P is for Postscript on Plasticom and Their Polish Pals!

Return or follow-up wouldn't compute once I'd decided on an alliterative heading and 'Pandect' would have flummoxed most I fear! Anyway, Plasticom were first seen here a long time ago now, and we have re-visited them several times AND looked at Polish versions, so this is another view, with more Polish figures (courtesy of Chris Smith) and, and . . .

I took a lot of pictures, and Chris sent a fair few, so we're starting with line-ups of his new Polish takes on the Plasticom 'Soldabar' sugar-candy/lolly-handle WWII figures above and below from two different angles, and  - the middle - the current rainbow of polymer colours from my Plasticom sample.

Note also slight variations; offset holes, smaller base and deeper reinforcing round some of the holes, also the orange-red 'short-shot/miss-mould' at the back left.

Chris's Polish knock-off's compared with the Plasticom, these would appear - from below - to be from two makers, but I think they are all of the same origin and although we've looked at similar figures here from Konrad Lesiak, and Wojciech Gudaczewski recently covered them on a Faceplant group, the maker/s remain anonymous! Wojciech did say they were mostly produced around Warsaw though, and would be what have been described here before as Kioskowce - cheap 'tobacco kiosk' novelties.

The standing firer is quite an original pose, with a serious attempt to replicate the Plasticom base; a shallower rim to the lolly-socket giving him away, while the 8th Army officer is a straight lift from Airfix's set. We've seen the two Plasticom's before, they are a Crescent (firer) and Britains (officer) clone respectively.

These are Chris's Matchbox clones, to whom belongs the firing figure from the previous image, we have 8th Army and Afrika Korps. Polish troops fought with the Eighth Army, but in Italy when they had gone into long trousers I think (and there weren't many Highland Bren-gunners in the Polish formations!), but still the affinity is there, and it gets round making hated Russians?

While Airfix are plundered for more 8th Army poses and - unusually - Ghurkhas, with both these and the previous, the colours are very hard to photograph under any conditions, and more worryingly - in the case of the center four - made to look almost as edible as the candy-lolly they were holding!

I wasn't thinking when I did this collage, so we have Wild West above (US Cavalry) and WWII below! The bazooka-man is taken from the late Britains Hong Kong output while the advancing pair in the middle are Crescent again with another Britains (damaged) on the left. The cavalry which I didn't recognise last time were ID'd by someone a while back (Vichy?) as Jecsan I think, but it's a fleeting similarity, with the Plasticom's far more naturally stance'd.

Image on the left here is from Theo van der Weerden, with two of the Cofalu clones (one each beret and helmet) of French infantry, more Britains and another US cavalryman, while I have the same pair (lower right) of Frechies, with another, stabbing pose, in various colours - above.

My four together, we've seen this shot on the Khaki Infantry page, but for the sake of completeness it might as well be here too!

Chris kindly sent me three duplicates from his collection, and I will eventually use them in comparisons on the Airfix Blog, but for now, one of each; Ghurkha, 8th Army and DAK above, order reversed below.

And to the wild Wild West! Top left (they too, came from Theo) and bottom are the Platicom from Belgium. The other two shots are all Polish figures from Chris (oops, I've only just realised one of them is WWII British!). Note the higher collar on the two top-right, which may be another maker's work?

There seems to be a bit of mix-and-match with these, but I'm not so au fait with Wild West figures . . . Theo's red figure is taken from Britains Herald Hong Kong, the green chap from the same maker's Swoppet range, the high tube pair might be based on ex-Jean or Manurba poses, the two six-gun chaps (bottom left) Herald (similar) again? The standing riflemen are quite nice poses/sculpts, albeit a bit flat; like most the Polish figures.

All Plasticom and a mix of Britains and continental sculpts being lifted here, I think we've seen them all before, I recognise the four interesting poses but can't place them (French?), while the standing firing and kneeling archer are both Herald HK. The standing bowman looks a bit like Rambo!

Two Polish Indians, again courtesy of Mr. Smith, and clearly a new manufacture for the blue figure, who might be mistaken for 'just' a Kioskowce but that base is hollow and too large to not be for a lollypop to sit in! I don't recognise either pose and the green one is missing a hand.

This chap came in the other day and I thought I'd better add him here for the full overview! He's similar to the Herald Hong Kong one, but the legs are slightly different, I think.

Plasticom's scenics, with a Britains original to the far right, you can see the Plasticom tree is greatly simplified. I think we have Chris to thank for one or two of these as well, but some time-ago now!

The Plasticom 'Czech hedgehog' tank-trap, compared with the Britains Herald Hong Kong accessory, and it's an early marbled one on the left (matching the previously seen tree), with a later plain-brown one to the right.

You may have noticed that the ex-Matchbox advancing pose has what looks like a sign on his base, and I asked Chris about it, as a 'supplemental'! He studied it in depth and took tons of shots to try and get a few good ones (which was all 'a call above' for the blog) and sent me the best results. Stopping the shadow setting down 200% (that's the same figure in both shots) made it clear the 'HQ', 'Tobruk >>' or 'Achtung Minen' I had hoped for is not there!

Moreover, it's not that clearly a sign at all, and Chris wondered if it might actually be doing the job of what I call 'sprulettes', allowing material to pass beyond the products original cavity design, so the figure itself gets fully formed. Chris noted most of the other figures are more balanced with a leg either-side of the lollypop hole, while this was a one-sided sculpt, and it seems to me he might be spot-on? Although the bayonet has still short-shotted!

The last time I mentioned Plasticom online someone stated they were available in Germany from Trawigo, Bloomberg list Trawigo GmbH & Co KG (founded 1953) as an importer and wholesaler of confectionery & related products, not a manufacturer, so they didn't make them, they imported Plasticom's Soldabars, and repackaged them.

As I've mentioned them (Trawigo) now, I'll tag them and anyone searching in the future can come here and read > click here or on the Plasticom tag below this post or the tag down the right-hand side of the page for the - currently- seven other posts on these and the previous looks at Polish production/similar figures < !

And it gets them in the tag-list! Indeed, as we now know they got as far as Poland, and seem to turn-up most in mixed lots from France, Belgium, Holland and even the UK (occasionally), they must have had/carried several brand-marks, do you know your local one?

Many thanks to Chris Smith for help, images and figures, thanks to Theo for images, to Konrad for past images and help and acknowledging Wojciech's input, that's them, again, for now!

T is for Two . . . Totem Poles

Just a quick one for fun; Chris Smith sent the blue one in his last parcel, and a I dug the Orange one out of the stuff we've looked at in the past so they could both go with all the other totem poles, as increasingly; thematic storage is easier for things like this, they stack quite well, albeit like awkward logs!

Soldabar by Plasticom, it'll probably be a copy of someone else's, but I haven't found the donor yet, soft polyethylene lollypop premiums and . . . err . . . that's it!

Original post here

News, Views Etc . . . Khaki Infantry Page Update

Plasticom (Soldabar) has gone on the Khaki Infantry page with much help from Chris Smith, I don't know how many figures were in the set in total, but with a hybrid and a damaged one, we've found five poses between us. They also copied the angle-iron tank-obstacle from the Hong Kong Herald sets which can be found on the Plasticom or Soldabar tags here.

I've also moved the Reisler entry down to the foreign section, so the page now runs from the top:  British-Foreign-Hong Kong-Unknown/Detritus; alphabetical where possible, with Timpo out of sequence to keep it at the start of the - growing - page.

Updates on Cherilea, CMV, Timpo and Speedwell are in the pipeline for that page too.

P is for Polish People like Plasticom?

We looked at a couple of these a while ago I think, but I thought I'd bring them all together, although there is a problem getting the images from Konrad Lesiak in Poland to Hotmail via the Wibbly Wobbly Way, so I have had to blow them up on-screen and then screencapcha them to work on, but they get across what they need to.

I have one of these which we have looked at before (as an unknown - reproduced below), but here are a couple of far more useful ones than my cornucopia blower (or whatever he's called!); both copies of Elastolin poses.

They have different bases from the Plasticom Soldabar figures originating in Belgium, with their squared-off corners and a flat-edge.

Konrad has painted a couple-up in a 'toy soldier' style and they look all the better for it, his blower (cornier?) has the same hunched appearance as mine, which I put down to mould shrinkage last time, I'm glad to see it's how it should be - one less figure on the 'wants' list!

A similar base is seen on the pink GI, possibly a piracy of a Spanish figure (these lollypop figures are all copies of something!), but the Airfix Japanese clone has the squarer-cornered base of the Romans, with the collar of the Plasticoms, but on a longer base? It looks like progression of design or evolution, as much as different makes?

These look much more like the usual Plasticom figures, two new poses, one ex-Britains the other Starlux I think? But the bases are a little smaller than my main sample (and below), rounder than the ovals on mine.

Then we find two lightly different ones; with a radius-edge to the poodle's base, the other having a sealed-cone rather than the usual collar. He's also a copy of an Eastern European flat, as you might expect to find in Poland!

These are the Belgian figures issued by Plasticom, as Soldabar lollies, and we have looked at the two Frenchies recently, but I thought I'd get all the additions together in one shot. You can see from the sticky remains in the lower shots that the figure appears to have been presented as the handle, with a boiled-sweet type sugar-candy lump of some kind hanging below, probably anchored in the hole/collar. And note that they have longer bases than the polish figures.

There's an addition to the additions! And my 'Cornelius' chap - unpainted, again. Answering my own question from the Buried Treasure post the other day; I guess all these figural confectionary 'handles' were phased-out for the choking risk?

And thanks to Konrad Lesiak for the polish figures.

T is for Two...from the Tiber

Continuing to clear these old photographs, or the scans of them, here are a couple of interesting and less common Hong Kong copies, both of ancients, and both around the 35/40mm mark.

Strategically placed on my home-made plasterboard hills (long since consigned to land-fill), these two are more 35mm and are copies of Marx figures originally from the 'Warriors of the World' hand-painted 60mm series, the chap on the right would also be copied by Giant in 25mil, while the same company put the torso of the left-hand guy on a horse. I think I have a couple more now, but possibly only one other pose (standing with spear) and always in this flesh-coloured plastic. I assume Christmas crackers or cake decorations?

This horn-bower is closer to 40mm and seems to be another of those European lollipop or ice-cream stick ornaments/premiums, but the hole is different from the Soldabar/Plasticom ones, and he probably originated in HK, he's a copy of the Elastolin Roman and might be a copy across from the 40mm or pantographed-down from the 70mm. He's also very distorted by early removal from the mould. Again I think I've picked-up another since these were taken so one day we'll probably have another look at them., with the commoner Elastolin copies with the oviod disc-shaped bases.

M is for Minor Makes

A quick look at some odds and ends, as I'm getting as sick of my unfinished stuff as some of you may be!

Copies of Airfix Washington's Army in 35mm, made in Hong Kong and sold primarily as cake decorations, notably here in the UK by Cullpits from stands in bakers and catering supply retailers. Showing front and back of each figure with two from each end of the Union Jack spectrum.

Hit men and drive-by shooter from Parker's board game Vendetta, also called 'Vengeance à Chicago' or Cosa Nosta. There was a third pose, the boss men, but they're cruder and bigger.

Close up of the hired gun, the game seems to be a glorified game of Ludo, with the added excitement of semi-random murder and 4 Mafia speakeasy's! There are two cars, this one being removed from one end of the 'spinner'.

I've been collecting these for years, starting with the smaller ones and now just buying them whenever I see them. I can see Britains Herald (UK & HK), Cofalux and Starlux among them. They have been identified as both ice cream premiums and chocolate lolly premiums, however, both were tentative, so more information is needed on these. [02/03/2012 - In Belgium they were issued as boiled-sweet type lollipops in orange or lemon flavour as 'Soldabar' by the Plasticom company.]