R is for Rake of Rack Toys!

I mentioned, after the mad rush to collect and post the horror sets in time for Halloween, that David DeSoto had sent other figures too, and while I shot them at the time, I've only just got round to posting them, here, now! A bit more 'khaki' sneaking into the festive season!

An Imperial set, which, interestingly has those copies of New Ray, which I got quite excited about a few years ago, dating the set, as David writes; "The Imperial set with the New Ray knock-offs came out right before or shortly after Imperial Toys filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 here in the U.S.  [2020, ed.] As you may know, Ja-Ru, Inc. bought Imperial's assets and entered into a separate arrangement to purchase their operations in Mexico", David adds; "The two places where Imperial soldiers were once abundant, Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree, have not had soldiers on their pegs with any regularity since the transition."

Another, slightly older (?) Imperial set with a mix of the old, much pirated Tim Mee GI's, which I've always liked as they are 100% depicting the Vietnam era, along with some mof the more modern-looking GI types, straight outta' China! Colours are donor-specific, so it's Vietnam v's Gulf!

This is one of the more current generics, which we've seen a few of, in recent years here, however these are interesting for being the ones I've only shown as an online image, courtesy of Amazon or Ali Baba, and are the figures where each comes with his own larger-based scenic vignette of street-furniture or defence work! I will get them out and look at them properly once I'm settled.

Another generic, but this time a 1970/80's original, useful for being the copies of Britains/Lone Star swoppet Wild West, another long term project is to try and ascribe as many of these as possible, and while they are dead-common in lose lots, they are always mixed-up by the juvenile original owners, and sets like this help you work out which is which, as far as base-type, ethylene or PVC body parts or accessories, or even poses are concerned. Credited to a Triple D importer/Jobber.

 

These look to be the current (ish) copies/homages of Supremes hearald'esque Wild West, now credited to DL / Du Liang Toys (previousl;y Maxxi Toys, Stobok, Funtastic, Aliki, Liberty Imports and PMS-McColls), and consist of just the foot figures with a play-mat in that strangely metallic, slightly crinkley plastic.

 

I've also left this in the bag for now, as I've never seen one over here, and I don't think Steve Weston has them either, so I'm guessing these are a US 'show exclusive' whereby AIP (Armies in Plastic) get to shift end of line, over production or test-shots in mixed bags at an affordable price?

There's Colonial/Boxer rebellion, some ACW, WWI and a few Marlburian/AWI types I think, and a nice introductory sample to AIP's stuff, of which I don't have a lot, and what I do have is mostly WWI, I think.

There were also these lose AIP figures, which I know I didn't have, sold variously as Gulf War Infantry, Marines and US Peacekeepers, depending on the plastic colour, each in a set A and set B, of six poses each. I think these are the former two, and between them seem to be all the poses*, which some other-colour duplicates, so again a nice sample, and they are - undeniably - very nice sculpts, well animated.

 

It's not that I ignore this new stuff out of some misguided principle, but simply that A) there's so much else to find of either a vintage or more ephemeral (rack toy) nature, B) it's priced to sell-to, and does sell to adult collectors, so will probably always be around, in quantity, and C) as new production, it does get covered-well, elsewhere, not least Plastic Warrior magazine, but all samples are gratefully received nevertheless.

 

And many thanks to David for all the above, and the previously-seen Halloween bits, that's two additions to the Tag list . . . and archive too; DL and Triple D!

T is for Two - Mail, Historic Mail . . .

These may be of casual interest, curiosity-wise, and they certainly deserve to be published for what they represent historically, also they may have some specific philatelic interest to stamp collectors, who may or may not visit here occasionally?

Start with the easy one which happens, also, to be the first, chronologically, I assume it is from my Grandfather or Grandmother on Mum's side, and is only of cursory interest for having the "Past by Naval censor" stamp, bottom left, however, the scribble which seems to accompany it, and which is not recognisable as either of my grandparent's hands, would appear, nevertheless, to be in the same ink, and from the same pen, as wrote the address?

 

The suspicion being that someone in grandad's office, like his own secretary or batman (did they have batmen in the Navy?), had the necessary clearance to sign-off mail, without opening it or checking it properly, or to do so, upon the order from him? . . . The sort of low-level corruption in high places [sorry Grandad!] which leads ultimately to the Sub-Postmaster's scandal, or 'Lord' I-ruined-modern-Britain Cameron, or Rishi's wife having a $multi-million financial interest (through Israeli contracts) in what is, or should actually be, Palestinian oil & gas!

It really is the case that there's one set of rules for the rest of us, and another set for those in power. Although you can slide into or out of the select group who get away with such things, Grandad was cheated of his knighthood, as an embarrassment to two nations, one - Albion - almost as old as Rome, the other - The Republic of India - only months new!

 

And that he (or I) would expect him to have had a knighthood in the normal course of events, only proving also, that the honours' system has always been the meaningless, corrupt, box-ticking exercise it still is - no matter how many minor awards they gave to school dinner-ladies, before they got rid of them all!

This is also of passing interest, for the over-stamps indicating things taking a turn for the worst in another war zone, twenty years later. There's also an apparent conflict between the two types of stamp, one suggesting there's insufficient postage paid to forward the letter, the other claiming a suspension of service?

 

But this, which accompanies the Christmas card (see below), it of far more interest, as A) it reveals a time when we, as a modern, advanced, civilised nation, ran a universal postal service which would fully reimburse you (with a written explanation), if they failed to deliver a letter on the other side of the world - can you imagine anything like that happening today, after 45-years of Thatcherite-Ragnomic ideology having hollowed out all our institutions, and/or reduced them to their lowest, cheapest, common-denominators?

And B) it mentions Laos? The inference being that the Browns', as embassy staff, had been transferred to Laos, for reasons lost in the mists of time, and that for equally unknown reasons, the mail system to Laos, not Vietnam (which while still a hot war, was quieter for Westerners in 1960, only five US servicemen killed, probably all MAAG), had actually heated up, which it had, with both American bombing and a Communist insurgency, edited: I was thinking of 1970, 1960 was the start of the Laotian civil-war!

And, therefore, that while the lack of sufficient postage may have been true, someone nevertheless tried to forward the card 'in theatre' rather than send it back, before giving-up and adding the two 'service suspended' stamps?

I thought the card was worth showing you; beautiful oriental, stylised brushwork of sparrows digging in the snow below highland bamboo, I imagine Mum bought the card somewhere like the British Museum shop, or SOAS . . . somewhere like that, but she may have brought it back from her own diplomatic stint in Singapore?

Highlander is for US Rack Toys

Seen before here, but I had them out to shoot other stuff in the same tub the other day and as it's a while since we saw the set I took the opportunity to try and shoot some decent close-ups of the figures without de-carding them.

All the info is on the 'Highlander' tag, or the Highlander page in the A-Z, so just a reminder.

The 'gun crew' consist of a loader with shell, a radio-operator and a gun-commander, all kneeling, all unique poses, all approximately 35mm

The set also includes an observer/spotter who can go with the gun, or help the .50Cal machinegun crew do their work. All have got green berets so; Rack Toy Rambo x6! Or should one be John Wane? Nice to see two African Americans in a set of six US figures.

US Army is for More Clones!

Because I've been editing all the current output over the last few months, things have happened which might otherwise have been 'follow-up's, but a few weeks after I had finished the earlier of today's posts, and the later post today, which was waiting on a set and had put both the finished ones on the back-burner for a while anyway, the following images dropping into my in-box, kindly sent by Dougal Hare (so many thanks' to him) who had no idea the other two posts were in the pipeline.

Like the increasingly hard to fine Bandai 1/48th scale figure kits; this is not a common thing! I had no idea it even existed and I have quite a good Fujimi Mokei archive including all sorts of listings, imagery and several catalogues including an old one. A set of eight figures taken ostensibly from the Revell set but with several figures closer to the Monogram originals; Fujimi F:KIT No.U1.

Classic 1960/70's (I think this is the 1970's boxing?) instruction sheet "...paint the soldiers with civility"! OK? No rude painting of these figures please! No loud colours, no swearing at the cat and do your dressing-gown or smoking-jacket up properly before you sit down at your work station . . . and don't forget to say grace!

The figures, the kit element is limited (as it is/was with both donor sets) to a few small parts; here - attaching the flamethrower tanks and fixing the figures to their bases. The 'modelling' came from the cleaning-up of often quite flashy figures, heavy gate-mark removal and such like, which you can see from the images - in the case with this set.

We looked at their 1:76th scale cousins here (link) and they were equally in need of cleaning-up to get them to a photogenic state! Thanks again to Dougal for sharing this rare set with the rest of us.

M is for Monogram's Many Mates

This post only tells a part of the story of the Monogram sculpts, not least because it mostly deals with the Revell versions, which are quite different, through the Roco-Minitanks copies - which are the wrong scale! The post came out of an eMail conversation with Gisby, but I'm not blaming him for any of this complicated drivel!

Original Instruction Sheet

Although not as obvious as other much pirated figures (Airfix, Lido Wild West, Elastolin Romans, Britains animals et al), the original Monogram set US Army Military Figures, is up there with them and there are at least three main 'families' of figures to look at.

Firstly there is the original 'kit-figure' set and the various derivatives from (in a possible. vague order of appearance) Pyro, Renwall, Hawk, Adams, San/Marusan, Revell, SNAP, UPC and Life-Like (among others!) Lesser players include MPC, Strombecker (four figure set) - and IMC?

Then there are the soft polyethylene Hong Kong piracies, from around 10-or-so definable sources, most were sold as generics but one or two can be attributed, not least a small set carried by Marx. Small Scale World briefly looked at some of these (the generic carded sets) in the past.

Note; the 1973 IPMS/MAP kit list is no help at all in this matter, listing only the Tamiya set and the Monogram (as 1:32nd scale!), but most of the sets branded to the above were out (and still around) at that time, the SNAP/Adams/Hawk set came with a howitzer and sandbag emplacement and appears separately in the listing though.

Re-boxing under Revell ownership

Still the Monogram tool and brand-mark

The final group contains the ones we're mainly looking at here - the Revell-sculpts' based Roco-Minitanks copies and their UPC piracies in nominal HO-Scales. Giant also lifted them in an HO-compatible size, but we're not looking at them today; they'll go on the HK Blog . . . one day!

Revell used the Monogram set as a basis for their own (this box was probably issued sometime between the two above?), but kneeling-down the radio and flamethrower operator's, straitening a couple of other poses and both dropping some and adding newer sculpts. It was this latter set which Roco used as the basis for three of their 'HO' sets, the only sets they produced in soft polyethylene.

However, in the Roco sets, the sculpts were divided, some duplicated and the sets contain a few other poses, including original Monogram sculpts, variously taken from AFV crewmen which can be found in military model-kits (of various scales) from one or more of the companies (in the first 'family') listed above.

So, set 117 US Soldiers Combat Group was the first outing, and it contained the fighting 'infantry platoon' poses, along with the flamethrower, bazooka-man and mine-detector, but not the No.2 on the bazooka, who would be held over for set 141 US Artillery Group.

This is the type two packaging with the AHM/Airfix panels removed and a white panel/flash where the earlier sets had had a blue one (see below), I think the 'Z' prefix on the codes is the AHM designator for Roco, they used a 'U' prefix for the MinimoverS which were supplied by Umex/Roskopf. Walther's used similar coding for their suppliers, but only for the Terminal Hobby Shop (and now online) cataloguing . . . I think; not on actual packaging?

The 14-figure count includes two identical marching poses and an officer we will return to at the end of the article. The second radio-operator (large set) and officer are additional to the two donor sets, but I don't know which kits they are taken from - yet!

The earlier packaging, seen here on the second polyethylene figure set with the blue-panels on the obverse and AHM box on the reverse, they were imported into the UK by Airfix to begin with (you can - in good light - just read 'Airfix Products' under the "United Kingdom"), while Roco-Peetzy handled European sales. I seem to recall Riko took-over the UK marketing as Airfix dropped Roco in favour of their own growing lines of 1:76th scale AFV kits and the more 1:72nd scale ('OO-HO') readymade polyethylene vehicles?

The larger figure-25 suffix in the product-code is the US price-designator; twenty-five cents, US Airfix used the same system, as did UPC, below.

Again we have other figures from new sources; the seated figure with the rifle is from the original Monogram set, but I suspect the guy holding his 'bum-roll' is a Revell sculpt, while the various artillerymen will have been taken from various older 1:35, 1:40th or 'box-scale' AFV model-kits from the list of companies above - Adams had the 120mmAA I think?. The MG and Mortar vignettes are from the Revell version, and we get the missing bazooka-crew No.2.

I have no idea if Roco had a licence to reproduce the figures, or just copied them on-the-fly, I don't think Revell had taken over Monograme at the time they first appeared, and the fact that Roco would join Esci in later copying Tamiya sculpts (Esci also plagiarised Airfix and downscaled their sister company Italeri's 1:35th figures) suggests piracy?

Also neither Revell nor Monogram showed any interest in the smaller-scales at the time; although Revell would turn to it later (with re-boxed Esci!), so may have turned a blind-eye, or even tipped-a-wink at a toy fair, but equally they could have been fully-licensed? The figure next to the two seated figures is Patton.

UPC's box-art; above (large scale, channelling the Revell artwork) supplied by Gisby, below (small scale) from my collection appears to show basic training helmet markings and an oversized Hotchkiss on a Vickers' tripod!

I fired a Vickers once; I must have been five or six? Dad woke us in the middle of the night and  drove us to the School of Infantry at Brecon, where his staff (he was commandant) had set up the gun on the small pistol range/SMG butts at the back of the old wooden barracks (which would be unchanged fifteen-odd-years later when I stayed in them, winter 1984/5!), he then had my brother (four or five?) and I fire a 50-round belt each into the sand to wake the garrison - all totally illegal; even in those days! I coughed in the fog and nearly broke my teeth on the firing handles!

They (UPC) copy both the previously seen sets for a 27-figure count (even to the duplicate marchers!), probably pantographed; all the detail is there, but they are a tad-smaller, they are also the only polyethylene set in a polystyrene line-up, and the funny little bases (more Revell than Monogram, but all Roco) were copied as well.

#3039-29 - US Combat Group Soldiers, miss-attributed elsewhere to 3022 (actually a crewless/figureless artillery kit); I have set them out in the photograph  as they are laid-out on the instruction sheet - numbered top-left to bottom-right from No. 1 Bazooka man, to No. 28 seated, with the machine-gun as No. 26 and the mortar unnumbered/un-illustrated on the sheet. Full US catalogue listing with price in cents; 29¢

The third and last set manufactured in the soft polyethylene by Roco was 154 US Parade Group, 16 figures, but only a few new sculpts, again taken from Revell or Monogram (I assume) and probably from the various Jeep kits available in the larger sizes.

Contents give us a fourth 'George C Patton'esque officer standing, a variation of the 'actual' Patton figure from 141, but with standard combat trousers instead of the cavalry jodhpurs, two drivers and seated solder and officer, I guess the officer is the one in a side-hat, pointing?

On the far left (where Mr. O'Connell puts me!) is the 154 version, you can see he's been pantograph-copied from the larger 141 figure to his right. In the other shot is a usable miss-mould on the left, next to the standard figure. I could probably get him back with a bit of hot water, but I like to keep them, in hundreds of figures he's the only one who's turned-up! He looks like he's just spotted something dodgy and is about to un-shoulder his rifle?

Returning to the officers, there must be one [early?] Roco AFV which came with a crew-figure (US half-track?) as two of these (left hand figure) slightly larger versions have turned-up in polystyrene, but they could be further piracies? The base seems to be Roco, but could have been added by the owner, and I've found no other poses (from all three sets) in the same material.

Standard Roco-Minitanks in the middle and UPC copy to the right.

One day I will tackle the big-job properly, but for now, just a couple of shots which have been in Picasa for a year or three since a sorting-out. I have dozens of samples of this type of thing, along with one boxed set (may be Adams or SNAP?) still in the garage somewhere, and they range from the big 60+mm box-scale 1:24/5th or 1:30th figures from . . . not sure; Aurora, Pyro (?) or Renwall, through the standard 'early kit' sizes equating to 1:35 or 1:40th and the smaller 1:48th or 1:50th of the late Aurora and others, but with dozens of copies - sometimes in different sizes - it will be a major undertaking!

What we have here is - I think - on the left: Revell late/reissue in paler green marked (1) and 1st generation copy (Hawk/Adams/SNAP ?) at (2), with the same copies to the right compared to sub-piracies (Marusan/UPC ?) numbered (3). But - and I stress; they could all be by other people!

You can see that each copying reduces the size slightly, and the detail noticeably, especially on the 3's, it doesn't help that the pale flamethrower isn't in-line, but I can assure you the 2's are slightly smaller, the 3's measurably so!

Like I say; it's a big job, but not impossible! All the Aurora and Bandai 1:48th-scale smallies are elsewhere and a few are ID'd and in their company's box or tub, but these are the bulk of those early US model-kit makers' US troops. 30 to properly attribute, the supposed Stromberg set (I can only find die-cast Landser and a plastic pit-crew!) may be the pale grey-green foursome, bottom right?

-------------------------------

As well as the three polyethylene sets seen above, Roco-Minitanks produced a number of figure sets in the harder, glue'able polystyrene, and therefore I've put together a quick listing of those non-vehicular sets that might be most use to 1:76/72nd gamers, HO gamers should already be familiar with them . . .

Roco Minitanks Listing - Figures & Accessories Only

117 - USA Infantry Combat Group (polyethylene, ex-Revell/Monogram)
118 - US Assault Craft/Raft (Hong Kong piracies exist, same as 239? See also 363)
118A - Life Buoys/Floatation Rings (dealer's-list foul-up or late-90's reuse of the code with different contents? See also 363)

132 - Anti-Tank Obstacles ('Dragons Teeth' in various sizes + barriers)

141 - US Artillery Personnel Support Group (polyethylene, ex-Revell/Monogram)

154 - US Infantry Parade Group (polyethylene, ex-Revell/Monogram)

185 - Pine Tree Assortment (6 trees, like Faller, Merit et al)

218 - Tents & Cargo/Supplies (German WWII Zeltbahnen, copied by Eidai)

- single tent (four-joined Zeltbahn)

- double tent (eight-joined Zeltbahn)

- 2 drums

- barrel

- 2 different boxes/crates

- sack

233 - 2 Motorcycles (one with dispatch satchels, one without)

238 - BMW Motorcycle with Sidecar

239 - Large Rubber Dinghy (Hong Kong piracies exist, same as 118? See also 363))

249 - Bases for Battle Scenes (supplied by Bellona/Micromould)

251 - USSR/East German Tank Crewmen (10 figures)
252 - USA/NATO Tank Crewmen (10 figures, ex-Tamiya)

255 - 10-Man Tent (NATO 12x12)

258 - Guardhouse with Gate (figure, sentry-box and barrier, also issued as 851?)

261 - 20-Man Tent (two NATO 12x12's joined, many Hong Kong piaracies)

263 - WW II German Soldiers (15 figures seated and marching)
264 - US/NATO/Bundeswehr Soldiers (15 figures seated and marching)
265 - Russian Soldiers (marching, 2 officers, 8 soldiers, side-caps)

271 - Set of WWII Personalities (9 figures, 2 Goring's)
272 - US/NATO/ Bundeswehr Soldiers (20 marching GI's, ex-264, small set, off the runner)

272 - US/NATO/ Bundeswehr Soldiers (20 marching GI's, ex-264, large set, on the runner)

288 - Assorted Sheets of Modeller's Plastic

298 - US/NATO/Bundeswehr Soldiers [sitting] (, ex-264
299 - German WWII Soldiers

300 - 8 Officers, 2 Map Tables and Chairs (6 standing, 2 seated/stools, Vietnam-era, ex-Tamiya)
301 - British WWII Gun Crew (6 kneeling/squatting, ex-Tamiya)
302 - 16 Soldiers Infantry Group (Bundeswehr types)

308 - US Gun Crew (6 figures)
309 - 16 Tank Commanders/Drivers (NATO/Bundeswehr types, upper-torso's only; for hatches)
310S - Infantry Group 'Afrika' (German WWII Afrika Korps - limited edition)

317 - Barbed Wire

319 - 28pc Set of Ammo Boxes

342 - Fence and Gates

363 - Assault Rafts with Life Rings

450 - WW II Personalities (set 271 reproduced in 1:35th scale)

463 - US / NATO Tank Commander Figures (Gulf War? ex-Tamiya?)

542 - Sandbags

550 - Artillery/Munitions Accessories Set

614 - Nissan-hut (US; 'Quonset-Shelter', standard accommodation hut)
615 - Nissan-hut (US; 'Quonset-Shelter', extended administration/facility/classroom building)

851 - See 258

Roco Railways

40000 - Station (24 undecorated civilian figures, also supplied to/issued by Kibri)

40001 - Loco Crew (painted engineer and fireman from the steam-age)

Might as well do the UPC as well . . .

'HO Pocket Combat Series' Military Vehicles (definite pirates of Roco Minitanks, not sure if Marusan carried the whole line, and supplied UPC or if UPC were the pirates; supplying Marusan with a limited range?)

#3011-29 - German Armored Car 234/2 (also ex-Marusan)
#3012-29 - German Armored Car 234/1 (also ex-Marusan)
#3013-29 - U.S. 2 1/2 Ton Truck 6x6
#3014-29 - U.S. 2 1/2 Ton Truck
#3015-29 - Self-Propelled Howitzer
#3016-29 - General Patton M-48
#3017-29 - Self-Propelled 155-mm Gun, T-245
#3018-29 - Tank Medium PzKfw.V Panther (also ex-Marusan)
#3019-29 - General Patton M-47
#3020-29 - Half-Track Rocket Carrier
#3021-29 - General Sherman Tank M-4
#3022-29 - 120-mm Anti-Aircraft Gun M1A3 (not US Combat Group Soldiers, see #3034)
#3023-29 - German AA Gun 37mm
#3024-29 - German Tank Mark IV/Fl (also ex-Marusan)
#3025-29 - German Tank Mark IV/F2 (also ex-Marusan)
#3026-29 - German Tank Mark IV/H
#3027-29 - German 20mm Quad AA Gun
#3028-29 - Half-Track Munitions Carrier
#3029-29 - Sound Detector (also ex-Marusan)
#3030-29 - Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Guns (also ex-Marusan)
#3031-29 - Half-Track Quad AA Gun
#3032-29 - 2 Jeeps M38A1
#3033-29 - 155mm Gun M2
#3034-29 - US Combat Group Soldiers (combined contents of Roco sets 117 & 141)
#3035-29 - Honest John Rocket
#3036-29 - Tiger II
#3037-29 - Self-Propelled 8-inch Howitzer