F is for Follow-up . . . Vickers . . . Plus

And an example of my utter incompetence! Off the back of my Timpo Vickers MG post the other day, Brian Berke sent me a bunch of images from the Big Apple (a rather frozen Big Apple, I might add!), I thanked him, and mentioned I'd just seen two images of machine-guns somewhere in Picasa (literally a day or two before his eMails), and would dig them out for a fuller (more full?)  post.

 

I downloaded his images, and thought no more about it for a few days. Announced a machine-gun follow-up, as the next post (intended for that (Saturday) evening), and then spent about eight hours over the next two days, trying to find the images.

 

I went from the top of Picasa, to the bottom (some 1200 folders), and from the bottom to the top, even all the old college stuff, and non-toy folders, I tried everything on the desktop, I looked in other esoteric locations, I tried tricking myself by going back to one I knew I'd just looked at, in case they had magically appeared while my head was turned, I opened the folders in case they weren't showing in Picasa, I was going stir-crazy mad!

 

Starting to convince myself I'd imagined it, despite being able to picture both images, I thought I'd check the folder where things are waiting to go on the dongles, and bloody found them! Only to realise that when I'd found them the few days earlier, I'd thought "What are these doing here?", and moved them to the 'done' folder! We actually saw them here in 2022!

 

But, we only saw them briefly in posts which were making some vague point to someone, somewhere, so we'll look at them again, in this unstructured look at machine-guns! Indeed, the only structure, is the stuff from Brian, which is all Vickers, except some of them are probably Brownings, and technically, they are all Maxims!

 

Left to right in the upper shots, clockwise from the top-left, in the lower collage, we have a lovely bit of plastic, owned by so many of us back in the day, and among my favourites of the era, the Timpo 'solid', later Action Pack, 8th Army gunner, here the earlier painted version, Action Pack's were unpainted, but give us several colour-variations to look out for, we saw some of them here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/09/m-is-for-monty-and-is-mob.html

 

Then we have two versions of the Britains hollow-cast gunner, one, the pre-WWI sculpt, which would become the early-war accurate representation, the other the inter-war head-sculpt, who is both late WWI and early (BEF/Home Guard) WWII accurate. A change Brian wondered if Britains were happy with having to do, but I guess, you have to move with the times, especially when you last as long as Briatins did . . . I've highlighted in the past how Zang, Herald, Swoppets and then Herald Hong Kong & Deetail, changed, over time, often while running along-side each other, even unto replacing Lee Enfield's with SLR's, and - these days -even our cheapo china-troop 'Army Men' mostly have Kevlar Fritz-helmets and bullpup automatics!

 

Lastly a US Dime Store, or home-casting figure, hunched over what would have been a Browning version of Hiram Maxim's steel-sleeved, water-cooled, single-barrelled, automatic-action, gas-blowback, rifle-ammunition firing 'Machine Gun'!

 

Brian then found a couple more, with the Bergan Toy & Novelty Company (Beton), on the left of each pair in a hard-wearing polystyrene, or earlier phenolic type polymer; dense, hard plastic, but relatively infrangible.

To the right another, more obviously Dime Store, or is he a die-cast, he looks pretty chunky, and relatively uniquely to America, there was a trend for cast-iron toys, from the 18-something's, to the mid C20th. Also, it's nice to see a Crescent sizer, they've rather taken a back-seat this last few years, as mine are in storage, I should try to dig one out, and keep it around!

 

Then he spotted another one hiding on a shelf! It's another Dime Store-looking chap, and if any American readers can ID any of the three US metal ones, that would be appreciated. Many-thanks to Brian for all the above, but, as discussed, I was on a mission by now!

 

Seen before, better light this time, one of the two errant images, and mostly 'Maxims'! My favourite here is the Japanese novelty blow-mould (back-right), it always amazes me that such delicate models ever survive, but thus is the creditable job of collectors, especially those collectors who aren't hooked-up on the 'big names'!

 

Down the left we have a bunch of minor-make composition, I can't tell you who any of them are made by, and they look to have been repainted anyway, so, as far as hard-core composition experts go, no more than curiosities, even if there are Lineol or Elastolin among them?

 

Bottom left is a less common Polish chap, probably PZG, but could be a lesser make, or even an East German? A modern-production Jap, in the top left corner (BMC or AiP), with a trio of Frenchies front centre, and a couple more foreign troops filling the corner, up by the blow-mould.

 

While the front-right corner is mostly early British plastic; Charbens, Cherilea (note the similarity of the Cherilea Russian and Sikh soldiers with Bren Guns), Crescent (WWI), Timpo, and a Zang composition, along with a late Toyway version of the Action Pack, in shiny grey.

 

Terrible photo (me being an idiot!), but the more interesting shot. The grey machine-gun is probably a Marx reissue, but anyone following Ed Burg, this last few weeks will have seen several versions from Marx and Payton, and I know T Cohn/Superior/Brumberger had several goes, among others!

In the middle we see the late polyethylene Beton, with a lead Timpo GI and two of the metallic-bronze tanned Charbens crew, serving an Atlantic mortar!

 

The Atlantic Maxim is being fired by a Spanish figure, but Russian equipment means a Republican defending democracy from the Fascists (how the Republican movement has changed, eh, Donald?), crescent barbed-wire defending his flank, and a spare Timpo Vickers is up the back-left!

 

Another modern figure in front, an unknown semi-flat, from right, just behind the Atlantic Navy (or Air Force?) gunner, with a bird's eye view of another Spanish figure front centre. The WWI gunner with service-cap, may be Crescent, with a Speedwell/Trojan/VP type in front? And the lead gun next to the Timpo Vickers, could be a 'new metal' jobbie?

 

Which should leave four; three flats and the other wheeled Russian Maxim . . .

 

The more interesting is the metal semi-flat, upper left in the previous shot, as he is a short-lived attempt by Timpo to produce die-cast alloy figures. The common one found is the standing pose, I have picked-up several, over the years, and various sellers told me various tales as to who made him (Sacul was a favourite, as were Clarke Brothers), but, as you can see, Timpo was the culprit. I now have to find the prone rifleman loose!

 

However, it's clear, reading Garratt, Joplin or Opie, that nobody knows what Timpo were really doing at the start, and with moulds bought, borrowed or copied, and the still partly mysterious Zang/Timpolin thing, we probably will never know everything, so these could have been bought-in, or commissioned from a third party, maybe even Zang!

 

The other two RPD-equipped flats are Polish (lower shot), and I used to think (having been told so) that they were Centrum, but I think one of the Poles elsewhere, questioned that attribution, in one of his locally published articles? While the Maxim Gun above, is for PZG gunners, I think?

 

Which brings us to this, and while I've been strict about not doing Russian stuff since the illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I'm slipping this in here, as Chris Smith sent it to the Blog ages ago as a follow-up to the Leningrad Forging Factory post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2014/02/l-is-for-leningrad-forging-factory.html

 

In which I mentioned plain, grey plastic versions, and Chris sent examples (for another day) along with this 40mm (scale, not calibre!) machine-gun which I hadn't encountered, and which wasn't included in the chrome-finish set, in that earlier post.

 

While this 35mm Starlux piece (looks more like an anti-tank rifle!) has been seen before, without crew (and the crew have been seen before, with a different weapon), and the shot has been hanging around in Picasa for ages, waiting for a machine-gun post, I guess! And this, over 53-hours late, is that post! Cheers to Chris and Brian for their help.

M is for Mohawk and More Military Miniatures

At the recent Sandown Park show I picked up a parcel from our roving reporter in New York, Brian Berke, which was very useful, as while I've mentioned them once or twice over the years, I've never encountered the sample while transferring things between different places, so they've remained rather absent from the Blog, but we can now tick that box - Mohawk's mini 'dimestore dreams'.

 

The one on the right is the colour of all my sample, so the pale herb-green ones, to the left, which made-up the bulk of Brian's donation were new to me, and this is a slightly larger version of the jeep we've seen before here more than once.

 

Brian also included a few marked-Lido mini's, so we can compare the two mouldings, as a full-stop to this original post, here, which compared the other three contenders for who's the pirate, who's the licensee, and who did the first version!

 

So that's six (Kleeware, Lido x2, Merit, Pyro and Mohawk) in total now, with the soft plastic Hong Kong version, Lido seem to have sanctioned themselves, toward the end!

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/08/l-is-for-lido-not-load-of-limp.html 

 

The lorry on the left, a sort of 1950's pantechnicon, is also a homage to other mini 'readymades' of the era (the Pyro 'artic'), and also scaled-up, while the Ambulance is a more original moulding. I know I have a tanker, to look at another day, but I think I was missing the pantechnicon, so lovely to get both colours.

 

The car is also based on another model, and while less obvious, joins the Empire-Ideal-Kleeware-Lido-Pyro (2 sculpts)-Wyandotte family of small post-war family saloons, for an eight-count! While Brian himself sent us the Carzol coloured versions of the Tank not that long ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/07/n-is-for-new-stuff-from-new-york.html

 

Lido on the left, Mohawk on the right and there's more on the cars here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2013/03/s-is-for-siblings-take-2.html

 

Among the Lido's was a lovely bronzed version of the 'StuG III' which was new to me, and while rather washed-out by camera-flash in this shot (left-hand tank), is - in daylight - a distinctive goldish-bronze colour plastic, like some of the Captain Video figures!

 

At the same show Adrian had a few dime-store's saved for me, both of which are useful, having seen marked tractors and or guns from Banner, Bell and Merit, I'm not sure who issued this unbranded pair (left, the tractor has a 'Made in England' which I'll compare to others in the collection at a later date), but in a batch of British stuff, Kleeware, Tudor Rose or Merit (licensed or copy) are in the frame, and with the wreaker-truck a marked Kleeware copy/mould-swap of the Pyro, the clever money goes on Kleeware?

 

As with the Jeeps and 'Staff Cars', we've looked at many versions of the gun here at Small Scale World, already, but getting two new versions in one show is a feather in the collection's cap, with the unmarked green one, and a full-sized Hong Kong copy, in silver polymer, with eye-damaging ammunition!

 

There were a couple of more conventional/less contentious British 'Dime Store' AFV's from Tudor Rose, not copied by five other people, or licensed to anyone, the rather good Churchill IV, and the more dodgy armoured car.

Many thanks to Brian and Adrian, it’s all a dimestoretastic show-plunder and donations post, folks!

S is for Supersonic Set!

Starting to wind-up the Sandown plunder posts, and we have this interesting little carded set of - probably - 1950's plastic, bought from the same vendor as the Poplar Plastic canoe-race set, we have three small aircraft in two designs but raising more questions than they answer!

 

 

Two sort of 'Shooting Star's, and something with the lines of a Hawker Hunter or Sabre, but the nose of neither! We saw an unmarked version of the 'Hunter' here, from Andreas in Germany;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/09/c-is-for-comedy-of-errors.html

 

and, many years ago, a green one, marked Tudor Rose, with a more substantial pair of tail-planes, and lower wheels;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/t-is-for-tudor-rose-part-2-lose-ends.html

 

. . . all suggesting this was one of those early designs and/or tools which 'did the rounds' of early plastics manufacturers, at the small toy/novelty end of the market.

 

And, while the odd thing turns up (like this unidentifiable card) on evilBay or at shows, the fact is, we have mostly lost that information forever. We don't know who companies like Codeg (Cowan de Groot) or Chad Valley were commissioning things from, what people like Rosebud were making to produce cashflow while they developed their dolls, who supplied Tom Smith, where old moulds went, when Kleeware or Bell were finished with them, add the international aspect, and a bit of tax-driven mould swapping or greed-driven piracy, and this stuff is likely to remain 'unknown' forever?

A is for Airforce One . . . Hundred and Eighty!

I know, I know, but if you think about it, there is some sense in that, a method in the madness!

 

I like to think that over the years a lot of the important ID work on both Zang (composition) and Palitoy (early plastic) aircraft has been done here, slowly, as I've found them, not knowing Mig Bonnefoy already knew more about the Zang than me, but wasn't publishing online!

 

In recent months I've had a couple of good chats with Mig, on the subject, and shared two of these Zang revelations with him, but in the meantime a loyal reader 'Down Under', sent more revelations on Palitoy and some Antipodean angles on 'dine store' plastics, therefore this post is full of interesting stuff, new to Blog, Internet and some further corners of the Hobby!

 

So, in the order in which they were revealed to me, let's get stuck in!

 

We've seen the Boeing B17 in both silver and camouflage, and both British and USAAF markings (indeed, the examples on that occasion, came from Mig!), but for years, people have always been careful to say things like 'believed to be', 'said to be' and such like, when discussing the 'Zang for Timpo', I know I have, and the confusion, aided by Joplin's big yellow book, was always best left as Zang if loose, Timpo if Timpo-carded!

 

But here we have, on opposite tail planes, both a Timpo mark and the Zang mark, as a nice underlining confirmation of the relationship, and the first time I've seen it. And many thanks to John Begg for saving this one for me.

 

Then, a couple of weeks later, I found this at Sandown Park, and I've pulled it from those plunder-posts, to get it all together here. I was able to show it to Mig, literally minutes later, and an eMail exchange then ensured to decide whether it was a Yakovlev Yak-3 or an Ilyushin Il-2 (Flying Tank), and the Yak was settled upon! But nobody knew these were out there.

 

No Timpo blue-triangle label, although there may have been one where the paper blemish lies under the nose of the righthand Yak, but the box is quite fancy, and reminiscent of the JE Beale's department-store one, which reminds us they are still all Zang first, and only Timpo if so packaged . . . or, now, sometimes, marked!

 

Mig also gave me an updated list of the Zang/Timpo 'planes;

• Airspeed Horsa (Glider) 
• Boeing B17 Fortress
• Boeing B29 Super Fortress
• Bristol Blenheim 
• De Havilland Mosquito
• Gloster E28/39 (Jet)
• Hawker Typhoon 
• Lockheed P-38 Lightning
• North American P-51 Mustang
• Supermarine Spitfire
• Yakovlev Yak-3
•  
• Fairy Battle (mentioned in an Article by Sue Richardson )?
• 
  
• While we both think there should be a Hawker Hurricane!

So I still have at least, four to shoot, five to find, as the Horsa we saw here wasn't mine! 

 

In the meantime, a loyal reader who doesn't want naming, but is happy to go by the moniker 'Ozi', sent me this, from Australia, and it's clearly a metal copy of the later/better Palitoy spitfire moulding, under the name of Merry Toys, missing its landing gear and propeller, but, there's no missing those lines, as we've seen them here, on the Blog, most recently this January, just gone. 

 

Ozi said: "I will attach a few pics of the “Merry Toys” metal cast item; which I think owes a great deal in parentage to the Palitoy “Spitfire or whatever it is”.  The wingspan of the Merry Toy is spot on four inches.  I don’t have a Palitoy Spitfire” to go alongside it.  The casting of the Merry Toy is pretty crude anyway.  Would you please let me have your thoughts on the possible parentage of this item?  I found it in a model shop about twenty years ago" .

 

Well . . . my thoughts are, who copied who? There is clearly a relationship, but the Aussie one is both lacking the strange indented line down the fuselage (of the Palitoy one), and has a better cockpit. So I am minded to think, given how poor Palitoy's version-one Spitfire was, that they are also responsible for the first iteration of this beast, and Merry then improved upon it?

 

Also, haveing placed the Palitoys firmly in the 1940's, there is something of the 1950's tinplate about this Merry antipodean one, albeit, it's actually a die-cast alloy model?

Ozi also sent a very clean Mossie . . . from Aussie . . . sometimes I should just be jailed! Ozi found it on Gumtree, down under, so some made their way down there. I think I read, there is both a real Mosquito and a Lancaster being rebuilt in that part of the world?

 

It's not the only Mossie being rebuilt I believe, and likewise I think an American (or second Canadian?) Lancaster is under rebuild. Having seen the then, only two, flying Lank's together, at Farnborough, a fair few years ago, now, imagine what four would look/sound like, and likewise, three Mosquitos! 

 

In a follow-up eMail Ozi sent these four pictures (above and below) of smaller 'novelty' 'plane models, and I'll post his musing on childhood fandom and memories of toy aircraft at the bottom. Here a rather nice Vampire, in marbled pinkish-maroons.

 

 

 North American P-51 Mustang and De Havilland DH.106 Comet

 

Grumman F9F Panther

"In my school days, growing up in a smallish country town in OZ and later in a City, with only my imagination for company, it was natural to have a liking for toy aircraft.  It was a bit after WW2 and no one wanted reminders of it – but I was curious about the aircraft.  Over several years, I saw the Dinkies, the Timpo “Bomber Station” set (with what I later recognized as Lightnings!), a small scale plastic set of apparently locally produced items and – best of them all – the plastic Palitoys.  Particularly the Wellington with its transparent gun turrets with guns!

 

They were all out of my reach and I just had to drool. The Defiant and the Wellington were moulded in a sort-of camouflage pattern [the distinctive marbling of early Palitoy's. Ed.]; which made them very distinctive. 

 

And then there was a series of plastic toys contemporary with the Korean War; Panther, MIG 15, Shooting Star a nice Sabre with RAAF markings and they had wheeled undercarriages. In various colours; blue, yellow, red.  I managed to somehow get a couple of them.  There might have others in that series. I am pretty sure they were local knock-offs of the US Empire brand – or they might have been licensed copies.  I don’t know, and I don’t think anybody knows now.

There was another series out about the same time – no undercarriages on this lot ; a Hawker Hunter (Only saw red ones), a Canberra and a DC3.  And a bit later were the giveaways with packets of “Aeroplane Jellies”.  I have illustrated the only one of those I have ever seen.  A Vampire, not very well moulded in a dark purple colour. Similarly, I somehow managed to swap for or find examples.

 
The first pics are of the “Aeroplane Jellies” Vampire.  Wingspan about 2.5”. Next are a couple of examples of the small scale locals – a Mustang and a Comet in silver.  Wingspan about 2.5”.  Only ever saw these in silver, and I am pretty sure there was a Canberra in that series and also a Lincoln.  Next is a pic of an American Empire Grumman Panther.  Wingspan about 4.5”.  Despite looking for years for examples of the OZ made Panthers, MIG15’s etc, I have never seen a single one.

In more recent times I have obtained locally a very distorted Palitoy Defiant, a couple of Lockheed bombers; plus eBay examples of the post-war Wellington and Sunderland.  The occasional Timpo Lightning crops up here, and also their B17.  Usually very play worn.

 

A couple of ZANG Mossies were a welcome find a few years ago.  A local site had a listing some time ago of a collection of small plastic toys; FD2, Lightning and others and I put in a bid, but it was not good enough.  Apparently they were local KELLOGG'S giveaways and dated rather after my school days. . . . 

. . . I should mention seeing the toys section of one of the new supermarkets (COLES) having Palitoy “Spit-whatevers” and Vampires and possibly other types finished in what appeared to be chrome plating."

The 'small scale locals' would seem to be yet another iteration of the MPC 'Minis', also done in hard plastic by Blue Box, but possibly only one or two? And many thanks to John, Mig and 'Ozi' for helping bring this lot together!

L is for Lots of London Loot - Sandown February - Space & Pop Culture

So, I would seem to be catching up with the stuff that's come in over the last ten months or so, and the Sandown Park show, just gone, produced quite a collection of bits and bobs across scales, types and genres for the stash, this post is what I'd normally call the Space and TV, but they weren't TV first, being corporate mascot and comic characters!

 

I have quite a few Bibendums, and we have seen him here before, but this is far more animated than the usual standing types. Quite large and a modern PVC-substitute, I'm sure it's a pretty contemporary promotional piece?

 

Slightly futuristic lines to these dime-store pieces, the car and caravan being more conventional, and marked ACME, one of the trading names of Thomas Toys in the US, I think the truck is unmarked, but I'm sure it'll be in Bill Hanlon's book? Looks like a simplified copy of Archer's 'Future Cars' sculpt?

 

Adrian had saved these two Cherilea / Hilco's for me, the standing guy has a damaged weapon, but they both have their correct helmets and put my squad, much enhanced with superglue up to about ten, with most complete, but all short on helmets!

 

Bully Lucky Luke figures, the eponymous hero, his horse Jolly Jumper and his dog, Ratanplan, these are soft PVC and scale well with the Comansi/bubble-gum premium ones seen here before.

 

The Dalton Brothers, from the left; Averell, Jack, William and Joe, also Lucky Luke characters, these are in a hard, possibly phenolic plastic, or early 'styrene, from JIM in France, and are in a larger scale.

 

Brabo bendy toy! Larger again, and manufactured in that slightly sweaty PVC, some Hong Kong makers used/favoured at times, but only to a slight shininess, not the full-on weeping stickiness of some old toys from the colony!

 

Mixed, larger-scale space figures with two of the Marx metallic blue ones, a Tudor Rose (marked) licensed copy/mould swap of Premier's pulp spaceman waving pistol and a - probably - 1970's PVC gum-ball, capsule-machine robot.

 

Three of the LB (for Lik Be) copies, I couldn't remember which ones I already had, so just grabbed all three against the possibility I might still need some poses, which may be among this trio, and because paint was quite good, except the bases!

 

We've seen them before, and now attributed them to two names, Toyway and the original GLJ, with packaging, so I thought we should see them from the back! I got excited as I thought I'd 'found' a fourth pose, but we've actually seen them all before!

 

These have been a steady stream-in, over the last few years, Italy's sub-scale copies, titled Space Legion (Legione Epaziale), from little pocket-money cards, again copied, but from Archer as well as the Premier biggies. I like the marbling, it gives each figure a certain character or uniqueness!

 

These are the Giant sub-copies I called 'Copy 2' here, and while the most common of the four types so far found, this particular batch is a late-production run, with a lot of heat-shrinkage dwarfism! They are also, mostly, in a darker gunmetal than the usual samples? You can spot the three more common silvery ones among them, and they are guarding two valuable dome-helmets (Archer / Glenco and Britains?) for the spares box!

B is for Banner . . . and?

Also shot at Sundown Park in November, but not purchased (because I think I have them in the collection already), was this series of comparison shots between a clearly Banner-marked 'row crop' tractor, from the US and two probably British copies, of unknown origin, and both unmarked.

 

The Banner is larger, and has better sculpted tyre treads on the front wheels, it also has a towing hitch missing from the smaller copies. I don't know who made the copies, but when we saw a similar copy, it was more close (with tow-hitch and marked Made in England), and came stitched into a gift box, with Gilmark-copy vehicles, 'Bonnie Bilt' figures and a Bell gun, which probably rules them out of responsibility for these smaller ones?

M is for More - Palitoy and Renwal's Plastic 'Planes

Not really a follow-up as it's been a while now since we last mentioned the Palitoy 'planes, and the Renwal are new to the blog, but I picked these up in one of the autumn shows, and there are a few things to unpack, so a T is for Two . . . maybe!

I actually picked up a bagful of the Palitoy aircraft for next to nothing, which was nice, these bargains happen from time to time, and we all have them occasionally, so not an obvious or deliberate brag, but I didn't know what I'd really got until I'd got them back to Adrian's table, and looked at them properly.

We have looked at the Spitfire[s] before here, and the musing on that occasion, are upset by this pair where the supposed earlier, inaccurate one is here found in the supposed later, stable polystyrene, while the opposite is true of the other moulding, with an early marbled/flecked example of the better quality model, which logic dictates must have come later.

So some new points or musings from yours truly, first, in conversation with several other collectors at the show, we mused that (given the inaccuracy and pre-war nature of several of the other aircraft in the range) there could be the lines of a French Dewoitine D.520, albeit without the long sharks-nose of the original, and someone has started to add French roundels to this one in paint.

Now I'm not saying it ever was a Dewoitine, but I have learned that among the specific war work of Palitoy's Coalville works was Spitfire landing gear, and perspex components for the aeroplane industry, and there remains the possibility that it might have been renamed at the last minute, due to perceived failure by the French in 1940, or just the need for a Spitfire.

But the fact that the two now seem to have run alongside each-other, and the inaccuracies to both against real Spitfires, which they (Palitoy) would have been very familiar with, might suggest they were originally two different planes - maybe one was meant to be a Hurricane and got the wrong marking-stamps, first - and that my previous assertions of the age of these being definitely wartime and with possibly some pre-war production, seems more solid now.

The Wellington; the early ones might be manufactured from what Palitoy (then British Cascelloid, or even Pallet Toys as they may still have been known) called cascelloid, which was a rather flammable celluloid polymer, but that tended to be processed into product as/from a sheet material.

 

In 1931 they were purchased by British Xylonite (another branded celluloid), and in 1939, merged into Bakelite Xylonite Ltd. (BXL), who's Union Carbide partner in the 'States may have something to do with the earlier unstable plastic these aircraft are found in, some kind of Bakelite by-product?

 

My own feeling is that they are an early, unstable form of polystyrene, looking to copy the product being made by IG Farben in Germany from - also - 1931, which had been worked on, fitfully, since the 1870's.

 

Lockheed 'Hudson' bomber-reconnaissance aircraft and air-taxi; While the 'early' models tend to have the red/pink wheels and propellers, and the late (obviously polystyrene) ones black accessories, the fact is I now have all four combinations in the collection with the later Spitfire first seen here in a stable blue, having the red attachments.

 

This actually only reinforces my thoughts on wartime production, as while some will tell you there was no toy production in the war, that's not strictly the case, as with the tariffs we're all currently being threatened with by that lieing, criminal, orange loon, exceptions can always be sought in these matters, with exemption licences being issued on a case by case basis.

 

As a company engaged in 'war work' and a group experimenting with plastics on both sides of the pond, the idea that those experiments could be undertaken in small runs of cheap playthings makes perfect sense, and once they started playing with perspex components for real aircraft and gas-masks/respirators, the small transparencies on the Wellingtons also makes sense, and also ties them to wartime production. The toys helping boost morale while promoting popular aeroplane types, of the time.

I think these Renwal were either the same seller, or the same bag, I can't remember now, but new to me and ready for action as 'Dimestore' style ready-made's, one (wing-tip tanks) marked Navy Plane, the other Army Plane, I guess there's a third out there somewhere - 'Air Force Plane'?

 

The army 'plane is a generic design, although there are recognisable elements of Sabre, but not that pointed nose! The other is a better rendition of US Navy Grumman F9F Panther, capturing the rear-wing line quite well.

 

A comparison shot, between the two lines, scale per se doesn't come into it, but they're both the same size, which, with their simple construction, would put them in the same pocket-money category!