H is for How They Come In - Peter

A few days after Brian's parcel, another arrived without warning from North of the river, something some of you are probably expecting as he's scrupulously fair and seems to send parcels together so if he's name-checked at the other place he's shortly thereafter name-checked here, or vise-a-versa!

An interesting sample of mixed 'odds and sods' (which is right up SSW's street!); most of them happy to wear the 'Novelty' moniker. /the contents of the small bag (bottom-left) is now a separate post.

I'm not so sure about the large pink mouse, however the similar mini-bath duck is a happy receipt, so I can't reject his stable mate and one day there will be an overview of all rodents here on the blog (as there - hopefully - will be for everything) and when that day comes he/she-or-it will be ready and waiting . . . for a second viewing!

The three nutcracker'esqe (or 'Babes in Toyland' style-) guardsmen are part of a larger family which hung around in the late 1990's and early 2000's, I've pinned them to two or three brands and - in at least two sizes - they were used in snow-shakers, the sort of mini-trees truckers' put on their dashboards, as novelty earrings and possibly (as here?) cake decorations.

Both the drummer and the blue-jacketed chap were new to me and we will look at them all properly one Christmas, as that seems to have been their destination, whatever the end-use.

The Kinder eggs carried the latest figure type, and they are both nice (well sculpted and approximately 54mm) and disappointing at the same time.

The disappointment steaming from the fact that as stand-alone figures they are all in a silly pose, yet the point of the pose is a bit pointless, you have to balance the 'shield' on the two hands (not easy as a dextrous adult, god knows what kids will make of the job!) and then flick them [the shields], using the over-designed base, at the paper/card flat 'baddie' targets. The hitting of which seems more unlikely than getting the shield to stay put, but maybe I'm just a curmudgeonly old-git and it's easier on a smooth surface?

I had discovered them a few days before Peter's parcel, but typically in situations like this sod's law meant I had found the same figure as two of Peter's so now have three gold'n'green fish-men!

This is charming, possibly missing a few toes, but then he's probably over eighty and clearly survived Corvid-19 so one can't complain! Made in Japan and a fired bisque, hand-painted after firing there has been a bit of rubbing over the years . . . and another cricketer!

Now . . . we saw the female addition the other day and with another from Peter the total's become seven figures in a few months, from one, and five from Peter - here they all are together.

The new one is a second Spanish National Guardsman (like gendarme); an 'other rank' to my previously found officer, but the officer had a cartridge-paper board to his hat (as the Beefeater also has a card rim), while the new addition has the whole hat in the same clay.

He also has a slightly more expressive face, and while - like Erzgebirge - I suspect a regional aspect to the production, equally I suspect a different locale or town/village . . . the clay's a different colour to the other six, as well?

 

11th February 2021 - Now known to be craft figures (artesanos) from Alborox in Grenada

Another fisherman! Sans rod, so I put a 'pole' rod into the hold for the photograph, the original was probably a length of piano-wire with a piece of cotton-tread glued to the tip? Like the Spanish 'toristicas' in the previous shot, he's a terracotta/clay, rather than the bisque of the cricketer, but is also Japanese I think? And he's been glaze-fired rather than painted.

Aaaahh! I'm lovin' this! I already had the archer on the left and had always thought of him as a cartoony/anthropomorphic ancient or medieval type; a warrior archer, if you like, but the new figure from Peter makes it clear there is probably a set of 'sports cats' somewhere, and gum-ball capsule-machine inserts, or Christmas cracker prizes? Anyone else got some?

I shot it without flash (inset) to show the true colour difference.

Another excuse for a group shot was the china cat, which is also a different colour (darker grey), but the flash washed it out, so they look like twins (centre-left), and - as a group -growing ever larger!

I also have plastic copies/versions of the little kittens playing with balls of wool (front row), which are not direct piracies, being smaller, slightly different poses and . . . for another day!

The three Siamese's (top right) are chalkwear (plaster) and named, but I forgot to note it! The two dirty ginger's are Whimsy's from Wade the rest are porcelain 'ornamentals'.

Finally is this interesting chap, a Maori dancer from New Zealand, who has been glued to a paper or card base of some kind, I suspect as part of a tourist keepsake, but has a brand; G.L Models and may have had a second purpose as a colonial war-game figure, he's the right size and material under the paint?

And many thanks to Mr. Evans again, for another collection of eclectic stuff without the sending of which, I wouldn't have been able to share with you!

NZNAM is for New Zealand's National Army Museum - Gift Shop Figures

Reinforcing the figures in the museum's display cabinets are a small number of figures for sale, for which I have no details as to manufacturer if any NZ reader happens to know? Seem to be modern 54mm (that is closer to 60!), 'new metal'  to match K&C, Figarti, Gunn, Atkinns & co.?

WWI ANZAC's; interestingly, after the end of the previous post; the officer seems to be wearing a slouch hat, but un-pinned, the troops sport a slightly shorter 'spike' more like a Mounties, while - and it's not clear - the pack-mule handler, half-out of frame to the right, seems to have the standard 'British' service-cap?

A nice group of resisting Moari and two figures (also in service caps) who I suspect are not WWII, but - from the blue-ish shirts - WWI Mesopotamia or Gallipoli? There seems to be a WWII figure advancing out of the frame, to the right.

Many-thanks again to Brian for the images, he explained that they are all shot from the rear as the reflection on the glass-fronts of the cabinets was too bright for photography. Has anyone got some at home they can shoot for us?

NZNAM is for New Zealand's National Army Museum - Dioramas

This is the first post in a contribution day, Brian Berke, of New York, a regular contributor to the Blog, sent these just before I stopped posting for family reasons, so they have been sitting here for a while, despite being meant - in part - as a follow-up to the contributions from Glenn Sibald back in Jan/Feb; there's four of them, so today, we rather hand over to Mr. B!

The first post looks at two beautifully modelled diorama's one credited to a Tim Ryan (1980) and the uniforms/paint-work of the other looks similar, so I suspect he did both.

First you have to find those recalcitrant native citizens who have shown so unwilling to subjugate themselves to the Great White Queen's Blue (?) Jackets! This requires going a' campaigning; a tedious business which involves yomping, tabbing, marching and wandering about in the uloo, bondu, sticks or boondocks, basically going for an organised walk in the woods - well; a disciplined camping holiday . . . with the odd ambush!

This is a lovely model, the greenery is superb, I feel there's probably a kakapo or two in there somewhere, watching, curiously! 'What are the pink-monkeys doing now?'

In the rear of the column is a GS (General Service) Wagon, this carries all the 'camping equipment', which often makes it a target for some of those pesky ambushes; as 'Tommy' likes his creature-comforts, he's quite keen to hang back and guard it! While the Maori are just as keen to separate him from any comforts!

"Why are you men falling behind Corporal?"

"Guarding the wagon Sir!"

"Oh, Yes! Very-good; carry-on!"

Officers like their creature-comforts too!

I tried to collage the two to give a better impression of the whole, if I lined the kneeling sentry up the horses were tailless, so this is the best compromise! It really is a lovely diorama, well laid-out and with lots happening, yet without it being too busy.

Once you've found the Pā or fortified village, there's nothing for it but a full-frontal assault to force the palisade and gain entry to the entrenchments, easier in those [claimed for the Great White Queen] countries where the locals hadn't provisioned themselves with modern firearms! Consequently; Afghanistan and New Zealand proved to be tougher nuts than others!

This is also a superb example of how adding uniform-equipment and headdresses and giving all the figures a matching paint-job can bring disparate figures together as a homogenous unit, in the centre I can see a Timpo-solid stabbing downward (Imperial Guard or 8th army?) along with Herald, Deetail and Timpo-solid ACW's! And is the being-shot-guy at the back a Lone Star Russian?

Another Herald ACW instantly recognisable here with 'multi-pose' kits in the foreground, but Napoleonic or FFL? The loader two is familiar (far left, I'm not sure they were still using ramrods in the Maori Wars, but the atmosphere is there - maybe he's clearing a stoppage!) however, is he Deetail or Airfix? Again, at the risk of repeating myself; the use of all these figures is both intriguing and instructional as to the secrets of the dioramists' arts - a few added items of similar accoutrement, straps and a matching paint-job (not to forget the headdresses) bring them all together beautifully.

The sense of chaos in the moment, yet of organised urgency in the face of opposition (on both sides) is got-across magnificently and this model is a joy to behold; It may have been an act of attempted genocide, or at the very-least; misguided dogma and doctrine on the part of the incomers, the 'illegal immigrants' and their 'state', or - on the other hand - an act of 'futile', too-late resistance or rebellion by the locals, but (as the late David Bowie put it) each man can be a hero, just for one day.

Can you hear the splintering of dry sappling-wood under the weight of rushing (or falling) bodies . . . the screams of the wounded and dying, the manic yells of frightened men, the shouted orders of command or warning, all over the cacophony of firearms, and - out of shot - artillery . . . can you smell the cloying, devil's breath of cordite, dust, fresh blood and fear, burning the nostrils?

Thank you Mr. Berke. It was a rare treat to find these in my inbox . . . and - quite by accident - due to the contributions of Glenn and yourself; 2019 seems to have become 'New Zealand Year' here at SSW!

NZ is for New Zealanders

You should have had this on Friday afternoon but it was postponed due to another unpleasantness, and while I said I'd do it for the next day I couldn't be arsed to bimble up the library on Saturday, so today's the day.

Also I've noticed he leaves his attacks on me at the top of the page for a day or two, so giving him a bit of his own dumb-juice medicine and ensuring the maximum number of visitors will have found it over the weekend, won't have hurt!

I was alerted to these by another blog, no need to name it, it gets enough self-publicity from its monkey-lizard's back-link posting about the place, and was itself alerted to Sanitarium by my Dancing Dolls page, prior to the publishing of which, the firm was 'unknown, probably Australian figures' to the Euro-US collecting community!

As a result it's only a box-ticker which will enable me to simplify the links on the A-Z page for Sanitarium by getting these in the tag list and deleting a now-spurious link over there.

A full set consists of two white settlers (farmstead couple), a white dignitary in top hat (carving-up someone else's land in the name of the Great White Queen Vicky), four Maori and a native levy type soldier for an eight-count.

They're big boys! "If only we could get them to stop fighting us for their land and learn to play rugby", said somebody, somewhere, probably!

As with the posts the other day I've measured them both from foot sole to eye-line and from under-base to top of headdress. Semi-flat (demi-ronde), softish/soapy polyethylene.

Some of them have a fade-out of the colouring dye, which remains in the crevices like the old Airfix HO Guardsmen and they all have two little dinks on the upper side of the base, which may point to some production technique or process which remains a mystery to me.

Cereal Premiums. Sanitarium. New Zealanders. Box ticked.