C is for Canoes - 8 - Knick Knacks!

I'm loving these! These are definitely toys, if you want hyperrealistic 'model' figures, then get your wallet out and go support the Russian War Machine like naïve kidults, but for those who collect 'toy' figures, they don't get much more toy-like than these!

All courtesy of Brian Berke, there is, or there were two versions, a three-man and a one-man, and they are probably celluloid. The packaging reminds me very much of those faux-glass animals which used to be given away as prizes at fairground side-booths; small, low-grade (crumbly folds) cardboard with miss-registered screen-print artwork, but oozing with a charm that evokes a time from almost before I was born!

 

Three-man version, look at that axe, that's for the necks of Henry's wives! Made in Japan, it's one of the ironies of history that a lot of the best novelties of the 1950's and 60's came from Japan and Germany, because while we were struggling to rebuild after the war, money was poured into both economies to rebuild the 'losers' as bulwarks against the permeable curtains of the Cold War!

Sometimes, at the Fair, if you fished-out two of your three ducks, or got two of your three hoops over, you got a smaller prize! Interesting in that he's a fourth pose, not one of the previous three, re-purposed.

 

Other colours are available and I'm going to have to track some down, there's a nice red one on at the moment but postage is silly. It's getting hard to bid on US stuff, purely from the shipping costs, and that's mostly the 'International Shipping Programme' (or 'program'!), there's no bother from Canada, from whence I've had a few bargains recently, and they will have these too, so in time . . . and those US seller's who still use USPost can be half the price of the evilBay-Pitney Bowes-Hermes (call us Evri because our old name is mud) scam!

 

In the meantime; Thanks to Brain for sharing these Knick Knacks with us.

C is for Canoes - 7 - Beeju & Similar Novelties

As the last post and the next post are 100% Brian's imagery, I thought I'd take the bow on this one, and one of the canoes segues nicely into the next post; we're looking at the less than realistic on this round!

We have seen these here at Small Scale World, more than once, as the collection grows, but still only the one with an oar, but the three together in the later shot. I think they must have been sold as bath toys, you can see a scaly deposit in the newest (blue) one, and the other's both needed a good clean when they first came in.

This was sold as a canoe, but could just as easily be a component of some piece of groovy Habitat interior decor circa 1972? If it is a canoe (joking aside I'm sure it is), it's an odd one, with a heavy shelf running round the gunwales, the whole thing having a sort of hippy-art-deco look! A note with my original eMail to Brian on this one says "Italian I think?", but I can't remember the significance now?

 

This is lovely and connects us to the next post, Japanese celluloid or paper-thin polystyrene blow-moulded canoe with cotton-strung swivel-arms, one clearly dislocated on this example which came off of that evilBay a while ago.

 

While this is modern to contemporary, being one part of a set of Haribo premiums I picked-up in a mixed lot from a charity shop a while ago. The set contained cowboys and American Indians, and unit price means this is bit of a 'super-deform', but then they all are here!

T is for Two - Machine Gunners

As I may have intimated, I acquired a few machine-gunners the other day, and while most of them will just be filtered into the collection for future use, there were one or two which are worth a closer look as stand-alone figures.

This is the Belgian firm of JSB, you may remember I had a very poor figure from them which I seemed to save with a thick coat of plumber's sealant a few years ago (he was still fine and stable last time I looked), he was also a pretty realistic figure, not something which can be claimed for this chap, who's channeling American 'dimestore' sculpts from the likes of Barkley or Manoil; single-highhandedly engaging aircraft (or cliff-top dwellers) with a 40mm pom-pom!

His barrel was very bent (further up, like a priapic flaking flak gun!), but I mannaged to bend it the other way with the hot-water system, although I was very careful and had several incremental goes, as I do't know what polymer this is, some phenol, formaldehyde or cellulose-based material I suspect? Proper toy soldier!

As is this fellow, a seven-part assembly of blow-moulded and vac-formed polystyrene (or celluloid, but I think the former in this case) sheet from Japan, he has moving arms and may have had a moving head once; it's now glued, fixed to the front. I don't recognise the logo-mark, which seems to be a single China-Japan-Korea compatible ideograph character ' 金 ' ?

But what a fantastic survivor of 1950's novelty tat. And; out of six successful bids (and one bidding war) to get most of them (one lot was lost to someone else), not to mention some mail-fail, probably my favourite out of the whole lot!

H is for Hollow Herd!

I think we looked at the 'spares' of these years ago in a wider look at celluloid blow-moulds, but this is the original 'master' sample, albeit probably not a complete-sample as far as the species depicted goes . . . or went; these are probably ten years older than me?

Top left is an uncommon example of the really rare Tasman Tygyenalleppocat, although a poor rendering as it's clearly been on a diet! The Hippopottymouth is a bit weak as well, but the rest of them are OK for what they probably were - 1d or 5¢ novelties? Note also; the two very different coloured lions and the lack of a constant scale across the sample, being the no-box equivalent of 'box' scale.

As the large yeti-type seems more concerned with where he's left his keys, the Berserker is probably right to dispatch the man-killing Rea first! These were shot a while ago as I have cleaned the Berserker since!

Joking aside, I like these, and that's them, done.

F is for From the Sublime to the Ridiculous!

Just a quickie in case I don't get anything else up in time for Monday!

The figure in the center is that crappy China-via-Russia-to-Germany thing I bought at Plastic Warrior's show back in May (hey, I'm nothing if not an esoteric completist!), either side of him is a probably Japanese-made (from one of those scallop-shell, mini-diorama, touristy things) South Asian warrior of the contemporaneous era (depicted), but ten times nicer!

He's also interesting in being a solid, rather than the usual hollow vac-form or blow-mould, despite being the same celluloid or cellulose acetate.

As to the red one; when I said back in June/July "We won't see them again here very soon or very often!" I clearly lied! Issued/packed by Smart Toys Creative of Yiwu, China, imported into Russia by Trading House Mirika.

That's it, something for Monday morning!

R is for Regular Round-Up - Divers Etc...

Time of one of the irregular 'regulars', namely; a quick look at the various novelty diver/bath toys which have come the way of the Blog since we last looked at such things.

Did I mention this the other day? It may have been in an eMail to someone, anyway this came back from September's Sandown Park toy fair with me, I think Adrian had put it to one-side for me, and it's a little charmer!

Around 25mm-compatible (allowing for an air-filled rubber suit), and blow-moulded celluloid or cellulose acetate (so probably Japanese), he is weighted in his feet and was probably one of the up-and-down with a cork's pressure type of bottle-novelties?

Not long after the little-one joined the  . . . skool? I think 'a skool of divers'! Brian B sent the shot on the left, his latest find in the cannon of air-hose, bath-toy, divers, here compared to the old packaging (on the right, also sent by Mr. Berke; a year or two ago) from the same Tobar stable.

Brian has also sent this in Support of the ITLAPD Captain Pugwash shot you may remember; he has shelf-captaincy of a right old motley crew of victorian sailors and deep-sea fish-tank ornaments!

Looking for something else I found this chap in with all the naval, marine and assault-boat stuff, when the divers have their own box, which we have pretty-much mined for it's goodies, over the years, so I thought I'd better shoot him now while he was here as it were!

'E has a long hole up 'is jacksey Pa! It's too thin for a pencil, so I suspect either a stick to anchor him into the aggregate at the bottom of a fish tank, or an aeration-hose for the same end-destination, as he is not dusty; those pale marks in the folds and crevices are limescale which didn't come-off with a cursory wash.

Finally; and because they have gone together in the past; and because I knew I'd find a use for that race-game central divider, I give you the gate-guardians at the Magical Museum of Multicoloured Miniature Mersibles, Sub.

One from Chris with all-four of its sticky-out bits intact, one from a job-lot, 'streamlined' for err . . . silent-running! And both - new colours!

Cheers A, B and C!

F&G is for Hidden in Plain Sight!

Remember the F&G question posed by Collin Penn some time ago now? And remember when in the PW173 review I said "Speaking of Colin Penn, his F&G 'Crazy Clown Circus' is revealed by Michael Bonnefoy of the Plastics Historical Society to be made by . . . [Subscribe!]"?

Balancers & Bouncy Balls

Well, hopefully you were tempted to subscribe (if you weren't already), and with PW174 out now (review currently in the 'short queue'), I think it's OK to reveal that the F&G was Fraser & Glass Ltd., who are further fascinating for carrying the same mounted figures as Airfix, but that's for another day, the thing was, they had been on the PHS's website all along! Like Tatra, they were hiding (from plastic figure collectors) in plain sight!

Musicians & Master's of Mayhem
(the one on the bottom-right has a cellulose/celluloid
drum which is almost powder now)

Anyway, it wouldn't be right to cover all the stuff in the magazine's article, but I say the above because I've got the storage tub . . . err . . . out of storage! And as a follow-up to my own previous post, am showing the [old] newbies here while re-tagging the related, previous, posts to Fraser & Glass!

It's a satisfying conclusion, too, for those of us who were never happy with the two-horse race's favourites - Airfix or Kleeware, as the plastic wasn't really right for either. But if the mounted figures provide a link, the Airfix-plumper's will have a joint first!

Indeed, while the likes of TJF and his ilk may resent my knowledge (and try to invent their own!) it's satisfying to read my earlier musings on the maker (three years ago) and find it stands-up adequately to the recent discoveries!

Were Morestone (also 'something & something'; Morris & Stone) situated near F&G, or did they (F&G) supply Airfix with both horses/riders and clowns, or licence production to fill large Woolworth's orders? There's always another question or two!

The Shrapnel

The bottom of their tub contains a few bits which will be combined with the attic-lot to make-up some of the missing formations! One of them actually still has his mates head between his feet so must be from a pair formation, so I'm hoping I have a headless one in the other sample!

The piece of card (CIRCUS?) came with one lot, as did the wooden pole with a plastic finial which seems to match some of the Crazy Clown's yellow stuff? Equally it could be a non-functioning component of a 1960's washing machine, or part of a lawn-game! I've also tried various solvents on these (and the other larger, sample) and they are mostly polystyrene, only a few are cellulose or celluloid types.

W is for ♪♫♫ We've Got a Litt 'le Convoy, Made Out of Celluloid . . . CONN-VOIY! ♫♪♪

When we last looked at these I may have given the impression I had a load more in storage, we'll . . . I might, but I only found three and a few other related pieces? It may be that some are in an 'unsorted' stash somewhere, but I may have over-estimated the sample, against previously downloaded images!

These are the wagons I've found, I thought I had more (at least four more?) in the unpainted form, but these do mirror those previously seen, so I think there were the three main styles; round/hooped roof, angled/pitched roof and an open, board-sided wagon, with various loads, with or without a driver (or walker-beside) and with a canine, cattle or horse-type motive-power.

The cow is probably under-scaled, the dog (a chow type, but Japanese so not a 'chow' per se and hopefully not edible?) being over-scale and the horse being a pony or donkey? It's funny, these are touristy things, and seem to mirror the old tin-plate or lead penny toys which also often had a dog as the draft animal.

Paint them up and you've got your refugees blocking the roads in South East Asia.

Indeed - I suspect these have been just so painted, for war-gaming, although I'm pleased the artist (was it you?) left the ends and roof of the sedan-chair unpainted, as the thick varnish works well, and the woven-palm or giant-bamboo leafs effect on the roof is charming.

Here we see the base and the 'kung-fu' guy reused in a different context, along with a chap who's come loose from one of the other vignettes in this 'series' (which probably came from  a co-op of several craft-type outfits, a bit like Erzgebirge?), he seems to be carrying a rice hoe or flail, and may have been walking beside a wagon on one of the larger, based, scenes.

While here, both the previously seen females are reused to make a Lady and her maid-servant out for a trip on the lake - feeding the giant carp! Again I think this is a home-painted example, and I compared this to a couple of others here.

With a lot of the vignettes the scale can go right off and here we have the vaguely 1:76th scale cow stepping over a stream with an N-Gauge tree and a 1:1200'ish five-story pagoda! The cow has actually come-loose and I've posed him just shy of his glue marks!

These aren't terribly rare, and there's often a few on feebleBay, along with much larger versions of some (54mm-compatible rickshaws are worth looking out for), but there's often damage due to the nature of the material and their age - these are probably all 1950's? My horse-riding Lady has a damaged umbrella, the commonest problem.

The animals and larger cargo items are blow-moulded, the people, wheels, boat and smaller cargo items are injection mouldings, everything else is built-up from rod, sheet or strip and the bases are vac-formed, so all the main techniques for working with plastics were being fully utilised, in Japan, quite early, with the older celluloid.

J is for Japanese Highlander - Black Watch!

Title says it all!

100mm, plaster-filled, blow-moulded, celluloid lump of Crimean warrior (the French were actually on our side in that one, probably why it went so badly! No offence Berthoux!), or colonial era 'type'.

I guess these were sold as cheap ornaments to poorer - yet house-proud - citizens wanting a [patriotic] bit of 'Meissen' or 'Spode' for the mantle-piece/shelf, or perhaps as 'ersatz' polymer fair-ground prizes (fairings)?

C is for Celluloid Coach

So good I collaged it twice! You all know I like an HO'ish wagon or two, here's a new addition to the fleet!

Picked this up at Sandown, what a peach, a bit dented on the right side, but for something that was probably twenty years old when I was born, and made of the most frangible material ever used for plastic playthings, I think it's survival to date is a bit of a miracle!

As well has the standard vac-formed halves welded together, this Japanese toy has Mazac wheels running through tubular-axles on wire rods and a cotton-threat rein, all have also survived - a real peach, it's even still got a piece of flash between the rear legs of the horse hanging-on buy a hair's width!

I love the footman in a fez, who looks surprised to have got the gig, while the 'Archbishop-Patriarch of All Russia' seems to be driving!

News, Views Etc . . . Airfix Blog

I've added a sailor, very-much the worse for wear, to the early Airfix soldiers post on the Airfix Blog

http://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/2010/06/1949-1960-approximately-early-toy.html

And there will be more tomorrow.

P is for Pop-Picking All Time Top Five Favorites of All Time Top Five Mates!

But sadly Lord Bachmann, the Right Honourable Turner or Noble Overdrive won't be putting-in an appearance! Being; my five fave' hits of this year's PW show, closing the show-reports/plunder-posts for now.

This sat on Adrian's stall until the hall was nearly empty, unloved and unwanted, now . . .  it is damaged and has a replacement spear . . . but it's already one of the top-ten figures in my entire collection - and bear in mind; I have all eight tiny Trojans - twice!

It’s a French-made Clairet Greek Hoplite and to be honest the replacement spear - for which the hand has been drilled - only enhances a superb sculpt, the undamaged original is furnished with some double-barbed stick which looks like it was borrowed from an Esquimaux who previously used it to catch seals! This one though, is about to ruin a Persian's afternoon - forever!

This is a beautiful figure . . . isn't it? Stunning! Best of show.

Who knows? A blow-moulded, semi-flat, celluloid Indian, clearly removed from a larger piece; possibly a decorative picture or mirror-frame? I think it may be pre- or between-the-wars rather than a post-war piece?

As well as the cut-mark/hole at the back of the stump where a backing was, he has also been removed from something below his feet, the hole being neatly covered-over with a couple of wafer-thin slices of ivory or bone, previously board-game counters or tiddlywinks, which only raises the question, why wasn't the damage behind similarly patched?

Nothing too exciting, an Elastolin figure for the neighbouring Austrian market, where the bought-out Tipple-Topple's brand-mark was retained for continuity, or to appease the locals - stop them starting another war! The seller had several poses, but I chose this as an iconic example.

Could be nothing, could be something? Wintershilfswerke (WHW) maybe, or 'from hollow-cast'? The white trousers rather rule out British? He's a glassy or brittle polystyrene, semi-flat, or - at least - somewhat sculpted in one plane and a ceremonial from somewhere? 50/52-mil? I like him!

Really pleased - but a bit gutted. I posted this along with a kneeling firer last year having shot them at the show. This year I managed to get this one, but the kneeling figure - seemingly - had already been bought by someone else! Although the kneeling one had a silly smile and a bent barrel, so I'm happy with this one really.  An Argentine (or 'believed to be Argentinian') copy in polyethylene of a Lineol composition-made, WWI late-type German Infantryman.

Smine . . . sorll'myne!

I is for Itsy-bitsy Teeny-weeny, Little Gum-ball Capsule Thingies!

Just a quickie, I managed to get a handful of mostly vintage gum-ball prizes . . . humm . . . they're hardly prizes if you've paid a dime or a quarter for them are they . . . I managed to get a handful of mostly vintage, randomly-vended, gum-ball novelties! And you won't often find the phrase 'vintage' here, but these - with one exception - are from the 1940/50's, so deserve the term.

The 'animals' - the larger sub-group; I considered sorting them further into wild and domestic but that would have left me with a fish and/or two birds to deal with so I shot them all together, and it's a reasonable image! From left to right, top to bottom;

Parrot, squirrel, deer, monkey, pig, elephant, lamb, cat, cat. cat, rhinoceros, lion, fish, cockerel, cat.

I think -despite the appearance of celluloid (by base colour) and the fact that they are always called such on evilBay - that these are all polystyrene, with the exception of the black cat, which does seem to be an earlier phenolic plastic.

As far as Christmas crackers go; elephants and cats are still with us, but the rest have dropped by the way-side these days. I particularly like the parrot with its three-colour 'spirit paint' scheme, and the squirrel has had an all-over wash to hide the base colour. I think the thing to the left of the lion is supposed to be a rhino, but it might be the - presumably - now extinct porpoise-dog!

The 'people'; I often watch these on feebleBay and the sample here is mostly of typical or common types, I never buy on-line, the buy-it-now (BIN) prices are ridiculous, and while these were a bargain, they weren't cheap and required a quick haggle.

Two of them are very odd (on the far right) being stamped/die-cut from celluloid-sheet with a blob of molten / liquid / paste 'something - for a face, with two rods of celluloid set into it - for eyes - before it sets solid and are probably earlier production (1940's), I suspect there may also be an element of negative parody or racism about them both?

The opalescent girl is almost fully-round, the yellow/red clown is fully-round and I thought the ship was Noah's ark with a figure [or animal] at each end (hence the inclusion in the 'people' shot) but macro-photography suggests a Viking long ship - if I spent my limited means on my outstanding glasses prescription rather than old toys, I might find the study of the old toys easier, but I'd have no new toys to look at, just  a pair of shiny glasses, so I shall continue with the odd comedy-error of myopic nonsense and buy toys!

The rest . . . all four of them! The ray-gun is relatively modern and quite common on feeBay, the sword/dagger (and possibly the coral) are earlier plastic maybe, the pen (being mightier than the sword, or Trupundbrexit gobshites) is highlighted in two colours, with a turquoise wash and a gold nib . . . and that's it, a quick overview/visit to vintage gum-ball thingies!