P is for Potpourri of Plastic Peeps! Wild West

Nearing the end of the surprise box from Chris, and we find a Sobre, but more on that at the end of the post! Wild West, large scale, small scale, plastic, metal, cowboys, Native American Indians, horses, premiums and cartoony stuff . . . let's see what was in the box;

 

All interesting; the one on the left seems to be a soft plastic version of an earlier hard polystyrene premium, it's not the first time we seen them, Betterware used some (Mayer-Lippenhausen and Commonwealth) for their little salesman's envelope gifts, the Australian (and others) Nabisco Dinosaurs are another. This chap is from the Siku sculpts/set, supplied in two sizes, painted and unpainted, and various plastic colours to various European premium issuers, so, here, is probably via . . .

 

. . .  the Dutch DS Plastics, they show them in their catalogue - code 455, as some of the moulds they inherited from Siku.

The many Hong Kong copies of Timpo/Britains/Crescent swoppets are common as muck, two-a-penny and usually pretty poorly executed, although there are better ones, and whole ones attributable to their packaging are useful, these two in the middle are unusual for being among the better, and all-polyethylene, where usually some of the parts are PVC, the locating studs/holes have larger diameters too, while the chap on the end is from a US maker; Ideal, and is meant to be a Canadian trapper I think? I bet the trappers of both nations looked pretty similar and paid little heed to a line on the map!

Home-cast casting of an Indian on the left, probably a Schneider mould, what is likely a Lone Star Metallion in the middle (Pat Masterton), but other makers covered them and the paint throws you off, while the chap on the right is similar to others I have, but I don't think I've ever seen an attribution for them either as Western originals (Spain, France?) or as Hong Kong copies.

I know the one in the middle is from the Crazy Clown Circus of Frazer & Glass (F&G) now, but he got shot with his extended family, which included on the left a horse which was marked, but I can't remember if it was LIDO (I think so) or AJAX?, while the metallised 'standard' horse of the family, is new on me?

 

Obviously we have seen metallised foot figures from the 'set', in different sizes, so I guess he went with them, but I haven't found metallised riders yet? I'm guessing it should be Tudor Rose or at a stretch Kleeware, and one of the earlier iterations of them?

To which, we can add four of the polystyrene foot figures! The painted Crescent/Lido chap may be from one of the West germen pencil shapeners, as he has  alayer of glue on his base underside?

 

The chap in the middle is my first, of a set I've been after for years, and have already missed-out on a boxed set of, coincidentally, the only reason I know what he is, which is an Exin Wild West figure. They are cartoon-styled, very-much like the Lucky Luke premiums, and I'm sure that was no accident, as Comansi handled the latter and both are Spanish companies, seeped in Spaghetti Western culture at the time?

Five more of the Lone Star shooting game figures, I think we may have all poses in both colours now, and a lot of them have come from Chris over the last few years, so when I get them all together we will have another, closer look.

A small sample of small scale Blue Box, it's all grist to the mill, with two of the foot figures and a horse from Britians Swoppet sculpts, along with a stockade-fort section, copied from the Marx Miniature Masterpiece fort.

Sub-Giant piracies from Hong Kong - always useful!

A small group of damaged Minimodels 25mm's, they will go in the tub with the rest of the damaged ones against the possibility of me having a conversion session one day, as being polystyrene (the reason so many are found damaged) they are easy to cut, glue, sand and fill!

The figures Brian Berke remembered were in Lucky Bags back in the day, and lucky he did, as no one else had! The colour scheme remains pretty constant, with the Indians in the warm/hot colours and the Cowboys in the cold colours. And I think this sample balances out the bigger sample somewhat, which was getting a bit Indian-heavy!

There are new cowboy poses here, and the pose-count keeps growing, I think we may well end-up with about fifty, five-each mounted and up to 20 foot figure sculpts, per. 'side'? Some of the Euro-premium sets ran to similar numbers.

While this was a lovely surprise, a bagged Sobre, from Sobreplast, a name new to the Blog and the archive, if not the Hobby, an old kiosk toy, of more substance than the Montaplex type envelopes we usually look at here.

 

The figures/horses look to be Comansi copies, but they may be actual Comansi, until I can compare with the real-deal's, I won't know, but the wagon is not the Comansi one, so I suspect copies. A really nice 'sopresa', cheers Chris!

ITMA is for It's That Man Again!

The hype has been growing for a week or two now, with the BBC's Radio4 and World Service both covering a certain new movie more than once in the last few days, it's all about some Corsican chap 'Blownapart', from the Wellingtonian period, who did something notable, or infamous? And the talkie-format, moving-picture presentation opens worldwide, today!

He's been modelled a few times, indeed we've seen him here before, so often, he has his own Tag (yeap, it hurt!). And here we have a large fairing in the centre, flanked by two substantial home-painted model soldiers on plinths, in the 80mm bracket.

 

Then the smaller front row, around 54/60mm scale and from the left . . . 'Metallion' of the younger artilleryman, two French-made Jim, a JSB from Belgium, Hong Kong's Blue Box (courtesy of Chris Smith's forthcoming donation-plunder posts), another French plastic (Acedo maybe, or Cofalu/x, Guillbert/Clairet, someone like that?) and a faux-antiqued tourist piece in slush-cast base-metal.

 

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On the subject of the title, for foreign readers; ITMA was the moral-boosting comedy sketch-show on BBC Radio from 1939-49. We lived, for a while, next-door to Clarence Wright, who had retired to Alderney, he played several of the well known characters, among whom were the Commercial Traveller and the Man from the Ministry, and I had the pleasure of chatting to him on several occasions, when he would tell the most irascible stories, which I couldn't possibly repeat here, even if I could recall them, but I remember him as a thoroughly nice man.

H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - II Chris - Ceremonial, Historical & Wild West

On to 'Toy Soldiers' proper, except most of these are technically civilians, but civilians with guns! Although some ceremonials at the end of the post get us back on military ground.

The sitting figure here is an odd one, I have him in two sizes (I may even have a missing drum somewhere, but I don't know which sized figure it goes with) and I think the larger (here) may be RP (Res Plastics) from Italy although unmarked, and if not; any one of several others, while the smaller version is probably the Kinder variant, the knees having to fit in the egg-capsule? if the missing drum is right, it's a thin disc more like a tambourine! 

July 2022 - A similar but glossy, yellow one is now known to be by Locati from Italy; similar capsule toys.

The cowboy with lasso is one of several I have now, both cowboys and Indians, all smallish (45mm), all glossy brown (different shades) and only a few poses (two of each?), so probably Christmas crackers or something like that? I love the yellow flat in soft plastic, probably a copy of a Euro-premium! We've seen the cake-figure before and the damaged Herald Copy is a lovely plastic colour, so definitely worth keeping.

There should be a totem-pole with this, but it was shown earlier in the year and them went away with the others! Comansi, late production in semi-indestructible PVC vinyl rubber from Spain, it was previously issued in polyethylene and there are small scale versions I really should have Blogged by now, but they have actually gone away into storage . . . again!

We've seen these before more than once and another contributor - Brain Berke - managed to ID them as Lucky Bag gifts over here, but you can never have too many I suspect, due to the number of poses and colours coupled with the frangibility of them making whole ones that much harder to obtain!

Ah yes! Winners of the worst figures ever, in my book (after some editor nicked the obvious Cherilea first spot when he launched the 'competition . . . no, not bitter at all, press corruption is what Brwreakshit was all about, wasn't it!); the MTC Ninjas, although space-ice-hockey-jockey-Ninjas does them more justice!

A Kinder push-together, two-part Samurai archer in the middle, I'd like to think I'm building a set of these (there are only two poses in two or three colours I think?) but the bows are always broken, so I have a full set of legs with one good body!

Bottom row is a Japanese-made 1950's celluloid peasant, he should be walking next to a cart with a rake or broom over his shoulder I suspect, then another Euro-premium copy of a Fontanini oriental statuette and finally a swoppet practitioner of Kung-fu from Hong Kong via Ward International and others.

This was a real surprise, we've seen the Texan/Alamo cowboys (and cannon) and the dancers, but this is another set of European margarine flats, taken by Betterwear and reproduced in soft polyethylene, clearly a nativity set, it was new on me - and as far as I know the rest if the hobby? There's gonna' be at least ten to find? Lovely.

A lovely bisque cake decoration with drum and another Guardsman key-ring! The latter is in rubber and to stand him up I had to prop him against the cake dec', so you can't see his rifle well, but it is all there!

Three military musicians on the left; a very nice copy of a Crescent/Kellogg's drummer, reduced in size a tad, the Highlander now credited to Scottish International Gift and a European figure, which I think might come from Layla, or one of the other 'minor' German makers?

We saw the Pirates on ITLAPD, but here they are again, Lone Star 'Metallions', or copies thereof, or licensed production, there are about five-names associated with these sculpts in die cast and a few plastic knock-offs. Quite a few!

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This should have published at 9.30 this morning, but the laptop went phutt last night with one line to do! I spent all day running round Berkshire and Hampshire trying to get it fixed, and then after a nice chap in a techie-shop showed me a cheat while he orders a part, it righted itself! Don't know how long-for though, so, fix will go ahead, and new laptop seems to be my Christmas present to myself . . . they are all Win.10 or II and none of them have a disc-drive - WTF!

D is for Die-Cast Desperadoes

Off to Spain now, where poor old Play Me churned out a family of reasonably classy, novelty, antiqued-finish, pencil-sharpeners for the tourist and stationary industries, unwittingly launching a thousand Hong Kong (now China) copies, clones and piracies . . . but not - as far as I know - actual pirates, however Play Me had given us two!

The standard seller was a small box with cannon only, but a larger window-box existed, rather in the style of Britains naval Gun, for which these two zamak/mazac figures were designed, at approximately 50mm, they are a tad small, but I'd imagine being small was a bonus on the cramped gun-decks of mid-millennia sailing vessels?

Here compared with one of those Hong Kong copies, the HK one is particularly clean and rather shiny! there's not much in it to be honest and I thought I'd shot more HK ones, I thought I'd shot the Britains ones and I know I have a scan I now just can't find [see below!], so we'll turn to these again at some point!

I have only the one Spanish cannon-ball (no HK's), but I imagine there were five-to-ten or even twelve in a mint set? Oh, how this stuff used to rattle-round a Hoover until the steel-curved brush-roots caught it, jammed, and the drive-band made that funny-smell and melted!

A comparison with two Lone Star 'Metallion' pirates (Long John [silver] and Captain Blood, issued by Hubley and others elsewhere, some as copies), which were in the same box, also die-casts, they have a silver-finish rather than the copper-effect of the Play Me chaps.

It was on the desktop - Doh! So all my searches in Picasa and the 'finished' & 'waiting' folders were a waste of time!

This is - I believe - the same Spencer we saw here; Spencer Gifts - and still going(Northern 'States and Canada), although someone affiliated to the PSTSM took my image (without asking - ten for one, that's the rule, m'K!) and has been telling everyone it's an 'English' company (not British mind, so I'd like to see his 'empirical' evidence!) for the last two or three years . . . despite the dollar prices! You can't make this stuff up, but I have other plans for him, another day.

Note - it's closer to the Britains cannon, but with a more complicated ratchet affair on the right-hand side of the body. Also, from the description, although as useless as the Britains ones at sharpening pencils, it fires percussion caps, which - back in the day - were hardened brass-alloy and made a real bang. Now you would use those red, yellow or gold plastic ones.

And speaking of the Britains cannon, I hadn't got round to shooting the loose examples (so a return is guaranteed), but this was in the folder with the Spencer scan, so we'll stick it here for the fun of it! I think I'm right in saying this is the less common of three variants, the ones with a white-block carriage being more common, but having two different barrels? Like I say we'll return to them with all the answers another day.

J is for Jean Höffler - 3: Wild West Bits & Pieces

Also written Jean Hoeffler for those who can't handle umlauts (like Google search-bots!), this is the bits which wouldn't easily fit into the other two parts of what was going to be one post!

As mentioned there are a lot of poor sub-piracies I will subject you too some other time, most between 40 and 50mm and you may know them, ugly little things with hollowed out bases from the bottom-end of the rack-toy market, but having suggested the main HK production may be from the Jean tools, these  - above trio - are proper copies.

The rifleman a third, fourth or fifth-generation copy (via Kwong Wah) of the old Lone Star 'Metallions', the Red Cloud still readable, but lacking the chromium coating and having the same mark as the two archers he came with; a very small HONG KONG.

Brian Berke sent me this from New York, and I can assure you both pictures are full-colour! It just happens that he's a grey-plastic figure on a white horse with white background and he looks to be a poorer-quality copy in a smaller size . . .

. . . as we can see; comparison shots with a Toyway-Timpo anti-insurgency cavalryman and the Crescent standing rifleman.

This was also sent in by a loyal reader who I won't name (I've thanked him privately as I hadn't seen it before) as I think it may be someone else's and probably active somewhere online? If it's yours - please email me for full credit and I'll happily remove it and replace it with a link to the original editorial site/page. (It's a current feeBay lot if you want one; but the link won't last forever!)

The interesting thing about this Peruvian Trioplast blister-card is that although it claims to be made in Peru, it seems to have the same figures I got at Sandown last year and which we saw in part two . . . well-travelled tools? It's hard to tell from the image, but the bases appear blank and the split-lines are a little more flashy?

 

08/10/2020 - They were also issued by the US 'Jobber' Imperial Toy Corp., from counter displey/stock boxes as Heroe of the Golden West (not sure what was 'golden' about anarchic mayhem and native genocide but . . . !).

Finally; this chap is an ex-Elastolin sculpt (6808-6808/4), but has several of the attributes of the Hong Kong 'versions' of the Jean figures even to the base marking, but the raised rim of the base is slightly wider and a bit wobbly compared to the Jean sculpts, as he was mixed in with a bunch of other stuff I can't say ouwt-about'im other than that he sort of looks similar to the others, but is definitely a poorer copy of the German original!

He is supposed to be holding his spear, at waist-height, under his cloak, but the poorly rendered tuft of feathers at the lance-head has left him looking like he has two left-arms, the other stretched-up gripping the top of the pole!

KWI, CWI or RWI? is for Kwong Wah Industrial!

Or Kwong Wah (Lap Kay) Toys Limited.

I've been rather bounced into the first-half of this post, and it will be brief as I know someone else is working on an article about the figures which should be appearing in a magazine which ought to be dropping on your mats four-times a year, but only if you keep subscribing! Also I have very few of the figures and haven't dug-them out.

You will know these, if not from collecting them, for seeing them in rummage trays at shows, you may have picked them up, seen the clear logo-mark on the base and asked a fellow collector or the seller or a passing member of the 'Old Guard' if they know the maker to get an answer along the lines of 'No, Hong Kong though, but I don't know the mark', I know I have!

Chromium-plated copies of Britains Deetail with integral bases. People call them 'electro-plated' but they aren't, they are just sprayed, which is why they wear so badly; electroplating leaves radio-buttons, toaster parts, mobile-phone detailing, or polypropylene B/O robot highlight's shiny for years, Lego elements can be found with electroplating; this is the stuff you can buy in cans from craft shops for a fiver!

Kwong Wah Industrial is the moniker, formed in 1971 and they were still going until around 2008 as Kwong Wah (Lap Kay) Toys, producing more up-market stuff, their slot-racing sets were in many households, as will have been their microscopes, telescopes and robotic stuff. They also had a range of Playmobile-like play sets with larger, simply-articulated figurines. 1986 above, magazine-advert graphic in the middle and 2006 below.

I did still have this copy of the US Recoilless rifle to hand and it's one of the nicer pieces, the weapon is heat or friction-welded to the base, but the figures are just plugged-in. You can see the logo clearly above the code.

I'm giving what little history on the company I have to the author of the article forthcoming, so for now I'll close by trying to disassemble the logo; the earlier cutting dates from 1986 and it's easy to see the WI of Wah Industrial, but how you get the Kwong's K from that basket of snakes is anybody's guess!

There is a possibility (revealed by the cable (direct telegram) code) that there may be an R for Ray in there or that the K has been iterated as a C, or (most likely?) that there is an element of a Chinese character (or characters) incorporated into the logotype?

Note how the stars - small stickers on the Britains originals - have been etched into the helmets of the Kwong Wah knock-offs, on the front of the officer/NCO's helmet and the left side of the soldier/gunners'.

These don't have the Kwong Wah mark and might be another HK maker altogether, being copies (third or fourth generation?) of the die-cast figures known here as Lone Star Metallions, but also part of the Fontanini/Cané/Peltro family of much-licensed/copied/influenced stuff, they were further copied in metal, in Hong Kong and supplied to SS.Kresege (now K-Mart) and Cragstan (and a third brand, I've since forgotten - AHI or the one from Philadelphia?), so whether Lone Star were first, or just a step-on-the-way remains a question.

There's a link to a very good German-language site on these, which should be on one of the 2017 Fontanini posts? The fact that Kwong Wah also did copies of the large Fontanini figures may point to a link though! They were also sold through Zodiac Toys here.

Returning to the theme; we're back to Deetail-copies, but not Kwong Wah, and now Kwong Wah has been indentified, these are next on the list, with their distinctive H? Unlike the Kwong Wah's, these have the separate bases with the little foot-catches and they are copies of the oblong ones, so probably slightly earlier than the Kwong Wah's as well.

The reason I took three shots is not because of the bag-reflection, but that I kept umming and arrhing or whether or not to get them out of the bag, and each time I'd take a shot before opening them and then - not open them! But it does work for the reflections to a certain extent; I think you can make out the three poses copied here.

And the deciders for not subsequently getting them out were that with one figure duplicated twice, there are only the three poses, and also that they are the same colour-schemes as the originals (Deetail Turks), if I find a second sample with a better mix I will probably open than one!

The H is also on the bases so not a 'phantom brand', but a serious attempt at brand-marking both packaging and product with something which must have been known/familiar to the Haitch-Kay Toymen?

I would like it to be Herald Holdings, but that would be too neat, and there's rarely anything neat about HK company naming, look at how Kwong Wah have changed their title over the years.

It's not Herald Metal and Plastics, or I don't think it is and I don't know if they (1980's) were the same as the 1960's Herald Holdings, or if either are in anyway related to Britains Herald (I don't think so) and with forty or fifty + other H's in the colony, of which I've only eliminated 30-odd, it's still up in the air? But it will come out in the wash, one day; as Kwong Wah now has.

The backing card is a weirdly anachronistic battle between Viking long-ships, I can only guess at a tangential reference to the crusades and/or the fall of the Eastern Empire to Islam and/or Viking or Rus mercenaries/traders in the Holy Lands or Constantinople (Istanbul)?!

Unpainted Hong Kong-made copies of Deetail knights also appear in gold, silver, greeny-gold and pale-grey polyethylene plastic, but I don't have any so I don't know if they have the H-mark (making them likely late issues of the above line) or are blank generics, but Brian Berke sent us this China-made, silver one, which is a clear, late third/fourth generation copy, possibly relatively or actually current.

He's marked CHINA and the thinner legs & arms, along with the poor quality of the detail all point to copying rather than any skill with a pantograph! Sized with a spigot-armed Co-Ma copy, he's been promoted from medieval to 'Janissary' with an upgrade from cold steel to Springfield's-finest courtesy of . . . AIP, BMC or TSSD . . . Conte even??

Thanks to Paul Morehead and Bill B for KWI info., and Brain for the late Turk, a Kwong Wah A-Z listing will appear after the other article has published.

M is for Metallic Metal Metallions

Just a quick scan, I was scanning a bunch of stuff the other day and did this while I was at it. A small range of metal figures called Metallions (metal battalions...geddit!) was issued by Lone Star in the 1970's. They were also issued by Hubley and Kresge (SS Kresge were the forerunner of K-Mart) in the US and included Cowboys, Indians and Pirates along with these Knights.

Six character figures from 'Knights of the Round Table' fame, unlike the Westerners (which were copied from Marx 6" figures) these seem to be relatively original sculpts although one or two look familiar to anyone who knows the Britains Deetail sets. 54mm die-cast Mazac / Zamak alloy, they are then antiqued with a dark varnish wash.

The full story of the figures and ideas on who's were first (not Kinder; that's for sure!) told by Alexander Kutsche is to be found here - in German, but a thorough look at the subject. Small ones can be found here and question marks, overview and sets, Alexander's collecting and origins.