I is for Image Dump!

Getretro is a wholesaler of old stock, cancelled toys and other end-of-line clearance stuff, so the fact that I didn't get around to posting these, from the London Show back in 2023 makes sense as this had all, already, been out there somewhere, and those who needed to know about such things would already have found them!

 

 

Retro, Risk, Revell & Role Play!

 

Eaglemoss Dr's Who, Who, Who & Who . . . Who, Who, Who, Who and Who, a bunch of companions, Daleks, Cybermen and someone called War?

 

Lionel, now a trademark for shifting big-box sets from China.

That's it really, just to get them up here and out of the way, as it were! Website;

https://www.getretro.co.uk/

P is for Peter's Perfect Post-Christmas Parcel! 2 of 2

The other half of Peter's parcel, and in the order I shot them, as I was sorting them for the local TBS boxes, I have five stacks of the smaller cardboard 'produce' boxes which stack on the corners and have open tops and the odd slot/handhold in the ends, through which I can post things without taking the whole stack apart!

Three bigger animals, two makers? The cat's are similar plastic/sculpting, the girraffe is more sort of early-learning or infant-toy with a slightly cartoony look, but all useful and needing ID'ing one day!

 

Some medieval small-scale odds, I think we're looking at Revell's iteration of Accurate's Brit's on the left and something Itlaeri-Zvezda on the right, they'll go down the line to make up complete sets, from odd's, when I have the time!

 

Three Del Prado part-work figures from the Waterloo 'wargame', and a nice flat, probably modern in physical production, but from antique slates? The loader came apart as I was shooting them, which means we can look at how the parts go together!

I actually got the part-work for some time, a local shop kept getting a few in, for months after it was supposed to have gone subscription-only. In the end, I dropped-out, as I did the maths! But we will look at them in depth one day, it was about 20-years ago now?

 

Airfix bits and a Merit feather-edged fence-panel. Figures, kit bits and 'readymade' AFV parts/odds, it all has its place! The series I/II Land-Rover (from the Bristol Bloodhound set), looks a bit like my Uncle's Austin Gypsy did when I found it behind a barn, about ten years after I'd last seen it driving!

 

A very red sample of Poplar Plastic and Tudor Rose soft-platic Westerners, we're aiming for one of every colour on the Poplar's (unlikely, but you never know), and they always seem to be more Tudor Rose horses than riders, so all useful stuff!

 

Two for the spares box, a German parachute bag from Timpo and a small 'old school' dustpan or hearth-brush, probably from a cheap rack-toy doll's set, or budget Christmas crackers?

 

The saltier half of a pair of Friar cruets on the right, with some Kinder 'fidget-spinners'.

 

A sample of early British Khaki Infantry, they were a nice sample, but Royal Fail or Parcel Farce conspired to deny them a future of use, however they are unpainted and very clean, so could be a worthwhile sample, and will be kept for now, until the next big sorting of that sub-genre.

 

Likewise, this chap, who is not damaged in the post-production sense of the word, but is a short-shot moulding with a constricted, kidney-shaped base and short muzzle-tip, where cooling plastic failed to fill the cavity properly!

 

Many thanks to Peter for this latest parcel, especially at what is the quiet or 'down-season' in the hobby.

H is for How They Come In - Sandown - September, Part 2

Continuing/completing the plunder posts from the last Sandown Park toy show, from BP Fairs (the next one is on the 11th of November I think), with the other half of the purchases/acquisitions!

My third Cherilea Dalek, I think I have a black and a sky-blue now (or was it silver? It's on the Blog somewhere!), so with this one a reasonable 'sample'! Although I've read that the plug-in tools are being reproduced, so I'll have to check their quality against the older ones, as it's very clean!

 

Now . . . we've had the above figures before, I think I have more than a baker's dozen now, and with colour variations! Each time we've seen them I've stated I know the game but can't remember it, well, it's Alibi, or "Dennis Wheatley's exciting new game Alibi", published by Geographia Ltd.

 

Below them are three Wardie/Mastermodels OO-gauge figures and two larger figures which will be from British minor makers wagons, carts or milk-floats, still to be attributed, but that will be for another day, there are lots of them!

Odds and sods, including a Timpolin mechanic, original Ral Patha 'fantasaur' and the metal chap, top left, who often turns up (I have a bagful somewhere!) and is a Tootsietoys soldier from the sets with the small die-cast trucks which are the same as the (Charbens?) lorries we saw here years ago - button-searchlight, pom-pom gun or etc.

 

Adrian Little of Mercator Trading found this for me! Having wanted some for years, i've had three come-in this year! Another Milwaukee Zoo marked Mold-a-Rama figurine, this one of a T-Rex, I've seen a similar crested 'Duckasaurus' about the place!

 

I paid over the odds on this and got laughed at by Adrian and Gareth, but I rather liked it, and don't mind, something is worth what you pay for it! Britains village pond, I have the swan and some cygnets for it, I think, so it's got a purpose!

 

And this was dirt-cheap, but seems to be 'all there', a future project will be to finish it/rebuild it, and I'll scan the box in, so next time we can look at it in more depth. But I'm not sure if I'll stick with the fiddly foil-covering the previous owner had embarked upon!

C is for a Constellation of Capsules

No, not gum-Ball machine capsules, but at ten cents definitely prizes! If you can handle the rest of your childhood being plagued by junk mail and further demands to subscribe to other shite! I have these in the archive; offers involving Revell kits, hoping to get kids signed-up to Science Programe, whatever that was; something American! And the collective noun for capsules SHOULD be 'constellation'!

 

The 'white heat' of technology . . . all those years ago . . . what hopes man had then (whispers - in conflict with the Soviet Union!).

This is both sides of two direct-marketing, mail-order, insert cards from a magazine or periodical of some kind I think, and from the dates of the Gemini programme, actually flying missions, must date them to between 1964 and 1966, so around the time I was born!

This is a fascinating and quick little read, I'm glad he made it to the moon after his near death!

Anyway, finding the above caused me to dig-out that Wilton Gemini-craft we looked at the other day, and compare it to Marx's Mercury looking thing!

It's actually fascinating to see the evolution of the capsules over time, I must find a decent 1:72nd, 1:48th or larger Apollo capsule to show how it got broader still to fit a three-man crew, yet visually looks the shortest/squattest of the three. But here the Marx is definitely modelling the Mercury, with three flat windows rather than the Wilton Gemini's two 'bus-drivers' windows!

 

As you can see, the Marx return capsule is made from eye-blinding red, or flowing-lava orange, and is almost impossible to photograph! I used to think it was a reissue thing, but David Schafer showed one on a vintage card and it really is that colour!

 

Also, I'm now wondering if the Wilton cake-craft is a direct copy of the old Revell kit, as practically given-away by the Science Programme, although I should probably write 'program' so's to avoid charges of racism from you-know-who! Anyone seen the Revell kit?

B is for Breaking News - Toy Fair Latest!

Latest announcement on the toy 'wire' is a range of topical kits from Revell . . .

The first in the series is reportedly going to be followed by a Belarus-1522 dragging a T-80BVM MBT with damaged 'cope cage', an Agromash-180TK towing a 9K33 Osa/SA-8 'Gecko' and a Western John Deer pulling a BTR-82A IFV, all common-enough sights around Ukraine these days.

I is for It's all Happening Down at Pirate Cove!

So, ITLAPD last year was barely cold when these arrived in the eMail from Brian Berke in the 'States, and they are facinateing, although the link with pirates is tenuous, as their recorded activity occurred before the current stone fort was built, but it's (the diorama) redolent with pirate 'stuff'!

Brain has been building a diorama of an action involving the redcoats evicting some pirates from a lair based on Fort Matansas, which guards the rear-approach of the former Spanish city of St. Augustine, now in Florida (. . . now in America, it was always in Florida and isn't something you could move an inch as the British found out; twice!), and while I can't add much blurb, I've sorted it into planning, finished model and real fort - well, that's how they were sent to me!

Italics are Brian's words;

 

The background story is the Royal Navy decided to capture the Fort held by pirates by landing at dawn.

To the Marines dismay the pirate lookouts were alert enough to see their approach.

The fort's defenses cannot lower their swivel guns to the shore and the boat crew cannot fire until they have reloaded with grapeshot. If fast enough the doors may be blown before canon are brought into play.

Using the Revell pirate ship (recently re-issued as the Black Pearl) to plan the layout.

Starting to place the larger elements.

The display case from IKEA the diorama was planned to fit in turned out to be too small once the boat was assembled. It took a while to find another which for the moment will do to protect it.

I think there may be a basketball display case that would be better suited.

The . . [next three] . . pictures show the Marine officer leading the sailor with a barrel of gunpowder to blow the doors.

The brown dinghy on the shore to the left is an old Tri-ang item originally on a clockwork cabin cruiser back in the 50's. The three long boats at the galleon stern were from Revell's HMS Bounty and Endeavour which were the same model in different boxes also back in the 50's. They had been in a box of bits from my 50's railway. The Dory's are from the PYRO Schooner.

The two cannon on the shore outside the walls were RIPMAX, a company that made marine model accessories. They had a shop in Camden Town that I used to buy kits both plastic and Balsa at. I bought them to convert a Merit kit of a Chinese Junk into a pirate vessel back in the 50's.

In-situ, if only a temporary display-case.

On the stern is the Long John Silver figure with a green parrot on his shoulder.

The pirates are mostly Peter Pig. No idea where the others originated they were part of a bid on mixed metal figures of various scales on eBay many years back.

The actual Fort Matanzas; you can read-up on it here.

Cheers Brian, a brilliant idea, well-executed and thanks for sharing it with the rest of us!