W is for Wild West Warriors - 1 of 2

I split the Wild West relatively randomly into two plunder posts, these are the ones shot with the same background, it was a pretty basic dividing system! But lots of useful bits here, and some new horses which are intriguing me!

 

The two bags of Hong Kong 'hollow horses' and a few of their associated foot figures, one from Trevor, the other from the vendor of the TNT submarine. Neither of them are 'clean' samples, so they will need future sorting, and for now, will be joining a pile of such bags, some mixed, some clean, some semi-sorted already, and then, every few years, I have a big sorting session, matching horses, riders and marks to sets, foot figures or accessories.

 

Papo Totem Pole which seems to have - thus far - escaped me, no longer, and a nice thing it is too, but with ten colours, I wonder at the four shades of blue, Mesoamericans and the Mesopotamian/Egyptians, managed blue from crushed lapis lazuli, and valued it as rare, as did, millennia later, the artists of the renaissance, but I'm not so sure the forest Indians of Canada, Alaska and the arctic circle would have had access to quantities of such a colour?

 

A huge horse fitted for wagon bars, is it Tudor Rose or one of the others, the accompanying mounted figures were discussed a few years ago! A Budgie wagon in good nick, but missing its barrels, which always get die-cast disease and break-off!

 

And a wagon team which could be a minor British make, or Japanese, they made a fair bit of that kind of stuff, along with some of the unknown coronation coaches, which turn up in a similar size.

 

American Civil War didn't feature heavily this year, with an MPC and diminutive post-Giant (unmarked) copy tag-teaming a couple of wounded Confederate officers from the Blue Box regiment!

 

In my attempt to find all these, I seem to have ended up with 8-10 figures in the last three or four years, hopefully, these are the ones I need to produce a set of 6 in decent to near-mint condition, with a few duplicates, one or two of which are a bit scruffy - Crescent's 60mm Mohicans.

 

Marx, each from a different set, and are, from the left;

• 45mm Indian
• 60mm Camp Indian
• 60mm Pioneer
• 54mm Alamo/Fort Apache Pioneer (missing sword but still usable as a US cavalry figure), and not the first one I've encountered in this paint scheme, did someone (Swansea?) do a painted set?

Small scale/novelty figures with two from the Lucky Bags, same pose but nicely marbled, the Betterwear cannoneer completes my sample in yellow plastic, a cracker mini (blue), the soft plastic semi-flat (red) I think may have replaced the 'styrene figures in Lucky Bags, and a teeny-tiny tee-pee!

 

Initial thought was "Four French", but I think the red geezer is probably a Reisler, from Denmark, he seems to be complete, but threatening/calling someone out, and isn't it funny how it's always the smallest guy in the bar who starts the fight? Still to ID the other three.

 

Small-scale bits include parts for a log-cabin, we've seen it once or twice now, but there's a post in the long-queue, a few Airfix bits and a some Atlantic pioneer types, all real grist to the mill!

 

A few bits, Kinder, front centre, and Hong Kong, but of real interest to me is the pair of horses in the middle, what I've dubbed 'Mexican', now known to have been the Texas horse, but the one on the right is a pose-variant, and while they could be French, Italian, Spanish or even Portuguese, they might be HK? I have a fair few of the standard pose, from various sources, but these a real mystery, and I like mysteries, as it means there's more to find!

 

Does the white mounted figure belong on one of the 'new' horses? He may be a sobre/sorpresa - see part 2. Pocahontas is probably Phidal Publishing, a broken Britains, Lido 45mm, HK copy and an unpainted version of the chromed-plastic copies of Metallions. The figure lacking a base is interesting, as, while you find many copies of them in similar paint, not usually with a separate base - another of those canoe crew!

 

Finally, a pair of Safari Westerners, and it's funny, but I got the two 54mm Indians a year or two ago, the tee-pee and wagon were given to me by Paul Morehead as 'small scale' a couple of decades ago, Peter Evans gave me the mounted chap a few years ago, and the buffalo came in at some point, possibly from Jon or Chris, so I only need the Indian woman & child vignette, and a Texas long-horn cow, to complete the set, the best way, by collecting it! The woman here is described as Annie Oakley.

 

Go-on then, here's the Internet image!

 

Thanking Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, along with the others, above named, for help at the show, and over the years.

C is for Cap Bombs and Chessmen!

Two themes presented themselves as last weekend developed. In previous years it's been Merit, Blue Box, or Sports Figures, one year in was Gem-Culpitt/Cake Decorations, all of which had quite small, or no representation this year, but as I pointed out in a comment the other day; you don't pick them, the themes choose themselves! And this year, I had three lots of chess-pieces come in, and a handful of cap, and other bombs, so that's where we're at, in this post!

 

 

I got this set of Crescent's chessmen from Colin Penn, and they are rather nice, with all bar the Castle being fully figural, and with a sort of late-Norman / early-Plantagenet feel to them, or their costume. Maybe a bit more Wars of the Roses to the Knight and Pawn?

 

Also interesting, and often the way when you discover stuff outside a company's normal (or known to you) oeuvre, the material is not the normal Crescent 'Airfix' figure polyethylene plastic, but a denser, slightly soft polymer, it could be a PVC, but I suspect not, we exported the filth, pollution and health-hazards of vinyl-production quite early! But certainly a hard-wearing, and slightly spongy plastic which might still be a PE?

 

Colin then gave me these! They are from a contemporary company, Professor Puzzle, but differ slightly from the set currently on their website. Wooden, both sides are incomplete, but there are the 12 you need for two of these line-ups, which is the proper way to display them for sale, and that's not me lecturing you, I had to research chess twenty years ago, and that was one of the factoids I unearthed! King to the left, down to pawn, although I've placed the Queen first, Doh!

 

While these are the Mokarex coffee-premium chess set, and, possibly not by coincidence, all from the 'white' set. We saw them here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/02/p-is-for-perfectly-planned-paint.html

 

You'll notice the two outer mouldings in the five-shot, are a darker plastic, suggesting that the tool was run for some time, and that they're probably not rare, like cereal premiums, there would have been millions, as there were millions of coffee jars during the promotion. But I've still got more than half to find!

 

In the order in which I bought them, I think, four cap-bombs, at a toy-soldier show? Shocking! I removed them from the room, as a matter of common courtesy! I took the plunger from the damaged silver one, when I realised it fitted the blue/yellow one, which has the anvil/striking-plate, but another plunger, striker and two springs are required to get them both up to scratch - there is a tub of these, with various bits, so one way or another something will be completed!

 

Sizer!

 

These two had been in the odds-drawer stuff the night before the show, so presaged the theme, obviously the one on the left is a sucker-bomb, or dart from an infants shooting/target game, while the metal one has some similarities with the bomb on the Dinky Toys model of a Junkers 87 Stuka, so I'm guessing a similar toy, but no moving parts, so no cap-firing capacity - anyone recognise it?

 

Thanking, for help, support or 'stuff' at this year's show; Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin. 

C is for Crazy Cartoon Kids

Yeah, I'm giving that K a battering! This set came in back in January, but I didn't get to shoot it until February, It's funny, 'cos Bushy keeps asking his readers to send him their 'LP' lists, while I keep posting the LB lists! We've had the Dinosaurs and Cavemen, did the Gygax knock-offs and skirted round the farm sets (and musicians); not quite ready to do the definitive on them or the other Funimals yet, but I thought I'd better do the Wild West, which will leave the Christmas cake decorations for another day!

 

The box had seen better days, and there is at least one item missing, but otherwise this seems to be a complete rendition of the Wild West line, a similar 'circus village' was seen on Faceplant a couple of years ago, with all, or most of the Funimals, if only we could find something similar for the fishermen . . . throw them in with the divers, and a boat!

 

Cowboys!

 

Mexican!

 

Only five foot cowboys and the missing Mexican (he'll be in the next post), for a six-count (the Indians get eight), I love how some enterprising out-worker has painted the skin of the flesh-coloured figure ashen-grey, for a contrast . . . so he looks like a zombie cowboy kid!

 

The Stage Coach

 

I suspect it should have the sticker on both sides, not least than because the box shows it on the other side! But, like the Mexican it's been lost somewhere between Hong Kong, Italy (from whence I purchased it) and here, so I'll have to keep an eye out for a damaged one going cheap, with at least one sticker I can transfer!

The horses are in the same arrangement on both wagons, as per colour distribution (it's a single moulding), as they are on the box-art, but a different pattern, so, I guess each out-worker got into a different rhythm, but all got one of each colour! Wagoner is the same moulding on both, increasing the cowboys to seven sculpts.

 

Boys!

 

But the cowboys are outnumbered by the Indians who have eight foot figures, four each boys, and girls, while there are no cowgirls? Fluorescent pink is probably not quite historically accurate, and you may be noticing a similarity between some of these poses, both cowboys and Indians, and the Britains Deetail range, not that they are direct piracies, but some of the poses have been used as a guide, which means these can't be older than around 1972?

 

 Girls!

 

Not so with the girls, and I have to apologise to a mate of mine, as I sent him one of these as a 'Little Plumb', a few years ago, and it turns out she was a Little Plumbette! You know who you are, and I'll sort out some boys as soon as I have some duplicates! For reasons I can't begin to explain, these four seem to be far easier to find, loose, at shows, or on-line, than either the Indian boys or the cowboys?

Raising the count to ten!

Looking similar at first glance, these are completely different sculpts, although they have reused the body from the neck down. But a lot of effort went into the whole set, as shown with these two. Opposite arm sculpts to match, and it's clear the body tool and arm tools were different as the plastic-colours don't match, which happens if you're adding the pigment by hand, to neutral granules at the final stage.
 

Final count 9/11

The demented horse is different from the wagon animal, but was used for both riders.

 

Three buildings are included, which are half-Timpo/half-Atlantic in execution, with a shallow rear assembly (identical for all three) attached to different facades, this is the Silver City Bank, but when you're outnumbered by the locals you haven't got time to rob a bank!

 

Construction follows the Timpo model, but as shallow 'theatrical scenery' in heavy polyethylene blocks, which is more like the Atlantic 'Abilene West City' buildings, from Italy?

 

Frisco Bar

City Office - Land Claims / City Jail

 

All the free-swinging doors are factory fitted, but the back 'box' requires assembly.

Another Britains copy, this one Herald, and an umteenth-generation one though, with many better ones coming before it, including the hard-plastic one we saw as part of a cake decoration set a while back.

 

The distinctive LB fence sections, you get six in two bags of three, presumably because three was the number added to other sets, like the My Farm sets we saw, or the Animal Fun Fair set?

 

As far as I know, the two cactus vignettes are unique, rather than copies of anything else, and while I'd previously ID'd the righthand one and listed it in the Lik Be master list, the left-hand one here, was a revelation, when I got hold of it earlier this year.

 

The tree is a common Hong Kong item, and while carrying an LB A-code, is a fourth-or-more-generation copy, as is the ex-Crescent monkey-puzzle tree.

 

Two scenic vignettes, both taken from Britains Deetail, which nicely pulls it all together, re my comment above, and the well! We looked at various versions of the well a while ago, and I don't remember even looking for marks in the roofs!

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/09/d-is-for-ding-dong-bell-pussys-in-well.html 

 

But I bet it'll turn out that the slightly smaller ones are all LB cake decorations, that chromed one is similar to the spacemen from Culpitt, while the slightly larger one (on the left of the two shots) will be a donor, from someone else? But it's nice to be slowly pulling all this stuff together, I got a lot of help with those well-posts from Chris Smith and Barney Brown.

 

Finally, a unique, but very childish design of Totem pole, to add to that oeuvre! Apart from the base sticking out, it's a slab-flat with a smooth, blank reverse.

 

Nearly everything in the set carries a standard Lik Be A-code, which, with a few exceptions among the scenics, and with the addition of two Rhinoceroses, are in several blocks toward the end of the main LB A-prefix numbering, as known to this author. But there are a few 3, 4, 5 and even 600's before the B-codes, with probably more to discover, much of the below was only added a few weeks ago.

Listing

Wild West

≈

No. A149 - Wishing Well (two-part, marked in roof only)

[unmarked] - Farm Fence Section (x6 in large set) 

≈

No. A153 - Tree/Shrub with Clump of Grass 

≈

No. A219 - Teepee / Tipi / Wigwam (ex-Britains Herald, polypropylene, might be bought-in, but has LB code) 
No. A220 - Totem Pole (unique, but juvenile design) 
No. A221 - ‘Clancy Claim’ Sign (Britains Deetail piracy) 
No. A222 - ‘Dead Mans Gulch’ Sign (Britains Deetail piracy) 
No. A223 - Stage Coach (Multi part kit with 4x A225, marked on one half of body only) 
No. A224 - Cowboy Waggoner (for stage-coach [A223] and Wild West Wagon [A234]) 
No. A225 - Cart Horse / Wild West Coach-Wagon Horse (MADE IN . . HONG KONG .)

[unmarked] - Horse-Trace/Furniture

[unmarked] - Base for Four Horses

[unmarked] - Small Wheel/Axle Assembly

[unmarked] - Large Wheel/Axle Assembly

No. A226 - Native American Canoe (hard polystyrene) 
No. A227 - Indian Girl Canoeist (one feather in headband, earrings, pigtails) 
No. A228 - Indian Girl Canoeist (two feathers in headband) 
[unmarked] - Canoeists Arms (dipping oar to left) 

[unmarked] - Canoeists Arms (dipping oar to right)
No. A229 - 
No. A230 - 
No. A231 - 
No. A232 - Rhinoceros (very male!)
No. A233 - Rhinoceros (female?)
No. A234 - Wild West Wagon (Multi part kit with 4x A225, marked on underside of wagon-box) 
No. A235 - Silver City Bank (three part building frontage) 
No. A236 - Frisco Bar (three part building frontage) 
No. A237 - Land Claim Office / City Jail (three part building frontage) 
[unmarked] - Building Roof Piece 
[unmarked] - Building Rear Wall 
[unmarked] - Building, Left Side 
[unmarked] - Building, Right Side 
No. A238 - Monkey Puzzle Tree (Crescent copy, x2 in large set) 
No. A239 - Group of Cacti & Succulents (x2 in large set) 
No. A240 - Prickly Pears (x2 in large set) 
No. A241 - Indian Girl with Tomahawk (pirated by SK as No. 194) 
No. A242 - Indian Girl Dancing 
No. A243 - Indian Girl with Tom-Tom Drum 
No. A244 - Indian Girl with Bow & Arrow (shooting up) 
No. A245 - Cowboy with Lasso/Lariat 
No. A246 - [Mexican Boy with Six Guns] (should prove to be A246?) 
No. A247 - Cowboy with Six-guns, One Pulled, One Holstered 
No. A248 - Cowboy Boy with Rifle

≈
No. A263 - Mounted Indian Boy, Lance & Rifle 
No. A264 - (Possibly unused horse code, replaced by No. A267?) 
No. A265 - Mounted Cowboy, Two Six-guns, One Pulled, One Holstered 
No. A266 - (Possibly unused horse code, replaced by No. A267?) 
No. A267 - Wild West Horse (for both riders)
≈
No. A280 - Cowboy with Six-guns (right level) 
No. A281 - Cowboy with Six-guns (right high) 
No. A282 - Indian Boy ‘Little Bear’ with Lance 
No. A283 - Indian Boy with Tomahawk & Rifle 
No. A284 - Indian Boy with Bow & Arrow (shooting parallel) 
No. A285 - Indian Boy with Tomahawk and Shield (pirated by SK as No. 195)
≈
Sets
No. 1104 - Cowboy & Indian (large set containing one each of everything, with multiples of scenics, building parts, and draft-horses, along with six pieces of farm fencing)

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!