H is for Hetman, Hussars and Historiques!

It's the subsection I call Historical; from the post-Medieval through to pre-kharki, sometimes including ceremonial, but there were enough in the plunder to split them into two posts, so we're covering about 4/500-years here, except with the Figurines Historiques, where over a millennium is covered!

 

We had a decent shot of them in the sorting post, but I wanted to do better by them with a few more shots. A winged hussar from Poland, historically and actually, and a standard-bearer who might be contemporary (historically - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), or even from the same set, but both beautiful figures. 

 

I have to assume PZG is in here somewhere, but the standard-bearer has an unconventional base which is more touristy, than the usual thick-but-flat bases associated with PZG, while the winged hussar has a base more like the semi-flats associated with another Polish firm?

 

I got several things from Peter at Replicants, the wagon was new a couple of years ago, but I've ended-up with another one, so I can get one out of the bag at some point, and a pack-mule with generic handler, both the humans cover several centuries with their peasant's smocks and trousers.

 

While these could have gone in the civilian post, or the combat post, but again with minor tweaks or paint, they, or various among them, cover any insurgency from Garibaldi or some of the Southern America's Wars of Independence, onwards, although, obviously, the chap with a sten-gun is less flexible time/theatre wise, and the detonator guy doesn't cover the range of the others.

 

Including last year's radio-operator, and the - previously seen as broaches - climbers, now given rifles, we have a set of resistance-fighters, or revolutionaries, partizans or Maquis, turncoats, left-behinds, rebels or 5th Columnists; irregulars, in a word! Already well blogged here;

 

Paul via Peter E - https://www.stadsstuff.com/?p=26381

Brain Carrick - https://toysoldiercollecting.blogspot.com/2026/07/new-replicants-french-resistance.html

 

Longer-served loyal readers may remember six years ago, a Hetman from PZG in one of Chris Smith's donations, for which, Grzegorz Maciak kindly supplied a horse? Well, I've since picked-up two more of them, each on a different horse, slightly frustrating, as there are other poses in the set, but they will make a lovely group charging across a shelf at some point!

  

There were 42 of these, or 47, I can't recall, but useful, as I have gaps in the collection of loose figures, and or need unpainted examples of those posibly painted by William J. Carman, so a quick sort at some point, and I should end up with most of the range in unpainted white. The orange one is a sunburnt example, not a plastic colour variation.

 

A bit bashed, but some garden war-gamer might do something with them, they just need pin-swords! Cherilea English Civil War figures.

 

French Cuirassiers

 

British Lifeguards

 

French Hussars

 

French Carabiniere

 

I mentioned in conversation with Paul, that I hadn't found the one thing I'd had on my 'sort of' wants list, this year, the Mounted Napoleonics from Britains Deetail, and he spent the next 20-odd minutes calling me over or directing me to various stashes he found, and I managed to pick-up 7, which leaves five to find - British hussars and dragoons and the other French carabiniere! A couple will benefit from a bit of a clean!

With thanks again this year to Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin.

F is for Follow-up . . . Vickers . . . Plus

And an example of my utter incompetence! Off the back of my Timpo Vickers MG post the other day, Brian Berke sent me a bunch of images from the Big Apple (a rather frozen Big Apple, I might add!), I thanked him, and mentioned I'd just seen two images of machine-guns somewhere in Picasa (literally a day or two before his eMails), and would dig them out for a fuller (more full?)  post.

 

I downloaded his images, and thought no more about it for a few days. Announced a machine-gun follow-up, as the next post (intended for that (Saturday) evening), and then spent about eight hours over the next two days, trying to find the images.

 

I went from the top of Picasa, to the bottom (some 1200 folders), and from the bottom to the top, even all the old college stuff, and non-toy folders, I tried everything on the desktop, I looked in other esoteric locations, I tried tricking myself by going back to one I knew I'd just looked at, in case they had magically appeared while my head was turned, I opened the folders in case they weren't showing in Picasa, I was going stir-crazy mad!

 

Starting to convince myself I'd imagined it, despite being able to picture both images, I thought I'd check the folder where things are waiting to go on the dongles, and bloody found them! Only to realise that when I'd found them the few days earlier, I'd thought "What are these doing here?", and moved them to the 'done' folder! We actually saw them here in 2022!

 

But, we only saw them briefly in posts which were making some vague point to someone, somewhere, so we'll look at them again, in this unstructured look at machine-guns! Indeed, the only structure, is the stuff from Brian, which is all Vickers, except some of them are probably Brownings, and technically, they are all Maxims!

 

Left to right in the upper shots, clockwise from the top-left, in the lower collage, we have a lovely bit of plastic, owned by so many of us back in the day, and among my favourites of the era, the Timpo 'solid', later Action Pack, 8th Army gunner, here the earlier painted version, Action Pack's were unpainted, but give us several colour-variations to look out for, we saw some of them here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/09/m-is-for-monty-and-is-mob.html

 

Then we have two versions of the Britains hollow-cast gunner, one, the pre-WWI sculpt, which would become the early-war accurate representation, the other the inter-war head-sculpt, who is both late WWI and early (BEF/Home Guard) WWII accurate. A change Brian wondered if Britains were happy with having to do, but I guess, you have to move with the times, especially when you last as long as Briatins did . . . I've highlighted in the past how Zang, Herald, Swoppets and then Herald Hong Kong & Deetail, changed, over time, often while running along-side each other, even unto replacing Lee Enfield's with SLR's, and - these days -even our cheapo china-troop 'Army Men' mostly have Kevlar Fritz-helmets and bullpup automatics!

 

Lastly a US Dime Store, or home-casting figure, hunched over what would have been a Browning version of Hiram Maxim's steel-sleeved, water-cooled, single-barrelled, automatic-action, gas-blowback, rifle-ammunition firing 'Machine Gun'!

 

Brian then found a couple more, with the Bergan Toy & Novelty Company (Beton), on the left of each pair in a hard-wearing polystyrene, or earlier phenolic type polymer; dense, hard plastic, but relatively infrangible.

To the right another, more obviously Dime Store, or is he a die-cast, he looks pretty chunky, and relatively uniquely to America, there was a trend for cast-iron toys, from the 18-something's, to the mid C20th. Also, it's nice to see a Crescent sizer, they've rather taken a back-seat this last few years, as mine are in storage, I should try to dig one out, and keep it around!

 

Then he spotted another one hiding on a shelf! It's another Dime Store-looking chap, and if any American readers can ID any of the three US metal ones, that would be appreciated. Many-thanks to Brian for all the above, but, as discussed, I was on a mission by now!

 

Seen before, better light this time, one of the two errant images, and mostly 'Maxims'! My favourite here is the Japanese novelty blow-mould (back-right), it always amazes me that such delicate models ever survive, but thus is the creditable job of collectors, especially those collectors who aren't hooked-up on the 'big names'!

 

Down the left we have a bunch of minor-make composition, I can't tell you who any of them are made by, and they look to have been repainted anyway, so, as far as hard-core composition experts go, no more than curiosities, even if there are Lineol or Elastolin among them?

 

Bottom left is a less common Polish chap, probably PZG, but could be a lesser make, or even an East German? A modern-production Jap, in the top left corner (BMC or AiP), with a trio of Frenchies front centre, and a couple more foreign troops filling the corner, up by the blow-mould.

 

While the front-right corner is mostly early British plastic; Charbens, Cherilea (note the similarity of the Cherilea Russian and Sikh soldiers with Bren Guns), Crescent (WWI), Timpo, and a Zang composition, along with a late Toyway version of the Action Pack, in shiny grey.

 

Terrible photo (me being an idiot!), but the more interesting shot. The grey machine-gun is probably a Marx reissue, but anyone following Ed Burg, this last few weeks will have seen several versions from Marx and Payton, and I know T Cohn/Superior/Brumberger had several goes, among others!

In the middle we see the late polyethylene Beton, with a lead Timpo GI and two of the metallic-bronze tanned Charbens crew, serving an Atlantic mortar!

 

The Atlantic Maxim is being fired by a Spanish figure, but Russian equipment means a Republican defending democracy from the Fascists (how the Republican movement has changed, eh, Donald?), crescent barbed-wire defending his flank, and a spare Timpo Vickers is up the back-left!

 

Another modern figure in front, an unknown semi-flat, from right, just behind the Atlantic Navy (or Air Force?) gunner, with a bird's eye view of another Spanish figure front centre. The WWI gunner with service-cap, may be Crescent, with a Speedwell/Trojan/VP type in front? And the lead gun next to the Timpo Vickers, could be a 'new metal' jobbie?

 

Which should leave four; three flats and the other wheeled Russian Maxim . . .

 

The more interesting is the metal semi-flat, upper left in the previous shot, as he is a short-lived attempt by Timpo to produce die-cast alloy figures. The common one found is the standing pose, I have picked-up several, over the years, and various sellers told me various tales as to who made him (Sacul was a favourite, as were Clarke Brothers), but, as you can see, Timpo was the culprit. I now have to find the prone rifleman loose!

 

However, it's clear, reading Garratt, Joplin or Opie, that nobody knows what Timpo were really doing at the start, and with moulds bought, borrowed or copied, and the still partly mysterious Zang/Timpolin thing, we probably will never know everything, so these could have been bought-in, or commissioned from a third party, maybe even Zang!

 

The other two RPD-equipped flats are Polish (lower shot), and I used to think (having been told so) that they were Centrum, but I think one of the Poles elsewhere, questioned that attribution, in one of his locally published articles? While the Maxim Gun above, is for PZG gunners, I think?

 

Which brings us to this, and while I've been strict about not doing Russian stuff since the illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I'm slipping this in here, as Chris Smith sent it to the Blog ages ago as a follow-up to the Leningrad Forging Factory post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2014/02/l-is-for-leningrad-forging-factory.html

 

In which I mentioned plain, grey plastic versions, and Chris sent examples (for another day) along with this 40mm (scale, not calibre!) machine-gun which I hadn't encountered, and which wasn't included in the chrome-finish set, in that earlier post.

 

While this 35mm Starlux piece (looks more like an anti-tank rifle!) has been seen before, without crew (and the crew have been seen before, with a different weapon), and the shot has been hanging around in Picasa for ages, waiting for a machine-gun post, I guess! And this, over 53-hours late, is that post! Cheers to Chris and Brian for their help.

L is for Lots of London Loot - Eight is for Late

December's London Toy Soldier Show, was a quiet one for me, not much purchased, and of that, we've seen one or two bits already in other posts, and one of the larger sets has gone to the archive, because I'm not Blogging them at the moment, but here are a few things which may interest some loyal readers!

 

A couple more of the Charlie Chalk figurines/pencil-tops, of which we saw one a while ago. Then, I hadn't heard of the show, now I've genned-up on it, but still haven't seen it, and it doesn't seem to be as iconic as some of his (Ivor Wood's) other stuff.

 

The Trader Joe seems to have had his hat crushed by the factory machinery, which, to me, makes it more interesting, the figures (I think there are seven) are always the same colour, so finding a normal one is inevitable, but a factory-damaged one is a different take on the subject.

 

Paul from the South Coast had a basket of these, and I saw them at the start of the show, and said "Oh, I'll have a few of them mate", forgot all about them as the show got busy and by the time I found them at the end of the day, only one Officer was left and colleagues on the Friends of PW site have posted better samples!

 

I have a few others, including Reamsa originals of these, which are probably Gormasa/Soldis reissues, and it's one of those corners of the collection which is building slowly but surely, as a decent sample of post-war Spanish troops.

 

Board game pieces, not sure which game, but I think the answer is in the archive, so they'll end-up on the correct A-Z page one day!

 

Two Phidal Buzz from Toy Story figures, a third would come in Peter's January lot (which we've just seen here), but Peter may have brought a bag to the show, that's one of the reasons why all these posts are getting the same title, they all got a bit mixed-up over the winter!

 

The other reason I forgot about the Reamsa reissues, was I bought these Eyes Right figures, from Britains, off Paul, at the same time, they're hideously brittle, but absolutely mint, they were worth the gamble to get the shots before they become micro-polymer dust, forever! The Band Major didn't survive the lift home!

 

The Royal Marines standing band, they don't seem to be as brittle as the red ones, but it's not like I'm going to test that theory, with any robust stress experiments! The Eye's Right (and some of the Swoppets) really are the high-point of toy soldier production, the finer detail leaving both hollow-cast and composition figures, in their dust, but soon-enough replaced with lower quality shite out of Hong Kong, after losing out to Timpo's, cheaper, technicolour 'sweeties'!

 

A couple of the 'Middlesex' regiment, the sword failed and will need a gentle glue-spot to get the better shot. This was the standard band's uniform of 'County' line regiments, like my own Glosters, now mostly light-infantry (the horror, the horror! Some awful grey and black arrangement with busbies, now!), but a paint-conversion will be easy!

 

We've seen these before, and it's not like I 'need' them, but as I have them unassembled in Almark packaging, and assembled (and factory painted) as Minimodels, it makes sense to have the other iteration, for the ultimate comparison/look at them all one day!

Bit of fun! About . . . 2007 (?) these started appearing all over the place (Marx websites and evilBay); novelty skiers, both civil like, this and Disney types, of interest in that they are manufactured in the same dense, flesh-coloured, stable PVC as the Injectaplastic-JSP-Culpitt-AHM stuff, AND some late Corgi die-cast vehicle accessory figures. The hint [from me!] being that they all come from the same factory, possibly Tai Sang's Blue Box Vinyl Manufactory in Macau?

 

A hollow-cast boot, for very small peep's to live in! I had a chat with James Opie about this purchase, he has one, and Joplin put one in one of his books, but as yet, there's no known maker for it, there is another, which is known (Segal), an upside down one, in red leather, but this - possibly a cake decoration, or miniature 'Japanese' garden ornament  - remains elusive.

 

Rounding off with a PZG or similar polish Napoleonic type, there must be a handful of hollow-cast missing from these show-purchases (I've got in the habit of always raiding Adrian's 50p/£1 trays at the end of a show), and some space-stuff, I think, but it did all get a bit muddled-up, and the point of these mixed posts is eye candy and the odd question-mark rather than an accurate diary of how it all comes in!

P is for Polski Sklep . . . They're Everywhere!

After posting those others an hour ago, I remembered I had this chap in the queue, so went off to find the shots in one of the 'Eastie' folders, then thought there were those other three, which I think we've seen before, but anyway, more shots have been fired-off and uploaded, so here's more Polish-made Wellingtonian cavalry!

He's 70mm, with a more 'Spanish' (production) looking horse, and is a lancer officer I think?

 

The other 40mm trio included another-one of the white cuirassiers, so I now have seven of them, and he had a slightly different horse which I gave to the trumpeter, further swapping resulted in this pair being odd-men-out, and the six cuirassier troopers match! Ulan and Hussar here, I think?

 

 

Quick comparison shot!

K is for Kirasjerzy, Polscy Kirasjerzy

And the 14th Regiment of, if my cursory research in anything to go by, and it probably isn't! Looking for something quick to post after work, and these are a 'seen elsewhere', so let's get them in the Tag list here, PZG's Polish Cuirassiers.

I'm not sure if the horses are correctly distributed/allocated, but they all came together, and if I know anything about Wellingtonian troops, it's that musicians often had the odd/opposite colours to everyone else! And they are small, they're only about 40/45mm.