P is for Potpourri of Plastic Peeps! Modern Combat Types

Toy and Model soldiers; where it all started! Onwards and upwards as they say, with the next batch of donated figures from Chris Smith's last parcel, and we're into khaki military, but as I've added some sailors it's really 20th/21st Century!

 

Two Toy Story chaps flank the last Blue Box WWII figure I needed to complete an at-least-one-of-each sample of them, and it wasn't the usual 'I don't need this so you can have it' donation from his purchase sorting, it was a 'I have one you can have' from Chris's collection, so double thanks for this chap. I have quite a few, painted and unpainted, but they are all missing their mine-detector, which is too easy to pull-off, or be short-shot in the moulding-tool.

 

Not sure if I have the other two, but there were several sets over the years, and until I get them all together, I won't know!

I think these are Pilsen from Turkey, but the Solpa figures from Greece (next door) can also have the contouring on the base some of these have, and as Solpa also sourced capsule-toy robots and Hong Kong small-scale stuff, it may prove to be that Solpa were using Pilsen?

A mixture here, with a Galloob Micro-man, some HK chaps, a bubble-gum premium and what appears to be a homemade/home cast clone of a French plastic? The two HTI's (right) both have the base marks we looked at briefly a few years ago, but they are different marks, so when I get round to an HTI A-Z page, there will be a few of them to study!

These are second generation copies of New Ray, I think, I got quite excited about a couple of the poses a few years ago, following one of Chris's earlier parcels, but more have come in, overtime, and they are less exciting now, maybe, but there seem to be two tranches/sources, so there will be a full article one day!

Arguably common, but there are many, many variations of these mid-80's rack-toy clones of Airfix British paratroopers, with or without beret/helmet conversions (at the factory) and in dozens of sizes and many plastic colours, so always welcomed for the final sort-out!

Kit figures, two Aurora Russians on the left, and two early (1950's) 'box-scale' on the right, but the chap in the middle is new to me, a scale-up of the Nitto 1:76th German (which was a copy of the earliest Tamiya German set I think?), and in a 'German' blue-grey plastic? All five are glueable, brittle polystyrene.

Probably Kwong Shing  (Kamley-Kositoys-KS) figures, but these coloured ones are less common, and well worth adding to the stash for the final A-Z line-ups! Here, oxide red and grey, rather than the silver we've seen before, I think?

Still need set titles or a maker's marque for these Hong Kong sailors, originally thought to be Navy or Police, for a while, and in discussion with other collectors, the turning-up of the semaphore chap rather confirms the former at the expense of the latter, and probably from a 1980's big-box naval vessel or aircraft-carrier playset? they are around 18/20mm.

R is for Rubber Raider Rack Toys

Except they aren't rubber, they're polyethylene! Actually the Britains one is dense PVC which has some of the properties and is given some of the tasks of Rubber, but it's not what we're concentrating on here, except in so far as for comparison; it's the Greek rack-toys!

These were on feebleBay for ages and for very little money, I think I had them bookmarked for over a year and no one pipped me to the post, so when I finally had a spare tenner a few weeks ago I grabbed them for RTM@SCW!

They came from Greece, and while they could be Solpa they are more likely to be Stam Toys (who did use silver-coatings) or Petalo (lots of rack toy - until quite recently or still going) or even an early import by someone like Zita Toys, although they are lacking any Hong Kong or China marks, which can be a sign of domestic production, but can also just mean that local laws don't insist on origin-marking? Nevertheless they are definitely 'in the style of' Hong Kong rack-toy tat!

Obviously copied from the Britains assault craft; 'Gemini' or 'rigid raider', the three figures are quite different, with one being in a bright-blue polymer, another manufactured in gold-flecked resin and the third has an overall coating of sprayed-silver paint with a dark-red plastic figure underneath.

All three Greek vessels have retained their 'Allied Star' stickers, but my Britains boat has lost it's little MOD crossed-swords thing. I have a feeling I know someone who has a sheet of them (probably left-over from an out-worker's stock) , so if he's still got a few I'll get that sorted!

All three figures have a hole in their base to fit the forward spigot copied-across from the British model; in point of fact, both spigots are reproduced (larger than the originals, but in roughly the same place) but the base sizes (of all three figures) preclude them from lining-up with the rear one.

The other obvious difference is the addition of a cord-loop at the front, to help pull it along, but I don't know if they were fitted with one, if they were part of a hook-wall display-hanging, or something you had to add at home?

Although copied from Britains, they lack the buoyancy of the donor, but do still float so all is not lost . . . when looking to shoot them in the pond (left) or water-butt (right)! I suspect it has more to do with the properties of the Britains' PVC (more air trapped in a less dense material) rather than anything else; the design - otherwise - is carried-over pretty-much intact.

P is for Persons of Interest - Chris's Parcel III

I could have done these as one post but it would have been long and unmanageable, I could extend it out to ten or more posts such was the quality and interesting nature of the contents (but would have been bound to still miss one of the things Chris might be expecting me to single out!), but it will all appear here eventually, the pieces we've missed in these three posts coming back after sorting, in thematic, whole-set or maker posts in the future, for now, these are the other items I feel are worthy of a quick spotlight . . .

 . . . by dint of their standing out as I was sorting, or making themselves photogenic!

Footballers, wiff-waff player and the two ice-hockey flats, the cyclists were more 'bits and pieces' for marrying to past or future finds. I think the guy in the packet (Nestlé?) is actually 'The Gazza' himself; Paul Gascoigne, or trying to be him? And I think the yellow goalkeeper (bottom right) might be a baseless example from the same set of premiums, the shirt-markings being paper stickers supplied with each figure?

While the blue figure - 'Ally McCoist' - having a good left-hook whack at the ball (bottom left) is a third player from the Crocco premium set I knew nothing about twelve-months ago, and have had to rely on others for all three - the other two coming from Peter Evans!

The Table Tennis chap looks more Wilton than anybody else, but that's only the look, there are no other clues, so; late'ish Culpitt?!

The flats are probably Eastern European (they share features with The 'Hungarian' Romans) and definitely aren't PJH Effelder! But (like the Russian/Bulgarian Progress cavalry sets) one would seem to be a second generation copy of the other. Equally; they could both just as easily be lower grade Spanish Sobres or unmarked, Hong Kong, gum-ball machine, capsule prizes!

The Divers; we've had these before recently, or at least two of them, which may be a sign of them coming on to the secondary market as a generation moves on from their toys, or a specific big-seller, and any information on either would be much appreciated, the two black ones presumably go with a boat in a play-set of some kind? The smaller, although an action-figure (of limited articulation) is a pretty prefect 54mm, giving you an idea of the size of the others.

Two biggies and an imprisoned Britains! The Welsh lady from Wales (it's not a seagoing mammal Mr. President) is made of slate, but ground-down to a powder and bound with - probably - a two-part epoxy . . . like cold-cast bronze, but slate!

The guards officer - I think - goes with the RHA Hussar-type Chris sent to the Blog earlier in the year/last year (don't know when these will publish yet!) and the Artilleryman is the better figure, this officer should be marching, with the sword out, or standing at attention, not wandering, 'wandering' isn't in the drill manual!

His duel decorations are a bit of a fiction too, but he's a new figure so I'm not complaining, and while officers don't 'stag-on' sentry boxes, it's a really nice box, which will have a wait before we do them again, as they stared here twice earlier in the year. I think the RHA chap will look better in it, and these would seem to be up-market tourist figures, could we be talking the Buck' House walks? Do they have a 'gift shop' in the nation's main palace?

The final piece is very interesting, clearly a Scott's tourist thing, he is a HK-production Britains Herald piper, held on a cork plinth with a piece of textured green Plasticine . . . and a blob of glue? The tartan band, other than hammering-home the Scottish nature of the item, is probably hiding a clever join at the base of the bottle, or a not-so-clever join bodged with glue?

Label says Frae Scotland (from Scotland) and I nearly bid on a mixed job-lot with one of these in it earlier in the year, but with flights to pay back I was a bit of a spectator to feebleBay this year, I did manage a few smaller lots where a BIN was going wanting or it was 99p with five-minutes to go on a Wednesday afternoon, but the worthwhile job-lots tend to be bid up to proper money, which makes Chris's sending of his duplicates and cast-offs to this Blog all the more extra-ordinary.

 

Dec.2025 - we now know it's Tringa Toys via Toyway in the middle, and a Northfield Products (of Edinburg) bottle on the right. 

This was nice; the pole was broken as it usually is with these by the time they get to the secondary (or subsequent!) markets. But finish is otherwise unworn and all the other likely breakables are still there, having sent the other two boatmen to PW earlier in the year/last year I won't bore you with all three now, but if I find a fourth . . . !

The highlights from the medieval pile include from the left; a Hong Kong copy of the MPC knights, we looked at them years ago here, but I don't think I've seen a mounted example from Hong Kong yet and; this one is marked.

Then another (we looked at the whole lot a few weeks ago) of the Cherilea sub-scale re-issue, a Hong Kong copy of an Italian (probably Fontanini) precepi/nativity figure, a Safari knight (toob-size unlike the Indian we saw in the initial post) and another 'girly prince' (there was one in the civilian line up in the same initial post), there are many of these originating in the pinky-purple section of toy stores!

I've a fair-few copies of Airfix Russians, and I think we looked at them earlier this year/last year, but I've never seen them in a cloudy-clear like ghosts! The kneeling soldier is either a short-shot or meant to look like that; it's hard to tell with the material he's made from, but the left wrist is definitely miss-moulded/hand missing.

And I have never seen Hong Kong or other (they are unmarked and could be Solpa from Greece) copies of either the Support Group figures or the Ghurkhas? The base on the Ghurkha is very like Solpa, but the spotter has a thinner one which is more Hong Kong'y

Clockwise from the top left; we've seen it mended, but this is how Hermes left it on the doorstep! It mended fine, but the interesting thing was that the damage revealed a steel-wire/rod armature holding the wings on/out; it's constructed just like its composition forbears, but poured rather than pressed and set in minutes without an oven!

The Gemodels Lifeguard cake-decoration/touristy-chap has been painted as a colonial trooper of some generic type but I think he's rather nice and Chris's loss is definitely my gain; I won't be paint-stripping him . . . indeed - mental note to self - Hampshire Yeomanry next? All blue and silver! The Houshold cavalry do have a khaki riding/barrack dress, but it's greener (based on No.2's) and is worn with a service cap al la WWI.

Twelve flags for twelve brothers! I have a tub of these flag-types somewhere in the garage with various sizes of pole or base and lots of flags, but most of the common flags are in this one lot from Chris! Along with some of the less common ones; oddly though, the US stars & stripes is missing, but is probably the commonest in the normal course of events (it comes with a lot of the Airfix US Marine piracies in small scale), as are both the German/Belgian Red-amber-blacks which I have previously seen.

Finally, I sent my versions of these to Plastic Warrior awhile ago in answer (or part answer!) to a query, but these have come in together, same paint, and it's better than the examples I had up to now so a nice upgrade, and I might re-paint the older top-hat pose as the elusive Dr Doolittle of the original query? but - while it's clearly based on the Doctor - I still think it's from a circus set?

I hope you'll all agree that Chris's generosity is a cut-above, and it's a pleasure to thank him again for this parcel, and nice to share it with the rest of you.

B is for British . . . Troops From Matchbox

I had intended this to be a post on the Eighth Army, but is all went a bit pear shaped, in the course of which I remembered the British Infantry were in Picasa (since 2013 - it's a long-tailed, greater-spotted queue!), and by the time I'd tried to strainten the pear, I realsied it was easier to run them together and re-vistit them seperately (or at least the 8th') at some point in the future.

Supposed to be the group shot of the Matchbox 8th Army (knowing the officer (?) was missing), but spot the [not] deliberate mistake! Somehow there's a British infantryman from the European theatre set running along with his full battle dress! It'll all be clear in a sec'.

Given a Highland regimental-theme with a kilted bagpiper and some Tam-o-Shanter's (it's the Tobruk movie's scene isn't it!), they are a nice set and enhanced the Airfix set, also being well-equipped with Bren-guns - as well-equipped as the Cherilea 60'mil's!

Some colour variations and that dusty/chalky surface-deposit thing going-on again with all but three of them.

We have looked at several sets of copies already; Brian Berke has sent one, if not two, and others were pulled-together in a posts a year or two ago, these are very similar in plastic-type (tinny polyethylene) and colour (electric puke-green) as some Rado Industries stuff but the bases aren't typical for them so juries' still out on that one! And Ri-Toys had sets of Airfix-copies as their 8th Army, but they may have contract-manufactured these for someone else?

It was while taking the lower shot of these that I realised there were problems with the first shot above, beyond a missing officer (or two!), not only had a British Infantryman snuck into shot, but he was replacing the missing runner (third from right here), in that tub of the 8th Army 'zone', more than the photograph!

Now, I knew the missing officer was here (left image, right-hand figure), but had forgotten Monty! And they were in the WWII British (non desert) 'zone' in the attic where we have been dipping into them over the last few years (which is why they have been sitting in Picasa with a few ones' and two's!).

So anyway I dug this photo' out for the one officer, realised I needed both, but having already put the rest of the 8th Army away again, thought "Sod-it, I'll run the two sets together!". The right-hand image is cropped out of the Solpa set, which otherwise contains Airfix Copies and - as a whole image - is destined for the relevant page on the Airfix blog; picture courtesy of Kostas from Greece.

Of-course, I am still missing an officer (or officer-type); the guy in tank overalls from this set! So we will need to return to them both one-day, but perhaps only on the A-Z page.

In the meantime this is the rest of the gang, almost as well-equipped with Bren's, they also have a US bazooka and a mean-looking (but tad-fictional) flame-thrower - look out Fritz, it's June 6th and your card is well and truly marked!

I think I did pull the left-hand image out once before? There are two prone figures in the box, and for reasons known only to Matchbox's engineers, they differ, with one having a bayonet toothpick and the other a bare muzzle. I imagine damage to the mould cavity was behind the variation?

Colour variation and the surface-deposit thing again in the right-hand shot.

We have seen these sub-scale copies before (in the post alluded to above - try the Matchbox tag), but I thought I ought to compare them as they were to-hand, came with a little bagged rack-toy from Peter Evans if I recall correctly?

The bottom right-image compares the Rommel to the two we saw the other day as a late 'can't stop the presses - they've already printed', Deutsche Afrika Korps picture! The other will have to wait for the US Infantry!

Thanks to Peter and Kostas for the extra's - they all enhance the whole!

P is for Plunder Post - 2. Plastic Warriors

The PW guys brought stuff to the show for me and we're looking at some of that today along with a 50p tray-load!

Peter Evans dumped this huge sack next to me and told me I'd like it (he took so little for it I think we'd both be embarrassed if I mentioned the amount) and . . . I liked it!

The blue bag is full of Hestair Kiddybricks-call-me-Betta Builder from Airfix, which I don't know what to do with, but there is a load more in storage, so (as it's a styrene polymer) I may make-up a few of the 'official' pamphlet models and glue them solid one day, as permanent examples? The trouble with Betta Builder is it stuck with the donor's design (as per early Lego), which makes it looser than the 'exploited design' Lego then ran with.

The big bag was full of rack-toy stuff, mostly loose figures and AFV's which again makes them mostly spares (out of context), so the bulk will help to benefit Dr. Banardo after I've sorted them, but I will keep one or two of each figure pose or mould variant and have already had a photo-session of the AFV's - we will return to them in Rack Toy Month!

Other stuff in the bag included two of those little celluloid carts from Japan you see occasionally on evilBay or in those multi-stand indoor flea-markets, I have another one here so we will look at them in close-up soon, and I have a bunch in storage, including some with a draft cow instead of these donkeys, so we will look at them again in the further future.

The Solpa rack-toy will been shown on the HK Blog soon and raised a couple of interesting points, the fish we looked at the other day (I've only found two at the time this shot was taken, there were five more in the big sack!), while I think the Daleks may be the new Warlord Games ones? Similar to the old Games Workshop ones but NSD's and with the front section as a separate piece - to help keep all the bobbles even-domed - like the magazine freebies we've been looking at here.

Some of the animal flats we've looked at here before are very useful as there are a lot of poses and a lot of colours, while the two solid siege-engines are from Safari, and like the wagon and Tee-pee from the Wild West sets; make better HO-OO accessories.

The 'pre-sort' sort, excluding the stuff in the other two bags, most of this will be sorted into other bags when they join the ones upstairs, of interest is the bag of 50mm firemen; they are the same as the ones I showed about four years ago here and can't remember the name of (for the second time I think!) Halsall . . . Grossman/HGI? It doesn't matter, the point is, this lot were half duplicates and half new poses, now as the carded set we looked at that time had pose specific blisters, it would seem that larger/other sets had a higher pose count.

To the little bag of guards . . . these are basically 30mm copies of Britains Eyes Right figures, and one of the more exquisite things to come out of the pirating-dens of our former colony! I think there should be eight or ten in a full set, and they usually come with food-picks or icing-spikes as they were sold as Cake Decorations, these have had the rods cut short to fit HK swoppet piracy bases - clever idea.

There's a bass drum missing, trumpeter, maybe a couple of others (flute?), but as memory serves (I have some in storage*) this is how they came, originally; moving arms - separate on the drummer - even paint wise; really nice little things. Note how someone's put the cymbalist's arms on a side-drummer torso.

*I was working for a dealer about ten years ago, and saw a set on eBay, there was no clue as to the size, and I didn't even think about it, just mentioned them to him as I knew he liked that sort of thing, and they were obviously HK copies of Britains, he did like them and duly bought a set - you can imagine his disappointment when they turned-up in a jiffy-bag barely big enough for the address label! As I was then still a small-scale only collector, he gave them to me and I've always felt a bit guilty for having suggested them in the first place.

Brian Carrick also brought a small bag of freebies to the show which included some Bonux bits, some more of those Galoob mini action figures (with three of the really useful, always missing, bases) and a few bits of rack-toy stuff, along with a mini-take on Playmobile which I guess must be an early'ish Kinder toy?

We were discussing the probability of the white lumps being teeth at the show, and why you'd give plastic teeth away as a washing-powder toy-premium, only for some Hong Kong-copied ones to turn-up on feebleBay a week ago! They are for a game of knucklebones or something; like Jacks, I think; the seller said they were ex-Gum Ball prizes.

These were from a 50p tray and I can only count 18 pairs, as I must have been rounding-up to a twenty note, there are four items missing which must be mixed in with everything in the next post! I know I was rounding-up as the Maysun ringmaster Crescent-copy is clearly not as good as the one I already have! But otherwise an interesting lot, with four Dimetrodons!

There are also four of the Gygax/D&D 'chinamonsters' which are quite sought-after these days. For those Toy Soldier purists who don't know the story - the original handbooks for Dungeons & Dragons included a guide to the denizens of the 'fantasy universe' with a few pen-&-ink sketches illustrating some of the more esoteric (made-up by Garry Gygax and his co-conspirators rather than found in Tolkien or a medieval bestiary) entries. Those sketches were based on some of the weirder models in rack-toy bags of chinosaurs! Of which 'Lobster-tail', 'Gator-man', 'Aadvarky' and 'Beaky-head' (my names) were among the stars so rendered!

The airfix alligator copy is useful and the lot also had a few premiums and Kinder bits . . .

. . . including a nice group of astronauts and their vehicles.

C is for Contribution Week - II - Solpa from Kostas

So Contribution week may be longer than a week as so much is sat in waiting, some for a while now, like this one which Kostas sent to the Smallcscaleworld back in 2013! Only the one as the others have either gone on the Airfix Blog, or been included in an/other mixed post/s.

But being neither Airfix sculpts nor mixed stuff, it was left in Picasa waiting for a Matchbox 1:32nd post which may never come, so here, today, for your pleasure, are the Solpa piracies of Matchbox's Afrika Korps, from Greece; thanks Kostas!

S is for Solpa's Senior Size

Blog follower Kostas from Greece kindly sent me a load of stuff to help with the Airfix Blog, and that is slowly being introduced or used over there, he also sent me a batch of Solpa images for the same purpose, some of which are more mixed in origin or subject matter, so I'm popping them up here for the general collector to peruse.

'Wild West', around the 54mm bracket, these would have come seperated into Cowboys and Indians I believe, and seem to be 'based on' rather than straight piracies of other makes figures, The Blue one; front, right, is intesting as I have several of this figure in different sizes, from Italy? Possibly a board-game piece? Possibly another maker?

Copies of Airfix and Britains WWII and Modern infantry types with a copy of a Lucky Products astronaut, who would have provided a slightly oversized enemy for the robots we looked at here.

Close-up of three of the figures, Solpa must have been quick off the mark to get the copy of the Airfix modern Russian into their range! I wonder if the Britains copy is from another source, he looks a bit crude for Solpa?

There are single-set images of these piracies - in more realistic colours - waiting in the queue for the Airfix Blog, but I almost prefer theses 'wacky' colours! A mix of clones; Airfix Japanese and Paratroops are the donors this time.

Some of the accessories that accompanied the boxed sets of figures, very 'Hong Kong' in execution, Solpa seemed never-the-less to produce domestically, or - if they did import - it was through a pretty exclusive contract-producer in the (former) colony?

Thank you Kostas!

K is for Kommantoe! - Solpa Commandos

While the Cowboys and Indians turn-up quite a lot, along with the various larger scale sets putting in the occasional eBay appearance, most of the small scale Solpa sets are quite hard to locate, and I must start by thanking Thanassis for finding me these, he'd been looking for several years when this turned up, and though the box is quite worn. it's all there and in one piece.

First thing to note is that the artwork hints at all sorts of Hong Kong favourites being available, the Crescent/Blue Box WWI gun, the Nissen-huts and tents, Britains Palm trees, Marx barbed-wire etc...but not in this set, so they might be in other sets?

This is what was in the box, all standard HK fare, there was also the windscreen of a - missing? - Jeep. Not actually marked HK, but I'm pretty sure that's where it came from, the trucks have different wheels to the usual HK ones, but the remains of the mould numbers of the HK mouldings are under these so it looks like they were produced in HK for Solpa. Trucks are ex-Kleeware models while the boat seems to be a new design.

The figures, again we have a mix of the usual fare and some newies; top row are the old Britains Khaki infantry poses, bottom left sees two Airfix Germans while the other three are relatively new and dealt with below.

As before no hint at HK, but - with the exception of the last three, typical HK figures, and the plastic seems to be HK style. The black marker pen on the officers helmet (sorry, I cropped his hand off! Rough justice indeed as he was already missing the other one!) seems to be a factory thing, two out of four trucks, half the figures and the boat all have crude 'detail' added with the pens, an enemy force?

The three 'new' poses. The one on the left seemed familiar and I posed him with the hard plastic Hasegawa kit-figure, but think - upon reflection - that he is based on the similar radio-operator from the early Esci-Revell GI's kit. The middle figure is the old Crescent 8th army pose, much copied by HK, however he's been given a vague German helmet!

The last pose is the wackiest! He seems to be based on the Fujimi kit-figure from the Japanese Infantry set! An interesting set of non-HK, HK production, if you know what I mean, and size as you can see is about 24mm. Arlin Tawser points out that it's more like the Marx WWI German of similar pose, and he's right, the elbow is all wrong for the Fujimi figure (and the legs are too close together), next question; Did Fujimi copy Marx!!!