B is for Bergan and Beton!

This is both a quick box-ticker and a bit of fun! In the parcel from Jon Attwood, there was a Bergan Toys (Beton) figure, which didn't seem to have been photographed either in the lots we've seen, or another still in the queue, and when Jon mentioned it the other day I got worried in case I'd not shot a bunch of figures, but I found him in the first post, I just didn't mention him in the blurb, anyway by then I'd shot everything I'd found, so we can have a quick-look

 

This is what has come in over the last 18/24-months; less any which went to storage last autumn, and they are an ecclectic snapshot of some of the variations you can find of these figures.

 

With - from the top left - A Plastic Toys copy in hard 'styrene, another hard plastic early figure with paint, one (from Jon) with the leachate you sometimes find on these figures, in soft 'ethylene, a similar soft one in blue (for Navy or Army Air Force?), and a later stable-green one with no leachate below.

Bases, the one from Jon lacks the formal information in the middle depression, but you can see the clear 'B' intertwined with a 'T' of the logotype on all three of the Bergan/Beton bases, the Plastic Toys copy is unmarked!

 

This rather dented chap has been hanging around in Picasa since I shot him in 2013, and is another copy, from Reliable of Canada, in soft polyethylene again, he's suffering a bit of sun-fading in addition to his surface dinks!

While two of them came-in just under year ago, along-with an early seperate-based cowboy, and they were also in Picasa! It's a measure of my lack of imagination that I'm still using the same sheet of black cartridge-paper!

We looked at my existing small samples here, while the last (and best) words on the subject are on Ponylope - this link is to the 'WWII' page, but then click on 'WWI' and '*Beton Variations' in the left-hand menu to get far more than I will ever be able to show you!

News, Views Etc . . . Not Really Resting!

I've added some listings and company details to the Selcol-Selmer page and edited it a bit . . . and yesterday found this useful stash of stuff on downloadable/savable .pdf files;

Canadian Museum of History - toy catalogues.

Now I'm off to enjoy the last of today's sun in the garden . . . Ray! Gardening . . . not-so-ray! Well, I love gardening, but it's bramble-pulling this 'arvo! And nettles!

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.