L is for Last May's Lots of Lovely Loot - Vehicles

Before I can get on to the very late Plastic Warrior show reports, I need to get the previous, and even later, Sandown Park's loot out of the way, which was purloined a few weeks before the PW show, so let's get them out of the way sharpish! Although I don't think you can say sharpish, when the posts are three months overdue!

 

A small Gescha/Gama style tin-plate tank, bearing more resemblance to some early post-war APC's, with a small turret, and high superstructure. I can't remember if it had branding, or if someone gave me a brand? Space Tank!

 

Two mystery (when I saw them) die-cast military vehicles. a nice inter-war armoured car, actually Charbens, it is die-cast alloy, but has lead wheels, and a British tanker-truck, which was marked Britain or England I think, the trouble with doing these posts so long after the event, is you forget stuff! But while in the style of Dinky, it's not, and is probably a re-painted Benbros Esso tanker - note the red on the paint-chips! Interestingly, a re-issue of an old Timpo mould.

 

Vintage Tootsie-Toys AFV's, one marked the other anonymous (can't remember which was/is which), I think the lorry may be pre-war (1930's), while the Armoured-car might be just post-war? But that's going on the wheels/tyres (or 'tires', they're American after all!), which could, just as easily, be replacements? You won't believe the trouble I had, getting the two MG's to look right, they are suspended, free-floating or hanging, between small bumps in the moulding, and loose with age, and were a bugger to get right!

 

Another Charbens, this all die-cast, wheels and body, and darker green than some I've seen, and while not the most accurate version of Humber out there, it's a darn-sight better than the plastic one they did later!

 

Two more French 'readymades', one each Noreda (front, Jeep-like) and Injectaplastic (behind, DKW with Jeep trailer), we've seen them both before, but they were clean, and cheap, so I took them home with me!

Banner 'row-crop' tractor in military green, possibly depicting an Oliver tractor (US Readers?), and two copies, the copies are slightly smaller all-round, and have a few detail differences, unmarked, I hope they are in Bill Hanlon's book!

 

Again, newish to me, similar to some Archer space cars from the 'States, I was told these were actually British so Kleeware or Tudor Rose, but the larger one is a Marx future car, the smaller however is a Pyro/Kleeware moulding, so could the Marx also be a mould-swap with Kleeware?

 

Two teeny-tiny battleships, probably from a late-Edwardian board game, and a larger lead yacht, which could also be a board-game piece, or a smaller component of something more decorative? It's covered in what appears to be black paint, but which could just be severe oxidation?

 

Because they came with a T4, these two reprobates have got themselves into the vehicle post! In the style of MUSCLE or Kinnukiman, these two Thunderbirds Keshi are new to the collection, along with the little Thunderbird Four.

 

A damaged Manurba coach and spare helmet crest for a Lone Star knight are snuck in at the end, just to get them off the laptop!

F is for Follow-up - Noreda and Injectaplastic

I mentioned in a comment the other day that I try to avoid 'khaki' subjects in December, and that's true, especially the more war'y stuff, but the odd bit gets through, and these ready-made AFV's are a perennial favourite of mine, with two purchases in recent months, both European brands.

 

I think this is the Injectaplastic Jeep, with a gun that's new to the collection, the owner has added waterslide transfers which some of you may recognise from plastic kits (Airfix and Esci - I think?), and which completes the line-up with their Munga and Kubelwagen, both seen here passim. It's darker green than my existing sample of these, though.

This was in the same purchase and is the Noreda one, which I seem to already have, but the trouble with show-purchases is that you are pressed for time, and have to make split-decisions on whether or not to buy something, based on what you can remember having, what you think you may have, and/or what you've seen and/or posted from elsewhere!

A comparison shot with the Triang Minic tin-plate in clean state, but missing it's key, hopefully I'll have one in the spare key zone! All a similar kid's handful size, and two of them needing a comparison shot on the Airfix Jeep page!

 

Also with the two jeeps and gun, came this truck with yet another take on that 1950/60's staple, the twin AA 'pom-pom' gun, now euphemistically referred to as a 'technical'! Again this seems to be Injectaplastic, from the wheels, and is new to the existing sample, but needs paint-removal, before I take better shots.

 

Then I picked these up last Saturday, from Tony Herrington, long time 'plastic warrior' who was stalled-out at the London Toy Solder Show, these are the Noreda truck we've seen before with canvas tilt and GS trailer, but now, also, as a tanker version, with tanker trailer and an additional 'goulash cannon' field kitchen.

 

The kitchen, while simplified for production in one shot as a pocket-money toy, follows the basic design very well, we had similar trailers on field exercises in the 1980's, four hot-plate/bain-maries over an oven and grill with the chimney long-enough to take the gas fumes (wood smoke or burnt oil in earlier times) away from the faces of the troops operating the equipment, or queuing-up for 'range-stew' - baked-beans, tinned potatoes and tinned mixed-vegetables cubed, with cheap sausages, diced in a thick gravy!

O is for Old Fashioned Cars

I finally tricked myself into getting six posts off Picasa, I can't tell you how long these have been ready for publishing, but while needing Blurb, the images have been edited and/collaged for about four+ years!

I announced they were due on a post on Moonbase Central about three years ago, since when they've done them again, twice, I think (I'll try to find the links) and Ed Berg has posted some too. While the article folders have been on the desktop 'ready to go' several times and quietly put back in 'My Pictures'!

But under the most tenuous of links with the previous post, we're kicking off with these Huilor premiums. Huilor is a manufacturer/seller of cooking oil, and issued various premiums back in the day. These were made for them by Cle, Del and Injectaplastic, with one or two still debatable, but the similarity between the vehicles, suggests co-operation of some kind between the three makers/lines, who are all, also, connected to other 'novelty' stuff.

Fully marked on the undersides of the chassis (another connection between them all), and with me not knowing much else, further blurb would be superfluous, and strained, so I've just annotated the images with the base markings . . .

 

Early racing car

 

Paris-Vienna Rally car

 

This is the only Injectaplastic in my sample.

That tenuous link!

 

People will say they are copies of this, that or the other die-cast (Brum, Rio or Matchbox 'Yesteryears') but the fact is these were very popular when I was a kid, along with pictures, posters, printed tiles, crockery & mugs, matchbox/matchbook labels, place-mats, beer-mats and coasters, 3D wall plaques, pipe-rack, ash-try or pen & ink stand ornaments and etc . . . and they were all of real vehicles, so some similarity is always going to ensue!

Not there wasn't a lot of copying, we'll see some in the subsequent posts! I'm not sure if they came assembled or as kits? Another connection all these have is being polystyrene rather than the Polyethylene of some others, or the die-casts just mentioned (which we won't be looking at). And the French for 'Old Fashioned Cars' is Vieux Tacots (old clunkers) . . . Bonux next!

N is for Not Jean, But Injectaplastic!

If you recall this post, I saved the two armoured cars for toward the end of the post and pointed out that they didn't 'follow the rules' as evidenced by the rest of the set, namely different wheels and no white wheels seen by me?

Now I'd been told by members of the 'old guard' in Germany (now supporting the PSTSM) that they were all Jean Höfleur production, so I make no apologies for miss-identifying them, while remaining pleased I highlighted a nagging query about them!

You will still find them described as Jean (or Manurba) on fleaBay, but equally if you search under Injectaplastic, you will find French and Portuguese sellers who knew - all along - what they were!

Here's the M20 (cheers Andy B!), as its component parts (with a deformed wheel/axle assembly caused by a stuck pin in the tool allowing product up the cavity/shaft) and assembled, note how the MG folds over using the ammo-belt as a hinge. I cut the protuding axle back after takinng the pictures.

While here it's pulling a rather large canon/howitzer which mirrors the larger piece in the Jean inventory! Non-firing, it's held together by a muzzle-ring and the mounting brackets. The gun-position was made by me as a kid from carpenter's dowels and a 'log' from a Majorette logging-truck!

Seen before, now known to be Injectaplastic, although Portuguese, there are strong connections with the French market through JSP (Jouets Super Plastic), Cle and Del, more on that in the next post. And . . . is it Portuguese? More and more stuff the 'old guard' stated as 'fact', has to be corrected these days, as catalogues or packaging turn-up, so Injectatplastic are Portuguese - as far as I know!

All new Kubelwagen, and it's the WWII one, not the 1970's hippy one! The gun is pretty fictional (and closest - as a donor - to some Hong Kong rack-toy ones), here sitting behind a piece of Bellona scenery, and the spare-wheel on the bonnet (hood) is more hinted-at than present!

Still quite ubiquitous with several NATO users when we were visiting Dad in Bavaria in the late 1970's, the Auto-Union DKW 'Munga', was a Jeep-like light-utility vehicle and here has the Jeep trailer of WWII vintage fitted, although the trailer went-on to be towed by M38A1's and the later M151 'MUTT's, so it's reasonable to assume it might have ended-up behind a Munga at some point! And all the towed items can be swapped around to give the trailer to the M20! Note also; the fold-up spare wheel/tyre and 'Jerry-can'.

The last time we had a 'Not Jean' post, it was the trucks (Noreda) we were sorting out, but so far I haven't found a truck, or a US jeep for that matter, in this range, but neither have I found a carded example yet, so they may turn up!

Scale between these is further-off than either the Jean or Noreda sets, from an HO armoured-car to a ear 1:32 Kubel', but build-quality is between the two, and if you threatened to torture me I'd say Noreda came first, these followed and the Jean came after, but as they are all following the hard-platics of Banner/Lido/Pyro/Tudor Rose's 'dime-store' stuff of a decade or two earlier, it's all a bit academic!

An old eBay lot tying them in to another brand; 'Plaggon Plast', but it's a tenuous link, the wheels on the six Armoured Car's are plug-on and sculpting is crude, so clearly piracies, although ironically, the wheels of the big 'beach-toy' truck are white, which brings us full circle!

There is another set of these post-war, ready-made, AFV's, can't remember now if they are a Belgian or Dutch maker, but I've seen them on evilBay a few times for silly money - dark, Buckingham green, and mostly British outline (as the railway collectors' put it!) on the AFV's, when I see some cheap ones, we'll get them up here to tick that box, for now; Injectaplastic - ticked!

S is for Show Report - Late, Sandown, September, Contributions Etc . . .

Adrian Little over at Mercator Trading always stalls out at the Sandown Park show, and often has a bag, box, tub or tray of bits for me to look at, sometimes several! Some require shekels, some get sort of chucked at me and because they do I always try to purchase something too! He was there in September and this post covers all those sources and . . . possibly a bit more - one of the shots is a bit confusing!

The easy ones first! We saw the plastic pumps in the previous post and they might have been on Adrian's stall anyway, but the Lesney die-cast definitely was, and I shot the two by way of an instant comparison at the show, as while I have one, it's in storage and although I probably included it in the Matchbox posts back in 2012/13 (?) I can't be arsed to look for it when this shot is enough! Note the Hong Kong maker (probably Tai Sang) has changed the finials to Shell branded pumps from the Esso of Lesney.

Below them is a bunch of Mocherettes (as you must by now realise I call them), nothing rare here, but the Egyptian is useful and the AWI (indeed all the Wild West with Kinder bases) are harder to find and come in several finishes, so I may or may-not need him to build or complete a set? The larger one is a more modern Westair, and is soft whitemetal, rather than the die-cast zamac of the earlier, smaller figures.

Some interesting stuff here, the top row are - I suspect - modern'ish aftermarket/garage figures painted-up and based, but they could be older and/or rarer, I just don't recognise them and there are many whitemetal railway figures out there.

The middle row has, from the left; three Horten for Trix and Britains Lilliput, then three which I belive are Comet/Authenticast (but probably not Eriksson sculpts), an unknown who could go with either of the preceding trios, but is probably another Horten for Trix/Britains, the final four are Hornby/Dinky 'Dublo'.

The bottom row is less clear, did Lilliput have a post box, if not probably Wardie/Mastermodels? The aeroplane could be from a board game, but I suspect with the three-colour paint-job, it may be a 'toy' toy for a dolls-house playroom? The gun is from a ship-model and is likely to be a commercial barrel on a homemade carriage.

This is lovely, and I was touched Adrian had saved it for me, as I'm sure he has customers for it, it's a slip-cast bisqueFlaK or Pom-Pom gun, and probably a German Winterhilfswerke (WHW) piece, the partial mark seems to be in the DIN font, which would tie-in nicely, but just a lovely thing!

I tried to photograph these through the bag, but as you can see the images were pretty awful, so I got them out! It's obviously the tale of Hansel & Gretel, with the witch and a cat which I don't remember getting a mention, but witch = black cat (familier)!

Plaho (Plastik und Holz - plastic & wood) were a state organ of the VEB system, build on the firm of Herpat in Steinach, in East Germany, and you can see the composition ancestry in these figures, we may even have seen the Lineol (or Elastolin?) originals here at Small Scale World . . . and courtesy of Mercator Trading I think?

This is where I get confused, it's also a poor image, sorry. The bag bottom right was definitely from Adrian, but I'm not sure if the rest were, or if I bought a bag of bits at the show and sorted them down to this image, then including some of Adrian's stuff, but I'll proceed as if it was all from him!

We'll look at the better bits in a minute, although it's all pretty interesting, but now I'm making more effort to get the Giant Or What? Blog turning a little more regularly (about 12 articles in the ready queue), it will mostly be seen there, but what can you see here?

A bag of smaller farm and zoo animals, various Giant and sub-Giant copies of Knights, Romans and Wild West, a small bag of Quaker Gladiators, a bit of Marx-Blue Box 1:64th American 'HO' stuff, three Tudor Rose farm animals in 'styrene, a nice vintage 'ivorene' charm, Manurba/Tallon trucks, Spencer Smith Nappy, Montaplex medievals; all sorts!

These are both lovely; the cowboy whistle in two colours is one of only a few novelty whistles I have, of which only two others are figural I think, a lion and a . . . bird? While the Sikh sentry is a very uncommon Malleable Mouldings figure in soft polyethylene polymer, taken from an old lead-solid Holgar Eriksson sculpt.

The whistle from a couple more angles (we'll see the Sikh again soon) and some modern gaming stuff (bottom right); I think the horse might be Minifigs, the pack animals are nicer, but probably quite new?

Top left however, is of more interest, and the left-hand figure came from Adrian, the set of four were a coincidental purchase at the same show and could have been in yesterday's post, but they ended-up here! lead solids around OO-guage/23mm.

I am sure I know the name of the game, and possibly the maker, as I took notes on one at SAS Auctions, when viewing years (14 or 15) ago, but can't find the note, they are (I'm sure!!) from an Edwardian board game with a simple name like 'Spies', 'Secret Agents' or 'Private Eyes' and I favour the latter one, maybe 'Private Dicks'? No sniggering at the back.

I'm guessing these must be French bazaar things; bags of unpainted 'ethylene mouldings of earlier often French but sometimes copies of Timpo, Elastolin or Spanish figures/products from the 1970/80's? The odd thing here is that the two adult chickens and the ducklings are quite realistic, while the adult duck and chicks are quite cartoony? But a really nice, very clean sample!

While these - being also a nice sample - will need a bit of research I haven't done yet. There are several sets of these, and similar poultry, some of which are claimed to be Prior premiums, others not, there seems to be a set like these, a set with nests and a set on more elaborate foliage, with several sets on plainer flat bases, while a couple of larger raptors have no bases, just big feet!

Most are a stiff, dense 'Macau' PVC and seem to have come through Injectaplastic of Portugal, so may also 'be' Jouets Super Plastic (JSP) of France, while some seem to have been premiums for other companies such as Arena, Aurea, Azur, Bisco, or Ehrmann, but some are softer rubbery PVC. Prior don't actually seem to have handled the birds at all!

So, more work needed! But, lovely toy figures.

Many thanks to Adrian for the bits he gave me and the bits he saved for me to look, at all of which I took - at well below retail - and the bits I bought on top, all-in-all a bargain!

WD is for Wicked Duals

A double joke as they are both two sides in a fight (duelling), and two colour-ways (duel), and seem to be running alongside the more standard boxed version such as that seen in the previous post . . . we arrive at the fourth set (of six?) from SCS Direct, and while not really that Halloweeny, being technically Sci-fi, you will see there is a nightmare element to some of the Aliens!

When I first looked into these I got the impression the tubes/'toobs' were older, and the boxes newer (and either that, or the opposite, may be the case, as far as original production went), but last year's offerings were one of each (zombies in a tube, fantasy animals in a box) and the same is true for this year (fantasy: box, sci-fi: tube), but you can find some of them the other way and with a gap between last year's and this year's listings on both feeBay and Amazon, the circumstantial evidence is that there's a warehouse or two somewhere with healthy stocks of both, released each late-summer for the Halloween season?

As with last year's, the tube arrived broken, and while I don't think it contributed to the short-count (again! Four-out-of-four short-counts!), it's clearly a problem with the gauge of plastic used, against the weight of the PVC-like material!

I didn't do a table for these, and re-distributed them to the other two guys before I took note, but it was short (98 again I think) and there were anomalies with the contents against a straight split, or 'fair' distribution.

However, because these are slightly different from the three previously-seen sets, in having one side in light-grey (the humans) and one in dark (aliens), there were at least three of each and I think everyone got a full set with a couple of handfuls in the 'spares' box.

Top-left is an Imp or Gremlin-like alien; it certainly doesn't look terribly friendly! To its right is the closest to a movie-alien, in being humanoid and carrying sophisticated technology/weaponry in an 'atmosphere' suit!

Bottom-left gives us a Cthulhu-Turtle thing! While the figure bottom right is a sort of elemental; I can see people painting-it-up as fire, water, lava or even a plant-like finish would work?

Top-left is the Dragon we saw in the previous post, it's actually quite sweet, more of a baby dragon than anything else, sitting in a nest of planks! Bellow the Dragon we find the Arse-faced, Flame-haired, Seal-pig . . . very rare I can tell you - due to their tendency to combust when they fart.

Next to that Arse-pig as they are known locally (and from the same planetary system) is the Arse-faced, Shaggy Octo-Gute, very tasty! And in the top-right-hand corner is the Squid-headed Scooby-swine, a useful tracking animal. You know when you are near the tracked pray as the Scooby-swine either bolts and runs away or jumps into your arms and slobbers all over you with its many slimy tentacles, so PPE required!

With the humans we get a mixed bunch of figures which are quite useful in various settings/scenarios, on the left a gang of vigilante survivors who have armed themselves for a fight, the girl on the right is sculpted as a child, but bigger than all the rest, weather she is supposed to be a giantess or something I don't know, but she's in 'Human' coloured plastic!

The other pair are more tremulous citizens, clearly not dealing with an alien invasion in quite such a focused and determined manner as the first three!

The final trio include a pair of 1950's pulp spacefarers, who look more like kids in Halloween costumes, or scientists on Horsell Common - where my Brother and I played a lot as kids - swampy mass of mosquito-breeding, elephant grass puddles, orange-algae poisoned drainage ditches and struggling juvenile fir stands! And there's a comedy sketch in there - "Try it now, it should work?"!

To whom is added (several years before BMC) a Rosie the Riveter! She's posed here with the Auto-Union DKW 'Munga' from Injectaplastic, showing the 1:48th/40mm range of this set, although the aliens and Dragon can be any scale you choose! Rosie, and the uniforms, are clearly placing this lot in that 1940/50's realm of black & white matinee movies about bug-eyed lumps of glowing jelly from that dying, red, militaristic, swamp-planet beyond the stars!

A comparison between the two Dragons we've seen this year, remember last year's sets contained a man-bat and a Dragon which was more like a chess-piece, while this year we get one seemingly from D&D and a heraldic Dragon, so SCS've ticked all the boxes on leather-winged beasts!