T is for Two - Carded Western Sets

Well, having split the Past the Post folder yesterday, these Indians might have languished for a while, but in looking to see if Brain had sent anything that might have gone in the previous post I found some Indians he sent last year, which reminded me I had an Ajax set which needs Blogging (I had posted it on a Faceplant group a while ago), so a quick search in the big folder and we have another T is for Two... !

This is the other Past the Post set I have, also from James Opie, but not dated, however it's safe to assume they were bought together and will have been available in July 1964.

A  mix of clones from Crescent and Britains (including another iteration of the running guy we've managed to see three or four times in the last few weeks here at Small Scale World!), along with an odd stumpy chap (far right of the left-hand - yellow - half) who also has several piracies, but I'm not sure I've ID'd his donor yet . . . if he has one? Hilco, some European make? There's some duplicates, so I don't know if this is all the poses available, there may have been more.

Base mark is not the same as the Monogram GI's we looked at in the previous post, and the base shape of the donors is copied, so increasing the likelihood of sorting loose figures into two separate groups?

As we can see I have done here in one of the unknown/TBS boxes! A few points to note, by the asterisks:

• ·         Yellow have similar bases to Chris Smith's UN Infantry (previous post)
• ·         Red are from the canoe we saw a few days ago
• ·         Blue are three, unrelated, unknowns who don't have their own bags yet
• ·         Green are a good lot (LH) and true fakes (RH) pretending to be the other lot!

And this is the sort of image where everyone who's ever saved stuff for me or the Blog needs to be thanked, as it's only by gathering and collating all this HK junk, that the tales - eventually - get told!

And note this is only the Britains/Crescent/Lone Star section, there is a big section of Airfix clones and quite a few Jean copies elsewhere (but they were both later (1980/90's) and I am having more success with brands/carriers for them), while these are mostly from the late 1950's and through the 1960's.

This came-in a while ago, and I posted it elsewhere with the joke "I'm still waiting for the 'Flower Arranging Indians' but in the meantime I guess this will have to do!". A small 'dime store' set from Ajax with ex-Bergan/Beton sculpts all in a hard polystyrene.

Brian had sent these a while ago, Ajax copies of Beton, with a nice selection of colours; I rather like the one on the right who appears to be mottled blue/yellow.

A sizer; while the mounted figures match the 50mil'ish of the originals and the Airfix/Reamsa/Reisler (and others) copies, the foot figures are heading for 70mm, nice big toys for little hands to grab!

T is for Two - Khaki Infantry Rack Toys

This wasn't even in the quese until I found the .zip file from Chris in Downloads this morning and thought I'd better pull my finger out and get them up here before the end of the month, so then I thought I might as well add the others as they follow a theme!

Fairylite (whom I regularly confuse - in my head - with the antipodean Feathalite! Not here, yet, I think?) were an early British importer/re-packer, jobbing both domestic production and Hong Kong output (there is a Fairylite version of the Jimson tank and transporter for instance) and Chris Smith sent these as part of our further discussions (off Blog) on the African 'Zulus' the other-few-weeks back.

The set bears some similarities with the blue & yellow trays which turn-up on evilBay from time to time, and of which a good example was recently in Plastic Warrior magazine. The back has a strange 'envelope-fold' closure and wire-hanger which looks easy to tare, so that this has survived intact is a minor miracle.

Those other trays however have the Britains/Timpo copies, whereas these are clearly Lone Star clones, painted-up to UN service, which could be a clue as to approximate production date, after the 1948 Middle East deployments, the next UN mission which caught the popular imagination was the war/s and insurgencies resulting from the collapse of the Belgian Congo, so early to mid-1960;s for this set? the 'Empire Made' is another clue, by the 1970's most mentions of 'empire' on prodcts from the colony had been replaced by some form of 'Hong Kong'.

This contemporary set (dated '64 by the diligent - and legendary - James Opie) has been seen here before, but back when the Blog had forty visitors a day, not the number we have now, and I know some people don't bother with the tag-list much, so we'll have another quick look!

Past the Post, who I mentioned in those Zulu posts, as being a possible source of those figures, there's so little on them they may be a phantom branding for the UK (or other) importers, and I have seen larger trays like the one in PW, or the one above, but in the same red-yellow Past the Post graphics.

Copies of Monogram's PM35/8213 US Infantry kit-figures, there are several sets of these and we have looked at them briefly here at Small Scale World in the past, only the carded rack-toy examples though, and I will get round to comparing and contrasting all of them with the lose samples - one day!

The marking is neatly stamped in two parts 'MADE IN' and 'HONG KONG', despite also having the 'Empire made' on the box. These are smaller (45mm 'ish) than the closer to 54mm of the other sets mentioned/above.

F is for Follow-Up - Native American Zulus!

Well, it is the first day of Rack Toy Month and while I will try to keep up the current output, I have had a lazy week on emptying a house, so at some point I must concentrate more on real life and trying to find the deeds in a pile of paperwork which if stacked A4 would be over eight-feet tall!

While I was preparing the article we saw the other day (three posts down the page) Chris Smith was A) taking delivery of more figures (and a carded set!) and B) putting his thinking cap on, which resulted in a hypothesis I think has wings, and a quick trip into the attic this morning to see if I could add anything, which I could, but not much!

So, the smaller set of clones now have a 'set' set - if you know what I mean. Chris was worried about the title, but I think - within the context of the time - it's OK to see, I was worried, when he first mentioned it, that it might include the other n-word, I've seen children's annuals from the 1920's which contain appallingly racist stuff, so Negro Fighters is pretty tame for what was a rack-toy which may date back to the late 1950's?

It can be taken as offensive though, Wikipedia says - "In the English language, negro is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The term can be construed as offensive, inoffensive, or completely neutral, largely depending on the region or country where it is used. It has various equivalents in other languages of Europe." so is presented here within its historical context and for research purposes only, neither the author nor the contributor condone it's everyday use. In Spanish it is the word for black.

A close-up of the really quite charming artwork and a shot of the figures in situ; note we now see/have the crouching guy in the smaller set, which takes the pose count to seven for both sized sets or 22 to find for a one of each with the originals, still considerably more with plastic and paint variations.

But why are we also looking at two Native Americans (top left)? I'll let Chris tell it: "By now you will have spotted the two figures top left in [the] photo 1 and be wondering why they are included. I had had that Indian in brown a couple of times in mixed lots and always put him in with Wild West lots of early Hong Kong copies of British figures for resale. Then when I got the two black larger version warriors there was that Indian in black as well, on checking, the base mark is the same as the warriors and the paint for both the black and brown versions . . . So my theory is that this Indian pose was the 8^th pose, what do you think? Hard to prove until a bag/boxed set turns up."

I think he's right! And it was 'off to the attic' to see if I could find any as I had an idea I might have one somewhere? First stop was the Unknown Wild West Box 2, which is not supposed to have Britains' poses in it, but does if they are part of a mixed-origins set or 'lot'. I found two in a smallish sample, obviously I've only been collecting the larger scales for twelve or so years, but I still managed to find two (marked with asterisks).

However . . . neither quite fitted the bill! One is much smaller and unmarked the other has a faint 'made in Hong Kong' mark in a different font and a bunch of likewise -marked Wild West mates, so it was back to the drawing board - or attic! Note that both have their Britains feather-headdress reproduced.

Turning to a temporary box which got half-emptied in the course of this morning's antics as all the swoppet-copies were 'swapped-out' to a new box with only swoppets in! I managed to find one in a bag by himself!

This is he, and he's also from the larger Zulu type, going by the base mark, the point to note is that there is a definite attempt to created a more African style top-knot instead of the American's headdress, not quite the full quoit, but aiming there?

Chris's pair, one black, one brown, no matching Wild West, it all adds up to an eighth figure / ninth-pose in this range of originals and clones! And while he's right that it will take the finding of a set to confirm, its absence from the obvious set; the Past The Post set seen here, helps firm-up my own theory vis-à-vis that being the eventual/likely brand for the larger set of 'Zulus'.

Chris's are also both from the larger set, so two paces forward, one pace back, are we looking for the same figure in the smaller set and could it be the unmarked one from my unknowns (feathers say 'no'!) or will it, too, have the upper-surface base mark we looked at the other day?

Questions, questions!

While I had them all out I shot this chap, in the hope that flushed with these minor victories (and that carded smaller set which is a proper victory!), we might be able to find out something about this Britains 'Herald' Hong Kong copy. He has a separate knife unlike the donor, which is similar to but heavier than the Timpo knife and has something 'late Italian' about his production values, think Dulcop or all that Kinder/Giodi/CGGC stuff?

Five days later (6th August; early hours) . . . 

Literally sat there looking at me while I edited this and the previous post on the subject! He must have come-in with the other four additions, but not knowing Chris's theory, I'd sorted him out with the other Wild West and he was still waiting on the chest of drawers to go in the Wild West TBS box!
 

C is for Carpet Warrior Clones

A slightly bitty post this one, as I'd already got some images in the long queue when - as a continuation of the series of Jungle Explorer set's revelation posts a year or two ago, I think (?) - Chris Smith sent me his shots, only for me to take some more, lose the post, find it again, delete the duplications between the two lots and then - the other day - get some more in and take a separate shot which hung around for a few weeks as I couldn't find the folder again! In the end I found it didn't have African, Warriors, Lone Star, Jungle or even Tarzan in the title, but the rather obvious Zulus!

Anywhoos, it means this is a bit of a meander rather than a straight narrative, but I can sneak a separate Charbens shot it, so hopefully some of it will be of some interest to some readers!

We'll start with Chris's main shot as it is a comparison between some of the better clones and the Lone Star originals (which I haven't been able to locate (one reason the post was on hold in the 'long queue'), and may not have, although I thought I had them somewhere - maybe only the Cherilea 'Nubians'?); Lone Star black plastic, Hong Kong clones; brown. In Chris's words;

"Fairly common Hong Kong copies of the Lone Star natives, I happen to like them even though they are turd brown lumps of plastic!"

"I had a single black one then recently got a yellow/cream one so thought I would do a comparison shot it is then I noticed they are a slightly different mould, smaller with a squarish base and Hong Kong mark on the upper surface . While sorting out the best brown copy for the shot turns out I also had a brown one in this smaller size. Thing is all three of these smaller figures are the same pose, okay there maybe others out there but another possible diecast accessory or cracker gift? The black and brown ones are painted, the yellow one isn’t, both the black and yellow have one feather missing."

My sample a while ago now, and I have a few more of the black copies (no originals in this shot, they're all HK), some coloured ones which I think came from the legendary Barry Blood's sell-offs back in 2009/10, and which I also think are where Chris's cream/yellow one belongs, and another smaller black chap (bottom, yellow shield) who I used to suspect to be from a third source; he's not, he's a probably earlier version of the 'monochromatic' ones in bright colours. As you can see i think most poses will appear in all types - see caveat below!

I have had one Lone Star come in with a odd-lot recently and here he's compared to one of the brown ones in close-up, the larger brown- (and black-) plastic ones are the first generation copies I suspect, certainly they are the closest size-wise.

A base comparison; better one coming below.

Charbens only did the three Africans but they go quite well with the Lone Star set having the leg-feathers if not the head-quoits of their stable-mates.

I had a few more of the coloured ones come-in, enabling this better shot of them, I am suspecting the 7th pose (knobkerrie) wasn't copied over to this smaller set, as the Lone Star (8th pose) stomping 'chief' (channeling a bit of native American he is!) wasn't carried over to the larger clones? But, I stand to be corrected on both musings, neither Chris nor I have large enough samples to draw firm conclusions from either absence?

Lone Star originals, Black and brown larger copies and painted and unpainted smaller copies, I can't call the single sample black or brown, he's a dark, damp-looking khaki, while Chris has brown AND black, so they may have had several plastic-colour issues under the paint? It's also confusing that the throwing spear figure is a heavier/larger sculpt in both lines, while the waving spear pose is lighter/smaller in both!

Improved the contrast! Assuming the absences mentioned above are held over time, this gives us a target of 21 (8+7+6) figures to collect to have one of each physically different figure, but many more if plastic colour or paint variation is to be sought to the n^th degree!

Lone Star have a pretty standard mark, for them, the larger figures have a crude and roughly engineer's-stamped 'Hong Kong', most with a mould-release pin-mark, while the smaller figures as Chris pointed out above are marked on the upper surface of the base with a neater stamp; 'Hong Kong', as two small blocks.

Something else I would point out (against an eventual return to them, here at SSW) is that the base markings on both sets above tie them in with the similar Crescent/Lone Star Wild West copies and some Britains/Monogram/Timpo 'Khaki Infantry' clones, some of which we've already looked at here (Past The Post for instance) in the past, so we'll compare that way another day, in order to try separating some of these copies into potential manufacturer 'families'! Indeed I wouldn't be supprised to find some of the above figures (larger?) came from/in those long Past The Post boxes?

That's it, a bit of back and forward, but hopefully something of interest? I think I can say both Chris and I are rather enamoured of these funny little piracies!

H is for Hong Kong, Part 1 - Overview and 'Past the Post'

Note; In the next three posts making this set of articles HK (italisised) refers to a specific company and not my usuall short-form for 'Hong Kong'.

Following on from posts above and the prolific riff-offery of Hong Kong, particularly in the late 1960's and 1070's, here is a quick three-part'er on the sort of products resulting from a bit of piracy of the British producers of larger-scale figures.

Top is a comparison between the ACW figures of CMV and HK (see part three - below). The main image shows from top left to bottom right; two colour variants of the Britains Herald, one UK (black with brown base) ethylene figure the other a Hong Kong vinyl (grey with green base), a Paramount with hollow base and a marked 'HONG KONG' figure (see below).

The second row starts with a HK copy, then three unknown British copies (could be either/or all or none of; Kentoys/Speedwell/Trojan/VP) while the last row is all CMV.

Note that one of the British rip-offs has no hat, while the Paramount is a very different sculpt.

The unknown Hong Kong figure marked neatly on the edge of a quite deep base, with the number '634' on the opposite rim.

Past the Post went with copies of the Monograme GI's (another of the most copied/pirated/licenced sets of figures ever) and an assortment of Indians/Native Americans, all just over 50mm. There were double-decked boxed sets as well and I have eBay pictures of Cowboy sets in the archive.