3D is for Other Blogs, Really!

Or why I stopped worrying and learned to love tolerate the polymer printer!

 

Donation!

Many Thanks to Tom Clague

('Tomholio' around the Internet) 

 

Many years ago, although it seems like yesterday, I just don't know where it goes? And, it goes there quicker every year, but many years ago, 2007/2008, on the HäT forum, which was a very different beast then, it has since been heavily bot-edited by 'H' for perfectly understandable reasons, no criticism, and moved home/platform a couple of times, and is now a more corporate or pro-brand site, but many years ago we used to have a lot of fun on there, sometimes it would degenerate into silliness, other times the less humorous' would take offence, often about something which wasn't actually aimed at them, but there you go, all humour requires a certain level of grey-cells, some more than others, but many years ago, the Brit's, Antipodeans and some of the Canucks/Yanks would have some real fun . . . but we also had some more serious discussions, and many years ago, we had a thread on 3D Printing!

 

Straight out of the printer. 

 

At that time, the first commercial machines were just becoming something a semi-affluent Western hobbyist, within the 10%, globally, could look at affording, and a lot of potential was held by the nascent technology, or series of technologies, as there are various methods employed in Deposition-Modelling, or Rapid Prototyping (which includes CAD/CAM and CNC)*, as 3D printing is known to those at the cutting-edge of the Industry.

 

*Computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacture, computer numerical control['ed machining].

 

When cats'll fly!

I was quite hopeful at the time, but also pointed out that it might end the toy soldier industry as we then knew it, however, and thankfully, time has shown I was wrong on that one, and despite many friends, acquaintances and fellow-Blogger's having 3D machines of their own, or using the bespoke print-on-demand sellers around the place, most of the then new names in the hobby are still going, including HäT Indusrie!

 

This one's got no name!

 

The other criticism I had, or shared with others in that conversation (long since deleted by the forum-police 'bots), was that it would cheapen the concept of figure collecting, by making anything and everything available to anybody (who could afford it) in any scale, at any time, and that has come true!

 

Is there a doctor in the house?

 

Anyone, with the necessary skills, software, or scanner, or a useful mate so equipped, can scan any figure ever made, or design any figure you can dream of, in your wildest imagination, manipulate the file in an infinite number of ways, and print the results in increments of any scale from a couple of millimetres to whatever size you floor, drive or yard can sustain, without damage!

 

Airfix knock-off, and with naked girlfriend!

 

And that printing can be via simple filament feed, liquid or powder sintering, or deposition of layers, or that was the situation when we were having that conversation, with the new, affordable 'home PC' machines mostly being the filament type, now known as Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), it's probably still the commonest form of home printing. And is also the technology in the rather very disappointing pen I looked at, here.

He used to drive the Millennium Falcon, you know?

But not in these threads!

HO/OO (left), 25mm (right)

 

Increasingly sintering is becoming affordable for the home printing enthusiast, and you can 'sinter' powder or liquid polymer, and metal (now called fusion), they alll have their own jargon! Vat Polymerisation (VP, for liquids) or Powder Bed Fusion (PBF, for powders!), with VP broken down into Stereolithography (SLA, usually using lasers) and Digital Light Processing (DLP), with fusion further divided into

 

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS - for plastics), and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) or Electron Beam Melting (EBM) for metals, these can be called Directed Energy Deposition too, althogh technically that's a sub-type with at least six systems!

 

HO/OO Turkey - incredible levels of detail.

 

Other systems are Material Jetting (deposited droplets of photo-polymer material, are then cured by UV light, we looked at a simple version of it, here), Binder Jetting (A print head deposits a liquid binding agent onto a bed of powder material, layer-by-layer, to hold the powder together, developed many years ago by the movie industry for scenic backgrounds, I believe?), and Sheet Lamination, where, thin sheets of material are bonded together and cut to form layers/shapes.

 

 ♪♪♫ She wants to break free!

She wants to break free from your lies
You're so self-satisfied
She don't neehee'eed you

She's got to break freehee'ee!

God knows!

God knows She wants to break free! ♫♪♫

 

And all the above, is only simplified, for modellers and wargamers! There are more than ten forms of Vat Polymerisation, eight types of Powder Bed Fusion . . . µSLA anyone?That's Microscopic Stereolithography, to you, Sir!

 

Anatomically correct nudes above,

Brazilian Turkish surgeon's 'skills' on display below!

 

And if you can afford a metal fusion printer, you can make yourself an indestructible copy of the Hong Kong/Laramie jungle superhero The Phantom, in a material designed to withstand the strains of motor-racing engines, aerospace components, or satellite thrusters! While meat (pork, beef and fish), replacement skin (also meat!) and concrete are all being successfully 3D printed.

 

The names are Bond, Roger and Shaun!

 

But, another criticism, at the hobby end, a lot of the stuff is manufactured from low-grade polymers, deliberately biodegradable polymers, or polymers with unknown long-term properties! And, a secondary aim of this post, is to explain why I don't really post 3D printing, won't often, and chose not too, back at the start of the blog, really.

 

Aping around, monkeying about!!

 

It's not snobbery or superciliousness, but that the infinite parameters, of scale, pose and subject, along with the possibility that your downloaded figure, posted from South Korea might disintegrate in six months, along with my lack of knowledge of the subject despite following it pretty closely, and - while I was doing 3D CAD - with some interest, just means I'd rather concentrate on existing vintage, and modern new production.

 

"Sonta-haa! Sonta-haa!"

There are two people who do post a fair bit now, Shaun, over at Fantasy Toy Soldiers, has posted some exquisite figurines in the larger scales, which would be a joy to paint, and Russ over at Plastic Toy Soldiers has started posting the odd 'Combat' 3D prints. It's not that I won't post 3D printed figures, I will, from time to time, I have one or two, I think, but I'm not going to collect them, there aren't enough hours left in the universe to get them all!

 

♫♫♪ "We're only passenger, we wanna' get off" ♫♪♪♫

 

And, just in case you didn't get my attempts at humorous captions, here's what Tom said about this lovely little parcel from Down Under, with grateful thanks to him for this donation, and thanks to Adrian for receiving the parcel, while I'm stuck in Limbo! Tom posts some of his 3D prints on his blog;

 

https://tomertonvillage.blogspot.com/

". . . a bit of background: Often the 3D printers i've bought from will include a number of duplicates - ostensibly just to make use of the resin pool they load the printer with . . . in this bag, we have an assortment designed and printed from various places around the world.

Sontarans Designer Wayne Peters has a number of excellent free Doctor Who files on cults3d.com. I downloaded these boys, and had an Australian printer make me a 1/76 set - she kindly included these larger prints. 

 

Movie stars in pink Ebay is awash with sellers from China who have a cornucopia of 1/64 scale figures - to go with Hot Wheels type cars. Along I came, and asked if they could print in 1/76 scale. This caused enormous confusion, and led to them sending figures of all shapes and sizes.

 

Doctor Who piracies Warning: the Tom Baker and Sylvester McCoy in your possession are wanted men, on the run from the law! These are indeed piracies of larger scale game pieces. I won't incriminate my source - instead, I'll quickly distract you with... 

 

Curvy ladies from Turkey, surprise surprise, what do middle-aged men want? Curvy ladies! Designer Phnix3d from Turkey obliges, with thousands of sculpts. His novelty is that he provides both a dressed and nude version of each pose. Model rail companies have done nudies before [I know, I have several of the 'naughty' Noch sets! Ed.] , but never to this quality (or ballooning imagination). The flipside is, he does a handful of male figures, who, dwarfed by their lady friends, frankly look a bit lost and embarrassed. The prints themselves have come all the way from the USA, where printer 'DoubleG Diecast' has these, and hundreds of other figures listed.

 

Planet of the apes, 2001; DoubleG also has these movie characters. As with the pink Chinese prints, I suspect the designs are scale downs from larger multi-part designs (copyright & intellectual property are not well respected concepts in the 3D printing world).

 

'Man who wants to break free', from Vietnam My model village could do with a good hoovering,Ii'll be setting Freddie loose once I've painted him.

 

. . . I've found it fascinating to keep an eye on 3d printing, asit'ss evolved from fairly naff filament types to incredible high-resolution resin machines now. Absent from this bag, I shared you the link to Smart Models UK previously; his are perhaps my favourite 3d printed model rail range, which he sells in neat little sets (alas with no duplicates), recommend . . .

 

. . . One to check out - I like both the style and the subject matter of his various figure sets: https://www.smartmodels.org/" 

 

2001 - The future was many years ago!

 

As a post scriptum, and given what I said about plastics, these came halfway-round the world in a jiffy bag, are all less than 30mm, and the only damage was a couple of bits of Sontaran, which will need glueing, along with Doctor the 7th's umbrella, Freddie's hoover and the wings of the flying Cat'sect. But Clint's cheroot and Connery's gun, survived whatever the international post can throw at a small parcel!

R is for Really, they WERE Rack Toys

Continuing with the theme of personalities from the previous Blue Box post, and incomplete sets, well it's about the collecting isn't it, and we can return to both subjects when they are complete!

 

And no apologies for plagiarism, this has been sandwiched between two Blue Box posts on the desktop for a week-and-a-half, and was always going to be here, just coincidence Moonbase dealt with some other Gilbert 007 stuff yesterday!

 

I picked this chap up last autumn, or at the start of the year, I have a Moneypenny already and possibly a Dr. No, so it's a question of slowly building the collection on the cheap, as these figures are hideously overhyped and over-priced! I thought it might be Q, showing bond some gadget which hasn't been painted, but it's M holding something?

But then, also at Plastic Warrior I think, I picked up another six, including all three Bonds, they are all from Sean Connery movies, and as mentioned above, an outfit called Gilbert, but out of Hong Kong, not the US or France who both had older and longer lasting Gilbert's, or Guilberts!

 

And three baddies! So I still need to find Domino and possibly Dr. No, then I can worry about replacing the tattier ones, that Trump'y chap in the red is a bit play worn! But, I'm absolutely, positively, in no hurry; . . . 

. . . there's a rack toy on ebay at the moment, doesn't matter what it is, someone posted it on Brian Heiler's Faceplant group the other day, something naff like a pair of handcuffs or a water-pistol, tied into an unrelated (to the toy)'s TV-series branded backing-card - the seller wants nearly $3,000 for it!

Now, NO rack toy is worth more than 20-quid in any currency, and their intrinsic value is no more than a fiver, and yes, we will all go 20, 35 even 50 maybe, for an aitch-tee-eff set, or something we've been looking for, for ages, or had as a kid; a 'grail' item, but really, they're not worth that. There's a set of these - in a fake carded bag - currently up for £90 . . . ninty-fucking-quid? That's nine-pounds per figure!

Added to which, these Gilbert figures, often MOC as above (minor auctioneers' lot from a few years ago - Potter Auctions I think?) aren't even rare, pretty-much every TV/Movie auction at Vectis has one or two sets, SAS general toy auctions have them as often as not, and there's always a few at Sandown Park or similar larger fairs,

 

So, I'm not going to pay the silly money people ask for them, when they will turn-up lose for a quid or two, if I'm patient, which is the point I'm making, as you can't ever have everything, you can afford to wait for the right things at the right price, and someone made a super-tanker's worth of these!

They were RACK TOYS! They aren't particularly animated, they aren't painted well enough to be display statuettes, they are in an odd scale (90mm) and there's only ten of them? Hold out for a couple-of-pounds each, is my advice, or less, they're often to be found in mixed junk-lots! But, yes, the ten-figure window box IS worth the premium, as it's rarer and easily damaged, so good ones are further between!

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis - Early December

 Next two Vectis auctions are later today and tomorrow; nice things in both . . .

Lot 183

'Go Home' 

Thursday 3rd December 2020 10:00am
TV and Movie Related Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The TV and Film related sale to be held on the 3rd of December features an interesting collection from a Hasbro employee, items include standard samples and prototypes, from Transformers, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, and Star Wars. Further items in the sale include Action Man vintage equipment, accessories, outfits, vehicles and figures. Star Wars carded and loose vintage figures, Legacy Collection and 30th Anniversary collection; Planet of the Apes carded figures, Dr Who, Austin Powers, Lord of the Rings, He-Man Masters of the Universe, Star Trek and Superhero figures. The sale will also include My Little Pony, Mezco Studiocraft Enchantica figurines, Cherlilea Military vehicles, books, magazines, annuals, Lego, signed photographs and displays, and games."

Catalogue and download

Lot 1265
(see also 1266 and 1271)

Friday 4th December 2020
James Bond '007' and Specialist Die Cast Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The James Bond and Specialist diecast sale to be held on the 4th of December starts with The Buckinghamshire Collection which features vehicles from Autoart, Minichamps, Kyosho, Corgi and Johnny Lightning, plus slot cars from Carrera and Scalextric. James Bond figures also feature, from Corgi, Action Man, Sideshow and Exclusive Toy productions, and the collection includes gift sets, props, books, memorabilia, and promotional items. The Sussex Collection features Corgi Gift sets promotional sets and posters, and The 50 Years of Bond Collection includes further Corgi vehicles and gift sets, Limited Edition Gift Sets, Autoart, Kyosho, Little Soldiers James Bond sets, figures, guns and pistols, Corgi Icon Figures, original and replica props, DVDs/VHS, advertising material, posters, and signed framed pictures. The sale will also include Part 2 of The Kempshott Collection, featuring Dinky buses and coaches, pre-war train sets and French Dinky; The Ian Townell Lotus Collection, a Mechanical Horse Collection and further items."

Catalogue and download

*************************************

The ongoing global health scare means various special instructions are still in place . . .

COVID - 19 RESTRICTIONS
 
Please note there is still NO viewing, or attendance in person at these Auctions.
 
Absentee bids can be emailed to admin@vectis.co.uk, or placed via the Vectis or Invaluable website, up until 2 hrs prior to the auction commencing.
 
ON THE DAY OF THE SALE, LIVE BIDDING is available on www.vectis.co.uk or www.invaluable.com, or TELEPHONE BIDDING can be arranged.

For telephone bidding please contact Vectis prior to the day of the auction. We will arrange for you to be involved live via telephone on the day of the sale. We will call you two or three lots prior to the lot being offered for auction.

There is no charge for telephone bidding.  

SHIPPING

Please be aware there is still a slight delay with our current despatch times.

Our packing team have been working hard to catch up with the 5 weeks closure we experienced in March/April. When we re-opened in April we did so with a skeleton staff, we are now back to full capacity and they have been working tirelessly to ensure your parcels are packed as quickly and professionally as possible; the team are now currently packing and despatching September Sales. 

We thank you for your understanding and patience in these unprecedented times. 

COLLECTION   

If you wish to collect items, we would ask customers to first call and pay for their purchases. Ask for a collection appointment date and time. This will allow the packing team to prepare your items and have them ready for you, reducing waiting times.  

PLEASE ENSURE YOU WEAR A MASK WHEN COLLECTING LOTS (UNLESS EXEMPT)

Please note we will be closing for the Christmas break on Thursday 24th December

and will reopen Monday 4th of January 2021.

 

If you would like to collect your Lots before we close, please contact the office

to arrange a collection date and time.

 

And Vectis can - as always - be contacted here;

Vectis Auctions
Fleck Way, Thornaby,  Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel - +44 (0) 1642 750616
Fax - +44 (0) 1642 769478
Sales [currently] commence at 10:30hrs 10:00hrs

Sothern Office
Unit 5A, West End Industrial Estate, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 1UB
Tel - +44 (0)1993 709 424

SCUBA is for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

I think . . . I didn't check it! And invented or developed from nascent military experiments to commercial/civilian-use by Jacques Cousteau and his team of early eco-filmographers.

There really only appears to be one set of note out there which is the Lone Star set of eight, upon which most others have then be derived, there are stand-alone figures from smaller toys - the two Britains Minisets for instance, Ideal - and Jecsan did some nice ones with sea creatures, but Lone Star seem to have carried the day over four or five decades with this subject.

They were issued in three schemes, these are the 'James Bond' set, referencing the movie Thunderball (I think?) and were the last version so the easiest to find, as (like the Afghans) there was a number of ex-shop stock boxes, of near-mint examples, kicking around after the hobby got organised in the mid-1980's.

They went alongside bare-skin versions (as enemy), pink plastic with coloured swimming-trunks, while the first versions were in the same heavy-rubber suited (military?) black of the mini-sub' crew we saw in the previous post.

There are eight poses altogether, but I've not found the chap carrying a wrench yet. Two of the figures (top left) are designed to stand up (not very successfully!), one shining a light, while the other chisels something off a rock-face or sunken hull . . . or sets charges on a bridge!

Much copied, the little 'lamp' being replaced by a more substantial arc-light type thing, they can be found in various sizes - at least four. Most of these are later types, with the additional swimming pose (middle-left) and have all had their tanks enlarged. Some of these may still be out there if you're lucky, but are common-enough in mixed lots on feebleBay.

The two larger (yellow and white) ones, with both arms forward, are from another source and were just in the tub with the multi-coloureds!

Most of the previous shot originate with these reprobates; Hing Fat, although they will have copied them from the slightly earlier (slightly bigger) ones! This is the 'two-kids' logo packaging; from a 2006 magazine ad.

These are also based-upon the Lone Star sculpts, although there are changes, and my 'young' collection is mostly Hong Kong-marked (usually on the flipper) copies, although I think these are mostly earlier than the previous multicoloured ones (some of which are 'China' marked), with a possible original (Spanish?) top left, but he's so tatty it's hard to tell - however he's larger and unmarked. The three main sizes are all painted with the same scheme of yellow helmet/hood and red straps.

Likewise the pair at the bottom may be LS originals, but are so play worn as to be un-callable. The major change with these is that they have a rudimantry chest-pack breathing apparatus, rather than tanks on the back, a situation reversed by the four newer HK/China figures who have had tanks added (middle row), and a possible new pose with dart-gun, but he may be in the earlier sets, I've only found a few of each?

The chap middle-right is from, or belongs to, the previous 'hing fat' line-up where he's the smallest size, as a guide to all of them.

The conversions; from Lone Star on the left, and back to air-tanks on the right, the left is marked 'Hong Kong' on a flipper, the right is unmarked but has all the hallmarks of a 1980/90's rack-toy/carded-bag type figure and I may have seen them in a set with a rubber boat, but I can't find the referance.

F is for Follow-up - 007

Just a quickie, the loose one was actually under my nose at the time of the previous visit to this . . . hay-ho!

Obviously, pushing down on the nipple sticking out of the turret releases a catch and the rubber band is supposed to send the flame 'tongue' shooting-out, on mine the band has lost a fair deal of its original power so it's not exactly an instant action!

Once fired the tongue just lolls there until you push it back in, looking as realistically like flames as my foot! But it was only a cheapie rack-toy , which is why it also sometimes catches on the 'lips' of the mouth and doesn't fire at all.

Not the best .gif I've done, lighting's poor and it's a bit jerky, but it gets across the action!

007 is for Secret Agent Rack Toys

These are a bit of a weirdness, they continue to attract a high premium, price-wise, despite being nothing more that Hong Kong rack-toys, and quite common. By quite common I mean there is always a good lot of these, seemingly in every general toy sale, at either Vectis or SAS and they are often on evilBay, while the figures can be found loose at most toy fairs - and I don't just mean the odd toy soldier shows, but the workaday, several-a-week, general toy-fairs!

Still, they are better made than most HK stuff, original sculpts and James Bond related, and it's that which keeps their value-up. We're not looking at the figures today, but the oddity of the line - the baddies' vehicles - which come in at a passable 1:76/72nd scale.

Gilbert's carded James Bond Action Toys of Doctor No's Dragon Tank (turned out to be DUKW I seem to recall and the two-into-one hydrofoil of Mr. Largo. reflection is always a problem photographing blistered sets and this was further complicated by being shot outside on a blazing-hot day!

The 'tank' which is passed off as a dragon in the swamps of Dr. No's secret island base and which - in the film - was equipped with a flame-thrower. I do have a lose one (or two, but the second is broken?) of these somewhere so we will return to it in close-up one day, but suffice to say, if you press the nipple on the cupola, the flame-mouth shoots forwards a centimeter or so, with all the spectacle of a biscuit breaking! Hay, they were simpler times!

The silver shaft - looking like a convincing gun-barrel is actually the mast of the boat sticking up behind the tank!

Not so clear images for Largo's boat, but basically it's two halves with the rear, stern section clipping over the hull of the forward part, to be jettisoned in the bath for a quick getaway!

That's it - expensive rack-toys - they're a bit of an oxymoron!