N is for Novelty Highlanders!

Let's get the oddities out of the way first!

Alongside the Dewar's Drum Major we've seen recently and included for sizing, we have a rather nice Hong Kong piper, based on the Britains Herald pose (as most copies are) but with the novel change of headgear to a side-cap, his pipes are also further spread with a thicker connecting sash (which probably has a special name but I don't know it!) sans tassels.

Then there are three versions of key-ring, the one on the right being a heavier sculpt in a softer PVC to the other two, along with a mini-key-ring version approximately 1:72nd scale.

The three larger key rings with the Herald donor; I converted the first one years ago, although a full'ish 54mm, with no base he always looked a bit smaller and hung around even while I was a small scale 'purist', I used to always cut the key ring away, I now realise this was a kind of sacrilege (unless you add a base maybe?) so now I leave the key ring - or whatever remains of it, as it the case of the other two!

Bog-standard tourist items in the 1970's and 1980's there must be quite a few of them or things like them around the place and I'm sure that away from our branch of the hobby there will be key-ring (-fob, -chain...) collectors with lots of paint/plastic/sculpt-variants and/or different sizes?

As I'm equally sure the eraser/novelty-sharpener collecting people have a few more of these? I don't know where the head came from but it doesn't seem to have come from the earlier Zang/Herald chap, who has the long tapes or ribbons at the back. And his legs have veered away from the donor's design!

No branding clue, just a simple 'HONG KONG', and again probably sold as a generic tourist trinket from the kiosks of Central London or the gift shops of lesser or second-tier museums and visitor attractions.

I also have this in the collection, although I ask myself "Why?" every time I see it! I guess I like the clever impression of depth-of-field attained by the laser-cut laminate glued to its own background - they even line-up the shadows! A fridge magnet; it's probably still around, or quite contemporary, although I've had it for ten years or more?

F is for Found . . . Again!

I got the Highlander box back out of the attic and dug the newer stuff out of the Historical-Colonial-Ceremonial TBS (to be sorted) box they were hiding in.

Seen here with the Dewar's chap from the other day, who's been taken out of the C/D/E box to join the rest in the thematic box. The Cherilea Airfix and Timpo (et al) Napoleonic or other fighting troops don't go in here, this is just for ceremonials, both marching or attention riflemen and 'Pipes and Drums'.

He is a good copy! I don't have a Hong Kong-for-Britains vinyl one, so we'll have to look again to make sure one day; as those HK-Britains ones were themselves 'copies' of the Herald sculpts, but I think he must be a pantographic clone!

D is for Dewar's

This was in the same box as the Condor stuff; 'Minor Makes C/D/E', although I suspect the 'make' is Britains Hong Kong facility! Until I dig the 'Highlanders' box out again (it was in my hands the other day, but went up to the attic), probably over Christmas, I can't check the finer points, it may be the late Britains moulding, it may be a copy.

The 'Dewar's' plinth advertising the product is polystyrene, the figure in a PVC vinyl-rubber and the painting is definitely not Britains, so I suspect a good copy!

It's the holes in the feet which make for the Britains link, the separate arm also being a feature of the Britains figures - I'm 50/50 decided/undecided on the moulding - obviously it's the Britains pose; I'll do a direct comparison next time . . . for all I know it's in the Great Book of Britains, but that's buried in the garage at the moment!

To that end, I have removed it from the C/D/E box and will add it to the Highlander box, increasingly I seem to be going that way, the small scale are still sorted first by make, then by wider types, while the boxed/bagged/carded stuff is a bit mixed in all scales, but the loose, large-scale is best sorted thematically, even if the make is known.

The Zombies got their own box the other day and it already has five types in, although I cheated slightly by deciding October 31st's Mummies from Brian B were 'living dead', not 'skeletons' and therefore 'zombies' of a sort!

If you're wondering why the short-posts and box-tickers this week, it's that time of year when you are all finishing jobs, getting work in, completing contracts, moving house (believe it - busiest time of year for estate agents), visiting friends and relatives, doing the annual shopping expeditions and such-like, so there's a drop-off in your attention spans and over-all visits, so I'm getting easy stuff out, ticking boxes, clearing some stuff out of Picasa and - hopefully - keeping it varied and/or finding something to interest you along the way, while topping-up the tag-list!