S is for Seen Elsewhere - Speedwell Medievals

A trio of Robin Hoods, including a rather nice heat-conversion, a pair of Little Johns and two of the Sheriffs men, or eight, but you know what I mean, see elsewhere a while ago, not much one can add!

 

That's it, that's them, enjoy!

H is for How They Come In - Sandown Park, November, 2 of 2

It's not that I'm trying to beat 2017's post total, that's an imposable target, this late in the year, but we’ve had a few wet days here, which I've used to get some of these folder's cleared-off the PC! Second half of the plunder from the last Sandown show now.

 

A Speedwell Japanese soldier, who had lost his head in all the excitement, already glued back-on, it's not a good job, and as the rifle and hat have been re-painted, I will probably strip him right back, re-do the head with pinning and repaint him more realistically, as a spare, someday.

A Timpo Indian from the earlier solids, taken from hollow-cast moulds I think, and a probably home-cast, probably modern ACW in whitemetal, but he's pretty enough and was in a bag with other stuff!

 

Hong Kong diver, resin anthropomorphic pig, a horse which I think is a bit of Dom-for-Heinerle and a driver sitting on an unrelated crate of bottles in a dense vinyl. The figure itself is polystyrene, and may go with that grey one which keeps turning up?

 

Three odd little aliens I know nothing about, might be Kinder and one has a plug on his foot, along with a Heimo-Bully Dalton brother (Averell or Jack?) from France's Lucky Luke comic strip.

Horton-Trix-Briains Lilliput station staff and passengers,

along with a hotel porter (red jacket)

Acédo Jungle plastic from France

Mostly Marty-M Toy (May Moon) WWII, but the driver is another colour and may be from a different maker, while the chap down the bottom with the marbled Lido knock-off, is taken from the Swoppet mortar man and will be from a third producer.

 

Other figures with the driver include a modern pirate, Manurba swivel-waist, modern cop and - probably - French bazaar cyclist, although he may be a board-game piece or cracker-toy?

 

From the sublime, to the ridiculous, is unfair, but exactly the sort of occasion for that phrase! Lone Star's swivel/jointed-limb farm animals above, we looked at a complete with tab cow here, and, Kinder wildlife below.

A is for Arboraceous Articles of Actual Aboriginal American Art

Mostly seen elsewhere a while ago, it's about time for a regular'ish re-visit to Totem Poles, with some recent incomers which may or may not have been seen here too in contribution or show-report posts? And I notice we've slid over the 377 'next' target, so it's officially the fourth-best year for posts here, but I won't reach 468 in a month, so that's as good as it gets this year!

Bullyland

A quite rigid PVC-replacement polymer, with slightly cartoony wings.

 

Elastolin

Composition, but really quite well made/finished, so I suspect a late production model, perhaps even manufactured after the plastic figures started coming in?

Landi - Chromoplasto

A quite bendy rubber, possibly silicon or a mastic?

Unknown

And I'm guessing from the remains of paper and glue on the underside of the base that it's probably French and from a boxed set/window-box type thing, but it's only a hunch, and it could be a tourist thing or Hong Kong? It's a rather nice one, quite realistic?

 

Stackable shot glasses!

Found on the wibbly-wobbly-way! 

Clear or coloured glass and aping the old cereal premiums!

Speedwell

I used to think this was Cherilea, don't know why, and then nearly wrote 'belived to be' Speedwell, but there's a really nice boxed one in Plastic Warrior's special publication 'The Book of Speedwell', so that's that cleared-up then! Ask about a copy;

 

Here: http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.com/ (Blogger)

 

Or here: https://www.facebook.com/PlasticWarrior (Faceplant)

Canadian tourist piece, I shot this through the window of a camper-van in Fleet's Church Road car park, only for a slightly irate man (with several kid's in tow) to accost me as I headed for Sainsbury's; "Problem?" he demanded, "Oh, is that your van?" I said, "Yes!" say he, "I was just photographing the totem-pole", says I, showing him the close-in shot still visible in the viewscreen, "Oh, OK . . ." he said, almost in disappointment, and walked off without a care as to why, obviously the mere act of photographing a totem pole in public made me one of the good guys! It looks to be a fibre-reinforced nylon or 'styrene?

 

A line-up of stuff we have mostly, previously seen here in show-reports, contribution posts and/or charity-bag plunder coverage, and from the left;

• Marx Miniature Masterpiece
• Starlux - small size
• x2 Argentine copies of Atlantic (new to Blog?)
  
• Wend-Al (cast aluminium)
• Cherilea
• The Speedwell from above
• A stumpy resin/'polystone' tourist lump
• Hong Kong Britains Herald copy

This is the third of these 'I-know-but-I-don't-know's this year, and we did manage to remember one in the end, but I can't remember which one or why, and will probably forget it again next time!

 

I definitely know what these are (toob/tub set inclusion / sobre / cereal premium?) and who they're by, but can I remember? It's on the dongles somewhere, they were ID'd on the Internet years ago, possibly on a blog which may have disappeared?

I believe there are four different runners, each issued separately as a whatever, brackets above, and in various colours, of which these are the commoner. The green one seems more common than the others; I have seen/handled several over the years, but I have three totems loose somewhere, one possibly in blue or a darker brown? They might have been on the blog? Equally unknown/unremembered if they were!

I have a feeling they could be Spanish, but I might be making that up, and French bazaar would fit the bill, but I'm pretty sure they aren't Montaplex . . . so if anyone can remind us, it would be a weight off my mind!

News, Views Etc . . . Herald Toys & Models Updates

As I mentioned the other day, there were two releases from Barney in the queue, to which another has been added and as I've now taken everything off this piece of shit HP-17 in order to send it back for a refund (it's not right!), an image-free post is a useful one right now! Good news, I talked myself into a Mac' replying to EY the other day, so went and got one yesterday, so  . . . another weeks setting-up and getting used to a new system and I should be firing on all cylinders!

" . . . this week we have for sale a good group of Speedwell figures from the Robin Hood set, together with a smaller scale Speedwell mounted cowboy, moulded in two-pieces. Happy collecting as always, Barney - PS: Royal Mail have now resumed International services, so hopefully the cyber incident from 11 January has now been resolved and normal service resumed!"

" . . . from the Manhattan Collection we are very pleased to be able to offer two rare original Herald catalogues for 1957 and 1958, together with an original Herald New Lines leaflet for February 1956."

" . . . this weekend we have an interesting collection of Barrett & Sons Zoo Series models, mostly from the old Taylor & Barrett hollow-cast moulds, including a Polar Bear Family, Seated Lioness and Cub, together with a very rare Red Deer Stag and Hind matching pair. Some models we have never seen in plastic and are not depicted in the Plastic Warrior Taylor & Barrett Special. We also have a few B&S Farm animals, including a scarce tree, moulded in two parts."

As always Barney's stuff is to be found here Herald Toys & Models

News, Views Etc . . . Speedwell Special!

Big news from Barney at Herald Toys & Models, on sale items going live on his site tomorrow . . . 

" . . . . this week we have for sale a large collection of Speedwell Farmyard models for sale, including the original trade boxes that were the focal point of the farm article that I wrote for the PW Speedwell Special, a couple of years ago. These trade boxes enabled us to confirm models that we had long suspected as being by Speedwell and others that came to light as Speedwell. These trade boxes will be available to buy tomorrow and are possibly unique if not extremely rare . . . . "

 

Not from Barney's sales - an old SSW 'library shot'!

Also there's the 2nd Sandown Park toy fair since the lock-downs on Saturday, I've heard the first Exeter after the lock-downs was poor, but the 2nd was much better, so let's see how it shapes up at Sandown this weekend?

News, Views Etc . . . New Stock at Herald Toys and Models

Latest press-release from Barney over at Herald Toys & Models;

" . . . this week we have two interesting collections for sale, both from the county of Norfolk, but quite contrasting. The Diss collection is a charming childhood collection of plastic civilian figures, featuring an original Herald early boxed farm set, farm animals and Wild West figures, whilst the Norfolk Collection is a large collection of plastic toy soldiers, diligently accumulated by a dedicated collector to acquiring full loose sets by a number of makers, including Lone Star, Charbens, Cherilea, Crescent and Speedwell."

Lots of 'nice paint' stuff, but it's going quickly . . .

News, Views Etc . . . New Stock at Barneys Emporium of Good Things!

Perfectly timed to meet my return to Blogging, here's the latest news from Barney over at Herald Toys and Models;

"This week we have a good collection of Airfix mounted toy soldiers, a large collection of Speedwell/UNA/VP American Indians. Arriving shortly is a large collection of Herald farm models, together with a good collection of Britains/Herald Swoppet Wild West Cowboys and Indians."

Vectis have auctions ongoing too (today?), but I won't get back on track with those updates until next week.

F is for Follow-up, Q is for Question Time, W is for Well, Well, Well!

Chris sent an interesting item to the Blog the other day, or pictures of it which is just as good! Further to the water wells I shew (like showed but shorter!)* the other day . . .

*Heay, cummon' Throwed/Threw, Growed/Grew, Knowed/Knew . . . can someone get all those wiggly red lines off my word.docx?

On the left of Chris's line-up here is the F.G Taylor well we saw last time, on the right is the Speedwell again, but the one in the middle is a newie! Chris wondered at Blue Box, I though similar and consulting the farm guru; Barney Brown over at Herald Toys & Models brought a confirmatory response, although he was no surer than either of us, it's just a hunch we all share?

There are two problems with calling-it for being Blue Box, the first is a Google search for all the various Blue Box and clone 'Home Farm' sets and similar items don't reveal this well, and secondly; it's not marked, which most - if not all - the larger items from their farm sets (window-trays or big-box) are/were.

It has some of the tropes of Hong Kong production though, the spray-painted bright green, thick plastic winder, shiny-polymers, even the mould-release pin-marks under the rim? An alternate proposition is that it might be Barratt & Sons, as if the Taylor's inherited the mould in the great post-war divvy-up, the Barrett's would have needed a well for their farm?

Note the separate plug-in woodwork for what is otherwise ostensibly the Taylor design, and the plastic bucket. I'm sure I've seen one of these, I remember the kink in the winding arm . . . possibly when I was  a dealers apprentice! Barney's seen them as well.

I even checked the Codeg Camberwick Green sets in case I'd forgotten an accessory from the larger village boxed-set! I hadn't.

Anyway having contacted Barney I also sought and gratefully received permission to use the image I had mentioned last time, both to embiggen this post and  . . . well, to grow the well of knowledge of wells - I should be stopped!!

It shows another variation of the Taylor design (far left example) which could be any of the Speedwell stable-mates (Trojan, Kentoy, Una/VP), newer 'old' plastics (BMS, BR), or Barratt, or even (shiny polymer!) a Hong Kong pirate? barney says it came in a 'substantial' collection of Taylor farm though?

So; follow-up followed-up, the question marks are does anyone know for definite who issued/made either of the unknown wells . . . well?

Thanks to Chris Smith and Barney Brown for the above images.

Barney Brown of Herald Toys & Models cleared up the Barratt question here, so we are still looking for two other names to pin to the unknowns!

D is for ♫♫♪ Ding Dong Bell ♫♪ Pussy's In The Well! ♪♫♪

Although it's Pussies without the apostrophe as I tried several likely felines and two of the shots worked to some extent;

This is the F.G.Taylor well, suitably equipped with cats! The largest of the three we're about to look at, Barney had a nice copy a while back which I missed, slightly smaller and with a yellow roof and simpler, solid bucket/weight.

Starting the post-proper with the smallest, I think we've looked at this before, but I recently combined the two ('storage' and 'here') samples together, which allows for a better look, although the text/captions render further blurb rather superfluous!

I believe these are all Hong Kong, but there may be a Western origin/influence there somewhere? It's similar to or loosly based-on the Marx well, but with the pivot-handle replaced by a more European winding-mechanism and rain-guard.

This is the Speed'well-well! I thought it might be missing a winding-handle but apparently; this is it! Similar construction to the other two for the roof piece, but with the hidden studs of the smaller one, for a cleaner look.

Back to the Taylor, I don't know if there was a lead version in the T&B days, but I don't think so? Although it would explain the studs coming through - to be flattened-down and hold the roof on? I'll try to find out!

All of them together, sans felines! the smallest I think was only ever a cake-decoration (lucky or wishing-well), the chromium-finished one being presumably for wedding-cakes? Speedwell was always toward the 45-50mm bracket, while Taylor are doing the whole 1:32^nd scale thing!

A follow-up post is here, then Barratt's well's have turned-up courtesy of Barney Brown of Herald Toys & Models

P is for Putt-Putt Tank!

Not - as far as I know - connected to this morning's earlier's (real problems with Internet again today!) ABC, but there are similarities; two colours, olive-green and sand; poor representation/sculpting of the original target model; made in Hong Kong in the late 1950 and/or through to the late 1960's and sold as rack-toys or similar within the pocket-money bracket.

Generally they come with colour-matched running-gear, but I do have one with contrasting wheels, so a 'Friday afternoon' job or a 'Monday morning' job!?!

We have looked at them before, so it's difficult to know what to add, there were sets (I've only found generics and they are on the blog), they were bought-in by Speedwell (with another generic gun) for adding to large gift-set boxed 'dioramas' and they don't seem to represent a specific marque, but could be used as Tetrach light, air-portable WWII tanks by old-school gamers with a bit of imagination!

There is a smaller copy which is less common (the larger one is relatively common as far as these things go), but it's tracks have aged slightly better! I only have the one so don't know what colours it came in - if any others?

The common, larger one is marked MADE IN HONG KONG NO 404, the smaller one just a MADE IN HONG KONG, both in a wide DIN or Ariel-Rounded type font.

This example has poor moulding with a hole and splits down the mudguards caused by 'short-shotting' in the production process. It also has better tracks in a silicon rubber best described as pinkish-gunmetal!

Side-on ambush! Despite being outnumbered 2:1, green-force should retire from this action with a 6-0 scorecard!

I found this shot after-all; three of the sets they come in with further cards of the figures which raises the possibility of blue, grey or purple-brown examples being out there somewhere but as the guns (which we looked at here) have so far only turned-up in green it's not that likely. And many thanks to James Opie for some (most! Four?) of the sets in the above image.

F is for Follow-up - Cherilea Walls and Various Fences

As stated above, a quick look at Cheilea's little window-box enhancers' first;

Very crude, single-sided detailing, and among the earliest 'large scale' things to be collected by me as they are better suited to small scale scenarios! With the exception of the corner piece they are all stood on small 'pod-feet', the corner piece has a more amorphous base arrangement.

Comparing the Cherilea corner with Speedwell's shows how 'small scale' it is, but then these pieces were mostly used with the 45 and 50mm medieval and 'khaki' infantry window boxes, so it sort of makes sense!

I've shown this question-mark castle before, years ago, but it remains a question-mark! having features in common with various British makers, I assume it is a British piece, but it could be Spanish. Colour is similar to one of the sand-bagged emplacements we've looked at, the 'ear' baselettes however are pretty unique, and scale is 'sub'!

Speedwell, top/front left, with a mystery piece behind it. The mystery piece has the whole Speedwell moulding to the left of its moulding (yellow and red rings) with an extension to the right (beyond dotted-line). Elements of the 'original' are repeated (yellow boxes) but not the whole 'run', and the longer moulding has only the one central foot, which is more formal or engineered than the landscaped blobs of the known Speedwell version.

Which of the two is the original and which the copyist is anyone's guess and they may both be Speedwell? The smaller one is - I'm pretty sure - Taylor &/or Barratt.

These are all recent in-comer's, I have yet to find the small-fences box, where I know I have some in cornflower-blue. I say 'I'm pretty sure' as I seem to recall you get a pair (same colour) tapped together with Sellotape (or a similar proprietary sticky-backed plastic!) inside the small T, T&B or B thatched-cottage/hovel?

This is from Codeg's Camberwick Green sets which we looked at here and is one of the scenic pieces from the boxed sets which each had a building, two or three figures and a couple of scenic elements one of which is this charming little dry-stone wall with cottage gate.

I suppose these are from something like Playmobile or Sylvian? But I took the shot, so it might as well go here! Useful as an unpainted picket-fence in large-scale, or a substantial, but more toy-like barrier in small scale - at about 25mm high.

F is for Follow-up - Speedwell & Co - Walls, Sandbags and Rocks

I said the other day that I'd misplaced both the Speedwell 'master' tub and the spares bag . . .

. . . well, the spares bag is in the foreground here, the master-tub is to the right, the stuff we looked at the other day is mostly in the rear centre tub with the little walls in their own carded bag. Another bag of bits is to the left and the box - the missing bits all turned-up in - had a few other bits for this or the next Post, so the follow-up has come more rapidly than I imagined it would the other day!

The 'Speedwell' master-tubs contents, unlike other Speedwell scenics these are all unmarked, and further, in the catalogue used by Plastic Warrior magazine they are separately listed under farm and military groupings, but these all came together as - presumably - ex-shop stock with the ones in the spares bag, in two shades of red, but the same three mouldings in the darker maroon-red (were the three on the same tool?), the rest in a flat red.

The one bottom-centre, seems to be a doorway blocked with a hay-bale and along with the lapped-fence (middle-right) is unlisted, but as you can see; are both painted in the same pale-green and came in the same large, 'mint' batch.

Note - the church-door, broken gate/corner and hay-pile weren't in the [sizable] sample, so could they also be on a single mould-tool, not used the day my 'order' was made-up and shipped-out?

[And if anyone has swaps of those three, I have most of the others, mint to near mint in the bag of spares, happy to do a one-for-one swap - eMail me]

Contemporary offering from Timpo Toys, a two-part, plug-together, corner piece, which; judging from the number of small holes in it provides little or no protection for troops or sheltering civilians - cinder-blocks!

These are modern I think - a sort of stiff-but-bendy PVC type material, possibly 21st Century or Unimax? The two larger pieces are identical, they can be braced in either of two positions, either side (dotted lines) to make a verity of ruins or a single piece, the sandbag emplacements are the same - slightly-bendy - stuff.

We looked at two of these the other week, and I said they couldn't be Speedwell because of the loopholes, well, the Speedwell is on the right (upper image), and a copy has turned up, I've pencilled Trojan in as it's too glossy for the chalky production of Kentoy or UNA/VP, but could be any of them or someone else?

Along with the Charbens (really a dry-stone wall, but with loop-holes) another two smooth-backed copies have also turned-up, both with a gloss-green grass highlight in paint. And; to be honest, they both look like they were made yesterday in China! I'm not sugegsting they were, the other one (top centre) looks 'Early British' production - but they are very clean, and presumably also ex-shop stock, or very un-played-with?

Hillco shell-crater on the left, unknown pile of rocks on the right, might be Gemodels, but not known to be, and the sort of thing all sort of people would throw in a window-boxed set for visual effect?

Likewise this; the clue here, such as it is, is the little ears either side of the main product moulding, which would have either located in slots in the card base of a boxed-set, or have been used to tie-down, with thread or elastic. Some Charbens pieces have similar 'ears' but they are less obvious or geometrical?