Following the pattern of the Plastic Warrior show posts, I've just
shot these in a random order and they happen to have worked out - after a few
collages - to eleven shots per post, three posts!
I bought this in the stand-scrum which occurs
outside, before setting-up, although it wasn't much of a scrum this time; only four or five
dealers set up on the terraces last Saturday. This is unmarked but probably
British, and would have a rubber-band to twist/wind, for motive power.
Four mini-cars; another colour variation of
those Quaker premiums, the green one
is unmarked but identical to a Beeju
example I have (I think!) and the driver is very Beeju, so it must be one of theirs! The yellow-one is very simple
and reminiscent of the educational bulk-lots, but thinner-walled plastic and
the grey one might be Minic or Joef, but from a rail-wagon car-carrier
I suspect - it's not got the chrome underside or Minic mark, but some marks
have been blanked-off the tool?
F.G.Taylor's rabbit burrow and pair of rabbits! Aren't they delightful? The
sitting one has a carrot and the other is rushing back to share it!
Tin-plate pieces; I think I have a better
version of the tree, and the garden fence seems to go with it, set wise, both
are probably ciggaret-pack premiums, while the guardsman is a bit older I
suspect, a penny toy (?) in two peieces - the guardsman and the base he's pinned-to,
the others make their own bases with a quick bend!
Before and after cleaning; this is
interesting, it's a bath toy, it floats, we've seen 'em, had 'em in the past.
It's marked 'Made in England', could be any one of a number of makers, all the
'usual suspects'; Airfix, Tudor Rose/Kleeware, Thomas/Poplar, Bell, Merit . . . but, I
would like it to be - Fraser & Glass!
The upper (deck and superstructure) is beginning to curl-up with age and has
the properties and colour of F&G's
Crazy Clowns . . . nothing empirical, just a hunch/wish! Some of the six
side fenders are damaged.
Couple more Captain Video's who are probably Winco Condar! Both in a heavy 'styrene of a a dark silver or
gunmetal shade.
Starting to track down a few of the real
rarities! Playland Products (M. G. Southall)'s pulp fiction figures
of Sir Hubert Guest in a green
spacesuit and the eponymous Dan Dare
in the yellow.
Now, having never been happy with the Thomas/Poplar attribution for the origins
of the Frog Bloodhound Missile kit's crew figures, something I have gone on
record saying, more than once, I have to say, there are a few similarities here.
The baseless feet in heavy shoes, the size, the casual poses (four out of the
five in this set are just standing around - like the RAF geezers, only Digby's
active; waving weapons around like a reckless redneck!), even - to a lesser
extent - the sculpting, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were found that Southall were behind those contracted buy-ins?
I got eight key-rings in three purchases,
but they have gone-on to the various posts in the medium-to-long-term queue, so
you only get a glimpse here, but what can you make out; I had the skeleton as a
teenager, it ended-up on my denim 'cut-off', Xandria, Henson's Muppets, the cannon is nice, and another Highlander!
Now these are interesting, six sexy Manga
babes, to compete with the Marx
Misses we saw here recently! They are actually a limited (50 sets apparently?)
edition, in resin, of plastic 'Pit Babe' figures issued with Scalextric Japan
for a limited time - quote from Worthpoint (so eBay!):
"The 2004 JGTC [Japan Grand
Touring Car (Championship)] series of cars released by QuattroX (Japanese Scalextric) were a hit
with kids all over Japan but later shunned by parents due to the seductive
anime style "Pit Babe" . Such a controversial outcry provoked
Quattrox to promptly remove the cars from the shelves, later re-releasing them
minus the race Pit Girl."
A mixed lot of metal and composition from
Adrien's rummage trays on the Mecator
Trading stall, metal for reference in the future, composition because I
can't pass on it! The three pilots I've probably got, but I grabbed them to
make sure I could produce the next image, what with all mine in storage!
Combined with the stuff from the PW show,
two weeks ago now, we have a shot of all known - to this author - versions of composition pilot;
20, 54 and near-60mm. I think Dave Scrivener sent me a shot of his before he
left us, which I should have somewhere, so we may well return to the subject
again in the future?
The new, brown one, is similar in execution,
but has a better base, and, more importantly; a different arrangement of harness-straps,
so a second maker is likely, as Zang/Timpo/Timpolin stuck with the same pose
and uniform for all the other versions. The new one doesn't have gauntlets
either.
