S is for Sandown Park - May 2023 -

Welp, it seems to be Rack Toy Month already! But I've the Sandown sequence to finish first, just a few composition figures I picked up as samples or to compare with those in my existing collection.

 

Three - in khaki - marked NB for Nazaire Beeusaert, the Belgian composition maker and a fourth - sailor - who may be from the same maker, but is unmarked and a little smaller, so he may be another Belgian maker, they had several manufacturers who shared a certain style?

A Zang to check against the existing sample behind, and in front two which I was told were TAG, and may have shown here as TAG? Except I don't think they are, any more, TAG's seem to be larger, better detailed models, so these two are probably one of the other early British composition makers?

An unknown prisoner (who probably doesn't go with the Mountie, but 'goes' with him quite well here!), with his hands tied behind his back (possibly Italian?), and, errr, a Mountie! The Mountie is Durolin, from Germany, and I'd happily accept any help with ID on the seated Westerner?

He's quite rough and looks cheap, his paint a water-soluble thing, which has soaked and spread into it's not very dense composition, which almost has the feel of old egg-boxes, but isn't papier-mâché as far as I can tell?

 

And a few close-ups of the RCMP figure and his base mark, in the best traditions of learning something new every day, or whenever you can (life-long learning!), I was today-years-old when I learnt that in French they are the Gendarmerie Royale du Canada or G.R.C., which may be the 'R' on the left side of the saddle-cloth, with MP on the other side for Mounted Police, but a quick google-search only confused, with various saddle-cloth marks including a badge, but MP on both sides seeming commonest?

C is for Canoes - 19 - Dorset Models RCMP

Brian had a hankering for a Royal Canadian Mounted Police canoe, and when he couldn't find a decent premade one, he bought a casting or two and painted-up his own! Inspired by the books, comics and annuals of his childhood . . .

"When I was a lad watching TV in the 50's & 60's there was a rule that only movies of a certain vintage could be shown on TV, nothing recent if there was any chance of renting them out to the Cinemas that ran old films, the Rerun Houses.

What was shown were old 30's films with the RCMP bringing law and order plus songs to the frontier. As a result of that imagery, also covers of pulp magazines and some old schoolboy adventure books of my Dad's I developed a romantic view of early American explorers using birch bark canoes."

 

 

He chose the ex-Dorset Models casting, now part of Imperial Miniatures, to which order he added an RCMP and Native paddlers. I can't add much, so enjoy the images!

 

Many thanks again to Brian for all his Canoe stuff, there are a few more posts in the queue, but I've pulled one or two and need to have a rethink, but still more to come . . . !

C is for Chris's Autumn Parcel - Wild West

So, couple of busy days have put me slightly behind, drove over to pick-up the dregs of Dave Pomeroy's archive yesterday - bit of a mini-adventure in itself! But I'll catch-up quick enough, life-willing, and it's back to the donation from Chris Smith a month or so ago, with a look at the cowboy and native Indian angle, of that rootin' tootin' shootin' wild Wild West!

A nice group of semi-flats in an 'ivorene' polystyrene plastic, it's probably rare to find them so undamaged as a group! They are unmarked marked Vortella Plastic, and while in the style of the Coca-cola animals, have thinner bases, they are also somewhat in the style of the US Cracker Jack set, but different, heavier sculpts, I don't think they've been attributed to anyone yet, but would seem to be Euro-premiums/margarine giveaways?

Bendy Toys; a striation of colour weaving its way through the marble of Small Scale World; I think we've seen the smaller chaps before, but the Brabo styled 'lanky-git' to the right is a lovely thing, I forgot to note any marks before that tub went up to storage, but I think it was a Hong Kong mark not Brabo themselves? And a Safari on the far end. [Next day - it's not Safari is it, I think it's Phiadal's Pocahontas set, I keep them all in the same tub; painted PVC!]

Fun chaps; There's a mix of modern China marked generics (first three) possibly accessories from a big-box play set, of exactly the kind of thing hardware, stationary, general stores and/or pharmacies get-in at this time of year, and an older Soma figure (on the right).

Base marks, I recently (well; about a year ago!) got a similar lot in with a mix of the Soma and similar premium figures from Haribo, so at some point in the future (year or two?) we will compare all three with the older cartoony stuff from Jecsan (Spain) and Lik Be (Hong Kong), in a much fuller post.

The de rigueur bag of Giant or Giant-like bits, these being mostly the ones I call 'Wavymane' associated with several brands/brand-marks, but that's all for the other Blog!

I'm pretty sure these are premiums, just not sure who, and I think we've seen them before, maybe always in this dark, metallic lilac, but I won't sware to it! Obviously, we'll return to them when they are all brought together! With a new pose to the left?

This is rather intriguing, nearly all the poles have come loose, and the thing's been 'ironed' into a stiff hankie by the weight of whatever toys were laying over it, but you can see feint marks where the original glue was, or where the past making-tape was applied as a first attempted mend, so eventually I intend to restore it.

I'm guessing it went with smaller 3 or 4-inch action figures or something like Playmobile figures, and is - clearly - a fabric Tee-Pee/Tipi with wooden poles; four present, probably six originally?

The painted cowboy with the straw boater can be found as a cowboy or a jungle/big-game hunter, and is probably missing a dog, usually attached to the front of the base, but this is a non-Blue Box sub-piracy and may not have run to a dog!

Below him is one of the very-well sculpted 40mm backwoodsmen and Indians (copied from a larger scale) which, like those AWI's we looked at a while ago, have some of the properties of DFC, but are probably older and of better quality than DFC's figures?

To his right is one of Nardi Mounties; a bit the worse for wear, but a useful sample against something better turning-up one day, good ones tend to command high prices and stay outside my practical (read: tight-fisted) budget!

Some interesting Hong Kong production, including two painted (newer) and two in blue plastic (older, one aping Texas, but probably from a coach-roof?), some cake decorations and another of the Lone Star shooting game figures, we'll have to return to them too, as after the original post and a couple of follow-ups, more have come in (four I think, three from Chris?) and the paperwork, so it should all be tied-together more neatly!

Finally, top-right, a wagon crewman . . .

. . . which I'm guessing is US, or from US moulds (early Tudor Rose or Kleeware, Salco, Selcol, someone like that?), nice, a sort of hard, coal-black 'styrene, and the hunt for an ID will occupy my mind from time to time!

Smallies; two of the horses from those cheap wedding-cake type coaches, and three of the Hong Kong coach/wagon crew, having looked at them before, I've since ID'd older French and Italian versions, some/one of which should be the donor! The broken horses are worth keeping as colour samples, as there seem to be so many variants of them!

More smallies! Top row; A Marx-copy cracker toy/Lucky Bag premium of Pecos Bill, two Marx Miniature Masterpieces, one damaged hard polystyrene (left) and one soft polyethylene (right) from the window-box sets and a Blue Box miniaturised Britains sculpt.

A Minimodels mounted Indian; I've just picked up two painted metal castings (because you DO cast metal) of these from the aforementioned Dave Pomeroy's archive (he didn't design them, they are Charles Stadden's work) and they are equally damaged; the weapons were just too thin! Finally a trio of Hong Kong'ies for the relevant tubs of such things - love the plastic colour of the cracker-toy, bottom-right!

So thanks again to Chris for another interesting lot of odds to share, and it's civi's next I think?

M is for Mounted Mounties Moseying Majestically in . . . Somewhere Beginning with M

Montreal! Mounted Mounties Moseying Majestically in Montreal!

Following on from yesterday's (where this was originally scheduled to be third post!) ceremonial cavalry types; these were also sat in Picasa, they've been there since 2011 (and this is their third PC/Laptop-home I think!), and are from my attempts at 'realistic' photographs back at the time.

Britains 'Eyes Right' Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman (RCMP) on the left and Timpo's solid 'Mountie' on the right - I have a feeling I may have used one of these shots in the past and asked then; which saddle is the more accurate?

I played with the next image using the basic tools in Picasa, and reading from the top middle image you can see the original colour shot, a sepia-toned version, a black-and-white picture, an enhanced variation of the B&W one and finally the antiqued one, also below; . . .

. . . with the addition of a boarder! They had to be cropped-off at the horse's knees to hide the Britains horse's base, I learnt the 'touch-up' tool later! Up on the hill, looking for miscreants; they should try Pennsylvania!

M is for Massive Mounties

This post includes a few shots from ebay, for research purposes, cropped and manipulated, in order to show the full range of these figures, along with some Adrian at Macator Trading let me photograph and my own damaged sample...

Reliable of Canada; 'Mounties'! Obviously their Tourist draw like our Guards, and therefore plenty of keepsakes available including the Britains figures (and others) repackaged. This is about as big as they get (although I'm sure larger statuettes have been produced at some point by someone?).

I suspect the gold lanyards are the earlier versions and note that one is site-specific to Fort Erie...again I imagine there are others out there?

Close-ups of the various base treatments, the yellow RCMP being glued on. The gold lanyard versions are also the ones with the cursive logo while the [later?] other ones have an engineers stamped marking.

Just remember - before investing - other 6" figures are available! Don't know who is responsible for the left-hand figure...is it a HK (or other) piracy of the Airfix kit? That lance looks familiar, as do the glued-on gloves, but he's clearly in pink (sun-faded red) polystyrene under the paint.

The Alymer premium/counter-top advertising/display model has the best face and seems to be drawing his 'piece' (do Canadians say that?) to exersie restraint on a ne'er-do-well! And while he has a 'brand', I suspect someone else made him and I don't know who either.

I should add that Reliable did a nice Indian alongside the Mountie, who is as common and comes in as many varieties...we'll look at him another time maybe...when I've bought a couple! I should also add these are all factory-painted hard styrene hollow 'kit' mouldings.

C is for Corgi Cavalry

These are one of those exceptions that prove a rule; getting exited about scale is a waste of time...

The figures being 50mm, while the horse is perfectly compatible with 54mm stuff. These came late'ish to Corgi if I remember correctly and included a horse-box and Land-Rover Country LWB. The little blonde girl being from the 'Corgi Pony Club', the other two being obvious!

The scarlet-jacketed postilion (?) is from the '1902 State Landau - The Queens Silver Jubilee 1977' set. He plugs into a plinth which also had a small corgi dog.

The last shot shows the size in comparison with a Britains Guardsman, as you can see the figure looks a tad diminutive, but the horses are quite alike, if anything the Corgi steed has a bigger butt as our friends across the pond would say!