B is for Bibliography - 1 of 2

I've had a fair few books come-in over the last 18/24 months, and the folder was getting unmanageable, so I've split it into 3, arbitrarily, as photographed, not as they came in (like you care!), and will chuck them up here, as two posts on collectables books, and one on non-toy stuff! This is the first of those collectable's posts.

Back in the 'day', the Burn's guides were THE guides, rather eclipsed by the excellent Scalemates website, now. They provided a good guide to what had been around when, and this came in a few months ago, I have also got the Sci-Fi specific volume, which was a little earlier, this is one of the later 'whole' lists I think.

This was recent show plunder, and I only got it because someone else had left it on the guy's table, after being tempted! Anything New Cavendish is worth a punt, and this is both an authoritative and academic work, and also beautifully illustrated, and has a comprehensive listing of toys made by the iconic tin-plate manufacturer.

One of several general books on games and/or puzzles, but each always has the author's own favourites, or unique finds, so each has something to add, and between them, they have most of the odd lead-flat or microscale wood vehicles and things, I post from time to time, and one day I'll sit down and ID everything, and we'll have some roundups here of ships, cars, horse racers/riders &etc. It may, however, be a duplicate in the library, I'm getting familiarity-vibes, from the cover?

Bought for 'completion', a kids book really, a primer on what to collect, or sugegstions for collecting, but even a basic book will have something to give, especially if it includes fields outside your own interests. Language/jargon, tools, renovation or cleaning hints or techniques, from other hobbies/pastimes.

It's funny, you can be involved in collecting from an early age, and still be totally unaware of a book, which, when you subsequently research it, becomes clear is quite common and well-known - this is that book, for me, recently! I have a couple of the other 'Advertorial' books; 'The Hornby Book of Trains', which ran to several editions, and would, after the amalgamation, include Tri-Ang, but this had slid totally under the radar.

 

To be fair, none of them add much, being only 'chatty' illustrated catalogues, but they are nice coffee table eye-candy, and would have been popular dream-time, wish-list reading for kids, at the time.

Becoming slightly comedic now, but also very useful. Originally Chris Smith (who's Mum worked for Hawkin/Tobar) sent, first images, then a whole copy, to enhance/back-up stuff being blogged here at Small Scale World, after I'd shown a photo or scan, I couldn't remember where from, then I got confused about what I'd shown, when. Then, earlier last year, sorting the whole library, I found a couple more, one in with the books, one or two in the box-files . . . then these three came in from the Late Micheal Hyde's estate!

 

So, allowing for a duplicate or two, I should have five or six of these, from the early 1980's through to the 2000's, with the odd page in a couple of the general catalogues, giving a good overview of the 20-odd years the tin-plate ran for.

 

And it's clear this was a membership thing, a collector's club for a whole sub-branch of the hobby, with regular/annual issues of these catalogues, each of which has a mail-order form, and where all the ZZ/Rogazz, Shilling, Japanese imports and German/Russian reproductions all sit side by side with Chinese retro/fakes! But all accurately described, sometime s with a potted history of the origins of how the tools/stock was found, put into production, or reproduced, etc . . . 

 

Above are from 1983 (October), 1996 (Cristmas) and the Spring 1998 editions. 

Mentioned the other day, one of two or three issued in a rather fantastical sting/fraud which seem to have been set up over several years! There's an interesting reference to it here;

 

https://www.qualitydiecasttoys.com/articles/35 

 

and I quote "We even had Jeffrey Levitt (of Mint and Boxed infamy) calling in as he passed by on his way to Maidstone Prison. He was serving his time on weekdays but allowed home for the weekends. He did this for about a year, still trying to deal in toys whilst jailed for masterminding a massive fraud dealing in toys!" 

Another general book, or that's what it looks like, but this is co-authored by the parents of 'our own' James Opie, and they did more for the early research of all aspects of 'modern' Childhood, than anyone else, and - while better known for their work on playground/colloquial rhymes, fairy tales and children's song - they also covered the toys, and this has some very interesting chapters on play.

 

The social science of play and childhood is a fascinating field, with the well-meaning Jocasta's of Islington trying to raise 'gender-neutral' offspring, only to discover, on a walk in the woods, that the boys will pick up sticks and use them as guns or swords, the girls will pick up fir-cones and treat them as pets or babies!

 

And as a life-long Radio-4 fan, I've absorbed some of it, indeed, I dare say I've listened to one or other of the Opie parents' discussing it over the years, I've certainly caught James' brother being interviewed on consumer products, more than once!

I think this was an eBay grab, I can't honestly remember, it may have come from John B, and it's the commercial edition, of a book I may also have bought (without the shiny resin badge) as a self-publish/print-on-demand jobbie, from that there Wibbly Wobbly Way, a few years ago? It's a superb, single-subject work, with all the Reamsa rarities.

I was lucky to get this! It was earmarked for 'The Doctor', but he only wanted to check a couple of images on a specific page, then he left it, and I grabbed it with glee! Slightly deflated by realising there are several more volumes in the series! But it will help me ID stuff I know little about - French lead!

F is for Follow-up - Deep Sea Divers

Mine wasn't Tresco, although looking through past posts on the Divers - Deep Tag, I do have one, however, by then I'd shot the ones I have here, and Brian had sent me a bunch of shots of his, so I raided the Divers & Submarines folder for a few carded sets off of that evilBay, and we have a quick post!

Two Tresco's from Brian Berke, old and new, with the Tobar one, still on the card, and which I know you could also find in Hawkin's Bazaar, as I saw it before I was collecting all scales, so at least 15-odd-years ago?

 

What seems to set them apart as two groups, whether copies or originals, Tresco versus Hong Kong, is that those from or after Tresco have a small 'pouch' like a binoculars case, on the chest, while the Hong Kong lifts have a longer, thinner case-like object you might find spare machine-gun-barrels in!

 

In the centre is what must be Tresco's last production, in bright yellow, while to either side are the ones with the tubelike piece of equipment marked-up to Imperial and Kingsway, a quick check-back to Brian's image, and you'll see all three are the same Tresco design, with the packet/parcel.

 

While all three of the ones I have here are the tube-design, which I'm calling Hong Kong, to which I added the giant 5" one we saw a while back, so you could see how giant he is! From the apparent age of the paler two, I suspect they may be earlier and the origin of the tube-design, changed from the parcel of the Tresco they were aping?

 

I should have shot that fish-tank one from Chris again too, but . . . next time! Divers are a bit of a favourite here, and we do return to them regularly! Brain also sent three individual shots, but as we've seen the subjects before, and they are in the above line-up, I put them in the folder to replace the three carded ones, against another of those re-visits!

 

There are some very interesting things in that folder, but I need to find more in context to Blog them with, and I have a feeling there's some on the old 'unknown' dongle? So we may return to divers sooner rather than later?

E is for Extra Tin-Plate Post

Brian B sent me a shot of his - probably - Shilling tree-hangers, so I went-off and found a cheap MC and sidecar to make a post! It's a little one, but perfectly formed!

Lovely colours; a deep lemon-yellow and a rich tangerine orange, with sky-blue highlights. The motorcycle has a series of thin plates running round and covering the main seam to prevent nasty cuts, as does the passenger, and the sidecar is on the right-hand side for those who have adopted the Napoleonic rule of the road - sword to sword, 'cos the Europeans are always fighting!

As per his comment on one of the recent posts here are Brian's TX507 (Bus), TX513 (Loco) & TX514 (Tram), using the Hawkin-Tobar catalogue codes, I don't know if they extend to Roggaz's ^Z_Z or Schilling, but they are the same tools, same for-Germany marks and same paint-schemes. Note the eclectic stuff around them and the now finished STS Direct impish cyclopean!

C is for Confused!

Right I'm confused, I'm sure the image I posted a while back was from Andy B, I'm sure Chris Smith sent me stuff on the same subject, which may have included a catalogue and I'm sure I found a catalogue the other day as stuff was going to storage, but that's as far as my being 'sure' about anything goes . . . it's been a difficult year!

I have these four images, which are not titled in a way I would have titled them, so they must have been eMailed to me, probably by Andy B? But they could have come from Chris with the written stuff, or did Chris send me a catalogue and was it the one I found the other day meaning there may be another Hawkin's Bazaar shop catalogue somewhere?

 

I think it's easier to thank both Chris and Andy again, for all they did on Tobar/Hawkin's Bazaar, or as here Hawkin - Tobar (no apostrophe-'s', no Bazaar), and get the images up before my head explodes.

 

Cover

Showing mostly the larger stuff

 

The motorcycles are actually quite big, so having said earleir I would look out for them; I probably won't! All 'China' and I rather like the Romano-Crusader and I'll have to look for the drummer instead of the 'bikes!

 

Space stuff, some of these are 'full sized' replica's of yesteryear's toys, I rather like the two small robots though, 80mm's is not that big?

 

A couple of Japanese made modern toys (but not Modern Toys), and the marked ^Z_Z tree decorations, I must have cropped the top right image out for context last time and meant to do these later, but at the time? [Yes - he adds, ten minutes later - I meta-tagged all the model numbers for the core tree-decoration range last time!]

 

I should probably try to locate the water pump (farm) and there is a smaller motorcycle and side car, but then I said I'd look out for it didn't I . . . heehee!!

 

Andy, Chris - thanks guys, I'm sure you realise by now I'm a flaky, disorganised amateur, but we're getting there, with your help!

T is for Two, no Three - Tinplate Toys!

One of the things which leads stuff to languish in the long queue for years is an annoying habit I have of getting the photos done, maybe even doing any collages or touch-ups, perhaps even starting the text, then thinking "Hold on, I really need x to make the post", going off to feebleBay, finding it's only available as a ten day auction and waiting for it to finish, by which time I've lost interest in the post, or finding it's not there at all and putting the whole thing on the back burner with a vague mental note to get one/some at some point!

Another reason, is that I imagine if I post it before I've located the 'missing element', y'all will rush off and find it first, so better to not raise it with you until I've got whatever it is first!

I say that only because when I posted the tinplate the other day, that's exactly what I nearly did, but in the end I published despite leaving bids on two items which would have made that a better post, and which you might have gone to look for after I published, which fortunately you didn't, despite Andy B mentioning one of them specifically in the comments to that post! Phew!

So, I managed to get both without counter-bids, leaving a T is for Two as the obvious direction to go in. And the first was this lovely inter-war (?) piece of generic WWI limber.

I say generic, it's more a French helmet than a US or British one, however the dark-on-light grey of the cart's camouflage is more a Wehrmacht thing, but then it's been buggered-about-with, the horses are pulled tight to the limber and a bit squashed at the rear-ends by replacement wire traces, so I don't know how original it is, and it's missing a crewman, but if it was pucker it would be 100-&-something quid or Euro's or dollars, or whatever and well outside my budget! But it will look the part on a little shelf somewhere!

The other item I literally went and bid-on half-way through editing the post two weeks ago was the missing Roggaz/^Z_Z-marked military piece from Schilling/Tobar; the ceremonial sentry box with a slightly Prussian or Austro-Hungarian bent, as mentioned by Andy! Luckily no one else from the loyal readership went to look for one, or if they did they didn't bid and I got it for the opener! isn't it lovely? It's lost it's tree-hanger, but is otherwise pretty minty.

Then, a week ago I managed to find this at an otherwise very quiet Sandown Park show, which rather threw the T is for Two trope under a bus! It's a relatively common French 'penny toy' in the metallic 'spirit paint' finish such toys often came in, and again is probably a between-the-wars thing.

The boots and jacket should be gold'ish and blue respectively, but have suffered from degradation leaving little 'liver spots' under the varnish and fading the colours, but the red has held up well, and I'd photographed a better one on Mercator Trading's stall a few years ago (for the Tin Plate Page, if I ever get it finished!), so we will see a better one here at some point!

The two horses with the limber are marked 'MADE IN GERMANY' from where a lot of the early tin-plate came from (Schuco, Bub, Tipp, Carrette, Distler, Märklin et al.), which is why the Roggaz goes with its misleading ^Z_Z GERMANY ©, which can mean Roggaz from Germany's ^Z_Z brand, copyrighted to Schilling or some Chinese firm, or not at all!

Something Schilling would have been happy with, expressly for that 'Germany' provenance, whether they were instrumental in the operation at the start or bought-in after Ingo Roggaz had instigated the line!

So, three new pieces of tin-plate! You'll observe from the previous collage, I cleaned the limber after I'd taken all the other pictures! I wasn't just watching it Andy! And I will get the motorcycle and sidecar when I see a cheap one . . . for another day!

I've also found scans I'd taken, of the other catalogue, which I'll post shortly, or between now'ish and midnight, I must go and cook something!

ZZ is for Hawkin's Bazzar, Ingo Roggaz, Schilling and/or Tobar!

We've looked at them before, Hawkin's have gone under for a final time since Chris supplied his potted-history and the connection with Schilling was proven at a toy fair, but there was one item I really wanted, and another I quite fancied from the tinplate range, and both have been secured since January, so that's what we're looking at here!

The best! Only because I can't really afford those beautiful old French or German ones when they come up occasionally! Vaguely Prussian or Austrian (even Italian or French) cavalryman of that 'colonial' period 1840-1914 so beloved of figure painters (and print artists) for the colours of the splendor of often quite OTT uniforms, many - well 'a few' - of which survive, simplified, as ceremonial uniforms to this day.

The reigns serving as the gilded tree-hanger, and the whole being three sheets of die-cut tin-plate, pressed to shape and assembled with bent ears/tabs in the traditional way.

My line-up now looks like this, with the fictional Vomag (Vogtland Maschinenfabrik AG, actually subsumed under communism and surviving as IFA - Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau) fire-wagon/ladder-truck as the other 'newbie'.

When we looked at these last time I marked some up as not by Hawkin's or Tobar, as they weren't in the catalogues to hand, but they all seem common enough here in the UK for an assumption that all three importers (Schilling [USA], Tobar [UK] and ^Z_Z /Roggaz [BRD]) carried the full range in one catalogue or another, one year or another.

Really a generic fire fighting vehicle with lines that are more American (showing the input Schilling had from the beginning of this ^Z_Z-branded line?) than anything else, the overly complicated bar the ladder is fixed to obviously doubling as pipe-work for interest/external detailing.

Couple more shots of the additions, the ^Z_Z mark being something I've never managed to do justice to within the font limitations of Word-for-Windows! And Dinky's Centurion again shows how small these little tree-hangers are.

There must be loads in people's attics, cellars, sheds and under-stair cupboards, coming out every year and going back on the tree? And they are perfect to take off the tree as presents for sudden, little visitors . . . my late mother always had a few spare bags of chocolate-coins hidden in the center of the tree - on the fat-ends of the branches - for little people to search for, something she was still doing two years ago when the new neighbours brought round their daughter, and a tradition I will continue when I get to wherever I'm going-to.

T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - Iwako Dinorasers

Timely or not, this stuff will be available in one form or another for some time, and has been around for a while already, but we like our regular visits to Iwako and/or erasers and/or dinosaurs here, or at least I do, so it's timely enough for me!

Seen briefly in the initial round-up of the Toy Fair last Friday, so he may as well go first . . . this was a sample of a new sculpt, but only new to me as round here the Iwako stockists have only had the four sculpts seen previously.

This is a Parasaurolophus, and there are three colour-ways to find, each in a pastel body with contrasting darker spine - yellow, pink and mauve. Paperchase haven't carried the dinosaur sets at all, while the pick-bins in Hawkin's never had this as a singly?

The sets on display were numbered 40 and 52, but the 52 is numbered 57 in the Iwako catalogue, which may be down to differences between the Japanese domestic and Euro/Western export markets, we don'r get the Lego-likey sets either.

Also, the large Brontosaur is only available in the carded sets, not as a single figure. Other animals not seen locally yet include the Spinosaur (also three colour-ways) and the Ankylosaurus (two versions). Of more interest perhaps are the mini raptors and Archaeopteryxes, both of which seem to be the additional animals in the little eggs we've seen a few times here now?

They must have been added as copies to those mini-micro sets after Iwako added them to these carded sets? There is a whole page in the catalogue on how to spot fakes, and in chatting to the girls on the stand I think both the Wilko and The Works' versions (including the Christmas set on the Blog this year) are knock-offs.

A small display on the stand at Toy Fair 2020, I think they are both being stalked by a large yellow & white monkey, but it might have been a chipmunk!

I knew there had to be a second Tyrannosaur colour!

They're not rare and they never will be rare, but they are fun, they are well made and they are a global collecting phenomena, with a vast number of official colour-ways, the many possible combinations . . . and the copies to find; it's box-ticking on a grand (but equally - quite small) scale!

The 'collection' now; the Dimetrodon (which we may or may not have seen in an update) seems to be a discontinued model, as I've never seen it in H's Bazaar and it's not in the current catalogue? I would expect at least one colour variation?

If you can't find them try Green Elephant Trading for your nearest stockist. 

R is for Return to Stretchy Aliens

An even quicker quickie; I treated myself to a post-Christmas present when I saw a few of the Hawkin's Bazaar Stretchy Aliens the other day going cheap.

I think we've seen two of them before, both in these colours and - with added paint - in blue (from Henbrandt), but the pixy-eared one is different to the one with similar ears previously seen and I think the almond-eyed 'grey' (both the green figures) is also new, which gives five poses now.

P is for Pack of Paint and Pirates

I have forgotten the origins of several items in this year's Pirate Posts; it comes of trying to keep track of thousands of things and truffling a few away every few days or weeks, through the year for ITLAPD!

So, this may have come from Peter Evans who has sent several parcels to the Blog since last year's ITLAPD, it may have come from Brian Burke who's also sent stuff which hasn't been H is for How . . . 'd as I'm waiting on Blogging some bits from it, or it may have been saved for me by Adrian Little, or bought by me at Sandown Park in March, where I both saw Adrian and bough a bunch of rack-toys?

I really can't remember, and there are no clues in Picasa beyond the fact that I shot the pictures at the end of March? So I will thank all three for all their help and support for the Blog over the last year while trying to convince myself it may have been a charity-shop find . . . or even a Hawkin's Bazzar purchase in Basingrad! But I'll tag it 'contribution' anyway!

This is the thing anyway, and how cool is it? Too cool for art-school, that's for sure! Perfect 54mm figures (I wonder if there's a second set of three other poses in the full line?), unpainted, which four paints and a brush, the brush being one of those naff kiddies ones with stiff bristles cut flat and only of use for stippling - thankfully being phases out of even the cheapest craft sets buy a better generation of 'cheap' brush from China, which are closer in design/construction to 'proper brushes, just made of short-lived bristle material!

Normally I'd leave them on the card, but as it's a modern set (from the Tobar graphics) and they were such nice figures, I whipped them out for a closer look! As stated they are 54mm and a softish modern PVC-replacement polymer.

We have three standard tropes, with a slight twist; the de rigueur treasure chest man, the slightly Asian-looking, mean-looking oriental cutlass man, and a 'hook hand', but he's actually using a cargo-net/large fish handling hook (which may have a colloquial name?), rather than having a hook-hand!

F is for Follow-up - Tobar / Hawkins Bazaar (Schylling / ZZ)

Well, that was quick! My inbox was full of useful stuff on Monday-gone, with Andy B and Chris Smith both adding to the weeked's post on ZZ and it's origins, but from the UK angle, with more on the back story of Tobar and Hawkin's Bazaar from Chris and a catalogue scan from Andy.

First the potted history from Chris, who has seen four members of his family work there; almost in his own words [he sent the following as a more personalised narrative, I've removed the personal bits]

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Hawkin's Bazaar got its name from the old “Hawk Inn” public house in Halesworth, Suffolk which was used as one of the early company premises. Named by the company's founder Sid Templer, Tobar was similarly named after his two son’s TOby and BARnaby.

They then seem to have moved to a farm in the village of Ilketshall St. Margaret. At that time everything was still ordered via catalogue which came as a Sunday supplement with newspapers etc. With the rise of the Internet they went on-line, success outgrew that site and they built a new site on the Ellough Airfield industrial estate near Beccles.

The Templer family sold the business after that (Toby seems to have done okay for himself; he bought a country house; Cockfield Hall, near Yoxford). The new owners moved operations to an industrial unit on Eye airfield.

●●●●●     ●     ●●●●●     ●     ●●●●●

To which I can add that Hawkin's became a retail-shop arm, while Tobar developed into the feeder for Hawkin's shops, and - presumably - continuing with the mail-order side for a while?

Possibly about the time of the takeover mentioned above, there was a major expansion in the retail stores and suddenly (mid-1990's or slightly later?) they seemed to be in every high street, every shopping centre, precinct or mall, however they had over-stretched and there was a crisis - not that long ago - mentioned here in an early News, Views . . . , which resulted in a cutting-back of store numbers; they have survived, I visit the Basingrad store regularly, looking for stuff to buy so you don't have to - Iwako plug-together erasersaurs, stretchy aliens, jigglers, sub-sub-sub piracies of Blue Box 'Home Farm' sets!

I have a feeling that Hawkin's may have been sold to one of these corporate investment-management-asset stripper type concerns though, so may not actually be connected to Tobar directly anymore?

Meanwhile Tobar expanded the wholesale arm of the business/group, appearing in Army & Navy (before their demise) at Christmas-time (the ZZ tin-plate and both wooden and plastic toys), the links with Schylling and (through them?) ZZ and Supreme, and more recent supply to independent hardware / general-goods stores (like our own Izzy's here in Fleet), indeed, they may have contributed to Hawkin's troubles, by multiplying - too successfully - the number of outlets for their own products!

●●●●●     ●     ●●●●●     ●     ●●●●●

Having mentioned ZZ, and the tree-hangers marked-up to Ingo Roggaz's ZZ, but probably direct from the Chinese factory (maybe via Schylling), Andy B sent this at the same time as Chris's anecdotes were coming-across;

Which is an old catalogue scan, from a 1990's Hawkin's Bazaar cataloge. Points of interest are that A) it backs-up my "...and possibly/probably Tobar and/or Hawkin's Bazaar (in the UK)" from the other day (I was sure I'd seen them in A&N, but got mine from JB years later), B) presciently predicts the eBayer who's auction we looked at in passing with it's "We know that soon they will be passed off as being very much older than they are." and C) fills a gap in the ZZ listing!

Although, only the one car. While the numbering doesn't equate to the 10 of the ZZ zeppelin and the larger/smaller delineation will have to go; they are all really dinky. The changes will take the ZZ listing to;

Tin-Plate Christmas Tree Hangers (1990's, also carried by Schilling in the US, who work with the UK's Tobar, where they carried 10 in Hawking's Bazzar catalogues)

'Series 1' (probably numbered 1-12+ on boxes/packaging, Chinese (?) re-issues of old Japanese (?) or German penny-toy designs)

10 - Airship 'Graf Zeppelin'

? - 19^thC Steam Locomotive 'Nurnburg-Furth'

? - 20^thC Steam Locomotive 'DB 1571 Express'

? - Bi-plane ('31' with German WWI balkankreutzen)

? - Car (2-seat sports-saloon)

? - Fire Engine Ladder Truck 'Falke 13' ('Vomag 13' with Tobar/HB version)

? - Flying Boat / Sea-plane 'Dornier 18 / DO 18'

? - Horse-Tram / Railcar 'Pferde Bahn 15 Altona St Paula' (no horses)

? - Military Cavalry Rider on Horse (not carried by Tobar/HB)

? - Monoplane (not carried by Tobar/HB)

? - Motorcycle and Sidecar 'Sport'

? - Omnibus '103 Nivia-Puder'

There is also D) the very interesting phraseology; "German design & control", the message (also backing-up my previous assumptions) being - made in China! While the note about safety-loopholes in equally interesting because they highlight the 'loophole', but in language which suggests they want you to order them as playthings, not decorations!

●●●●●     ●     ●●●●●     ●     ●●●●●

Thank you so much, Andy and Chris, it's nice to confirm a few points and it's fascinating to learn more about these jobbing novelty import guys, there were/are so many of them and most are still quite mysterious.

For instance I didn't discover Marshall's until weeks after they went under, and while I downloaded the catalogues, they were poor-resolution .pdf's I only occasionally throw in the mix as screen-caps!

Another one which seems to have disappeared now was Studio Gifts who were still quite big in the early 2000's but their business model (if I recall correctly) was more like Christmas hampers, WH Smith / Doubleday book clubs or old 'catalogues'; you ordered the stuff as a member and paid installments on the never-never, the monthly-due being adjusted to reflect subsequent purchases . . . what happened to them, can anyone fill-us-in?