About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Showing posts with label Tallon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tallon. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

F is for Further Follow-up - Micro Vessels

I'd forgotten I'd picked the bits up from the storage unit, to do a comparison, so here's a bit more on the small or 'micro' vessels we looked at a couple of days ago, and some more bits from the Internet downloads folder on naval stuff.
 
Both this and the previous should be viewed in the context of the original post on the very small vessels, which was part of a series of seven articles;
 
 
There were also some comparisons in the MPC series a few years later; 
 
 
Which was a two-parter, both series have become dated by the scope of the collection now, and one day I intend to re-do all seven of the first lot, in the same order, but as longer, fuller articles, in the meantime a few more points arising . . .
 
. . . including a colour fan of the Quaker samples which are here at the moment, I know the original sample with all ten mouldings, and other accrued duplicates is elsewhere, so a better version of this shot is in the Blog's future, and looking at these, I think there's some merit to my hypothesis re. Tom Smith?
 
Furthermore, I'd suggest that whoever made these ships, made the Gladiators, both are relatively common in small quantities (down to single samples in mixed 'junk' lots), more common than other cereal premiums, and while there are none here, the metallic green in the original post, is matched perfectly in the Gladiators, originally, also Quaker.
 
Nine of ten, by size, with a hole for the missing one!
 
The two Sanella superstructures I have here, there are at least three, and they have a common hull, sometimes found loose, sometimes found glued together, like that water-film novelty I got from Steve Vickers recently. However, I'd forgotten . . .
 
. . . the larger., better finished liner, also marked Sanella, which is almost certainly a later model? The Manurba seem to have three hull types, not the two mentioned the other day - my bad! Pointed, rounded and flat sterns, and maybe only three matching superstructures? Although, like the Sanella - lots of colours, albeit brighter/primary, as opposed to Sanella's more muted or pastel hues.
 
Recently, with the help of Chris Smith (pink, middle), and - I think - another purchase (red, front), I've picked-up three vessels with WWI/turn-of-the-19th-Century forward sloping prows (there was a silver warship, from Adrian Little, still in a separate bag!), and it turned-out I'd found them online some time ago (2020);
 


Apparently sold in waxed-paper bags of twelve vessels, there are possibly only four sculpts/mouldings; twin-barrelled warship, single-barrelled warship, merchantman/tanker and liner? But with three marking variations (prow - my red one, stern - this set, and none - silver warship), there really aught to be more in the collection than there are?
 
The fate of all this Hong Kong bottom-end/pocket-money stuff is that it was always unappreciated and mostly went to landfill decades ago. So, if you have any going spare, bring them to the Plastic Warrior show, this Saturday, and I'll give you real Earth money for them!!
 
Finally, found in 2021, and as an addendum to that part-7 link above, another game which contains a micro-navy, to add to the games in that post, is the Ariel Games one, Manoeuvre, also sold as Strategy, from 1973;
 
 
Which is quite bloodthirsty, if you contemplate the number of troops you can have on a troopship! I'm sure there are more games with these micro vessels, and - of course - we've ID'd the slightly larger Silvercorn stuff, since those early posts.

Sunday, June 28, 2026

A is for A Few Follow-ups!

A few things raised by stuff we've looked at recently, and despite a slower than usual posting rate so far this year, we've covered quite a bit one way or another, and here are a few bits and pieces related to some of the odds & sods, seen here in the last couple of months, or so!
 
This was an internet sales shot I downloaded a few years ago, I download a lot of stuff which illustrates stuff I don't have, but which it's not worth bidding on, or because I'm not - at the time - bidding, and this is one such. I downloaded it for the little blue Bisque pilot (whom I didn't know was bisque then, I assumed composition!), and, of which I've since picked-up a sample, seen in this post;
 
 
The other stuff above is mostly common lead, some of which I've obtained in the last few years from Adrian's rummage trays, but it seems I'm still looking for the sub-scale chap. top, far-right, or is he the Crescent pilot (which I do have)? And the guy next to the blue pilot, also slightly smaller than the 54mm's. I think the sailor/lifeboat man, two along is a modern production, whitemetal solid?
 

While this post;
 
 
Reminded me I'd downloaded these wooden flats, when I saw them on sale, again, not the common poultry girl and chickens, but in the same vein, and like the farmer in Peter's donation, slightly better decorated. I've never seen the Wild West figures before, but will look out for them.
 
On the subject of the mazes we looked at, on the London Underground, it struck me, back in April, that the tiled panels at Warren Street (geddit? Warren = labyrinth, maze), should get an honourable mention! I think there's a deliberate mistake in this, but need to check it with the other panels, and there are several per platform and four platforms to check.
 
But if you look at the 7th tile along from the left in the second row from the top, it's not right? Breaking at least two rules - two red lines adjacent, and a shadow-wall falling away at the wrong angle?
 
The various Hulk's we've seen since Christmas! I think the oldest is the pencil top, and there are others to look at one day, so we'll return to Hulks at some point if I'm granted the time, by the powers that be, but the weather this week has suggested we might, none of us, have the time left, we've been hoping for or counting on!
 
I've got the blues! I thought there were six shades here, but actually there are seven, so the early works on Kellogg's jig-toys were pretty generalised in their colour lists, and clearly there were many runs of the tools, and cereal premiums was only one of several issues, for these polyethylene jig-toys.
 
These got left off one of the Peter Evans' donations, and are mostly Hong Kong small scale with a few kit-figures and other bits (central bag), but all grist to the mill! When I'm better organised, these will all go on the But Is It Giant? blog (no, none of them are!), and with both my own quite large collection of carded, bagged and blister sets, and the many I've also downloaded from the Internet over the years, we will make sense of them all, and annotate most of them!
 
Further to the recent purchase from Isaac's friend at Sandown Park;
 
 
I took this image from evilBay back in 2021, and you can see the same soft 'polythene' ships (sans the hard 'styrene submarine), with one version of the sailors, taken from Britains hollow-cast US Marines, but what it would seem to suggest is that there's an ABC-CMV-HK link to some or all of these sets, more work needed, or a couple of confirmatory finds!
 
Sticking with vessels, these are a purchase a while ago, of the Quaker cereal premiums, we added five the other day, courtesy of Chris Smith, including a new colour (white), and while I haven't managed to shoot them all together, one day we'll unite them all and cover all the colours and all the vessels (ten?), however, I suspect, from the breadth of the colour range, these, like the Gladiators, found their way into Tom Smith crackers at some point?
 
I should have credited the seller at the time, name long-lost, and they probably don't even know of the Blog, let alone follow it, but this was a cheap BIN I got back in February '23, and this is how they arrived in an otherwise standard envelope, and I thought they were beautifully packed to ensure they arrived as they were seen in the auction shots.
 
The cereal premium submarine has all four periscopes/air-tubes/exhausts up, which was the real reason for bidding, the Quaker and Manurba vessles (middle pair) were grist to the mill, and the yacht might be from a board-game, but the keel suggests not? Maybe the water-bowl equivalent of Blow Football?!
 
And mentioned in passing in another plunder-post recently - the Tallon (UK) packaging of the Manurba vessels, I have quite a few Tallon packs now, but this one has eluded me so far, it'll come; nothing made after 1950 is 'really' rare!
 
There are two common hulls (flatter stern and pointed at both ends), to which two or three superstructure types are added, to each hull. We've also seen similar ships from Sanella, who had the one hull, and several suprestructures.

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

M is for May's Visit - Combat Troops

Sand, green and field-grey, the proper 'toy' soldiers, and there were a fair few in the bag, along with several paratroopers, who are always welcome here!
 
The blow-mould has suffered from a bit of a facial collision, but might be a new colour, the other three have probably all been seen before, but it's all grist to the mill, and there's always new colours, or new-sized copies-of-copies to be found.
 
China copies of Tim Mee's Cold War warriors, possibly a new colour in the washed-out sand, but they'll need to be compared with the existing samples before I know for certain.
 
Modern mix of Matchbox and newer sculpts.
 
Modern, and dodgy hollow-backed rack-toy rascals, but with several sizes, a few poses and severl colour-ways, it will be a while before I've got all of them, or even most!
 
Japanese infantry from Rado or Hing Fat, covered before.
 
Odds and sods, the interesting one here is the chap in the middle who would appear to be one of the Pioneer die-cast accessory figures in soft rubber, and a new pose, to his left, our right, a less common Manurba-Tallon in grey.
 
Seen on the respective Airfix Blog pages, the yellow figures are new to the collection, and that's the beauty of these lots, there's always something new! Many thanks to Peter for most of these, one of the paratroopers was a purchase, I think.

Monday, September 2, 2024

F is for Follow-up - Space Cars

Except they are more future-past cars, which look nothing like what we are driving now, nor will ever drive, being firmly locked into the 1950's aesthetic they were born out of! And while we're revisiting what were badged-up to Tallon, last time we looked at them, without any packaging, they are really 'just' Manurba!
 
I bought these from a mate on Saturday, although we haven't agreed an amount yet, and I won't actually pay for them until the BP Sandown Park toy fair next Saturday (put it in your diary now), but they are here and photographed, which is most of the battle won!

Blue instead of yellow, this time, and it's beginning to look like there's just the three sculpts? However, it is still up in the air and the canopy note last time - which was only musing - can probably be corrected to coloured canopies = Manurba/Tallon, and clear canopies = Hong Kong clones? As you can clearly see there are three different colours of canopy in this sample, which is what I was 'remembering' the HK ones to have had!


DC 77


RS 17


ZA 567
 
That's it really, it was mostly said last time, they all have a moniker/code name, and impossible speed stat's on their undersides, and we will revisit them again when the HK ones come out of storage, and we can look at them all together. In the meantime, here's a few bubble-canopy concept cars from that there Interweb;
 
1955 Ford Beatnik Bubbletop


1956 Buick Centurion Concept 1

1961 Ford Thunderbird 'Thunderflite' Bubbletop

Fictional car from a boy's annual or illustrated magazine . . . 1975, heehee!

 
None are particularly close matches for these toys, but the influence is undeniable, and they may be more closely based on other designs of the era, Dark Roasted Blend is a good source of images for this kind of stuff. There are many more, including more double-bubble canopies, of which the most famous is . . . 
 
. . . the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car . . .
 
. . . upon which Batman's original 'Batmobile' car was based.

Citroën Karin concept car - 1980

Thursday, March 23, 2023

T is for Tallon't

Hey, everyone's allowed a bad pun occasionally! Picked these up at a recent show (I haven't done show reports for the last couple - London's new 'combined' show this Saturday!), but I thought we could use a bit of novelty, rack-toy tat!

Space Toys! Technically Manurba I think, but seen here in their UK iteration of Tallon, they were also copied in Hong Kong at some point, or maybe the moulds ended-up there? I've never compared side-by-side to know definitively, but they are a perfect scale for the Airfix astronauts or Giant and copy spacemen and googlie-eyed aliens.
 
Image seen elsewhere the other day; I have a similar trio of loose ones which I thought I'd put on the Blog years ago, but I can't find them, so . . . well, these'll stay in the pack as I know the loose ones are there . . . and they weren't that cheap! I'm not sure if there were the three sculpts or maybe a selection of 5 or six, but when the loose ones turn-up we'll have another look.
 
I think the HK ones have blue canopies, but they may be clear, whereas all my W. Germany marked ones are yellow, equally the clones are pastel colours, while these are always primaries/secondaries. Bodies are soft polyethylene, canopies, hard polystyrene. Going back to the future as we'll never have cars like these, which ooze 1950's Pulp-styling!


Friday, August 5, 2016

T is for Two - Euro'Rack-Toys

If nothing else, Rack-Toy Month will lighten Picasa's load! Spain and Germany provide today's frivolous novelty baubles of polymer loveliness!

Actually by Manurba, once they had crossed the channel they became Tallon . . . there'd been a war or something and it was considered practical to hide Germanic titles from the Brits, now the 'Brexit' idiots have re-dug the channel so thoughtlessly, maybe Tallon will be re-born, carrying Schleich or Playmobile. . . or worse . . .Nutella!

We've looked at them before, and will return to them when the rest are out of storage, but for now, here they are, Anglo-German Rack Toys in Rack-Toy Month!

Wholly uninspiring figures I'm sad to say, they look like what I think they were meant to be in a de-militarised Germany - NATO troops on manoeuvres! Available in grey or green, about every 40th figure is marked ‘WEST GERMANY’, usually the officer or the standing ‘at ease’ pose, although I think I’ve a prone figure with it written down the leg? There’s probably an eighth figure, maybe ten (the bulk of mine are in storage), but don’t expect them to be any more lively
Oh Dear! The Spanish running out of steam; painted 54mm and unpainted 60mm with not enough horses presented by Comansi in a too-big bag? No wonder they changed their name to Novalinea (New Lines) shortly after! It's a Rack Toy, what'da'ya expect for a couple of shillings and sixpence? And the artwork's lovely.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

M is for Manurba

Manfred Urban was a German Company, producing cheap plastic toys at the time Germany was going through it's 'Hong Kong' moment, they produced the whole gamut; 54mm toy soldiers, figural pencil sharpeners, premiums for confectionery companies etc...

There is a forth tank, a Russian one, probably a T54/55 and the various chassis were also used for some space vehicles. The US tanks are about 1:72. the Panther is small next to the Airfix ready-made, The track unit on a space tank marked 'Russian tank' is also on the small side for a 'T' series so both about 1:87th a popular 'Euro size'!

All the military vehicle range were issued in a dark green, olive green (and most shades in between!) and also silver. Sometimes they are marketed under the Dom trade mark, while in the UK they appeared in Tallon branding as a 'pocket money' or rack-toy. Sometimes wheels/tyres are pale grey or charcoal rather than black.

The large scale (approximately 1:72) truck is - I think - based on the post war Jupiter used by the Budeswher, the little trucks ('N' gauge) which had a range of different rears/loads were more fictional.

This is a classic matchstick-firing gun mounted on something resembling a Mercedes truck, with a simple pull-back action it would keep a young you amused for minutes until the polystyrene gave, broke or came apart somewhere!


Other items which with the exception of the 'trench mortar' (rear right) are Manurba, the other may be; I've been told by a German collector that he thinks it is and it's certainly the sort of thing they would make for gift bags or some such. The Jeep and trailer are a bit on the big side for war gaming, the little gun (rear left) also fires matchsticks