S is for Sandown Park - Animals

There's a lot of lose stuff to clear, from the last Sandown, from Peter Evans and from Adrian, and with the next Sandown Park show only three weeks away, I guess, I need to clear the last lot, sharpish! Here's the animal element of the last show's plunder!

 

A miniature set from Rado Industries, with both the Ri Toys tree-logo and a Laurie Toy moniker, having previously seen a Lucky Toy in Laurie graphics one might be tempted to think there's a connection between Lucky and Rado, but really it's just that Laurie were an importer/jobber, putting their name to various other peoples stuff, whether known or unknown. The beauty of these little sets (we've seena  long thin one before (in Linda graphics?), it they help seperate the Blue Box/Marx (Sunshine Series) stuff from the Ri Toys copies!

 

This was an excellent find, as it's only a year or two since I discovered this knock-off Muffin the Mule from Gantoy, courtesy of one of Chris Smith's donations to the blog. I now know there are other colours too, and the one from Chris didn't have the integral base of this one, nor signs of it's removal, so there's  two versions, but for now, box ticked!

 

The accompanying plants in the first image are from the Corgi Magic Roundabout playset.

 

Odds and sods to be sorted!

 

Dinosaur flats, with three British cereal premiums (left, Nabisco), and two Warner marked, German versions on the right. I believe there are French variants too, and with soft polyethylene re-hashes (seen here passim), some from the antipodes, quite a sub-section now!

 

More flats, with the white ones probably all from Europe, the Elephant (missing a gun or circus wagon?) marked Munsterland, the cat 'Carstanjen' and the puppy something unreadable, while the other two, coloured ones, are more capsule toy or cracker prize type fare.

 

These are from a board game, not unreasonably called the Donkey and the Carrot! From Spears Games, there's a red one missing from the line-up, and these are interesting as they may connect with the sheep we saw in the Shepard and his Dog game. There may also be a connection with all the Prior/AHM/Cullpit stuff (they are vinyl), and Arco (some Rae marked polyethylene animals seem to be the same as the Arco Noah's Ark stuff), so another useful find, toward future, more definitive posts.

S is for a Surfeit of BJ's

Well, it's been going begging since they first appeared around 2015, and as they are now widespread in convenience store/corner shops and a lot of petrol/service stations/garages, I'm sure more puerile title puns will be forthcoming! These are mostly from Peter Evans, I think, although I have picked-up a few myself, and there may be some un-posted mini's somewhere, I definitely bought, back last autumn?

 

Larger six/seven-inch models.

 

Smaller four/five-inch models. 

 

Jurrassic park knock-off graphics.

I haven't looked too closely at this, but I think it's both a skeleton and a skin which clips over it for a fuller model?

 

All this stuff is out there now if you like dinosaurs. There's a lot more Dino-stuff to come in Rack Toy Month, and with duplicates of both these and previously seen ones, it's getting a bit crowded in their corner of the storage unit, so some Charity Shop donating and de-bagging/carding to come!

 

Added an hour or two later - I knew these had to be somewhere! Bought in three different shops/garages earlier this year, the sculpts are all from the same tool-set, but with differences between the coloured set and the white set, and another sculpt in the magic-sand set, we could be looking at a cavity-count of 2 or more, and they may be the same mini's issued by those Andy's Adventures magazines?

S is for Ships at Sea, and Sky Surfers

The other half of the vehicular element of this year's Plastic Warrior plunder; only a few, it is - after all - a figure show, but I took loads of photographs of one of them, because it was such a cool find!

 

 

 

 

TN Thomas Toys boxed jem: Submarine Base with Rocket Battery! I was very pleased to find this, I think it was my first purchase of the day, along with the smaller bag of Hong Kong smallies, and while I soon worked out it's missing a launcher, a missile and all the torpedoes, they are things which I will be able to replace, possibly from 'the pile'?

 

I've found examples online, and I think I recognise the torpedoes from the ammo-stash, of interest is that the launchers and rockets are of finer, and sharper finish, than all the others we've looked at, notably here

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/05/s-is-for-spring-powered.html 

 

But we have looked at one or two others which came in, and I think one might be from this set, or just from Thomas? But it would suggest that the Thomas one is the granddaddy of all those from Jean, Kellogg's, Unimel and - obviously - the Hong Kong ones.

 

The missile will be the hardest thing to source, because it looks like they were paired white, charcoal and mid-grey (all marbled), so I'll not be happy if I don't find a dark one, but the tool ran, so they must be out there somewhere!

 

This came in one of the mixed bags, and I thought it might be from one of the Hong Kong bath-toy sets, but I suspect it's just a badly painted model-kit, possibly from one of the early Japanese makers, someone did two destroyers in a box around 1:1200 if I recall a corner of the hobby I didn't pay much attention to!

 

These are interesting, a lot of kit-figures came in at the show, for the 'combat' post, and they were mostly sub-scale, but none seem to match with these plastic-colour wise, so they remain a mystery, although they could be from a river-craft kit? If anyone can ID them, than would be cool, they are around 1:48th.

 

A few small-to-micro 'planes, the little metal one keeps turning up, and is probably a cracker prize, but might have been from a board-game, but possibly one with multiple aircraft? I think the small red one is from one of those aircraft-carrier toys with a flick-catapult, I think?

 

The transparent, but damaged plane is early, probably taken from those Lido/Pyro sets, but even it this state, is a 'place holder', while the delta-type (Dart II?), is the earlier, better version of one you can still find occasionally, I think I got one in that short-lived cake-decoration store in Fleet about ten years ago, and they are in the cheaper crackers, which are slowly disappearing now.

 

Which leaves the red, spacey lump, which is totally unknown to me, and bares no clues as to its origin, accessory from a larger play-set? Blind-bag thing? I haven't a clue! But there's plenty of that kind of thing in the collection!

 

Finally, we have two Hong Kong copies, a Gloster Javlin and Sea Vixen I think, and I suspect they were taken from early British plastic toys (the ones in the red, white and blue boxes, were they Mettoy?), a slight dink on the Javlin's tail-plane will be mendable with that two-part epoxy 'metal' you can get from Halfords (auto-parts place for our foreign readers), or even a scrap from the spares box, plenty of wing, tail and fin parts in there!

 

thanks to Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans or Trevor Rudkin, for everything here, except the Thomas set! 

S is for Several Sculpted Spacemen

In addition to the two - quite sensible - rack toys, and the loose figures I used for the first narrative post, there were also some more assorted or generic spacemen and astronauts among the plunder of the first weekend in July, and which are the subject of this second space post.

 

Martin let me have these, pretty-much at cost, and a maker's name has come out since we last looked at them; Anabea, from Argentina, I think there were only the four poses copied from Deetail, but there is an alternate alien head used sometimes.

 

The Reisler also came from Martin, and is a duplicate of one previously seen, however this time he has a clear helmet, as opposed to the blue-tinted one we saw last time, a piece of Hing Fat junk from modern China, and a Cherilea pod-foot. I think my based sample is fair enough now, but I'm short on the pod-feet ones, with mostly HK or Marx soft vinyl versions.

 

Two K&M-Wild Republic on the left, with two new, baseless figures on the right. I think I may have seen their set, and if it's the one I'm thinking of, it's quite an infantile thing, for such realistic figures? A chunky flag-pole would appear to be missing.

 

A very cleanly marked 60mm Tudor Rose copy of Premier on the right, while on the left is a giant, 100mm-odd, polyethylene version of the Archer spacewoman, I think she may be one of the ones you see singly in bags marked A-OK USA, although there are plenty of parallels with the Hong Kong knock-offs, the quality is better. There should be an equally huge helmet, but it may be convertible for something else at that size - some of the modern travel-bottle sets have round-bottomed containers?

 

These Marx 60mm guys didn't survive the trip to Whitton, but I have better examples, so I guess it's off to 'recyce' for them, before their free-radicals contaminate anything else . . . Soylent Metallic Blue, yummy!

 

Also four post-Giant clones came out of the woodwork in the course of the day, three of the type 'C1' and a commoner 'C2', all grist to the mill;

 

https://butisitgiant.blogspot.com/search/label/Astronauts 

 

There is a bit more sci-fi/fantasy in the TV-Movie/Cartoon post, still to come, and thanking Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin for their part in what was a brilliant day.

S is for Seen Elsewhere, and Seen Here!

But all new images, a bit of a reprise for the Torgano Wild West demi-rondes I got at last year's Plastic Warrior show, from Adrian Little, to remind those with a bit of spare time this Saturday, that if they get their arses to Whittton (Twickenham), they too might find something like this to take home, at the best Toy Soldier show in the calendar, but I'll be there, looking too!

 

Held at The Winning Post, a motel, inn and the Harlequin Suite function room (the important bit), technically at Whitton, which is the nearest station, it's a few hundred yards from both the headquarters of Rugby Union and the eponymous Harlequin's Stoop, both of whom consider themselves very much Twickers!

 

I nicked the travel details from Paul's PW Blog, I've been a bit lazy this year! 

 

Directions to The Plastic Warrior Show

BY ROAD

From Outside London take M25, M3, A316, go over one roundabout and entrance to the winning Post is after 500 metres on your left.

From Inner London, after Richmond Circus follow A316 and continue straight on over three roundabouts. You will pass the Winning Post on your right. At the next roundabout take the fourth exit (returning, back the way you have come, but on the other side of the A316 dual carriageway) and the entrance to the Winning Post will be on your left after 500 metres.

FREE PARKING. There is extensive free parking at the site and in the residential roads behind the Winning Post. The Harlequin Suite is to the right of the main building. The venue is in the London ULEZ charging zone so you will need to check that your vehicle complies with the omissions requirements or pay the relevant fee.

BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT

From Central London and the South of England by overground train (South Western Railways) from Waterloo or Clapham Junction to Whitton Station. There are two trains an hour and the journey time is approx. 30 minutes, this is a loop line so four trains an hour run from two different platforms at Waterloo Station.

From the North of England by train to London, arriving at Kings Cross, St. Pancras or Euston.

Take the London Underground Victoria Line to 'Vauxhall' and change for South Western Railways to Whitton Station as above. Whitton Station is just three minutes walk from the Winning Post. Turn left out of the station past Jubilee Avenue and Pauline Crescent, the next turning on your left is the back entrance to the Winning Post.

Should you wish to take the London Underground to Richmond as in previous years, the easiest thing is to change platform and take a South Western Railways service to Whitton Station as above, (four trains an hour from Richmond, journey time seven minutes).

Alternatively you could get a black cab or a 110 bus from the taxi rank and bus stop outside the station, a cab should take about 10 minutes, the bus is 24 minutes.

Oyster cards are accepted on all London Underground lines, buses and South Western Railways to Whitton Station.


The Winning Post Inn

Opens from 08.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m. serving breakfast or coffee for those who arrive early. The pub serves drinks (alcohol) from 11.00 a.m. and lunches from 12.00 a.m. There is no cash point on site but Whitton town centre, with a full range of shops and cash machines, is just three minutes walk from the hall.

Within the Winning Post complex is a Premier Inn travel hotel for those who want to break their journey and stay overnight. 

 

Contact details as normal;

 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PlasticWarrior?fref=ts
Blog. - http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.com/
eMail - pw.editor3@gmail.com (pw.editor@ntlworld.com)
Tel. - 01483 830 743
 

 See you there!

S is for Seen Elsewhere - Blue Box Brit's

This weather is draining, and we've taken on a bunch of new postcodes at work, so 90+ miles in a shift, and then home to a too warm/humid room, has reduced my desire to wrestle with word-smithery or image manipulation, but there are still two posts, one each, from Peter and Chris, to come, when I get round to them - it's supposed to be cooler next week!

 

It's funny, on the hottest May day ever recorded (until the next day!) I delivered to a smartish family, two polite kids, attractive couple, nice house, BMW in the drive, they had two office-type fans on stands going, and through the patio windows I could see a two bay gas-fired bar-b-que, I would imagine, they also have a patio heater, for when records aren't being broken, and aspirations to a bigger house and maybe a wee swimming pool . . . They just don't get it, we are literally at risk of going extinct within the lifetimes of people reading this, but let's get more fairy lights in December - Burn baby, burn!

 

Anyways, here's some stuff I put up on a Faceplant group I was on, a couple of years ago, or through '21-24? I can't remember now, probably one was shot and held for a while and the other two were dated 2024;

 

With help from Chris, in one of his more general donations, was a specific gift of the Blue Box mine-detector, as he knew from a previous conversation, or post, that I didn't have a good one! Thanks, Chris!

 

This is the 2021 shot, and as you can see, a distinct lack of operational mine-clearers! Also, the caption became dated when Chris sent me the following image, from his own collection . . . 

 

Which clearly shows two tranches of paint-job, with the probably later set having the brown of the weapons/webbing, replaced with the same black of the boots - to reduce unit-costs, I would imagine? And I think the last time I looked at them there was a third unpainted plastic colour, so a possible 30 to find!

S is for Super Robo!

We looked at contemporary gashapon, with an overview, a while ago, today we're looking at a more vintage, fun, sci-fi line, which I picked-up at Sandown Park the other day . . . yeah, I was being lazy, and didn't get round to posting a reminder; soz!

 

Super Robo in English, is the only clue attached to these, which are from the middle period of gashapon, after the adoption of American style gum-ball machines, and before the modern large-capsule dispensers, there was a period when banks of these machines were found out on the pavement/curbside, dispensing toys in little boxes, like cigarette vending machines, or the old chocolate dispensers from Cadbury, I remember from my childhood - which survived on the underground until the 1980's, but which had been at main-line rail stations too.

 

'Space Tank' bulldozer/helicopter!

 

Matt Mason'esque 'walker'.

 

Giant Robot.

(Only one with green runner) 

 

Hint at interactivity through a 'zip wire' on the box reverse.

 

Another big-boy!

 

I don't know if these are referencing one specific cultural licence/element, or are just generics, based upon the many tropes found in Manga comics, of which there have been tens of thousands issued from childish infant works, through to hard pornographic 'adult' works, or Anime movies/TV serials, of which there exist hundreds?

 

They all have a familiarity, but without a knowledge of Japanese, can't be pined-down, by me, as either 'made-up' or existing property's, or a mix of the two? The first vehicle above is very Gerry Anderson-like, for instance, like a Thunderbird 2 pod-vehicle?

 

While this (the only one with a figure, approximately 20mm), obviously has the lines of Matt Mason's strange sucker-walker, but with the practical addition of paired wheels to allow for movement over gullies, low cliffs, or wadis! The nose-cone and tail-fin being in the small bubble-wrap parcel seen above.

 

All are quite crude, in the style of cereal premiums from the likes of R&L or CGGC, and while three of them are in a sort of dense polyethylene, or polypropylene, one (the flying, tracked, bulldozer'copter), has been manufactured in polystyrene 'kit' plastic.

 

Beyond the obvious 'ST' mark (known to most for years, explained in all the books, and on my abbreviation pages for the longest time!), there is no clue as to a maker. However, I've added Plamodel, see newer/next-day post.

P is for Pint-sized Players

The more interesting of the inclusion-ball figures, being near HO-gauge compatible, and I managed to find quite a few, liberating most of them, keeping a sample in his ball, and not the first time we've seen them, the British Football Association (FA) having commissioned a larger one, which we looked at years ago!

 

I found nine, each in the same strip, but it was one tub, and I would guess that over time the factory may have produced other batches in other colours? Nine is an odd number for a set of anything, so the suspicion is I may have missed one, or even three? Check-out the teeny balls!

 

Obviously with the sizer being one of Airfix's smaller figures, at around 18mm, these footballers are a bit small, but as a background on a model railway layout, a bunch of them playing a game behind the marshalling yards would still look grand! Although Preiser do full teams!

 

Backgrounds have little relationship to the individual figure in the ball, and are cut-card discs with library photos of actual teams/players, among which, the Dutch national team (I think?) seems to dominate!

 

Variation of the first shot, no balls!

 

Here you can see how the magnifying effect of the ball makes the figure appear larger than he actually is, by some degree. Note also how the still-included 15-shirt has a red numeral, rather than the black numbers on the two I've removed from their balls . . . Ouch!

S is for Smallest of the Small!

Well, you may have thought we'd got as small as it comes when Brian B sent us that mixed lot of space/sci-fi kit figures', from New York, a few of years ago, but I think we're going an increment smaller now, with the smallest of the small, here branded to Henbrandt's Harlequin Brand, although these are available elsewhere, and in other branding, we saw the more recent Keycraft Global iteration of these inclusion balls, a while back too.

 

The first few posts of this new series will be looking at Henbrandt, simply because I bought an initial sample, over a few years (1997/8-2005/6'ish) from the same party shop in North Camp, long gone now, called The Balloon Shop, if memory serves (I think it's a Kebab place now), they also carried the last version, smooth-based iteration of the Lik Be (always, and still LB!) 54/60mm spacemen.

 

They let me have the tub, when I bought all the remaining arctic animals, so I keep all the 'inclusion balls' in it! As well as the Arctic animals, there were soldiers, footballers, and the smallest of the small, hobby skydivers, practising formations over micro-scenes!

 

As you can see, from the Airfix ceremonial sizer, they are about 3.5 or 4mm, no more! With the magnifying effect of the clear PVC ball, enlarging them to 5 or 6mm to the eye! The scenery, looking more like a 3D map, is made from PVC, as are the diminutive little figures, and I only found them in red and blue jump-suits.

 

Where/when I accidentally, or deliberately bought duplicates, I would dig them out with some scalpel-surgery, and apart from this set, most just have a card disc, or an opaque/solid-coloured 'other half' of the ball, as a curtain-backdrop, while a few have further 'scenic' inclusions. The parachutists are set a couple of millimetres above the disc, to further enhance the 3D impression.

 

I produced this little 'heads and tails' sketch (R = red, B = blue) of the four arrangements I found, at the time (2000's), for the archive, while the shots above were taken in 2021, when they turned-up during all the moving/sorting, which means the Keycraft Dinosaurs jumped the queue, but then, there's always order in chaos, if you follow quantum science!