About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Showing posts with label Good Soldiers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Good Soldiers. Show all posts

Sunday, December 15, 2024

P is for Pulp Fiction

How have I not had that title before now? I'm not sure if these are Giles's work from Dorset Toy Soldiers, or Ron's from Good Soldiers, but as they are the Crescent sculpts it's all a bit academic and I'll Tag all three, just to make sure they can be found, no matter how future browsers are searching for them! On the Dan Dare Tag you'll find a larger sample of these from Brian B which we saw a while back.

The reproduction label is actually quite faded on my sample, and I've enhanced it in Picasa, to give a better feel for the original, the trouble with home printers is that the ink fades quite quickly, as anyone who's put stuff up at work, or on the fridge door, will attest! The yellow tissue apes the yellow card the originals are often found tied-to.
 
Box is in Dorset's style, but the subject is more Good Soldier'y, while the contents are the same as the Crescent toys set. Colours are best described as the common schemes, with the suited Dan being also found in dark blue, sky blue, red, metallic red, a pinkish metallic, and silver, with the Treens also having a fair few paint variations in the original, in this version it's supposed to be the Venusian character Sondar.

Some sources state the sky blue were only from an RAF set (which they certainly appeared in), and which includes blue versions of the two green service dress figures (Digby and Dan), while others claim blue spacesuit for Dan and yellow for Sir Hubert Guest? With Professor Peabody also getting red and silver issues, I suspect it was down to the out-painters or packers, on the day, and of little other significance?
 
The ship could be all red, split red/yellow, or red with a silver nose in the original, here the repro' has a segment of yellow running back from the centre of the cockpit, and again the launch-frame follows Crescent's blue, although orange and brown-red can be found.
 
Red Wing! That's three mini/micro spaceships, joining the stash, in a few weeks with a rather Tin Tin'esque rubber rocket pencil-top and the little novelty UFO in polystyrene alongside the Dan Dare whitemetal ship.

Sunday, October 6, 2024

Q is for Question Time - Whimsical Lead

Again, not so much of a question, as I feel these are likely to prove to be Good Soldiers, but they came as a bulk lot of 'shop stock' with no packaging, which would be an uncommon escape from the garage concern that is Good Soldiers, I haven't seen them in Ron's immaculately-cut, foam-lined 'toy soldier' boxes, on his stall either, and they don't seem to be copies of other, older, plastic figures, as his more whimsical, or fairy-tale-TV-Disney stuff tends to be.
 
These are more 'Good Soldier' like, as the two larger bears seem to be taken from a commonish sculpt, both sides of the channel, and both sides of the pond, often found with backwoodsmen or other Wild West, not holding bowls or spoons, mind!
 
And the girl holding a straw boater behind her back also looks vaguely familiar, but as a group a rather nice Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I would add that Baby Bear is doing a pretty good impression of Mary Plain, while Daddy Bear seems to be a stretched Mummy Bear - owch!

Whereas these Rupert the Bear snowball fighters appear to be unique sculpts, in that they weren't cereal premiums or similar as far as I know, The Tournament Collection did a whitemetal set back in the 1980's, but theirs were smoother finished I feel, and all just standing. From the left Rupet, Podgy Pig and the mischief-makers, Freddy & Ferdie Fox, although how you tell them apart is a mystery to me!
 
So anyways, any ideas, on either set, gratefully received!

Saturday, October 26, 2019

C is for Cat-cophony!

S is for Stray Cat Strut, J is for Jazz Cats, F is for Feline Groovy, T is for Tuneful Topcats . . . I may as well get them all up here as I'll never get another chance . . . M is for Musical Moggies, Meowsical . . . P is for Panda's Pussies Play Pop, S is for Scatting-cats and Skiffling-kitty's . . . there should be more cat bands, clearly; there are the titles' for them.

Rag-time Rag-dolls . . . Symphonic Siamese's . . . and [for the intellectuals;] Boogie-woogie Bastets! Tin-pan Tabbies? Cum'on; I'm sure you can do better!

I can't now remember where these came from, or 'came-in', possibly a charity shop, but years ago, or in an odd job-lot of small scale (they are 35/40mm) from someone I named the other day, but I won't name him again, as the vision of Stadinger physically 'digging out' another single figure to 'drop' the same name again, is too much!

There are some serious issues of insecurity writ there; an inadequacy which is behind this war of his. I thought he sat in my dust, copying me, because he had no ideas, but it turns out he's trying to prove something to . . . himself? That he's as good as me? That he knows some of the same people as I do? That he's got the odd figure I have?

Understand this;- I thank people because they have helped or contributed to the Blog or my collecting is some way, I've done it since the start of the blog, and will continue to do so, Stadinger never thanks his contributors, he name-checks them, but rarely thanks them! To be fair though; as they all appear to be moulded from the same lumpen clay as him, they don't seem too bothered!

The idea that he felt so threatened - by my thanking someone - the other day, that he had to dig-out a random figure to generate a reason to name them (not thank them, just 'name-drop'!) suggests that while he calls me 'sad' and Erwin keeps trying to question my sanity, the one in need of therapy is TJF, the pathetic one is TJF?

And why would you name-check a purchase? You thank people who have helped with freebies, or information, or shelfies, and you should try to thank if you've been deliberately let-have something on the cheap? But name-checking every purchase you've ever made is impossible, and if you've paid; it's 'yours', so suddenly naming someone, out of the blue, the day after I happened to thank them for something, looks very odd? Like posting dinosaur shelfies - later the same day!

It's fascinating -  from two-thousand-and-something-odd miles away - to watch Stad's mind working, to hear those cogs grinding together; "Oh no! Hughie's mentioned so-and-so/shown such-and-such, I'd better mention them/show it too!" He's clearly as insecure (and paranoid?) as a gay spy in the Politburo! Poor love! With no ideas and not much to show, but then he's a dealer not a collector! Me? I'm just a patronising bastard, but still; he wanted it, this 'war' of his!

And another thing . . . while I'm in the mood; he's tried the baby-talk 'Hughie' thing for the last few months, but my best mate in Canada who starred in the remake of Lost in Space (as a body-double - I taught her how to hold a gun!) calls me Hughie, an ex-lover called me Hughwish (not quite Hugh?!), another (in Berlin) called me Huey (...Lewis and the News - she was German and you know what Obelix has to say about them!), an old school friend calls me Hughzzle and my Rottweiler-owning Chopped-triumph riding biker mate calls me Hughston, everyone else knows me as H or Maverick, shortened to the mildly annoying Mav', but it means TJF's going to have to get a little more inventive to upset me on that one, but it's fun to watch him try!

The above was written earlier in the week, then today (Thurs. 23rd) I see he's also dug-out a single large, US-made road worker, presumably to 'balance' the Buddy L I used as a scale the other day! Yet he hasn't balanced the four, new to hobby, Hong Kong logo, empirical ID's I was doing when I chucked in the Buddy L, it's really too funny! Childish and seeped in pathos, but still funny.

Cat-cophony, Stray Cat Strut, Jazz Cats, Feline Groovy, Tuneful Topcats, Musical Moggies, Meowsical, Panda's Pussies Play Pop, Scatting-Cats, Skiffling-Kitty's, Rag-time Rag-dolls, Symphonic Siamese's, Boogie-woogie Bastets, Tin-Pan Tabbies, 35/40mm Figurines, Goodsoldiers, Panda-Bear, Dinky, Composition, Doughcraft,  Chalkware, Novelties, Dinky Copy,  Mr Bearanda, Bear and Panda, Bear-Man-Panda, Dinky's Licensed-Toy, Stripy the Mini, Andy and Candy, Charles Stadden, Candy Puppet, Gerry Anderson
But . . . onwards and upwards; these are also fun!

Almost certainly from Good Soldiers, not that they are soldiers! The panda-bear is taken from the Dinky one, I don't know where the cats came from, early plastic novelties of some kind, Japanese maybe, Good Soldiers tend to use vintage plastic figures to make their masters, but they might have copied some old hollow-cast, or composition (doughcraft or chalkware?) novelties?

Cat-cophony, Stray Cat Strut, Jazz Cats, Feline Groovy, Tuneful Topcats, Musical Moggies, Meowsical, Panda's Pussies Play Pop, Scatting-Cats, Skiffling-Kitty's, Rag-time Rag-dolls, Symphonic Siamese's, Boogie-woogie Bastets, Tin-Pan Tabbies, 35/40mm Figurines, Goodsoldiers, Panda-Bear, Dinky, Composition, Doughcraft,  Chalkware, Novelties, Dinky Copy,  Mr Bearanda, Bear and Panda, Bear-Man-Panda, Dinky's Licensed-Toy, Stripy the Mini, Andy and Candy, Charles Stadden, Candy Puppet, Gerry Anderson
Spot the deliberate mistake - countries with colonies of penguins will tell you they tend to cull cats, because cats like penguin-eggs, cats like small penguins, cats like injured penguins cats like slow penguins! What the f*** is a penguin doing in a cat-band? The bear's safe'ish; he's a vegetarian, although one recently mauled its keeper!

Cat-cophony, Stray Cat Strut, Jazz Cats, Feline Groovy, Tuneful Topcats, Musical Moggies, Meowsical, Panda's Pussies Play Pop, Scatting-Cats, Skiffling-Kitty's, Rag-time Rag-dolls, Symphonic Siamese's, Boogie-woogie Bastets, Tin-Pan Tabbies, 35/40mm Figurines, Goodsoldiers, Panda-Bear, Dinky, Composition, Doughcraft,  Chalkware, Novelties, Dinky Copy,  Mr Bearanda, Bear and Panda, Bear-Man-Panda, Dinky's Licensed-Toy, Stripy the Mini, Andy and Candy, Charles Stadden, Candy Puppet, Gerry Anderson
The Dinky donor was the Mr Bearanda (geddit? Bear and Panda . . . or Bear-man-panda?) from Dinky's Andy and Candy licensed-toy; Stripy the Mini, and we see them here for the second-time I think, but contextually; and a new image! No pantograph will have been employed and because the rubber mould-making compound used to take the negatives shrinks slightly as it sets, the copy ends-up being actually slightly larger.

I suspect the three plastic figures are the work of Charles Stadden, and probably about as esoteric as he got! I particularly like the sculpt of little Candy who's a puppet in the show, and she looks like a puppet, in fact she looks like a long-haired, zombie Chucky, but then she did in the show too!

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

D is for Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future . . . Past!

As you may have clocked by now, we are having a Space day and a Follow-up day and a Brian day, because they are all follow-ups to previous related posts of shots Brian had sent. This post is looking at some more of Brian's collection of Dan Dare stuff, and in his own words . . .

"These figures are mostly Unicorn metal, factory painted.

The second and third on row-3 are Phants painted by me and are unlicensed UK made metal figures.

Row four - the four figures on the right are Treens; as per the Phants

Row five is a Crescent Dan Dare/RAF figure, then 3 as per above Phants and Treens. Then a plastic Spacefleet Commando by Eaglewall. Then two larger Auburn Rubber policemen this time the whistle blower is Dan smoking a pipe, followed by two Unicorns and a Comet metal Mekon."

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A lovely display of a favourite from childhood, and - at the risk of being accused of name-dropping;

When we used to fly to Alderney (Britten-Norman Trislander - like a small Lancaster but noisier!), we would sometimes be unable to land (due to fog) and would be re-directed to Guernsey for an unscheduled overnight stay. We used a little B&B, but it often meant supper with General Sir John 'Arnhem' Hackett and his wife.

Now, after supper he and Dad would talk 'shop' (jumping out of perfectly-serviceable aircraft mostly!), while my Brother and I would sit at the top of the stairs going through a whole shelf of Lion, Tiger and Eagle annuals! Indeed we had to be dragged FROM the top of the stairs FOR supper, and were only returning to our 'roost'! Consequently; I knew well, things I should have been too-young to remember, like Harris Tweed, Waldorf & Cecil, PC49, Luck of the Legion and - of course - Dan Dare! "Pilot of the Future" . . . then!

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Although the best thing there is hiding on the bottom row - where the hell do you go to find a figurine of Desperate Dan? "Cow-pie, with horns!"

Brian also sent a close-up of his Auburn Rubber paint-conversions - Cheers Mr B - some real treats!

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

D is for Dare, Dan Dare!

The third of today's contributions is one of crossed-wires and mixed messages (my fault), resulting in a post's worth of images from Brian 'Terranova' Berke on a subject close to his heart; Dan Dare - "Pilot of the Future".

Toy Dan Dare Comic Characters From Eagle Comic and Eagle Annual on the Small Scale World Blog; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com. Dan Dare, Ensign Digby, Professor Jocelyn Peabody, Sir Hubert Guest, A Treen Ron Good's Good Soldiers Metal From Eaglewall Plastics Dorking, Kentoys (Kenway Cycle Shop), Paint Conversions of Metal And Plastic Figurines; Dr Who, GI Joe, Unicorn Models, Marx 54mm Air Force And Crescent Hollow-Cast Spacefleet, Toy Soldiers
Group shots, the top row is half Dr. Whatsit and his Kaled's; nothing to do with Dan the Man who battles the evil Treen boss - 'The Mekon'.

From the left the top row shows Dalek from a Dr Who Advent Calendar (which I think is the same little silicon-rubber one that The Toad sent to the Blog many years ago?); A metal 'first Doctor' painted by Terra', a home-printed (or - I'm told - a son-in-law's-home printed-) 3D-model TARDIS, and a 5-inch model of the First Doctor (played by one William Hartnell), I hate to say it but Terranova's in danger of dating himself with his dateable Doctor-fandom!

Then we're on to the Meat & Two-veg' of the post; Dan Dare, and start with a nice paint-conversion of a Marx pilot from the late version (hollowed-out base) 45mm Air Force set, A 3½-inch GI Joe figure painted-up as Dan, both matt-painted by Brian, with - either side of a PVC Thompson (or is it Thomson?) figure from Tin Tin - two gloss-pointed Auburn Rubber policemen, again by Brian but in the 'old toy soldier' style. Finally; the little guy half-seen is a Unicorn Models RAF Pilot also painted-up as Dan Dare . . . it's lucky, but space pilots of the future all wear 1950's military pilot's gear!

The lower line-up; again from the left consists of Professor Peabody, a Treen and a [slimer than I remember him] Digby, these are solid-metal castings of the old Crescent hollow-cast figures (again painted by Mr. Berke), then we have five metal copies of the Eaglewall figures (these are supplied by Good Soldiers as unpainted castings) From a red Dan Dare himself, and carrying-on to the right; Sir Hubert Guest and three generic 'Spacefleet' officers - think the Spacefleet equivalents of Star Trek's red PJ-wearing Ensign Smith!

Close-ups the painted casting in Brian's Dan Dare collection; the more observant among you will have clocked that Sir Hubert Guest and Dan dare are the same casting, but with Sir Hubert's arm moved to reflect the movable nature of the plastic original.

This is the boxed set, also available from Ron Good's firm as a pre-painted set of seven casts with an aditional Mekon, not released in plastic by Eaglewall! From the top left to the bottom right we have:

- Commander Lex O'Malley
- Digby (another slim one!)
- Dan Dare
- Sir Hubert Guest
- Professor Jocelyn Peabody
- The Mekon
- Cadet 'Flamer' Spry

On the left we have close-ups of the Dan Dare half of the upper row, and on the right a comparison between the Good Soldiers Dan (out of the cabinet) and Brian's home-painted sculpt from the same source, the Good Soldier's painted version has an other ranks silver helmet (shock horror!), while Brian's has been painted with the proper gold one!

Seen here at Small Scale World before; Brain also beefed up his 'Planet-side' Spacefleet command staff with a quick, flat-matt paint-conversion of some rack-toy policemen (from Jaru's 55-piece Emergency Rescue Police Big Bag set) into Spacefleet officers for space-port security, hunting-out Treens and probably a bit of Ensign Smithery . . . aaahrrrrh!

Thanks again Brian!