U is for Unknown Wild West Flats - 4 - Odds and Sods

So we come to what else is in the Unknown Wild West Flats box, recently out of storage and topped up with the bits I had here. Actually a few of them are known I just haven't got round to labelling them up or moving them so they are in the final shot!

Only the two poses, and I can only try to get across the feel of them as being like gritty rubber, the sort of stuff Auburn or Sun were using to make their early toys, but not so hard, possibly only because they are younger/newer?

It's almost as if they have been made from 1980's exterior door & window sealant or shoe mending compound!

Although only the two poses, they keep turning-up! And while the figures are - in the main - well formed (one of the archers is a bit short-shot at the tips of things), the bases seem to tell a different story! I suspect a hand-operated injection machine? The gate marks are at the head-end, so lack of 'puff' or dropping-off puff seems to have been the problem here!

These are interesting, sold to me as German sweet-premiums (wundertüten), they are only etched on one side, the reverses being blank. I wondered if they might be cake decorations when I first saw them as they seemed to have icing-spikes, but in fact they are just the poorly-gated runner-ends.

Looking at the way the 'base' line runs out to the cactus on the prone figure, suggests the sort of thing glued into snow-shakers, but they are a bit big for that at 60-odd millimeters, so I wonder if maybe they are factory blanks from some similar touristy thing, perhaps deep-framed pictures or 'box dioramas' - a slap of paint, some lichen/flock, a bit of sand-paper as a base and a formulaic gouache-painted backdrop?

If they are wundertüten, they must be quite early, as they are nowhere near the quality of the later Jean/Manurba/Heinerle stuff, nor even up to the detail of the margarine-premiums of that age?

While I have lots of margarine giveaway types in the 'known' boxes, there are the two gold ones here who are orphans, the one on the right being a poor copy of the Siku original, the one on the left a more original Mexican type.

The red chap holding his saddle was a recent purchase and seen here then, the rest have some info. attached; the pair shooting each other are from a board game; The Fastest Gun by Denys Fisher, missing are yellow and green 'good guys' and a bunch of black 'bad guys'!

Pretty-sure the white, running Indian is Nosco or Crackerjack (or Nosco for Crackerjack!) but I need to check and get him labelled correctly. The Tipi is a flat scenic accessory for fully-round Polish figures from PZG (the design continues round the back as the outside of the shelter), while the other five are purportedly from Italy, I'd like them to be Portuguese Osul, but I fear the bases are wrong, and they may be from a board-game?

These are all polystyrene, bar the orange chap who's ethylene, the two game-pieces who are polypropylene and the PZG which is a recycled polymer mix with some of the properties of each of the other three types!

So that's me' unknown Wild West flats, if you can anything to any of the figures in today's four posts it'll be much appreciated, but the search goes on, in any event!

MPC is for Mini Ships - Part Two; Comparisons

So to comparisons between the MPC mini ships and other comparable vessels ancient and modern (of manufacture), to give an idea of what goes with what size-wise, as 'scale' is so clearly a moot point with these models.

Starting with the larger submarine, it's actually quite close to both the similar and almost as accurate (in outline) ballistic missile subs from Galoob's Micro Machine lines, the other three are really just toys.

I left the similar sized Crescent sub off the first image, so have squeezed it into both collages as a continuation shot, I also forgot the Lido one so I've placed that with both as an inset. It's quite interesting as it's an early Nuclear-sub design which keeps some of the lines of the old U-Boat styles, but for scale purposes, would have the size of the more modern ships.

These are all board-game playing pieces with the possible exception of the two grey ones nearest the Patrick Henry (dropped [or; lowered?] an aitch on the caption!), which may be war-game pieces, and the two aforementioned (Lido and Crescent) which were both 'carpet' toys.

Landing craft; The MPC WWII one flanked by the two modern ones from the Airfix HMS Fearless kit, and all lead by an unknown kit boat (LCA shape...'ish) which I think might be from one of the odd box-scale kits from Pyro or early Revell?

On the MPC vessel the spigot sticking out of the back may be for an unknown accessory, or just a bit of frame? Likewise the indentation forward of the wheelhouse may be a mounting hole for an unknown accessory, but I think it's just shrinkage.

Battleships - The larger size and by association smaller scale range of the MPC minis;  the INGAP and the penny-toys are quite similar, but the Hong Kong and Crescent boats are modelling smaller vessels, so are over-sized in comparison with the MPC ship.

When I say penny-toys, it's only because I don't have a name for them and they have 'cheap' decoration. They may be by a later a 'name', there were several smaller die-casters in the UK making toys in the 1950's-60's such as Benbros and Kemlow, these may be by either? They are also all slightly different and marked B1 through to B3.

[Now ID'd as Chad Valley, probably from a boxed set, 1950's?]

Intermediate or medium size, here using the Tramp Type steamer and an LST from MPC as comparison vehicles for food premiums from Manurba and Sanella and the Matchbox accessories from a large harbour play-set they did. Painted-up these would all look fine next to each other size-wise.

The smallies; the MB Games Axis & Allies ship in the centre is a much smaller scale, being a tramp steamer, and both the Montaplex vessels are military ships of larger scale size.

Back to the medium sized rage, for more naval vessels, the Lido set are all roughly the same size, but obviously one of them is a much scaled-down battleship, as is the MB Games Axis & Allies one.

03-09-2016 Unknown (bottom right, along with two pale grey subs above) is now known - Silvercorn

The ocean liners are all from the bigger end of the MPC stable and match the Rosenhain and Lipmann (R&L) for Kellogg's cereal premium pretty well. The kit is scaled by collectors at 1:3640 and is missing two very fine mast mouldings, I suspect it's a tad smaller than the MPC mini ships, being the larger vessel in real life?

Quaker also had a go at Ocean liners and their little set are scaled smaller that both the MPC ones and the Kellogg's import. A Direct comparison with two versions of Liberte (Europa for most of her eventful life) showing a lack of accuracy as well!

We looked at these Quaker liners here and there's more here.

Shades of blue above with three each from MPC, Quaker and Hong Kong above, the HK vessels being - I believe - copies of the old Triang Minic waterline series.

I forgot (or meant...) to label this shot, but the red one is Tina Onassis the only cargo-ship in the Quaker set and I've done a comparison with similar vessels, the HK one being a militarised version of the original Triang mail or packet steamer? The USS Eddy Country looking like a cargo vessel and the SS Varicella being a tanker.

The Hong Kong set were looked at before in the post linked to above with the Quaker and other smaller ones, but I've since got some more, so a new line-up of mouldings and colour variations is above with a look at the various tugs.

There are three tugs from Hong Kong, the one I've numbered '1', is a full hull model which I suspect goes with these from Lucky Toys, sort of confirmed by the unpainted pale one, going with the unpainted versions of the larger vessels in the linked post. The number 3 (two designs) goes with the similar blue-grey and sea-green copies of Triang Minic vessels, while the charcoal grey one I've numbered as '2' seems to be from a third source or even a kit, it has better detailing and a smaller superstructure.

The MPC version as a higher prow, and probably isn't a copy of the Triang one, this was a standard design of tug-boat and years ago the harbours of the world were full of them, indeed we've already seen MPC produced two, dated a few years apart, but they're all but identical.

S is for Ships (and other vessels); Part 7 - Games and things...

Finishing this seven-part overview of small toy vessels finds us looking at the very small ones, mostly board game playing pieces, but also the Hong Kong copies of Minic ships and some cereal premiums.

So, most of you should recognise at least one of the above lots as three of them are from one or another version of Battleships, and anybody who hasn't had a set of Battleships in his past has had a deprived childhood - in my opinion!

The red plastic ones top left and inset - right, are actually from a game called Up Periscope by Denis Fisher, and the inset shows the depth-charge and torpeado pieces, while the main image has one (right-hand cargo-ship) with the stud removed to make it 'waterline'.

The vinyl ships are from a travelling set of Battleships, the little silver one is from the Merit pocket-set and the grey ones in the other inset come from an unknown source probably MB Games - see below. For size; the vinyl carrier is 30mm and the little silver MTB is 15mm long. The grey set are between 26mm (MTB) and 65mm (the carrier).

This set (red and yellow), is from MB Games - Germany, and belongs to a game called Submarine Hunt, you can see they are similar too but not the same as the grey set from the previous lot, however the shot-pegs are identical - hence my suspicions that that set too is MB - vessels vary between 28-45mm.

The other (clear and smoked plastic) set is from Salvo! by Palitoy for Parker Games and vary from 30 to 40mm. The styling - all 'groovy' Habitat perspex dates this to the early 1970's?

The set illustrated in the two left-hand images are Quaker cereal premiums, and I think this is a complete or near complete set, the inset shows a variation of the Empress of Britain without tonnage and a redesign of the whole face of the male half of the mould.

Queen Elizabeth 83,673 Tons - 9omm
United States 53,329 Tons - 86mm
Queen Mary 81,238 Tons - 85mm
 Liberte 51,840 Tons - 83mm
Tina Onassis 27,853 Tons - 77mm
Mauretania 35,677 Tons - 64mm
Nieuw Amsterdam 36,640 Tons - 62mm
Arcadia 29,734 Tons - 61mm
Edinburgh Castle 28,705 Tons - 61mm
Empress of Britain 25,516 Tons - 53.5mm

The grey vessels top-right are from an unknown sourse and are both well detailed and quite modern in design, they may be from one of the Japanese kit manufactures, sold as war-gaming pieces? The carrier is 75mm the smaller submarine a mere 45mm.  

03-09-2016 Now ID'd with the help of Uncle Brian - Silvercorn.

The last picture shows the 4 sculpts from the MB Games Axis & Allies (Sub; 35mm, Cargo vessel; 38mm, battleship; 50mm and the carrier 55mm) and 3 of the old Lido ships from the 1950's dime-store cards (55-60mm long).

These are a lovely little thing, they are mostly Hong Kong plastic copies of the smaller models from the Tri-ang Minic mini ships, in various grey-blues, the painted tug seems to be another HK copy, but HK was responsible for a revival of the original moulds and they may have put this in with one of the bigger ships? the pale grey tug, while a HK copy - seems to be from another source, being a little 'heavier' all round.

The lifeboat is a Minic original from the launch-station next to the pier and comes in at about 7mm (I forgot to measure it and it's back in storage!) the tugs are 4cm with the larger warships 9cm.