L is for Last May's Lots of Lovely Loot - Military Figures

On to the second post of the plunder from May's Sandown Park (the next show's on Saturday), and it’s the military stuff, which was a quite eclectic assortment from across the ranges of scales, materials, and eras depicted.

 

This was a lovely find, a very, very clean Kentoys guardsman, with the correct (for purposes of identification of several vertions ) Sentry Box, in a near mint box which also shows how the stretcher-party was sold from the same carton.

 

And, speaking of stretcher teams, this Starlux set came home with me, I know I have the small-scale set in several configurations of base-type, paint, or plastic colour, but I'm not sure about the big one, I think I may have a stretcher, but no casualty or orderlies?

 

And these were a nice find, despite being the less loved of the company's output, they are every-bit as historical (as artifacts) as their earlier Nazi brethren, being instead, the East German, collectivised Lineol factory's production of Volksarmee Cold War soldiers, with both the Soviet-influenced helmet and side-caps. The sculpting is much more 'wooden' that their pre-war/wartime stuff.

 

This came with them; I always like a bit of scenery! But I have no idea which side of the border, or even which side of the war, this was made! The pack suggests West, the quality post-war, so probably Elastolin, but unmarked.

 

 

Grist to the mill with these, and the foot figures are a bit bashed, but it's all useful stuff, and these Culpitt/Wilton cake decorations are polystyrene, so paint and glue is probably in their future? It would be nice to do a few of the French/Hessian uniforms.

 

I can never resist these smaller-scale, early British mounted subjects (here, Cherilea 50mm'ish), as there are quite a few of them (Cherilea, Crescent, Rocco & Hill), they tend to come in various plastic and/or paint colours, and are often a bit play-worn, so making sure you have the best sample, means grabbing them whenever you can!

 

A soap guardsman! Needs a careful damping to lose the white bruises, but I'll save that job for a day when I have the time, space and tools for the task, as you don't want to wreak it! I tried an Avon search, and he doesn't seem to be one of theirs (which were normally ' . . . on a rope'), so a minor make, a seasonal or touristy novelty!

 

Chess set figure, seen before, I think, but all need bringing together and comparing.

 

And from Adrian's cheapie tray I got some nice, hollow-cast lead samples. Without the books in front of me I won't try to ID them definitively, but US Marine and colonial Brit', on the left, colonial and regular French on the right, and some of them Britains (including the small one, a B-Series?), maybe a French made one or two?

M is for Motor Racing Series . . .

 . . . which extended to two sets! I picked this rareish carded set up from a mate a few weeks ago, I'd actually gone-over for an Arab, but he happened to have two of these, and I talked him out of the slightly tattier one!

 

 

 

The Kentoys Grand Prix mechanics, possibly designed in partnership with Victory Industries, the slot-racing and motor-boat people from Guildford. You can see the other set, St.John's Ambulance volunteers, as little stick-men in the background of the artwork!

 

They also did the wonderful set of six Dan Dare figures, in partnership with Eaglewall, and of which we have seen various elements of, here before, as indeed we have seen these loose, I think, even unto the very white-walled spare tyre, so really a bit of a box-ticker, but, it's a nice thing!

Q is for Question Time - 'ello, 'ello, 'ello!

Another plea for help from Chris Smith with another interesting figure; going full civi' this time but remaining in uniform with an unknown Policeman;

In Chris's own words; "Another unknown, hard plastic 60mm scale well painted factory paint but sadly missing a hand  . . .  Metal square pin sticking out of the base, looks like it was plugged in to something which drove it round or was he the key to wind something?. Made a base stand out of an odd chess piece so it can stand."

And; "Pictured [here] with Timpo to the left, Kentoy/Cavendish to the right and a Hong Kong copy of Timpo (or is it?..)"

My own thoughts were that it might be a tourist keepsake type item, but not necessarily British, I was thinking somewhere like Gibraltar, Malta, even Cyprus? Or; one of the Caribbean islands? Anywhere that had the UK style uniform in the post war period?

The metal locating-spigot is a tad-too substantial and serious-looking for a toy figure, so it may have been on a bit of polished stone, or a wooden plinth similar to the one Chris knocked-up from a chess piece?

The sculpting style is similar to a polystyrene Tyrolean squeezebox-player I have somewhere (who is on a plastic plinth or pencil sharpener I think), so both may have come from the same manufacturer, supplying the museum/tourist trades? Equally; he could be from a board-game?

Anyone got any other ideas? Or on the far right figure in the second picture (BR Moulds?) Anyone got a complete one?

S is for Speedwell and Friends

Except some of them were probably less 'friends' than pirating little rip-off merchant, shit-bags! But, as Speedwell can/could hardly claim a totally original inventory, it's all a moot-point?

This was sitting in Picasa for a silly reason; I'd found a whole bunch of these, and only when sorting them for photographing them did I realise they were the over-spill from a master collection, or swaps, so put them to one side while I waited for the master collection to turn-up in the 'from-storage' lot.

At some point these turned-up, and I shot them thinking they were the master collection, but I don't actually think they are, because they don't contain the farm items in the overspill/spares pile, meanwhile, I'd forgotten where I parked the spares pile, so they aren't here either!

In other words, what's here is some of the master collection being most (or all?) of the Speedwell Battlefield Accessories I have, and some copies, along with an archive shot, but missing all the farm/civil stuff in red plastic (probably most (or all?) of the Trojan I have), except those that are here . . . if that makes sense!

These are definitely, 100%, 24-carat Speedwell! I can say that with some authority as they are both clearly marked Speedwell Made In England! The number 1 pertains to the next-but-one image. Points to note are clean sculpting and surface detail, cracked plaster modelled to the inner wall surface and a sharpness to the 'steps' in the broken brickwork.

There are two cavities seen here, with the one on the right being the 'copy' with a loss of etching-detail and a slightly drunk arch, 'leaning' to one side.

We then get these, and from the level of detail it would appear that they may have originated in time (chronologically), as numbered? With the 2 a quite close but smooth inner-walled copy (Trojan?), the 3 losing detail to the coping-stones and broken-brickwork and in a glossy plastic (Benbros?) and the 4 being so crude at to have been carved by a myopic invalid!

The 2 and 3 both taken from the second Speedwell one with the lean getting more noticeable on each in turn (hence my numbering), but the 4 has a more even arch.

It's also smaller overall with a smaller window and smaller arch with machine-routed stone-work on the inner-wall, however, it has traces of that dark (decades dried Evostick) glue residue known from Blue Box sets . . . and Cherilea sets? Goes off to Cherilea folder on dongle . . .

. . . to find nothing obvious, they have a similar, thinner version in the later window-boxes, but not this 4. However when looking at the bases the 2 stands out as having the least 'copy' base, I still think it came after the 1, but suppose the 4 was first, just cruder in sculpting, with the brown one possibly an independent copy, contemporaneous with the marked-Speedwell and the 2 being last?

The small window suggests the numbering is more correct than the musing, but it's not clear; anyone got any other bright ideas?

Really pleased with this collage, I shot the dark-green ones (1 & 2) years ago (thank you to John Begg) knowing they would come in useful one day, and then the shiny one came in with the 'big purchase', and is clearly a latter specimen, remember; they (Speedwell) did shiny troops at the end).

But also what we see is that they obviously had problems with the tool, probably getting the product off the mould as a wide, flat dome would 'cling' a bit wouldn't it? So, the left-hand of the two chalky, dark-green ones (2) has had both a couple of release-pins fitted (rim-edge, north and south) and a reinforcing ridge added - presumably a few exist with the pin-marks but no ridge - as the act of engaging the pins bent the cooling moulding (it's quite thin across the top), so a stiffener was added as a spine below the surface?

Finally in my example (3), and having failed to solve the problem with the previous changes (?), four more release-pins have gone-in to force the product off the mould with six pins! the edge/rim has been 'heavied-up' and evened-out at the same time, presumably with the same idea in mind as the earlier spine - keeping the product true after it's got off the tool?

The barbed-wire may not be original and consists of security wire of the sort used by gas and electrical fitters to seal meters and junction-boxes with a lead-plug which is stamped over a loop of uneven wire. I think wire 'escape saws' in WWII were a similar design, but a harder material? By the way, while I say 'may not be original'; given the 'made-yesterday' state of the plastic and paint I think it probably is factory-fitted, and both examples in the Plastic Warrior 'Special' on Speedwell have it fitted . . . incidentally; that publication also has an apple-green base version of the 2 moulding.

All marked Speedwell, the white one having lost nearly all of its paint which seems to have been mostly a yellower olive-green. Of the two tan ones; one is all hand-painted (left of pairs) the other (right) is part airbrushed, it has had a stone removed from the low end. Also, note that the left-hand of the two tan ones has only been painted on one side, the other fully painted (and airbrushed) on both sides.

Unmarked for the both, but internal wall detailing and door/window colour say contemporaneous with the 1-wall (above) and they go well together to make a destroyed out-building, stable or hovel.

I haven't a clue! The one on the left is the simpler of the two and quite glossy and probably equates to the brown 3-wall (above), while the multi-coloured one seems to be of similar agency to the 4-wall?

The only clue I do have is that neither are Speedwell; the recent Plastic Warrior magazine's special (post forthcoming) on Speedwell shows marked versions of this with no loophole and a wider or more-spreading base, I think it's made of fatter pillows too!.

I'm lovin' the colour of the right-hand one, despite the lack of realism, it evokes all sorts of 1960's plastic tat, not least Marx Miniature Masterpiece and Merten plastic display-trays or various forts!

I think an over-zelous fettler may have also removed the top sand-bag from the brown one? As an aside - I wonder if George Musgrave had a hand in any of the above? The first wall section has similarities with his little bridge-pieces and Kentoys could be one of the names in the frame for some of the unattributed versions of this stuff?

We will return to these when either the 'rest' turn-up or the big bag of spares, as there's plenty in that to be going on with, I just have to remember where I've put it down!

Q is for Question Time - W is for Who Knows?

We’ve looked at these before, years ago and garnered no clue, so we'll chuck them up here again in the forlorn hope that someone knows something about them, because, not to put to fine a point on it; they're not terribly rare, and turn up quite often.

The first five images are from Chris Smith and I hope he won't mind me saying they weren't the best, but I've done what I can to embiggen them, and brighten them up a bit . . .

. . . and these are they, you should recognise them if you collect ceremonial, early British plastic, or 54mm. They are similar to both, and almost the cross-pollinated offspring-of; Britains Herald and Gemodels, being (I seem to recall - they're not in front of me) between the two in both size and sculpting and are manufactured in a non-chalky polyethylene.

Moving arms on shoulder-pegs (as opposed to arm-spigots) and their similarity to the slightly smaller Gem's might suggest a second version from Gem, or contracted by Culpitt from Gem (I don't think I've ever seen them with icing-remains?) or someone else?

Now I was going to stick my neck out here, put my neck on the block and get a bit necky, necking-it with the suggestion that the connection with Musgrave at Gem Models might lead us to the door of the Kenway Cycle Shop and Kentoys, but, apart from the fact that there was a flaw in that suspicion, namely; Kentoys already had a Household Cavalryman, with a swappable arm, as we've seen here, previously at Small Scale World, who was handed-on to Cavendish, and produced in both colours (red and blue), There is a third option, as 'obvious' as Gem or Kentoys . . .

. . . Airfix! The only other figures commonly appearing with this dead-centre, front-of-base, mould-release pin mark, are the early Airfix 'eight' later issued by Featherlight in Australia and an unknown New Zealand firm, both of whom issued the figures with the same marks, as it's a 'signature' of the tool (and possibly the tool-manufacturer), not the sculptor, although - a caveat - they may have started 'down' there and come 'up' here, no one's sure?

[I think the one with a dark-green base (asterisked) has been repainted by an owner?]

The arguments for each are good, lots of companies produce two versions of some of their figures, so both Gem/Culpitt and Kentoys/Cavendish could be in the frame, while those base marks are very Airfix (and are now my favored option), however, the bases are painted the same colours as all those minor make offshoots - Speedwell, Trojan, Una and VP we tend to associate with Kentoys - though the khaki infantry.

Seen here previously but I couldn't be arsed to dig them out and re-shoot them!

Also the horse is more of a Britains' piracy (mounted highland officer?), so while it would be nice if they were Gemodels, nicer-still if they were Kentoy and really-nice if they were Airfix, I suspect we have to also look to the four pirates for our answer, and recent developments in Plastic Warrior?

And the obvious one there is Speedwell, as they turned to un-chalked, glossy polyethylene for their later khaki infantry and Cowboys & Indians?

They (the figures) only seem to have had Lifeguard iteration (no blue ones) and may well have been produced for a third-party supplying the tourist-novelty/keepsake market . . . even Cavendish!

The mark is not reproduced on the [what I believe are] Trojan versions of the Airfix paratrooper which now looks to be from the recently discovered (by Colin Penn) BR 'plastic machine' moulds, which would leave Trojan (if they had some or a set of those moulds) as a second front-runner in a five horse race! And; might point to these being from BR tools, but re-fitted for commercial operation in a bigger multi-cycle machine, as they are far more common than most of the stuff it now looks like came from there?

However, there's no sign of a release-pin on those moulds for which the front is shown in PW's 176 (current) and 174 (back-issues and subscriptions available), so they would need to have been Airfix first, to have had the mark reproduced, if they were BR, and if so for these; why not for the paratrooper?

What do you think . . . or know? Have you found dodgy, crumbly or polystyrene versions of these, with odd paint or no paint? Colin? I hate to point the finger, but you've got the BR mould list . . . any Lifeguards or 'Household cavalry' listed?

I favour Airfix, from the commercial aspect and numerousness of them AND the base mark, but they may-well have made them exclusively for a third party contract, and Airfix had had a Household Guardsman of their own in the 'Bergan/Beton' set? Is that plastic the same colour as the late, post-chalk, slightly flashy, HO-OO Guards?

Also Airfix seem to have indulged in a bit of piracy over the years and mightn't have wanted their name associated with these Britains knock-offs? But that only means they must have (or 'probably') had another branding, if only a phantom?

Chris - many-thanks for the images; 'probably maybe might be' Airfix . . . for . . . someone else? And . . . can you set me an easier one next-time!!

S is for Sentry-Box Ticking!

Not the greatest sample I'm sure, compared to some of your collections, but I've only been fagged with this large-scale malarkey for ten years, and larger items - like 'large-ticket items' - tend to be a lower priority! But, and as with totem-poles, I do grab them if they're going cheap, others have come-in in mixed lots, while a core of British designs were in the big purchase.

The two main British makers have both had a stab, Timpo (right) went with one tool, manufacturing in two colours and then gluing opposite-colour pieces to each other for a choice of two, otherwise identical boxes!

Britains (left) had three, the Herald one in the middle we'll return to in a second, there was a larger one in the later years (which is a near-copy of their (or T&B's (?)) earlier hollow/slush-cast one I think?) and the semi-flat or relief 'stage scenery' one from late Herald [Hong Kong]'s windowed, long-box sets.

Returning to the earlier Herald version; it gave rise to a family of near-identical, but different boxes, with here from the left; Herald, Kentoy, Cavendish, and two unknown's either of which may (or may not) be Trojan, UNA or VP, or even Speedwell . . . or someone else entirely?

Rather than try to explain all the differences, it's easier to present them as a table for those whose levels of geekiness equal mine to pore-over and compare with the above images!

I will waffle over the marks though! (1) is obviously the Herald design, (2) is the Kentoys version, which - frankly - is the [slightly] better design, it's a tad 'cleaner', more symmetrical and better etched than the Herald version. (3) is the Cavendish version, it's clearly had an attempt at removing the 'KENTOY' first line, although it remains readable if you do that 'turning-it in the light' thing!

I think (4) is the one credited to UNA in the Plastic Warrior 'special' of 2009, it's also seen in grey (as a copy) in the Kentoys special of the same year; it has a heavier gable/roof edge? Trojan don't have one listed (so far!), neither do VP (yet), but then there is (5) waiting for an ascribing too!

Also; given the similarities between the Herald and Kentoy ones, might Gemodels' Musgrave be in there somewhere, I had presumed Norman Tooth for both similar designs? Although there's no larger ex-Herald one in the new Speedwell 'special' (post due . . . overdue!), one has to consider them for the unknown '5' above along with the other possible 'names'?

I seem to have crammed the rest into one collage, but that's how the cookie crumbled, so that's how it is and what we have to work with!

Image A has the 'foreigners', with Афина (Athena) from Greece at 1, and Reisler's equally common Danish box at 2, both have been sold as tourist keepsakes for decades and are just as common as Britains' examples. 3 is from Hong Kong and must be from larger playsets? The Riesler has an incorrect flag, actually taken from a Guards musician!

Image B shows - on the right (2) what I'm pretty sure is Crescent's wooden one which ran alongside their figures through both the hollow-cast and plastic years, but I have a half-an-inkling the heavy steel 'tin-plate' one is Crescent too? But I stand to be corrected by someone who does know! Chris Smith is to be thanked for sending the wooden one to the Blog the other day.

Image C is not that clear, I used to think they were die-cast (and probably Wardie/Mastermodels; they're quite small?), but they may be a hardish whitemetal ('lead') slush-cast, which would open the field of possible makers considerably?

Image D has the diminutive Speedwell box on the right and an unknown wooden giant (also from Chris Smith - thanks again Chris) on the left, the chevron stripes are a bit 'Euro' looking and I suspect a reasonably modern, probably infant's wooden castle or building-blocks type set?

All of them in size-order with the two 'middle' ends duplicated and the addition of the little Airfix one from the Guards Colour Party on the far end of the last line-up. The Athena one should have a sentry glued to it - like the Reisler one

Favorite? I quite like the little may-not-be-Mastermodels may-not-be-diecsat, I'm 'pleased' with the Speedwell from the big purchase, but I don't think you can beat the octagonal Reisler with its pointy, fairy-tale roof and Royal-cipher transfer if you are thinking of starting a collection of these.

Now, it was the arrival of the two wooden-ones from Chris that pre-empted this post, the two (now three) tubs had been here for some time waiting for a post's photo-shoot, but also waiting to have the sentry-boxes here sorted into them, which may not have happened? I can't remember!

It doesn't really matter, but there may be a creamy- or dirty-white version of the yellow Hong Kong one somewhere, and possibly a Starlux one (another common one for tourism reasons) although we have seen the small-scale version here at Small Scale World in the past. Also missing is the Hong Kong [and/for] Cavendish one, with its plinth, but that's also been on the Blog, recently!

I have another small-scale lead one somewhere, which featured with a penguin and some Danish Guards years ago, possibly on HäT as a long-gone Imagshack-upload, but I'm not sure where they've ended-up . . . they're here somewhere; along with a flat one.

There are plenty of cheapie-kahki types from rack-toy playsets, but they are another thing altogether, there's a few small-scale card ones kicking around in the 'paper' crate I think and I used to have the mail-away with 'stars' 1:12th Action Man one, which differed in design from the retail one, both were heavy, mounting-card.

Also Fujimi, Hasegawa and Nitto produced small ones with check-point kits as did Airfix in 1:32, in fact I think I have one somewhere? I seem to recall a bag of grey polystyrene bits (no bridge?) came in at some point - possibly from Jim?

So, we'll have to return to them sooner rather than later! In the meantime, thanks to Chris for triggering this post.

R is for Redcoats

I can't believe I haven't had that title before? Maybe I have!

Following-on from the policeman and - like the previous post - re-shot after everything had been brought together; it's the Guards, from Cavendish, Hong Kong and possibly Kentoys (Having used Kentoy earlier, I'm adding the 's' for this post - they used both!).

The earlier shot had the figures out of what I suspect is the correct order of issue, but - if more than one Hong Kong maker is involved - not necessarily? The figures marked '1' above are the Cavendish sculpt (Charles C Stadden's work, or George Musgraves?) They have a distinctive plume on the right of the bearskin.

The Hong Kong figures of which there are two distinct versions (and a sub-variation discussed below); numbered '2' and '3' above are all manufactured in polystyrene.

The updated shot gets them in the 'right order' and adds a Cavendish original as the first figure on the left, which, although better painted has a brush-slip hidiosity for a white rifle-sling!

Now, if the Kentoys sculpt is a Norman Tooth effort (as claimed by Mr Tooth in his interview for the eponymous PW special on the firm) and the figure numbered '1' above is a Stadden sculpt where is the Musgrave design; the PW special having listed three?

Might it be that the reference to the Stadden 'sentry' was a crossed-wire with the band's officer (marching) and the sentry above is Musgrave's work, the quality of the sculpt could be either Stadden or Musgrave, but the PW special isn't clear and/or doesn't show all three together, while I don't know of another?

As the '2' and '3' are copies of the 1, almost certainly originating in the copyist-shops of a certain British Crown Colony, I seem to be short a sculpt (and any copies of that sculpt), for the Tooth-Stadden-Musgrave line of evolution given in the PW Cavendish work?

The 1b's are made of a dense polymer more akin to polypropylene than ethylene and seem to be quite 'new', also the painting is more HK than Cavendish in style? The [other] HK copies are all polystyrene while Kentoys and Cavendish tended to use chalky polyethylene's, leaving one with a question mark over the 1b's, as to where they were produced, did Michael Martin or Tony Kite ship the tool to Hong Kong quite early - allowing - more easily - for all the copies? Or has/had the tool resurfaced over here in recent years?

The sub-piracies 3a and 3b have some minor differences; sharper fur on the flatter-topped bearskin of 3b and strange painting of the cuffs of the same figure, which may point to a third (or fourth) source in HK, the others being: 65mm copy of Tooth's figure, copy of Stadden/Musgrave (?) sculpt ('2'), and the sub-piracy ('3a'). My '3b' is damaged but from the paint you can see he's got the same shorter version of bayonet as the '3a'.

Three '2's, the one damaged being attached to a sentry box which is also a Cavendish-via-Kentoys sculpt, although there are so many of these (Kentoys & sub-Kentoys sentry boxes) out there, they'll need a similar comparison post one day.

The Norman Tooth design, here in the 65mm HK form, is similar to Timpo's guards' styling (and I may have described it as such in the past, but A) I was only a few years into this big-scale malarkey, B) I seem to be getting the hang of it now and C) nobody corrected me at the time!), but Tooth sculpted some of their (Timpo's) stuff as well.

The 'Grand Parade'! I think the Cavendish 'Tooth' is the damaged one on the far left (gloss painted-base), then a matt-painted base from Kentoys, followed by the 65mm Hong Kong clone of Tooth's sculpt third, a Cavendish Stadden/Musgrave (? For what it's worth - I think it's Musgrave), the two odd ones, four '2's and finishing with the two 3's on the far right.

B is for British Bobby

It's a funny one, but occasionally something so stupid comes out of Paul Stadinger's tiny mind it's worth a laugh, and this is one of those occasions.

I try quite hard not to park my tanks on other people's lawns, and if I have to, or think I'm going to I will usually post a link of homage to the earlier event, or tip a nod to the site I feel I may otherwise offend, the obvious example would be Halloween.

And - for the same reasons - if someone posts something I also have in the queue, I will usually hold-off on my post for a while until the dust settles, and probably re-write the blurb to give it a different 'take', theme or angle to the other, earlier post.

Sometimes - in the case of stadsshite - I have ignored that 'rule' and  with purpose as I did with the Asian flats (and something else recently I've already forgotten) as I'm keen to see this mythical collection of TJF's and having seen precious little evidence of it so far; try to encourage him, which seems to work - witness this post and all his plinth'ed Marx recently!

But a while ago, I was preparing an article which meandered rather from nurses, through medics to stretcher bearers and ended up with policemen. A week or two before I posted, the shitestuff blog happened to show - as a 'don't know' (he doesn't know much it seems from the last 12 months activities there, or even the last few weeks!) - one of the policemen I, too, was about to show! Mr Carrick of this parish (but firmly affiliated to the PSTSM) identified it as Cavendish.

"Well (I thought) I'm not pulling a post for the sake of a couple of common-enough figures, on that twits site" and ran with it regardless, it was more about the Mettoy hospital stuff anyway, but I ID'd mine as Kentoy or Cavendish as I wasn't sure which one I had or how to tell between the two. Then two days later . . .

. . . this happened! Let's play 'I've got one of those too!' shall we? Yes - lets!

Pathetic on several levels, firstly; that a 'legend' (his word not mine) feels the need to prove himself against an amateur like me, second; I'd shown three versions, so he's only actually saying 'I haven't got as many as him' anyway, third; waxing lyrical about something he'd know nothing about, a few weeks earlier and needed prompting on, and  . . .

. . . finally he's not going to believe the other one is from Hong Kong until somebody - he trusts - holds his hand and tells him it's going to be alright! It's too funny. In attempting to question my knowledge, he ends up looking both childish and stupid; I only look childish in these posts!

As I'm sure he receives all the PW Specials he seems to have missed all the 'knowledge base' contained within both the Kentoy and Cavendish publications on the subject, remaining in the dark and needing help?

Of course not - he's having a dig and why not; he has to save-face somehow! It's just that he keeps choosing the wrong way to go about it, or the wrong targets . . . or both! That reminds me - I have to return to Tatra (deal with his pre-Crimbo nonsense), but in the meantime; if it's 'I've got one of those' we're playing . . .

. . . I've got four! Because another one came in at some point after the last post! I'm pretty sure - for reasons that will become clear - mine (far left figure) is in fact a Kentoy issued/painted moulding, but that doesn't mean it wasn't issued by Cavendish as I believe they obtained all the Kentoy stock, which would have included finished, ready-to-retail figures.

The second figure looks as if it's been removed from one of the Guard's sentry boxes, but I suspect it's been torn from a snow-globe?

WRONG! I've got six, some more have come in - that's what happens when you're a collector, rather than a dealer; you accrue stuff - sometimes at an alarming rate!

No, not really, I'm lying (for the cause of dramatic effect!); the 'storage' stuff has been added to the 'here' stuff along with the figures erroneously left in the mixed constabulary tub, while a boxed-set I was waiting-on from Christmas came-in at Sandown Park the other day!

From the left, Kentoy, Cavendish, Hong Kong 60mm copy and three paint-treatments of the HK 54mm piracy. The reason I believe the left hand one is Kentoy's is down to the matt-green base; Cavendish - although using matt paint for Guards bandsmen and Henry VIII bases, seem to have preferred gloss for most of their lines?

The base marking of the 60mm's is similar to Blue Box road-menders, but also some Lucky stuff (or sub-Lucky?), so it proves nothing, the three above being numbered 2 (policeman), 3 (Guardsman) and 4 (Houshold Cavalry - in this case Horse Guards, or 'Blues'). The Number 5 mark goes to the Beefeater (seen here [nine] years ago), which leaves a hunt for number 1?

Strangely - it was the Lifeguard ('The Royals'), who although resembling the Horse Guard in every other respect needed to be run in a different colour polymer, which would leave a single mould suffering twice as much wear as the other 'three'? A duplicate tool for a five count left them all ageing/wearing at the same rate!

Now, they were probably five cavities in a single tool (I've assumed five . . . or two (red and blue) tools for the sake of argument in the previous paragraph!) which might mean that a lot of red policemen and blue Guards and Beefeaters went straight-back for re-grind, but I suspect the cavities could be blanked-off between colour-runs.

I seem to have shot this in 2013, probably when it came in (PW show?) and if I don't use it now, it will never be used and just sit there on the dongle like the proverbial 'spare penis' at a wedding!

Returning to the jabbering fuckwit, back in October of last year he accused me of telling him not to copy me;

"One final thing don’t tell me not to copy you. First I will not copy your information Hugh. Second if  I cover the same item it will be on a different aspect of the figure.  Final he does not bother me at all.  Just very sad person who needs to channel his hate somewhere else."

That'll be two final things then! Too funny . . . or 'two' funny! But I what actually said was;

"If you're going to sit in my dust copying my recent output, at least try to get it right!"

Accepting both that he would continue to take his lead from my blog (which he is consistently so doing) and accepting that he keeps getting it wrong, which he consistently continues to!

He added nothing - by way of a 'new aspect' to the police reprise, except to name-drop and act knowledgeable about a subject which had been strange to him a few weeks earlier (without crediting the person who put him right), and in recent weeks he has failed to identify Chromoplasto (some of the most distinctive Spanish rubber out there) despite correcting me - a year ago - on 70-year old odd Spanish rubber figures I was 100% sure I didn't know, he's substituted one company's name for another and he got his Cherilea and Charbens mixed-up . . . again!

That knowledge-base of his [not] working overtime! I don't know why he bothers with Cherilea or Charbens, he always gets them wrong* - despite presumably having the PW Specials? What a legend . . . Ladies and Gentlemen; call me a 'pesky kid' if you must, but I'm telling you - the 'Emperor' has no clothes! The mighty 'legend' is a straw-dog.

In conclusion; the message seems to be - don't trust what I say, ring somebody else in the UK you can trust and ask them, don't ask TJF; he doesn’t know!

*I've got them wrong too; with the [Cherilea] foal, but there's a follow-up on that, forming in the long-queue!