D is for Donations - Chris - Civilians

So, the twin of the earlier post, and a similar but different assortment of non-military types, these winging there way here from East Anglia, courtesy of Chris Smith, just in time for the BMSS show, where I picked them up the other day . . . a month ago, and with only a month (today), until the PW show, we're into peak 'season'.

 

Another pencil top, another strip (Holland!), one of the spring-loaded guys from another type of table-football game, and a nice sample of the Subbuteo kicker, to compare notes with PPP's goalie!

 

The little one is also Subbuteo, seemingly someone's prized paint-job, removed from it's base, the 'super-deform' shortie, looks to be from the blind-bags we looked at a few years ago . . . can't find them, so they may be in the capsule toy/blind-bag queue!

 

And the horse rider is a cracker gift, we've definitely looked at before, but it's a fun collect, as there are dozens of colours, and several slightly different sculpts, usually only visually obvious from/in the horses' legs.

 

Rather bashed Lego cyclist, who may provide a useful spare one day, being styrene, as is the Hong Kong guy in the bag, who's card is in the queue, as an Italian-language generic, and the fact this one is in a different bag, means it's worth keeping him in there, until I know better . . . Could be a reseller thing, but I suspect not?

 

A larger Christmas cracker bike, and a similarly 'cheap novelty' skateboard, make-up the human-powered section of this donation.

 

Big Babies! The brown one (yes Waynetta, we've covered that off-colour [geddit!] joke in a previous post), is probably the most interesting here, as it's a hard-plastic copy out of Aitch-Kay, taken from soft rubber Western ones, which were issued by someone like Topps or Panini, I can never remember?

 

The small blue one in the romper-suit is a baby-shower/cake-decorating type, but with a bit of age, while I suspect the hunk of ham (?) is an early polystyrene dolls house accessory out of the same colony. The rocking hose without a tail, is polyethylene, and may be early British . . . Hilco, Charbens? It's not Taylor or Barratt, theirs were either slush-cast lead, or 'styrene? Although the cat families and puppies were polyethylene, weren't they, maybe put them in the frame with the other two!?

 

The other four are useful grist to the mill, with the large creamy-white one being unusual, if only for it's size, which is the larger Doll's House size, I wondered if it came with a change of simple costumes, but the pose isn't right? 

 

Lots of useful stuff here, with the Subbuteo policeman, being an early (pre. Stadden days) one, which I may not have (when we had an overview of mine, a good while ago now, it became obvious there were three generations of some of the pitch-side stuff), while behind him is yet another version of the growing Dinky-Blue Box mechanic group, with a good version in blue 'styrene with a neat lozenge base.

 

The orange pair are the rarer ones from the Corgi Juniors gift set, the Fontanini dancer is useful, as I know I only have a few, and the yellow chap, bending over the casualty basket (almost certainly from one of those 1970's-early '80's wire - or battery-controlled helicopter sets), is a mystery, I suspect another Carrara* figure, but I don't know, some kind of slot-racing accessory for sure, can you help?

 

While the two big guys are modern'ish, she's a from an Elastolin farm sculpt, I think, we've seen him before, but as a Policeman, with a different hat/head-sculpt, and - like her - is one of a number of larger figures, probably for smaller hands, she's 70/80mm, he's heading for 90. 

 

*I need to sort that Tag out, it's got conflated with Carrara Marble! 

 

These are bugging me! Years ago, I picked up two of these, with little slip-on black belts, which could be military, or more utility? In the style of some American production, I'm sure these are Hong Kong. Two of the above are the same poses as my old sample, but the third isn't, and I think we have a new colour, I also think a couple more, sans belts, may have come in over the last few years, but I just don't know where they came from (set wise), or who/what they are . . . soldiers, sportsmen, telecoms linesmen/road gang?

 

And I'm only guessing at cracker toys, or 'gum ball' capsule stuff? Indeed, when three turn-up together, a bag/set starts to look the more likely. But this is why I collect all the esoteric stuff, and it's only with the help of people like Chris, Peter Trevor and the others, that we get nearer to answering these questions!

 

We only had a follow-up on these a short-while ago, and here's seven more, including a totally new one, in the larger scale, but clearly factory-painted, so there's another whole set to track down! He looks like he may have been aimed at the cake decoration market, rather than rack-toys?

 

Two more of the Terracotta Spanish tourist-trap figurines, I've rather lost track of the growing sample, but look forward to bringing them all together for a better overview one day. I said she'd come in, when we looked at her partner (in need of a hat) fourteen months ago, a Flamenco dancer (she looks like Betty Boop!) and guitarist, ready to entertain the unwashed masses, whinging about their cancelled flights - because there’s a fucking war on, you morons!

 

Oops, went full-rant there, albeit poetically! These are a lovely find, they're the little soft plastic copies of the Leyla figures, we've looked at a couple of times now, but all in one colour and the better quality samples, were they late production, unpainted Leyla, perhaps supplied to someone else?

 

Lovely little thing! Doll's house, or more honest novelty? Cake decoration, or just a simple novelty? From the quality I wonder if she's actually Japanese? No, she's got a tree-hanger; novelty-bauble, skiing kid - fantastic!

 

Matchbox cherry-picker, sans truck, on the left (but it's all about the figures!), two of the 'Crazy Clown Car' policemen, a beach-toy crewman and three hard polystyrene firemen, in a semi-transparent azure-blue plastic, really nice figures, you know, a tangibility, a je né sais quoi? Which, as I thought French, would be logical! Chris also thinks French, or Dutch?

 

The de rigueur line-up of seated figures!

E is for Ephemera - Plastic Warrior Show 2024

I really shouldn't be blogging right now, far too much going on in real life, of far more importances, or worry! And I will apologise to Jon Attwood now for putting the remaining railway figure posts on hold, when we were quite near the end, equally I've got to put Peter and Chris's donation-plunder posts on hold too (although I have taken the images, they aren't sorted/cropped/collaged yet), and the show reports might be a month or two away right now (I haven't even started shooting the thematic stuff), but I will pick at low hanging-fruit when I get the chance/time, and this is a few bits from the show, which have been shot, of a more ephemeral nature!

 

I picked-up a few pieces of ephemera at the show, in the 'paper' rather than 'semi-lost' meaning of the word! With three new 'special publications' from the show's organisers, Plastic Warrior, a useful guide to Leyla farm models, covering both the hard and soft plastic, painted and unpainted with packaging and other bits, and another set of the card figures, I know I've posted - but can't now find - before.

 

The important detail of the last one being, that on the previous occasion, I think I showed them without a maker, as they had already gone-off to storage, this time I can tell you they are by, and called - Kardsmen by Mackenzie, that is John Mackenzie Models Ltd., of London, and dated to 1979.

Now, last time it was two ceremonial sets, if memory serves, and in storage from a fair-while ago, I think I may have two or three more sets which came from the second-hand booksellers' in Wantage, which were also ceremonial subjects (and may, or may not be/include duplicates of those seen here last time?), but these are clearly more belligerent in depiction, being the battle of Culloden, and on the reverse of the card is a hint at a more esoteric output;

• Nelson & Trafalgar
• The Royal Family
• Willian Shaspeear
• Black Watch Pipe Band (seen here?)
• King Henry VIII
• Queen's Guards (see here?)
• Royal Marine Band (possibly in storage?)
• Guards Band (seen here?)
• Yeoman Warders (possibly in storage?)

Which is quite a touristy/museum gift-shop type listing, I think you'll agree? As I say, I can't find the previous mention, which I think was a show report, possibly Sandown, or the London show, but when I find them, probably while looking for something else, I'll tag them to join these. The plastic bases always seem to be the same bright mid-green.

So, to the three specials, they are quite different from each other, being a technical treatise on the vagaries of engraving moulds and cutting detail into the tool halves and such-like (specifically, working 'in reverse' on the tools, not the masters), a more conversational piece on the early figurative Herald artwork and artists, both slim volumes, and a more substantial run through the Britains catalogues from 1965 to 1971, with reminisces of the author's thoughts at the time, and opinions now!

 

All penned by Peter Cole, with Chris Hawkins co-authoring the work on engraving, and both Barney Brown and John Rafferty helping with the artwork volume. While two are Britains specific, the third, technical work, is a wider look at how certain things might have been done to various early British-made figures.

They are available separately or as a package from Plastic Warrior (details below), and all proceeds will go to putting-on the next show (as I am reliably informed "I suppose we'll have to do another next year" due to the success of this year's!), because, let's face it, the subscription to the quarterly mag' is pretty-much 'at cost' given the prices of printing and post these days, so dig-deep, to support the hobby.

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Finally less ephemeral, yet more so, and possibly needing a new entry/folder in whatever information storage and retrieval system you possess, if you haven't already done so from the back pages of Philip Dean's book on Wend-Al, is this, from when they wound-up the aluminium production and took to flocking in a big way, a Timpo ape with ball (as supplied by Prindus (Prison Industries) ?), beautifully flocked by a flocking flocker (well, you can't resist the opportunity when it arises!) and in Wendan packaging - presumably; Wend Animals as opposed to Wend Aluminium?

K is for Kibri

This one's a bit of a box-ticker, compared to some of the others, and I've duplicated an image by scanning something already on the blog, but there you go, it's still quite interesting as Kibri (Kindler und Briel) have had three generations of figures.

Jon Attwood's loose sample is bigger than mine! But are they Kibri or Leyla, if you recall we looked at the Leyla issue here, and while they are always shown in the Kibri catalogues as fully painted, or fully decorated anyway, I don't know if that's how they were sold, as I've never seen the early Kibri packs/cards?

 

So they may well have just bought-in the Leyla figures wholesale? Or even. as the Leyla logo on those late cards is disguised as a station name-plate, just put a Kibri sticker over them? Or, did they obtain the Leyla intellectual property, upon the demise of Leyla?

 

This is from a Walther's catalogue, around the late 1990's I think, and shows what were shipped, or orderable from the 'States, via the Teminial Hobby Shop, being a B&W version of the old Kibri catalogue images.

While this is that Kibri catalogue imagery (the duplicate!), which I dealt with here a while ago, check the Kibri tag to find it and a very interesting petrol station! But it clearly shows two generations, the 'Leyla' sets, three seperate six-figure/item sets and one combining the first two, then three sets which look like the Roco, or Preiser sculpts, along with some animals, ditto - or even Merten for the animals?

More recently, the only animals in the catalogues have been these two sets of the same cows with different decoration. Having not handled them, I can't say much beyond that they are some kind of polymer and look like reasonable sculpts of modern dairy cattle.

 

The more recent Walther's (this one's the 2000 issue) show the final, third generation, which are the strange, slightly over-scale figures, which are more suited to the stylised models of architects or town-planners than a model railroad? Note also, more cow options, but I don't know the difference between the two B&W cow listings?

The 2000 Walther's N-gauge catalogue also has them, they must be so fiddly to glue-together, it could drive you to suicide, as heads smaller than pin's go flying across the workspace for the umpteenth time!

Jon's set, mine are browns rather than blue/yellow, and can be seen in both One Inch Warrior magazine and a more recent Plastic Warrior, which is lucky, if you subscribe . . . http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.com/. The most interesting thing about them is it's one of only a few examples of over-moulding in small scale, with the heads moulded in one colour and then hats/hair moulded in a contrasting colour, pale-blue and yellow in the above sample.

 

There have been one or two other examples of over-moulding here, the Gem for Culpitt's experiment with footballers springs to mind, but there was another I think?

Also from Kibri catalogues, no figures sadly, although there are some in the studio shot, but lovely buildings for wargaming or role-play. I have three or maybe four of the five, in storage, and one day we'll get them out and have a proper look at them, but they are still mint/sealed, with their distinctive Kibri blue-ends.

 

Eko, from Spain, the great pirates of other-people's figures, lifted some of the sculpts for their civilian set, but whether they were pirating Leyla or Kibri remains lost in the mists of time - I suspect the former?

G is for German Rack Toys

We looked at bigger than HO/OO railway figures from Leyla right back at the start of the Blog; just shy of nine-years ago, now we're going to look at smaller than HO/OO from the same maker! I can only presume they are aimed at TT-gauge layouts, which were always more popular on the continent than here in the UK, and particularly so on the other side of the wire.

Sharing poses with the larger set we looked at back when, the newspaper-seller is also harking back to Leyla's 45mm pre-war O-gauge composition range

 

Heavily copied (I have three or four types of these as piracies in storage) by Hong Kong and - possibly - somewhere like Spain; there are good quality copies with neater bases, here we see some HK copies along with a set of three full flats (the Leyla are semi-flat) heading toward N-gauge, which look like margarine premiums but are I expect from a set of railway accessories or even a kit, given the plain white styrene?

The railway staffer/postal worker with trolley also looks like the sort of thing you find in some margarine, laundry-powder or coffee-premium sets, but again seems not to be; having a factory-looking paint-job, but him and the three white ones are still in the unknown 'pile'.

 

With the older (to the collection and judging by the packaging) set in storage I had to do this by eye/memory, so it's an approximation only, but it's about right! An Airfix platform figure would come between the two, but that only gives me a reason to return to them for better comparisons one day, we will return to them!

L is for Leyla

Layla is one of the older German makers, they were producing rail figures long before the war, and while these are post war, they are quite early, probably 1950's or the first half of the 1960's.

Slightly big for the continental HO scale, and as far as I know a complete set of DB (Deutsche Bahn) Rail platform and train dispatch staff, along with a refreshment seller.

The container with slide-off lid is original, however I had to replace the foam with a new piece, which fortunately I managed to match both by density of 'bubbles'/texture and depth of material. When I found these the original foam (a sort of fleshy yellow colour) had both melted and crumbled and everything was a rather sticky mess, however the mixture had not adhered to either the figures or the box and a few minutes in the sink with a bit of Fairy Liquid did the job.