F is for Follow-up . . . to the Previous Posts

A few bits of relevance to the stuff Chris Smith sent to the Blog last October, and which have 'come out of the wash' in the last 48-hours, and in the order in which they appeared!

The Daktyl Perterrohsaw went in a block-rock but had been divorced from it by Royal Fail shaking the parcel to see if it was worth nicking! I made that last bit up. You can just see it in the first photo' on that post and, as you can see, it's not showing much compatibility with Lego's Kiddybrick rip-off, which had been my suggestion. The Bird'o'saur's gone to storage.

The clown with a giant bow, was also a pencil-top, so he has more in common with the tripple-headed Kaiju in the following 'military' post. The sculpt might be a Brabo rip-off?

Yesterday, Chris's mum suggested the fairy might be Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and subsequent image Googling by both Chris and I revealed a veritable cornucopia of sexy, alluring or even scantily clad Titania's so we were definitely on to something, but the truth (and the previously mentioned familiarity) is a little more pedestrian . . . Marx's Blue Fairy from Disney!

And she is a bit blue, or pert, yes I think 'Pert' is the word required here! She's a softish PVC though, so not from the chalky 'classic characters' range we've seen here before, and while the material was used for the painted 40mm Circus figures back in the day, it was also used on the reissue dancers I picked-up a while ago?

The sack turned out to be from the Dinky TK (civilian transport ancestor of the military MK) coal-delivery truck! They have been reproduced, in recent times, usually in black, but with the Dinky name now just a traded brand handled by several companies in the last twenty years (Universal and Atlas Editions for a start) the yellow ones may be for a modern-made greengrocer's truck; potato's, or miller's/baker's vehicle - corn? Seen above with an imported, rival, Spot On coalman.

From this morning's post, the line-up as it currently stands; the new Guardia Civil is a tad taller than the others, and you can see marked differences in say, the jacket flaps, but a general pattern is followed in the various potteries, look at the short, fat, round boots with their chunky soles, or the eyes!

H is for How They Come In - March to July!

A couple of Charity shops have re-opened, one has already gone, is cleared-out and being decorated by the landlord while the rest are still closed (and dumping tons of stuff straight into their skip-bins), but I managed to grab a few bags of plunder earlier this week for the first time in months, so we have an H is for . . . post!

Four bags, the larger bread-basket they were in had room, so I suspect a feebleBay bottom-feeder had beaten me too it, the shop opened last Monday, I got there this Tuesday, so I wasn't expecting much and was happy with what I got - four-quid all-in, can't knock it?

Contents of the four bags laid-out in absolutely no order whatsoever beyond vague morphing of themes!

Not looked at below; a couple of Pepper Pig types, probably from kids' magazines, four Ardman Animation figures, one or two of which may be Phidal, an unmarked Soma-like rubber builder, two Russ Berrie trolls (late type cereal premiums?), a clean Crescent Indian,  a handful of Hing Fat pirates and a farmer with a huge pitch-fork!

Another! This one is turned to the right, or glancing to the left depending on your point of view, but it's another! You, loyal readers, have watched this sub-collection growing, by accident, almost in real time!

His flesh is purpler than the previously seen examples, and his hat brim has gone the way of all flesh (and hat brims!), but that's a simple matter of cutting a washer of black art-paper/cartridge paper and slipping it on, the flat board at the back has survived, if a little dog-eared, so stiffening with super-glue and he'll be right as ninepence!

You'll also notice I've touched-up his chips with a black-marker between the overview picture and this one. That's two officers and a trooper now.

I think these (Marx Disney figures) are worth the whole four pounds? Neither has any damage, despite some thin or delicate parts although both are dirty and a bit paint-chipped. The plastic is not the chalky stuff of my unpainted Swansea ones, and I wonder if these aren't some of the first mementos to be brought back from the original Disneyland Park in California which opened in 1955.

The state of them (tatty) but also quality of them (no damage) suggests they may have been in a cabinet or on a shelf somewhere, but regularly taken out/down and loved? They'll clean-up a bit and were a real treat to find in a bagful of shite!

The four teddy bears are waiting for dark to fall, and they are going to give that modern Disney shit, sorry; pooh, a new [old] nose! Three 'in my pockets' (MEG?), one Disney squeaker/pet toy (?) and an unknown happy-looking chap who can be a pencil-top, but actually has a larger cavity?

New colour-way for the collection on the Deetail, and a Supreme for Toy Major, imported by Tiger here, hard to believe they are 25-odd years old now. I suspect the Deetail is a newer one from the 2000's re-issues?

The really quirky stuff, two wooden figurals (cat and rabbit) made from turned balls with felt ears, and a plastic cartoon cat, they all have a place in the sorting boxes! Hopefully, there will be more plunder now the Charity shops are opening-up again, but a lot of it is going in the bin in the meantime.

H is for How They Come In - Peter

A few days after Brian's parcel, another arrived without warning from North of the river, something some of you are probably expecting as he's scrupulously fair and seems to send parcels together so if he's name-checked at the other place he's shortly thereafter name-checked here, or vise-a-versa!

An interesting sample of mixed 'odds and sods' (which is right up SSW's street!); most of them happy to wear the 'Novelty' moniker. /the contents of the small bag (bottom-left) is now a separate post.

I'm not so sure about the large pink mouse, however the similar mini-bath duck is a happy receipt, so I can't reject his stable mate and one day there will be an overview of all rodents here on the blog (as there - hopefully - will be for everything) and when that day comes he/she-or-it will be ready and waiting . . . for a second viewing!

The three nutcracker'esqe (or 'Babes in Toyland' style-) guardsmen are part of a larger family which hung around in the late 1990's and early 2000's, I've pinned them to two or three brands and - in at least two sizes - they were used in snow-shakers, the sort of mini-trees truckers' put on their dashboards, as novelty earrings and possibly (as here?) cake decorations.

Both the drummer and the blue-jacketed chap were new to me and we will look at them all properly one Christmas, as that seems to have been their destination, whatever the end-use.

The Kinder eggs carried the latest figure type, and they are both nice (well sculpted and approximately 54mm) and disappointing at the same time.

The disappointment steaming from the fact that as stand-alone figures they are all in a silly pose, yet the point of the pose is a bit pointless, you have to balance the 'shield' on the two hands (not easy as a dextrous adult, god knows what kids will make of the job!) and then flick them [the shields], using the over-designed base, at the paper/card flat 'baddie' targets. The hitting of which seems more unlikely than getting the shield to stay put, but maybe I'm just a curmudgeonly old-git and it's easier on a smooth surface?

I had discovered them a few days before Peter's parcel, but typically in situations like this sod's law meant I had found the same figure as two of Peter's so now have three gold'n'green fish-men!

This is charming, possibly missing a few toes, but then he's probably over eighty and clearly survived Corvid-19 so one can't complain! Made in Japan and a fired bisque, hand-painted after firing there has been a bit of rubbing over the years . . . and another cricketer!

Now . . . we saw the female addition the other day and with another from Peter the total's become seven figures in a few months, from one, and five from Peter - here they all are together.

The new one is a second Spanish National Guardsman (like gendarme); an 'other rank' to my previously found officer, but the officer had a cartridge-paper board to his hat (as the Beefeater also has a card rim), while the new addition has the whole hat in the same clay.

He also has a slightly more expressive face, and while - like Erzgebirge - I suspect a regional aspect to the production, equally I suspect a different locale or town/village . . . the clay's a different colour to the other six, as well?

 

11th February 2021 - Now known to be craft figures (artesanos) from Alborox in Grenada

Another fisherman! Sans rod, so I put a 'pole' rod into the hold for the photograph, the original was probably a length of piano-wire with a piece of cotton-tread glued to the tip? Like the Spanish 'toristicas' in the previous shot, he's a terracotta/clay, rather than the bisque of the cricketer, but is also Japanese I think? And he's been glaze-fired rather than painted.

Aaaahh! I'm lovin' this! I already had the archer on the left and had always thought of him as a cartoony/anthropomorphic ancient or medieval type; a warrior archer, if you like, but the new figure from Peter makes it clear there is probably a set of 'sports cats' somewhere, and gum-ball capsule-machine inserts, or Christmas cracker prizes? Anyone else got some?

I shot it without flash (inset) to show the true colour difference.

Another excuse for a group shot was the china cat, which is also a different colour (darker grey), but the flash washed it out, so they look like twins (centre-left), and - as a group -growing ever larger!

I also have plastic copies/versions of the little kittens playing with balls of wool (front row), which are not direct piracies, being smaller, slightly different poses and . . . for another day!

The three Siamese's (top right) are chalkwear (plaster) and named, but I forgot to note it! The two dirty ginger's are Whimsy's from Wade the rest are porcelain 'ornamentals'.

Finally is this interesting chap, a Maori dancer from New Zealand, who has been glued to a paper or card base of some kind, I suspect as part of a tourist keepsake, but has a brand; G.L Models and may have had a second purpose as a colonial war-game figure, he's the right size and material under the paint?

And many thanks to Mr. Evans again, for another collection of eclectic stuff without the sending of which, I wouldn't have been able to share with you!

T is for Terracotta Troops

I can't remember if we've seen one of these before, or all of them on two occasions, or none of them or four of them in a large show-report shot of everything, but to find out I'd have to check back through the tag results, which I can't do until Monday, and I'm putting this together to post on Monday, so if you've seen them before . . . sorry!

Thought for the Day - If really very sorry and hurry have no 'e', why does Surrey?

Spaniards . . . from Spain! Little terracotta figures, I was going to say caricatures, but they differ for over-emphasising each subjects features? These are more consistent; 'cartoonish' maybe, they follow a stylisation anyway - bee-sting lips, short fat legs with big feet, offset, pool-ball eyes and relatively stationary posing.

State police (Civil Guard), Air Force and a soldier, I have no doubt there are sailors and other recognisable Spanish figures to be found; bull fighters? And they are probably (no 'e') or I assume; sold as tourist keepsakes? Both the policeman above and the Beefeater below have stiff-card enhancements, or detailing on their headdress.

But why would the Spanish sell British characters? If they do, must I start looking for Germans in lederhosen, French-bereted chaps with bunches of onions, RCMP Mounties? I would have guessed they were supplied to a British Tourist industry novelty (no 'e' - twice) wholesaler, but they all came together bar the Guarda Civil chap, suggesting they all came from the same place?

I can only suppose there are so many beered-up, misbehaving 'brits' in some parts of coastal or island Spain; they've found they can sell British icons to the British tourists as easily as their own Spanish ones? Especially (no 'e') those large numbers of regular visitors who are also [rather hypocritically (no 'e')] Bwreakshiteers!

Anyway, it's another Beefeater, and another Horse Guard, whom I prefer to Lifeguards! And thanks to Chris Smith or Peter Evans in one of who's parcels the latter four figures turned-up.

Second thought for the day - The gap . . . why don't Lifeguards or lifeguards have a gap, or; why do Horse Guards?

 

11th February 2021 - Now known to be craft figures (artesanos) from Alborox in Grenada

F is for Follow-up - " ♪♪♫ . . . aaaaand there were Clockwork-men and Clockwork Cop's & Bot's" ♪♫♫

Mentioned in passing the other day (when looking at the other robots), the Spanish guy gets his fifteen minutes in the limelight today, and another robot turned-up in the Storage lot, so we'll look at it too.

Here he is! Civil Guard - Spanish National Police? I think they are the equivalent of Federal police or Gendarmerie? I stand to be corrected; but he's a Spanish policeman and that's good enough for me!

He had to borrow my Guardsman's bayonet, as he came without one, but the other figures I've seen on that there Intermerweb thingy (Federal and Confederate ACW) both had one. I'm guessing these are aimed at the tourist trade in each territory, and there may be others to find.

The Spaniard compared with my Guardsman, which we have seen before here, briefly. You can see the only physical difference is in the headdress - along with plastic-colouring, and the tampo-printed uniform and face decoration, obviously!

I did try making a video, but the light was all wrong and you have to hold the wound-up figure/s 'till you press record, then get your hand out of the way, at which point they fall over, or go away from the camera or march into out-of-focus, or - when I tried both together - collide with each other, so I gave that up as a 'bad job' requiring five arms, three of which I've yet to grow!

From the sides.

As I say, I have seen Union and Confederate soldiers from the same series, in the US, often quite cheap, but the postage-cost has dampened my enthusiasm, a quick Google or feebleBay search will reveal them.

Base code/markings (or technically 'foot codes') are the same for both, but the Spanish chap has had a branding added to the other foot - he's not Hans, he's mine! The arms swing and the head turns from one side to the other by a few degrees each way, as they march-along. I think this was a charity-shop job, but it may have been in Jim's big box, so shout-out to Jim!

The robot in the left is the addition; we've seen my old yellow and red Christmas stocking one before. The ones we looked at last time (thanks Adrian) and mine are - for the most part - single action toys, just 'marchers', but the new one has similar cam-wheels with pins (to the arm-swinging Guardsman & Gendarme above) between different plastic 'plates' to make the arms punch in-and-out, or the antenna to move up and down as it walks.

E is for Espanya!

I thought we'd have a bit of metal for a change, and having recently been given this as a present, it was the obvious candidate.

An Almirall figure of a Civil Guardsman bearing a standard (or colour?), actually brought back from Cuba, but totalitarian regimes make strange yet obvious bedfellows, even if one purports to be from the socialist 'Left' and the other is avidly from the 'Right' with Catholic Rome's berobe'ed servants behind it! When they are both pariah's to someone, trade is easier to justify, and politics is all about justification!

The base is the same as a recent set of magazine part-work collectables from Almirall, but I couldn't tie the figure into that set and the same base was in use by the firm when Garratt was waxing-lyrical about them in the early 1980's, so I hope he's a rarer figure from the 'connoisseur' market. Although I wouldn't describe the figure as having a connoisseur finish, the painting is a bit hit-and-miss - more 'matt toy-soldier' style.

Still - he'll look good leading my Pech Y Hermanos (Pech & Brothers) detachment!

21st-Jan-2019 - Better line-ups here now!