L is for Late Show Report - Wild West

So, into the meat-and-two-veg of the show plunder from May just gone, and we're starting with the Wild West stuff, which is a pretty eclectic bunch with a bit of everything, including ACW, various polymers and most common sizes.

Replicants had these, which are old sculpts, some of them being reduced in size for Marksmen's 1:76 issue, many years ago now, well over a decade since, probably two, but they were new in this colour, as Irish Brigade, I think, for those who wargame without painting?

Wagons and wagoners, a damaged Matchbox 'prairie schooner', a Hong Kong copy of Manurba mail-coach, which was a better pink than it's apparently faded to, and a large, probably Tudor Rose or Poplar chap, with his plug-in bench-seat, who may prove a useful spare, going forwards.

 

More of the individually named French premiums which have been turning up in recent years, except the fact they've been turning up in mixed lots suggests being that - in this soft 'ethylene - they are probably bazaar/rack-toys from the - 'styrene - premium moulds, rather than actual premiums, of which I have one or two in metallic polystyrene. Seemingly adding mounted figures (sans names) this time, there may be more in the 'unknown' portion of the main stash, but a horse, or horses still need/s to be ID'd?

 

Mostly broken, these Minimodels (or, as here Triang) smallies from the unmistakable hand of Stadden, will go with all the rest, one of the yellow-shirts is complete, and finding good Indians involves finding mint sets/games.

 

These being from the Wild West Checkers (clearly aimed at export across The Pond?), where the damage is easily explained by the fact that they get so wedged in the counters, you would damage them trying to get them out to 'make King'? More common in black & white, these counters are unusual in red/blue I think, are they from the Wagon Train boardgame?

 

I feel an idiot with these, as I think I should know who they're by (Marlborough/Dorset test shots?), but I'm not sure, nor do I know if the other two poses were similarly copied, or who copied them first time round, equally I may already have them, but someone had a bunch so I got one of each?!! Obviously ex-Britains Herald sculps, and the cavity in the base is a bit Hilco/late Cherilea?

A couple of spare horses, common Hong Kong sculpt on the right, what appears to be a re-issue of something better (Lone Star?) on the left, a bit of a mystery, but all useful, given the number of mounted figures looking for mounts, and as the spare horse tub is quite large, and the riders many, I might do a series of matching-up articles in a year or so, when they finally all come together?

 

A nice bunch of small-scale, with pre- and post-Giant knock-offs, cracker-toy Lone Star clones, one of those Hong Kong wagon 'mexicans' (they have gihuge plug-on hats), taken from European premiums/giveaways and a teeny cracker-Indian.

 

Larger odd & sods; I'm surmising that the large confederate has been removed from a base with a sharp-edged tool, and is probably Italian in origin? He's new to the collection, so, whatever! The rest is grist to the mill, with the white chap at the back an interesting addition to the early British knock-off collection, Speedwell or Trojan?

 

Smaller odds & sods; again nothing terribly exciting, with two cake decorations and a couple of mounted, I think the yellow cowbindian (chaps, lasso and feathered headdress!) might be a mounted Texas/Isas figure? Civil/Sports next time!

 

Many thanks to Adrian Little, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Chris Smith, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul Stadinger, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, for contributions to this year's plunder-pile.

O is for Oh, Go On Then . . . Have Some Merry Festive Disney!

A few Disney bits which aren't going to make stand-alone posts, or which have escaped previous posts or might have been seen already!

 

From the cannibalised show report from November 2021, I picked this little lot up for a tenner at the last Sandown Park show of that year, which, at less than 75p each, is a bargain, but intrinsically no more than such little pieces of plastic should ever be? Marx Disneykins, most from the general set, but a couple from the 101 Dalmatians set.

 

I shot this on a dealer's stall ages ago, he has a man who 'does' for him, mending lead, antimony or whitemetal parts and breakages, and occasionally he plays with the stuff in the bits bin, and this was the result of one such play!

 

Minutes after I took the shot someone jogged the table and the figure fell, with the head coming-off, so it's now with me, awaiting the magic of superglue, because mending lead is a skilled operation I wouldn't even attempt, slightly too much heat applied to the original piece, and it turns to liquid! Micky says;

"Be nice to the poor in 2024, or I'll re-slot yer' arse wi'me arrows, init!"

Somehow this escaped several posts and follow-ups on the Marx/Wilton cake decorations and similar 'toy town' figures, these are the two sizes of the Babes in Toyland guards, and are both by Marx.

And did we settle this a while ago? This is the commercial version of the pre-production stuff which turned-up in the Dave Pomeroy archive, as depicted on the Minimodels shop-stock boxes. Being Shere Khan from the Jungle Book.

J is for Japanese Machine Gun/Gunners

Paul Woozley kindly sent these in, in response to a conversation on one of the old Almark  / Minimodels posts, with reference to my comment of never having seen the Japanese MG and team;

They had to be there, as both figures were on the Almark reissue runners, but they aren't on the four-page gatefold flyer, and I'd never seen one despite sorting a large collection of these for someone else, a collection with had multiples of the US mortar and mule, and the German version gun-team, indeed I think the baseplate and MG are the same as the German one?

But it's nice to see them in the distinctive Minimodels paint scheme and plastic colour, so many thanks to Paul for sending them, and if anyone can help Paul with a replacement/spare machine-gun, I can get you both in-touch.

H is for How They Come In - London, March, Sc-fi, Fanatsy, Cartoon & TV/Movie Figures

Continuing with the London show plunder, and it's the fictional stuff tonight, slipped over midnight somehow, but I'm a bit bleure this evening, and I don't know if it's a head-cold or overdoing it in the garden and getting a lungful of pollen?!!

Kinder first! We saw my sample of these a while ago now, but several more complete or not so complete have since come-in via Chris, Peter and my own purchases, and I picked these up for a song in London.

 

There's even a spare boot, the sort of bit that's often missing, and while there are only two complete figures (and one of them has the wrong helmet I think), it's about the fun of trying to get four of each boot/helmet/belt-backpack in each of three colours on three or four colours of figure, a relatively unattainable goal unless you're a dedicated Kinder collector!

 

We looked at my small fleet of these not that long ago, but this is a colour variation, with all three landing feet intact, so it came home with me, it's one of the tropes of Kinder to issue the same toy in different or - sometimes - opposite colour-ways.

While this is becoming a bug-bear, I've posted one before I think, shot a few for somewhere else, then had a couple more come in, re-shot them, then this chap turns up and has to go here (ocd rules!), so the rest are on hold again, but by the time I remember them, it'll be time to unify everything and shoot them again . . . properly! Kinder fantasy barbarian in loin-cloth and para' jump-boots!

 

I think these are Esso premiums, and while they are claimed by French collectors, there must have been a UK issue (or issues) as we had some when we were kids, one of my favourite toys going back to when my memories begin is the hedgehog from the woodland animal set.

 

Here we have two cartoony ones on the outside, and two Disney characters from the Jungle Book in the centre, but there were other sets, including the aforementioned wildlife, dinosaurs, Babar the Elephant &etc. They can be described as erasers, but are in fact a silicon-rubber which just smears pencil!

Aaaaaaannnnnnd, we confirm a solving of a mystery! Returning immediately to The Jungle Book, and here's some more painted ones, so anyone whose been following this micro-saga since the sad news of David Pomeroy's passing and the stuff I managed to save, will see this is the evidence that while one of the snakes was a pre-production design, and some of the plastic colours may have been experimental, there are commercial ones out there, as this is the second source/lot to come in along with the Tiger which turned-up so fortuitously and soon after the initial bag of workshop bits.

 

Not only that, but this Mowgli is the fourth I've seen and possibly the third I have, not put with the others [yet] as the other two came in as 'Maybe Marx', years before! And the fact that he has a separate, glued-on, clear base would have kept them separate if this lot hadn't appeared! 

And this might be Disney, might be branded, but I've forgotten even if it's hard plastic or PVC! And it's gone away now; so it'll have to be properly Blogged another day? Obviously a cartoon cat in the style of Marx, or early Heimo, Comic's Spain or similar?

These are current Kinder, and obviously from the recent Avatar II movie, being the two leading characters, I watched a sort of speeded-up highlights/précis thing on YouTube the other day and now don't have a burning need to watch the film, as I know what happens!

Don't know if it's a full set, but I picked-up a few more at the PW show, which are all duplicates I think? And the bottom row here are all second views, so there's only eight sculpts present; two humanoids (previous shot), three sea-monsters (top) and three flyers (middle) with printed fabric wings.

Minimodels is also for Almark!

I got a bit shirty a while ago and chucked this first-image up elsewhere, with a 'Sigh', after I had posted one lot (Minimodels) and someone (who clearly couldn't see his nose in front of his face) started lecturing me on how they were the other lot (Almark). Then, even as he'd been corrected, a couple of others' made the same mistake on that and another post, or thread, or whatever you have on Faceplant!

 

Now, don't get me wrong, people already know I'm prickly, or if they haven't learned that, they may have a surprise coming at some point in the future, especially if they cross me, but I don't get this almost teenage attitude among new collectors to open their mouths before they've even read what's in front of them; we're taking grown men in their forties here . . . late forties and fifties mind, not kids. 

 

It's great that there are a lot of new people in the hobby, that's obvious, and it proves the naysayers wrong, with their regular moan of 'Our hobby's dying' . . . Incidentally, everyone keeps saying the Metal hobby is dying, but actually even tatty hollow-cast seems to retain high values on evilBay?

 

And when watching this phenomena I am reminded that it is some miracle my father didn't murder me when I was a teenager - although he almost did the day I broke the 'unbreakable' fork; descending on me from the tractor-cab like a Ring-Wraith! But forks aside, I did ask an inordinate number of stupid questions.

 

I would literally think of something a bit dimwitted, and before I'd given it a moment's thought, ask the obvious! Dad was very good, he'd fix me with his look for such occasions and say "Think about it?", I'd realise I'd asked another dumb question, give it a moment's thought and go "Oh yeah! It is" or whatever!

 

It is similar with some new collectors, they don't bother to learn from the websites or magazine, but rather assume from half-understood bits, or ask about stuff which has been done to death elsewhere as if no one's ever covered it!

 

I'm probably being unfair, but then that's me, and when you post Almark and someone tells you they are Minimodels, or when you post Minimodels and someone else tells you they are Almark I think you're entitled to get a bit excised! Equally, I was polite there, but this is here!

And also frustrating is that it IS already on the blog, we've covered both makes over the years and the difference between them, I seem to recall with help from others on the German sets, but we're going to go over it all again, now, with the Japanese! But all the salient points in this post are already on the blog!

 

Five poses here, all Minimodels, we know they are Minimodels because the first image says so! No . . . because they are painted (a tad garishly) and pre-assembled with helmets in a different colour (and type) of plastic.

 

Minimodels was a toy plant in Havent, hampshire, a satellite of the Portsmouth & Southhampton conurbation, they were part of the Triang-Mettoy [Lines] group, and were set up mainly to produce Scalextric, the slot-racing system, after a move from London.

I shot the kneeling guy again, so there's only six more poses here. The figures were designed by Charles Stadden, or Chas' C Stadden, who did a lot of work for the Havent factory, producing original figures for Waddington's, Dinky (a Corgi-Mettoy rival bought from Meccano upon their demise*) and the most famous generation of Subbuteo footballers, among others. The officer is damaged and bayonets go missing too easily!

 

*An irony there is that Corgi continued to source their die-cast range's accessory figures in Hong Kong!

The Japanese on the Minimodels flyer; they were supposed to get a machine-gun team (like the Germans), but to be honest, I'm not sure it ever happened, I've never seen one, and it wasn't on the flyer, as the other 'support equipments' were - the US got a pack-mule for a Mortar vignette, seen here passim.

Minimodels got twelve poses from ten sculpts, by varying the arms on the bent-leg prone chap (crawling or firing both on the right here) and the spread-leg standing pose (advancing/thrusting or standing firing). The crawling pose is very good, with the hand correctly holding the forward sling-swivel, to keep the muzzle out of the dirt.

At some point, Almark Publishing contracted the figures as unpainted kits, getting Stadden to design some additional figures/accessories in metal, seen here before too. Boxed on the runner, with a packet of bases and simple artwork doubling as a painting guide, you get the contents of four tools.

 

Almark's eventual A-Z entry will make for interesting reading as they were attempting world domination at that point, it seemed, with ranges of books, pamphlets, periodicals, AFV modelling guides, a wide range of waterslide transfers for Aircraft and Armour kits, sticky-vinyl and licky-paper flags and a short tie-in with Bellona vac-forms, if memory serves.*

 

Add these plastic figure sets and the metal kits, and for a short while it looked like they were going places, but it didn't last long, and after 12 or 14 issues of their own modelling magazine (up against Military Modelling, Battle and Airfix Magazine) they faded away.

*Memory may not be serving here; the Bellona thing is a Micro-mould/Armtech tie-in I think, but I'm not in a position to go and check right now!

The instruction sheet, while mentioning that they are made in England, and designed by a 'master sculptor' doesn't actually claim them as Almark, or credit Lines/Minimodels. At the same time there were hyping the 1:76 set to the nines in the modelling press (with the inference they were 'Almark's'), but most of them had previously appeared in the Tri-Ang 'Battle Game', although a set of support weapons was added to the oeuvre - in plastic. Again, all previously on the Blog.

What you get in the pack; the seated figure will go with the MG, so I must have just not encountered one? And while there is a limited scope for 'multipose' beyonmd the two pairs Minimodels had already arrived at, they go very well with the eponymous Airfix set, and I dare say you could throw some Tamiya or Esci-Italeri parts in for good measure!

 

The big difference, beyond the lack of paint, is that the headdresses, are here run in the same colour polystyrene 'kit plastic' as the figures' runners, rather than the softer polyethylene in a contrasting colour of the Minimodels issues - which were by way of counter-top pick-boxes.

Matching-up between the two, this is a new sample I was quite pleased to acquire, until I remembered (well, discovered on the Blog, looking for something else) I'd Blogged them quite early (2011) having found them in the 'big purchase'. That sample wasn't complete either, but between the two, I have now got everything except the machine-gun . . . help me out here, have you seen one?

To get them out of Picasa! The same recent (last summer?) purchase also contained a couple of Americans (of which I am very short, except for the accessories; where I have both vignettes) and a handful of Germans (of which I think I may have a few somewhere, along with the machine-gun on its little wire legs), all Minimodels, not Almark!

It's a minor oddity - worth mentioning - that the 54mm range never got British troops, while the 1:76th scale/20mm set never got the US or Japanese, but did get some metal Germans, again sculpted by Stadden. Again, all on the Blog already.

" An' 'Eres ouwer Graham with a quickh remindah!"

F is for Follow-up - Mini Models Disney Jungle Book

I had this from Peter Evans a few days after I posted the last lot of Dave Pomeroy stuff;

". . . the Jungle Book, there is a drawing on the Mini Models box of Sher Khan. I think this was a proposed range that never went into production- maybe even cereal premiums."

There was more on the Napoleonics but they will get their own follow-up when I shoot the rest, but anyway I messaged him back;

"Pretty much my thoughts on the later, but I did see an orange Sher Khan the other day in an overpriced mixed-lot (took the image) painted like my yellow-one, so they may have been factory-glued and cleared in counter-boxes? Those old white ones with him on it . . . which I'd forgotten, so thanks for all that . . ."

Only . . . it wasn't overpriced, and I had left a bid, which I'd already totally forgotten about when messaging Peter, until the following Sunday when I got a 'You have won, pay NOW you tightarse!' message from fleaBay, only for a mixed lot of mostly shite to turn-up a few days later!

Anyway, this was among the shite (along with a complete Marx Rollykins Dalek!), it's the only one I think I've ever seen, and has the same [white] paint as my yellow one, but with added black eyes and stripes (mostly rubbed-off now), so some kind of issue must have occurred, if only limited, or local to the South East coast? A awful lot of Minimodels stuff has appeared locally, some of it at Reading (Swallowfield bypass) or the A3 car-boot sales, over the years!

And the box, with the tiger on it, which I'd also totally forgotten about was seen on the blog many years ago, here, but only as a very small thumbnail (first image); I wasn't as good at imagery back at the start of the blog, so maybe we'll re-do some of the older posts in the future? Although it's all destined to appear on the A-Z Blogs eventually!

However you can see it's the same sculpt pretty much, so at some point they must have been included in/issued with the standard counter-top box, which is quite small, but would hold maybe two-each of the set? He's lost his tail, but seems rareish, so he'll do for now!

H is for How They Come In - November Sandown Park - Dave Pomeroy

So, I didn't get the Dave Pomeroy stuff I'd meant to in the autumn/early-winter for a bunch of reasons, but I managed to pick it up just before Christmas, probably paid too much for it in the end, but heay! It WAS Christmas and the seller was a nice chap! But I had picked-up a few bits at the last Sandown Park show, which we are looking at now, and we'll look at some other stuff later, but probably much later?

A couple of bits of lead, obviously home-cast, the baby is taken from a set of rubber babies which came in pink or brown and were - I think - premiums of some kind, or early blind-bag stuff? It's all in the files and I can't be arsed to look it up just now! But I have a tub of them somewhere, so a future post can include a comparison with this one.

The Napoleonic head is probably taken from a Historex moulding, and may have been cast for Mr. Pomeroy's own modelling activities, although there is a fair bit of this stuff in the main purchase so he may have been working on a range for Lines (Frog?) or involved with the Airfix 54mm Connoisseur range or Multipose?

Mr. Periwinkle Pennybrix, who, not unsurprisingly was the character-mascot for Tri-Ang's Pennybrix building system, a simplified version of Hestair Kiddicraft's mini-bricks (as stolen by Billund's Lego), with sheet roofing like the contemporary Airfix Betta Builder.

Periwinkle had a couple of pals, Mortimer Mole and Freddie Fox, and above we see a Periwikle which has been part painted, and two Freddies one shot in the same colour as the bases, the other possibly a test shot? In the Pennybrix sets they were all fully painted.

A set of Spot-On's 'Tommy Spot' figures also cast in whitemetal, might be test shots, maybe for further conversion work, there are various cut and filed castings among Pomeroy's stuff, and it's hard to second-guess what was going on, while he was also a hobbyist in his own right, for the fun of it?

From the left we have Tommy's father, the burglar from a police vehicle set, Tommy himself and the Policeman drawing his truncheon and blowing his whistle, both mouldings were also used in a Sweeny* board game by Omnia.

*Cockney rhyming slang - Sweeney Todd  = [the] Flying Squad (of London's Metropolitan Police)

A selection of resin pieces Dave was working on, some we saw last time like the Budda, who might be using a hookah-pipe or a pestle & mortar? I suspect the London Taxi is from a board game, as is - probably - the buglar; was there a non-Sweeny 'Cops & Robbers' type game aimed at younger players?

The Pinocchio is polystyrene, factory-painted and seems to have been removed from a toy/vehicle and may be a rival's finished product . . . Marx Swansea? The policeman looks like those unpainted figures which I suggested were key rings and which subsequently turned-out to be so, but he may be intended to go with the burglar?

Thinking-back; the unpainted key-rings probably came from the same person who gave me the original samples from Dave Pomeroy, shortly before I met him, so that would all tie-in nicely, and suggest Tri-Ang and the Havant Minimodels plant did anonymous contract-manufacturing for third parties? Hardly a surprise - spare capacity, easy cash with no in-house marketing and tax-deductible tooling-costs!

Which leaves the bust? He/she isn't one I recognise from the various cereal-premium sets of the time, so it might be a dolls-house accessory (mantelpiece ornamentation, for the use of), or a counter from a board game - there seems to have been a lot of board-game stuff coming out of Havant?

Now these are a mystery . . . various parts of various characters from Disney's Jungle Book, each of two parts, but not enough parts to do all the characters in each available colour, and not enough parts to do one or two, completely, at all. Also; they're in the style of cereal premiums, but much bigger than you would normally find such things?

There are two Mowgli characters; standing (top left) and walking (bottom middle), with models of King Louis (centre, two colours), Shere Khan walking  (bottom left, three colours (including Bagheera black?) with a painted yellow one), Bagheera sitting (top right), Baloo (three colours, bottom right), Junior (or Hathi Jr., top centre, two colours) and some kind of grinning gopher (middle left, two colours) . . . who is probably meant to be a mongoose? I don't remember him from the movie!

I'm leaving them in the bags for now, as if they turn-out to have been a commercial thing, I'll try to get a few of the missing halves and blog them fully when the sample is better, if not they will still make an interesting post with more imagery another day.

But, on the subject of commercialism; Google just throws up loads of Bullyland/Applause type vinyl-rubber figures, with a Maccy-D's set of kids-meal premiums, as does feeBay, but over there I also tried obvious individuals like Kaa (below) without the 'vintage' to maximise the search results, with no better success, so there's a possibility these were either quite a short-lived thing, or a cancelled thing?

So to Kaa, the snake; where the link to Dave Pomeroy's input is stronger, with a pre-production example which may be handmade? The Malachite-green one is straighter, has finer-etched details and two flat-spots to help him (more recently voiced by a woman!) stand up, while the muddy-jade one seems to have been manipulated with heat; a blow torch or something, and is clearly a stage on the way to the green one.

Imagine a sort of stretched-sprue (runner!) effect, but with heat-proof gloves and a thicker rod of material which seems to have been rolled-together from various recycled polystyrene scraps, with a  thick head-end and thin 'tail', being formed with the application of heat and force! If the green one is the finished article (which it seems to be), it is a single solid molding unlike the two-part press-together 'kits' of the others above.

And, as I say; nothing on Google, nothing on feebleBay and nothing on Cereal Offers, does anyone remember these? Are they or were they common once or are they pretty unique? Were they giveaways/premiums or was there a big-box model kit with simple construction for little hands? They seem (with the exception of the pre-prototype Kaa) to be from [a] professional mould-tool [/s], and any further information would be gratefully received here.

W is for Wild West . . . Checkers!

This is really an addendum to a post published here ten years ago! A better look at one of the three games mentioned on that occasion, by two brand marks (Triang and Omnia), using the Minimodels Wild West figures, originally sculpted by Charles Stadden and manufactured at Minimodels' Havant factory on the South coast.

I'm not sure if Triang's game should be quite as sun-yellowed as this example, it seems a little too subdued for attraction on a shelf, and with some water damage, may also be suffering from non-art-room sun damage too! They don't turn-up on evilBay that often but when they do the sky is bluer!

Quality Assurance Inspection; the production values of putting this together must have be enormous, bigger people; rivals, like Waddington's here and Milton Bradley in the 'States had been throwing everything in placky-bags set in 'styrene trays, for a while by the time this hit the shops, and pairing-up all those figures and setting them in three different, die-cut holding devices must have taken someone forever, even once the operator was practiced.

Almost certainly done by women, possibly out-workers, but I think you'd need to do this in-house with stillage-bins of draughtsmen, bins of figures and the quite huge box - I couldn't scan the board as it's over A3 on a side and the box is bigger! Plus; all that was after they had all been run in one of two colours of polymer and hand painted with between three and five colours!

A reminder of the four figure poses, where these differ over the half-dozen other iterations of the figures (2 other games, window box, cake-decoration bags, shop-stock counter boxes etc...) is that they have added studs which connect with a hole in the draughtsman, the fit is tight and the figures are a frangible polystyrene, so damage would have occurred from first play on Christmas Day!

They are lovely figures, but that frangibility means finding them intact is hard, the six-shooter being the one most likely to survive, the tomahawk being the least likely to be found still attached!

A is for Answer . . . from the Antipodes!

I may have mentioned a parcel from Mr. Sibbald down there in New Zealand? He actually sent four 'things' to the blog, three of which will be Blogged over the next week or two, and while the other things involved multiples of figures; the fourth 'thing' was this single figure, but how useful he turned-out to be:

He's pink . . . he must be Pink!

It's the missing colour from the unknown board-game set I couldn't find in the recent past despite trying various search terms on both Google and feebleBay. But as soon as I saw it (and I may have posited pink as one of the possible colours of the missing figure) I knew where to look.

Not only did the pink give it away, a quick look at the other's revealed the red, blue and brown to look confirmatory familiar, and I eMailed Glenn the same day to say I was sure they came from the Minimodels plant in Havent, as they match some of the figures from the 'Cops and Robbers' Sweeny-branded and Geronimo's Treasure games.

Sir Geldoff of Boomtown auditions for Boyzone!

So it was straight to Boardgamegeek, for searches of Berwick, Condor, Omnia, Tri-Ang, and err . . . the other one . . . Ariel! Nothing! Not a sausage, definitely not a guitarist! So I went to feebleBay and tried Pop Band, Pop Star, Rock Band and Rock Star, Band, Guitar Player and Guitarist (including all the usual Board Game, Vintage, Old, Plastic and Toy Figure prefixes or suffixes). . . some results were too long to be faffed-with, others drew a blank.

I was getting worried; I'd promised Glenn that by the time he read my eMail - which I'd sent in what was the middle of the night down there - I'd know the name of the game and it was beginning to look like I'd drawn a blank . . . again!

"One more note of Tar-rar-rah-boom-di-ay

and you'll be an ex-guitarist mate!"

But discovering in the course of these searches that Waddington's carried versions of some of the games carried by the other companies above - presumably as Waddington's bought them out - and remembering that Waddington's ended-up with the Subbuteo system also linked to Havent through the supply of the Stadden-designed figures, I thought I'd try Waddington's as a search subject.

I tried Waddington's Rock . . . nothing, Waddington's Star (as in rock or pop-star) . . . still nothing, finally Waddington's Pop (obvious; but it took me five or ten minutes to try it!) and BINGO! Two, near-mint, for sale as of last Friday;

Mike Reid's Pop Quiz, 60mm, polystyrene, six board-game pieces, Minimodels for Waddington's, probably, also, a Stadden sculpt?

I don't know, but suspect it might have been sold under other names/titles in other places where Waddington's operated (Oz, NZ, South Africa?) as Mike Reid wouldn't have been known outside the UK, being a British radio DJ!

Anyway; mystery solved . . . thanks to- and thanks; Glenn!

A is for Archive - Minimodels 'Scale figures'

It's funny, they thought to correct me on two 80-odd years old Spanish rubber figures last Christmas, yet seem to know nothing about anything, especially space figures! That was priceless the other day, they couldn't have got it more wrong between them if they'd tried, but then - by making it up as they go along - they are trying to get it wrong, comedy cretins and too funny, just too funny, he's got a little black box with his brain in it!!!

LP are not especially 'rare' and have been much covered here and elsewhere.

You don't know Co-Ma's Selenites yet?

They are not Thomas or Poplar; Thomas spacemen with bases are piracies.

Poplar were a Thomas offshoot.

Solpa are Greek not French - But then Schilling are American not German!

Amusing, yet pathetic - I mean it's painful to watch as you hear the gears clunking. If you're going to sit in my dust copying my recent output, at least try to get it right! Then the next day the idiot lectures the knowledgeable Frenchie and we get 'everybodyelsesstuff' Because Stadsstuff hasn't got the rightstuff and it takes ten of them and FacePlant.TwitSpacestuff to get it right!

Anyway, thought I'd put this up here as the Cock-whacking Monkey Lizard got a bit confused about these in his attempts to 'elucidate the Vichy' a year or so ago, despite it mostly being here at Small Scale World for some years!

If they are painted -

They are from Minimodels, of Havent in Hampshire (posh name for-/posh end of- Greater Portsmouth!), another of the many subsidiary works of Lines Bro's Tri-Ang/Metoy/Playcraft. Paint is minimal with gloss weapons and matt flesh and uniform/equipment-highlights. We have looked at some of the better pieces before here and they were sold from counter-display pick-boxes

 If they are unpainted -

They are Almark who offered them as boxed sets, on the runners as multi-pose type construction kits for home assembly, a few years after the Minimodels issues, in part to tie-in with their WWII publications. Almark didn't offer all the 'extras', but went on to commission some further sculpts from the original artist Charles C Stadden, which were issued as metal kits, we have looked at some of them too!

Minimodels were founded in 1947 by Bertram Francis (a former toolmaker) in London.

Minimodels moved to a purpose built factory in Havent between 1954 and 1956.

Minimodels were sold (by choice) to Lines in 1958.

Minimodels were the manufacturer of Scale Figures.

Minimodels were the marketer of Scale Figures.

Minimodels were a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lines and/or a administered as a branch of Triang-Mettoy-Playcraft.

Scale Figures was a sub-brand/brand-mark of Minimodels and sister-brand to Scalextric.

Minimodels were the contract-manufacturer for Almark.

Almark were the 'Jobber'.

Almark Model Products was a sub-brand/brand-mark of Almark and sister-brand to Almarks Transfers.

There is no, and never has been an Alamark Minimodels.

They are all dead! . . . Except Pedigree - strangely; they seem to be abeyance, possibly by/for the Hornby Group, the Pedigree name being held by a shell-office in Margate?