all my PVC versions with both base marks (below), while to the bottom-left we have a PVC cameraman to the right of a polystyrene version, the size difference has nothing to do with pantographs (or pantograph operators!) and everything to do with the shrinkage of PVC against styrene polymers.

One of the reasons PVC is such filthy stuff to work with (and for the wider environment) is the fumes it gives off, those fumes have mass, the loss of that mass causes the figures to be smaller; from the same mould. Also: he's slightly bent!

The camera carries the same code number as the operator and I haven't found one in PVC yet, but have seen a chromium-plated one which looked a bit naff! Most of the 'absent' figures are in a later post, but this one (camera-car catalogue image) was collaged-in with the other cameraman before I decided to break the page into parts/posts.

I have a feeling I've seen a figure which could be him, so he may have been loose and removable; I suspect the camera was fixed to the car, but again haven't seen one to know. If anyone has this figure going spare I'd love to track one down.

The two base marks, I have both types with the left-hand one in styrene only, while the PVC examples in my collection carry both marks.

My Laurie Toys VW Carmen Gia and Caravan (one of several caravan designs from the extended Lucky-and-others fleet), now in storage but fortunately photographed years ago before it went away (you may recognise the old Berkshire flat's carpet!), two holidaymakers or sightseers (campers? Caravaners in this case but I've seen them with 'just' cars), unfortunately I never shot the bases, nor made a note of the numbers, so these are among the 'unknown number' list - if anyone can tell us (the wider readership!) the numbers or confirm the mark-type that would be useful!

Race Crew & Media Types

430 - Rolling wheel/pushing something

431 - Holding lap-board

432 - ?

433 - Interviewer

434 - Camera operator with tripod camera

435 - Announcer with microphone

Unknown Holidaymakers/Sightseers/Spectators

? - Man with Binoculars

? - Woman in Skirt with Hands on Hips

F is for Forecourt Fellows

This is a simple one, square bases with round cartouche marking 'stamps' and with an exception (we'll look at in a day or two) proving the rule, all using a larger number than the others we will be looking at or have seen over the last few days.

Only used for these four poses (to my knowledge), and looking similar to the firemen (base-wise) as a result, these are probably the commonest of the Lucky civilian figures. Lucky produced lots of garage, service station or petrol pump 'play sets' for their models, usually the 'family cars' (although one has a police Range Rover centre-stage) often towing a boat or caravan, along with various pit-stop sets for their racing-cars.

Pit-stop sets however got more of the other figures we'll be looking at, with just one or two of these guys while petrol-station sets tended to get two or three figures taken [only] from these poses.

Turning them over reveals they are very different from the firemen with the Lucky code literally 'writ large'! As always; there is a 1112 version, with signs on the others of these having been over-cut on some of the smaller lettered base marks we will see next.

I have only CAD'ed-up a few, there are many subtle differences to be noted, especially with the damage-marks caused by chopping-and-changing the maker marks. Note also how the eleven-twelve issues get white and yellow plastic versions, the rest (so far) only seem to have had pink plastic runs.

Square-based Mechanics
519 - Standing with cap (from minor US maker?)*

520 - Holding two rags (from Dinky/Meccano)

521 - Holding Oil Can and Oil-cloth (from Dinky/Meccano)

522 - Kneeling with cap (from minor US maker?)*

*Deluxe Reading have similar poses, themselves based on Auburn Rubber sculpts, but they are not exactly the same.

The exception which proves the rule is that all these poses also turns-up with the full Lucky Horseshoe base mark, but they come later in the week!

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Because I don't want to do a 'News, Views' in the middle of a run of Lucky posts I'll just pop a reminder here that kick-starting the show-season for the new year; it's the first - 'Spring' - Sandown Park show on Saturday (4th March), often the best of the year as all the continental dealers bring their winter acquisitions over!