L is for Lots of London Loot - Sandown February - Animals & Bits

Having had a fair number of the figures in the first post, and then the bulk of the vehicles, I thought I'd shove the rest of everything except the other figures up first and do them last! Animals, mostly horse-drawn stuff and some scenics!

 

Hong Kong hay rake . . . I guess that can be tractor drawn! Ornamental plated coach, might be a cake-dec', but I remember them being glued to ashtrays and those onyx table lighters, desk-sharpeners etc...War gaming naval cannon, maker unknown, a rather nice motorcyclist who could be a game playing piece, from a cheap railway figure-set, or a gum-ball/cracker type thing?

 

The wreaker-truck is a soft polyethylene copy of the Blue Box 'styrene copy of the original Matchbox 1-75 series die-cast, probably by Bluebow, or someone similar, there are several of those knock-off brands out there! And the horse team will be from one of the cheapo' wagons by Morestone or similar.

 

A couple of really nice-paint, early, British, plastic animals, which should be Cherilea farm for the foal, and I thought Charbens for the Giraffe, but I seem to recall looking it up before, and deciding it was Cherilea too!?

 

I bought these to check the three against the recent post on the subject here, and they are all duplicates, hay-ho, I also think the painted-eyes Poodle is Cherilea, but I don't know why I think that, and stand to be corrected for my vague-arsed assumption!

 

The (Timpo?) flocked Kangaroo looked better under the show lighting, he's actually a bit grubby, and it looks like fag-tar grubby! And he's a few bald spots, but still, a sample is better than no sample! The Moose is a reduced-scale copy of the old cereal-premium Moose, which was stolen from Lido I think? Green Scotties are a broach-badge, the Pigeon is Reisler, from Denmark, they liked their red-plastic! And I think the little Doe is Siku?

 

I may have a similar bag of these somewhere in the stash, but it may just be something I handled back in the days of sorting JB's stock, nearly twenty years ago! All I need is the coach now! I think it's actually only two mouldings of horse, and one rider, all duplicated four times!, but if I do find Paramount coach, I may attempt to put it all together!

 

This was a lovely find, we had the 'Japan' made ones as kids, one Christmas in our stockings I think, I remember an Elephant, Owl, Gopher, Squirrel and Hedgehog, I think, and these are clearly cheaper copies from Hong Kong, the Japan ones were better printed within the outline of the cut shape, and had one or two, little 3mm or maybe 4mm, googly-eyes!

 

The seller started to ask 50p for this and then just gave it to me! It's modern, and a dodgy piece of Chinese not-a-dinosaur! What drew me to it, though, was the similarities with both Möbius's Arzak / Arzach and the alien Tweak from the Judge Dredd story 'The Cursed Earth', with the now-banned burger-war pages! Although really it's only the nose which is Tweak's! Basically, when I saw it - it was so bad, it was good!

 

Two horses from Malleable Mouldings, the black one is OK, the white one will need work on the rear leg, both have been messed-up with home paint, I fear. I may try one of those ultrasonic cleaner tanks for the latter, and maybe hot-water first for the former, it's an early, not terribly stable 'styrene I think?

 

Three early German plastic buildings, which we have seen before, following the pattern of the old wooden Erzgebirge ones, a baby's high-chair, or lifeguard lookout from some Bluebird, Galloob or Mattel micro-playset? And an unknown shell, bullet or missile?

 

FG Taylor's farm cart, like the road-roller, a cross-over piece with metal wheels and plastic rest, quite common in this configuration, I think the all plastic one is the rarity?

 

Bits - Kleeware sub-scale garage-service-petrol station with roof parking for micro-cars, the standing platform from the late Corgi circus set and some foliage! The pale tree-stump is actually a sun-faded and very brittle tree which has lost its branches with a few 'snap!'s, but it was free!

R is for Rootin' Tootin' Six-gun Shootin'

Like the figure we looked at the day before yesterday, this started life in Herald's stable, got taken-in by Britains, simplified and sent to Hong Kong for its sins. It also got copied by nearly every Tom, Dick, and early British plastic producer, along with several in the colonies!

This image has been on the blog before, so we'll get it out of the way before we look at the original, most of these are now in storage, but more have joined the staff here until they can all be reunited! And the trio of 'early British' were photographed again before incarceration, while the Britains are here.

The top row - Britains, Britains - Hong Kong, Paramount, Hong Kong

Middle - Hong Kong, Speedwell, Speedwell, Trojan

Bottom - all Hong Kong

So, the original Britains chap was a bad-guy (all in black - probably smoked, almost certainly liked Country & Western music and definitely cheated on his women!), greyed-out in PVC after the move to Hong Kong production, he was finally brightened-up with a bit of a denim two-piece! He also got the separate base. I don't think I have all the versions, but the blue one has extended the sample slightly!

 

I don't know if my 'bad guy' is a shrinkage variation, or that the moulding was simplified in HK, but he looks cooler spitting death with his face hidden, even if you couldn't hit a barn-door at twenty paces with the brim of your Stetson over your eyes! But really - he's slotting some dude sneaking out of a side-alley, two cool for gun-play school!

The guys have swapped places from the first image, so we have Trojan dropping the hat to effect 'originality' on the left, while Speedwell - middle and right - didn't bother and just went with a straight copy, However with hat, shirt and sometimes 'kerchief' painted different colours, they make for more interesting figures than the Britains herald original.

Two recent additions, all the Speedwell figures are two-part moulds with a split-line across the base, and I'm always hoping to find a hatted figure with a smooth base, as neither UNA nor VP seem to have been associated with this pose yet, and a three-part version might be from one of them, but no luck so far!

Another Paramount has also come in; theirs is quite a different pose, although influenced by the Britians figure; he's an older, sheriff type, with a ten-and-a-bit-gallon hat, swanky boots with a cavalry turn-down type thing going on there, more balanced stance, he's begging you to think he fired six - feeling lucky? Punk!

Painting on this one's fuller than my storage copy with the hat, boots and fringe painted black, and further red-highlights on the fringe.

This chap has also been seen here before, but for completion - here he is again! The base marked MADE IN HONG KONG and 634. Following-on from Wednesday's post - I don't know if Benbros had a version of this figure? I certainly don't have one/haven't found one, although both Lone Star and Benbros have a whip-handed chap with similar posing.

P is for Paramount

Another box-ticker from Picasa, but a nice clean sample; Paramount cowboys and Indians . . . or Indian!

I'm guessing the one on the left is a later one (unpainted), but he could just have escaped the out-painter? Based on or direct piracies of Britains-Herald the double-gunslinger is the least like the donor pose with his more upright stance, fringed shirt and ten-gallon hat!

15-05-2017 - Paul Morehead at PW reminded me at the show this weekend that Replicants obtained the Paramount moulds, so the left-hand one is probably from Peter Coal as a re-issue.

T is for Two...Toy Tractors!

The other side of midnight and a link with the past as I cheat Old Father Time by tying the old year to the new! I nearly called this "T is for Two...Taffy Tractors", but some would have seen vague colonial racism, and the link to Taffy Toys is tenuous to say the lest!

One of the first things I got from volume two of the new Farming in Miniature books I will be reviewing in full in the New Year is the fact that the tractor and accessories I blogged way back, are not as simple as they seemed at the time!

There are in fact; two versions of the tractor, and the implements I showed, don't all belong to the Paramount tractor I was blogging. I suspect the Thomas Toys is the original, purely on the tolerance of the front wheel spigots which are the correct length to hold the wheels tight, the Paramount spigots are longer, so the wheels travel a bit.

Most of the other differences are annotated in the comparison photograph above. I shan't correct the old post yet, as firstly I feel you should go out and purchase the two volumes if you wish to know the differences for yourself, and secondly I need to track-down a few bits before I can do both family's justice!

- Farming in Miniature Volume 1: Airfix to Denzil Skinner: A Review of British-made Toy Farm Vehicles Up to 1980

- Farming in Miniature Volume 2: Dinky to Wend-Al: A Review of British-Made Toy Farm Vehicles Up to 1980

A couple of head-ons to show some of the differences above in greater detail, in my original post on the Paramount tractors you will notice a lack of the two front brackets on the bumper (fender) undersides, as the two bagged ones are the same, it would appear there is an intermediate third design.

The Paramount version was also issued as a premium with Oxydol washing powder, these were sellotaped to the powder boxes (there was ONLY Sellotape in the 1950's!) and then stacked in the stores, so get crushed AND ripped, it's a tough life being a premium!

Tractor fans might enjoy this collection pictured in Tasmania...few too-many row-crops for my liking! And thanks again to Adrian Little (one of the co-authors of the above books) for the opportunity to photograph these together.

P is for Paramount - Little Farmer Series

I covered the Paramount tractor when I did a post on tractors a while ago (about a year!), but here is most (?) of the rest of the series. The first time I got one of these I showed it to Paul Morehead at Plastic Warrior (link - as always - to the right!) and he said "Paramount" without hesitation. Now I have a rule that I don't accept anyones word for anything whether in print or in person, until I've seen a boxed/bagged example, or a marked example or a photograph of one or the other. Needless to say although I politely took his advice, it wasn't until I found the rake-harrow that I fully believed him!! [sorry Paul!]

Bagged examples with front and rear of the same card, I'd love to know what the 'Amphibious Ferry Boats' looked like and why you got more than one (boats is plural?) but only the one car...I suspect a typo and it should have been 'Boat' and 'Cars'.

A couple of tractors in close up, both the figure and the overall design of the vehicles puts them in the 28/30mm scale bracket, and while the front wheels use the Hong Kong wagon wheel 'pop-on' system, the rear wheels have an quite heavy eight-gauge mild steel bar to plug on to.

The implements I've tracked down so far. Rear row from the left includes a pair of gang-mowers, disc-harrow, rake-harrow and three furrow plough. In front of them are two trailers and a silage cutter, with a 'bit' in the foreground!

The red section of the rake-harrow (much pirated by our friends in Hong Kong, including Blue Box!) is well marked 'PARAMOUNT PR ENGLAND'. I don't know if animals were also made, or bought in?

Close up of the gang-mowers, the bit and the silage-cutter. The gangs have a pin for another set to cover the cutting gap left by the front two, whether this would have been a single or triple I can't say. The bit seems to be a road bogie for one of the towed items but - try as I might - I can't get it to fit any of my existing items, so at least one is missing? Bogie wheels are the same as the tractor fronts, so it's definitely part of this series.

21/12/12 - It turned-up in a mixed lot a month or so ago, it is the plug-in rear bogie for a 2nd trailer design! All I have to do now is track down the trailer, as the one that turned-up had someone else's name on it..Doh!

01/01/15 - Also; The Paramount would seem to be a copy of a TN Thomas/Thomas Toys original, differences now blogged Here with the Oxydol premium.Some of the above equipments are actually Thomas as well, but I will blog both families another day.

These are well made little toys, and given Paramount's history of rip-offs of Britains Herald Wild West a bit of a mystery (like so much early British plastic). Made of what I consider 'standard' soft polyethylene of the Airfix ready made type, colours are 'toy' rather than realistic, and if anyone has further items to swap I have tractors to reciprocate!

T is for Tractors

These are a few of my tractors, I have a soft spot for farm vehicles and figures, my fathers family have a farm near Retford in Nottingham and in the days before Health & Safety we spent many a holiday riding the grain trailers, running under the chaff-walkers of the combines and jumping out of the old Victorian loading stage into the grain mountain two stories below! I've also spent some time working farms in the past. This is the Paramount tractor, it came with various implements (which I will cover another day) and the figure is approximately 1:72, although the tractor is a bit big. These are by Jean and as can be seen, the tractor came in civil or military colouring. An added touch was the lifting bonnet (hood) which revealed a very basic engine for the farmer to work on! A selection of Hong Kong production with an old hay-turning rake-harrow and a tipping trailer. The little green one is the sort of thing that may have come with Kinder Eggs, not that I believe it did, it's small enough to have originated in a Christmas cracker? Behind is the Britains Lilliput Farm Tractor, with the nearly always missing driver, in front of which is the Hornby Dublo tractor, which never had a driver - as far as I know - being designed to be used as a load for rail flat-beds and low-loaders, or left parked around the marshalling yard! Finally a carded set of Hong Kong efforts, there is actually a piece missing from the bottom right, I suspect a trailer, and keep meaning to test fit my lose HK trailers to see if one fits. The yellow one above looks like a good candidate, but came with a completely different tractor, however such details mean nothing when dealing with HK output!