Beeju is for EVB Plastics

The title of this post was the complete opposite, but when I went in search of the latter link, I found I'd already used it!

From before the idea of rack-toys as we know them, these would have filled the same pocket-money niche, and the early ones date from the late 1940's, so contemporary with other early plastics makers like Airfix, Bell and Randell.

Graces Guide tells us they were making a patent application for "Improvements in and relating to the attachment of axles to toy wheeled vehicles" as early as 1946, while by the following year were listing "Moulded Plastic Toys, Cars, Aeroplanes, Boats, Tops, Dolls, Trains, Plastic "Mah Jongg" Indoor Game, Prototype Electric Toy Motors...", of which my samples are pretty pathetic, but there's enough for a post on the civil stuff today (although I think we've seen most of them before?), and the military another day!

Comparison between an early dairy lorry collecting the churns from farm-gates (as was still quite common when I was younger) on the left and a later (1960's) version, not that while the silver one is perfectly stable in a bog-standard, brittle, 'kit' polystyrene plastic, the yellow one is a more unstable styrol or phenolic/ureic polymer of some type which is - like most of their early production - starting to distort.

Also, while the later model is a vaguely recognisable long-nosed Bedford or Morris lorry, the earlier example is (or 'was' in its day -) a more futuristic-looking fictional design.

Cleaning algae off a Penn

Plax fish-tank ornament!

A mid-era fire appliance/turntable ladder-truck, you can see from the remnants it should have three crew; one sat further-down from my headless ghost-rider, the other behind him on the opposite side. I think they had so many of the old 1950's production figures in a bin somewhere that they went on using them until the company faded from the scene, consequently the figures tend to be very brittle or are often missing altogether.

This version has no passengers in the cab (compare with the yellow milk truck) as it has no floor/chassis.

A 'proper' fire engine, with what is actually the same ladder, but locked in as a load, although you can slip it out to play scenes, it does have a floor and crew! It is also building a coating of dusty-pink 'leechate' which I didn't think to clean-off until I was putting them away again!

The last iteration (still with the same ladder) is not trying terribly hard to belong to a fire brigade, possibly becasue it's a telephone company truck (the difference between fire-bell and cable-loop is marginal, but this would appear to be the fire bell?) being in multiple colours (it has red wheels!), as a lot of the late production was, just attractive 'pester-power' stuff for no money. I think it's supposed to be an incident-control wagon; the same body was issued as an ambulance and - with a camera in place of the bell - as an outside broadcast TV unit.

In the lower shot you can see three generations of underside, the later ones having a more realistic arrangement of 'things'. Beeju also had friction versions with a more substantial chassis-plate to take the weight and stressing of metal/flywheel mechanisms. In the larger scales/with larger toys they also offered battery-operated and clockwork internal mechanics.

This is probably what EVB Beeju are best known for amnoung toy-fair brousers, they did many vertions of single and double-decked coaches, buses, trolly-buses (here on the left) and open-topped omnibuses, in many colours - we looked at these in close-up a while ago [check tag list] so I won't wax further!

A couple of other pieces marked Beeju, we only recently looked at a better version of the Native American canoe, but I mentioned this one on that occasion, so here it is, you can see where the oar used to be, and comments are the same as for the figures really, although I wonder if some antique-dealers back in the day may have whipped some of them to make faux 'ivory' spoons for Chinese snuff-bottles.

The little car is more of a puzzle; approximately N-gauge compatible (but probably too early for that system), I have images of similar designs being used with a larger, boxed, car-ferry toy, or being used as loads on flat-bed versions of some of the lorries above, but none are the same vehicle/design as this, and none have a hole in the driver's seat (UK side).

The hole could be for fixing to something, or for a driver-torso, but the other micro-cars have no figures (larger 1:43rd'ish toy cars do), so it may be from an - as yet - unknown playset, or car transporter?

As mentioned above, I'll look at the military another day, but I also have a small WWII mosquito (seen here passim) and a little boat, neither of which have been sorted to the Beeju tub yet!

B is for Bijou Little Canoe

Except it's Beeju and it's a small-scale, not 'little'! I was hoping to find the other one, but I've already buried it again, so it will have to be seen another day, surface to say it's powder-blue and red if memory serves, which it usually does, but not always; it might be mint green, or even another yellow one!

Picked this up from Adrian at the recent Sandown Park toy fair, and it's a little peach, I'm pretty sure the aforementioned 'storage' one is lacking the oar, or has a rather truncated one hanging on at the glue-points like a cross-bar!

Full set of marks for EVB/Beeju some of who's 'planes, lorries/trucks and civilian vehicles we've seen here at SSW in the past. Hull is plain red, deck is plain yellow and sandwiched between the two . . .

. . . is a marbled layer of the two colours mixed to make an orangey Native American and his load, which consists of a slightly relief-carved bundle of provisions, two piles of furs, a tomahawk and the hint of a rifle under the other cargo - to keep it dry of course!

M is for Magnificent Men in Their Micro Machines!

So, to other teeny tiny 'planes in the same vague size range as the above MPC (previous) post. A lot of them tend to be one-off's or small ranges of - often - MPC derivatives, used for lucky bags/sobres, Christmas cracker toys, cake decorations and such like, but others are from similar 'sets' to the MPC ones...

The first - definitely pre-dating MPC - seem to have been from the States; Irwin making a set in a phenolic resin or plastic sometime around the 1930/40's or very early 1950's, shown to the top-left in a dark salmon red.

Another set which I'm identifying as Airfix (subject to change!) may have only included four aircraft types (Lancaster, Mosquito, Spitfire, and US Lightning), but they turn-up quite often, so seem to have been numerous at some point, possibly included with a larger toy (as load or cargo), perhaps as a beach-toy?

As early as the Irwin 'planes, but of much higher quality is the blue Beeju 'EVB' Mosquito (top right) we've already looked at here, I don't know how many were in this set/range.

While a small set from China is currently doing the rounds as cake decorations. The DC-3 in blue (bottom-left) is smaller than the MPC version, but of high production values and may be one of a larger set, possibly an American maker, any ideas? [17-11-2014 - It's from the 1957 Air Fleet set from Nabisco's Shredded Wheat Cubs, smaller ranges with 5 or 6 of the same model aircraft were also issued by Empire/Caldwell in the States/Canada in hard styrene and Lido in both styrene and softer ethylene, so possibly supplied to Nabisco by Thomas Toys]

The Irwin types so far encountered by this author, marked 'IRWIN' on one wing and 'MADE IN U.S.A.' on the other, the push-prop (top-left) is an interesting addition (possibly meant to be a Bell YFM-1 Airacuda?) helping to date the set?

Bottom-left is the current cake decoration group, also used for Christmas crackers of the budget variety, there are three aircraft types so far found, in three colours, with the - provisional - Airfix group to the right, these can be seen in full over on the Airfix Blog.

Other examples in the 'Mini Aircraft - Odds and Sods' box! The entire top row are MPC derivatives with the red (and damaged blue) polypropylene and silver polystyrene ones all marked made in Hong Kong (MPC+6), the white and yellow delta-wings having different marks (+7 and +8!).

The large green one to the right is a Hong Kong ancestor of the China cake decorations, The yellow Concord may go with the DC-3 above, same level of detail/production values. The two little yellow ones (top centre-right) are from a Kinder toy.

The red one bottom-left; may be a rocket/missile from a Manzinger type robot or Transformer type toy? The four silver ones along the bottom are Blue Box and others. The dung-yellow one is a Montaplex - I think - and the red and yellow pair bottom right are phenolic and probably quite early, one being a simplified twin-engined fighter/bomber type, the other - possibly a helicopter's body?

The hard plastic gold and orange rocket-planes are similar but not the same as the yellow one to their left, also hard-plastic. The white jet-fighter is a plug-in probably from an aircraft-carrier toy, while the Spitfire in green seems to be a scaled-down copy of the one included in an Airfix board-game and in the same (ABS) material and colour, but with a mounting-hole in it.

The rest are unknown mongrels from Christmas crackers, sobres, lucky-bags or premiums, can anyone give us details on any of them? [17-11-2014 - except the large blue Navion  bottom-left; It's from the 1957 Air Fleet set from Nabisco's Shredded Wheat Cubs, smaller ranges with the same 'plane were also issued by Empire/Caldwell in the States/Canada in hard styrene and Lido in both styrene and softer ethylene, both can be found on Toy Soldier HQ, the unmarked blue MIG/Lightning next to it (far lower-left) is a copy from the Nabisco set]

M is for Miniature Mosquitoes

No, not more insects! I've loads more, but I can bore people on Facebook with them now!

I got a really nice little Mosquito from Mercator Trading the other day, turned out to be Beeju (EVB), so I thought I'd do a little round-up of the sub-scale 'Mozzies' in my collection...

So here they are, from the left we have a composition one from Zang for Timpo, made of compressed pumice in a combination known as 'Timpolene'. Then the Beeju newcomer, a Hong Kong copy of the old MPC 'Minis' 'plane and finally a small polystyrene version which I have tentatively suggested might be early Airfix.

Detail, both accurate and inaccurate make all four very different, yet they all manage to carry-off the distinctive lines of the original, just not when formed-up next to each-other! Scale is I guess from about 1:120 through to about 1:150.

I believe Timpo bought the rights (or remains) of Brent, and not wanting to confuse themselves with a factory full of hollow-casting machinery and equipment, turned over or contracted to Zang, the timpolene production. We've looked at the figures before Here but several aircraft were also made, I've seen an early jet (Whittle?) and a Hurricane as well as this mozzie.

As far as I know, Beeju hadn't been credited with sub-scale aircraft, being know for a range of mostly buses and fire engines, first in a distortable cellulose acetate, then is a more stable polystyrene. This is an early Cellulose-acetate one but mercifully hasn't warped much. It has the most exquisite little propeller plug-in/pop-ons made from the same material. The EVB mark is hidden in the under-wing roundels while MADE IN ENGLAND is present in relief along the bomb-bay.

I don't have the MPC mosquito, although I do have most of them and will cover them here one day, but there are several 'levels' of Hong Kong copies, of which this is from the commonest. Also the latest, being included in various sets when I was young in the late 1960's/70's. It was a smaller range than the original MPC range, or some of the earlier ranges of piracies. This is the lowest grade quality-wise, but carries over the detailing from the MPC version, just in a chunky fashion.

My speculation that this is Airfix, is based on no more than it seems to be the same plastic, in the same colours as the later version Animal Flats, contained in building blocks and baby's rattles. While they could be Tudor*Rose or Kleeware or any one of a dozen other early British makers; the colours (I have a handful of these; Lancaster, Spitfire etc...) particularly the pea-green and pink are identical to both the early cellulose acetate and late styrene Airfix flats, and the marking 'MADE IN ENGLAND' is more Airfix that the other main makes who tended to use circular marks. Still it is only a possibility, not an absolute confirmation.

This is a styrene examplr and it has warped, but due to early removal from the mould, I have a red one with broken wing which is much straighter. I would imaging that they would have been sold as a small handful, possibly in conjunction with a larger beach/bath toy, or as 'party favours' or cake decorations?

The rest are now to be seen here; Airfix Mini Planes

Finally; J. E. Beale - the trading arm of the still extant Beales department store in Bournemouth, UK, commissioned a set which contained both two Timpo/Zang Mosquitoes and some Skybirds figures, being two 'plane guards and an MG-team.

EVB is for Beeju

For some time I mistook the EVB logo for the ELM logo of the Marx Hong Kong factory, an easy mistake if you're A) Aspergic and B) not viewing them together at the same time as they are very similar. Indeed somewhere Paul Morehead has an article of mine following up the original Marx/Blue Box article in One Inch Warrior in which I make something of the 'link'...fortunately he's never run it (probably spotted the error!), and if I weren't admitting the mistake, I might have got away with it, yet errors are an important part of research, but only if they are admitted too!

Double-decker trolley-bus, possibly missing a wire power-pickup or two (cantenery)

The first vehicles advertised by Beeju were in the late 1940's, and there are two distinct periods, the - now warped - cellulose acetate phase and the latter polystyrene range which doesn't suffer from warping. The range included larger vehicles for the American market, ships and boats, novelties like clockwork chicks and TV licenced stuff from Muffin the Mule, but by far the largest part of their oeuvre was the approximately 1:76th scale vehicles, which often have little figures attached.

This particular Trolley-bus has the most people I've ever seen in one of these and is an early, warped version. The model seems to have been dropped from the range before the transition to styrene, however another maker, possibly Portuguese did make stable copies, in brighter colours, without figures, in a styrene plastic.

Here we see a picture previously on my Imageshack account and also shown here before (top right) of the later styrene range mostly in military green, but with a few silver versions, along with several of the earlier vehicles which are all stating to distort. My fire-engine is a bit rough and lacks two firemen and the head of the third!

A lovely metallic-green bus which goes quite well with the military range as a troop-transport. I've seen gold ones, and there are others on the Internet, but this is the only green one I've come across, it's missing it's transfers, which tend to wear-off.

This model was carried over to the stable-material period, where - like the late version lorries - it got a clip-together makeover with locating tabs, instead of the glued components of these earlier types.