HT is for High-speed Transport!

Continuing with a theme, why not? These are the same size as the Politoys (previous post) ones, but represent cars from another era, with their exposed engine-blocks. Made in Hong Kong, they may be copies of Western-made originals, but whether plastic or die-cast donors; I don't know - the 8-car is similar-looking to a Hong Kong-made Marx die-cast I have somewhere in a larger scale?

There seems to be only the four different models, numbered in evens from 2 to 8 on the bonnet/nose and the belly-pan. And possibly two tranches, with one of mine having different wheels, but they could have been replaced at some point, or a deliberate attempt to get extra toy-world mileage (pun intended) out of an old body-type model, after the change to racing slicks (and new bodies) in the real world?

Each car from 2 at the top to 8 at the bottom, with the 4 in both wheel variations; if I was more of an aficionado of racing cars I could probably guess the intended makes (are 4 a Lotus and 8 a Ferrari?), but they are also pretty crude and generic!

The HT mark could be Hang Tjuk but the only logo I can find for them is a rounded-cornered, rectangular cartouche〔‾〕, but they were making plastic vehicles in the mid-80's - probably sometime after these cars were produced.

Other HT's with either no known logo, or different logo's or markedly different product lines are Hang Tat, Heep Tung, Hinstar Toys (who did do some rack-toy shite?), Hopewell Trading Co., or Hanung Toys & Textiles (Singapore, HTT?), whilst Hartung Trading (Germany, with 'China' product) and Hayakwa Toys (Japan) aren't Hong Kong companies and Helen [of] Toy would be stretching it to breaking! Hang Tjuk are 60/40 against, and I suspect it's a long-lost 'nother HT?

The red 4 - with the 'correct' wheels - is a repaint which could be factory- or home-painted; it's hard to tell, and the model underneath is an off-white. All the drivers seem to have had a gloss-red helmet when new, in the same shade, so the car may be a factory-job?

Front row - from the left; this post's number-2 car, then a die-cast Ferrari 36V G.T. R-102 (possibly from the Zee/Zyll/Zylmex stable, but I don't think so?), a Politoys and an unmarked but like and probably Bruder - it has the Made in W Germany mark (with the W blanked-off, so post-1991?) and a numeral 42, along with the same wheels and construction methods as other marked-Bruder's . . . and representing a car from a later era.

Rear row - from the left; A hard polystyrene plastic racer with no marks which could be early British, or early anyone, including Hong Kong, then either a copy of it, or another model of the same car, but hollowed and cheap-looking, and finally a similar car of a different source.

Both the latter two were sold in bakers as cake decorations, probably through Culpitt.

There only seems to be the one design for this size (I have other sizes of cake decoration/rack-toy racers; for another day!) and as you can see they seem to be being driven by men in Tommy/Brodie helmets!

Italy is for Politoys!

So I had these two Ferrari's which were marked Italy and I knew nothing about them, beyond the fact that they must be Italian toys, therefore when I received the Sam Toys stuff (previous post) from Angelo, I sent him a couple of shots (immediately below) and asked him who they were suggesting Dulcop as a maybe (my Politoys military are clearly marked with the brand so I'd rather ruled that out as a possibility!) because the Dulcop army lorries I have are unmarked.

The two cars's garnered the following from Angelo . . .

"The cars were made by Politoys in the sixties.

Politoys made two series of these cars in 1/77 scale.

The first series was composed by only seven cars and on the bottom reported "Sistema Dep" the name of the model and "Made in Italy".

These were:

N. 1 - Cooper (Norton)
N. 2 - Ferrari (500)
N. 3 - Connaught
N. 5 - B.R.M. P25
N. 6 - Ferrari 156
N. 8 - Vanwall
N. 11- Maserati

The second series was composed of 12 cars and on the bottom only "Made in Italy" and the name of the model.

These were;

N. 1 - Porsche
N. 2 - Ferrari (500)
N. 3 - Cooper
N. 4 - Connaught
N. 5 - B.R.M. P25
N. 6 - Lotus
N. 7 - Cooper (Norton)
N. 8 - Ferrari 156
N. 9 -  B.R.M. (G.P.)
N. 10 - Maserati
N. 11 - Mercedes
N. 12 - Vanwall VW Grand Prix"

For which I thank Angelo profusely, it's always nice to ID something, but to get the other 18 with pictures takes the biss'quit!

The second set of twelve, as sixes, 1-6 and 7-12.

Now, from the photographs, I think it's fair to say the main change was to the base section, but obviously some of the bonnet numbers were changed in the second set/issue, the numbers Angelo has given which explains the quirky-nature of the first seven's numbering.

Also I'm not sure which-is-which in the second collage, but it gives a good idea of the colours available, through both sets

Cheers Angelo!

F is for Follow-up - APS-Politoys 'Texas'

Putting away the folder with the other day's article in, I found some old evilBay images from 2012, which are worth a look, and while continuing to sort Wild West (a long overdue task) I found a couple of other items of interest, so, a quick follow-up to this post is the order of the day.

Having seen my two grow to three in the article preparation and five by the time I'd finished, all foot; it now seems I have one of the mounted figures, and with the two feathers not the lasso pose I think I've seen as a cowboy? Maybe they issued it as both by removing the feathers from some as cowboys? Anyway it means they're not outnumbered by the cowboys. Neither he nor the horse are marked as far as I can see.

Below him is what appears to be a factory painted, Hong Kong copy of the Crescent firebrand figure, but via Texas and following the pattern of theirs with a single foot-plug - removed from the right-hand example, sadly neither example came with a base, but it may be he plugs into a wagon or something?

Hoovered-off feebleBay back in 2012, this is marked APS rather than Texas, and is very different to the Britains/Timpo type arctic sled at the other end of the link in the last post, this being more Santa's sleigh (. . . or a dog-taxi!), which is ironic as Theo sent me the original shot by way of a Santa follow-up!

APS is the parent or umbrella for Politoys, who also used Policars and Texas as brands and became Polistil (when switching to die-cast; steel=stil?), as all abbreviations stand for something APS must stand for something but as far as I know, no one as deciphered it yet, the S may be for S.p.a.. (like our Ltd, or the German GmbH or USA's LLC etc...), the P probably Poli- or Poly-something which leaves the A, possibly united, or amalgamated or something like that? Does anyone know?

Anyway, the 'general' toy range often gets marked with APS in a round-angled triangle, with you can see here (just not in detail) along with the same MADE ITALY as the Texas figures the other day.

Also - Angelo is not one to sit on his laurels, and has already sent me another very interesting set of images, as I also have some 'Italy' marked stuff, of the same or similar subject matter, there will be a bit of correspondence before it publishes, but next week sometime, maybe!

I is for International Brigade!

You know that Paris - France / Paris - Texas thing right? Well today's post is a bit Texas - Italy or even Texas - International . . . it's Texas anyway and another treat to host, almost all from other people, mostly Angelo, who sent the bulk of these a week or two ago, since when I've added the first image, gone back and muddled a couple more and then Theo managed to tack-on the last image by accident!

My Texas sample was looking a bit poor with only two natives and seven cowboys, but I could remember showing the bronze one in a show repot or something a few years ago, so I dug that picture out, only to find him in the attic a couple of nights ago along with the eagle dancer (Crescent pose below), but he (the dancer) was a bit tatty , thus; I didn't re-shoot the pair!

So, let's look at Angelo's instead, 'cos he's got most of them and shot them beautifully. I've collaged them down to a few larger images (which has led to them appearing to be harshly cropped, that tends to happen with larger collages, or collages of collages - which the next five images are) as I can't produce blurb for 52 shots, or even 26 collages! If you're using Mozilla though, they should blow-up nicely. AND - I've kept the bare images, so they can always appear again in a different format, or in rows on the A-Z?

As you will have noticed they are all copies or derivative of other makes figures, with Crescent and Britains predominating, but Elastolin, Koho and others (French?) are there too, all made in a softish polyethylene, and plugging-in to an offset hole with a locating stud or prong on one foot . . . or a knee - in the case of the stalking Indian.

Also; the paler-base above appears to be a clear variation with much smoother walls?

I hope Angelo won't be offended by the next comment; but it seems that some Italian makers liked to use prone (and mounted) figures as foot figures, when making up these derivative sets; back at the start of the blog we saw Baravelli's 1:76 Airfix copies, with just such 'conversions' both of the mounted Indians and crawling cowboy. I guess the one above is shooting that sneaky-guy who's always behind the clock-tower with a bead on the hero!

Red Indians! On coloured bases, we have three Crescent poses here and two others which look familiar but I can't place them this instant. The Pow-Wow guy has lost his spear and believe me; my eagle-dance guy doesn't look anything like Angelo's . . . I think a mouse may have got to my guy's extremities - outch!

Red and Yellow with darker bases; the distinctive Koho pose (bottom left) has had his more Peruvian look westernised with a new wardrobe, but you can't mistake that headdress. In the two images, there's one foot Indian missing (there are twelve of each); a running brave with tomahawk.

The mounted figures; I think there are at least three of each to find, certainly I've seen a mounted Indian bowman and a chap with full war-bonnet, and a cowboy with lasso, but I haven't seen a third mounted cowboy yet?

There is a mounted wagon-team outrider, with whip, but he has a separate hat - in fact the Texas wagons (link in a mo') are the basis for those Hong Kong oneswe've looked at here a couple of times now.

The horse is the donor for the small scale, hollow-bodied horse coming out of Hong Kong and which I've always referred to as 'Mexican &/or Mexican Small' not knowing any better! I'll have to go through my unsorted wild-west and see if I have any full sized/Texas originals lying about unloved and un-attributed?

Marked clearly on the upper surface of the base with a Texas, they are sometimes less clearly marked 'Made Italy' on the underside, but it's usually still readable. The Wild West bases are shared with the GI's (unlike the two GI's I have with Hong Kong shite on their feet!), other lines had their own base designs.

However my bronze Indian (which I've never seen ascribed or attributed to Texas per se) has had both marks deliberately obscured on the tool with puddles of weald (or soft-solder?) leaving slightly raised blisters where the mark should be. As far as I can tell both figure and base are in every other respect the Texas mouldings, so I guess a premium or contract of some kind supplied by APS or Politoys - the respective parents?

To the right are a horse team from Dario which may be Texas, but look to be more like the French premiums mentioned before (Brian's two wagons), and with foot figures being copied by several other marques, Paul Plastix is one, another out of Monaco I think, both the horse team and the bronze figure must remain question-marks.

While the above was going on, Theo van der Weerden had sent me this and asked if I knew who made it - in part triggered by the Bonux sleigh post. I didn't know it, but remembering Kent Sprecher had both the Marx arctic set and another on his site, and thinking it looked a bit Thomas-like, suggested Theo ask Kent. Kent tried but couldn't find it either, so it came back here for a Q is for Question Time post, but looking at it again and thinking it was both a bit Poplar/Tudor Rose toy-like and a bit backwoodsman'y, I wondered if it might be one of the (French premium-) Texas copyists, so gave it a damn good Googling on Wednesday and found this . . .

https://soldatini-ado.blogspot.com/2012/12/quelli-del-tide.htm

What a brilliant blog! I don't know how I've missed it, but I suspect the language thing - there were a couple of good French blogs I added last year that had both been going for some time. Also no one else seems to be linked to him, I now will be. I wonder what other good blogs are missing from other-people's and/or my links-lists?

Suffice to say Theo's chap is Texas too! He seems to have had the plug for a bobble hat/beanie-hat trimmed-off and needs a sledge, but he's Texas alright, so that's him cleared-up to finish! And another Indian turned-up on Sunday, so I have five now!

Thanks to Angelo (Italy) for the photo's of his collection, Dario (Italy) for the donation, Theo (Holland) for the puzzle and Kent (USA) for the effort, this is the UK signing-off!

DLR is for Dockla . . . No; that would be the silliest attempt at a humorous title ever!

Let's say: Deluxe Reading is for Topper Toys!

These were in my collection for years as Thomas, but that was back when I took the advise spoon-fed by the elders! They are actually Deluxe Reading (latter: Topper) and we know from recent work by the PW-guys(issue 159) that they had a facility over here, control of which was handed to Lines in a licensing agreement.

We've looked at the larger G.I. figures acouple of times now, but these are the figures you're probably more familiar with; quite unloved, they turn-up in mixed lots, junk lots and 50p/rummage trays all the time . . .

. . . which is good point to thank all those who save junk-stuff for me as they will all have contributed to this post over the last 25 years - Jim, John Begg, Peter Evans, Gareth Morgan, Chris Smith and Trevor Rudkin for certain and probably also Graham Apperley, Mr Carrick, Paul Morehead and Jan Yarzembowski.

Above we have three types of plastic, the bottom row being probably the earlier (and possibly 'US only' imports - FeebleBay has a lot to answer-for!) production in a chalky/cream-white plastic, the main sample in a greyish-white polymer and the two down the bottm-right of the shot who are a semi-translucent 'wishy-washy' white.

All are softish 'beach-toy' polyethylene and I am missing one human pose - another bloke with a radio-telephone; and a little sitting dog, who may be with the other dogs; both of which give me reason to run these again one day!

And a monkey, there's a little space-monkey missing, cheers TJF!

I also have examples in various shades of orange, one or two almost marbled, and I think the palette of colours has more to do with unstable pigment than actual production batches!

Politoys in Italy issued some Deluxe Reading stuff, they may have been responsible for the orange ones?

In addition I have a painted one, but he's so tatty it's hard to tell if it was factory or home-paint, and I suspect the latter as the black strap just doesn't quite have the practiced badness of a factory/out-painter, but rather the studied, tongue stuck-out badness of a home painter with little practice?

It gives us a line-up of - 50mm possibly painted; orange and white; the three whites; the three whites again in 30mm (the wishy-washy one is not quite so wishy-washy!) and a base variation of the 30mm with a slot for locating on studs attached to the toy-models they came with.

Note also the double crescent-shaped 'dents' or cut-outs in the edge of the bases and the twin, mould-release pin-marks - removed from the slotted-base guy, who's slot - incidentally - is the same (shape and size) as that found on the previously seen G.I. figures.

The 30mm figures only have five poses (there's a pointing chap missing from this lie-up) and represent US Naval personnel (or US Coastguard), rather than the Air-force/Rocketry/Space troops of the 50mm set. It's ironic, but the 30mm rifleman is more likely to be found with his muzzle intact than is the 50mm chap!

Partial Set Listing

50mm Airforce

- Rocket Base USA ("The Most Amazing Toy Ever Made")

- Operation X500 (the 2nd most amazing toy ever made?)

30mm Sailors

- B-400 Battlewagon (battleship, 1963)

3026 - Task Force 109 (destroyer and PT-boat)

Some of the above figures may have been issued in Italy by Politoys with different titles.

N is probably Not for Nardi

I bought these off a well known dealer, who said he'd been told they were Nardi, but with a face and a tone of voice which said "If you want to believe it too?", and it has to be said there is nothing in the Nardi oeuvre that matches it. It doesn't match the plug-together figures, nor the earlier composition

Therefore - and pending any hysterical updates from TJF or his PSTSM mates - this is an unknown, Italian nativity or 'Precepe' set.

It's beautifully made, and if I had to pin it on anyone I'd choose the Esci/Italiari/Ital-Hobby/Polistil/Supermodel group or chain, as the colours of the plastic have something in common with some of their kits, as has the material - polystyrene - and the kit-like construction, although that construction has, for the most part, been done at source.

The camera's flashes (and the age of the set) have rather led to some unrealistic colour-reproduction, but the components come in a light- and mid-tan and a chocolate-brown, along with some marbling on a few of the animals.

In the shot above we have three wise men, while the below image shows the family doing their 'thang'!

The shepherds in this set have come mob-handed with no less than four individuals, although you could employ three of them as camel-herds, but you'd need to source the camels from elsewhere first!

The upper image is my mock up of a smaller vignette I've seen, made of these, on t'Internet. In the case of that 'budget purchase' (?), the sheep has no base and all four elements are glued to a large'ish steep-sided base moulding in the same dark-brown found in this set and probably from the same tool as the other brown components.

The vignette on the left here, gives some idea of the one I was describing above, although the sides of this one are geometric and much taller. Marked ® and Made In Italy these are the only real clues, there is nothing on the box; probably reflecting an international issue/release; I've seen them on evilBay often-enough, before now.

The angel is made to be attached to something . . .

. . . with two long, locating studs as can be seen here (bottom left). I suspect it's the stable building seen on the box, which presumably was available in the same sales-displays, or perhaps packed together with this set in a larger liner?

The animals have been marbled from the two tan-plastics (sheep) or all three colours (the donkey and cow), both the latter also having a slot-in ear/horn section; which is missing on my donkey.

Whether there are two sculpts/cavities of/for the walking sheep, or if its base was cut off for use with the other vignette - I can't say.

A really nice set; does anyone know anything else about it or who made it?

V is for Vanwall

We don't often visit either of these companies, and I think the last time we looked at either of them (I is for Italians) we looked at both of them, that's synergy for you! A reasonable amount of info on the Vanwall racers is here if you want it.

The Politoys (blue) is the better of the two, although weighing-in at an odd 1:41st scale? Fitted with separate exhaust-pipes and given some suggestion of suspension bars between the body and the wheels.

The base plate is separate as is the steering-wheel which is attached to a dash coming up from the floor-pan, all features absent on the Sam Toys version.

Being slightly smaller, the Sam Toys example is probably a safer 1:43th but comes with simpler wheels and no hint of suspension, the exhausts are just moulded on as is the steering-wheel, while the dash is . . . behind the steering wheel!

The irony being that while smaller-scaled it has a larger driver squashed into the cockpit - clearly he ate all the pies!

Thanks to Mercator Trading for the photo'op.

I is for Italians

As I seem to have mentioned the post-war Humber utility vehicle once or twice in the last few posts, I thought we'd better look at this one;

Sam Toys of Italy, probably aiming to be around 1:48th scale, making the figures a bit small, this is clearly a straight lift from the Dinky original. It's the only Sam Toy I have and I know little else, but it leads us to other Italian Producers...

Dulcop produced in two sizes, the above row being around 1:48th for the A/Car and close to 1:72 for the two trucks. The armoured car was probably also taken from Dinky, and would go on to be copied both in Hong Kong and in Spain, where Montaplex produced a clip-together version.

The lower row are small at around 1:100 and will have been taken from the Roscopf range, the paint on the end two is not original, but being gloss would not come off well with oven cleaner, yet because the plastic is styrene I can't use caustic paint stripper either so until I find better examples - it stays!

Politoys were a better class of maker than the preceding two, and these are really nice toys for their day. Again shades of Dinky and French Dinky, but nicely executed. The truck has the Lone*Star inspired rocket launcher, another HK favorite while the M20 has a ridiculous-sized MG. Gotta' love the camouflaged boxes though.

T is for Truck Part 1; Overview and Odd Sizes

There are trucks that are lorries, trucks that are vans, trucks that are wagons, trucks that are big cars and trucks that are rigs, there are even trucks that are small wheel assemblies on skateboards, and then there is the US Military 'Deuce-and-a-half' 6x6 two-and-a-half-ton General Service Vehicle...Now that's a TRUCK.

Made by everybody (GMC, Studebaker, Ford, International Harvester, Chevrolet, Mack etc...), they have carried countless body types, taken weapon mounts, towed everything and in so doing - have become an iconic symbol of American military power, as they growl past in a cloud of blue exhaust fumes.

Here are some of mine (one day I'd like a real one, but I'd paint it gloss black, I'm no combat wombat!)

From your 'six' going time-wise; Polistil, Marx, Heller/Airfix, Marx, Airfix 1st version readymade, Hasegawa, Airfix 2nd version readymade, Jonny Lightning, Roco Minitanks, Marx, Comic advertised flat, MPC 'Mini' and Skytrex/Davco (?).

Missing; The T Cohen truck (just colour variants of the Airfix 1st version readymade), the new Pegasus and Academy kits and a bunch of kits from the new Eastern manufacturers. Plus various resin/white-metal efforts.

The Marx trucks, two dime-store quality toys and a Roco piracy made in Hong Kong. The copy is almost identical, but is spoilt by having lose axles, that also - in the case of the front wheels - are far too long.

Here she is next to her originator, clip-together construction meant you could have it open or closed, cab and/or body. There was a tractor version as well, and various body types were issued over the years. As far as I know the Marx copy only came as a GS body.

The rest; The Politoys one is around 1:48, but the crew are 1:76/72, the Johnny Lightning version is a bit long for it's width.

The comic book flat looks more like the front end of a half-track grafted on to a farm trailer! MPC's Mini is a single moulding, while the Skytrex/Davco (I'm not sure which trade mark this is) one has a removable tilt, unusual at this scale (1:300)