Q is for Quickie!

I've literally just found this - below shot - looking for something else to post quickly before I go to work, and as it's 12th night/the last day of Christmas, today, I'd better post it!

 

These were part of a donation from Peter Evans back in the late summer, and I've mentioned that several donations and a couple of toy fair lots have rather been forgotten or subsumed into the general folders, several of which were from or involved Peter, so many thanks to him, but here's one of the lost images, with a couple of other Picasa-clearers!

 

Back to cake decorations! The footballer is a hard polystyrene Hong Kong copy of the earlier, larger Gemodels sculpt, the polar-explorer next to him come from an old Revell (or Monogram?) aeroplane model kit of a ski-plane, or so I thought, possibly the old Ford Trimotor? However, a quick Google says no, and neither does he seem to be from the Airfix one, so answers on a postcard please! Home-painted, but in a nicely commercial style, I feel.

 

Micky is one of the marked 'Culpitt' figures (I think, I can't honestly remember), very similar to the Marx/Combex, Bully and Comics Spain pieces, among others, there seem to have been quite a few of them, if it is Culpitt, it's the second seen here, but I may have more, and it's something we can return to another day.

 

Below left is probably a Hong Kong Santa, and he looks like he's meant to be holding a sleigh/sledge's handles? While the other two have been covered here before, the Gemodels stag and much later festival/Culpitt plug-together.

These are definitely Culpitt marked, and it was the Goofy we saw last time, shot taken from the Culpitt cake decorating book, which you won't be surprised to hear was called the Culpitt Book of Cake Decoration! And which doubled-up as a catalogue.

Last time I mentioned it, someone else rushed out to find a copy (or cover shot!) so he could mention it too, which was sweet "sincerest form of flattery" and all that, but actually there are two versions, presumably the 'ghostwriter' employed to provide the blurb, issued her own version!

 

Interestingly, there are a couple of page-differences and blurb-variances in the opening and closing sections, but otherwise it's the same tome, with different covers - both now in the library, for completion!

M is for Musing on Models - Gemodels . . . and Festival!

We've visited them before and will again as it's a fascinating subject, not only was George Musgrave one of the most prolific designers/sculptors for other people, but he was also a great innovator and experimenter, so the full list of his output continues to grow, as the history of his company, it's apparent love/hate relationship with Culpitt, and the Hong Kong pirates, produces more and more to digest or collect.

 

A couple of shots of stuff which came in over several lots at the end of last year, and were going to be a simpler version of this post, then! The upper shot being both sledge designs with the three different configurations, the two snow babies on the smaller toboggans are melted-on, but I don't know how and wasn't going to force them to find out, which will be more relevant below!

The girl playing in the snow is a previously unrecorded sculpt, and seems to be from or connected with the carol singers, in being more Dickensian/Victorian in styling, than the sixties-kids in the woolly jumpers and baby-suits of the other sculpts.

While the Huskies again, seem to include a new sculpt, the one on the left is the brown-polymer version of one of the common set of three, the one on the right seems to be new, and larger, but I need to compare with the others, who are in storage.

 

As some larger woodland animals have turned up, we've seen some here, as candle-holders (fawn and squirrel), and as stand-alone's, so it may be he's part of a different set - I've seen another squirrel without candle hole which looks 'Gem' or Festival in mixed online lots?

 

The lower shot has all the travellers out on the ice, with two skiers and a lonely skater!

This one is marked Festival, I can't remember if we've had Gem marked examples here, but we have looked at a bunch of Hong Kong copies in three different polymers.

 

I've posted the link to the debate elsewhere on the subject of Festival before, but I'm now happy to assume and pass on that Festival was a late project of Musgrave's, set up after he fell-out with, and in direct competition to Culpitt. And that it ran for some time, with some success.

Sadly, he barely mentions them in his interviews with Plastic Warrior magazine, nor was there much, or anything (?) in the museum, but they are obviously Gem style, some Gem sculpts (or re-sculpts), and Gem painting. And because they are all Birthday/Easter/Christmas themes with smart, modern boxed packaging and newer polyethylenes (racing car and train candleholders), were specifically a cake decoration 'line', against the waning of Gemodels with their full sized figures, scenic items and buildings.

The larger sled, the two riders are meant to be both facing forwards, but you can arrange them with one absent-mindedly trailing his legs, or maybe they are waiting to start-off! And if you want them rushing down an icing slope, just remove the puller and rope!

These two have spigots on their feet which have been pushed through the skis and melted back with a hot tool, for this we have a second design of ski, which is wider - previously I had suggested distortion due to the heat, but I think they are shorter and wider, or flared, in the middle?

While these have been attached by what might be the same spigots or separate scraps of polymer, leaving a doughnut of plastic 'flash' around the feet, these are not the over-moulded ones, which leave a very neat weld-mark when separated, this is a cruder 'glueing' with heat, and a fourth version of ski-attachment.

 

There are also two types of stick; the earlier hand-tooled slightly lumpy Gem one (?) and a later, finely-machined Festival one.

The skater's partner turned up in a later lot! The yellow guy and the trio on grey fabric were shot just now, and are the first examples from Chris Smith's latest donation to the Blog, a mass of good stuff I haven't even looked at properly, or had my customary eMail exchange with him on, but I have managed to sort them into bags, thank him, and dig these three out for a quick photo' or two! The rest will follow in January, probably?

The new yellow one is a Hong Kong copy, as procured by Culpitt, from the Gem designs they had been carrying . . . bastards! You can see it's a crude copy with a loss of detail; lazy pantography and no finishing! His base looks clipped in some way, but that's because he's been glued to and cut away from a larger plinth-base (see next post) in white, his own base, in yellow, follows the outlines of the Gem/Festival original.

 

Santa is a generic, and the other Gem has come away from his base at the skate-blade line; a testimony to how fine the sculpting was!

 

Gem flourished in the 1950-60's, Festival were active from the '60's through 'till around the end of the 1980's, while this Hong Kong effort is probably a 1970's replacement for the copy seen above, simplified for mass production it's almost a demi-ronde!

 

They could all be found in bakers shops as recently as the 2010's, but are now getting hard to find as the supermarkets and Gregg's style chains have finished all the old independent or family bakers.

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Finally as a Brucey Bonus, we are off to Thomas/Poplar for a shot of the official Santa's sleigh, with Rudolf! This has a rigid set of poles integrally moulded, so only fit the reindeer, whereas the other design, with two seats, seen here several times I think, has hinged poles, so can be wedged to the PVC-rubber cats, dogs or deer, but may only be meant for the kids, even though I've posted it with Santa . . . I think I once posted it with two Santa's just for the hell of it!

P is for Potpourri of Plastic Peeps! The Animals

There's always some interesting animals in Chris's parcels, and this one was no exception, with all sorts of critters to look at, farm and zoo/wild, real and imagined, prehistoric and an invertebrate! So let's get stuck in and have a look at them.

These were very interesting, I've had a couple of cursory Google-serches for swappable-, plug-together- changeable- or multipart- Dinosaurs, with no luck, so if anyone recognises them, let the rest of us know in the comments, and they don't look to be that old, in the style of 4D Masters or similar? Fame Master do their lock-together 'jig-puzzle' types.

 

And you can see the complete one looks a tad fictional? While half a kerthunkersaurus and bits of three others, hint at a decent range, where the joining-points, doubling as points of articulation, have identical dimensions on the faces, so all the heads, tails, forelimbs and back-legs can be swapped . . . Intriguing!

These vinyl-like copies of Britains also look to be modern, and probably die-cast vehicle/play set accessories, they are scale reduced, but not by that much and would suit 35-45mm figures?

I may have some of these in storage, under unknown small scale animals, but don't recognise the specific sculpts here, and with two domestic breeds and a lion, probably Christmas cracker prizes from the budget end, and new to the Blog.

 

A mixture here! The swan looks to be an early polymer bath novelty, the hen is a Hong Kong copy of the Britains plastic version of their earlier lead one (legs always break!), and the dog is probably a Playmobil puppy?

 

The green cockerel is one of those dimestore things which I think several people had a stab at, while the black sheep is a US-made item I think, but I forget the maker. Next to the sheep is a Merit camel, with an Airfix sheep bottom left and a daft-looking dog I have no idea on!

Which leaves the hedgehog which has lost it's fur/spines, and I thought it was one I may have somewhere, in better nick, but I think I have a very similar wooden one, from which this may be a later copy, so when I do the hedgehogs, I'll have a comparison between the two!

I know I have these in the unknown section of the old small-scale collection (they're about the same size as the larger version of Matchbox horse), possibly different poses, or additional poses, but what's interesting about them is that they are mimicking sets of real ivory carvings from the 19th/early 20th century, which I think are Chinese in origin and may be connected to folklore or myth/legend?

My father had a set, which he must have brought back from the Far East, I don't know what happened to them, but I know a few legs were broken over the years. The purplish colouring of the manes points to Blue Box, Holly or New Maries? Various cows, rabbits and other animals from all three had the same 'brown'?

 

Another mix, which is all a bit more 'don't know'! The dino' is a party-bag thing, we have seen here before under a couple of brands I think, with another in the pipeline, and the penguin is a white-button novelty swimmer.

 

The elephant is a cracker-charm, the seal an older rack-toy bag figure I think, the lizard likewise but probably more contemporary, and the monkey from a more sizable infant toy of some kind (maybe Playmobil again?). The rhino goes with a set of hollow-bodied novelty animals, we did look at years ago, and I have no idea on the scorpion?

Four interesting pieces, not least of which is the squirrel cake-candle holder, which must be a previously unrecorded Gem or Festival piece, from the same line as the resting Fawn, which is more common, perhaps by coincidence, but which rases the question of how many sculpts were in the set, four, five, six maybe?

 

The Zebra is another possibly Playmobil, but seems scaled smaller, a foal, or another toy line? You can see he stands, or rears up on his tail, while the bear is another American piece I think and the hippo is a resin lump from Scotland!

 

I don't know what to make of these, but they are figural, if only from the neck-up, and novelty, which, given the amount of novelty, cartoonish or tourist stuff in the collection now, guarantees them a place, but they can't go with the cats, nor with the dogs, so they'll have their own sub-zone! But fun, and as with everything else on the page, a big thanks to Mr. Smith for sending them to me to share with you . . . any ideas?

 

Finger puppets of some kind, lolly-covers, badges missing the attachments? I should have shot them from other angles, behind, and with a sizer, it'll give me an excuse to look at them again one day, in the meantime they are about 50/60mm across.

H is for Happy Birthday to Me!

Yeah, it was a while ago, but before I get into the other April/May donations and show stuff, Adrian gave me a nice parcel for my Birthday, so I'm Blogging that first!

Having already supplied several of the missing Circus M's (M-Toy, Marty, Maysun & May Moon), along with the poodle (see previous posts), Adrian had found another lot of the Circus stuff, and look what that monkey in a vest - previously seen from Chris Smith - sits on...

A Unicycle! Which leaves, as far as I know, the rearing version of the Britains Baby Giraffe as the only item in the line, still to be found loose, but it may not be that simple? The lot also contained a Festival clown and a teeny-tiny 'styrene clown, which may have been an early Christmas cracker or gum-ball capsule-machine charm?

The clown is - I think - the first I've found with the Maysun mark, usually, but not always found on the Ringmaster. While the wheel seems to be an odd one from something else, the stub-axles having a square cross-section, which I suspect are meant to lock into a heavy metal object, allowing the monkey to balance on a 'high-wire'?

The reason I'm not sure what's still to be found in the line, is because these were also in the lot, and while they look like Blue Box (or Holly), I suspect they may be part of the M's sample, and there's nothing to place the zoo fencing with the figures, beyond the fact that they were all in the same 'mixed' lot? A family of three different sizes of the same ex-Britains sculpt crocodile.

These semi-flats were added to the tub, when I picked it up at the BMSS show, the two Brits are a mystery, seemingly being die-cast and quite crude sculpts, they aren't known to be home-cast mouldings, and are relatively unique poses? The German or 'Euro' gunner is a more common home-cast piece.

 

A lovely art-deco take on a 'Greek' war horse (?) cocktail glass decorative ornamental in blood-red, transparent polystyrene, originally credited to the industrial designer Don Manning, and they (a range of between 8-12 sculpts) were first produced in the USA, in larger sizes as Lucite ornaments, before NOSCO reproduced them, smaller (in several sizes) as novelty cocktail-glass/cheeseboard/finger-buffet decorations, in cheaper materials, as we see here.

 

Again probably Blue Box, but could be Holly Toys, New Maries or another maker altogether, what's interesting is the goose family (common in the Blue Box and Sunshine Series sets) is joined by copies of Britains hens from both the hollow-cast and Herald eras, of the British donor's production. Indeed, Britians ran the central ex-Hollow-cast mould in plastic themselves.

 

The nearer sculpt is quite common, but the rather chewed one behind it is my frst sample I think? It has the raked-bow of the WWI-era 'Dreadnought' classes, and I suspect is from another source to the commoner one, possibly from a board game, but more likely a budget-price, cracker prize.

 

The de rigueur handful of Hong Kong, post-Giant, hollow-horsed Wild West mounted figures, we will dig down into all these on the Giant Blog eventually, but this seems to be quite a clean sample, with just a couple of interlopers from another source?

 

Bag of bits! Two useful Lone Star rockets and some hand weapons are joined by the radio ariel from Airfix's Comet tank (I think?), a Corgi sack, and a lovely hand-saw, in an early polymer, probably from a toy truck/van's tool box?

 

The brown cat is from a set of early learning things which could be placed on one of those mini-whiteboard/peg-boards you could get for the playroom, Merit or Bell, Raphael Lipkin maybe? The little kitten looks modern'ish, but the other might (and it's a big 'might', I'm not calling it!) be Gem or Festival?

 

This was an interesting find by Adrian, it's the 20mm composition pilot, from Zang (for Timpo), but aping the Skybirds lead pilots, in having a white suit . . . for 'civilian'? Although, probably painted over the more common khaki (broken one lying at his feet), it appears to have been done in the factory, as the pink face matches my other samples?

 

I think the flocked puppy is probably Polly Pocket from Bluebird Toys, while the teeny chick has a W GERMANY mark on it's base, so small you need a magnifying glass, or jeweller's loupe, to read it! While the Mini Mouse is of unknown origin?

 

A collection of railway and die-cast accessory figures brings this eclectic little gift to a close. I got quite excited by the figure on the left, thinking it was one of those celluloid figures from Japan, until I realised it was an over-painted Hornby figure!

 

PVC chap on the right was Corgi, and the silver boy/driver is probably Dinky or Spot On? My gratitude to Adrian for a lovely suprise, which came between shows, and gave up all sorts of new bits!

Y is for Yearly Yuletide Yield!

Well, I've picked the easiest bits out of a folder with tons of images in, before 'sending it back', a folder I've just been throwing stuff in for a couple of years or more now, but not really considering for posts. Hopefully next year I'll do a bunch of cake decoration posts instead of nativity posts.

I picked this up, as I have a tatty old empty one, and just wanted a good tub/pot (?) against future posts, I wasn't 100% convinced by the contents shown in the listing, and what turned up confirmed those suspicions; two Gem/Festival UK-manufactured polyethylene decorations and one hollow-styrene snowman from Hong Kong?

Which is not to say Supercook couldn't have bought bulk from more than one source, and 'mix & matched' into their product range, but having two un-matching material/construction snowmen, both with brooms, is a hard one to reconcile with how commerce works?

So, while I now have the nice clean container, I'll keep a eye on feebleBay for a more obviously original contents, indeed, I'll need to spot two or three before I can call it firmly, due to the ease with which the lid can be removed/usefulness of the container, against the likelihood of additions not being made to the contents by the householder/cook!

Supercook are still around, or were until quite recently; stores still have 'new' stock, and were carrying resin dinosaurs! To wit: a T-Rex and a rather dodgy-looking Triceratops along with a shallow-spiked 'Happy Birthday' label.

They've got cartoon faces, which could be painted out, but as they're going to stay in the packaging, they can stay looking a bit dim-witted! Keeping them sealed will also - hopefully - keep them from the inevitable chips or broken extremities which resin figurines tend to suffer from.

Back to the contents of the tub, and the Santa Clause - holding ball and teddy bear - was a new sculpt (to me), and joins these others who/which have come-in over the last year or so, all Gem/Festival and all seen before. Note the yellow one has lost it's skis, for which it has the lugs, but which weren't heat-sealed underneath the ski, hence the loss!

Another thing I've discovered over the  last couple of years is that George Musgrave experimented with different icing spikes or "picks" to hold the things onto the cakes before adopting the common flat base you just squidge into the icing before it sets!

A few other points of note, clockwise from top left; A variation of the Hong Kong copy of Gem's sledging Santa' is equipped with a stick-on sheet of 'snow' (left of pair), two snowmen who are primarily pencil-tops, but could also be used as cake decorations and a size variation of the smaller Hong Kong Father Christmas we've seen here before.

That's it, I'll try to do more cake decorations, this time next year, and we'll be back to more normal output from now. That is, with silent-gaps, while I get this house sold and move into a temporary (I hope!) rented flat I paid-for, in advance, in full, several weeks ago!