L is for Last May's Lots of Lovely Loot - Vehicles

Before I can get on to the very late Plastic Warrior show reports, I need to get the previous, and even later, Sandown Park's loot out of the way, which was purloined a few weeks before the PW show, so let's get them out of the way sharpish! Although I don't think you can say sharpish, when the posts are three months overdue!

 

A small Gescha/Gama style tin-plate tank, bearing more resemblance to some early post-war APC's, with a small turret, and high superstructure. I can't remember if it had branding, or if someone gave me a brand? Space Tank!

 

Two mystery (when I saw them) die-cast military vehicles. a nice inter-war armoured car, actually Charbens, it is die-cast alloy, but has lead wheels, and a British tanker-truck, which was marked Britain or England I think, the trouble with doing these posts so long after the event, is you forget stuff! But while in the style of Dinky, it's not, and is probably a re-painted Benbros Esso tanker - note the red on the paint-chips! Interestingly, a re-issue of an old Timpo mould.

 

Vintage Tootsie-Toys AFV's, one marked the other anonymous (can't remember which was/is which), I think the lorry may be pre-war (1930's), while the Armoured-car might be just post-war? But that's going on the wheels/tyres (or 'tires', they're American after all!), which could, just as easily, be replacements? You won't believe the trouble I had, getting the two MG's to look right, they are suspended, free-floating or hanging, between small bumps in the moulding, and loose with age, and were a bugger to get right!

 

Another Charbens, this all die-cast, wheels and body, and darker green than some I've seen, and while not the most accurate version of Humber out there, it's a darn-sight better than the plastic one they did later!

 

Two more French 'readymades', one each Noreda (front, Jeep-like) and Injectaplastic (behind, DKW with Jeep trailer), we've seen them both before, but they were clean, and cheap, so I took them home with me!

Banner 'row-crop' tractor in military green, possibly depicting an Oliver tractor (US Readers?), and two copies, the copies are slightly smaller all-round, and have a few detail differences, unmarked, I hope they are in Bill Hanlon's book!

 

Again, newish to me, similar to some Archer space cars from the 'States, I was told these were actually British so Kleeware or Tudor Rose, but the larger one is a Marx future car, the smaller however is a Pyro/Kleeware moulding, so could the Marx also be a mould-swap with Kleeware?

 

Two teeny-tiny battleships, probably from a late-Edwardian board game, and a larger lead yacht, which could also be a board-game piece, or a smaller component of something more decorative? It's covered in what appears to be black paint, but which could just be severe oxidation?

 

Because they came with a T4, these two reprobates have got themselves into the vehicle post! In the style of MUSCLE or Kinnukiman, these two Thunderbirds Keshi are new to the collection, along with the little Thunderbird Four.

 

A damaged Manurba coach and spare helmet crest for a Lone Star knight are snuck in at the end, just to get them off the laptop!

M is for Micro Minis

We did a bit of an overview on these micro-mini's a couple of years ago, and Ed Berg has recently done a season on his, and there's not a lot to add here beyond eye-candy, for now, and hopefully nothing to tread on Ed's toes, but Brian sent several nice lots of the integral-wheel teenies for us to look at.

These are lovely, because despite having most of the AFV's, 'Planes and ships/vessels, all of which we have seen here, I had none of them! They are the MPC Mini's, and these are roughly one-each of the various makes from the lot, in which the full sample was bigger, and the duplicates were all different colours. I'm not sure how I ended up with a hole in the middle, but I kept adding and moving around to get a nice looking shot, and must have spotted a late duplicate and not replaced it!

 

Of interest is that the Jeep, Mini-Clubman ('Morris') and old crock seem to be in a different scale/style, and might indicate more than one master sculptor behind the set? Also, the old crock (a Packard) gave rise to a copy which keeps popping-up as a Christmas cracker toy or gum-ball capsule-machine prize!

And, while we're looking at them, I will repeat the call made several times now on the Blog over the last fifteen-or-so years, for the whereabouts or a contact for Bob Maschi (or his heirs), whose MPC Mini's guide, bound, sits with my Tim Geppert and and George Kerton originals, (all a bit black & white, and a bit dated now, but well-loved), as I do still owe him for it!

 

A mix of Lido, Empire and/or Acme? As Ed was pointing out the other week, it's not necessarily clear (see below) so, for now, just nice little cars and things! I love the bulldozer, it's small-enough to be an Engineers' vehicle with micro-armour!

 

Real wheels! Behind are three of the Tootsie Toy mini die-casts, there were similar lines from Marx, and someone in Hong Kong, and when we were very young my Brother's godmother, who lived in California gave him a little suitcase full of them, I can't remember which lot they were, but the jeep was different - if memory serves - a sharper, squarer moulding, and it had a seperate, weeny trailer!

 

In front are what I initially thought were game-playing pieces, but actually the red one is a different sculpt, a two-seater, so they may be a similar line to the Tootsie Toys, but older, lead slush-casts? Turning to O'Brian (8th edition) gives me Barclay, CAW/C&H or Kansas as likely culprits, but no direct match?

 

Comparison between the two Jaguar's in the parcel, MPC Mini on the left Tootsie Toy on the right, back when we (Britain) made some of the best automobiles in the world! I think they are both representing the racing D-Types?

 

While this illustrates the problems in trying to attribute these, the cream-white wreaker has 'wheels' and a sharp, clearly delineated hook, the chocolate-brown one has 'wheel fairings' and a less obvious hook, and the red one (which came in with a lot not seen on the Blog yet), polyethylene, is a poorer copy of the 'edible' colour Hong Kong ones Brian sent years ago, which we saw last time. And I can only assume they are in the order they were copied from each other!

 

So, that's the end of Brian's parcel, five posts worth of lovely, useful, interesting things, gap-fillers and new questions, thanking him greatly for all of it, but as we're finishing on micro-mini's, I forgot to include in that September '22 overview (above link) another sample, sent to the blog by a Scandinavian reader . . .

 . . . whose subsequent submission to the blog is also being held over, as I really can't bring myself to promote Russia, or things Russian until Putler's dead, or we know the outcome of the current barbarism in Ukraine. Nor do I have any time for those traitorous, anti-democratic fuckwits, who do. It's about principles - you either have them or you don't.

 

But these are northern European cereal premiums, in the style of various others, or all these moulded-in-wheel mini's, although there only seem to be two mouldings here, a VW Beetle and what might be another Jaguar, a Riley or Austin Healy, which seems improbable? And I'm no expert!

So apologies for not posting them last time (it all gets posted in the end!), and many thanks to him and Brian for everything. Because the MPC Mini's need a good clean, which I haven't got round to yet, and all need to be ID'd better, we'll probably return to them in a short while, with the other bits that have come in?

T is for Two - O is for Other People's Rack Toys

A couple of rack toys, both of civilian subjects, both sent to the Blog in the last few months for the purpose of sharing with other loyal readers, a purpose ably dealt with right here, right now, in the order in which they were sent . . .

Theo van der Weerden sent me this a while ago, and it's interesting for two reasons, firstly it shows the other (or 'some more') figures to go with the road workers we looked at here and followed-up here, secondly it ties them into Tootsietoys, although Tootsie' were primarily die-casters and may well have bought the figures in, so the possibility they are/were originally Pioneer remains.

Also the third figure (with clipboard) has some similarities with one of the sets of ground-crew, which may tie them (the flyboys) into Tootsie' too? Although Tootsie' may itself be only a 'bought brand' these days, I'm not sure who owns the brand.

When Britains finally died and the assets were broken up, the Asian toy giant Tomy-Takara bought the branding and the farm/zoo tooling (or elements of it), which is why the US pretend Britains have that mouthful of a brand 'wuhabritain', the attached image is the current carding of spare tractor/harvester drivers, from Tomy, who still use the last common iteration of Britains official logo.

Brian Berke had purchased them for a project he's working-on, for which there will be one or two posts in the fullness of time here, but they are in the long-queue at the moment, maybe for the autumn or winter, there's a lot of nostalgia wrapped-up in them!

Note the painted-overalls are designed to tie-in with the main tractor brands (most are made in the same factories, they just change the body-shells), we see here New Holland, John Deer, Massey Ferguson and Claas/JCB I think/suspect. When you spend £180k or whatever it is these days, you get a free set of corporate overalls.

 I was that guy in red, I was dead-proud of my MF 'body-suit', it zipped right up the front so you could take a pee behind the hedge (or the tractor wheel!), had elasticised, wooly sleeve-cuffs, but loose trouser-legs to go over work-boots, or inside welly's and was made of something pretty tough as it lasted for years and was second hand when I got it -  well, when your uncle gives you his old tractor, he gives you his old overalls!

Thanks to both Brain and Theo for the shots, it's all grist to the mill, and all appears here, eventually!

A is for A Problem Solved is a Problem . . . err . . . Solved!

I was going through the 'Unknown' dongle the other day, transferring stuff that actually has been ID's to the correct folders on the A-Z dongles, a job I don't do often enough (if I die, someone will go through that dongle saying "But he's ID'd them correctly on his own Blog?"!), and to aid the - ongoing - task, today we're closing the lid on two question marks.

The figures tentatively described by me as "... probably from an 'old fashioned' car, and look to be early British in a chalky brown plastic..." even thought they were included in a couple of articles here and elsewhere on unknown HK motorcycles as being quite similar to another question mark (draws breath...) turn out to be from an 'old fashioned' car[s], and look to be early British in a chalky brown plastic!

So off to Lone Star's folder both these and the older images go! Road-masters; die-cast metal, beautifully made and finished to a standard that holds up next to Corgi, Matchbox or Dinky. And the mystery figures are indeed the driver/passenger of the Ford 'Model T' . . . among others.

Now - I'm hoping this chap may be in the 'Unknown Seated Civilians' box in storage, but he's so similar to the others I suspect not, so there's another figure to find! Driver for a Ford Thunderbird coupe (second time we've had Thunderbirds this week and I'm still typing it Thinderbirds or Thunderbirts!), except . . . is it a UK 'Thunderbird', or has another car been placed in the box, it doesn't look like the huge wallowing American T'birds I used to see at the Guildford cruise? [Google says:-  '55 T-Bird! And possibly ex-/licensed from Tootsitoy?]

The driver gets a second outing with the iconic 1904 Darraq 'Genevieve' from the eponymous  movie, and the backing/shop-display cards of both packagings suggest several other Marques which could be responsible for the black-garbed version of the driver in my collection and the pink (versus grey) highlights of my lady-passenger?

A couple-more shots, not a lot to add; sometimes the lady is driving the Darraq. And - it's nice to finally put the files in the right folder and to label-up their index card correctly. Thanks to Mercator Trading for the photo-opportunity.

The three I have here cropped from the old article's images, there seems to be at least one other pose, a chap in a large bakers cap and long waterproof coat? As I say I may have some in storage, but I don't think so . . . Lone Star (DCMT) . . . Road-masters! Army lorry later!

T is for Tootsie Toy

You can almost count the number of die-cast 'mazak' (EU = 'zamak'!) aluminium/tin alloy figures made in small scale on the fingers of one hand: there are the mid-late period Dinky sets of Tank Corp's, Artillery and Vehicle Drivers/Passengers (25/30mm), then there are the Monogram 'Pocket Force' sets (straight 25mm), the Wardie/Mastermodels figures (20-23mm), a set of railway passengers and staff by Merten (30mm/O Gauge) and...er...[racks his brain to remember the others], there are a few, so 'almost' one hand is about right!

And then there is this little lovely!...

Tootsie-Toys from the Disharmonious States (have you not read some of the post-election stuff?) produced this Fire Engine/Fire Appliance/Fire Truck (depending on where you are!), and while in the hollow style of a slush-cast vehicle of the same period, it is in fact a die-cast alloy, as are the two little figures. I say "little" they are about 28mm, with the vehicle scaled somewhere between 1:48 and 1:60.

W is for World War One (Part 2)

Continuing the theme, a look at some other odd and ends in the collection...

We start with some siege artillery, the rear one (missing wheels) is by the American company of Tootsie Toys, who made vehicles and aircraft that were the die-cast equivalent of the old pod-feet era dime-store stuff, at around the time the switch-over from lead to plastic was gathering momentum. In front is a boxed-set 'enhancer' from Crescent, usually used with their 54mm range of hollow-cast lead figures.

I bought this the other day, I am hoping to make it a project on these pages, once I've set up a work area here at our new home. I have somewhere - in one of the many still unopened boxes, the original article on the A7V's in either a Military Modelling or Airfix Magazine, or one of the eponymous annuals, so intend to make it slightly more interesting by converting it to one of the versions not covered by the kit!

I bought this at the NEC on Sunday, from Mercator Trading

Mercator

It's a modern remould (or 're-pour' from the original mould?) of a figure from one of the minor French makes of the early-to-mid 20th C. What's unusual is that it's clearly a British Soldier, one would have thought that a French company would place one of their own 'Pilous' in the staring role of such an exquisite piece.

Size wise, he is somewhere in between the Suren/Tradition figures above and the Airfix figures in the picture, however as he is in a naturally awkward pose and hidden in the canopy of a tree, he goes quite well with either/both - just not at the same time!

I think these are two of the character figures from the Tradition range of Imperial Prussians, but as to which two I'm not so sure (the one on the left may be; GK3 General of Cavalry in Lancer uniform). Again I've used the Airfix figure as a comparison, these go well with the Stadden/Knight/Willie figures in the previous post.