B is for Big Box of Bounty - WWII & Modern Combat

The next instalment of Chris Smith's latest donation to the Blog is the 'meat & two veg' of Toy Soldier Collecting, unless you specialise in ancient & medieval, the Wellingtonian era, space, Wild West, Britians ceremonials, farm or zoo, but you know what I mean, and that's the introductory paragraph taken care of, phew!

 

Three paratroopers this time, all yellow, but from three sources and a nice pair of Airfix Red Beret LMG-gunners, to compare in future addition to the parachutists page, while the holding-reserve pose is unusual in yellow, even at this smaller size, where the odd blue or red one has turned-up over the years, they are usually green!

 

One of the Galoob-like, or supplied by Galoob, sailors, from the Realtoy-Dacron et al. sets, and three of the tentatively ID'd as Pioneer or supplied by/to Pioneer, copies of the same set, the copies being manufactured in a softer silicon-rubber, to the denser PVC-replacement of the Realtoy figures.

 

Unknown seated's, four of the common'ish US moulding ones, in two colours (and there are a lot of colours to find!), and three others; the big chap may be from a battery-operated Jeep or similar toy, the middle one anything, the chap on the right of both shots is one of the crewmen from any one of a number of Hong Kong, fictional/Sci-Fi'ish, novelty rocket launchers, also/sometimes known as Crickets, in this shade, possibly the Codeg 'Rocket Firing Armoured Car'?

 

And the smaller chap here is probably the Codeg driver, while Chris had managed to ID the big fella', he's from the Mecanno Mogul range of Tonka-rival heavy steel-plate toys, namely the eponymous Army Mogulwagen. and I have a feeling Chris sent the driver many parcels ago . . . not sure you can have 'Namely' and 'Eponymous' in the same sentence?

 

And there seem to have been two versions, or a pre-production/press (with integrated MG) one, and this version, which is probably another Stadden sculpt, from the Havent factory, they are about four-inches?

 

These are interesting, I think I have a small sample somewhere, but new poses here, and obviously Marx 45mm copies, which is why I had some - borderline small-scale! But they are a tinny polymer, maybe 'propylene, and quite poorly finished or 'flashy' possibly from that late 1980's/arly 1990's plethora of re-issues from Hong Kong, Brazil or Mexico? Does anyone know for certain, from whence they hail?

 

A handful of "Aitchkay" rack-toy fodder, but all interesting, with two of the 40mm Monogram copies, a small Aussie knock-off, a Japanese Deetail clone, but not the more common chrome-coated, Kwong Wah one, which have the ovoid base, but a full oblong-based copy, along with a pair of the recent, but relatively unique sculpts, copies of New Ray, I think it was decided, in the end?

 

A similar line-up of the smaller scales, with - from the left - Supreme 40mm, Galoob 20mm Micromachines, 30mm Airfix Para' clone, a new colour of Galoob 30mm (Battle Squad?), and another 20mm, along with the roughly 28mm Universal-Matchbox MG-gunner who is 'after' Galoob!

 

Saving the best to last and sandwiched between two of the GI Flats, are two figures who are both familiar, and totally new to me. The chap to the centre-right, is obviously the Timpo GI radio-operator, but not the usual early-British 'Khaki Infantry'', rather a soft PVC polymer, possibly Polish, or East German? He's painted as UN, but that could be home-paint/repaint?

 

While I'm sure I've seen the other guy, but I'll be damned if I can remember where or when? He's a marbled polyethylene ('polythene'), with an interesting pose-sculpt of changing his magazine, the base is closest to the bigger PRB swivel-heads, with a pronounced bevel, while the sculpting and pose are vaguely Marx-PMC 54mm GI-like, in execution? He also comes across as being a bit cereal-premium'y? Is he French, Greek?

 

Can anybody add anything on either of the middles figures, now Chris has kindly sent them to the Blog?

M is for More from London, Third of Three Plunder Posts

Finishing this run of plunder-posts with a right-old mix of Wild West, ancient & medieval, pirates, Sci-fi, cartoon, TV and Movie stuff, and as always, some interesting stuff, some stuff you'll be familiar with, but perhaps juxtaposed with stuff they're not usually compared with? I mean - waffling for the opening paragraph - these posts get the traffic, and people seem to enjoy an assortment of new images with some interesting items buried in them!

 

Red-on-red, what am I like! From the left; European, probably French 'bazaar' figure, small, Comansi 30mm, probably Novalinea, but in a colour and tinney polymer I'm unfamiliar with, possibly a sobre knock-off, or supplied as a premium?

 

Hong Kong Timpo'esque cavalryman, but from the legs, obviously copied from the Hong Kong rip-offs with their plug-on boots, a small Britains piracy, I have a lot of these but always in one's and twos, so probably 'Lucky Bags' or Christmas crackers?

 

A modern PVC figure who seems to be a short-short with truncated lance, and one of those from hollow-cast cowboys, who were Lido over there, and might have been Tudor Rose over here, nobody seems to know, but something must have gone with the hard plastic set of mounted Bergan/Beton-Airfix copies, with the Thomas/Poplar being for the soft plastic issues - but nobody seems to know for certain? And the only TR catalogue image I have is for another set altogether (the large scale stuff), a situation complicated by Hong Kong's own output!

 

An assortment of wagon crew, it's more about finding the last colour variations with these now, and I have many more riders/drivers/guards than I'll ever have coaches/wagons for them!

 

Discussed before, a major job one day, sorting all these out, and not much data you can trust, from a small, mixed sample like this, so they tend to go/be put separately,, against themselves being sorted, once I have worked out which torsos go with which legs, heads and accessories, information you can only get from comparing clean samples to bagged/carded sets.

 

The one on the left is a better pose, and if clean; interesting, while the two to the right look 'correct', but running-waving guy is well-dodgy! 

 

Nice from hollow-cast guard, a probably Airfix cadet, a Tudor Rose knight in a bit of a state, and I think the big knight was ELC, or unmarked (now defunct Wilco?). The guardsman is Hong Kong, and the little chap is some fantasy thing, from a mini-play set in the Blue Box 'Hidden Adventure' style of semi-deform.

 

Two pirates from the K&M/Wild Republic tube, modern PVC.

 

A board game man-at-arms taking on a bunch of spray-painted China clones of Italeri, Zvezda or similar, other Bloggers have covered these, which you find on evilBay or Ali Baba and Amazon in - often - large quantities, but of limited poses, here only two.

 

Four Phidal's, I think we've seen three before, the tall, slim babe possibly being from one of the Barbie sets, which I know I haven't looked at yet, I should keep an eye-out for one, while TKMaxx are pushing them through for Christmas!

 

Hasbro's Star Wars 'Command' Stormtrooper on the left, then a fascinating chap, who could earn 'best of parcel', as I already have a white one, I think, and possibly another, but clearly a Hong Kong parachute toy, taken from the Major Matt Mason bendies from Mattel!

 

We then have a common-enough MPC-alike, and a limited-articulation action figure, who's only a couple of millimetres over 54-mil, and who looks like I should recognise him, but I don't, so if anybody can help ID him . . . ?

A mixed bunch here, if ever you saw one (and you're about to see a couple more!), I think the grey chap is from Galoob's small line of Micromachine 'Alien/s' sets, which only went to a handful of cards with one or two - larger than other MM - figures per card, but I'm not sure?

 

Loose Thomas-Poplar PVC Santa's are probably more useful than Western wagoneers as I have several of the sleighs now, in two designs, so for the 'definitive' line-up one day, the correct number of clean, tidy Santa's will be required in the stash!

 

The rest are a mix of modern Kinder, a damaged Games Workshop skeletal horse (useful as it's glueable 'styrene), a Michelin Bibendum, a cake-decoration Santa, &etc.

 

An older Kinder 'steckfiguren', two novelty monkeys which seem to form a larger assembly if you find all of them and a capsule dragon-thing, which folds up into almost a ball, and may be Kinder, Pokémon, Ben Ten or something else entirely - there's so much of this small, blind-bag, limited edition and capsule-toy catoony stuff around now, it's impossible to follow it all, unless that's what you specialise in!

 

More Kinder, racing cars, of one type or another.

 

Again, mostly Kinder I think, the Gnome has a bit of age, but comes from a sub-set of Kinder 'solids', of which there were about eight or ten sets issued, maybe more, and with between six and twelve figurines per set, I'm nowhere near having all of them, but I do have a fair few, so we will look at them, one day.

 

Many thanks as always to Peter Evans for saving this lot, or spotting it at car boot sales, and saving it for me to share with you, here at Small Scale World.

M is for More from London, First of Three Plunder Posts

I was back up to The Smoke in September to pick up another batch of Car Booty from Peter Evans, and with another parcel from Chris now sorted and shot, I'd better get these up and cleared from the PC first, not least because there's one or two cross-over items!

 

How the sort/photoshoot starts, with me unpacking a box of goodies, giving them a once-over, having a look-see at what I've got, and deciding how to proceed! I did shoot the six bagged/carded sets for a post, but realised Peter had sent them all as shelfies in time for this year's Rack Toy Month, so those images have gone in the archive for now!

 

Three of the larger sized Fontanini Napoleonics, the third one is supposed to be Napoleon himself, I suspect, but in his earlier days as an artilleryman of the revolution? Note, as in past posts on the subject, the flatter painting of the cavalryman, over the faded washes of the two foot-figures, I also thought the horse was nicely painted, for a plastic tourist keepsakes, and all three mounted on a piece of Carrara marble.

 

Possibly home-painted, and seen before in one form or another, Peter remembers them being part of a shooting-game, which I have as yet failed to find on the internet/feebleBay, but now I know what I'm looking-for, it should only be a matter of time?

 

Parachute-toy figures, including an Imperial Toys PVC-rubber Poopatroopa (in front), always gratefully received, as there have been so many over the years, copies-of-copies, and slight variations, it's a probably never-ending field, and even if I've shot them for the Parachute Page, now, there will be update shots in the future, with all the colour/size/detail variations added.

 

Two Hong Kong divers to be added to their sample, and one of the small grey ones which I thought were Bluebird but aren't, and I can't remember if they've been ID'd yet or not, but I think there's a second pose?

 

Two 4-inch biggies, Blue Box, Blue Box-like or Blue Box for someone else? A bit battered, they'll be compared to the master collection and retained until better ones turn up, rather have a tatty one than none.

 

A mix of Hong Kong chaps, with a few modern China-troops, I think we've seen them all over time, but not necessarily in detail, and that's a job for another day! But an MPC copy with his accessories, sold in sets by Telsalda among others, they also came singly in generic bags at the 6d end of the market. A couple of the Arco Rambo types, a New Ray knock-off in silver and others.

 

A Tim Mee knock-off (or flashy, late-production from the European factory?), a chap who's probably from the turret of a novelty/powered tank/AFV of some kind, best ID'd from old catalogue images, or - if you're lucky - a minter on evilBay, another version of the common seated figure we've seen from several US makers and as a parachute toy. Lastly, a new-to-me figure I think, but possibly from one of the many sets of Monogram knock-offs!

 

Three Britains copies, who will need sorting into the larger collection, against a future shot for the Khaki Infantry page, there are so many variations of these, and I suspect this trio goes with the sets that include Lone Star poses, and came in generic trays?

E is for Eye Candy - Blue Box French Resistance

As far as I know, Blue Box never gave these a title or name, so we don't know if they were resistance, revolutionaries, militia or for that matter, even French! But they are pretty unique, and having never been produced in the 50mm, a bit of a grail for some small-scale collectors, despite being a tad big at 28/30mm.

 

I'm really only using this as an excuse for a News, Views . . . as I have finally started updating the Parachute page, with shooting-sets added a few months ago, Imperial Poopa-Troopa's and similar cartoonish ones, a few weeks later, the Trojan Red Devil and others tonight, and a subsection of the Airfix clones. I've also added a lot of images throughout, and tweaked a few things, but there are still about nine-sections to do! And I think I need to spell-check it properly!

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_14.html

C is for Carded Combat Crew

More minters from Sandwon, or, at least near minters, nothing 60+years old is ever that 'mint', bags fog with a million invisible folds, cards fade or discolour from sunlight or bleaches in the paper itself, but these two have held up pretty well;

 

No brand and a blank back to the card, so no clue to producer/issuer, and 43p (maybe around 50¢ US, at the time?), if only such things were still 43p! It looks like it might be the same quality as the Rosebud one seen here before, but I couldn't manipulate it enough to see whether there was anything in the parachute cavity? But still a nice item to add to the collection

 

I think these might be by Hugonnet/Féral, but it is by no means certain, they come in several different generic header-cards, but always unmarked/unbranded, so they could be another operation?

 

A site crediting them to Hugonnet pointed out that they are Starlux copies with the heads turned, usually through around 90º, and you can see for yourselves, they have been given oblong bases.

M is for May's Visit - Combat Troops

Sand, green and field-grey, the proper 'toy' soldiers, and there were a fair few in the bag, along with several paratroopers, who are always welcome here!

 

The blow-mould has suffered from a bit of a facial collision, but might be a new colour, the other three have probably all been seen before, but it's all grist to the mill, and there's always new colours, or new-sized copies-of-copies to be found.

 

China copies of Tim Mee's Cold War warriors, possibly a new colour in the washed-out sand, but they'll need to be compared with the existing samples before I know for certain.

 

Modern mix of Matchbox and newer sculpts.

 

Modern, and dodgy hollow-backed rack-toy rascals, but with several sizes, a few poses and severl colour-ways, it will be a while before I've got all of them, or even most!

 

Japanese infantry from Rado or Hing Fat, covered before.

 

Odds and sods, the interesting one here is the chap in the middle who would appear to be one of the Pioneer die-cast accessory figures in soft rubber, and a new pose, to his left, our right, a less common Manurba-Tallon in grey.

 

Seen on the respective Airfix Blog pages, the yellow figures are new to the collection, and that's the beauty of these lots, there's always something new! Many thanks to Peter for most of these, one of the paratroopers was a purchase, I think.

L is for Lots of London Loot - November's Shots

Pretty sure this lot is all courtesy of Peter Evans, with some obvious bits from the late Michael Hyde's collection, but I've just found a whole box I hadn't photographed, which I have now done, and underneath which, was another box with a shed-load of Atlantic, which I think might have been part of this lot, anyway it is now photographed and will appear as a future part of this sequence!

 

A couple of Dinosaurs!

 

We've seen this chap before, more than once, in Keycraft and House of Marbles packaging, and a generic or two I think, here's another, these are the newer ones with the inverted net cone instead of shroud lines, which then necessitates a larger parachute to cope with the weight of all the extra fabric!

 

The trio to the right will be for a single set, probably a small 'toob' or tub, maybe a carded bag, the Rhino from a similar set and the Jaguar was a Schleich, isn't it beautifil?

 

Clearly from Mike's stash! A Marx Moses, a homemade Franciscan friar, who is doing a pretty-good job of doubling-up for Obi-wan Kenobi! A sub-scale hollow-cast type, actually a solid I think, but maker unknown, looks British C-of-E, though? And a small after-market whitemetal one, which is a European Catholic, I think, it's O-gauge compatible, and I haven't a clue who made it (O-Men?) or whether it's home- or factory-painted?

 

Lovely Hong Kong copy of Britains Highlinder on the left, a quite clean Cherilea on the right while the guy in the middle is a bit of a mystery, I guess he's a mascot for a commercial product, but Google didn't really help, shoes or perfume might be in the frame, the latter leading to soap, but I couldn't find anything solid, and the spelling is the incorrect use for a ceremonial?

 

He might have been a key-ring, but it wasn't obvious and in a flexible rubber which was more natural than PVC, so my guess is an item from the USA or a US-made product, there IS a Colgate-Palmolive shampoo, it was short-lived (1978+) and confined to the Philippines, but they had a human mascot; Charlieng Balakubak, (Dandruff Charlie), so possibly connected with cleaning or hygiene, and having some age; 1960/70's?

 

A set of ebony, or 'ebonised' carved wooden elephants - tourist keepsakes.

 

In researching what is actually 'Harry's' Animal Planet, I've managed to ID the show-jump and rider we've seen in the last few weeks, this sign and probably one or two of the horses in Jon Attwood's big donations, although they are currently in about four stacks, in two storage units, one day they will all be labelled-up and brought back together!

 

The sign is directing a late vinyl Britains sheepdog, a rather clean Crescent (?) sheep and a dinosaur which looks similar to some of the dinosaurs which I recently shelfied in B&M play sets.

 

From the left, Corgi Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, unknown street character (two points of articulation, arms), a hollow-cast mechanic from Timpo, missing his spare tyre, but I've never seen one with it! And a racing driver, probably from a sports car, but who . . . Monogram, MPC, Pyro, Revell? Someone like that!

 

French bazaar / premium Indian, cheapo-motorcycle, DFC knock-off knight, home-painted, an over-moulded capsule novelty chick, and a Viking / barbarian type, who I think we may have seen before, but possibly in a different colour?

 

A few bits of war-games detritus, all useful, and as well as the Atlantic, I think this was the lot with a quantity of 'lead' which I haven't photographed, it was heavy and went to storage the next day, but there was some useful stuff among it, Alberken, Higgins, Laing, etc . . . 

 

This was a bit of fun, a novelty Fungus the Bogeyman tin (which will end-up next to the sentry-box money-box Chris sent a couple of few years ago (I think Mum was still alive, so over four?)), on my future-past desk.

 

I love the strategically-placed splash announcing Jelly Bogies, as let's face it, if you're the age that enjoys a tin of snot, you're probably too young to be having the Birds, Bees and Bogeyman's Knees talk! Issued by a Hunkydory, and almost certainly a seasonal / novelty gift type thing?

 

Most of an OBE nativity scene? From Airfx! I can see Romans, Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin Hood, Bedouin Arabs, Tarzan and Station Accessories, have I missed any? Also a couple of Preiser-type N-gauge wagon horses.

 

This was fascinating, as I'd not seen it before (I've since found several on feeBay, so it's not rare), but in conversation with a reader who contacted me though Rusty at Playset Magazine, a while ago, the connection I've raised before, in a 1"Warrior article and a later one here, many years ago now, between Marx and Blue Box is becoming stronger as a theory, both because of some images I've seen of Miniature Masterpiece sets issued in the States but not here (format rather than contents), and this set.

 

It's not Marx, it's not sold as Marx, but I think they are based on the Marx sculpts (they're around 40mm), and with Rado Indistries (RI Toys) ending up with both Blue Box and Marx tooling (as I've mentioned before), the idea that Blue Box, or more correctly perhaps, the parent; Tai Sang, was involved with some of the early Marx hard-plastic, painted-production, looks more likely.

 

Obviously sold as a keepsake, for display, once I'm settled I'll obtain one of the complete ones for another look, or even a couple-more in this state, so we can study the figures without the guilt of ruining a set - they are heavily glued-in! I've seen several incomplete sets, and I suspect people take their favourite Saint to put in the car, or another room or something, maybe send one to a child at Uni', or they keep touching one for a prayer, until the paper under the glue tares?

 

Nuntastic Nun-chucks mate! Still available from revolving display-trees in Waterstones, we've seen a few others in this range of pester-power novelty games and figurines over the years!

 

Finish as you started! With a large dinosaur! And an Airfix Centurion!

Thanks as always to Peter, and thoughts wander to the memory of Mike, who I'd actually got to know a bit in the last few years, even being allowed to see his collection, so I'm pleased a few of his lesser pieces have come into the pile - I suspect the Nuns were probably from his stash too!