M is for Miscellaneous Modelled Miniatures

This lot dates back to March of last year, when a group of us had our Christmas breakfast and 'show and tell' a tad late, well, a quarter of a year late! Anyway, while indulging in friendship, good home-cooked food and a bit of reminiscing, both Adrian Little and John Begg gave me tubs of bits . . . I respond well to tubs of bits, bags of bits, boxes of bits . . . !

 

These were from Adrian, who had noticed the similarity between the old MPC sculpt and the Hing Fat 'NASA-nauts', with simplified sextant and skien of rope. A green-washed (verdigris!), probably Kinder Napoleonic/colonial era staff officer 'mocherette' completes the line-up.

 

You can also see that the better-marked Hing Fat (or copy?) is the worst sculpt, and while I've lost the reference, I know there was a better yet, Hong Kong marked one, although the definite Hing Fat, on the left, was also originally, Hong Kong rather than China marked. Hing Fat did - of course - also issue straight copies of the MPC chaps in their slighter Mercury/Gemini suits.

 

I think John gave me this chap, large, around five or six inches (in storage now!), and possibly Marx? But I don't know, and lots of manufacturers had a stab at larger beach/garden wagons, stage-coaches and the like, which from his posture is what he might be from, rather than a horse rider, but I don't even know that for sure?

 

This seems to be an ex-Imperial Toys moulding, you can see where all consumer information has been removed from the chest area. Twin-headed dragon/monster in a softish PVC or similar polymer, does anyone recognise it?

 

An articulated baby, in a soft polyethylene, in a Kinder style, but possibly too large for Kinder, so another question-mark? Damaged Britains Jesey cow, probbaly Kinder elephant (Disney's Jungle Book?), and a Blue Box (or Redbox?) crocodile.

 

Poor shot I'm afraid, but they will mostly return here one day in other round-ups or comparisons, the plastic truck is nice, the old-fashioned car is probably Kinder, can't remember on the black space vessel, but I think it was marked?

 

Bottom left is a pull-back-and-go motored novelty from the pocket-money shelf, the white die-cast is a sub-piracy of something better I suspect and the Matchbox Jeep with recoilless rifle completes the group.

 

Having seen the Cosmix knock-off of MUSCLE the other day, here's Remco's answer to Mattel's import from Bandai, they are original sculpts, slightly larger (heading for the full 54mm), and more recognisably wrestlers, that some of the MUSCLE figures, who presaged Skibidy Toilet or Brainrot, by being made out of spanners, chains, bolts, shop tills, tyres, Rubik cubes or whatever, one was a pile of combination-locks!

 

Mixed lot of Nottingham Mafia output, but in these coloured plastics probably from a Milton Bradly tie-in board-game, the Space Marine's Space Hulk maybe? Or one of the add-on/extension packs?

 

Odds and sods for the spares boxes, aircraft kit parts, a base from something (anyone recognise it?), a Kamley/KS gun in need of a wheel/axle assembly and a ball-bearing puzzle, apparently given away by a railway company as part of the forced privatisation which has proven so successful, against all the naysayers had to say at the time!!! Although it might just be an 'Intercity 125' giveaway?

Thanks to Adrian and John, all useful stuff, one way or another! Plastic Warrior in less than Five Days!

L is for Loose Lots from Last Local Show!

41 years ago, I did Street Lining for the President of Mexico, one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences which mould who you are, or who you become. The weather during the practices for the hideously complicated (until you've learnt it, then it becomes a piece of piss, I could probably still do today!) Half-Guard drills was average to cool, quite breezy some days (hard to hear the commands), while the actual day was overcast, drizzly, and foggy. Foggy in June, people . . . 41 years ago it was cold and foggy, in London, in 'Flaming' June.

 

Nobody said extinction would be painless or stress-free, and those people rushing out to buy fans, order air-conditioning, or book a visit from a pool-designer, are only adding to the problem, and making the end sooner, and more painful. Nothing like plugging some more shit in, or taking more water out of the cycle (and treating it with endless chemicals) to help end climate change, not!

 

There endeth today's lesson, but I'm getting mighty sick of the pink-monkeys and their idiocy. At least some of us have toy soldier collections, to take our minds off the gathering storm, and it's current, record-breaking, sticky evidence, and it's the tail-end of the latest Sandown Park plunder tonight/this morning, that might take our minds off the oppressive humidity - it's not the heat that kills babies, or elderly parents!

 

I couldn't resist this, it's a bit battered and hard to date, and I probably paid too much for it, but it has some age, and while you can get stuff like this today, I saw a new one on evilBay the other day, you can't fake the patina of age easily, modern ones have the lattice made from machine cut timbers, while this lattice is hand-cut from hand-peeled veneers, or carefully hand-split pine or box-wood. Upper image is the colour-true one.

 

Toyway-Timpo reissues, box-ticking exercise, box ticked!

 

I need a few reins, but they are the sort of thing I might pick up, in a little bag of ten or so, from the Plastic Warrior show, now only a week away! There was a lot of this stuff kicking around a few years ago, and spares are not hard to find.

 

More antique wood, almost certainly German, and again, some age to these, and a lovely example of something contemporaneous with the transition from horse to horse-power!

 

I know, we've pretty-much done them to death now, "How could you possibly need more, Hugh?", well, they were cheap, they were a largish sample, and there are new 'things', new colours, new combinations, and one day we'll return to them for one more long post, looking at each listed element (from the back of the box), and try to work out what other combinations/elements there were (in Woolworth's pick trays?), as well as trying to give a timeline to the variations between figures, balls, polymer material &etc.

 

I knew this soft-plastic version existed, as I had the broken off horse (still looking for a  red one!), when we looked at them a few years ago now;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/03/c-is-for-cake-coaches-cat-carnage.html

 

And there's something very satisfying about adding another item to a side-bar 'cameo', which has continued to grow over forty-odd years, with barely a duplicate - the mould-tool was hammered at some point, more than half a lifetime ago!

 

These came from more than one seller I think, certainly the dogs were from the 'terrace scrum' before the show, and everything in the shot is bisque, although the stork (heron?) has a more traditional porcelain glaze. The dogs are exquisite, and I assume German, who else did stuff that fine? I thought they were carved-bone or ivory, until they rattled in my hand! A few legs are missing, but very much a case of 'a sample is better than no sample' and the sheepdog is complete!

 

Adrian had less frontage than usual, so there wasn't much in the way of lead-rummage, and while I waited until the end so 'proper' customers got the best choice (well, nearly, P arrived just as they were about to go out to the car!), I still managed to pick out a few interesting figures to add to a growing, but barely sorted collection of such stuff.

 

The charging Britains piracy will be AHI or Minikins from Japan, the pair are like-Timpo on the left, throwing grenade, but CharbensI think? Copying the Timpo Brit', as a Yank! And Crescent (?) on the right, kneeling, radioing, the rest should be British, if not Britains!

 

Brabo idiot parachute toy. With help from Chris Smith there are a few of these now, and with help from feebleBay, their section on the parachute page is probably doable, it's more a question of me getting down to it! Known as Parafools, this is the 'Hippy', and I think they pre-dated the Imperial Poopatroopers!

 

I . . . just . . . can't say "No", there are so many variations, I seem to just grab them all, against a final shot of all of them! Lone Star, not Richard Coeur de'Lion, but rather, king of somewhere Welsh (that's a dragon!)! In blue, with sword, another example, for another 'cameo' grouping!

 

Likewise, this is something I might have already, but it was quite clean, and cheap, so as the die-cast replacement for the composition Zang version, there's quite a comparative sample of these mini-scaled P38 Lightnings (the first use of . . . are we up to four now, or three Lightnings?), as indeed, there is a similar sample of De Havilland Mosquitos!

 

More gash-lead, the cactus is possibly White Tower, or someone similar, I'll have to ask Matt? The Indian infantryman of the WWI'ish era is probably a modern kit, unmarked and has apparently been given a cap-gun carved from a broom-handle!

 

I don't know if the flag belongs to the Guards standard-barer, but it looks OK, although the red ensign should be in the possession of a merchant sailor . . . so I DO know, they don't belong together, doh! Possibly a foreign made flag, with or without the figure, Japan again? That diagonal cross is atrocious!

 

A wooden naval-gun which has lost it's wheels, but it's turned brass and could fire a black-powder (or Swan Vesta!) charge, with ball-bearing, and the motorcycle from the Merit magnetic board-game Remote Control Driving Test.

 

The show's mistake purchase! I thought "Oh, he's got his tyre, I don't think I've got one with the tyre?", but of course, he doesn't have a tyre, he's operating the storm-drain 'Hoover' tube, for the late Dinky Toy road sweeper, and in that capacity I already have him! Hay-ho - by our errors, shall we be known!

A is for Available in Any Colour, as Long as it's Fast!

I seemed to do quite well in the racing-car department, at Sandown, I rarely go to Sandown with anything like a shopping list, it's a question of what's there (and cheap) on the day! And, a month or so ago, it was racing cars, apparently?

Rather highfalutin instructions, and blurb, bigging-up a basic mechanism in this Maserati, which had been known to aficionados of balsa flying machines for several decades before this was issued? And the addition of a crown and bevel makes the 'starting handle' a harder wind than the propeller usually employed for the winding of rubber-band models!

 

To be honest, and given the quality of some more obvious 'facsimile' boxes I've seen recently, I have my doubts over the authenticity of this box, it's just too good, too clean? But the jeweller's loupe seems to suggest it's litho- or screen-printed onto an absorbent card, and shop stock stuff does turn-up, from time to time, but I'm not confident, either way?

 

This is my second FROG (Flies Right Off [the] Ground) Penguin (flightless bird), but is very different, the previously-found jeep being a heavy, vulcanised rubber, almost composition in consistency and weight, while this is a lightweight, plastic (early 'styrene?) and tin, novelty.

 

A future post (currently in storage) will be two of these helmets, one of which, in silver, is identical to the one depicted on this driver figure (the reason vehicles started to gain traction in the collection), with the set-forward or stand-off, drop-down perspex sheet, mounted around the front of a rigid visor.

 

They both came from 'Old Mr. Bening' (might be Benny or Benning), who was a silversmith, in a little shop/workshop, I think at the T-junction of the B3004 (Forge Road) and A325, just shy of Bordon, Hampshire, although the premises seem to have gone in a junction remodelling over the 50-odd years since he died, and we last visited him.

 

It may have been somewhere else, nearby, the memories are weak, and Google is no help with everyday, local historical stuff, there might as well have been no world prior to 1997! But he had been a racer in his younger days, and gave us a couple of his old helmets.

 

Ingap large scale Porsche F1, my first larger Ingap, and another in that classic fifties or sixties metallic blue plastic! I don't know if the box is original (packing from a larger carton?), or fashioned by a previous owner, but it fits well, and keeps the car protected, so I'll hang on to it! Both the above are about 1:43rd/48th scale.

 

Not a racing car, and closer to 1:35th/32nd, but just for fun, it was one of the items missing from my flood-damaged set, which we looked at prior to my discarding the packaging as beyond saveable a few years ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/08/ab-is-for-vidalis-brothers-joy-toy.html

 

And given the price Greek sellers on evilBay want, for everything, it was a bargain! I guess it's trying to be a VW Carmen Ghia, or early Porsche Carrera? Bonnet's not right for either! Equally, the Greek Hellas sports-car, might fit (after a quick Google!), but whatever it wants to be, it's still, a nice find.

C is for Corgi Copy Circus 'Car'!

So, I should try and get the Sandown stuff cleared before PW (two weeks today!), but there was a lot of the sort of 'stand alone' stuff, so it'll be a bit bitty for the next few days, but well start with a peach of a small-scale piece, of classic Hong Kong plastic tat!

 

I knew of the larger ones, but had no idea a small-scale one existed, so I was well-happy to find this the other week, unmarked generic and just the sort of stuff you found in the less-lit corners of a newsagent back in the late sixties or early seventies!

 

 

This is from one of those auction-aggregator sites, and I can't remember whose auction it was re-posting, but this is the Corgi original, a fully die-cast model with six circus horses in grey polyethylene which may have been domestic production, although a lot of Corgi's accessory pieces were bought-in from a certain far-eastern colony.

 

Telsalda did two versions, there are a few on evilBay from time to time, often with the animals mucked-about with, I think these are original and this in the earlier version, with the 'technically' Bedford type cab-unit. A later one had the classic Ford D-series, which is the one copied in small-scale. Interestingly, you may recall Jimson did two versions of their trucks, which is a sign HK was trying to keep up with both their Western donors and 'the times'!

 

With all three Hong Hong models the 'exhibition' horse-box, becomes a transparent roofed animal transporter, with six different animals, the big-cats seemingly facing way from the other four, to prevent nervousness? I don't think so! Box art with both generics and Telsalda marked boxes show the same solid/painted tops as the corgi original, so the clear tops might have been a last-minute idea?

 

If you didn't find the thing near-mint, you'd never believe the over-sized sea-lion belonged to the other five, but actually his stall has cut walls to accommodate his flippers, which shows how much effort they put into these toys, after casually selecting such a daft animal to include, far easier to find another small animal (see below) and not re-tool the whole body - all a bit daft really!

 

Polyethylene aginst the polystyrene of the vehicle, the five miniature animals, and slightly larger sea-lion with ball, a useful ID, as I have a sizeable bunch of these in the unknown section, and should be able to sort a few out/together, into a new bag! The camel is the smallest, scalewise, with the elephant very young!

 

I think the one on the left can be generic or Shackman of New York, while the Nesbit/Merri-Craft is similar to stuff from Unique, Grandmother Stovers, Carousel and others. They are not all the same, but rather sub-piracies of each other, the donors tending to be Briatins or Elastolin for the most part.

The baby elephant has many versions, with some from these sets, some, bought-in/used by Western makers, as safari or jungle board-game accessories. One I've yet to ID has a distinct 'A' on it's belly, but it is neither the Arco, nor the Triple-A!

F is for Follow-up, to the Follow-up - Row Cropthz? Oh boiy, oh boiy, oh boiy! Wa-hoo-wee! Lethz's get thiz thing movin', whaddaya thzay?! Wackqwackqwackqwackkqwackqwack!!"

More Daffy than Donald I fear, but I gave it a try! 

 

Well, I barely hide my disdain for the schmaltzy, 'classic' Disney characters, but when Brain Berke, roving reporter in New York sent me these, I have to say, I was quite chuffed, as it's an exquisite treatment of the dime-store style, row-crop tractor genre, and it is a genre, with die-cast and tin-plate, there's a whole field of them to collect!

 

Donald Duck, off to . . . do something . . . to a meadow! Brian reports it has no makers name, although the tyres (tires) seem to resemble the Banner ones, so might it have been by them, as a contract for the gift shops I assume the first two Disneylands (California and Florida) had, before the modern era of licensed and franchised everything?

 

Cheers Brain, a real doozy!

BMSS is for More Plunder, 2 of 2

The other half of the BMSS plunder, I literally split the folder this morning so there's no theme to either post, but this is by coincidence both mostly small scale, and mostly stuff Adrian gave me in a little tub, as a mixed lot.

 

Seen better days, with Plasticine bases and glued arms, but small scale'ish (o gauge), chalkware composition, in the style of Drevopodnik, and new to pile. They might be from the Soviet Bloc (post-war) or earlier, and German, I'm hoping they will be findable in my Schiffmann Sammlekatalog, next time I have it out?

 

Two Spot-On's to add to the stash, and two of the Kinder 'Mocherette', based on the Lone Star Metallions which might not be Lone Star (given that Hubley, Kresege, 'Hong Kong' and others, also issued them), one copper 'chromed' over the base metal, the other bronzed to an almost black-olive.

 

Reduced-size copy of the Brtiains Llama, a Hong Kong pack mule and one of the Torres wine-bottle giveaways, make an interesting trio of animals in polyethylene.

 

When I first started finding these, years ago, well, about 40 years ago, I was intrigued, I would get one or two at each show, and it took maybe a decade to get the last colour, they then became one of those things I'd seen the origin of, so 'knew', but could never remember, so didn't know! Eventually they were remembered long enough to blog (charity shop purchase I seem to recall), as Waddington's Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs figures.

 

And I now have so many of them I don't know what to do with them! They would paint up nicely as ranked war gaming pieces, but they have officers pistols, not rifles, so don't lend themselves's to ranks, or files! And how many role players (28mm) need slightly small (25mm) explorers, and what would they pay for them, when you can find up to 16 in a charity shop! The law of unintended consequences!

 

Odd smallies here with a Sistema Cadillac from Italy, in an odd scale of 1:77th. A few of the Slaters/Merit (Collis Plastics), home painted, and the weirdest of the three mico-AFV's which various rack-toy issuers used as filler in their sets in the 60's and 70's, joining the obvious Daimler armoured car and 25lbr type gun is this odd little amphibious landing craft/jeep/pop-up target/carrier hybrid, which has never been explained!

 

A bit of Thomas Wild West, an LB caveman, Matchbox Space 2000 'future warrior', and a kit figure in 1:48th scale of a WWII German tank crewman, alongside a later Briains head, farm, I think?

 

Atlantic, Davy Crockett figures, he survived an enraged bear, Indians and two demented donkeys, only to fall to the dastardly Mexican forces of General Antonio López de Santa Anna!

 

Three of the gold, post-Giant Greco-Romans we looked at on the other Blog, from two of the sourses, a Meccano for Hornby policeman and a larger firefighter, taken from Dinky, I think, or Corgi, but here probably from a larger plastic beach/garden toy?

F is for Follow-up - Dime Store Row Crop Tractors

The first of a few (?) follow-ups to things seen recently here at Small Scale World, and it's those pesky row-crop tractors, a design which never took off here in the UK, indeed, while there may have been a few demonstrators, or experimental imports, they were never a 'thing' over here at all, but, nevertheless, British toy companies ran with them, as mould-swaps or straight lifts from US dime-store vehicle manufacturers, and may have instigated some?

 

Partially as a follow-up to this post;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/11/m-is-for-mohawk-and-more-military.html

 

A line-up of the recent additions to the genre, with from the left marked Tudor Rose, x2 unmarked, marbled blue is slightly larger, both likely British, possibly Tudor Rose or Kleeware, the previously seen (in the above-linked posts) marked Made in England in military green, and a marked Banner in dark blue, The last two being bigger again, but not the same. Obvious differences in wheels, also contribute to the question marks.

 

Comparison between the Banner and unknown tractors, frankly the unknown (which I floated as possibly Kleeware last time) is the better moulding, did it come first, or was it re-cut? Maybe it was a mould swap with someone else - Pyro, Wannatoys or Wyandott - with the Banner being a copy of whatever donor's tool, the England mark was using?

 

I then found the military pattern Banner-marked version, so re-took the comparison, light conditions differed, so here's two, the lower image is eye-true colours, and you can see how the engine details are cleaner and more symmetrical on the Made in England - left hand of each pair.

 

The two Banner's, the blue one is marked Banner USA, the military-green one has had the USA removed, otherwise they are the same, and one wonders if it's a case of domestic and export, and if so, which is which?

 

They both have a hole on the right side of the engine-bay, which could be for a missing flywheel (more normally found in the other side in the UK, when present), or a higher-price-point's clockwork conversion, unlikely as the wheel is partially obscuring it?

 

The two known British ones, they are different mouldings, with the yellow Tudor Rose one slightly smaller, and only marked in the upper portion of the hollow engine cavity, while the 'army' one has the Made In England along the length of the engine on the right-hand side.

 

A larger, closer to 1:32nd scale, soft polyethylene Tudor Rose row-crop, in reversed colours from the smaller one, which is an earlier 'styrene, or less stable polymer (phenolic or urea-formaldehyde type?), but with perfectly stable polystyrene wheels.

 

Kleeware marked wreaker-truck (a straight mould-swap of the Pyro dime-store model) behind the 'England' pulling its gun, just for a colour study between the two, and because it was kicking about! The gun is a much copied design, and really, I don't think anyone knows who did it first (Auburn Rubber?), or in what size! And - of course - there was that close connection between Kleeware and Tudor Rose, and between both of them and Pyro on the space-stuff.

 

This artillery combination appears to be the one seen in this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2016/11/d-is-for-dimestore.html

 

Where a mix of a Bell machine-gun, a pair of unmarked Gilmark (possibly Tudor Rose) AFV's in bright colours, and some of the 'Built-Rite/Hardy/Kilty/Loeser/Spencer' semi-flat GI's were all found together with the tractor-gun combo'?

 

We've looked at them before, and looked at three versions of the Merit (J&L Randall) offerings, with solid wood, solid-rubber and hollow-backed plastic wheels like all the above. When I've got them all together, we may be able to work out a timeline of piracy, from US originals, to n'th generation Hong Kong clones!
 

All six. This post doesn't prove anything, but it didn't set out to, beyond the fact that there are many of these, and their heritage/origins aren't clear! When marked, we can say, they are what they claim to be, even if the tool is someone else's, but when unmarked, it's all a bit grey. More images are here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/03/b-is-for-banner-and.html, and I bought them in the end!

 

And knowing at least one was used as an artillery-tractor, I'll have to look at them all again, with the guns present? There were several already in the stash, mostly military green ones, but there are some other 'farm' ones.