M is for Mundi Toys . . . Dunkin, Montaplex et al!

A proper return to one of my favourite sets of small scale, technically intermediate scale at 30-35mm, toy soldiers, the 'Dunkin' bubble-gum premiums, and while I will show you all of them, I think I may still have to find one?

We looked at my then, small collection, near the beginning of the Blog, 2010, and at the time it was popularly considered that Dunkin were the primary source, with the other sources being secondary.

 

But I now suspect that Mundi Toys might have been the first/major user, with the various gum-manufacturers dipping-in, in turn, among which we know Mundi were themselves one, Dunkin was another, Americana probably had a pop (although I have yet to find an envelope for them), GC (General de Cofiteria S.A.) 'Boomer' and Wikö among others, as and when there was available production-time from the supplier (who may or may not have been Mundi or Dunkin), or a gap in their own promotions schedules.

Above, we see the Mundi bubblegum 'Sobre' on the right (Soldados en Accion - 'Soldiers in Action'), containing one piece of Tyler's chicle and one figure. On the left is a blister-set with a pair of vehicles and the Dunkin pack (Hazañas y Combates - lit: "Feats and Combats") in the middle. The Mundi are different colours, my - mint - envelopes contained yellow Americans, while you can see the blister has a number of metallic-blue ones, the figures we are looking at below are probably all Dunkin.

I actually had some trouble, shooting these, so we have two sets of photographs for both the Americans and the Russians! Here they all are on the carpet, which they rather shrank into, and I had to play with the light and contrast to render them viewable! 20 poses/sculpts, common to all three nations, for a total of 60 unique figurines.

 

Above are the grunts, I thought I'd sorted them into riflemen and tommy-gunners, but I notice there's a tommy-gunner hiding in the top row, so it's four and eight, not five and seven! Below them is an obvious officer, the command/support trio and some heavy weapons with the third grenade thrower.

 

I've seen these - rather ridiculously - credited to Airfix as the influencer! However I think the author was just looking for an excuse to get them in his tome! In point of fact they are mostly after MPC (54mm and 60mm) and the Marx 54mm, if you need a second source, but it's MPC poses and 'after MPC' in the main. The grenade thrower without weapon, though, is ALL Britains, as is the being-shot character! It's true, the kneeling radio operator looks vaguely like the Airfix HO/OO paratrooper one, but he also looks like a reverse sculpt of an early (1950's) kit figure!

 

The Russians, there's only 19 of the 20 present here, with the sentry and guard dog absent, we've seen him before, in green, and I'm pretty sure there's a couple of red-ones in the storage sample, now. Last time I divided them into summer (tunics and helmets) and winter (greatcoats and fur-hats) uniforms, this time I grouped them thematically as the US troops.

 

With five standing about, five fighting for their lives, five moving-up/advancing, and five miscellaneous! Being red plastic, they were the worst to photograph, and I ended-up in the bathroom, shooting them against the mirror, where - of course - the point of focus shifted to 'imaginary space'!

 

Now, I've said before, when I first encountered these, it was with a couple of the diggers, and I thought they might be Afrika Korps, but I notice Dunkin have them as Chinese, with the Mundi sobre envelope showing a sketch which is more British-Commonwealth? I guess this lot are your flexible friend! I tend to think of them as Japanese, especially now I have the swordsmen - top row, 2 & 5.

 

Although without 20 Germans, and in an odd scale/size, this set has always been a bit problematical, and it's their charm rather than their usefulness which has me staying loyal to them. If they are Chinese, then we could assume we are looking at the three main powers in the Cold War, which makes more sense?

The rest of the 'stuff', clockwise from the top left. The missing Jap'/Chinese pose is a prone shooter, he looks familiar-enough for me to think I may have one somewhere, but, equally, he may be the still-elusive 60th pose for my samples?

 

Colour variations on the Russians in red, when we looked at them last time, there were a bunch of green ones which may well have been Mundi issues, or Montaplex, who did all these, in various colours, some quite whacky, but whether from the original tools or as lower-grade copies I don't know yet.

 

Then the missing guard-dog from the above line-ups, and another colour-variation shot. Below them are the typical base marks which may or may not be mould-release pin-marks, and are something in common with lots of the output of Olà (ice cream premiums), Raja and others (in addition to those already named above), some of which output is believed to have come from the Heimo works; I don't know why?

 

Bottom right has the recipient of some wargamers snack sticker, rather than a national army identity I suspect, but whether it was a clementine, mandarin, satsuma or tangerine is currently unknown; intensive research, however, remains ongoing! Finally, slight colour variants of the US Machine-gunner.

 

There is still a Mundi Toys (they exhibited at the New York toy fair in September), but they are SRL, not SA, and are somewhere in Bolivia nor do they seem to carry this kind of stuff.

 

And this is one of those posts where everyone has given me a few figures over the years in addition to my own finds, so thanks, alphabetically to; Graham Apperley, John Begg, Andreas Dittmann, Peter Evans, Tony Harrington, Mike Harding, Adrian Little, Gareth Morgan, Trevor Rudkin and Chris Smith.

A is for Addendum

Well, I don't think it's technically a 'Follow-up' and it's not really a 'More On' (far too much input from morons this week as it is!), so addendum will do! Just a couple of pieces from Picasa which add to things said in other posts this week.

We saw these in a show-report back in 2018, when I bought a few from the seller at the Plastic Warrior show in Wilton/Twickenham, SE London, now as it happens when I got them home, they'd been mucked about with, so I don't have all the correct contents of all the boxes, and while I said - at the time - they'd get their own post, they never did!

But I'd forgotten I'd shot the rest, on the seller's stall, in case the five boxes weren't 'all of them', so here's a perfect example of the Italian output of Food Premium style novelty mini-kits. If I recall correctly, they had no branding; packaging or product.

 

But they are not R&L, they are not Rubenstein, they are not Tatra, they are not DS Plastics, or Siku, or Manurba, they are Italian. I think a fair few of us are familiar with the CGGC motorcycles (and the lovely figures - some of which would end-up in Kinder-eggs a decade later), also from Italy, and I have seen lovely N-gauge train kits in smaller boxes (something like 'Eppi', but I forget the actual name), one of which is very similar to the R&L animal wagon.

 

The frames are relatively unique and assemble into a fancy base after you've made up the kit, and they are manufactured in a dense polymer which is a nylon/rayon type or possibly a hybrid propylene of some kind, sold two kits to a box.

While this is the rather poor rendition of what I suspect is meant to be a Douglas F4D Skyray, from Montaplex of Spain, it's in a different league, being soft polyethylene, chunky and simplified, it just reminds us of the breadth covered by these mini-kits as an oeuvre!

It was sold in larger multi-sets with three other kits, in little single envelopes (early iteration, I think) and as an accompaniment/accessory to some of the figure sets, pretty randomly in the latter case!

F is for Follow-up - Space Flats

I don't know how I've ended-up with all this space stuff, it was supposed to be vehicle-figures-vehicle-figure post and then move-on to something else, but there's a folder full of the stuff and I just carried-on working through it! In the meantime, I shot this to confirm an earlier comment . . . 

. . . re the green semi-flat chap having been issued by Montaplex unpainted, and here we see two in yellow, they seem to be from the same tool, so someone must have bought a bunch to paint-up and sell at a different price-bracket, because you do see them like this from time to time?

 

Posed with two contemporary figures from Torgano (grey) and an unmarked white version of the Linde/DS Plastics (Plasticraft) spaceman we looked at here. The helmet is a non-canon one which happened to fit . . . 'ish!

11-Sep-2023 - definitely not French! He is pathetic, isn't he? "Neh! I got one too and mine is blue!"

H is for How They Come In - March

This is a brief one two, but I suspect it was part of a larger parcel, some of which is in the queue, some of which has been blogged, either in Rack Toy month or more recently! But there are still a few nice bits here, and we'll return to the rockets in a future post.

Peter Evans of Plastic Warrior fame was the contributor here, and we have clockwise from the top left; Toy Major handled (several other brand marks issued-) cave-men bits; a Montaplex Viking boat hull and blow-moulded water-pistol of Christmas cracker prize/gift proportions and another of those Palitoy (and others) kicking footballers.

A small bag of Airfix and other war-gaming plastics lies next to a bag of rocket projectiles and below them is something which is more amusing than interesting, given the state of plastics in the social conscience these days . . . it's plastic (Kinder I think) copies of the old Erzgebirge wooden micro/dolls-house trucks/trains, in wood-effect polymer!

Two castles from a resin chess set in the guise of siege-towers, a small bag of actual Erzgebige items and a couple of mini-pigs conclude the tour, I didn't get them out of the bags as it's mostly stuff building to bigger posts, or stuff we've seen in passing before, and they've been sorted away now, also I was pretty busy back in March, but all it's gratefully received into the archive, thanks again Peter.

R is for Roman Bums

Look, we need to get this straight now . . . every time we look at the output of this strange half-resurrected Montaplex, half resin-pirate, we will make a joke out of their name, because they want us to! They didn't call their track-racing system Bumslot for nothing you know; I'm sure there's at least one British ex-pat' in there somewhere!

I think I intended these to go on the Airfix Romans page, where they are still an obvious absentee, but I seem to have shot them without any comparisons to the aforementioned UK-made figures, so we're having them here, now, and I'll re-shoot some comparisons for the other page another day!

Very crude copies, they get round-tipped (Republican?) shields with Imperial-era uniforms, so . . . Spanish mercenaries? And most of the Airfix figures were copied, but - mercifully - not the running-waving-pilum guy, who was quite idiotic enough first time round, although, the marching chap hasn't been cloned either and he was one of the more useful ones, along with the Persian archer type.

The chariot has had a complete redesign in Ed Roth's workshops and now looks more like a field conversion of a Celt's muck-cart! And it has been reduced from 4hp to one, often the way with those custom jobbies, lots of noise and a fancy paint-job, but as soon as you join 'Run to the Sun' they burst into flames . . . some summer weekends that A30 South looks like a technicolor, smoldering, retreat from Moscow!

There was a 'big box' set as well, but I think the vessel-kit was bought in, I haven't studied it but would imagine it's probably from Academy rather than the older Aurora or the Heller/Směr ones? The same single runner of figures won't provide much in the way of useful crew though and the transfer sheet (there's another in the first image) looks like the bastard-child of Revo and Games Workshop . . . on acid!

Bum Slot is for Montaplex!

We might have had that title before but I think it's worth having again! I was looking for something to make it a thematic day and thought about the smallies, but we've seen them once or twice over the years, except the Atlantic set (which was the other obvious absentee in this morning's post, but I should leave something for you-know-who to dust-sit with), when I found these whilst looking for something else in the garage!

BuM got hold of the old Montaplex sobres (surprise [bags]) moulds back in the 1990's, or - at least - they got hold of enough surplus product to start churning-out boxed sets, I'm not sure as to the full history; I think it's all been on Akala's Kiosko Blog, but my Spanish isn't good enough!

Anyway, this is two ex-Montaplex sets in one box; British Commandos (ex-Airfix) and an original-design (?) submarine.

The commandos are unremarkable, the two grappling-iron guys being notably poor short-shots, but the ladder is a whacky thing and possibly more dangerous to the user than climbing the enemy cliff-face naked except for a pair of mittens and some bedroom slippers!

It also ironic that Airfix-Heller were churning out the same old set (having apparently 'lost' not one but two new tools in the previous decade!), at the same time, in the same shit-brown polymer!

But this? Now . . . hold on a sec' . . . over here we had to wait for Birthday's or Christmas for pretty-much anything in the past, but the Spanish were getting these brought back by Mum or Dad, uncle or granny . . . with the morning paper!

It's a whole submarine! OK, it's a bit simplistic and there don't appear to be any holes for the two missile-things, but how much fun could you have over breakfast with this dropping out of a little envelope . . . it's a WHOLE SUBMARINE . . . for pennies!

Stadswatch - Chiding TJF - Apparently!

Of course I've been chiding him, ever since he thought it was advisable to correct me on two figures I said I was 100% sure I wasn't sure about, he's been getting things wrong and I've been correcting him!

 

His latest is to suggest that Bum re-issued Pech GI's; they didn't. Full stop.

 

They re-issued Montaplex copies of Pech, copies which ran alongside the Pech y Hermanos originals back in the day, as French bazar figures ran alongside their Starlux donors, as Blue Box/Redbox animals ran alongside their Britains and Elastolin prototypes. It's amazing how often Stadinger gets it wrong! Bum inherited Montaplex moulds not Pech moulds - we looked at them here Montaplex pirated everyone, Airfix, Matchbox, Atlantic, Quiralux . . .

 

. . . however, today we're looking at the Jabbering Fuck's recent twin-whines that I was 'chiding him' the other day, and the details of it . . .

 

This appeared first, boy he must have some long days if that's the amusing highlight!

 

Followed a few days later by this.

 

Now the laugh of the week (a-million-and-one sad laughs - the extra laugh is all important when you're engaged in this level of schoolyard language) is that Paul 'the Jabbering Fuck' Stadinger's laugh of the day is entirely of his own invention and only in his own head.

 

We know this for several reasons,

• 1) It doesn't really make sense as he's written it - in either version (and I mean general sense, they are both only semi-literate)

• 2) He provides no link, quote or screen-cap by way of proof or evidence

• 3) I am happy to admit to any/all my chastising of the old fool, so would only deny doing-so if I was pretty sure I hadn't, and in this case; I 'aint!

You see, while I have fully intended to attack him for his egotistical ways, I know I haven't had the time yet (now he's accused me of doing-so - I'm just about to!), and even if I'd got round to it, I wouldn't equate it to his showing his collection, because another criticism of him I have (and have hinted at once, or twice) is that he doesn't actually show his collection at all!

 

In other words my criticism of him is (and has always been) the opposite of what he's claimed twice in a week I actually said.

 

Because it's in his head! He's made it up, it's false. He was sat in the bath (or something) imagining what I might have said, OR might be about to say about him and he seems to have convinced himself it had actually happened? OR he's getting confused by something else, possibly said by someone else (we've established in the last 12 months he's fallen-out a fair-few people over the years and he hints at falling out with another in his FAQ's)? OR he was just lying for the cause of dramatic effect? How he came up with it is immaterial, it's bullshit and bollocks!

 

However, he said I chided him for being egotistical . . . well . . .

 

. . . I challenge anyone in the wider hobby still alive today, to find a more egotistical comment made by anyone in the hobby since its inception in the 1900's!

 

He thinks, he dares, he declares himself to have (or be?) a legend! Or a piece of one . . . or one in pieces! It really is TOO funny!

 

I shit you not! Like the ancient Mesopotamians! The Greeks, mighty Rome, the Carolingians, the Norse, El Dorado, the Wild West, the Marie Celeste, the Zulu's at Isandlawana or the US Marines at Iwo Jima . . . he has a legend! That man . . . the Jabbering Fuck . . . is the most egotistical fucker on the fucking internet . . . after his fucking President!

 

"One of the pieces of my legend"!!!! How many pieces are in the fucking legend! Ten? Fifty-six? Two-hundred-&-thirty-eight? Are some of the pieces in pieces? Hahahahahahahahaha! This is the joke of the day, this is the joke of the fucking month!!!! I'm cryin'here!

 

So - no I hadn't attacked him for his ego, but now he's raised it, I'm happy to do so - Paul 'the Jabbering Fuck' Stadinger of Stad's Stuff is the most egotistical person I know in the hobby, by a country-mile, and then some.

 

As to his other point, I would never have admonished him for showing his collection, as I show mine and all bloggers show theirs, it's such a stupid lie to try getting away with? I know a few of the PSTSM'ers have gone along with both his recent comments, but then; clearly, they are as stupid as their mighty 'Legend' Hahahahhahahahahaha!

 

One said 'keep doing what you're doing', well, yes I can agree with that; keep giving me sticks to beat you with and I'll keep thwacking yo'ass! Keep trying to be Small Scale World (badly) and you'll be no threat to me! Keep putting typo's (surpises - priceless!) in your title bar and Google will keep ignoring you! Keep-up with the lies, the idiocy, the competitive bollocks, the invented quotes and see what happens to [the pieces of] your legend!

 

What I have hinted at is that while - if he wanted to - he could show his collection, and (going only from what other people say) could blow me and all other blogger's away with the quality stuff he's supposed to have ferreted away . . . he doesn't, he shows crappy little scrapings of inconsequential stuff he's shoving on feebleBay! Presumably in the hope that by showing it on his blog first, it may get bid-up . . . by the desperate!

 

I don't know and I don't care, what I do know is that in the last year, there were two posts on Stad's worth a second look, one with the 2 Speedwell armoured cars (from his collection) only useful for the image, the other was the autumn post on Marx swappable figures, which seems to have been the work of three other people (?) and was very interesting and added to the hobby's 'sum total of knowledge'. Other than that, nothing leapt out . . . nothing!

 

Now; to be fair; I post a lot of shite too, I post a lot of crap, page-filling, box-ticking shite, but I don't pretend it's anything other than what it is (mass-produced polymer shite) and I hope that amongst it, last year, I published more than two useful posts!

 

And - I promise I'll never declare myself a legend!

 

Or even; a piece of one! Hahahahahahahahahahahah! Fuck! You can't make this shit up, TJF can, Erwin can, but normal people . . . no!

C is for Clip Together

No more than an overview with these today, it was a bit of serendipity and a reader contribution which led to this post and I have many more in storage so we will look at them properly by company/type another day (or: other days!), for now, let's just get an idea of the wide range of mini (or micro) model-kits which were available as - mostly breakfast cereal - premiums, many - but not all - supplied by R&L (Rosenhain & Lipmann) of Australia, primarily (in the UK) to Kellogg's Foods.

Kellogg's liner which we've seen here on the Blog before and racing cars which were also issued by Sanitarium in the antipodes, as well as someone on the continent (Portuguese food company?), so they often turn-up, but with all the little pieces (especially the wheel hubs); are rarely whole. I do have another bunch in storage including orange, red and white examples so we will look at them again one day. The driver moulding is the same for every car, so you can build him half-and-half - two colours, he looks good in black and orange!

Various ages and generations of bits for the Montaplex Bi-plane, I picked these up as a single lot in a larger bag of mixed bits; someone was obviously building himself a 'circus'! Between the bits I can still get one airborne!

These are all soft ethylene plastic with the WWII fighters (and sub-scale Heinkel? Mostly bits) having been given-away in the UK with boys comics (Fury, Valiant and Warlord), as part of the hype surrounding the release of the movie Battle of Britain - I believe? Sellotaped to the cover as an unmade kit on the chunky frame...for years I wondered (not being a 'plane guy') if they were Atlantic, the frames are chunky enough!

The Concord (I think?) is one of three (or four) in a set with The Tupolev and Boing efforts, possibly from Quaker Foods or Weetabix?. I say "I think" as there were several sets with Concord in and I'm not sure which is which!

I bought the bagged ones at a car boot sale quite a few years ago, the chap had loads of them in a fruit basket, so I assumed they were a new issue or a re-issue of older moulds which he'd picked-up as a job lot or as clearance, so bought one of each, but I think they may be the 1970's originals, now, which is annoying as I would have grabbed them all, he only wanted pennies... The broken-up bits have come in with mixed lots over the years and I think between the two shots are aircraft from two different sets?

While the ME109 is probably a modern 1:144 kit, but he's in with the medium-smallies in the unknown bag!

Jet Petrol (gasoline) stations issued this lovely set of 10 (?) cars for quite a while, so they are not too uncommon, and while I'm missing one or two, I'm hoping I might have them in storage, but if not they will turn up one day!

One made-up and broken into its constituent parts, a pair with a colour variation and two soft-plastic (polyethylene) cars from Europe - Spain or Portugal I think...Tito? I do have some Ford and Vauxhall rally cars in this style marked Tito, but these two are unmarked.

The  next four images (below) are all courtesy of Andrew Boyce who sent them to me ages ago (before Christmas?) and I said I'd be publishing "soon", "in a day or two hopefully", "probably tomorrow" then in the February splurge...only for time, Nathaniel and Voda'fail to intervene in their timeless fashion! Can time be timeless? There's an existential debate for a cold winter's evening!



A lovely shot with samples of various sets Kellogg's issued, along with both Gerry Anderson sets complete. I also remember a set of clip-together Tony the Tigers', with another set of train kits coming out of Italy.

Of interest to me in this shot is the set of blue wheels on the red estate car (station-wagon) as the ones I have all came with black wheels and the helicopter which I was unaware of.

This shows the kid's comic ad. for the Captain Scarlet vehicles shown in Andrew's image above, I think I have the Patrol Car somewhere, and shot the SPV before Christmas here on the blog, it's a lovely little model, almost 1:300th scale, with all the little wheels (10 of them in two sizes!) separate.

I suspect these were from a different source than the others, they are much chunkier with only a few (or no - TB4) parts, and lack the finesse of the R&L stuff. It was including some of these in the novelty posts before Christmas which triggered Andrew's contribution, which in turn led me to gather up a few bits and bobs to photograph for this post.

Sugar Stars and Coco Crispies gave-up this set of six vehicles which we will return to one day as I have a tub of whole and partial ones somewhere! Like a lot of these cereal premiums, they were issued elsewhere by other brands or products, sometimes in different combinations, so some seem commoner over here than others, the train and 'Rocket' seem easier to obtain than the car, while I think I've seen the bus (still on the frame) in a small box as an Italian pocket-money toy. 

 Finally; an old scan intended for an article on wagons in Plastic Warrior magazine's little brother 1"W which never happened! A rather damaged London taxi from the 100 Years of Transport above (1834 Hansom Cab) it came with a horse and I think a better version in blue was shown on the Cabinet of Curious Things posts, but I haven't got the images here (editing away from the internet) and the tag list may not help!

I don't often deal with the filthy subject of money, but seeing some of the buy-it-now (BIN) prices of things like this, it's worth considering this: even though you are always competing with other collecting field's aficionados; train buffs, space fans, 'plane-spotters, more general premium collectors, kit guys, TV & Movie fans...so prices are often high even for common examples, you should always remember they made millions of them and you should set a limit and stick to it, I aim at no more than a pound a piece.

Let's do some hypothetical maths; Say two [popular] cereal brands (from the same manufacturer) run a joint-promotion with comic and early-evening TV adds, of a random-packed set of 4 models for 4 months in 1975, selling (even as early as the 1950/60's) maybe 100,000 packs a week to a population of approximately 12,000,000 baby-boom households (now closer to 16 million, but with less school-age kids per household).

100,000 packs x 16 weeks x 2 brands / 4 models = potentially 800,000 individual units of your searched-for 'rarity' were once out there! It's 'ball park' but it's not fancifully way-out there.

'Family Sized' packs may have two models (or five against three, three against two) which might push our fictional total to a million-odd, better known or more popular brands like Cornflakes might issue 500,000 packs a week? Three months (or two years) later the models are run again, or in another brand, or with another foodstuff, or in another country, or the model you're after is put in another set... Tom Smith get the mouldings (Quaker Gladiators) for 25,000 boxes of budget Christmas crackers, in four designs - six years running, or in more 'promotional' boxes (Thunderbirds figures)... a HK company or two copies them (jig toys)...finally some warehouse lets the remnants go by the bagful (Coca-Cola animals) as clearance or pocket-money toys to another country.

There's so much more to these, and as a specific collection, they can take-up surprisingly little room, but take a lifetime to track down as colour variations, mint in pack examples etc...but please - keep it in perspective, a 5-quid or $10 BIN is not worth the pain, when mixed lots might be had for 99p plus postage.

And many thanks to Andrew for the additional images.

Next day...Brian Berke sent this image of a "rubbery" plastic copy from Hong Kong of one of the R&L toys [2023 - probably Rubenstein rack-toys], still on the frame, he remembers the Rocket loco and has a Hansom Cab in the same neutral colour of soft polymer...remembering also they came from a 99-cent store in NY; approximately 1986. And that's a New York pound for scale!

R is for Rollin', Rollin', Rolling, Keep them Wagons Rolling!

I - as those of you who have been following from the start will know - have a soft spot for wagons, especially small scale ones, but most of them are in storage, and most of them were blogged a while ago, but it doesn't stop me setting them up and photographing them from time to time!

So for those who are new followers, or who like me just enjoy wagons, here's a round-up of the Montaplex and early BüM wagons, most of which have appeared once already, but brought together.

Some have separate horses with a distinctive look that sets them apart from all the Giant, Giant-clones and post/non-Giant horses, but most have an integral horse in the manner of Manurba's, but fatter! The wheels are also very easy to recognise with their four-spoke, circus-wagon look and ornate tooling.

So far I've found a covered-wagon, stage-coach and copy of the Matchbox fire-appliance, crewed by astronauts! There is another design, a sort of pick-up truck/trailer thing in one of the Wild West town sets, but it's in storage and looks a bit crap anyway!

A line-up doesn't work properly when you find a yellow (BüM ) one after you've put the others away! Hay Ho...doh! Thanks to Peter Evans for the fire wagon.

T is for Terrible Tommies

Really just a box-ticker, I've put them on the relevant post on the Airfix blog, but I had a bunch of photographs left so they can go here as well!

Dangerous mission, pack, frame/runner (sprue')..."I've lost an eye taking out that German Renault-Sherman hybrid but I've got ammo left godamit!"

Jeep with twin pom-pom and A4? A5? A-Somthing...

R is for Return....to Montaplex

I've been after this for ages, and finally got one off Steve Vickers table at one of the last two Sandown's, but I can't remember which one; September's - I think, the photo's are meta-tagged September anyway!

Montaplex's Churchhill Tank. They made a small range of tanks around 1:87/1:72, some fair, some poor, this is among the better efforts, and I've seen them on the Montaplex forum, but never managed to track one down.

Single runner with 16 pieces for what looks like a Mk. IV. The model has carpet wheels hidden in the running gear and a movable-elevation gun in a revolving turret.

It also has two teeny-tiny little men who couldn't possibly handle the 16-inch naval gun shells stowed behind them! Clearly it's a Q-tank secretly being used as an ammo-carrier for the USS New Jersey...or maybe it's just a toy! Plush seats or what?

Fully made-up it holds its own against the 1960's Airfix Kit or Matchbox die-cast of the 1990's, apart from the windows (why it needed two itty-bitty little men!) and is every bit the equal of the Tudor Rose version. Really pleased to finally have one, I'm looking for a couple more now - in different colours!

B is for Big Blobs in Bags!

Just as the Montaplex New Zealanders had different contents, so some of the sets in the 100-code numbered series of pocket-money toy 'sobre' (surprise) envelopes had earlier incumbents prior to the better known Airfix/Matchbox/Atlantic copies, it is these we will look at now...

There is a forth set, being equally crude 30/35mm's; copies of the Blue Box GI's (possibly with a few Monogram poses to make the set up to ten poses).

Each set comes with a piece of scenery as the runner they are attached to which are missing from my collection, I'm not sure why the top set has only seven poses (there may be a clue below), nor whether there were three duplicates to make-up the total sought?

The set at the bottom were sold as Japanese, the set above them as Americans, the top set (Germans?) and the missing set (Brits?) are still a mystery to me...any ideas?

Here we see some 40mm Italian originals of the Spanish piracies, these are in hard metallic colours of polystyrene, very much in the style of the CoMa Spacemen and Galenites, although there is no actual connection known to me other then the obvious similarity?

The prone guy seems to have a control box for a rocket launcher or something (like the little Roscopf figures) and the kneeling chap (in gold) was 'using' or operating something. While I believe Serjan copied the mini-submarines (as flats), Montaplex didn't, neither did they copy the flame-thrower (damaged above), which may account for the lower pose count of the copied set?

Note how the Spanish efforts are not pantograph generated copies, but free-hand lifts, much reduced in size.

M is for Magnificent Men in Their Micro Machines!

So, to other teeny tiny 'planes in the same vague size range as the above MPC (previous) post. A lot of them tend to be one-off's or small ranges of - often - MPC derivatives, used for lucky bags/sobres, Christmas cracker toys, cake decorations and such like, but others are from similar 'sets' to the MPC ones...

The first - definitely pre-dating MPC - seem to have been from the States; Irwin making a set in a phenolic resin or plastic sometime around the 1930/40's or very early 1950's, shown to the top-left in a dark salmon red.

Another set which I'm identifying as Airfix (subject to change!) may have only included four aircraft types (Lancaster, Mosquito, Spitfire, and US Lightning), but they turn-up quite often, so seem to have been numerous at some point, possibly included with a larger toy (as load or cargo), perhaps as a beach-toy?

As early as the Irwin 'planes, but of much higher quality is the blue Beeju 'EVB' Mosquito (top right) we've already looked at here, I don't know how many were in this set/range.

While a small set from China is currently doing the rounds as cake decorations. The DC-3 in blue (bottom-left) is smaller than the MPC version, but of high production values and may be one of a larger set, possibly an American maker, any ideas? [17-11-2014 - It's from the 1957 Air Fleet set from Nabisco's Shredded Wheat Cubs, smaller ranges with 5 or 6 of the same model aircraft were also issued by Empire/Caldwell in the States/Canada in hard styrene and Lido in both styrene and softer ethylene, so possibly supplied to Nabisco by Thomas Toys]

The Irwin types so far encountered by this author, marked 'IRWIN' on one wing and 'MADE IN U.S.A.' on the other, the push-prop (top-left) is an interesting addition (possibly meant to be a Bell YFM-1 Airacuda?) helping to date the set?

Bottom-left is the current cake decoration group, also used for Christmas crackers of the budget variety, there are three aircraft types so far found, in three colours, with the - provisional - Airfix group to the right, these can be seen in full over on the Airfix Blog.

Other examples in the 'Mini Aircraft - Odds and Sods' box! The entire top row are MPC derivatives with the red (and damaged blue) polypropylene and silver polystyrene ones all marked made in Hong Kong (MPC+6), the white and yellow delta-wings having different marks (+7 and +8!).

The large green one to the right is a Hong Kong ancestor of the China cake decorations, The yellow Concord may go with the DC-3 above, same level of detail/production values. The two little yellow ones (top centre-right) are from a Kinder toy.

The red one bottom-left; may be a rocket/missile from a Manzinger type robot or Transformer type toy? The four silver ones along the bottom are Blue Box and others. The dung-yellow one is a Montaplex - I think - and the red and yellow pair bottom right are phenolic and probably quite early, one being a simplified twin-engined fighter/bomber type, the other - possibly a helicopter's body?

The hard plastic gold and orange rocket-planes are similar but not the same as the yellow one to their left, also hard-plastic. The white jet-fighter is a plug-in probably from an aircraft-carrier toy, while the Spitfire in green seems to be a scaled-down copy of the one included in an Airfix board-game and in the same (ABS) material and colour, but with a mounting-hole in it.

The rest are unknown mongrels from Christmas crackers, sobres, lucky-bags or premiums, can anyone give us details on any of them? [17-11-2014 - except the large blue Navion  bottom-left; It's from the 1957 Air Fleet set from Nabisco's Shredded Wheat Cubs, smaller ranges with the same 'plane were also issued by Empire/Caldwell in the States/Canada in hard styrene and Lido in both styrene and softer ethylene, both can be found on Toy Soldier HQ, the unmarked blue MIG/Lightning next to it (far lower-left) is a copy from the Nabisco set]

M is for Montaplex - Part I - Quadruple-bags

As you collect the Spanish 'Sobres' or 'Surprises' you realise that the companies (of whom Montaplex was only one - but the most prolific one) were very good at regurgitating the same few products in various ways or including them in various sets.

These four-vehicle bags being a case in point as they all contain things that had either been available singly, or that had already appeared in the figure sets, where a sprue was often thrown-in to give the set a bit more playability!

The car is quite nice, described as a Ford, it looks quite like a Rolls or other prestige mark to me, the two space items (UFO and NASA return-module) have been seen on Moonbase Central before now, the tanks are a bit lame but the 'planes are OK really, a bit crude and around 1:100, but not that bad.

The bag at the back contains the ship which is so brittle it's powdering in front of itself! It's also a very poor model and not worth putting together - even for a photograph. The scooter is closer to 54mm in scale/size.

Close-up of the astronaut in his capsule, he also mans a Wild West era fire-wagon! And the car on the sprue and with an Airfix 'Officer Type' to give an idea of the size - quick bit of paint, some dry-brushing and you've got yourself a staff-car!