I is for It's That Horse Again!

The best thing in the recent pick-up from Peter Evans is this Hong Kong Roman chariot, it's the third iteration, I think, on the Thomas/Poplar theme, but it has very different horses!

 

And they are puke-green! Arranged in the Western Wagon configuration, the figure is the only real connection with the others, seen here previously, although the other HK copy uses the same horses, but the artwork and shape of this chariot is very different.

 

Is it based on one of the earlier lead ones, both the British and the French have some nice slush-cast chariots in the archive? One of the draw-bar connectors is broken, but I think I may have a set of these horses in the unknown horses tub!
 

N is for Not Really A Follow-up!

Notes on previous stuff seen here though, and images pulled from three folders and added to a set I got off Steve V yesterday, at the London Toy Soldier Show in Camden, and which opened-up a narrative for the other shots.

Marx's 45mm Air Force figures, with a rouge Space Patrol chap, in the same metallic blue plastic, waving his gypsy earrings about, at the back there! You get seven ground crew and four pilots, which, it being then, the 1950's, means the guy in a leather jacket is probably a milk runner from Transport Command (or whatever the USAF called it), next to him is the SR71 Blackbird or X-Plane pilot in high-altitude 'space' pressure-suit, along with two more conventional, fast-jet pilots.

 

With the exception of the sci-fi interloper who has the older flat base, these are all the later version with the raised under-rim base, and it's interesting to notice that the last pilot on the right has been sculpted to hold something? The hands are the wrong angle for a cockpit rim, and the arms are the wrong-angle for an access ladder, so I wonder if the sculptor's efforts fell on stony ground!

 

I think these are the ones sent by Brian Berke a few years ago, I thought they were gray, and I thought I'd published them, but they may be somewhere on the Blog already, without the needed Tags? Anyway, these are the recent reissues, and came in grey or this flat, sky-blue.

These are the contemporary figures from Deluxe Reading, and this image is courtesy of Chris Smith, as part of an eMail conversation we were having, following one of his donations, and the revelation that the orange ones were issued, over here, by Thomas in a header-bagged, oversized Jeep of theirs, which we saw here.

While I suspect these (MPC, Pyro or Revell?) come from a model car kit, as racetrack personnel, but they could be from a 1:48th scale aircraft kit, and go very well with the figures above, and the other set we saw in the Kennedy Space Centre a while ago, here. The paint on them will be OBE's, and there were at least two shot-runs, one in grey, one in silver, both a polystyrene 'kit' plastic.

 

So, thanks to Steve, Chris and Brian, a quick overview of USAF (and NASA) air and ground-crew, from over half a century ago! And the reason I hadn't got round to them before this, is because mine, mostly rimmed cream, chalky polyethylene (Marx Swansea?), with a few flat metallic-blues, are still in storage.

F is for Follow-up - Civilian Plunder Post

A few things related to some of the stuff in the previous post, and as I'm going through the files and folders looking for this supporting material, I realise there are similar bits for the odd recent purchase at the recent Sandown, so I think we'll see more of these, as I try to tell the story AND clear the stuff out of Picasa! Lucky police, construction workers and Thomas / Poplar today!

 

A couple of generic 'VEB's from the former East Germany, behind, in this old Vectis (I think?) image, but of note is the Poplar Plastics towed boat in the foreground, the woman driving the jeep seems to be the same blue rubber as the gentlemen we saw . . . Yesterday, now! Hence, my "possibly Thomas" for the similar bloke in that post, although as Thomas you'd expect them both to be in that flesh-pink vinyl-polymer.

 

A Blue Box blister-card, and note the lack of a wheelbarrow, apparently replaced with a rock, which might be the two-sided copy of the Marx Miniature Masterpiece rock? So, even damaged, they are hard to find, and with other damaged bits in the stash, hopefully, I'll cobble a good one together?

 

This generic set is interesting, as it has second generation copies of the Dinky / Blue Box guys (upper two), along with a pair of Marx copies from the recently mentioned Power Mite series of battery-operated trucks, Hong Kong had no favourites when it came to piracy, and they left few stones unturned!

 

While this later set from Jaru, has the polyethylene third-or-more generation knock-offs in bright colours, here pink and red, supporting similar multiply-copied versions of early-number Matchbox 1-75 series vehicles, although, when they were originally produced in the UK, as die-casts, I think the range might still - unofficially - have been '1-50' ?

 

An old shot of some of mine from 2012, being one of each pose, as far as I know they never got a wheelbarrow, despite getting the 'labourer' pose associated with it, I guess it was too complicated a moulding, for the 'bottom-feeder' pirates. He's looking pretty determined though, I think he's going to the stripey-tent to brew-up . . . "Cuppa'tea Lads?". 

 

I think I have yellow plastic ones, and possibly a pale purple, but it may be the same grey as the one from Chris, but the more, the merrier, to maybe get one of each, one day! And it's worth remembering, as we view these blobs, they were originally Charles C Stadden sculpts! 

 

Not the best shot, but it was downloaded years ago, when things were a bit simpler on the wibbly wobbly way! The Land Rover in the background is the normal Lucky thing, a probably Corgi copy in 1:423rd or so, but the figures have been modelled to match the larger-scale bike, at around 1:20?

B is for Big Box of Bounty - Wild West . . . and Pirates!

You can't know everything, and I learnt something pretty fundamental last week, while I was sorting-out Chris Smith's latest parcel to the Blog, to share with you lot, but let's look at the Wild West component first!

 

A card hoodlum, rearing on a tamed mustang! The hoof needs glueing, one of two miniscule victories by Royal Fail's vandalisation Elves this time, he's lost his Stetson too, but one supposes, some time ago! The Man in Black, a pound-shop Lee Van Cleef, looks a lot like some Supreme output, but is not from their well-known series, nor, as far as I am aware, did Papo ever do more than one modern cowboy on horse, which is a clue . . . ?

 

A Hong Kong, 45mm copy, of a Gulliver copy, of the Atlantic Sioux Camp seated brave, and another of the probably Euro', possibly premium, Indians (no cowboys have turned-up yet) set, of which I have quite a few now, but that Chris has probably found more of, than me!

 

The 40mm, AHM, Culpitt, Injectaplastic, Jouets Super Plastic (et al.?) set, and it's extraordinary that despite collecting these for years (as a small-scale collector), both poses and colour variations continue to turn up, I'm still looking for an Indian archer (and most of the accessories), I knew I needed the dancing guy in orange trousers, and the standing firing cowboy is a new (4th) colour variation! They will both get bases from other figures in the larger sample.

 

The Crescent hollow-cast/Lido Wild West chaps, and an oddity! On the left, grist to the mill, he's a bit bashed, but will still join the sample, to increase the size of the sample, against future looks/comparisons; we've seen several variations of the set over time.

 

In the middle, an absolute mint, 'Germany' marked, novelty pencil sharpener, an incredible find, and so generous of Chris to sent it here? And remember, as well as some of the better KT sharpeners, it was Chris who found the Ichthyosaur/Dolphin hybrid sharpener!

 

While the third chap could be Wild West, a clown or a farmer, and may be Hong Kong, or . . . French? Anyone recognise him? He looks like he should have a wheelbarrow, and may be a French farmer? He could be a Marty clown; paint and plastic are right, but also looks like some of those old hollow-cast cowboys with their furry sheepskin chaps and soft felt hats, so got sorted into this lot for now!

 

These were on the top of the box, so I spotted them straight-away, but baseless it's hard to know if they are French or Italian cheapies, or some Hong Kong knock-offs? But New to me and Blog for sure! Obviously taken from the Britains Herald 'Swoppets', solidified, does anyone know what bases they should have?

Small scale, Chris is very good at keeping samples of these separate, it's the only way to use them for research, the larger bag is a clean-looking sample of 'Wavymane', and while there's "always" a clean looking sample of Wavymane, I never turn away from such things, as it would be churlish, and you never know when a completely new horse type or figure pose might have been buried among them by a previous owner!

 

The smaller bag is more mixed, while the real odds are spread out in front, and include useful wagon parts for the Giant/post-Giant pile and the National and others' pile!

 

While up a band (25-30mm), we have, from the left; two Torgano Indian boys (or, from the rest of the set; boys dressed as Indians), both missing their bows (very delicate), and a Comansi horse, although, with the flash, and saddle-spike, possibly a Sobre or similar knock-off? And a small handful of the Blue Box smallies, to the right.

Finishing off with three interesting pirates, or 'a potential pirate', in the case of the right-hand figure, another one new to me, also with elements of Supreme/SP Toys output, but is he a cowboy, a pirate or a civilian of some kind? Possibly, a rather ephemeral figure from one of the many 'big box' pirate ship play-sets, over the years? Or, does he belong with the glossier, obvious cowboy (or detective?!) figure at the start of this post - I don't think so, but you have to look at every angle? Simply marked 'CHINA'.

 

On the left is a new-to-me, off-white, colour variant of the Thomas/Poplar pirates, we only looked at the other day, on the last Interrr'nationaaal Taark Like a Poirut Daye event, while in the middle is another of the revelations of Chris's box . . . 

 

. . . a marked Papo pirate, from the 1990's, who has nothing in common with the current range, which has been in the catalogue for years now, but that clearly provided the donor-sculpt for the smaller, Supreme pirate with similar blunderbuss?

 

Now, Papo themselves only claim to be 'nearly' 30 years old, so this (1999 CHINA) must be one of the earlier products in their range, and - I've just spent some time trying to Google them and only found the current set - so, I guess, A) they were a short-lived line, making this uncommon, or uncommon outside France (?) and B) the rest of the Papo set must be the other donors for the Supreme set?

 

And while I'm sure some people knew all or part of the above, nobody seems to have Blogged it, there's nothing on the Forums (or Papo's website), and nobody has pointed it out/corrected me, on all the occasions I've Blogged the Supreme set, which is now neither as old, nor as cool as I thought it was! Now I know, it's gotta'be about finding the others, and did Papo originally do the six SP Toys skeleton 'enemy' too?

 

And, all this is not to say I shouldn't have known, I have the early Papo catalogues somewhere, mostly donated by Peter Evans or another friend of the Blog (have they been in a show-report in PW magazine?), and, I guess, the set must be in some of them? But many thanks to Chris for sending it, and everything else above.

B is for Big Jolly Boat

So, the other TN Thomas boat, the seller assured me there was a card once, and it was Thomas, not Poplar, but sadly, long gone now, while the bag was so dirty and so shredded it wasn't worth photographing, so you'll have to take my word of his word, but this is the Thomas big boy!

 

I don't know who was first, but there is a pattern to these, whether Ideal, Marx, MPC, or the two Thomas-Poplar ones (and remember there's that third set of 'believed to be' Thomas/Poplar who may have had their own - third - ship?), Marx have a single, central staircase to the poop-deck, MPC have deeper scupper holes, but the basic layout is the same for all five vessels, whether single or twin masted.

 

I suppose this is a 'ship', as it has a little yellow jolly boat! 

 

Confirmation on the oars we saw, when we looked, in reasonable detail, at these figures back in 2018, the Pirate 'logo' is the same plug-in style as the smaller vessel we looked-at earlier, but this boat has two masts. A two-part treasure chest can be carried by the figures with one arm down, again all similar to the MPC accessories.

 

Interestingly, when we looked at them last time;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/09/tp-is-for-taller-pirates-from-thomas.html

 

the colourways were the same, with green/blue for the larger and red/yellow for the smaller, so it may be they were limited production runs, as far as the colours run, goes? The green here is a much brighter 'highlighter' green, though. If I add the flag from that previous post's sample to this one, I think this one will be complete?

 

A comparison between all three of the small copies so far found, and their big brothers.

The middle red one is a cut-n-shut of two larger poses. 

 

Bird's eye view of the boats, I forgot to mention that the red, larger vessel has no marks.

Note there are ten position-plugs for the five crew. 

The red is missing carpet-wheels, the blue never had them.

L is for Little Jolly Boat!

This year's ITLAPD is, despite the first three posts, actually about pirate ships, more than the pirate figures, although all posts have figures, most of the remaining posts will be featuring boats, and that's the correct term, as they tend to be small, and the old ruling is "Ships can carry boats, boats can't carry ships".

 

I picked this up just after Christmas, and it's the boat for the smaller of the Thomas-Poplar pirates, in this case very definitely Thomas, not Poplar! You get one each of four figures, scaled down from the larger set, and lacking the tools/weapons of that larger scaled bunch of scallywags! There are four advertised, and four receiving holes for their foot-spigots.

 

The 'classic' seaside kiosk 'big bag', now very tatty, but clearly marked-up to TN Thomas, of Bridgend, Glamorgan . . . a very Welsh part of 'Great Britain', it has to be said! Now it happens that this year saw the latest (third or fourth) issue of Plastic Warrior magazine's Poplar Checklist/Special Publication, (and it's very good!), in which the previous relationship between Thomas and Poplar was rather divorced, and I think, as this is the third TNT product from the UK seen on these pages, that the relationship will have to be restored, in the next update, as clearly Thomas issued some of the stuff, as Thomas.

 

Sail and mast, showing how the scull & crossed-bones motif just plugs in!

 

Three poses, we looked at two previously, duplicates of these here, and I pointed out on that occasion they were still a bit of a mystery, so this post is very-much a revelation, confirming previous musing on the subject. It looks like only three of the five larger-scale poses were copied though; the Captain and two of the crew, although one hopes the others may turn-up?

 

The underside of the boat reveals a clear MADE IN ENGLAND (Wales!!) mark at the rear/stearn, and what appears to be the same message in a different font, deliberately obscured, near the middle, but toward the front/bow, which is not so clear in this shot, but I assure you it's there.

 

In comparison with one of the larger figures, we'll be looking at them later today.

They lose the hat/hat-spike as well as weapons/tools. 

 

Likewise, the boat, is a smaller, simplified version of the larger vessel.

L is for Lots of London Loot - Sandown February - Other Figures

The final post in this sequence is the rest of the figures, I think we've caught-up with 'London Loot' too, but there will be some 'H is for . . . s' to come, with more Toy- and Gift Fair revues to intersperse with them! And Easter's coming, and there's other stuff in the queue, and, and, I seem to be in a productive phase!

 

A couple of hollow-cast WWI French (Britains?), although they went to war in 1940 with pretty-much the same stuff, just in khaki! Both from Adrian's pound-tray, with the little unknown tin-plate howitzer/gun from his five-quid box, of such gems! It probably fired little wooden balls or dowels?

 

Two post-Giant on the left and a Quaker mounted Gladiator on the right, square-up for a bit of argie-bargie, at the feet of Cherilea's Sphinx. I was so pleased with the Sphinx purchase, I got it out to show a mate, and he pulled the same one out of his pocket! I think we'd both bought them from the same seller!

 

Late Blue Box (polyethylene) Britains copies on the left, Blue Box for Triang-Hornby (polystyrene) on the right, also squaring-up for what looks like it will be a fairly uneven fight, so unfair! With an explosion between them, which I think is a modern re-mould of the old Lineol shell-burst?

 

Early Westair ECW type. In this packageing they predate Kinder by several, if not many years, the full story will be on the 'Mocherette' page, whenever I get round to it!

 

These are nice! Two of Charles C. Stadden's war-gaming figures, around 35mm, home painted in a glossy, toy-soldier style, I spent some time googling Nappie's marshals, before switching to 'Russians', with no more success, but other uniforms I found, suggested they were more likely to be Russians (1812) than French, but then I tried 'Prussians' and found images of Frederick the Great (not Blucher), which looked like the chap on the right, so we go back a ways, to the 7YW and all those successions, and find the chap on the left is probably Hans Joachim von Zieten? Seen here as a flat, the blue on the Stadden being a little too pale, while 'Old Fritz' should have a silver breast-plate with those shoulder straps!

 

Clockwise from the greeney; who is a1990's Lucky Bag piracy of Marx's Pecos Bill, and a Kinder piracy of Lone Star's 'Metallion', Pat Masterton, who's full sized version was seen entering the stash, courtesy of Chris Smith last August!

 

A Hong Kong copy of, or 'after' Crescent (I think), in the style of Blue Box, but not one of theirs, a Kinder knight, from the two-part horses, these are nearly always found with their weapons broken these days, very brittle shafts, so a good find, another of the Morestone Stagecoach drivers, and, in the centre, the old 1960's Lucky Bag Indian in gold 'styrene.

 

This is Thomas, but much mucked-about with, painted and with a replacement set of handle-bars, which are attached with a lump of god-knows-what, it could be play-doh! So, again, at some point in the future, I think I'll try it in the ultrasonic cleaner, and see what that leaves me to work with? Pretty-sure I have a good one anyway, so I can afford to 'try something' and see!

 

Adrian found a stash of Hong Kong farm figures while sorting his stock (he is semi-retiring as I write), and passed them to my stash, and while the hope is to attribute a fair few of these to makers and/or named-sets, one day, this isn't that day! So it's just eye candy for now.

 

I have tons of this, lots of it from Chris, Peter, Trevor &etc, tubbed (large scale) or bagged (smallies) by pose, and most of these will be duplicates, but you can see the many variations between them means a few will be the first sample.

 

Strangely, various makers (or issuers) used the same colour schemes - blue/white, red/blue or red/yellow, which I suspect is because lots of smaller makers (sub-pirates, all of them!) in the blocks of the Kowloon Walled City slum (demolished in the 1990's), were being employed to produce all the farm and zoo stuff for repeat orders, for the pocket-money/rack-toy jobbers of the west, a similar situation with all the sub-Giant Wild West, and various generations of 'Army Men'?

 

Differentials include size, base shape/type, base marks, holes or pin-release marks and plastic colour, and they are all copies of other people's sculpts, with the obvious exception of the New Ray 'Country Life' chap holding the lamb-poodle-piglet hybrid! He comes in different colourways too.

 

Again clockwise from the far-left, we have an Airfix motorcycle rider, of whom I still need a few for my fleet of machines, I'll leave the paint (chocolate brown, on chocolate brown?) for now, after the lesson with the bikes! Next to him is a construction-worker/driver, and I think he may be French? He's a hard polystyrene, and well detailed, so I don't think he's Hong Kong, and he may be in a vehicle catalogue somewhere in the archive?

 

The robber is Lledo, the race-horse and jockey will probably be from a board-game, while the seated figure would appear to be from a model railway line/range, but I don't recognise the figure, or the charcoal styrene under the paint?

M is for Musing on Models - Gemodels . . . and Festival!

We've visited them before and will again as it's a fascinating subject, not only was George Musgrave one of the most prolific designers/sculptors for other people, but he was also a great innovator and experimenter, so the full list of his output continues to grow, as the history of his company, it's apparent love/hate relationship with Culpitt, and the Hong Kong pirates, produces more and more to digest or collect.

 

A couple of shots of stuff which came in over several lots at the end of last year, and were going to be a simpler version of this post, then! The upper shot being both sledge designs with the three different configurations, the two snow babies on the smaller toboggans are melted-on, but I don't know how and wasn't going to force them to find out, which will be more relevant below!

The girl playing in the snow is a previously unrecorded sculpt, and seems to be from or connected with the carol singers, in being more Dickensian/Victorian in styling, than the sixties-kids in the woolly jumpers and baby-suits of the other sculpts.

While the Huskies again, seem to include a new sculpt, the one on the left is the brown-polymer version of one of the common set of three, the one on the right seems to be new, and larger, but I need to compare with the others, who are in storage.

 

As some larger woodland animals have turned up, we've seen some here, as candle-holders (fawn and squirrel), and as stand-alone's, so it may be he's part of a different set - I've seen another squirrel without candle hole which looks 'Gem' or Festival in mixed online lots?

 

The lower shot has all the travellers out on the ice, with two skiers and a lonely skater!

This one is marked Festival, I can't remember if we've had Gem marked examples here, but we have looked at a bunch of Hong Kong copies in three different polymers.

 

I've posted the link to the debate elsewhere on the subject of Festival before, but I'm now happy to assume and pass on that Festival was a late project of Musgrave's, set up after he fell-out with, and in direct competition to Culpitt. And that it ran for some time, with some success.

Sadly, he barely mentions them in his interviews with Plastic Warrior magazine, nor was there much, or anything (?) in the museum, but they are obviously Gem style, some Gem sculpts (or re-sculpts), and Gem painting. And because they are all Birthday/Easter/Christmas themes with smart, modern boxed packaging and newer polyethylenes (racing car and train candleholders), were specifically a cake decoration 'line', against the waning of Gemodels with their full sized figures, scenic items and buildings.

The larger sled, the two riders are meant to be both facing forwards, but you can arrange them with one absent-mindedly trailing his legs, or maybe they are waiting to start-off! And if you want them rushing down an icing slope, just remove the puller and rope!

These two have spigots on their feet which have been pushed through the skis and melted back with a hot tool, for this we have a second design of ski, which is wider - previously I had suggested distortion due to the heat, but I think they are shorter and wider, or flared, in the middle?

While these have been attached by what might be the same spigots or separate scraps of polymer, leaving a doughnut of plastic 'flash' around the feet, these are not the over-moulded ones, which leave a very neat weld-mark when separated, this is a cruder 'glueing' with heat, and a fourth version of ski-attachment.

 

There are also two types of stick; the earlier hand-tooled slightly lumpy Gem one (?) and a later, finely-machined Festival one.

The skater's partner turned up in a later lot! The yellow guy and the trio on grey fabric were shot just now, and are the first examples from Chris Smith's latest donation to the Blog, a mass of good stuff I haven't even looked at properly, or had my customary eMail exchange with him on, but I have managed to sort them into bags, thank him, and dig these three out for a quick photo' or two! The rest will follow in January, probably?

The new yellow one is a Hong Kong copy, as procured by Culpitt, from the Gem designs they had been carrying . . . bastards! You can see it's a crude copy with a loss of detail; lazy pantography and no finishing! His base looks clipped in some way, but that's because he's been glued to and cut away from a larger plinth-base (see next post) in white, his own base, in yellow, follows the outlines of the Gem/Festival original.

 

Santa is a generic, and the other Gem has come away from his base at the skate-blade line; a testimony to how fine the sculpting was!

 

Gem flourished in the 1950-60's, Festival were active from the '60's through 'till around the end of the 1980's, while this Hong Kong effort is probably a 1970's replacement for the copy seen above, simplified for mass production it's almost a demi-ronde!

 

They could all be found in bakers shops as recently as the 2010's, but are now getting hard to find as the supermarkets and Gregg's style chains have finished all the old independent or family bakers.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Finally as a Brucey Bonus, we are off to Thomas/Poplar for a shot of the official Santa's sleigh, with Rudolf! This has a rigid set of poles integrally moulded, so only fit the reindeer, whereas the other design, with two seats, seen here several times I think, has hinged poles, so can be wedged to the PVC-rubber cats, dogs or deer, but may only be meant for the kids, even though I've posted it with Santa . . . I think I once posted it with two Santa's just for the hell of it!