J is for Jug Band

I will make an effort this Christmas, to finish the railway figure series, started two years ago, I meant to do it last year, but it never happened, and it's high time it got done. In the meantime, and as a taster (it's the only image on the firm in the queue), is this, which was donated by a Blog follower who prefers to remain anonymous . . . don't worry, I get it, I'm a loose cannon, and it's a brave man who would be associated with me!

Imported into the UK by Bachmann Europe, is this hillbilly Jug Band, in HO from Woodland Scenics, and it's absolutely lovely! The only thing missing is a couple of drunk neo-Nazi bikers, loosing a fight with Bo' and Luke Duke! We've got a wash-tub bass, a washboard and a guy playing an actual jug, with three more conventional instruments, charming. Cheers Dude, you know who you are!

B is for Box-ticking Boy's Toys in Bottle Bags!

At the PW show, John Begg had a whole bunch of ex-shop, or out-painters stock (there were loose figures) from Charbens, and Colesmith Plastics (the moulds have a convoluted history which can be read in Plastic Warrior's Charbens Specialist Publication), to which I availed myself of what you might call a cross-sample, certainly not everything they produced, either figure or packaging wise, but a nice example for box-ticking their latter production, which I remember being in the shelves, when I was a kid.

 

Charbens own-branded packaging.

Unpainted Wild West.

 

A generic branding as 'Pic-a-Pack'.

Guards Band and Beefeaters. 

 

American civil war, an odd mix of plastic colours with the Union outnumbering the Confederates more than two-to-one, in both sets, with an apparently measured content count of one sky-blue figure, four dark blue, and two grey

 

More mixed ceremonials, here branded to Colesmith.

A Highland piper, and Lifeguards join the mix.

 

Mixed paratroopers (green bases) and Tommies (sand).

 

Comparison of the cards, I don't know why Colesmith got to brand some-up to themselves, maybe to pay off a debt, or just for a cheaper quote to Charbens? or did they inherit/hang-on to the moulds? I haven't got the Charbens Special to hand!

 

Note, also; the Artist's palette painting sign, used - rightly - on the unpainted Wild West set, but rather spurious on the pre-painted sets? I'm sure I remember the Colesmith sets in WHSmith around 1978/79?

 

"Jenny? What colour are Native Americans, really?"

 

"Dunno' love, try one of each!"

 

The 'Blues & Royals'.

 

Mixed, painted and unpainted.

Highlanders, Nelson, Lifeguard trumpeter and mounted cowboy.

 

Guards band in various treatments.

W is for Wilton's Wandering Willbury's from Warner

I've always had a preference for Hanna Barbera (Scooby, Wacky Races), MGM (Tom & Jerry, which was originally Hanna and Barbera) or Warner or over Disney, it's not that I hate Disney, some of its output is excellent, some now considered classic, but I have never liked the Micky/Daisy 'Disnyland' Disney, and think Fantasia was ruined by the sudden appearance of the dratted mouse for the Sorcerers Apprentice sequence!

 

But Warner Brothers had quite a cast of characters for their Loony Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, and five of the best are featured here in this band of a band, of cake decorations from Wilton. Large scale and Polystyrene, like most of Wilton's output, but not all of it - Circus wagons, for instance.

Bugs Bunny conducts - from the left; Sylvester (oboe), Porky Pig (cymbals), Daffy Duck (saxophone) and Tweety (aka; Tweety Pie or Tweety Bird, bass-drum). And I hope that's a band-master's baton, because if Bugs is about to sing, I could quickly lump him in with that squeaky mouse!

 

The extra joke being that Tweety, the smallest of them all, gets to struggle with the largest instrument! They are glued to matching green disc-bases, fully marked-up with Warner and Wilton property messeging.

C is for Ceremonial Christmas Cracker Cloned Copy Chaps

Finishing a brief look at the novelty end of the figure market as it pertains to British (or other) guards in bearskins with these Airfix clones, which we have seen before, and which I still need to put properly on the Airfix Figures Blog, but I only had one figure to-hand for the comparisons so these can go here and I'll re-shoot, pose-for-pose comparisons for the other Blog another day!

These are the better copies, and come with sharp-edged, smooth bases, also they copy both Airfix sets; Guards Band, and here; Guards Colour Party. Only the two poses have turned up so far as seen here - officer and ensign colour-bearer!

The band however (upper shot) seem to have been copied almost in their entirity, the exception being the drummers where both bass- and side- are replaced by a guy with a half-moon stuck in his tummy! In the top image the red sax-player on the far right is the Airfix original.

These are the lesser quality lot, they have both drummers, so while copying the same originating set, are otherwise unconnected to the other lot. Marked Hong Kong diagonally across the bases they are easy to separate into their respective 'groups', these also having chamfered or ogee edges to their bases. Airfix still to the far right - Guard's division; they're all a bit up themselves!

The second lot also appear in the Interesting Toys packaging, but both types seem to have been issued in Gum-ball machine capsules, 'Lucky Bags' and Christmas crackers, I'm sure they managed a window-chuck in Malta at some point and may have found their way into Piñata too?

S is for Sally's Silver Band

A box-ticker, but one I'm happy to have as it's a lovely set, and happy to keep brief, as it was fully covered in Plastic Warrior magazine not that long ago and I don't know enough about silver bands, musical instruments (as we've seen before!) or even the Salvation Army!

The 'Salvation Army Trade Department Hong Kong' apart from being a mouthful of words also sounds frightfully grand for an organisation I can't remember having ever seen associated with another product? But there you go; possibly a phantom brand for reasons of tax or charity status, or maybe a/some Christian Chinese produced them at cost or paid for the contract or something?

Figures - vinyl/PVC - are a tad on the large size, coming in at around 65mm, although you can see they are not the same height, with the lone side-drummer quite noticeably smaller than his band-mates at 62mm all-in. That's them, ♫♪♪♫ Onward Christian Soldiers ♫♫♪ and all that; Christmas is coming!

C is for Cat-cophony!

S is for Stray Cat Strut, J is for Jazz Cats, F is for Feline Groovy, T is for Tuneful Topcats . . . I may as well get them all up here as I'll never get another chance . . . M is for Musical Moggies, Meowsical . . . P is for Panda's Pussies Play Pop, S is for Scatting-cats and Skiffling-kitty's . . . there should be more cat bands, clearly; there are the titles' for them.

Rag-time Rag-dolls . . . Symphonic Siamese's . . . and [for the intellectuals;] Boogie-woogie Bastets! Tin-pan Tabbies? Cum'on; I'm sure you can do better!

I can't now remember where these came from, or 'came-in', possibly a charity shop, but years ago, or in an odd job-lot of small scale (they are 35/40mm) from someone I named the other day, but I won't name him again, as the vision of Stadinger physically 'digging out' another single figure to 'drop' the same name again, is too much!

There are some serious issues of insecurity writ there; an inadequacy which is behind this war of his. I thought he sat in my dust, copying me, because he had no ideas, but it turns out he's trying to prove something to . . . himself? That he's as good as me? That he knows some of the same people as I do? That he's got the odd figure I have?

Understand this;- I thank people because they have helped or contributed to the Blog or my collecting is some way, I've done it since the start of the blog, and will continue to do so, Stadinger never thanks his contributors, he name-checks them, but rarely thanks them! To be fair though; as they all appear to be moulded from the same lumpen clay as him, they don't seem too bothered!

The idea that he felt so threatened - by my thanking someone - the other day, that he had to dig-out a random figure to generate a reason to name them (not thank them, just 'name-drop'!) suggests that while he calls me 'sad' and Erwin keeps trying to question my sanity, the one in need of therapy is TJF, the pathetic one is TJF?

And why would you name-check a purchase? You thank people who have helped with freebies, or information, or shelfies, and you should try to thank if you've been deliberately let-have something on the cheap? But name-checking every purchase you've ever made is impossible, and if you've paid; it's 'yours', so suddenly naming someone, out of the blue, the day after I happened to thank them for something, looks very odd? Like posting dinosaur shelfies - later the same day!

It's fascinating -  from two-thousand-and-something-odd miles away - to watch Stad's mind working, to hear those cogs grinding together; "Oh no! Hughie's mentioned so-and-so/shown such-and-such, I'd better mention them/show it too!" He's clearly as insecure (and paranoid?) as a gay spy in the Politburo! Poor love! With no ideas and not much to show, but then he's a dealer not a collector! Me? I'm just a patronising bastard, but still; he wanted it, this 'war' of his!

And another thing . . . while I'm in the mood; he's tried the baby-talk 'Hughie' thing for the last few months, but my best mate in Canada who starred in the remake of Lost in Space (as a body-double - I taught her how to hold a gun!) calls me Hughie, an ex-lover called me Hughwish (not quite Hugh?!), another (in Berlin) called me Huey (...Lewis and the News - she was German and you know what Obelix has to say about them!), an old school friend calls me Hughzzle and my Rottweiler-owning Chopped-triumph riding biker mate calls me Hughston, everyone else knows me as H or Maverick, shortened to the mildly annoying Mav', but it means TJF's going to have to get a little more inventive to upset me on that one, but it's fun to watch him try!

The above was written earlier in the week, then today (Thurs. 23rd) I see he's also dug-out a single large, US-made road worker, presumably to 'balance' the Buddy L I used as a scale the other day! Yet he hasn't balanced the four, new to hobby, Hong Kong logo, empirical ID's I was doing when I chucked in the Buddy L, it's really too funny! Childish and seeped in pathos, but still funny.

But . . . onwards and upwards; these are also fun!

Almost certainly from Good Soldiers, not that they are soldiers! The panda-bear is taken from the Dinky one, I don't know where the cats came from, early plastic novelties of some kind, Japanese maybe, Good Soldiers tend to use vintage plastic figures to make their masters, but they might have copied some old hollow-cast, or composition (doughcraft or chalkware?) novelties?

Spot the deliberate mistake - countries with colonies of penguins will tell you they tend to cull cats, because cats like penguin-eggs, cats like small penguins, cats like injured penguins cats like slow penguins! What the f*** is a penguin doing in a cat-band? The bear's safe'ish; he's a vegetarian, although one recently mauled its keeper!

The Dinky donor was the Mr Bearanda (geddit? Bear and Panda . . . or Bear-man-panda?) from Dinky's Andy and Candy licensed-toy; Stripy the Mini, and we see them here for the second-time I think, but contextually; and a new image! No pantograph will have been employed and because the rubber mould-making compound used to take the negatives shrinks slightly as it sets, the copy ends-up being actually slightly larger.

I suspect the three plastic figures are the work of Charles Stadden, and probably about as esoteric as he got! I particularly like the sculpt of little Candy who's a puppet in the show, and she looks like a puppet, in fact she looks like a long-haired, zombie Chucky, but then she did in the show too!

S is for the Super-Size of the Quest Ahead!

So, in case you haven't been reading the blurb for the last few months, the collection is out of storage, and I'm starting to pick-over it, a lot is still in a heap in the garage, and a few things don't seem to have surfaced at all yet, but they will . . . and there's plenty to keep the Blog going, take this as a case in point;

This is one of 9 identical boxes of 'unknown' flats (we looked at some of the 'Wild West' box a few weeks ago), to which you can add another, twice as long, with known margarine premiums, that is: they either have the issuer moulded on, or the little paper label saying ei-fein or whatever; four boxes of US 'comic flats' and all the Russian/East-European stuff, which is more spread around, and other stuff I've forgotten! There are also two crates of those A4 sheets of foam-board with the lead flats.

In front of it are the Christmas cracker 'Putti Orchestra' figurines which have come in over the last 7-years, in a little 4"x5½" self-seal bag, which is my standard size.

In the box are approximately 150 four-by-five-and-a-halves, each with an index card 'stiffener'. At an average of two posts a day there's nearly 3-months worth of posts there, technically, in the one box, but as you can see; some subjects have several bags, while lots of bags only have one or two examples in!

After sorting the new ones into the older sample, there are still several with only one! You can see it's the earlier 'Hong Kong' ones (1) which are building-up fastest, as there are more of them in the backs of hall 'phone drawers, or 'the' kitchen drawer, to end-up at car-boot sales, or in the hands of house-clearers and so slowly enter the secondary market.

I've numbered them as I think they were probably issued, but it's only a gestimate, with (1) in from the mid-late 1970's through to (5) being probably still current, the pink 'china' one being in a cheapie-cracker in a restaurant in Frimley a few years ago. I also added annotations to the cards as I was combining the two lots, makes it easier to sort into them next time.

Ignoring the base marks for a moment, these are all the poses and colours so far found, on these ephemeral, cartoony, seasonal, novelty figures, and with the exception of the red one, they are all so flimsy their bases tend to fold flat in the bags!

The next card in the box, and only added at the time these shots were taken, are these alien/clown orchestra figures, are they from 'down below'? We know the Devil has all the best tunes!

All figures of both types are about 30mm and soft polyethylene; the last three sculpted on both sides, the Putti are single-sided reliefs, smooth on the reverse. And they will probably be moved to a fantasy box, as they are hardly 'civilian', just non-military.

In the same box was something instantly recognisable . . . now! Clearly another Rundlutscher Spitztüte Wundertüten probably from Kuefa Kreisel, and I expect to find more as I dig-out the other boxes!

R is for Rock Chick Rolls Around Again

I thought I recognised that Japanese guitarist the other day and sure enough; when I got the civi's out of storage there she was again, as an unpainted Mattel import with most of her band -mates (I'm missing one).

Sold as both CUTIE (Coolest Ultra Tiny Individuals [on] Earth) in four figure random blister-packs and Tiny Trendies as full set of ten window-packs, by Mattel and also five-figure sets, maybe? The one we saw the other day may be a Japanese Bandai-issued original, marking is the same on both.

F is for Follow-up - Guards Musicians, 35mm

We looked at six of these after the May '17Plastic Warrior show and I got a message from Mr. Morehead at PW Towers at the time suggesting there might be ten poses, however I suspect - with the storage-set previously mentioned; now out of storage - that there are only the eight?

Two from the percussion section with a rather large 'side-drum' placed [centrally] off the waist-belt, and a cymbalist. The Brass section has four practitioners, with - from the left (and Mr Morehead will correct me if I'm wrong . . . at least there's no sousaphone!); trombone [Tuba], saxophone, bugle (? [Cornet!]) and French horn (?) while woodwind have two; oboe [Clarinet] and flute/fife [I was corrected!].

Some of them have two arms (for three parts), others have the whole as a single-moulding (for two parts), Britains got round the problem with plug-hands, here we just have quite complicated sculpting (for Hong Kong) and the obvious effort gone-to in manufacturing them is repeated in the fine painting. The drummer is the exception with four-parts - and a sticker.

The percussionists in close up to show how the arms move and to give an idea of size.

Re. the point about cavities earlier today, you will notice that these are not all exactly the same height, the moulding here used for the cymbals is smaller than the others with a slightly squidged headdress, this will be a cavity thing (multiple cavities), but the arms fit all the figures, except the saxophonist who's arms don't like parting at the elbow-line and he insists on poking himself in the eye with his instrument!

A quick reminder of Peter's donation/additions and how they have been cleverly placed in old HK Swoppet bases (two S-for-Star/Star Toys and another buckshee one) with the remains of the icing/cake spike sheered-off, flush, with a blade.

14's enough for a bandstand 'soirée', all I need now is an O-gauge railway with lavish Victorian park gardens!

G is for Gloriously Garish Guardsmen!

These are my absolute favorites among many 'absolute favorites'! By which I mean, of the 12 or so smaller-scale Hong Kong guardsmen these are the main men, and it's all down to their almost edible colours!

It doesn't come any leerier than this lot; does it? They look like they were moulded from tooti-fruity flavoured, bubble-gum chews, five minutes ago, but in fact were Christmas cracker novelty 'gifts' a few years ago, although when I say a few years ago, I'm forgetting the passage of time, and I mean the 1980's!

It has taken the full thirty-odd years to amass this lot, they have come in one or two at a time, three if I'm lucky, but some years there will be none added, and it wouldn't have been possible to mount this parade without the help of people like Trevor Rudkin, Michal Melynic, Peter Evans, John Begg, Chris Smith, Adrian Little and Gareth Morgan, who've all added the odd figures to the bag over the last 20-years.

There seem to only be the five poses, but never-say-never; I've only found four fifers . . . fifers four! [Brit's will get it - it's a Scottish football reference] Which is a small enough sample to suggest at least one may still remain 'un-found'.

Similar to - but distinct from - the Shackman 'Mocherettes' that came in little matchbox pencil-sharpeners I guess they must be based on the Eyes Right guards band from Britains (their anatomy is too good to be from the Herald Hong Kong efforts!), but they may be more original than that?

A scale guide; we will have a proper look at the other small-scale guards now they are all out of storage and put together with the ones we looked at a while ago, but on the relevant Airfix posts, rather than here, while the 35mm chap we looked at recently, will be looked at again later today.

The Drum-Major has provided the means for several copies, but as stand-alone figures with no additional musician poses.

The first four came from Mr. Lucky Bag's in the mid-1990's and I managed to get a handful (well a soggy pocket-full) when I helped clear a snack-food wholesale warehouse in Mychett after a fire! Note that the four are on two base types - thick and thin; while the blue and green ones are shorter, this is true for all colors and points - beautifully - to a multiple-cavity mould-tool.

The next two seem to be sub-piracies of the Mr. Lucky Bag moulding, and the last two who have just started appearing in mixed lots are very poor quality shite, probably from £1 store/shop/land type Christmas crackers, using a copy of the tool of the previous pair (the release-pin marks running through the feet?) but with no QA/QC leading to consistent shot-shots and no mace, while poor pantographing has rendered them semi-flat and flashy round the join-line.

B is for Brigade Band in a Box

I was sent these ages ago by Jonathan Newman with the intention of the contributor for me to Blog them, but they slipped through the net at the time and I found them the other day, checked back in Hotmail and will pop them here, as an example of the interim production of Preiser's inherited Elastolin stuff from the late 1980's/early 1990's, when they matched the corporate identity of Preiser with font, layout and packaging, but retained the Elastolin brand-name.

Many of you probably remember the adverts in Military Modelling and other hobby mag's around 1994-7? Now all ex-Elastolin is listed as Preiser but still has the Elastolin moniker attached and increasingly finds itself reproduced by Preiser's prodigious CAD/CAM workshop in other sizes.

As they are low-res, I'll just throw them-up as an example, there's not much to 'blurb' on, interesting that they have gaps in the line-up hidden in the centre of the band, presumably (as with all the 'complete' bands Preiser issues) there is a specific make-up to a Fire Brigade band, accurately represented in a generic carton.

Obviously using the old German Infantry musicians, with new helmets/added helmet-ridge.

The current incarnation of these sculpts is as separate figures in the standard Wehrmacht format/paint. From time to time Preiser still issue the bands with other paint finishes, while private sellers paint them-up as black-clad Nazi's and put them on feeBay for Brexiteers to spend too much on.

And many thanks again to Mr. Newman