L is for Loose Lots - Sandown - Military

Military and ceremonial now, with a few interesting items, one of which is annoying me, but maybe you know what it is, or where they are from, but let's look at the pièce de résistance first!

 

A pretty clean Kentoy stretcher team, I may already have one, but this has good paint, and being new to market is properly 'clean' if you know what I mean, and I think it's a darker brown blanket than my existing sample.

 

I think these may both be duplicates, but I love a bit of [affordable] composition, and we have an 'olin' gunner from Germany, possibly a minor make, or from the budget ranges of one of the big-two, the other, more likely the duplication; it looks familiar, in pumice or plaster, and maybe British or French?

 

This pair are the ones that are bugging me, I'm sure I've seen chapter & verse on them, possibly in one of the glossy mags', but I can't recall, and/or didn't take notes, but equally, it might be on the dongles as an internet download? Poured resin, with wire armatures in the trumpets, I have a feeling they are scenic background for a poured-metal or 'new metal' solid set, from someone like King & Country, Figarti or Frountline?

 

Again, I can't resist a bit of litho-printed tin, when it's affordable, and these were on Steve Vicker's table, I actually picked the six better ones, but he sent the two casualties over, a few minutes later, via a mutual friend who was passing, and, to be honest, the red-coat could replace one of the Germans, if only for a future photograph.

 

From the left we have - I assume - a khaki Brit, two Germans, with possibly an Italian between them, and a couple of Russo-Japanese war types? On the ground are both Brit's I think, and all late 19th/early 20th century, in depiction, beween the two wars, in execution? 

 

Odds - A Timpo horse, which may have started life pulling a wagon or gun, but which has been married to a mounted figure's base, and a Britains Herald Highland officer. All play-worn, but useful spares or 'grist -to-the-mill'!

 

Crescent, with two of the darker-red plastic, behind, and a sand-textured one in front.

 

Not the best (signs of repainting), but a useful comparison shot between two similar poses from Lone Star (black bases) and Britains Herald (green bases), At Ease (left), and Royal Salute (Present Arms), on the right.

 

Cherilea - Highland pipers.

 

I don't think these are repaints, I think this is how Lone Star issued them, with simple, all green kilts, I also think they were on the wants list? So, a useful addition to the massed ranks of the Highland samples.

 

Paints quite good, on these Harald Lifeguards, but sticky fingers have reduced them to 'dirty', so someone had full play-value out of them! Having recently seen Argentinian (?) ceremonials in similar uniforms, they may get a strip and repaint with paler (than the Horse Guards) blue jackets, or something equally exotic from one of the Blandford books?

 

Odds & sods! There's a Skybirds rangefinder (for which the operator has been waiting several decades! https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/s-is-for-skybirds.html), and pilot torso in the left foreground, and various useful 50 and 60-mil fellows from Cherilea, Crescent, Hilco and Britains.

L is for Loose Lots - Sandown - Wild West

We've been slowly getting through the Sandown Park stuff, for a while now, on-and-of, and I've just spent 20-minutes sorting a folder only to realise it was the BMSS purchases, when it makes sense to finish-off the Sandown bits, given what else in now in the short queue, and how far I've slipped already this year, so I quickly hived these off, technically Wild West, but there's a duck and three Spaniards in here!

 

Timpo Teepee, which was going cheap, and I grabbed at the end of the show, I've got a better sample in storage, but there are a couple of Tipi posts full of Wigwams in the queue, so I thought it would be useful for enhancing those!

 

I got in a muddle at last year's Plastic Warrior show, (next one, just over a month away!), and consequently missed out on a couple of the Mohicans I need, but in the aftermath correspondence, at least worked out I need the archer, and the guy with rifle and tomahawk, but I knew I also needed a 'better paint' shooter, than the one I had, so this chap on the right ticks a box nicely!

 

These two were in a biscuit tin of proper 'new to market' stuff Isaac offered me, and he didn't want much for it, in fact he may have been trying to give it to me, but I got very excited by the 'jumper' alien (we've already seen) and then spotted these two, told him they were worth 'proper money', and gave him said dosh. The rest was mostly grist-to-the-mill wild west (most of the below) and ceremonial types.

 

Hong Kong Confederate, half Crescent inspired (horse), half Timpo solids, issued here in small, generic rack-toys, but in the 'States in Ideal play sets I seem to recall?

 

Cherilea 60mm 5th Cavalry, the 'Black Knights', busied themselves with the genocide of the locals between the Missouri River and California (which "...was an almost unknown territory, occupied by powerful and warlike tribes"), sorry, sorry, upsetting the guilty again . . . 'Delivering civilisation', is - I believe - how Congress put it? Trump and Netanyahu are doing it in the Middle East, now!

 

Strangely these must have sold well, back in the day, as they often appear in mixed lots, and between odd purchases, these (the bag is all standing firers!) and a semi-brittle bunch a few years ago, I should have a complete set now.

 

An errant Spaniard (Hilco-Phoenix-et al), a Disney Mc-duck ('Euro' premium or Marx reissue?) and two Crescent 60mm's, one, a confederate in average condition, and the other, a rather poor cowboy!

 

A Tudor Rose rider, and two US figures, who might have been licensed over here, they seem quite common, and Tudor Rose might be in the frame for that contract, but I don't know, they may be later imports, they're not rare, and ran for years - I think in the USA they are Lido?

 

A mixed lot of odds, including two tatty Herald cowboys and a camp fire, an 'Early British' (Kentoys?) copy, a Herald Hong Kong shooter in good nick, damaged Cherilea mountie, and a Cherilea Indian on his back, also injured!

 

Crescent Wild West, the guy with the whip (slave owner? Never made sense to me!) is probably the best here, but both white ones need cleaning, and checking against the master sample. In point of fact, all three to the left are saveable.

 

Cherila 60mm, again it's a case of checking them against the master sample, sending the damaged ones to recycling, and either swapping the rest at some point in the future, or selling them to fund further purchases!

 

As one Spaniard had already snuck-in, these two can go here as a full-stop, two reissue Cherilea bullfighters, from the Marlborough-Dorset production era.

C is for Confirmatory Combat Canon!

This is one of those useful pieces, which consolidate that which we know, but seem unable to prove, and should come as a relief to those of us who have developed a tendency to mutter 'could be one or the other', when dealing with unknown plastics, on the understanding we are referring to Rosedale/Tudor Rose and/or Kleeman/Kleeware.

 

Speaking as someone who was a younger member of the follow-on force in the hobby, but who is now looking at himself as an older (or ageing!) member of the next generation, watching younger people come into the hobby with weird notions on the intrinsic value of Lego or WWF action figures, I don't know why I just 'trust' the older guards insistence in a relationship, beyond, that they said so, and that the one, Rose-, bought the other, Klee-, but finding things like this underline the closeness of the two, as fact! Especially as those insistences were always about mould-tool sharing.

 

We previously saw this M55 post-war US self-propelled gun (SPG), three years ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/05/afv-is-for-absolutely-feckin-vast.html

 

Clearly marked with a full set of Tudor Rose markings, and, in fact, have seen this Kleeware version before, as a show 'shelfie' nine years ago, so I was already pretty confident of the cast-iron connection, but still needed some introductory blurbiage!

 

The central mark above the reinforcing bulkhead is the same on both AFV's, but where the T*R model has two more ID discs either side of it, the Kleeware has a longer, untypical (for either make) mark, parallel to the discs, but below the bulkhead. However, and unlike some of the space crossovers from these two makes, there is no sign of the missing marks as faint, blanked discs, which you often find on the spaceships.

 

It may point to a rule - marked T*R is IS T*R, unmarked; probably Kleeman? It'll be worth a post one day comparing all the marks, as there are other marks, Kleeware having a small disc mark, and Tudor Rose having a longer written mark.

 

Anyway, I now have enough ammunition for both guns, and given that the Rosedale 25lbr came green with silver shells, it's likely some Tudor Rose M55's got them too? That's it, short and sweet, another chapter in a story which still has the odd question mark!

O is for Oops!

One of those slightly admissive parables today, most of us have been there once or twice, making a mistake, whether because there's one born every minute, or because we were all born one, and of course, these things happen, in the pressed time of a toy fair, or under poor 'village hall' lighting, or, in the case of evilBay lots, because scale or background are unfamiliar, or colours skewed by lighting or flash, but, this was one of my recent boo-boos, which, as it was not inexpensive, I was lucky to escape a few hours later, with nowt but my pride dented!

 

I saw these Cherilea dancers in the poor light of a winter morning at the February Sandown Park pre-show car-booty rummage, on the terraces of the main stand, and thinking they were the plastic ones, asked the seller what he wanted for them, a price was floated, which I'm not disclosing, but suffice to say it was in three figures, and I thought "Well, the whole point of coming to a show is to find a couple of stand-out or rare pieces, so; what the hell?", handed over the required shekels, and reached for them, only to realise, instantly, from the weight, that they were the lead ones!

 

But the seller was already busy with another punter, and the argument (about shows and rarities) remained valid, so I thought "What the hell?" (again!) and slid them in my jacket pocket. Adrian thought I'd done OK when I showed them to him, and he knows more about the lead stuff, than I do, but he thought it was 'all the money', so a profit was never going to be in there!

 

Interestingly, though, they are not the same sculpts as the Harbuts set, we saw a while ago (https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/06/b-is-for-best-show-on-earth-11.html), and which I had mentioned at the time, but nice to have them in front of me, if you know what I mean!

 

Fortunately, a well known metal dealer, who can remain nameless, came round while I was holding the fort for Ade' and chatting with one of the Paul's, and in conversation, because we're happy to admit our errors among friends, I explained the over-exuberant nature of my commercial faux-pas, and he offered to give me what I'd paid for them!

 

So in the end, I got four nice images of some pretty rare figures, in even rarer packaging, and it didn't cost me anything, beyond that bit of dented pride . . . Phew! . . . Doh!

SPV is for Soapy Persuit Vehicle!

Heads-up, it's the BMSS (British Model Soldier Society) show tomorrow, in Reading, Berkshire, And, it's a full moon tonight, so lock up any lycanthropes' in the family, lest you fall out with the neighbours, big-time! I happened to need to go to Reading last weekend, and managed a quick trip to a couple of old collectables shops I know . . .

 

. . . of which the first, to be fair, is mostly comics and the usual Star Wars action figure type stuff, while the latter is a more eclectic shop. They are both next door to each other in one of the few remaining Victorian covered arcades. We used to have one in Aldershot, but it was ruined, blocked-off at one end, and replaced with a rebuilt fake, a couple of decades ago.

 

However, I did manage to find one of 1993's Captain Scarlet SPV soaps from NAPA Products, which had seen better days, but was, nevertheless a bit of fun, and which, being modern, in my eyes at least, will probably end up being used in the bath!

 

The dust of ages, or, at least, 33 years!

 

The vehicle - marginally smaller than the Corgi model - was more battered than the box, but you get the idea, and there's not a lot I can add to the photographs, it's a soap, with no rope! But I thought the colour was well-chosen?

 

After a bit of a wipe with a damp cloth!

 

If you do happen to go tomorrow, both shops will be open, and are minutes, or hundreds of yards from both the station and the show venue.

C is for Catalogue Cluster

Variously taken from the 1972, 3 and '75-79 catalogue scans the other day, they are sort of eye-candy, but mostly low-res, or not that clear, so to draw the curtain on the recent miniseries, and to get them off Picasa, here they are with a few notes, and in no particular order!

 

Larger playsets.

 

1st version Americans, with 2nd version in the boat, but they seem to have been given 1st version German helmets! I refer you to my previous comments on art-departments m'lud - muppets!

 

Ist version in the box, 2nd version outside the box! Americans again. It's not clear what the Bren-carrier crew have on their heads, but I think it is British helmets.

 

This shot was reversed in the 1976 catalogue, obvious from the red beret!

 

Window boxes.

 

Big beast, post-war British Chieftain Tank it was also issued in German grey, along with this one in a big-box play set, it's expensive when you find it, and rarely complete!

 

More art-department shenanigans here, some of the bases are wrong!

 

A bit silly, the Centurion turret is underscale and won't go through tunnels!

 

More art-department shenanigans here, some of the bases are wrong!

Have I already said that?

 

I think this is a mock-up too, the kneeling guy doesn't look right in the card-art, or in the blister?

 

That's it, I could have done a few more, but the effort of cropping them all was a faff!

 

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Later the same day - 

 

I've added the Timpo paratroopers to the Parachute toy page, which you can find here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_14.html