A is for All-sorts of Argentine and Ante American Armed-forces

Both loyal readers and more casual visitors will be aware of the successes I've had tracking down various bits of South American toy soldiery and model figurey over the years, especially in the last few, with 20 of the 35 uses of the Argentina tag being in the last six years, and here's a few more Argentine or believed to be Argentinian pieces, and some other South American makers.

 

This chap was sold as an Argentine model of Santa Anna (Mexico - Alamo insurgency), but I wondered if he mightn't be one of the Argentinian revolutionary heroes, so googled them, they were all in blue jackets! So I returned to Santa Anna, only to find he's always in blue too! Simone de Bolivar? . . . Blue, or blue-black! So your guess is as good as mine, unless you're an Argentine collector and know who he was sold as?

Although he fits much better on the horse in the previous shots (an old Elastolin composition horse copy?), he was sold with this horse (vaguely Britains), marked Gulliver (which the figure isn't) of Brazil, which he really isn't comfortable on, so as well as not being sure who he is, I'm not sure if I've found his horse yet!

 

I guess all those South American revolutionary wars were modelled to some extent on the French Revolution, or the American War of Independence, to wit; throwing off the yoke of the old European masters, or a more-local tyrant, and, as such, the leaders would have looked to Washington or Napoleon for their sartorial guide, beyond the prevalent fashion of the day?

 

And, as we saw the other week, Napoleon liked he blue AND his green! So I'll go with Santa Anna, as the slight;y more popular figure, historically, across the whole continent, possibly for being the last South American to give Uncle Sam a bloody nose? I've seen other Gulliver figures on this horse, and they fit it properly.

Along with him and the second horse, there was another Gulliver piece, the African warrior at the front, a horse far to small for the General; a copy of the Britains Trojan horse, marked Industria Argentina and an unmarked copy of Charbens or Britains draft-horse, which is unmarked and could be Hong Kong output, but is I suspect from the same lot.

 

I think we've seen the more modern triangular lozenge mark in a previous Gulliver post somewhere, but here's the earlier one in a sort of 1970's Lettraset curlycue'esque font, it's not the best image, but . . . black plastic!

Ind. Argentina announces this rather battle-damaged Jeep as another Argentine piece, it's also marked 'Eplax', whom we have to assume to be the maker! A composite model, with a hard PVC or vulcanised rubber body, soft rubber tyres on steel axles, a polyethylene steering wheel and a sheet-alloy (probably pure aluminium) so soft it bends if you look at it wrong!

 

Hopefully a future find, even in a similar state, will give me the missing wheels/axle? Until then, this will sit in the collection as a 'better a damaged one than none' example! It seems very similar to a Birmania one I have in a set which I thought I'd shown here (should have been part of the Plastic Warrior show reports), but have shown elsewhere, only that one is lacking the seat-holes.

This is also similar to a tree in the Birmania set, a polystyrene plastic flat with detail in relief on one side and a blank reverse, painted as if the detail it there anyway, but in a more basic fashion than the obverse!

A bit of an oddity, this one, it's a sort of blow-moulded rubber bath or pet toy, sans squeak (not that there's a hole for one, or ever was one, I'm just trying to describe the feel of the thing, under the paint), and may be home painted, and not Argentinian at all, but it came with some of the other pieces on this page, so can sit here, until its origin is more empirically known! 54mm'ish assault-boat!

Another Oklahoma figure has jointed that growing sample, you may remember I missed-out on some at the Plastic Warrior show, back in May, but picked-up a mounted lancer. This guy is obviously based-upon the Britains Herald American Civil War trumpeter.

 

The closest match I could find on these near-60mm figures, was some Gulliver/Casablanca production from Brazil, but not exactly the same as my pair, and mine aren't marked. This and the next shot were my attempts at arty-farty photo's, with views of the Toy Soldier library in the background, both images 'seen elsewhere' a couple of years ago!

 

This is actually Mexican, from Ara (or ARA? Family Arakelian) and depicts a Mexican lifeguard trumpeter, in the uniform of the Mexican-American war, I can't find any modern images of them as ceremonial troops, so I don't think they survive as such, but I could be very wrong on that one?

 

This is a set of figures from Trovador, also of Argentina, the warriors were copied by someone else in an unpainted form I think, and I dare say a couple of shields are missing here. The figures seem pretty unique, but the elephant is lifted from the Britains' baby elephant.

 

Another seen elsewhere image, these may be Oklahoma too, as they seem to have targeted Herald for their mentor! However, another Argentinian company - Grafil - are known to have targeted Lone Star, while the Marx figure could be another South American company, but seems to crude for the Mexican Plastimarx who used original moulds, not forgetting there's a Timpo sculpt in there too!

G is for Giants, Galaxy Giants!

Could have been 'T is for Two - Scales!'! We're box-ticking the Tim Mee Space Patrol / Galaxy Lazer Team figures here today, still available from Jeff Imel under his Victory Buy / Timmee labels, and have been in production now, as several entities, since at least 2012, in various new colours, but we're looking at the originals here.

 

These are the original 54mm set, there is clearly more than a hint of Star Wars about them, but a bit of Star Trek too I feel, in the lady with the machine that goes ping! The more conventional pair of astronauts are lifting from MPC's set I suspect, with Darth Tim waving a sword about, and a Buck Roger's chap on the far left . . . box-ticking some serious box ticking!

There is a figure missing from the above, I know I have him in 54mm (there is another sample with all colours somewhere? But for now . . . 

 . . . we'll have to look at the five-inch/120mm version instead! Not Chewbacca, oh no . . . no, no, no, not Chewbacca at all, who's he, indeed! He even has The Hulk's ripped shorts and a pair of antennae, so you don't draw that conclusion! This also shows a third colour, a very 'spacey' gunmetal gray.

Not Buck, Not Vader and Artoo-Timmeepio! The other colour of the originals was a screaming, electric pink. Issued in 1978 (as 54mm figures, Star Wars the film had been released the previous year) the upscales appeared in 1979, probably to try and compete with Kenner's phenomenal Star Wars action figure line which was changing the toy industry forever, at the same time? These are also the 120mm versions.

The Turtoise (or Tortle?) and one of the astronauts, you can see the MPC DNA as clear as day in the latter, but Crabster (or 'Lobbab') has no real or obvious influence I can think-of, besides a dozen 1950/60's pulp sci-fi novel covers!

This blog also covers them;

http://secretfunspot.blogspot.com/2012/07/return-of-galaxy-laser-team.html

 

 . . . with a very interesting Argentinian side to the story involving Anteojito magazine, which I think has been mentioned here before, but isn't in the Tag list!

 

*********************************

10 days later and Woodsey's found some more!

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2023/10/tim-work.html

Pirates is for Crazy Comic Piraten Serie Piratas Bucaneros Filibusteros Corsarios Berberiscos . . . and Then Some!

I didn't know how to tackle this lot, and ended-up with far too many images, some of which I know are other peoples, and which have been left out, although one or two have been kept in. Also, in the end I decided to go with the vague order they seem to have been issued in, but it's not necessarily a true timeline, so bear that in mind.

'THE' Pirate Premiums

 

Appearing around Europe in the early 1970's, there were different configurations of them, with the UK getting a paltry six poses which we have seen before, and other people getting the full twenty.

They first seem to have appeared in Spain (and Portugual?) as Arial soap-powder/detergent premiums, where they are subdivided into five groups of four figures, and next time we visit them - when I bring all mine together - I will shoot them in this order;

 

http://chicledunkin.blogspot.com/search/label/Piratas

 

Full translation of that page;

 

Aunque estas figuras son mas grandes que las Dunkin, para mi es una serie totémica, la recuerdo perfectamente de mi infancia......

 

Although these figures are larger than the Dunkin ones, for me it is a totemic series, I remember it perfectly from my childhood...... 

En realidad son figuras de unos 5 cm, 20 piratas que venían en el detergente Ariel en 1971-1972 mas o menos. 4 colores mates preciosos (para mi los mejores del mundo, los europeos son mas brillantes y en america el plastico demasiado duro...) en plastico blando (lo que hace mas dificil encontrarlas sin defecntos) amarillo, verde, rojo y azul.

In reality they are figures of about 5 cm, 20 pirates that came in the Ariel detergent in 1971-1972 or so. 4 beautiful matte colors (for me the best in the world, the European ones are brighter and in America the plastic is too hard...) in soft plastic (which makes it more difficult to find them without defects) yellow, green, red and blue.

En el paquete recuerdo que venia un dibujo de los piratas agrupados en 5 series de 4, Piratas, Bucaneros, Filibusteros, Corsarios y Berberiscos. Si reunias una serie te daban un premio en metálico y si conseguias los 20 supongo que te darian otro mejor.....

In the package I remember that there was a drawing of the pirates grouped into 5 series of 4, Pirates, Buccaneers, Filibusters, Corsairs and Berbers. If you collected a series they gave you a cash prize and if you got the 20 I guess they would give you a better one.....

Debajo os pongo un scan del trozo de carton donde venian los piratas Dibujados, Aunque no pone el nombre de cada grupo yo si recuerdo cuales eran, El jefe de cada grupo es el primero por la izquierda del dibujo. Como veis, el orden en que los puse segun los recordaba no era el mismo del cartón, pero iba bien encaminado ¿no?

Below I put a scan of the piece of cardboard where the Drawn pirates came. Although it doesn't say the name of each group, I do remember what they were. The leader of each group is the first one on the left of the drawing. As you can see, the order in which I put them as I remembered them was not the same as on the cardboard, but I was on the right track, right?

 

Just a note on the first paragraph, he's not saying Dunkin did these in a smaller size, but that they are bigger than the other Dunkin he collects which are usually around 25/30mm and also tend to come in 20's.

We need some pictures here . . . 

In the UK, Kellogg's issued only six (top left image), with Coco-Crispies and Puffa-Puffa Rice (a Quaker Sugar Puffs knock-off!), and the same colours as the Ariel premiums, there are all four versions of Cascanueces in the bottom-left image. The duplicated olive-green figure and the two white ones are oddments who have come in recently.

 

Cereal Offers do them better justice here

At around the same time Americana bubble-gum were issuing them in Germany (and South Eastern France/Italy?), as Piraten Serie, with these two images from old evilBay auctions showing that in addition to the 'standard' four colours, they also got creamy-white ones

The above three iterations were all manufactured by Tito, a premium maker in Portugal, and most carry the Tito mark somewhere, along with the given name. At some point in the late 1970's the mould-tools migrated to Peru, where the colour range got much better!

 

This is my Peruvian sample as they arrived, they are of mixed parentage however, or might be, so these are the notes I made when they arrived, I've listed them alphabetically for now;

• Arrigon (the only figure marked on the feet)
• Al Epacha (Tito mark on trouser cuff, name down cloak)*
• Barbarrója 'Red Beard'
• Cara Cortada 'Scar Face' (letter 'A' is visible, might be bootleg)
• Cascanueces 'Nutcracker'
• Corsario Azul 'Blue Corsair'
• El Arana 'Spider'
• El Bisco 'Biscuit' (no Tito mark, reversed letter 'F' is visible, might be bootleg)
• El Jorobado 'The Hunchbacked' (no Tito mark, might be bootleg)
• El Manco 'The Lame' [hand not foot]
• El Pecas 'Freckles'
• El Pupas 'The Baby'
• El Tuerto 'One-eye'
• Ivan
• Jack el Negro 'The Black'**
• Morgan (no Tito mark, might be bootleg)
• Mustafa
• Papatalo ('The Unbeaten, Unconquered'?)
• Sebastian
• Taric (no Tito mark, letter 'E' is visible, might be bootleg)

* might be Ali Epacha or Al Iepacha . . . 'The Pasha'?
* *Not apparently a racist epithet, the features being clear and of European or 'everyman' appearance, with long straight hair, so; black-hearted, or up to no good!

 

Check Juan's comment below for more on the origin/meaning of these.

 

A similar grouping but I moved them around and swapped a few colours out to make it a better image, a few months later, then kept both for the post anyway! The quality of these is as good as the Euro-issues, but you can see from the notes, that things are starting to go pear-shaped on the tool, specifically with the text and logo-markings, I now suspect these are all the ex-Tito moulds and not bootlegs, as we are about to look at some bootlegs!

At around the same time, some company in the USA, Rubenstein International Inc. (1977) started shipping these fellows in from Mexico, bags have multiple pose duplicates and what appears to be a limited number of poses, but that remains to be confirmed by multiple samples, and I suspect all 20 poses might eventually turn-up.
 

A limited palette of colours includes red, blue, yellow and white, similar to the Euro-issues, but look at the flash and the overall quality, if there are bootlegs out there, these are they, or someone thrashed the tool to within an inch of its life, between Peru and Mexico!

http://vmminiartemonocromaticos.blogspot.com/2010/07/p.html

This guy seems to have only used eBay images without captions or context, so it's not possible to conclude what any of this means, but interesting colours, and suggestions of other issues somewhere, I particularly like the jade-green set of 20 figures. But you can also see the olive and white ones I've started picking-up, so someone around here had issues of both . . . Bonux, Christmas crackers, Maltese festival treats?

It has to be pointed out that the size and levels of caricature of these pirates, means they would mix quite well with the Antipodean Crazy Pirates we saw here

 

But we finish with darker stuff . . . 

 

I was hoping Giselle over at Mokarex would have something useful for this post, as she still owes me about 40 images under the 10-for-1 rule, but her pirate page is shit, she's nicked the Cereal Offers artwork, but all chopped-up and low-res, while she's photoshopped some eBay Peruvian figures which are not the Kellogg's colours, the page purports to represent! Only two of them are right . . . Thieves are thick, you see, somewhere to the left of the bell-curve!

 

But we end with this piece of hilarity from Kent Specher in the 'States, image used for research purposes, with full acknowledgement, wouldn't want to blame anyone else for this dog's dinner of a complete joke.

 

First;  They didn't make tea, they made chicory-coffee! Ersatzkaffee! Then we find there are too many poses, Linde only carried 14 of the designs! Why is there a Tito/Ola ice-cream premium Roman from the Asterix sets in the middle of the already too-big group, at 'K'? And the colours are all wrong!

Unbelievable, staggering incompetence, make it up as you go along to make up for a lack of research; *sloppy* is - I believe - the term used in Pennsylvania! The truth, had he bothered to look for it, is here;

https://www.lindefiguren.at/fotogalerie-linde/piraten/

 

And I've posted links to that site several times I think; most recently when we looked at the spacemen! Again, I've translated the page for English readers;

14 Piraten gibt es von Linde. Von links nach rechts heißen sie: El Bisco, Patapalo, El Arana, El Pecas, Corsario Azul, Tarik, Mustafa, Jack el Negro, El Jorobado, Morgan, El Tuerto, El Manco, Arrigon und Cara Cortada. Der Name ist am Rücken oder an den Beinen zu lesen, daneben sind die Linde-Piraten natürlich immer geprägt. Die zarte Kennung kann leicht übersehen werden. Am häufigsten ist die Farbe blau.

There are 14 pirates from Linde. From left to right they are: El Bisco, Patapalo, El Arana, El Pecas, Corsario Azul, Tarik, Mustafa, Jack el Negro, El Jorobado, Morgan, El Tuerto, El Manco, Arrigon and Cara Cortada. The name can be read on the back or on the legs, and of course the Linde Pirates are always embossed next to them. The delicate identifier can be easily overlooked. The most common color is blue.

Wesentlich seltener sind sie in den Farben gelb, grün und rot.

They are much rarer in color yellow, green and red.

20 Piraten wurden von der spanischen Firma TITO produziert. Nur 14 davon gibt es mit Linde-Kennung. Ob es Al Jepacha, Sebastian, Ivan, Cascanjeces, El Pupas und Barbar Roja (siehe Abbildung) auch von Linde und auch in weiß gibt, bezweifle ich. Die Tito-Piraten wurden in Tüten verkauft. Tito produzierte auch die bekannten Dargaud-Figuren. Die Linde-Piraten waren natürlich im Kaffee.

20 pirates were produced by the Spanish company TITO. Only 14 of them are available with Linde identification. I doubt whether Al Jepacha, Sebastian, Ivan, Cascanjeces, El Pupas and Barbar Roja (see picture) are also available from Linde and in white. The Tito Pirates were sold in bags. Tito also produced the well-known Dargaud figures. The Linde Pirates were of course in the coffee.

And the Linde are logo-marked and likely to be slightly different-sized copies (I don't have any, so I don't know for sure), most of their stuff was copied, as Kent would know if he'd read the series of recent articles in a certain magazine I won't mention, by an author I won't mention either, as neither would want to be associated with this in any way, but Kent knows!

 

What Kent has here, what's in the above image, is either Peruvian  product, from the old Tito/Ola/Dunkin (et al.) group of tools (likely, with the Roman present) or Mexican bootlegs, and which, from the state of it, the colours. and the Roman (!!!!!!), is a test-shot or factory sample of some kind, probably off of evilBay, to which, with no knowledge of the subject whatsoever, he added a shit-ton of text with no research or checking of even basic facts with all the available resources!

 

19 pirates! Not Linde's 14, not Ariel's 20, but 19 . . . and a Roman, in a different size! "Look Ma, I gave them all letters!" But he thinks he can come over here and tell me I've got 'Lots wrong'? Staggering arrogance.

And if you're wondering why some of my Rubenstein images are the same as his, it's becasue we took them from the same seller about a year ago!

C is for Canoes - 6 - KiKo 'Oklahoma Tribe' Carded Bottle Bag

You may remember or be familiar with KiKo (as I will write it)* from Eric Williamson's old site, or more generally their licence to produce some Airfix stuff under their packaging, including, notably, the Medieval fort play set - Robin Hood, well, Brian Berke has sent these to the blog, for a bit of contrast as part of the 'Canoe Season'

 

On the Airfix licence era stuff the logotype is clearly KiKo, on this packageing it's K - I K - O, while I'm sure I've seen it Ki-Ko, and the address details just use the simple Kiko, so you can take your pick!

 

Mexican produced Wild West set, with the almost (for Central/South America) de rigueur Marx copies (the 3" figures being used here), and other accessories, which don't appear to be Marx per se, but the Teepee looks familiar, so it will probably be a copy of someone's?

The bag shots are a bit misleading - given this is a canoe season - as the canoes are almost totally hidden by dint of being stuffed inside the stacked Teepees, which led to some confusion when I was sorting out the images (months after I'd dumped them all in one folder!), as there are several other yellow canoes and a couple of fatter/wide-bodied ones!

 

But in the end I got them all sorted, and you get two, with three crew, two Indians firing bows and a trapper type paddling like fury! These are not Marx copies either, Marx barely bothered with a canoe, using it sparingly in Wild West sets, but chucking it in Boy Scout sets instead, where I think there was a paddler? I don't know whose production these may be based on, but the canoe seems to be a Kiko original, so maybe the crew are too?

 

Kiko on the left, 3" Marx donor in the middle and a Crescent sizer on the right, this is a 'beach-toy' sized set if ever there was one, but I guess, given income levels and the climate in Mexico, it will be designed to be played with outside, in the dirt or dust, and in all weathers?

 

The TeePee, I'm sure I've seen the decoration before, but can't think where, so if anyone has a clue, let the rest of us know! It's also scaled for 54mm figures and gets rather dwarfed by the chap who's supposed to fit his family in it!

 

Many thanks to Brian for these, it's really all about the canoe!

F is for Faraones y Dioses

Pharaohs and Gods . . . just'a quickie, these are copies of the Safari set we've seen a couple of times now one way or another, and while I bought them bagged 'NOS', it was obvious the set had seen better days and several sets of staples had visited the header-card, so; as it's both 'modern production' and the Mexican equivalent of a China rack-toy, I felt no compunction in getting them out for a box-tick!

The front and back of the header-card; a high point of the clip-artist's Photoshop efforts and no mistake! We have a colony of pyramids, some movie undead characters who definitely aren't in the bag and a loose camel, just I case we haven't worked out where the set's set! Manufactured by Magic Toys and distributed by SHS Toys, we've got two new tags out of it!

They actually have a charm which leaves them with an apparent age they just have't earned, being crudely painted/washed over a softish silver PVC-vinyl (a couple are a cream or black substrate) rubber type material, very flashy, and somewhat worn (whether in the bag, or due to the several removals from the bag in the past I will ever know), they look like they might be from the 1950's and gum-ball machine prizes at that!

I can't compare them, as I have the other sets as they appeared over the last two years (Safari donors, two K&M/Wild Republic sets and the recent Hing Fat set from Peter Evans), due to the current storage situation/excuse! So we'll return to all-five one day for a full comparison of them together. Oh, and there are no actual Pharaohs in the set, just a wrapped-up dead one! For all their pirated daftness I quite like them!

S is for Shop-full of Shelfies!

I've been building up a small stash of shelfies, with lots of help! And while they should have gone-up in August, there's no hard and fast rules here at Small Scale World, so we'll have a quick look now.

These are in Poundland at the moment . . . not unsurprisingly for a pa'nd! Three versions of Buddha on the left, a piratey type, a gardener who had nearly sold out and some white blob at the back which looks a bit Thai!

On the right a new collectable? She's probably already sold-out, more pirates and three ger'nomes, two are off to Pride, the third is a mermaid . . . how long before we have a limited-edition, chrome-plated, super-deform, angry-bird, Star Wars, gay-pride, Funko-mini mermaid-gnome with troll hair Tamagotchi? It's only a matter of time peeps!

Redbox under their Motor Max label, ID'ing a few of the many mechanics out there, this was in TKMaxx a while ago now, so will have gone, but it'll be out there somewhere if you need it, I'll wait for the loose figures to turn-up . . . thinks; might have a few already?

Couple more from TKMaxx, the Siku 8x8 swamp-hog is about 25/28mm compatible, and would seem to need a matt khaki re-spray and a recoilless rifle or ATGM mounting! The other Redbox has no figures either, but was interesting for being credited to the French Motormax Toy 'Factory' in Villepinte (my qoutes), via the 200 Horton Road, Middlesex office (UK) but 'manufactured' by RBI (Redbox International) in Rialto, California, yet "MADE IN CHINA"! Ultimately it's all Tai Sang!

These came from Brian Berke, our roving reporter in New York, rather at the infant end of the spectrum, the one on the left though has nice, realistic fire appliances (quite collectable) with deformed mini-vehicles you think must be from another line! While I'm strangely drawn to the three slightly deformed mini-AFV's on the otherwise aircraft card - just the sort of stuff which turns-up in mixed lots at car-boot sales or charity-shops!

Also from Brian came this Mexican, traditional style bagged rack-toy with header card and a collection of Marx 3" copy figures and various (non-Marx?) accessories. It might have a bit of age, but a lot of that Mexican stuff turns-up on evilBay, issued by KiKo or Ki-Ko (aren't they the people who did the licensed version of Arfix's Robin Hood play-set in the 1980's?). There's a yellow canoe in the Tee-Pee, which will return to the Blog soon . . . 'ish . . . I hope! It's my bad!

Peter Evans sent us this one at the beginning of September (where did that month go?), via Faceplant messages, so it would have missed RTM ayway, shot at the Gift and Promotional show in Birmingham the other month. A mix of stuff, some of which we've seen before.

Nothing special, but the stone towers with their industrial-looking doors might make a useful sci-fi accessory, suitably repainted, and there is a couple of new trucks and some M60's with ERA if I'm not mistaken? I don't know who's carrying it, but at two quid wholesale, it shouldn't be more than £3.50/£3.99 when you find it?

Thanks to both Brian and Peter for the contributions, shelfies sorted, still out there now!

ITLAPD is for I've Totally Lost the Administration of Pirate Day!

Aha! Me'arties! It be thaart toime'o yearrr again . . . it be talk loik a poirate day! Orrrrrr . . . if yer'appen to prefuurrrr; it be talk in a baaad West Cahnt'ree aaacent - in yer own 'ed - woilst do'win hous'old chorrrrs -day! Ahaarrrrrr . . . !

And . . . that's enough of that! If - and writing this, on Thursday night at ten-twenty-one PM, it's a big 'if' - I manage to get everything done by midnight on Sunday, this might be the best ITLAPD ever, and the last few were pretty good if I say so myself. But September has crept a little too suddenly into view, and onto the nineteenth?

I don't think I've even used any of the 40 or 50 RTM posts, I was going to carry into September, and have only half-emptied the odds-folder I started doing the other week, so I've got three days to write this all up, but I had my second jab today, so may feel shit tomorrow, and then there's an early start for an all-day Sandown Park (which I'd better go and do a quick news views on! So that's not a good start) on Saturday!

But If I get this done now, a few tomorrow, and maybe one on Saturday evening, I'll then plug-away on Sunday and try to get the rest done!

Last year it all went like clockwork, but this year's . . . while I had lots of articles shot, I've spent the last two days going through them (when I've had a few minutes here and there), re-shooting, or shooting supplementary shots, which has taken half the contents out of this intro., and into two new post, while a couple have been added as I went through the boxes - which had to come-back from storage!

It's madness really in'it! But we're here, and I've made a start, but I must just go and do a 'News, Views Etc . . .'  for Saturday!

So last year, this year's ITLAPD started to take shape on the 25th of September 2020! With the arrival of a mixed-lot from that-there feebleBay! Actually joined a few days later (tenth October?) by a Diorama, which winged its way across the Pond from Brain Berke and which will - hopefully - follow this post, shortly!

This is they, mostly odds or colour-variation duplicates and some Naval/Boxer-rebellion figurines (AIP? & Replicants), which obviously looked piratey to the seller! Already sorted away, the Charbens pirate is a new-issue one, the Hing Fat's are the earlier (probably not Hing Fat, likely Rado) colours, but no tied-hands prisoner!

Thanks to Quentin McClelland for ID'ing the cannon back in December: "It is from Imex set 711. It was also available in blue. The Italeri howitzer barrel is assembled from four parts, left, right and two dolphins. The Italeri trunion caps are also separate pieces.", there had been quite a discussion as to which set it was from!

All sorts of Odd's have come in over the last 12 months, and some have gone into separate posts, others are here, and we have in this above collage; five (top right) who were a single lot - I think, two enlarged to the left look like Haribo, Kinder or Onken type yogurt or chocolate capsule-egg premiums/prizes?

A vinyl pirate who's new to the stash and a pair of vinyl smallies who are marked MADE IN CHINA on Smart Toy style bases. Below them is a duplicate Saom who came in with something and he's holding the hand of one of the ones on the left - I don't even know what they are, I have bags of this shite . . . Zuru, Ty, Flair?

But five of them are piratey! And there are gold versions . . . Zomlings, Moshlings, X-something? About three years ago I was threatening to do a bunch of posts on these, but they got put back and put-back, they are NO priority and there's so much of this stuff . . . Go-Go's, Shopkins, Ugly Pet Shop, Grocery Gang, Super Zings . . . Teeny Mates (sportsmen from Brian B in the 'States!) We'll cover them all one day, just to tick the boxes!

Note the busy table with Russian plastic flats, Chinese ivory, Indian sub-continent brass votives and Pelican markers!

The two new ones compared to the older six (1980/90's) and the three Halsall/HTI copies, similar not the same, but in that 30-40mm grouping of flesh-coloured substrate! Can anyone put a brand o the new pair?

These came in as two sets of four, only the other week, and four have gone off to one of the Blog's contributors to try and pay back all the past kindnesses! Softish, modern PVC-substitute, and around 60mm like several other sets of these corner-shop, display-box, pocket-money types! Again - no brand or brand-mark.

My first large-size Papo pirate, he has a separate sword and looks a bit like the chap from the statue my mate Louise dragged back from Corsica!

Bottom right is a singly who came in with something, compared to one of those Zizzle Disney-store rarities (they were a bigger part of this post but now have their own if I get round to it) and no brand, he could be a game-piece or chess-set piece?

A week later - just found him in a recent (Volume 172) Plastic Warrior magazine, ID courtesy of Colin Penn; he's by Klutz and came with a card homecraft model of a pirate boat. There's a Harry Potter too, along with knight and Space Warrior figurines.

To the left is a comparison with the new Papo, two new 40mm Papo's and the stripy-shirt we saw a year or two ago. Top is the three new vinyls compared with two older ones (Wild Republic in red and a blue pocket-money generic).

I saw these going reasonably, earlier in the year and bought them, not Disney's PotC Davy Jones crew, oh no-no-no, absolutely not! Mars's Zombie Pirates, first time ever I've bought the 54mm version of 1:72^nd scale figures first!

They're nice-enough, but I found them a bit thin, but some of my other zombie figures are, and a semi-dehydrated undead cadaver dropping bits of itself about the place is likely to look 'well exercised'!! Compared with another Zizzle, this one new to Blog!

I saw these going cheap on evilBay and stole the shot, Jema Plast from Mexico with a copy of the old Hing Fat/Pressman ship and Ideal pirates, there's also a totem-pole in there with two 'jolly boats' . . . "I don' like these Jolly Boats Captain", says a certain look-out as he sinks for the umpteenth time!

Unimax FoV pirates, I have started adding these to the collection, there's not many, but they seem to duplicate in packaging, so it's going to be like the Zizzle non-Disney's, a few at a time while trying not to get too many duplicates!

Right me'arties! Thaats got us off and runnin' a'Haarrrh!