L is for Last May's Lots of Lovely Loot - Vehicles

Before I can get on to the very late Plastic Warrior show reports, I need to get the previous, and even later, Sandown Park's loot out of the way, which was purloined a few weeks before the PW show, so let's get them out of the way sharpish! Although I don't think you can say sharpish, when the posts are three months overdue!

 

A small Gescha/Gama style tin-plate tank, bearing more resemblance to some early post-war APC's, with a small turret, and high superstructure. I can't remember if it had branding, or if someone gave me a brand? Space Tank!

 

Two mystery (when I saw them) die-cast military vehicles. a nice inter-war armoured car, actually Charbens, it is die-cast alloy, but has lead wheels, and a British tanker-truck, which was marked Britain or England I think, the trouble with doing these posts so long after the event, is you forget stuff! But while in the style of Dinky, it's not, and is probably a re-painted Benbros Esso tanker - note the red on the paint-chips! Interestingly, a re-issue of an old Timpo mould.

 

Vintage Tootsie-Toys AFV's, one marked the other anonymous (can't remember which was/is which), I think the lorry may be pre-war (1930's), while the Armoured-car might be just post-war? But that's going on the wheels/tyres (or 'tires', they're American after all!), which could, just as easily, be replacements? You won't believe the trouble I had, getting the two MG's to look right, they are suspended, free-floating or hanging, between small bumps in the moulding, and loose with age, and were a bugger to get right!

 

Another Charbens, this all die-cast, wheels and body, and darker green than some I've seen, and while not the most accurate version of Humber out there, it's a darn-sight better than the plastic one they did later!

 

Two more French 'readymades', one each Noreda (front, Jeep-like) and Injectaplastic (behind, DKW with Jeep trailer), we've seen them both before, but they were clean, and cheap, so I took them home with me!

Banner 'row-crop' tractor in military green, possibly depicting an Oliver tractor (US Readers?), and two copies, the copies are slightly smaller all-round, and have a few detail differences, unmarked, I hope they are in Bill Hanlon's book!

 

Again, newish to me, similar to some Archer space cars from the 'States, I was told these were actually British so Kleeware or Tudor Rose, but the larger one is a Marx future car, the smaller however is a Pyro/Kleeware moulding, so could the Marx also be a mould-swap with Kleeware?

 

Two teeny-tiny battleships, probably from a late-Edwardian board game, and a larger lead yacht, which could also be a board-game piece, or a smaller component of something more decorative? It's covered in what appears to be black paint, but which could just be severe oxidation?

 

Because they came with a T4, these two reprobates have got themselves into the vehicle post! In the style of MUSCLE or Kinnukiman, these two Thunderbirds Keshi are new to the collection, along with the little Thunderbird Four.

 

A damaged Manurba coach and spare helmet crest for a Lone Star knight are snuck in at the end, just to get them off the laptop!

L is for Lots of London Loot - Sandown February - Vehicles

Two of the best pieces, which covered both vehicles and figures went straight to 1970 in Picasa and won't be seen until September, if I remember, but, if you've worked it out, they'll be well worth the wait! In the meantime, after a couple of quirt Sandown's in the second half of last year, I actually picked-up quite a bit the other week, and there were a fair few vehicles, several from Adrian, so many thanks to him as I got them cheap as chips!

 

This was the first thing I bought, from Alkwyn I think (?), during the 'car-boot' phase out on the terraces while everyone waits for the doors to open! What I loved about it, it's otherwise a pretty standard road-roller from Triang 'Minic', is the fact that it's a crossover piece with tin-plate body and plastic wheels, that the smaller details are turned-brass is just the icing on the cake!

 

A small sample of Hong Kong cars, unusual for being brittle polystyrene, less common for having metal axles, and, the more observant among you may have noticed, the same as four Chris Smith donated a while back; same colours but some different mouldings - an MG-type roadster and a drop-gate estate/station-wagon.

 

If I already have a few in the main collection, the three lots (or two - if I don't) make a better sample, and that's why I love this stuff - there's so much out there, finding it all takes an eon, and we don't get an eon, we only get an age - four-score-and-ten if we're lucky!

 

More conventional US-originating dime-store stuff, with one of 'those' cars (Banner version I think), at the back, and a similarly coloured one in the foreground which may be from another source/set (blocked-in windows), all have the simple moulded-on wheels.

 

I've had a knackered example of this in the stash for a while now, no trailer (which I didn't know about), missing the gun and steering wheel, possibly windscreenless too, so, it's nice to get a decent one, even if the box is a bit shot! Generic, or, if the HK in the shooting star is a brand-mark, related to all that ABC/CMV/HK piracy of Britains stuff we've looked at a few times here, over the years?

 

The trailer is pretty fictional, I don't know if it is based on any post-war camping/outdoors press-release, but google suggests they never actually got made/sold (too many ex-military trailers if you needed one, and fully-covered camper-trailer designs, for those who wanted to stay dry and relatively bear-free!), but one of the dimestore makers did one, and various rivals copied it, until Hong Kong picked up the design too!

 

Two Kellogg's Frosties Land-Speed record attempt cars, it was all the rage when I was a kid, I'm not sure Rochard Nobel/Andy Green's attempts have garnered the same place in public discourse, but it's a different age now, then it was all boys-own-annuals and cigarette cards, now it's the whole known universe on a hand-held device?

 

More here - they are all 'Campbell' cars!

The yellow one is more of a generic pocket-money job, probably German or French, or a Hong Kong copy of the same?

 

This is a step-up, in the world of dimestore vehicular modelling, he says in that faux-poshness he employs occasionally! Not marked, so, again, I hope it's in Hanlon's book, or somebody recognises it, the driver (not brilliantly shot) is a bit Pyro-like, but they didn't tend to this level of detail with the opening doors and boot? You feel Dick Tracy chased this down a canyon while someone shot at him, out of the back window!

 

Treats and treasures! The broken plane is a copy of the German premium/promotional we've seen before, so just for 'sample', while the red racer also seems to be a copy, of the yellow Rosedale we saw a few years ago, but this one is unmarked.

 

Behind them, two real veteran survivors, a carded Kleeware locomotive whisle, and what I've been told is a Poplar Plastic's novelty performing clown, but I'm not sure on the mark, and it may be a long-forgotten smaller maker? All four are polystyrene.

 

While this is definitely Poplar, it says so! Needs a good clean, what is it with ships, those MPC Minis from the James Chase collection had the same black smuts? Some sort of marine-subject only, polymer-loving mould! Bathrooms?

 

The red White's Scout Car seems to be an unmarked variant of the Gilmark, so possibly Bell? We saw a silver one in the Bell/Banner/Merit-related boxed set, along with a similarly red armoured car. So a mould-swap rather than a copy I feel, and it's on another Pyro-like piece, a fire appliance, missing its ladders?

 

The Silver Morris-nosed van is unmarked, as is the sports car, but while the van is hollow, the car has a matching maroon baseplate with engine/drive-train/axle details etched into it, I think it could be British, but I don't know?

 

Noreda; I think I have both vehicles already, but this was a new (to me) packaging, so in the stash it goes, in order that the A-Z will be that bit more complete when I get round to it! I need some thin (ship-in-a-bottle or crochet?) tools to hook the bucket back on to the lower arm!

 

The second carded item was this Raphael Lippkin train in the Pippin line, a bit of fun, and early'ish plastic, I think it's wheels would fit the plastic Playcraft infant train sets based on Brio, and later copied in Hong Kong.

 

The card will need to be straightened, at some point, and I think the gentlest way to do so, will be with a wood-frame and clamps, overnight, or for a few days?

F is for Follow-up - Noreda and Injectaplastic

I mentioned in a comment the other day that I try to avoid 'khaki' subjects in December, and that's true, especially the more war'y stuff, but the odd bit gets through, and these ready-made AFV's are a perennial favourite of mine, with two purchases in recent months, both European brands.

 

I think this is the Injectaplastic Jeep, with a gun that's new to the collection, the owner has added waterslide transfers which some of you may recognise from plastic kits (Airfix and Esci - I think?), and which completes the line-up with their Munga and Kubelwagen, both seen here passim. It's darker green than my existing sample of these, though.

This was in the same purchase and is the Noreda one, which I seem to already have, but the trouble with show-purchases is that you are pressed for time, and have to make split-decisions on whether or not to buy something, based on what you can remember having, what you think you may have, and/or what you've seen and/or posted from elsewhere!

A comparison shot with the Triang Minic tin-plate in clean state, but missing it's key, hopefully I'll have one in the spare key zone! All a similar kid's handful size, and two of them needing a comparison shot on the Airfix Jeep page!

 

Also with the two jeeps and gun, came this truck with yet another take on that 1950/60's staple, the twin AA 'pom-pom' gun, now euphemistically referred to as a 'technical'! Again this seems to be Injectaplastic, from the wheels, and is new to the existing sample, but needs paint-removal, before I take better shots.

 

Then I picked these up last Saturday, from Tony Herrington, long time 'plastic warrior' who was stalled-out at the London Toy Solder Show, these are the Noreda truck we've seen before with canvas tilt and GS trailer, but now, also, as a tanker version, with tanker trailer and an additional 'goulash cannon' field kitchen.

 

The kitchen, while simplified for production in one shot as a pocket-money toy, follows the basic design very well, we had similar trailers on field exercises in the 1980's, four hot-plate/bain-maries over an oven and grill with the chimney long-enough to take the gas fumes (wood smoke or burnt oil in earlier times) away from the faces of the troops operating the equipment, or queuing-up for 'range-stew' - baked-beans, tinned potatoes and tinned mixed-vegetables cubed, with cheap sausages, diced in a thick gravy!

R is for Renwal . . . or not?

Further to the earlier post, and in part an answer to Andy B's comment on that earlier post, I already had one of the tanks Brian sent, but mine was marked Renwall and is silver and green. Brief research (a google images results page!) reveals that they come in reversed colours as well - green body/silver turret &ect . . . missile, gun, whatever. A rule which breaks-down on the single mouldings, as seen on Ed's Blog with the Army Ambulance, where you get one or the other!

 

Brian's donation on the left and my sample on the right, it's possible they are trying to depict the M103, a heavy tank designed to face-up the JS/T10 series of Soviet biggies during the early Cold War, which, unlike the Stalin's or Britain's Conqueror (that all looked 'heavy'), was more of a scale-up on the M46/7/8 series, and looks quite normal in some photo's?

You can see clearly, that where mine is marked 'Renwal' the new addition has a clear remnant of mechanical scrubbing on the tool to remove the maker's mark. I think Plasticraft bought some Renwal tooling, could the all-green (more realistic) one be a Plasticraft issue? It's also a different shade of green, but I've seen other colours/shades so that proves nothing!

Another silver/green marked Renwall combo', they all have other markings including a title block, normally on an upper (normally visible) surface, and a stock-code/tool-number, along with the branding, usually underneath.

 

And another, this being a sort of giant Sparrow Missile, doing service as a Nike/Ajax anti-Nuke' SAM. Sadly, it's not a working "You'll 'ave yer' eye out..." toy, but a useful item for space bases and the like.

 

Comparison with the Norada we saw the other day (back), possibly also trying to be an M103? The Airfix 'Pershing' (front, nominally an M26?) and a diminutive, carded Marx cap-firing die-cast to the right!

N is for Not So Free French Forces!

I allowed myself a couple of small purchases on evilBay after all the maths was done last month, and this was one of those buys, I felt a bit guilty as the underbidder had been winning for days, when I spotted the lot went slightly over with my bid, and won it, but to be fair, or honest, he dodged a bullet . . . 

 . . . as they arrived stuffed in a tube with a bit of packing rammed-in at one end, and in more pieces than I had bid on! Now, I haven't negatively fed-back, there's no point, the chap (or chapess)'s other listing revealed they didn't know what they had, its relative age or likelihood of damage, equally, neutral feedback wouldn't be fair either, so no feedback means if they ever ask, I can try and explain politely, I leave the lecturing to less salubrious characters! "Wel done on ebay “corrector” " chimes-in the lick-spittle phuq-monkey!

 

Anyway, a bit of superglue (the front bumper on this was hanging-together) got them presentable enough for this post, and now I know they exist I'll look out for better ones. They are - of course - if you recognised the truck in the previous post, the Noreda 'readymades' from France, already an eclectic mix last time we looked at them, although not as eclectic as the Injectaplastic set.

Actually quite a nice M3 half-track for a simple pocket-money toy, possibly a little bigger than the Blue Box one, and it's soft-plastic clones, but certainly a further source of them and ten-times more accurate than Marx's effort!

 

This is interesting, as there was already a jeep in the line, we've looked at it here already, while this is part Dodge 'Beep' and part Willy's Jeep, longer than the real jeep I think it is the Dodge 'weapons carrier' that is being attempted.

 

Seems to be missing a pintle-mounted MG behind the seats, and while the other holes could be for passengers, so far I've only found the strips of four, and they are two long, and would need another hole at the other end? The figures in this post are two strips of four who have been separated.

This is also interesting, as I think what we have here is an attempt at a Conqueror, the heavy tank designed to face-off against JS III's, and it would make it the fifth ready-to-run Conqueror after the Lipkin, Lucky, Rocco and Triang ones. Albeit, this one having certain elements of Centurion - as the real Conqueror did - and even, in the turret (and probably more accidental), shades of early M60's.

Before and after cleaning!

And then it gets even better, with a slightly crude King Tiger II! Added to the Atlantic and Airfix Tiger I's and Airfix's Elephant/Ferdinand, and that family is wrapped up, as far as wargaming readymade's goes, not to forget the Tiger I and Stürmtiger which some Chinese rack-toy maker gave us in the last few years . . . it's all on the Blog, just got to use those Tags!

They were filthy, this was a cursory cleaning of the Tiger II, and I wondered if one of the factors in brittleness of polyethylene might be connected to cigarette- or other-smoke deposits? It's worth the museum curators looking into, as there may be a chemical process happening at the surface of the polymer which causes, or triggers the leaching of the free-radicals?

U is for Update - Airfix Jeep Page

I've added the Noreda Jeep to the Airfix page on the subject . . .

. . . but no need to rush off to it now on the above link, the info' was all in the posts earleir today, but for future reference, it's there now! I will also be doing some Manurba comparison and other (Jean?) Jeep shots for that page in the next few days.

To finish this 'readymade' day, I posted this in a Faceplant group the other day, where it will drop off the radar as everything does there! So sticking it here to get it tagged properly, the over-text is self explanatory, and we looked at them all earlier in the day.

GS is for General Service . . . -Truck, -Wagon, -Lorry

As I've had them all out for the larger articles on Jean and Noreda, I re-shot the Manurba wagons and Airfix 'Duce-', the Airfix post is still in edit, but here's the Manurba comparisons

The Manurba wagon, as stated this morning is a reasonable rendition of the Magirus-Deutz 'Jupiter' 6x6 truck which was the staple truck when I was visiting Germany in the late 70's, by the time I was back there as a serviceman myself in the mid-80's they had mostly been replaced by newer cab-over-engin (COE) designs from MAN in 4x4, 6x6 and 8x8. It also has the lines of the M35 Duce-and-a-half from the US arsenal.

Here we see an earlier toy one in a deep olive-green with grey wheels, and a later issue in a drabber green, with black wheels and wearing a German cross on the bonnet. It is this version which seems to have been sold in the UK as/under the Tallon branding.

Looking at the contemporary rivals alphabetically; we start with Airfix, nominally 'HO/OO' both scale to an approximate 1:76th-1:72nd and are useful additions to an 'old school war-games army, the Airfix being a WWII era type - I'm never sure how you tell a GMC CCKW from a Chevy' from an International or a Studebaker/REO? Except the true REO's seem to have a very different mudguard!

The Airfix model seeming to have GMC/Chevrolet open-cab and mudguards, but the Studebaker's slightly more pointed bonnet/hood and shallower bed, but a lot of it's down to camera-angle and point of view I think - they were all to a common DoD design and meant to be as compatible as possible in workshops?

Both the Jean (here) and Noreda are slightly larger models (I've tagged them 1:64th as well as the other sizes, in all three posts - the US 'HO' slot-racing 'size'), and both are pretty fictional, the Jean having a vague look of the Mercedes 911.

The Noreda effort - like Jean's - fictional, is a 4x4 and has been described as a Berliet truck, but I can't find a match, so it's French Generic Mk1! Again heading toward 1:64th (or 1:70th at a push?) it has the added benefit of a towed trailer - as we saw this morning.

All four stripped-down to open flat-bed for all weather cargo, or miserable, wet troops! Lengthwise they are all much of a muchness, but the two-axle Noreda is clearly a scale or two above, while the Jean is noticeably taller or 'chunkier'.

J is for Jean Höfler . . . Hoefler . . . Hhffluur . . . Hhoouffluer . . . Just 'Jean', J is for Jean!

Me being 'racist' again? It's humour isn't it, especially if you've watched Steve Martin's 'The Man With Two Brains' but being reminded of TJF (the man with half a brain), did you see how he followed my rocket launcher posts with a troop carrier? That crazy guy, he just loves sitting in my shadow, plotting my downfall! Seriously though, he actually had several vehicles and could have done a half-decent post, but then he doesn't do 'plastic smalls' he was just advertising his feebleBay sales, 'cos he's a dealer not a collector!

So I'll start with the troop carrier too! But compare it ('J' above) with the Noreda one ('N' above) from France. Some sources think Noreda copied Jean, but I think they just share the 'dime-store' styling, and a coincidental rendering in soft polyethylene plastic. Although both have polystyrene wheels in a more rigid polymer, and altogether have all the tropes of Airfix 'readymade' Attack Force vehicles.

Another reason for believing in parallel evolution, rather than influence either way is because - frankly - (ehh? Franks . . . oh, nevermind!) the French models (flash excepted; look at the driver's window!) are undeniably better made; if anyone 'copied' - it was the German firm!

Early Jean's have white wheels for some reason, but a lot of the cheapies did back then, and were decorated with 'Allied' stars, these being the same cheap, self-adhesive, paper ones you can still get from stationers, applied in a slap-dash fashion with no attempt to level them!

A standard cab-unit has the slots, brackets, holes and hooks for all the other variations/loads to be attached, and one large sample I acquired had most of them fitted with the missile-retaining T-bar, even if it was fouling the other attachments?

There is a canvas-tilted 'GS/Cargo' variant, but it has a strange hinge which leaves the tilt upside-down on the ground but still attached to the truck! While a carded set on eBay right now (download the image before it disappears!) has the cab-unit and chassis only, possibly as a tower for the long-barreled gun (see below), the other half of the barrel has slipped under the truck.

Fully traversing and elevating; the twin AA-gun was a real leftover of the earlier dime-store types, where pretty-much every set had one; Lone Star, Pyro/Kleeware, Beeju, Tudor Rose et al!

From little guns to big guns, again harking back, this time to the heavy siege and 'battlefield tactical' weapons of the 'world wars', and providing a nice basis for a war gaming conversion to rail-gun - old school; not realistic!

I think it's always meant to have the plug-in extension, giving it a 155/175mm look, but I've now found two without, which are still usable as 203/240mm howitzers, so a pair of both sit side-by-side in the tub.

The towing-bogie is the same as the guns, but the trailer=body is different, both seen recently here, but better angles on them I think, and the plug-in 'bolts' are obvious, and as I said last time; I'm not sure the 'plane was actually issued in this configuration, but the mechanism is the same . . . the aircraft probably came with a coloured launcher as a novelty?

The launcher being hard polystyrene, it's probably an earlier stand-alone novelty toy . . . there's no evidence of other loads for the trailer so the one was designed to take the other and with the plane it makes a great drone-launcher!

Space Tanks! Seen here years ago, and I think I have Bill (or Paul?) at Moonbase to thank for the trackless ones? They weren't sold trackless of course, and while I've tried fitting the turreted one with old truck wheels to make a wheeled APC, the length of the axles between the hubs is greater, so they just float about!

Noreda used a similar system on their bulldozer (upper shot; probably taken from the/a civilian range), without a middle wheel-set and with narrower, finer moulded tracks, another pointer to the originality of Noreda over Jean. Both went with polyethylene for the tracks, which makes them bow-out unrealistically, in a way stretched-rubber wouldn't have.

While the lower shot compares the Jean GS truck with a contemporary Manurba wagon (sold as Tallon in the UK), the Manurba is a reasonable approximation of a Magirus-Deutz 'Jupiter' truck (with a bit of US 'Duce-and-a-half' DNA), rather than the purely fictional Hoefler effort (with vague Mercedes L-series/911 lines?). It's because we saw the Manurba stuff here, years ago, that I thought I'd also covered the Jean!

Tractor! Artillery tractor!! Jean stole a few from their civilian range as well as Noreda, with the same simple expedient of running them in 'army' khaki polymer! Here the farm tractor gets to pull other loads, a civi' one is seen at the back; bottom left.

The civilian fuel-tanker also gets a military call-up.

Below that are two armoured cars, one recognisable as the WWII vintage M8 M20 (Greyhound in British service), the other a more generic thing with features of early cold-war stuff from France, Austria, Switzerland or Germany.

This pair is the exception that proves the rule; in having soft polyethylene wheels to the hard polystyrene of the other vehicles. Also I haven't seen them with white wheels in either plastic, so they may have been later additions to the line?

 

Both are now known to be Injectaplastic, not Jean, hence them feeling less comfortable here!

Typical packaging (as per the link above, but from the collection), the three blisters are large enough for anything except the articulated tanker-truck, which may have come on its own card, in a larger set, or as a counter-display/stock-box purchase? Or even cab and trailer separated in two of the blisters and a second vehicle as the third item?

Mine has a rocket-carrier, tracked APC and gun-truck. You can see a cement-mixer version of the 'standard' lorry in the photo-artwork, whether they also did a khaki version I don't know,  nor have I seen military iterations of the road-roller, front-loader or dumper-truck, but they may be out there; there is - apparently - an army-green dustbin lorry/refuse truck . . . not!

Look at the wheels man! Really; a crazy guy!