C is for Call Answered

Chris Smith eMailed me a week or two ago a with a link to an eBay lot which I bought there and then, even before thanking him . . . it answered a question posed here a couple of times I think; the 'like late / Toyway-Timpo' highlanders, and revealed new poses!

Credited to a Scottish International Gift, Scotland and clearly a touristy gift-item, it's a pretty standard window-box with a tombstone-card at the back that could be pierced for wire-hook peg-board hanging, but something which isn't done in the factory. A potted history of the bagpipes is provided on the rear of the extended card, along with a code NO. 6000, which as a round number is almost certainly a stand-alone, with no similar items in the (or 'a') line?

I can't remember which new pose/s we encountered last time we looked at them here; was it the bass drummer or the pipe/band major? No matter, you get one of each, with two-each of the commoner side-drummers and pipers, which - of course - is why they are commoner, or turn-up more often, loose!

I took them out on one of those warm days a while ago and marched them round the empty bird-bath past the weeping cherry!

The next day - I should add that paint and material wise they are very similar to both the late Timpo/Toyway factory-painted Highlanders and the Hong Kong Salvation Army band set, only the bases being the obvious visual difference, this is not to say there is any connection, painted PVC was big in the late 1970's through the bulk of the 1980's.

"You told me I couldn't eat them
so I'm not even going to see them!"

Many thanks to Chris for spotting these and facilitating my sharing them with the rest of you! Funny thing is I think I recognise the box, so JB probably had a set when I was helping him, and if I'd paid more attention to large-scale when I was a small scale collector I would have had the answer all along!

The next day - I may of course be confusing the box with the painted sets of Ecsi 1:35th scale figures which I think were issued under the A-Toys branding, I also think they were in silver/grey boxes?

Q is for Question Time - Highlanders

These are odd, I had five in storage and picked-up a couple more this year somewhere; PW's show or Sandown Park? I have a feeling someone once told me who made them or where they come from, and they are similar to the Toyway vinyl run of Timpo solid late version combat highlanders (a dense, glossy-painted PVC), but obviously these are parade/musician types with smaller bases.

Upper shot, let top right - the four poses so far discovered by me (that's not a 'discovery', they do turn up and I'd seen them before with dealers and so on before I started collecting larger scales a few years ago); Drum Major (Pipe Major?), drummer, bass-drummer and piper.

Lower shot - there are several tartans on display, leading one to wonder if they represent real or generic cloths and might be touristy things. I seem to recall Britains collectors saying the all-green one (second in) is Black Watch, but I'd need to gen-up properly before attempting the others!

I love the little 'big' cat's head over the shoulders of the bass-drummer! The bass drummer needed a hot-water treatment before he would stand-up properly, and follows the pattern of most similar figures in having the drum affixed by a long, integral spigot spearing the drummers chest!

These two drummers are actually different mould-cavities, note the thicker base on the right-hand example in both pictures (yet he's still also slightly shorter) and the yellow-weave stencil of their tartan is slightly different too, suggesting they may have been sprayed together while still on the runners?

I'm not sure if the left-hand drummer is a repaint or not (again the thinner-based, taller moulding), looking at the little area of waist-band between the halves of the jacket, there's no sign of a previous scheme so I guess the kilt is genuine, but I suspect the white may have been touched-up by hand . . . including the eyes!?

The most recent piper (right-hand of pair) has a deposit/film on the base which seems to have been some reaction in the factory, as it's under the green paint, and doesn't scrape off with a finger-nail. Perhaps someone sprayed a mist on the tool to cool it, and it puddled on the flat area of the base? Too much mould-release lubricant . . . something like that?

Anyway, that's them as I have them so far, are they Toyway, or the same HK lot that did the Salvation Army bands, someone else . . . anyone know? And thanks to Chris Smith for the latest additions.

 

226 - Now known (for some time!) to have been credited to a Scottish International Gift enterprise, probably an importer or phantom-brand / flag-of-convenience?

 

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