B is for Big Box of Bounty - Intro' and Sports

So, with much gratitude, we start looking at Chris Smith's Autumn donation to the blog, another wonderful pile of the esoteric stuff he's put to one side for the last few months, and sent to me, to share with you, and there are some real treats among it all.

 

Immediately, we can see useful stuff on the top, I won't say anything, as we're going to go through it piece by piece, but what can you see, and; imagine opening this, and getting to dig through it, especially if your interests are as esoteric as mine!

 

I didn't announce it on Faceplant either, this time, because they want me to provide a 3d video of myself to prove who I am, and as we went through all that a few years ago, when they were asking for scans of passport or driving licence, I don't feel I need to prove my existence again?

 

They don't care who's a member, or how real/legitimate they are, they just want to feed data into their AI-bots, and generate some 3D avatar of me on the other side of the planet, so, I'm consequently rather off Faceplant for now, and maybe forever (check your junk folder, I've eMailed you from .gmail!)?

 

Initial sorting, and I haven't texted over it like sometimes, but a spiral from the top left gives; Prehistoric, Ancient & Medieval, Wild West, Pirates, Paratroopers (not numerous enough for the usual opening line-up shot!) Civilians, Bits & Bobs, Vehicles & Vessels, Wild & Domestic Animals, Historical & Ceremonial Sci-Fi & fantasy (with TV/Movie), Cartoon (also with TV/Movie stuff), Divers and finally, Sports with a Circus horse! And, apart from the horse, it's those last two we're looking at first.

 

These are fun, I thought I'd posted them years ago, but I didn't, so this is their debut - Tomy's Electronic Super Cup Football, a battery-operated, hand held 7-a-side football game, which came with two pre-painted, near HO-gauge compatible teams, in red and blue with yellow and green goalies, already emplaced in the holders on the pitch. But, in little drawers under the game, you got these, blank, flesh-coloured runners for painting your own favourite teams . . . although, no paints were included!

 

Three more cracker/capsule/Lucky Bag/Piñata type Olympians, two sizes and three different base marks give's you some idea of the task faced in sorting them all out, I had a half a go at the small-scale (these) near the beginning of the blog (nearly 19-years ago now!), and we looked at the bigger ones a year or two ago, but there's still a lot to cover/sort out, so every example is valued.

 

The weight-lifter is the same as the one in Peter's last lost, and has broken in nearly the same place, a weak-spot where the two flows of plastic meet in the cavity, a thin point, a cooler point, and a point which will get most stress, in play!

 

Hong Kong cake decoration footballers; I used to have a few of these in a bag, the same two poses, always damaged and no balls, but in recent years thanks to people like Adrian, Chris, John, Peter and Trevor, I've got a better sample to gather together and blog properly one day. But, suffice to say, more poses, some with footballers, complete examples, and several sets/sources are now clear. And there'll be a follow-up later.

 

Board-game or Totopoly pieces, we have seen them before, but it's a set of twelve, in three or four (?) colours (I think three each of four), and with plastic and metal (earlier, but commoner) to find, I still have plenty of gaps, especially as the waterslide transferred numbers can be missing or flaked badly.

 

The little red one is a similar chap, but much smaller, and seems to have plugged-in to something which may be similar to the Tomy football game? New to me, Blog and collection though, and I do have lots of these 'unknown' horse racing figures, most in small quantities. Like football games, there's a lot of horse racing games out there.

 

The little chap is from the Chap Mai play sets, there was the big Aircraft Carrier set, and a few window box 'gift set' type things, with a pair of runners, holding assorted Galoob style figures, in black and khaki.

 

The larger one is really nice, seems to be an unarmed sport/hobby diver, (lacking weapons, and seemingly undamaged), he might be a fish-tank thing, or, like the divers-watch promotional from Down Under, we saw a few years ago, something more commercial? Hard polystyrene, and, yeah, very interesting, does anyone know who he is? I have a feeling we've seen a similar figure, possibly seated?

 

Table-top football games and table-football players! We've looked at both generations of the Subbuteo St. John's Ambulance stretcher teams (left-hand figure), the magnetic footballers will need further work, as the samples are all over the place, likewise the spring-loaded ones, there are many versions/makers/issuers/titles associated with both types.

The magnetic ones can come with different cones, same-coloured figures or painted ones like the above, and in various qualities of pose and/or sculpting. Likewise, with the many versions of the yellow chaps' above -  standing on footballs -who can also be found in straight-armed sculpts, with plug-in springs, flat plastic bases or suckers, and manufactured in rubber, 'styrene or celluloid!

But, again, the chap on the right is very interesting, I have some in hard plastic, from Hong Kong, I think we've seen them here, and their similarity to the Gem ones has always led me to believe they were second generation piracies. But this chap is in soft polyethylene, and looks very 'early British plastic', so I'm wondering if they might belong with the diminutive 18/20mm circus and fox-hunters, in the "Possibly Charbens cake decorations" folder?

Certainly, while they (I think there are two similar poses) resemble the Gemodels goalie, they are less three-dimensional, which is a trait of Charbens sculpting, and something you could accuse those unknown mini-circus figures (and the 'other' Christmas carol-singer set) of suffering from . . . so food for thought there, thanks to Chris!

M is for More from London, First of Three Plunder Posts

I was back up to The Smoke in September to pick up another batch of Car Booty from Peter Evans, and with another parcel from Chris now sorted and shot, I'd better get these up and cleared from the PC first, not least because there's one or two cross-over items!

 

How the sort/photoshoot starts, with me unpacking a box of goodies, giving them a once-over, having a look-see at what I've got, and deciding how to proceed! I did shoot the six bagged/carded sets for a post, but realised Peter had sent them all as shelfies in time for this year's Rack Toy Month, so those images have gone in the archive for now!

 

Three of the larger sized Fontanini Napoleonics, the third one is supposed to be Napoleon himself, I suspect, but in his earlier days as an artilleryman of the revolution? Note, as in past posts on the subject, the flatter painting of the cavalryman, over the faded washes of the two foot-figures, I also thought the horse was nicely painted, for a plastic tourist keepsakes, and all three mounted on a piece of Carrara marble.

 

Possibly home-painted, and seen before in one form or another, Peter remembers them being part of a shooting-game, which I have as yet failed to find on the internet/feebleBay, but now I know what I'm looking-for, it should only be a matter of time?

 

Parachute-toy figures, including an Imperial Toys PVC-rubber Poopatroopa (in front), always gratefully received, as there have been so many over the years, copies-of-copies, and slight variations, it's a probably never-ending field, and even if I've shot them for the Parachute Page, now, there will be update shots in the future, with all the colour/size/detail variations added.

 

Two Hong Kong divers to be added to their sample, and one of the small grey ones which I thought were Bluebird but aren't, and I can't remember if they've been ID'd yet or not, but I think there's a second pose?

 

Two 4-inch biggies, Blue Box, Blue Box-like or Blue Box for someone else? A bit battered, they'll be compared to the master collection and retained until better ones turn up, rather have a tatty one than none.

 

A mix of Hong Kong chaps, with a few modern China-troops, I think we've seen them all over time, but not necessarily in detail, and that's a job for another day! But an MPC copy with his accessories, sold in sets by Telsalda among others, they also came singly in generic bags at the 6d end of the market. A couple of the Arco Rambo types, a New Ray knock-off in silver and others.

 

A Tim Mee knock-off (or flashy, late-production from the European factory?), a chap who's probably from the turret of a novelty/powered tank/AFV of some kind, best ID'd from old catalogue images, or - if you're lucky - a minter on evilBay, another version of the common seated figure we've seen from several US makers and as a parachute toy. Lastly, a new-to-me figure I think, but possibly from one of the many sets of Monogram knock-offs!

 

Three Britains copies, who will need sorting into the larger collection, against a future shot for the Khaki Infantry page, there are so many variations of these, and I suspect this trio goes with the sets that include Lone Star poses, and came in generic trays?

M is for May's Visit - Civilian and Sports Etc . . .

You know the score by now, so no pack drill, just running through vaguely thematic group shots of known or unknown figures, with a bit of my blurb to try and explain some of the many, many figures out there, with the civilian and/or sports, being often among the more interesting of the posts.

 

 

Seated; I think I've decided (or found?) that the Napoleonic hat figures (two sizes, right) are actually firemen from smaller garden/beach toy fire engines, while the huge blue one is from a very larger racing motorcycle and sidecar, the smaller blue is the Budgie motorcyclist, and the painted-blue, from a 1:24th'ish racing car.

 

The little red one on the left is from the might be Kamley / might be Marty artillery/speedboat crew, as seen on the But Is It Giant blog, the grey naval-looking chap in the middle is still unknown, but keeps turning-up so his toy must be common, a jeep or taxi, plant, maybe? While the other is also one who turns up from time to time, an arabesque/LRDG type, possibly from a 'dessert' vehicle toy, but just as likely to be a helicopter/fighter-pilot, or B/Op' Tank crew, and one of two poses, if I recall correctly.

 

Various farm/civilian types; I think one or two might have been marked I can't rememeber1 Best pleased with the orange one which is another of those 'animated' novelty figures, we saw a pink tennis player from the set of a while back.

 

I think we've seen the synthetic rubber guys at the back, in ones or twos, before, but this looks like it may be a complete pose line-up, or set's figure contents? The rest are larger carpet-toy figures, four Casdon and a damaged Poplar I think, with a simplified copy of the Corgi cherry-picker cage chap.

 

There are tubs of these waiting to be sorted in the main stash and bags of them in the TBS (to be sorted) zone, and one day I'll have a session uniting all the flippers, masks, tanks and accessories, with the correct figures, and we'll have a better look at them all and ID a few!

 

Board game figures from the Charity shop, no idea, yet, but obviously aimed at younger players, and having some kind of nature-walk or safari/hunter theme, not 100% sure the bush goes with the four figures (slightly different base design), but they came together and look to have similar sculpting?

 

Mechanics and construction workers, there are so many of these, but I have, over the years downloaded or shelfied many sets, with figures, so again, a big ID session and better look will happen at some point!

  

A cake-decoration baseball player, small novelty Olympian, from Hong Kong, and taken from larger-scale sets, and two figures who are more interesting; they seem to be more HK rack-toys, but I have a couple with silver belts, a bit like the MPC ring-hand chaps, but these are much smaller and more sportsmanlike with bare-heads - but helmets could be missing? I suspect Christmas cracker novelties, as they have come in, in ones and twos.

 

Another couple of firefighters, and two policemen, the fully painted is the Hong Kong copy of Cavendish's policeman, which Cavendish also carried/wholesaled to the tourist trade at one point, and two Matchbox figures, I think those with a touch of paint were earlier than those without.

 

Two Bell Games (foreground) footballers, from the magnetic sets, three Gem, and damaged, larger 'kicker' figure from Subbuteo, along with a small-scale copy of Airfix's goal-keeper, or, at least, he looks similar to the Airfix guy!

 

A chalkware figure, probably a cake-decoration, possibly of a good-fairy, or fairy tale character, sleeping beauty? Dated 1964, with what could be a logograph, or cypher mark, but the crudeness of the writing suggests they may be more of an ownership thing, by the kid, or a parent, it's quite fine, but not formal, if you know what I mean . . . a real mystery figure?! 'Betty's Birthday 1964' . . . that kind of thing?

 

Farmers and a cuckoo-clock/barometer figure (left), we saw a similar one the other day, and I've recently discovered you can still buy them, as craft items for home hobbyists, although they look to be poured-resin copies!

 

I used to confidently say 'Thomas' for all these rubber seated figures, but having found similar figures with Tudor Rose stuff, I'm not so sure these days, and some poring over old files is needed! Probably Thomas, or similar!

 

These are nice, soft plastic versions of the frangible, hard-plastic copies of Gem and Britains ski-wearers, Arctic/Antarctic explorer on the left (ex-Britains sculpt), more Gem-like sports skier on the right. The righthand figure has ring-hands, with the broken remains of sticks, so will need a pair of them and they both need skis, but there are bags of this stuff around, so hopefully the best of everything will make-up good samples one day!

 

Two Airfix German Infantry, who were left over (we're working 'up' the folders, so, last shots first), and the larger-scale 'Lawn Jockey' (for trying-up horses) statue from a Marx playset. I have a whole bag of these somewhere, in various colours and conditions, vintage and reissue, as I was literally one of the few small-scale guys in the room for years, and people didn't know what they were (including me), so I would buy them as 'unknown, odd-scale', from 10, 20 or 50p rummage trays!

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! Civilian & Sports

We reach the penultimate plunder post from the PW show in June, but with several lots from Peter Evans to come, more car-booty/Charity Shop stuff and another Sandown (nice space surprises, for those who get excited about such things), there'll be mixed-lot posts through to Christmas, on-and-off!

 

This was one of the first things I bought 'in the room', and I just couldn't resist it, I already hate it for the space it takes-up, probably why the owner was passing it on, but it has a figure, who - despite literally thousands there - isn't in the unknown seated drivers, passengers & riders zone! Looking at the two brackets either side of the seat, it's missing a 'buggy' canopy, but is otherwise complete . . . with hat?

 

Very similar to the Tudor Rose 'Veteran Cars', in size and material (soft polyethylene), but more of a fictional marque (?) somewhere between TR's 1910 Ford "T" and their 1904 Darracq, with the spare wheel from the former, plonked onto the side of the latter, who's rear cargo space is now blank, but, I'm not enough of a car expert to know for sure, however, it's a lot of fun.

 

Divers and their vessels; I think we've probably seen it all before, and it's nearly always the same pieces missing, but there's always colour-variations to pick-up for the master sample, if nothing else, so whether bought or donated, it'll all have some use.

 

A huge Cake Decoration footballer, in hard polystyrene, a scale up of similar 45/50-mil figures from hong Kong, two of the more recent cereal premiums, and an earlier similar, chap Billy Bremner I think, I forgot to note them!

 

Other sports, including a Starlux bullfighter; a bullfighter got gored to death the other day (oh dear, never mind, it's all part of God's plan!). Four horse riders who are almost certainly from a board game, just finding out which, is the remaining problem! Soft plastic footballer, I have a feeling we've seen a few of this set now, a pair in pink and maybe a green one, so it'll be a premium of some kind, but late, it's 'ethylene, not 'styrene.

 

The rather damaged novelty boxers are polystyrene, and although battered, are a useful addition to a growing sample of the sliding-action toys, probably cracker things, or lucky-bags? And one of quite a few athletics/sports sets, most of which got an outing or two as cereal or washing-powder premiums one side of the channel or the other.

 

Babies, they're all babies, but enough of the Republican Party, here are some toy infants . . . boom-boom! A trio of the very early Torgano figures we've seen before here, but not painted, and the matching schemes, suggests factory/supplier, rather than end-owner?

 

The Hong Kong baby in cot was a common 6d (old pence)/5p pocket-money rack-toy, for dolls houses, or pockets! The big brown baby might be from a Mattel set, but I think it's an older set I do have a sizeable sample of somewhere, but I can never remember who issued them, Topps, was it?

 

Not sure on the jet-black figure, while the smaller brown one is probably Thomas/Poplar? 

 

The wooden flat must have been a big-seller at some Christmas in the 1940's or 50's, as she or her poultry keep coming-in, and often in this good-to-mint condition? In the middle is a Tara Toys teenage Tiny Teeny fashion figurine, a glaring absence on the Blog, and more so as I have a whole bunch of them somewhere, while I don't have a clue on the last one? Early leaning stuff? Modern anyway.

 

A trio of Spot-On, useful grist to the mill!

 

 

Coming on the back of several lots from Adrian and my own scrapings, here a bunch-more farm from Hong Kong, one day it's hoped most of these will have been ID'd to makers, or at least generic-set titles, and that will be by minor details, base type, base marking, even the paint variations. But, you can see here, how they are all different.

 

Speaking of the unknown riders, drivers and pilots! An Airfix motorcyclist, third from the left, and a Tudor Rose tractor-driver/plant operator on the far right, with two unknowns, one possibly a crude firefighter, the other from a large carpet racing-car.

 

Mixed civilians, including a Marx reissue, Britains, Corgi and a Blue Box knock-off.

 

And to finish, another loose lot of the Hong Kong semi-flat cartoony clones of old Märklin railway figures. I hope the orange chap with suitcases, or the red lady next to him is the one I needed to have two of each loose, so in the final, definitive post (we have looked at them more than once), whenever that is, we will have everyone from both sides, with the carded set in one shot!

L is for Late Show Report - Introduction

So, the PW show plunder posts, a bit late this year, but things have happened! We had a couple of earlier posts on the ephemera and the lovely spinning top, from Michael, but I'll be going through the rest over the next few days, and we're starting with the sorting, and some items I shot at the show but didn't bring home with me!

This was how I got it home, and actually very little was show-purchases in the room, but some money changed hands for some of the stuff in the named piles, and because all those named either give me stuff or let me have stuff well below market rates/for nominal amounts/swaps, that's how I shot it!

 

And this year's posts will carry the same message as last year, but thanking, alphabetically; Adrian Little, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Chris Smith, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul Stadinger, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, with the Replicants stuff (Peter Cole/Weston's) also shot separately!

 

Once it has been sorted into themes, which was the Sunday job I think, it was a week or two before I got round to properly sorting it all out, but here we have (clockwise from top left) the scenics, ancient & medieval, combat, historical & ceremonial, Wild West, sci-fi/fantasy TV & movie-related, 'planes/trains/automobiles & vessels, farm & zoo, odds & sods and civilians (bottom left).

 

The vehicular component was sorted the same evening, and here from the left are; 'planes/aircraft, trains, road transport, vessels, motorcycles/bicycles and some component of unknown origin - bottom right!

While the things I shot the day before, at the Plastic Warrior show, included this fascinating piece, which is a 'cheapo' generic rack-toy with stapled blister, the animals obviously being Cherilea, but, also managing to ascribe - by association - some fence pieces, which may be in your 'unknown' zone, and which are taken from the hollow-cast/lead moulds, I believe?

 

Meractor Trading (Adrian) had a bunch of Blue Box/Tai Sang boxed sets from the home farm line which consisting of most of the commoner vehicular pieces, including tractors in two colours and with various attachments, the cart and a combine-harvester. Note also: the nice ID'ing of the Blue Box dog!

 

We've looked at these sets before, late Miniature Masterpiece window-boxes from Marx, with mostly polyethylene pieces, rather than the polystyrene that had run for years beforehand, this was missing a rider and had a tatty box, but you don't often see them so it was worth a shot. It differs from my Knights sets in having ten figures, as protagonists, rather than the three or four in my samples, seen here before, I think.

Ah, well; if you follow things in the hobby, these should now be familiar to you, seen in the PW mag, and on Stad's Stuff recently; coming soon from a new maker, based in the UK/Mauritius, and courtesy of Michael Mordant-Smith, these are re-issues of old sculpts (from the original tools) of a French company Cody March,.

 

Not common in the original, they will make a nice addition to the medieval oeuvre, still in development, the ready for production (back at the show's time) will be looked at again in the relevant thematic post in a day or two, while these two shots include those poses which were still needing tweaks and adjustments to the tooling - 'test shots'.

I thought I'd bought this, but I think I just shot it, as Brain Berke, our roving reporter in New York sent the Blog one a while back, and I wondered at the cavity on his back, then, so decided I didn't need a second one!

 

Welp, here is what fills it, a slip-in reservoir for baking soda! Marked - U.S. PAT. (for 'patent') 293291C FLIPPY MADE IN ENGLAND - which isn't coming up on the patent searches, but has a number near the smaller Kellogg's patent, we have looked at more than once here, so probably contemporaneous.

 

Over here it may have been an import (from the 'States) by someone like Fairylite, or an export which got a US Patent first, by someone like Poplar, Tudor Rose or Lipkin? We'll need to find a carded/boxed one as the next step in this particular mystery solving!

 

The Wendan/Timpo ape would have been here, but I tacked him onto the earlier 'ephemera' post a couple of months ago, and so it's many thanks to everyone named above, for another pile of plunder, and to Paul Morehead who, with two of the forenamed, puts the show on, every year.