D is for Donation - Peter - Military

So, to the 'meat and two veg' of a toy soldier Blog (really I like to think we are a ' toy soldier, model figure and novelty' Blog!), with the chaps (and occasionally, chapesses) in Khaki, and it's always a mix of rack-toy rusk and quality seed!

 

A trio of odd figures, with what looks to be a Cofalu/x 60mm-copy to the left, solid head, rather than the plug-in of the original, a kit figure GI, Monogram or Revell? and a chunky Matchbox clone.

 

Originally Ackerman in the UK, these have now been seen in various configurations, and associated with various brands, and as generics, in two sizes, we looked at them here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/08/f-is-for-follow-up-to-some-stuff-we.html

 

with a link in that post to an earlier one, but more variants have come in, including other paint-ways, so a further sort-out and more definitive post will happen one day! It's the figure set which also, sometimes, comes with those big B/O tanks.

 

Miller's grist, the grayer ones might be Boley or similar, the greens very generic, and the reds very modern, and probably only ID'able from shots of carded or bagged sets shelfied, or downloaded from evilBay/Amazon etc.

 

A common set of modern (age and depiction) sculpts, many variants exist, and they will be looked at in detail another day, we have had the odd poke at them, already!

 

MPC clones, several variations of these, both from domestic US makers, and Hong Kong pirates, I tend keep two of each marking/colour variation, and put the rest in the swaps pile, but finding the right accessories is the hard bit!

 

Again, lots of variety in these Matchbox clones, not all ID'd yet.

 

More modern stuff and some old HO/OO Airfix bits.

 

The five same-colour figures are Fishel's unique mouldings, possibly worked off, or contributing to, their own US Police/SWAT set, and I think the brighter green chap is theirs too, but both the prone figures are unmarked. He looks a bit Speznaz, Afghanistan

 

Three generations of Hong Kong/China piracy; with the 1950/60's Tim-Mee in front, a 1970/80's Airfix clone to the right, and a modern (1990-2000's) to the left. A Blue Box GI with bayonet fitted for Jap-bashing, and a very good version of the Britains Swoppet clones, usually poor quality with the mortar bomb looking more like a kitchen implement or sex-toy, here it's well moulded, and the figure has a more substantial base . . . new to collection, I think?

 

Airfix original (damaged) and Hong Kong clones, almost certainly one of two apparent versions from Rado Industries (Ri-Toys).

 

Three tatty and paint-stripped Lone Star paratroops, could be useful spares or a future painting project? That peculiar mix of WWII battle-dress and 1950's 'futuristic' EM-2 Bullpup rifle, with overdramatic officer!

 

These are nice, probably from a big-box Chinese-manufactured play-set, and similar to some parachute novelty figures around in the last few years,. They're big at around 60mm, the chap in the right is more Russian in styling. Slava Ukraine!

 

Marx. Hard polystyrene plastic, 45mm, not the first found, but same pose . . . So, must be a Swansea thing? Possibly an accessory for a vessel or vehicle set? And might be related to the yellow one here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2012/07/l-is-for-late-thanks-to-blogger.html

 

Mostly Shing Hing (S.H. marked), with a comparison shot of the modern sculpt above, and an older Airfix figure in the upper/first shot.

 

 

Two mixes of modern/current production from various sources, copies of copies, of copies, in the end they get so poor they look more like Fantasy skeletal figures (back row, yellowish) and within set, often reference more than one other donor set! But all valid, and one-of-each, eagerly sought - 'for the record'!

So many thanks to Peter for finding some of them, and he's already eMailed me, with news of more finds.

B is for Bagged, Boxed and Blister-Carded!

Now, there's a title I should have, could have, aught to've thought of years ago, having decided to stubbornly stick with the 'A is for . . . ' trope. Especially when I could have dropped it the first month, after we got to zed, or the next month after we'd gone back up to ay? But, whatever, we've had it now!

 

February's Sandown resulted in lots of nice things being added to the pile, and these are all those - we haven't seen yet - which came/come with their packaging, there not being enough stuff for thematic posts, I'm finding other ways to run-off shots from the main folder!

 

This was an amazing find, on the nostalgia front, not because you can't probably find them regularly on feebleBay, but because I hadn't thought to look, having forgotten this for several decades, but this was my Brother's piggy-bank, when we were kids. I had the hard polystyrene 'pillar-box', with three black bands, numbered as a combination lock (which I have seen, but not while I was buying), from Hong Kong, while my brother had this, also from Hong Kong, imported by CODEG Productions (Cowan de Groot)

 

It's not exactly the same, as his was yellow plastic under the flocking, which came off quite soon, ears first! So our Rupert was plain yellow for years, probably until we moved house in 1980, while this one is actually red polythene, so at least two production runs for this.

 

We loved Rupert, and had quite a few annuals from the Church fête, it was all a bit Edwardian, prep-school and jolly hockey-sticks, but kids don't mind, same with the Enid Blyton stuff, prejudices are passed-on by grown-ups, kids just like reading that other kids are having adventures in a pirate cave with a pet mouse in their pocket, or - in Rupert's case - chasing a Bramble Imp with an Elephant in a suit!

 

Purchased purely for the card sample, we looked at the figure set a while ago, as I have them all loose, but at that time I only knew about the five or ten set cards, now we have pairs, for really poor kids!

 

Close-ups; Slinger (below) and Stinger!

 

Box-ticking, I now have complete sets of Romans, Greeks and Egyptians, and most, if not all the Wild West, but I only had one nurse from this set, maybe another figure? Although, looking at the card-reverse, I still haven't found the firefighters!

 

Unusually (especially when you consider there are ten firefighter sculpts), there are only six poses in this set, with four duplicate pairs and two 'uniques' for the ten-count?

 

Contemporaneous with all those magnetic novelties, was this, Falbala the Fakir, from Fairylite, who could be cut in half, yet remain whole, I say 'could', because his - probably - phenolic-based polymer has warped, and he actually falls apart rather easily and stays together only with delicate intervention!

 

When new, you would prise his two body-halves apart, enough to get the sword in, then, upon slicing downward, would push a locking key out of the way. There are three of the slightly curved keys on a revolving wheel (think the Coat of Arms [legs] of the Isle of Man), so as the sword pushed one out of the way, another would come round and lock in behind it, so the Fakir stayed together as the sword went right through him!

  

From the 'Empire Made', I'm guessing this was a Swansea-operation corner of the 'Kins universe, if it was the US arm of Marx behind it, it would usually be 'Made in British . . . Hong Kong, Crown Colony' and/or etc. The seller had several, some with two Fairykins, some with common window-box accessories like the dog-house, but I thought the semi-flat guardsman was a bit different, and needed to be in the master collection!

  

More Humpties here;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/05/e-is-for-eggcellent-effigies.html 

 

100% sure this is Airfix, no pattern number, and no banner-logo, but in every other way mirroring other known examples of early Airifx novelties, plastic colours match the animal flat/building block/baby bricks, and the micro-aircraft I've also called as Airfix, while the card is very similar to the one the animal flats came on, and I bet those 'planes came from similar cards? I will add more imagery of it to the Airfix Blog, in a day or two.

 

Finally, a cereal premium Hulk, mint in 'food-hygienic' pack! Called 'Desktop Buddies' and issued in 2003 by various Nestle properties, including Golden Nuggets, it's actually a relief sculpt with a hollow back, but a packaging sample is always useful!

H is for Hippopotami

Strangely, the second most visited post ever, on the blog, with over 7000 direct hits, is the lazy-post on Rhinoceri I shot the same day I shot the first of these images, and while I suspect bots have more to do with that record traffic than humans, it is true that the Model Animal collecting fraternity is much healthier and more numerous than the Toy Soldier brotherhood, so the odd animal post doesn't hurt!

 

No order or specific narrative, just a bunch of Hippopotamuses, with a few notes, another lazy post! I was, at the time (2020) combining the attic stuff with the storage stuff, which I had dug-out of the garage, looking for something else! And it went something like this;

 

Probably the storage lot, but could be from the attic?

 

Probably the attic lot, but could be from storage!

 

Combined; I then remembered there were some Britians ones in a box of Britains farm and zoo somewhere . . .

 

Which also gave-up another Charbens and a late blue-polymer Timpo, requiring a slight reorganisation, with the China-vinyl types to the left, Britains copies (Blue Box, Redbox and Holly etc.), scaled down, next, with two Charbens, a small cracker type 'ivorene' and three more origianl Hong Kong's in front, down the middle, then the common Hong Kong, in four or five sizes (Arco, New Maries, RAE, etc.), with Britains and Timpo to the right.

 

At some point this little chap arrived, 'China'; I think, he has stuff on his belly, but I didn't note it at the time! Not Safari, K&M/WR, Schleich or Papo, as far as I can tell, but seemingly quite up-market? Yowies maybe . . . also in the queue, several posts!

 

A few were elsewhere, like the two brandings of big-blue eraser, Tiger Stores and Royle Kids, several more China/HK types to the right, the brownish-gray one seems to be a version of the Toy Major sculpt, while the other two are older HK 'ethylene's. The silver one, who's hollow, and a paired Hippo/Elephant to the left, complete that additions-shot!

 

That pair raise an interesting point, as they clearly go together; same plastic type and colour, same paint, but are marked differently, which is something you need to look out for with all sorting/attributing of Hong Kong stuff, the stamps used are two, one 'MADE IN' and the other 'HONG KONG', with the engineer stamping them above/below each other on the Hippo's belly, but in a vague line along the Elephant's spine.

 

These were also in storage, and while the Topps were in the 'minor makes' zone, they have since been added to with a few more, there are 24 in the set; Baby Animals, the other bag is from the unknown zone, and were kept together, as their marks are wholly inverted! The Foal and Camel being Tai Sang (Blue Box/Redbox) knock-offs.

 

The one in the bag, seeming to be the donor for the cruder, flat inside-legged hollowed-out copy in silver, from the unknowns, not that he/she/it's particularly 'known' either, it isn't!

 

Seen before in a plunder or donation post? I think this one's Marx, but probably from an animal transport or circus truck of some kind, and maybe from back in the tin-plate vehicle days, although the animal is actually two polystyrene halves, glued together.

 

These were taken from the old fridge before it went to storage, on the left poured-resin, on the right routed wood and both magnetic decorative items.

 

A dark grey Britians baby and a pair of Hong Kong jobbies, taken in 2022, they may have been in one of the big donations from Jon Attwood, so many thanks to him.

 

That's it for this casual stroll, there are lots of named ones in with their other animals, and all the mini tub/tube/toob and pocket-money stuff is elsewhere, the vinyl minis, and the small-scale, flats and novelties are all missing, while a few more have probably come in over the last 3½ years, but hopefully, there will be a Hippopotamus page one day, with all of them!

R is for Real Odds & Sods

The folder is called 'Odds & Sods'! I found it languishing in 2023, and all or some of it may have been seen here at Small Scale World already, all or most of it may be from a Sandown park show (some definitely is), most or a few bits may be from a visit to a friend's house, and bits but not all or most may have been a "Found these, if you want them" type donation in passing!

 

A large Indian, probably Tudor Rose, but others did do such figures and I haven't looked it up, scaled with a Kellogg's/Crescent ringmaster, to reveal the 90/100mm size of it.

 

Some of this is in the next shot, so definitely a Sandown or part Sandown lot, with highlights including all four Lone Star Wild West children and the bear-fighting backwoodsman (who can also fight the corresponding Indian, who can also fight the bear!), I remember posting the good Doctor Thadeus P. Tripp and his hidden bottles, from Timpo, while two Belgian composition stick-out at the back.

 

Posted a variation of this at the time, definitely Sandown, and fully covered somewhere? The Taxi went on to another home. We've since also seen a colour variation of the racing car, Rosedale I think, and possibly three in the collection now?

 

Not sure if I've posted these before? The Plasty ACW Union soldier is grist to the mill, but the Lone Star 60mm swoppet is a very different beast, it's the only one I've got, I've probably never seen the whole set, except in an article somewhere, and they are very hard to find, not least as they are getting brittle (my base is going), so a nice find!

 

A handful type donation? Three blow-moulds, two Japanese novelties, maybe Christmas cracker prizes in 'styrene, and a larger bear, probably Hong Kong and possibly once flocked, although that would mean somebody added the eyes after the flocking had come off? An acid-etched (or acid matted) pug-dog in poured/moulded-glass is a fun find, and some other odds and sods!

 

Two French figures on the left? Historical characters? Rural dress/regional stereotypes? Or just from a large wagon model-kit? A Marx dog, from the Hong Kong arm, in Warriors of the World style, possibly? And a Marx TV Tinykin definitely!

 

Prone to laying about; the Marx nude as a re-issue, a fallen but still fighting African Native from Elastolin, apparently not rare, as a whole sack-load or two were found when the factory closed-down, and one of several similar 'tied-to-a-tree' figures from various European manufacturers, and I never know which is which - Jean, Manurba/Heinerle, Dom, Texas, Hugonnet?

 

Kinder (technically; Marajà) Zorro, incomplete, but I already have three different colour variations, complete, with others still on the runner, so just useful spares, a Spanish (or Argentine copy?) horse, for which a rider may already be waiting in the pile, and one of these odd artillerymen, we saw here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/10/m-is-for-more-mashed-military-men.html

 

Eight years ago! Where does the time go?