T is for a Tale of Three Trolleys

Well, it's all got to appear here eventually, so by way of box-ticking toward that goal, and because I picked-up the first, die-cast version the other day, it's trolley madness at Small Scale World today; like Reefer Madness but with less murder, divorce and . . . err . . . madness . . . maybe?

Wardie's Mastermodels OO-gauge compatible 1:76th scale die-cast platform/post/parcel/baggage trolley and trailer, this one in an odd colour - as far as railway company liveries is concerned - but I don't know if they came in other colours?

The driver too is die-cask zamac/mazak and plugs-in loosely to two holes in the standing-platform, the control/power lever (sort of dead-mans handle) for these, which is not modeled, were on the face where his left hand is hinted at being, I think?

Merit inherited some of the BJ Ward moulds when the latter went bust and unpaid workers took themselves and some moulds over the road to Randall's in Potters Bar, or so the story goes - one suspects that actually Merit probably shelled-out for some of the intellectual (or actual) property?

Later Merit and current Modelscene sets only supply one unpowered trailer, but the early 'matchbox' issues (which aped the earlier Mastermodels boxings) had two.

Merit have re-cut the driver thought, whether as a new tool, or just in 'cleaning' the cavities//re-servicing the tool, I don't know.

 Airfix's set (bottom right) dates from 1958 (if memory serves) so was probably more contemporary than copy, but they have 'previous form' and the Wardie one would have been around by then I think so . . . no matter, it gives us our trio! I'll chuck a different comparison in the relevant entry on the Airfixfigs Blog.

C is for Culpitt's Cake Characters

We did look at one of these ages ago I think, there was a pre-'how they come in' trope post on some stuff I had found in a cake decorators which closed a few months later here in the 'Glass Menagerie' as some call our mini-mall; the Hart Shopping Centre, currently 80% closed and about 40% unoccupied long before Covid!

Anyway, after I found that Goofy (for it was he!), I went through all the vinyl's (which tend to pile-up in a TBS box [To Be Sorted]) and found two more, then I picked up another three the other day, with a duplicate, so here's the Culpitt's take on Schleich/Papp/Heimo-Bully type PVC Disney Characters.

Minnie, Micky x2, Goofy and Donald, I have no idea how many there were, or who made them, they could be Hong Kong, or contract manufactured by any of the above named, or Comics Spain, Plastoy or some as yet nameless, local concern? Remember someone round 'er ran the Timpo cat-pair tool in PVC? And with two Mickey's we might be looking at two sets of four main characters, giving from a minimum of eight, up to twelve or more sculpts?

That's a few of them anyway!

News, Views Etc . . . New Stock at Barneys Emporium of Good Things!

Perfectly timed to meet my return to Blogging, here's the latest news from Barney over at Herald Toys and Models;

"This week we have a good collection of Airfix mounted toy soldiers, a large collection of Speedwell/UNA/VP American Indians. Arriving shortly is a large collection of Herald farm models, together with a good collection of Britains/Herald Swoppet Wild West Cowboys and Indians."

Vectis have auctions ongoing too (today?), but I won't get back on track with those updates until next week.

W is for Well Now! That's Interesting!

It's nice to put a question to bed, even when it was more of a mystery than a full question-mark, but in this case it probably should have been flagged-up as more of a full question-mark to begin with!

We looked at the - technically - Air Force, cold-war figures from Deluxe Reading/Topper Toys just over two years ago here, at which time I mused that the orange ones might be Politoys output in Italy (who apparently handled the sculpts), but it turns out . . .

. . . they were Thomas Toys! I'm not getting it out of the bag until I find a second one, but I can assure you it's the same figures, with a Jeep which is also not the well-known Thomas-Taffy-Poplar design, but neither do I believe it's Deluxe Reading? If nothing else it's a better sculpt than the hiddeosity which accompanies the Deluxe Reading GI's!

There are no visible marks on the Jeep (which is way over-scale at about 1:24th) to help ID the supplier, or to suggest it might have been a late design of Thomas themselves - which nevertheless remains a possibility?

The suspicion is that Deluxe Reading here in the UK ran the tool in orange polymer as the contract manufacturer for the figures, while - possibly - a third party provided the Jeep, the whole being a typical beach toy; sandcastles; for the use of, as marketed by Thomas?

The card looks old, but the figures - as Deluxe - soldiered-on into the 1970's long after Alden Industries took over Thomas's US operation (if they [the figures] were even available when Thomas were around?), meaning either that Thomas UK carried on for a while (I don't have the relevant Plastic Warrior guide in front of me!) or Poplar (who did a lot of this sea-side stuff) continued to use the brand-mark?

Note that the TNT mark reads;

NTT

While I've had the Deluxe Reading's out, it struck me that the Blue Box 'Secret Missiles Base' figures are also copies of or based on the Deluxe' figures, but being (above) more like the navy guys from the smaller scale range, although this set on Moonbase Central had closer copies of the Air Force ones, also with the flesh painted-in.

The Singapore mark would tie them into one of at least two Blue Box factories in the island nation, but a lot of the Redbox farm and zoo sets tend to carry a Singapore mark, so using the Tai Sang parent for attribution might be safer . . . now we know they all shared the same chairman for over fifty years despite the best efforts of the PSTSM to say otherwise by inventing a whole port/facility!

U is for Ultrapenciltop!

We looked at these years ago when I did a pencil-top round-up, but one or two more have come in including a rather fetching white one (from Chris Smith or Peter Evans), so I thought I'd do a new shot for the family photo-album and share it with you.

I muttered something about super-boy last time I think, but the top figure is supposed to be Ultraman or some similar 1970's Japanese TV character, the robots don't seem to fit Ultraman's 'Mechas' though so may be from other series'; Manzinger or Gundams or something. Four poses found and five clear colours with a lilac variant of the purple and redder-oranges, or an orangier red!

The new addition, definitely the smartest, he's a minter! I'll thank both the above named as things have been pretty chaotic around here and they've both sent stuff since I called a halt to blogging, while a lot's been combined/sorted and I've shot loads of stuff, but lost track of some origins! 

A is for All The King's Men

No, not the old shop and poured 'new metal' maker, but the answer to the question-mark figure from Parker (clearly - now - a home-paint) which we looked at a while ago here.

Once I'd spotted them, looking for something else, I grabbed the cheapest one I could find on feebleBay as I was really only after the figures, consequently the one I ended-up with was a sun-faded one (most of them are, there was a period when printers used some really crap ink) and so this is enhanced somewhat in Picasa and is not true to life, but it gives you an idea!

The real reason for the shedding of shekels; The kings (left) are perfect 54mm accompanyment, which your own eyes will tell you leaves the knights (middle) knocking fifty-mil and the bowmen a tad over 45-millimeters. There are two 'army' colours with 1 king, 4 knights and 7 bowmen per side.

The board which looks like a conventional 8x8 is actually 7x8 and the movement controls make this a chess/draughts mechanism, but more constricted than the former, I did save the rules to the archive but didn't read them so can't bore you with them even if you want me too!

I rather like the little vignettes at either end of the board which are vaguely Bayeux Tapestry as it might have been rendered by a 1970's hippy, or a moonlighting Heavy Metal (Metal Hurlant) artist, of the day!

New employee . . . not! He's hopeless and we'll see more of him soon but suffice to say rather than sitting in boxes or climbing into bags, he likes inspecting individual 'mice' with his mouth . . . which is a fightey-bitey one, so I will have to watch the rarer figures carefully when I have them out!

Public Service Announcement - on behalf of the Do we Really Need a 'Royalty' Party

What colour will their blood turn-out to be?

Blue as a monkey's arse - apparently.

Andrew hiding from paedo-investigations (in Woking's Pizza Express! They won't be putting that on their flyers!), the Duke dying at 99 but no one actually admitting it, Anne on girlfr . . . err . . . husband number four? Or is she single these days? Charles, well, there's that whole Diana thing before Camilla, no, after Camilla, no, before . . . oops! Edward, a right Royal stand-up, on husban . . .  err. . . wife number 1, the horrible anus thing, isn't it time we were shot of the whole freeloading, dysfunctional lot of 'em?

And the whorey old excuse that a President would be worse (the 'horrific' example used to be Berlusconi, became Farage (rhymes with c**t) and is now Trump!)* belies the fact that we don't need two heads of state, we have a Prime Minister who does all the leading-function stuff and biggly-wiggly meetings, just keep him representing us as he represents us, we ARE after-all a representative democracy, or we're supposed to be!

*Giuliani would be a better stand-in for Berlusconi! I wonder if they go to the same guy to get their hair done?

T is for There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens

I was apologising to a correspondent and regular Blog Fan, the other day, for leaving not one but two poultry posts at the top of the home-page for three months (an irony in itself as the fascist Folgor once accused me of only posting 'cartoon mice and ducks' or something similar!), when he suggested I'd have been better-off calling the second one "There's nobody here but us chickens", which gave me this great idea!

I will get back in to posting in a week or so, one can't mope forever, but in the meantime; here are those chickens . . . 

They are some of the finest ivory carving you're likely to see, each pegged to the stand with a separate rod of ivory, funny stuff these days as you can't buy it, and you can't sell it, for perfectly obvious and 'good' reasons, so you can only enjoy the surviving stuff from yesteryear, while hopefully remaining conscious of what was wrong with it all along . . . Trump's Mid-West matrons might still believe in the Old Testament's invitation to us to hold dominion over everything, but it hasn't worked out that well has it?

About a perfect 54mm compatible, the cock slightly larger (but more fluffed-up) than the Britains' ones, it's an odd game of pooh-sticks isn't it, which will come first; the last living elephant or the loss of the right to even own something like this?

Cheers Andy!

One night farmer Brown was takin' the airs
Locked up the barnyard with the greatest of care
Down in the hen house, somethin' stirred
When he shouted, "Who's there?"
This is what he heard

“There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So calm yourself and stop that fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
We chickens tryin' to sleep and you butt in
And hobble, hobble hobble hobble with your chin”

“There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
You're stompin' around and shakin' the ground
You're kickin' up an awful dust
We chicken's tryin' to sleep and you butt in
And hobble, hobble hobble hobble, it's a sin”

“Tomorrow is a busy day
We got things to do, We got eggs to lay
We got ground to dig and worms to scratch
It takes a lot of settin', gettin' chicks to hatch”

“Ohh, there ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So quiet yourself and stop that fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
Kindly point that gun the other way
And hobble, hobble hobble off and hit the hay”

“Tomorrow is a busy day
We got things to do, we got eggs to lay
We got ground to dig and worms to scratch
It takes a lot of settin', gettin' chicks to hatch”

“There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So quiet yourself and stop that fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
And kindly point that gun the other way
And hobble, hobble hobble off and hit the hay”

“Hey, hey, boss man, what do ya say?
It's easy pickings
Ain't nobody here but us chickens”

Late shot - Britains hen comparison

T is for Two - More Poultry!

Hey, it's Christmas and I always do 'other stuff' in December, and I meant to get this up yesterday, as a follow-up to the other one, managed the text, got the tagging done this morning, but only succeeded in finding the time to publish now!

It actually predates yesterday's post and is one of the 700-odd languishing in Picasa, when I titled the other post's folder 'Poultry' it defaulted to Poultry_1; reminding me this pair was there too!

I posted a growing sample of these a few years ago and thought it was worth a progress-shot; my growing flock of Cherilea 'large scale' hens and cockerels! Normally you only have one adult cock in a flock, as soon as the 'teenagers' start to look like wanting to fight, they go in the deep freeze! You can de-spur them to minimise damage if they are serving a larger flock in a big free-range setting, but it's easier to just have the one.

Many years ago, and soon after I first joined my father in Alderney we were given a bunch of poultry by the outgoing tenants of Rose Farm and made the mistake of letting two spurred cocks get together in a pen and they tore each other to hell, but separating them wasn't easy and they can do you damage when their bloods-up. And it's not just the spurs, they will be pecking to get an eye out.

'Q is for question time' on this one; it's hard polystyrene, stylised and semi-flat with an England mark on the starboard tail! Possibly from a large tin-plate truck or Doll's House accessory set, something like that.

A close up of the marking, needs a clean too, I think I've seen these in a pale greyish salmon-pink and possibly black, but I might be getting confused with the soft plastic ones with the heavy-cone bases, which turned out to be Thomas-Poplar and from a farm pick-up's accessory crate.

I'd like it to be Airfix, but suspect it's probably Kleeware or the Lines' family of Triang-Mettoy?

P is for Postponed Posts, Poultry and Pottering About!

Right, real life is going to make increasing in-roads for a while, it won't stop me posting, but some of the stuff penciled in for December will probably slide into the new year, other stuff won't happen and I'll pick at what's hanging around here half-done!

It's a pain, yet I can hardly claim 2020's been a vintage year, but I was hoping after a slow late-summer/autumn to pull a few stops out at the end; that probably won't happen now. A joint 'season' with Brain B has almost certainly gone for a Burton's, but I'll try to work at it for January, a space mini-season with another contributor will probably now be a single follow-up and plans for Santa's & Snowmen will wait for next year, but I have some Nativity in the can, which I'll try to get finished in the moments available!

I think I've mentioned before that increasingly I'm going for thematic/subject matter sorting of the collection, rather than maker/scale, and to that end one of the early subjects was the whole bird-world and poultry sector!

These are all the recent acquisitions (last 9-months or so), and some will have been seen before in H is for . . . 's, but getting them together to take to the relevant boxes in the loft was an excuse for another picture!

Clockwise in a spiral from the top left we have; a terracotta owl ornament, a probably French key-ring (wine and cockerels? It's not Barnsley!), a modern China goose in PVC, crappy HK turkey, British duck (Britains or Hillco? Another day!), Kinder flamingo, Crescent family group, a very-solid piece of - possibly cast iron - metal duck (modern), then a blow-moulded swan (probably from a Hong Kong doll's set), larger blow-moulded novelty duck, a green bird which could be an Indian Runner duck or a stretching goose, but is - I think - supposed to be a penguin and finally a novelty 'rubber ducky' in blue, probably a cracker or gum-ball capsule machine prise, also blow-moulded.

I'm actually building quite a group of those miniaturised bath-ducks! They were/are - along with swan sets -  a popular novelty and I've seen carded 'families' in different sizes.

With them were these wooden flats (from Peter Evans I think?) which I left in the bag for a reason, as I was pretty sure I'd another one!

As I was taking them up, I found another, a rather nice cockerel who could be that French/Portuguese family of PVC products being the same stiff material, but from the eyes I think he is a newer cartoon character by someone like Phidal?

When I took them up, I found the similar pickings from last year/early this year were sat on top of the stack waiting the 'full-sort', which was probably when I got the idea for this thematic post! And there was the other wooden flat!

Snaking down we have a pair of modern Chinese ducks, one large one small; we've seen these before, both from my collection and a contributor and they are always well painted - like owls, there is a sub-hobby who only collect these ornamental ducks.

The standing mallard-type is ceramic and probably a fair-ground prize or 'fairing', below him another well painted model of a goose (or non-UK-native swan?), another ceramic owl, a chewed 'chook', two more duckies, one a pink blow-mould, the other a 'proper' rubber duck with squeaker and key-chain hook and finally a moulten-glass sculpture which may be a duck with a broken upper beak, or some kind of tropical toucan thing? Always listed by hopeful evilBayers as Murano, they rarely are and I tend to pick them up in Charity shops for 50p

"Revenge of the Giant Chickens! Opens Bank-Holiday Monday, in a theatre near you! Be amazed, be shocked, and be sure to buy a choc-ice during the intermission!"

Quickly brought together, these are from larger Erzgebirge-style sets, and similar stuff exists in most countries, but from her garb I suspect some Eastern import, probably between the wars . . . Poland or Czechoslovakia?

I think I may have other animals (pigs/sheep) from the same set somewhere, and you do see them in rummage-trays at the 'London'  toy soldier shows in among the ratted hollow-cast, we imported a lot of Christmas decorations from both countries in that period, and we seem to have shipped-in a few of these!

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis - Early December

 Next two Vectis auctions are later today and tomorrow; nice things in both . . .

Lot 183

'Go Home' 

Thursday 3rd December 2020 10:00am
TV and Movie Related Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The TV and Film related sale to be held on the 3rd of December features an interesting collection from a Hasbro employee, items include standard samples and prototypes, from Transformers, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, and Star Wars. Further items in the sale include Action Man vintage equipment, accessories, outfits, vehicles and figures. Star Wars carded and loose vintage figures, Legacy Collection and 30th Anniversary collection; Planet of the Apes carded figures, Dr Who, Austin Powers, Lord of the Rings, He-Man Masters of the Universe, Star Trek and Superhero figures. The sale will also include My Little Pony, Mezco Studiocraft Enchantica figurines, Cherlilea Military vehicles, books, magazines, annuals, Lego, signed photographs and displays, and games."

Catalogue and download

Lot 1265
(see also 1266 and 1271)

Friday 4th December 2020
James Bond '007' and Specialist Die Cast Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The James Bond and Specialist diecast sale to be held on the 4th of December starts with The Buckinghamshire Collection which features vehicles from Autoart, Minichamps, Kyosho, Corgi and Johnny Lightning, plus slot cars from Carrera and Scalextric. James Bond figures also feature, from Corgi, Action Man, Sideshow and Exclusive Toy productions, and the collection includes gift sets, props, books, memorabilia, and promotional items. The Sussex Collection features Corgi Gift sets promotional sets and posters, and The 50 Years of Bond Collection includes further Corgi vehicles and gift sets, Limited Edition Gift Sets, Autoart, Kyosho, Little Soldiers James Bond sets, figures, guns and pistols, Corgi Icon Figures, original and replica props, DVDs/VHS, advertising material, posters, and signed framed pictures. The sale will also include Part 2 of The Kempshott Collection, featuring Dinky buses and coaches, pre-war train sets and French Dinky; The Ian Townell Lotus Collection, a Mechanical Horse Collection and further items."

Catalogue and download

*************************************

The ongoing global health scare means various special instructions are still in place . . .

COVID - 19 RESTRICTIONS
 
Please note there is still NO viewing, or attendance in person at these Auctions.
 
Absentee bids can be emailed to admin@vectis.co.uk, or placed via the Vectis or Invaluable website, up until 2 hrs prior to the auction commencing.
 
ON THE DAY OF THE SALE, LIVE BIDDING is available on www.vectis.co.uk or www.invaluable.com, or TELEPHONE BIDDING can be arranged.

For telephone bidding please contact Vectis prior to the day of the auction. We will arrange for you to be involved live via telephone on the day of the sale. We will call you two or three lots prior to the lot being offered for auction.

There is no charge for telephone bidding.  

SHIPPING

Please be aware there is still a slight delay with our current despatch times.

Our packing team have been working hard to catch up with the 5 weeks closure we experienced in March/April. When we re-opened in April we did so with a skeleton staff, we are now back to full capacity and they have been working tirelessly to ensure your parcels are packed as quickly and professionally as possible; the team are now currently packing and despatching September Sales. 

We thank you for your understanding and patience in these unprecedented times. 

COLLECTION   

If you wish to collect items, we would ask customers to first call and pay for their purchases. Ask for a collection appointment date and time. This will allow the packing team to prepare your items and have them ready for you, reducing waiting times.  

PLEASE ENSURE YOU WEAR A MASK WHEN COLLECTING LOTS (UNLESS EXEMPT)

Please note we will be closing for the Christmas break on Thursday 24th December

and will reopen Monday 4th of January 2021.

 

If you would like to collect your Lots before we close, please contact the office

to arrange a collection date and time.

 

And Vectis can - as always - be contacted here;

Vectis Auctions
Fleck Way, Thornaby,  Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel - +44 (0) 1642 750616
Fax - +44 (0) 1642 769478
Sales [currently] commence at 10:30hrs 10:00hrs

Sothern Office
Unit 5A, West End Industrial Estate, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 1UB
Tel - +44 (0)1993 709 424