W is for When the Logistics-chain Breaks Down

N is for Nostalgia Hit "Yeah! Hit it!"

There will - over the next few years - be more general nostalgia here at Small Scale World, as I'm finding all manner of stuff both in my late Mother's estate and in the combining of the stuff here and the stuff in the garage (which was in storage), and one of the first things to turn-up has been this old toffee hammer!

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the patented [not], not sharp, Sharp's Toffee toffee-thwacker!

I saw another one online the other day, but can't remember the branding now; it may have been Blue Bird, or some Australian brand on Worthpoint? Strangely the commonest in junk shops seems to be the Walker's hammer, not the crisp-people (chips to heathens!) but another Walker's altogether I think!

They are not rare, indeed you can still get them on Amazon, but it's nice when an old friend turns-up, and why don't you seem to see sheets of hard toffee anymore? Did you have a toffee hammer, what branding did it carry?

M is for Mystery Metal Men...and Mechanic!

Here's another one in 'Edit' with no need of much blurb...a bunch of smallish scale metal figures for which any additional information whould be appreciated...

Both appear to be die-cast (or cast-iron) both appear to be civilian or model railway/railroad figures with the one on the left around 40mm and ther other about 45mil. I wonder if either of them are Grey Iron? Did they factory paint? I seem to recall a note somewhere (O'Brien?) that they did?

Copies of copies in the years of the hollow-cast, but not from Britains originals...Hillco or Crescent providing the donars for the rip-off merchant?

Something Japanese about both these, but I suspect at least one might be Chinese Cival war, Boxer Rebellion or Gurka...or even somthing Balkan (the one on the right)?  Maker not known on either, eye'ther! Any clues? Big knife!

Thanks to Adrain at Mercator for letting me shoot these ages ago!

M is for Micro-Mini Motors

Those who remember the Formula 1 Project, will see that cars, and choises, have been added to the starting line-up with the acquisition of these.

The pink and dark yellow 'Monopoly' ones are now definitely ID'd as gum-ball toys (not as I suggested [with question mark - phew!] last time: board game pieces) as is the little green one with the yellow wheels, the green one at the back is very well-detailed (apart from a crushed roof) and may be from an N-gauge railway flatcar/car carrier?

The gold one (front right) is cast iron, could it be Gray Klip/Grey Iron? It's got the same look and feel? The one behind is probably a board gaming piece, while the other gold on and the silver one are actually plastic. Most of these will be from the smallest gum-balls or the little decorative tree-crackers, which used to have miniature novelties, but now tend to have a 'Motto & Sticker'!

G is for Great Scott...What HAVE they got on their heads?

No...it's for Grey-Klip Armies by Grey Iron of course! I've been after a decent sample of these since...oohhh? 1981? First read of JG Garratt's encyclopaedia! Small-scale cast iron...gotta have some of those in the collection!

I actually do have one loose example (he came-in with a bunch of plastics from the James Chase collection's small scale), but I thought he was a Confederate soldier! And that's despite having R O'Brien's book too (which lists them all - I think?), but the trouble with having files on 30,000-odd toy companies and 400+ 'tomes' in the library is...you can't retain everything all the time, and a lot of it just melts into a mush of like names, places, sizes, materials, dates...and lets face it - he looks like Jonny Reb!

Card scans; I couldn't get the stupid machine (Epson, now you ask!) to find the thin edge properly, so it's a bit truncated, but still readable! They (Grey Iron) produced more in the larger sizes, but I think this was it for the smallies!

The figures; divided into a command group and a troop 'squad', set into a steel track (which will open your fingers up if you're not careful!), they are crude, sand-cast lumps and I love 'em! The dodgy headgear is supposed to be the smokie-bear/drill-sergeant/boy-scout 'Campaign hat', but really? Confederates...to a man!