M is for More . . . French Vieux Tacots

Well . . . three more! A Norev and two Minialux's, the Norev presumably predating the die-cast stuff they make nowadays? All plastic with metal axles and obviously of better quality than both the previously seen lots.

Originally claimed to be made out of 'Rhodialite', it's polystyrene to you or me, and rather like Britains/ICI's 'Alkathene' (polyethylene) or Wham-O's 'Zectron' (polybutadiene) a polymer only to be found connected with the one brand! It is now - however - like other early [read 'experimental'] 'styrenes showing signs of slight deformation, unlike the two below which are made of more stable materials.)

Norev are another company still going, but unlike Matchbox and the rest, and having had several owners, have managed to regain their independence, while many of the others (Solido, Majorette etc.) are now just brand-marks for bigger concerns. But like most of the others these days; getting their product made in China.

Sized for larger figures (whatever the given scale!), we looked at the figures for this line a few years ago here at Small Scale World! Minialux are sadly long gone now.

This is another quality toy, with lots of detailing, on what seems to be a motorised 'buggy' of the older horse-drawn type, and a four-poster at that! Note that any passengers beyond driver and a first are going to interfere with the driver's view - no wonder they needed a man with a flag walking in-front!

I really like this, it's also supposed to be 1:43 I think, but both would look good with 1:35th/32nd figures, and with this dating from 1910, there must have been a fair few still kicking around for WWI, and some must have been pressed into service?

The model is a mix of Polystyrene (main body, wheels, seats) and polyethylene (cab tilt and support bars (are they supposed to be straps?)), with rubber tyres and metal axles. And, purely by coincidence, that's the three main French makers - Citroen, Peugeot and Renault!

T is for Toy Fair '18 Reports - Norev

Good news for Collectors, bad news for 54mm Toy Soldier Collectors, as Norev showed-off a new line (well; new to the author!) of 40mm farm sets which I suspected were designed to complement the 1:32nd scaled vehicle ranges of Siku and Britains-Tomy (or is it Tomy-Britains!?), but they had their own tractor/trailer set on display and it's all 1:43!

Smaller animals are over-scaled, those rabbits look positively dangerous and the hen could damage that farmer, but he's the all important figure and he looks well in-line with Britains, Starlux or Timpo.

Imported into the UK via- Amerang, there is a nice - if rather generic - farmhouse and a barn/outbuilding which will be of far more use to large-scale war-gamers, I recon it'll easily take a 'hidden' Acht-acht; sight it on the rockery and it'll have fields of fire over the whole of the vicar's lawn! What? It's always a vicar's lawn, or a padre's - men of peace seem to love a bit of vicarious blood-letting!

1:64th scale Construction vehicles were also on show, but without figures or accessory blisters, but play-mats hinted at a wider range?

P is for Picasa Clearance

I think we've had that title before and we will definitely have it again! I keep muttering about clearing stuff from Picasa but I keep adding to it, not just article folders but the 'other images' folder which had just under 500 shots a few weeks ago and now stands at 700+. A lot of it is shite, but here's some I can clear as a random post, alphabetically;

Britains

Simple shot of Hong Kong produced Britains cowboys, showing some of the colour/base variations in the Herald range - note that the orange one (they all seem to be wearing mechanic's overalls!) has only detailing  three paint colours (black, silver, flesh) while the other two poses manage four each with the neckerchife blobbed-in, in yellow.

Charbens

Thanks to Paul Morehead at Plastic Warrior for ID'ing these for me the other day, I'd scoured the PW 'specials' I have here and checked various websites, but of course my Charbens special (for that is who they are by) is the old B&W one in storage - Paul came to the rescue the other day. From my attempts to find him I'd say he's not too common?

Cofalux

I don't know what these Cofalux are doing in Picasa as we looked at them before everything went into storage, I think they must be latecommers from Samwise/Pascal? I like these French 'bazar' figures (because they are sold in bazaars), they have something of a cross between US production (seen in the UK through Marx or Thomas) and Hong Kong rack toys.

Hornby-Meccano

A Hornby rail-staff figure repainted to represent some fat, rear-echelon, staff-donkey; ready to send a hundred-thousand lions into a hailstorm of Ruhr-moulded lead, at walking pace!

JB Models - now Airfix

Ah, yes; "Would you like a model kit with that fresh-air, Sir?" - The other kind of 'box scale', not an odd-scaled ship or aircraft designed to fit the box size, but a box design resolutely happy to be filled with 5/6ths atmosphere! I don't think they were 'US' either; it's an Australian expediency-design born pout of marrying the turrets of retired Saladin armoured cars with M113 APC's to provide a bit of oomph in Vietnam, which it did quite well I think, albeit while being a bit top-heavy.

Lucky-Giant-Helen of Toy (and others!)

Scans of old photographs that never got used in One Inch Warrior magazine, one of each pose, both colours, err . . .  That's it! Comic offers in the US, they replaced earlier flats.

Norev

Plastic fire engine (dusty) with figures, there should be four outriders, two are missing and one was wedged in the delicate plastic ladder and I wasn't going to force him. Also you have to ask why they are riding outside when they have a lovely crew-cab with two bench seats!

Italian Texas Indian on the left

German bubble-gum premium on the right

All covered before, two random Euro-figures closing a random figure post - call it 'magazine Sunday'! Tomorrow we start a short season.

K is for Kingly Kings King'ing-it!

I know we keep returning to this chap but he needs returning to...we'll it's 'chaps' from now on . . . these two came together the other day in a 'new to market' lot (with a Cherilea saloon-barman!), they have clearly been painted at the same time, by the same person, with the same paint. I think all previous mentions of the one being converted from the other (here on the Blog and elsewhere) can - in future - be discounted.

I guess what happened was (clicks-into fantasy, alternate history mode . . .) the sculptor wasn't happy with one attempt, so re-did the sculpt, someone from the factory came to look at them and said "They'll both do" and ergo - they both went into production?

Or it was simply a deliberate act to obtain a Richard II and Prince John (they're brothers - they should look similar)? Or a Richard and a Sherriff; remember the opposite (even: 'opposing') set for the Lone Star knights was the Robin Hood figures? Whatever the reason, I think it's clear now that these two were contiguous production.

Ultimate Explorers were a series of interactive book/craft sets, published as One Inch Warrior magazine was at its height, two of which containing mostly small scale, they were covered at the time, in that organ, although we will return to look at them here one day. Paul at PW Towers may have back issues of the mag.

The Castle set (published by Design Eye) contained about 20 18mm'ish figures in three poses, a nice clip-together catapult and this figure for painting. I believe it is based on an actual statue, but don't believe me, I originally thought it was the Alfred one in Winchester, and it wasn't! Does anyone know if it is a copy of a real statue, and if so: which one, where?

[A quick Google while posting finds a similar statue of Riched II somewhere - Bradford?]

There was a second set called Ancient Egypt also with small figures, it was however - while still an 'Ultimate Explorer' - published by Portico Publishing and so - in case both sets were re-published - I'll add both to the tag list.

There were four, then there were five and then there were six, now there's eight!

M is for Mysterious Moonmen

Can anyone put a name or other details to this? Adrian had it on his stall at Plastic warrior the other weekend, and it's hard to pin down. Seems to be French, but was trilingual on the other sides (English/German), figures are 1970's in appearance and don't have a 'style' or if they do it's more German or 'Kinder Egg' Italian than either French or Spanish?

They are about 54mm, with large square, rounded-cornered, flat bases. Each has four spigots on his chest, attached to each spigot is a small length of insulating wire, the other end of each is then attached to either his backpack or a piece of separate equipment.

The figures are also 'swoppet' like, with separate heads and helmets, swivel arms and the plug-ins. The scenery is card with separate pieces slotted into the base-card and with no obvious weapons in evidence are clearly meant to be astronauts not 'space men'!

Any ideas? the 'de luxe' brings to mind Starlux, did they experiment with ethylene swoppets toward the end?

07th Nov. 2015 - A little bird tells me (from an anonymous Blogger ID with one 'profile view' - mine!) that they are JEM/Norev, so they were French! Tag list adjusted accordingly. Thank-you anonymous!

F is for Follow-up to French Fellows

Thanks go to Mathias Berthox for several of the images tonight and the identification info, both herein and in the comments section of the previous post. Also thanks due to Steve Vickers who kindly allowed me to photograph a set he had at the Plastic Warrior show in May, which turned-out to be just what we needed to complete the story.

This is to confirm or deny several points raised by This Post concerning the various versions of these French made knights. Mathias will correct me if anything is incorrect!

So, in the upper picture sent by Mathias we have Rene Fisher (RF) figures, these are a hard plastic, probably (like Starlux and others) originally in a phenolic plastic or cellulose acetate, then - later - a polystyrene. Well painted, most figures having at least 5 or 6 colours, with the silver being one, also with quite chunky bases, which are always painted green.

The lower shot - also from Mathias - shows the Jem versions, these are soft ethylene plastic, but still have a decent paint-job with cream bases. Jem also supplied their figures to Norev (then a maker of plastic vehicles in 1:43rd scale) who placed them in diorama boxes called 'History and Traditions', where we learn that Robin Hood had to deal with cactus as well as the Sheriff's men, and that he lived in a Tipi/Tepee!

Later Norev (who were making metal 30/35mm civilians a few years ago) issued figures which have a simplified paint scheme of 3 or 4 colours only; white gloves and details, gold joints to the armour and weapons, flesh (if needed) and one other 'highlight' colour. The upper photograph from Mathias again, the lower example from my own collection.

These seem to have been made in Hong Kong/China, and were either from the same moulds or  reasonable quality copies, plastic forts were also made for the figures to garrison and fight over! The plastic is a denser material probably a Polypropylene.

Two companies then pirated them, Hugonnet and Vilco. It is these lesser quality figures we looked at last time, and with a shot of all mine, now including a couple of the extra poses Sam (of Sams Minis World) sent me, along with a comparison of the copy standard-bearer next to the Norev original. The two lower pictures showing the twin mould release-pin marks that enabled me to separate them out of a load of 'silver knights'!

To the left is the set Steve Vickers let me shoot at Richmond, of note is the fact that this sprue seems to be mostly Lone Star piracies (like the 'King Richard' that seems to have started this little odyssey when I covered Robin Hood two years ago!), but also includes the RF/Jem archers seen above, so we seem to be looking at about 20 (cirtainly 17+) poses from Hugonnet/Vilco, from both the RF and Lone Star stables.

The guy on the right, seemingly a decent attempt at William the First of England, Duke of Normandy, seems too good to be from the above ranges, so I suspect a modern/current brand, but I don;t know who, so any help with this chap would be appreciated. He is in unpainted silver polyethylene and is the last chap from the 'silver knights' load, still to be identified, apart from....

...the chunky chap at the bottom of this picture, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

When I separated these guys out in the last post, it was suggested they were part of the above late sets we now know were Hugonnet/Vilco, and someone correctly pointed-out that they were Dom poses. Well, like an idiot (and working in poor light) I hadn't seen that they are in fact marked on the upper-surface of the bases 'MADE IN WEST GERMANY' and are actually Dom Plastik, and probably nothing to do with the French sets/makes at all!

These have apparently had three main phases, silver originals like the above, some (earlier?) basic paint versions and later recasts in a greyish plastic.

However, also in the 'silver knights' lot was this other chap, early-looking painted ethylene, but bigger that the Dom, although clearly the model for one of the Dom poses. He has the look of some East German plastics to me, he is a quite soft, silver plastic, a bit like Charbens knights, heading toward 60mm, very chunky base and has no discernible mark. Any ideas?

K is for Knights, Knot Known!

In the same vein as the group of mixed figures (premiums?) we looked at the other night, firstly because I suspect these are French, and can even suggest a name; Jem (thanks to Paul Morehead and Brian Carrick from Plastic Warrior), and secondly because the lot Sam sent me contained a few, with two new poses...but they could be from anyone and they could be from anywhere,

So, from my unknown large scale mediaevals box, the above are separated into two batches as those in the upper shot have a uniform feature lacking in the lower bunch; two pin-release marks on the rear of each base. Also the bases are a bit thicker and slightly more symmetrical than the others.

Indeed - until the arrival of the lot from Sam, I had separated them as being two makers (with the upper lot pencilled-in as Jem?), which is why these are two images, I took them a few months ago when I was shooting all the medieval figures for future posts. Although the similarities in material, colour and sculpting meant they shared a tub, just different ends!

Added 25-09-2013 : The lower lot are Dom Plastik!

Then Sam sent me his lot and among them were the above 6, four of them being duplicates, the other two being new poses, one (bottom right) being very much part of the first grouping above, the other (top left) with the standard - being far more like the second gang but with the base of the first, so I now think they are all from one set/maker?

The question is who? Or rather the questions being who/where/when?! So any help greatly appreciated on these and the Post the other day. That's 15 figures, were there more? Of course, if they are Jem and were from a fort play-set, the number of poses is not unusual. Does the difference in - particularly - base style point to two tranches? Or just various sources of copying by Jem (or whoever?) and if so - who were the other influencing makes/originators of the various poses?

It also means that we have a fifth figure in the series we originally looked at Here. It also - increasingly - looks as if the King 'Richard' may well have originated with Norev (linked post and forth figure from the left above), being copied both by Lone Star (or 'influenced'!), then Jem; the smaller figure from this unknown set?

Finally - if they are all or in-part - Jem, does anyone have a picture of the fort the figures came with, they could share with everyone here?

M is for Merry, Men, Mean, Much, Mischife, and Mayhem!

So we get to the first post on this subject last (if you've been following the last week or so!), being an introduction to the world of Robin Hood, and his band of merry men...or criminal outlaws depending on your world view! Robbing from the rich to help the poor? It's just not capitalism...

This is by no means all of them and I'd urge you to get Matt Thier's Robin Hood special published by Plastic Warrior (PW Link) for a better guide to all things Loxley and Notts!

Rear Left to Front Right -

Tourist Copy of Britains Herald (see note below), Marx US, Lido, Elastolin (see note below).

Dulcop, Rubenstein, Britains Herald 54mm.

Britains Detail, Res Plastics, Crescent/Kellogg's, Speedwell (?).

Cherilea, Airfix.

The Lido figures from America, these will have been designed to tie in with a movie or two, this was a popular subject in the 1950's and '60's and Hollywood was at the fore. They are designed (badly) to stand without bases and mostly - don't! Especially on a carpet.

The figure on the left is an apparently quite uncommon soft ethylene figure from Elastolin, and is from the Norman range, so snuck in here without permission! Next to him is an equally uncommon figure from Res Plastics in Italy, two big to go in a Kinder Egg, this was Res' own label product.

The last figure is a re-mould of the Speedwell (?) Robin, I use the question mark as while I'm pretty sure he's Speedwell, he looks a bit limp next to the originals I posted the other day (two posts below), but this may be due to the material and lack of paint?

This is a clear copy of the Britains Herald Robin Hood character figure, made in a dense PVC material. He has been found on various tourist items from the Nottingham/Sherwood Forest area, and some believe him to be made by Britains themselves. Without either Matt's book or Peter Coles's books to hand I'm not going to say it wasn't as there may be good evidence that it was, but Britain's didn't use vinyl until they moved production to Hong Kong, and no HK vinyl versions of the original set were issued, so it's unlikely they would have shipped the master over there for a new mould - but they might have. Otherwise it would be a copy by someone else?

I think Plastic Warrior has shown them with round and square wooden plinth type bases, and I seem to recall a larger item like an ashtray at one of the shows the other year? He's around 90/100mm.

This lot - like the Elastolin above - has very little to do with the Robin Hood stuff at all, but they can all be used as King Richard, Prince John or the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Photograph stems from the fact that I had the right-hand figure in with the Speedwell figures as a possible member of that set, the base looked Spanish, so I took it round to Paul Morehead the other day and he put me right, then Brian filled in the fine detail yesterday (see post below)...the figure is a Norev copy of the Lone Star king to the left, it was re-issued a few years ago unpainted in a fort play-set by JEM of France, see comments in post below.

The other three are the two versions of the Lone Star 'King', with the earlier one to the left with leggings, a Lion and a battle-axe, with the latter version in a blueish grey and the gold re-issue (Toyway). The inset shows how the alignment on the base has slipped over the years and the flash got worse - pressure from the injection process at the weakest point.

Thanks to Paul Morehead and Brian Carrick (His Blog) for helping identify these and while I was faffing about with all this rebel alliance stuff I found this very useful website;

Bold Outlaw - A beginners guide to Robin Hood