G is for Gashapon - Tarlin - Samurai Suits of Armour

While I love the Onepi No Mi figures, and am really pleased with the Samurai and the not-shot Ultraman monsters, I think these are my favourites of this sample; suits of Samurai armour, as displayed in museums, or, knowing the order of a Japanese household, probably how they were displayed between wearings, back in the - ancient/medieval - day.

 

Colour-coded capsules don't actually help when the randomness occurs behind the trap-door, and in the depths of the cabinet, which you can't even see through the glass, for the pile of balls, wickedly showing you the one you want, high up on the right!

 

Components of one laid out, the construction of these Tarlin miniatures, though simpler, is similar to those 4D Puzzle tanks, dinosaurs, spaceships, and the kangaroo we've seen here, I think!

 

Three of four, however, as my Japanese is as poor now, as it was three days ago, and there are no English titles on these sheets, as there were on the Bandai Samurai set, I can't give you any names, but assume the owners of the armour are all relatively famous, or at least well known in Japan.

 

The missing set, from the below sheets.

Paperwork!

 

Next day - Courtesy of EY, from the 1:72nd Multiverse;

 

Armor #1 belongs to Sanada Nobushige aka Sanada Yukimura.
Armor #2 belongs to Uesugi Kenshin
Armor #3 belongs to Mori Motonari
Armor #4 belongs to Ishida Mitsunari 

 

Bringing this mini-season to an end, many thanks to Adrian for finding them and stuffing his luggage with them! We've seen the odd figure in Show-plunder posts over the years, and looked at an earlier Tomy set many moons ago, here, from when Gashapon machine's contents were less sophisticated than they have become in the last 20-years, while there was a Tarco-Tomy mash-up with some UK issued capsules in a previous round-up of such things, and these days, Tomy machines can be found in the UK, The Entertainer often has a bank near the doors, but they tend to sell the smaller (older?) stuff.

G is for Gashapon - Bandai Namco - Samurai Warriors

Some 'proper' toy soldiers types, here with medieval warriors, followers of the Bushido code, and one time powerhouse in Japan . . . God! I over-egged that pudding, didn't I? I like them, a nice 54mm, albeit with thick, plinth bases.

 

Paperwork! Note they are manufactured in the Philippines, China is slowly losing that crown, I've seen several toys made in Taiwan, Vietnam or Korea (South, of course) recently, as people try to divest themselves of exploitable links to the next Superpower, while still  looking to follow labour-costs below their own!

 

The simplest figure had a two-compartment bag, with the whole figure and a base (ABS), along with the long, thin paper.

 

While this chap gets five compartments!

 

As with the golds in the Shogun Palace line, these had polychrome or all-black versions, and I got one of the latter, but left it in the packaging for now, having the full colour one to show and look at.

 

The three of them, the guy in the middle will benefit from the old hot-water treatment at some point to get the separate rear of his pole-arm/weapon (a Kara/Jumonji Yari) to line up with the front, and a touch of WD40, or a pin drill may help the front locate in the hand a little better.

 

Left; Kanbee Kuroda      Middle; Yukimura Sanada      Right; Hideyoshi Toyotomi

 

Kanbee (also Kanbei, Kambē or Yoshitaka, December 22, 1546 - March 20, 1604), was a mighty Samurai of the late Sengoku and the early Edo period. Yukimura (also known as Nobushig Sanada, 1567 - June 3, 1615) was famous from the siege of Osaka, while Hideyoshi (27 March 1537 - 18 September 1598) was a famous Samurai from the same period, who came up from the peasant class to become one of the major Daimyo's and an Imperial regent, as the 'aristocracy' lost its tight-grip on things.

 

Western sites reverse the names, I've copied the paper for the middle line, as the Japanese fashion is to place the 'surname' or family name first - Walter Hugh, obviously I wasn't a Samurai, but once I was a warrior, and Donald J. Trump; you can go fuck yourself, you bone-spured, shirking, gobshite, wanker.

 

Close-ups; the decoration is exquisite, presumably some kind of tampo- or pad-printing, the detail is like ink-jet quality, or three-dot magazine colour of the 1970's. And I assume they are all based on surviving or replica sets of armour from Japanese museums - like the Artesania figures from Spain's Royal Armouries?

S is for Seen Elsewhere - Kinder Figures

Shown on a Facebook group a while back, and time to get them up here and out of Picasa, many of these Kinder figures have been seen here before, in mixed lots, donations or as bit & pieces! But these are all complete, as far as I know, and blurb can be kept to a minimum! These are mostly from the mid-late 1980's or early-mid 1990's.

 

Diver on the left, mostly polystyrene, an RP-sourced archer on the right, in a polyethylene, but they are starting (like a lot of RP stuff) to get brittle now.

 

Three musketeers, also Res.

 

Fencers.

 

American egg-ballers!

 

Alien, also Res Plastics, also getting brittle now, you have to be very careful of the joins.

 

Small-scale astronauts, and their means of locomotion!

 

Panthers, that are pink!

 

Wellingtonian . . . Enemy dragoon, I think?

 

Charley's, one's Kinder (soldier), the other Hong Kong or Italian copy?

 

Speedy Gonzalez!

 

Ice skaters.

 

Different set from the above, same trope!

 

Caricatures.

 

Two from the 1970's on the left, a later caricature figure on the right.

N is for November's Sandown Park - Military

More of the odds and sods from the last BP show, at Sandown Park, and it's the military stuff, which wasn't numerous, but had a few interesting items to look at, including one which might surprise you, by my excitement of it!

 

There's a fair bit of brittleness, in the contents of this set, figures and weapons, so at some point, I'll probably de-card it, and save the PVC stuff for spares and scan the card, it's not like the figures are particularly rare, while a full scan of the generic card would be a useful addition to the archive.

 

Two 'Began-Beton's', probably from Plastic Toys Inc.? And one of the small Monogram/Revell copies, along with my first Lido original, I have lots of the Hong Kong copies, but the quality of this original shines through, so very pleased to have found him, rummaging through Gareth's tray.

 

Tourist keepsake for sure, poured-resin, and not the world's best sculpt, but it is a Horse Guard, whom I prefer to the Lifeguards, around 80/90mm, and one assumes not that old, but not current, as I've recently been checking-out the shops round the theatre district for something else, and haven't seen anything close to this chap.

 

Two hollow-cast nurses, and I thought the one on the right might be Crescent, but someone said they are both Britains, early on the left and later on the right, sort of Crimean War and WWI eras?

 

Crescent.

 

Skybirds.

 

Fantasyland? Or the better originals (check tag)?

 

Odds & Sods.

 

John Begg gave me a tray of small-scale. lead shrapnel, which has a few useful bits in, and which, in time, will get sorted into the rest, the Skybirds pilot is particularly nice, as they gave them several paint schemes, both military and civilian, While Crescent used many colours/shades, over the years.

 

In the last shot, the larger-scale, colonial artilleryman, and mid-19th century red-coat, standing firing, are both complete and will join the cards I display this odd, flat stuff on, while the others will probably go in the 'Don't know what to do with them, but can't chuck them' tub!

P is for Perfect Plastic!

I don't, as a rule, 'rate' Timpo, Britains, Airfix, Marx, MPC, Starlux or Elastolin, nor the tranche of smaller companies immediately at their heels, simply because they were huge, popular and ran for a while, churning out millions of figures, from, often, ever-changing line-ups.

 

This is not to say I don't enjoy them, or appreciate them, just that it's box-ticking stuff which is all over the internet, in all the books, and the first things to be waded-through on Blogs or forums! Tables often groan under the weight of them at shows!

 

But, I do have a soft spot for the smaller-scale output of Elastolin, Merten and Starlux, so it's always nice to add a few to the master 'samples', and I bought this little lot at Sandown Park the other week, all Elastolin, and all 'clean', with no damage, little or no play-wear, and the correct weapons.

 

Romans

 

Huns versus Rus!

 

 Normans / Anglo-Saxons

 

Medieval

The sculpting of the plastics was a high-point of toy soldier production, although the price of Elastolin was always at a point where the use of the word 'toy' was a moot point! I do have a reasonable sample, indeed, a Journalist, sent to my home many years ago, went through it, and talked me out of one of the better Normans! But they are regularly added to, and one day they'll probably be used to illustrate the A-Z blog-entry, when I get round to it?

N is for Not a Follow-up!

As a sort of [pretty tenuous] follow-up to the last post, and the mention of Crong, I'm posting something which was already in the queue, but isn't coming in the order I'd like it to, and doesn't tell all the story, but hopefully still of some use to some Loyal Readers!

 

Donated by a friend of the blog who prefers not to be named, but occasionally comes up with little treasures, Battle Knights by Feva UK, is one of the more recent iterations of a carpet 'wargame', commonly known as Crossbows and Catapults (Tomy, Base Toys, Action GT, Zatu, et al), but also having iterations as Weapons & Warriors (Pressman), and Battground (Moose), which has been around since the 1980's.

 

The originals have produced several generations of two figures, a small squat fantasy figure (Doomlords of Gulch) in a putty-coloured polymer, and a sort of Hollywood Viking/Barbarian type (the Impalers of the Clannic Shelf), in various shades of brown or ginger, which we have seen, in various mixed/plunder/donation posts over the years, but which I haven't posted-on, formally, yet as my main sample has always been in storage.

 

The Pressman version changed the dynamic slightly, with press-pads instead of loose walls, and other innovations have tried to make it more fun or keep it relevant to new generations of electronically-distracted kids, here it's spring-loading. Pressman also changed the figures, to medieval types (Castle Storm), along with a pirate version (Pirate Clash), both also seen here, in past mixed-lots/shots. 

 

This Feva version adds mounted figures, and they are the unknown figures from the Crong post (the tentative link being used here!), although this set has green bases. The foot figures are scale-downs of the Pressman set, and I now think they are all Games Workshop knock-offs?

 

 Other useful bits!

A couple of banner-flags (or pennants?) missing 

 

Could be useful, but would need work to hide the nature of the balls or discs all these sets fire at each other, the oversized culverin for instance has quite an Elastolin look to it . . . fill in the hole and give it an antiquing, with washes and dry-brushing?

These turn-up in every junk-lot on evilBay, the Supreme medieval knock-off's from several brands have versions of them, and there have been large bow-like ballistas and larger cannon, but they'd all need a lot of effort to get realistic-looking.

 

As a Brucey Bonus, these are the Moose Toys figures from the other more recent iteration, Battleground Crossbows & Catapults, and were also a donation, I think from Graham Apperley, but hidden in a PW plunder-post a few years ago.

 

Smaller at around 25mm (the Feva are 30'ish, the older sets closer to 35 (C&C) or 40mm (W&W)) and a soft PVC, against Crossbows' polyethylene/propylenes and Weapons' polystyrene. It's quite a franchise, with many US and foreign-language/foreign-market sets, and worth a proper study, which will appear here one day!