About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 62-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Showing posts with label Plymr - Mixed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plymr - Mixed. Show all posts

Friday, October 23, 2026

S is for Sandown Park - Bits & Bobs

Continuing with the Sandown plunder from September (next one's three weeks away, this Saturday!), and this would normally be the last post in the sequence, but I haven’t got the images ready on the other two, so, here's the odds and sods.
 

Martin Fahie had put these to one side for me, and they are all Hong Kong production, and all enhancing existing samples, some of which we have seen here already, and I have taken follow-up shots with some of the bits from the storage unit, so that'll be forthcoming in the near future.
 
Lido space werhickle! Missing one of it's two plug-ins, but takes my sample over the basic four, and allows for chopping and changing for future shots. What I think is the engine nacelle/venturi for the Dalek lander-'Mechanoid' from Cherilea, which is another useful spare in that sample, which you have watched grow, almost in real time.
 
And a pretty clean and undamaged Hilco Martian, and one of two poses most likely to be found damaged, again a collection which has grown from almost naught, with the Blog, to over a dozen with damaged examples. And I believe his helmet will be following shortly (three weeks!).
 
 
Three of the larger set (scale/size wise) Noddy in Toyland/Toytown figurines, made in Hong Kong, and in the style of some Marx production, but nothing is known of the maker, as far as I know, nor do I know how many are in the set (nor a total for the smaller set), but they are slowly growing as a sample!
 
Probably the best find of the show? We've seen the White Rabbit before, first as a single, phenolic or early styrene, with good detail, then as a mass produced lesser quality ethylene moulding, in the set of educational oddities, now I find these?
 
A stretched Alice, lays in front, awaiting glue, with from the left (best to open the image); White Rabbit,  Queen of Hearts (first book), Cheshire Cat, Hookah-smoking Caterpillar, one of the Kings, Mad Hatter, Playing Card Guard (near-flat, although they are all demi-ronde), Red Queen (second book) and the Mock Turtle. 
 
One might think board game pieces, but if the colours are a clue, it's not a game for three equal players, nor any even number of players, but are all the pieces here? They are old, and with characters like the Dormouse, Tweedle brothers, White Queen, and another King or two 'missing', they may be from a larger set, and while board game is still a best bet, they are quite small, no more than 20mm?
 
We've seen the pixie before, but in a darker red, this one is Ready Brek glowing! A puppy jumper - while it was OK to start collecting the LB copy jumpers, and the bug-eyed aliens were/are fun, it seems jumpers are to join white-button toys (two lots coming soon - Halloween!), as a peripheral sub-collection! And what I suspect is one of the few lose Corgi figurals previously missing from the stash, everybody's favourite villain - Dick Dastardly!
 
A couple of Euro-premiums from one or two different building sets.
 
Civilians; an unknown nurse (Atlantic like, but I don't think she's theirs, Charbens again?), Britains arctic explorer, a huge copy of the Corgi ice-cream seller, I guess Lucky or similar? Then the tramp/hobo from Hilco (? It's from the Johillco hollow-cast moulding), a mother and child, probably from a US model car kit, and a recent farm worker which I think we saw in Padgett Brothers/A-Z packaging, a few years ago? In front, a Britains cyclist.
 
The long arm of the law! Three Lines Tri-Ang Motorway, with a bugler (I think they only ever looked like that in kids' comics!), one Corgi Junior, two Hornby Dublo/Meccano and a pair of Merit/Model Scene, with the WPC snapped of at her shapely ankles - ouch!
 
Other railway/small scale figures included a Blue Box mechanic, several Merit, a metal Wardie/Masternodels railway staffer, the Hornby Hobbies Hong Kong sourced moped rider and two machines (shared with at least two other brands), the boy with horses from the Britains Miniset, and a seated Airfix passenger.
 
Odds! The cactus may be new on me, but it may just be home-paint bamboozling me! Common bit of fence and a couple of weapons from 3/4" action figures I guess. All in all, some nice bits, the Alice Looking Glass/Wonderland set is the definite highlight, anybody know anything else about it?

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

C is for Combat Contributions

Bit of a theme this PM, but it seemed to make sense to get a bunch of toy soldiers up on the Toy Soldier Blog! There's so much stuff in the short queue, I'm spoilt for choice, on one level, but on another I keep wondering how to do them all justice.
 
Some subjects will make show reports, or more than one post, some are a bit thin, and with stuff from Adrian, two lots from Peter and other bits, they'll go together in the end. This is from all three donation-purchases, in that I paid for them, but at definite 'mates rates'!
 
German Red Cross WHW's, this is the last of Adrian's recent stock, from which I and others have been picking for a few years, now that I've identified at least three issues in bare, and one painted on black plastic, I feel I need to enlarge the core sample, to see how many variants I can identify?
  
 
A nice tin-plate Sikh, possibly a cigarette premium, another Zang Tommy (slightly drunk), and what I thought was a Spanish-made Spanish paratrooper, but I can't find him in the big book, so he might be Italian or Portuguese? Marked '185' on the base underside.
 
From one of Adrian's junk drawers, came these metal bits, including one of the Timpo die-cast machine-gunners.
 
From Peter now; ABC 8th Army types after Timpo 'solids'.
 
Small scale - with a bag of Airfix 1st version German Infantry and 8th Army, two of the Chap Mai figures who need de-gate-mark'ing! And a tatty Blue Box G.I.
.
Hong Kong/China odds! Taken from Airfix, TimMee and Lido originals.
 
More ABC or related - I can't remember what was on the base!
 
Modern rack-toy junk, still have their place, but I've probably got them all, I think the bag is the HTI stuff we saw when they were in the shops (probably still are!), while the lot in front seems to be further-generation copies, in that crumbly, over recycled plastic you see men in sandals making from unwashed plastic bags in weird 'industrial' video 'shorts' on YouTube!
 
MPC, need to be sorted against what I already have, but I think the blue chap is new?
 
Late  production New Ray, or good quality copies of the same?
 
A pair of Deluxe Reading and three rack-toy skinnies!
 
The two on the left look like late Speedwell, the Hilco on the right matches them rather nicely, colours wise! I'm looking forward to sorting all the finds from the last few years into the master collection, and giving the Khaki Infantry page a good update/correcting session!
 
God knows! Marked Hong Kong, so copies, but there are so many versions of these; several US, a couple of Canadian and a few HK lots, I will have to do a big sort-out one day, and matching-up the little silver accessories will send a Saint insane! originally MPC.
 
These have the satin sheen of a fine-nozzeled 3D-printer about them, and they are all, indeed, 3D printed, Peter may have mentioned a maker, or download library title, I can't remember, and they are a bit 'Army Man' or generic G.I.
 
The sandy figure is a Monty, complete with both cap-badges, but a little dumpy I feel, smaller, and better fed than the Timpo solid one!
 
Crescent swoppets, a nice clean sample, although I think the colour variation in the green accessories may be down to sun-bleaching?
 
Anyone who saw the shot of the French/British paratroops I sent to Plastic Warrior a while ago, will know I didn't have the sand-coloured one, so despite the missing top of the string-loop (a common fault with these after seventy-odd years), a really nice addition to that line-up!
 
And, after my minor disaster at this years PW Show (the Aussies who weren't!), here's the desert version of the M-Toy or Star (lesser quality?) swoppet copy, stretcher-case I just need to find the porters now! 
 
Finishing a rushed blurbing (got stuck behind a Nissan Juke going no-miles-an-hour on the way home tonight - some people just shouldn't drive in the dark, or in the rain, or at all!), a few of the soft plastic versions of Marx's Miniature Masterpiece Americans, being scale-downs of the larger figure ranges.
 
Many, many thanks to Adrian Little and Peter Evans for constantly putting this stuff to one side for me, it's all grist to the mill, and there's always interesting bits among it, cheers guys! 

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

S is for Sandown Park - Wild West

Picked up a few Wild West bits at the last Sandown Park shenanigans, nothing rare or valuable, but always things of interest, grist to the mill, gap fillers and collection enhancers/improvers - so let's have a look at the plunder!
 

While the Reamsa stuff in Sobres seems to be copies, I think these are original Comansi supplied product, the 60mm backwoodsman/pioneer/trapper being the same softish silicon-rubber as the late Thunderbirds/OVNI stuff, while the 50mm Lucky Luke is one of their sculpts too? Their relevance to the Battle of Manila being a moot point, but typical of these cheap, pocket-money, Montaplex novelty envelopes!
 
Rather damaged, but new colours for these 'styrene large-scale versions of the SIKU manufactured Euro-premiums - carried here, in the UK, by Betterwear, as a smaller range, in soft ''ethylene . The yellow being the same shade as the British issues, and both will join the dun, fawn and bronze, painted and unpainted sample, slowly gathering in a bag somewhere!
 
 
So clean I suspect another of the East German production, like the military chap we looked at a while ago, but I'm not clued-up enough on Elastolin composition to be sure, a nice clean figure though, along with a huge (100mm+) Hong Kong copy of something Spanish, I feel? [Lafredo - see comments]

A pair of HK copies of Britains (one Herald, one Swoppet), a speedwell/Trojan type and what I suspect is a Hilco 'from hollowcast', it's similar to a couple of the Johillco metal sculpts, and turns up quite often?
 
Mixed cowboy lot, I don't remember where these all came from (with previous and next two image contents), there must have been a mixed bag of them, possibly from Isaak, or Martin? Two Lone Star, a Crescent, a Supreme and three to be ID'd, along with a wagon driver Charbens saloon figure (holding cards).
 
Mid-quality swoppet knock-offs!
 
One of the Crescent  (horse) Timpo 'solid' (rider) ACW copies from Hong Kong, carried by Ideal in the US, more generic over here, this one has been repainted by the owner, from the look of it!

Monday, October 19, 2026

S is for Sandown Park - Animals

There's a lot of lose stuff to clear, from the last Sandown, from Peter Evans and from Adrian, and with the next Sandown Park show only three weeks away, I guess, I need to clear the last lot, sharpish! Here's the animal element of the last show's plunder!
 

A miniature set from Rado Industries, with both the Ri Toys tree-logo and a Laurie Toy moniker, having previously seen a Lucky Toy in Laurie graphics one might be tempted to think there's a connection between Lucky and Rado, but really it's just that Laurie were an importer/jobber, putting their name to various other peoples stuff, whether known or unknown. The beauty of these little sets (we've seen a long thin one before (in Linda graphics?), is that they help separate the Blue Box/Marx (Sunshine Series) stuff from the Ri Toys copies!
 

This was an excellent find, as it's only a year or two since I discovered this knock-off Muffin the Mule from Gantoy, courtesy of one of Chris Smith's donations to the blog. I now know there are other colours too, and the one from Chris didn't have the integral base of this one, nor signs of it's removal, so there's  two versions, but for now, box ticked!
 
The accompanying plants in the first image are from the Corgi Magic Roundabout playset.
 
Odds and sods to be sorted!
 
Dinosaur flats, with three British cereal premiums (left, Nabisco), and two Warner marked, German versions on the right. I believe there are French variants too, and with soft polyethylene re-hashes (seen here passim), some from the antipodes, quite a sub-section now!
 
More flats, with the white ones probably all from Europe, the Elephant (missing a gun or circus wagon?) marked Munsterland, the cat 'Carstanjen' and the puppy something unreadable, while the other two, coloured ones, are more capsule toy or cracker prize type fare.
 

These are from a board game, not unreasonably called the Donkey and the Carrot! From Spears Games, there's a red one missing from the line-up, and these are interesting as they may connect with the sheep we saw in the Shepard and his Dog game. There may also be a connection with all the Prior/AHM/Cullpit stuff (they are vinyl), and Arco (some Rae marked polyethylene animals seem to be the same as the Arco Noah's Ark stuff), so another useful find, toward future, more definitive posts.

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Q is for Question Time - Stretchers / Casualties

A couple of unknown items today, one I have half a clue on, the other is reportedly French, both posed with the hard-wearing, long--surviving, late production, PVC jobbie from Corgi.
 

So, Corgi on the left, the one in the middle seems to be a Lucky-like Hong Kong effort, in lightweight 'model kit' polystyrene, with the hollow-moulded casualty glued to the trolley-stretcher, but it is quite large, so maybe not Lucky, but one of the other Hong Kong plastic vehicle makers, which could mean more than one brand, as several of them were re-branded. Unusually for such a piece, there's no Hong Kong mark.
 
While the pair on the right who may or may not be missing separate stretchers or hospital beds are heavy lumps of what appears to be 'styrene, but could - especially if French - be some other polymer, in the cellulose, formaldehyde (Bakelight) or phenolic groups?
 
Also dug-out this, posed with the Starlux 25/30mm pup-tent, might also be French, but has been in the queue for a year or two, is also looking for an attribution, and is also quite a heavy, hard-plastic, and has a quite steep pillow angle, which may be a clue as to any casualty, possibly even the pair above, and while I don't think so (different polymer), equally I'm open to correction!
 
Can anyone help with these?