F is for Follow-up - Sports Plunder

Matters arising from the first of Chris's donation posts; and I had a few images in Picasa which shed a little more light on some of my verbiage in that previous post!

 

On the left is one of the most common ones I'd always had a few of, usually in a bit of a state, there's a soft-plastic copy as well, while the chap to the right, I know nothing about (and will report-back when I do!), but the 'Bastard in the Black' is both a new pose, and a new source with a deeper, more-sculpted base, this trio came-in about two-and-a-half years ago, and were shot at the old flat!

 

An evilBay shot from '22, which shows a full set of six different sculpts in a three-a-side cake decorating vignette, could be Culpitt or Wilton or someone else (as could all these footballer decorations. and are a bit smaller I think, although the green chap at the back seems to be inventing Rugby!

 

They are Waddington's Totopoly, and here are two samples of slightly different plastic ones, I shot back in 2018. While an austerity set with printed-card racers, in slotted wooden blocks dates from the war era, mirroring their stable mate (geddit!) Monopoly.

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, Second of Three Plunder Posts

Continuing with the look at Peter's late summer car-booty, and we're looking at sports figures and civilians in this post, with several useful examples of this and that, the odd oddity and some old friends!

 

Two Chad Valley and a Peter Pan Playthings footballer's, similar to the Palitoy push-heads, but having different mechanisms, I don't know if the Chad Valley's have been home painted or badly painted, while the Peter Pan can still be found in larger stores, or some of the mail-order novelty catalogues.

 

Note there are subtle differences between the fixing arrangement, of the Chad Valley players, to their bases, the significance of which I don't know (slightly different ball-kick characteristics?), while the Peter Pan player has a push button attached to a lever system like Palitoy's heads, Chad Valley's have a flicker on their upper shin, and (I think) a hidden spring. Similar figures were issued by Subbuteo as strikers or goalkeeper accessories.

 

Another bunch of the current cake decoration set, so far linked to three or more brandings, and several three or seven-a-side team strips, they will be added to and compared with the growing sample.

 

A humungous ice-hockey player, with a massive, chunky base, whom I assume is from some kind of table-game, akin to Table Football? I think he's polyethylene, but he could be a softer 'styrene, or some kind of 'propylene? Discolouration is probably from direct sunlight, and can probably be cured with an ultrasonic cleaner and some bleach solution?

 

The Gem golfer seems to be a Hong Kong copy, but it is in a soft polyethylene, rather than the usual (for Cullpit-Wilton commissions) hard polystyrene, and very-much in the ABC paint-style. Two of the HK mini-clones of the Olympic figurines and a key-ring, fat-footballer kid, conversion - loop removed and base glued on.

 

A lovely, current/new white-button Disney Princess knock-off from Rex London, another Disney-like in the Bully-Phidal-Safari style; I can't remember if she was marked, but one day we'll have to have a look at all of them on one page/in one post as there are so many! The cake-decoration dancer is missing her base, but can probably be wedged into one of the Charbens-Crescent-Marty circus horses, as some versions of the same sculpt are, by Marty!

 

And the bride, also a cake decoration is a better example of quite a few in the stash, who has her lace head-covering, 'posey' and silk ribbon intact. They come in a range of sizes and base marks, in various pastel colours and with different add-ons, and I do have a few complete variations now, so should blog them properly one day.

 

The key-ring looks like another variation of the Commonwealth sculpt, but I think it's more a case of the  dancers all being dressed in a grass skirt (the pāʻū) and draped in the floral-garland necklaces (lei lāʻī) associated with Hula, which is also about hip-movement as much as the hand gesture/language, so I think it's more a case of similar look, rather than crediting everything to Commonwealth!

 

Hong Kong (Wilton?) copy of the Hawaiian ukulele player, who is 'styrene, a Marx linesman, not clear, as he's on is back rather than up his ladder, but a set we'll look at properly another day, and two MPC civilians, in yellow (reissues?), the red one is new to me and the other two are different scales of a vast range of figures, seemingly from the same source, who were available to and issued by Tesco-Welly-Woolworth's/Chad Valley and others in the mid-1990's/early 2000's.

 

From the left, Cofalu, unknown 'China', Matchbox and Corgi, the long arm of the 'Leuwah' as Inspector Clouseau would have put it! And PVC-rubber, polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene respectively.

 

Thomas on the left here, I think, PVC, with an unknown and new-to-me, but interesting rider/driver next to him. A civilianised version of the common seated figure we saw in black, in part one of these posts. A Benbros-Kemlows type motorcyclist is next, with a pair of what I'm sure are novelty firemen, from a larger beach/garden toy.

 

One of the cross-over's with the forthcoming Chris Smith plunder posts is this nice hard plastic, possibly phenolic or urea-formaldehyde type, possibly an early 'styrene? And basically, a novelty, floating, bath-toy, there were also swans.

 

A collection of horses, with the larger one Britains for Tri-Ang if it's the one I think it is, two of them in contrasting colours came with a large tin-plate horse-box. Papo girl on pony, with another Papo to her right, a damaged Vitacup and two coach/wagon horses complete the group.

R is for Rack Toy Rascals

Not cake decorations! An excellent find at Sandown in September was this carded import by Merehall, more commonly associated with the larger, boxed plastic vehicles, from the old Crown Colony of Hong Kong, and doubly fascinating for being figures, previously known their role as Culpitts and other cake decorations, but also seen here (link below) as open-front, boxed teams.

 

"Collect your own team", it says, and with 12 figures, including the keeper on a card that’s possible, but, not all the known poses/shirt numbers are here, there's no referee, nor any other team strips?
 

So, were there other cards, with the other colours we've seen here before, were the other cards assorted to the point where all known poses could be found? And did some cards have the better team-strips of the carded sets we looked at last time - assuming each card was a singular colour-way like this one?

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/06/n-is-for-nearer-but-further-away.html

B is for Blow Job!

No! You can't even begin to pretend, you don't think it wasn't going to happen one day, because you know it was, Blow Job has been inevitable, from the founding of the blog! I found this rather interesting item at Sandown Park a month ago, and here it is for Loyal Readers to enjoy!

 

House Martin's eponymous blow-football game, 'Blow Football', our draughs set was by House Martin, when we were kids, and I seem to recall them providing games for newsagents or corner-shops, more than the dedicated toys shops or department stores (who's toy departments were always small, outside the 4th quarter), but that might be a personal memory/conclusion, rather than the truth of the situation.

 

 

The interest being these two, not only are they better-quality sculpts of the commonly Hong Kong sports set, with the 'five-ring' circus logo of the Olympic movement, but the better quality suggests a better quality set of all of them, somewhere, were they premiums at one point, before Hong Kong got their hands on them?

 

There's a tube missing if each player is to have one, and it won't be easy to replace, exactly, without a second set of the same game, but you never know, and maybe it's already in the loose odd's Blow Football section, of the stash?

 

The obvious difference between this set and others with figures (not all Blow Football games have figures), is that there is no handle or means /instructions for affixing them to such, so either you hold and move 'the goalkeepers' with the other hand, or just place them in from of the goal, and hope they stop some shots? 

My memories are that after a while, saliva tended to come out of the end of the tubes, and I'd imagine Blow Football has become a bit persona non grata, in these post-covid times? I should add, that I thought I'd posted more of these, back in the early days of the Blog, I certainly have several, so we will have to have a better look another day, as I can't find them on the blog now? There should be a couple of Merit versions, a Gibson and/or Spears, and a couple of more modern/generic ones?

N is for "Nart a'Nurtherrr Whone?!"

As if this set hadn't given us more than most already, another Wilton set has turned-up, only this one has just five figures (the austerity set!), for a two-a-side game with referee, giving us new all-red and all-white strips into the bargain!

 

 

Still sealed, in a charity shop a few weeks ago, I don't know if it's an import, or if someone bought it in the 'States and brought it over here/back here? We have after all looked at it a half-dozen times now, with variations on each issue, what more could be added to the story?

 

From the number of sets we've seen here now, we can begin to conclude the pale green bases, equate to Referees with whistle, so must be the earlier production run/s, while dark green bases should be later sets, with the Ref' turned into another player for single teams of seven.

 

The guy on the ground, and the Number 2 shirt are the ones dropped from this fixture!

 

If you want to see the others - roughly in the order in which they appeared, i.e., the reverse of how they're found if you follow the tags;

 

Wilton - three-a-side 

Anniversary House seven-a-side - red shirts

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/01/f-is-for-football-2-w-is-for-wilton-and.html 

 

JPW seven-a-side - two teams

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/08/f-is-for-football.html

(courtesy of Brian Berke, and I only realised, just now, scrolling through all the football posts, they are the same sculpts! Don't know if they are the larger ones or the smaller ones)

 

Knightsbridge PME three-a-side - all white faces

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/09/t-is-for-they-keep-coming.html

 

Anniversary House seven-a-side - blue shirts + comparison shot (mixed post)

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/02/f-is-for-follow-ups-various-recent-posts.html 

Knightsbridge PME three-a-side - Four white, three black players

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2022/06/k-is-for-kicking-and-screaming.html 

Knightsbridge PME three-a-side - Four black, three white players + comparison with the small ones

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/12/f-is-for-follow-up-footballer-cake.html 

 

Wilton two-a-side

This post! 

 

 

Kaskey Kids - Similar poses, but not the same

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/02/f-is-for-follow-up-kaskey-kids-soccer.html 

 

So the Anniversary House sets are the dark-green based later issues, still in retail outlets, although the PME and Wilton can also be found, while the JPW were probably a one- or two-season rack-toy presentation. What next? We still need a full set and branding for the smaller figures, clearly from the same source, as they are the same colours/materials.

 

Fourteen teams, nine examples, seven posts, four brands, three team configurations, two versions of the referee sculpt, all one set! 

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!

P is for Polymer Plunder Package - Sports

The next section of Chris's wonderful parcel is the sports and pastimes, which are sometimes thrown in with the civilians in these cover-views, but there were quite a few this time, so they get their own post!

 

Three from Subbuteo, one home-painted 'fan', one unpainted goalie and a factory-painted press photographer, behind a bunch of simplistic chaps from some beg-board board-game or more interactive table game with wires and springs or even a blow-football type thing, I'm not sure, but I have ID'd lots of similar sets via feebleBay, over the years!

 

Not strictly-speaking 'sports' but cake decorations, but most of them are sporty and there weren't so many images in the folder! We looked at the skaters back at Christmas, the cowboy and footballer have been covered a few times, and another part drum-kit from Gemodels helps with a future 'Battle of the Bands'!

 

The skipping girl is from a larger set of various figures via Hong Kong, stocked over the pond by some of the minor makes I think (Grandmother Stover, Unique, Carousel et al) rather than Wilton, but may have been Culpitt over here? And the Santa' was a new pose, also made in Hong Kong, and similar to the Crescent pose, but not the same.

 

Three boarders, from three sources, all unknown to me, there is, or has been in recent years a lot of this in the proper toy-chains, which I haven't paid enough attention to, but the near one is probably a cake decoration, back left some rack-toy generic maybe, while the girl on the right should be plugged-in to a missing board, and is somewhat reminiscent of the late Britains Petite sets?

 

Obviously from North America, but whether the 'States or the never-to-be 51st State of Canadia is anyone's guess, two base-ball players with magnets in their bases, and a more modern PVC ice-hokey player. Help needed on all three?

 

The beautiful game! Another of the Hong Kong vinyl, football keyrings we've seen before here, a cereal premium we've also seen a few of the others from, but I've forgotten which set/when/where, and a novelty footballer bear which may be Kinder, or a recognised mascot, or both!