L is for Lots of London Loot - Two is a Pair!

Continuing with the various donations which have come back from London 'Taaarn' over the last few months, and we're back to August for this lot which all came from Peter Evans, so thanking him before we start, let's see what was in the bag!

 

An eclectic mix of figures we've probably seen before, with clockwise from the top left; Lido French Foreign Legion officer, Crescent for marked-Kellogg's medieval archer, astronaut (K&M I think?), Matchbox Adventure 2000 figure and the Corgi camper having a Barbecue!

 

In the centre a novelty, overmoulded guardsman with what seem to be a simlified SA80 (so quite modern), with two of the Hong Kong figures, copied from and sometime carried by cavendish Miniatures, and nice to get a loose Hourse Guard with his sword arm complete!

 

We looked at the main sets/games with show-jumping kit, not that long ago, well, just a year ago, so this will make a nice addition to that tub! I suspect it might be from a kid's magazine cover-gift, I occasionally see such things, but it's very well-made, and wile a bit small for something like Playmobil, could be from a Gymkhana by them?

Three ACW from Hong Kong, copies of Timpo 1st version figures, there are lots of these waiting final sorts (some cowboys and Indians recently came in, also from Peter, which should be in one of the later posts in this sequence), and the unusual aspect of this clean sample of one maker's stuff, is the pegs are still with the figures (which will help ID them) and the weapons match, despite being two colours, so a further ID'ing clue!

This is fun! Reasonable rendition of a Tricerotops, in the style of those Blue Box monsters from Gormiti, we looked at here at Small Scale World, a few years ago, but of a smaller finished size, it has a pop-together element with ball-&-socket hips, shoulders and tail section, anyone know the maker/set/line?
 

Two bags of small-scale, ancient, in the post-Giant Wild West (1960/70's) and more modern in the WWII figures - I seem to recall those quite good, near-28mm copies of Airfix were around in the 1990's?

 

A couple of 'clean' Britains farm animals, two Airfix babies and a couple of old Hong Kong copies of Britains (officer) and Crescent (damaged shorts guy), which will be sorted into the rest, where the shorts guy may be the only one in blue plastic, so stays until he's been sorted - a damaged sample is better than no sample!

An eclectic lot! At the bottom a set of Matchbox lumps from the 1990's, above them are a nice little cannon, probably from a quite juvenile mini-playset? With a Nottingham Mafia horse, home-painted, while at the top we have an Autobot/Transformer type thing, possibly a modern capsule toy, a Culpitt (and others) cake decoration Indian, and the Giraffe from the Tupperware alphabet blocks.

 

Modern animals, medium-small, but quite nicely done and probably from the same - yet to be identified - set, possibly a toob/tub thing?

 

Top left is Iggle Piggle, I think? From In the Night Garden, below him is a pencil top of Raymond Brigg's The Snowman, with what would appear to be three Pokemon, although I'm not so sure on the purple dragon chap? Many thanks again to Peter for this eclectic bucnh of polymer personages!

J is for Jumps, More Jumps

We've had a brief look at some of the Britains stuff, and better looks at the other two main producers of show jumping equipment in 1:32, but if you, or a younger relative are looking to make a full arena circuit there is a need for 10-15 actual jumps, even 16 or more, and they all need to look different, as part of the test of the horse, it to visually stun or confuse it!

Except that you usually have a similarity/continuity in look, with both jumps in a double, or all three of a triple. Luckily there are a few others out there, to extend the base from which to build a course map;

These are from the Pony in my Pocket franchise, I have no idea on dates or 'waves', and there are other colours and one made from large bales, more gymkhana than full competition, the lower pair actually look rather dangerous! But I guess we imagine they are all fall-apart and fibreglass mouldings!

 

These are from Kids Globe farming, and while the catalogue is a few years old now, they are still available from various sources, I just googled them! The triple wall-effect would make a good finale!

 

While this is from a Sylvain Families set! It's a bit cartoony, or could claim to be a 'tight' jump? Although it's a bit low, and really I'm just talking shite, because I don't know enough about Show Jumping and wouldn't pretend I do!

 

This is the qualifying course from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (the forgotten games!), and consists of 14 elements, as 16 jumps, 17 with the water 'puddle' in the centre, an earlier large jump (I think the number of poles represent difficulty, not design here) is in-line with the triple. It's all fun!

News, Views etc . . . Housekeeping!

It was the Italian riders I had in mind on the Britains post the other day (thank you FitzjamesHorse), and I had scanned a cutting for adding to the post, but forgot it, it's now been added, to the post here;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/03/b-is-for-brush-rail-britians-show.html

I also forgot to thank David Fisher for letting me photograph his carded Jungle set from Grendon at the recent Sandown Park toy fair, when iI posted it the other day, so a quick apology to him, and a note now added to that post; 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/02/g-is-for-grendon-underwood.html

The News, Views have taken a bit of a back-seat this last 12 or 18-months, but it's all piling-up and will be caught-up with at some point! I mean there's 921 images in the ScanDoc folder for Christ's sake, it's a madness!

M is for Musings on Multiple Mounts

This post is a narrative conversation with myself, and you, if you're reading, and comes out of a conversation I had with Chris Smith before Christmas, at which time, I think I said I'd publish this in January, or at least that sort of 'after Christmas' which might lead someone to think it was imminent, but with 120 posts in less than 90-days, I can hardly be accused of idleness!

 

And I say 'conversation', or, in the title "Musings" because there are few facts here, and those bits which are facts can be taken with a pinch of salt, the whole aimed at preventing TJF rushing-off to correct me out of someone else's great tome, everything here is open to question, even the absolute facts . . . except that the Japanese officers in some of the shots really are Blue Box!

 

First a reprise of mine, except that the ones we saw last time have gone off to storage and these are all new, I think? From the left in both shots we have the Blue Box Japanese officer on his mule-looking pony, then the Blue Box farm horse and finally a clone from one of the Hong Kong neighbours, who probably got it into a dozen generic bagged or carded sets!

 

Belly-marks suggest that the farm horse was around for a while before his owners cloned him for service in World Carpet War II, the generic - in this case - is unmarked, often they would have some sort of mark, even a poorer third version of the Blue Box's neat DIN-font.

Chris has one of his officers on a Blue Box farm horse, but the other came with another horse, of which he's found a second in white, and both have the rider peg, and he was wanting to know if it was a Blue Box design (an alternative Japanese mount), or something else?

 

Both are copies of a Britains horse, from the civilian-farm-show jumping-equestrian lines, and both are the straight-legged version, saddle-cloth might be original, but I suspect has been added, from a Wild West horse/set, and the reins may or may not be likewise original/added later?

 

Both have the sort of mark I just referred to, more of a 'typewriter' font, or uneven engineers-stamp, actually, one of the better ones, in that nothing seems upside down or mirror-reversed (which a lot are/have elements of), but they do read opposite ways, however not really the neatness of the Blue Box?

 

At which point we have to hark back to this morning's post, and any follow-up feebleBay search you did at my suggestion . . .

. . . where hopefully you found at least three sets? There were about five before Christmas, maybe seven with other search terms, but this afternoon I just briefly found three. One of which proves the theory I couldn't have proved back then, so maybe there are less question marks now, than there were going to be, but never mind, I think I've caveat'ed myself against blundering oafs trying to correct me!

 

You can see here, that the set has a pair of Britains production horses, one with the straight front legs (slightly different from the Hong Kong copy, where they are less splayed, but it's the same sculpt), the other with the bent leg, here though both riders are the woman with the dark riding jacket.

All four images in this sequence are from auction sites, but I've cropped-in to the bit we need. here we see again, Britains, again, two ladies, but this time it's both bent-leg horses, and the expanded polystyrene foam tray seems designed to take both types, with the bent-legs snugger than the straighter legged horse.

 

To be fair, both Britains horses are variations of the same sculpt, just with some leg/tail position changes, well brushed and groomed competition types (where you see those pointed tails) all look very similar!

 

Here another version of the game has the same pair of bent-leg Hong Kong production as mine (previous post), but with cream-plastic riders, he in pinks, she in her chic number! Indeed, the rule apparently established at this point is - always contrasting colours of horse, but not so bothered about the riders?

 

Confirmed by another Hong Kong set, now a vac-form 'styrene tray, and again both bent-leg versions, and we're back to two girls riding. The point being, these sets had either/or a pair of mixed, or only straight/bent legged horses, in contrasting colours, which for some time were sourced from Britains, and some equal time, Hong Kong. Riders shared the source with horses, but could be either opposite sexes, or the same sex.

 

Caveats - so far (and apart from today and Christmas, I have searched for these before, not least when I bought mine, from whatever was available that day, a few years ago), the white horse hasn't turned-up in a set, yet, and two male riders, together, haven't been seen in a set yet, either.

 

But the point I'm suggesting, is that to have the mounting spigot for a rider, the white horse must be from these sets, as Wild West wagons, say, for instance, even if given Britains standing horse piracies, wouldn't need the rod, and the other Hong Kong source of Britains show-jumping/hunter piracies use the gate-jumping horse.

 

This one, seen in singles, pairs and fours.

But this also turned-up during the shenanigans for the above, and it's another take on the Britains standing horse, but around 1:30th, and almost certainly from a horse-box or animal transporter of some kind, probably cheap and plastic in a colourful box, and now over a hundred-quid for a good one!

 

Here compared with the Japanese officer's one, as I don't have Chris's to hand, and my Salter examples are both bent-leg, and were shot years ago anyway, all three show-jumping posts were shot a while ago, which I why I had to go back to feeBay in December, and do it all as two posts!

 

You can see why I consider it a mule, it's got a face only its mother would love! But the bigger one is actually quite a nice version, and in a heavy, dense plastic which might be polypropylene?

 

While this pair, similar sculpt, seen here back in 2019, are Redbox, the Redbox of Blue Box's younger brother, another sibling of Tai Sang Toys. And you can clearly see the Hong Kong mark is the same as the farm horse, with the Redbox addition, and also probably from a horse-box/transporter toy. Which makes it all far more interesting that it looked when Chris and I were messaging three or four months ago!

 

This having the same splayed legs which takes it slightly away from the Britains donor, and clearly (as a much better model) itself copied by the unknown jobbing contract-manufacturer who supplied Salter. And possibly also the donor for the Blue Box farm horse, however I'm not so sure about that, while poorer, I suspect the Blue Box one is earlier and was a seperate pirating exercise, with the turned head, odd face etc . . . ?

And the bigger one, well, it's had the tail (long, pointed and linking all the others, Britains, Blue Box, Redbox and unknown-for-Salter's) attached to the rear leg and is marked Made in Macau, but in a very 'Tai Sang' font!

 

And we know from the research done in the height of the 'port Tai Sang' (don't look for it on a map) battle with TJF and his fuckmonkey, that there were several facilities in Macau, one of the Blue Box Vinyl (PVC) factories (and PVC copies of the above rack-toy fence-jumper turn-up as well!), Blue Box Die-Cast, and eventually (I think?) the facilities of Zee/Zylmex (turned-over to Redbox), some of which were there? Not sure about that, though.

 

However, there is every possibility this is another Tai Sang piece, issued by Blue Box, or Redbox, or one of the other in-house Tai Sang brands we found back then . . . or a contracting client?

So there we are, left with as many questions as we started with, or more, depending upon how deep you want to dig, but slowly the pieces do fall into place, and keeping an eye on the Salter sets from time to time will hopefully yield the white horse? It could, just as easily, turn-out to be a bagged horse and rider, but I've only ever seen the two riders copied, not the farmer, not the soldier and not the two gymkhana kids? Equally, searching for 'Horse Boxes' might help with a brand or branding's for several of the above!

Anyway, it's mostly conjecture or theorising, thanks to Chris for the images, and add your thoughts, if you have any, it's that kind of post!

T is for Thomas Salter

A Scottish toy firm with a convoluted history of its constituent parts following bankruptcy in the early 1980's, which had little to do with the failure of Linka to set the hobby world alight, and more to do with mismanagement, but, while better known for their science and chemistry sets (friendly (?) rivals to Merit and Lott's), they carried, for quite a while, this 'approved' show jumping set, in the style of the Britains one.

Early (most?) sets contain the actual Britains horses, either standing or walking were used and can be found (see next post for more musing on this aspect of the set!), while late sets contained Hong Kong piracies, as mine does, here, both the walking sculpt.

 

Jumps are similar to the Britains ones, with flat-topped or angled wings, what sets them apart from Britains and the Parker-Palitoy sets, is the addition of a base, with the arms of the jump wings moulded into them, they could benefit from some green paint to help hide the bases and highlight the base struts.

 

Poles, planks and a gate were issued, and the red of the red/white visual markings were thermo-printed, on one side only. No wall, brushes or water feature were included though, nor do they give us little Christmas trees in tubs! The jumps are all polystyrene, the riders are polyethylene (Hong Kong) or ICI Alkathene (Britains - also a polyethylene!)

 

The male in hunting pink and the lady in a chic-cut riding/sports-jacket from Hong Kong, are also direct copies of the Britains sculpts and one wonders what Britains thought of losing a small, but useful contract for their product, to cheap copies of the same, from Hong Kong?

There will be a follow post which features these, but musing on other things, and if you can be arsed - a search for these on feeBay will reveal three sets currently listed - one the same as mine, one which might have been mucked-about with and one with two Britains stock, one walking, one standing, and that's important for the next post. in December there were five sets listed with similarly mixed riders.

R is for Return - or Not? Palitoy-Parker Horse of the Year Game, Anyway!

Something weird seems to be going on, with me and/or my blog, I'm absolutely sure we've actually looked at these twice now, horses and riders only, once briefly as a foursome, once in more depth with variations, which should all be on the Palitoy and/or Parker Tags, but coming a few days after I couldn't find the Jungle flat set I was equally sure I had posted, I now can't find hide nor hair, of raiders or beasts, anywhere on the blog?

 

It doesn't matter as we are about to look at them anyway, but I would have shot more images of the riders, if I knew I wasn't going to find the posts I thought were here, and while I can understand accidentally not tagging one post (which may have happened with the jungle set?), nor noticing it isn't tagged as it makes its way down the front page over days or weeks, I can't believe I would do it three times, twice with the same set?

 

First, let's hear it for the anonymous sender (it was 2021, and I've lost any record of it) who packed this to defeat the best efforts of Parcel Farce and Royal Fail to totally destroy it, but it's the large things with a full wrap of bubble which do tend to survive against the tendency of smaller things to get massacred!

 

Issued under both Parker and Palitoy branding (in that order - I think?), it was the BBC coverage of The Horse of the Year Show back in the 1970's to which I was referring last time, and this set clearly sold well as there's never a shortage of them going cheapish on feebleBay, and well worth the purchase if you also have/collect the Britains gymkhana/show jumping stuff. Although the playing-board is more cross-country/three-day-eventing than a London arena!

 

The fences which look closest to Britains, giving a real variety with full interchangeability between the two end-types, flat and angled, and the various ways you can arrange the boards or poles, along with a gate. Makes you think what you could do with Britains white gate and the wall sections it clips into.

I arranged these as a triple, but they can go anywhere on the board, the little one could also be used for the Britains kids on the Shetland Ponies, in a proper gymkhana! Or, you could put it just in front of the taller lattice-ends one to make a longer-reach jump? Officially, jumps have type-names, and I'm probably inventing stuff which wouldn't be allowed!

The wall and the water, there is one permanent water jump printed on the board, but you can place another one, somewhere else. I haven't played the game, but it seems to be a simple progression through 'jeopardy' cards and dice. I just wish I'd shot the riders better, it is a figure Blog! Still, an excuse to return to them another day, unless the missing posts 'turn up'?!!

 

Riders are a dense/stiff PVC, with one-each of another military (Britains post the other day), police, hunter's pink and female types, while the jumps are all polystyrene and the water-jump is card.

B is for Brush & Rail, Britians Show Jumping, Bits and Bobs

I don't have the big Show Jumping boxed set from Britains, it tends to attract a pretty penny, and most of the contents are available loose, but there are a few bits which were unique to the set, not least the jumps, fortunately, Britains anticipated some wanting to extend their set to a full competition ring (circuit?), and made most of the bits available separately, so by way of introducing a short season on jumpers and jumping, here are a few bits from the Britains line, which I have here - we will return to them and look at the whole range of riders another day, as they are in (back-in!) storage.

The add-on Brush & Rail fence as sold separately, you get three units of fence, basically wooden boxes with faggots of brushwood, or twiggy-twigs, stuffed into them. While the boxed area underneath the backing-card, contains a standard Post & Rail fence, two marker-flags and a spare stand for the horses which were only, otherwise available in the big set, the riders when sold separately coming with/attached to a five-bar gate, to jump over.

How they all go together, and the various components, the brush is made from horsehair, which was curled (probably under heat, a hot water dip maybe, or hot-air?), then dipped in a rubber-solution or latex before being compressed into sheets or 'bisquits' (Yes, I like to use that incorrect spelling, it's fun Panda Bear talk), and cut to shape. It was a forerunner of modern foam packing, and had been around, commercially, for some time.

 

The extra stand, replacing the gate the seperate riders came with, which could also be added to your show-jumping display, this enabled them to face-off against the various other jumps in the set/line. Some place it the other way round, with the base to the rear, but it balances either way.

 

Early and late versions of the 'Captain Mark Philips' character, he also came with as the gate jumper, but is here on a different horse, as either an early Herald/Eyes Right/Swoppet era figure (white horse) or in a Deetail iteration, black horse, rubber-band reins.

 

There were actually several riders who performed in uniform back then, a German (whom I think is behind the mind of this figure's sculptor), an Argentinian (I think?) and maybe a couple of Spaniards, among others, I well remember watching Show Jumping (and tennis, and the tedium of 1960/70's Test Cricket), because with two, latterly three TV-channels, there was often bugger-all else on, especially in the mid-afternoons! Phillips usually performed in the No.1 Dress uniform, a blue-black affair, known as 'Blues'.

 

12-03-2022 - It was the Italians I was thinking of (see FitzjamesHorse comment below), and I remembered I'd scanned this from the 13th October 1973 issue of World of Wonder magazine, expressly to add to this post, back in March '22! Honestly, the filing system is breaking down under the weight of stuff! Given when the Britains figure first came out, it was probably these guys behind the Military rider?

N is for New Ray!

Following on from the previous posts and getting the obvious title above them, this is a quick look at one of the 1:32nd scale sets, non-military.

Taken from the Country-Life line, and in a third graphical style, I believe this set dates from around 1999 - the date may be on the reverse of the card but it went to storage before I bought the lovely A3 scanner I'm now using!

It is in the catalogue we saw in the previous post, but that example is in the brighter green graphics and sharing an assortiment code; 05232 with seven other sets - again, there may be a numerical with this one, but it'll be on the back with the bar-code, so whether it's the same or not I can't say!

Not the best shots I'm afraid, sometimes direct, bright sunlight just washes the camera out, it doesn't happen often, but summer seems to be when! Bottom left has the foot figure showing the course to one of the 'spare' horses, the other three shots are of the wall jump and show-jumper. PVC horses and figures, 'styrene accessories and 'ethylene plants.

Not up to the overall quality of the Britains sets/figures, it holds-up well against the Parker-Palitoy set and the less common Thomas Salter set with it's Hong Kong copies of the Britains, add the three Corgi figures from the alternate offerings of Horse Box and with all the above you can mount quite the equestrian event these days . . . Pony in my Pocket also had various obstacles for show-jumping.