H is for ♪♪♫♫ Handsup! Baby; Handsup . . . ♪♫♪♪

Sometimes a plan comes together when you didn't even know you needed a plan! It's a T-is-for-Two really, but the title was sitting there staring me in the old fizzog! I've mentioned before that prior to the doors opening at Sandown Park, there is a bit of a boot-sale scrummage on the steps of the terraces in the main stand, and sometimes I get an item or two, sometimes I don't, on Saturday just gone (forgot to do a reminder, sorry), I got a little wooden tank, and a feckin robot!

The coolest robot I've seen for a long time! Bit of a plinth on him, but that's because he's a collapsing thumb-push toy, where you push the plunger and slacken his hidden cord 'skeleton', causing him to decline & fall, all over the place, only to spring back up when you release the pressure.

 

Next to him on the disco floor, is an Azrak-Hamway (AHI) parachute toy of Superman, which was a nice find, later in the morning, but I have a carded Planet of the Apes one, from the same series, so a loose Superhero with tatty cape, isn't getting me as excited as it might? But the robot!

 

Later the same day -Batman! See comments, he's got a strange chest logo as well, which I meant to mention.

 

An hour later . . . apparently he's 'Wonderman', a knock-off of the AHI Batman, probably from South America!

 

It's a bit dirty, and I will give it a clean, so when we next have one of our semi-regular overviews of the Ajax-Archer-Cherile/Hilco-'Answer Robot', we'll look at it again, because the same DNA runs strong in this one, Luke!

 

Mark is an 'MT' or 'TM', which could be Japan's Masudaya (Modern Toys), they did carry quite a bit of HK plastic at one point, although they tended to place their logo in a diamond cartouche, running landscape, or it might be Tai Ming (most likely in this case), but their M was squashed, with the outer lines angled outward (^^), so it could just as easily be a third maker?

G is for Gurrt Guards' Gathering!

I was doing  a bit of sorting on Saturday, and I thought this would be a fun shot, all the larger novelty or touristy items of a guardsman-like persuasion! I think we've seen most of them before - separately?

From the left; A wooden Christmas tree decoration based on the nutcracker trope, a poured-resin chap '© G•G.' (Gisela Graham?) from Peter Evans and the Toyway guardsman from Chris Smith (who remembered they were Toyway after I'd posted him the other day, the RHA figure, also from Chris was another one).

Then another wooden one, this is a push-button/drop-down strung-toy, he's actually almost the shortest, but with a 30mm plinth would have looked silly towering over the first three had I placed him to the left!

The fabric Guard I found last November/December in TKMaxx (made in India), and finally a stacking toy which I suspect is quite modern, but which resembles one we had as kids. I occasionally see it on evilBay (the vintage one) and keep meaning to get one, it's a taller, thinner model, and the larger-number of segments are tapered, so have to be stacked in order.

That would have been it, but - of course - in the putting away of the one lot, I re-discovered the others! So, from the left; The twin-LED torch who plays some god-awful rendition of the National Anthem, or Rule Britannia . . . or the other one? He's on the blog somewhere with his full consumer details!

Then the flat, probably from a wooden fort set of the early-learning type (and looking more Wellingtonian next to the others), another tree decoration, based on nut-cracker tropes, then another push-button/drop-down strung-toy, both being about the same size as their counterparts in the first image, the wobbly one being tagged to Wilco and finally the Noki washing-up sponge seen before, but I think all this second batch have.

Airfix sax-player for scale, he's approximately 23mm.

B is for Beefeater

I hope I had Y is for Yeoman of the Guard last time, 'cos if I've used B twice I wasted an opportunity to get a Y in the tags! Since looking at one before Christmas, I've combined the various odds on this subject and shot the Charbens' one while I was at it!

The 'odds' first and from the left; The Doll which came in a Charity shop purchase just before Christmas, only because I'd got the same doll in a household cavalry uniform a few weeks earlier, but I have no good excuse for that prior purchase! Next to him on the plinth is a wooden pop-up, which was from Wilkinson's (Wilco) I think, I also think we've seen it before?

The third figure is [more!] resin, and only joined the team a couple of weeks ago, Peter Evans gave him to me in London the other day, he's presumably a current or recent Tourist thing, but - interestingly - is in the uniform of the old Elizabethan tower-guards, although at that time they would have been guarding the city gates, Bishops' palaces and Windsor castle as well - I imagine?

The fourth was among the first of Britains 'New Metal' figures back when my brother and I were just getting out of toys in favour of hard rock, beer and cigarettes! He has a small square base in a Deetail style, but is himself all-metal with a plastic partisan that seems impossible to replace.

Then the Hong Kong one we saw recently and lastly a little PVC/vinyl-rubber key-ring tourist keepsake (his loop's been removed - it arched over the top of his headdress) I picked-up years ago as a small scale curiosity.

The Charbens one is an odd cove, he has the sort of googly-bug-eyes you might expect to find on Hong Kong sub-piracies, not home-grown figures, but there you go! The unpainted figure is a re-issue and the one on the far right seems to be an attempt to re-ignite the spark of tourist trinkets inherent is the figure, using the recent re-issues, but may just be a gloss home-paint in the Hollow-cast 'Toy Soldier' style.

The group together make a nice sample of different treatments, which I've lined-up in what might be the age order, with earlier, better painted to the left and latter re-issues to the right?

I is for IT'S Chriiiiiiiistmaaaaaaaaaaas!

Yes, I think we've had that title before, or a variation on it and I'm sure we'll have it again because it's Chriiiiiiiistmaaaaaaaaaaas!

Muttonchoptastic!

Gisela Graham, purveyor of fine wholesale ornamentation to the gentry and anyone else who'll give her a few shekels for it! She is to Christmas; what Dorothy Perkins was for summer dresses, or to Christmas trees; what Cath Kitson is to tea-time and cushions!

Charity Shop!

We had two of these when we were kids, they came in our Christmas-morning stockings and were a tiger and a zebra, I don't know what happened to them but I've always missed them as they sat above the curtain-rail for the whole of my remembered childhood with a Wade drummer-boy, some Whimsies dinosaurs and wild animals (also Wade!) from Christmas crackers and a few other figural 'objéts', probably where I got the collecting-bug from?

In Operation!

I don't know what these are called in common parlance, do they have a name? Pop-ups, poppers, droppers, drop-downs, bowers, take-a-bows, collaps'ers, spring-ups? They are 'Pop-up Toys' in the tag list . . . all two of them!

I bought a Yeoman of the Guard one a year or two ago in Wilkinson's. Now, they say "More than two is a collection" so, that's another sub-branch/sub-section/sub-genre I seem to have embarked upon!

It's only 24 days 'till Santa comes!

N is for Not Fontanini - Part Not The 7th - Rome Today

When he heard I was preparing articles that would cover the Carrara marble figures, Brian Berke kindly sent me these shots of a trip he took to Italy a while ago; they give a flavour of what's on offer now that Fontanini has bowed-out of the tourist-trap trade to concentrate on its US partner - Roman Inc. - and explore the East; where the fourth generation of the company are stated to be looking for new markets.

These are timeless and - in various guises - common if not universal, but they are fun! They just wouldn't 'represent' anywhere, even if they reminded you of a visit to somewhere. We had smaller versions when we were kids (a tiger and a zebra I think?), and I've blogged a modern soldier-guardsman here before.

I'm always looking out for the ones we had as kids, just to replace them for nostalgia reasons (as you occasionally see older ones on evilBay), but the trouble with them is that the day their string or fishing-line fails, the bits fly everywhere, and they never get put back together again!

Looks like a poured-resin Swiss Guard, and long-time followers of the blog will know I don't rate the stuff, I'll collect it, I’ll blog it, but it's a low-tech, cheap tech, which damages easily. At least this is or says 'Italy' or 'Rome', anywhere in the world you'll find a tropical fish fridge magnet with that town's name marker-penned into the plaque-space left for such labelling!

I don't get the very long drum sticks? Is it meant for overnight storage of rings and jewellery, or just poorly finished? Or is it some form of foreshortening caused by the angle of the photograph?

These are starting to look better, hard to tell if resin or white-metal is involved and the chap out of focus (front left) seems to be a different make (heavier sculpt, different base?), now does anyone recognise these? The distinctive hex-bases should be known to someone and I'd happily bring that masked, wolf's headed signifier back from a trip to Italy.

More Swiss Guards and Napoleonics from at least two makes, again; does anyone know who they are made by - I know Figur are still going, are some of these theirs? The two mounted Napoleonic figures look to be rather superb.

Meanwhile; Carrara now seem to be using aged or distressed copper-bronze casts, they could just as easily be white-metal or resin, but the verdigris looks like a chemical dip, not a painting technique? Still - it's rather nice isn't it; that chariot?

It seems to have found an excuse to take the Thomas Toys charioteer's sculpt forward for another decade or two as well! Although scaled-up and just out of shot is what appears to be another scale-up; of an old Atlantic Greek! But might be something else entirely and more 'Roman' - a sword and a foot's not much to go on!

Can anything be added to this!

I think a caption competition - just for fun; put your lines in the comments, I'm going with the Danny De Vito lookalike saying . . .

"Are you representing the Army of the State of Rome, or are you representing the state of the army of Rome?"

. . . but at the back of my mind I can hear Waynetta Slob yelling "I AM HAVIN' A FAG!"

They look like they are recovering from a fight - with each-other! Thanks Brian, four interesting toy photographs giving us some idea of current tourist mementos where once Fontanini featured heavily - and one priceless shot.