C is for Closer Inspection - "Staff Parade, You 'Orrible Man!"

Normally I do a pretty good job of demilitarising December or Christmas, as best I can, but this year I don't seem to have made much effort in that direction whatsoever, with the TAG, Tente and this afternoon's Highlander, among others, and here's another, but at least it's ceremonial!

 

I also usually try to answer comments with some alacrity, although the odd one escapes, but the 'Unknown' commenter from the 19th November might be feeling a little chagrined that I have not answered his comment, which was suggesting that the - probably - egg-timer guard from Chris's parcel, was Eyes Right, not the Deetail I'd suggested.

 

And the reason I didn't answer was because, while I thought I'd called correctly, equally, his comment seems so sure, I questioned the attribution, and wanted to check the piece, and make sure, rather than argue the toss! And it seems we both have a point, but he (the commenter)'s more right than me, however we are also both wrong!

 

I'd called Detail for three reasons, it looked vinyl, and when I squeezed the legs (off camera last time), it was confirmed to be soft, PVC vinyl; it was standing at ease/easy, which I didn't remember ever being an Eyes Right pose; and he has an SLR, which I didn't think the Eyes Right had, but actually they did, it was the Marines and Middlesex (and Glosters!) etc, who had the Lee Enfields, 'at the slope', the Guards did have SLR's 'shouldered'.

 

If you bent an Eyes Right figure's legs like that now, they would snap like carrots! And the hole for the mounting-spigot is moulded into the figure, not drilled. Also, the figure is very, very sticky!

 

Having dealt with the SLR I have to concede the arm spigots and the head, both bear more than a passing resemblance to the Eyes Right figures, which leave the pose, this is a Deetail pose, the Eyes Right were marching, at attention or at Royal Salute, weren't they? Note the sun-fading on the outward-facing jacket.

 

Welp, Vectis says "No"! There are two figures in this set at an easy 'At Ease', I think they are unique to the set, but stand to be corrected, however, it would seem the figure/pose is from the Eyes Right stable, but equally, it's a complete piracy, from Hong Kong, neither Deetail, nor Eyes Right.

 

A very good one I might add, and taking the best of Eyes Right (the sculpt) and Deetail (indestructible material), but, nevertheless, a copy, and from that mid-seventies period, when Hong Kong's PVC output tended to weep sticky-shit, after, often, quite a short time!

 

And this isn't really a Question Time post, we'll probably never know any more about such an ephemeral figure, possibly supplied in bulk to a chalkware manufacturer, who may have been over here?

 

I think the friction plug for the figure may have been duplicated to hold the egg-timer on to the side, and I guess, the hunt is on for a better one, which may have a label on the base, and give us more to go on?

 

So, that's my answer to your question, Unknown! And thanks again to Chris for the questionable imposter!

H is for Hoarded Hord of Halloween Horrors

Except none of them are remotely horrible, nor in any way horror inducing, which makes them all the more acceptable as fun figures/items you might use in gaming, or just chuck in the collection as box-ticking completers!

 

Indeed, if you want to hear something horribly frightening, or frighteningly horrible - I saw my first Christmas-lit house on Wednesday night, it's still October! And that's not including those few in our region, who have given-up taking their shite down every year, and just display a mawkish, illuminated-idea of a fantasy fairy-dell, 24-7-365!

 

I think we saw these a year or two ago, but I'm not sure if they went to eight colours last time? In The Works, and the only Halloween-related thing, of a figural nature I found there, worth a penny!

 

I shot these in Sainsbury's, but didn't buy them, as we did a whole bunch of these sets a few years ago, with various posts and comparisons between the contents, the differences between similar items, like the millipedes and such like, and I suspect these are re-issues of some of those, and I don't need them in the collection, nor the vast numbers in the bag, but I guess, for party 'scatter', they are good value. Credited here to a Rayland International.

 

But I did purchase this chap, about 6", so the top-end of the collection's range, and not very animated, he's a box ticker! The amount of safety information on the little card, for a single-piece moulding the length of a pencil-case ruler is daft, but that’s the times we live in!

 

TKMaxx gave-up this little gem of an eraser set, the ghost doesn't stand up, and could use a cotton-thread to hang him off something! In the Japanese, Iwako style, with multi-parts and ethylene inserts for eyes etc.

 

These are new, seen in The Range and too big a hole, for pencils, I wondered at the point of them, until I saw the boxes of glass straws! A sensible attempt to end the plastic straw problem, and invent a whole new genre of 'topper' at the same time.

 

The straws had year-round packaging, so I didn't shoot it - bad-enough I talked myself into buying straws I'd never use! - I thought, although I've since used one to get the juice out of the bottom of one of those prepared fruit-salads with separate compartments, so useful after-all, and luckily they also come with a useful straw-washing brush!

 

Also in The Range; figural 'pop-a-point' stacking coloured pencils, we saw a similar set earlier in the year, and there were others which were too big and or cartoony for the collection (similar in TKMaxx too), but these were figural fun in the smaller scale, or at least the ghosts are - box ticked!

 

Brian Berke sent these from New York, and they are definitely fun items from Forum Novelties, being those semi-sticky wall or window walkers, that jerkily shudder down flat surfaces!

 

I'd normally crop these sorts of images closer, but you can see pumpkin shaped treat-collection jars to their left, which are also quite fun, I've seen similar (in B&M I think?) but didn't shoot them.

 

I thought these were the same as the first item in the post, but bought them for the packaging variation, and the possibility there were colour variances too, only to find they were larger, but slightly less well-sculpted skeletons, in the style of, but all new mouldings. I guess the brand is Tell-a-Tale, but it's not clear, and I think I found them in a garden centre?

W is for Wrangling Cats

Blimey, five out of the last six posts had a space theme, and the other was a political rant! If I'm not careful, I'll have to change the Blog's name to Spacebase One or something! So to save myself from that fate, here's a complete change of direction with a roundup of recent moggie-related purchases, and other such feline fun!

 

A white button jumping Tiger; I can't remember if it came from a charity shop or something more commercial, but seem to recall it was the only one of its kind in a basket with duplicates of a couple of other animals, so probably commercial a purchase, and I don't seem to have noted the brand, picked-up last August ('24).

 

Smyths had a whole bunch of the Schleich cats, the same month, so I grabbed one of each to tick that box firmly into the 'got' camp, possibly the best attempts at ginger-tabbies you'll find, and no horrid bald, wrinkled or skinny Human-ego breeds.

 

Last February I picked this up in Hobbycraft, thinking I might do something with it one day, I have some very small mosaic tiles, silver-backed, coloured glass, left over from some Art School project back in the early 1980's, which might look fun, if a bit kitsch, glued to this Papier Mâché foundation?

 

Left on the peg; but shot in TKMaxx back in March, you have to be some kind of hardcore cat-obsessive to buy some of this stuff, but it's fun, and figural, so I'll always get the camera out, when I see such things! Made by Joie, Kikkerland and unknown.

 

Back to Schleich, and this was on clearance somewhere, probably the Redfields garden-centre in Church Crookham? Schleich do these odd coloured animal finishes from time to time, to celebrate or commemorate things, either Schleich-related (90th year anniversary in this case) or something in the wider-world, and I think I shot a similar one at a London Toy Fair, which may not be on the Blog yet? They also do all-gold versions sometimes.

 

Definitely from Redfields, the Papo ginger-tabby, is not finished as well as the Schleich's, but is still a good effort at a difficult fur-type, and a nice sculpt, with plenty of character!

 

Toe Beans!

F is for Follow-up . . . "Bestest follow-up ever, Mr Gruber!"

So, I posted the soaps and the Cherilea tank, quite close together, went off to work, came home to a cryptic comment and these in my inbox! It's only the US take on our Peruvian friend Paddington and his jar of marmalade, courtesy of Brian Berke in New York!

 

Three main views.

 

A somewhat pro-washing propagandist piece, obviously written by grown-ups!

 

Brian tells us Eden Toys held the US merchandising licence for the BBC series, so Bioessamce might be the maker, although only describing themselves as 'distributor'?

 

"Careful, you could damage a chap's nose with that!"

 

A much better sculpt than the British one we looked at earlier.

I hope Brain doesn't mind, but I've tried to get a better colour balance into the photographs, they had that slightly yellowish tinge you get with indoor digital photography sometimes, I've been getting it with my new camera, and while I took the blue of the box as the best guide, they now all look a little washed-out, but I think the colours are truer?

 

Best bear soap ever!

C is for Cleaning Up!

Having seen the guardsman the other day, I thought I'd dig these out of the David Pomeroy folder, not sure if he was involved in the sculpting of them or just had them for reference, but we have two more soaps to look at, and no convoluted plots, which require watching the extended episode on Friday!

 

The better of the two soaps, in the poorer box is Mrs Cobbit from Camberwick Green manufactured by Wright, Layman & Umney Ltd., of London (apparently still making Wright’s Traditional Soap for Smith & Nephew), and I have a vague recollection we might have had a pair from this set one Christmas, probably in our Stockings?

 

While the better box came with a slightly battered Paddington Bear, who wasn't the best of likenesses before his hat got so simplified, and dented! Made by Richard's & Appleby of Jermyn Street, they seem to be still trading, and still making novelty cosmetics.

NW1 is for Novelties, Wot-wot!

Heay, there's no rule which states your titles HAVE to make sense! This (NW1) was a new name at this year's Birmingham Gift Fair, back in February, presumably named after the postcode of the location of their warehouse or offices?

 

Most of what they carried was really kitsch, really shite, or way outside the vague parameters of both this Blog and/or my/your collection/s to be worth photographing, but as an addendum to the tourist stuff of Elgate, a reminder that other brands make, or import this ephemeral stuff!

 

Fridge magnets, the guard would go in the novelty collection if I found him, cheap, and I'm sure there must be both London Bus and Telephone Box collectors out there! And there was an 'architectural miniatures' Blog, probably still is, in the Blog list, but it hasn't posted anything, since some-time before the Pandemic?

 

Poured resins, possibly from two sources, and very similar to some of the Elgate stuff, but not quite the same, and one converted to a bottle opener, note the card 'craft' stuff behind, and more expensive laser-enhanced glass lump of keepsake, to the right.

L is for Lithesome Luminous LED Lurker!

Picked this up the other day, it was greenhouse plant ties which kick-started the wider, more regular coverage of the almost timeless bendy-toy novelties here at Snall Scale World a few years ago, something which has lead to mini-micro bendies from Chris, and the discovery of possibly the first bendy on the back of the paperwork from the archive, so it's fitting that the latest instalment is back to gardens, or at least, a garden centre!

 

There was another in a sort of aqua/turquoise, but I thought the Purple People Eater ("But now he only eats guitars" Beeeoooowwh!) was the better of the two! The head is a rigid polymer, probably 'propylene, but the body is in the standard bendy-toy construction; a stable PVC-like material, with internal soft-wiring and the little air-holes, a central ball-joint then locates in a socket under the torch-head.

 

Illumination is bright-enough, modern consumer products tend not to disappoint in the way they could back in the day, how many cycle torches did we get through, it's like they were incapable of lasting five-minutes, whether 'Eveready', Pifco or Lucas - The Prince of Darkness!

 

The legs are long and flexible, and the torch can therefore be set-up to illuminate anything from a very specific angle, and I feel that, while I bought it as a novelty, figural item, with the Blog in mind, I will actually get use out of it, going forwards!

 

Manufactured by IF LLC of the USA, it might soon be hard to get, as I think the USA just shot itself in both feet after nailing them to the MAGA floorboards, but coming from Brwreakshiteer Britain, it's hard to feel superior at the stupidity of fellow citizens, failed by an education system only interested in churning out consumer/workers, who can just-about tie their own shoelaces.

 

Lurking lurker lurks!

O is for One for Fun

I was going to add these to the end of the Christmas cracker post the other day, but I realised they are very different really, being not small monochrome blobs, but a more sophisticated product altogether! I know! But they can go here, in their own little eraser post!

 

I bought these in a supermarket but can't remember which (Tesco or Morrisons I think, Home Bargains as a maybe?), however it should be available elsewhere or online, as it's an HGL product  from One for Fun, who are the over-brand now, holding Ozzbozz and Tobar in the same stable.

It was less than three quid I think, and for that you get quite a lot, with three plug-together Iwaco knock-offs, two flowers (tulip and rose) and a stegosaurus, three other monobloc dinosaurs which we may have seen before from The Works, three 'flat' sports balls and two space flats, an astronaut and a rocket, all five are polychrome extrusion slices, and another five; random items of over-moulded, miniature domestic household goods/food items. So quite a mix, almost a 'starter pack' for someone new to erasers. Bargain!

A is for the Absent Minded Beggar; A Gentleman in Kharki

I said we'd return to this subject a few weeks ago when looking at the lead version, we also looked at the casein one a few years ago, here, and at that time I vaguely said "Believed to be a Boer War keepsake/trinket", well, the history is actually far more interesting, and the Britains lead one is the more 'accurate' while the apparently commoner surviving plastic one is not strictly the 'Gentleman in Kharki' but is the 'Absent Minded Beggar'

 

This (the subsequent Britains pose/sculpt) is the artistic rendition of the Absent Minded Beggar, by the artist Richard Caton Woodville, which was titled A Gentleman in Kharki, a generic called-up reservist, off to fight in the Second Boer War, taken from the poem by Rudyard Kipling, which would be set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame), all of which was part of a charity drive to provide for the families of those reservists, who were left behind, losing their only bread-winner to the war-effort - almost a precursor of the later Haig Fund.

 

A quick Googling reveals many renditions of both sculpts, but with this, the Gentleman in Kharki, being the more common in other materials, here the tin-plate clock revealing the budget or affordable nature of a larger piece, while more figural spoons can be found, than the plaque example above, alongside mugs, cups, medals (medallions) and many other typical fund-raising pieces.

 

The original poem having been donated by Kipling to the fund, set up by Alfred Harmsworth, proprietor of the Daily Mail. And ephemera featuring the poem/song lyrics/musical score make up a large portion of the surviving material.

 

While the casein renditions of The Absent Minded Beggar, the original subject of the poem, before Woodville's image became more widely known, were also used in a number of domestic objects, alongside a naval rating (to balance the thing!), although, as we can see from the vesta case and visitors card-holder, the Gentleman in Kharki got casein renditions too!

 

I now have one of my own in the pile, and he has been separated from whatever trinket, novelty or household item he might have been attached to (possibly the letter-opener?), and as can be seen in the previous, old auction-image, the tip of the rifle rarely survives; if I ever see a damaged one going cheap, I may purchase it, just to cut-out a sliver to restore mine?

The two together, on the left The Absent Minded Beggar in polymerised milk-powder, on the right A Gentleman in Kharki in very toxic, pre-Health & Safety 'white metal'! Britains ommited (for production reasons?) the fallen helmet seen on larger versions of the scalpt and all the casein examples.

 

I don't think a maker has been identified for the casein one, but it certainly looks as if one producer made them all and sold them to aftermarket firms who put them on plinths, pincushions, pen-holders, ink-wells, servant-summoning bells and etcetera?

The story - as known - and the poem is on Wikipedia

 

Nowadays - of course - we tend to say Khaki (without the 'r') and Daily Fail, Pail, Pale or Wail, it being, now, a nasty little tabloid rag, outpouring faux-outrage to give less-educated, meat-faced gammons a reason to vote Reform and undermine democracy, while keeping the new owners relatively tax-free!

H is for Hodgepodge Hash of Halloween Horrors

I'm hoping to get another post out before midnight tonight, and it should publish before the witching-hour in the US, as I get another five or six hours, after my shift, to facilitate the aim, but in case the UK readers miss it, before bed, here's a few other bits and bobs which have a seasonal element, and have mostly crossed my door in the last five or six weeks!

Remembering I found a set last year, when I saw these in B&M (Morrison's last year) I had to have them, and like last year's, they were lovely, in the same generic tutti-fruity sort of supposedly 'strawberry' way! Indeed, I would say they came from the same source, and I didn't see any others, not even in Morrison's?

 

I seem to recall these were Aldi, but they might have been Lidl? More edibles, best kind of seasonal stuff is edible stuff! Fondant-centred, [not very] monster mice, one a sort of truffle-cream with rice crispies, the other white-chocolate fondant, nom-nom-nomnivore! Obviously a shit-shot of the white one, but you can't re-shoot something, if you've eaten it!

 

Having grabbed two walkers, as the only thing worth buying in a garden centre last year, I felt I also had to grab these, while muttering darkly to myself about 'another side-collection', but you can blame that yellow Christmas stocking robot who survived for several decades in the attic! These are pull-overs, in that cold, clammy silicon type mega-soft, stretchy rubber, which a generic white-button body underneath, and while two are the same design under the paint, the other had no second version, and all three were equally distributed? Asda for the win!

 

I would add - having mentioned them - that the Garden Centres had very poor Halloween displays this year, and seemed to clear them quickly, like over a week ago, they are too desperate to get their Christmas 'markets' up and running!

I'd found these online, and don't know the maker/brand, but if I see them out and about, they will find home-room in that slowly growing 'walker' sub-collection, I actually found a bunch of the other white-button walker soldiers a while back, but forgot to shoot them before they went to storage, so there's a future post!

 

Finally, these came from Lidl about two weeks ago, ghost tea-lights! I think I might paint-in the eyes and mouths of the other two to match the white one, black paint for the orange one and white for the black candle?

Apologies for spelling but Mozilla ad-ons don't seem to be working properly tonight, and I have no spellchecker!