S is for Seen Elsewhere, and Seen Here!

But all new images, a bit of a reprise for the Torgano Wild West demi-rondes I got at last year's Plastic Warrior show, from Adrian Little, to remind those with a bit of spare time this Saturday, that if they get their arses to Whittton (Twickenham), they too might find something like this to take home, at the best Toy Soldier show in the calendar, but I'll be there, looking too!

 

Held at The Winning Post, a motel, inn and the Harlequin Suite function room (the important bit), technically at Whitton, which is the nearest station, it's a few hundred yards from both the headquarters of Rugby Union and the eponymous Harlequin's Stoop, both of whom consider themselves very much Twickers!

 

I nicked the travel details from Paul's PW Blog, I've been a bit lazy this year! 

 

Directions to The Plastic Warrior Show

BY ROAD

From Outside London take M25, M3, A316, go over one roundabout and entrance to the winning Post is after 500 metres on your left.

From Inner London, after Richmond Circus follow A316 and continue straight on over three roundabouts. You will pass the Winning Post on your right. At the next roundabout take the fourth exit (returning, back the way you have come, but on the other side of the A316 dual carriageway) and the entrance to the Winning Post will be on your left after 500 metres.

FREE PARKING. There is extensive free parking at the site and in the residential roads behind the Winning Post. The Harlequin Suite is to the right of the main building. The venue is in the London ULEZ charging zone so you will need to check that your vehicle complies with the omissions requirements or pay the relevant fee.

BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT

From Central London and the South of England by overground train (South Western Railways) from Waterloo or Clapham Junction to Whitton Station. There are two trains an hour and the journey time is approx. 30 minutes, this is a loop line so four trains an hour run from two different platforms at Waterloo Station.

From the North of England by train to London, arriving at Kings Cross, St. Pancras or Euston.

Take the London Underground Victoria Line to 'Vauxhall' and change for South Western Railways to Whitton Station as above. Whitton Station is just three minutes walk from the Winning Post. Turn left out of the station past Jubilee Avenue and Pauline Crescent, the next turning on your left is the back entrance to the Winning Post.

Should you wish to take the London Underground to Richmond as in previous years, the easiest thing is to change platform and take a South Western Railways service to Whitton Station as above, (four trains an hour from Richmond, journey time seven minutes).

Alternatively you could get a black cab or a 110 bus from the taxi rank and bus stop outside the station, a cab should take about 10 minutes, the bus is 24 minutes.

Oyster cards are accepted on all London Underground lines, buses and South Western Railways to Whitton Station.


The Winning Post Inn

Opens from 08.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m. serving breakfast or coffee for those who arrive early. The pub serves drinks (alcohol) from 11.00 a.m. and lunches from 12.00 a.m. There is no cash point on site but Whitton town centre, with a full range of shops and cash machines, is just three minutes walk from the hall.

Within the Winning Post complex is a Premier Inn travel hotel for those who want to break their journey and stay overnight. 

 

Contact details as normal;

 

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Blog. - http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.com/
eMail - pw.editor3@gmail.com (pw.editor@ntlworld.com)
Tel. - 01483 830 743
 

 See you there!

Q is for Quickie! Seen Elswhere

And actually seen here! I was going to do a longish post on Ambulances, but I was up at 4:40 to drive to Luton and have successfully battled the salary mongs on the M25, back again. Now fatigue is catching-up, and I'm going to have a snooze before work, so here very much as a reminder, are a few bits from last year's Plastic Warrior show, which - as far as this year's - is only four Saturday's away, three and half weeks peeps! We did see them in last years show report posts, but these went on a Faceplant group at the time.

 

A pair of 1st version British Paratroopers from Airfix.

 

A trio of Trojan 14th Army figures, joining a growing sample.

 

Four of the Hilco ANZACs cloned from Timpo, which had been on my shopping-list last year, I'm not sure what's on the list this year, in fact, I don't know, because I've given it little thought, beyond the one or two 60mm Crescent Mohicans I still need! But I've three weeks to give it some thought, and save some dosh, and, so do you!

 

Contact details, I expect Brian Carrick (who was to feature in the Ambulance post!) will do a detailed travel guide in the next week or so, and there'll be more on Faceplant for those still there.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PlasticWarrior?fref=ts
Blog. - http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.com/
eMail - pw.editor3@gmail.com (pw.editor@ntlworld.com)
Tel. - 01483 830 743

N is for Not u'Nuthurrr One!

Oh yeah! Winging its way to me just before I went off to work yesterday . . . no, it had been there for a while, but I was ill the day before, and a bit slow yesterday! However, I promised to post it by last night, only to realise I couldn't extract the image from a PDF, Doh! So a bit late, but, in case anyone hasn't seen it yet (it's been on John's, Stads' and PW's Blogs already!) here's notification of . . .

 

. . . the 41st year of Plastic Warrior'ing! Some of you may notice it's slipped another couple of weeks in the calendar, but if you're one of those whose spent out at Sandown Park in May (guilty as a Perp in Mega City One, m'lud), you'll now have seven or eight weeks to save-up for Twickenham's polymer-fest . . . Bargain!

 

Full details here, I'll try to post something similar closer to the even, as will Brian Carrick, I'm sure. 

 

4th July? That rings a bell? . . . Hummmm, 4th July . . . oh yeah! Battle of Klushino, upstart Russia taught a lesson by the Poles in 1610, that'll be something to commemorate! See you there!

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! Everything Else

So, we reach the last of the plunder, bought or donated, from the sort-of-fortieth PW show, at Whitton, in SW London, this June, just gone, and it's the bits & bobs, trees/plants, vessels, and remaining vehicular stuff!

A bunch of the Cereal Premium ships from Quaker Oats, we've seen the whole set before, here, and a previous lot of additional colours, but here's a few more!

Somebody gave me this at some point in the course of the day's proceedings, he came over and asked me about it, I said I didn't know, but that it looked both modern and really nice, and he said "Keep it" and left me holding it, I hope his name is in the footer acknowledgement, below, but if it isn't, eMail me! Sitting at it, is a larger scale Blue Box doll house kid, and smaller Britains Garden adult!

A fine rack-toy of the 6d/5p variety, a set of tools, which, had I seen it in the 70's, would have been purchased for Action Man! I reckon they would have fitted nicely in one of those silver Arctic Explorer crates, and could have been stowed in my Spartan personnel carrier!

 

Barrels from a die-cast Waggon , one of those Benbros-Charbens-Kemlows minor die-casters? A couple of road signs, one damaged, but it might be an only sample, and a badge probably from Brian, who keeps giving me his old badges, as I think he knew I'd kept all mine, and one day I'll have to sort them all out and throw them up here as a fun-post, on all the shows over the years! I've even got most of my Sandown stickers somewhere!

Scenics; including a small moon, or large cannon-ball, probably from a rack-toy bag, a Hong Kong hay-rick/stack clone, and what I suspect is a rabbit-hutch or poultry pen from Taylor, missing its front-door/mesh, but interestingly inscribed with the full For Good Toys slogan. It's probably taken from the lead original.

FG Taylor's 'squirrel-tree', a Lego Chestnut tree, a couple of Britains window-box scenics, and three smaller Barratt trees.

Largo's hydrofoil motor vessel Disco Volante (somewhat simplified!), from Gilbert, I have the carded one, so it's nice to now have a loose one, complete, if slightly discoloured by age (smoking or UV?), although I think an ultrasonic bath with diluted bleach can bring it back white, without taking the red off?

Mixed vessels, nothing too exciting, the smaller rubber-boat is Corgi I think, and the tug may be Springwell, a reissue of the Tudor Rose vessel, or one of the TR vessels (reader-driven post in the pipeworks, on that one!), several baking powder premiums and an odd colour of the usually silver/grey copies of Minic waterline ships 

Aircraft include a damaged and stripped Messerschmitt, a second Inter Cities Services Rota-Ship from Injection Moulders, a small spacy thing, probably from a board game and another Blue Box 'chopper', "I lurve the smell of vintage plastic in the mornin's!".

Another race-car, also Quaker, standard colour and number, but until it's checked against the master collection, I won't trust it! A large egg, from the discount-store rival to Kinder; Wow Eggs, an infant toy which will end-up going to charity, but is at least 'in the archive' now!

 

While the truck is - I think - the New Maries copy of the Holly copy of Blue Box's livestock truck from the Andy's/Home Farm sets, in all cases a sub-scale vehicle from those sets, but they were all mixed scale, with the Merit knock-off horses. probably fitting this nicely!

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! Civilian & Sports

We reach the penultimate plunder post from the PW show in June, but with several lots from Peter Evans to come, more car-booty/Charity Shop stuff and another Sandown (nice space surprises, for those who get excited about such things), there'll be mixed-lot posts through to Christmas, on-and-off!

 

This was one of the first things I bought 'in the room', and I just couldn't resist it, I already hate it for the space it takes-up, probably why the owner was passing it on, but it has a figure, who - despite literally thousands there - isn't in the unknown seated drivers, passengers & riders zone! Looking at the two brackets either side of the seat, it's missing a 'buggy' canopy, but is otherwise complete . . . with hat?

 

Very similar to the Tudor Rose 'Veteran Cars', in size and material (soft polyethylene), but more of a fictional marque (?) somewhere between TR's 1910 Ford "T" and their 1904 Darracq, with the spare wheel from the former, plonked onto the side of the latter, who's rear cargo space is now blank, but, I'm not enough of a car expert to know for sure, however, it's a lot of fun.

 

Divers and their vessels; I think we've probably seen it all before, and it's nearly always the same pieces missing, but there's always colour-variations to pick-up for the master sample, if nothing else, so whether bought or donated, it'll all have some use.

 

A huge Cake Decoration footballer, in hard polystyrene, a scale up of similar 45/50-mil figures from hong Kong, two of the more recent cereal premiums, and an earlier similar, chap Billy Bremner I think, I forgot to note them!

 

Other sports, including a Starlux bullfighter; a bullfighter got gored to death the other day (oh dear, never mind, it's all part of God's plan!). Four horse riders who are almost certainly from a board game, just finding out which, is the remaining problem! Soft plastic footballer, I have a feeling we've seen a few of this set now, a pair in pink and maybe a green one, so it'll be a premium of some kind, but late, it's 'ethylene, not 'styrene.

 

The rather damaged novelty boxers are polystyrene, and although battered, are a useful addition to a growing sample of the sliding-action toys, probably cracker things, or lucky-bags? And one of quite a few athletics/sports sets, most of which got an outing or two as cereal or washing-powder premiums one side of the channel or the other.

 

Babies, they're all babies, but enough of the Republican Party, here are some toy infants . . . boom-boom! A trio of the very early Torgano figures we've seen before here, but not painted, and the matching schemes, suggests factory/supplier, rather than end-owner?

 

The Hong Kong baby in cot was a common 6d (old pence)/5p pocket-money rack-toy, for dolls houses, or pockets! The big brown baby might be from a Mattel set, but I think it's an older set I do have a sizeable sample of somewhere, but I can never remember who issued them, Topps, was it?

 

Not sure on the jet-black figure, while the smaller brown one is probably Thomas/Poplar? 

 

The wooden flat must have been a big-seller at some Christmas in the 1940's or 50's, as she or her poultry keep coming-in, and often in this good-to-mint condition? In the middle is a Tara Toys teenage Tiny Teeny fashion figurine, a glaring absence on the Blog, and more so as I have a whole bunch of them somewhere, while I don't have a clue on the last one? Early leaning stuff? Modern anyway.

 

A trio of Spot-On, useful grist to the mill!

 

 

Coming on the back of several lots from Adrian and my own scrapings, here a bunch-more farm from Hong Kong, one day it's hoped most of these will have been ID'd to makers, or at least generic-set titles, and that will be by minor details, base type, base marking, even the paint variations. But, you can see here, how they are all different.

 

Speaking of the unknown riders, drivers and pilots! An Airfix motorcyclist, third from the left, and a Tudor Rose tractor-driver/plant operator on the far right, with two unknowns, one possibly a crude firefighter, the other from a large carpet racing-car.

 

Mixed civilians, including a Marx reissue, Britains, Corgi and a Blue Box knock-off.

 

And to finish, another loose lot of the Hong Kong semi-flat cartoony clones of old Märklin railway figures. I hope the orange chap with suitcases, or the red lady next to him is the one I needed to have two of each loose, so in the final, definitive post (we have looked at them more than once), whenever that is, we will have everyone from both sides, with the carded set in one shot!

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! AFV's

So, the other half of the 'Army Men' post (which was going to be one post, but I couldn't face all that typing in one hit!), their transport, and it's an eclectic mix with a few interesting bits in it!

 

I know, but it was a Jeep! It was a Hugonnet card! It's otherwise the same rack-toy shite churned-out by Hong Kong, but a worthy addition to the collection, and confirms loose figures I've got somewhere! Starlux piracies!

 

These were from Isaac, who's surname I've never caught, but he'd saved them for me (along with the Wild West swoppet bags and some other stuff), and they were a real revelation, as when I got them home I found they were confirming one of the possible combinations suggested by me in this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2015/09/p-is-for-pick.html

  

With the 'Long Tom' on the odd coastal-artillery type platform, as well as getting the 'Speedwell' tank, with/in the same card/bag, so a very useful addition to the collection Something I would have been even more excited about, back when I was a small-scale only collector, and new things were getting thin on the ground! Now I've seen the all-scale polymer mountain to climb, I'm a little more jaded, but these are much appreciated.

 

The CTS (now BMC) Sherman Tank, apparently a bit smaller than the rarer Airfix one, and in a hard'ish ethylene or propylene, I didn't get this from Matt, who I now know WAS Matt!, But either from Steve Weston or somebody near him? On one level it's a gap-filler/box-ticker, but on another level, also a nice model, and it looks the part, which is important with Shermans, get one major dimension, angle or curve wrong and they can instantly look very odd, or daft!

 

They need a clean, but for reasons you don't need to be bored with, cleaning's out at the moment. Also, we've seen them before, they are pretty common, but belong to a family of rack-toy stuff, including the Jeep-trailer/gun combo's we’ve also seen here,with and without plug-in crew, and with two or even three new colours, they are adding to the story, if we ever tease the full story out!

 

And the comments on Sherman's were specific, because this gets a lot wrong! Can't remember of this was a purchase or a contribution, but it's the sort of thing you see on eBay, and think "Even if I get it for 99p, it's not worth the postage!", but it was a box that needed ticking, and it has its own rack-toy charm!

 

Also, a generic, over-branded to Woolbro, and it has a telescopic barrel, to keep the box as small as possible, while the turret on the box art is even whackier than the turret in the box!
 

Thanks especially to Issack, but also Graham Apperley, John Begg, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Peter Evans, Adrian Little, Michael Mordant-Smith, Trevor Rudkin, Steve Vickers, and with no emails since the intro-post, anyone else who gave me stuff, who I have forgotten to add.

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! Army Men and Combat Infantry

The meat and two veg' of Toy Soldier collecting . . . toy soldiers! I had quite a good run at the show this year on the khaki-front, in fact, I've just split the folder into two; troops and AFV's, as it was 27 images! So, this post is that plunder, less all the vehicles! And we seem to be starting with pretty-much the last thing I bought at the show, probably because it was on top of a bag, and got shot first!

 

One of the American dealers was over for the day, was it Matt from Hobby Bunker? And he had these, in most colours, I went for the pink! BMC's GI Janes! I've not got them out of the pack, as Brian Berke sent us a nice khaki sample when they first came out, so they can wait for another day, but it was a definite box ticked!

 

Two blow-moulds which I think we've seen before, but here they are again, and they'll be back soon, as Peter Evans gave me a pair not a week ago! He remembers them being part of a shooting game with [I think he said;] four each of these two and one officer?

 

A Marx six-inch British infantryman, and Blue Box (or BB-clone) five-inch GI, complete the larger figures found in June.

 

Not my finest moment, but we all make mistakes at shows, hurrying, poor lighting, trying to hold-down two conversations, but whatever, I bought a lemon - the lewis gunner team are mucked about with, I thought they were a pair, but actually the No.2 is a conversion . . . heay-ho! Some Chinese made Matchbox clones (Shin Hing maybe?) and an earlier Rado or similar Russian.

 

French, very early Starlux (ovoid bases), or Quiralu, I think, possibly from aluminium moulds? I should know, and if I spent longer going through the folders I would know, but nice anyway!

 

Bagged small-scale and a couple of loose figures.

 

The right-hand bag had some interesting mould-purge figures in green/blue.

 

I actually went to the show with only one thing on the absolute wants-list; Hilco Anzacs, and managed to get all three with a colour variation, from one stall, and a seller on the opposite side of the aisle had the Trojan 14th Army types, so I grabbed them at the same time! The Hilco's are cut-n-shut 'conversions' (in the loosest, just-escaping-a-plagiarism-charge, meaning of the word) of the Timpo 'solid' 8th Army poses.

 

Also picked-up two of the Airfix 1st version Para's neither of which seem brittle, a problem with them now, a Thomas/Poplar 'ubiquityman' (driver, gunner and stretcher bearer), Blue Box GI in 50mm and three Lido-clones.

 

More small-scale, with Corgi 'chocolate bars' from the gift-set, Blue Box Germans in 'styrene, a similar Hornby-Triang 'Battle Space' radio-operator and a few other bits.

 

To be sorted, mostly Hong Kong, mostly Britains clones, and mostly to appear on the Khaki Infantry page at some point, I haven't done as much on there as I'd have wanted to, due to circumstance, this last few years, but I did add a few bits there, the other day, and there is more in the queue.

 

More Hong Kong, copies of Airfix 8th Army and Monogram GI's, all very much grist to the mill, but all having a place in the oeuvre, and will all need to be sorted into the correct tubs and samples, to build the bigger picture.

 

For instance the two colours of 8th Army clones, are from two sources, one marked Hong Kong the other just HK, and a difference in quality between the two. The aim being to eventually get them all tied into the correct sets/packaging, and hopefully get the odd brand-ID on them, I happen to know the HK's are probably Ri-Toys (Rado)!

 

More thanks to - Issack, Graham Apperley, John Begg, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Peter Evans, Adrian Little, Michael Mordant-Smith, Trevor Rudkin, Steve Vickers, and with no emails since the intro-post, anyone else who gave me stuff, who I have forgotten to add.