S is for Ships at Sea, and Sky Surfers

The other half of the vehicular element of this year's Plastic Warrior plunder; only a few, it is - after all - a figure show, but I took loads of photographs of one of them, because it was such a cool find!

 

 

 

 

TN Thomas Toys boxed jem: Submarine Base with Rocket Battery! I was very pleased to find this, I think it was my first purchase of the day, along with the smaller bag of Hong Kong smallies, and while I soon worked out it's missing a launcher, a missile and all the torpedoes, they are things which I will be able to replace, possibly from 'the pile'?

 

I've found examples online, and I think I recognise the torpedoes from the ammo-stash, of interest is that the launchers and rockets are of finer, and sharper finish, than all the others we've looked at, notably here

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/05/s-is-for-spring-powered.html 

 

But we have looked at one or two others which came in, and I think one might be from this set, or just from Thomas? But it would suggest that the Thomas one is the granddaddy of all those from Jean, Kellogg's, Unimel and - obviously - the Hong Kong ones.

 

The missile will be the hardest thing to source, because it looks like they were paired white, charcoal and mid-grey (all marbled), so I'll not be happy if I don't find a dark one, but the tool ran, so they must be out there somewhere!

 

This came in one of the mixed bags, and I thought it might be from one of the Hong Kong bath-toy sets, but I suspect it's just a badly painted model-kit, possibly from one of the early Japanese makers, someone did two destroyers in a box around 1:1200 if I recall a corner of the hobby I didn't pay much attention to!

 

These are interesting, a lot of kit-figures came in at the show, for the 'combat' post, and they were mostly sub-scale, but none seem to match with these plastic-colour wise, so they remain a mystery, although they could be from a river-craft kit? If anyone can ID them, than would be cool, they are around 1:48th.

 

A few small-to-micro 'planes, the little metal one keeps turning up, and is probably a cracker prize, but might have been from a board-game, but possibly one with multiple aircraft? I think the small red one is from one of those aircraft-carrier toys with a flick-catapult, I think?

 

The transparent, but damaged plane is early, probably taken from those Lido/Pyro sets, but even it this state, is a 'place holder', while the delta-type (Dart II?), is the earlier, better version of one you can still find occasionally, I think I got one in that short-lived cake-decoration store in Fleet about ten years ago, and they are in the cheaper crackers, which are slowly disappearing now.

 

Which leaves the red, spacey lump, which is totally unknown to me, and bares no clues as to its origin, accessory from a larger play-set? Blind-bag thing? I haven't a clue! But there's plenty of that kind of thing in the collection!

 

Finally, we have two Hong Kong copies, a Gloster Javlin and Sea Vixen I think, and I suspect they were taken from early British plastic toys (the ones in the red, white and blue boxes, were they Mettoy?), a slight dink on the Javlin's tail-plane will be mendable with that two-part epoxy 'metal' you can get from Halfords (auto-parts place for our foreign readers), or even a scrap from the spares box, plenty of wing, tail and fin parts in there!

 

thanks to Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans or Trevor Rudkin, for everything here, except the Thomas set! 

F is for Further Follow-up - Micro Vessels

I'd forgotten I'd picked the bits up from the storage unit, to do a comparison, so here's a bit more on the small or 'micro' vessels we looked at a couple of days ago, and some more bits from the Internet downloads folder on naval stuff.

 

Both this and the previous should be viewed in the context of the original post on the very small vessels, which was part of a series of seven articles;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2012/03/s-is-for-ships-and-other-vessels-part-7.html

 

There were also some comparisons in the MPC series a few years later; 

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2015/05/mpc-is-for-mini-ships-part-two.html

 

Which was a two-parter, both series have become dated by the scope of the collection now, and one day I intend to re-do all seven of the first lot, in the same order, but as longer, fuller articles, in the meantime a few more points arising . . .

 

. . . including a colour fan of the Quaker samples which are here at the moment, I know the original sample with all ten mouldings, and other accrued duplicates is elsewhere, so a better version of this shot is in the Blog's future, and looking at these, I think there's some merit to my hypothesis re. Tom Smith?

 

Furthermore, I'd suggest that whoever made these ships, made the Gladiators, both are relatively common in small quantities (down to single samples in mixed 'junk' lots), more common than other cereal premiums, and while there are none here, the metallic green in the original post, is matched perfectly in the Gladiators, originally, also Quaker.

 

Nine of ten, by size, with a hole for the missing one!

 

The two Sanella superstructures I have here, there are at least three, and they have a common hull, sometimes found loose, sometimes found glued together, like that water-film novelty I got from Steve Vickers recently. However, I'd forgotten . . .

 

. . . the larger., better finished liner, also marked Sanella, which is almost certainly a later model? The Manurba seem to have three hull types, not the two mentioned the other day - my bad! Pointed, rounded and flat sterns, and maybe only three matching superstructures? Although, like the Sanella - lots of colours, albeit brighter/primary, as opposed to Sanella's more muted or pastel hues.

 

Recently, with the help of Chris Smith (pink, middle), and - I think - another purchase (red, front), I've picked-up three vessels with WWI/turn-of-the-19th-Century forward sloping prows (there was a silver warship, from Adrian Little, still in a separate bag!), and it turned-out I'd found them online some time ago (2020);

 

Apparently sold in waxed-paper bags of twelve vessels, there are possibly only four sculpts/mouldings; twin-barrelled warship, single-barrelled warship, merchantman/tanker and liner? But with three marking variations (prow - my red one, stern - this set, and none - silver warship), there really aught to be more in the collection than there are?

 

The fate of all this Hong Kong bottom-end/pocket-money stuff is that it was always unappreciated and mostly went to landfill decades ago. So, if you have any going spare, bring them to the Plastic Warrior show, this Saturday, and I'll give you real Earth money for them!!

 

Finally, found in 2021, and as an addendum to that part-7 link above, another game which contains a micro-navy, to add to the games in that post, is the Ariel Games one, Manoeuvre, also sold as Strategy, from 1973;

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8905/strategy-the-navy-game-for-all-the-family

 

Which is quite bloodthirsty, if you contemplate the number of troops you can have on a troopship! I'm sure there are more games with these micro vessels, and - of course - we've ID'd the slightly larger Silvercorn stuff, since those early posts.

E is for Eye Candy - Naval & Marines

This was shot back in November 2020, so five years ago, give or take the odd day and a leap-year! There's about the same again to be added to this, in the still being sorted pile, at the lip of the storage container, and we've added a couple of rack-toy assault-craft over that time, all seen here in various posts, I think, try 'Vessels' or 'Naval - Marines' in the tag list. But what can you spot?

 

Top left is all the larger 60mm'ish stuff from Marx, MPC, Auburn (polymer, not rubber) or Ideal (?) and so on, originals and re-issues, to their right is the Lone Star sample, with some PVC, Timpo-branded, Toyway reissues, while the more historically-uniformed Charbens are in the little bag.

 

In the box, top right, are the more modern (WWI/II'ish) Charbens with four of the ever more brittle Lone Star marines - fighting in No.1 Dress uniforms! I have added one or two I think, but they may be duplicates. Below them is a mixed tub of the smaller Marx and a few others; Reisler, hollow-cast &etc, which we saw in an early post on the subject. There's been a few hollow-cast additions too.

 

Sandwiched between those two tubs is a wooden, hand-carved, tourist chap, who we also saw here over a decade a go, but there are four, similar, and very interesting plastic versions about to hit the blog! To the left of the mixed tub is a newer one, since enlarged, but still not ready for the definitive post, with the Britains Naval gun, now 'guns', but not all versions yet, although we did have a look at them, in part, a while ago.

 

In the corner are the three Greek assault-boats, copied from Britains, which got a post, and then in the top-left quarter of the box, all the iconic novelty floating toys from Britains and Timpo. You can see the Greek crewmen under the US Assault craft . . . I've actually done an 'Assault River-Crossing', in a remarkably similar boat, but ours didn't have engines, so we had to fucking paddle, in the rain!

 

The final tub, outside the box, has all the European types, obvious are Cofalu/Cofalux swivel-heads and the Coma assault marines, but there's some other stuff, a couple of Atlantic, a Hong Kong or two, and, strangely, mu original Frog trio, who are RAF rocket-troops! They've since been moved, as the sample is up to about ten now!

 

You can add a largish sample of the Gem cadets, those Argentine rubber ones which came in a while ago, and more Atlantic, Lone Star and Reisler, along with some Starlux (not sure where they are?), but, there's actually quite a few to sort into this tub at some point, and more take-away tubs will be needed! Then there's all the ABC and other Hong Kong copies, from hollow-cast, taken from Britains, which we have looked at here, on more than one occasion, now.

E is for Eye-Candy - Gem Cadets

Adrian Little gave me these OBE's the other day, when I was passing, and I realised, looking for something else the other day, it's not a 'new feature', I started using E is for Eye Candy, a couple of years ago! Hay-ho, I'm a danger to myself sometimes!

 

Three of the Gemodels sea-cadet cake decorations, given heavy bases and painted in the 'Old Toy Solder' style of gloss paint or varnish, but without the pink cheek dots!

B is for Box-ticking Boy's Toys in Bottle Bags!

At the PW show, John Begg had a whole bunch of ex-shop, or out-painters stock (there were loose figures) from Charbens, and Colesmith Plastics (the moulds have a convoluted history which can be read in Plastic Warrior's Charbens Specialist Publication), to which I availed myself of what you might call a cross-sample, certainly not everything they produced, either figure or packaging wise, but a nice example for box-ticking their latter production, which I remember being in the shelves, when I was a kid.

 

Charbens own-branded packaging.

Unpainted Wild West.

 

A generic branding as 'Pic-a-Pack'.

Guards Band and Beefeaters. 

 

American civil war, an odd mix of plastic colours with the Union outnumbering the Confederates more than two-to-one, in both sets, with an apparently measured content count of one sky-blue figure, four dark blue, and two grey

 

More mixed ceremonials, here branded to Colesmith.

A Highland piper, and Lifeguards join the mix.

 

Mixed paratroopers (green bases) and Tommies (sand).

 

Comparison of the cards, I don't know why Colesmith got to brand some-up to themselves, maybe to pay off a debt, or just for a cheaper quote to Charbens? or did they inherit/hang-on to the moulds? I haven't got the Charbens Special to hand!

 

Note, also; the Artist's palette painting sign, used - rightly - on the unpainted Wild West set, but rather spurious on the pre-painted sets? I'm sure I remember the Colesmith sets in WHSmith around 1978/79?

 

"Jenny? What colour are Native Americans, really?"

 

"Dunno' love, try one of each!"

 

The 'Blues & Royals'.

 

Mixed, painted and unpainted.

Highlanders, Nelson, Lifeguard trumpeter and mounted cowboy.

 

Guards band in various treatments.

L is for Lots of London Loot - Jan. Through Feb. 1 of 2

There were several occasions in the first two months of the year which caused me to meet Peter Evans, in London or at shows, and obtain 'stuff'; quality stuff! Some of it may have already been seen, because - as I keep boring you with - it all got a bit mixed-up! The rest should be in the next two posts, then there's a show plunder, a Charity lot and some new stuff, and we should be up-to-date on the recent layers added to the stash?!!

 

If you've followed the Blog for some time, you'll know I like these little Japaneses civilian, rustic wagon subjects, and I have a fair few of the creamy-beige ones in celluloid now, but these are probably styrene, the horses and cowboy (complete with six-gun) are blow-moulds, while the main wagon body would seem to be a crude'ish, probably hand-pumped, injection moulding - lovely!

 

A handful of small-scale Marx or Marx-alike, being three of the Disneykin 'Babes in Toyaland' soldiers, I always get an urge to write Babes in the Wood (A British pantomime) there, I wonder if I've ever let any through here, in the past? Only the trumpeter is complete, but all useful spares. Three Wild West from the Miniature Masterpieces, a Stromboli from the Disneykins series 2, and two of the soft plastic editions from Euro-bubble-gum/ice cream premiums.

 

Three of the Hong Kong copies of Crescent's Mexicans, I have a fair few of these now, but most are in pretty leery colours, pink, purple or mauve plastic, this trio is - by comparison - quite conservative, in their plastic colours!

 

A handful of Hong Kong cows, I've probably got them all, but these will be swapped-in as the paint on all of them is about as good as it gets, and while I do have some clean stuff in the stash, most of the farm and zoo have come in, in tatty'ish or played-with mixed-lots, and are rarely this minty!

 

Back to Marx with a full set of the hard styrene, six-inch Romans, a bit of work needed on two and one's a duplicate, so I shot him with two Vikings also in the lot, we've seen both (Roman and Vikings) before here.

 

And while the vexillarius only needs a spot of glue (after the remnants of previous glueings has been chipped away), the spearman will need a new shaft to the same diameter, his hand drilled-out and a spearhead transplant!

 

Nice sample of Merit service-personal, from three sets, with the emphasis on the RAF, a hollow-cast sailor (Britains?), and a pair of rather well-painted, home-cast copies of the Gemodels cake decoration Naval Cadets.

 

Metal bits, the hollow-cast Lifeguard is a nice addition, as he will provide a side-by-side comparison with Timpo's later plastic version. The standing guardsman is unusual, I don't think he's one of the BR Moulds moulds, nor the usual ex-Schreiber home-casting subjects, but he's something similar; very toy-like?

 

Mounted might be Britains cheapo ('B'?) range, while the gold chap will be a penny-novelty, but they also came in sets, and the two semi-flat Highlanders would appear to have some age, like 1900-1930's maybe, and probably German in origin, but I'm no expert on this early lead stuff?

 

Ancients and medieval, including some sub-Giant stuff, a copy of the EKO copy of Airfix's first version 8th Army, along with a Britains Robin Hood clone, crying out for a repaint, and a modern novelty infant-toy!

 

A couple more for that sample we saw in a previous donation from Peter, both equally clean I think, the Indian may be a shunt from more than one donor, but as the base colour has leached into the foot, that pairing is right?

 

And a bunch of post-Giant small scale foot Westerners, these are the ones we've seen in blue in a carded set, with compartments Spacemen, Guards and Airfix WWII piracies, although I have them in other colours, they are mostly Britains Swoppet copies, with a Crescent Indian.

 

I love this pair, at first glance, more Hong Kong rack-toy 'zoo' animals, but in fact these are both either unique sculpts, or copies of less common originals, unknown to me? But neither of them is marked, so they may BE that esoteric minor-make, unknown to me?

 

They only 'look' Hong Kong, and at some point in the past appear to have been given a wash of water-based, pale-suede/sand, over the factory paint (not the mane), which has subsequently been removed or worn-off, making identification even harder? But they are lovely figures, especially the rather playful cub, swatting a butterfly or something!

 

This is also tangibly interesting, it's clearly not that old (30-odd years at most), being marked China, but it's a nice sculpt, well-formed in that dense PVC, favoured by some makers in the 1960/70's, which I mentioned the other day, and it has a makers mark - WS, with CE mark? There's a 'Wigglytuff'pencil-top on evilBay with the same mark, so this maybe a Pokémon, not a Pterosaur?

 

Nice Dalmatian (Schleich), reasonable Giraffe (AAA), both modern, both soft PVC-substitutes and a Kinder (I think) trash-panda, in a hard 'propylene or similar, who shakes his head when you wiggle his tail!

 

Space, the Giant sub-copies I call version II, and an interestingly poor sample of them, clearly late production they are heat-shrunk dwarves, some in a adarker than normal gun-metal finish, some in a brighter chrome-effect.

 

Vehicular elements, including a Kleeware GS-body 1-ton Humber truck, a sea-vixen from Airfix's Ark Royal, who will join the ones we saw the other day from Chris, with the storage sample, and we’ll do something with them one day, before they move on. The bigger gun is a common touristy thing, removed (like most) from a key-ring, while the smaller is a war-gamer's whitemetal ship's gun.

 

More bits from those micro-wagon kits, again we've seen some others recently here, and they will all go together until I have enough bits to complete one or two, as always it's the little axle-studs which are missing! A Lego motorcycle, from the early years of the 'Legoland' line, and a Wardie/Mastermodels baggage trolley.

 

Wargaming stuff, in various scales, there was a heap of this in a big bag, which was a separate purchase from the executor of Mike's estate, and which hasn't been photographed as it requires a big sort-out, but these are a few bits someone like reader Gisby might enjoy peering at?

 

I think it's mostly Minifigs, (Miniature Figurines) and the latter, not terribly 'collectable' ones, but still worth the box-ticking, some Shogun-era Japanese, verses various ancients and a few 10/15mm chaps, and bits of a siege engine for the spares box!

 

These are a bit smarter I think, possibly Hinton Hunt or Alberken (?) on the left, in the upper shot, two more modern chaps on the right (Platoon 20?), and all HH or early Minifigs (ACW) in the lower shot, but I'm open to info' on all of them.

 

Many thanks to Peter again, and a thought for the Late Mikael Hyde, from whom some of the above probably wended its way to me and the Blog. Lots more equally interesting stuff to come, in part two of this lot!