P is for Previously Seen on the Internet . . . III - Ceremonials

Two more from the archive of stuff I've posted elsewhere, and we're all starched and ironed this time, with resin and plastic tourist souvenirs, the former new, the later seen before in one form or another.

Alan Copsey posted some lovely resin Turks he'd found (in Istanbul I think?), and in the subsequent discussion on them and similar figures (those pirates we've seen before here with different bases), and fallout from same, I picked-up these four vaguely-54mm (thick bases) figures in poured resin, which are obviously aimed at our tourist trade (as Alan's were aimed at Turkey's). No Yeoman 'Beefeater' or Horse Guard (they may be out there?) but a nice [Gordon?] Highland officer to make up!

It struck me the new one was (although unmarked) stylistically similar to the larger 85mm G•G-marked one we looked at a while ago, donated to the blog by Peter Evans of Plastic Warrior magazine (and coincidentally - webmaster of the Faceplant group), which was in part the point of the original chat; that these Chinese factories are making things for every budget in every [commercially viable] territory!

I also picked up another boxing of the Cavendish Miniatures Hong Kong copies, apparently sold by Cavendish (and many others) until so recently you may still find the odd one in the kiosks round Soho or Leicester Square, or that funny bazaar half-way up Charring Cross road?

The second issue (I don't know which is which, but would place the smaller/white tray as the newer (it's always about shaving unit-costs) continues the error of transcribing the two Household Cavalry regiments titles; 'Blues' are Horse Guards, 'Royals' are red . . . life-blood, Lifeguards!

You were thinking "They look the same size, what's he on about"! Less cardboard is cheaper, less, white plastic is cheaper than more, yellow, so on an order of say ten thousand units, that can be hundreds of dollars saved, plus, the price can stay the same or go up a bit (people expect things to go up after a few years), so you 'make' at both ends, factory-door and Joe-public!

G is for Gurrt Guards' Gathering!

I was doing  a bit of sorting on Saturday, and I thought this would be a fun shot, all the larger novelty or touristy items of a guardsman-like persuasion! I think we've seen most of them before - separately?

From the left; A wooden Christmas tree decoration based on the nutcracker trope, a poured-resin chap '© G•G.' (Gisela Graham?) from Peter Evans and the Toyway guardsman from Chris Smith (who remembered they were Toyway after I'd posted him the other day, the RHA figure, also from Chris was another one).

Then another wooden one, this is a push-button/drop-down strung-toy, he's actually almost the shortest, but with a 30mm plinth would have looked silly towering over the first three had I placed him to the left!

The fabric Guard I found last November/December in TKMaxx (made in India), and finally a stacking toy which I suspect is quite modern, but which resembles one we had as kids. I occasionally see it on evilBay (the vintage one) and keep meaning to get one, it's a taller, thinner model, and the larger-number of segments are tapered, so have to be stacked in order.

That would have been it, but - of course - in the putting away of the one lot, I re-discovered the others! So, from the left; The twin-LED torch who plays some god-awful rendition of the National Anthem, or Rule Britannia . . . or the other one? He's on the blog somewhere with his full consumer details!

Then the flat, probably from a wooden fort set of the early-learning type (and looking more Wellingtonian next to the others), another tree decoration, based on nut-cracker tropes, then another push-button/drop-down strung-toy, both being about the same size as their counterparts in the first image, the wobbly one being tagged to Wilco and finally the Noki washing-up sponge seen before, but I think all this second batch have.

Airfix sax-player for scale, he's approximately 23mm.

H is for How They Come In - Peter's Latest Parcel

I had an email from Mr. Evans not a week ago, actually . . . a week and a day ago! Saying he had sent me a little something and I should keep half-an eye out for the postman, actually . . . he didn't say it quite like that at all, but it makes for a better narrative! The next day it arrived, no . . . really, the very next day a week ago exactly (at time of writing!), I tought it would take a few days and there it was on the doorstep, and what a parcel -

We did look at it, briefly, last Friday, but here it is, all laid-out, with the 'for September' stuff conveniently buried in the middle

As with all these parcels from other people, the aim is to get it on the Blog sooner rather than later, but some of it will be sorted into the collection, and wait maybe years to appear, however we'll look at some of the more interesting items below and a few others I can pick out above include . . .

. . . the Strawberry Group (via Tiger?)'s issue of the Toy Major knights possibly from Supreme/SP Toys at 3-O'clock, a piece of toast bendy-toy which looks a bit SpongeBob Square Pants but probably pre-dates the cartoon at 5-O'clock, two Charbens road-menders at 7-O'clock and - coming back toward the centre a Tony Tiger trainer and a polyurethane resin man-at-arms who needs his spear-tip repaired.

Up at the ten O'clock position a nice Toy Story soldier holding a tube above his head, I can't now remember what it was for (for a drinking-straw or a zip-wire toy?) but I have seen it somewhere, so the figure's advert or other details should be in the archive somewhere?

Slightly to the left of 12-noon is a row of PVC characters or caricatures with more down at 4pm, we'll look at two of them later today, with the rest being filtered into the collection, next time I have a putting-away session!

These are very interesting as I think they are the same food-picks we saw here (got the green ones! FIGHT!) from (or branded to-) Fred & Friends on the packaging, but are here branded to 'Bitten'; on the runner. Presented like this I wonder if they weren't attached to the cover of a 'house or homes' or cookery type magazine as a 'freebie' gift?

I had some help! "Can I eat them?"

Bitten . . . geddit!

The resin pile grows! And Peter is responsible for a fair chunk of that pile! A rather nice guardsman credited to a G·G (there's now a Gentle Giant doing 'polystone' horror, TV/move, Star Wars stuff?) at around 85/90mm, hard to judge with a thick base and huge - but realistic - Bearskin!

Passing back through history by a millennium and we have the other bendy toy in the parcel; Vikky the Viking from Schleich of all people, and they have what I assume is a lovely 'bendy-toy' specific logo - inset, centre, looks a bit like the 'Jamaica Ginger' dancer of my childhood! The rear-shots are before and after cleaning!

Back another 800-odd years and we get to the Caesars and specifically THE Caesar; Julius! There is an odd & sods Safari post in the pipeline and I was going to hold him for that post, but this is so nice I thought I should record my gratitude separately. It's beautifully decorated too.

This part set of Kinder-like or ersatz Phidal are by Unga Toys, have we had them before? I won't know until I upload the post and see whether the tag is already in the list or needs adding alongside Bitten and GG? Snow White and the two dwarves! I'll keep an eye out for the rest and may even have a few somewhere. You can see there are 15 items in a full set including a turtle, was there a turtle in the movie . . . I've never watched it?

Finally, these are Kinder, and I hope they're duplicates as I'd hate to think the village was short-handed on my account! He also sent me the Tobar gnome we've seen here previously and various other cartoony things, but more than eight images in a post of this type and you run out of tag-limit!

There was a tiny grey rabbit character which will definitely make a post as I have a whole bunch of very small gum-ball capsule, board game and Christmas cracker rabbits (or Hares, Mad, March for the use of) somewhere, crying-out for their five-minutes in the limelight!

Thanks Peter, a really nice selection which will boost future posts for years to come.