N is for Not a Follow-up!

As a sort of [pretty tenuous] follow-up to the last post, and the mention of Crong, I'm posting something which was already in the queue, but isn't coming in the order I'd like it to, and doesn't tell all the story, but hopefully still of some use to some Loyal Readers!

 

Donated by a friend of the blog who prefers not to be named, but occasionally comes up with little treasures, Battle Knights by Feva UK, is one of the more recent iterations of a carpet 'wargame', commonly known as Crossbows and Catapults (Tomy, Base Toys, Action GT, Zatu, et al), but also having iterations as Weapons & Warriors (Pressman), and Battground (Moose), which has been around since the 1980's.

 

The originals have produced several generations of two figures, a small squat fantasy figure (Doomlords of Gulch) in a putty-coloured polymer, and a sort of Hollywood Viking/Barbarian type (the Impalers of the Clannic Shelf), in various shades of brown or ginger, which we have seen, in various mixed/plunder/donation posts over the years, but which I haven't posted-on, formally, yet as my main sample has always been in storage.

 

The Pressman version changed the dynamic slightly, with press-pads instead of loose walls, and other innovations have tried to make it more fun or keep it relevant to new generations of electronically-distracted kids, here it's spring-loading. Pressman also changed the figures, to medieval types (Castle Storm), along with a pirate version (Pirate Clash), both also seen here, in past mixed-lots/shots. 

 

This Feva version adds mounted figures, and they are the unknown figures from the Crong post (the tentative link being used here!), although this set has green bases. The foot figures are scale-downs of the Pressman set, and I now think they are all Games Workshop knock-offs?

 

 Other useful bits!

A couple of banner-flags (or pennants?) missing 

 

Could be useful, but would need work to hide the nature of the balls or discs all these sets fire at each other, the oversized culverin for instance has quite an Elastolin look to it . . . fill in the hole and give it an antiquing, with washes and dry-brushing?

These turn-up in every junk-lot on evilBay, the Supreme medieval knock-off's from several brands have versions of them, and there have been large bow-like ballistas and larger cannon, but they'd all need a lot of effort to get realistic-looking.

 

As a Brucey Bonus, these are the Moose Toys figures from the other more recent iteration, Battleground Crossbows & Catapults, and were also a donation, I think from Graham Apperley, but hidden in a PW plunder-post a few years ago.

 

Smaller at around 25mm (the Feva are 30'ish, the older sets closer to 35 (C&C) or 40mm (W&W)) and a soft PVC, against Crossbows' polyethylene/propylenes and Weapons' polystyrene. It's quite a franchise, with many US and foreign-language/foreign-market sets, and worth a proper study, which will appear here one day!

I is for Image Dump!

Getretro is a wholesaler of old stock, cancelled toys and other end-of-line clearance stuff, so the fact that I didn't get around to posting these, from the London Show back in 2023 makes sense as this had all, already, been out there somewhere, and those who needed to know about such things would already have found them!

 

 

Retro, Risk, Revell & Role Play!

 

Eaglemoss Dr's Who, Who, Who & Who . . . Who, Who, Who, Who and Who, a bunch of companions, Daleks, Cybermen and someone called War?

 

Lionel, now a trademark for shifting big-box sets from China.

That's it really, just to get them up here and out of the way, as it were! Website;

https://www.getretro.co.uk/

P is for Polotoys

Another set of old 28/30mm role-play gaming-figure, or similar knock-off's, you can see how they would have gone well together as a pair mid-posting on the 31st of last month, but, there you go, I totally lost sight of them in the bottom centre of my desktop, where I'd left them to remind me they were there - hey-ho!

Polotoys seem to have been incorporated in 1985, and share the Blue Box building in Hong Kong, so may well be another branding of Tai Sang, but they haven't got enough of a presence online to dig that deep, more of a straight marketing 'brand mark', than one with board-members and press-releases etc., . . . one supposes?

 

Similar to some Games Workshop stuff, and you may recognise the MB Games poses from Heroquest (also GW in a roundabout way, Citadel?) but again I think there will be other names in the frame as the victims of the plagiarism!

As per the Blue Box Japanese yesterday, I seem to have had two photo-shoots! The pink dragon is a bee-eye-tee-cee-haitch to photograph, and I know I have one or two more somewhere, as I shot a different one (unknown at the time) in a comparison shot a few years ago.

 

The horses, possibly based on the old Nottingham Mafia poses, but so simplified as to be new sculpts! And with no rider in the Polotoys set, I tried the Toy Major one, and he does a fine job of filling in, a tad too big for the mount maybe, but . . . it's fantasy, and it's probably a Steppes pony!

While this comparison with some DFC (Dimensions For Children) daemons, gives a good idea of the size which is heading toward 54mm. As always Shaun has all of it here, with packagings, the Schilling set is very interesting as the 'H' branded Deetail clones have been linked to Kwong Wah in the last few weeks (subscribe to Plastic Warrior magazine), which would mean the contents have been bought-in from more than one source.

D is for Dredd, Judge Dredd!

We looked at the Rogue Trooper set just over 14 years ago here at small scale world, but Games Workshop have returned to the output of the classic comic 2000AD several times, more commonly visiting the Judge Dredd franchise, so we'd better visit it here!

 

I'm monging-it at home with a lurgy this week and have managed to get some of the image-folder disaster sorted; this turned-up, and as it's been in the queue for a year or two, so I thought it could be cleared!

Most of the sets/modules seem to be paper/counter-based, with the possibility of purchasing lead/whitemetal figurines from the Nottingham Mafia as after-market stuff to enhance the experience, and when you search for this on feeBay, make sure you get this artwork, or you'll be getting one of the others!

 

Because . . . unlike those other sets . . . this set contains almost perfect OO/1:76th/23mm figures of Judge Dredd, as playing pieces, they aren't the world's best renditions/depictions of the eponymous hero (actually quite a fascistic, over-patriotic, violent, anti-hero!); his 'Lawgiver' sidearm is more of a needle-gun, but they do come in six colours!

 

Compared here with an Airfix pilot, you can see that the Dredd figures are perfect for rounding up a bunch of Preiser or Noch civilians, whether they've done anything wrong or not; everyone's a 'Perp' if you investigate deep enough!

 

The accompanying paperwork had lots of references to the artwork and tropes of the comic-strip, which at the time had become so ubiquitous it was running daily in a National newspaper! I vaguely remember a story-line involving Umpty Candy, adulterated and leading to mayhem of one kind or another - usually mass-hysteria in the accommodation 'Blocks' of the Mega-City.

 

An advert from Toy Trader in 1982 drumming-up business for the venture.

N is for Nottingham Mafia's 'Normous Men . . . and things!

I have a few of these elsewhere, I think we saw one in the comparison shots on the Airfix Space Warriors page, but I've had a bit of luck with two lots, so we're looking at them next. I nearly got a third lot, but two other bidders recognised them and bid each-other way out of my bracket!

Games Workshop's experiment with large scale 'Fighting Fantasy' figures, not as unsuccessful as some would have you believe, and I suspect many are still out there in the half-forgotten collections of sixty-something's who were into Games Workshop back in the late 1970's.early 1980's, and who would have grabbed these without thinking.

Indeed; while they don't show up that often at the moment (hence silly prices), when they do they are as often on the card as loose, but on the card they are identifiable and fetch the really silly money!

As you can see you get a solid 'ring-hand' body with [interchangeable] head and a selection of weapons, staffs, tools, shield &ect., which would come on a circular runner behind the figure in a blister card, figures were always grey, while the 'weapon runners' were a matching-gray, silver or gold. Relevant runner blisters' also got a sticker for the shield.

Hero Knight type and obvious Dwarf, there were about 30 figures I think (so I have some way to go), and they were divided into good and bad, more D&D than W40k, but then early GW was more D&D than W40k!

Good Wizard and bad Wizard . . . any resemblance to Gandalf and Saurman is purely coincidental, and no - the Nottingham Mafia haven't asked me to say that! As GW's small scale had left 25mm behind, in favour of a 28-mil which by the time everyone had invested in 'Slotta' bases made everything closer to 30mm-plus, so too, these were way beyond any pretense at 54mm, with a 60+ size bracket.

Orkey Boys (or Orky Boiz if you've been captured by the Mafia!), one needs paint-stripping, which I will get round to one day, and because they are soft polyethylene, unlike the 'styrene (or whitemetal) of their smaller cousins, it will be a relatively simple procedure.

2nd purchase and I think I've run out of blurb-material . . . subject, contents, packaging, maker, scale/size, material and some opinions? Boxes ticked! Well . . . what to say . . . the long-sword is a Hong Kong copy of Cherilea I think and nothing to do with the rest of the stuff in this post, nor do the daggers look right - medieval Britains Swoppet was my first thought; for the small one, but it fits! I suspect the larger is Playmobile or something like that?

Beyond wizardry . . . this chap is a full-on necromancer and the first thing he seems to have brought back from the dead is himself! Given the size of these, I think it's fair to say they could have been better sculpted that they are, they have the same 'heavy' sculpting with chunky steps between over-emphasised detail elements, as found on the smaller gaming stuff, but they can still paint-up well.

Another goodly-knight or Adventurer, I gave him the dodgy sword as the others had gone away - which means I have these in three places now . . . Doh! More when I find them and we ended-up with enough blurb for the last two paragraphs!

And . . . going back to my comments about where these [mass-produced] figures may be hiding, I wouldn't be surprised if they become increasingly common on the sales market over the next ten-to-fifteen years, and some of those silly prices may well become obsolete?

N is for Nottingham Mafia

Which by now I'm sure you've worked out is my moniker for Games Workshop! It's not that I dislike them in the same way I dislike the management at Lego, and I love their products more than I love Hestair Kiddy Bricks.

But they are a bit of a cartel, and they do milk their more sycophantic followers (it's more than a fan-base, it's a cult!), and they have contributed to the inflationary drive of adult 'hobbying'. Still it's a successful strategy . . . hell, through last year's lock-downs their shares were giving better dividend returns than the best guilt-edged bonds!

Anyway, because they are self-aware enough of their failings to realise some people may have trouble investing fully in the 'franchise', all at once, at the start of the exercise, to - from time to time - issue card figures or scenic items in their magazines, to give you something to play-with/around, and here are a few of those figures.

The big blue 'Magnificent Sven' sheet came within White Dwarf magazine decades ago, I think, and you get 12 characters and a killer-wolf-dog-lion thing, all decorated in a cartoony style reminiscent of contemporary graphic novel stuff from the same era, you also get three figures and a couple of weapons to colour yourself . . . or use as wraiths!

The Lord of the Rings sheets use photographic images of someone else's professionally painted miniatures to encourage you to greater heights, they were 'army-builder' sheets in early issues of the part-work which were meant to be replaced by actual figures from later issues of the part-work.

While these four Orks (or whatever they are) are more recent, but I can't remember where/when I added them to the collection? I've probably got the details in the hand-written archive/manuscript notes and I suspect they were just taped to the cover of a White Dwarf in a little bag.

The three samples have different fixing systems, with Sven's mob and enemies being a  single sheet printed both sides with a fold-back base, giving a reversed L-shaped cross-section. The LotR and ork sets have two prints and two bases which can folded into an A-frame tent, or an upside-down T, depending on preference, the T however will benefit from a piece of scrap-card laminated to the base - dotted line - to provide the same rigidity/stability you get doubling-up the two layers on the A-frame.

News, Views Etc . . . Fits & Giggles

So, he's mentioned Bum, in passing . . . because I mentioned them the other day? Tragic! Re-posted a link to the 'interview' in which he apparently uses words he's never, ever used ever, in conversation or on his blog, and re-iterated the old 'collector' hackery! Is he that stupid? Are his followers that dim? I guess they must be! He's clearly that insecure!

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Onward and upward . . . a few links; new ones, not two year-old stuff edited by someone else to try and make me look better!

Another mention of GW

A polemic against the Nottingham mafia's rather sickly bandwagonning the other day is frankly well overdue.

In the course of the article you'll find the use of a new accronym; 'SJW', according to Wikipedia its definition reads . . . "Social Justice Warrior (SJW) is a pejorative term for an individual who promotes socially progressive views, including feminism, civil rights, and multiculturalism."

Because who wants civil rights huh? Who wants to treat women the same as men? Who wants to respect the religious or cultural beliefs of his neighbour? Why try to build a nicer, better, more tolerant world? It'll be those bloody red-pinko' commie rat-fink, socialist swine, no doubt! The abbreviation is quite clumsy, but it was invented by intolerant, reactionary, meat-faced, drive-at-the-crowd, Trumpundbrwreakshiteers, so it was always going to sound a bit forced!

Although, if you say it with a hard, southern drawl, it sort of slides snakelike off the tongne! Eesssjaydubeeyah! - The 'silent majority'; demanding regressions since the dawn of time!

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Another Museum

This one in Turkey - Istanbul Toy Museum

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Another Obituary

Sadly another collector has left us, although - as well as toy soldiers - he seems to have collected pretty-much everything! Joseph Manalang

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And, because I've not been doing the Friday 'show dates' posts for obvious reasons, I've not been properly thanking people for their contributions, which sometimes disappear into the long queue for any length of time . .

. . . so a quick acknowledgment and thanks to both Brain Berke and Chris Smith who have sent all the above follow-ups, bits and bobs and other stuff in the last few weeks, some for soon, some for laters! Recieved with thanks guys!

T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - Games Workshop - Figure Shots

These are just a few shots I took while the Games Workshop sales-guy was giving me the spiel about the starter-set we looked at the other day, some are from that new Age of Sigmar system, others are older Warhammer 40,000 stuff with all the ray-guns and gizmos!

This appears to be a 'quick-game' (?) board game, but there was nothing about it in the introductory starter mag.? Using hexes and two basic armies of Nighthaunts and Stormcast Eternals; there appears to be some over-layed hexes and I know nothing else about it, but - nice figures!

The Nighthaunts again, painted by GW's own in-house guys, I may try to get one of the mounted figures to add to my old-school skeleton army as a commander?

The 'good guys'; Stormcast Eternals, they are sort of sword and armour (no sandals in evidence) version of the Space Marines . . . I think! Is there even a narrative between these and 40,000 . . . I thought plain-old Warhammer was the earlier age?

These are some religious-order from the Warhammer 40,000 universe I think (arch high-priests of recidivism?), again painted to show, and probably familiar to regular readers of White Dwarf as the stars of many an article, painting guide and such-like.

Likewise these guys; I can't remember who they are either, sort of arch-tech sci-fi types (Taui, Toui? Something like that), often painted in a dun or fawn brown (from memory) they look pretty medical in white - sanitising the universe like photographic negatives of crazy, futuristic, Nazi panzer-troops!

GW can also supply branded tape-measure's - for when you've absolutely, positively fallen for all the hype! Some builders-merchants will give you a free one if you order enough sand - just sayin'!