M is for Micro Moon-Men and Many Marauding Martian Machines

Just a quickie, as they are definitely at the infant-toy end of the spectrum, but fun nevertheless!

We've looked at the mini wargame sets from Silvercorn now, but they also did an infant series, although when I say 'series' there's no evidence for others sets, but with three in the 'realisteic' line, I'm imagining maybe a dino' set and farm or zoo attached to this infant-toy line?

Two useful bits; nice space tank, which would paint-up well as a fire-tower for Micro-Machine Hoth figures? And a useful six-wheeled jobbie which again is just big enough to be a one-man battle-taxi in even 28mm role play - Banana Splits 'v' the Nottingham Mafia's Imperium?

The two figural's; the robot will go well with those looked at recently from SCS Direct, while the human is a chunky infant toy of limited use, unless you need an extremely overweight astronaut for some game or diorama!

I've also picked these up, mostly marked 'Hong Kong' so having some age, but equally factory mint, ex-warehouse or shop stock. Probably from a gum-ball, capsule-machine supplier (they came from the US), but equally likely to turn-up in other 'pocket-money' packagings, elsewere?

Three saucer/space station types and four ships - one of which looks like a jet-propelled, demented R2D2, with shock-absorber legs, I've seen him somewhere as a Japanese 'glico' with an added radar on his head - probably the original sculpt?

My favorite is the crane, which bears a passing resemblance to an old carrier crane from a 1:1200th scale model kit. The cracker/gum-ball/glico type fighter came in with a recent mixed lot from Chris Smith or Peter Evans (posts pending).

F is for Follow-up - Ackerman-Lollipop (LP) / Silvercorn

We've pretty much done these to death now, with help from other quarters, but I found mine the other day and shot-off a few close-ups;

The case, in the UK it seems all forms of these sets were handled by Ackerman, but with the Silvercorn branding remaining visible, strangely Ackerman have a US office, but as we saw last-but-last time, they were Lollipop/LP in the 'States.

The three figure-runners from both sides, it looks as if each set got about four of the shooters (above left), two of the marchers (below left) and one command runner (right hand side) which had to be photographed twice! The prone guy is meant to be firing a pistol (I think?) but looks more like he's pointing at something.

There are two runners of accessories, although the two dark grey signs (see posts passim) weren’t in here, so I guess I recognised them from some tub of lose signs I may have somewhere, and that they were added to the other set?

These sit in the lid, over a pile of the rubbery figure-runners, who are themselves piled on top of a large coated-paper play-mat, hence the have two little cut-outs moulded into the outer frame-runner, to make room for the slide-lock mechanism.

F is for Follow-up - Silvercorn / Lollipop

Through the autumn/winter of 2016-2017 we managed to look at all four sets of these with help from Uncle Brian, Brian Berke and Tim/Gisby, in the course of which journey I said I had a few of the micro-AFV's in the storgae 'archive', and these are they!

They don't add anything to the previous post - courtesy of Gisby - but I've shot them at new angles which changes one of the tracked beasts somewhat; the one on the right, which had looked quite Challenger-like, actually looks a bit SPG'ish with elements of Abbot or M109?

I'd actually said I didn't think I had any of the tracked vehicles, but I have two-and-a-half! The other whole-one is the one I called an Italian/Argentine/Brazilian 'medium ' type (left-middle), with a modern-looking command 6x6 and Hummer making-up my sandy-sample.

In green I have the same 6x6 and the turret-armed 8x8 and usually keep them with opposite coloured wheel-sets, but I swapped them back for the comparison!

The components of one of the tanks, part count is the same for all of them; hull, turret, belly-pan, two universal wheel-sets and two identical track units, the same for all the tanks and bi-directional on any tank. The belly-pans however are model-specific.

I also have a few bits and pieces including the 'Soviet' tank's hull, so it's the 'NATO' one I'm still looking for, and a wheel-less (over-scale) Unimog type (which looked a bit 'Pinzgauer' last time), where I got the "...something like an Sd.Kfz.222..." idea from - I haven't the faintest idea!

I've also discovered that the entire line was issued in a single play-set; ships, aircraft, figures (with accessory runners) and these micro-armour. The whole in a card-carton, full-colour glossy-printed on a paper laminate, imported by Ackerman it was (is?) called 'Terrestrial War Games', I think - but I'm not sure!

C is for Contribution Fortnight - XIV - Silvercorn from Tim/Gisby

Closing Contribution week, and closing the Silvercorn sets! It was going to run to 18 parts, but I've pulled a few for 'later'! Thanks to everyone who's contributed, and there is more in the queue, but a special thanks to Tim for sending these; twice (is anyone else having problems with images in the 'new' Hotmail/Outlook?) after they turned up the first time as thumbnails!

They are the things I was thinking of, but I only have a few in storage, while Tim has sent all the different vehicle types and the case etc. I don't have the Pinzgauer looking ATV for instance and I think I only have one tank, so we would have been a long time waiting, even if I'd got everything out of storage!

A closer look at the soft-skins and LAV/Piranha types - they are all pretty generic, but the Hummers are pretty clear (except the Chines have their own copied version I believe!). Tim says he found a few more after the photo-session, but all of the same types.

The undersides with the teeny-tiny little wheel/axle arrangements which have to be fitted without braking . . . on my little sample I put green axles on sand vehicles and vice-versa!

Scale of these is constant with the tanks smaller than some of the other vehicles, but for war-gaming, they are a tad bigger than the 1::300th scale 'standard', although there were ranges of 1:260 or 285 stuff kicking around in the early 1980's - I seem to recall?

Close-ups of the tanks. There's one clearly taking it's turret design from Soviet equipment, and two have all (well; 'some'!) of the hallmarks of either the M1 Abrahams or Challenger series' while the fourth design (middle image of the three) is more interesting - looking like some of the smaller-run medium-tank designs coming out of Brazil, Argentina or Italy over the last 30-years?

The packaging brings this one to a close, and that seems to be all the Silvercorn 'Military Case's' covered on the Blog now, three of them due to input from other people so many thanks to all - Brian Berke, Uncle Brian and Tim/Gisby.

C is for Contribution Week - IV - Silvercorn from Brian the Different . . .

. . . Brian, being in fact Uncle Brian of A Fistful of Plastic! Helping us return to Silvercorn quicker than I anticipated.

Always happy to be proved wrong, especially when it gets more figures on the 'wants' list, you may remember the exchange of comments last time we looked at Silvercorn, well I got this from Brian a while later:

With the intriguing note "Please find attached a picture of the green and tan Silver Corn figures. I have found my set of the Silver Corn aircraft and will send you pictures of them soon." So, that puts my question-mark over the sandy chaps to bed - they do exist! But then: Aircraft?

Only for these to turn up a month or so after that . . .

. . . same little suitcase as already seen over at PSR, the contents . . .

. . . pretty-much as I predicted, but a little bigger perhaps, I was thinking of something more in line with the ships at three or four models to a frame - around 1:300; what you get is at least 8 different aircraft types somewhere between 1:144th scale or 1:200th (?) scale, packed as randomly as the ships or figures, with some doubled-up and some singlies.

I love those little Chinooks; I think I've said before - one of the few times in my life I was really shit-scared-frightened was in a Chinook with a Bedford 4-Ton'er as a slung load, and feeling the wagon pulling my seat away from my butt as the chopper banked, I really thought we were going to fall out of the sky! Or at least be pulled out of the sky by our load, 'Ginge' Hyatt - the MT driver I was 'guarding' looked as white as a sheet too; while the load-master just grinned at us - the fucker!

Construction is as simple as the vessels, basically necessitated by the getting of a maximum set of frames into each case rather than for constructional/hobby purposes; just laying the sticky-up bits flat!

Not that you'd know that from the packaging, reading it in the shop:

WARNING CHOKING HAZARD - WITH FUNCTIONAL SHARP POINTS/EDGES - THERE IS A DANGER OF CUTS, ABBRASIONS AND SIMILAR INJURIES

'Similar Injuries'? I think I'll take my chances in a Chinook, thanks!

And thanks indeed to Uncle Brian tor sending these to the blog.

M is for Military Case

As far as the figures go it's a bit of a box ticker for Silvercorn really, other people have Blogged/posted them so the best thing to do is go and look at PSR's post, but a couple of points arise, so to get them on the Blog . . .

. . . several sources, including the above link mention tan figures? I have two sets in storage and the above set (imported into the 'States by Lollipop/L.P.) donated to the Blog by Brian Berke, and not a tan figure seen by me yet. Nor have any of the sources mentioning them shown any.

I believe (until some come to light!) that there is a cross-pollination of visual memory going on here; these sets came out around the same time as the Hornby Railways 'Battle Zone' model railway set, which contained similar (but ethylene) figures in both colours, those figures were also issued by Dollar Tree in the 'States and Toy Masters over here.

Additionally Smart Toys were issuing small PVC figures, again very similar (but painted), which (the Smart Toys) harked back to the Galoob Micro-Machines figures which also had green and tan issues (among other colours). I suspect the common trope of two colours have led people to 'imagine' a tan issue for these . . . but stand to be corrected!

To argue against myself, I have some clip-together 'micro-vehicles' around the 1:285 or 1:300 mark, which may well be from the Land Vehicles, Terrestrial War Games set. They do come in tan and green, but firstly, the bodies are one colour, the tiny wheels another, and secondly they are styrene like the vessels (below). I also have some darker green figures from this set, but no tan . . . yet?

There's also the small matter of the two brownish-grey road-signs, which seem incongruous as there are better sculpted ones on the accessory frames, but they were in my UK bought sets as well as Brian's US purchase, so must have been added for 'value'.

The real reason for this post: Uncle Brian (different Brian) a few weeks ago, mentioned that the 'unknown' vessels in a few past posts were also Silvercorn, and as it happened Brian (Berke) had sent the confirming images a few days earlier, so as I was in the midst of Rack Toy Month, I said I'd post them in September - it's now September!

There are four different frame-runners, each with parts for three vessels (strictly speaking, one has 'parts' for only two vessels as the civil cargo looking-vessel is a single piece), and I suspect - from the duplicates in Brain's sample, that maybe six frames were in the box?

Scale is not constant, with the 'Flat-Top' being much reduced, while I think the cargo type and the submarines are a larger scale, with the warships between the two. The 'carrier looks to be a US nuclear type, and the three different subs follow recognisable shapes for Nuclear Attack (flat deck aft of tower, on the sheet), Patrol (right, above?) and Hunter Killer (left, above), but I'm guessing the other surface vessels may be of Chinese outline?

A few close-ups.

Returning to the 'unknown micro-AFV's' (which are in storage), they are of similar material and construction, hull and belly-pan clipping-together, trapping the wheel/axle mouldings in channels for free-rolling movement. I only have a small bag of them, but they consist of a 6x6 truck, various LAV/Piranha types (6x6 and 8x8 - I think?) with separate turrets and something like an Sd.Kfz.222 if I'm recalling them correctly, I don't remember having any tracked vehicles?

If they are what I think they are, then the fourth set (Air Machines, Aerial War Games) will probably prove to be an assortment of around a dozen modern combat types, probably in this neutral grey plastic, possibly as two halves or with plug-in wings?

I'll keep a look-out for them, and we can return to Silvercorn in a few years! Thanks to the Brian's U for dropping the ID into the blog and B for sending images and samples!

MPC is for Mini Ships - Part Two; Comparisons

So to comparisons between the MPC mini ships and other comparable vessels ancient and modern (of manufacture), to give an idea of what goes with what size-wise, as 'scale' is so clearly a moot point with these models.

Starting with the larger submarine, it's actually quite close to both the similar and almost as accurate (in outline) ballistic missile subs from Galoob's Micro Machine lines, the other three are really just toys.

I left the similar sized Crescent sub off the first image, so have squeezed it into both collages as a continuation shot, I also forgot the Lido one so I've placed that with both as an inset. It's quite interesting as it's an early Nuclear-sub design which keeps some of the lines of the old U-Boat styles, but for scale purposes, would have the size of the more modern ships.

These are all board-game playing pieces with the possible exception of the two grey ones nearest the Patrick Henry (dropped [or; lowered?] an aitch on the caption!), which may be war-game pieces, and the two aforementioned (Lido and Crescent) which were both 'carpet' toys.

Landing craft; The MPC WWII one flanked by the two modern ones from the Airfix HMS Fearless kit, and all lead by an unknown kit boat (LCA shape...'ish) which I think might be from one of the odd box-scale kits from Pyro or early Revell?

On the MPC vessel the spigot sticking out of the back may be for an unknown accessory, or just a bit of frame? Likewise the indentation forward of the wheelhouse may be a mounting hole for an unknown accessory, but I think it's just shrinkage.

Battleships - The larger size and by association smaller scale range of the MPC minis;  the INGAP and the penny-toys are quite similar, but the Hong Kong and Crescent boats are modelling smaller vessels, so are over-sized in comparison with the MPC ship.

When I say penny-toys, it's only because I don't have a name for them and they have 'cheap' decoration. They may be by a later a 'name', there were several smaller die-casters in the UK making toys in the 1950's-60's such as Benbros and Kemlow, these may be by either? They are also all slightly different and marked B1 through to B3.

[Now ID'd as Chad Valley, probably from a boxed set, 1950's?]

Intermediate or medium size, here using the Tramp Type steamer and an LST from MPC as comparison vehicles for food premiums from Manurba and Sanella and the Matchbox accessories from a large harbour play-set they did. Painted-up these would all look fine next to each other size-wise.

The smallies; the MB Games Axis & Allies ship in the centre is a much smaller scale, being a tramp steamer, and both the Montaplex vessels are military ships of larger scale size.

Back to the medium sized rage, for more naval vessels, the Lido set are all roughly the same size, but obviously one of them is a much scaled-down battleship, as is the MB Games Axis & Allies one.

03-09-2016 Unknown (bottom right, along with two pale grey subs above) is now known - Silvercorn

The ocean liners are all from the bigger end of the MPC stable and match the Rosenhain and Lipmann (R&L) for Kellogg's cereal premium pretty well. The kit is scaled by collectors at 1:3640 and is missing two very fine mast mouldings, I suspect it's a tad smaller than the MPC mini ships, being the larger vessel in real life?

Quaker also had a go at Ocean liners and their little set are scaled smaller that both the MPC ones and the Kellogg's import. A Direct comparison with two versions of Liberte (Europa for most of her eventful life) showing a lack of accuracy as well!

We looked at these Quaker liners here and there's more here.

Shades of blue above with three each from MPC, Quaker and Hong Kong above, the HK vessels being - I believe - copies of the old Triang Minic waterline series.

I forgot (or meant...) to label this shot, but the red one is Tina Onassis the only cargo-ship in the Quaker set and I've done a comparison with similar vessels, the HK one being a militarised version of the original Triang mail or packet steamer? The USS Eddy Country looking like a cargo vessel and the SS Varicella being a tanker.

The Hong Kong set were looked at before in the post linked to above with the Quaker and other smaller ones, but I've since got some more, so a new line-up of mouldings and colour variations is above with a look at the various tugs.

There are three tugs from Hong Kong, the one I've numbered '1', is a full hull model which I suspect goes with these from Lucky Toys, sort of confirmed by the unpainted pale one, going with the unpainted versions of the larger vessels in the linked post. The number 3 (two designs) goes with the similar blue-grey and sea-green copies of Triang Minic vessels, while the charcoal grey one I've numbered as '2' seems to be from a third source or even a kit, it has better detailing and a smaller superstructure.

The MPC version as a higher prow, and probably isn't a copy of the Triang one, this was a standard design of tug-boat and years ago the harbours of the world were full of them, indeed we've already seen MPC produced two, dated a few years apart, but they're all but identical.

S is for Ships (and other vessels); Part 7 - Games and things...

Finishing this seven-part overview of small toy vessels finds us looking at the very small ones, mostly board game playing pieces, but also the Hong Kong copies of Minic ships and some cereal premiums.

So, most of you should recognise at least one of the above lots as three of them are from one or another version of Battleships, and anybody who hasn't had a set of Battleships in his past has had a deprived childhood - in my opinion!

The red plastic ones top left and inset - right, are actually from a game called Up Periscope by Denis Fisher, and the inset shows the depth-charge and torpeado pieces, while the main image has one (right-hand cargo-ship) with the stud removed to make it 'waterline'.

The vinyl ships are from a travelling set of Battleships, the little silver one is from the Merit pocket-set and the grey ones in the other inset come from an unknown source probably MB Games - see below. For size; the vinyl carrier is 30mm and the little silver MTB is 15mm long. The grey set are between 26mm (MTB) and 65mm (the carrier).

This set (red and yellow), is from MB Games - Germany, and belongs to a game called Submarine Hunt, you can see they are similar too but not the same as the grey set from the previous lot, however the shot-pegs are identical - hence my suspicions that that set too is MB - vessels vary between 28-45mm.

The other (clear and smoked plastic) set is from Salvo! by Palitoy for Parker Games and vary from 30 to 40mm. The styling - all 'groovy' Habitat perspex dates this to the early 1970's?

The set illustrated in the two left-hand images are Quaker cereal premiums, and I think this is a complete or near complete set, the inset shows a variation of the Empress of Britain without tonnage and a redesign of the whole face of the male half of the mould.

Queen Elizabeth 83,673 Tons - 9omm
United States 53,329 Tons - 86mm
Queen Mary 81,238 Tons - 85mm
 Liberte 51,840 Tons - 83mm
Tina Onassis 27,853 Tons - 77mm
Mauretania 35,677 Tons - 64mm
Nieuw Amsterdam 36,640 Tons - 62mm
Arcadia 29,734 Tons - 61mm
Edinburgh Castle 28,705 Tons - 61mm
Empress of Britain 25,516 Tons - 53.5mm

The grey vessels top-right are from an unknown sourse and are both well detailed and quite modern in design, they may be from one of the Japanese kit manufactures, sold as war-gaming pieces? The carrier is 75mm the smaller submarine a mere 45mm.  

03-09-2016 Now ID'd with the help of Uncle Brian - Silvercorn.

The last picture shows the 4 sculpts from the MB Games Axis & Allies (Sub; 35mm, Cargo vessel; 38mm, battleship; 50mm and the carrier 55mm) and 3 of the old Lido ships from the 1950's dime-store cards (55-60mm long).

These are a lovely little thing, they are mostly Hong Kong plastic copies of the smaller models from the Tri-ang Minic mini ships, in various grey-blues, the painted tug seems to be another HK copy, but HK was responsible for a revival of the original moulds and they may have put this in with one of the bigger ships? the pale grey tug, while a HK copy - seems to be from another source, being a little 'heavier' all round.

The lifeboat is a Minic original from the launch-station next to the pier and comes in at about 7mm (I forgot to measure it and it's back in storage!) the tugs are 4cm with the larger warships 9cm.