This post gets off to a good start, with the third boxed set I got from Adrian, and then goes downhill! No, I'm joking, there are several interesting bits here, but originality of text for the opening blurb-o-graph of repeat posts, like these, is not always obvious, to an amateur author!
It would be lazy to assume that these too, are
Torgano, like the two Western sets in the previous post of this series, they are A) thinner flats, altogether less robust, B) they have thin, oblong bases, C) decoration is, if anything more leery than the previously-seen, already pretty-colourful samples D) the generic gift-wrap 'foil' covering on the box, is nothing like the set-specific artwork of those other sets E) they are slightly smaller, and F) the subject-matter is altogether more fanciful!
Definitely Italians though! Shades of Captain Nemo?
Also shades of Captain Video with the American-football/1930's tank-crew helmets!
Three figures duplicated, in different colours, everything else is a one-off, and there’s a lot going on, paratroopers, artillery, flying-boat, early rubber boat, spacey guys, a Tom of Finland sailor (everyone loves a sailor!), yacht, battleship and a sinking (?) liner, this set would have been a fantastic exercise of the imagination muscles! And there's a man fighting a giant octopus!
The Noris Ivanhoe game has similar unpainted flats, however Torgano's own mini's (space and 'dolls') do have oblong bases, while people like Tibadabo and Co-Ma must have started somewhere? What were PRB or Sam doing in the 1950's? I have the two earlier Italian toy soldier books, and a couple of maker specific things, but I don't have the most recent one, are they in there, can anyone give us a branding on these?
American Civil War, a right old mix here, with 'China' copies of Hong Kong 'solid' clones of
Timpo Swoppets, actual Swoppet clones, enough
Blue Box for a skirmish and a
Waddington's game-playing piece - all grist to the mill!
Back to Italy and a nice sample of the
Nardi Union/US Cavalry types, you look at these and wonder if they didn't borrow one of
Cherilea's sculptors! But their charm is the stronger for the dancing-loon look!
The Confederate sample is smaller and lacking more hats, as well as 'kerchiefs and heads, which explains the outcome of that war! Lack of logistical support and fighting men!
Ceremonial assortment here, with one of the just mentioned (
BMSS post) Monaco guards, sans plug-on base, a broken metal figure, three HK copies of lone Star, a trio of
Sacul musicians, four
Café Storme Imperials, a Hong Kong highlander, and two
Hilco, who rather confirm the Band-Major in that previous
BMSS post! And a sucker-guard!
Three pirates, too early for
International Talk Like a Pirate Day, these are the
Fontanini smallest version, but in an usual colour of plastic, and polyethylene, rather than the PVC resin of my other samples?
More Café Storm.
Two early British-made Arabs, I can't remember who's these are (
BMS?), we have looked at them all previously, in dribs and drabs, and I intend to do them all together one day, when they are all in one place!
Two probably Fraser & Glass, and one early Herald - polystyrene horses.
From the left, a kit figure,
Pyro or
Revell maybe, another of the growing sample of Spanish terracotta caricature figurines, a French (?)
Santon, and a very French-looking sailor, from the novelty stacking sets, we've seen clowns and policemen here, and there are US versions of the same stacking figures.
There’s more on this in a follow-up, but here sold as
Walco Products Inc., a similar outfit to
Grandmother Stover's or
SSCO, dealing with both craft items, novelty tat, and cake decoration stuff!
Small-scale bits bring the post to a close, with a few
Risk board-game pieces and three of my favourite Christmas Cracker prize guardsmen!
And again; thanks are due to - Issack, Graham
Apperley, John Begg, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Peter Evans, Adrian
Little, Michael Mordant-Smith, Trevor Rudkin, Steve Vickers, and with no
emails since the intro-post, anyone else who gave me stuff, I've
forgotten to add! Many thanks.
