D is for Donation - Chris - Historicals and Ceremonials

A bit late with part two today, as it's tomorrow already, but I crashed-out after work. At the grand old age of 62, doing 80-odd miles, stuck behind hesitant fuckwits in KIA's whilst also doing deliveries, rather takes it out of you, and I keep nodding-off after work, waiting for the weather forecast, which I then only half-hear! Anyway, they can stay up for a bit, with maybe just a Capsule toy post later today, and another donation-pair tomorrow proper - Thursday? Chris's older era and ceremonial toy soldiers and model figures, sent to me, to share with you;

 

Medievals defend against a Roman attack! The de rigueur shot of post-Giant and Giant knock-offs, I've been quite fortunate, in accruing these over the years, especially as a small-scale only collector for years, and it's the only way to obtain enough of them to start drawing conclusions, sorting their horses from the many Wild West sets, working out which lot go with which fort, & etc., so the more, the merrier, there's often a Quaker in the mix, and red horse is he, this time!

 

As if the cowboy pencil sharpeners weren't enough of a find, these, also 'Germany', are lovely things, a bit outside the toy soldier sphere, but absolutely within the whole lucky-bag, Christmas cracker, dime-store novelty oeuvre.

 

I'm not sure the two 'stakes' go with them, and I haven't worked out how the triggers work, they don't seem to hold the band, and may need reversing or inverting, but very interesting things! The channel is match-wood dimensions, so careful with those eyes, kids!

 

A few days later, after an email tutorial from Chris - The notch at the thin end of the bar collects the rubber band (red is original, manila is a replacement), then one of the flat edges forward of the notch, locks behind the trigger, pushing the trigger down, when you touch the trigger, it pushes the bar 'arrow' back up, and the - tensioned - rubber-band does the rest! 'Health & Safety' disc on the business end suggests mid-1970's onwards?

 

And eclectic bunch here! The Piper is a modernish tourist keepsake, as is the Lifeguard, who, almost matching the Horse Guard I got at November's Sandown Park show, is another of the - previously seen here - G·G ones, to join the Guardsman we've seen in the past.

 

I love the Russian (?) OBE standard-bearer conversion, from a Herald Guardsman, and the little chap is a rubber key-ring, but can anyone ID the Mountie, I assume he's a Canadian Tourist thing, from the size, and casual pose, he's hard 'styrene plastic, with a quite thin base for his size/scale? Or, is he an accessory-figure from a 1:24/1:25th model vehicle kit?

 

Two of the many figures accompanying various versions of Noah's Arks, not Blue Box, not Holly, and not New Maries, nor the Arco one (which was also another brand's - RAE), who's Noah was fatter than the pink one in the middle, and moving on to him, although similar, and having one of the three-digit codes, I suspect he isn't Holly or LB (Lik Be) 'funny animal' stuff, either! So the search goes on for both origins!

 

Ah, not sure if these were Chris or Peter, I suspect Chris, but I found them down the back of the bed a few days after I had finished sorting both Peter's third tranche, and Chris's latest parcel! One of the newer discoveries on the right, he's missing the 'styrene icing-pick, one of my favourites in blue, from Christmas crackers, and a 1990's Lucky Bag jobbie, with a shit-ton of flash!

 

And it's the first time the two on the right have been compared side-by-side, they go well together, and are marching off the same foot, a big band could be possible! Equally, those cake-spiked red plastic ones we've seen here a couple of times, are lacking a bass-drummer, I wonder if they are the same size . . . but they are standing at attention? 25-30mm between the three of them, all polyethylene.

 

Two MPC original 35mm's on the floor, and a victorious Hong Kong copy, in what I think is a new colour, to me at least. I've said before I thought I'd blogged these years ago, but it seems I just imagined an article in my head, while handling them, back in Berkshire, and didn't even shoot them, so that article has yet to come, but will be worth the wait, as there's packaging for both types, but I'm pretty sure my HK sample only adds black as a third colour to the MPC red and silver? So blue is all new!

 

This is fascinating, Chris said he'd seen them described as wood (it's obviously plastic), and by Van Brode, I couldn't find anything online, until I added 'wooden' to the search terms, and then found chapter and verse on them. They were made for the Van Brode Milling Co., by an unknown company in West Germany, a sticker on the base stated, for the cereal offer 'Sculptured Treasures of History's Immortals', which was a mail away, one bust (of twelve) per request, for which 50 cents and 2 Crisp Rice wrappers had to be sent first, presumably if you had multiple cents and wrappers, you could 'request' more, at one time?

 

The source (Worthpoint! So ex-evilBay), stuck with the carved wood fallacy, but they are antiqued plastic, possibly polystyrene, although the sample sent by Chris is now cracking in a very convincing old-wood drying out fashion! The cracks are not crumbly, and there is no dust, nor stickiness, so a new form of plastic death? Too large a single-shot or density of moulding? But, given all the Cleveland, Kellogg's and Total busts around the same time, a lovely addition to the collection.

 

As is this, presumably a US tourist thing, it's a slush-cast pewter/whitemetal bust, around the same size as the Van Brode Napoleon, around the 3½-4 inch mark, and over-painted in a silver, which may have been brighter once?

 

A capsule-toy ninja, a rather nice knight, in the style of Schleich-Papo-ELC-Wilco, and possibly from the latter's now defunct range, and one of those possibly, originally Fontanini or Manurba (?) gnome sculpts, but common in various forms, materials and sizes, and various formats, here as a key-ring hanger.

 

The knight's 'heraldry' reveals his origins in China, where they've given him a very ornate and oriental embroidered surcoat, which is not following the laws of heraldry, or the rules of the Collage of Arms! Unless someone was granted five wind-wraiths, on a field azure, matallique!

 

Two, probably factory-painted, Assyrian flats, almost certainly German, but without the catalogues in front of me, I couldn't begin to guess the maker! The horseman's lance is too far-bent to risk bending back, but they still make a nice pair with some age.

 

A nice sample of the separate head guardsman, we looked at their fort, a long time ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/t-is-for-tower-fortress-with-soldiers.html

 

I'm after a bigger sample of these, while the rest are buried in storage, as I'd like to do a photo-shoot of all the 'legal' drill poses, possible with these, the At Ease, can only go on the Easy legs, but the officer, Slope Arms and bugler can go on three different legs for instance, and there is half-a-post in the queue, on that subject, but involving the larger figures with oblong bases! So thanks again to Chris, for these and everything above . . . and below!

 

Pirates . . . come back in September!

M is for Maruzem Beretta 92SB

Yeah! Don't tell the Rozzers, they shoot you for owning shit like this! Fortunately, it's buried in a storage container, and is only a lighter! But it's made to resemble the real thing, and is unusual for being a lighter, these Japanese-licensed toy guns are usually air-soft BB pellet firers, not lighters.

It's actually scaled-down a bit too, maybe 30%'ish? But you wouldn't carry this around now, it really could get you shot! All the rage at a leisure-pit, keys in the fruit-bowl, bright, patterned skirts, long hair and flares, freak-off, in the early 1970's, how times change!

 

When we were kids, we loved stuff like this, we'd spend our pocket-money on it, on a day-trip to France with the school, but you don't even see it for sale over there now . . . my brother bought a flick-knife, a proper one!

 

It's a gas-burner, filled via a nozzle hidden in a small recess in the pistol grip, and a small flame-adjuster is hidden in a recessed slot near the trigger. 

 

There is a more obviously novelty one, petrol/lighter-fluid fired, but it needs work, the Bakelite handle has come loose with warping, and the mechanism is jammed solid, so, I thought, maybe, if I ever get the time, and manage to settle down, I'd do it as a project for YouTube, I've seen people work wonders with solid lumps of rust, this just needs a bit of TLC; disassemble, clean, straiten, lubricate and reassemble!

D is for Dustbin Lids

That's 'lid' as in helmet, not top, I know, it doesn't really work, but there you are, or, here we are! I want to leave this up for a day or two, so procrastinated and posted nothing for nearly two days while I thought about it, heay-ho! I'll still leave it up for a while, which will give me time to photograph a fantastic parcel from Chris Smith, which has all sorts of goodies (and bad guys) in it!

 

We're looking - in depth - at the First Version, Cherilea, 'Swoppet' Knights, here, because I have been lucky enough to go from a handful of bits to a master-collection, in less than two years. With a small but significant purchase at the Plastic Warrior show back in 2024 (possibly from Adrian at the now defunct Mercator), a smaller bag at PW this year, and the box above them which was a private purchase, to which I added a helmet (which had almost certainly fallen out of one of the three samples, and a plume, from a bits-lot.

 

There may be a few more in storage somewhere, but unlikely to make much difference to the whole, above. And the point of this post is to try and pin-down all the variables, a task which I may fail at, and which Matt Thier may have done a better job of back in the late 2010's in PW's magazine, when he went through all the Cherilea swoppets in some detail.

 

Poses first, and I am confident there are only six figures, five knights and this kneeling archer, who's a bit large, and a bit gawkish in posture, but would slip in-between the Britains and Lone Star chaps, but dwarf them slightly!

 

He is the only pose who doesn't wear a helmet, so his head is always painted, and a good one has three or even a formal four-count, of small arrows stuffed in his tube-quiver. 

 

But he comes in two versions, some with a 'ring hand' and the bow stuffed through the hole, some with a 'stud-hand' and the bow attached with a small plug-hole and stud, at the hand-grip. I have no idea which came first or why they may have replaced one with the other, as they both seem to work well, But maybe it's easier to lose the bow (even in the shop-stock boxes, at the store), from the plug-together version, and so that was the earlier, replaced one?

 

Three sword fighters, and this one seems to be the only one to officially get the cloak? Striking down, overarm, he's about to make a mess of someone who lost their footing, or who has tired, from existing wounds?

 

Striking around at waist height, he's in a fight to the death with an equal!

 

Ready, or parrying with his shield.

 

The standing waiting chap, never that useful in a fight, and I don't know if either lance is correct, the one with the dragon is associated with the mounted 2nd type, from the Sharna-Ware years and the rather compact castle play set, while the nicely, vicious-looking one is lovely, but the colour's not quite matching anything else?

 

The sixth sculpt is also a swordsman, but easier to separate out as he's striking overhead with both hands.

 

I've only noticed two different heads, one looking more like Charles I, the other looking more like a page-boy, or a Conquistador, but I must confess I didn't look that carefully, so there may be more. And while the archers' always have painted hair, it seems they gave-up painting the head inside the helmets quite quickly, with unpainted being more common than painted, overall.

 

Helmets, there are six dustbins, and two more traditional closed Burganets, but as I only have single examples of one or two, there may, by extrapolation, be more? And that's the rule for all the following!

 

I should point out that while they are mostly looking forwards in the upper shot, and backwards in the lower shot, it's not that simple, with the ones on either end of the row possibly facing forward in the lower shot and vise-versa, while the second from the right isn't clear at all! I also noticed the white plume is a fourth design! 

 

Single-headed Imperial chickens and two designs of cross, on the classic 'shield' shaped shield, of 13/14th century design, with a raised edge. A plug on the hand pushes through the shield and into the decorative element.

 

Earlier 11/12th century lozenge, or 'kite' shields with a more ornate chicken (looking the other way) and a fleur-de-lys (or, 'lis, a stylized lily or iris symbol, associated with French royalty, and symbolizing purity and the Virgin Mary). These shields seem to have been both moulded poorly, and then fettled poorly, and can be lumpy, misshapen or both!

 

I also have a double-headed chicken, but it's missing a wing, and all these are on the more decorative 15th century shields, which also have the raised rims.

There are two versions of three-point plume, and both seem to have sub-variants, which may be generations, or multiple cavities? This is the 'tumescent' one with two pointy-uppies and a drooper.

 

While the other variant has two droppers and one sticky-uppy, and is therefore the 'limp' one! Again, signs of different versions or cavities?
 

The only other crest design I have is a Wyvern (four limbed dragon), and again, as with helmets, shields, and shield achievements, I have only one of some of these, so there may well be more. So if you have items not shown here, or obvious variations, let us know!

 

All references to chicken/s should read eagle/s, I blame Artificial Intelligence!

F is for Follow-ups - Various, Old & New

A few follow-ups which have been accruing over the last few years, and an eclectic mix of bits enhancing older posts and a couple of more recent ones.

 

 

A couple more KUM pencil sharpeners, these being a small pistol, and a revolver with a drum magazine! We looked at KUM, with more relevance to the Blog's interests here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/search/label/KUM

 

While this is an advert for pre-printed bookplates, with an emphasis on Sci-Fi / Fantasy, there's also a more traditional, even 'monkish' design. Found on the Internet and credited to David O. Knuttunen, it's the back cover ad from IF (not Galaxy), October 1966, and enhances this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/04/b-is-for-bookplates-1-overview.html

 

BEM - Bug Eyed Monster, an acronym which has faded from favour!  

 

Meanwhile as a backup to the recent posts on Holly, Lik Be (LB) and the 'Gygax' monsters, on the left here is the copy of the Monster Manual, which I was using along with the later lever-arch file.

 

The other two, which came in at roughly the same time, are a fascinating book on the Tommy Gun rival to Action Man, made by Pedigree Toys, and it's surprising how much Tommy Gun stuff my brother and I had, thinking it was Palitoy-Hasbro, because most of our stuff tended to come from the Church fêtes and Jumble Sales of Heckfield and the surrounding environs, or the local tip (dump)!

 

While the other book is a useful history of Marx, an updated volume, I still don't have Vol.I in any version . . . it will turn-up, everything does! 

 

The Mechanoid bits in the smaller inset, came in a while back, and the two ladders are the real treasure, as none of mine had them, now two will be completed, and the radar disc will finish the green one, while a near complete one came-in recently, with nice turquoise legs - also needing a ladder!

 

Looking at them, I think I may have a couple more spares in the 'unknown ladder' drawer of my old multi-drawer cabinet! So when it all comes together I should have three complete, another one with two-each different coloured legs and the gold-accessories one still needing a ladder, along with a few bits - that's a fleet!

 

 

A couple of rather poor images of a set of the Marx copies, and a generic set of the same copies of Cherilea astronauts/spacemen, I actually managed to buy the foot-pump set, twice from the same seller, because I'd forgotten I'd bought the first one (generics from Italy), so we will look at them properly another day, but all three above adding to this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/03/e-is-for-expelling-few-myths.html

 

While this will add a bit to this post from two years ago

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/05/e-is-for-eggcellent-effigies.html

 

He's a Humpty I shot at Sandown Park this weekend just gone, is a lead-solid from Sacul, and has had the base repaired/replaced.

S is for Silver Knight

Except, they are blue, red and black knights, with a higher or equal likelihood of gold paint than silver paint! But Silver Knight they were dubbed and Silver Knight they remain! The largest of the many Supreme / SP-Toys medieval sets/lines, and my least favourite, for mostly unfair reasons, but we all have our prejudices!

Empirical evidence! Taken from the Silver Knight Deluxe Play Set we are going to be looking at in the bulk of this post, we have seen the odd figure in the past, indeed, in past Supreme posts, but they were overdue for their own post!

Smaller sets were available, under the parent branding, here from Amazon or Alibarba? The Greco-Roman archer being a obvious incongruity, and a common trope with Supreme's medieval lines. Possibly discontinued now, you can still find brand-new examples on both platforms and in the odd, smaller, independent toy shop . . . if you still have one!

As I recently did with this set, going for a song (£9.99 I think, 12-something maybe?), the Silver Knight Deluxe Play Set, a small fort with outlying tower, siege equipment and two handfuls of stuff; figures in the one hand and smaller accessories in the other.

I would imagine these came separately in different sized sets, or were so available from Supreme or Toy Major's catalogues for the likes of Boley, Halsall (HTI) or Simba, if they wanted something in a smaller price-bracket/packaging?

The fort is a standard toy fort with two gates and a footprint about the same 8/10-inches as the old Airfix, Atlantic or Giant forts, the other a rather neat 'folly' with crenellated-tower, steep stairs (easily defended) and lower walkway.

Full contents on the left, pre-bagging of different elements also helps the factory packers add them to other, different sized sets, whether branded-up Supreme, Toy Major or someone else.

To the right we have the weapon-rack and a rather odd cannon above, and some of the other accessories below which includes the shields (one of the reasons I don't like this set - ridiculously over-sized and clumsy shields, breaking several of the rules of heraldry to add to their crimes!), reasonable weapons, a ladder and a pair of flick-a-pults (my word) for the battlements.

The siege tower, a pretty good model for its type and not directly copying anyone else's, it has more luck with the battlements than the towers though, but one of the points of towers was to remain out of reach! Like all toy seige towers a scale compromise (also seen in most toy forts/castles) means it's perfect for HO/OO-guage 1:76/:72 or 20/25mm figures.

'Flick-a-pult' in situ, and the ladder positioned as both defenders and attackers might use it. As there is only one, the assumption is it for the defenders to man their own battlements, the attacks having their siege-tower!

Other accessories include a guillotine and archery butts, the cannon/flick-a-pult ammo is in a bright, international emergency-orange, but I guess it helps find them and prevents them disappearing up vacuum cleaners!

The weapons can all (not at once, but after the figures have been armed) be kept in the rack, a rather fanciful item, but plenty of play-value for kids, while the lances have safety-points, which leaves them better suited to jousting than war-fighting! The cannon works as weird as it looks!

The figures. They aren't as awful as I think of them, the mounted figures and one foot figure have moving arms which makes them action-figures, or semi-action figures (one or two points of articulation is no more than Galoob gave their Action Fleet 30-mils!), and they are biggish, solid lumps of PVC or its modern equivalent. And - as you can see - 'silver' is not the stand-out feature!

Got arty with the arches! If you place the small tower in front of the castle, as a gatehouse, you create a tunnel for the attackers to negotiate, with fire and sword! On the left open and closed gates, just because!

An unbranded generic on feebleBay a while ago, same knights, different fort (simple one-piece relief sculpt) and a new siege weapon, a catapult of the scorpion type, other sets have an arm-over ballista or double A-frame battering-ram. Missing a few bits including a horse, it only came with four figures and would have been quite cheap and probably well within rack-toy parameters; £5.99 or thereabouts? Although probably popping-up to 12-quid odd near Christmas!