F is for Follow-up - 'Guerreos Medievales'

As I mentioned when showing the donated image back in Rack Toy Month, Peter Evans had put one of these aside for the blog, and this is it, although I'm keeping it intact for now, so it's a case of a few suitably angled shots and some close-ups to tell a better story than last time!

A reminder of the set, imported into Spain as Guerreos Medievales (Medieval Warriors), by Arty & Mell S.L., however ,clues to older branding are found upon the contents, which are: copies of Britains Deetail knights and Crossbows & Catapults accessories, it's a lovely example of  'rack toy' fayre!

 

The 'H' mark previously seen on Hong Kong issued Deetail Saracen figures in packaging which looked 1970's but wasn't necessarily so (remember the anonymised Accoutrements/McFee reissues of earlier YF sets), but these are from whatever set of tools they were . . . Qwong Wah also producing Deetail copies with chromium spray coatings!

 

Unscrupulous dealers/sellers WILL use these to enhance lots of genuine Britains online, or even at shows, few have a jeweller's loupe to hand while rushing round a dimly-lit village hall! Just enough weapons for the figures, and in the case of this set, the distribution of the weapons is pretty-much determined by the available poses?

 

Close-up of the four H-marked foot figures

Mounted figure.

And a Britains Deetail horse clone, in all cases the die-cast bases of the originals are here rendered in the same polyethylene as the figures/weapons.

Here a China mark dates this to the 1990's or later, and you can see where the Hong Kong has been removed from the tool. The full history of these is still not clear, nor whether there was any connection between Kwong Wah and H, nor which (if different|) tool these later ones come from, but they seem to have been available for may years in various forms from Chromium-finished 1970's Kwong Wah, 1980's-'90's H, and these Arty & Mell-carried China troops from the 1990's!

The accessories seem to be polystyrene or 'propylene, and are copied from the game-playing pieces from Crossbows and Catapults, something mentioned in passing here several times over the years, but missing a proper post to date, primarily because it's a tedious chore I've been putting off indefinitely!

And many thanks to Peter for both the original image, and for donating this set to the Blog.

A is for Accoutrements

This has been imported from 'Boring Blog' (which I will close down) and may have images or other text added in the future.

Accoutrements - Available through Archie McPhee, Stads Stuff and other outlets in the mid-to-late 1990's
Re-issues of the Giant piracies
Bulk Bagged sets
- Knights
Header-carded Bags
(YF) Nọ 810 - Mongolians And Castle
(YF) Nọ 811 - Romans And Castles

A is for Accoutrements

The final (to date?) installment of the 'Giant' fort story begins in the early-to-mid 1990's when Archie McPhee, a US toy and novelty retailer and early 'web' eRetailer started offering the original Giant mouldings - in new colours, under their 'Accoutrements' label. They were made more widely available by dint of Paul Stadinger who secured a goodly number and distributed them to the Toy Soldier collecting community via his Stads List.

The two sets as issued, there was a third item - a large bag of Knight figures only, appeared first in approximately 1990. The Mongol fort was then issued in around 1993 with the Knight's fort following sometime '95/96.

However they were only copies of a late 1970's to mid-80's issue originally marked MADE IN HONG KONG (rear card/R.hand card above), the Hong Kong (but not the YF branding) was then obliterated - presumably in preparation for the return to China in '97) and finally overprinted with the Accoutrements disc on the reverse and the MADE IN CHINA block on the obverse.

The Archie McPhee/Accoutrements cards were a more modern all-colour printing, the older HK issues being a three-colour process, but the original artwork was used, rather than a copy as was the case with the Giant set we looked at the other day. Figures in the HK and early figure bag had the 'Giant' scratched-out on the figure's bases, later sets had 'China' over-engraved.


The latest outing for the mould was with BuM in 1999, when they issued the Mongol fort with both the Mongol infantry, and with their own ex-Montaplex copies of the Airfix Sheriff of Nottingham figures.

The real question is - If the moulds to both forts and the Knight & Mongol figures are still usable, where are the rest of the Giant moulds, and might they also one day reappear? Also the fact that they can keep popping up and filling western companies order-books suggests that the poor quality of HK mouldings in general, is down to the poor quality of the masters, not - as some have claimed over the years (myself included) - cheap moulds, and in fact the moulds can under the right circumstances last just as long, and produce as much product as any of Airfix's moulds?

Of note - Accoutrements are currently carrying the set of 5 metal knights by Westair of the UK, sometimes credited to Kinder Germany! What goes around comes around!!