E is for Ephemeral Extras

A couple of Supreme related scans, just now, one I'd forgotten I'd had, the other I thought I'd lost, and we'll start with the second first!

 

This is from the Christmas flyer from the recently defunct Wilkinson's Stores / Wilco, and was around 2001-4, they ran them several years in a row and I managed to get three, but I know I missed one, as I saw some of the vehicles in missing colourways, as part of a Santa' window display in the travel agents next door to the Wilkinson's in Farnborough (or Aldershot) in the third or fourth year!

Anyway, we've looked at two non-Command Central sets over the years (Mini Wheels) and most of the stuff loose, so I've given everything-related a 'Command Central' tag, if you click on it, you'll get everything in reverse order of posting!

The Strawberry Group's 2002-3 catalogue has these, and I've mentioned them before and fingered the Knights as Supreme, and the Wild West are supposed to be them too, and while I've only got the word of some 'Old Guard' on that, it sort of makes sense.

 

I was buying these for other people a few years earlier as I drove around the UK, and while Tiger Hobbies would take over the running of the Knights a year or two later, I don't know if they took over the Wild West, or when exactly the current pale-brown, floppy, flat-based ones replaced these Deetail-alikes? I think I now have all four cowboys, but not sure if I have any Indians, the prone-firing maybe?

On the same page, and as an importer like Strawberry might put all one supplier's products together, while we have yet to find any animals credited to Supreme, it's reasonable to assume these might be from the same stable! But that's pure conjecture/a guess, not gospel! Funnily enough, some of these horses may have come-in with the recent donations from Jon Attwood, so we may see them again soon!

B is for Box-ticking Bible-bashing Belligerents

Crusaders; Reivers of the Levant! We know these are Supreme because Tiger told the hobby they were when they announced they would be carrying the full-sized range over a decade ago, through the pages of a leading hobby magazine. Whether Tiger were going through Toy Major or direct I don't know, but the impression was they were working directly with Supreme.

It makes you wonder then that ten years later someone would be talking such shite about Supreme on the PSTSM notice-board and in direct attacks on me? But if the individual had got used to making things up as he went along, and further; got used to getting away with making things up as he went along, you cease to wonder about him and wonder instead at those around him? Several of whom were older and should've been wiser!

Knights Hospitaller . . . Templar? If the crosses used by the orders are specific, these are Knights Generic (White) I fear! In the best traditions of most other plastic crusaders! The separate weapons are quite good I think, a short lance with hand guard and another with a nice three-pointed pennant. All Italeri copies and again; a couple of the figures are similar to those in smaller-scale Supreme lines/sets.

Knights Generic (Black), Teutons, or the other Hospitaller! More Italeri copies; the horse with the lozenge base (left, and the one with the aubergine-shaped* base, right in the 'white' shot) are standard horses in the Supreme inventory being used in most sizes/scales and other (non-medieval) sets. Indeed one of the ways of working them all out is the re-use of figure poses or horse sculpts!

The foot figures are all taken from Italeri Set 6009 The Knights, the mounted from Italeri Set 6019 Teutonic Knights.

*brinjal, brown-jolly, eggplant, Guinea squash, Jew's apple!

Tiger Hobbies is for Supreme Toys!

Box-ticking some modern production Romans today, with the slightly floppy PVC-substitute Roman toy soldiers from Supreme / SP Toys, they are rather good, for what they are - rack toys - but toward the larger size in the 54mm bracket, not so much in height but 'chunky-monkey'ness'!

As they are found, supplied in the UK by Tiger Hobbies, who informed the hobby they were carrying Supreme which is why - despite the past witterings of Erwin on TJF's site - we know Supreme are an entity!

Elsewhere they would have been carried by other sellers, possibly Simba in Europe (I don't know for sure), possibly Schilling in the 'States, but not Sunjade who were a jobbing shipper back in Hong Kong - we've looked at all this before!

Three skirmishing spearmen with separate, plug-in piliums . . . pilii? An Asiatic mercenary/ethnic archer (thanks Airfix via blandford!) and a command group including a horn player (Cornicen), a Signifier and an officer/NCO 'Centurion' type.

The shields are glued-on in the factory, sometimes with the lower-arm as part of the sculpt, but two of mine had come lose/broken off in transit, so needed a blob of plumber's sealant to get them fit to fight again!

The teeth-arms are provided by a wobbly shield-wall of five; four legionaries and another Centurion looking-chap! The most notable thing about them is how bloody happy they all look, it's like they are on a day's training and someone just said Biggus Dickus after being told not to! In fact; several of them look like Michael Palin!

And if twelve separate posed large'ish figures weren't enough, we get four mounted soldiers, of whom one is clearly roman and carrying rank, a legate or something, there's almost too many 'officers' in this set!

His cloak however leaves a lot to be desired, having not been designed to take the high rim of his saddle into account, so he doesn't sit well - and I tried him with all four horses!

The other three seem to have been recruited from the Atlantic Trojan school of toy soldiering though! If you were to add a flowing horse-hair mane to that high, curved metalwork, they might make nice Arthurian cavalry? However they have to a certain extent had their cloak-tails designed to fit the saddles, although you do need to try them on different horses to get the best fit.

All four mounted figures (like Schleich or Papo) can fight dismounted and stand-up well, even on a furry surface. The guy in a breast-plate/cuirass is carrying a rolled scroll, not a dagger! Another 'officer'!

The horses are the 'standard' medieval hoses we have seen here at Small Scale World several times and in several sizes, the two with asymmetrical bases seeming the commoner, both from Supreme and the various pirates, than the two with oblong bases.

There was an issue in silver polymer with gold paint, from the flesh paint on the legs (lacking in the red set) there's a suggestion they were an earlier issue, but the card says both were contiguous? That's it, Supreme's Romans!

2nd April the same year - Nice to see the PSTSM were collectively following things here! 

H is for How They Come In - March to July!

A couple of Charity shops have re-opened, one has already gone, is cleared-out and being decorated by the landlord while the rest are still closed (and dumping tons of stuff straight into their skip-bins), but I managed to grab a few bags of plunder earlier this week for the first time in months, so we have an H is for . . . post!

Four bags, the larger bread-basket they were in had room, so I suspect a feebleBay bottom-feeder had beaten me too it, the shop opened last Monday, I got there this Tuesday, so I wasn't expecting much and was happy with what I got - four-quid all-in, can't knock it?

Contents of the four bags laid-out in absolutely no order whatsoever beyond vague morphing of themes!

Not looked at below; a couple of Pepper Pig types, probably from kids' magazines, four Ardman Animation figures, one or two of which may be Phidal, an unmarked Soma-like rubber builder, two Russ Berrie trolls (late type cereal premiums?), a clean Crescent Indian,  a handful of Hing Fat pirates and a farmer with a huge pitch-fork!

Another! This one is turned to the right, or glancing to the left depending on your point of view, but it's another! You, loyal readers, have watched this sub-collection growing, by accident, almost in real time!

His flesh is purpler than the previously seen examples, and his hat brim has gone the way of all flesh (and hat brims!), but that's a simple matter of cutting a washer of black art-paper/cartridge paper and slipping it on, the flat board at the back has survived, if a little dog-eared, so stiffening with super-glue and he'll be right as ninepence!

You'll also notice I've touched-up his chips with a black-marker between the overview picture and this one. That's two officers and a trooper now.

I think these (Marx Disney figures) are worth the whole four pounds? Neither has any damage, despite some thin or delicate parts although both are dirty and a bit paint-chipped. The plastic is not the chalky stuff of my unpainted Swansea ones, and I wonder if these aren't some of the first mementos to be brought back from the original Disneyland Park in California which opened in 1955.

The state of them (tatty) but also quality of them (no damage) suggests they may have been in a cabinet or on a shelf somewhere, but regularly taken out/down and loved? They'll clean-up a bit and were a real treat to find in a bagful of shite!

The four teddy bears are waiting for dark to fall, and they are going to give that modern Disney shit, sorry; pooh, a new [old] nose! Three 'in my pockets' (MEG?), one Disney squeaker/pet toy (?) and an unknown happy-looking chap who can be a pencil-top, but actually has a larger cavity?

New colour-way for the collection on the Deetail, and a Supreme for Toy Major, imported by Tiger here, hard to believe they are 25-odd years old now. I suspect the Deetail is a newer one from the 2000's re-issues?

The really quirky stuff, two wooden figurals (cat and rabbit) made from turned balls with felt ears, and a plastic cartoon cat, they all have a place in the sorting boxes! Hopefully, there will be more plunder now the Charity shops are opening-up again, but a lot of it is going in the bin in the meantime.

V is for Villainous Venturer's New Version!

Remember the trio of small pirates we looked at in ITLAPD a few years ago, which I then found a Halsall-branded packaging (now HTI) shot of, on my old 'phone, for last year? Well, I found the even-older donors in storage!

These are they, the top three are the poses we've seen before here, the lower trio are 'new to Blog', colourful, around 35mm and a soft vinyl-like polymer.

They too (mentioned in the last post) have things in common with the Tiger/Strawberry Group stuff from the 1990's, credited to Supreme, but that doesn't mean I'm saying they are SP Toys, just that they are of that era/oeuvre, not least that Halsall carried the smaller copies and also carry copies of Supreme knights!

On the right of the clone-pairs are the Halsall copies and you can see they are a bit smaller and thinner all-round, (classic bad-pantographing), but follow the paint-scheme closely, apart from the base-wash. In cases like this they are as likely to be contracted by the originator of the donors as they are to be illegal copies, but again; I'm not saying that's the case, there's no evidence, either way.

They are scaled to go quite well with the Toy Bank vessel Peter Evans sent to the Blog last Christmas, after I had shelfied it; too tight to buy one!

Incidentally, there is a similar vessel appearing on feebleBay and Amazon at the moment, with two 54/60mm pirates, there are several deals, all 'buy it now', at least one direct from China, the others apparently UK clearance/wholesale type eBayers/sellers and all between 5.99 and 10-quid odd, well worth a look, I was tempted and they may be here for next year's ITLAPD!