W is for Wild West Warriors - 2 of 2

I shot these first, of the two post's worth, but they ended-up as the second post for reasons I've already forgotten, half the bagged/carded stuff, and a bit of detritus at the end, but all good stuff!

 

Sorpresa . . . Italian for Sobre, Spanish for surprise! And Natale Luigi (NL) is a new one for the Tag list. I remember ten lira being about half-a-p in 1977, so it's not going to break the bank, not even the piggy-bank, pocket-money being the target of very small 'lucky bags'!

 

Apologies to Peter Burgner, I was chatting to him about this find, which he'd observed at a distance, and I said they were the same figures as the Lucky Clover sets, but they're not. The foot figures are larger, while the mounted are the standard 'Giant' size.

 

Still a useful find. I suspect two sets of mounted are missing from the top of the card, and while you could do without the shop-keepers stickers, they do at least date the thing to the mid/late-1970's, the sort of thing which was sixpence in d-money, and became 5-new-p, briefly, before the oil crisis 'invented' modern inflation! Who remembers when 1st class post was 3p!

 

While we had the Sorpresa/Sobre equivalent in Lucky Bags, at the larger end, here in the UK, these were the equivalent of the smaller ones, cheap polymer stuff, sourced in Hong Kong, or occasionally, especially with tin-plate, Japan.

 

A painted figure, marked Hong Kong, of the same size, against the unmarked bases of the figures in the bags, which came-in the same day. All Britains copies, and these 35mm's were cracker fodder, too.

 

Alkastep; a scruffy card, and a ripped bag, but a sample is better than no sample, and it means we can look at the figures. All marked 'France', on the rear-edge of the deep bases, these are to be found as other premiums I think, or were supplied as such to third parties, without rebranding?

 

Post-Giant wagons, the buggy was branded National and others, the small gun-team a cracker prize, while the larger gun and limber combo' was issued with unmarked copies of Giant's ACW and Napoleonics. The other three are more generic.

 

The Poplar-Quaker Foods-Tudor Rose wild west set, really just looking for colour variations or gap-filers now, they aren't rare, and most mixed lots/donations, or show plunder has a few! They could mostly use a god clean, common with these, that obviously got a lot of play back in the day.

 

Likewise, the Crescent hollow-cast and Bergan/Beton copies, these are two Airfix late type (back right, the Indian has been given black, fabric-tape chaps!), and the rest hard styrenes which may also be Tudor Rose, in the case of the mounted certainly, the foot figures seem to have been carried issued by several unknowns, at some point.

W is for Wild West Warriors - 1 of 2

I split the Wild West relatively randomly into two plunder posts, these are the ones shot with the same background, it was a pretty basic dividing system! But lots of useful bits here, and some new horses which are intriguing me!

 

The two bags of Hong Kong 'hollow horses' and a few of their associated foot figures, one from Trevor, the other from the vendor of the TNT submarine. Neither of them are 'clean' samples, so they will need future sorting, and for now, will be joining a pile of such bags, some mixed, some clean, some semi-sorted already, and then, every few years, I have a big sorting session, matching horses, riders and marks to sets, foot figures or accessories.

 

Papo Totem Pole which seems to have - thus far - escaped me, no longer, and a nice thing it is too, but with ten colours, I wonder at the four shades of blue, Mesoamericans and the Mesopotamian/Egyptians, managed blue from crushed lapis lazuli, and valued it as rare, as did, millennia later, the artists of the renaissance, but I'm not so sure the forest Indians of Canada, Alaska and the arctic circle would have had access to quantities of such a colour?

 

A huge horse fitted for wagon bars, is it Tudor Rose or one of the others, the accompanying mounted figures were discussed a few years ago! A Budgie wagon in good nick, but missing its barrels, which always get die-cast disease and break-off!

 

And a wagon team which could be a minor British make, or Japanese, they made a fair bit of that kind of stuff, along with some of the unknown coronation coaches, which turn up in a similar size.

 

American Civil War didn't feature heavily this year, with an MPC and diminutive post-Giant (unmarked) copy tag-teaming a couple of wounded Confederate officers from the Blue Box regiment!

 

In my attempt to find all these, I seem to have ended up with 8-10 figures in the last three or four years, hopefully, these are the ones I need to produce a set of 6 in decent to near-mint condition, with a few duplicates, one or two of which are a bit scruffy - Crescent's 60mm Mohicans.

 

Marx, each from a different set, and are, from the left;

• 45mm Indian
• 60mm Camp Indian
• 60mm Pioneer
• 54mm Alamo/Fort Apache Pioneer (missing sword but still usable as a US cavalry figure), and not the first one I've encountered in this paint scheme, did someone (Swansea?) do a painted set?

Small scale/novelty figures with two from the Lucky Bags, same pose but nicely marbled, the Betterwear cannoneer completes my sample in yellow plastic, a cracker mini (blue), the soft plastic semi-flat (red) I think may have replaced the 'styrene figures in Lucky Bags, and a teeny-tiny tee-pee!

 

Initial thought was "Four French", but I think the red geezer is probably a Reisler, from Denmark, he seems to be complete, but threatening/calling someone out, and isn't it funny how it's always the smallest guy in the bar who starts the fight? Still to ID the other three.

 

Small-scale bits include parts for a log-cabin, we've seen it once or twice now, but there's a post in the long-queue, a few Airfix bits and a some Atlantic pioneer types, all real grist to the mill!

 

A few bits, Kinder, front centre, and Hong Kong, but of real interest to me is the pair of horses in the middle, what I've dubbed 'Mexican', now known to have been the Texas horse, but the one on the right is a pose-variant, and while they could be French, Italian, Spanish or even Portuguese, they might be HK? I have a fair few of the standard pose, from various sources, but these a real mystery, and I like mysteries, as it means there's more to find!

 

Does the white mounted figure belong on one of the 'new' horses? He may be a sobre/sorpresa - see part 2. Pocahontas is probably Phidal Publishing, a broken Britains, Lido 45mm, HK copy and an unpainted version of the chromed-plastic copies of Metallions. The figure lacking a base is interesting, as, while you find many copies of them in similar paint, not usually with a separate base - another of those canoe crew!

 

Finally, a pair of Safari Westerners, and it's funny, but I got the two 54mm Indians a year or two ago, the tee-pee and wagon were given to me by Paul Morehead as 'small scale' a couple of decades ago, Peter Evans gave me the mounted chap a few years ago, and the buffalo came in at some point, possibly from Jon or Chris, so I only need the Indian woman & child vignette, and a Texas long-horn cow, to complete the set, the best way, by collecting it! The woman here is described as Annie Oakley.

 

Go-on then, here's the Internet image!

 

Thanking Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, along with the others, above named, for help at the show, and over the years.

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! ♪♪♫♪

W is for Wehrmachtsmodelle

Wiking, the company best known to railway-modellers as a manufacturer of HO vehicles, and now owned by Siku, began life before the Second World War, as a maker of a larger range of small-scale (1:1250) ships and vessels in a lead-based Zamac, these ships were used as recognition and training models by the German Army, and were joined by 1:200th aircraft models, a range to which, AFV models known as the Wehrmachtsmodelle line, were added, and that's what we are looking at here.

 

Sadly not in my collection, I shot these on Mercator Trading's table about six years ago, and the group shot is taken with a Britains limber (#1726) for scale. The sample would appear to a complete air-defence unit.

 

Heavy trucks, a command/control 'office body' vehicle and GS troop-carrier/ammo-truck, both variants of the Mercedes G3A I think, but that's off a quick Google, not personal depth of knowledge! The nearer one may be a Krupp L3H?

 

Opel 'Blitz' and a command car/utility vehicle.

 

Staff car and two of the guns, which I think are the WWI forerunner of the famous eighty-eight, the 8.8 cm Flak 16, also known as an "Acht-acht" by the Germans, which became anglicised as "Ack Ack".

 

Two Krupp Protze medium trucks in the passenger configuration, one towing the searchlight and the other a generator needed for the power to the searchlight, and the equipment in the command vehicles, lights in the tentage/shelters &etc. Not the best shots, but they are very, very small, and shots at shows are always hurried!

 

By 1936, these were being made in plastic (probably the same grey plastic as the WHW's we've seen here several times, I've suggested Siku as a source for them, maybe it was Wiking?), so these metal ones are quite early, and quite rare. Ironically, they would fit-in perfectly with the Skytrex range of my childhood!

A is for Are You Kidding Me!

Well, sometimes it doesn't rain, but it pours, however, if it pours sunshine, who are we to complain! I managed back in the summer to drop the box with the new addition baubles, when I opened the storage unit's 'blast doors' one day, only one bauble broke, but it was the astronaut from TKMaxx, and given the lengths I'd gone to, last year, to find a second one for a friend, a bit galling!

 

So, I've been going into the store every few days, hoping another will turn-up, as one eventually did last year, and they tend to run decorations for several seasons, or until they've all sold, and while that was one reason I caught the second robot the other day, damn me, if they didn't have a set of three this afternoon, which definitely weren't there on Sunday, when I popped-in before closing.

 

 They also had a new set of mini ones, which we'll look at later, but - three more robots!

 

 

Slightly demented, if not, full-on sinister grins, created by the hint of teeth picked-out in flat white paint, but that may just be cynical me, are they grinning happily, in your more-balanced universe? I have a feeling these are old stock (which holds out hope for a replacement astronaut before the big day), as I think I may have rejected them at a higher price a few years ago?

 

But these work-out at less than two-quid each, with one in traditional shiny gloss, a matted, muted one and a kind of stained-glass window one, covered in colour-matched glitter! It's the same moulding for all three, mirroring the second trio, from Homebase we looked at here . . . 

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/11/t-is-for-theyre-only-robots.html

 

. . . but in glass, not plastic, like those Homebase ones. Homebase are now owned by The Range, who have had nothing like these this year. Together with the original resin (too heavy for the tree) trio . . . 

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/11/p-is-for-poundlands-poured-polyurethane.html

 

. . . and the other three found this year . . .

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/11/w-is-for-we-are-robots.html 

 

. . . means there are twelve now, too many for the tree, which already has bears, birds, hedgehogs, musical instruments, and soldiers, among a plethora of other things and themes! With another shelfied in Maxx a year or two ago, and a trio from Habitat in the press, years ago, it's a theme which could run, and run! I have to admit it, I'm now, also, a bauble collector! Is there a BCA - Bauble Collectors Anonymous?

W is for ♪♪♫ We . . . Are . . . The Robots! ♪♫♪

Last year it was spacemen, the year before hedgehogs, other years have had a soldier theme, and bears are perennial, this year I've had some more success with hedgehogs, but also these fellahs all came in over the last ten days or so!

 

I found this chap in Home Sense (the TKMaxx furnishings offshoot) the other day, and thought "Well, if they haven't got any spacemen, you're coming home with me, mate", not intending for it to start anything in particular, but maybe feature in a post on mixed Crimbo Dec's.

 

But then the actual TKMaxx on the other side of the car-park had a few of these yesterday, so I thought "I'm sure I got one in TK the other day, but I'm also sure it wasn't pink?" and took a punt on it, pretty sure it was different, and it was! Well, the game was afoot, Watson! . . . 

 

. . . And I got this one, this afternoon in the big M&S down at the Meadows in Camberley, it seemed to be the only one left, but there were still two, in their pink display tree! He's got a helmet on, so clearly needs some special atmosphere! And with five or six shopping weeks to go, before the big day, I'll have my eyes peeled for additional bauble-bots!

W is for White Buttons & White Ghosts

I shot the first of these in Sainsbury's a couple of weeks ago, found the second a few days later, and Brian Berke sent us the rest a few days ago, and they illustrate one of this year's Halloween trends - short, fat, stumpy white ghosts with cartoon faces!

 

The white button toys in Sainsbury's, among the only Bloggable novelties I found this year (there is another post's-worth), and technically, well, factually, they aren't white-button, they are pull-back & go, so I lied there!

 

I then found this Ghost candle (right) of similar size, both about 70mm high, in The Range, and this design of short (height-to-width ratio), fat ghosts with -  mostly - silly faces, is a real trend this year, with basically this design, found as soft toys of pillow-size, large ceramics of the TKMaxx decor-types, blow-ups and etc . . .

And these - branded to Daiso (of Japan) - are white-button's . . . I suspect, from the left, a jiggler or runner (the ghost), a jumper (the pumpkin) and, obviously, a walker Zombie? Not seen over here, maybe next year, or maybe in another region. And, we find the same basic design of the ghost, possibly with flappy arms? Thanks to Brian for the shots of this last trio.

 

Daiso/Seria seem to be a chain of 100-yen stores, like pound- or dime-stores, but a different value point, in Japan, and also operating to similar values in the local currencies of South Korea and Singapore.