B is for Best Show on Earth! 8. Civilian Vehicles

Lead here by the two non-show purchase carts this afternoon and there is more horse-drawn stuff (along with elephants; another great favourite sidebar of mine), but we've got all sorts to look at.

 

We've seen this in more than one Hong Kong iteration, here at Small Scale World, but I have a fancy this one is actually French or Italian, someone like Cle or Jouplast issued them as beach toys I think, and supplied some (of the smaller ones?) as premiums to people like Bonux, while in Italy, think I they might have been married to Texas and their plug-in based figures?

But don't quote me on either point, it's only memory! Suffice to say the finish is sharper than the Hong Kong ones (previously we've only seen stagecoaches), and the plastic is chalkier. The design of this one is a tad ridiculous, with over-sized tools stuffed through two unrealistic holes in the removable, but not working, tailgate. However, if you're moving sand on a beach, quite playable, if not terribly practical!

Tudor Rose beach- / bath-toy tugboat, small Hong Kong pleasure cruiser and A Bruder vessel make up the merchant navy in this lot. I believe the TR Tug, was reissued by Springwell in a retro header-carded net bag!

 

There is a bag of the HK ones slowly growing, and when I think I've found most of the body-type variants I'll blog them, in fact there are lots of bags of similar things all slowly growing . . . or at least some are!

 

Mixed road transport, a magnetic racing car we'll look at below, Praline and Minic (Triang-Mettoy) model railway HO/OO (respectively) compatible cars, a jig-toy truck (which will join all the others) and two classic 'dime store' or - in the UK - corner-shop/pocket money vehicles; a car marked 'Made in England' which could be Kleeware (?) and a Fairylite road roller.

The steam road roller is either a phenolic plastic or an early, unstable polystyrene, and is beginning to warp, while the racing-car, also Fairylite is quite stable.

A handful of Quaker racing car premiums to be checked against the master sample, and a comparison between the number-3 car (also used - as a sculpt - by Parker/Waddington's board-game Monopoly) and the previously seen Fairylite model.

 

Which is here for a third look! A simple magnetic novelty toy where you used negative-to-negative to push the car around with the hand-stick, a simple thing for simple times, what would they make of today's all singing-all dancing, digital Frozen dolls, or Super-deform Star Wars Angry Birds!

 

The jeep is supposed to be Tudor Rose, but smaller and less accurately portraying the real-life version as we saw the other day in military guise, and being unmarked, I'm only considering it an 'unknown' vintage beach/garden toy for now?

The tanker is usefully marked Banner Oil, so clear piece of Dime Store tat there! And the old-fashioned car is another of the better detailed Hong Kong copies of a French original I think?

The motorcycle side-collection took a real fillip in the last few weeks with another Airfix the following week, a second French Bazaar police motorcycle and then two more Airfix a week later.

 

What we have here are, from the left; that French bazaar copy/late issue of Cofalux's policeman, a Hong Kong with the base we were lacking when we sorted all that out with PW's help a few years ago, the motor-trike by Poplar Plastics / Poplar Playthings (they used both, and Poplar Plastic Products!), and the two Airfix 'dispatch riders'.

So soon after the gold one from Chris Smith, comes a full colour Gondola in the larger size, Brain Carrick remembered these being sold (or cleared?) through Woolworth's, but as this would have been the beginning of the age of mass-consumerism we're now trapped/locked-in to, there is the secondary reasoning that rather than being clearance of unsold Italian tourist trinkets, they are aping the silver neff which the rich had on their dining tables or sideboards, in a more affordable material?

 

It seems to be missing a couple of components down by the Gondoliers feet, and there appears to be two hinge-covers for a storage-compartment flap behind the customer's throne, so I will now look out for a cheap bashed one which happens to have the missing pieces.

 

 

Finally, a couple of 'box scale' wagons from Kleeware, from US tools (Pyro-Bachmann-LifeLike?), note that the buggy driver is about HO/OO compatible, while the fire-pump's driver is closer to N-gauge! Same sculpt. I have a bunch of these somewhere and will look at them all one day.

Thanks to all for everything last month; Trevor Rudkin, Adrian Little, Andreas Dittmann, Gareth Morgan, Michael Mordant-Smith, Peter Evans and Brian Carrick.

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 - Fire Engines

I had two eMails following the two fire service posts earlier in the week, in the order they arrived, first this dropped into the in-box, courtesy of Brian Berke, who by some miracle of synergy had managed to photograph one of the aforementioned . . .

. . . Lledo 'Days Gone' DG5 Shand-Mason Horse Drawn Fire Engine earlier in the year, but not a Lledo one; a real one . . . in New Zealand! The Ashburton museum in Christchurch to be precise, and the co-incidences don't end there as my Grandmother's family on my late father's side lived in Ashburton, North Nott's!

Meanwhile Theo van der Weerden wrote to adjust my guesswork re. makers (they were both Lledo in the middle collage) and to point out that the red Lledo is representing, or liveried for, the Ware Fire Service (the WFS on the bonnet).

Many thanks to both Brian and Theo for further colouring the previous posts.

H is for Horse-drawn Hose-artists

Writing the blurb for the previous post reminded me I had shot all the Lledo back in the summer! So here's the firefighting element - Days Gone: DG5 Shand-Mason Horse Drawn Fire Engine - as a non-follow-up, follow-up!

There were three figures in two poses, and variations exist in painted (it wasn't just the dray master) and non-painted figures, a batch of washed-out blue (middle left)* polymer (properties of a nylon or polypropylene) and a frame-runner variation with 'ears' on (upper pair of arrows), possibly due to a change in the production cycle, they look like they were to be grabbed by someone or something, but whether they was later added or earlier removed I don't know. The same runner looses a small tab found at the bottom of the other type - lower arrow.

* The brighter-blue ones in the previous post were created by my colourising the photo's which were washed-out by shooting them through glass.

I have two still boxed and this is - I'm pretty sure - the earlier (1983'ish) one, following the general pattern of the Matchbox model which Jack Odell would have been only too familiar with. Some of the limited edition sets also had the manes and tails painted on the hoses and/or the collars.

Numbered engine 27 of the Chicago Fire Brigade (it's not only 'Engine'-v-'Appliance', there's been a move away from 'Brigade' to 'Service'?) and showing only six models in the line, on the back of the box, which has windows both sides to better display the complete assembly with painted figures.

Both my machines are of American subjects; Lake City is in Florida. By 1986 you had to fit your own unpainted figures which were tucked behind, where one of the windows used to be, but the range had increased to 16 with plans for three more. I quite like this version with the steam-pump painted red.

An older shot (2014) which has been sat in Picasa waiting for the main chance, only to be overshadowed by the 'storage lot'! In both sets of photo's the colour variation is not clear, but the greyer-blue is the lower runner here.

F is for Fire Engines

Now called Fire Appliances, which I've never been happy with as a hose-end is an appliance, an axe is an appliance . . . fire 'trucks' are mighty engines and should be called such. Equally and on the other hand I still have to change the tag from Firemen to Firefighters as that's the right-and-proper thing to do.

I've been keeping an eye on the display cases at Fleet library, hoping for another Christmas toy exhibition/spot the spider, which still hadn't happened (as of Thursday evening), but maybe this weekend will see a change, in the meantime they (Fleet and Crookham Historical Society) have had a display on the history of Fire Fighting in Fleet, and knowing there are several ex-firefighters or firefighter figure collectors watching the blog, this is for them!

I think this line-up is Matchbox original in the middle and two Lledo's either side? The green one has 'Guildford' transfers (which is only 20-minutes up the road), the Matchbox is labelled 'London' and the other seems blank.

We compared the figures years-ago, but I can't remember if it was here or in One Inch Warrior? Basically the two riders are reversed poses in Lledo's Days Gone (DG5) of the Matchbox, the driver's differences are more subtle, but Matchbox's Yesteryear's (Y-4) are smaller.

The little one here is again a Matchbox oldie, from the origianl 1-75 line, but the other two I'm not so sure, they look very alike, but there are subtle differences (the ladder clip-in for instance) so I think we may be looking at Lledo for the red & white one (DG12, Essex?) and 'new' Corgi for the WWII National Fire Service one?

Which would make these; two Lledo and an Oxford Diecast N-gauge example? The green one is Auxiliary Fire Service (also WWII) while I can't read the red one! Lledo issued up to 30 variants of their earlier models in each initial release, both commercially and on contract to corporate entities and premium issuers, as well as - later - some private collectors clubs, and with the older models having the more versions, and the Fire Engine being among the earlier ones, there will be whole cabinets full of these somewhere!

These were in the low glass table display only, the three-tier had photographs of fire stations and other memorabilia, hopefully; they'll both be full of toys any day now, we've got too used to it after three years to not see it over Christmas!

WTF is for Wheeled, Towed and Fire-fighting!

The last/rest of the wagons, phew! I do have a few shots still in the Preiser folder, and may do a couple of military round-ups in a week or two, but this is the end of the Preiser 'season', and the last of the wagons donated to the blog by Gary Worsfold, and the last of my words on the subject - for now!

Top right; I could have put this in the pneumatic post, but it's neither agricultural, nor horse-drawn so it goes here as an oddment. The other two were both sent by Gary, one being a petrol engined beast: shouldn't be here at all, but it's such a tiny little thing, and clearly trying to be a wagon; a horseless wagon!

The next few are all from the catalogue as I haven't any of the fire appliances, but they need to be covered to get everything ticked-off. I hate to think what that scene would cost to produce at high-street prices, but when you get the chance (a lottery-win is required!) well worth the effort.

Steam-pump, hand-pump, coal and water, just add fire! These really are lovely little things let-down only by matching horses and drivers, but a little home-conversion would sort that out.

There's a fifth fire appliance, a 'crew-bus'! The wagon top right is perfect for British outline railway layouts, being the same to all intents and purposes as a rag-&-bone cart, or costa-mongers or street-traders wagon, and the sort of thing you'd find down the docks taking things from quay-side to warehouse.

The removal van or pantechnicon is a more European design, similar to the road-workers or construction-site vans or circus wagons, both of which we haven't covered in this season, the site wagons seem to be being phased-out, you don't see them like you used to; in real life or model railway catalogues, but I'm guessing that they are still used for [local?] removals?

Both Roco Minitanks and Preiser used to carry a few of them (we looked at a Preiser for Aristocraft one in an early wagon post here), but other than a couple of office-bodied military ones in Roco's last listing and the Preiser circus ones, they seem to have all but disappeared.

So to the death of horse-drawn transport as a mass feature of everyday life, the Daimler motor-wagen! It's a tiny little thing, fascinating, and explains in part why both horse-flesh-power and electric vehicles were still more numerous before the First World War.

Open-wagon look, central steering wheel, little engine in a box at the back, only two pedals (?) and barely room for three bodies . . . err . . . I mean bags of potatoes! Yet you can see the attraction - imagine Toad of Toad Hall; "Poop poop! Coming-through, no horses, make way for the future, plebs!" I probably should have used WWI figures for the size'ers. Lovely - thank you Gary.

Only for completeness, and very useful for war-gaming, the 17103 is an unpainted kit and provides for a whole street-barricade, not much use against T34/85's but it will slow-down Cuirassiers!

Modern versions of the previous trolleys with electric tugs and hand-barrows.

My final addition to these posts, and the last of Gary's contributions, and arguably the nicest, it's certainly a fine sight. Underneath the logs is the 'standard' Preiser frame and the red cloth is a nice touch, also interesting to find the practice was universal

A few close-ups; when I say it's arguably the nicest, I'm thinking the VIP coach is the better finished, the beer wagon is just 'the best', the post wagon is a dinky little thing, while this has a grandeur by dint of its presence, the obvious weight, the visual length - it needs a team of four I think?

The same log-wagon is currently still available in the catalogue, along with Santa and his sleigh, also two more of the more work-a-day wagons, these both having the older, spoke-wheels, all three would look good busying themselves next to the Matchbox/Revell Flower Class corvette 'down the docks'!

Finally - it's November and Santa has swopped his two horses for four reindeer; he needs four more animals, but only to cover the names Disney invented to accompany Rudolf!

===============================================================

A few years ago, someone stated that he wouldn't produce a complete list of Preiser as it would run to 100's of pages; actually it currently runs to less than 60 - with all or most of the blanks in place; and I am in the process of completing it for the A-Z entry.

However I have two gaps, one is the very early days (with any additions to the small 3xx series we looked at the other day), the other being the four-number codes from the 1970's/1980's.

Also while I have various lists of Aristo-craft, Bachmann, Faller, E-R, VIP, Vollmer and Walther's/Terminal Hobby Shop products as supplied by Presier, I'm sure they are not all complete. If anyone can help supply scans of old catalogues (mine is PK 12 I think, but in storage now) or listings of early stuff or the mid-four number era, that would help, and all help will be acknowledged when I publish, also you will get my current draft by return.

T is for Turds; Liqui-turds!

Sorry - but while a few of these are for water or wine, the majority of them are liquid manure, sewage or slurry tankers, and I felt 'T is for Tankers' appearing in people's feeds might get war-gamers thinking I was about to look at the AFV crew sets (ably dealt-with on PSR) . . . I'm not; today I'are be mostley looking at . . . mookey-poo tankers!

I believe the upper shot shows a Roskopf wagon, while the lower two are clearly Preiser, but as we shall see in a day or two, it's not that simple, and they are probably the same wagon, one by Roskopf over-painted crudely by the owner (milk? Or snow!) and equipped with simpler sculpts of horse a very 1950's 'kit figure' riding the wagon; the other given better draft animals and a hand-brake leaver after Preiser obtained it (?), along with a more realistically-sculpted walking handler.

As a kid I saw these all over Europe (and I presume there are still a fair few around?), water carts which can be taken-out to the field and used to fill the stand-alone troughs there. The painter was probably correct to assume milk could be collected in similar vessels?

From the current catalogue - the grape-tubs are just sat in a standard tractor trailer (not tractor/trailer which is a different thing altogether, although 'Rubber-duck' would probably appreciate a few hundred gallons of wine in his cab "10-4 cum'mon, hic!") while the other three are for liqi-turd!

I like that Preiser have moved the tractor-towed tanker to the back of the wagon to make it look a little different from the horse-drawn one -in case you have them both on the same layout? While the modern one looks a little too like a milk/water tanker, not a mistake you'd want to make if you were thirsty!

I once worked for a company dealing in slurry tankers, and people used to send the pumps back when they got blocked (usually a bent or jammed vane, or a stone fallen in the slurry) which had to be unblocked from a floor-bolt mounted cradle pointing out of a side -door of the warehouse, as when they were freed, they shot out the last thing they'd been pumping, a few days older, with force . . . euwww!

I got so sick of always photographing this one with the attendant upside-down, walking the wrong way or under the horses hooves, I prised a staple open carefully and shot it for this post - all back together now!

It's basically the cradle for the box-wagon we'll look at in another post, with a [plastic] steel tank dropped between the uprights. From the pre-Mauritian paint-shop days, it's not up to later standards and the glue has been rather thrown around under the barrel. Also it's one of a few with a twin-species draft-team!

Perhaps I was a little sensationalist in my titling of the thread as we look at four more non-sewage carriers from the catalogue, but like mose men; I'm only a taller, older child and getting 'turd' into the title was too tempting an opportunity to resist!

The grape tubs are just dropped into the recent re-sculpt of the old ladder-sided wagon (rack-wagon), the rest of the fire appliances will be looked at in a later post, as will the modern, pneumatic-tyred, plastic-tank, which probably can be used for liquid poop as well as water.

That last one is actually exactly the sort of equipment modern armies take to war to get water to troops hidden in woods, up mountains or out in the desert, so for war gaming, a quick military paint job could make it a useful addition to the logistics inventory.

On the right is a Picasa-clearing scan of the tanker seen above, while to the left is a catalogue 'suggestion for arrangement' of the grape harvest trailer.

On the farm I would use a very similar machine to that being used by the chap on the left, known to me as a cider-chopper or apple chopper, it will cut most things and is a simple, hand-turned, bladed shaft or roller at the bottom of a wooden hopper, which chops/crushes or mashes-up the grapes so that you can get the maximum into the barrel, if you tipped the grapes straight into the barrel, a few at the bottom would get a bit squished by the weight of those above, but there would be a lot of air in there, like a ball-pit at a kids restaurant!

An unpainted version of the poop-mobile (see what I did there - hey, I'm an atheist, it's just funny!*) is available in Set 16345, while the guy walking next to my blister-carded version is from the lower set, removed from the catalogue now, I think one of the Tyrolean sets around the numbers 190-230, but I can't be sure with the catalogues in storage, the alpine-horn guy also came in a set of three at the same place in the catalogue I think?

* For foreign visitors to the blog: The British tabloids dubbed the Pope's various open-topped bullet-proof carriers 'Pope-mobiles' around the early 1980's - didn't stop one getting shot though, did it? Message from his God - no doubt! If you don't put blind faith in a deity to be responsible for you being shot or being not-shot, any subsequent shooting of the self is down to the actions (or inactions) of the self . . . what's known as self-determination!

R is for Rollin', Rollin', Rolling, Keep them Wagons Rolling!

I - as those of you who have been following from the start will know - have a soft spot for wagons, especially small scale ones, but most of them are in storage, and most of them were blogged a while ago, but it doesn't stop me setting them up and photographing them from time to time!

So for those who are new followers, or who like me just enjoy wagons, here's a round-up of the Montaplex and early BüM wagons, most of which have appeared once already, but brought together.

Some have separate horses with a distinctive look that sets them apart from all the Giant, Giant-clones and post/non-Giant horses, but most have an integral horse in the manner of Manurba's, but fatter! The wheels are also very easy to recognise with their four-spoke, circus-wagon look and ornate tooling.

So far I've found a covered-wagon, stage-coach and copy of the Matchbox fire-appliance, crewed by astronauts! There is another design, a sort of pick-up truck/trailer thing in one of the Wild West town sets, but it's in storage and looks a bit crap anyway!

A line-up doesn't work properly when you find a yellow (BüM ) one after you've put the others away! Hay Ho...doh! Thanks to Peter Evans for the fire wagon.