F is for Follow-up - Britains Trojans . . . again!

I Found this after the follow-up, but it's not a follow-up to the follow-up, but rather 'just' a follow-up - if that makes sense, which it won't to Mr. Erwin Sell; he's too stupid to comprehend the literary concepts of narrative-thought, stream of consciousness or thinking out loud and consequently thinks I'm mad!

To be honest I'd rather be mad than that stupid, still - at his age - it's his choice to remain so. My writing is obviously too . . . err . . . 'clever' for him, but he insists on reading it and jumping to medical conclusions or psychological diagnosis . . . sort of making it up as he goes along, again? What do you think Hugh? I think he's probably the mad one. Are you sure? Yes, he's twice as mad as I'll ever be, can we get back to the post now? Do we have to? Yes, I'm afraid we do! Oh . . . OK then.

I knew I should have at least one copy of Hector (the Trojan!), is anyone else listening to the new version of the Iliad on R4? Achilles wasn't very nice to Hector tonight . . . not very nice at all! In fact; I would go so far as to say he rather ruined Hector's day.

A sub-piracy from that unmarked set which may be French or Italian bazaar (rack toy) figures rather than HK, but may be sourced in Hong Kong anyway, and a rather insipid pink polyethylene, he had been missed when I rounded the others up for the main post the other day.

F is for Follow-up - Greco-Trojan Warriors

Following-up on the recent Trojan Warriors post Brian sent me a few images of his very 'clean' group and something a little more interesting, a Hinton Hunt metal Greek hoplite with the proper 'Bell' cuirass from 1972.

Here he is, he's in the queue for a re-paint and Brian reminisces;

I used to shop at the Hinton Hunt store on Camden Passage, late 60's early 70's. A wonderful eccentric place depending on whether the husband or wife was manning it.

From the stock I would say production over several days or a week was one range only. This meant that if you arrived just after new stock there would be a range of hundreds of one subject. I remember this one figure had dozens of variations of just the arms and weapons. I must have put this one aside when I ran out of metallic paint.

To which I would add that Rose Miniatures had some lovely Greeks too, around the same time, of which I have some small scale versions somewhere.

Posed with Brian's Britains; you can see he fits right in and scaled to within a gnats-crochet of his plastic brethren, although with a thinner base he's probably the equivalent of 55mm! It would appear that Herald's Trojan Warriors haven't taken kindly to his presence though?

Thanks Brian!

T is for Trojans . . . except most of them are Greek to me!

I don't know if this is a follow-up, further stuff or big box-tick, but I've put the two lots of Britains 'Trojans' together and here they are in all their glory, well, the original Herald issue are pretty glorious, the rest are borderline OK, but they have a timeless toy-charm and we all had some when we were young . . . didn't we?

Agamemnon, hero of the Greeks, became 'Trojan General' and for some reason he's got a Roman standard and is carrying a polished hoplon shield . . . on a horse! Much copied in several scales, he was the duff one really as he wasn't armed with anything useful in mortal combat! Oldest at the top, newest at the bottom, there aren't as many versions with this figure as it's all in the bases, and being baseless, he's harder to sub-divide!

From the rear with a Hong Kong copy on the far right end of the row. The close-up shows how the HK mark is similar to the Britains Reg.Des mark! And the horse marks; I couldn't get the top one to come clear, but the Herald is obvious and the top one's a very glossy polyethylene, odd when the rest of the HK-production was PVC?

Paris, cause of the whole Iliad thing wot 'appened! AND . . . the only Trojan in a set catalogued as Trojan Warriors, but that anomaly will explain why the names were never used commercially.

The earliest is top left, the final incarnation with the separate base is to the bottom right, and above them the earlier HK production, and the 'austerity paint' herald is the broken one; lower-left.

Hector, another Greek Trojan! We won't see another!

Of all the figures, this is the one where there's no real difference in quality with paint versions. While the early Herald figure (top left) has a red hem and the brown shield straps of all 1st versions, the later ones - including the 'austerity' paint, have their bell-cuirass straps painted and leather-shoulder pads/epaulettes painted in, so it's swings and roundabouts with Hector.

Note also that the HK sculpting was cleaned up and late versions (bottom right and right centre) are smoother than the earlier Hong Kong moulding (bottom left). Hot water can solve the bent-spear shaft 'syndrome', but not too hot or it'll shrivel-up like a sun-dried worm!

Three copies, the first two marked Hong Kong and based on the Herald original as far as painting goes the last could be a French or Italian 'bazaar' rack toy, he's unmarked, a sub-piracy and they seem to turn-up over there (Europe) quite often.

Of the two definitely HK ones, the first is a by-hand copy, the other is a more typical [of HK] pantograph clone.

Ajax, main man, another Greek and my favourite sculpt from the set, he more than any of the others conjures-up those Greek warriors standing around the sides of vases and amphora. The first version Herald figure got the colour again! The first of the two separate-based HK figures looks quite sickly, and more like a copy than something Britains put their name to!

The guy bottom-left is the final clearance version with a large, ovoid, separate-base; this base was used with various figures as Britains slid into retirement! There are two versions, this apple-green one numbered 519, and a darker plastic numbered 518, I have no idea why!

One copy and the chap I painted to represent a statue years ago, when as a small scale collector I was clearly looking for an excuse to have one of my childhood 54mm favourites in the stash!

Another heroic name ringing-down the years, almost immortal, half-god, Myrmidon, lover of Patroclus, killer of Hector, Granddad's command, sister-ship to Ajax and err . . . renamed Delhi! When we were kids this and the next figure (below) were the best ones for fighting as they squared-up against each-other really well; being almost, sort-of, not really - mirror-images, but both right-handed.

I seem to have photographed them all with the feet of the top rows obscured, it should be noted that the constant difference with the Herald originals is that they all had their sandal-straps painted-in.

Two copies, Hong Kong on the right and a bright red 'debateable' on the left, again the Hong Kong one is following the Herald version one paint-scheme.

Note the two very different HK integral-bases, one matching the UK issues (middle), the other much bigger all round (purplish-pink, second from left) and probably later.

Oh yes! Ulysses - stroppy poppet - sulking for weeks with his Myrmidons , then, when Troy's burnt to the ground, the Trojans put to the sword and everyone else has pushed-off, he only goes and gets himself a second series; about his trip home - having feigned madness to not have to go in the first place!

Only the one copy and I'm running out of blurb-fodder?!! Plastic's an odd shade and he's following the 1st version colour-scheme again.

He WAS sold as a Roman, so the fact that he looks like a Roman is to be excused. Romans were planned, but only the chariot came out in the mid-1970's for a couple of years. Strangely it's quite common at shows, both boxed and loose, and I can only suppose this was due to poor sales leading to a lot of surviving shop-stock, filtering into collectors hands in later years? Finally they shifted the remaining figures as based foot-figures . . . driving slaves?

As they were sold, this is a late era catalogue image, and to recap on the names they nearly got;

Agamemnon - Mounted - Greek

Paris - Bowman - Trojan

Hector - Spearman - Trojan

Ajax - Standing - Greek

Achilles - Fighting, no cloak - Greek

Ulysses - Fighting, cloak - Greek

A Nobody - Charioteer/Slave Master - Roman

See! They both go so well together!

Now . . . THESE. ARE. NOT. RARE. It has to be said that the Herald 1st version and later 'austerity paint' issue are tending to brittleness now, but any day on feeBay you'll find all the 'Trojans' you want, just don't pay the 80-odd quid 'buy-it-now' someone was asking-for, for a set of six the other day!

The previous post I did on the Hong Kong production versions were from one lot someone (Micheal Melnyc? Thanks anyway!) sent me a while ago, and was one of each from a larger lot, while the mostly Herald stuff in storage was from the big-purchase in 2010. The HK-odds have been show purchases, and are probably the slightly harder to track down, especially in numbers and a couple have come from Charity shops.

Looking at the goldy-bronze highlights on the Hong Kong chap's shield reminded me; there was a very odd set went through Vectis Auctions a while ago, the original Herald set in a hollow-cast type gift/chocolate/tray-box, all the figures apparently 'mint' but all armour, helmets and shields painted dark bronze, it didn't look right . . . ? Although; Bronze WAS what they were using in their pre-historical 'age of mythology'!

I have a few 'total' duplicates and when I have all six (or all five foot figures) I may try painting them-up? And you can see from the pictures I don't have every version of each figure, so there's a few still to find!

C is for Carpentry - Field-carpentry

Bit of a box-ticker today, these have been in the queue since 2012, but they are common knowledge and already to be seen on the web, but with all the connectivity issues the last few days, and a big gap in the queue on the 24th (this is being written PM of the 21st), this si the best I can do at short notice!

When your soldiery aren't building heavy timber crosses . . . oh, no, that's Easter isn't it! The catapult from Atlantic, basically a copy of the old Elastolin siege engine, but more likely a copy of a copy . . . if you know what I mean, in addition to Ougan carrying the Elastolin model, various Italian and French companies seem to have knocked-out copies, and Atlantic just scaled one of them down for their ancient series; even the change from a counter-weight to a rubber-band looped over an eye came from one of the larger clones I think?

I am pretty sure this is an original - in every part - model, with both the heavy yellow rubber-band and the rope-coloured button-tread being 'as supplied' by Atlantic in the original box. The mechanism works well and will fling one of the little plastic rocks about four meters across a flat floor from the level position.

A shot of a couple of complete runners, as with everything Atlantic, they come in various colours, but tent to be kept to a range of realistic 'wood' browns, the same colours also seen throughout the Wild West range.

Another reason these images have been incarcerated in Picasa for so long is that I kept meaning to re-shoot these shots, it's not terribly clear (due to the angles I shot it at to hide extraneous background) but this siege tower (also following it's DNA back through larger piracies to the Hausser model) is moving against a shoe box with its lid on upside-down to play at being a fort!!

With all three of these machines the nightmare for collectors are the little wheel-plugs or wedges which don't stop-in, however hard you push them in, but - due to the nature of polyethylene's properties - tend to pop-out and go AWOL when you aren't looking, and I notice from the above I seem to have lost one after managing to husband 24 of them for the preceding 20 years . . . Doh!

The best kind of siege-engine is the one your enemy happily tows into his city for you, despite the oracle telling him NOT TOO! You deserve the government you get, and the Trojans got one that ended their existence, couldn't happen today . . . could it?

I have a bit of a soft-spot for Trojan Horses (which ought to be called 'Greek Horses'!) and have a half-a-plan to one day get an Action Man horse (not much different from this one in size - a tad bigger maybe?) and paint it in a timber-plank scheme, giving it a twig mane and tail, gold ears and those manic Greek-warship eyes!

The trapdoor is a bit of a 'fail' on this model, it sort-of clips on, but can only be on or off; it doesn't hinge. Being a more unique sculpt, it has less parts than the other two 'wooden-wonders'.

B is for Beware...

...Greeks bearing gifts, even if it is at Christmas and especially if the gift is made of wood!

Very quick box-tick tonight...

These are all Britains Herald from Hong Kong production, with the integral bases on the left of each pair and the 'swoppet' base on the right. I do have some of the better painted UK made Herald versions in storage, along with the mounted figure and some HK copies, and they were given tentative titles a few years ago in Plastic Warrior magazine, so we will return to them for sure, but for now, that'll do!

I will add that you can use hot water to straighten the bent spear, but don't use it straight from the kettle, if it's too hot the vinyl will shrivel-up like a sun-dried worm!