F is for Follow-up's to Donation Posts

A few things which have been raised after recent posting one way or another. The cream-white Cowboy flat's from Chris HAD had a mark, not only that but originally I had an email chat with Chris, in which they came up, so how I forgot I don't know, elsewhere it gets excused as brain-freeze I believe, I'm blaming the amount of stuff which has come in recently, and the fact that it keeps going to storage in dribs & drabs!

Anyway, I've adjusted the post and added Vortella Plastic to the tag-list, as that was the mark!

Further to Spectrum Steve's ID of the Pink Panther as being Dinky, I shot him with a few others which have come in recently, and so above, from the left we have Yolanda large and Yolanda small; both in the style of bendies, but actaully 'solids' from Spain, a duplicate key ring from a set we saw a year or two ago, another key-ring, probably Hong Kong, but new to me and then the Dinky, on the end.

While the bad guy from the Black Caldron cereal premiums in the same post hadn't been undercoated for painting, well, actually he had . . . but that wasn't the comment-worthy thing about him - he was a home-cast copy in solid pewter/whitemetal!

A comparison between the new - white - duck and the older 'Hubley' one in red, except all the Hubley's I can find are shades of brown, or white, while I have black, red and yellow, so possibly a European mould-swap or license involved there? The new one is a nicer sculpt with better wing-definition, and feet - more realistic overall.

I've also had a few more of the approximately 54mm Xandria's come in since Theo's stuff was posted, I think I said four were in the post at the time, but I forgot I'd had a fifth come in with a mixed Key-ring lot, a while ago; the lady on the left.

From the left; Unknown (Cinderella trying on the slipper from the fairy tale 'Pixies'?), Krent Kruidenier (Krent the grocer. a De Betuwe jam premium, seen before), Pied Piper of Hamlyn (Grimm's?), Bertje Big (Bertie Pig (?), another De Betuwe jam premium) and a Witch - another fairy tale Pixie?

Note Bertje's over-all PVC-vinyl trousers, the pattern making him look just like Podgy Pig from Rupert Bear, in his tweeds, who - when rendered in colour - is also often drawn as white, rather than pink? As Rupert dates from the 1920's, any plagiarism is Dutch I'm afraid! But, 1950's fashion on the farm, where you find pigs . . . I suspect more of a parallel evolution, there's only so many ways to anthropomorphise an animal so it's still recognisable!

D is for Die-Cast Desperadoes

Off to Spain now, where poor old Play Me churned out a family of reasonably classy, novelty, antiqued-finish, pencil-sharpeners for the tourist and stationary industries, unwittingly launching a thousand Hong Kong (now China) copies, clones and piracies . . . but not - as far as I know - actual pirates, however Play Me had given us two!

The standard seller was a small box with cannon only, but a larger window-box existed, rather in the style of Britains naval Gun, for which these two zamak/mazac figures were designed, at approximately 50mm, they are a tad small, but I'd imagine being small was a bonus on the cramped gun-decks of mid-millennia sailing vessels?

Here compared with one of those Hong Kong copies, the HK one is particularly clean and rather shiny! there's not much in it to be honest and I thought I'd shot more HK ones, I thought I'd shot the Britains ones and I know I have a scan I now just can't find [see below!], so we'll turn to these again at some point!

I have only the one Spanish cannon-ball (no HK's), but I imagine there were five-to-ten or even twelve in a mint set? Oh, how this stuff used to rattle-round a Hoover until the steel-curved brush-roots caught it, jammed, and the drive-band made that funny-smell and melted!

A comparison with two Lone Star 'Metallion' pirates (Long John [silver] and Captain Blood, issued by Hubley and others elsewhere, some as copies), which were in the same box, also die-casts, they have a silver-finish rather than the copper-effect of the Play Me chaps.

It was on the desktop - Doh! So all my searches in Picasa and the 'finished' & 'waiting' folders were a waste of time!

This is - I believe - the same Spencer we saw here; Spencer Gifts - and still going(Northern 'States and Canada), although someone affiliated to the PSTSM took my image (without asking - ten for one, that's the rule, m'K!) and has been telling everyone it's an 'English' company (not British mind, so I'd like to see his 'empirical' evidence!) for the last two or three years . . . despite the dollar prices! You can't make this stuff up, but I have other plans for him, another day.

Note - it's closer to the Britains cannon, but with a more complicated ratchet affair on the right-hand side of the body. Also, from the description, although as useless as the Britains ones at sharpening pencils, it fires percussion caps, which - back in the day - were hardened brass-alloy and made a real bang. Now you would use those red, yellow or gold plastic ones.

And speaking of the Britains cannon, I hadn't got round to shooting the loose examples (so a return is guaranteed), but this was in the folder with the Spencer scan, so we'll stick it here for the fun of it! I think I'm right in saying this is the less common of three variants, the ones with a white-block carriage being more common, but having two different barrels? Like I say we'll return to them with all the answers another day.

M is for Metallic Metal Metallions

Just a quick scan, I was scanning a bunch of stuff the other day and did this while I was at it. A small range of metal figures called Metallions (metal battalions...geddit!) was issued by Lone Star in the 1970's. They were also issued by Hubley and Kresge (SS Kresge were the forerunner of K-Mart) in the US and included Cowboys, Indians and Pirates along with these Knights.

Six character figures from 'Knights of the Round Table' fame, unlike the Westerners (which were copied from Marx 6" figures) these seem to be relatively original sculpts although one or two look familiar to anyone who knows the Britains Deetail sets. 54mm die-cast Mazac / Zamak alloy, they are then antiqued with a dark varnish wash.

The full story of the figures and ideas on who's were first (not Kinder; that's for sure!) told by Alexander Kutsche is to be found here - in German, but a thorough look at the subject. Small ones can be found here and question marks, overview and sets, Alexander's collecting and origins.