Bits in salmon-pink are later additions, notes or further information supplied by others.
Bits in Khaki-green are 'work-in-progress' listings and anyone is welcome to add missing details, whether single items or whole chunks.
All photographs are 6.5 (old Fuji), 8.3 (Samsung) or 16 (new Nikon) Mpx, and most will blow up to greater than screen size if you hover on them and click. However I've noticed some of the older images aren't enlarging, this is probably a Blogger/Picasa/date/traffic/auto-archive thing?
If you think you can add some information, or identify any of the 'unknowns', please use the comment feature rather than emailing me.
Bold; denotes 'real-world' product titles or nomenclature - sometimes!
Please report any dead links, and suggest any links you think should/could be added.
Note I have now found out how to switch-off the slide-show thingy, so just clicking on the photographs will open them on a whole page where most will then enlarge further with another click - if the cursor is in a 'plus' sign.
This doesn't seem to work for some of the older posts, this is a Blogger/Internet coding change thing I can do nothing about, one day I'll update or replace the more important ones but that's years away.
While waiting for an ok to join the RPG Bloggers network, I became a bit
frustrated.
So, here is a current blogroll of 1000+ English Language RPG blogs, an...
... and with strange aeons even death may die.
I'm not dead, just working on something else. That "something else" should
be released before the end of the...
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Although, some of this might hurt your eyes, but even the mighty falter and in the end, everything dies.
Toward the end, Britains tried to get away from 'war' war, and the whole WWII, 'Boys Own', ♪♪♫Two World Wars and . . . ♪♫, "I mentioned it once . . but I think I got away with it / You started it!" type toy theme which had served British kid's so well since 1945, by adopting first this generic UN theme, then some of the silliness below! Standard farm version of the Short Wheelbase (SWB) Land Rover, given a United Nations makeover. Here missing its 'hard-top'.
Using the late version US Infantry (solid sculpts, no moving, plug-in arms), accompanying UN troops (Task Force Action Figures) were provided, along with several other paint schemes as 'enemy' or just other units, only available for a couple of years in the mid-1990's, they should be rare, but many retailers were left with unsold stock, and a few years ago most dealers had mint sets on their tables!
Arctic warriors?!
Sold with a desert version of the Land Rover as 'Desert Storm'!
75p was still a fair-bit of money for a kid in 1996, and that's for one figure!
The final indignity - Task Force Special Units
I showed a few of the other-coloured ones on the Airfix Blog;
with more shots on the Modern British Infantry post.
Slightly safer ground with these, the two standard packagings for the earlier WWII-themed support weapons 'Combat Weapons', here the British Mortar (also given to the Germans) and the US Recoilless Rifle (also given to the Japanese!). There was a longer card, which was the display one, designed to sit across the top of the counter-top box, and sold last, after the box was empty.
There was an attempt to relaunch the range in the mid-2000's by First Gear, who had bought the intellectual property rights and a few of the moulds (most are with DSG in Argentina), and a couple of 'realistic' paint issues were forthcoming, I think these are the second tranche, the first having matt-green bases and better paint?
. . . the proper ones, not the silly American comic ones! Although I was a New Avengers chap, myself; we didn't have much telly when we were kids (no loss - I avoid it by choice now), so I tended to catch Purdy and Co., later on, around friends houses, or after we got a rather smart (for its day) Bush colour TV as we hit teenage-hood.
Tom Clague sent me this a few weeks ago and I totally forgot it despite getting excited at the time and taking screen caps (below) from the clip (above), but it is fascinating for having the rare'ish Airfix 1st version Paratroops in 1:32nd scale, also obvious is the Marx battery-operated tank, Britains pack-gun and 25lbr's, Deetail (?) and Herald infantry.
Half an hour later - I posted this elsewhere, FOR FUN, highlighting the Airfix para's and Marx tank, because the Airfix are an uncommon find, and most British kids (and I mean MOST) had that tank, or the sand, blue or grey versions, or some Hong Kong knock-off of it, back in the day - only for some pointless waste of oxygen to point out that most of the figures were Herald! Well; no shit Sherlock! Obviously, I didn't know I had to cover my arse to the Nth degree, by listing the obvious stuff; but here goes nothing . . .
The mortar team looks to be Britains Deetail in the fuzzy screen-cap', but the video should be too early for such a scenario, so it must be the Swoppet one, which also had quite a bright-green base but not as square as it looks in the shot? Which means there's probably a few other Swoppets on the table with the Herald Khaki Infantry?
The Marx tank had a fixed-turret but is missing it's plug-in barrel. There is at least one Britains Pack-Howitzer, which - again due to the dates - is probably the earlier fully-folding one (a later version had fixed legs - less breakages, less irate parents on the 'phone!), along with three or more 25lbr's and a late model of Britains' Naval Gun (which in one form or another had been in their catalogues since the 1930's) which kills the Brigadier.
There were also several plastic-looking vehicles, a fly-wheel motor tank he directs at the mountain, a (Pull-back motor?) jeep and possibly an armored-car at one point (also pull-back power?) which are probably all Hong Kong, possibly Jimson, Telsalda or larger Blue Box types.
I think the board is painted FoamexTM, but it could be a coated particle board, with the lines applied with Lettraset Lettraline or possibly Unipart vinyl pin-striping, but I'm just not sure!
If I've missed anything else, I really don't care, perhaps one of the fastidiously humorless, tediously fuckwitted of this parish can let us know . . . TJF? I honestly thought he'd managed a Christmas without having a pop, but he just can't stop himself!
...old Mar' Attkins boy! Usually depicted as a muddy, toothless, miner's son in a 1916 trench or a cherry chappie in baggy shorts somewhere near Wadi-al-Summthing'oar'utha circa 1942. It is this latter stereotype we have in the next image.
A nice now-clean group of 8th Army from Britains Detail, with the tricky bayonets still intactum! The Vickers needs it's 9 little ball bearings found but there's a hardware store in Camberley (AHC) that will have a shed-load for a few pence, so that's not a problem!
The Daimler Dingo Scout Car can be used with either desert or standard infantry, and while there was a desert version in the end; designed for the 8th Army figures, the crew were made of the same plastic in both cars so match up quite well, especially when your brother had...
...such a small selection of the British Infantry! These are in the European theatre garb and I've only included them as they show well the difference between the early semi-transparent wash over cream plastic (the two single figures) and the later solid-colour plastic of the mortar team, which also needs ammunition, but I won't be getting a sprue of 10 (or was it 12?) mortar bombs from AHC!
For those not used to Blogger, the below 'index' allows you to find similar posts by their content, just click on the label (word) that best suits you search needs. I have tried to label by
- Country of origin of toy - Country represented by toy - Maker - Material - Scale/Size/Ratio - Era represented by toy - Whether subject is civil/military - Other 'themes' Etc...
Re-annotating the index is an ongoing project, in the meantime to save on space (there is a limit on the number of characters and the number of labels) I have started using abbreviations, which are as follows:
All other abbreviations are part of the recognised name of a company or organisation.
The hiarachy of the listing pushes non-standard letters to the end of the section so Märklin (with an umlaut) is the last 'M' &etc...the Cyrillic lettered brands are at the end of the whole list.
