M is for Miscellaneous Modelled Miniatures

This lot dates back to March of last year, when a group of us had our Christmas breakfast and 'show and tell' a tad late, well, a quarter of a year late! Anyway, while indulging in friendship, good home-cooked food and a bit of reminiscing, both Adrian Little and John Begg gave me tubs of bits . . . I respond well to tubs of bits, bags of bits, boxes of bits . . . !

 

These were from Adrian, who had noticed the similarity between the old MPC sculpt and the Hing Fat 'NASA-nauts', with simplified sextant and skien of rope. A green-washed (verdigris!), probably Kinder Napoleonic/colonial era staff officer 'mocherette' completes the line-up.

 

You can also see that the better-marked Hing Fat (or copy?) is the worst sculpt, and while I've lost the reference, I know there was a better yet, Hong Kong marked one, although the definite Hing Fat, on the left, was also originally, Hong Kong rather than China marked. Hing Fat did - of course - also issue straight copies of the MPC chaps in their slighter Mercury/Gemini suits.

 

I think John gave me this chap, large, around five or six inches (in storage now!), and possibly Marx? But I don't know, and lots of manufacturers had a stab at larger beach/garden wagons, stage-coaches and the like, which from his posture is what he might be from, rather than a horse rider, but I don't even know that for sure?

 

This seems to be an ex-Imperial Toys moulding, you can see where all consumer information has been removed from the chest area. Twin-headed dragon/monster in a softish PVC or similar polymer, does anyone recognise it?

 

An articulated baby, in a soft polyethylene, in a Kinder style, but possibly too large for Kinder, so another question-mark? Damaged Britains Jesey cow, probbaly Kinder elephant (Disney's Jungle Book?), and a Blue Box (or Redbox?) crocodile.

 

Poor shot I'm afraid, but they will mostly return here one day in other round-ups or comparisons, the plastic truck is nice, the old-fashioned car is probably Kinder, can't remember on the black space vessel, but I think it was marked?

 

Bottom left is a pull-back-and-go motored novelty from the pocket-money shelf, the white die-cast is a sub-piracy of something better I suspect and the Matchbox Jeep with recoilless rifle completes the group.

 

Having seen the Cosmix knock-off of MUSCLE the other day, here's Remco's answer to Mattel's import from Bandai, they are original sculpts, slightly larger (heading for the full 54mm), and more recognisably wrestlers, that some of the MUSCLE figures, who presaged Skibidy Toilet or Brainrot, by being made out of spanners, chains, bolts, shop tills, tyres, Rubik cubes or whatever, one was a pile of combination-locks!

 

Mixed lot of Nottingham Mafia output, but in these coloured plastics probably from a Milton Bradly tie-in board-game, the Space Marine's Space Hulk maybe? Or one of the add-on/extension packs?

 

Odds and sods for the spares boxes, aircraft kit parts, a base from something (anyone recognise it?), a Kamley/KS gun in need of a wheel/axle assembly and a ball-bearing puzzle, apparently given away by a railway company as part of the forced privatisation which has proven so successful, against all the naysayers had to say at the time!!! Although it might just be an 'Intercity 125' giveaway?

Thanks to Adrian and John, all useful stuff, one way or another! Plastic Warrior in less than Five Days!

W is for Will Nobody Rid Me of This Turdulent Prick!

Oh, bless his little cotton-socks, Paul ‘The Jabbering Fuck’ Stadinger has found time in his busy schedule of dying noisily to have another pop at me! Let’s read what pearls of wisdom he managed to pull from that cesspit of a creative mind of his, and then I deal with it in my usual inimitable fashion . . .

“The sad egotist fool is on a rage rampage. He is upset that people are supposedly copying his material. Naturally, Erwin and I are at the top of his hate list. Erwin and I just laugh at his vitriol attacks. I look at his website for laughs. Occasionally, he makes such an egregious error I have to make a comment. One such error was when he listed a Remco Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as a 20,000 Leagues figure. It took him several weeks to respond. He admitted he was wrong and blamed it on a brain freeze.

He then talked about the Remco Lost in Space Board Game. He had another brain freeze not noting the game pieces were pantographed down copies of the figure on the left. Another brain freeze when he listed a lead Johillco Roman as a Greek warrior. I wish his “loyal followers ” would send him corrections so I would not have to waste time posting them on my site. Oh, he has a third brain freeze which I will let him find. If he does not find it I will give him a hint at the Plastic Warrior Show.”

I would like to thank Kent Sprecher for the use of the above photo.”

So, we’ll do it again, line be line;

“The sad egotist fool is on a rage rampage. The word he is struggling to find is - of course - 'egotistic' or ‘egotistical’ (illiteracy, always was his strong-point!), and he’d be better with a mirror to spot one of those, he oozes self-importance like an overripe mango! He is upset that people are supposedly copying his material. I wouldn’t say I’m upset, I’m annoyed, wouldn’t you be if a retail magazine was using you for its main editorial ideas, if a blog you’d been friendly with for 15-years began parking it’s tanks on your lawn, because they’ve run out of ideas, and they have, seen what they’ve posted recently? Naturally, Erwin and I are at the top of his hate list. Errr, no they aint! I barely mention them these days, except in passing, or - like the other day - as part of a list of miscreants in the hobby of whom he and his self-abusing monkey are a small part now, almost an irrelevance! Erwin and I just laugh at his vitriol attacks. 'vitriolic’ Christ! Don’t use words you don’t understand! I look at his website for laughs. I’m glad to be providing them with some light-relief; they seem to have so little of it in their lives. Occasionally, he makes such an egregious error I have to make a comment. “Egregious”, ladies and gentlemen (Outstandingly bad; shocking), my crime is so severe he’s got the thesaurus out! One such error was when he listed a Remco Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as a 20,000 Leagues figure. It took him several weeks to respond. He admitted he was wrong and blamed it on a brain freeze.

Now, this one’s interesting, I posted my ‘criminal error’ on the 28^th May 2021, I believe the turd-like entity responded within the hour “The skin diver is from the Remco Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Photo is from Kent Sprecher's site.” And I replied within a few minutes “Whatever!” and it’s still there, on the Faceplant group, so no admittance of anything, and it didn’t take several weeks! That’s a Trump trick, to pronounce a complete lie (or two) as complete fact/s! The little liar!

He then talked about the Remco Lost in Space Board Game. He had another brain freeze not noting the game pieces were pantographed down copies of the figure on the left.

Well, where does egregiousness come into it? Here’s the post, last image down the article;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/12/f-is-for-follow-ups-various-recent.html

Are you struggling to notice that the fifth figure from the left (second from the right, yellow) is considerably smaller, and less detailed than the metallic blue one to its right? No, neither was I, and I didn’t think, I couldn't imagine, that you might/would need to be spoon-fed such an obvious detail?

What I said was "...a slightly damaged Lost in Space original, also Remco, in yellow" a wholly accurate description of the figure? He's calling me 'egregious' because I didn't say something? But, as I’ve pointed out before, these critics of mine hold me to a higher standard, than they hold themselves or each-other, And if you can’t get me for something I’ve genuinely got wrong, get me for something I omitted!

What an egregious sinner I am, what a fucking criminal mastermind I must be, to so deliberately withhold data from you, in the hope you will all remain wallowing in your pitiful ignorance, a pitiful ignorance, entirely of my own nefarious design, because I didn't tell you something! Bwahahaha!

And here's the thing, this is his only 'victory' in seven years, I got the name of a movie wrong? On another contry's production, of what I call 'diecast accessories'. I.E., not part of a recognised range or line of toy soldiers or model figures, but a couple of play set enhancers, from an importer/jobber, I just can't get that excited about periferal figures of a rip-off movie! AND, having corrected me he 'failed' to mention the board game so I had to 'discover' that, for us! It's all very childish, isn't it?

Another brain freeze when he listed a lead Johillco Roman as a Greek warrior.

Again, here’s the post;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/01/v-is-for-vikings.html

Now, it won’t escape you notice it’s a post about fucking Vikings, not John Hill’s output! Further, I didn’t tell you about the scarecrows, or the anvil, does that make me more egregious, or does it, according to the rules he’s establishing as he goes, vomiting words uncontrollably, actually make TJF egregious, for not explaining them all to us?!!! The man’s the fucking cock-sucking, arse-bubbles of a tick-turds wet underpants!

I have explained, in several show reports, that I’m buying this cheap (50p/£1 rummage tray) lead stuff, against future posting, there’s all sorts in there, Crescent, Charbens, Britains cheap lines, Reka . . . whoever (one of the scarecrows is Wend-Al), and I’m sure that when, or, if . . . IF I ever post the Johillco Romans I will point out the anomalous figure who, wearing a smooth cuirass and greaves , while carrying - an admittedly small - round ‘Hoplon’ shield, looks more Greek to me, and I didn’t ‘list’ it, I mentioned it conversationally, on my way to introducing the fucking Vikings! And again, holding me to a higher account because I couldn’t be arsed to peruse Joplin’s tome, for an hour or two, to correctly ID everything!??

Understand this;

In December I posted a hundred articles, with fifty this month already, so, as these ‘egregious’ sins have been committed within that time, that’s a theoretical fail-rate of . . . 2-point-something%, not quite 3%? Right?

Mr. I’m-as-thick-as-pig-shit-if-not-thicker-Stadinger, has managed two posts in January (4% of my output), and got to the heady total of nine ‘articles’ in December (less than 10% of my output), a month which he bookended, by being corrected on;

•        December 2nd  - by Steve Zobel after he misidentifies Helmet spares as Historex!
•        December 26th - by Deadleaf Hairband on misidentification of Torgano as Manurba!

Are these not - in his eyes - 'Egregious' sins? They seem worse ‘brain freezes’ than mine? The man is a semi-literate, bullshitting, self-important, arsehole. Period. He is an increasing irrelevance to the hobby, and his contribution was always over-inflated, by him, as much as by anyone else. And a fail-rate of nearly 20% . . . to my less than 3%?

When this turd of a man stops making basic errors, every few posts (some howlers in October/November, I think he was corrected by his mates three times in one post) he can start telling me what I omitted to add!

And when I say ‘articles’, he re-posts new-production from the companies websites and gives us the odd loose figure., usually from a narrow band of 54-60mm. Those blue Arab things, he's shown us them twice in less than a month, they're on the company's own website, it's pointless drivel.

I wish his “loyal followers ” would send him corrections so I would not have to waste time posting them on my site. Hahahahahahahaha, that’s the sound of pomposity, ladies and gentlemen, there’s your ‘egotist’! Oh, he has a third brain freeze which I will let him find. If he does not find it I will give him a hint at the Plastic Warrior Show.”

Oh will he? Yawn! If it's as 'egregious' as the other (he's not sure on his counting either, is he?) three, it'll be a flea-bite on the arse of an elephant. At the last show, he sat in the corner, near me, looking rather tragic, like a melting turd, and I was far too busy with all the comings & goings, meetings & calling’s away, catching-up’s  and helping my mate, to be remotely bothered by that husk of a former man!

He had tried to have a pop when I walked past him a few years earlier, before Covid, but I ignored him. he emailed me later and accused me of 'running scared'!! It is the best show on earth, and I won’t let his tiny-little mind, spoil it for anyone else, including myself.

If he wants to start something, I’ll meet him in the car-park and he’ll probably die before I lay a finger on him, because he’s a walking heart-attack waiting to happen, and he’s walking in a circle because he’s already got one foot in the grave. Fuckwit, don’t talk the talk, if you can’t walk the walk!

I would like to thank Kent Sprecher for the use of the above photo.”

Yeah, because it’s the third time he’s used it, I’ve shown you seven of the ten possible figures, new images every time, and he can’t even show us one of his, it’s almost like he hasn’t got any and has to go cap-in-hand to get Kent to help him fight his war, which went remarkably well for Kent back in the Summer/Autumn of last year didn’t it . . . Hee! Hee! Hee! I notice the much vaunted, hopefully stunning article of great correction, hasn’t appeared yet?

A 'rage rampage' . . . yeah, they heard me in Edinburgh, the earthquake alarms went off in Rome, Commisioner Gordon turned on the Bat-signal, women gave-birth a week early in Caracas! The hyperbole of an over-excited fuckwit.

******************************

Here’s a classic piece of Stadinger, the lecturer, lecturing us, about lecturers, it’s priceless . . . while starting another war, and with someone else . . . it’s his only MO!

“He also earned a spot on my Ebay banned bidders. The reason is I do not like lecturers. I am not upset about legitimate criticisms. People who are lecturers are so full of themselves. They think they know what they are talking about.

He is a sad figure, he cuts a sad path, and his railing against me is pointless while he’s not actually delivering better himself? Which is not to say I don’t post some shite, but if you’re publishing as much as me, the odd duff one is of no consequence? When you’re posting fuck-all, and you still get figures wrong every few posts, people are entitled to ask why you bother at all?

It took me nearly a week to even see the garbage, as I just don’t go to Shitestuff anymore, you know? Two posts in the whole of January? Nothing of interest [to me], in either of them? I’ve done forty-odd whilst working nights and learning a new role!

All he has to do is sit on his arse, and take the weight off his heart, a bit of typing would be the only exercise he gets all day! Instead he’s sitting in a slough of hate, a miasma of envy, a cloud  of self-aggrandizement, unable to properly articulate his nastiness, but doing a good job of it anyway.

And again, I make no claims for my own sainthood, I’m an intolerant, intransigent git, especially when I’m dealing with cretins like that fuckwitted moron.

F is for Follow-up's - Various Recent Things

Running over a few additional details, info or images of a few bits we've seen here in the last few weeks, no particular order or sense to it, just things I fancied doing extra/more/follow-up shots of!

The sports pencil top Chris sent, alongside one I had here of a boxer, we both think we've seen a football one, and it would be interesting to find out what others there were, as a set they probably went to at lest four sculpts?

 

The Hong Kong-marked KT figures I have here, about half of them went to storage a while ago, including the pen-stand thing which started the whole odyssey, so one day we'll look at them all together, as there are probably pencil-sharper and stand-alone versions of all of them, along with other novelties for some of them . . . I haven't found a sand-timer yet, but I'd happily put a tenner on one being found.

 

And the pencil sharpener version of the guardsman with its replacement figure. Luckily the old one just popped-off, but I had to do some careful knife-cleaning of one of the foot-studs on the replacement, who had a lump of his old stand still attached as that bubbly-glue patch stuff!

 

Also, while the damaged figure popped-off, he did leave one locating-stud rattling around inside, which I caught by well-glueing the hole with liquid-poly, and shaking it around, upside-down, until it sopped rattling, meaning it had got stuck to the glue . . . something to confuse future archaeologists!

 

That green Tatra figure from Chris, next to the two most common colours, although, these days, you see more and more of the red and blue too, but you can see just how green he is, under the gold-residue?

 

Following on from something in the comments, these are the athletes which have come-in over the last 18-months or so, we looked at them originally as mostly small scale here;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post.html

And revisited them more recently here, to look at the larger scale;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-is-for-athletes-vintage-plastic.html

so with this sort of quantity being added every year or so, when we return to them properly we should have a better idea about which sets/types had which poses, and are therefore, in the two or three seperate 'families' of piracy?

Remember I said I had another Morph, well here's Chris's donation, standing on himself! Too cool for art school! And the brown colour which Morph was made in (his later mate Chas was a neutral beige-gray), is the same brown everyone's Plasticine went after it had all been mixed together in the toy-box!

Plasticine Flash Mob!

 

Oh yes, TJF had such fun correcting my 'brain freeze' when I said they were from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, when they were from some Disney knock-off, but they were also from a different-again board game, and having found the four copies a while ago, I now have a slightly damaged Lost in Space original, also Remco, in yellow, with the missing figure, and 3 more board-game pieces to find we will return to these!

 

Left to right;

 

4x Homecast resin/3D-printed (?) copies of Remco - Lost in Space figures

1x Remco - Lost in Space original

1x Remco - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

S is for Sandown Park - May 2022 - 3 of 3

The final part of the show report; not so exciting, mostly small scale, but the stat's seem to indicate that both these show reports and the 'H is for How...' posts are popular, so I tend to photograph everything, rather than just the highlights, these days!

The chap I bought the Airfix SAM-2 Guideline from in February, had said he's bring a better one (a detail I left out of that show report!), and he had, but he'd put it out for anyone to buy which was worrying, but it's a fine line when people make such agreements - I know from past experience - that the one or other party either forgets or doesn't attend, leading to wasted time/journey or a cheated feeling in the other!

If as a seller, you say you'll bring something to the 'next show', you have to write it down and make the effort to take it, and if someone says they will do so, you, as the buyer have to turn-up and at least look at it with willingness!

Contents were minter than a minty thing which grew-up as a mint, got picked by the mint harvester and taken to the mint works to be turned-into minty-mints! So I will make-up the February one at some point in the future, and keep this as the sample.

The lid is probably slightly better that February's more common version, but the tray was a mess of tape, some of which has been extended to the skirt of the lid, so I will do the hair-dryer trick before deciding which to retain with the contents, as I know the corner-dinks on both will iron-out as well as each others? And - to be honest - I prefer the extended artwork of the latter boxing!

The Slater's box of 'Huminiatures' was a present from Adrian Little, when I first opened it and saw the chap with two cases I had a wobble on the Trojan theory, but it was just bad, or yellow lighting in that far hall! It actually contains the expected Wardie/Merit/PPP figures, but painted, they later issued them unpainted on wheel runners, alongside the Merit ones.

The others came in from various quarters and include an unpainted Mastermodels casting (right) some Merit versions (centre) an Airfix farm dog and what I suspect is an airliner civilian (left) with more Wardie Mastermodels metals' in the little bag.

The only way to tell if they are Slater's or Merit are the European-style thin, clear-plastic, sheet bases on the Slater's (some merit have none (early?), other latter ones got heavier oval bases with a chamfered edge) and the more subdued painting of the Slater's figures - the yellow lady might be a latter Merit make-up-the-numbers addition? You can't really tell the difference between Merit and Modelscene (fourth branding of the sculpts) at all!

Charming Christmas cracker charms, as I bought them; two matching 'sets' of six, missing one shoe. I suspect though, that they are home-threaded, and came one per mini 'tree' cracker, as per similar items we've seen here before. They are an early 'styrene or late, stable'ish fenolic/cellulose type polymer and the little pony is still around in the very cheap crackers.

The rabbit actually came with the FG Taylor's in the first post, but is a Hong Kong example, who usually comes on a mini runner with two other poses. I have a good white-plastic Policeman, but wasn't sure on the black one (I think I have shades of blue) so as they came together, I ended-up with a  headless horseman! Metal sheep-dog is Timpo I think and a Merten/Preiser (?) horse.

A larger version of Merit's barrel (as copied by Marx), but I think there was a larger one in one of the earlier, larger 'load' sets? While the windmill is lovely, probably a tourist item from Holland, it's early I think, and polystyrene with an aluminium rivet.

Odds and sods and out of focus, so we'll move swiftly along - cereal premium, Phidal superhero and pencil topper!

I meant to grab these at the PW show, as I knew they were getting cheap, but it wasn't until Michael M-S grabbed most of them that I remembered, so took the dregs with a three-part Plesiosaur (who'll glue OK) and a woolly Mammoth!

Another Remco firefighter closes the shoot, although I did also buy a whole train-set which will get a separate post!

T is for Two - Follow-up to Fingers of Fictional Fun

This is a follow-up to a rather bitty Sci-Fipost from January, but I said at the time there were more ET's in the post, while there were also developments on the Remco diver front - they are also spacemen!

Increasingly, it's hard to know with some things whether what you're buying is all original, in matters Corgi-Dinky-Lesney - for instance - there is a lot of reproduction stuff around, especially the accessories, while Tri-Ang Battle Space has repro' parts for all the little jigets, and some of the larger pieces; track-side and wagon-underside triggers, missiles etc . . . sometimes they are obvious (white-metal castings), sometimes not so, poured resin . . . painted . . . while 3D printing is only adding to the confusion/plethora of stuff offered.

One chap on eBay has an enterprising line in replacement figures for the Remco 3D board game 'Lost in Space', which uses the spear-gun figure from the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea sets (even further apart than my suggested one of 20,000 Leagues!), I think they are 3D printed but they don't have the tell-tale striations of deposit/extrusion printers so they may be the sintered liquid type; equally they could be cold-cast resin?

But they are fun, and given what the original games go for, I grabbed a set purely to tick the box, as far as four new figures goes! This is the least close to the originals, being semi-transparent, but also my favourite! The blue and yellow are a bit off from the Remco playing pieces too. Lost in Space with an underwater dart-gun!

Meanwhile, the other ET figures had arrived, so I took a few shots, I thought I'd only taken the comparison shots below, so took another line-up last night, consequently there are two good shots! These are the LJN ones, and a total of six is the whole of series 1, six more (series 2) are obviously harder to find!

Clearly different tranches have lead to marked differences in decoration, although I couldn't tell you which came first, the rule-of-thumb is usually they start better and get poorer, which would probably make the left-hand one the earlier issue? He's reading an ABC!

F is for Four Fingers of Fictional Fun

A few Sci-Fi bits and bobs which were kicking around various corners of the Laptop, and which might as well be shoehorned into one post to clear the decks a bit!

Star Wars key-rings; We've seen a few before now, but I thought a comparison was in order, and we have - from the left - an LED torch, Lego 'maxi' Darth Vader, followed by three normal 'minifig' sized rings, then an Applause young Anakin/Vader, which I think is part of the avalanche of merchandise which accompanied the fourth/first movie.

I don't know how many there were in the Applause set, so the gap is for the missing Vader in an otherwise complete set of the capsule key-ring figures, cleared through The Works a few years ago, then to Pound-Plus, branded TPF Toys for shipping-in by STL.

ET's, a planetoid's worth of ET's! The three to the right are licensed LJN, and from a set of six (or eight?), while the chap on the left is marked J.A.R. Sales, and may be more of a knock-off than an official product, but both lines are dated 1982, so may both be legitimate?

I have no idea how many of the JAR ones there were and scale on them is 'big' as he fitted in a bikes shopping basket I seem to recall (never seen it, have no intention of seeing it!), so about 1:18^th or larger? I guess there was half-an-idea for them to be compatible with dolls, for playing-out the movie scenes?

Ignore the Greek, he's been joined by three of his compatriots recently and will be Blogged separately at some point. I managed to pick up both the Remco divers from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea last year, but they have been separated already, one here, one in storage - funny story; TJF managed to score a brownie-point with this one when I posted it elsewhere, but really, Journey to the Centre of the Earth / The Land that Time Forgot / 2,000 Leagues Under the Sea / 10,000 BC and a dozen other movies of the time were basically variations on a theme!

The metal-detector/mine-sweeper one is missing the base-stud, but as it's only used to lock them onto the floor of their retail carton, it's more a question of Do I remove the other one?

The chap to the right is supposed to be Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, but the head's all wrong, so I'll leave it to a jury, preferably a Bristolian one! He's a soft polyethylene and Argentinian.

Picked this up cheap a while back, as a sort of follow-up to the other day's Lunar Rover post; it's Dinky France selling-off the Zygon War Chariot crew figures as 'astronauts' in their spare-parts program! Daft in'it . . . got tub full's of orphaned seated figures and I go and get three more, but it's always about the packaging!

The funny thing is I know I have a metal Gort somewhere but can't find him, and there are more ET's in the post, so we will be returning to both those subjects in the not too far future!