V is for Vikings

Funny isn't it, you think you'll never mention Harry Reynolds again (HR Production), then you mention them twice in three days!

At November 2021's Sandown Park show, I raided Adrian's cheapie-tray of lead, and managed three different scarecrows, an anvil, and a nice Greek, along with an unknown - probably German - firefighter in composition, but by far the nicest piece was a Reynolds Viking, and as it's less likely I'll find one in the rarer plastic, a metal one was a decent substitute.

Here's all five poses, courtesy of an old Bonham's auction shot, the boot lacing is tighter on these, so mine might be a 'Friday afternoon' paint job! Note how they've tried to hide the broken axe, it won't fool in-the-room viewers, but might help garner higher Internet or 'phone bids!

F is for Fanciful Fellows!

Bit of a box-ticker, literally as it's the contents of the Charbens & odds ancients tub! I don't have many, but have managed to find most types (I've just realised I think there's a blue Hong Kong copy missing?) and all the poses.

My two originals, paint's a bit thin on the ground these days, but then the ground is shiny polymer which never held paint well, and although some early Charbens were chalky for the reason of pain adhesion, this set was a late addition to the range and didn't get a chalky iteration.

Unpainted/home painted, they may be from one of those home-paint sets, I don't know, but it would make sense? Flesh plastic and another two poses, you may have noticed they are all fighting over the wild strawberries . . . in their scale; the size of watermelons!

He's just helping himself with an axe swing! They were sold as Romans, but everything about them screams Greek, and a rather fanciful, pre-Classical era, Trojan War/mythical Greece at that!

This one is unpainted hard polystyrene, and may be a Prindus (Prison Industries) figure who avoided the painting phase in his hurry to find giant strawberries?

Duplicates from the recent/current form of re-issue, a dense, rigid polymer in a neutral grey. You may have also noticed the kilts are a bit short? The greaves look a lot like pantomime booties as well, so there's a quite theatrical look to them, but they have plenty of charm, and might work as Etruscans against true Romans?

Because there's a bit of room in their tub, they get the odd's which are - from the left; an Athena Greek . . . Greek tourist figure, not that rare, but finding the spears intact (polystyrene) is always a bonus.

Then a chess-set pawn, who's a bit more Roman. I think you can still find these in various finishes on Amazon, as whole (and not cheap) chess-sets, in metal or plastic, but these older ones are often to be found in rummage trays at shows, and while not a copy, his shield seems to have been influenced by one of the Marx 60mm set. Finally a modern Greek from Conte Collectibles, I think.

This guy's also in the same tub, a bit bigger than the others around 60-65mm (I didn't check at the time!) and from the liberal quantities of gold and silver paint; probably Argentinian! The fish-plate or scalloped armour has me thinking of Poseidon, was he from a set of gods? Also quite Ray Harryhausen'esque!

G is for Greeks Bearing Similar Shields

Bit of a late one today; as I said [wrote] on Friday [Thursday] I hadn't got a plan for the weekend, and while I managed to get Saturday and Sunday covered, Monday rather went by the wayside!

Also apologies for my inaccuracy on Friday, it's not Vanuatu we're about to sign a trade-agreement with, it's the international power-house that is the Faeroe Islands! As someone with more knowledge of these things than me on the News Quiz pointed-out on Friday night; they're going to send us puffin meat, in exchange for the mould off Ms. Maybe-Maybe-not's jam!

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Another box-ticker, another set of the Toyway-Timpo vinyl figures with separate bases, we're off to Greece this time, and frankly, this set is not as nice as the Romans, the sculpting is a bit . . . sort of lumpy or rubbery! But there are some quirky figures and it's a full group.

The whole set, 10 figures, the painting is also a bit of a let-down, they are all 'text-book' boy's-comic Rome with all the red and silver, and they were - of course - from the bronze-age and Greek! Two musicians and a woman hardly help with army-building either!

Those musicians in full! The guy on the left is obviously a signaller, but the one on the right might be the more Mercurial, godlike character . . . Hermes! Or is it Ares/Mars?

The figure on the left here is also supposed to be a god, well, goddess I think; Athena/Athene (Minerva in Rome)? While the chap on the right appears to have been designed for a chariot, which - to my knowledge - was never offered, but might it have also gone with, or been designed to go with the Timpo Roman chariot, which Toyway may have been thinking of? As it is, he looks like he's about to start a race with an invisible watch!

Spearmen - a hideously unbalanced spear being wielded by the guy on the left, the other two are OK, although the middle figure looks more early Roman to my eyes; maybe he's the General? At least his cuirass is the right colour, while the chap on the right is wearing the latest in kilt fashions; imported from Polynesia!

Swordsmen - probably my favourite figures from the set, perticularly the old man on the left; some crocked Trojan packed-off to do his duty and die properly; the other two quite good poses, the kneeling figures is particularly nice, but all three let down by the fact that their swords have morphed into letter-openers!

The shields are all reasonable designs I think, most taken from actual Greek art or artifacts in museums, although the originals wouldn't have been quite so deep in relief, most being only painted-on? They fall down in the bright-yellow on silveriness of them all!

A scale comparison shot, with similar figures from two Atlantic sets; the woman with amphora being taken from a Roman set!

F is for Follow-up - Britains Trojans . . . again!

I Found this after the follow-up, but it's not a follow-up to the follow-up, but rather 'just' a follow-up - if that makes sense, which it won't to Mr. Erwin Sell; he's too stupid to comprehend the literary concepts of narrative-thought, stream of consciousness or thinking out loud and consequently thinks I'm mad!

To be honest I'd rather be mad than that stupid, still - at his age - it's his choice to remain so. My writing is obviously too . . . err . . . 'clever' for him, but he insists on reading it and jumping to medical conclusions or psychological diagnosis . . . sort of making it up as he goes along, again? What do you think Hugh? I think he's probably the mad one. Are you sure? Yes, he's twice as mad as I'll ever be, can we get back to the post now? Do we have to? Yes, I'm afraid we do! Oh . . . OK then.

I knew I should have at least one copy of Hector (the Trojan!), is anyone else listening to the new version of the Iliad on R4? Achilles wasn't very nice to Hector tonight . . . not very nice at all! In fact; I would go so far as to say he rather ruined Hector's day.

A sub-piracy from that unmarked set which may be French or Italian bazaar (rack toy) figures rather than HK, but may be sourced in Hong Kong anyway, and a rather insipid pink polyethylene, he had been missed when I rounded the others up for the main post the other day.

F is for Follow-up - Greco-Trojan Warriors

Following-up on the recent Trojan Warriors post Brian sent me a few images of his very 'clean' group and something a little more interesting, a Hinton Hunt metal Greek hoplite with the proper 'Bell' cuirass from 1972.

Here he is, he's in the queue for a re-paint and Brian reminisces;

I used to shop at the Hinton Hunt store on Camden Passage, late 60's early 70's. A wonderful eccentric place depending on whether the husband or wife was manning it.

From the stock I would say production over several days or a week was one range only. This meant that if you arrived just after new stock there would be a range of hundreds of one subject. I remember this one figure had dozens of variations of just the arms and weapons. I must have put this one aside when I ran out of metallic paint.

To which I would add that Rose Miniatures had some lovely Greeks too, around the same time, of which I have some small scale versions somewhere.

Posed with Brian's Britains; you can see he fits right in and scaled to within a gnats-crochet of his plastic brethren, although with a thinner base he's probably the equivalent of 55mm! It would appear that Herald's Trojan Warriors haven't taken kindly to his presence though?

Thanks Brian!

T is for Trojans . . . except most of them are Greek to me!

I don't know if this is a follow-up, further stuff or big box-tick, but I've put the two lots of Britains 'Trojans' together and here they are in all their glory, well, the original Herald issue are pretty glorious, the rest are borderline OK, but they have a timeless toy-charm and we all had some when we were young . . . didn't we?

Agamemnon, hero of the Greeks, became 'Trojan General' and for some reason he's got a Roman standard and is carrying a polished hoplon shield . . . on a horse! Much copied in several scales, he was the duff one really as he wasn't armed with anything useful in mortal combat! Oldest at the top, newest at the bottom, there aren't as many versions with this figure as it's all in the bases, and being baseless, he's harder to sub-divide!

From the rear with a Hong Kong copy on the far right end of the row. The close-up shows how the HK mark is similar to the Britains Reg.Des mark! And the horse marks; I couldn't get the top one to come clear, but the Herald is obvious and the top one's a very glossy polyethylene, odd when the rest of the HK-production was PVC?

Paris, cause of the whole Iliad thing wot 'appened! AND . . . the only Trojan in a set catalogued as Trojan Warriors, but that anomaly will explain why the names were never used commercially.

The earliest is top left, the final incarnation with the separate base is to the bottom right, and above them the earlier HK production, and the 'austerity paint' herald is the broken one; lower-left.

Hector, another Greek Trojan! We won't see another!

Of all the figures, this is the one where there's no real difference in quality with paint versions. While the early Herald figure (top left) has a red hem and the brown shield straps of all 1st versions, the later ones - including the 'austerity' paint, have their bell-cuirass straps painted and leather-shoulder pads/epaulettes painted in, so it's swings and roundabouts with Hector.

Note also that the HK sculpting was cleaned up and late versions (bottom right and right centre) are smoother than the earlier Hong Kong moulding (bottom left). Hot water can solve the bent-spear shaft 'syndrome', but not too hot or it'll shrivel-up like a sun-dried worm!

Three copies, the first two marked Hong Kong and based on the Herald original as far as painting goes the last could be a French or Italian 'bazaar' rack toy, he's unmarked, a sub-piracy and they seem to turn-up over there (Europe) quite often.

Of the two definitely HK ones, the first is a by-hand copy, the other is a more typical [of HK] pantograph clone.

Ajax, main man, another Greek and my favourite sculpt from the set, he more than any of the others conjures-up those Greek warriors standing around the sides of vases and amphora. The first version Herald figure got the colour again! The first of the two separate-based HK figures looks quite sickly, and more like a copy than something Britains put their name to!

The guy bottom-left is the final clearance version with a large, ovoid, separate-base; this base was used with various figures as Britains slid into retirement! There are two versions, this apple-green one numbered 519, and a darker plastic numbered 518, I have no idea why!

One copy and the chap I painted to represent a statue years ago, when as a small scale collector I was clearly looking for an excuse to have one of my childhood 54mm favourites in the stash!

Another heroic name ringing-down the years, almost immortal, half-god, Myrmidon, lover of Patroclus, killer of Hector, Granddad's command, sister-ship to Ajax and err . . . renamed Delhi! When we were kids this and the next figure (below) were the best ones for fighting as they squared-up against each-other really well; being almost, sort-of, not really - mirror-images, but both right-handed.

I seem to have photographed them all with the feet of the top rows obscured, it should be noted that the constant difference with the Herald originals is that they all had their sandal-straps painted-in.

Two copies, Hong Kong on the right and a bright red 'debateable' on the left, again the Hong Kong one is following the Herald version one paint-scheme.

Note the two very different HK integral-bases, one matching the UK issues (middle), the other much bigger all round (purplish-pink, second from left) and probably later.

Oh yes! Ulysses - stroppy poppet - sulking for weeks with his Myrmidons , then, when Troy's burnt to the ground, the Trojans put to the sword and everyone else has pushed-off, he only goes and gets himself a second series; about his trip home - having feigned madness to not have to go in the first place!

Only the one copy and I'm running out of blurb-fodder?!! Plastic's an odd shade and he's following the 1st version colour-scheme again.

He WAS sold as a Roman, so the fact that he looks like a Roman is to be excused. Romans were planned, but only the chariot came out in the mid-1970's for a couple of years. Strangely it's quite common at shows, both boxed and loose, and I can only suppose this was due to poor sales leading to a lot of surviving shop-stock, filtering into collectors hands in later years? Finally they shifted the remaining figures as based foot-figures . . . driving slaves?

As they were sold, this is a late era catalogue image, and to recap on the names they nearly got;

Agamemnon - Mounted - Greek

Paris - Bowman - Trojan

Hector - Spearman - Trojan

Ajax - Standing - Greek

Achilles - Fighting, no cloak - Greek

Ulysses - Fighting, cloak - Greek

A Nobody - Charioteer/Slave Master - Roman

See! They both go so well together!

Now . . . THESE. ARE. NOT. RARE. It has to be said that the Herald 1st version and later 'austerity paint' issue are tending to brittleness now, but any day on feeBay you'll find all the 'Trojans' you want, just don't pay the 80-odd quid 'buy-it-now' someone was asking-for, for a set of six the other day!

The previous post I did on the Hong Kong production versions were from one lot someone (Micheal Melnyc? Thanks anyway!) sent me a while ago, and was one of each from a larger lot, while the mostly Herald stuff in storage was from the big-purchase in 2010. The HK-odds have been show purchases, and are probably the slightly harder to track down, especially in numbers and a couple have come from Charity shops.

Looking at the goldy-bronze highlights on the Hong Kong chap's shield reminded me; there was a very odd set went through Vectis Auctions a while ago, the original Herald set in a hollow-cast type gift/chocolate/tray-box, all the figures apparently 'mint' but all armour, helmets and shields painted dark bronze, it didn't look right . . . ? Although; Bronze WAS what they were using in their pre-historical 'age of mythology'!

I have a few 'total' duplicates and when I have all six (or all five foot figures) I may try painting them-up? And you can see from the pictures I don't have every version of each figure, so there's a few still to find!