A is for Armée Française a l'Alkastap-Altaplast

Or at least they were packed and branded as Alkastap in one of their un-marked iterations, they were probably actually made by Injecta Plastic who did a fair bit of premium type stuff.

Best - and first - known as Bonux premiums, we did look at them back at the start of the blog and there wasn't anything particularly wrong with the post's blurb, but the pictures were a tad kak-shite, so this is more of an excuse for a return, than a specific follow-up! With added big-guns!

Bonux Premiums, three sets of four figures, all depicting French troops of the brush-fire wars/end of colonialism period; Indochina and Algeria; with sets in Foreign Legion kepis, para berets and infantry helmets. Bonux is marked on the flatter side of the bases which slope with fluted-hollows underneath, like Mokerex coffee-premiums, and might - therefore - share a tool-maker.

The FFL haven't improved since we last saw them with a lot of chucking and waving going-on and not much weaponry-fighting! Although all the grenadiers are otherwise un-armed as well, so the whole unit of 12 aren't going to hold Firebase Gabrielle for long!

They were also available unmarked in the same colours as the Bonux premiums and silver (left hand picture) manufactured in the same softish 'Airfix' polyethylene, while the right-hand picture shows figures issued in a harder 'Hong Kong' polymer which may be an ethylene or a polypropylene, having a denser, tinier propety, and may be far more recent? Colours are brighter too.

In both cases they have been posed, crewing Bonux giveaway artillery, for whom I have to thank Chris Smith, as he hid them in his first donation to the Blog a year or so ago. I meant to Blog them much sooner, to which end I sort of hid them in the 'plunder posts' but things intervened (as they do) and they got put-away!

Beautifully scaled to fit the 45mm figures, I don't think it was necessarily intended, Bonux ran lots of lines together and at different times (a bit like Kinder?) and it just so happens they go together so well, maybe the guns are Injecta Plastic as well?

At some point painted versions, also with unmarked bases were issued somewhere, not so common they may have been included is some larger die-cast vehicle or wooden-building type gift set or something at Christmas? I used to think they might be home-painted, but one or two have come separately from the bulk of them?

The other issue I've found is those marked Johnson, in bright yellow, Ludo had bright red and green examples on his old site (I'll check the Forum and post a link at the end if they are there) and I've seen a powder blue one.

Last time (2010) I proffered Johnson & Johnson (pharmaceuticals) or Johnson Wax (household cleaning and hygiene products) as possible's, but I'm told they were/are (?) a chemical and insecticide brand across the Channel; that might still leave JW in the frame here, their US parent and French Subsidiary is SC Johnson?

The upper left image shows distinct colour differences in the Bonux-marked set, from black through dark olive-drab to a mid-olive green, while the lower images is - from the left; Bonux black, Bonux mid-olive, Johnson, unmarked painted, unmarked olive-drab, unmarked silber and the more ridgid unmarked plastic in a jade or mid-green.

I can't thank Chris enough for the guns, when people send stuff to the blog it's usually - and expected to be - esoteric chuck-outs, cheapies and miscellany (as the expression goes) and as it all fills gaps in the whole; is always much appreciated, however, Chris sent these, clearly marked and having a market-value (especially on evilBay.fr), so it was a real act of kindness, in a parcel already full of goodness and good things, and while I rather hid them at the time, it was only for a post like this, and I'm sure we'll see them again - there's lots of guns to compare and contrast one day!

Here a brown version of the single barrel '25lbr', I've seen a bi-coloured one in the same brown and pale fawn or sand, and I've also seen bright blue-single and double-guns and yellow ones.

I couldn't choose between the final two images of the seven-figure line-up, so the other one is above . . . a slightly different angle!

Ludoprimophile - Johnson

Ludoprimophile - Bonux (with lots of guns)

23rd Feb 2021 - How sweet; TJF's found one . . . figure!

B is for Bonux (and other premiums)

During the 1960's and 70's Bonux washing powder nearly always contained a premium/gift of some kind, and with military subjects being to the fore, it was only a matter of time before this French company came to the blog.

The most known Bonux premiums among toy soldier collectors are these three sets of four contemporary French troops in the garb of regular infantry, para's and Foreign Legion. The 'NATO' helmeted lot and para's have reasonable poses and equipment, the FFL are a bunch of shouty-fist-wavy guys with no hope in a fire-fight! Although the guy on the right is missing his stick-grenade...yeah, exactly!...Stick Grenades?

However, I'm being too judgmental, they were toys after all. Coming in various shades of Olive and Olive Drab, they are clearly marked Bonux on the higher side-edge of their sloping bases. The manufacturer is unknown but the bases have a lot in common with the bases of the Styrene figures issued in the larger scales by Mokarex

Bonux also issued sets of AFV's, Aircraft and Civilian Vehicles, both assembled and in kit-form, vintage and contemporary, along with various other figures.

The Yellow Para's are a latter issue of the Bonux figures by a company called Johnson, while the two Bonux members of Louis XV's army are missing their waxed hair-pieces! JC Piffret reports them as being made by a company called Jou-Plat. Likewise the blue figure is Prince Charming to La Roche aux Fees' (a dairy products company) Sleeping Beauty. The magician in black is also by La Roche...

The AFV range are better illustrated in the French Premium site listed in my favorite links column, however I do have an unmarked (all Bonux stuff is well marked) petrol tanker in the same colour of plastic as the half-track, which is not listed on that site, and may be connected via supplier only? If anyone cares to; I have Blue-Box and Tudor*Rose to swap for more examples of these.

Unmarked versions of all the original figures are as commonly available, and I suspect were sold in bags or carded as pocket-money rack-toys by whoever supplied them to Bonux.

Bonux also gave away the National Costumes/Dolls of the World I looked at some time ago, but with an antiqued wash and faux Chinese ebony-wood base. They issued the Kellogg's animals in silver and gold and the Disney Robin Hood characters issued by all sorts of companies all over the place!