F is for Follow-up - AWI and Cake Dec's

When I originally posted these, in a rather irreverent article, I mused on the origins of the red versus blue versions of the Airfix Washington's Army figures, a while later I actually saw some blue ones, on a US sale page, so that part of the mystery was solved and my improbable tale of how the UK came to have a bunch of redcoats seems more plausible now!

But, anyhoos, the other two sets in the recent charity shop purchase were this pair . . .

 

. . . both in SSCO packing (I've seen them in others now), and showing one way the Americans got them, six infantry in one pack and the mounted officer (glued to his horse in this case) in the other, so while still outnumbered by my redcoat sample, they have a fighting chance now, and the three musicians of the previous post to chivvy them along!

 

Alternate angle/close-ups, they are the same figures, almost certainly from Lik Be (formerly 'LP' . . . or IDL!), they share the same base style and marks as both the redcoats available over here and the pair of astronauts which joined LB's diminutive chrome-painted robot/aliens - of which I picked up a few, mint, the other day in a charity shop!

 

I haven't got their matching-set here at the moment, so it's a comparison with the slightly larger, baseless set, but you'll get the idea from the previous posts on these, and we will do a round-up of all of them when I track-down the two missing figures for that chap the other day . . . other week . . . month! Another box ticked, more confirmation of previous thoughts!

And [written after editing the article] this isn't a return to business as normal here, despite the fact this was one of the next few in the queue. The MacBook Air went back for a full refund, it was a dated technicolour yawn of multiscreen busyness, and for the price, a complete disappointment - and I've always hankered after one; looked into it about 15 years ago and gave it more thought when first doing CAD back in 2012/13!

 

So with the HPieceofshit17 already on its way back to Amazon, I went back to a Lenovo, if my government is happy for me to buy Chinese shit full of spyware, who am I to argue? But Windows11 is also shit, and I still don't know where half the stuff I have got across is! It's a depressing nightmare, and with everything else going on, I don't know when normal service will resume, but I will try to get out a few easy or new-stuff posts going forward - a lot has come in!

I've actually managed to add some shots to the 'civilian' post of the canoe 'season', but apart from that and the Airfix post (additions to the Commandos) which was to go early too, the rest are still on one of the hard drives and after trying to 'migrate' the back-up, I'm in no hurry to load anything else on here until I know what the fuck I'm doing!

And I've just had problems loading these images, they wouldn't go where I was trying to place them, I tried formatting the page to normal, but they kept going in down the bottom, so in the end I gave up and moved all the text in sections . . . Pain! Still, it's not all negative, I'm back with Firefox; if everything else has changed you might as well bite the bullet and get used to new everything, and the current spellchecker for it is much better even than the Windows Office one!

F is for Follow-up and Fervent, Faithful Flag-waving, Fifes & Drums!

I think I mentioned back in the autumn, or possibly during Rack Toy Month that one of my bad habits is to post something, then, after I've alerted/reminded you all of them/the subject, go off to evilBay and see what's [still] there! I did it after the AWI post the other day, and managed to find a charity lot (yellow & blue ribbon icon) with six sets of cake decorations!

Among which were these three, so I grabbed the lot (cheap, buy-it-now) and they got here a couple of days ago. It's some of the other Sprit of '76 branded stuff, with the figures I described the other day as "...short-fat-kid caricatures", here - on the left - a patriotic flag waving lady-girl and what is their fifth drummer - within the line. On the right we have patriotically-dressed kissin' cousin's!

Flag lady could double as a pencil top, while the seat of the kissing pair is of more interest, as I have suggested for years that the based-set of Airfix piracies are by Lik Be, due to the similarity of the bases to both the marked robot/alien types and the late set of two astronauts and flag with lunar lander, or at least (as it was in One Inch Warrior magazine I think, so years ago and 'LP') that the maker of the astronauts was the same as the maker of the Airfix Washington's Army pirates . . .

. . . and here, courtesy of Bill B's catalogue is the same bench-settee/love-seat, now providing a place of repose for an elderly couple, in a Lik Be trade advertisement. So I get to use the 'Told you so' tag which annoys some people; but it's the reason I use it!

Clearly LiK Be were supplying (among 'ethylene monsters, 'styrene space stuff and 'funimals' in both polymers) a lot of the wishy-washy white polystyrene plastic cake decorations carried by many brands both sides of the pond.

While these might be by another maker and are obviously another brand, the reverse of the card says "made and packed in Hong Kong", so Emilie is probably a pseudonym for dozens of outworkers!

I'm guessing we have Betsy and Abe here! But the same over-sentimentalised 'kidults', this time with just the big heads, and the painting of the Lincoln-alike hasn't reached the 'stars & stripes' excesses of the Spirit figures!

R is for Revolutionary Round-up!

We have looked at this topic several times, but there always seems to be more to look at or more to say, and as I still haven't got round to the muted 'bicorn/tricorn hat' page (despite my having seen the box pass under my nose back in the summer) we might as well have some now! Actually the box may be get-at-able, so I might get it done while I'm twiddling my thumbs in the new flat?

These came in as part of a loose lot I think (it was a while ago now!), and as we'd only seen the lovely boxed set Brian Berke sent to the blog, a few years ago now, I thought it was a good excuse to photograph them again, only closer inspection showed them to be another set altogether!

And I was going to post the link to Brian's set, but instead here's the 'Spirit of '76' tag link, which if you click on it, will give you the previous five posts on the subject, under this, which you can then keep reading, before carrying-on down to the bottom, in the hope it all makes more sense, as it's been confusing me!

These are larger than the Award International ones Brian sent, at about 60mm compatible, albeit with the same deep bases, and smaller drums, proportionally. With them came a mini flag-waver and the LibertyBell, both also cake decorations.

The vinyl set seems to have bee issued in various brand-marks, all carft/cake decoration importers; mine on the left, Brian's posed-set in the middle, and two others, the Super Minis is a dodgy-packed one with two fifers and no boy-drummer, while SSCO are quite a common brand over The Pond with a fine assortment of figures, some common (Wilton/Culpitt types), some less so.

This apparently 1976-branded 'brand mark' carries the smaller ones I've now tracked down, and what look to be copies - in polystyrene - of the previous baseless PVC set. It's this brand which also carried the two smallies above, there was also a patriotic bride & groom set in period garb, a Bettsy Rose sewing the flag and a Spirit of '76 trio, all done as short-fat-kid caricatures.

I collaged the Lido AWI drummer on the end, as he seems to be channeling the same trio!

Indeed, one of the reasons for all the confusion is that the painting by Archibald M. Willard provided the source material for many bronze, spelter, mazac/Zamak or similar metal statuettes, and there were (are!) a lot of ceramic versions, in both cases some historical, some rushed out for the 1970's celebrations (which I remember being almost as big over here as it was over there?), and the plastic's seem then to be copies of those copies . . . all the ones with the deep bases being copied from the ceramics. Two from evilBay seen here.

Well, by now I had a folder with AWI in the title bar hanging-around and started to shove all-sorts in it! So these got added; on the left a carded clone (no evidence of it being Star Toys, but they were one copier) of the Shell/Innovative set which we have also looked at here previously, and which explains the 'other' cannon, which I mused-on in one of the more recent posts, with, on the right, an artillery piece (which might also be from Brian?) in the style of pencil-sharpener artillery, but sans sharpener and able to fire pellets, branded to an Edge Mark 

Then this came in only the other day in a lot of mostly machine-guns! "It's a colour variation of the Brian set" I thought, but no, it's a sixth set of sculpts altogether! The younger drummer in the 60mm set has a full gap between his legs, the 54mm version Brian sent is filled-in with sculpted tree-trunk, while this chap has a part gap, part trunk arrangement, he's about the same size as the Award set though.

So, for all my efforts, and Brian's donation, I've only three-and-a-third of the six sets I now know are out there! And only five-and-a-third sets are illustrated on the Blog . . . so we shall return to them, again!

Knowing where the growing-contents of the folder was going I picked these up when I saw them going cheap, not very well painted (compared to say; King & Country) they are the 'wullumbriton' set (not really Britains!) in factory-decorated, poured whitemetal, and I wouldn't dream of paying full price for this attic-filling shite which is 80% packaging by volume, and 90% thin-air by pricing!

Brian also sent this a while ago, with the museum-visit stuff, some of which we have seen, some of which is waiting for that 1650-1800's page of big-hats! The government forces had drummers too! Better painted than the wullumbriton ones as well, but in the glossy 'toy soldier' style.

To finish; I have the painting-guide postcard for the Old Guard Inc., recruiting vignette/diorama The Raising of a Regiment 1776-83, in the archive, designed by Andrew Chernak; the figures could be painted for either side, but here a farmer has just signed-up for the armed insurgency and a backwoods hunter is contemplating the taking of sides!

Note how the reversed jacket colour/facings of the declared American drummer make him look quite British, something the French drummers 30-odd years later would also experience, were they more likely to survive in the fog of war as a result, or more likely to be shot by their own side, stumbling about in the clouds of musket smoke?

4th is for 'Of July'

In the same way the 6th is for 'June the' or the 25th is for Little Baby Jesus day! From time to time I have mentioned in passing such luminary events as the Dunkirk evacuation or Trafalgar day, and it's about time we mentioned a certain monumental waste of tea . . . I wonder if the harbour tasted of tea for the next few days?

Brain B sent this to the Blog within the last couple of hours . . .

I won't wish you a happy 4th July as it can't have escaped your notice the whole world is going to hell in a handcart at the moment, but have the best 4th July you can - given the circumstance and may you never have a worse one!

No, I don't know how he got them all to stand up, tiny pieces of Blue-Tac or a very steady hand!

C is for Creative Crafts

Actually 'Unknown Hong Kong' via Star Plastics Inc., of New York, but Creative Crafts made a better title! And it wouldn't be here without the act of Schell's Flowers from Pennsylvania ordering the thing into stock all those years ago and flogging it to whoever then decided never to use it!

It's funny, I never ask for contributions or donations, they get forwarded by those who are kind enough to do so (for which I'm always very grateful), but I did - in a roundabout way - ask for the large Award Toys set of Spirit of '76 figures we saw here, while actually trying to find the cake decoration ones.

I then found the 40mm set (with bases) and Mr Nevin then sent us shots of another set of these (which were in storage!), as a follow-up,. They looked a bit larger because they are, these are 50mm, and as I suggested last time are vinyl, quite a soft PVC, which now leaves me looking for the set Chris Goddard originally sent to Plastic Warrior magazine, who are baseless (like these) but 45mm-up and hard plastic (like the 2nd set to appear here), when I do; we'll look at all four sets together!

The main difference between this set and the other three (known sets?) is that while the others all make the boy drummer smaller than the other two, in this set he is the same size. At the moment, that's three down - one to go!

Further to the previous posts, the US cake decorating market DID get blue-coat versions of the redcoats, whether this means my fanciful scenario holds any water or not is for the birds, but I did nearly get a set a while ago, and keep my eye out for a cheap lot.

They also have at least two versions of Betsy Ross (the flag-lady), neither of which seems to have made it to these shores, the inference being we got redcoats, not as a connection with the AWI, but because the HK maker wanted to shift as much product as possible and small boys - in those days - liked toy soldiers on their cake!

F is for Fifes; Fifes & Drums . . . actually; Mostly Drums!

Did I suggest 'that was it' for AWI yesterday? I lied, just makin'itup as I go along! I mentioned the missing set of Spirit of '76-influenced, baseless cake-decorations the other day, and Mr. Nevins sent these as a set of bookends, or a full-stop to his own, other AWI submissions!

As I can't shoot comparisons due to their being the other side of the pond and finding me boat'less and as I have blurbed the genre to the nth-degree now, I can only thank Bill for sending them and post them here for everyone to enjoy.

Bill says they are about 40-mil, so the same size as the little, based-set we saw the other day, although they look bigger in the photographs - in part due to the slightly better painting of these I think? 20-11-18 - They are 50mm.

Also they look to be PVC/vinyl? In fact they look remarkably like the 40mm Roman's from Macau via Portugal, or Culpitt's cowboys and Indians - both also sold by Super Plastic in France, but those all have bases of one kind or another, so I guess it's only a similarity!

Well - I thought I was joking about drums the other day, but they do seem to have featured heavily in these posts! Cheers Bill (and Brian from last year!) I think that's all of them now?

NO! It isn't! These are a fourth set; the ones in Plastic Warrior 150, shown by Chris Goddard are quite different! I'm now looking for two sets without bases in the 40mm bracket! But at least we've managed to blog one here, today!

S is for Spirit of '76 Marches On! Against Great Odds?

Well, I was looking for the baseless 40mm versions of the Spirit of '76 as flagged-up by Chris Goddard in his article for Plastic Warrior magazine (issue 153; pp.19), it’s a search I do occasionally when I'm feeling rich (spare fiver!), when I found these a couple of weeks ago with a $7-something BIN and three watchers! You can guess the rest 'cos I'm the one photographing them!

Aren't they lovely! Before and after cleaning and before I got the black off the boy's nose and straightened the drum-sticks. Isn't it typical - they were beautifully packed and you could see from the photographs on feeBay they were not damaged, yet USFail, Royal Fail and/or Parcel Farce managed to crush both drum-sticks, despite a mountain of bubble-wrap! I gave good feedback as it wasn't the seller's fault in any way!

It was nearly a year ago that Brian sent the Award International set to the Blog, and here they are again with their diminutive clones . . . clones neatly-spliced with a dwarf's DNA though! I also took an Airfix comparison shot for that Blog as it was clear they weren't 'any-old' cake decorations . . .

. . . they are in fact the same maker (in Hong Kong) as the old Airfix piracy Redcoats - actually cross-painted Bluecoats!

Now, I may be no particular fan of terrorist insurgencies (did you hear that collective murmur of WTF from the PSTSM?), especially when it involves spilling tea, but even I can see there's something not quite right about expecting two old guys and a small-boy, armed with three musical instruments and a flag to march across a birthday cake (other puddings/desserts are available for decoration) to certain death while whistling whatever-came-before-Dixie!

It 'ain't right, I tells ya!

However, as far as I know these 40mm Spirit of '76 figures were never available in the UK, yet the Redcoats (based on Airfix'sWashinton's Army - still needs text!) seem to be freely available over here, usually as a set of 7 - with the 7th sometimes glued to his horse - or as an 8-piece set.

Now, here's the thing . . . assuming that they are neither that rare, we are probably looking at Culpitts handling the UK invasion, while someone like Wilton was distributing the spirited fifes & drums of the tea-party wreakers.

Here's a 'What if?';

What if Wilton (or someone similar) ordered a bunch of figures for the [then] upcoming celebration of the bicentenary of the success of said terrorist insurgency, say from a dodgy-looking bloke down the mainly toy-producing industrial estate alongside Port Tain Sang, at the end of the really long, really wide (with lots of hotels and restaurants - says Google) Grainville Road [don't look for any of this on Google Earth, you'll be wasting your time, it's only known to Erwin Sell and Paul Stadinger!].

And suppose the dodgy-looking bloke said "Yes, no problem, 20,000 units American Revolutionary Soldiers like these (opened hand to reveal Airfix Washington's Army figures given him by Wilton's rep's shipper's buyer), but twice size yes? And 20,000 units of men in painting (waving magazine-cutting of Archibald Willard's famous doodle with other hand), two months, real good, no problem".

Three months later, a tramp-steamer (this was the '70's!) arrived in the US (having left Kowloon harbour some weeks earlier) loaded with this sure-fire patriotic money-maker of cake decorating joy.

The cartons were shipped to Wilton (or whoever), and are opened . . . "What the Effing-mother-of-C?!!?" said [yelled] the Sales & Marketing guy (they always cuss in the movies - maybe I'm a closet Sales & Marketing guy?); "Get me another box!", he barked; it too was opened "No! They're all Effing red too - Godammit! What the Eff are we gonna' do now; they were CoD not FoB?

Now cake-men - like toy-men - probably have networks, and just suppose someone in the office said "What about PJ [Culpitt] over in Ingerland (they didn't call it Ookay then), he owes us a favour after he dumped all those dumb soccer players on us for Mexico" [or something improbable like that!], a phone call was made, a deal was struck and Britain got the Redcoats, while the American market kept the Spirit of '76 figures as a nice stand-alone vignette;  sans armed-support?

Only a 'what if?'!

But they were definitely from the same maker (image stopped right down to be readable; translucent white is a bugger to macro!), and I recon they were designed to be together, but unless there are Bluecoats somewhere - and I've never seen them - it's not right to face them off . . . on a cake!

Are the Redcoats readily available in the US does anyone know, or do US collectors scan UK evilBay for them? Have you seen Bluecoats? Did you see the Sprit of'76 figures in UK bakers at the time?

A couple more comparison shots while I was in the mood! Did the Americans win the war by drumming us to death? No, but they drummed us out! Boom-boom! I wonder if those colonists ever dreamed what America would become . . . ?

You can see that the small-boy will make a decent adult for 30mm figures, here Marksmen/Rado-Ri-Toys, but SAE or Spencer Smith AWI would also benefit from his attendance at muster.

Still looking for the baseless set though! Maybe next year . . .

I seem to recall more reverence when I posted the Award set last year, it all depends what mood you're in when you sit down to type, anyone offended by any of the above - for any reason; should go to their doctor tomorrow and ask for a sense of humour - except the PSTSM; you can stay offended! More, less irreverent AWI tomorrow . . .

'76 is for Spirit Of!

Yeahp! It's those damn pesky insurgents again!

You will by now have noticed that one Brian Berke of New York has been mentioned quite a bit since he first contacted me back in April/May, and with very good reason, he has contributed hundreds of useful, interesting, relevant or rare images to the Blog (or for the Blog; there's plenty to come), and well as sending three donations, the last of which contained this set for which I owe him much gratitude.

Obviously in our eMail conversations things are mentioned as being likely to be in the next parcel, but with this it was a complete surprise, more so as I had raised it as a query in conversation about the smaller cake decorations (which I'm still after if anyone has a spare set) along the lines of 'if you see...' and he had replied with several good images and a 'Do you mean these?'. He then went into town (the above named megatropolis!) and checked what he described as the 'motherlode' without luck!

I thanked him, and got ready to write-up a post round the images, only for the whole set to turn-up a few weeks later! Really I can't thank Brian enough, and because he sends things to be shared, the best way to thank him is share it with you - the other readers.

Appearing in Plastic Warrior magazine not that long ago (issue 153 try here for back orders) courtesy of Chris Goddard it should be familiar to some, and won't need much blurb, just nice pictures of a lovely set.

Given the state of some 'New World' flags, and I'm thinking of Mexico, Brazil and Argentina here (with all that busy stuff going-on in the middles!) among others, the Americans chose a very clever design, which not only allows for the endless addition of stars, while the 13 stripes remain - boldly proclaiming their heritage, in three contrasting colours (yes - I know white isn't a 'colour'!).

The combined use of which (graphical elements and colours) can instantly render anything recognisably 'American' in a way the same colours can't do for say Britain or France, without the whole flag, or a proportional design of such, being included. Thus, even from 100-paces, the thin red lines on a white ground with a few stars on blue and a splurge of red, especially in 1976, would have screamed "We won the Revolution - buy us now"!

Proudly striding down the road, isn't the packaging nice - for Hong Kong? These figures have a lot in common with Lucky Toys and their civilian race-goers, mechanics and officials, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a connection, but there's no actual evidence for such. Note also the Britains scenic-piece copies.

A close-up of the three figures, the drums are particularly good I think - being a more realistic size than most? As well as the Timpo knock-off wagons mentioned in the aforementioned PW article, Award International also imported sets of Kung-Fu swoppets in similar boxes to this one; but with plainer outer-graphics, the equally nice interior card being of a martial-arts gymnasium.