B is for Bevy of Bright Baubles!

Hay-ho, busy morning, but I seem to have a moment of quiet now! A few Christmas baubles I have seen around, or shot out and about, which for whatever reason were left where I saw them!

I really can't remember where I saw this, or imagine who would want it on their Christmas tree, it's all a bit Halloween rather than Christ's birth, but it is a traditional glass blown one, and amusing?

 

Garden-center the other week, I think?

Under the glitter is a pink/purple zone toy!

Asda Stores; horrid! Fine as key-rings, fine as mobile-phone loop hangers, but on a Christmas tree? Seriously? I wouldn't want to be seen dead with this shit on my tree? We are sliding toward oblivion on the slimy piled-remnants of the salesman's product-placed bollocks. But look at all those empty hooks, they've sold hundreds, to little consumer-units who haven't the faintest idea what Christmas should be about.

 

TKMaxx; variations on a theme, more commonly seen here in relation to cakes, or, on one occasion, a music box! Too big and baseless for figure collectors, and too girly for my tree, they stayed where they were!

 

Also TKMaxx, but a few weeks later. I would have bought this, if it was a single, but it came with that phuqing-awful controller? Who the hell would put that on their tree? And it's too poor to go to charity either. And, it's a games-controller, not a B/O robot control? Just naff!

 

As were these (TKMaxx, not naff!), I actually bought them for some friends of Mums, who are both keen gardeners, with the instruction that if they don't like them, they can pass them on, but I hope they will, they are fun, harmless and not some licensed bollocks!

 

I think I found this lot on evilBay, last year, doing all the Nativity posts, now, I'm not religious enough to put them on my tree, but they are blown-glass, and quite well executed, so if you were religious, I can see the appeal. And if you were clever, you could hang the Little baby Jesus with his Mum & Stepdad, in a slight hollow portion of the tree and have the rest surrounding it . . . I'd spread them all over, so they had to shout at each other!

 

I think all the rest are feebleBay finds to be honest, I thought these were nice, because, Soldiers! And a sort of Santa/Eastern-Othodox looking mage!

 

I saved this shot as we had these when we were kids, in fact I think there may still be a blue survivor, and possibly a pink one with my 'gay tree' stuff, the missing ones are another polka dot, and three green versions of the others, probably Woolworth's, back in the day and I always wondered why the unmatching polka dots were in there, with the banded ones!

 

And another military type to finish off!

F&G is for Hidden in Plain Sight!

Remember the F&G question posed by Collin Penn some time ago now? And remember when in the PW173 review I said "Speaking of Colin Penn, his F&G 'Crazy Clown Circus' is revealed by Michael Bonnefoy of the Plastics Historical Society to be made by . . . [Subscribe!]"?

Balancers & Bouncy Balls

Well, hopefully you were tempted to subscribe (if you weren't already), and with PW174 out now (review currently in the 'short queue'), I think it's OK to reveal that the F&G was Fraser & Glass Ltd., who are further fascinating for carrying the same mounted figures as Airfix, but that's for another day, the thing was, they had been on the PHS's website all along! Like Tatra, they were hiding (from plastic figure collectors) in plain sight!

Musicians & Master's of Mayhem
(the one on the bottom-right has a cellulose/celluloid
drum which is almost powder now)

Anyway, it wouldn't be right to cover all the stuff in the magazine's article, but I say the above because I've got the storage tub . . . err . . . out of storage! And as a follow-up to my own previous post, am showing the [old] newbies here while re-tagging the related, previous, posts to Fraser & Glass!

It's a satisfying conclusion, too, for those of us who were never happy with the two-horse race's favourites - Airfix or Kleeware, as the plastic wasn't really right for either. But if the mounted figures provide a link, the Airfix-plumper's will have a joint first!

Indeed, while the likes of TJF and his ilk may resent my knowledge (and try to invent their own!) it's satisfying to read my earlier musings on the maker (three years ago) and find it stands-up adequately to the recent discoveries!

Were Morestone (also 'something & something'; Morris & Stone) situated near F&G, or did they (F&G) supply Airfix with both horses/riders and clowns, or licence production to fill large Woolworth's orders? There's always another question or two!

The Shrapnel

The bottom of their tub contains a few bits which will be combined with the attic-lot to make-up some of the missing formations! One of them actually still has his mates head between his feet so must be from a pair formation, so I'm hoping I have a headless one in the other sample!

The piece of card (CIRCUS?) came with one lot, as did the wooden pole with a plastic finial which seems to match some of the Crazy Clown's yellow stuff? Equally it could be a non-functioning component of a 1960's washing machine, or part of a lawn-game! I've also tried various solvents on these (and the other larger, sample) and they are mostly polystyrene, only a few are cellulose or celluloid types.

F is For Follow-up - Lone Star

Material connected to the recent posts on khaki infantry have winged (should that be wung? . . . Yes; I think it should!)* Material connected to the recent posts on khaki infantry have wung their way to Small Scale World Towers from both Chris Smith and Brian B, some of which is on hold for inclusion on the Khaki Infantry page in a day or two, but these - from BB (Terranova) are pertinent to both the weekend's posts and the recent post on the Wellsotoy tin-plate truck crew, so; here they are!

Brain recently obtained these as part of his 'nostalgia collecting' (the best kind as it limits you to things you remember - rather than the mountain of shite I'm accruing!), although he didn't remember the multi-barreled mortar/rocket launchers.

Points to note ON the lot - Mint! Apart from some mildew on the tyres (common with these when they've been in storage), they are about as good as it gets, with perfect paint on all three crewmen and the wagon/trailers.

Points to note ABOUT the lot - Blue Box took the whole deck (including the control console) for their small-scale Bedford RL's and MK's. The Bren Gun Carrier passenger is used as gunner/operator and I wouldn't like to call 'who copied who' vis-à-vis the Wells Brimtoy version. Pyro-Kleeware gave us the bodies/loads of the other HK stuff, but Lone Star gave us the Blue Box mountings.

There were about six bodies I think . . . 9-barrel and Radar seen here, searchlight, twin-Bofors, spring-firing pom-pom cannon/rocket launcher with elevation 'table' (much copied in the world of space toys), that's five? I'm sure there's one or two missing? There was also a different 'well wagon' bodied trailer which housed a larger rocket launcher, and a plain flatbed trailer sold with a civilian Land Rover in the die-cast range.

They (the military vehicles) also come in an orangey-sand as desert/8th Army or as Afrika Korps with Balkan-cross stickers, and I seem to recall some green ones get German marking to go with the dark grey Germans? Later issues in bright blue with 'go-faster' chrome-plate enhanced, balloon-wheels were also sold as more general toys.

*Fling/flung, sing/sung, swing/swung . . . I'm just following the rules of English!

L is for Lone Star - Harvey Series 65mm King Size (Swivel-heads)

The other set not found on the Khaki Infantry page from Lone Star are these, which we have seen before and I only have the three so not so much 'box-ticking' as hanging the arse out of it!

I think there are ten poses in total, each in two colours and with a choice of plug-in head. Sold as RAF Regiment with the painted blue berets and a blue-grey polymer, or Para's/combat troops in olive-drab polyethylene with painted red berets or brown US style M1 helmets, all heads being pink. You could give the red berets to the RAF chaps for airborne 'rock-apes' though! Do No.II have red berets? They should have!

The FN/SLR's are very well done, but at this size (65mm) they should be!

L is for Lone Star - Harvey Series 54mm Paratroopers (Helmets)

Continuing with the box-ticking exercise, and continuing with Lone Star and continuing with paratroopers, although helmeted not bereted and carrying different stock codes, these also differ slightly in uniform having a lose, un-tucked coat-jacket or jump smock, but are clearly by the same sculptor to a common design-style.

My two main sample-groups are a bunch of camouflaged home/re-paints and a bunch of rather tatty originals, mostly grey helmets, but one green (AFV crewman) and one very tatty UN 'blue helmet'. Some of these probably haven't been seen here before?

To go with them I have a quite nice quality stretcher team with white helmeted medics and a grey casualty. This is one of the better stretcher parties out there in that they do look as if they are carrying heavy weight, under fire - think instead; Britains or Timpo swoppets strolling along like they've got all the time in the world. Marx's was equally good.

Mortar-line; on the left the re-paints, with an original of the smaller 2" mortar-man on the right, his weapon's sculpting is so rudimentory or nondescript, he can be used as a gunner with the die-cast 25-lb'r

There is a fourth mortar, a smaller piece on a separate base without legs. Although posed to be operating a parachute printed on the backing/header card of some sets; the guy waving his hands makes a useful mortar-man, and may have been designed with the missing one in mind - it has a little flame (like the set's flamethrower), as if caught in the act of firing!

Colour variation in the plastic are the same as for the bereted eight, with paler herb green, a mid olive-drab and a more khaki colour, probably the earliest? There's also evidence of multiple cavities (or re-tooling); compare the bayonet/muzzle-end on the two standing firers.

Definitely seen before, and we looked at the [now known to be] Wellsotoy's sand-coloured one again the other day. Bren Gun Carrier crew are the smaller ones left and larger image (gunner) and right (driver) the third figure (middle) is used as a passenger in the rear of the Bren Gun Carrier and also driver for the DUKW and Jeep, and operator of the die-cast lorry or trailer-mounted weapons.

Comparisons between the larger and smaller scale versions, the smaller ones are usually found in UN helmets, with the Germans in red caps (as Communist Chinese forces in Korea), in the larger scales, the UN helmets are not as common as the green, which are also less common that the grey which are dirt-common!

The 54mm figure, far left, is actually a blue-helmeted UN figure, he looks to be the same as the grey ones, but he's just very dirty! If you take a line-up from the point of the collar, you can jsut see a bit of the blue showing; paler than the HO figures, but - if clean - distinct from the common grey ones.

Although they are almost the same, there are subtle differences all over from the hose rings to the trouser folds, so while one led to the other, it was either comprehensively re-worked, or a new copy. I think the helmeted one is the later version, his fuel-tanks are smaller and a bit lopsided or squidged.

There don't appear to be the unpainted Woolworth's versions of the larger ones as there are of the bereted eight, but I may just not have encountered any yet, remember I've only been collection this larger stuff for a few years! Also; while the eight with berets are numbered 1-8 consistently (if numbered), with these helmeted troops the marking and numbering is all over the place, suggesting cavity numbers only.

L is for Lone Star - Harvey Series 54mm Paratroopers (Berets)

These going to be a mini- or semi-season of Khaki Infantry 'box-tickers' over the next few days, we've seen them all before, and I don't think my samples have grown since we did, but I shoved them all into a couple of posts last time, this time we'll look at them one by one. I got them out to have a 'session' with the new camera as some of the menu-items are a bit different and I wanted to familiarise myself with the new 'machine'.

Title says it all; Lone Star, 54mm, paratroopers, they fit in with the helmeted para's quite well having been sculpted by the same chap in a similar uniform although without the long jackets of the helmeted ones, and sans the full-pack 'movement-order' webbing, indeed the flamethrower is almost no more than a head-swap!

Looking at them I can see that several of them DO belong on the Khaki Infantry page, even though I chose to keep them off; as the set (as a whole) is not pirated from either the Timpo or Britains sets which that page is based on, but equally the kneeling firing and officer are highly derivative while the advancing is 'after' and the waving pose owes a bit to Britains casualty? So I might have a 'similarities section, before or after the HK/Unknown sections down the bottom of the page?

Plastic colours; The early ones tend to shades of camel-dung or true khaki (elephant dung, where do you think 'kak' comes from!) or a dark olive-drab, while later ones also come in the fetching herb-green of the left-hand shooter. Note also that both the shooters have that offset, double base you sometimes see with the medieval knights.

Painted as paratroopers or Royal Marines/Royal Marine Commandos, most of mine (which came from a single source) are either  unpainted ones (Woolworth's) or had the paint stripped from them for some reason? The beret is the floppy WWII one (despite the anachronistic EM2 - dealt with in posts passim) which seems to be part Tam o'Shanter and part individual shelter (!), as a result the headgear could be painted khaki as regular infantry, or other corps.

Base marking can include a numeral - same for each figure - which may be cavity marks or figure/pose numbers but certainly do for the latter anyway; versions also exist with no number and the odd blank one turns-up.

Send three-and-four'pence; we're going to a dance! A rather simple heat-conversion on the unpainted officer's elbow has produced a nice, effective variation which I intend to paint-up one day.

C is for 'The Crazy Clown Circus'

This set was issued in the late 1940's/early 1950's and sold through Woolworth's stores.

The basic unit - a clown figure - seems to be based on a Morestone novelty die-cast toy of a clown on a penny-farthing. The original has a pom-pom on top of the coned hat, three large red buttons on a smooth top, the same patterned trousers as the plastic ones, and is holding a ball in each hand, the similarities are greater than the differences between the two figures, even to the pointy two-digit hands.

 Left-to-right:
Marx weighted-cord 'walker' rider, a damaged Crescent I had to hand
and the recent resin BTS  find, finally - a Crazy Clown

However, this 'design' of clown seems to follow one of the recognised patterns of clown in the real world, I'm no expert, but I know some clowns registered/protected their look and/or face make-up, while others are anchored in the old (and now 'traditional') costumes of the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, and it would seem to be that this clown is a regular/specific clown 'type', is it a peirrot?

Basic Unit
1 - Clown - to which can be added . . .
2 - Small base
3 - Large Base
4 - Clown with balls in hands - to which can be added . . .
5 - Small base
6 - Large base

Variations
Both can have their hands bent forward for a possible 12 main variations of the standard clown, not all of which were used, but by the time people have glued their bits together for onward sale on feebay they mostly are!

Further variations are created by placing [gluing] clowns on horses, tall platform-poles, beach-balls or each other in various configurations. A 'Ring Master' is created by the addition of a top hat (basically a little flanged beaker) and whip (a piece of hollow or thread-cored PVC cable). And other variations are added with the addition of three different drums, an umbrella. A 'hoop' ring, or a unicycle described as 'a wheel'. Variously these accessories can be found with a clown and large, small or no base, and basically it's almost as if any variation you can think of will turn-up in a mixed lot on evilBay!

The large red spot most of them have painted on their tummy is actually hiding/camouflaging the mould release-pin mark. It could also be a reference back to the sculpted buttons on the Morestone metal figure, each of which is also painted red.

 The large set: The Crazy Clown Circus which was sold through Woolworth's stores, listed its contents as three coded subsets, each subset lettered to its 'act' title, but apparently numbered consecutively across the range. There are gaps in that numbering, and among them must lye the drummers.

As listed on the back of the larger sets:

Acrobatic Act
A1 - Clown (see 1-6 above)
A2 - Two Clowns Balancing (one on top of the other)
A3 - Two Clowns Tumbling (see Variants below)
A4 - Three Clowns in Line (see Variants below)
A5 - Three Clowns Balancing (in a Y shape)
A6 - Four Clowns Balancing (in a diamond shape)

Variants
A3 - Two Clowns Tumbling, this vignette is two clowns glued together, some are glued parallel to each other along the forearms, which makes for an unstable partnership, others are glued in an 'A' shape, with one clowns head between the shins of the other, which allows them to be set up as an A, V, or sharp C, and they can be rolled more easily, both types seem equally common and there's no clue as to whether one was earlier or later. It may be that some worker/s or outworker/s did them differently, but at the same time.

A4 - Three Clowns in Line, I have seen this set with the third figure (on the far left as they look forward) being a bent-arm figure set back from the other two as if he is either joining them or out of step. Commonly its three straight-arm clowns in a line or two supporting a third - middle one - who is upside-down.

Juggling Act
J11 - Clown on Wheel (large base)
J12 - Clown on Wheel with Ball on each Hand (large base)
J13 - Clown on Pole with Hoop*
J14 - Clown on Pole with Ball on each Hand*
J15 - Clown on Pole with Ball* (bent hands)
J16 - Clown with Ball (bent hands)
J17 - Clown on Ball with Umbrella (one bent arm, the only such figure)

*Each has a small based clown, the base pierced for receiving the pole, and a large base at the other end for the pole to stand on.

Clean balls can be found (with no signs of a figure having been glued to them), on a large base.

Cropped from larger internet images

Equestrian Act
E21 - Ringmaster with Whip and Hoop (see Variants below)
E22 - White Prancing Horse**
E23 - Black Prancing Horse**
E24 - Clown on White Horse***
E25 - Two Clowns on White Horse (one on top of the other)***
E26 - Two Clowns on Two White Horses (one on top of the other)***

** These horses are rearing on 'ski' bases and have a plume
*** This is a copy of the Bergan Toys (Beton) horse, a heavier moulding than the Airfix or Tudor Rose versions

Variants
E21 - Ringmaster, this figure is stated as having a whip and hoop, in fact he usually has a whip or a hoop, the hoop versions often having a standard black-cone hat/head, the whip version usually having a top-hat, made of the same coloured plastics as the balls, drums or poles and glued over a cone-head. Lack of glue marks suggests most of these variants are correct, but some may be down to hats, hoops or whips becoming lost or removed? Both versions tend to have their trousers painted red, occasionally a purplish-maroon colour. Sometimes the whole figure's outfit has a red wash.

Missing numbers are:
7, 8, 9, 10 and 18, 19, 20

Not listed on the main play set's circus-ring card-back and given my own 'act' title:

Musical Act (arms always bent forwards)
Playing Large Floor Drum (large or no base)
Playing Large Floor Drum - Balls on Hands (large or no base)
Playing Side Drum (small or no base)
Playing Side Drum - Balls on Hands (small or no base)
Playing Tom-Tom or Bongo-Drum (small or no base)

Other Variants
Some variations are almost certainly caused by damage (one ball-hand), or repairs (hoop or umbrella on wrong figure), while others are more deliberate looking. I suspect the Ringmaster variations may well be connected to the musicians and missing numbers, maybe as a band-master/band-leader?

Likewise the clowns tumbling would take the missing numbers to zero (if that makes sense?) with floor and side drums being 7-10 and the tom-tom, Ringmaster and tumblers being the other three? This is pure conjecture ion my part and takes no account of the lone balls.

It also takes no account of the fact that most of the drummers in my most recent purchase have '6' written on their bases in pencil. Prior to decimalization, the many-sided (seven, nine?) sixpence was a pretty standard rate of pocket-money (we went down 'up' to 5 'new' p after 1971!), and it looks as if they were sold/'also sold' from a 'shop stock' box, as extras.

Material
Early examples are made of a volatile plastic subject to shrinkage and distortion, especially the poles and the two-part balls, it has a lot of the properties of the phenolic plastics popular in France at the same time, but I think it's an early, unstable styrene plastic. Later versions were standard - perfectly stable - polystyrene.

Everything major except the black horse is in white plastic, but it sometimes verges on grey, partly due to dirt and age, partly due to poor material, there are also translucent washy-white examples.

 Cropped from larger Internet images

Accessories (poles, balls, drums, umbrellas and top hats) come in various colours, with earlier sets having pastel colours, or chalky darker colours, often with bi-coloured balls, while later sets have more primary coloured accessories and some sets have all-yellow as a pallet.

The tom-tom/bongo-drum is a clear piece of ribbed-tube with blue or - more commonly - red-painted rims, and painting is also used to colour the balls on the hands of those clowns who have them. There are at least two versions of the hand-balls; egg-shaped and more-fully round, and they seem to be used as maracas on the drummers, or is it the comedy element of trying to play drums with balloons? The single clown with balls may be supposed to be a juggler (as can all the similarly equipped figures), while two of them facing each-other would make a juggling act?

Cropped from larger Internet images

Maker
It is usually assumed that these are Airfix, I have always remained more open-minded and suggested the 'usual suspects' as also in the frame: Kleeware, Tudor Rose et al.

I think I have to accept that the plastic/s used is not really to the specification or style of Kleeware, nor the whole Thomas/Taffy/Tudor Rose 'family', while the lesser makes such as Cheerio or Bell were using or copying US moulds and this is a very British 'thing', which rather lets the usual suspects of the hook!

So back to Airfix . . . their early stuff was a right old mix of polymers, with stable and unstable styrene and various ethylene's used for the animal flats, aircraft and 8-figure set, as well as for the Beton copies, however, the horse supplied with the Beton copies is a different beast from this one; a lighter, cleaner sculpt.

Cropped from larger Internet images

Also: Airfix were terrible pirates in those early days, so they could well have copied the Morestone clown, especially as they have changed the sculpt by carrying the trouser pattern to the top half of the figure.

However, the link with Morestone is a strong one, and they did experiment with plastics for their Hawkeye and Chingachgook figures (in chalky ethylene with a nylon/rayon or different PE musket), among other items, so there's a strong case for them too - having used their own clown.

Who could have fulfilled such a large order to Woolworth's (these figures are not rare; whole, but damaged sets appear on feeBay all the time)? If it had been Airfix you would expect more of their other early production in these plastics and that doesn't seem to be the case, their 'cigarette box' ships being closest. Morestone's die-casts are not that common, but they are not rare, so maybe they could have managed this?

I think the Jury's still out on this one! Which is why I'm not putting them on the Airfix page . . . yet, although the horse is there - as a mount - on the Beton copies entry. Toymart.com credit Charbens as set 9999? having been linked to Toymart in the past, I can't possibly comment!

And...

Did I say they're not rare! Some of many Internet/eBay images (reduced resolution) I've found from the last few years, there's a decent lot of these on sale, somewhere, most weeks.

04-04-2019 - These are now known to have been Fraser & Glass (F&G).

C is for Chad Valley via Chap Mai

When I bought this at the PW show in May, neither me nor the seller knew what they were from, but we both agreed they were interesting and well done if a little esoteric, uniform/equipment-wise! A bit like the SOMA figures, but actually Chap Mai.

Well a quick Google revealed tons of 4/5-inch action figures at the budget end of that market, but no little figures (these are 23/25mm), but I was sure I'd seen them somewhere, and an Argos catalogue was the saviour on this occasion.

Foreign readers/visitors will want to know Argos are a catalogue shop, where a small counter with several ordering/paying stations fronts a huge warehouse and the stuff comes up a  conveyor to the hand-over point (I don't know if you have something similar where you are so forgive the egg-sucking explanation!).

As well as the action figures, Chap Mai made two Micromachine type play sets, an Aircraft Carrier and a heavy-lift C130 Hercules type plane, both of which were the carry-case and 'playmat' for a handful of Micro AFV's/'Planes and this frame of figures.

Originally sold in Chap Mai packaging as two separate sets, they are now combined as a contract-product under the Chad Valley label Argos bought from the Woolworth's fire-sale. So anyone wanting these figures can have them for £19.95 (two for thirty quid), with a load of free plastic and die-cast tat thrown in...actually the carrier looks quite good...just the turret looks silly....still Chap Mai and separate sets elsewhere/on the Internet.

Argos Listing

They are OK figures, although as I hinted above; the uniforms/equipment are a bit all over the place. Also unlike the Galoob precedent, they are unpainted and a bit bigger, having the appearance of a last minute chuck-in-the-box for added play value. They would go very well with the Bluebird Zero Hour/Code Zero figures though...very well indeed, look at the frogman...and the heavy bases.