E is for Emergency . . . Empire or Emson?

A closer look at a couple of the sets in the packaging-post from the other day now, with a look at the Blue Box emergency set, and what I've suggested is the Lucky 'version', however in preparing the images, it became obvious that it's probably not Lucky, but E (for Empire? Or Emson, see past article on Thames Trader trucks!), the people who made some of those Tri-Ang Minic ship knock-off's.

The two sets side-by-side, ignoring the illustrative card coming off the front side of the Blue Box carton, you can see the two boxes are roughly the same height and depth, but the unbranded one (sold as Lucky but probably Emson) is wider for double the contents.

 

The Blue Box turntable ladder truck is a bit of fun with a fully traversing, elevating and extending, sectional ladder (a very delicate structure in polystyrene, I don't suppose many have survived outside the packaging!), but purely fictional on a Bedford RL chassis I think?

 

The ambulance, on the same chassis, has been (along with the figures) quite badly discoloured by sunlight (ultraviolet), and you can see that while the far side isn't so affected, the cab/chassis moulding is untouched.

This confirms my own theory much expanded-on in an interesting thread on plastic diseases, on the old HäT forum, long since deleted, when H adopted the 12-month cut-off! Basically, I believe all problems with old plastic are related to errors on the day they were formed, with incorrect temperatures, pressures or additive quantities resulting in hidden flaws with will come out later, I'm guessing the body and figures were probably overcooked in the tools, while the cab-chassis went through their birth without problems?

The other set is aping the 77xxx series from Blue Box, with a window in front of each element, and similar packaging dimensions, and confirms the link between the round-based mechanics and the oblong-based firefighters, previously made here at Small Scale World.

I thought the artwork was rather atmospheric!

 

I don't know my cars well enough to call either of these, are they US vehicles, with that soft spongy suspension which makes kids car-sick, or are we looking at a Ford Zephyr or Zodiac for one of them? Corgi did an Oldsmobile staff-car, could one of these be a clone of that?

 

We've seen the figures before, they are copies of the Blue Box copies of the Dinky figures, but the sticker on the blue Police-car's door is clearly the branding of the 'E for Empire' toys, probably, actually Emson, seen on other toys of this type, which is not to say Lucky aren't in there somewhere, there was a lot of cross pollination between all those cheapo-platic makers, and having discovered that Blue Box (and Redbox) are only brands of Tai Sang, there's no reason to discard previous theories without empirical evidence, so I'll tag all three (Lucky Toys, Empire Made, Emson) until we know more!

 

The Thames Trader water tank (? Or tool-lorry?) is similar in lines to the real-life T55, but that was more streamlined, while the Dennis looks like a bit of a hybrid between a 1971 D600 (Mk 2) and the earlier F101. As different brigades would have replaced different numbers/types of appliances at different times, there would have been a gradual evolution in outline and fittings, as well as different decorations (some have more chrome), so it's a fair representation of a generic Dennis!

It was machines like this which attended our house, and saved it, back in the 1970's, when the heath caught fire (thoughts for the people of Maui, Greece, Portugal, Canada et al.) and the tar on the flat roof started steaming! The firemen gave my brother and I regular top-ups for our watering cans, so we could help 'damp-down'! We found tons of cooked Adder's eggs - sadface, and ended-up looking like a couple of Victorian chimney sweeps!

 

Being a local manufacturer, my childhood memories are filled with Dennis fire engines (and County tractors) being test-driven or 'shaken-down' around the area, and they often went through Fleet, sometimes as plain chassis, with the drivers' using motorcycle helmets and four-point, racing seatbelts, perched - as they were - on a temporary seat over the bare engine! I seem to recall the seats were held-on with a literal network of bungy-cords, but it was probably coloured rope!

 

While it is also similar to the Bedford RL 'Green Goddess' wagons of the Auxiliary [Army] Fire Service (AFS), and of the fire-strikes fame! All gone now, along with everything else in the cupboards - Thanks Tory voters, you know the price of everything and the value of nothing, least of all 'society'.

In both sets, the figures are slightly over-scaled at 28/30mm, but all the vehicles could carry-off service in 1:76/72nd scale armies or on HO or OO-gauge layouts, or maybe not the two cars; just the lorries/trucks?

News, View Etc . . . Vectis - Late October

End of October press releases for Vectis Actions, which kicks off with tomorrow's sale on Fire Engines, I don't know if this is part two or the previous collection, or the previous collection rescheduled? Anyway Fire Engines tomorrow!

Lot 3024

Tuesday 20th October 2020
The Mike Linham Fire Engine Collection - starts 10:00hrs

"The Mike Linham Fire Engine Collection to be held on the 20th of October features over 600 lots of boxed and unboxed models, including Fire Engines, Fire Chief cars and vehicles, Station houses, boats and Horse Drawn wagons. The collection includes scarce models, sets, presentation sets, trade boxes and kits and includes tinplate, plastic, pressed steel, and diecast. Manufacturers include Marklin, Schuco, Mettoy, Timpo, Chad Valley, Charles Rossignol, Hubley, and Lego plus Corgi, Dinky, Triang Spot-On, Lledo and many others."

Catalogue and download

Lot 4361

Thursday 22nd October 2020 10:00am
Specialist Matchbox & Modern Die Cast Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The Specialist sale to be held on the 22nd of October starts with The Californian Collection, a nice selection of Dinky vehicles, Trade packs, Sets and accessories, plus catalogues and promotional ephemera, Pre-War, French Dinky and rare variations. The sale continues with a Dinky Ex-Shop Stock Collection, 18 lots of Dinky aircraft, ships, military and space vehicles. Plus, The Matchbox Code 2 Collection, featuring 47 lots of Matchbox Models of Yesteryear mixed code 2 groups, and a Private Owner Collection includes road, racing, rally cars and Dioramas from manufacturers such as Vanguards, Minichamps, Spark (Minimax), Remember Models, SMTS Model, Schuco and many others. Further items include Dinky Pre-War, cars, commercials, emergency vehicles and military; Corgi, Triang Spot-On, Matchbox Superfast, and Regular Wheels, Minichamps, Revell, plus decal sheets, groups of White Metal parts and advertising literature."

Catalogue and download

Lot 5399

Friday 13rd October 2020
Toy and Model Railway Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The Model Train sale to be held on the 23rd of October starts with OO Gauge British Outline including part 2 of a Single Owner Collection; HO & American Outline, N Gauge and Hornby Dublo 2- & 3-rail. The sale continues with Wrenn, Triang and Triang Minic Motorway and OO Gauge Trix/Liliput, Brass and Exley OO/HO Kits/Kitbuilt. The sale will also include Meccano & Other Constructional Toys, Live Steam, Gauge 1 & Larger, G Gauge, and Hornby, further and modern O Gauge. The sale concludes with Books, Magazines, Catalogues, Railwayana/Railway Photographs, Pictures & Prints and our usual good selection of General Trains."

Catalogue and download

There's also a book and ephemera sale next tuesday (the 27th of Octotober), with a lot of old Sci-Fi paperbacks amoung the early lots and for which the blurb goes;

"The second Vectis Books and Works on Paper sale is to be held on the 27th of October. The sale will include further collections of Science Fiction and Fantasy Adventure, including Star Trek and Dr Who; Israel history, culture and wars; Military history, history and culture, Space, humour and cartoon, plus General Interest and a collection of Royal Airforce Limited Edition Autographed first day covers."

Catalogue and download

*************************************

The ongoing global health scare means various special instructions are still in place . . .

COVID - 19 RESTRICTIONS
 
Please note there is still NO viewing, or attendance in person at these Auctions.
 
Absentee bids can be emailed to admin@vectis.co.uk, or placed via the Vectis or Invaluable website, up until 2 hrs prior to the auction commencing.
 
ON THE DAY OF THE SALE, LIVE BIDDING is available on www.vectis.co.uk or www.invaluable.com, or TELEPHONE BIDDING can be arranged.

For telephone bidding please contact Vectis prior to the day of the auction. We will arrange for you to be involved live via telephone on the day of the sale. We will call you two or three lots prior to the lot being offered for auction.

There is no charge for telephone bidding.  

SHIPPING

Please be aware there is still a slight delay with our current despatch times.

Our packing team have been working hard to catch up with the 5 weeks closure we experienced in March/April. When we re-opened in April we did so with a skeleton staff, we are now back to full capacity and they have been working tirelessly to ensure your parcels are packed as quickly and professionally as possible; the team are now currently packing and despatching September Sales. 

We thank you for your understanding and patience in these unprecedented times. 

COLLECTION   

If you wish to collect items, we would ask customers to first call and pay for their purchases. Ask for a collection appointment date and time. This will allow the packing team to prepare your items and have them ready for you, reducing waiting times.  

PLEASE ENSURE YOU WEAR A MASK WHEN COLLECTING LOTS (UNLESS EXEMPT)

And Vectis can - as always - be contacted here;

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions
Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel - +44 (0) 1642 750616
Fax - +44 (0) 1642 769478
Sales [currently] commence at 10:30hrs 10:00hrs

Sothern Office (which is advertising for a part-time driver)
Unit 5A, West End Industrial Estate, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 1UB
Tel - +44 (0)1993 709 424

F is for Follow-up - Hong Kong Figures - Firefighters & Forecourt Fellows

Related to the stuff from the posts last week/last weekend, and kindly sent in to Central Planning here at Small Scale World by Chris Smith and Theo van der Weerden; being of similar subject-matter they made a whole post nicely between them, and that was before I checked my unknowns!

Staring with Chris's bits and he has another pose for the probably (almost certainly) Pioneer larger size firefighters, being a chap in an asbestos suit, who - as Chris pointed-out - "...could be used with planes, space or military scenarios.", to which I'd add F1 racing?

Chris also took a group shot with the two poses we saw the other day, they all have the stepped base and I suspect we are still looking fr at least one more (forth) pose?

I've actually found another, similar soldier attributed to Stonegalleon, which is smaller than the two Pioneer sizes and a new pose (may be on the Blog somewhere - early days), but I suspect he's a bit of a knock-off, there was a lot of this around at the end of the 1980's and right through the 1990's before those bicuit-coloured figures (with German firefighters and policemen) took the crown in the 2000's, being used by Chad Valley, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Carama and others here and various brands on the continent.

Meanwhile and the same day, Theo was sending me these and it's easier to quote him here;

"...the Range Rover is obviously a copy of the Matchbox K-64 Range Rover fire engine . . .

. . . has some of the firefighters. The blue firefighter, 2nd picture, came in a box with 3 other firefighters, a fire engine and a police motor.

These were made by Jimson of Hong Kong. 

As you can see in the picture the kneeling fireman is holding a radio of some kind. . . .

. . . So I think we got at least four companies who made these figures. Sun Fung, Jimson and two unknown."

So; if I've understood Theo right, the ones I've Numbered 1 are Jimson, then there are copies at '2' and '4', the 2's being better-quality than all the figures we looked at in the Sun Fung post, while the four is on a par, and another sub-piracy.

I think I'm also right to say the Jimsons are stiff, but bendy PVC, while the 2's are hard polystyrene, and the 4 possibly softer polyethylene? And I've called him four for this post for a reason we'll get to in a minute, but he may have come after some of the figures we looked at the other day!

Theo also scanned the Matchbox (matchbox, matchbox, matchbox; whoever said it was Corgi is an idiot!) range-rover which Sun Fung copied so we can picture it better!

Meanwhile, I've found a Jimson firefighter and a set of similar garage/service-station staff/mechanics, but this time - fully-painted; they are (the same?) dense PVC, with the detail lacking on the sub-piracies we saw the other day.

And the most important element of Theo's contribution . . . it's a radio! A giant radio, which after sub-pirating became a blob, and he's kneeling next to a box, not on debris!

I also have a few of the polystyrene ones, they hold some of the detail but they are copies, not just a different material run through the same tool.

Another vinyl one in an alternate colour and some copies which are well made in a softish vinyl-rubber, they could be any of the companies mentioned in the last few days (Pioneer, Realtoy, Smart, early Supreme et al.) or another one altogether; New Ray must have churned-out some early stuff before they became a 'known name', but equally they could be the originals (which is why they got the '3' here, over Theo's singleton). . . they look almost US production, like small Auburn or someone (I know they're not Auburn, just 'painting a picture'!)?

And Chris also sent two more of the (possibly early Supreme) construction workers, of which I love the guy with a spade, he's doing his stretching exercises so he doesn't pull a muscle later - very wise!

Cheers to both Chris and Theo; Jimson ID'd and yet-more questions go in the pile!

S is for Sun Fung . . . Not! (Probably?)

Well, I mean Sun Fung might be a stand-alone manufacturer, but the lack of a logo in the full page ad' suggests they were probably some sort of 'middle-man', you know the type of thing; contract-agents, Hong Kong-based wholesalers or shippers of some kind? The stuff seems pretty generic and to have been seen in other guises?

Anyway it's another name in the cannon (and the Tag List); let's have a look . . . the above was cropped out of the larger inset-image and shows some figures as 'added-interest' or 'enhanced play-value' accessories for what look to be all or mostly plastic vehicles, and it's the firefighters we are going to concentrate on today.

I only have two I can say may be from the Sun Fung stable and one of them doesn't have the necessary paint! Both are manufactured in a softish polyethylene; one a match for those illustrated above, the unpainted 'other' being possibly a later one?

But . . . I do have these, in three-colour paint, over pink polystyrene and with an extra pose (we will study in a mo'), they are not quite the same with the bases on the 2nd (fire-axe guy) and 3rd (air-tank guy) figures from the left turned 90° from the Sun Fung ones, the pose it's hard to make-out in the advert' is the carrying a medium-sized (age 7-10) child guy, while the kneeling pose on the far right is . . .

 . . . carrying a baby? Carrying a dog or cat . . . or other pet (large gerbil?), carrying a small monkey? A piece of vital fire-fighting equipment? The Mystical Zoldorathian Girdle of Power? He's carrying something and has chosen to kneel on a piece of debris!

These two sub-Lucky copies aren't the orange ones above, although the kneeling guy in the advertisement seems to have been reversed in the studio so would look similar to this chap, the standing one has a different base.

In preparing these recent posts I've found around (it was dodgy counting) 59 samples of un-ID'd road-workers/mechanics in the small-to-medium scales box, some several hundred figures, and 20-odd in the larger-scale tubs, so plenty to go on and I added two samples (four figures) from Chris and Peter from the last few months, along with two Blue Box variants; also from Peter, and one day we'll have a session on the figures rather than the brands!

Q is for Question Time - Fire Chief

Can anyone help Theo's brother ID his Fire Chief with a little more definitiveness than 'British'?

The car is clearly marked on the box 'Made in Great Britain' and I believe the underside of the model has 'No. 909-2L (GB)', but other than those, there are no clues. The usual suspects are Thomas/Taffy, Kleeware/Tudor Rose or Raphael Lipkin, but there were others; Tri-ang/Mettoy experimented with plastics in the latter Minic's? I feel the wheels will be the best clue, does any toy car/vehicle collector recognise them from other - branded - toy vehicles?

I'm guessing it's a generic made for someone like Littlewoods or Kays' Christmas catalogues and hoping that someone will recognise it from a branded example in their collection, maybe as a taxi rather than a fire chief, or a police car . . . military vehicle?

Friction-drive with working headlights and siren; it's a lovely thing, box looks 1950's, and the end-closure follows a pattern you see with early Randall's (Merit) - among others? About 1:24th scale?

F is for Follow-up, to Lucky Toys; Flat-screen Beetle - Fire Chief!

We're going to look at a few of the vehicles I photographed at Sandown Park last month which may (or may not!) be from the Lucky Toy (or LP!) stable/s over the next few days, and we’re starting with a little peach!

It's a VW Beetle (raaayy!), flat screen (double-raaayy!) but not split (boooooh!), it's a fire vehicle (raaayy!), with push-and-go motor (raaayy!) and blue windows (cool!) hiding a lack of figures (boooooh!) and it's fitted with racing-slicks . . . on a Fire Chief !!!?

I used to be a big fan of VW Beetles and some of my friends still are, but I saw the light . . . here's the news; all vehicles even back in the 1950's have/had a built-in obsolescence, and while a 15 or even 20 year-old vehicle can be a cool conversation piece, a 30 or 40 year old bubble-car with a propensity to catch-fire on the motorway, is just an old piece of shit - isn't it?!

Same with old-series Land Rovers (aluminium rot), 1950's Harley Davidson's (noisy, gas-guzzling, rust-buckets), any pretty Citroens (hydraulic nightmare), Morris Traveller's and Mini-traveller's; they get woodworm in their bodywork FFS! Old vehicles look best (and last longer) in museums, period.

Clear base mark with the full Lucky horseshoe. Points to note are that the motor housing has bend-down tin flaps, and while there are two screw stations, only one is being used, suggesting other variations, probably for other/different customers with different wheel or bodywork arrangements or even different motor-types/configurations?

S is for Supreme / SP Toys...and Titan...Ackerman et al.

We looked at the vehicles for these sets (or at least the military sets, some of which had militarised versions of the civilian or police vehicles) a while ago Here [I've linked the 'Supreme' tag, so this post will be at the top of the page after you click it], so it's about time we looked at the figures!

As this is a Toy soldier blog, we'll start with the military figures;

The very large '800' series sets that contained all the really quite nice vehicles found in the above link came with a number of figures, the contents of three of which are illustrated above, with a shot showing some of the colour variations. Camouflage blobs were a dark olive or dark chocolate brown going onto a yellow or tan field, weapons were black and flesh varies from a pale tone to a bright candy-pink.

There were only four poses though! And the figures are not award-winning sculpts, being generic 1970's infantrymen, who can presumably be marketed anywhere, including at home in China! As can be seen there was some variety between contents, but with each figure in a shaped coffin-section of the larger tray, the contents of each numbered set was always the same.

These sets were all either green vehicles or 50/50 green and 'desert'. As I stated in the original posts, I have seen desert versions of some of the vehicles I only have in green hinting at what the contents of some of the missing numbered sets were, the rest may have been civil versions - in the large size - of the smaller sets...

...which can be broken down into Police, Fire, Trucking ('Road') and Mechanics 'Speedway' as well as the military themed sets. All the above being '900' series; there are medical/ambulance sets as well, while the '600' series included space sets - in storage!

The truck set and the garage are both over-stuck with an Ackerman sticker, they are Still Going and are an import agent for cheap toys, household and other 'bargain' goods. As I recall the three large sets were all 'Ackerman' despite being bought in Wilkinson's two years running, where they were only made available at Christmas (mid/late-2000's), these smaller sets can still be found on the odd 'dollar tree' rack about the place - and not just under the Ackerman, Titan (see below) or standard Supreme labels.

Note the close-up, about 25% of the figures carry numbers; the numbered/not-numbered figures sharing space in the same sets.

On the left are the numbered figures, all poses can be either A or B, and each pose is then numbered 1-4, so the guy with binoculars is either un-numbered, or he has A1 or B1 on his base. All the civilians I have found so far are smooth-based, but numbered ones may be out there?

The smaller accessories from the larger sets are real gap-fillers in the insert tray (compare with the other vehicles we looked at way back when), but I guess the top three have some use, the semi-flat, detail-on-one-side-only motorcycle is however a complete disappointment!

So - the above were all 30mm, but there are also given 'HO'  (23mm) and '1:72' (25mm) figures from the same source (Supreme / SP Toys), while Titan also carried unpainted 35mm figures in other sets (yellow figures above). As can be seen in the top left image, Titan were/are another importer, but they prefer to have their sets printed-up as Titan, rather than accepting generic Supreme sets. Although, as we can see bottom left, so did/do Ackerman - sometimes!

Titan Toys International (one of at least four Titan's in toys!) seem to have ceased trading, while FunFings has been usurped by a craft jeweller's on Etsy!

Some of the small figures have a similarity with other Chinese makes like New Ray or Soma, but there are differences and in the larger scales Supreme have issued some interesting 'toobs' we can look at another day!

The various scales, with the exception of the yellow figures - probably not sourced from Supreme - and the numbered soldiers, all figures have smooth bases, no more than four colours and usually a glossy appearance, and there are a few more civilian poses in the 30mm range, and probably many more in the 23/25mm ranges.

The figures in the Cargo Express set from Titan have squared-off bases more in line with the 23 and 25mm ranges, not the ovoid ones of the other 30mm civilians illustrated loose above with the soldiers. Note how the 'Germanic' fireman, is a copy of the better detail - also Chinese production - figures with flesh-coloured bases issued in various sizes, in imported play-sets sold by Tesco's and others from the late 1990's through to today (Carama? Yat Ming?).