So to the rest of Theo's donation to the Blog, and it's quite an eclectic mix of civilian subjects, vehicular stuff, and bits & bobs, including several rarities and some quirkier things, alongside items which will definitely contribute to future posts.
Hong Kong copies of the old
Triang Minic naval models, most useful, as these are often found in a pretty play-worn condition, so having things like masts included increases the chances of completing models from the tub of examples one day! Although I have lots of the relatively indestructible tug-boats, they keep turning-up with paint variations, or as 2nd generation copies in different plastic colours or with different funnel arrangements, so it's a sample which continues to grow and evolve!
This was a lovely surprise, these are
TV Tinykins from
Marx, of the Yabba-Dabba
Flintstones! And, I think I'm right in saying, among the harder to find
Tinykins, also used as
Miniature Masterpiece set pieces?
Now, I'm sure this is
Thomas, and a baby . . . Obviously! But, is it one of the more generic rubber babies, they issued with various pieces of playground equipment, dolls stuff, prams, and other novelties, with a randomly tied terry-towel nappy, or is it a certain Super Baby, namely
Kal-El, from the planet Krypton? There seems to be something formal, or designed about that scallop at the front of his nappy (diaper)? Does anyone know?
This chap would appear to be an advertising premium for
Alia (?), possibly a beer (or Bier!), and maybe Dutch or Belgian? But I couldn't find anything on Google, and while it looks like they had a keyring screw & eye'd through the hat, even that isn't clear, so any help with this chap?
Do you remember the Spanish
Guisval motorcycle rider we saw, with the help of Chris Smith a few years ago? Well here's two more
Guisval die-cast accessory figures, both probably missing tools for their ring-hands, and probably motor mechanics (right, is he hitting an alternator with a hammer?!) or Farmers (left?), but very nice finds, and lovely gifts from Theo. Both have basic 'swoppet' tropes, with swivel waist and neck and separate hair, but the legs/bases of both are metal die-castings
As they become increasingly brittle, due to age, you can never have too many '
Eye's Right' bits from
Britains, so these will go in the parts tub, while the headless
Weeble lookie-likey is a much earlier, probably 1950's, novelty.
Bits of a Goldilocks set, similar to that
Emenee-Transogram-generic set, but not the same sculpts, with Goldilocks possibly being from a different set. Indeed, all the components may be from three or four sources, but they go together well!
The 'modern' polystyrene girl, possibly polypropylene bears, unstable phenolic table & chair and early brittle 'styrene bowl, will however, furnish useful imagery, with other stuff already in the Odds & Sods zones, in a future post, as these are part of a much larger narrative.
The chair with heart-shaped cut-out in the back, was in the Emenee et el., sets, it's also found in Marx Miniature Masterpiece sets, Hong Kong sets of Goldilocks and other sources of miniature Fairy Tail or dolls accessories/novelties, and I have been collecting imagery for years on them, and samples (we've seen several versions of the chair here, over the years), so a future post is a certainty!
Having already mentioned
Marx twice - these were an amazing thing to find in a donation, the
Rolykins of Batman and Robin 'The Boy Wonder', small steel ball-bearings underneath cause them to fly around on flat surfaces with the appearance of frictionless motion! We have also seen
World Cup Willie and Daleks from the same line.
Blue Box et al., mini-farm pieces.
Odds! A near complete piece of corner flower-bed, from Hong Kong after
Britains, a nice (European make?) pig to be ID'd, a Hong Kong Highlander and hollow-horsed, small-scale Wild West.
What looks like a pair of 'walker' ducks feet, a rubber-band launched glider, parts for a cap-bomb or two (or is the blue nose a babies bottle top?), a
Manurba (or
Bonux) Sherman Tank barrel, parts of a Jig Toy ocean liner (but it would have been a more generic novelty in Europe, maybe
De Gryter?), a mini pipe, and other novelties which will all be sorted into the correct places, for building wholes from parts!
The Chinese tangram puzzle pieces will join a load more from Christmas crackers &etc, but is here branded to
Vitella (powdered puddings?), as - presumably - a premium/free-gift. The four discs may be from some sort of firing toy, UFO launcher or 'ray-gun' (anyone recognise them?), while the composite seems to be the winding mechanism of a small kite?
Many, many thanks to Mr Van de Weerden for everything he sent to the Blog, I am incredibly grateful for his generosity, he was going through the mill himself, and that he thought of me and put all this to one side, was an act of some selflessness . . . Thank you, very much, Theo!
