M is for Merry Mass of Malleable Model Mayhem! 3 - Ceremonial & Historicals

Part-the-third, of the plastic plunder posts from Chris Smith's most recent parcel, brings us to the ceremonial and historical section, Royal Fail or Parcelfarce did their worst with these, as you can see from the first image in the sequence!

To be fair to Postie, I suspect there wasn't much in the bag when it left East Anglia, and was being sent as a sample of . . . Malleable Mouldings? But, yeah, it arrived as so much dust and two legs!

 

Funnily enough, the first Malleable horse I got (still somewhere in the pile) was found in the car-park at SAS, off the old A4, or at least, embedded in the gravel/puddle at the bottom of the steel fire-escape! It was/is missing both back legs and a base, and while I've handled several of Adrian's over the years, and posibly shot them for the blog, I have yet to find a decent mounted figure by Malleable! It'll happen!

Initially thought to be Italian, these are 30mm polystyrene Hungarian Imperial, or 'Royal' Guards, and - obviously - the same colour scheme as those 30mm plug-together 'swoppets' both Chris and Peter Evans have donated to the blog in the past. Lovely little things!

 

While the British 'Royal Guards' of the Household Division include two nice Hong Kong copies of Crescent (seen here yesterday), but in a Hilco style! next to them, the chap with the herb-green base is a real treat, he's the Reamsa copy of herald, and I think he might have been Reamsa No.1?

 

I personally love the eraser guardsman in purple, he's that silicon rubber which really just smudges pencil, but they were 'novelties' first and erasers second, always, I feel? The key-ring guardsman seems to go with some of the Highland pipers, one of the Welsh ladies and probably the fisherman we saw the other day, while the KT is damaged and the Rocco guardsmen need glue!

 

Cake decorations and premiums, we've seen the AWI before, and the French Dragoon (?) is from that set of premiums which used to have one name but now have several in two sizes, with base differences and Kinder joining the mix!

 

A Crescent lead, and Blue Box sailors (Merten copies) signal a Hong Kong copy of Airfix trumpeter to deal with some French interloper (HaT Industries) while a rather legless Lord Flashheart courtesy of Skybirds, recovers from a night on the juice, in the Mess!

 

In discussion, we think maybe Brazilian for this horse, although he could equally be Argentine? Missing a rider who may send it to the Wild West section, I posted it here, as this post only had six images!

And Postie again! But they were all missing their tails already, so just samples, and while I don't know what colours of this Rocco guardsman I have, if I need a white sample, I'll have one, once I've glued a couple of heads back on!

 

Many thanks to Chris as always for all these, and even the broken stuff has its place, as place-fillers!

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Added a few minutes later - I'd dropped some of the images in the Khaki soldier section!

 

It was looking at the damaged KT above and realising "Where are the other two?" that had me off looking in the other folders! Superb thing to get in the post without warning - two more boxed KT pencil sharpeners, and different boxing, both generic and serving the tourist trade, but aren't they lovely - I've already sorted the guardsman (forthcoming post) with a fully rifled replacement, so he's now a minter!

 

We saw him the other day, but he belonged here all along - the Blue Box Napoleon, which, with another figure in this parcel, get us closer to a complete pose-count, but we're still only half-way on the painted/chromed sets! Thanks again to Chris.

S is for Show Report - There WAS a Show!

So, lazy day, and normal service has not been resumed . . . tomorrow maybe? In the meantime I shot a few highlights of yesterday's plunder for another place, and will post them below with no text, as we'll have full reports once I'm through the posts on Chris's stuff, so apologies if you've already seen them on your favourite Faceplant group, but they will last longer here!

The camel is a hollow celluloid thing - exquisite!

 

V. Rare!

Anyone know where the horse belongs? Who made it?

Knight or Bullfighter?

Lovely!

Up yer' Cardinale, Cardinal!

At last!

 

Nice 'builder bits' with one complete figure.

 

Moldarama are bigger than I thought!

This one's Milwaukee Zoo

 

Good to see so many old faces, had some solid chats, many thanks to Trevor Rudkin, Brian Carrick, Gareth Morgan and Peter Evans for bags of bits, sorted Garath's last night (when I meant to post something!) and Trevor's just now, lots to 'Shoot &  Show' and we'll start looking at all the above again, in context/with blurb, in a few days.

News, Views Etc . . . or - C is for 'Cos . . . You're sick of Bears!

A quick update on the Khaki Infantry page, following his contributions the other week, Chris Smith kindly sent a follow-up group shot of the FG Taylor's in white plastic . . .

. . . and an even more interesting head-swap pair; more on which with the images on that page. I was in half-a-mind to 'call them out' as Trojan's - still to be identified - Parachute Battalion, but for now I have placed them in the Unknown section, they also cross-refer to Rocco's sculpts?

[24-hours later - Paul Morehead of PW Magazine reports the red ones as being pre-Lone Star, 'Harvey' figures, without empirical stuff (you know me!) I'll leave them in the 'unknowns' for now, but add the same note there] 

R is for Return to . . . Rocco

Just a quickie, we have looked at these before but I picked-up a couple more the other day, so we can have a swifty-shuftie at 'em.

The household division seem to fare better than the knights and wild west, while there is damage to the locating studs inside the thighs, and you often find the lifeguard without his sword, these two are otherwise OK, and the horse seems the least brittle of them, as well as having the least damageable tail!

I don't know if the horses have shrunk over the years, but both riders slip on easily with no worries about the likelihood of legs being broken through forcing, although those missing/squashed locating-studs do help to! Anyway, this is what they look like 'mounting guard' on their two-tone grays.

Unlike the cowboy, where the same worries have lead to a bit of 'fake news', he looks right, but I've used the camera angle to hide the fact that his right leg is missing and he has no gun!

Pretty-much the same line-up as last time, only more bits! The newer one [with pistol] shows signs of green paint on his jacket, so an addition to the data if nothing else and we have a blue scarf on one and a blue shirt on another of the 'wavers'! If the storage-sample hasn't been crushed to dust in the move to Basingrad on the back of a lorry, there will be quite a final line-up of these in a year or so!

The knights are just a highlight from last time - without the loose leg! - for completion

But the image above them shows the varying degrees of distortion of the cowboy horse's legs, some of which is due to the polymer drying out and becoming brittle, some probably dates from the time of manufacture and some post-moulding shrinkage?

The black one's doing the splits, the near-white 'grey' is doing the giant slalom on his downhill racing-planks! The one in the middle's about to hurt himself!

I think there is still an Indian missing; full war bonnet (no tails) and similar pose to the cowboy (?), but I'm sure he's in storage, so next time, unless some more come in, new ('ish), first!

This is Rocco too, he survives in numbers (I have a whole bag of them in the storage sample) and usually quite well, although the odd horse's tail or guardsman's head can be found to be err . . . not found! It also differs in being a single moulding, rather than the two-part of the rider/horse combo's above.

I think I said 'probably Hill' last time, but I was thinking of their diminutive board-game supplied racehorse, while this - I suspect - was sold as a tuppeny- or sixpence-toy at tourist attractions, which would account for it's always turning-up in mixed lots, railway-figure lots, cake decoration lots, bags of car-booty Lego and such-like!

And Ross - I haven't forgotten you're after the bits, but the rest are elsewhere in the attic! Although if I get the rest out of storage July/Aug (as seems likely) there'll be a load for you!

B is for Bloody Brittle Buggers

Having pointed-out earlier that it's all mass-produced, over-priced, plastic tat for infants (!), there are - of course - the exceptions that prove the rule, damaged moulds, cancelled lines, factory fires as so on all lead to genuine rarities and (as I caveat'ed earlier) certain additives lead to a frangibility probably not anticipated at the time, which has rendered some items to be less and less common over time, these intermediate-scale figures from Rocco are among them

So this is what I have here (with the lose leg pretending to be attached). In storage I have a similar sample but with more bits in the bottom of the bag! They are also to be found with green highlights I seem to recall, not sure about blue and I believe they are Rocco (Royce Co.)? [Now confirmed!]

One day I hope to be able to cobble two whole pairs together from the bits, but will continue to buy them whenever I see them to have a fighting chance of enough horse bits. It seems if you get an intact tail, legs are missing and if you get intact legs, the tail's gone!

These are Rocco for definite 'cos Brain said so and he knows more than me! Again I have a much larger sample in storage, but of the same overall quality, just another pose or two and lots more bits!

Although, top left is a complete pair and the guards officer is passable, so with two whole knights now, it's [whole] horses the search is on for, and you will note I've two pinkish 'ski-base' fragments in this lot which may help coble one of the storage ones together one day - even if only with tape or blue-tac for a photo!

There are many of these 'intermediate scale' mounted figures, in both metal and plastic and they were literally pocket-money toys, being cheap "Shut-up and play with this" stuff by the till/checkout. Rocco was unusual in doing them as separate riders, although there are some others; most makes produced integral horse & rider mouldings.

The originals - in metal, usually hollow-cast, but due to their size; sometimes solids - would have been penny toys, maybe a tuppeny between the wars, later sixpence (?); they were then replaced by plastic versions, often taken from the hollow-cast moulds.

Just as an idea of the opposition here are a few, we will return to these in time. Below the Rocco cowboy is a hollow-cast Crescent metal hussar type (RHA? HMQ?), with two of the larger Crescent plastics to his [her?] right; Crescent followed (?) Rocco with the 'ski-bases'.

Above them and to the right of the Rocco is a Cherilea Indian, ex-hollow cast. Bottom right is a Hilco also from a hollow-cast mould, the last one; top right is probably also Rocco Hilco, I don't think it's been ascribed and while Charbens probably have some out there, although the four legs out is very Johillco-like!

F is for Finder's Keepers, Looser's . . .

. . . make a bit of money for chahrridee!

Popped into Blue Cross yesterday to donate a few books, assistant was near the door, so I handed the books over and left the shop, then thought "I'm here; I might as well have a look", returned to the store and wandered over to the toy section. Saw a bag . . .

. . . it looked interesting. It's a poor shot, but it's been sorted now so I couldn't re-take it! Rocco (?) knight's horse was obvious, as was the Timpo Arab, better stuff the other side, but what's that red-yellow and blue lump (left-hand arrow)?

It was only a Britians ECW musketeer, complete, with two others and a slightly damaged 'Prince Rupert'! Although the sword of the mounted Lobster-pot was a bit chewed.

Another leg turned-up for the standing knights horse after the photo-sesh, but three just doesn't cover the role; "Need I say with over much emphasis that it is in the leg division that it is deficient, the role requiring a quadridexter!", while the other one has all his legs and no tail, hey-ho! At least the knight is complete.

The plethora of Kellogg's guardsmen premiums served (with small scale shrapnel) to camouflage the quality of the lot and only two items were in the recycling by midnight, this chocolate brown Tudor Rose horse (by which time it was in three pieces - brittle as a biscuit!) and the Herald Indian in the previous shot.

A nice group of Timpo Arabs surfaced, one straight in the spares box, but the other four and the mounted figure having all parts and good paint. Nothing else exciting here, mostly swaps, but the bear-fighter from Lone Star is a nice find.

The smallies; basically a clean sample of Airfix Russian, Japanese and Combat Group, all-three a few short of a full set . . . and a propeller - Fairy-something? Dart?

The bear fighting cowboy thrusts and Little Cub dances away, both this and the mounted swoppet Indian had/have all feathers and thin or pointy-bits, sheath-knives are present and paint is OK on both, the Lone Star are more played-with.

Arabs and ECW in close up; a bit of a tug and a trim made the Lobbster's sword more presentable and he will need a replacement scabbard, but I know a man who has a few spares, they are  tin-plate stampings so it shouldn't prove a problem.

Two questions remain - no 'khaki infantry', excepting the Airfix, is some kid somewhere in Fleet playing with a bag of rareish/early British toy soldiers? And why are some pieces played-with to gash-point, while others are quite pristine? Odd - but a bargain! And you could ask why no animals or civilians?

P is for Plunder From The 'Park

My gatherings from Sandown Park at the beginning of March weren’t that numerous or special, but as a 'How they come in' post, are worth a look.

Adrian of Mercator Trading7 had saved a little box of goodies for me and these were they, we've looked at a couple now already the SAE cow is on the Airfix Farm set page as a size-comparison shot and the dispatch-rider was in the recent bike post.

Other highlights are plastic vehicles from Kleeware (yellow lorry), Beeju (rural 1950's bus - this one with better transfers than the last one we looked at here) and Tudor Rose (other truck) along with an HK open-tourer, probably from a Christmas cracker or a rack-toy service-station type set?

Gemodels tennis players and a Lego chestnut tree were other highlights, while the very small green vehicles were 'find of the day'! Back when it was still the 1960's and I was very small myself . . . no, I'll tell the story another day in a separate post - but look carefully - one of them's a Land Rover . . . or is it an Austin Gypsy?!

The purchases from one pocket, again we've looked at several of the better pieces now, the Lido wagons were a surprise, the cat is very odd - being some kind of composition or home-bake modelling compound, but with a human face and coloured all-through the material, it's also a crude cast with heavy fettling and might be from a board game? A Speedwell chief and Tri-Ang's Mr. Periwinkle Pennybrix are also to be seen.

Pieces from the other pocket, the HK copy of a Matchbox Yesteryear 'Old Fashioned Car' (a Renault?) is missing a canopy, but I have an idea I have a spare somewhere, so it may yet be completed! We've looked at the motorcycle since and some of the other pieces will be Blogged soon.

A fiver-each from John at Plastic Toy Soldiers (eBay's PTS52) and both looked at a few weeks ago here - it seems that a complete Food Fighters bag should have another set of the poses in green, so I bought the rejected 'Germans'!

Gareth (who has new figures out) also brought me a bag of bits and it was filled with all sorts of useful stuff, pirates; including a Thomas 'dressing-up kids' copy, two Kellogg's type Jig Toys, the lorry being a different shade of blue to my other one, a pair of [Rocco?] cowboys with the damage these figures always have, another Christmas cracker angel (I have the makings of a whole orchestra somewhere now!), a nice HK gun and equally interesting tipi/teepee, along with another Rae rearing horse in a new colour - Thanks Gareth!

And - speaking of Jig Toys, I posted a link at the top of that page a week or so ago, to Rob's Puzzle Page on Jig Toys, go check it out; it's awesome!

News, Views Etc...Khaki Infantry Page - Update

Tonight I've added sections on Reisler and Rocco (Royce) as we move toward the endgame of a mess that is UNA, VP, Trojan and...Speedwell still to come..

UK Khaki Infantry