B is for Big Box of Bounty - WWII & Modern Combat

The next instalment of Chris Smith's latest donation to the Blog is the 'meat & two veg' of Toy Soldier Collecting, unless you specialise in ancient & medieval, the Wellingtonian era, space, Wild West, Britians ceremonials, farm or zoo, but you know what I mean, and that's the introductory paragraph taken care of, phew!

 

Three paratroopers this time, all yellow, but from three sources and a nice pair of Airfix Red Beret LMG-gunners, to compare in future addition to the parachutists page, while the holding-reserve pose is unusual in yellow, even at this smaller size, where the odd blue or red one has turned-up over the years, they are usually green!

 

One of the Galoob-like, or supplied by Galoob, sailors, from the Realtoy-Dacron et al. sets, and three of the tentatively ID'd as Pioneer or supplied by/to Pioneer, copies of the same set, the copies being manufactured in a softer silicon-rubber, to the denser PVC-replacement of the Realtoy figures.

 

Unknown seated's, four of the common'ish US moulding ones, in two colours (and there are a lot of colours to find!), and three others; the big chap may be from a battery-operated Jeep or similar toy, the middle one anything, the chap on the right of both shots is one of the crewmen from any one of a number of Hong Kong, fictional/Sci-Fi'ish, novelty rocket launchers, also/sometimes known as Crickets, in this shade, possibly the Codeg 'Rocket Firing Armoured Car'?

 

And the smaller chap here is probably the Codeg driver, while Chris had managed to ID the big fella', he's from the Mecanno Mogul range of Tonka-rival heavy steel-plate toys, namely the eponymous Army Mogulwagen. and I have a feeling Chris sent the driver many parcels ago . . . not sure you can have 'Namely' and 'Eponymous' in the same sentence?

 

And there seem to have been two versions, or a pre-production/press (with integrated MG) one, and this version, which is probably another Stadden sculpt, from the Havent factory, they are about four-inches?

 

These are interesting, I think I have a small sample somewhere, but new poses here, and obviously Marx 45mm copies, which is why I had some - borderline small-scale! But they are a tinny polymer, maybe 'propylene, and quite poorly finished or 'flashy' possibly from that late 1980's/arly 1990's plethora of re-issues from Hong Kong, Brazil or Mexico? Does anyone know for certain, from whence they hail?

 

A handful of "Aitchkay" rack-toy fodder, but all interesting, with two of the 40mm Monogram copies, a small Aussie knock-off, a Japanese Deetail clone, but not the more common chrome-coated, Kwong Wah one, which have the ovoid base, but a full oblong-based copy, along with a pair of the recent, but relatively unique sculpts, copies of New Ray, I think it was decided, in the end?

 

A similar line-up of the smaller scales, with - from the left - Supreme 40mm, Galoob 20mm Micromachines, 30mm Airfix Para' clone, a new colour of Galoob 30mm (Battle Squad?), and another 20mm, along with the roughly 28mm Universal-Matchbox MG-gunner who is 'after' Galoob!

 

Saving the best to last and sandwiched between two of the GI Flats, are two figures who are both familiar, and totally new to me. The chap to the centre-right, is obviously the Timpo GI radio-operator, but not the usual early-British 'Khaki Infantry'', rather a soft PVC polymer, possibly Polish, or East German? He's painted as UN, but that could be home-paint/repaint?

 

While I'm sure I've seen the other guy, but I'll be damned if I can remember where or when? He's a marbled polyethylene ('polythene'), with an interesting pose-sculpt of changing his magazine, the base is closest to the bigger PRB swivel-heads, with a pronounced bevel, while the sculpting and pose are vaguely Marx-PMC 54mm GI-like, in execution? He also comes across as being a bit cereal-premium'y? Is he French, Greek?

 

Can anybody add anything on either of the middles figures, now Chris has kindly sent them to the Blog?

KWI, CWI or RWI? is for Kwong Wah Industrial!

Or Kwong Wah (Lap Kay) Toys Limited.

I've been rather bounced into the first-half of this post, and it will be brief as I know someone else is working on an article about the figures which should be appearing in a magazine which ought to be dropping on your mats four-times a year, but only if you keep subscribing! Also I have very few of the figures and haven't dug-them out.

You will know these, if not from collecting them, for seeing them in rummage trays at shows, you may have picked them up, seen the clear logo-mark on the base and asked a fellow collector or the seller or a passing member of the 'Old Guard' if they know the maker to get an answer along the lines of 'No, Hong Kong though, but I don't know the mark', I know I have!

Chromium-plated copies of Britains Deetail with integral bases. People call them 'electro-plated' but they aren't, they are just sprayed, which is why they wear so badly; electroplating leaves radio-buttons, toaster parts, mobile-phone detailing, or polypropylene B/O robot highlight's shiny for years, Lego elements can be found with electroplating; this is the stuff you can buy in cans from craft shops for a fiver!

Kwong Wah Industrial is the moniker, formed in 1971 and they were still going until around 2008 as Kwong Wah (Lap Kay) Toys, producing more up-market stuff, their slot-racing sets were in many households, as will have been their microscopes, telescopes and robotic stuff. They also had a range of Playmobile-like play sets with larger, simply-articulated figurines. 1986 above, magazine-advert graphic in the middle and 2006 below.

I did still have this copy of the US Recoilless rifle to hand and it's one of the nicer pieces, the weapon is heat or friction-welded to the base, but the figures are just plugged-in. You can see the logo clearly above the code.

I'm giving what little history on the company I have to the author of the article forthcoming, so for now I'll close by trying to disassemble the logo; the earlier cutting dates from 1986 and it's easy to see the WI of Wah Industrial, but how you get the Kwong's K from that basket of snakes is anybody's guess!

There is a possibility (revealed by the cable (direct telegram) code) that there may be an R for Ray in there or that the K has been iterated as a C, or (most likely?) that there is an element of a Chinese character (or characters) incorporated into the logotype?

Note how the stars - small stickers on the Britains originals - have been etched into the helmets of the Kwong Wah knock-offs, on the front of the officer/NCO's helmet and the left side of the soldier/gunners'.

These don't have the Kwong Wah mark and might be another HK maker altogether, being copies (third or fourth generation?) of the die-cast figures known here as Lone Star Metallions, but also part of the Fontanini/Cané/Peltro family of much-licensed/copied/influenced stuff, they were further copied in metal, in Hong Kong and supplied to SS.Kresege (now K-Mart) and Cragstan (and a third brand, I've since forgotten - AHI or the one from Philadelphia?), so whether Lone Star were first, or just a step-on-the-way remains a question.

There's a link to a very good German-language site on these, which should be on one of the 2017 Fontanini posts? The fact that Kwong Wah also did copies of the large Fontanini figures may point to a link though! They were also sold through Zodiac Toys here.

Returning to the theme; we're back to Deetail-copies, but not Kwong Wah, and now Kwong Wah has been indentified, these are next on the list, with their distinctive H? Unlike the Kwong Wah's, these have the separate bases with the little foot-catches and they are copies of the oblong ones, so probably slightly earlier than the Kwong Wah's as well.

The reason I took three shots is not because of the bag-reflection, but that I kept umming and arrhing or whether or not to get them out of the bag, and each time I'd take a shot before opening them and then - not open them! But it does work for the reflections to a certain extent; I think you can make out the three poses copied here.

And the deciders for not subsequently getting them out were that with one figure duplicated twice, there are only the three poses, and also that they are the same colour-schemes as the originals (Deetail Turks), if I find a second sample with a better mix I will probably open than one!

The H is also on the bases so not a 'phantom brand', but a serious attempt at brand-marking both packaging and product with something which must have been known/familiar to the Haitch-Kay Toymen?

I would like it to be Herald Holdings, but that would be too neat, and there's rarely anything neat about HK company naming, look at how Kwong Wah have changed their title over the years.

It's not Herald Metal and Plastics, or I don't think it is and I don't know if they (1980's) were the same as the 1960's Herald Holdings, or if either are in anyway related to Britains Herald (I don't think so) and with forty or fifty + other H's in the colony, of which I've only eliminated 30-odd, it's still up in the air? But it will come out in the wash, one day; as Kwong Wah now has.

The backing card is a weirdly anachronistic battle between Viking long-ships, I can only guess at a tangential reference to the crusades and/or the fall of the Eastern Empire to Islam and/or Viking or Rus mercenaries/traders in the Holy Lands or Constantinople (Istanbul)?!

Unpainted Hong Kong-made copies of Deetail knights also appear in gold, silver, greeny-gold and pale-grey polyethylene plastic, but I don't have any so I don't know if they have the H-mark (making them likely late issues of the above line) or are blank generics, but Brian Berke sent us this China-made, silver one, which is a clear, late third/fourth generation copy, possibly relatively or actually current.

He's marked CHINA and the thinner legs & arms, along with the poor quality of the detail all point to copying rather than any skill with a pantograph! Sized with a spigot-armed Co-Ma copy, he's been promoted from medieval to 'Janissary' with an upgrade from cold steel to Springfield's-finest courtesy of . . . AIP, BMC or TSSD . . . Conte even??

Thanks to Paul Morehead and Bill B for KWI info., and Brain for the late Turk, a Kwong Wah A-Z listing will appear after the other article has published.

L is for Loose-ends in Liberation Land

Yes, we're back to the Men of '76; for the third time? But Brian Berke sent me two sets of the figures in his last (previous - another's turned-up!) donation to the Blog, which answers a few of the questions raised in the previous posts and turns up a couple of new things worth mentioning.

The first is that the header card artwork is - of course - the 'Spirit of '76' vignette we looked at the other day, both this artwork and the figures being taken from the famous eponymous painting by Archibald Willard.

The two sets Brian sent, the second (Cornwallis) had been de-carded in the past, so after I took these shots, I re-liberated them, but of immediate interest is that the two cards are of different sizes, and with no reason, as the 'extra' is added top and bottom of the white header, with similar margin extensions on the back. The 'meat and two veg' being the same on both cards. The other thing to note is that the card backs do differ from set to set, the Assembly Instructions are the same, but the blurb is card-specific.

Off the card, and glossy with the signs of the passing of the forty years between issue and release lost in the protection the blister gave them, that's a couple of scarlet jackets or my name's Marion! Sorry Mr Wayne!

Comparison between the details of 'officer' and 'trooper', two items of interest here: Firstly; the painted helmet-plate (forerunner of the cap badge) on the officers Busby has developed verdigris under some past damp conditions, suggesting a high content of real copper in the paint, but of far more interest is the sword . . .

. . . Correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks like the Officer's Katana from the Britains Deetail Japanese Infantry set (or copy of it!)? A set which although having the 1971 stamp on the - generic-to-the-range - base, Britains didn't actually catalogue until 1973. It would appear that the piracy reached the 'high street' at least a year BEFORE the original!

That was the problem with 'joining them' (by transferring production to Hong Kong), rather than beating them! Someone had filched a sword and run it down the road to Innovative's contract manufacturer (cooperative production partner, now OEM), who ran-up a copy, before Britains were anywhere near ready to add the Japs (and Brits) to the Deetail range.

Brian also sent the leaflet that came bagged and stapled to some sets, it doesn't add much to the posts, other than that there are only the 8 sets listed - from 1972 - in a 1973/75 reprint; however I will (eventually) scan it and add it to the A-Z post. As always; thank you very much Brian Berke.

Also worth noting that in the sham battle arranged at the top of the back page, all the Native American Indians have joined the forces of the legitimate government, a force of 25 which has flanked the 18 Rebels, who are short of gunners . . . Fort Ticonderoga might have been a push-over, but I suspect Fort Innovative will prove a tougher nut to crack!

Later the same year (Nov 22nd) . . . I'd forgotten that Basil Duke had Blogged these ages ago on his Fort Apache Supersized Blog, follow the link to find good images of the fort and larger grouops/formations of loose figures.