C is for Cold War Clones

As well as those sets we've been looking at, a sub-set were produced taken from and using the artwork of the 'Export Series' from Atlantic, the whole box design was retained, but with the red background pinkified (yes, I seem to have made that one up! Spellcheck offered 'zincified' so I think it's vaguely legit'!).

The Atlantic construction schematics were copied as well and copying is to a level where you'd be hard-pressed to tell between them however I suspect side by side there will be a slight size difference, but that check will be another day.

Contents are also the same as the export series; four of everything. I'm pretty sure this is the same set Eko copied in Spain?

All previous comments are true for this set too, with four of each of the smaller version of Atlantic's two similar sets, same artwork, pinkened (spellcheck say "No" to that as well!), same instruction graphic, similar colour plastic to some of those used by Atlantic . . . &etc!

Even the Titles are similar translating as 'Italian Contemporary Wards (modern units) - ...Machine Guns & Mortars or ...Anti-Tank Artillery, so they aren't trying to pass themselves off as Soviet, Polish or other 'Bloc' forces.

K is for Kioskowce III

Wondering whether or not we'd had that title I found that not only had we had it, but we'd had it twice, identically! A quick bit of judicious editing and this now 3-of-3! When you do a series of similar posts/similar subject, the old pink-monkey intelligence can fail you sometimes.

So these are the standard Spójnia sets I have and we're starting with the British, this one is titled British Infantry or 'soldiers' yet is clearly a set consisting of three poses of bereted infantry with the River Launch and crew, all taken from Matchbox, the vessel being cleverest as it's a two-part copy of a die-cast toy from the 1-75 range of original 'match boxes', the six commandoes being from the figure sets.

For accuracies sake, the RAOC (Royal Army Ordnance Corp) or RCT (Royal Corps [of] Transport) used to have a harbour unit with sailor-soldiers! Now both are part of the All Services [Except Fighting] Departmental Corps of Trades or something!

The boat in comparison with the Matchbox original, there are versions with red (fire launches), and black figures out there, and like some of the promotional vans and buses, I was amazed how many versions of it there have been!

My British Commandos seem to have British infantry in . . . humm . . . but this is how they came in so who am I to argue, again taken from Matchbox's 1:76th scale set with a straight two of everything they copied, being the other 14 poses and the mortar from which the beret wearing trio in the previous set were also copied.

The 8th Army and we move to Esci for a bit of plagiarism! Again all the poses have been copied, and one of each is supplied, these have leeched some horrid sticky additive, more usually associated with early, unstable PVC's, and which has rather affected the card which was in the bag with them, leaving brown stains all over it. The leechate remains now as a kind of varnish, almost like dried linseed-oil!

The British Paratroops are also taken from Esci, but using the US Para's with their quite distinctive uniforms, as Esci did a reasonable set of British airborne soldiers I don't know why Spójnia ran with these? Same additive problem with the same damage to the card . . . same colour plastic too, so a dodgy batch?!!

Soviet Russian infantry, only half a set ofEsci's sculpts this time, but two of each and as they are 'dressed up' with the next set as a two part 'Battle of Stalingard' pair, it may be that the other Esci poses are findable in a Spójnia Russian Infantry WWII set?

And that other half consists of the German invaders, taken from Airfix's Paratrooper set, which makes sense as we saw the standard infantry in a half Airfix-half Matchbox set from Spójnia. The poses paired, one runner of 'true' polymer, the other also leeching the sticky slime which becomes hard like varnish giving some of them a greenish or, rather aptly; field-grey hue.

Indeed as that set was called Monte Casino, and this set shares a Stalingrad card with the Russians, it may be that my pointing out of the incongruity last time (of Germans in a set depiction Allied forces) was actually a referance to another, shared, card? As in; with the allies available in another set bearing the same card?

F is for Follow-up - Spojnia . . . or Hobby EME

When we looked at those Spojnia Kioskowce small-scale copies, from Maciej Jasinski's Poland, the other day, I mentioned that I still had to post some Napoleonics by the same maker - well that won't happen as you'll see in the next few posts, but I did find that I had a bunch of other Spójnia stuff, so we're going to work through it.

I also said I thought they ended-up being called Hobby EME, and here we see a set in that later (or just alternate?) branding, being copies of Esci-ERTL's WWII US Infantry, and all fifteen poses have been taken; to quite a high standard, albeit; not Ecsi's finest in the first place!

While here we see the Italian Mountain Troops taken from the same company, and again they've re-used all the poses, but this time there is a noticeable drop-off in quality/finish and if you didn't know better you might think them Spanish Sobres or even Hong Kong/China knock-off's . . . now you've seen them - you know better! And one of Esci's nicer sets, of a - then (mid/late 1980's) - unusual subject.

I also reacquainted myself with the fact I have the 'Hindu Brigade' set too, taken from Atalntic's Indian Brigade (as before - they are dressed as Sikhs, not Hindus!), which answered my question last time about the bladed weapons, they seem to have copied two (of the original Atlantic set's three), and while I have one each of the two users (the third figure to have a 'kukri' in the Atlantic set has his holed filled-in, in this clone-set); Maciej's set had pairs of each, in fact he had pairs of everything, I also only have one MG and gunner.

The other point to note (for packaging collectors) is that while mine (left) has the full Spojnia consumer-panel's info-text (in the yellow box, bottom right-hand corner), Mr. Jasinski's has a blank panel there (top right image) and may represent a crossover from Spójnia to Hobby EME, if the latter was actually later!

K is for Kioskowce II

Well, if TJF's gonna' copy my output I'll copy his! Only in nationality of subject though (and Morawski is in the queue!), it is amusing; he spent six days trying to think of something 'as good as' and ended up following my format but without the research, translations or links! We - loyal readers - are supposed to think this makes him a 'legend' and me the idiot!

Anyway; this isn't copying layout or anything, it's harking back to a previous post here at Small Scale World, when we looked at the 'Kioskowce' (tobacco kiosk's) production of Andrzej Kawecki, based in Lódź (thanks to Konrad Lesiek for the information on that occasion). Also this's been in the queue for five weeks and I said it would post in a day or two; those five weeks ago!

This time we're looking at very similar sets from another producer; Spójnia supplied by (and thanks to-) Maciej Jasinski who reports memories of these figures being produced in Poland between around 1985 and 1987. he's also sent very high-resolution imagery; so be sure to open them in a new tab or window to get the full effect.

Three sets today; each is in a little bag with a stiff card to pull everything together before sealing which has been done with a bread-bag heat-sealer. Card-art is of the same type as seen previously with these Kioskowce and figures are copies of Western makers' output.

This is lovely as it has a version of the Airfix 'Wagon Train' box art, but with contents taken from Atlantic 'The West' cowboy set's Life on the Ranch (larger figures and Longhorns) or Stampede (smaller figures and buffalo-bison) sets. The quality of these is better than some previously seen Kioskowce - check the coffee-pot and fire - and look as good as the original Atlantic product.

This is even more quirky, as the more original card-art suggests the 8th, slogging their way up the spine of Italy, while the contents are most of the poses from both Airfix's [2nd version] German Infantry AND Matchbox's rival set, and again quality is very good for such diminutive clones.

The final offering today is the 14th Army, or elements of it! Artwork and contents from Atlantic's stable and it looks like the collection of pirate cutlasses (in lieu of kukris) that came with the original were reproduced, but are equally easy to lose!

Maciej also scanned the cards separately at a higher resolution, so we'll look at them now in the same order as above;

While on one level Spójnia (also the name of a top (?) Polish football team!) is just a branding, translating it in Google lead to 'bond', 'connect' or 'couplings' so there's maybe a reference to kits or models within the brand-mark, or teamwork?

As well as the aforementioned Andrzej Kawecki post, I have put the Globus and Universal issued Kioskowce on the British Paratroopers page of the Airfix blog and reading the blurb on the Kawecki post, I still have Napoleonics from Spojnia to come . . . so - next time I pass that box I'll dig-it out!

They (Spójnia) were based in Gdansk (previously Danzig, home of Solidarity) and I believe were still going, also known as Hobby EME, as a more conventional kit-maker (aircraft and AFV's) into the late 1990's?

I will organise some of the images a different way for use on the Wagon Train and German Infantry pages of the Airfix Blog for completion, another day and - in the meantime - many thanks to Maciej Jasinski for today's new to hobby, new to Blog and new to Internet, little-treat!

K is for Kioskowce I

If by the end of the article I've managed to sound like I know what I'm talking about here, it's only due to the debt of gratitude I owe to Konrad Lesiek who translated both sides of the boxes and the little insert slip, explaining the social/historical background as he went!

Kioskowce were the Polish equivalent of French Bazar, German Wundertuten, Spanish Sobres our own Lucky Bags or the very smallest size of header-carded, bagged, rack toy.

These 'Miniatures' were issued by Andrzej Kawecki, based in Lódź, in the 1980/90's as the Communist government first relaxed rules on private enterprise and then disappeared into the pages of history following the events of the Autumn of 1989.

You get a little box with a pull-off lid, which is big enough for a small army to hide in! From the colour differences it would seem that there were three small tools to make this set, suggesting a very-small, possibly hand-operated injection machine, one tool for the combat figures, another mould for the prone poses and boat crew, and the last for the boats.

The figures are obviously Airfix piracies and I'll post some comparison shots on the relevant Airfix Blog posts at the same time as this article. Here the 1st version US Marines have been cloned, and to be honest; compared to the equivalent Hong Kong output as carried by Baravelli at one point, these are quite good copies.

The combat poses are leeching the same kind of greasy powder/film that you often see deposited on Matchbox figures.

My other set is also of Airfix piracies; the 2nd version British Infantry, a set which prior to getting these I would have said was one of the few sets NOT to have been copied!

I can't actually remember where I got these, it could have been one of Andy Harfield's shows back around the turn of the century, or even a Plastic Warrior from the Q. Charlotte Hall days, but I suspect it was from PB Toys at Peter's show in Herne about ten years ago? Anyway, Konrad reports that they do come-up on Allegro (a Polish-language feeBay/Craig's List type platform) occasionally, if you want to find a sample yourself.

The packaging states they were made from locally resourced/ recycled materials (the translation including the term 'Ivory' [or bone], which may be a reference to the small 'ivories' made from scraps and off-cuts, such as the little bear we looked at here, a while back?), and in the case of both my examples that recycled-material is a very soft PVC rubber - quite the very best thing to make a rubber-boat out of!

Again, with 50% in 'plain chocolate' brown and 50% in 'milk', the suggestion is that two tools were required for each set. I would also say that the cardboard made in communist Poland was a darn-sight better than the cardboard made in East Germany; which - in my experience - fell apart if you looked at it harshly!

Konrad also explained how under the state collectivism of the post-war, pre-glastnost Poland, the kiosks were all called Ruch, now they have been re-distributed to the private sector and are called many names and he has sent a couple of local examples, I'm sure they will be recognisable to viewers as that pretty-universal convenience-store known variously as corner-shops, drug-stores, newsagents' or tobacconists - kiosko, tabaque . . . 'Spar'!

He added that Kioskowce also included larger figures of local design; probably Centrum flats, PZG and others, without packaging. The insert slip - in one of the otherwise identical boxes - lists other sets being available as follows:

1 - US Infantry

2 - US Marines (above - and now here)

3 - British Infantry (above - and now here)

4 - Japanese Infantry

5 - Medieval Knights

6 - Cowboys & Indians

7 - Napoleonic Period Soldiers

8 - WWI soldiers and

9 - Ancient Romans

While I assume Airfix to be the donor for most; it would be interesting to know what the Napoleonics, WWI and Wild West look like, or if there were other sets?

Finally - Thanks again to Konrad for his help in the preparation of this article. I'll badger him about Spojnia next (their Napoleonics are Esci/Ertl copies) and then we'll look at their output!