A is for AaaaHaaa! Once you know what you're looking for . . . .

Someone in France has a shed-load of these, but there was one in the UK with a fiver on it, and I was paid on Friday, and the parcel was at the old house when I dropped off the recycling, on my way to work, so I've just shot/scanned this little beauty!

These are boxed and have a B prefix to their codes, so I suspect the others had a W prefix for 'window pack', and another look at the logo reveals it's probably CWT or WTC?, these lack the painted details of the others, so may have been later, or a budget line, and I think are the sort of thing you might have found as fair-ground side-show prizes - hook-the-duck, hoopla or the coconut shy?

 

Properly set up, and in fact both her hands were blocked with PVC-paint, so you have to force them, but it was an easy job. Accessories in white this time, but the drumsticks are green as last time. The French lot were mostly white too.

 

Box art and codes, still only the six instruments/one pose, but we now have more colours hinted at, while the French lots include the mustard yellow, we're still looking for red and pink, and a darker blue than the lot the other day.

 

To fill the post, I think we've seen these all before, but these are the bendies which have come in over the last few months, including the Brabo-marked soldier, and possibly the first bendy ever, the 'Little Rubber Man' who's clearly a Witch? The smoking dog came from Chris Smith and is one of a series of smoking dogs! The two littlies I can't remember, one's a Mickey Mouse knock-off, the other a small, daft-looking dragon type.

B is for Best Bendy Band Babes Ever!

I had a parcel from Peter Evans yesterday, and I'll blog the rest in the usual fashion, but these need a post of their own, and I loved them so much, I got straight to it, Majorette Bendable's, whether majorette's or not, at 'Ball Games', Rose Parades, Independence Day, State Days, Town Fairs, the American's love getting their kids' into Marching Bands, so of course someone made toy ones!

I had hoped I could put a brand to these, but it was, in fact, a very similar TM by another maker (Tai Ming Industrial), so we're still looking for this TW or WT! As they are all coded 'W' it may well be the latter?

 

"Collect them!" it says, quite forcefully, but I don't need to, as Peter has sent all six, and you don't need to, because they're all here for you to see! Actually it's the same basic sculpt for all six babes, but where they don't need both ring hands, one tends to be left blocked-up with PVC paint.

 

A saxophone, a side-drum held high on the chest by the same strap as the base drummer's, and a trumpet (? You know what I'm like with brass instruments!), the Brass have two spigots either side so both hands can be attached (unlike the box-art), and you can then move the whole together, theoretically - because they are quite small for bendies, there's actually quite limited movement.

 

Base-drum and . . . Majorette Major? Didn't Joseph Heller do a skit about this . . . major Major Majorette-major! The shoulder strap of the bass-drummer has a very small nick in it which won't allow for full operation/posing, but I didn't want to try substituting the side-drummer's in case it's a sign of forthcoming brittleness, better to leave it on the ground.

 

And the French horn! Which raises the question of how many colours were they available in, and/or how many colours of instruments are out there? I'm also guessing all blue ones are blonde, all yellows russet or redhead and all green ones raven-haired?

Not that big either, about a true 60mm and a bit chubby in a slightly cartoonish or caricature style, but they'd go well as background interest with all sorts of 'standard' figures. Except that they are really kids around 85mm real scale?

 

She can do all the moves!

From ETSY via Pinterst, I think this is a vague approximation of the headdress aimed for by the Hong Kong sculptors, but I warn you, researching girls marching band hats and/or helmets is a fruitless, if interesting rabbit-hole, you probably don't want to fall-down!

G is for Get them NOW! Before They're All GONE!

Brian Berke has sent a couple of lovely scans from old Comet comics, a name I had totally forgotten, but I don't think they had an Annual, and as one of the older titles, probably got swallowed by a newer 'vehicle', that's how it worked! Anyway, I am able to action one straight away, here, and I'm hoping I may get the images for the other on Friday coming?

I notice the guard on the box-art, if true to what hit the stores, is hanging his drum off the wrong hip, while the one in the main image is looking pretty casual! I (b.1964) can barely remember this type of box, which was a very plain cardboard type, with two or three colour screen-printing.

 

Although I did them, individually, as seperate poses (or instruments) back in 2012, I don't think we've had them like this, as a group line-up, so thanks to Brian for the image and the nudge! They were manufactured by Crescent Toys, and were identical to the commercial issue by Crescent except for the base-marking.

Which, as you can see, was all Kellogg's promotional! I have mentioned (and shown) in the past, the regular occurrence of these - Kellogg's-marked - figures, appearing with a black, white & yellow (no flesh) paint-job, so consistently one feels some over production may have had a commercial venture of some kind, but equally, there weren't many paints available back then, and it may just be a coincidental series of similarly home-painted sets?

A is for And a Good Time Was Had by All!

Well, the Umpty-somethingth Non- inaugural, All-singing, All-dancing Plastic Warrior Magazine's Toy Soldier Show has been and went, hasn't it! I'm too knackered for a proper post, so here's a quickie from the Seen Elsewhere folder, actually stuff I found at a Sandown Park show a while ago!

These are chalkware and from Japan, probably 1950's, so pretty-well proper antiques now! Trousers are a bit too blue, and the band is brass-heavy, so good for promoting Hovis! No brand/brandmark.

It really was a good day today apart from the Rugby which cost me a coffee, but that's my fault for being too honest, had I pretended to be a Rugby fan I would have got the coffees! Kudos to the team for organising it.

 

I have to push off and do a few bits now, but I'll try and post something similar later, there's a folder full of this stuff which needs emptying!

H is for How They Come In - Recent Purchases

Just a Picasa clearer; a few things I've managed to snaffle in the last few months, which were shot and sitting in Picasa waiting for a job, and this is it!

These were two or three lots/sources I think and we may have see some of them already in show reports, but here they've all been cleaned, some of them were very dirty. I just love 'em and will always grab them when I see them going cheap (£€$12 or £€$24 per figure on eBay gets ignored - they're not rare!), as there are a lot to find.

Here we have three of the late phenolic/early - less than stable - 'styrene ones in bright colours, with, upper left, three similar-aged silver ones, so probably all original Lido or Winco Condar, while the rave-dancer, top right, is a more modern lightweight polystyrene one with a better finish.

The blue one had black spots on, which might have been a past-owner's paint, or a slow-growing mould eating something in the polymer, I couldn't tell, but it hasn't fully removed despite some serious chemicals, so the now pale-purple staining seems permanent?

Going un-bid-on on evilBay, this was Jecsan or Reamsa, I can't remember, the former I think, to go with those over-sized nativity figures I bought in a charity shop a few Christmases ago? And it's big, about 8 or ten inches, gone to storage now, so I can't give you a definitive size, but more Palm-tree comparisons (we did some of the flats a while ago) are in this Blogs future!

I got a eMail from Chris Smith with a link to this lot and one bid secured it! I have some of most or most of some, but as grist-to-the-mill it was worth a speculative bid, and the highlights were the two musicians and the four Wild West, which I think are 1970's French bazaar copies of Dom-Heinerle, Siku or similar, earlier, German premiums?

The pile of pastel Cowboys and Indians are also interesting as they are late, sub-piracies of Giant's own Britains copies, while there are a few plug-in US Marines from rack-toy rubber-boats, a lovely little dog, two Thomas paddling Indians which may be the Giant-copy size, but later production than them (so French copies of Manurba's version?), a Chinese Villager and . . . the rest - cheers to Chris for the heads-up!

N is for Novelty . . . Guards - Kinder?

I know these were given to me by Peter Evans (who sent me another parcel the other day - most of which has been forwarded to Rack Toy Month), but I think they were among the first things he sent to the Blog about 11/12-years ago, in with a bunch of other stuff. I recognised them, as I'd been to his old place several years earlier and seen them on a little self (and admired them), so it was a nice gesture; packing them off to me!

But in those days the 'H is for...' trope hadn't been invented (except I did do a couple of show reports) here, so they got sorted away with the rest of the lot - HK stuff if I remember correctly?

I've seen them described as Kinder, but suspect that was the over-enthusiasm of the early O-Ei-A authors who tended to label anything small enough to fit the capsule as a Kinder egg premium, when in fact these are probably cake decorations aping the Marx Babes in the Wood figures some of which were scaled-down for the Disney themed Miniature Masterpiece boxed 'playsets'.

I may even have a couple (probably damaged) in-with all the Marx Miniature Masterpiece odds somewhere, as these went almost straight into storage, and only came out recently. The guy in the middle is missing a plug-on bass-drum and has a truncated drum-stick.

I don't know how many poses there were in total, maybe six (an officer or drum-major being the obvious absentees?) would be neater than five, they're hard polystyrene and marked Hong Kong in tiny letters on the bases of the roughly 30mm figures. Cheers Peter!

G is for Guards - Trumpets, Bugles, Cornets or Horns

Like the tubas, I haven't the faintest idea how to tell the difference between a Trumpet, Bugle Horn (except a straight horn, but then - some trumpets are straight? Doh!) or cornet, but as Paul Morehead (of Plastic Warrior fame) did once explain it all to me, while studying this very subject (guards musician figures), I'm going to quickly Google it so he thinks the lesson hit home...ssshhhh, don't tell him!

Bugles and Cornets have a tapered cross-section, Trumpets - commonest of the three - have a tubular cross-section only widening at the bell end. Trumpets and cornets have three valves, the bugle usually doesn't. Cornet valves are nearer to the face (so better for beginners?), however in American 'drum and bugle corps' bugles can have rotors (whatever they are) or 1 or two valves  - which are really just modified Trumpets, Mellophones, Baritones or Tubas!

What?!! Mellophones?

Trumpets and cornets are very similar, sound wise, commonly found in the B-minor key...but can be found in any other! C, E-minor and F being among them. A single cornet in E-minor is found in a brass-band as the 'soprano', while C keyed trumpets are found in orchestras. The cornet is a mellower sound and the trumpet louder and brighter. Cornets are considered 'band' instruments, while trumpets are orchestral, but both can be used in either!

Flugelhorn - flatter cross-section to the tubing with a larger bell, gives an even more mellow sound.

Baritone trumpet - Larger mouthpiece makes it still easier to play.

Bugle horn - A straight-through or slightly curved 'bugle', no valves, hunting horn, Light Infantry / Jager cap badge type instrument (but not the US Rifles badge), the half-moon or Hanoverian bugle horn is a full half-circle.

French horn - A circular bugle...'post horns on coach-doors! And US Rifles cap badge

Mellophone - Commercial 'French horn' with lots of turns and three valves?

I think!! And medieval fairy-tale trumpeters are actually buglers?

Left to right; Cherilea 60mm, Timpo solid, Lone*Star reissue, Lone*Star original and two Sacul, one in a chalky white the other a garish apple-green marbled with cream.

Crescent for Kellogg's unpainted, Crescent painted and four different Charbens including one in hard plastic on the far right.

Close-up of the Timpo solid showing the typical shoulder marking of a lot of the Timpo solids, although others were marked on the base or even legs.

G is for Guards - Tubas

I don't know which of these is a Tuba and/or a euphonium or even a 'Keiserbass', whether they are sevens or what! To me they are all tubas...

My only Britains Eyes Right, along with both the Cavendish musicians (Stadden designs - the pair!).

I handle these as little as I possibly can as a mate of mine had three in a little box we found while sorting his things out once, and as I picked one up, it literally exploded, except that most of the pieces fell into my lap, only the head disappearing across the room, so it was more of a violent implosion. Anyway, the plastic had become highly unstable and seemed to be in compressive tension! Inspection of the other two had the same result, there was no squeezing, they just couldn't be handled, and the fear is these two will go the same way...

From the left Cherilea 60mm, Reisler Danish Guard, Cavendish again and five treatments of the Crescent/Crescent for Kellogg's figure.

Charbens 'don't know (?)', Charbens early type, Charbens late type and Charbens early type mould shrink. The last one my be a mould-shrink of the first figure, that being a different cavity of first type?

Another Reisler Danish Guardsman with a different kind of large brass instrument and the Britains Eyes Right chap with another! Both the Reisler's in this post are recent styrene polymer reissues, the earlier - painted - ones can be in a cellulose acetate.

Now known to be Sousaphones, invented in America and part of the Britains 'Eyes Right' US Marine Band sets.

G is for Guards - Cymbalists

Lets put'em together and make some noise people!

Charbens x3; late, late mould-shrink and early with a Sacul on the end.

Another Sacul on the left and two Lone*Star, one website says smooth-bearskin'ed LS guards should have oval bases, but things are never that simple, the textured bearskins are later.

Various treatments of the Crescent/Kellogg's figure.