News, Views Etc . . . Catching-up!

Tags

Tagging edits continue apace, I've got to G, with a diversion at P (for 'Police') where I extended the use of 'Caribinieri' and 'Guarda Civil'. I had G.G. and G∙G for that large resin Guardsman Peter Evens sent to the Blog, but with ascii code I've done them both as G•G, which will do them forever as I'm unlikely to tag them a third time and if I do, that's in the tag-index now.

The previous (and politically incorrect) 49 'Firemen' tags have been corrected to 'Firefighter' and/or 'Fire Chief', 'Fire Engine', 'Fire Wagon' (and one 'Fireman Sam'!), while the only 'Florescent Toy' has reverted to the 'Glow-in-the-dark Toy' tag, which although longer is more likely to be searched on.

'Fram' has gone and the 'Farm' tag has an additional post, without me having to publish anything! While the 5 'Frogmen' have gone, but 'Divers' have been divided into 'Divers - Deep' and 'Divers - Frogmen' with an additional 'Mini-Sub's' tag, again, to make it easier for loyal readers (or casual visitors . . . even my "emies"!) to find stuff.

'Fun-Tastic' has been lost to increase the 'Funtastic' tag, as it's clear from cursory research they are two arms of the same import/jobber outfit, both sides of the pond. But 'Funtastik' stays as someone else's brand-mark.

Received With Thanks

Brian B sent stuff for ITLAPD and RTM a few weeks ago, which was useful as I've given little thought to either!

Then Pontiac Jason sent some lovely imagery and info from the 'States on Florida's Highlander, so more to add there!

Chris Smith sent a mass of stuff last week, follow-ups and general interest, and then both he and Brain sent more this week; Brian a mass of Lucky-lorry follow-up and Chris more 'items of interest'!

And just as the shutdown struck we had PW17-something drop through the door, for which I must do the review and there were the two parcels from Brian and Peter Evans which have been covered.

Many thanks to all for all, it's piling-up a bit, but I'm not complaining, and it will all get used, witness this afternoon's post with contribution from two readers.

WTFBay - Got 10,000-Quid Going Spare?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MASSIVE-TIMPO-COLLECTION-All-periods-and-types-plus-spares-1000s-of-figures/254575891003?hash=item3b45e7d23b:g:LNgAAOSw1tVeVqV6

Evil Empire - Worth a Read

There's little point in toy-industry news while the global economy is turning to a fluid of shit-soup, but the author of this piece thinks the Nottingham Mafia are a safe bet and he's probably right!

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4341024-games-workshop-back-to-reality-and-grim-dark

Highlander is for US Rack Toys

Seen before here, but I had them out to shoot other stuff in the same tub the other day and as it's a while since we saw the set I took the opportunity to try and shoot some decent close-ups of the figures without de-carding them.

All the info is on the 'Highlander' tag, or the Highlander page in the A-Z, so just a reminder.

The 'gun crew' consist of a loader with shell, a radio-operator and a gun-commander, all kneeling, all unique poses, all approximately 35mm

The set also includes an observer/spotter who can go with the gun, or help the .50Cal machinegun crew do their work. All have got green berets so; Rack Toy Rambo x6! Or should one be John Wane? Nice to see two African Americans in a set of six US figures.

News, Views Etc . . . Highlander in the A-Z

Starting to sort the archive in the evenings has resulted in a find I'd forgotten I had - an old article from the Sun-Sentinal newspaper of Broward & Palm Beach, Florida in the in the USA on the Highlander range. It firms up the companies start date to 1976 and reveals an interesting plan for foreign troops!

On the reverse of the article is another puff-piece (I think the 'C' suffixed pages are the 1970's equivalent of 'weekend' or 'magazine' pages?), this one on a Floridan called Billy McCarty who's reported to be in the UK doing interior design, well, if anybody designed that for me I'd beat him to death with a carrot, slowly.**

But there are a couple of military looking brasses involved in the 'make-over' a knight or conquistador type on the mantle-shelf, and something unclear which might be Caesar at Calais pointing vaguely at Eastbourne and saying "Let's go there...", on the quite small coffee table.

But it's funny - figures on both sides of a page from a 42-year-old newspaper!

** I'm joking - I would probably just sue them for emotional distress! Sadly he has passed away

HT-109 is for Tank Combo Pack

An all contribution-posts day today, and while I would normally save the smaller or lesser one for the third, afternoon 'bonus' post, I thought that as all three are 'small' in imagery and most of the work on this firm has occurred here over the years - most of it aided by contributions of one kind or another -we'd return to Highlander first, with some rarities in a hour or so and some Dan Dare this afternoon.

Bobbi Kukal sent this in to Small Scale World the other day and it's fascinating as it manages to fill another unknown stock-number in the inventory (see A-Z Entry), show most of the other 'known' foot-figure poses and contains a model of an uncommon tank design, being the M60A2 'Starship' main battle tank (MBT), with the mad Sheridan 152mm/6-inch rocket-assisted Shillelagh projectile ammunition barrel-thing, going on there!

The ratio of ethnically black to white troops in the known figure sets is around 1-in-5, here we get approximately 1-in-3, and a nice spread of six different poses. 3-each riflemen advancing, standing and kneeling firing, 2-each advancing with-, and prone with; machine-guns, and a chap with binoculars.

All are wearing the green beret, which rather confirms my previous thought that this small series of toys were piggy-backing the eponymous John Wane movie. It's also more obvious in this shot that the larger sets get two standard backing-cards, un-separated; one assumes there is a similar set for the M106 SPG already seen here.

Another shot of the M60A2 'Starship', definitely something to look out for on feeBay! There is also another clue as to the line's apparent failure (or lack of popularity), apart from, or in addition to the fact that it was released just as anti-Vietnam War sentiment was at its highest, and/or the odd scale, is the fact that the whole range including figures, armour and a WWII German Pak-40 gun were issued in a rather insipid fawny-beige, with a green-blob camouflage.

There is no enemy, no European theatre or desert option, no obvious Vietnamese troops have surfaced, no Russians, no 'reds', orange or blue-force . . . although you could make an enemy from the even more uncommon Spencer Smith 'modern' troops, but each range is rare on the opposite side of the pond!

Now - of course - they have the charm of old, unusual stuff, that you have to search-out, AND are depicting an unusual subject - and this is the best to have surfaced yet - many-thanks Bobbi!

News, Views Etc...Links

Just time for three new entries on the A-Z (did the Dolls earlier!)

Two were covered in the autumn - Fairchild and Highlander, the other (Mulberry) achived some approbrium via its comments sections from anonymous...it's always anonymous!

Highlander Toy and Miniature Military
Mulbery Miniatures
Fairchild / Selcol-Fairchild

Hope that's all spelt correctly...apparently my problem with Vodafone is down to their shop software not being able to cope with [four year] old technology!

H is for Highlander Toy And Miniature Military Hobbies, Inc.

I don't know if matey ever got his answer, but the missing SPG turned-up! Still sealed from the day it left Boca Raton, why not celebrate the season with a chunk of self-propelled artillery! It's stated as being an M110 8" Self-propelled Howitzer, I wonder if they did the 'Long' version (M107 175 mm) as well?

In the packing, carded with a hole for a rack-hook, the shrink wrapping is slowly pulling the card in on itself as the plastic tries to return to a molten blob - exercising the 'shape memory of thermoplastics - so I've whipped it off the card and I think I'll try and get a plaster-cast of it in the new year...add a bit of concrete hardener, clean it up with a mini-drill and paint in detail...it might work?

Not a bad little model, 7 pieces, with the running-gear just pinned and glued to the sides of the AFV. The lack of a crew compartment is a major over-simplification, although that's offset by the fact that the tracks are a cut above the usual 'ready-made' efforts, even some contemporary models. As you can see: the gun elevates and the cradle rotates through 360º (more than the 'real life' service vehicle!) but the recoil spade is a fixed element of the body-moulding.

M is for McMystery Figures

Back in 2009 a member of the Treefrog toy soldier forum asked the assembled experts if they could identify his Mystery Figures, sadly, the experts were all off for the day (I'm joking!)...and it's taken me a while to track down the images I took in 2007 of an eBay lot I'd just bought.

If someone on that forum could direct the chap to this post, his query can be answered...to an extent!

They are made by a company called Highlander, not - as one might expect - from Scotland, but Boca Raton, Florida! How a swamp came to be associated with the crags of Caledonia is anyone's guess....I know, I know...I've got Google...it's the beach!

I'm guessing this was a short-lived venture, probably launched off the back of the 1968 movie 'The Green Berets', short-lived because A) they don't appear often on feeBay and B) the popularism of the Vietnam war would soon become the silence of the war that dare not speak its name, and selling any war toys, let alone specifically Vietnam War related became an uphill task! Probably issued in 1972 as US troop numbers in-theatre were already being reduced, the pull-out being completed in '73, these would have been a heavy-sell.

A 3-page commercial catalogue (Build Profits While Your Customers 'Build Battlefields' with Highlander) was published in 1978, and later sets were issued unpainted, unassembled and - judging by one recent feeBay listing - missing the MG! they do appear on feeBay regularly, usually with ridiculous BIN's. Look out for the A/T gun released without figures as code; HT-105 and the 2-man MG team as HT-106 (painted or unpainted).

I'm not sure how many Pak. 40 75mm Anti-Tank guns the US special forces employed in Vietnam, but my guess is none! However, toys is toys, and this is not a bad little model of one. Of far more interest are the approximately 40mm figures, some painted as African-Americans and all wearing the green beret.

I don't know how many poses there were in total, or whether there were ever any North Vietnamese 'enemy'? The cards apparently cost 25C back in the day and both the vehicles and figures are in a hard styrene plastic - another reason for their rarity?

I had an SPG as well, also carded but it had no figures included and I gave it to Paul for PW, but he seems to have misplaced it - one of the reasons I've held-off on blogging them was the hope of a photograph of it! It was - if I recall correctly - one of that 1950's family of M53, 54, 55 vehicles, but I can't remember which one and didn't think to photograph it at the time; I'd only had a digital camera for a few weeks (these start at photo number 148, from zero). Another reason for the delay, as I'd yet to suss-out the 'tulip = macro' rule and was hoping to get them out of storage and re-shoot them better...one day I might!

There is very little about these on the 'net', and a bit of research from someone in Florida might reap a list of products, or a better company history? There is a Highland Toys in Scotland....they make stuffed animals!