F is for Four Fingers of Fictional Fun

A few Sci-Fi bits and bobs which were kicking around various corners of the Laptop, and which might as well be shoehorned into one post to clear the decks a bit!

Star Wars key-rings; We've seen a few before now, but I thought a comparison was in order, and we have - from the left - an LED torch, Lego 'maxi' Darth Vader, followed by three normal 'minifig' sized rings, then an Applause young Anakin/Vader, which I think is part of the avalanche of merchandise which accompanied the fourth/first movie.

I don't know how many there were in the Applause set, so the gap is for the missing Vader in an otherwise complete set of the capsule key-ring figures, cleared through The Works a few years ago, then to Pound-Plus, branded TPF Toys for shipping-in by STL.

ET's, a planetoid's worth of ET's! The three to the right are licensed LJN, and from a set of six (or eight?), while the chap on the left is marked J.A.R. Sales, and may be more of a knock-off than an official product, but both lines are dated 1982, so may both be legitimate?

I have no idea how many of the JAR ones there were and scale on them is 'big' as he fitted in a bikes shopping basket I seem to recall (never seen it, have no intention of seeing it!), so about 1:18^th or larger? I guess there was half-an-idea for them to be compatible with dolls, for playing-out the movie scenes?

Ignore the Greek, he's been joined by three of his compatriots recently and will be Blogged separately at some point. I managed to pick up both the Remco divers from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea last year, but they have been separated already, one here, one in storage - funny story; TJF managed to score a brownie-point with this one when I posted it elsewhere, but really, Journey to the Centre of the Earth / The Land that Time Forgot / 2,000 Leagues Under the Sea / 10,000 BC and a dozen other movies of the time were basically variations on a theme!

The metal-detector/mine-sweeper one is missing the base-stud, but as it's only used to lock them onto the floor of their retail carton, it's more a question of Do I remove the other one?

The chap to the right is supposed to be Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, but the head's all wrong, so I'll leave it to a jury, preferably a Bristolian one! He's a soft polyethylene and Argentinian.

Picked this up cheap a while back, as a sort of follow-up to the other day's Lunar Rover post; it's Dinky France selling-off the Zygon War Chariot crew figures as 'astronauts' in their spare-parts program! Daft in'it . . . got tub full's of orphaned seated figures and I go and get three more, but it's always about the packaging!

The funny thing is I know I have a metal Gort somewhere but can't find him, and there are more ET's in the post, so we will be returning to both those subjects in the not too far future!

G is for Guest Post - Sam Toys

This started life as an email which I thought was a listing, probably of more use on the much-neglected A-Z Blog 'pages', and I downloaded it to look at at home, thanked the sender; Angelo, and got on with whatever I was doing!

When I opened it at home I found the following article complete, with embedded images, and frantically wrote to Angelo the next day saying please send the originals so I can run it as an article!

Not only did he send them, but he took new images of most of them and some supporting paperwork, to the point where I now know as much about these as he does . . . in five minutes time - so will you.

I then suggested I post his article as he'd written it and further look at the vehicles in turn after Christmas, but have instead collaged the images and placed them where the single pictures were in the first draft, which is the only real editorial change . . . I hand over to Angelo;

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SAM TOYS - " MILITARY SERIES"

Sam Toys produced model cars in the late 50s and late 60s.

The Military Series was initially composed of seven vehicles which were the plastic copy of similar metal models by the French Dinky Toys.

Below is a copy of the catalog of the period showing the series and the description of each individual vehicle.

Art. 431 – CAMIONETTA MILITARE - copy of model 641 ARMY "1-TON CARGO TRUCK" by Dinky Toys

Art. 432 – AUTO BLINDATA - copy of model 670 "ARMOURED CAR" by Dinky Toys

Art. 433 – AUTOBLINDO PER TRASPORTO - copy of model 643 “ARMOURED PERSONNEL” by Dinky Toys

Art. 434 – AMBULANZA MILITARE - copy of mode 626 “MILITARY AMBULANCE” by Dinky Toys

Art. 435 – AUTO CISTERNA  - copy of model 643 “ARMY WATER TANKER” by Dinky Toys

Art. 436 – CARRO ESPLORATORE - copy of model 673 “SCOUT CAR” by  Dinky Toys

Art. 437 – JEEP - copy of model 669 “JEEP” or 672 "JEEP" (re-issue of 153a) by Dinky Toys

                              Note the error in the name in JEPP

Later, other models were added that were variants of the first series.

A first variant was the MILITARY TRUCK where 4 soldiers were added to the platform. This meant that the lorry remained uncovered because it was not possible to put the tarpaulin with the seated soldiers.

The next 4 models were created using the floor of the MILITARY AMBULANCE which on the bottom always showed the writing 434 Military Ambulance for all these models.

AUTOCARRO SCALA MOBILE

AUTOCARRO CON CANNONE

AUTOCISTERNA

AUTOCARRO MILITARE APERTO

Finally there is a model 443 - JEEP CON RIMORCHIO that the SAM TOYS inserted in the AUTOCARRI series, but that actually refers to a military vehicle.

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A few points I'll add, all from the material provided by Angelo, firstly, the lorry used for ambulance and plug-in bodies is now recognised as being the Truck, 3-Ton, 4x4, GS, Ford Ambulance (Spurling, Muliner or Duple [bodies]), AKA; Fordson-Thames GS-Lorry, and an excellent article on all the toy versions (we've had the diminutive Matchbox RAF version on the blog and the article attributes the MPC 'Mini' ambulance - also seen here - to the same marque) appeared in the October 2011 edition of Model Collector magazine, with Nigel Robertshaw in the author's chair.

The image from which Angelo cropped the 'civi' Jeep, also has civilianised versions of the same lorry, each in a 'wagon-&-drag' configuration (commoner on the continent, although a lot of haulage companies use them on their late night 'trunckers' so you often see them on the motorway network in the early hours), along with a wrecker-body version of the Humber 1-Ton, which is lovely!

Many, many thanks to Angelo for sending this into the blog, a relatively unknown series of non-Hong Kong copies, and I'm very fond of my one example, the Humber with passengers.

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis - The French Collection

This has been released by Vectis Auctions to publicise their forthcoming dedicated Dinky collection, the sale due to be held on Tuesday 5th November 2019 (fireworks night), and thanks to Louise Harker at Vectis for the Info.

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The French Collection, a sale to remember!

Regular Vectis customers, and avid Dinky Toy collectors, may remember the phenomenal David Ireland collection which was held at the North East Auction house in 2011.

Many of the pre-war boxed sets from that collection realised record breaking prices, and the sale at the time was described as “one of the finest private owner collections ever to come onto the market”. A number of those sets were bought by a single buyer, who has now decided the time is right to part with some of his collection. And the quality of those lots is still as magnificent today as they were eight years ago.

The collection includes the Hornby Series No.22 motor vehicles set, which at the time sold for a record price of £22,800 (inclusive of Buyers Premium), the set includes an Army Tank, Delivery Van, Sports Car, Motor Truck, Sports Coupe and Farm tractor. It has been described as a bright example of a hard and rare to find set and graded Excellent Plus to Near Mint, contained in a generally Good to Excellent blue patterned lift off lid box with original card.

Another pre-war set, this time no. 24 “Motor Cars” set is in a later type wide box with display insert and contains 24a Ambulance, 24c Town Sedan, 24d Vogue Saloon, 24e Super Streamlined Saloon,  24f Sportsman's Coupe, 24g Sports Tourer 2-seater and 24h Sports Tourer 4-seater, conditions overall are generally Good to Excellent (although some are showing signs of fatigue) however they are still beautiful examples in a hard to find set.

The French Collection, consists of the some of the finest examples of pre-war sets, including Gift Sets, Trade Boxes, Aeroplane sets, plus many superb single models.

The catalogue is now online to view, and the sale will be held on Tuesday the 5th of November - a date, definitely to remember, and starts at the earlier time of 10am.

For further information please contact Andrew Reed on 01642 750616 or email admin@vectis.co.uk

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Vectis's contact details:

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

March is quieter than I thought it would be - show wise - but I guess it's not full-on spring yet, and there are a fair few on Sunday so I'm probably just being a cynical misery!

Speaking of cynical misery - isn't the Brwreakshit 'thing' going swimmingly! Add the Grayling thing, the Irish thing, the Anti-Semitism and Anti-Muslimism things, The knife thing, the police thing and the fact that the other 27 keep telling us there's no movement on the backstop while our lot keep telling the media they are sure of movement any minute 'thing' and I recon we're heading for the Klüsterfik of all Clusterfucks, and with literally no-one useful to vote for when it all collapses - sometime in the next three weeks!

But you get what you vote for and 52% voted for this, despite being told endlessly by lots of sensible, intelligent, articulate, non-political people, that this is what would happen!

Buy toys . . . cheers you up! Or drowns your sorrows

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 9th March 2019

Romford - SRP Toyfairs

North Romford Community Centre, 32 Clock House Lane, Collier Row, Romford, Essex, RM5 3QJ

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 12:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Err . . . That's it! Let's hope the weather's good on Saturday, 'cos it looks like gardening day!

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Sunday 10th March 2019

Doncaster - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'Doncaster Racecourse'

Doncaster Exhibision Centre, Leger Way, Doncaster, DN2 6BB

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission - Adults £4, Seniors £3.50p, Children £1, 'Early Bird' (from 8 a.m.) £10

Plenty of free parking

Newton Abbot - Ray Heard Train & Toy Fairs

Newton Abbot Racecourse, Devon, TQ12 3AF

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01823 480 097

10:00 - 15:30hrs

Admission £2

Free parking, refreshments

Walsall - Transtar Promotions (Geoff & Linda Price)

Oak Park Active Living Centre, Coppice Road, Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands, WS9 9BH

Web. - www.transtarpromotions.com

Tel.- 01922 643 385 (Geoff or Linda)

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £1.80p, seniors £1.50p, child £1

Refreshments

Worthing  - SRP Toyfairs

Charmandean Centre, Forest Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 9HS

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

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Auctions

Reminder - Today - 8th

Taunton - Greenside Taylor Hunt (GTH)

The Octogon Saleroom, 113a East Reach, Taunton, Devon, TA1 3HL

Web. - www.gth.net

eMail - antiques.saleroom@gth.net

Tel. - 01823 332 525

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Saturday 9th March 2019

Elstree - Excalibur Auctions

The Village Hotel, Elstree, Hertfordshire, WD6 3SB (venue)

Chiltern Buisness Centre, Woodside Road, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP6 6AA (office)

Web. - www.excaliburauctions.com

eMail - enquiries@ excaliburauctions.com

02036 330 913

Free Tea or Coffee

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Wednesday 13th March 2019

Prints to A4

Tunbridge Wells - C&T Auctioneers

The York Suite, The Spa Hotel, Mount Ephraim, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 8XJ (Venue)

Unit 4, High House Business Park, Kenardington, Near Ashford, Kent, TN26 2LF (Auction House)

Web. - www.candtauctions.co.uk

eMail - enquiries@candtauctions.co.uk

Valuations - jamesopie@yahoo.co.uk

Tel. - 44 1233 510 050 (from abroad)

Tel. - 01233 510 050 (within the UK)

Viewing from 08:30hrs, sale starts 10:00hrs

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

01642 750 616

Specialist die-cast sale

Note - this is actually day 1 of a two-day sale, the details for the second day weren't ready at the time of going to press.

"The Specialist Sale to be held on the 13th of March features five private owner collections. The first includes Dinky aircraft, military and emergency vehicles plus trucks, Corgi TV & film related, helicopters and Matchbox superfast."

"The Colin Collin's Collection features over 280 lots of Corgi racing, road, sports and rally cars; buses, emergency vehicles and giftsets, Corgi Juniors James Bond and TV vehicles, plus Dinky cars, kits and shop displays, Solido groups and gift sets, plus models from Siku, Mebetoys, Joel, Schuco and many others."

"The Thailand Dinky Toy Collection features 107 lots of cars, trucks, tankers and French Dinky; and The Spanish Dinky Toy Collection includes cars, buses, farm, trucks, military and French Dinky including a "Coffret Cadeau Tourisme" set. The Tynemouth Collection includes Dinky Military, Corgi Farm, Chipperfield's Circus vehicles, tankers, trucks and gift sets. Further items in the sale include White Metal & Resin models from TW Collection (Trevor Wright Models), Brooklin and Lansdowne, Dinky Toys and Corgi instruction packs, and collectors club leaflets."

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Thursday 14th March 2019

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

01642 750 616

Specialist die-cast sale

Note - this is actually day 2 of a two-day sale, the details for the second day weren't ready at the time of going to press, and should be added here in the course of next week, all details will be available earlier on the Vectis website

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Overseas Events

Dublin - Brian Collins Enterprises - 'Collectables Toy Fair'

Collinstown Suite, The Carlton Hotel, Dublin Airport, Old Airport Road, Cloghran, County Dublin, Republic of Ireland (Eire)

Web. - www.briancollinsenterprises.ie

Tel. - 00353  879 827 712

[Findable on Facebook - Brian Collins]

Admission "Small charge"?

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here -  FOR FREE  - or linked to; please eMail me -

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!

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H is for How They Come In!

Good haul week this week; Apart from the Sandown Park show stuff which will get a separate post Monday brought a couple of bags of novelties, insects and collectable blind-bag, kid's TV stuff . . .

. . . which as a sample weren't a whole hill o' beans, but will sort into a growing pile of such stuff, which I'm learning about 'on the hoof' as it were (three Crazy Bone knock-offs from two brands?), and they will make useful posts in the future as the sets or sample sizes grow. The best bit was four different crocodile/alligator erasers, all with the same mark, for kids who don't want dinosaur or cacti erasers!

Tuesday it was a bag of AFV's (a large incomplete Jeep with a GI Joe sticker has already gone to recycling!) and a bag of mixed dinosaurs, snakes, lizards and a fish!

Can I help sort the sorting?

Wednesday brought a huge parcel from Peter Evans which had some very interesting stuff (a bendy-toy Vicky the Viking!); I will do a HTCI post on it, and a few posts on individual pieces, while some of it will be held 'till September!

Well, maybe I'll just nest on the bags!

Two things I will definitely follow-up on are the Irwin (it's actually Irwin RX which will help separate it from the vintage Irwin in the tag list!)* 3D Maker I shelfied at Christmas in TKMaxx, which it turns out has no maker in the box!

* At time of posting - Tag list says I said that last time!

There is a bit of small-print to that effect, but the moulds (or the mould for the figures) will be of interest - and they look better than the box-art! Also the food-picks we looked at a while ago, seem to be here, on the runner, with another branding, so that'll be two F is for Follow-up's!

Finally; today, a quick purchase in a little pound-shop which opened recently in Fleet, they don't have much of use to toy collectors, but this Red Deer dino' set was worth a punt, and turned out to be two-part polystyrene models with a prehistoric marrajahwhanna tree! I took a couple of further shelfies (farm and paper-planes) while I was there!

Funnily enough one of the dino's in Tuesday's bag was also a hollow 'styrene model, as were two others I picked-up last weekend which I haven't shot yet. Coincidentally; the first mention of Red Deer here at Small Scale World was courtesy of Peter and there's more in the queue somewhere.

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Seen-But-Not-Bought

The Works had a set of four resin fairies around 54mm and a set of four similar animals paired as two panda-bear sculpts and two sloth sculpts, I nearly grabbed them but thought they could wait 'till next week, I also forgot to shelfie them!

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