C is for Colección de Indios y Cow Boys Humorísticos

This is a weird one? Firstly, it was intended to be the fourth post in the sequence when we looked at the Lik Be / Gordy sets of Wild West kids and knock-off cake decorations, back in June (although I don't think these have any connection with LB, beyond the humerous and Wild West subject matter), and secondly, because I don't seem to have shown my trio on the blog, when they only came in recently, and were intended for this post, whenever I got round to posting it?

 

I've checked the recent show report posts, I've checked the donation stuff from Chris and Peter, and can't find them, so I suspect they may have been a private purchase, which got sorted into the collection, in the normal rhythm of things, and while I would have intended to shoot them, I must have sorted them into the 4x5½ bags I use, and sent them off to storage without shooting them?

 

Anyway, I found them last night, looking for something else, over at the storage site, and brought them back here, thinking maybe I'd posted it all, but 'just in case', and sure enough, no sign of them on the Blog, and the specific post, still in Picasa! So shots taken and we'll look at them and the Jecsan catalogue first, then a bunch of Internet scrapings found over the years.

 

Jecsan catalogue scan, the full set of figures goes to six foot and three mounted each for the two lots of protagonists, with one horse pose each; bareback for the Indians, and saddled for the Westerners. The card for the separate Tipi seems to be designed to make a lithographed 'paper flat' totem pole?

 

The toymen of Hong Kong took two of the foot Indians and one of the mounted cowboys for some revenue generation, probably at the request of a Western buyer, that's how it worked there, but gave the mounted cowboy the Indian horse - presumably because that's what the sample they were given, to pirate, contained?

 

A decent rear-shot

The hat of my cowboy is lacking the mark seen further down the page, he being marked on his back, instead, suggesting at least two lots/tranches of these, with either changes to the tool, or separate tools, a quandary not made easier by them all sticking to the same paint-scheme . . . multiple cavities maybe?

 

Paint, and markings have some similarities with Blue Box production of the era, think either set of Knights or the Jean-cloned Wild West, so these (or 'some' of these) may have come from one of the Tai Sang factories, but we'll probably never know?

 

Looking at these 'Comic Coyboy' cale decorations, from Carrousel, but not owning them, I can only suspect that A) they may be hard polystyrene, against the soft Polyethylene of all the others seen here, and B) might be smaller sub-piracies - a second/third lot/set.

 

The painting is simpler, and indeed, it appears one mounted cowboy/horse combo' is undecorated, but big may/mights here? They also look similar in general execution, to the HK copies of Ajax base-ballers, American footballers and other cake decorations in the same vein?

 

 

There seems to have been one of the many copies of the Britains Herald totem pole also associated with them, but paint differences and plastic colour might point to them just being 'chucked in' to online auction images?

 

A pair of Indians, presumably a similar card has the cowboy and horse in a different blister? The "Cowboy [singular] and Indians [plural] in that heliotrope/carmine-red 'ink stamp' effect font, is found on other Wild West rack toys, and may be another clue to producer, or more likely wholesale agent? But again we're unlikely to ever know!

 

Another pair.

 

The different mark of the possible second lot, I mentioned above. A separate tool or later change to the existing tool? Sadly the pictures in this auction lot (final five images), didn't include a decent rear-shot - as they hardly ever do!

 

The only paint variation with the commoner set, is this cowboy with a red shirt, suggesting a larger set, although a horse is absent, but it makes for a more balanced 2:2 fight in the icing around a chocolate-finger 'log' fort!

 

They aren't really compatible with the Lik Be sets, being more obviously caricature adults, than the cubby-cheeked kids of the LB set, but are cartoony enough to compliment a display of them, should someone want a display of infant-oriented cake decorations! And there's the Lucky Luke figures from Comansi and similar figures from Exin (which may have been sourced from Comansi too), to consider in this genre.

A is for Ancient, African & Agricultural Animals

I know, but I started with the alliterative titles, and I'm determined to get to the end of the plunder-posts with the same trope, so some are going to be a bit weak! Also, I've been a bit blearh, for the fortnight since the show, the heat, work, and a persistent cold, have left me a bit deflated, but I've sort of kept posting . . . if not regularly, becasue I'm rather just going through the motions! Anyway, I've shot the animals, the bits & bobs, and the civilian stuff, so they will be next, with ancient, medieval and 'combat' (the 'proper' toy soldiers!) still to face the camera!

 

Because I included several things from the Friday or Sunday afternoon in the total plunder-pile of 'PW Weekend', the fact that I managed to get to the Car Boot Sale at Bordon, on the Sunday morning, seemed to be a good reason to include my only purchase - I rejected some Corgi military on one stall, and similar Dinky's on another.

 

Somewhere in storage is the old childhood family set, also Merit, but in an older, litho or screen-printed box, and I bought this intending to replace a few missing and broken pieces, in that much-loved and over-played set, only to find it's got an orange beetle, instead of a red one, so I may still need a third, but could end up with enough good parts for five players!

 

Not that you have to build them all one colour, half the fun was making a multicoloured one! Called Scarabee in France, Escarabajo (scarabs!) in Spain, and Cootie in the US (WWI troops slang for body-lice! And which were love-bites over here, when I was a kid?), I'd be quite surprised if a UK collector didn't know they were called Beetle Game, indeed, one might think he was just a dealer all along, not really paying attention!

 

I got this from MM-Smith, who didn't have any new figures in his own range this year, due to the kind of personal shit, we're all suffering, however he did stall-out, and had these, they're quite modern, but he said he remembered having the exact same animals as a kid, which is both believable and likely.

 

Sometimes a maker can be left with a ton of stuff from a cancelled contract, or just a stack of stillages in a warehouse somewhere, filled with over-production, and where it can hang around for years, before another buyer, or selling/marketing opportunity arises, or someone remembers it's ". . . at the back there somewhere", and digs them out, so it's entirely possible, this is old stock in a new CE-rated card.

 

And I've had both the uncommon Hippo sculpt, and the turned-head 'Black Panther' for years, they're having come in with vintage lots, so it's nice to find they go together, and what goes with them!

 

Similar, but much older fayre from Jecsan, as their unpainted/pocket-money JC line, a mix of caveman-like native warriors, and wild animals, a bit of a packaging box-ticker, but equally I don't have any of them in the stash, or I didn't, before the show! Both bags contain two animals, three figures and a cactus!

 

This is the CollectA Quetzalcoatlus, a huge flying dinosaur, which was the idea behind the movie Q: The Winged Serpent, albeit, an inaccurate representation of an Aztec mythological creature! I'm not a great fan of horror movies, but a giant pterosaur picking bikini-babes of the roofs of New York was quite amusing!

 

Beautifully made and decorated, matching the best Schleich or Papo can offer, they tend to be a lot cheaper, but you have to find them online as brick & mortar retail stockists seem thin on the ground. The baby-sauropod snack, in scale, is slightly larger than a human! While the beak is slightly more curved than some reconstructions?

 

Mixed, mostly smaller ones, including a vinyl turkey, Matchbox horse and pearlescent cracker elephant, but that semi-flat red plastic moulding, back left . . . 

 

. . . defies description! It appears to be a lion, eating either a monkey or a human? It's quite damaged, with the legs/lower torso of the 'meal' missing, along with the Lion's other leg, and the tip of its tail, with the result that we don't even know if it had a base, or was a baseless 'charm' of some kind.

 

Does it get any more esoteric? What else was in the set? How bloodthirsty was the rest of the set? Cracker or gumball? Literally, the most interesting thing to come out of the show this year!

 

A couple of funnies, on the right, an Airfix ancient horse bing made to look like an unpainted whitemetal casting, for WTF? reasons! On the left a Merit dog, Hong Kong copy of Merit pony and a piece of Timpo hedge are brought together to make a rustic vignette.

 

In the past I would have stripped these down, but now, I'll probably hang on to them for a while, indecised (is that a word? Undecided-) as to what to do with them, then pass them on to the next generation of collectors in a mixed lot, similar to those they came in!

 

Sold to me as Starlux (!), the Corgi circus elephant, from the Jean Richard 'Pinder' playset (Gift Set No. 48). I think it's been repainted by someone, and is a hollow polystyrene moulding, glued together from about four or five parts.

 

A couple of Erzgebirge, the cow being pretty bog-standard, but the horse slightly above average, with the extra shaping of the legs. Along with a full-on piece of ivory, a tusk, probably from bookends, or similar decorative pieces. Also, two legs; one plastic, one metal; which don't appear to belong to any of the other animals in the plunder pile, so will be heading to a spares tub!

 

Three metal figures, even a plastics show will turn-up the odd piece of metal!, the goat might be a game piece? The mini-dino' is interesting, and a thing a weird shop in Wantage, where I got a wizard years ago, might have had too (in which case I may have one already?), but the Irish Wolfhound may be a jackpot find?

 

It's die-cast aluminium, as a flat. And we've seen such things before here at Small Scale World, but before I place the link, this casting (metal IS cast) has Wolfshond (with an 'o') on the base, now, it's not clear, but I think the Germans would say Wolfshund (with a 'u'). So, if this producer of aluminium flats is actually Dutch, that would help make perfect sense of this outstanding question mark;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/09/r-is-for-return-to-nazi-flats.html

 

The Dutch got a bloody hard time from the Nazi's, and it would make perfect sense for them to produce a satirical, caricature set, soon after the end of the war, and with sources of aluminium like crashed allied and destroyed German aircraft, pontoons, landing craft and similar, all over the place, aluminium might have been a good choice to try starting up a novelty/toy company?

 

And while the base on the dog, is slightly different, and has the title mark missing from the smaller farm and wild animals sets, and the figures, the parallels outnumber the differences? Does any Dutch collector/historian know anything about a flat/semi-flat manufacturer in aluminium? It could equally be Luxembourgish, and they got a hard-time too?

 

And, in fact, all three pieces are die-cast, with the T-Rex and goat both being in some Mazak/Zamac alloy, which is why I suspect a board-game playing piece for the goat?

 

Domestics, the interesting ones here being the unmarked, non-spiggoted version of the Blue Box Japanese officer's horse, here possibly from one of the Red Box factories, or one of the Singapore factories, but could be a knock-off by a rival.

 

The other interesting item is the semi-flat horse, in the style of those Mokarex/Figurines Hostoriques we saw again the other day, marked "CAROLINGIEN" on the facing side above, and "760" on the other side, I'm guessing a French premium, possibly missing a rider in the style of the Kilty/Bonnie Built (et al) US officer, but an ancient Carolingian?

 

Modern vinyls! Schleich Baby Girrafe.

 

Britains polar bear in need of a clean, and a crocodile Adrian gave me, as the show was packing up, looks Hong Kong, but is unmarked and could be an Argentine copy of something Spanish, they had some lovely animated wildlife!?

 

Another Airfix beagle/foxhound, and a rat from one of the Games Workshop/MB Games crossover board games of the 1980's? Probably Hero Quest?

 

Finishing with a Kinder dragon or dragon baby, and four dinosaurs without marks or with generic marks which will need to be sorted into the vast pile of such stuff, against more definitive posts another day, the carnivore is reasonably realistic, and the rather pale sauropod might get matched to his set, by those distinctive eyes!
 

So, that was the animals, thanks to Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin again.

T is for Teixido Return!

Yes, a rather too-cheerful title given my views of bullfighting, but they have to be posted, and while I hate the 'sport' and the idea of it still being a thing in the 21st Century, I take heart in the fact that another Matador was gored to death the other day (at least he got to feel how the bulls felt), and two others have quit, publically, in the ring! One breaking down and sobbing, at the enormity of what he'd been doing, all his adult life, to innocent, proud, confused animals.

 

We'll start at the end . . . of the bull. It's all about the killing of bulls, and, the longer the fight, the weaker the bull gets, so the final flourish, and the applause of the bloodthirsty crowd is utterly pointless, as the bull's so weak by that point it's almost a mercy killing, for what the fighters have been doing for the previous . . . twenty minutes; hour; two hours? I don't care how long the fights take, they are barbarous.

 

These are the Teixido figures (I think? They may go with the Jecsan below?) we last saw on someone else's table with me pointing out I didn't have any, I now have a decent sample, and we're going to look at them now, along with a few others, that have come-in over the last couple of years!

 

Two more mounted figures which I think go with the Teixido set, but I'm not sure, some of them are more rubbery, others are 'ethylene, and while some have separate arms, others don't! And all the horses were polyethylene, but not all the riders went on all the horses!

 

Theses are all Teixido, and there was some judicial swapping of arms, between shots, to get everyone looking correct, and a few bodies didn't get photographed as their arms clearly weren't here! The last one is correct, I think, but the camera-angle makes him look like his plug-in arm is growing out of his back!

 

The guy on the right in the first shot, can be posed to be dragging his red-rag behind him, as we saw last time we looked at these. 

 

I think these are all Jecsan, although one has a more Reamsa style base, so I stand to be better informed on all these, but the whole 'bullfighting zone' sample is quite big now, and when it's all brought together we'll have a proper look at all of them, and compare with the various catalogue images in the archive, to get them all grouped correctly! In fact, I think the standing bull is the Teixido.

 

Jecsan horse, I think, not sure on the rider, who seems to be some kind of referee or officiator? He has a separate cloak, so may also be Teixido.

 

Comparison between a Comansi (?), unknown, unpainted one (which keeps turning up and may be a touristy thing?) and the Teixido horse, his padded-armour/blanketing is of finer etching/sculpting.

 

Jecsan with a Reamsa'ish base, a tourist keepsake, we saw another one (white, plug-on base), years ago, and one of the Teixido's. The tourist one is a polystyrene, hard-plastic solid, with metal pin inserted.

 

Further comparison, with the Torres wine premium on the left and one of the unknown small-scales from 2024's Plastic Warrior show plunder on the right, for some reason I swapped out the Teixido but not the Jecasn?

 

Hong Kong
Seen before, but cropped-tight and lacking the now-dead link to the auction!

 

I had the Jecsan stuff here, but the Comansi and Reamsa stuff is in storage, or on a dongle I can't be bothered to look for, right now! The reamsa'ish base one is it the ring, facing the other way, so he is Jecsan, but no sign of the towing vignette, the Referee, or a dead bull, so that probably is all Teixido after all!

 

While the two we saw yesterday aren't in these scans, so probably are Reamsa, as the Comansi's have bigger bases - it's not made any easier by them all four using the same gloss orange on the bases! I guess, after a thousand years, all that bull's blood has darkened the sand?

 

Please donate.

Imagine if these colourful, dynamic, civilian figures could still be collected, but as 'historical' subjects, rather than examples of man's ongoing cruelty, and inhumanity to everything around him?

S is for Seeing Through, Seeing Double!

Found this on eBay a few minutes ago, postage is a bit rich for UK buyers, but North American/Canadian readers may fancy a punt!

 

Bull & Bull Fighter

I've nicked the image because I've produced a link-back, it's the right thing to do when the item is still live! I think it's a loose copy of one of the Jecsan poses?

 

They've obviously run out of stuff to say about space, so they want to park their tanks on my lawn, but learning 90% of what I've posted here will take them longer than they have left, so five-editors or not, they're on a hiding to nothing? More Gerry Anderson when I get in form work, tonight, I think? What do you think, readers!

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!