H is for How They Come In - Sandown, February

At Sandown Park in February Steve Vickers gave me a bag of bits he'd been keeping for me, junk to him, and mostly grist-to-the-mill for me, to be sorted into larger samples, but there were, nevertheless, several useful bits and at least one new-to-stash figure, so let's have a look at them!

 

Always useful, there are several versions of these Hong Kong motorcycles, in each size, particularly the very small Christmas cracker type, and when coupled with numerous colours of each version, it won't be until I've done final sorting, that I'll know how many of these are new.

 

A Hong Kong bath-toy boat and two kit boats, there are many tubs of these and other small vessels, and while the larger one is damaged, it might be the only sample of that deck-type, the hulls being all the same, and every time I find some, there's at last one new - shape/colour/paint - one!

 

Probably all modern/current, but I can't assume I've got them all, until I can compare them, with all the stuff in storage!

 

Useful bits, the skeleton with a German army helmet, is from one of those whacky, daddy-oh, Ed Roth style model-kits, the cactus (Hong Kong copy of Crescent) may be a new colour, the chair has a tub of small-scale furniture to join . . . all good stuff!

 

Pretty sure, without checking, these are the Marty-M Toy-Maymoon stuff, and as useful spares, have a place, indeed with its sticker still extant, I may cannibalise another jeep to make this one the exemplar?

 

The new to collection figure here is the blue one in the centre, possibly a gum or ice-cream premium, I may have other's from the - European - set, but I've not seen this sweeping mouse before. Another of the many athletes is also very useful, and, in fact, I think the khaki chap, fourth from the right is new too? Maybe French? I'm also still looking for several of the Matchbox pairs, still connected, and this may be one of the (middle left)?

 

A camouflage New Ray signaller, harder to find than any of the many copies, is the highlight in these four, the Thomas/Taffy is a tad damaged, but the Lido GI may be original, the Lido German is an HK copy, but in an unusual grey plastic.

 

Kit figures, these are a future, major sorting, I have loads of them, but getting Italeri, Tamiya and Airfix 'Multipose' separated, is the easy bit, the US box-scale/odd-scale stuff from the 1950's-early 1960's is a nightmare, but one I'll have to tackle one day. 

 

The real grist-to-the-mill, you can't know if they are new, or common, until you compare them with all the others, and there are many others! Again, it's something I intend to do one day, and they will each get their own pages, although the Airfix clones will end-up on the relevant post of the Airfix Blog!

 

Likewise, there's a lot of this stuff, and the best way to sort it properly is to compare it to bagged/carded samples, and it's a big job, not helped by the fact that the main, or known producers of it, Ellem, M-Toy, and Star, were themselves pirated many times by their local competitors, and a western importer might carry one maker's one year, and another makers another year, sometimes in/on the same bag/card!

Many thanks to Steve for all these, he wouldn't take any dosh for them, and sharing them with you is the easy task, much sorting in my future, I see!

C is for Catalogue Cluster

Variously taken from the 1972, 3 and '75-79 catalogue scans the other day, they are sort of eye-candy, but mostly low-res, or not that clear, so to draw the curtain on the recent miniseries, and to get them off Picasa, here they are with a few notes, and in no particular order!

 

Larger playsets.

 

1st version Americans, with 2nd version in the boat, but they seem to have been given 1st version German helmets! I refer you to my previous comments on art-departments m'lud - muppets!

 

Ist version in the box, 2nd version outside the box! Americans again. It's not clear what the Bren-carrier crew have on their heads, but I think it is British helmets.

 

This shot was reversed in the 1976 catalogue, obvious from the red beret!

 

Window boxes.

 

Big beast, post-war British Chieftain Tank it was also issued in German grey, along with this one in a big-box play set, it's expensive when you find it, and rarely complete!

 

More art-department shenanigans here, some of the bases are wrong!

 

A bit silly, the Centurion turret is underscale and won't go through tunnels!

 

More art-department shenanigans here, some of the bases are wrong!

Have I already said that?

 

I think this is a mock-up too, the kneeling guy doesn't look right in the card-art, or in the blister?

 

That's it, I could have done a few more, but the effort of cropping them all was a faff!

 

 =============================================

 

Later the same day - 

 

I've added the Timpo paratroopers to the Parachute toy page, which you can find here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_14.html

W is for ♫♪♪♫ Well, There's a Small Boat, Made of China . . .

. . . and a silver one, covered in gold! ♪♫♪♪

 

It's chapter three of the 'Brown Water Navy'

 

Chapter one - https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/09/b-is-for-brown-water-navy.html

Chapter two - https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/04/g-is-for-growing-brown-water-navy.html

These are very different from the previous (and each other), yet strangely similar, the smaller being the sort of chopstick-rest, a smart Chinese restaurant will let you take, at the end of the meal, as a keepsake of your dining experience, and people collect the rest in their own right. A simple glazed porcelain, in 'Blue & White', it's similar to the boats in chapter one!

 

While the other was inherited from my late Mother, and follows a common pattern, so, while very-much a handmade and hand-finished item, certain of the components were 'mass-produced', along the lines of a factory process, but at a craft level where things changed from time to time, or varied between batches/regions. The best bit it the crewman, who's about 25mm!

 

There's also a lovely cloisonné turtle on the deck, I'm not sure if it is a mate of the pilot, or supper! I guess it depends whether it is on its back, or the right way up! It doesn't actually belong to the model, of course, and the stand is carved wood, I wondered at the crudity of the carving, but suspect a deliberate thought, to represent rough seas?

 

This is referred to as silver nef, but is very much the late 19th/20th century substitute for the real deal, a growing middle-class with disposable income wants what the truly-wealthy have, but can't afford a large three-mastered galleon on wheels, so settles for something like this, or a filigree gondola!

 

And, also, very much a tourist piece, but up-market tourism, of the colonial administrators returning to the motherland at the end of a posting, type thing, or presented to someone upon retirement, or posting-out, you get the idea. And it needs a really good clean, as it is silver and silver-gilt under all that oxidation and dust!

 

The basket for the fish, being protected by the 'top hat' outer, has kept the shine of the gilding a little better than the rest of the vessel! You can also see from this, that the ropes and ties on the vessel seem to be twisted copper wire, some of which hasn't taken the plating terribly well?

 

The Chinese Junk style sail on mine is a pressed pattern of woven palm-fronds, while a couple of similar raft-vessels I've found on the Internet have actual interwoven, fine silver ribbon, which must have taken someone, probably a kid, hours and hours!

 

Both vessels are of simpler construction (apart from the intricate sails), and have a lower freeboard than mine, but they are also 12-trunks across the deck, to the nine bamboo poles of mine. Although both seem to be incomplete, so it's not a fair comparison, and I only use them to confirm their ubiquity, out there, rather than work out the who's, why's and what for's, of things which would have been made in different places, maybe decades apart.

 

♪♪♫♫ Everywhere you go'ho'hoh, always take a navy, take a navy, with yoooou! ♪♪♫♪