L is for Loose Lots - Sandown - Sci-Fi & Fantasy

There's still a couple of Sandown related things in the queue, but they may join the many folders down the bottom (of Picasa!) which date back to up to fifteen years ago, it will get posted one day . . . it will! In the meantime, here's the sci-fi and fantasy element of my busy scurrying and ferreting, back in February!

 

Gareth found these and brought them to my attention, he managed to get another, 14th pose, but I've already got a reasonable sample of these, and we have seen them here before, painted, and as unpainted late production, including whacky plastic colours (fluorescent pink, green and oranges), as well as visits to bagged and loose Thunderbird additions to the range, in soft rubber and polystyrene, so I've probably got the missing pose?

 

Ovni (UFO) from Comansi, I don't know if these are factory painted, or home-paints, the seller and Gareth thought the latter, and when painted, they tend to have brown bases, so these are probably not 'official'. But, they were sold under various guises, as well as the UFO moniker, and the late Thunderbirds sets, they came as Battle of the Planets and as The Invaders TV series tie-ins, so they may have ended up looking like this at one point - the seller had quite a few, all in the same condition.

 

The fact that some faces are painted, others not, is also odd, a home-painter would do them all the same, a team of out-painter's wouldn't be so fussy? The real interest, to me, is in the plastic colours underneath, mid-green and metallic blue, which I think are earlier than my previous samples, making the whole sample, a better representation of Comansi's output.

 

A few minutes after publishing - In fact I think there's more than twenty poses in total, with the six Thunderbirds characters, maybe closer to thirty, we've seen a girl, a chap holding a space rifle parallel to the ground, a zombie/Frankenstein's Monster type, I think there's another kneeling one I don't have, a guy waving a space rifle, a guy holding an equipment box (which gives us 20/26), so when I've got my four or more samples together, we'll have a proper looks at them despite having had several 'proper' looks at them already! Doh!

 

Game playing pieces I suspect, and in the style of all that MB Games' stuff licensed from the Nottingham Mafia (Battle Masters, Hero Quest, Space Crusade, Space Hulk et al), but I'm in the dark as to which game these are from, and it's only the bases of the blue figures which are leading me in the GW direction? 

 

A blow-moulded astron . . . sorry, cosmonaut from the former Soviet Union, and while I'm not posting Russian stuff at the moment, this can be lost in amongst the other stuff. Not believed to be a parachute toy, but more of an infant's garden/beach/bath toy thing, a big chunk for tiny hands.

 

 "Wrestlers sah! Millions of 'em!"

 

Mattel's M.U.S.C.L.E., always nice to add a few more to the tub, especially these - mostly - coloured ones, when I first started finding these, they were usually the flesh-coloured chaps, and early web-pages would suggest the colours were rarer, but I think they were just later, so came to market later, and therefore come onto the secondary market later, too, they seem to turn-up quite often these days, but a nice sample, with a pocket monster to the fore.

 

The sublime and the ridiculous! Cherilea and Matchbox, although I'm being unfair, the Matchbox K-2002 Flight Hunter was a reasonable effort as the long-night of the long-knives in the toy industry of the early 1980's, bit deep. While I got the elusive space-slug, because he was affordable, due to his short-shot foot, I doubt he misses it!

 

Don't forget it's the London Toy Soldier Show tomorrow;

 

http://www.toysoldiershow.co.uk/

F is for Follow-up - Progress WWII Russians

I managed to find a full set of the Progress Russian Infantry (going very cheap or I would have waited) a while ago, and while I only needed the three Chris helped-out with last time we looked at them, I thought "When will I see them again?" so grabbed them!

We saw the backs of most of them when we looked at them last time, so just a re-hash from one side, they have faint traces of paint on them (a pale flesh on hands and faces, no other apparent colours), so earlier (?) sets seem to have carried paint, but I've seen them on packaging (near mint) without.

And as Chris suggested last time, still only the nine poses, I guess they considered it a set of ten items with the flag, not that any set of toy anything has to have round numbers and many don't, but with toy soldiers you tend to look for six, eight or ten &etc!

Having accepted I would have a bunch of duplicates, they came in a darker, flat green than most of my existing metallic ones, or the pale-jade above, so I will probably hang-on to most of them for a fuller sample in the near future at least, right now they are still in two places so I haven't had time to fully-compare them.

The best of the bunch, he can be holding it in a brisk updraft (right-hand pair) . . .
. . . or on a slightly breezy day!

T is "To Boldly Go . . . "

. . . forth! 2022? It too will pass!

Did I say we'd be looking at something from Kazakhstan in the future? Well, it's a year in the future now, so by Jove; let's look at it! First though, do you remember when I got a little excited about a Merit infant-toy stackable fort/palace thing?

Well, this is even better, and, looking at the images in that old post, I recon the parts will be interchangeable, if I ever get the urge to fire masonry towers or tiled-turrets into deep space!

Jovians queue-up to board their space rocket courtesy of a brand I don't recognise, but it looks like ЈПЕ as a pyramid/in a triangle, indeed it's might be ЗЦГ with the point of the triangle at the bottom? I should have photographed it but . . . red plastic, winter light, flash!

The colours of the rocket, or at least; the red and turquoise could be seen as the colours of the flag of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan, so while the factory may have been considered 'Soviet Russian', I suspect it was local to the now independent Kazakhstan?

The component parts, a mid-density (soft) polyethylene plastic with the wooden 'wand'! The base-plate (bottom right, red) and the top cap/cone (white, top left) are slightly tighter fits than the other parts, so that once you have finished building it, it all stays together so it can be flown about by hand!

While the Merit castle had fixed spigots top and bottom of hollow tubes, this rocket has a central core of a wooden rod or dowel - I don't know how long a dowel has to be to become a rod!

I done did a little .gif

A quick point - in hours, this was less than six days, Kazakhstan to UK . . . over Christmas! I have to wait at least two weeks to get something from New York, New Jersey or New Hampshire, at the best of times and they are direct to Heathrow, several times a day, while it's up to three weeks from Italy or Greece? Mexico? Over two months! Heathrow-sorting to Fleet sorting . . . 40-minute van-drive, Fleet sorting to my door, 3/4-minute walk. yet this, from a  late-night purchase to a 9am delivery was a few hours over the five days? I think the words we're looking for are 'quality service', from the Kazak postal services! Something ours - in the West - have lost, abandoned.

Kazakhstan is building closer economic ties with the EU (without showing a similar interest in Joining NATO) and will be watching the Ukrainian border with some alarm, Russia has no right to enslave all these neighbours, just because she had once done so, and I hope common-sense prevails . . . or Putin meets a sticky-end.

While it clearly has an order of construction (left) to make a pretty standard space rocket of the pulp book-cover variety, the components can - of course - be assembled in numerous ways, which may or may not look good, fashionable or just plain silly!

New 'best toy ever'? 

U is for Unknown Russian Kids Fantasy Figures?

These are fun, and if any of the Russian or Russian-speaking loyal readers from the former Soviet Bloc can fill us in on them, even a decent link to a Wikipedia page or something, I would dearly like to know more.

I can only assume they are from some Kids TV thing like The Magic Roundabout or Fabulandia, even Sesame Street, or the current In the Night Garden . . . with a fantastical setting and things which look half recognisable, and others which are wholly surreal?

We used to get some kid's stuff, from Czechoslovakia or East Germany I think, often quite scary puppet stuff (I wasn't too keen on) but also cartoons or stop-motion animations similar to The Magic Roundabout, but I don't recognise these figures.

The spanner-man (top left) even has features in common with one of Mattel's MUSCLE men, while the next is clearly an onion, followed by a figure bearing a passing resemblance to the Tin Man of Oz, and a Micky take-off completes the top row.

The bottom row has someone in a large sun-hat or halo, or is it the actual sun? The next is a wooden doll maybe (she (he?) reminds me a bit of Zeberdee), a normal'ish/human-looking fat lady with a huge nose and the most human of all, who looks a bit like Vicky the Viking.

And I use the comparisons not to suggest plagiarism, but because they are my closest cultural references - I'm sure these were all unique designs with full back-stories, fitting their Russian heritage? I believe this eight sculpts is a full set, although I may have seen some of the characters as larger blow-moulded toys, PVC figurines or soft toys, while searching for other stuff on feebleBay?

I have one set in plain scarlet and another in multiple subdued/pastel colours, again a set of eight, I didn't shoot all of them and noticed that while some have a fully-round disposition, some are semi-flat / demi-ronde, but don't know if it reflects the actual TV characters (if it's even a TV thing!), or more of a production/sculptor thing?

A few close-ups to show the subtle surface detailing, the odd noses on the 'tin man' and fat girl (her's looks like it might be a pencil-stub?), 'Mickey's' big ears (similar to the better-known Russian cartoon charcter Cheburashka but also very different) and the hat/sun/halo thing!

Like I say - they're fun, around 45/50mm and a softish soapy polyethylene, similar to the mono-block AFV's we've seen here at Small Scale World. Do you know more about them . . . character names, production name, era, even the toy-maker? Odessa's Kultbyttovarov used the same colours on their small scale ships, 'planes and AFV's?

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

Later the same day - not in pink 'cos there's too much! Chris Smith got on the case before work this morning and nailed it!

". . . had sneaky look at your blog and finished down a google worm hole! This must be the onion headed one, not sure if the others are characters from the film or other popular children’s stories?"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2474800/

". . . looked further. More interesting than work! Your hunch on Cheburashka was right after all. Your description in red."

Петрушка (Parsley) Vicky the Viking (a clown puppet a bit like a Russian Punch)
Буратино (Pinocchio/Buratino) Tinman
Незнайка (Neznaika/Dunno) Sun Hat/Halo
Чебурашка (Cheburashka) Ditto*
Дюймовочка (Thumbelina) Wooden Doll
Самоделкин (Samodelkin) Spanner-Man
Карандаш (Pencil) Fat Lady Big Nose (If you look her nose is hexagonal and pointed)**
Чиполлино (Cipollino) Onion Boy

* This character is currently in talks with Disney, but now - in poplar culture -  looks more like a monkey than the above toy, which is probably why I saw a similarity with the ears, but not the body!

** I was closing-in!

So it's a Russian take on old folk/fairy-tales, mashed together under the central Cipollino (who IS an onion!), some of the characters also having been covered by Disney in different guises, it was also apparently popular in Italy and so successful behind 'the curtain' that we got a set of toys and, later, a full ballet production! And the 'Tin Man' is actually a wooden boy. It also explains why I thought I'd seen them in other sizes and materials, because I must have!

Cheers Chris! Magic!

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

Later still - It is originally an Italian story; Chris sent me another link I hadn't seen . . . 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipollino

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipollino_(film)

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

Even later!

I don't think most of the above characters are from the movie (the apparent absence of king/mayor 'Tomato' was bugging me), I think they are from the Russian kid's books 'Expanded Universe? And it looks like Pencil is a boy!

https://flomaster.club/18407-karandash-i-samodelkin-illjustracii-ivana-semenova.html

H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - II Chris - Introduction

A day or two after the lot from Adrian we looked at last Thursday here, I received one of Chris Smith's 'big box' lots, and it was a fantastic collection of odds, ends, rarities or novelty tat I'd never seen before, and I've broken it down into six posts, of which this is the overview/sorting.

I actually shot them over several days with no real order, so some of it confused me! And a Polar bear got shot before everything else, and again half-way through!

The first thing I do is pick through the box, finding the treasures (to me, some might be quite tatty or damaged but if I've not seen them before I get excited!), then I tend to put them all back in the box and do 'my day' as normal.

Then in the evening, I sort them again into thematic piles - civilian, combat, ceremonial and/or historical, space/sci-fi, fantasy, cartoon/TV/movie-related, animals (sometimes sub-piled; sea life, dinosaurs, farm and/or zoo etc....), Kinder/capsule, vehicles, 'planes, accessories/building parts &etc. That is where this shot finds me - little thematic piles of polymer playthings!

Then they get bagged-up as TBS (To Be Sorted [into the collection]), and yes, the themes are all muddled-up again here, but the fact that I've handled them all three times means I've got a good idea what's there . . . and I'm photographing as I go, as well as putting away anything where the master-collection box or tub is near to hand, or if I need to separate for reasons of frangibility, or forthcoming articles, or folders in the long queue, or for follow-ups etc!

Also I have to work out exactly what to shoot for these posts, for-instance I haven't shot the mini-plastic buildings (upper-left-centre) because we've looked at them here, but due to the three building types (two Whilhelmian barrack/flat-block types and a church), and various colours, they are always welcome in the collection, as there are many variations to find!

Slightly to the right and just below them is a bag stuffed with all the small-scale (15-25mm),which are next, but what else can you spot?

Those small-scale, tipped out of their first bag, for further sorting into smaller samples (same 4 / 5½" bags), the absolute highlight here is a clean pair of Blue Box ambulance men, you may recall mine were sun-stained coffee-colour last time we looked at them, all the more special as the white plastic, civilian stretcher-case came in more recently, with both staples (handles/legs) intact, so I now have a clean team for next time we look at them in detail.

Also of interest are the three soft plastic firefighters, also Blue Box, the pair of (Corgi (?) driver/co-driver) firefighters and the red horse racer, possibly from a  board game, but I suspect Christmas crackers or some of those 'early learning' types we looked at a couple of three years ago - where does it go!

This image - in sequence with the previous, but the next day, threw-me for a moment as it didn't make sense, but study suggests in the foreground I'm still sorting Chri's lot, in the middle distance I've got the TBS Matchbox and Corgi out, probably to sort some of Chris's stuff into, at the far right I seem to have lined-up my growing stash of Russian Malysh rubber Wellingtonians, adding the pastel shades to those I'd blogged the previous October?

While the red blob top left is a piece of Betterware from Chris, which was probably waiting to go up to the loft where the Betterware box was . . . actually they don't have their own box, the have a few of the index-carded 4 / 5½" bags in the A-B Minor Makes box!

A mixed line-up which didn't fit the other five posts! A home-made or heat-converted plastic confederate (I think?), two Cavendish Guards, both damaged but it's about the plastic colours, look at that smoky-pink on the left! Another blow-moulded Russian, you can't have enough of these are there are several sets, each of 8-10 poses and at least three sizes!

On the end of the upper row is a nice  - probably Italian 'precepi' or nativity figure, might be a king/wise-man, or just a villager, below which are four Russian knock-offs of the Marx 60mm Vikings, but closer to 54mm as copies.

They actually highlight the situation this year; I have these figures in the short queue, they are actually on the lap-top's desk-top waiting for final editing, but I don't think these four are in the article? As the article was shot a few months ago, and these came in nearly a year ago . . . they should have been united by now . . . so, while a lot of stuff has been sorted together on the way to storage (and a lot photographed), some things which did have two homes, now seem to have three - I fear these chaps are in that category, and it will be at least another year before it's all been fully put straight!

Another eclectic assortment, smaller sixes, clockwise from top left; New Ray (I think, a US model railway issuer has a similar range, so needs checking), the Hong Kong flat railway staffer we saw here, and a late Culpitts Santa Claus - Topical a year later!

The green horse is one I call 'Large Draft' and I've just (last few days) done a ready reckoner on all of them here, it's not how I'd planned the horse page, but it will help people sort theirs for now and as I post them in detail the riders, foot figures (if any) and accessories will be sorted too. Finally one of the hard-vinyl figures from Portugal who had several issues and - seemingly - several iterations of 'full set', which we will try to get on top-of, one day.

Many thanks to Chris Smith, there are five more posts to come, looking at some of the highlights from the thematic sorting phase, but all of it is greatly appreciated, it enhances the Blog and the readers experience and those figures/items which don't get to shine in these 'H is for . . . ' posts will enhance the Blog and A-Z entries for years to come.

P is for Previously Seen on the Internet . . . II - Ancients and Medievals

Continuing with my cheap Lazy Posts, and a quick look at a few figures depicting warriors of the earlier eras.

Starting in pre-Ptolemaic anciet Egypt, Tatra - the brown one is dark bronze and marked 'Made In England' as is the silver one below him, the rest only have the 'EGYPTIAN' name-plate mark on the chamfered edge.

Coming forwards 3000-odd years nearer the present-day and we find the Vikings! Sorting to move to storage temporarily (I hope!) I grabbed one of each for a comparison; they go better together for being a barbarian horde!

Another 4/500-years finds us in the medieval period with Lone Star - odd plastic colours, from the left; metallic green plastic (and paint), a pinkish-taupe, a putty-grey, a dove-grey and a white plastic figure.

I've also been posting a few links of similar ilk/subject matter about the place, here are two on the ancient/medieval theme;

Faceplant -
https://www.facebook.com/worldbeautiesandwonders/photos/a.105095208262327/202175238554323/

My Modern Met -
https://mymodernmet.com/3d-print-sculptures-scan-the-world/?fbclid=IwAR06Es2t-HjS6KWMIvorj13Z9FjAis-x11q44T4kR8X_iIGAsijzxYBqg68

W is for Wedge-Hand Warriors

I've been after a set of these for ages, I have one or two somewhere without weapons, or with the wrong weapons, but I knew what they were as they seem to have been common about 15/20 years ago - around the time 'The Wall' came down, and there had been several dealers; one in Ireland, one in the US and one in the West County (I think) selling the boxed sets, usually for a reasonable amount, but at the time I wasn't really buying online.

And while more recently I have bid and lost on a couple of boxed sets (or dropped out 'cos they went too-high for my wallet!), I spotted a lose but complete set a while ago and got it for a reasonable price (can't remember if it was bid or BIN?), so while a box is always nice, and makes for a longer Blog Post, it's really all about the figures, so -  with all the accessories - let's have a look at them!

Progress again, they seem to have been one of the more prolific of the Russian figure producers, surviving for some time after the end of the Soviet Bloc and with factories/licensees in some of the satellite countries, these Alexander Nevsky Knights are notable for having slot/wedge hands like the 1st version Cherilea combat infantry. I've also seen them described as Progress Medieval Retinue, but don't know if that was an/the official title or a Western translation?

Also like their British counterparts, these are not rubbery or 'grippy' hands, but quite rigid polyethylene hands you have to force the accessory into only for it to pop-out in play! The archer gets two plug-ins which are a bit more successful, while the chap in the middle of the upper row has a more conventional ring-hand for his sword.

The accessories they come with (and the ease with which they are parted from the figures is/was the driver for trying to find a boxed set!), some can be swapped between figures, but they aren't terribly good swaps - visually - and with differing thicknesses of shaft or handle; are really figure-pose specific?

These all ended-up with rather busy backgrounds, so I will revisit them at some point with a plainer setting, but for now you get the idea, the Soviet equivalent of rack toys gets shoehorned into RTM again!

I suspect they are the same sculptor as the set of WWII Infantry with the plug-in red-flag we've seen here (with Chris's help), and are reported to have first appeared in 1976, but with only the five poses in this set, possibly because of the extra effort and second mould-cost required by the accessories?

I ended-up with a couple of images which cropped so similar again, they make for a nice .gif, which gives the impression of 3D without faffing-about on making a short video which is often more effort than it's worth.

Progress Russian Alexander Nevsky/Medieval Retinue knights' set - box ticked! I'm now searching for a complete set of the MIR copies; cruder sculpts, also silver PE, but with plug-in heliotrope pink/red bases, making them even more 'swoppet'-like!

S is for Soviet Space Tanks!

You know I like the odd space tank and you know we often see early Soviet toy AFV's here, so let's combine the two!

These are clearly trying to represent the old air-mobile Russian BMP (or at a stretch the regular-force's BMD) and the ASU mini assault gun, but by using running-gear more reminiscent of an MT-LB's or the BTR50 (fully-tracked cargo trucks)'s and using identical superstructure, what we've ended up with is a 'new' family of space tanks . . . bargain!

Waiting for the 'Off'

Crewed by gum-ball copies of Giant Aliens (shades of 2000AD's Invasion and Bill Savage fighting the Sov's to liberate Scotland!), the BMP-alike is in the foreground, the ASU-alike behind, you can see that both have too many road-wheels for either real life vehicle, while the identical superstructure is clear.

Airborne Infantry;
'Seek & Destroy' missions

The fact that they are bright blue (Soviet 'Airborne' blue?) helps with the off-world theme and here supported by Giant originals (note the better quality of the mouldings).

Construction is a simple clip-together and the hard polystyrene equivalent of Airfix 'readymades', but with less accuracy! I don't have a maker for these yet, they are unmarked, but I haven't looked for them on the two main forums yet, so that will probably come with time.

'Bivouac'

I love them, clearly recognisable as Soviet armour, they are also and undeniably 'Space Tanks'; yeay! I've marked them up as 28mm, but their fictionalisation makes them what you want them to be.

Some Wiki-pages so you can make up your own minds;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMD-1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASU-57
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MT-LB
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTR-50

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP-1

F is for Follow Up - Soviet-era Napoleonic Russian Cavalry

Moskovskiy zavod plastmassovykh igrushek  (МЗПИ  - MZPI)

ДОСААФ is for the Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Navy

Or; DOSSAF is for Добровольное Общество Содействия Армии, Авиации и Флоту! 'Dossaf' was a semi-civilian or paramilitary organisation, technically centrered on sports, but probably best described as a Soviet version of the Hitler Youth (a parallel some Russians will hate me for, but history is history!), membership went a long-way toward your later progression in society or through the 'party'.

Like most State-owned (or in this case 'regime' specific) organs of the Soviet system - as practiced in both Russia and China - they ended up with a few industrial plants, among the output of which were toys and playthings.

The plant at Odessa being best known [by us collectors'] for their Timpo 'Swoppet' clones, slightly comical for being more African than Eurasian/Amerindian in the old skin-tone . . . have to be careful what I say here (readers in the future will need to reacquaint themselves with the March 2021 appearance of Prince, Duke the posh, his ex-Majesty Harry the Harry-not-Henry, and his missus, on the Oprah Winfrey Show) . . . , but were available in a lovely palate of 'toy' coloured legs and - more importantly from my fandom point of view - bases.

I also have a number of mixed loose figures (upper shot) while the packaging has a lot in common with the aluminium set we looked at here from Gidromana, being vacuum shrunk-wrapped onto a piece of card.

Among the loose ones are (or is?) another pair of running legs, giving three types; just off the base (white), leg near-parallel with the plane of the base (green) and a bit of a donkey-kick (pink and yellow), but there are other differences.

One of them has a separate weapon (top left), you may have noticed some alternate weapons in the second image (a club, a spear, a Barberry pirate's cutlass!), but others differ (top right, rifles) and the base on one is very different, while I have yet to find the figure for the bigger bows (which may be unconnected) and a third rifle also comes as a separate moulding.

This all points to at least three sources of these figures, whether or not they were all Dossaf facilities or some other collective outfit/s is unknown at this time, but as-per those Progress flats we've looked-at before, there would have been duplicate moulds for other sources or other makers . . . and it makes collecting them more fun!