G is for Gardiner, Alison Gardiner

Another one shot in passing, back in February, at the NEC gift fair in Birmingham, these were both on the Alison Gardiner (who specialises in advent calenders) stand, but may both be imported from Coppenrath, (since 1768!) in Germany?

 

Nutcracker soldier tree-hangers.

 

Victoriana'esque nativity scene.

B is for Big Box of Bounty - Wild West . . . and Pirates!

You can't know everything, and I learnt something pretty fundamental last week, while I was sorting-out Chris Smith's latest parcel to the Blog, to share with you lot, but let's look at the Wild West component first!

 

A card hoodlum, rearing on a tamed mustang! The hoof needs glueing, one of two miniscule victories by Royal Fail's vandalisation Elves this time, he's lost his Stetson too, but one supposes, some time ago! The Man in Black, a pound-shop Lee Van Cleef, looks a lot like some Supreme output, but is not from their well-known series, nor, as far as I am aware, did Papo ever do more than one modern cowboy on horse, which is a clue . . . ?

 

A Hong Kong, 45mm copy, of a Gulliver copy, of the Atlantic Sioux Camp seated brave, and another of the probably Euro', possibly premium, Indians (no cowboys have turned-up yet) set, of which I have quite a few now, but that Chris has probably found more of, than me!

 

The 40mm, AHM, Culpitt, Injectaplastic, Jouets Super Plastic (et al.?) set, and it's extraordinary that despite collecting these for years (as a small-scale collector), both poses and colour variations continue to turn up, I'm still looking for an Indian archer (and most of the accessories), I knew I needed the dancing guy in orange trousers, and the standing firing cowboy is a new (4th) colour variation! They will both get bases from other figures in the larger sample.

 

The Crescent hollow-cast/Lido Wild West chaps, and an oddity! On the left, grist to the mill, he's a bit bashed, but will still join the sample, to increase the size of the sample, against future looks/comparisons; we've seen several variations of the set over time.

 

In the middle, an absolute mint, 'Germany' marked, novelty pencil sharpener, an incredible find, and so generous of Chris to sent it here? And remember, as well as some of the better KT sharpeners, it was Chris who found the Ichthyosaur/Dolphin hybrid sharpener!

 

While the third chap could be Wild West, a clown or a farmer, and may be Hong Kong, or . . . French? Anyone recognise him? He looks like he should have a wheelbarrow, and may be a French farmer? He could be a Marty clown; paint and plastic are right, but also looks like some of those old hollow-cast cowboys with their furry sheepskin chaps and soft felt hats, so got sorted into this lot for now!

 

These were on the top of the box, so I spotted them straight-away, but baseless it's hard to know if they are French or Italian cheapies, or some Hong Kong knock-offs? But New to me and Blog for sure! Obviously taken from the Britains Herald 'Swoppets', solidified, does anyone know what bases they should have?

Small scale, Chris is very good at keeping samples of these separate, it's the only way to use them for research, the larger bag is a clean-looking sample of 'Wavymane', and while there's "always" a clean looking sample of Wavymane, I never turn away from such things, as it would be churlish, and you never know when a completely new horse type or figure pose might have been buried among them by a previous owner!

 

The smaller bag is more mixed, while the real odds are spread out in front, and include useful wagon parts for the Giant/post-Giant pile and the National and others' pile!

 

While up a band (25-30mm), we have, from the left; two Torgano Indian boys (or, from the rest of the set; boys dressed as Indians), both missing their bows (very delicate), and a Comansi horse, although, with the flash, and saddle-spike, possibly a Sobre or similar knock-off? And a small handful of the Blue Box smallies, to the right.

Finishing off with three interesting pirates, or 'a potential pirate', in the case of the right-hand figure, another one new to me, also with elements of Supreme/SP Toys output, but is he a cowboy, a pirate or a civilian of some kind? Possibly, a rather ephemeral figure from one of the many 'big box' pirate ship play-sets, over the years? Or, does he belong with the glossier, obvious cowboy (or detective?!) figure at the start of this post - I don't think so, but you have to look at every angle? Simply marked 'CHINA'.

 

On the left is a new-to-me, off-white, colour variant of the Thomas/Poplar pirates, we only looked at the other day, on the last Interrr'nationaaal Taark Like a Poirut Daye event, while in the middle is another of the revelations of Chris's box . . . 

 

. . . a marked Papo pirate, from the 1990's, who has nothing in common with the current range, which has been in the catalogue for years now, but that clearly provided the donor-sculpt for the smaller, Supreme pirate with similar blunderbuss?

 

Now, Papo themselves only claim to be 'nearly' 30 years old, so this (1999 CHINA) must be one of the earlier products in their range, and - I've just spent some time trying to Google them and only found the current set - so, I guess, A) they were a short-lived line, making this uncommon, or uncommon outside France (?) and B) the rest of the Papo set must be the other donors for the Supreme set?

 

And while I'm sure some people knew all or part of the above, nobody seems to have Blogged it, there's nothing on the Forums (or Papo's website), and nobody has pointed it out/corrected me, on all the occasions I've Blogged the Supreme set, which is now neither as old, nor as cool as I thought it was! Now I know, it's gotta'be about finding the others, and did Papo originally do the six SP Toys skeleton 'enemy' too?

 

And, all this is not to say I shouldn't have known, I have the early Papo catalogues somewhere, mostly donated by Peter Evans or another friend of the Blog (have they been in a show-report in PW magazine?), and, I guess, the set must be in some of them? But many thanks to Chris for sending it, and everything else above.

L is for Last May's Lots of Lovely Loot - Dr. Barnado's Collecting House

One of the odder things to have happened at a show, where coincidence often occurs, or things you are only half looking for, happen to turn up was, my purchase of this little piece of social history, manufactured in papier-mâché, it's actually survived remarkably well. Scaled to a vague 25/30mm and sitting well'ish with Airfix'x old Lineside houses - the Dr. Barnardo's collection-box!

Sadly a victim of the development (under Thatcher and the post-thatcher years) of a propensity to steal these, or similar collection vessels from counter tops, by swiping. You won't find any survivors still in use now, but when I was a kid, these were pretty ubiquitous, often sharing shelf or counter space with the collection 'jars' of several other charity causes. The few survivors tend to be substantial plastic, chained to the counter or a nearby wall, and usually a lone/chosen cause per-premises!

I wanted one because of the cross-over with the Britains Lilliput and other scenic accessories, by W. Horton (or Hugar?) and had just been discussing with Adrian, Christian and Gareth, the fact that I had been looking for one, without luck, for years, and that I'd never found one on evilBay, when I saw this (literally, seconds later) near-perfect one on Ann Evan's table for a reasonable sum, and immediately grabbed it, expecting the gods to tap me on the shoulder and demand their pound of flesh!

W is for Welgar

Also in the Nabisco section of the folders (see previous post) was this from the 1950's, credited to Welgar, the original branding of the Shredded Wheat factory, Shredded Wheat being a US licensed product, which Nabisco bought, Shredded Wheat is now part of the Kraft group, while Nabisco is owned by Mondelēz. Welgar is a portmanteau word for Welwyn Garden [City], where the factory was established.

Part of a set, the rest can be seen here, but sadly only as thumbnails. I might cut these out one day and stand them up with a few Britains Polar Bears or something! Not really to scale, the two figures are around 60/70mm?

C is for Colouring In!

Mentioning - as I did earlier - circa-1975 colouring books, this is dated 2024!

 

Note the rockets! I popped into McDonald's back in the spring, and found a bunch of these left on one of the tables, presumably some kid's party had been and gone, anyway, the girl cleaning the floor said I could have one if I wanted, so I did!

 

In my dotage I may even have a crack at it, but with proper pencils rather than the supplied set of four wax-crayons, (ham-fisted, for the use of), which bear a remarkable resemblance to those seen from Henbrandt in a previous post here at Small Scale World.

Fer is for Philmar Phort!

I've almost (temporarily) lost my mojo, there's still too much happening IRL (as they say on anti-social media), which means there's a ton of stuff been piling-up over the course of the year, and it's mostly going to come out piecemeal rather than as show reports or donation posts, and this is a good example, I think it was in the first/earlier Sandown park stuff back in the late summer, a purchase from Mercator, I think.

 

The Philmar 'Toyland' Fort, a simple-enough, and quite sturdy cardboard fort in a game/puzzle type box which also provides a plinth-base for the pieces to be seated in. Colourfully printed in a definite toy-town style, it would look good with some of the stylised Wend-Al or Britains toy-town figures or (because of weight), probably better, with the Marx/Wilton 'Babes in Toyland' soldiers?

The base, turned-up . . . side-down (upturned!), and the components. Only twelve pieces, but there are still some fiddly moments in the construction, which could lead to unwanted folds, creases or dog-ears, if one isn't careful, so hopefully Mum or Dad would lend a helping hand!

Completed; the luckiest aspect is that the flag hasn't been bent or torn, often with these card toys, it's the flags which go first. Plenty of flat-topped surfaces for displaying figures, and once it's together, quite robust.

Paper sheet is a single sheet, folded in half, with a rather over-enhanced 'finished item' picture on the fourth side! I - typically - didn't follow the instructions, and had to undo a large portion to get the corner-tower to sit properly!

 

A quick sizer with 60mm (Pal/Athena), 45mm (Kleeware/Tudor Rose?) and 35mm (Kinder) bits I had to hand at the time of the photo-shoot! I think 30-35mm would be the best size for actual play, German flats for instance; its walls are really too high for the Airfix guards.

A is for Alphagraphics, Brumtrams, Howard Scenics, MA Arts, Nimbus, S&D, Streetscape and others, and errr . . . Follow-up!

We had a couple of items from this stable (MA Arts) in one of the card bus posts over the Christmas season, and another (Nimbus) in Brian Berke's follow-up submission, then I found I'd missed the Alphagraphics folder, only to notice that the multi-brand 'thing' I had pointed-out in the blurb, went further, and it seems Aphagraphics were the print-arm, and sort of central HQ for a whole-bunch of after-market and 'garage' producers through the 1980/90's.

 

I really can't be arsed to go back and add what would be both complicated and duplicate notes to those two posts, so I'll just add all the brands to this post as Tags, add Alphagraphics to the existing Nimbus post and then both the other posts will appear with these in future searches, as relevant!

1:43rd scale (Märklin's standard O-Gauge is 1:43.5) stuff, as well as HO-OO, resin and whitemetal products, as well as card/paper, it's your one-stop shop for scene-enhancing, limited production or esoteric subject-matter, civilian/model railway stuff!

 

Omen . . . geddit? O-gauge men! And the second time that particular play on words has been used in the hobby I think, or am I confusing it with Keymen?

 

Alternate packaging, remember we've already seen the larger sheets and the post-cards, decent model railway shops used to have this stuff hung, stacked or stuffed into every corner of the shop, and we'll never be able to list them all, as some were produced by the guy down the lane, who only came in with new stock a couple of times, before he "...sort of disappeared from the hobby"!

 

Another catalogue.

Single-deckers and smaller minibuses.

Modern double-deckers

More historical models or liveries.

It's very hard for me to produce much blurb on things I know so little about, beyond getting it up here so it's not lost to the Internet generation, but if anyone does know more, perhaps they can enlighten the rest of us in the comments, not because I'm begging for comments, that's other-people's shtick, but because if it isn't passed-on, it's lost.

T is for Two - Marx Fort Bits

A couple of bits I scanned last night while looking for other things, and while I could have sworn we'd seen this first one here already, I can't find it under the 'Marx', 'Forts', 'Paper' or 'Cardboard' Tags, so I must have posted it on Faceplant and then lost it somewhere?

No matter, fresh scan, these actually look a bit flimsy against the card building kits Britains was doing around the same time, but that may have something to do with scale, they are a bit larger, and are probably unique to Marx Swansea and the UK? A fort and Hospital, scaled for the Playpeople (Playmobil under licence), and it's interesting that in the blurb they are called 'Little People' which was actually a Fisher Price thing.

 

For years, I'd never encountered these or their remnants in the wild, so, wondered if they were they ever issued, this is from the 1978 catalogue, and '76-80 (the same years the Playpeople were available) is what you might call the interregnum, no; 'drawn-out death', with Dunby-Combex at the helm, and while some stuff did get out, it was all a bit hit-and-miss? However, I have now/since seen them on evilBay, so they did happen!

 

At a figure-height of 7.5cm things made for Playmobil could/can be used with larger toy soldiers and model figures.

Just the scan of the instructions for the Miniature Masterpiece forts, which we looked at here. It's a bit tatty, but might be useful to print out, if you're selling one without an instruction sheet?

15th - I did find it and it is now Tagged-up the same as this one, so it's now on the Blog twice, but that's just how it rolls sometimes!

W is for Westair

A year old, but not of any consequence, despite TJF's opinings about 'timely manners', it's all still out there, and all this museum gift-shop stuff from companies like Westair and Timeline Gifts (Ancestors of Dover) tend to run for years, but still, box-ticking a couple of points:

In recent years the old 1960's die-cast mazac figurines from Peltro/Fontanini sculpts have finally been retired and replaced by new sculpts produced in a softer, poured whitemetal, and here we see the Tudor set, four figures (probably also sold individually at a pocket-money price-point), we have Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Shakespeare and Sir Francis Drake . . . Raleigh lost his head!

But what actually caught my eye was these rub-down sheets, in the style of the old Patterson-Blick/Lettraset/Waddington's (et al) ones of our childhood, but all new artwork and transfers. They look familiar, especially the WWI and Battle of Britain ones, but I checked with this website, and they are all-new artwork.

The website. I think I've posted the link before, but it's worth posting again as it is quite the monumental work, with nearly every set ever issued, and many I remembered for the first time in decades, like all the cereal premiums!

They kindly gave me the fifth as a sample, and while I haven't opened it yet, it's a gatefold scene with a sheet of rub-down transfers and a colour-in picture on the back with a potted info'panel on the theme/subject of the card.

M is for Moshi Monsters!

We haven't had a board game for a while, nor a decent LRG type post, so killing two birds with one stone, here's a fiver's worth of Charity Shop purchase from a while back, well, March '22 it says here, I don't know where the time goes, I really don't! The Moshi Monsters related Monstro City Game from Vivid.

Box - check!

Paper stuff - check!

Ooh! That's starting to look a little more promising, are they gold?

Oowyeah! And about the same size as a lot of the blind-bag collectable shite (from which they've probably been bought-in?), seven Moshi Monsters I couldn't begin to name (the cover says the spiky one is Iggy), as I don't follow this stuff, just take it into the collection when it's cheap!

T is for Transatlantic Transport

Further to the card/paper bus and tram posts before Christmas, or over Christmas, I think a couple were posted after the big day, Brian Berke sent the bulk of this post, and I found one more when I checked the letter-N and O folders, has I said I would.

 

I don't know if the bad-luck accrued from singing carols out of season applies to card bus models in the same way, nor if it will be Brian or me, who accrues it, but I'm guessing - with the editors hat on - and given he sent them in plenty of time, it will be me! I'm also guessing that MTA is Metropolitan Transit Authority, not much of a guess; it's in plenty of movies! "The perp's taken the Metro downtown, Danno' lost him at 5th and something!"

Brian suspects the black & white aspect has more to do with them getting the Christmas cards out before the colour schemes had been decided upon, for these - then - new, Hybrid fuel/power buses. Brian thinks they might have been free, often these museum (or library) things are?

This is a simple slot together model of a New York subway car, from the Transit Museum, it would make a useful container for hiding stuff from inquisitive siblings, I think? I bet this was free as well, for school-parties and the like?

 

While this is the No. 74 London omnibus, by Best Impressions, one of the best known routes through the heart of London, and known to tourists, from its sliding past Harrods! Brian reports he used to ride it when he was a Londoner! I may have been on it once or twice, but my big one was the 77, riding-up from Clapham to the South Bank, or back again!

 

Close to his heart, so I'll let Brian tell this one . . .

 

" . . . back when Northern Heights, my OO layout was in my head for future building, it was always planned to be the layout I wanted when 10 years old. Back then in the 50's scenic stuff was paper wrapped, cardboard or balsa wood. Plastic kits were a new innovation and since it was always going to be London Transport, I wanted my favourite bus, the Q4 Leyland six wheeled trolleybus. No suitable diecasts back then, but there was a card model by NIMBUS that continued in production into the 90's."

 

These are nice, and also from the Old Country, two craft-museum/group type models, but in a similar style and by the same artist, one Bernard King, and both subjects are trams/trolleybuses, it may be one of these I think we've seen on the Blog in the past made up, there's certainly a few somewhere, and I think I posted them, but we'll look at them again one day, I'm sure!

 

 

This is actually a part of a set, with sides and ends of railway coachs, designed to be made-up over a balsa or boxwood frame, and placed on more substantial 'off-the-shelf' chassis, printed for Hambling's, but probably by a third party as already discussed in the recent railway figure posts.

 

When we were kids (1960's), and we'd occasionally get a train from Winchfield Station, they were usually the new BR blue, but sometimes you'd get a replacement/temporary spare from the Brighton or Guildford-Sussex services which came up from Portsmouth via Basingrad, in this 'old' green, and they were so posh! You sank into the seats, or could trampoline yourself up and down the compartment, shuffle-bum fashion, while all the details were heavy wood, and the compartment doors opened rather than slid, it was a step back in time, for us 'Central South-East' service kids to get proper Southern stock!

 

This shot also reminds me I have a coach-interior card kit somewhere, but it's not Hambling's, I just looked, I'd gone past it looking for the buses, so we'll have that another day whoever it was!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Finally, from the folders, is this Birmingham Corporation tramcar from Novus in a nice blue and cream.

 

I went and found it! It was Peco! And specifically for/to fit the old Kitmaster model kit range, which were bought by Airfix and sold-on to Dapol, I haven't looked to check if they (the kits) or these card interiors are still in production, but they'll be on the secondary market!

T is for Tail Ends

Well, more card Buses! You may notice that these are from P-Z, and think that's it, but you'd be wrong, I forgot to check N and O, I think, so there may be one or two lurking there, while a slew of them are in the queue from across the pond, although some have travelled there from here! And I've only been showing you those which fit A4 storage slip-cases, so there's still a box of bigger stuff to come at some point in the future!

Another giveaway from a Bus company, this time Strathclyde's Buses, and printed by Gordon Petrie of Stonehaven, a simple design, but with nice floor-pan reinforcing, and a complicated fold under the front windscreen!

 

I also have a full-sized (well, original?) sticker for the driver-operator's window, so I could start a fake Strathclyde Buses service . . .all I need to do is buy a bus, paint it to match the defunct company's buses, make sure it has a 'slot' and drive around collecting fares until I've got enough to drive-off into the sunset - flawless plan!

 

 

The other card of this two card model is behind, and there's no clue as to who supplied these to Richard Kohnstam (RiKo), who were importers/wholesalers to the hobby for many years, but it will be some small garage operation. It's complicated/detailed enough to be a Micromodels reprint?

Another chocolate freebie, from Suchard / Milka in Switzerland, this time, where it seems to have contained a stack of milk-chocolate 'tiles'? Simple construction, like most of the 'container' buses we've seen.

The windows are unfortunately filled with postcard images of the Swiss alps, which rather detracts from the usefullness of the otherwise well renderd and colourful card bus model!

A couple more corporate freebies, these for Tayside, and no other details visible, so might be in-house or printed by a third party, nice colour-scheme, for a regional bus/coach firm, I thought, all ruined by the Tories of course!

 

Thornton's toffee box! Nice inserts if you can be faffed with the folding, which I couldn't for the photo-shoot, and yes, I've since cut my nails! the wheels stick down, which must have made stacking them a bit of a nightmare? But they may have folded/packed them, per-order, behind the counter?

A very complicated one from Tramalan, with a decorate-it-yourself motif going-on there! Hardly surprising it's a tram, given the publisher's name, and a Blackpool one with two pantograph gantries and something else delicate looking - I'm not a tram expert!

 

 

As mentioned above, some of the card buses are too-big, or too-built to be in the folders, so I suspect the bus for this little diorama is in the big box. But we have small scale card-flat figures, which is the best yet! And coming at us from West Midlands Travel.

Tom Smith, cracker toy, Whimsey from Wade and Thunderbird figure purveyors to the masses for many years, also did indoor fireworks, which came in a box, that looks like a bus, bargain!

I love indoor fireworks, apart from the fact they leave the house stinking like a war-zone and your saliva tasting like rendered-down sugar-candy, and the best one is the volcano, which churns-out a grey rubber-worm, feet-long, if it works right!

Welcome Break! When we were kids, the few and far between Motorway Service stations were an excitement akin to the Starship Enterprise, now they are mostly run-down and/or hideously expensive places to stop at, for a snooze or to empty your bladder. And only the overly paid, or overly stupid actually purchase anything there!

 

It is probably the second-biggest single lie in Britain after the efficacy of TV detector vans, that somehow these sites, which were suually built on compulsorily-purchased green-belt/agricultural land and get their deliveries straight off the road-network should somehow be the most expensive petrol and retail outlets in the land? Yet, no one with any power or influence has ever questioned this obvious anomaly, of capitalist greed, writ large!

 

Go phuq yourselves Welcome Break, go phuq yourselves with your phuqing over-priced, ersatz happy-meal, from your ersatz phuqing 'pantry'; Julie? Schmoolie! In a green bus - which I have to admit - does have a nicely printed underside, da' phuq anyway, greedy bastards!