T is for Tha, tha, tha . . . That's not all folks!

Just a quickie to clear a recent acquisition; over in Farnborough a couple of weeks ago and found one of the charity shops had opened (they were weeks behind their Fleet compatriots) and scored a board game, a few days after the recent board game photo-sesh' (of which there is more still in the queue), it's a bit of fun and most of it went to recycling a couple of weeks ago!

Kids game, mechanism is best described as Ludo-variant, with four players trying to 'get round', the hook being four off-board characters trying to stop them. Warner Brothers cartoon characters provide the interest here.

Bugs, Daffy, the Road Runner and Tweaty-Pie (does anyone know why a grown man calling himself baby-talk became the 'biggest' thing on Youtube? End of Civilisation as we know it? Oh, OK, that makes sense!) are in the box to be collected by collectors!

In the style of Phidal's figures and in a softish PVC-substitute, they were worth the quid or so for a damaged box - the trouble with buying this stuff from charity-shops is it's not always all there, even if it says checked, but about nine-out-of-ten are complete, so it's always worth a punt!

So Tweaty's about 30mm and Bugs Bunny is a hare over 45! Eh? I shouldn't be allowed! His eyes need work though; he looks even more demented than usual! Mattel's Looney Tunes 4-Toon Race game - box ticked . . . that's all folk's!

Q is for Question Time - F is for Four Fierce Freebies and other Feathered Fellows

A bit of a follow-up to the previous post because for many years I had this chap . . .

How it nearly looked the other day!

. . . in the same bag as the Hong Kong chromium-coated Crescent chaps we saw the other day, as he looked to be a well finger-worn member of the same clan, but in fact he belonged somewhere else and is actually just marbled in grey and purple with a slightly metallic sheen.

He's actually a Clairet-copy, previously issued (from the manufacture) as a Nestlé premium at some point and copied by Starlux in more than one version. As far as I know both French 'commercial' types are based, rather than the tripod arrangement of this chap, while the Starlux have the left forearm raised (Indian doing 'How', backwoodsman holding an European pipe) and a taller, thiner log-seat, but this chap is a mystery to me.

Also and because I thought he went with those HK 'plated' chaps I'd assumed (never x-assume and all else my very great friend!) he was polystyrene, but I now suspect . . .

. . . that he belongs with these other three? They too had been mis-christened, and were in with the Koho's (also seen here recently) as the bases are similar, but more have turned-up now and all in the same subdued/darker colours, so I think they are separate.

The kneeling guy is a copy of a Linde coffee premium, while I think the running guy is taken from another (to Clairet) French make? I have seven or eight now (already put away!) but only the four poses and the same shades of cooked and uncooked meat! I suspect they are all premiums of some kind, probably French or one of the Low Country's (someone tell TJF that's a geographical reference, not a 'racist' epithet!), and I would love to know more about them?

In the meantime [this was supposed to follow-up on the Crescent post the other day but for a bunch of reasons the best part of three weeks have gone-by!] I have picked up an actual Koho pose (previously show to us here - as Koho - by Theo van der Weerden), but not in Koho's cloth, being clearly marked MIR, French laundry powder (and there's a couple more here).

The green one, which in common with the 'meaty' ones also looks (from the neat, thinnish, ovoid, parallel-sided base) like it could be Koho, also isn't! It's actually one of the old Siku sculpts (issued in various guises and two sizes), but is manufactured in soft plastic, and has more in common with those polyethylene copies/issues of the Lido 'Captain Video' figures we saw here . . . earlier this year? I mention that only as it may prove in the future to have been a clue as to who is/was producing these apparently modem soft plastic copies of old 1950's stuff?

A close-up of the mark, no doubts as to this one's origins, the figure is half-ruined by the mark - slap-bang in the center of his chest!

He is however a better 54mm than the Koho-proper's in my collection being halfway between their 40 and 70mm.

A bitty post, but hopefully of some interest?

T is for Thar' She Blows! (Brucie Bonus)

Not technically a pirate-themed item, but then over here ITLAPD has been and gone, but there's still a few hours of it over the pond, so very much on the cusp of the day; here is a lovely diorama from Brian Berke up there in New York, in which an early nineteenth-century whaler (the Charles W. Morgan - originally from Pyro) get a ship-to-ship message delivered by Captain Nemo of the Nautilus!

No blurb, but Brian said;

"A few months ago we went to see the Charles W. Morgan at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut before VOVID-19 closed everything down.

The whaling ship is the last of it's type. Whale oil was not needed when oil was discovered in Pennsylvania and the fleet of whalers was mostly sunk by the Union Navy as blockades to southern ports during the Civil War.

That's the background. I recently dug out a plastic kit of the Morgan and here it is on it's maiden voyage. Sadly it was seen by Captain Nemo, that's life! "

he added . . .

"Captain Nemo wasn't a pirate though revenge against authority started many a pirate on that vocation."

The Captain being actually consumed by a hunger for vengeance and hatred of imperialism; the British Empire (a fledgling America in the recent Radio plays!) which is explained further on Wikipedia!

Also - superb photography from Brian there, I thought?

As mentioned the model has had several boxings under three labels, Pyro commissioned the original tool, Life-like got hold of it in a tranche of ex-Pyro tooling in the 1970's (?) and dropped the name, although it was retained on the runners ('sprues')!

While most recently Academy-Minicraft had a shot, although that's a 1980/90's 'recently' I fear, I don't know if Academy still have it, but Minicraft went off to concentrate on hobby tools (I think) some time ago!

And many thanks to Brian for closing 'Pirate Day', as I think the organisers have simplified the title to, this year . . . in order to expand the concept?

C is for Captain Morgan's Cut Throat Crew!

These are current, or at least still available, the card is over 12-years old, which is why I didn't de-card them, nor will I bother with much blurb, as you can see them all, beautifully painted, on the company's website!

As purchased, I can't remember if they were an expensive 'impulse' purchase at a War Gaming show, something cheap under the table at a Toy Soldier show, or came-in with a mixed lot at some point, I may even have paid full at the old Esdevium Games shop in Aldershot, years ago? But they're here now!

That's them; Foundry Miniatures Cut2/CUT012, a nice, slightly chunky whitemetal pirate crew, all I need is a 1:60th ['ish] ship and Cap'n Morgan's your uncle!

J is for Jack Sparrow . . . et al!

I managed to add to the Zizzle collection again this year, but I have to admit I didn't try too hard or do too well, finding only two suitable lots, letting the better one go and buying the other a few weeks later, a couple of three months or so ago! Of the eight figures in the lot, four were duplicates/damaged, but the other four were new for ITLAPD!

I then photographed them when they arrived and a month or so later, having forgotten I'd photographed them, did so again!

Two more from 'last year's' Chinese crew, another of Davy Jones's slimy pals and - at last - captain Jack Sparrow himself. Now, here's the weird thing, I remember seeing all these in the shops at the time and thinking I bet the 54mm guys are loving these, but not buying them as I was still only a small scale collector.

Now, of course, I don't know how many there were! But I think it's about two or three sets of three or four figures per movie, for the last two, with an unknown number of the simpler-based ones which kicked-off the sample three or four years ago, from the first movie - and harder to find.

So if I manage to get a few more additions over the next year or two and only show them, we can look at them all together in a future post?

The whole purchase lot before the rejects were hived-off, Cap'n J is definitely between a rock and a hard place, running from the frying-pan and heading for the fire or . . . between the devil-fish and a deep blue grave!

Close ups of Mr Depp and the four rejects having a scrap, just because they were there, and won't be! And because this might have been a funnier post if things had been different, but it's just a case of finding my feet again and getting it posted without my little editor on the end of the bed.

P is for Pirate Pugwash!

Referring-back to last year's ITLAPD's late post, these were a follow-up from Brian on the British TV-watching kid of the 1950/70's favourite pirate . . . Captain Pugwash and his adventures aboard the Black Pig!

Brian hasn't got a scale model of the Black Pig, so he's stolen a little jolly-boat and has sent Pugwash and [his nemesis] Cut-Throat Jake off to find a proper ship, in that! Although I fear one of them needs to move to starb'd as neither of them is exactly svelte, and it'll get rougher once they leave the comfort of the harbour walls - if you know what I mean!

Vivid are responsible for these polymer likenesses of the [mildly] derisible and very entertaining duo. Presumably based on the current standard animated-style version, Brian may have been entertained by the original B&W series while I got colour! For foreign readers who may not be familiar with this icon of British cuw'cha, the original animation technique involved paper cut-outs, live in the 1950's (on hidden sticks), recorded stop-motion (like Southpark) in the '70's.

A few days later Brian sent me another shot after outfitting Jake with a 'proper' sword! Thank you Mr. Berke . . . pirates and nostalgia; it's like going down the pub!

O is for Odd & Ends

Well, we've had a T is for . . .  already today! When I said we wouldn't look at Hing Fat in the last post, I sort of lied as we're looking at them right now, but these were latecomers to the queue, and just happened to fit as I'd used the figures to scale the Pen Plax fish-tank ornament earlier in the year!

So the Pen Plax fish tank ornament; just a bit of fun and it's supposed to be derelict, but with both wheels intact all you actually need to do is rebuild the chip in the barrel with some two-part epoxy-putty (or similar modelling compound) and give it a better paint, it could be used to defend the coconut grove on X-marks-the-spot Island!

Which leaves the Hing Fat; actually Billy V for Imex, and when I said the 'recently defunct' the other day I used a question mark to cover my arse as I wasn't sure they actually have gone broke, I'd just been told they had.

I think they are still going, but they seem to be running out of steam, the weekly deal is 'not found', they have lovely pictures of the Bismarck where there should be a Chinook heavy-lift helicopter, the Faceplant page was last added to in July and the website has no news, nor any Covid-19 info., so there's a air of tiredness to it all?

However, there's still stock of Billy-V's repacked Hing Fat to be found in Hobby Stores and Brain Berke added this to his stash the other day and sent a couple of images by way of a follow-up - cheers Brain!

R is for Return to Rack Toy Rascals - Round Up

Having seen several of the following in the last year or two, sometimes both years, I didn't think we'd be returning to them again, but life happens while you're thinking things, and here they all are for a reprise/round-up/return!

Additions to the 'probably Red Box' lot, both poses and colours has raised the pose count to nine which is unusual enough to keep me looking for a tenth, even though I've never seen one! And three colours, although I think I've also seen them in green?

Similar additions (in the same purchase) to the Dollar General sample brought them to only five posts, but added both light and or dark red and yellow to what I already had, the dark yellow's however, have washed out under the flash.

Brian had also, earlier, sent me his Dollar General acquisition, so by way of a close-up of both sides - here he is!

Toysmith's pirates are new to the Blog's collection and came as enemy for the unpainted Tomb Warrior skeletons in 'Battling Pirates' sets (from Toy Major) with six sculpts found, all in a black-as-your-pirate-heart charcoal plastic, these came from a charity-shop purchase I think, but see final paragraph.

I think Chris Smith sent these only the other day, but also see final paragraph; and they are smaller pirated versions of the Toysmith set in a softer green polymer.

So, excluding Hing Fat who got a good going last year and from the top; Dollar General, 'believed to be Red Box', unknown and the Toy Major-Toysmith newbie's with their two copies at the bottom. The unknowns are very 'unknown' at the moment - Jaru , D&D Dist., and Henbrandt carry Hing Fat and Imperial carried copies of Hing Fat (in yellow only) a few years ago, but I have no clue to these.

More imagery for the Toysmith set; base marking is similar to some of their PVC dinosaurs, and lacks the TM mark, while the copies are a lot smaller and - as mentioned - softer plastic, probably not a full-on PVC but one of these new hybrid compounds.

Toysmith as a distributor are running Toy Major push-through; in the Toy Major lists the set is currently titled W5545 - Action World Pirate Collection in a window box as opposed to the earlier header-carded bag.

Here I've taken the unknown and Dollar General's away and added the pod-footed, PVC rubber, 'probably capsule-toys' which came from Peter Evans and other sources in several tranches over some time. They are all copies of- or based-on figures from the Toysmith and 'believed to be' Red Box sets.

Last paragraph - I can't always and/or forever keep track of everything that comes in to the Blog, and there's stuff in this post which may not be correctly credited (like the Toysmith stuff for starters), suffice to say Peter Evans, Chris Smith and Trevor Rudkin have all contributed some of the above at some point, so thanks to them for everything they do!

T is for Two - Treasure-Hunting Terrors of the High Seas!

A couple of items which seemed too-small for separate posts but which I then found myself collaging-down to four images from an initial folder-full, and there's still a couple on the 'unused' sub-folder!

These shots came from Brian Berke, not something I'm collecting, as they are a tad big - and cartoony. They are interactive PC/Video-game pieces, or 'it is...'! Brain sent a few a couple of years ago, and I got-up some articles with Toy Fair and retail catalogue stuff, but they are languishing in the long-queue with me not confident enough about them to produce worthy blurb! But a pirate? Well, that's a different thing altogether . . .

. . . and if the figure in question is Captain Jack Sparrow himself ('Captain' of what remaining less than clear, through a four-film franchise!), he must appear! He thinks he's Captain of the Black Pearl, but several people think he isn't or shouldn't be!

A lovely figure, if both over-cartoony and a bit effeminate, but that was definitely the persona Johnny Depp wanted to get across, so it works. The figure will have electronics in the base and is part of a much larger range of Disney characters going back through the years of their cinematic output. I love the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and think I can say with some confidence, that the raised finger is a sign that an unbelievable excuse or complicated plea for mercy is about to come-forth! "Now . . . a'bout thaaaat . . . yer'see, it was like this . . . "

From the we-buy-this-so-you-know-what-you're-getting-if-you-buy-them-too department comes this bag of polyethylene 'solid' pirates, currently findable on feebleBay. I could tell the images were deliberately 'cloaked' so knew it might be disappointing, but they were 2.99 or 3.99 or something, fo five and I could make out at least two, so bought them anyway just to see what they were.

They were three separate sculpts (less than 1.50 each?) and two duplicates of the 'captain' figure. They are also quite large and have a self-tapping screw-hole in their backs, so may have started-life as decorative items or knobs for children's furniture or something? More likely a manufacturing 'thing' left visible on [cheap] cake decorations!

Totally unmarked/unbranded (including the cellophane bag - no labels), they were a pleasant surprise for not being as disappointing as I had prepared myself for! What you get if you do look for and buy them are three slightly chunky pirates with a poorish paint-job of the stab-and-hope style, who would - nevertheless - paint-up better and go with theSchleich/Pappo/ELC stuff admirably!

These are on the Kipp Brothers website (wholesale store in Indiana, founded 1880! Store currently closed for Covid-19) at $2.95 for four poses in slightly alternate paint schemes but the same silver polyethylene, it puts the pose-count to six.

Thanks again to Brian for the Cap'n Jack pictures.

ITLAPD is for It's Take a Leisurely Approach to Pirate Day

I'm not in the mood for comedy text this year, so while it is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and I would urge you to do so; at least once, I'll be a bit drier than previous years, although my late assistant would - I feel sure - want the show to go on.

Starting with the odds and sods post again, and this first image shows the high-lid A4 'Really Useful Box' which this year replaced the other two tubs, several takeaway containers and stiff card box also in the picture as the repository of the main Pirate collection, the East European 'smalls' being the only absentees.

It looks quite comprehensive, but having been allowed to see Peter Evan's pirate tub about a year ago, I can assure you I still have a long way to go . . . so there will be ITLAPD posts with 'new to Blog' stuff for years to come!

Having mentioned him; these two both came from Peter earlier in the year, on the left a reissue of the Cane after Fontanini pirates, originally from Italy, by American Dimestore (from the plastic colour?), but more interesting is the figure on the right; who is in a soft foamed-rubber (probably as a pencil rubber/eraser) and clearly a copy, being quite a bit smaller. Neither has been manufactured in a colour that works well with a camera!

You can see just how 'rubber' the rubber pirate is, and he may be quite recent, if reissues were kicking around, getting their hands on a set and pantographing them wouldn't have been a problem for some Chinese producer.

Especially as - at that cheapo level - it's often the Western clients who bring/take the items to be copied, to the Chinese facilitators . . . in this case the pirating pirate pirates! Yes, we've had that one before, yes, we'll have it again in future ITLAPD's! Even more so [easy to pirate] if American Dimestore have had the moulds sent to China for running by a contractor there?

Also from Mr. Evans I think, a colour variation of the Supreme figure, we've seen them several times, so he needs no expansive blurb, but can be found on the tag ('supreme' or 'pirate') if you missed them

This one came from Chris Smith in the 'specially for Autumn' parcel, and while most action figures tend to go on to Charity, Chris correctly reckoned I'd want to retain this chap in the master collection, as he is a perfect 54mm.

Simply marked 'CHINA' I don't know anything else about him, although I suspect one of the dozen or so big-box, generic, pirate-ship play-sets in recent years, but he's a lovely sculpt of a slightly menacing brigand, who's clearly seen some adventures - leaving the odd body-part behind on-route to where he is!

Chris also sent some novelty coinage . . . in case I need to pay Davy Jones?

And an eye-patch of timeless toy-design - in case I need to pull the wool over Davy Jones' eyes!

While these 'piratey' things also came in over the last year, both from Playmobil, I won't be collecting that range (you need a bigger house and a bigger income!) although I will probably hang on to the parrot, if only until I can take a comparison shot with the yellow/blue varient I found Googling that particular Rabbit Hole! Actually . . . I should dig-out the Lego parrots and do that comparison-shot too - see; we're already preparing for next year's ITLAPD!