PW is for Plastic Warrior Show - 3 of 5

Continuing to explore the plunder from Saturday's toy soldier fest with more donations and a few more specific purchases . . .

Brian Carrick (who I haven't seen eye-to-eye with for a while) came up to me at the end of the show and thrust these at me and wouldn't take money for them, which was very kind, although it means another rabbit hole for me to disappear down!

They are Mainz Carnival figurines, I knew of them vaguely from the trumpeter who I have seen before (being slightly military-looking one or two people have them in their unknown or minor-make zones!), but hadn't given them much thought, but had I, I might have realised there's a new one/s every year!

There's a fully-round margerine set as well, hence; 'new rabbit hole'! They used to be simple pin-badges, but health and saftey has lead to the neck-ties in red & white string. Clowns seem to feature heavily as a theme, along with civic dignitaries in historical dress (very useful figures), although one is military - I'm guessig Mainzer Prinzengarde is not the 1890's mayor's robes! And they are a hard 'styrene around 54-60mm

Just an overshot today, I'll do a post on them at some point. The little box contains a convention exclusive 'dog tag' from Airfix, also from Brian, while the purple runner, is the accompaniment to an cheapie action figure, and came via Gareth Morgan at some point in the afternoon, so thanks to both of them, it's all grist to the mill, and more for you to look at!

Peter Evans also had a bag for me, and the contents were very eclectic, the wooden elephant is exquisite. He needs a replacement tusk, and could do with a new pair as the survivor is a bit bulgy in the middle, but I have lots of Ivory off-cuts and bits somewhere, and now you can't trade in it I will have a stab at carving, as there are a few tusks needed around the collection from these 1cm littlies, up to 1½" or more.

The Chaplin caricature is resin and I think the Sponge-Bob's were Disney Stores, but these got put away a bit quick and I didn't take notes! We will return to all of them at least twice, if I live that long; A-Z entry and another article or two, here on the 'home Blog'.

More from Peter's bag I think, the horse is interesting, possibly from a magnetic game, but I think it's one of those jiggling-mat racecourse games, each hoof has a polished steel patch set into it, and as you handle it the legs flick back and forwards, so I suspect it's a race-game piece.

Dolphin is vintage, but slightly demented-looking! Cavalryman was Safari (I think?) while the footballer is a cake decoration, the action figure is small enough to be retained, while they aren't actively sought, still they have a place! Two Phidal's top-out this shot.

And still with the lot from Peter; two Pocahontas, one a Phidal Busy Book figure (right), the other from Disney Stores (or similar, left), a nice Wizard and a footballer sans base; several of these have come in now from Peter, Chris and Charity Shop bags, and I did get an ID from some with bases, but have forgotten it!

Liking the Wizard too, Harry Potter knock-off? Kellogg's Snap (of Crackle and Pop fame) Superhero premium and two more WWF's (Peter sent four from two sources in his last 'red cross' parcel!), the grey chap is a DFC fantasy type I think, but his significance will become clearer in a minute! Thanks to Peter for all.

This was a straight purchase from the hall, and something I've been after for a while, there have been a few on evilBay but always too expensive when you factor-in the postage. Obviously five of them are the same Crescent copies as the Maysun we've looked at here, while, the tiger and ring-mistress were seen in a generic set, not that long ago.

We will however return to these, probably in RTM and look a little more closely at all of them. I think the horse should be slightly more horizontal, but has broken out of his blister and got stuck under the thinner part!

Not cheap, but not that pricey either (i.e. 'fair shout'), Steve Vickers had these three and given what we've already posted here and what was bought in the late autumn, along with stuff from Chris and one of the Poles we will return to them again (with more than has already published here, much more!), but for now, nice artwork (taken - in part - from the Esci big-box diorama sets?) on three larger sets from Spojnia - D-Day, Tunis and Salerno.

Two items on the shopping list were ticked off in one lot, someone had two Lone Star FFL and two ACW in one bag, the confederate is the missing standing firer from that set, which will free-up the FFL substitute who is missing from the lot we looked at the other day! Equally they were blue-trousered, while these two (left) are red, so made a good start on the second set!

The seller of the two forecourt attendants said they were Timpo, but a couple of the old guard said no, someone else, but no one could remember and directed me to Joplin's big book, which is back in storage, so if anyone can help in the meantime, that would be useful, they're from old hollow-cast moulds anyway. Finally; a pair of the larger Gemodels cake-decoration dancers, in near-perfect paint.

Another couple ticked off the shopping list were the missing standing firer from Deetail and the Gatling Gun, both added to the shopping list only the other day! In front is an Ohio Arts (?) rubber bear, behind them the actual Captain Video from Lido, he's a big chap, solid 'styrene, in metallic mauve!

The Hopalong Cassidy is an Argentine copy of a Timpo original, from hollow-cast, I earned the opprobrium of certain members of the old guard by suggesting Hilco on that one! The Crescent Indian Army figure was vaguely on the shopping list, but in fact there were only five I saw in the whole room and paint was poor on all of them, this one was slightly the better of them.

The other four are NOT DFC, or at least I don't think so, but could be mistaken for their output. They are bigger and unmarked (a comparison is in the pipeline - 5th post I think), I suspect they may be from another big-box fantasy play-set maker of the 1980/90's; Toyco, Polotoys, someone like that, but I've got to check them out. I have some more spacy figures in red and white which go with them somewhere.

Three Reisler, I was vaguely aware of the saluting chap I think, from a website or catalogue image, but I wasn't familiar with the surrendering pose? Flamethrower is just nice and clean . . . and complete!

60mm Lone Star swivel-head was going cheap, as were the white-plastic take on the ABC-Britains hollow-cast copies (Chris sent me three different blues the other day and I grabbed a 4th at PW!), which leaves three ancients, the African on the ground has been converted, lost his base and had a shiled added, the charging 'hoplomachus' (?) is from a German book, the brand of which escapes me, but it was in a recent issue of PlasticWarrior magazine, which is a good reason to subscribe!

Leaving the chap at the back. You may remember me getting excited by one a few shows back (5 years ago!), which had had a crappy weapon replaced, that was by Clairet, and I think this is too, and with another replacement weapon, but they need them and now looks almost as good as the other one, but his shield is a bit meah!

While these are four-inches-huge, and two are wooden, the GI is solid polyethylene and could be Hong Kong or US, I don't recognise him off-hand, while the others are obviously skittles! Now I said on the day they were Winmau (who make the pub dart-boards), and assumed pub-skittles, but in fact with an eye-glass they are © 1989 K. Wiman, so my bad . . . I have an unfulfilled prescription for reading-glasses, another conversation on the day!

They look to be French, but could be Spanish, that Foreign Legion uniform colour looks like Spanish Legion, while . . . brown sailors? The cummerbund though is more French.

Many thanks again to Brain, Gareth and Peter for the additional goodies, part 4 in the pipeline!

C is for Cold War Clones

As well as those sets we've been looking at, a sub-set were produced taken from and using the artwork of the 'Export Series' from Atlantic, the whole box design was retained, but with the red background pinkified (yes, I seem to have made that one up! Spellcheck offered 'zincified' so I think it's vaguely legit'!).

The Atlantic construction schematics were copied as well and copying is to a level where you'd be hard-pressed to tell between them however I suspect side by side there will be a slight size difference, but that check will be another day.

Contents are also the same as the export series; four of everything. I'm pretty sure this is the same set Eko copied in Spain?

All previous comments are true for this set too, with four of each of the smaller version of Atlantic's two similar sets, same artwork, pinkened (spellcheck say "No" to that as well!), same instruction graphic, similar colour plastic to some of those used by Atlantic . . . &etc!

Even the Titles are similar translating as 'Italian Contemporary Wards (modern units) - ...Machine Guns & Mortars or ...Anti-Tank Artillery, so they aren't trying to pass themselves off as Soviet, Polish or other 'Bloc' forces.

K is for Kioskowce III

Wondering whether or not we'd had that title I found that not only had we had it, but we'd had it twice, identically! A quick bit of judicious editing and this now 3-of-3! When you do a series of similar posts/similar subject, the old pink-monkey intelligence can fail you sometimes.

So these are the standard Spójnia sets I have and we're starting with the British, this one is titled British Infantry or 'soldiers' yet is clearly a set consisting of three poses of bereted infantry with the River Launch and crew, all taken from Matchbox, the vessel being cleverest as it's a two-part copy of a die-cast toy from the 1-75 range of original 'match boxes', the six commandoes being from the figure sets.

For accuracies sake, the RAOC (Royal Army Ordnance Corp) or RCT (Royal Corps [of] Transport) used to have a harbour unit with sailor-soldiers! Now both are part of the All Services [Except Fighting] Departmental Corps of Trades or something!

The boat in comparison with the Matchbox original, there are versions with red (fire launches), and black figures out there, and like some of the promotional vans and buses, I was amazed how many versions of it there have been!

My British Commandos seem to have British infantry in . . . humm . . . but this is how they came in so who am I to argue, again taken from Matchbox's 1:76th scale set with a straight two of everything they copied, being the other 14 poses and the mortar from which the beret wearing trio in the previous set were also copied.

The 8th Army and we move to Esci for a bit of plagiarism! Again all the poses have been copied, and one of each is supplied, these have leeched some horrid sticky additive, more usually associated with early, unstable PVC's, and which has rather affected the card which was in the bag with them, leaving brown stains all over it. The leechate remains now as a kind of varnish, almost like dried linseed-oil!

The British Paratroops are also taken from Esci, but using the US Para's with their quite distinctive uniforms, as Esci did a reasonable set of British airborne soldiers I don't know why Spójnia ran with these? Same additive problem with the same damage to the card . . . same colour plastic too, so a dodgy batch?!!

Soviet Russian infantry, only half a set ofEsci's sculpts this time, but two of each and as they are 'dressed up' with the next set as a two part 'Battle of Stalingard' pair, it may be that the other Esci poses are findable in a Spójnia Russian Infantry WWII set?

And that other half consists of the German invaders, taken from Airfix's Paratrooper set, which makes sense as we saw the standard infantry in a half Airfix-half Matchbox set from Spójnia. The poses paired, one runner of 'true' polymer, the other also leeching the sticky slime which becomes hard like varnish giving some of them a greenish or, rather aptly; field-grey hue.

Indeed as that set was called Monte Casino, and this set shares a Stalingrad card with the Russians, it may be that my pointing out of the incongruity last time (of Germans in a set depiction Allied forces) was actually a referance to another, shared, card? As in; with the allies available in another set bearing the same card?

F is for Follow-up - Spojnia . . . or Hobby EME

When we looked at those Spojnia Kioskowce small-scale copies, from Maciej Jasinski's Poland, the other day, I mentioned that I still had to post some Napoleonics by the same maker - well that won't happen as you'll see in the next few posts, but I did find that I had a bunch of other Spójnia stuff, so we're going to work through it.

I also said I thought they ended-up being called Hobby EME, and here we see a set in that later (or just alternate?) branding, being copies of Esci-ERTL's WWII US Infantry, and all fifteen poses have been taken; to quite a high standard, albeit; not Ecsi's finest in the first place!

While here we see the Italian Mountain Troops taken from the same company, and again they've re-used all the poses, but this time there is a noticeable drop-off in quality/finish and if you didn't know better you might think them Spanish Sobres or even Hong Kong/China knock-off's . . . now you've seen them - you know better! And one of Esci's nicer sets, of a - then (mid/late 1980's) - unusual subject.

I also reacquainted myself with the fact I have the 'Hindu Brigade' set too, taken from Atalntic's Indian Brigade (as before - they are dressed as Sikhs, not Hindus!), which answered my question last time about the bladed weapons, they seem to have copied two (of the original Atlantic set's three), and while I have one each of the two users (the third figure to have a 'kukri' in the Atlantic set has his holed filled-in, in this clone-set); Maciej's set had pairs of each, in fact he had pairs of everything, I also only have one MG and gunner.

The other point to note (for packaging collectors) is that while mine (left) has the full Spojnia consumer-panel's info-text (in the yellow box, bottom right-hand corner), Mr. Jasinski's has a blank panel there (top right image) and may represent a crossover from Spójnia to Hobby EME, if the latter was actually later!

K is for Kioskowce II

Well, if TJF's gonna' copy my output I'll copy his! Only in nationality of subject though (and Morawski is in the queue!), it is amusing; he spent six days trying to think of something 'as good as' and ended up following my format but without the research, translations or links! We - loyal readers - are supposed to think this makes him a 'legend' and me the idiot!

Anyway; this isn't copying layout or anything, it's harking back to a previous post here at Small Scale World, when we looked at the 'Kioskowce' (tobacco kiosk's) production of Andrzej Kawecki, based in Lódź (thanks to Konrad Lesiek for the information on that occasion). Also this's been in the queue for five weeks and I said it would post in a day or two; those five weeks ago!

This time we're looking at very similar sets from another producer; Spójnia supplied by (and thanks to-) Maciej Jasinski who reports memories of these figures being produced in Poland between around 1985 and 1987. he's also sent very high-resolution imagery; so be sure to open them in a new tab or window to get the full effect.

Three sets today; each is in a little bag with a stiff card to pull everything together before sealing which has been done with a bread-bag heat-sealer. Card-art is of the same type as seen previously with these Kioskowce and figures are copies of Western makers' output.

This is lovely as it has a version of the Airfix 'Wagon Train' box art, but with contents taken from Atlantic 'The West' cowboy set's Life on the Ranch (larger figures and Longhorns) or Stampede (smaller figures and buffalo-bison) sets. The quality of these is better than some previously seen Kioskowce - check the coffee-pot and fire - and look as good as the original Atlantic product.

This is even more quirky, as the more original card-art suggests the 8th, slogging their way up the spine of Italy, while the contents are most of the poses from both Airfix's [2nd version] German Infantry AND Matchbox's rival set, and again quality is very good for such diminutive clones.

The final offering today is the 14th Army, or elements of it! Artwork and contents from Atlantic's stable and it looks like the collection of pirate cutlasses (in lieu of kukris) that came with the original were reproduced, but are equally easy to lose!

Maciej also scanned the cards separately at a higher resolution, so we'll look at them now in the same order as above;

While on one level Spójnia (also the name of a top (?) Polish football team!) is just a branding, translating it in Google lead to 'bond', 'connect' or 'couplings' so there's maybe a reference to kits or models within the brand-mark, or teamwork?

As well as the aforementioned Andrzej Kawecki post, I have put the Globus and Universal issued Kioskowce on the British Paratroopers page of the Airfix blog and reading the blurb on the Kawecki post, I still have Napoleonics from Spojnia to come . . . so - next time I pass that box I'll dig-it out!

They (Spójnia) were based in Gdansk (previously Danzig, home of Solidarity) and I believe were still going, also known as Hobby EME, as a more conventional kit-maker (aircraft and AFV's) into the late 1990's?

I will organise some of the images a different way for use on the Wagon Train and German Infantry pages of the Airfix Blog for completion, another day and - in the meantime - many thanks to Maciej Jasinski for today's new to hobby, new to Blog and new to Internet, little-treat!

M is for More - Polski Zwiazek Gluchych . . .

 . . . et alia.

Chris Smith has kindly sent a pretty comprehensive follow-up to the recent PZG posts, with nice samples of a lot of the missing figures in both sizes from the WWII and early Cold War eras.

These are the PZG tank/AFV crew with their distinctive, padded, head-protectors, looking a bit like a cyclist's helmet (and doing a similar job, but protecting the crew from 'braining' themselves on lumpy pieces of metal AFV interior!) and dating from before the Second Worlds War, they are still in use across ex-Soviet, formally Soviet-aligned and/or Soviet-supplied states.

I believe they depict characters from a Polish TV series of the 1960's. The TV crew had a little dog, which PZG didn't model as part of the set?.

Chris reports there is one pose missing; a chap holding his rifle across his chest. As seen they are the hollow-based 50/54mm range.

A further selection of the WWII figures, most of which come under the 50/54mm heading, but the second guy from the left is heading for 60mm, and seems to have been given a thinner base to compensate . . . you call him 'Lurch' (or Lurchski!) and keep him back until Rambo or 007 are played by the other side!

Chris added that the officer in the centre is unmarked but seems to fit.

In Chris's own words; "Polish copies of the “unknown/Kentoy?” lying firing MG figure, nicely factory painted over a hard white plastic. Again attributed to PZG but I’m not sure that’s right."

Another shot. I think I've tried to ascribe the originals to/as Trojan on the Khaki Infantry page, but it's only a theory and still up-in-the-air/open to interpretation, nobody knows for sure and nobody seems to know the Polish maker of the copy for sure either!

Chris also has two of the question-mark-maker figures but feels; "...the marching figure in Puttees does depict Polish troops from the start of WWII." . . . and provides an image (below) of the soldiers so attired.

I suggested these weren't PZG and while the figure on the left is - like mine - self-coloured, the one on the right is painted over the same re-grind PZG are known for, however this seems to have been a feature of a lot of Polish production, and may well be another reason for so much stuff being so casually attributed to PZG, I've seen unpainted pencil-sharpener tanks in the same stuff on feebleBay, sometimes with coloured plastic turrets or tracks.

In defence of my theory; Chris also notes; "Very stick like weapons." . . . which does distance them from PZG's other production and ties-in with my lone example, if nothing else; the work of another sculptor?

The picture Chris sent. It wouldn't blow-up, so I had to enlarge it in Photo Viewer on the desk-top, take a screen-capcha (.png) crop it and save as a .jpg to get it large enough, so it's lost some resolution!

I'll leave the last shot's blurb to Chris; "Two bigger 60mm'ish WWII soldiers both wearing the polish Rogatywka hat. Officer has tall boots but the running guy is again in puttees. I know of 3 more poses . . . all have puttees. Always seem to be attributed to PZG but the bases are unmarked."

I've always been told they're PZG, and I think the solid 60mm versus marked-hollow base 54mm 'rule' is similar for the Northern War, streletsi, medieval and other PZG (or believed to be PZG!) stuff to?

Known Polish Makers of Vintage Plastic Toy Soldiers

Andrzej Kawecki - PVC 1:76th copies of Airfix for 'Ruch' Kiosks

Centrum - unpainted flats, 50 & 70/80mm

CZZP - unpainted 40mm modern semi-flats/demi-ronde (and full flats?)

Globus (Global) - HO-OO piracies of Airfix and Roco-Minitanks

PZG - Wide range in 50, 54, 60mm and larger scales, the trouble being they are so common they have become the generic title for anything which looks Polish

Spojnia - Small scale copies of Esci figures and 1:35th'ish  AFV's (PZG crew? Now a kit manufacturer)

Uniwersum (Universal) - As per Globus

Wyrob - Pestana via Garret credits them with the 54mm Polish winged hussar often credited to PZG, may also be responsible for some of the thick-based figures credited to PZG

WZUP - Pestana via Garret credits them with 54mm equivalent to Britains, might be responsible for some of the larger (3, 4 & 5-inch) statuettes sometimes credited to PZG?