RTM is for Red Deer's Toy Merchandise!

Bit of eye candy for the lovers of low-brow, low shelf kaka from the former colonies of the Far East, and these are out there now, with Peter Evans having provided some, while I found the others locally. We've seen Red Deer before, but these are further branded, or ascribed to an OTL of Leeds . . . and Poland?!

 

Hing Fat Japanese Infantry clones (and that's funny in itself!), in pink, with a basic, mostly plastic pull-back-and-go aeroplane in another scale, along with the de rigueur flag & stand, it's a real throwback to the rack-toys of yesteryear!

 

Spellcheck says "Using many exclamation marks might seem excessive (in this case: 3 exclamation marks for a text that’s 577 characters long)" . . . Have they not seen my Blog before?!!!! It's august, it's Rack Toy Month, lighten-up, you robotic retard!

 

Nth-generation copies of Matchbox's venerable (1975?) 8th Army sculpts, in bright blue plastic with a yellow fighter!

 

Vaguely German, that's RTM off to a good start! With exclamation marks!

 

"Using many exclamation marks might seem excessive (in this case: 11 exclamation marks for a text that’s 1030 characters long)"

W is for World War Warriors

So, we come to the last of the PW show plunder posts, twenty posts I've got out of it, this year, and some fine loot was scurried back to Small Scale World's command centre here in North Hampshire, to be shared with the rest of you, and we're finishing with the khaki-clad chaps and their contemporaries.

 

OK, so Google hasn't just changed the graphic on the upload page, they've tripled the time it takes to do everything, great! Paratroops/parachute toys, all three were from the donation bags I think, everyone knows I like a good parachute toy!

 

On the right, another of the Mogul (Meccano) Germans originally sent to the Blog by Chris Smith, almost certainly designed by Stadden, and now with his rather fine MG34 'Spandau', it's a specific moulding with a truncated stock, and a small block which locates in his hand.

 

While another of the finds of the show is a composition figure similar to those of Zang, the 'similar to Zang' unknown and the V - Empire Forces guys, if only by dint of them all standing to attention at around 54mm, in Battle Dress . . . but a new pose/moulding, also unknown, so a lovely comparison heading this way, when I get them all together! I think the pink goop in the moulding recesses, is the result of someone trying to take a mould of him in silicon or Plasticine?

 

New to me/collection/Blog, although I was vaguely aware of them from previous research into Wizards of the Coast's larger figures, these are for the recent trend in out-of-the-box 1:144th scale war gaming, and the upper shot has the Germans in the middle with soviets to the left, pouring out of Silesia, and the Yanks to the right, advancing to the Elbe from Aachen! The lower shot has two Japs on the left, two Brits on the right, with a Chinese, French and Rumanian (I think) behind.

 

They are not impressive sculpts, and the paint makes things worse, trying to sort them by eye, I only guessed about six of them right, the moulding is poorly defined and blobby, weapons and - particularly - helmets, are inaccurate, and painting seems pretty arbitrary? I believe these are from the first tranche of Axis and Allies, and subsequent editions scaled up to 15mm (1:100th), nominally, from the 10/12mm (1:144th) of the original series?

 

Marx, grist to the mill, but quite a nostalgia hit, we all seemed to have a few of these in with our Airfix, Timpo and painted-odds, back in the day!

 

Cherilea, these are the interim ones between the first and third versions, with elements of both, and while missing their weapons, will make useful additions to the tub, where I'm slowly accruing decent samples of all three types.

 

Atlantic air force ground-crew figure, on the left. I don't prioritise Atlantic large-scale as I have them all in small scale, and, whatever scale, they tend to be priced/valued far too highly for what they are - recent'ish, mass-produced figures, which were piled-high in Beatties, Tangley and that place in Woking, from 1980 to the middle of the decade.

 

In the centre is a 40mm from Spain or Argentina, I can't remember off-hand, but I think we've seen a larger sample (trio?) here, with mounted figure, they are certainly in the collection, and will appear here eventually!

 

And another HO'ish Zang pilot, for years I used to treasure my lone example, but I think I have about 15 now, and most shows seem to throw-up another one, which doesn't mean I'm complaining, or showing off, but rather I look forward to getting them all together and shooting them as a group, with any obvious variations..

 

Smart Toys on the right, I think he may be a new pose, and three of the Pioneer for Realtoy (et al), the Smart being a copy of a larger Pioneer figure, and the two on the left being of the six poses I still needed, complete, I had the blue-chap, mucked about with!

 

This show's lemon! Someone came over to me and asked if I could ID this for their mate. to which I replied ". . . looks like Marty/M-Toy, but I've never seen it with Australian heads . . .", the owner then came over, and we had a chat, he was looking for a fiver, which I'd happily give for the GI version, so I went off with it.

 

And I was quite pleased with it, showed it to one or two people with some enthusiasm, but started to wonder if the heads were right? Now I've mentioned before, the lighting at the venue can be a bit confusing, not as confusing as it used to be at Dave McKenna's show in the Mason's lodge in Birmingham - the number of colour variations I took home from there over the years, which were normal colour when unpacked at the other end! But nevertheless, confusing enough!

 

And, as you can see, as clearly as me, when I got it home and into normal daylight, they are Aussie heads from Timpo! But, I may leave it for a while, as is, it's quite a clever, if simple conversion, and I have the US one, I just need to sort the belts out!

 

Monogram clones to the left, other bits to the right, the baseless chap is interesting, but I think we may have seen him a decade or so ago, during the heyday of Poundland/99P Store stuff, which has almost dried-up now?

 

Ackerman (et al) to the left, New Ray clone, Marx mini and a larger 60mm 'pod-foot' GI.

 

Soma, biggies, similar to the weird set of HO sci-fi/pilots, so probably the same sculptor, but more irregular types, and I'm guessing here, but almost certainly to be from a set of ten, possibly in two colourways?

 

Picked-up four more Trojan, in two plastic colours, an olive drab, wounded, and three in a richer olive-green. Until I've got them all together, and sorted, I can never remember which ones I have, and which ones I need, so tend to grab them when I see them, although I'm pretty sure it's the sand-plastic ones I'm short-of now!

 

Incomplete set of Marx medical group, probably re-issues in this silver? The nurse thinks there's a chance, with her blood/plasma bag, but the priest's given-up and is administering the Last Rites, morbid phuquer! The doctor's gone off to have a brandy by himself, and I suspect the poles are replacements?

 

More bloody metal! What sort of a plastics show is it?! SAE WWI 'Doughboy' from South Africa on the left, an interesting figure (with lead rot) next to him, in the style of the composition figures described above, a nice semi-flat who appears to be similar to the 25mm metals, ascribed to Fantasyland (from Hong Kong), so possibly from the same stable?

 

And two Skybirds, one an obvious copy/home-cast (on the right), the other more original, but not right, so either stripped and re-painted, or one of the Douglas Miniatures re-issues, home-painted?

 

And finally . . . on the left a bag of small scale, mostly grist to the mill, but there were some interesting figures in there to sort into the collection, the WHW machine-gun team, seen before here, and a huge bag of kit figures, which need a serious sorting, being not the usual 50-70mm early or box-scale stuff from Pyro, Adams, UPC, Revell, Monogram, SNAP etcetera, but rather 25-50mm smaller stuff, although some of the same names may be responsible - all for another day!

 

So, many thanks again to Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin for everything they did or contributed on the day, additional thanks to those also mentioned in the text of the various posts, including Andreas Dittmann, Brian Berke, Chris Smith, Micheal Mordant-Smith, and Tony H, John Begg, Gareth, Steve V. Peter Cole at Replicants, Graham, Mike, Theo and Glen, the Poles and Russians, and everyone else, for everything, over the years. In fact, it's time I did an acknowledgements page!

 

But also, special thanks to Paul Morehead, Brian Carrick and Peter Evans of Plastic Warrior magazine, for organising another brilliant day, where we could all get together, buy plastic shite to our hearts or needs content, and catch-up. I hope you had a good show, if you were there, and it's gotta' be only 11-mothns to the next one!

 

I'm actually off to London today, to pick up eighty-quidsworth of stuff I haven't even seen yet, so we'll get Rack Toy Month out of the way, and then there'll be more like this in September, with any luck, some Dime Store spaceships are coming from the US, and it's back to Sandown in a month's time!

R is for Royce's Rocco Rascles

So, before the last post of June 4th's show-plunder, we ought to look at this rarity, although I will shoot it again for the Khaki Infantry page, as Dave Skrivener's image has been doing sterling work there, for over a decade, while I never dug my own sample out!

 

How I spotted them, except on a table with other toy soldiery stuff! This is a shop-stock box, possibly the only surviving shop-stock box, although I may have seen another, a fair few years ago, and while he may not want to be spotlighted, I think it's worth mentioning that Brian Carrick, the seller had next to nothing on this, as we used to say in the motor trade, he washed his face on it.

 

Meaning he let it go, for what it owed him, without much attention to inflation in the meantime, or what someone might think it's worth. And while that may be a moot point, beyond box-ticking collections of early British plastic, there may not be much demand for it, and once you have it, you are the custodian, there's not much else you can do with it?

 

However, I still think it was silly-cheap, and while I think I made him take a bit more for it (something I often do, I'm not one for exploitation), and then gave four of the figures to a friend who has done a lot for the blog, I can only hope I am as strong-minded and generous when the time comes to pass my collection on.

 

As far as I know, this is the full line-up, Dave's image is missing the 3rd figure from the left, influenced by the Hilco clone of the French Clairet (Acedo?) SMG gunner, which, strangely was the one I'd had for years, before finding some or all of the others, who are, of course Britains' copies, not the Lone Star I'd thought, although the conversion to Para' berets is partly responsible for that attribution! Berets - it has to be said - which are more Military Police (MP's), in colour, than any paratroops from the UK!

 

The stock-box has been rummaged through over the years, and some extra figures have clearly been added to replace some of the missing ones, so it's hard to state facts about the contents, But it seems, after digging down through the layers, that each layer (of four) has a 4/5 mix of two poses, with an officer, for a ten count, or forty, in the box.

 

This leaves this box heavy in grenade throwers, and SMG guys, with four officers and only a few charging figures, one has to assume the next box off the line would have had more charging figures, and a shortage of one of the other two soldier poses, and so on, but that is pure speculation. 

 

Colour variations exist, both with the usually marbled plastic colour, from oxide reds through to olive drab, and some paint differences. Although I say that grandly, as if there are mountains for them, there aren't, there were a few production 'tranches' and one of them is quite brown, one quite olive, and Dave's are more of a dung-khaki, and not marbled, while paint seems to vary between a bright apple green, and more pastel herb-green for webbing and puttees, which don't (the puttees) always get painted!

 

I have a feeling, some or all of mine might have smooth bases*, but that might be a complete falsehood, so for now, assume they are all marked as above on the base underside. Markings which are not found on the small range of seperate horses and mounted figures, or the single-moulding, galloping guardsman. The only variation is that the grenade thrower has his marks stretched over two lines, the other three figures get the mark spread over three lines.

 

*Equally, they might have a mark on the upper side of the base, a simple 'Made In Great Britain', without the Rocco? But, again, that might be a false memory, and until I dig them out, shouldn't be taken as more than this footnote. 

 

I shot them again, because the angle on the second image above was a bit severe, and these need to be done justice, and to that end, as I said, I will re-shoot them in a similar vein, for the Khaki Infantry page in the next few days.

 

The set, I believe, came from Royce's daughter, whom Brian was in touch with, in the past, and - with the obvious changes -  it is literally, ex-Factory stock. It must also be pointed out, that these are incredibly brittle now, with Dave's played-with charging figure the only one I know which still has the bayonet, and following the break-up and auctioning, in parts, of his collection, that figure is rather lost to the hobby.

Q is for Quickie! Seen Elswhere

And actually seen here! I was going to do a longish post on Ambulances, but I was up at 4:40 to drive to Luton and have successfully battled the salary mongs on the M25, back again. Now fatigue is catching-up, and I'm going to have a snooze before work, so here very much as a reminder, are a few bits from last year's Plastic Warrior show, which - as far as this year's - is only four Saturday's away, three and half weeks peeps! We did see them in last years show report posts, but these went on a Faceplant group at the time.

 

A pair of 1st version British Paratroopers from Airfix.

 

A trio of Trojan 14th Army figures, joining a growing sample.

 

Four of the Hilco ANZACs cloned from Timpo, which had been on my shopping-list last year, I'm not sure what's on the list this year, in fact, I don't know, because I've given it little thought, beyond the one or two 60mm Crescent Mohicans I still need! But I've three weeks to give it some thought, and save some dosh, and, so do you!

 

Contact details, I expect Brian Carrick (who was to feature in the Ambulance post!) will do a detailed travel guide in the next week or so, and there'll be more on Faceplant for those still there.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PlasticWarrior?fref=ts
Blog. - http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.com/
eMail - pw.editor3@gmail.com (pw.editor@ntlworld.com)
Tel. - 01483 830 743

SS is for Shelfie Session

Try saying that when you're drunk! I had a quick whizz round all the usual suspects the other day, and managed to shoot a few shelfies of stuff which may be of some interest to some loyal readers, or not, as the case may be!

 

Shot this pair in Hobbycraft, and I may go back for the Sherman, if only to compare it with the CTS and Airfix ones? It's the Lego-compatible range of clip-together 'kits', but differing from Lego and Cobi, in not having any studs showing on the finished article, the top layer is all 'site specific' and fully-moulded/sculpted on the final, visible faces. These were new, about two years ago, and I venture to say, at 20-quid-a-pop, all the money!

 

Off to The Range for these, I think we've seen the Harry Potter one previously, but no matter, a reminder is as good as . . . something witty I can't come up with? Hard to pin down, but I'll try - branded to RMS, brand-marked to Project Craft and imported by CDS Group "...a third party logistics (3PL) and supply chain solutions provider!", so there!

 

While these were shot in B&M the other day, Magic Box have clearly moved-on from Crazy Bones, but there's still a blind-bag element to collecting the line, they are too unpiratey (spellcheck says I invented that word!) to save for ITLAPD, so here they are.

 

It's funny, because Bushy the Twig over at planetcamp has started going to B&M, and The Range, he'd better get himself to Smyths and Hobbycraft if he really wants to copy me! And a few garden centres, and Flying Tiger, and the other one! And he needs to stop showing us the stuff he leaves in the charity shops, which he also now visits, because that’s the shite nobody's buying!

Still, he does live castles now, as well, and he's finally added a Blog archive, after nearly 20 years! He added a link-list too, a couple of years ago, but managed to avoid this Blog, and has already cut it down and placed it where nobody can find it - doesn't like sharing, see!

 

But then it took him several years to start tagging, and only after one of his readers (guess who!) kept pointing out the lack of a tag-list! And then never did it that systematically, so it's still hard to find anything, nor did he retro-Tag the first few years' stuff, so that's lost!

Don't get me wrong, there's no exclusivity to any of this stuff, I can't expect to be the only person doing this, that, or the other, and a good idea, nicked, is the purest form of plagiarism, therefore - the sincerest form of flattery!

And so soon after the 'ossuary' thing, he managed to squeeze in a Shogun reference, the day after me (literally the next day!), but I was talking about the MB Games game with the five armies of different-coloured miniature figures, not some nerdy, cerebral time-waster, for a rained-out caravan holiday!

 

It's tragic how threatened or envious he seems to be of what was originally, a completely different Blog, but they increasingly look the same, because he keeps doing what I've already done! In a few years, the only discernable differential between our two Blogs will be that all the eBay scrapings will still be over there, and all the original copy and images (mostly of a [vaguely organised] collection) will still be here!

Anyway, I promise you, you'll never find me making dollies accessories out of hot glue and toothbrush handles, ever, he can keep that! What do you think readers!

S is for Seen Elsewhere - Blue Box Brit's

This weather is draining, and we've taken on a bunch of new postcodes at work, so 90+ miles in a shift, and then home to a too warm/humid room, has reduced my desire to wrestle with word-smithery or image manipulation, but there are still two posts, one each, from Peter and Chris, to come, when I get round to them - it's supposed to be cooler next week!

 

It's funny, on the hottest May day ever recorded (until the next day!) I delivered to a smartish family, two polite kids, attractive couple, nice house, BMW in the drive, they had two office-type fans on stands going, and through the patio windows I could see a two bay gas-fired bar-b-que, I would imagine, they also have a patio heater, for when records aren't being broken, and aspirations to a bigger house and maybe a wee swimming pool . . . They just don't get it, we are literally at risk of going extinct within the lifetimes of people reading this, but let's get more fairy lights in December - Burn baby, burn!

 

Anyways, here's some stuff I put up on a Faceplant group I was on, a couple of years ago, or through '21-24? I can't remember now, probably one was shot and held for a while and the other two were dated 2024;

 

With help from Chris, in one of his more general donations, was a specific gift of the Blue Box mine-detector, as he knew from a previous conversation, or post, that I didn't have a good one! Thanks, Chris!

 

This is the 2021 shot, and as you can see, a distinct lack of operational mine-clearers! Also, the caption became dated when Chris sent me the following image, from his own collection . . . 

 

Which clearly shows two tranches of paint-job, with the probably later set having the brown of the weapons/webbing, replaced with the same black of the boots - to reduce unit-costs, I would imagine? And I think the last time I looked at them there was a third unpainted plastic colour, so a possible 30 to find!

D is for Donation - Chris - Military

Some lovely figures here, and a pair that have driven a follow-up, which will appear out of the current sequence, between this post and the last of the Gogo Crazy Bones posts. I seem to be in an odd rhythm at the moment of blank days and multiple post days, it's pure coincidence really, and it means you don't have to return here daily, but if/when you do, there may be a few posts to catch-up on!

 

A right old mix here, and because we've just seen the Marx 45mm link (in the previous post), here's two more of the possibly candy-holder vehicle/vessel plug-in/twist-in crew, and there's a strange deform behind them who may be a known character, but not known to me!

 

Chris filters out the rack-toy commonality, but sends the interesting ones, and here it's the two metallic olive-drab Airfix American Infantry piracies to the right, the Toy Story / Tim Mee clone to the left, another of the Timpo officer knock-off, and one of the large pound store ones from a few years ago.

 

These two 25mm Marx Miniature Masterpieces had not anticipated the thoroughness with which Royal Fail and/or Parcel Farce would explore their weaknesses and exploit the hell out of them! Sigh! But they were the only casualties this time, and it's bound to happen occasionally, with old figures.

 

A brilliant find, not only is it another WWI American clone from Airfix, not only is it another complete bubble-bottle handle/blower, but it's a new colour, and a new pose, and not just any pose but a prone pose, who, if you save him, after the bubbles end, by separating him (and his base) from the stalk, is now firing at 'planes.

 

And there's a lot of significance to this find. The first two finds (both by me) were in red plastic, if we now have green, we can assume maybe blue, yellow, even/or black? Certainly some other colours, second; we now have three poses, including a prone, so will most of the set be found? Will the wire-party be found as two separate figures?

 

Now if I've ended up with three, after 40-odd years (previous find was over ten years ago), how many centuries will be needed to get a full, or more informative sample?! The hope being that somebody, somewhere, made a decent hash of collecting a load at the time, and that they may turn-up poorly described on feeBay, or undescribed but included in a larger job-lot at a local auction house?

 

Other possibilities which become stronger with this find are that A) Airfix (or General Mills/Heller) might have licensed the figures, or even loaned the old cavities? B) They might be by Dulcop, who by the 1980's had moved out of figures* proper, and into bubble-bottles, in which field they are still globally known. With both the neighbours (Barravelli and Montaplex) also known for producing daft, upright/foot versions of Airfix prone/mounted figures, there is a Mediterranean thread running through the practice?

 

*The Dulcop figures carried by the - then - new, and growing, Plastic Warrior magazine, back in the late 1980's, were specially commissioned by them, and, from the plastic colours, consisted of half old-stock from the warehouse, and half new-runs, for the magazine. 

 

LJN GI's, another nice find, and there will be a follow-up shortly, Chris says the chap on the left is complete, as per the factory, but the chap on the right might not have the correct head, a problem with all these Hong Kong originating figures.

 

Again, I wondered if the poses might be taken from Cofalux or similar (see earlier post), but more on that in the follow-up.

 

These are brilliant too! In bright green they are sometimes (late issues?) the figures from the Lucky/Helen of Toy 'Woods Edge' or 'Tank Trap' comic-offer games, fighting the Ex-Giant Germans, in the mid-greens a common rack-toy figure, and I have a few in yellow/mustard, but I've never seen them in orange, or this blue, and I've never seen them on the runner, or in such a dark green, so quite the find! Copies of the Marx and Blue Box 25mm figures.

 

We saw the modern ones from Corgi Classics here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/t-is-for-tactical-strike-by-corgi.html

 

Right-back at the start of the Blog, but I had no idea there were WWII sets, and the 8th Army chap here, with a side-hat, is more LRDG/SAS than regular infantry, while the German looks to be an older man, possibly in glasses or with a monocle, and maybe Volkssturm?

 

More grist to the mill; I have meant to sort these 1st version Airfix clones out several times, and it's another project for the But is it Giant page (no, they are not Giant!), but it won't be for a while. These are one of the lesser versions I think, with the smooth base undersides.

 

Many thanks to Chris Smith for some very interesting figures. 

L is for Loose Lots - Sandown - Military

Military and ceremonial now, with a few interesting items, one of which is annoying me, but maybe you know what it is, or where they are from, but let's look at the pièce de résistance first!

 

A pretty clean Kentoy stretcher team, I may already have one, but this has good paint, and being new to market is properly 'clean' if you know what I mean, and I think it's a darker brown blanket than my existing sample.

 

I think these may both be duplicates, but I love a bit of [affordable] composition, and we have an 'olin' gunner from Germany, possibly a minor make, or from the budget ranges of one of the big-two, the other, more likely the duplication; it looks familiar, in pumice or plaster, and maybe British or French?

 

This pair are the ones that are bugging me, I'm sure I've seen chapter & verse on them, possibly in one of the glossy mags', but I can't recall, and/or didn't take notes, but equally, it might be on the dongles as an internet download? Poured resin, with wire armatures in the trumpets, I have a feeling they are scenic background for a poured-metal or 'new metal' solid set, from someone like King & Country, Figarti or Frountline?

 

Again, I can't resist a bit of litho-printed tin, when it's affordable, and these were on Steve Vicker's table, I actually picked the six better ones, but he sent the two casualties over, a few minutes later, via a mutual friend who was passing, and, to be honest, the red-coat could replace one of the Germans, if only for a future photograph.

 

From the left we have - I assume - a khaki Brit, two Germans, with possibly an Italian between them, and a couple of Russo-Japanese war types? On the ground are both Brit's I think, and all late 19th/early 20th century, in depiction, beween the two wars, in execution? 

 

Odds - A Timpo horse, which may have started life pulling a wagon or gun, but which has been married to a mounted figure's base, and a Britains Herald Highland officer. All play-worn, but useful spares or 'grist -to-the-mill'!

 

Crescent, with two of the darker-red plastic, behind, and a sand-textured one in front.

 

Not the best (signs of repainting), but a useful comparison shot between two similar poses from Lone Star (black bases) and Britains Herald (green bases), At Ease (left), and Royal Salute (Present Arms), on the right.

 

Cherilea - Highland pipers.

 

I don't think these are repaints, I think this is how Lone Star issued them, with simple, all green kilts, I also think they were on the wants list? So, a useful addition to the massed ranks of the Highland samples.

 

Paints quite good, on these Harald Lifeguards, but sticky fingers have reduced them to 'dirty', so someone had full play-value out of them! Having recently seen Argentinian (?) ceremonials in similar uniforms, they may get a strip and repaint with paler (than the Horse Guards) blue jackets, or something equally exotic from one of the Blandford books?

 

Odds & sods! There's a Skybirds rangefinder (for which the operator has been waiting several decades! https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/s-is-for-skybirds.html), and pilot torso in the left foreground, and various useful 50 and 60-mil fellows from Cherilea, Crescent, Hilco and Britains.