F is for Follow-ups - Recent Matters Arising

A few shots of thing mentioned in passing or otherwise covered in recent posts;

It turned out I actually had the buildings, found on the cereal packet-backs, that were part of the N-gauge promotion from Graham Farish in Shredded Wheat, hiding in the archive folders! They are based on existing structures from Grafar, but simplified, the farmhouse having two chimneys in the case of the original, for instance, while I think I have the BP garage as a small, plastic box, so we may return to these, one day?

 

The comparison shot I meant to take at the time, but didn't manage to, when looking at the Marx play-set tin, the other Marx in the middle and the Deluxe Reading (Thomas in orange) on the right. And I was wrong to suggest they'd go with the other figures, as both a markedly smaller, but you could mix them in with a larger set-up!

 

IF - reading the minds of the locals!

 

I wasn't sure if we'd seen the figure in  a post, but I don't think so, anyway, when I got home from the Sandown show, the red driver here had ended-up in a tray of smallies, but I knew it was part of this old Tudor Rose dumper-truck, so I suggested to Adrian that next time I saw him I might as well get the truck, as I should have done so at the time!

Twelve parts including the driver, and we've seen him before, he's one of those chaps that keep turning-up in lose lots and donations, and I should have him in blue, green and yellow plastic too. We have actually seen this before, it was an early post from archive material, shot with the blessing of John Begg, many years ago, with a multicoloured version in that set, one has to suspect all-one-colour versions were available in the other three colours as well?

 

Finally, combining the donation from Chris Smith with the Sandown purchase, on the little brittle polystyrene sub-piracies of what were probably early Matchbox 1-75 series, as mentioned previously, gives us six models! And the point it's illustrating is that with all this stuff there is often more than one pile currently in the stash, and when it all gets brought together, we will start to see some definitive stuff, I hope!

 

I was looking at a rather nice 76-foot long-boat the other day for £45k, well within my budget?!!

L is for Lots of London Loot - Three IS a Few!

The other half of Peter's August donation, and another eclectic collection of odds and ends, figural and vehicular, structural and peculiar, aqueous and funicular! I know, I shouldn't be allowed!

This was rather ironic, as I'd had one, we may even have seen it here at Small Scale World, if we did I probably mentioned it was incomplete but still eminently playable-with, and would go back to Charity (from whence it came), and which it did . . . now, here's a fully parade-ready example which can go in the collection!

I can't remember if someone ID'd it, or if it's a generic from a big-box action figure play set of the sort you find piled-high in Smyths or B&M, but it's a nice model in a sort of interim M38/Wrangler style, which may be aiming for one of those 1970's Toyota designs?

 

Kinder Barbies, I have had several sets groups of these come in now, more from Peter, some from Charity, probably a couple from Chris, and Brian Carrick may have given me a handful too, the trouble with them is that while, at first glance, the bases look the same, they are all slightly different with specific feet/shoe holes or holds, depending.

And, as you can see, I managed to match-up two before I gave up, not because it was that hard, but because I'd already failed spectacularly to match up a larger sample, last time we looked at them! When they are all together, I'll sit down, make the effort and get them up here, pristine!

 

The earlier sets (covered in Plastic Warrior magazine at the time), had figure specific bases if I recall correctly (they're all in storage again), each base had two figures, or was reused in the series two or something, but there have now been four or five series', and we'll look at them all in an overview one day, with the similar Superhero sets.

Incomplete, but a useful sample, it's one half of an O-gauge level crossing, in tin-plate and die-cast, I don't think it's 'Binns Road' (Hornby), and it doesn't look like Crescent (the other make I'm a bit familiar with, so maybe someone like Chad Valley, or 'Foreign'? I stand to be educated on this one, by someone who actually knows?

A handful of the Supreme/SP Toys 'Silver Knights' a slowly growing sample, which when they are all brought together will have most of the elements now, I think, and hopefully enough weapons and shields to equip that sample properly!

We've seen WOW Eggs before, I think, and there is a mini-season of capsule toy updates in the medium-queue, but I thought a near 54mm (I don't think you count the tail beyond where the feet should be?!!), articulated-waist Mermaid was a bit of fun!

I had a quick root-through the donation box while still at Peter's, but having a train to catch, when I saw these, and realised what they were, just said to Peter, "Ooh, mail-away boxes, I'll save these, to open as a surprise when I get home", which I did!

Rather exquisite, if historically anachronistic, or unrealistic (?) N-gauge train, branded to Nabisco (now Nestle/Kraft)'s Shredded Wheat! Obviously I don't have sections of powered, N-gauge track lying around here, so I can't test it, but I don't need it, as the locomotive is weighted in the engine-compartment, but unpowered. Issued in 1989, the loco' and coaches were manufactured by Graham Farish (Grafar/GF), and the two wagons are different, with one having a guards-compartment.

 

Couple of hours later - "Have you come across a good transport marketing gimmick?" - Well? Have you, readers! Hee-hee, you can almost hear his brain whirling! Except he clearly hasn't got one, always following, never leading!

 

To enhance the above, and the tray of mini/micro-railway samples, were these floor-runners from Dinky, I well remember Mum trying, with the blue Mallard from this set (or was it Matchbox?), to take the wheels off damaged Lone Star Treble-O stock, in order to get it to run on that track!

 

I seem to remember, as a small boy, some of the underground trains still having that crescent-corridor join, to help them go round corners, before someone worked out that distancing them from each other, like surface trains, was easier! But that may be a false memory and I stand to be corrected on that, too!

 

An incomplete, probably Kinder moped and a wooden erzgebirge station building, round-off the odds in this donation.

 

While this could have been kept for Rack Toy Month, but I'm not minded to look that far ahead, given the fluidity of my life at the moment! Many Thanks to Peter, as always, for all this grist to the twin mills of sample-stash and Blog!

T is for They're Too Big for My Layout!

As a fillip to this morning's post on the little railway figures Graham Farish carried (or commissioned?) from West & Short (West's Model Railway Accessories), these are some rather dodgy scans of even poorer old Xerox copies of a Corr's catalogue from the early 1950's.

 

Never pretending to be any sort of expert on this stuff, I'll turn to the often maligned JG Garratt, the sum total of his encyclopedia being always far more useful than the amount of (sometimes well-founded) criticism would indicate, and in this case, well worth a re-read;

"Graham Farish Ltd., London (fl.1950-53) A commercial firm which had many interests, model soldiers being in the nature of a sideline. For the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II they commissioned the then hardly-known Russell Gammage and Lieut-Colonel Nicholson to make a series of models which received immediate acclimation. At the same time they commissioned other models, including hussars, Duke of York, a highlander, an officer of the Horse Guards (1821), Bonnie Prince Charlie and military fashions of the 1830s from Nicholson, and a King John from Nibblet, which, however, according to Gammage, was never issued."

Obviously with little interest in model railways, Garratt, has only highlighted the 'figure years', so to speak!

So we can assume these are all the work of Gammage or the Colonel? And definitely no King John! It would be nice to link Nibblet with West's, because of the work he did for Airfix, but the railway figures don't have that facetted wax-sculpt style of the Airfix Cowboys or Combat Group, so we can drop that wish before it takes hold!

 

But, it cements Graham Farish in the Tag-list and introduces Gammage!

GF is for 'Grafar' or Graham Farish, and err . . . West & Short Ltd.!

Right I'm going to start this post by pointing out that in the research for all these model-railway figure posts, both those seen and those still to come, I found a forum online, on which one Jon Attwood, was exhibiting some mild chagrin that one of his fellow forum-colleagues had won an auction for a West & Short set, and further indicating that if any of the forum members saw any going, he was still very interested in obtaining one.

 

So, the fact that he is, a year or two later, sending not just images, but a whole, near mint set, to the Blog for me to share, is an act of extraordinary kindness, and generosity, well beyond the call of duty, as if any of us have any duty to our fellow collectors! So I am staggered to receive these, eternally grateful to Jon, and really happy to share them all, with the rest of you.

Way-back-when, seemingly before they were issuing their little booklet catalogue/modelling-guides (of which I have a few), Graham Farish carried (commissioned?) these figure sets from the West & Short Limited mention above.

And I use the question mark advisedly, as back at their start Graham Farish, were one of several companies (Basset Lowke, Hamblings (Bilteeze), H&M [Hammant & Morgan], K's [Keyser], W&H (Romford Gears), Prichard et al) supplying the model railway hobby by mail-order (as well as from any premises), all of whom tended to have a core product, whether locomotives (GF), rolling stock kits (K's), transformers (H&M), card buildings, or line-side stuff (Pritchard - Peco).

 

And with no other figures in their lists Graham Farish may have requested these, or just stocked them as they stocked other products, and it's not a question likely to be answered now?

 

I instantly recognised the figures, as I have some in the 'unknown metal railway figures' zone! Quite distinctive, with thin steel-plate bases, and blue paints which appear slightly metallic to the eye. This shot is from Jon, and shows his lose figures, to date.

 

Having sent the above images, Jon then sent this to the blog! It's a near mint set, with near mint contents, I don't know how to fully express my gratitude beyond the inadequate "Thanks Jon"!

But you guys want to see the contents! You get two little packets of that semi-transparent paper which stamp-dealers used to use, indeed, early stamp 'stock books' had strips of this paper across the pages before cellophane was invented - and for some time after!

 

One bag contains poses more likely to be associated with a locomotive's crew, the other clearly platform staff and porters . . . what happened to porterage? Wheels on suitcases' came long after porters disappeared, and some trunks had wheels, back in the Edwardian period, so the wheels aren't to blame!

The upper shot here is also of Jon's own sample, or should I say remaining sample, after his generosity? With the six figures from the box to the lower right and a couple of loose figures, Jon also sent me to share with you.

 

The fat guy asleep on a station bench is a lovely, nay 'charming' sculpt, and very few makers have attempted non-standard human forms, Preiser have, notably with their Family Krause series, old-man Krause being a tad portly, and easily identifiable in each set, but there's not much else out there?

And speaking of Preiser, after many years (several decades?) without figures in any iteration of their catalogues, in the recent round of mergers and amalgamations (well it was recent, 20-odd years ago!), and just as Bachmann (Europe) were taking them over, Graham Farish introduced these to their range, bought in from Preiser.

 

The two well-painted sets (018 & 020) might have been commissioned for Farish, but were/are in Presier lists too, along with lovely sets of Japanese, US and other nationality's railway staff/police/uniformed figures. Note - two fat ladies and a portly Deutsche Bahn stationmaster! I suppose, these days, they'll be called 'Rail Transport Senior Line-Managers'!

 

Note also that, as with the Primex/Vollmer sets we glanced at briefly the other day, the two generic sets (019 & 022) are given a basic paint finish, while for some reason sets 021 and 029 are given an intermediate or 'standard' paint-job? I suspect the seated figures will have the basic job?

Again, many, many thanks to Jon for everything he's contributed to this post, and the Blog.