C is for Ceremonial Roundup!

I picked up and shot these first two the other day, and thought it was a good excuse to get a few of the 'odds & sods' images out of the Ceremonial folder and share them with the Loyal Readers, no particular theme, but I left the Spanish, the Cossacks, the Majorettes and others in the folder, so we're looking at UK production of UK figures, even if some came from Holland!

 

So these are the new additions, a second sample of the maybe BR Moulding/maybe Hilco kneeling infantryman of the Victorian era, I'm not sure if it was in the BR mould-list? And a Sacul drummer, the Sacul sample is growing slowly, a few others have come in, and I am looking forwards to shooting them all together!

This was sent by a loyal reader back in 2021, during a conversation about either Sacul, or unknown guardsmen, which I was thinking were from the Crescent sculpt, because of the epaulettes, but as pointed out it's the Sacul moulding.

 

And, further, the correspondent pointed out that the smaller drummer (second from the left) was probably also Sacul, issued as a drummer boy? The unknown is next and another probably Sacul forth, with the common Sacul varient on the left. And, if I recall the conversation correctly, the feeling was that all four were probably Scaul, with the [3rd] nylon'y one being maybe a late issue, early 1970's?

 

These were all sent to the Blog by Theo van der Werden from the Netherlands, back in 2018, again as part of a conversation on his - then - recent purchases, and because I'd covered most of them, I sort of filed them, with a bunch of other stuff, anyway here they are, three Britains 54mm and some nice examples of Cherilea 60mm types.

 

I really like the lifeguard (upper pair in middle image), he's a very unusual toy soldier, being that sort of late Georgian/early Victorian uniform.

 

We've seen better here in the past, but they came in with some mixed lot, or another, and the shot shows the three poses of Gemodels in the less common Horse Guard's blue colourway, which happens to be my favourite! Note also the two distinct shades of blue plastic.

Having mentioned BR, these are now known to have been issued as part of their home-moulding exercise, and here are three very different treatments of the same pose, with a hard 'styrene on the left, odd-coloured, unpainted polyethylene in the middle, and a marbled pinkish one on the right!

 

Finally, also a bit tatty and from some bulk lot, are these; four Herald and a Zang original (larger figure to the right) of the highland infantryman of the late Victorian era, just before the switch to khaki uniforms. The four on the left are not rare, and I may well repaint them one day, if I ever pick up that eye-glass prescription!

 

While (finally finally!) this is a 'seen elsewhere' shot from the archive (and from another folder, 2008) and shows what other bugger's can achieve with a bit of paint on these figures, four of the later Herald in a variety of late 19thC/colonial era uniforms, original on the right. It may have been on the Blog before?

 

There's lots of this kind of stuff in about 30 folders, and I'll try to get some more cleared in the run-up to Christmas, many thanks to Theo and Anon for the images indicated above.

H is for a Handful of Hangers

Back to Key Rings, a collection in themselves, there must have been thousands over the years of which we've probably seen less than a hundred, and we're about to see one of them again, and not for the second time!

Seven keyrings which will become eight before the end of the post for reasons which escape me, but they are all figural, except the cannon, so they aren't all figural at all!

 

Seen before, and we'll see them again for sure, there are several versions, but it keeps us close to toy soldiers, before we look at some of the more esoteric samples! This one was quite clean, so worth another look, the Highland piper, and a common-enough tourist keepsake.

The cannon, a lovely little thing, all polystyrene, and while the carriage wouldn't stand up to one shot from the likely calibre of that large barrel, if you remove the chain, stick in on the deck of your pirate ship and blast any boarders with a barrelful of ballast gravel and nails, it could still be a game winner!

 

This was why I bid on the lot, I used to have one as a kid, and, indeed, the head is still on my now museum-donateable denim cut-off, but seen here in it's entirety. Mine was stained green with verdigris, after the number of times I was rained-on walking back from the pub or the station, causing the brass rings to corrode and stain the plastic! Like the gun, this one's 'styrene, the rest are PVC rubber, of one type or another.

Almost certainly - without checking - another Xandria, from Holland, and I think it's a non-Disney Cinderella, trying on the shoe, I'll have to find her Prince Charming somewhere!

I took a reminder-shot for some reason, in which (probably 'because') a skier joined the crowd, I think I must have put him to one side then noticed him half-way through the photo-shoot?

Three of them from the rears! The Sesame Street (Sesamstraꞵe) character in yellow is credited on the still extant price-label to EM TV & Marchandising AG, courtesy of Igel Speilzeug GmbH, so German in origin, if not execution, which - like most of these - will be Hong Kong.

 

The skier again, specifically a downhill racer, and the Imp/Elf revealing he doubled up as a pencil-top in some long-lost or forgotten Hong Kong manufactories trade catalogues! More key-rings to come! Always more!

A is for A Few More Follow-ups

Some things which have come out of recent acquisitions and/or donations or which have been covered here before one way or another, and all PVC, except the resin cats;

 

You may remember when we looked at fishermen a while ago, Chris sent a picture of his complete key-ring guy, equally converted to a stand-alone piece as my - suddenly incomplete - chap, well, I had another damaged one come in (far left), which I kept quiet about! And then a whole one . . . Phew!

Also on key-rings passim, this would appear to be the commonest figural key-ring out there, and I have had these three come in recently, one of which has been fully converted to standing piper, with the removal of his ring-loop and the addition of a base. He also seems to be an earlier one, with better paint?

Those poor cats are still for sale with their holes in their noses, a year after I first saw them in The Range, to be fair I think they are now greatly reduced, but FFS people! No one is going to buy damaged cats, no matter how cheap they are, put them out of their misery.

 

I had a version of the dragon Jon Attwood sent us, with the wings in a totally different pose, and hot-water (or transit) doesn't seem to be the explanation (the wing-root is too thick), so they must have either changed the mould for technical reasons, or had two different mould-tools?

I have, once or twice over the 15 years of the blog, mentioned the over-moulded badges of post-war Italy, and here are three versions of the paramilitary mechanised brigade of the Carabinieri, you can see how the three colours of PVC have been 'wealded' to the cloth underneath. These were obtained, as surplus, in about 1978?

C is for Call Answered

Chris Smith eMailed me a week or two ago a with a link to an eBay lot which I bought there and then, even before thanking him . . . it answered a question posed here a couple of times I think; the 'like late / Toyway-Timpo' highlanders, and revealed new poses!

Credited to a Scottish International Gift, Scotland and clearly a touristy gift-item, it's a pretty standard window-box with a tombstone-card at the back that could be pierced for wire-hook peg-board hanging, but something which isn't done in the factory. A potted history of the bagpipes is provided on the rear of the extended card, along with a code NO. 6000, which as a round number is almost certainly a stand-alone, with no similar items in the (or 'a') line?

I can't remember which new pose/s we encountered last time we looked at them here; was it the bass drummer or the pipe/band major? No matter, you get one of each, with two-each of the commoner side-drummers and pipers, which - of course - is why they are commoner, or turn-up more often, loose!

I took them out on one of those warm days a while ago and marched them round the empty bird-bath past the weeping cherry!

The next day - I should add that paint and material wise they are very similar to both the late Timpo/Toyway factory-painted Highlanders and the Hong Kong Salvation Army band set, only the bases being the obvious visual difference, this is not to say there is any connection, painted PVC was big in the late 1970's through the bulk of the 1980's.

"You told me I couldn't eat them
so I'm not even going to see them!"

Many thanks to Chris for spotting these and facilitating my sharing them with the rest of you! Funny thing is I think I recognise the box, so JB probably had a set when I was helping him, and if I'd paid more attention to large-scale when I was a small scale collector I would have had the answer all along!

The next day - I may of course be confusing the box with the painted sets of Ecsi 1:35th scale figures which I think were issued under the A-Toys branding, I also think they were in silver/grey boxes?

S is for Scruffy Scot's

A mixed post really, I'm finishing the Highlander box-tickers with Cherilea, but they are - as some of you will be only too aware - hard to find in good condition and/or number, so I'll do what I can with not much, although luckily Theo van der Weerden sent me some images of his with nice paint, so the 54mm figures can be shown fully!

The 60mm however will have to wait until I get some! This is it; not brilliant, but not too bad either, I particularly like the staff/mace, which has a decent rendition of the relief-tooled gilded-silver or plain silverwork you see on the shafts in reality.

54mm; I think it's only the four poses so I should count my blessings - at least I have them! Paint's tatty, but it nearly always is with these!

Earlier issue or very different second cavity? The figure on the right's barely 50mm and I'm assuming is taken from the original hollow-cast range, but the 'standard' sculpt, not the 40mm figure which was visibly smaller and wore a Glengarry.

I'm not sure why I took this shot, clearly - at the time - I was very pleased with my two tatty drummers! Or is it that ones got a slightly squashed drum? I don't know!

Again two sculpts with the left one probably coming via the hollow-cast range, the right-hand figure has quite good-to-fair paint (for my sample!) but a damaged mace, thus it is trying to collect these I guess . . . also coming to this late, all the good ones have probably been snapped-up!

Theo's have lovely paint! The broken one will require some Superglue 'Plastix'; paint the upper breaks with the activator pen, put two small blobs ('wettings' really) on the lower breaks and press firmly together on a flat surface. While you're holding them together, carefully paint round the lower break/ankle with the activator pen to encourage some of the glue to flow back.

The glue works through capillary-action, by having the spirit in the activator draw the glue down into the molecular structure of the polymer, like an anchor in sand, however if you follow the instructions to the letter and coat both surfaces you will find the glue starts to set straight away, which as that involves it wrinkling-up and turning glass-like, leaves you with a poor join. The activator is also a- or contains an additional- catalyst.

It's better to coat one-half of the break and then try to draw it (the glue) back into the other half after you've got them both lined-up and jointed flush. It's a skill or 'knack' that requires practice, but try it using some old knackered figures to practice on - it will help you save more valuable or rare figures later.

Another shot  of Theo's, showing the marching rifleman. He does these images on an Epson scanner, I have an Epson but I can't get results like this, despite trying all the buttons on the 'advanced' settings, I can't get the depth of field, and only end up with the bits touching the glass in focus, there must be an infinity setting . . . or something . . . fussa-russa!

And thanks to Theo for the images!

F is for Follow-up - Novelty Highlanders

Having looked at a pencil-sharpener here among the key-rings and things, I've since found a pencil-top . . . all I need is a highland piper eraser - there must be some - and I'll have a full set for the start of the new term!

Rather than the splayed-legs and 'up the jacksey' of a lot of these figural pencil-tops (He-Man, DC superheroes, The A-Team's BA Baracas), this one has been given a Dalek 'skirt' to hide his modesty! And - despite being a several-generations-down-the-line clone - you can still clearly see the Britains Herald DNA in the pose.

40mm from the bottom of the Dalek skirt to the top of the Busby and originally manufactured in a softish PVC, which is hardening with age.

Further to the Hilco post I found a pin and it fits, I know it looks as bit loose in the photograph, but I can assure you it fits snuggly, like a glove, settling-in with a nice, satisfying click! I suspect however the original was a little longer though; this is a standard, modern seamstress's pin.

When we were kids (those of you of a certain age will remember, but for the younger loyal readers-) there used to be charity 'flag days', where you gave to a representative in the street with a donation and were given a token of your gesture (a bit like WHW!), usually a flag (I remember white ensigns for the RNLI and wings for the RAF Benevolent Fund), and they had longer pins to deal with the paper/flag and the giver's lapel, I suspect Hilco used one of those for a slightly more realistic length? The pinned-flags were replaced in the 1980's with stickers, and then - in recent times - the dreaded, door-stepping 'chuggers'.

They may well have blunted the end though?

H is for How Many?

I thought my sample of Charbens Highlanders was a bit poor until I checked them against the Plastic Warrior special and found I seem to have an unlisted drummer and a 60mm flocked piper, but I still need to track down a Drum Major - you can't have everything!

The marching soldier; there's three poses here with rifle variations on the middle pair, a 60mm to the right and the original from a hollow-cast mould on the left. In the PW Special they seem to have two versions of that early one.

Pipes . . .

Again three types, the early hollow-cast to the left in three greens, the second 54mm type to the far right and the 60mm with flocked Busby second from the right. He's better painted too and would seem to be a stab at competing with Britains Herald on a more even footing? Or he may even have been used as a tourist piece?

. . . & Drums!

My drummer, I'm assuming he's Charbens as he's painted like most of the other Highlander's - Charbens don't seem to have gone in for stripes on their tartans much! Also the drum is similar to the Guardsman's drum; sort of a semi-flat sculpt? And - because it matches the lead version in Joplin's big book!

Close-up of flock-headed 'Peter' Piper! [That's a strangled-English, German joke for those who like their childhood-rhymes on the dunkle seite!] The flocking is quite thick and has a little white plume-remnant poking out of the top, so the flocking must have been done after painting - to prevent the red plastic showing-through?

The figure is a pantographic copy of the 54mm late version, although the base has then been pared-down to match, probably to fit existing bolsters or something technical like that! Chances are there are still some Charbens to find, both the drummer and Drum Major could have a possible two other versions, now we know the marching and piper have three each?

Although, looking at mine and PW's, I'd say there seem to be five marching variants; two 1st, two 2nd and a 60mm? Note also that all the first type (from hollow-cast tools) is marching off the right foot, left forward, the other versions are off the opposite step.

F is for Follow Up - Highlander Pencil Sharpener

Anon made an excellent suggestion in comments the other day about the possible source of the head for the Hong Kong novelty pencil-sharpener, sadly it doesn't seem to pan-out, but I shot a comparison anyway, and it helps 'prove' Lone Star's plagiarism - if you weren't already decided!

Years ago when looking at Lone Star Wild West's in someone else's collection I noted the similarity with some of the Britains Herald poses (we looked at some of them last year - in a series of posts I never finished! Must do so!), and they said "Yes, well it's still a bit of a moot point as to who was first", then; a month or two ago, when comparing the Khaki Infantry after Chris Smith's contributions, we saw how they had taken a boot with a bent-toe from Britains and included it in a very different figure - who didn't need a bent-toe!

And here, again we see the lines of the plaid draped down the back of the Lone Star figure (right in both shots) mirror both the Britains original (left) and the Hong Kong copy (centre). He has shorter stumpy legs and the distinctive 'fur' or feather striations of the Lone Star headdress, and is chunkier overall, but basically he's the same pose; conclusion - Lone Star were terrible copyists!

 

The pencil sharpener is now known to be from Hong Kong's KT.

Lucas is for Sacul

These are shown in Joplin's Great Book of Hollow Cast, in metal, as Sacul, so I'm going to assume, presume, guess and suspect they are Sacul in plastic too!

Unlike the Guardsmen to which I've added several figures since we looked at them here a few years ago, the Highlander sample is a rather pathetic two! And in a rather non-descript marbled plastic best described as half-stirred hot-chocolate! But they were languishing under the 'unknown' moniker until a few days ago, so that's a small advance!

They are however, lovely sculpts, although I'd suggest the mace is a tad longer than the scaled up real one would be; he looks like he's planning on a joust once the parade's over! Paint is as poor as the Guardsmen, but the piper has enough left to hint at a well-painted countenance once?

Half-stirred hot-chocolate! We looked at a hollow-cast colonial helmeted highlander from Sacul a while ago (several years) whether these are from the same line, or a more ceremonial set I don't know, but suspect the latter.

P is for Pipes & Drums

Am I right in thinking Lowland Regiments have 'Bands' and Highland Regiments have 'Pipes & Drums'? Something like that, anyway; Hilco didn't bother with marching soldier types, but gave us some nice Pipes & Drums, seen here, although there are some colonial 'combat' types; I don't have any.

The pipes come in three versions which seem to all be from hollow-cast moulds. Now, there is a rule of thumb with these paint-simplified Tartans which - as plastics collectors - I guess we take from Britains catalogues, but it goes back to the hollow-cast era, which seems to consist of two main parties - The Black Watch and the Gordon Highlanders.

Above we have Black Watch 1st, 2nd and 5th figure, with something equating to the Britains Gordon's at the 4th stand. The 3rd figure is probably supposed to be a Gordon also, but the pale yellow, being almost a whitish hue, could pass for another tartan.

The Black Watch pipers actually wear Royal Stewart tartan for both kilt and plaid (the over-shoulder cloth), the soldiery wear the darker 'Regimental' tartan, which Britains did as a plain, darker (than the Gordon's) matt-green. If you get a bit of blue in the mix it's probably the Cameron Highlanders (the Sculptures UK figure we saw the other day?).

Two Black Watch on the left and three Gordons on the right. The Drum Major has an extra-long gold-painted dress-makers pin with the pin-head set into the little slot in his hand, for a staff/mace, I meant to put one in and photograph it before I posted these but forgot, I'll try and do it for the end of the (this!) 'Highlander season' . . . or next time we look at them - thematically by pose - but you can see how it should look, I'm sure.

I've seen these in an all-gold finish too, presumably as touristy items?