U is for Unknown Salesman's Samples

A bit of a find here, and not mine, Adrian found them, and thinking I'd like them, saved them for the blog, and posterity! There's no clue as to their origins, and the message on the slips of paper pasted into the inner edge of the boxes (suggesting they were placed rather as the shots below, upright in a cabinet of some kind), which reads "Specimen contents as used if boxed to retail at 5/6d" [five shillings and six pence].

 

The mix of metal and plastic novelty 'prizes' places this very much in the 1950's, as do, strangely, the hats, rather squidged into one of the boxes, which are about three times the size of the hats I've known all my life, but which I remember from old TV shows (think 'Love thy neighbour,' Hancock, the soaps), where people often had the taller ones? Hard to unfold now, but they all have crude 'jewels' made from silver-foil, diamond (parallelogram) offcuts glued to them, which I also remember.

 

Both boxes have similar contents, indeed, very similar to the Old World Series we looked at years ago, with wooden whistles, steel wire-puzzles, paper logic puzzles and the novelties, which include stand-alone flats, broach-badges, the inevitable thimble (Christmas was almost a disappointment, if somebody didn't get an impractical, plastic thimble!), and rings. Many thanks to Adrian for grabbing these.

A is for And This is Why Putin Can Go Fuck Himself . . .

. . . up his perverted little hole, preferably after shoving some Bwreakshiteers and Neocons up there first.

We're better than we think we are, we're better than we know we are, but we need to make more effort, every day, especially in England.

C is for a Cat and a Canary!

Recent purchase from I can't remember where, eBay maybe, or some stuff I got off a mate a while back (lovely parcel from Brian today, and another from Jon last week!), but it's a very early piece of plastic, a novelty whistle from Combex.

Described by The Toy House over the Pond as a flute (inset image, bottom right), it's more of a swannee-whistle, with the canary (stuck in the cat's tummy with a hot wire) sitting over the vent, producing a trilling over the whistle, itself varying in pitch as you push/pull the piston.

The cat appears to have Godzilla's tail!

A is for And a Good Time Was Had by All!

Well, the Umpty-somethingth Non- inaugural, All-singing, All-dancing Plastic Warrior Magazine's Toy Soldier Show has been and went, hasn't it! I'm too knackered for a proper post, so here's a quickie from the Seen Elsewhere folder, actually stuff I found at a Sandown Park show a while ago!

These are chalkware and from Japan, probably 1950's, so pretty-well proper antiques now! Trousers are a bit too blue, and the band is brass-heavy, so good for promoting Hovis! No brand/brandmark.

It really was a good day today apart from the Rugby which cost me a coffee, but that's my fault for being too honest, had I pretended to be a Rugby fan I would have got the coffees! Kudos to the team for organising it.

 

I have to push off and do a few bits now, but I'll try and post something similar later, there's a folder full of this stuff which needs emptying!

A is for Armed Insurgency!

I managed to shoot these Safari figures twice, as two posts! Anyway I've combined them both for a well illustrated overview of 12 figures! Safari's AWI sets, which will have their proper day in the sun in four years time I guess - if we're all still here!

Larger than some of their other stuff, these come six to a toob and while I looked out for some affordable ones, they tend not to be cheap . . . I still haven't got the combat/GI set because it only ever seems to be far more than it's worth, which is often twice the other sets?

The Brit's, had the moral high-ground, but a mad king! And by losing to the terrorists don't get the blame for the subsequent genocides of 9-12-million locals. The real fault with these is that you only actually get two riflemen, everyone else is what war-gamers would call the 'command' element!

Yeah . . . the tax avoiding, tax evading, tea-wasting French-fry lovers, and it's not as if we were wanting to tax their efforts, they mostly had slaves to do the hard work! A fife instead of a bugle, and someone looking like that chap on the left, on Mount Rushmore? Need's a hair-cut - that's the trouble with colonists, they forget their manners and go rogue!

The flag with the British bearer is correct for the period depicted, Ireland's red cross being yet to be incorporated, but it's incorrect on the toob-artwork, which shows the post-1800 Union flag! The white diagonals on the figure's flag could be a tad wider though.

Some of the figures come with little blister-type plastic wraps to try and hold them in the correct posture, but to be honest it doesn't work, neither do the small pods on some of the feet in lieu of proper bases.

Anyone who's seen Scumbag College's appearance on University Challenge will know why I put our boys on top! Nothing in this post is racist, indeed all it's obviously in jest (except for the genocide . . . and slaves), but if some of the PSTSM get excited . . . good!

C is for Call Answered

Chris Smith eMailed me a week or two ago a with a link to an eBay lot which I bought there and then, even before thanking him . . . it answered a question posed here a couple of times I think; the 'like late / Toyway-Timpo' highlanders, and revealed new poses!

Credited to a Scottish International Gift, Scotland and clearly a touristy gift-item, it's a pretty standard window-box with a tombstone-card at the back that could be pierced for wire-hook peg-board hanging, but something which isn't done in the factory. A potted history of the bagpipes is provided on the rear of the extended card, along with a code NO. 6000, which as a round number is almost certainly a stand-alone, with no similar items in the (or 'a') line?

I can't remember which new pose/s we encountered last time we looked at them here; was it the bass drummer or the pipe/band major? No matter, you get one of each, with two-each of the commoner side-drummers and pipers, which - of course - is why they are commoner, or turn-up more often, loose!

I took them out on one of those warm days a while ago and marched them round the empty bird-bath past the weeping cherry!

The next day - I should add that paint and material wise they are very similar to both the late Timpo/Toyway factory-painted Highlanders and the Hong Kong Salvation Army band set, only the bases being the obvious visual difference, this is not to say there is any connection, painted PVC was big in the late 1970's through the bulk of the 1980's.

"You told me I couldn't eat them
so I'm not even going to see them!"

Many thanks to Chris for spotting these and facilitating my sharing them with the rest of you! Funny thing is I think I recognise the box, so JB probably had a set when I was helping him, and if I'd paid more attention to large-scale when I was a small scale collector I would have had the answer all along!

The next day - I may of course be confusing the box with the painted sets of Ecsi 1:35th scale figures which I think were issued under the A-Toys branding, I also think they were in silver/grey boxes?

T is for Toot-Toot!

Back to novelty-corner for a prime piece of post-war, plastic play-thing! It's the ultimate blow-job ". . . just put your lips together and. . ."

Kleeware novelty whistle, I suspect it is actually from a US design, a lot of Commonwealth's novelties had a 2nd life over here, and the locomotive while possibly needing to be that long for the purpose of getting the note out (doubtful; there are whistles in all sizes) is more of a US type 'iron horse' with the cow-catcher (they didn't catch them, they momentarily eviscerated them and exploded them out of the way!) and the enclosed engine-driver's cab?

A 0-6-4 is an odd configuration too, but it is primarily a novelty whistle! I love this stuff; it's ephemeral but it survives! The blue one is a stable polystyrene, but the green one (presumably an earlier batch) is a less stable phenolic resin or celluloid-type plastic.

P is for Plastic Popsters

A bit of a swizz, as we've seen these before here at SSW, but I had them out and shot them so we might as well have a brief reprise!

Above; we have a variation of colours, the final guitarist is more orangey than the camera's flash would allow, I think I've seen yellow sets (they tended to be sold in sets of the same colour), but never  ared set, which, as I've suggested before, is probably due to the fact that the drum-kits are always red plastic.

Below; a bit of paint variation within a single plastic-colour's palette.

The aforementioned Drum-kits; I gave him a 'proper' set, so he can knock-out a rolling solo while the rest of the band pop-off the stage for a top-up of Charlie!

The kit is well made, and clever, but machined not hand-sculpted, like the later skis we looked at a day or two ago, and consists of a hollow bass, two side-drums and a single cymbal on a spike. The skins - suspended over both ends of the hollow 'tube' - are just blank, self-adhesive, paper price-labels!

A complete band, but with colours from three 'sets' . . . Let's Rock!!

With our frilly, crooner's shirt! Hee-hee!

F is for Flocking Flocked the Hell Out of 'Em!

Picked these-up the other day, charity shop, 30p, couple of Santa Claus cake decorations or snow-globe figures converted/re-purposed into novelty earrings, I may remove the rings and stick them with the other Santa's or chuck them in the minor-makes boxes under C for Clair's.

The odd thing about them is that they have been flocked, but the flocking material is a semi-transparent (or originally; totally transparent) filament, which has been applied over the painted decoration, giving them a overall whitish 'halo' and making them look old and faded, even when brand new!

And to misquote a Christmas Dawn French; they're not Claire's, They're mine!

I added this just 'cos it was hangin' around! 50p from a charity shop in Basingrad, I was regretting buying it as she racked it up; in the glare of the spot-light over the till it looked a lot rougher than it did in a basket of baubles in a dark corner of the store!

But it cleaned-up OK, and I've since threaded it with a silver-flecked, fabric loop and it looks fine, it's a naff, polypropylene thing and it's still not brilliant, but the stricture is lowered for the themes, and with both bears and drums being themes on the tree, it manages to tick two boxes!

I've also removed the CHINA sticker, which bears a more than passing resemblance to those old Hong Kong stickers on HCF (and other touristy) imports, which may be a clue as to origin (but doesn't help without a name) or just a habit several manufacturers - or a shipper handling several manufacturers - adopted for novelty stuff?

B is for Bookiewook!

Or is it Booky Wook? Cheers; whatsyername-vote/don't-vote-labor-pop-star-bloke! I had nothing loaded for today, so a quick chuck it up here with a look at some recent additions to the library, some new (or newish!) some old, and while not that useful for the day to day stuff; all helpful titles none the less.

The Britain's Toy Car Wars book is a pleasant look at our die-cast toy car production, from the early years of the 1940's to the cataclysmic 1980's and the brand-moves to Hong Kong owners. It's an episodic history, the author (Giles Chapman) jumping between potted histories of the separate companies, comparison pieces, general stuff and drier fiscal reports.

I suspect it's a stitching together of magazine articles (Die Cast Collector perhaps?), so it's not that useful for looking up specific things in a hurry, but it is a lovely book to dip into, or read front-to-back as a 'read' if you know what I mean. Currently 3-5 quid in discount book sellers including The Works.

Making Victorian Dolls' House Furniture by Patricia King was a library sell-off for a pound, It's got lots of good ideas for modelling with household goods, found objects and chuck-outs, many of which will carry across to military modelling, especially dioramas.

The Steiff book is lovely, a Christmas present so I don't know what it cost, but it's brand new although marked 2003, so probably another remaindered title worth keeping an eye out for, but it seems to be the last word on the subject, profusely illustrated; apparently with direct access to the Stiff family archives, it also has tons of data tables, anecdotes, historical details and Bears, lots of Bears!

It also has much on the origins of the phrase/moniker 'Teddy Bear', writer Günther Pfeiffer putting a lot of old myths to bed whilst confirming others with first-hand witness accounts of what actually happened, when, why and to/by whom!

Toy Instruments, penned by Eric Schneider is well off the beaten track, but actually contains a lot of very useful stuff from a wing of the hobby I knew nothing about. It's a slightly misleading title as it really only deals with battery or mains-powered electronic instruments, so all those early plastic guitars and drum-kits are missing as are the plethora of whistles, pan-pipes, novelty horns and party blowers!

But the information on Japanese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong companies is much needed while similar products in different packages help ID some contract-manufacturers and/or their customers! A clearance-buy for a couple of quid.

Brick Wonders (another discounted book) is the second volume from Warren Elsmore, and to be honest, the first (Brick City; also discounted a couple of years ago - once you hit the profit target you just shift the 'remainder' to a wholesale warehouse!) was better, this is rather an exercise in dead-horse beating, but there's such a market for Lego titles; if you can . . .do! And some of the ideas are clever, especially the very little ones; using a few small bricks to make something instantly recognisable - the little camel is superb!

The other two are even more left field, but I always get Shire titles if they look vaguely useful and when they get to look like these they can be as little as 30/50p in old bookshops, this pair both came from the shop in Alton.

RC Bell's Dice and Dominos is more about the history of and rules for the various games, but one can always learn something . . . the dots on dominos are called 'pips'! Ships' Figureheads by MK Stammers was purchased because the subjects are figural - of course!

I is for Indian . . . with the Horn

I got the Horn . . . fnarr-fanarr - as Finbar Saunders would be bound to say at this point, another sub-collection seems to be forming, by accident as these things do!

I'm guessing there must be a Cowboy version somewhere, with a cowboy card, but I keep finding Indians . . . Indians from the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong!

Comparison with the ones we looked at in the December novelty-fest, or actually I think it was a couple of weeks before the rest? The large one is a reed-blower rather than the simple whistles of the small ones.

Different pose, it is the wonder of how many are out there, that will drive this sub-collection, curiosity; the force behind collectors . . .

. . . if you had a family the size of the Von Trapps, you could build an orchestra . . . it would be an excruciatingly painful orchestra, but still, it takes all sorts to make a world!

L is for Loose Ends

This was loaded two days ago and I meant to publish it yesterday, but Vodafone (the princes of digital-darkness) had other ideas and an Internet Interregnum imposed itself on me for 24 hours...I swear Vodafone couldn't organise themselves out of an old paper bag with a sharpened, flaming, sledgehammer! But they'd still charge you!

The thing about this stuff we've been looking at for the last three weeks or so is that it's universal and never-ending. I popped round Mr. Morehead's yesterday (bit of in-hobby name dropping never hurt!) to pick-up the Hilco special which is available agian after selling-out at the show back in May, and he gave me a bag of bits with some flat charms (same source, three sets) I could add here, or use as a follow-up and that was just after I'd picked up a rubber alien catapult (you can't make it up when novelty shite's involved!) a few minutes earlier for a pound at a charity shop. It just never stops.

But there will be plenty of time to return to Aliens, flats, charms and etcetera! We haven't looked at the mass of Little Rubber guys who come in Gum Ball machines, larger animals, Ninja's, sea creatures, we've looked at some of what's out there, and rather than follow-ups, we'll look at the few bits I've got ready here and call it a day on these for now.

Musical instruments that don't play, one blow-moulded the other styrene, a mini whoopee-cushion, lucky horse-shoes (useful if GI Joe/Action Man is thinking of retraining as a blacksmith!), another chess piece, again - appearing without any of the other pieces - needed to make a game - having ever turning up!

Mirror, yo-yos, another rattle, soft plastic version of the metal wire-puzzles and soft plastic scissors! A magnet...another 'theme' we've not covered in these 50-odd posts, but we've looked at them elsewhere on the blog in the past.

The Quantas suitcase is interesting as presumably it was a re-packed rack-toy of dolls stuff re-branded to Quantas, given to kids to amuse them on long flights? Without the sticker it's just a cheap novelty suitcase, with the sticker it's a branded premium/giveaway!

More plastic tat, more rattles, another lenticular; this time just a very small picture - it's neither a badge nor a charm. A Britains flower-pot: plagurised, a polyethylene bat/gargoyle ring, more charms...The woodpecker toy, which normally comes as a finished toy with a stand and wooden pole was a gum-ball givaway..without instuctions or a  pole, but is made to fit a pencil!

A tourist item, really outside the scope of these articles, but it was in the big lot and is a source of a plastic figure that - without it's die-cast mazak base - is just another piece of plastic kak. It must be quite common as it's the second one into the collection now, which is useful as I always hoped to get a second, so I could remove the figure and use it in some Ray Harryhausen type setting with some Greek Hoplites or a skeleton warrior? Statue of Liberty.

[Later the same day - Andrew Boyce suggested it might be from the Triang-Minic waterline ship range, and it is, so it doesn't really belong in these posts at all! But it's the second one I've seen displayed or sold as an ornament, so that's clearly it's fate...to be unrecognised as a toy, and written-off as a keepsake! I does however mean it's quite common and track-downable!]

Award cups...again we haven't looked at the various 'collectable' sets you could get, [American] football helmets, miniature baseball pennants and the like, I'm sure these come with lots of messages (here; 'golfer' and 'father'), and similar objets existed, but that'll do for tat, shite, caca for a while!

Well...for a day or two! I picked-up some nice figures in the 99p store the other day coming to a blog not a million miles from here in the next few days! Also got some contributions to come, some news, some follow-ups, a PW review, still got those bloody French articles in 'edit' and still got thousands of shots in Picasa, which I seem to add to quicker than I clear! And my 8-gig 'unknown' dongle has red-lined as I file these novelty images, so I need a 16-gig before I can clear the desk-top!

I had plans for a premium article with contributions for tomorrow, but Vodafone's upset the plan (like I ever have a 'plan'!), so we'll see, if I have a day or two off: may I extend my wishes for you to have a happy Christmas and thanks for watching! Now I'm a TV announcer!

You want more? Here's more!

I is for Instruments

So, it's the 7th birthday of the blog today, not something I've celebrated before, but I happened to notice the fact last night, and as it's the party season and we're looking at plastic novelties for a while; let's make some noise!

Kazoos (one marked Hohner so probably not that cheap a toy!), Pan-pipes, Harmonicas, Horns and Trumpets, Swanee & Penny Whistles, Football Rattles....who didn't have one of these at least once in their childhood and drive some grown-ups to distraction with it? That's nostalgia, right there...plastic shite!

More - smaller - whistles and a tiny harmonica (top right: blue and yellow), one has a windmill attached for extra 'play' value, while another highlights one of the problems with classifying/categorising this stuff, is it a whistle first or a key-ring? As the charm loop fitted to several can be for a 'charm' or a key-ring, it's a moot point, but this crossover is a feature of a lot of these cheepie toys, not forgetting - does it go with the instruments, or the unknown Wild West? Or, if you collect enough of this shite...does it go with the horns or the Indians!