A is for And so, to Reading!

While I'm playing catch-up with the big shows (after PW, there's another Sandown to cover), there have been other incomings, with both my own and Peter's car-booty to come, various new-production results of shopping trips, and this, a quick pop-over to the teeming metropolis of Reading in April, for the BMSS's annual show, where I found a tub of Circus awaiting me, courtesy of Adrian little, some interesting stuff on Steve Vicker's table, and a few other bits.

 

Another sample of wooden ceremonials, probably from Germany, but not necessarily, these things are pretty universal, and the red/blue of Danish guards is also the standard paint-job, a bit damaged, but that too, is par for the course, with wooden toys this small.

 

Another of the Dunbee-Combex era, Marx Disney figures in PVC.

The Britains Lilliput OO 'Trooscale' Centurion, compared with the Airfix 'readymade', bottom-right, a nice find and cheap because it has a few paint-chips, in the die-cast world things are either mint, and pricey, or gash! It's clean-enough for me.

 

On Steve's table were a bunch of Athena ceremonials, and I grabbed one of each, three sentry/guard duty types and eight bandsmen, there was a 14th but he was damaged, and the cymbalist only has one cymbal, but as a catch-up sample, they'll do!

 

A - probably commercial - BR Moulding behind, and a chap in front I don't entirely know, he looks familiar, in a sort of Cherilea fashion, but is too small for them, can't be either of the Charbens ones (oval or round bases), so Hilco from hollow-cast? He's soft 'ethylene, against the BR's hard 'styrene.

 

East German at the front? Reamsa reissue of a Mountie, probably from Marksmen, Gulliver copy of Atlantic's Apache hunter, a Poplar-Tudor Rose (green) and Crescent hollow-cast copy in yellow at the back.

 

The hard plastic chap in white is a ceremonial from the Principality of Monaco I think, but probably a French-made figure (there was a plastic maker in Monaco, but they made Britains and Crescent copies!), while the other two are Spanish, Reamsa 1st version, I think.

 

Some unpainted Britains Deetail ACW, also on Steve's table, someone recently posted the bugler, in similar nakedness on the Friends who like Plastic Warrior Faceplant group, you do find them from time to time, usually old out-painters stock, filtering their way to market as sheds and cupboards are sorted-out!

 

While Adrian's tub of Circus (his third in two years) was very useful, none of the rarer mouldings, but something more useful, confirmation!

 

The third image is sadly fuzzy, and I only realised when I edited this, last night, so there’s no time to reshoot it, but a very useful sample for showing three tool-cavities, with long, thin left foot (shorter figure), rounder foot and short foot, and with the bases being one Maysun, one 'Hong Hong' and one blank, confirms that most of these Crescent copies are the same Marty-Maysun--M Toy production,

 

For years, I've kept these in two or three lots, due to obvious differences, especially among the standing-tub markings of the Elephant and the Lion's box. But getting these three together, the same quality, plastic colour and paint, means they can all be unified now, and I can thin them out, to a better 'overall' sample.

 

One Crescent original among them, the right-hand elephant, with the beach-balls in two colours, a very useful addition to the whole sample.

 

While a couple of Corgi's Cinderella Coach horses w=also work for circus animals, the jockey is a Hong Kong copy of Britains jumper, and the Charbens clown has been repainted! Many thanks to Adrian for the freebies!

B is for Box of Britains Babies!

We looked at the Britains Lilliput 'Tr'oo'scale' figures, reductions of the larger Khaki Infantry, way back at the start of the blog, and today we're looking at the one form of packaging not seen then, the shop stock, pocket money dispenser tray.

The box is near-mint, with a couple of dinks and a small pin-hole on the underside, and you can see that it's quite small, smaller than a paperback, for instance, and one supposes it was kept very close to the shop's till/cash register or certainly within reach of the shop-staff/proprietor! Most toy shops I remember, of the period, had at least one glass cabinet near the till, and it would have been displayed in there.

 

I suspect the paper insert is a reprint, but a quite good one, with the Lilliput range on the reverse (you can just see the prices missing from the third column), and a full colour promotional image on the obverse, while the clear dust-cover sheet, with thumb cut-out, is almost certainly an original.

 

There are eight little compartments to display one-each of the eight figure sculpts, with larger compartments for the stock, which I think it's believed should contain nine figures (for a total of 80), but I've seen people suggest eight (for 72 figures) or ten per compartment (88). I don't think it's known for sure, but with things in those days often sold wholesale in dozens or grosses, it may be that each larger compartment should have 11 figures - a 96 count? There's certainly room for them.

 

We've seen them before, but it's always worth a second look as they are lovely little figures of the crossover from WWII to Cold War era, standard infantry, most in Fighting Order, but two in full Movement Order webbing, and with the Enfield EM2 semi-automatic assault-rifle, much discussed elsewhere, and 58-pattern webbing, and are probably based on the Warminster garrison demonstration battalion's troops.

 

This set came from Belgium, where the collector had two (I know!), and it's obvious he or the previous owner/s have built-up the contents of the tray, from occasionally encountered loose figures, completely separately from me/my sample, and from different sources, at different times, yet the sample has ended up with all the variants I've previously highlighted, gaining suggestions from some, that many of mine are home-painted.

But the gloss-green webbing batch would appear to 'be a thing', as would the very pale flesh batches, while others have the very reddish-pink flesh of the 'lozenge' (or Toblerone!) window-carton issue. Of particular interest here (given most examples have a version of the mid-green) is the kneeling firer on the left, who is the first I've seen with the same (correct for late WWII/early post-war) charcoal grey as seen on a few of the full-sized 54mm issues.

There's no obvious reason for the variations in painting, beyond home-painting of the unpainted 'envelope' set, but when you look at variation in the larger figures, which is not so marked, but is there, even to semi-gloss greens on some, I suspect something like the following;

It may be that Britains decided to give these diminutive figures to only a few of their better out-painters, one of whom was bad at stirring their green! While they were all trusted to mix their own flesh from red and white, with or without a touch of yellow? If the range was not terribly successful (it didn't last long), there would have been small batches with periods of inactivity between them, leading to an even grater range of paint-variants than the 54mm set? It's all pure conjecture though!

 

Final thought: someone at the show where I bought this immediately asked "Who would buy the 'being shot' figures?", and it's a fair point, but collectors, even one figure a week with their sixpence collectors', whould want one of each, wouldn't they?!

Three days later - Courtesy of Paul Morehead, editor of Plastic Warrior magazine, we see the Britains catalogue states only six of each figure, so five per large compartment plus the eight display samples, for a total contents count of only 48! Many thanks to Paul for this nugget.

W is for William Britains & W. Horton

Who may well be another William, but could also be something else entirely, Wally, or Walt, Warren or Wesley . . . yeah, it's probably William! Confusing, because there's nothing in Garratt, while Grace's has two, the novelty maker (probably our man!) in Middlesex (W.) and the gunsmiths in Birmingham, who ARE William and are still going, while another William played Cricket for Middlesex, around the same time as the toy producer set-up, but while the toy maker moved to Middlesborough, he died in Sussex?

 

Anywhoos, a quick box-ticker as we close-up on the railway figure posts, and with more comparison images to come in the round-up, and some other stuff in the past, linked-to in the Tags, this is a couple of images from Jon Attwood (many thanks again) and three from me, one of which we've seen before, just to get them all up here.

Various packagings for both the Britains Lilliput and Trix TTR (Trix Twin Railway) ranges, both of which used the same figures, although the Lilliput range was enhanced with vehicles in a larger HO-gauge (Half-O-gauge) compatible size, which couldn't be passed-off so easily as TT-gauge (Table Top/1:120), while little people are just little people!

 

I slipped this in to a post years ago with a casual note, and didn't admit to my sin, but as I get older, I seem more amenable to expunging my guilty secrets in public, if only to spread the guilt around and lighten the load on my own conscience, as we've all done similar things.

 

Before I do, just a note that the figures were attached to the platform by being drilled between the feet or elsewhere on the base and held in place with brass cabinet-makers screws of the smallest size.

 

The truth is, I no longer have it, although I did save the figures, but, because I thought it was homemade - it was a car-boot purchase by a third party given to me, because of my then specialization in small scale, although 'specialization' itself is a bit cheeky, given I didn't know what this was, but model railways were very-much a side shoot then, anyway - it got burnt! There, I said it, I used it to light a fire, many years ago, well, it wouldn't fit in any of my storage containers, and looked a bit naff!

 

I now realise it's classic Horton, and classic Art Deco, in the style of Woking station, which I've always liked, despite the tons of haphazardly-added modern shite hiding the true nature of the original, but the - seemingly unused these days - signal-box between the two sets of up and down lines is still relatively untouched.

 

Although Woking's signal-box is bare brick for the most part, but it has the rounded corners and the flat roof, I have the Hornby station in aluminium, and it's the same style, and 'rendered' in cream/orange/green if memory serves, so this was probably depicting one of many, or a generic London suburban halt, from the inter-war building boom?

None of Salisbury's stations look anything like this, being all Victorian multicoloured brick wonders, but I dare say you got a sheet of station names and the posters? One of the reasons it looked home-made was the poor application of the paper elements!

I know, but I'm afraid to try straitening him! The difference between the Hotel Porter on the left and the railway station-staff Porter on the right, a similar trick was played with another figure, while a third railwayman got a cream jacket to become an ice-cream seller, rather than a platform refreshment vendor!

L is for Lots of Lovely Loot!

Actually it's not much, but there are some interesting bits in amongst the box-tickers, and almost more metal than plastic, which is not a measure of how far I'm veering from the true path, but just the fact that the London show is the sort of show where some cheap metal is to be had!

Not sure if these are colonial French or British 'native' infantry, nor whether they are Indian or Arabic, or ancient/medieval, but I like to grab these semi-flats when I see them going cheap, and these were better than cheap, they were free! Adrian Little gave them to me, after I asked for a price, as they were in with something . . . err . . . much better!

 

Café Storm Coffee premium of Don Luis de Requesens (1520-1576, Wikipedia states b.1528, but admits problems with the page?) on the left, a mounted Arab from Britains 'Second Rate' subscale, pocket-money lines on the right.

 

Machine-gunners, a growing side-collection! Hollow-cast to the fore, a solid, commercial effort from home-casting mould behind him, the larger composition one is also unknown, but may be Belgian or Dutch and a Crescent gunner is behind them all.

Two shrubs, the left-hand one, more composite than composition, may be an early Faller, I've a couple of Faller trees somewhere with similar bases and construction, but with identifying stickers, or - to be accurate - glued labels. On the right is an aluminium one which could be Wend Al, but is probably Quiralu, as it was with a bunch of other Quiralu that Wend Al never covered themselves.

 

Five more metals, and most are Britians Second Rate's again (note the very different treatments of the two marching (US?) sailors), but the pilot is Crescent, and the running sailor is from B&T I think, from a Woolworth's exclusive set, post war.

 

A couple of ceremonials, one plastic and another of those Crescent sub-scale piracies from Hong Kong, [27th - probably an equally interesting Hilco plastic-from-hollow-cast - thanks Peter Evans] the other a hollow-cast and actually Crescent as far as I can tell, detail seems crisper on Crescent's figures than Britains.

 

I owe Peter Evans a small apology, I was holding two conversations at once, when he came over and gave me the red figure (another freebie!), and I glanced at it and said something along the lines of 'Thanks, I think it's from a firefighter board game like the milkman/dairy delivery one?', later I found the yellow one in a rummage tray (possibly the same seller?), and after getting them home, they are clearly spies or secret-agents of some kind, probably still board game pieces, but not firemen! I think I have the game's details somewhere in the archive, so one day the A-Z entry will have them corrected!

Between them is a rather nice 70-millimetre Nardi nativity Wise Man, from a crèche/crib set, or Presepe, he's got a swivel waist, but is otherwise not very swoppet'y!

The rest of what was only a cupped-hands'full, but all good stuff, especially with the large set we looked at yesterday. Clockwise from the top left, we have another of the soft-polyethylene versions of the Hardy (et al) G.I. flats, which I suspect are 'Euro-premiums' of some kind? A dug out canoe from Safari's Powhatan Indians set, a pack of eight Lilliput hurdles, and two of the maybe Charbens cake decoration plastic copies of the Britains' hunters, another Airfix fox-hound/beagle type and a Quiralu (?) black panther in aluminium.

M is for Minor Metal Makers

More box-ticking to get these guys and galls into the Tag List, I know little about the histories of these makers beyond the fact that they mostly produced small ranges for a short time and have mostly disappeared without leaving much trace, beyond the original publicity and any examples in collections, or pinned/glued to layouts!

 

Starting in no particular order, Cromer Models were obviously more of a transport maker, but items 6, 7, 8 and 10 come well within the parameters of figure collecting, or, if you know me, wagon collectors!

 

And, like all seven makers in this post, using white metal (or 'whitemetal'/white-metal) a catch-all for low-melt, lead-free, pourable soft-metal alloys, usually a majority tin-based, with various additives including antimony, cadmium, bismuth, and/or zinc . . . obviously, if you start adding aluminium and/or magnesium, you get harder alloys as used by die-casters. Add a bit of copper and you can get pipe-weald or solder, which more experienced - than me - modellers sometimes use, to glue these models together.

Already in the Tag List, as I think I have a couple of Wyatt & Tizard (W&T) wagons in the collection, and again, more of a vehicle range, but some nice horse-drawn items. The horse is a copy of a Britains beast, which they themselves scaled-down for the Lilliput line.

 

 

 

Mastercast are another which came and went before I was even aware of their existence, but clearly they had the beginnings of a nice range of scenic accessories, indeed, I may have the gravestones in the master-pile somewhere, I know I have a set or two, but one may be a late addition to the Linka sets, Linka having had several owners now!

 

As far as I know this was it for Kemco, if they ever made it to shops, and they look to be influenced by Hornby-Triang and Airifx figures, but it's only an artist's impression, still, it may help someone (including me!) ID some 'unknowns' in the stash?

 

This Pullman image came from Jon Attwood, and shows two examples from his collection, he sent them with some Roger Saunders bits which I've given a seperate post to, and from the accompanying text in Jon's eMail I don't think there was a connection - but I stand to be corrected Jon!

 

I think this ad'/puff-piece was actually in Military Modelling, but would have been shared with the publisher's stable-mates, which included Diecast Collector and Railway Modelling, I think, where I might have hoovered it up? And Highway Models aren't to be confused with the US maker Highway Miniatures.

 

Lovely set of firefighters, and it's funny, or ironic, as there are hundreds and hundreds of firemen (as they were still called in the 1980's!) in metal, plastic, composition, wood and tin-plate, but very few decent ones in a good OO-gauge compatible size!

 

Finally, the only other bit of colour in a B&W post, this is from a relatively recent PPP-Peco-Guagemaster catalogue (15-20 years old?), so these may still be around, but there are so few model-shops left now, you'd have a search-on!

 

And if they are THE Rose Miniatures, long-gone? However, various lines/moulds were taken-up by other makers, so there's every chance someone else is still making them as Rose, for the name, I don't know?

Many thanks to Jon for the Pullman shot, and I've just found three more emails from him, so there'll be these Railway Figure posts, 'till the end of March, at this rate!

H is for How They Come In - Sandown Park, November, 2 of 2

It's not that I'm trying to beat 2017's post total, that's an imposable target, this late in the year, but we’ve had a few wet days here, which I've used to get some of these folder's cleared-off the PC! Second half of the plunder from the last Sandown show now.

 

A Speedwell Japanese soldier, who had lost his head in all the excitement, already glued back-on, it's not a good job, and as the rifle and hat have been re-painted, I will probably strip him right back, re-do the head with pinning and repaint him more realistically, as a spare, someday.

A Timpo Indian from the earlier solids, taken from hollow-cast moulds I think, and a probably home-cast, probably modern ACW in whitemetal, but he's pretty enough and was in a bag with other stuff!

 

Hong Kong diver, resin anthropomorphic pig, a horse which I think is a bit of Dom-for-Heinerle and a driver sitting on an unrelated crate of bottles in a dense vinyl. The figure itself is polystyrene, and may go with that grey one which keeps turning up?

 

Three odd little aliens I know nothing about, might be Kinder and one has a plug on his foot, along with a Heimo-Bully Dalton brother (Averell or Jack?) from France's Lucky Luke comic strip.

Horton-Trix-Briains Lilliput station staff and passengers,

along with a hotel porter (red jacket)

Acédo Jungle plastic from France

Mostly Marty-M Toy (May Moon) WWII, but the driver is another colour and may be from a different maker, while the chap down the bottom with the marbled Lido knock-off, is taken from the Swoppet mortar man and will be from a third producer.

 

Other figures with the driver include a modern pirate, Manurba swivel-waist, modern cop and - probably - French bazaar cyclist, although he may be a board-game piece or cracker-toy?

 

From the sublime, to the ridiculous, is unfair, but exactly the sort of occasion for that phrase! Lone Star's swivel/jointed-limb farm animals above, we looked at a complete with tab cow here, and, Kinder wildlife below.