B is for Bags, Barrels, Bases, Bits & Bobs, Boxes, Bullets, a Barrow and a Bell!

Among other things! It's the bits and bobs, the accessories, the spares, the detritus, the orphaned elements of other toys or models, and peripheral/consumable stuff, which, due to the drawer of bits on show's-eve, is greater than some years, and full of things I can get a couple of lines of blurb out of!

 

Firstly; the accessories! These were new in Replicants inventory, and are obviously designed to go with the cart we shall see in a future post, bundles of sticks, which are beyond kindling, or fascines, and may be for tool-handles or walking sticks . . . Proper cargo, anyway! Along with sacks (not bags, but sacks didn't alliterate!) and some useful looking barrels.

 

Amorces, I need'em for ma'forces . . . is one of the most often visited posts on the blog, creeping toward the top twenty posts, and while that traffic is probbaly more about the bombs, with a few other caps, in other posts, caps are worth a better overview one day, in the meantime these have come it to join the master-sample we saw then;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-is-for-amorces-i-needem-for-mahforces.html

 

And while I well remember both the red and blueish-white rolls, along with the plastic strips and discs, the separate shots had been phased out by our childhood (the bulk of which was spent in the 1970's), and are more of a '50's thing, I think?

 

Bullets and shells, the sets of marbled ones in fives look familier, but I can't remember from which gun/toy the came, while the yellow rocket came with the Dinky Striker (one of the Scorpion Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance, Tracked, or CVR(T) family of FV10*-coded AFV's. My brother had the build-your-own kit of it, and I well remember the missiles, all over the floor

 

There is a zone for these guys, somewhere in storage, and the hope is they will eventually be married-up with their original gun, cannon, catapult, vehicle or whatever! And , with regard to things like the Striker missiles, always nicer to have the originals, than some after-market 'replacement' fakes.

 

Tyres, and a Dinky/Hornby sack-barrow; again always useful to have spares, I've been tasked with finding the wheels for a trolly bus, and I'm as likely to find it in the stash, when I get to it, as I am at a show like Sandown, but you have to look or you never find!

 

Road signs and street furniture; some of these look like they're from infant toys, and beyond the [pretty loose and wide-ranging] remits of the collection, but you never know, all sorts get thrown in rack-toys, as make-weights or space-fillers!

 

Older stuff, and all interesting. The set of cards are the 'mini' size, you get out of Christmas crackers, but  have the Quaker Foods logo, and were issued with Puffed Wheat in 1961, but could be another clue to a close, or 'closer' relationship between Tom Smith and Quaker than that already known? And previously hinted at here, only the other day, with regard to the set of ten ships? There was a set of full sized cards issued with Quaker Oats and Bran more recently. Both on Cereal Offers;

 

https://cerealoffers.com/Quaker_Ltd/quaker_ltd.html

 

There's also a nice stained, bone counter or tiddly-wink, and three card stands from board-games, the ovoid one on the right, I think went with early versions of L'Attack, Dover Patrol and the others in that series. The green wooden one may be a home-made replacement. 

 

A very small, but perfectly formed bell? It is unlikely to be from a Euro-rail kit, that pearlescent green is not a Faller-Kibri-Noch-Vollmer-Wiad (et al) church or chapel colour, yet it's too small to be a decorative Christmassy thing either? Possibly just a cracker charm?

 

The windmill is a new colour variation of one I already have several of, while the ad-hoc signage is likely to be from a model kit in the 1:35th/32nd bracket, maybe a car kit, or Western wagon, but more likely something military?

 

Mini spanners, I think they are the same size as Meccano, but it's not their design, and their hex-nuts arrived quite late, so a rival like Erector, or a knock-off? Or, having just mentioned the Dinky kits, some kind of build-your own toy, or assemble at home car kits?

 

The clockwork keys are grist to the mill, with two marked Penguin (Frog) on the right.

 

Spares; The spanner is a styrene, novelty one, and is large enough to have been in one of those 'Pick-up-Sticks'/Spillikins sets, with recognisable tools, although they are usually a bit longer/thinner? The Crescent lance is very useful!

 

Farmyard and battlefield accessories.

 

A marble (modern), two balls (one wooden) and a palm tree!

 

Two board-game racing cars which escaped the vehicular post, they are both from mid-20th Century board-games, and I have other examples of both, or very similar beasts, as I recognse both desings, hopeful they are new/missing colours, but that's probably hoping too much!

 

The little packets are, I think, spare felt-tips for marker pens, and, with that square-section, possibly the old pump-action, liquid-filled Edding's I remember from my youth, but they make useful additions to the 'greeblie' zone!

 

Everything else! The two ladders are probably the best bits here, as I'm pretty sure they are both from small die-casts in the Matchbox 1-75 or Hotwheels bracket, but the yacht's sail is also a good find, as is the spaceman's helmet!

All this stuff, if not quickly reunited with its owner, has a tub, box or bag to live in, and the smaller stuff goes in three of those multi-drawer cabinets, the old ones from Argos (or Index?), back when they still came in spot-welded steel cases.

 

Again thanking  Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin for their contributions. 

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. 

S is for Still a Question Mark!

When I started this Blog, I was happy to get 40-hits a day, within a few months I was expectant of 400-hits, and that was the case for another twelve/eighteen-months or so, since when it's steadily climbed to the point that excepting bot days (20,000-plus!), if I don't get 4000-hits a day, these days, I assume something as monumental as a Bank Holiday, Royal wedding or cup-final is occurring, or where are you all, and why aren't you reading my blog!

But, joking aside, it means there are many more loyal (and not so loyal) readers now, and many more here, than over on the Airfix Blog, which is more of a niche interest, even if these may end-up there one day, preferably ID'd, to which end, I'm going to ask this question again, in the hope we can get an answer! It has been asked in Plastic Warrior magazine too, a year or two ago now, but generated no replies if I recall correctly?

Who made these?

 

Copied from the Airfix HO/OO model kits, I think specifically the 25lbr, Quad and Limber kit, but two of the poses were shared with the Bren-gun Carrier and 6lbr. They are approximately 45mm, manufactured in a dense polyethylene, or - more likely - polypropylene, and must go with an artillery-gun toy, but Hong Kong, European die-cast, or, something else?

The painted one is probably a home-paint, done to match the Marx figures issued with the Power Mite truck (mentioned a while ago)? And they have integrally-moulded bases, not the glue-on's of the small-scale originals. The lower figure having been removed from his. When they were in PW there was the sitting gunner as well, but also on a base, and I think the whole-shell guy? I only have the empty-case guy, but that puts them as copied from the 25lbr, not the 6, as I've yet to find the standing guy in this guise?

 

25lbr, Quad and Limber

Holding shell

Holding empty-case

Pointing

Swagger-stick NCO

Seated at gun

Seated in Quad

 

 6lbr and Bren Carrier

Holding Shell

Pointing

Standing

Seated in Carrier

But, have you seen them in the packaging, do you know what they accompanied, can you put a maker's name, or brand-mark to them?

 

Because I've mentioned the Airfix Blog - I added a bunch of my own stuff to the early figures post a while ago, followed that up with some shots from Chris, and his own and donation figures, also a while ago, and have just found and added some more shots from Glenn in New Zealand, so there's lots more on that post/page;

https://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/2010/06/1949-1960-approximately-early-toy.html

T is for Thunderbirds' 2, 4, 6, FAB 1, and a Whole Bunch They Didn't Bother to Number . . . are GO!!

Funny story behind this one, the guy wanted (and I don't normally deal with the grubby stuff, but it's central to the story) 55-quid for this, a bit steep I thought, but I know this imported stuff commands a premium, so I thought "Fuck it, I'm playing catch-up with bushy the twig, I might as well?", and got sixty out, "Have you got a fiver?", I asked the dealer, at the start of the day . . . bear in mind, the dealer I was with, had a wad of fivers, and a bag of £1 and £2 coins, because he's prepared his float!

 

"Err, no" he says, so I asked him what we were going to do, and he half-heartedly muttered 'the wife' or something, and with no further words, exchanged a glance with her, and said "No". "Well, I'm not going to give you sixty?" says I, and he leaps back indignantly "I never asked you to!", "No" said I, "But that's the other logical solution?" To which he hummed an acceptance of that logic, and after a laboured silence, I said "Well, I'll leave it than, maybe later?" handed it back and walked away.

 

And I would have left it at that, indeed I went back past the stall a couple more times, gave it the once over, and studiously ignored the set, and would have left it. If you're setting yourself up as retailer for the day, no matter what your 'day job', you either go to the bank and get a wad of fivers and a bag of coins, or, if you don't do that many shows, save your one's, two's and five's in the two-to-four months between shows? It's common-sense as much as anything else.

 

However . . . on the other side of the hall, another chap had the exact-same contents of this set, in two window boxes, one with T2, T4, Pod 4 and - I think - Fab 1, the other having all the other vehicles, and the spare Pod 3, he wanted £60 or £65 for the first, and £40 or £45 for the second, I can't remember the exact amounts, but it was going to be over a hundred-quid for the pair, so in the end, I went back to the first stall, and I bought it after all, while he wasn't there, as it happens.

 

But, that was only half the story, as when I first spotted it, it had no price on, and I asked the lady (who would transpire to be the dealer's wife), how much it was, and she said she didn't know, but that 'he' was coming back, so I hung-on for a minute or two, then she said she didn't know what had happened to him, so I left it with her, assuming she would keep it behind until I returned.

 

The standard approach at shows, when someone shows interest in something, and the helper, for whatever reason, doesn't know what's going on. However, when I returned to the stall, it was back on display, for any Tom, Dick or Harry passing-by, to purchase, with it's newly added pink £55 label!

 

It takes the shine off the day, dealing with these fuckwits, you know? It's not rocket science, there are rules to the art of pretending to be a retailer for a day, and this stall literally failed all of them! Fackin' ell, G'want! An ironic cultural reference, as they went through a phase of wearing Thunderbirds Are Go T-shirts!

 

Anyway, I am now the pround'ish, owner, of a maybe cheaper than I thought it aught to be, Thunderbird Two from Bandai, with most of the more memorable pod-vehicles, to add to the already growing collection of micro-mini's we looked at here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/01/f-is-for-five-four-three-two-one.html

 

To which I've already added a vinyl tree-hanger, the dug-out 'Colourform' ones, a board-game foursome, and a couple more, in plunder-posts which didn't get the T-bird Tag!
 

 

Mole, Firefly and the Excavator, which should be red, and which I saw in an episode the other night, there's one of these 24-hour live streams on YouTube, which seems to be connected to the remastered Blu-ray, and I'm dipping into it from time to time, but you never know where in the loop you're going to drop-in, so you then have to fast-forward through a few, to get to where you were, after which the episode cursor stops progressing, all very confusing, but great-fun seeing them all again!

 

Fab 1, and the two blueys, the ray turns on the Transmitter Truck, and the grabs (I don't know this vehicle's name? Another Excavator?) are articulated, the only other interactive one is the Excavator above, where the bucket is clip-on and can be configured for travelling in the Pod, or as shown.

 

I'm minded, if I ever get the time, to scratch-build a few more to go with these, the last episode I watched was 'The Uninvited', about the mysterious pyramid of Khamandides, with the half-tracked 'Jeep', it would be fun to do that in this scale!

 

Three more, I don't know what the first one is, a laser-cutter - should it also be red? The second is one of two Recovery Vehicles, the other would need to be scratch-built, and it can be red or yellow? While I remember a trio of the Elevator Cars (which should also be red, or white with a red cab?) trying to save the huge (and rather silly) Firefly, I can't remember the whole story, and will catch up with it soon, hopefully, but I think they sort of succeeded?

 

Thunderbird Six . . . it's not a Pod-vehicle! My late father's Tiger Moth, which was an ex-WWII trainer, had a very similar paint-job, but blue, not red, and I wonder if the MOD-approved sellers painted them like this, to hide the military markings, prior-to-sale, but, like so many things (you realise, after they have gone), I never asked him?

One of the great continuity errors of Thunderbirds, which niggled me, even as a kid, was the fact that Thunderbird Four, was named thus, and got its own Pod, while none of the others got either a number or a dedicated Pod, I don't even know how many Pods there were, was it six? The two Pods in this set are only numbered on the front, they should be numbered at both ends, and the registering of the sticker here, leaves a lot to be desired!

B is for Big Box of Bounty - Vehicles, Bits & Bobs

Well, luckily I have a day off, today, as I have a ton of plastic shite . . . Sorry, 'polymer loveliness' to sort and photograph, from the BP Sandown Park toy fair, yesterday, where I had a excellent day, but before I get started on that, here's the latest instalment of the plunder-posts from Chris Smith's most recent donation to the blog, which is all the man-made stuff! 

 

This is rather nice! A probably French farm-cart, in that heavy, hard-toffee-like polystyrene material, which I suspected was probably French, but sent these images to the authors of FIM, just in case they hadn't seen it, however, they were familiar with it, and were also of the opinion it is French.

 

It has a lovely tipping-action, via a lever at the front, and may be missing a probably removable back-board or ladder-rave, wheels seem to be the same polymer, while the white tyres are a polyethylene, I think? Maker still needed though?

 

This is how it came out of the box, with a Pokémon (?) hitched-up!

 

A Blue Box Austin champ, which seems to have been deliberately cut-back, in preparation for some conversion, or super-detailing? It will go in the spares for now, while the little PVC Galoob knock-off is new to me, Blog and the collection.

 

The weird landing craft belongs with various generic rack-toy 'army men' and diver sets, and while having various holes in which it looks like something should be plugged-in, is found just like this, in sealed sets!

 

More rack-toys with a militarised executive jet and one of the MPC mini-plane piracies, all useful, and the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar (which Dad jumped out of, on many occasions), seems to be one of the slightly bronzed-silver versions which are harder to find.

 

The submarine is from a modern rack-toy, or rack-toys, and we've probably seen it here in sealed/shelfied set/s in recent years, and is a useful loose addition. The racing car is from one of those credit-card shaped (and material) novelty sets, I have dinosaurs in the collection somewhere, and there are several sets of jet fighters.

 

The sports-car with lenticular 'window' is an old 1d or 2p gum-ball capsule-machine prize, while the locomotive is a modern (possibly Kinder) take on the old erzgebirge toy, where several wagons, or coaches, would be hooked or tied-together as a full train.

 

Three cracker-toy type bikes/motorcycles in the front-left 'row', with the larger bike we've seen before in various greens or spray-camouflage, associated with the Supreme/Ackerman, 'Fritz-helmeted' PVC figures, while the chap on the right is a Hong Kong rider, I think, used for both motorcycles and the quad-bike type machines?

 

A couple of flags (Norway (R) and semi-fictional 'African', left ) and what I suspect is the top of an animal 'toob', being a spinning map of the world, possibly seen here as a shelfie, I can't recall, but it looks familiar? One feels it's just the accessory for a evil Doctor's lair in some superhero or Bond'esque scenario, as the conference table!

 

I'd love to know where the axe comes from or who it belongs to, the shovel will be from one of the eight or ten-inch Action Man/GI Joe rip-offs, the pistol looks like a Christmas cracker prize, and more specifically, the mini, tree-crackers? I think the lantern with clear-marble lens is a doll's house accessory, due to its diminutive size, similar tourist items tend to be larger and have a pencil-sharpener secreted about them!

 

Part of a rack-toy bridge, an oil-drum, which may be Airfix and a rather nice, probably Hong Kong made wheelbarrow, which could have conveniently been for that yellow figure (Chris reports Eric Critcley as confirming him being a French farmer and not a cowboy), but it's too big!

However, with so many farmworker and construction/road-worker figures in the 'unknown civilian' zones, I'm sure it'll fit someone, even if it doesn't actually belong to them! Soft polyethylene with a very small wheel, is it from something cartoony like Bob the Builder?

 

Bits of the 'Bucking Bronco' jig-toy puzzle, a Richard I label which may prove useful one day, clearly it belongs on the base/plinth of a statuette or figure of some kind, which may come in, or already be in the stash, without a label?

 

The other casualty of Royal Fail's comprehensive parcel-mashing programme, was the blob to the right, which deserves a restoration! It's got the Airfix Reconnaissance Set's German dispatch-rider at it's core, with the wheels of a US M3 half-track either side and something on the back, and would seem to have been a home-made sci-fi bike thing, with the rider, now headless, painted up like a Soviet general on May 1st!

 

Marx (?) on the left, modern rack-toy/play-set boulder on the right!

 

Manta Force from Bluebird/Tomy, both missing bits, but both usable, and while other Manta stuff is in the forthcoming Sci-fi post, one day we'll redo all the Bluebird overviews, which were back near the beginning of the Blog and well overdue for an updated treatment, and these will be useful for that!

T is for Tameo, but also; Question Time!

Roving reporter Brian Berke picked these up the other day, and sent them to the blog, and while he's pretty sure they're by Tameo Kits (TK) of Italy, the figures don't seem to be listed on the website any longer, so help with identifying the individuals' modelled, would be greatly appreciated, from any F1 or Italian model fans, who might be passing Small Scale World!

Personal or eMail-related stuff edited out, but in Brian's words;

 

"I won  [. . .]  some metal figures. From the listing photo, I thought they were in space suits, but it turns out they are racing drivers from an Italian firm called TAMEO that I had never heard of. Their present website does not seem to list them.

I make no apologies for not having a racing car to pose them with, not my area of interest, but I [found] a NASCAR diecast to indicate use. The figures are in two scales.

I don't know if the ID's [numbers on the bags] are from the [model-] maker or the . . . seller."

 

 

Unnumbered - "The complete standing figure seems to be based on an actual driver." I'm wondering if it might be either James Hunt or a young Schumacher (and I lean toward the former, that's a 1960/70's helmet)?

 

RD 3 (racing driver [model] 3?) - He is obviously stepping into a racing car's cockpit, and has a more modern fire-suit and helmet, the peg on his left foot, will be for fixing him to the intended vignette or diorama base.

 

RD 7 - The output of Tameo, still extant, is mostly in 1:43, and I suspect they are all supposed to be the same scale, but the seated drivers are a little smaller, possibly to account for the material of the cockpit walls being not scale-thinness, and they seem to have lost their toes, probably for the same reason? I think they are too big to be 1:64th, the next natural scale down?

 

 

RD 8 - similar to the last one, but his separate gloves, being designed to sit on the bonnet, edge of the cockpit somewhere, or even in his lap, suggest he's to be posed in the 'Paddock' phase, prior to the formation-lap, with all the reporters, crew, VIP ticket-holders, grid-girls holding number-boards, and such like?

 

That scrum which Tony Jardine used to fight to hear himself over, let alone get information to the rest of us, and yes, I'm dating my participation in F1, I haven't watched it, nor followed it, for years!

 

RD 10 - "[ . . . ] also shows what may be an actual driver." Again, I have an idea, which is that it may be Ayrton Senna, or another of the older drivers? Again a paddock pose, with him actually putting one glove on, while the other waits to be posed on the vehicle somewhere, or held by a member of the pit crew . . . and, were they also made by Tameo, at some point?

 

Unnumbered -  this guy's got both hands firmly on the steering wheel, and would seem to be racing, but his helmet is from a third generation maybe? Although it seems to me, with nothing but the visual evidence you can see, for yourselves, that the bare-headed chaps may well be intended character figures, and the helmeted guys, deliberately more generic?

 

All have been shot by Brian with the 'Hunt' figurine as a comparison.

 

'Hunt' again, posed with Ricky Rudd's Ford Taurus Whirlpool/Tide,  #10 Nascar premium from the 1998/99 seasons (thanks Google, useful for once!). There are various models of this car, including a 1:64th Hot Wheels, while Racing Champions did a 1:24 scale, die-cast, but this Procter & Gamble charity/advertising giveaway (?) looks to be closer to the required 1:43rd?

 

The Tameo website - https://www.tameokits.com/

 

And many thanks to Brian for sending us this, racing figures are one of those side-bars who will eventually get a page on the A-Z Blogs, along with Firefighters, road-crews, Police, Ambulance personal and other such figures who keep recurring as die-cast's accessories!

 

Added the next day, this bag went missing and the seller is 'moving house', so it may never turn up, but has tantalising clues including what looks like a 1990's Williams cockpit transfer, sponsor's advert graphics for Hitachi and NGK, and another driver.
 

So if anyone can flesh-out the back-story/history of these for us, that would be grand!