About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

S is for Spacex (LB part 1)

Starting at the end, or ending at the start...if you've been following them! The most collected, but to a certain extent also the most common, the 25mm range, although they're not all the same size, nothing so easy from the HK producers. Marketed by Triang in the UK, and in the US by Multiple Toy Makers as Golden Astronaut, but all (most?) made by Lik Be - LB.

From the top; Hard plastic gunmetal, soft plastic gunmetal, Hard plastic chrome silver, hard plastic chromed gold, hard plastic white. All carry the LB mark except the silvered chrome ones and the four at the bottom and these may be the ones by Hover (a HK for the US company producing similar Spacex stuff), Blue Box or similar. Those last four have been painted by the owner.

Note; The white ones and the top row are taller than the others by about 1.5 mm, while the unmarked ones are chunkier mouldings. Gold Chrome are Spacex, the others were mostly carded HK stuff and/or cake decorations, available via Culpitts and similar.

These are the extra figures available with Spacex and Golden Astronaut sets, the four to the left being based on MPC 5 inch figures, the two to the right being based on MPC 50mm figures. The silver one above the row is what happens when you leave them in the sun, not a deliberate silver chromed figure. While the one below the row may have had is chrome stripped, if not he's quite unusual, being made of that 1950's type (mixed granules) plastic? These were never marked, but were sold mixed with LB marked figures in the Spacex/GA ranges.

An incomplete collection of the Triang smaller vehicles, each had 1 figure, so with 50% being the common LB designs, you had to buy a lot to get all the MPC poses (which is why I only have 5 decent examples, and one who's been in the wars!).

Three others, loose, I could list them all, but you're far better off going to Project Moonbase. Presumably in the 21st Century (later, much later!) we will palletise all goods on hover pallets, doing away with the need for two long thin arms on fork-lifts/pallet trucks?

Since corrected to Lik Be / LB.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

O is for Other Things (LB part 2)

Tying up a few loose ends, with LB and others, the aim will be to rename the last few and next few posts so that they are in some sort of order and can be found together in the future.

These are all 6 poses of the Robots in small scale (25mm), with slight variants, the gunmetal being soft ethylene, the chromium-plated one's like their 54mm brethren are a hard styrene, most a neutral grayish, but the lower fat one can be seen to be an emerald green under the chrome. The lower 'biker' is yet another unfinished project of mine, undercoat and mapping pen highlights wait for a blue (Police?) wash and tyres, while the upper fish head seems to have factory painted eyes?

These astronauts are unmarked, but the base is very similar to the LB marked Robots and both were still being sold from cake decorating display stands in the late 1990's, so inclusion here is guaranteed, there are only the two poses.

These divers are also marked LB and were probably sold as fish-tank decoration as well as for cakes. I don't know if this was all of them, and they (Lik Be) are probably responsible for some of the older sharks and octopi that turn up in mixed lots from time to time?

Two more marked LB, now, Culpitts carried the astronauts by Lik Be, but tended to move Gemodels product when it came sports and pastime figures, or the HK copies of same. Were these released in direct competition with one of their main clients, or did Culpitts carry these as well? And...How many more were there in this set/series, 6/8?

Both these and the divers are approximately 45mm, polyethylene.

A colour variation that came to light courtesy of wishes to remain annonymous, paint remains show a common scheme of green base, blue belt and gold helmet.

A Mikephil carded set, these are standard marked figures, the vehicles are very similar to the ones below, but slightly different, slightly more detailed/complicated. Of interest; they are not vehicles issued with Spacex or Golden Astronauts. Roco give up their Pz.IV, or at least the chassis again!

Since corrected to Lik Be / LB.

Friday, December 11, 2009

P is for Pirates (LB part 3)

Because all the HK guys were centred on the same region of the colony, when they did produce unique designs - not often, but it did happen occasionally - they would immediately be copied by all their rivals, so dozens of piracies exist; Blue Box suffer from a lot of copying, these LB figures, Corgi's late figure production and so on.

Here we have a white figure almost the same size as the 54mm originals, but with a hollowed out base, either side of him some unmarked silver figures around 45mm with similar but slightly heavier mouldings in the same size but multicoloured above.

The bottom row from left to right; quite accurate copies of the small scale figures, then a very heavy-set chap in silver, and an intermediate bunch to finish. All - again - unmarked, all around 25mm.

The figures in this 'Acrobatic Team' carded set are marked with a small 'HONG KONG' as are the 'planes, I particularly like these aircraft, as while being based on 1950/60's Cold War machines, they could - with a bit of paint - pass for 'Atmosphere Craft' of the Trigan Empire or some of their allies or enemies.

Now why has no one exploited that franchise!? The loose craft bottom right is a moulding failure, but with such symmetry to the missing wing-tips, he makes a whole new variant!

Silicone rubber sucker / window stick-on's of the robots

Some vehicles that have accompanied some of the lots the above figures came in, they may or may not be connected, wheels are very like some Blue Box wheels? The pilots are straight copies of the pilots from the Triang Spacex range.

Since corrected to Lik Be / LB.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

L is for LB (part 4)

Another favourite of mine over the years has been the vast range of variants of the LB/Golden/Tri-ang Spacex figures, along with their Robots, and I'll be returning to them again, but for now here are a few of the larger ones.

A good range of different treatments in 54mm of all 8 poses of astronaut. From left to right we have two 'painted fronts' (as opposed to paint both sides/all over) in soft ethylene white plastic, followed by an unpainted one, then a couple of the late coloured ones, a very late hard nylon type plastic one with a chromium finish and two unpainted final versions. These last types can still be found languishing in the dustier corners of older bakers and cake decorating shops.

The later 'Painted fronts' have blue eyes, rather than the black of earlier versions.

The very first runs were painted on both sides, and here we find the earliest styrene issue, again all 8 poses, but showing the reverse, you can follow the issues by how much paint they have! Paper on the base points to them having been glued into Blue Box type window-boxed display sets.

More early issues, again painted on both sides but in ethylene, these early products even have the bases painted, the first thing to go! I have later red ones with no paint, but have yet to find a green one. The green one - of course - does away with the need to paint the base!

A carded set with the Robots in large scale, they're quite uncommon in the bigger size, usually turning up with the small scale figures. Note also (not that clear in the picture I know!) that the two Robots are both fitted with piercings, almost certainly this set was produced after the mould had been permanently converted to produce Key Ring charms. Also of note is the ubiquitous pirated Roco-Minitanks Pz.IV chassis!


Another chassis but with different superstructure (the Lone*Star rocket launcher, another much pirated design!), three more - earlier - Robots and another with the key-ring piercing, unusually he's the only one in my collection of these in a PVC vinyl.

The relative rarity of the Robots in larger sizes probably stems from the visual appearance of them once the holes had been drilled, these HK producers would hawk their wares to all and sundry, and people wouldn't have put in orders for 'damaged' mouldings.

Since corrected to Lik Be / LB.

News, views etc...

The link to the Belgian site updated today for the first time in a while, with nice pics of a Congolese colonial band in preparation, however I thought I'd just mention; Unlike Blogger/Blogspot or Wordpress, the Belgian site (Skyrock) updates to the last page - not the showing page, so scroll to page 29 to see the new stuff...

W is for Wagon Books

The more astute among you will have noticed a propensity for returning to the theme of Horse drawn transport on these pages! It is a sub-genre of my collecting, and one that is a great favorite of mine. These are - to a certain extent my bibles and I thought I'd better share them with you.

Either side are old Shire Albums on British civilian and military wagons, both nice little works, and usually pick-up'able for a few quid or less. In the middle is the Blanford Colour Series, which is doubly useful as it give the foreign names alongside the English. Again should be able to find this on Amazon for 'Pennies'...

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

E is for Eye-candy

Sitting here this afternoon sorting out old photographs, thought I'd share a few with you...

Two of the three versions of 'White Box' Prussians from Airfix. The third version is the red graphics without the 'New' flash.

Forces of Valour Russian Infantry with Cossack.

Colour variants of Timpo solid knight with battle-axe. Of interest - two base types pointing to two moulds.

Britains Indian Elephant packaging.

That's all folks!

A is for Alymer

I thought I had a grand total of 6 of these, but if I did the two mounted ones are missing? Probably swapped for some horrible plastic!! I also know for a fact I got these from John Ruddle at the BMSS, so shout out to him, and the whole post is a knee-jerk reaction to a posting on the 'The Old Metal-detector', which I ran into about an hour ago!...TOM. And he's now added a link to his further explorations of Professor de Gre's collection.

Basic boxed set of two figures, looking at the below photo, you'll notice there are slight differences between the bases, whether this helps the real experts date them or not is open to question?

Closer views of the two pairs in my collection, I'm sure I used to have a mounted Alexander/Greek and a mounted Knight but...

Close-ups showing how he built them up from soft-solder on a frame or armature, they are quite crude, both in paint and execution (the chain-mail appears to have been made with a lino-cutter!), but charming for being each an original. The earliest date from before the war (Garrett dates to 1928), which is why they fetch such silly sums, particularly from US dealers, however these are the more common ones from the 1960'/70's.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

S is for Sportsmen set

This is a 'bitty' post, in order to compare the various types/issues I had to spread them all out on the floor, which produced a fuzzy image, so I then took two closer pictures and 'stitched' them, gaining a bit of detail but losing the card! So if you are a fastidious packaging collector, click on the upper photo, if you're more interested in the figures - click on the lower one.

The Originals (shooter, bottom left) were produced as premiums all over the world, and various other sets either influenced the premium set, or were based on it. There are at least ten poses running through the various issues, from left to right (footballer ended up in two files? I'm tired!);
Shooting Competitor
Gymnast/Diver
Fencer
Swimmer/Diver
Discus Thrower
Runner
Javelin
Footballer
Weightlifter
Boxer

Underneath the HK figures are some influencing/based on them, the aforementioned shooter is marked 'Drink Pepsi Cola' in the under-base cavity, but I've seen others. Then, below the Diver/Swimmer we see from left to right; what I think is a Marx UK Swimmer, then the Linde/Jean/Manurba premium then the US Marx 60mm Swimmer and as a bit of a laugh, the old man from the Ideal/Mattel/Hasbro Mouse Trap board game!

Markings and size are the reason for the 7 ranks, and are as follows;
Top row - 54mm, marked 'MADE IN HONG KONG' in similar cavity to Pepsicorp figure.
2nd row - 40mm, Olympic rings base unmarked, with chads.
3rd row - 35mm, solid base with raised lines and 'MADE IN HONG KONG'
4th row - 35mm, chad base with 'H.K'
5th row - 30mm, solid base with uneven 'HONG KONG'
6th row - 30mm, chads with 'HONG' and 'KONG' on separate un-chadded discs
7th row - 28mm, chadded, unmarked.

[For those who don't follow tight elections (or should that be stitch-ups!), chads are the little holes left by punches!]

Monday, December 7, 2009

News, views etc...

Because eBay feedback as become so devalued and meaningless, I'd like to flag up the following seller as being a cut above the rest, bohemiantoys, who sent the items in a bag within a new bubble-pack/Jiffy-bag, with his full name and address (rare these days where a lot of sellers just use a postcode) and a business card. His shop is to be found at; Classic Collectables, there is a website as well but you'll find the link to that on his eBay shop page. I do not know or represent Richard (but may have run into him at the NEC or somewhere?) but wanted to reward good service with a bit of promotional 'Blurb'!!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

M is for MDM

I have to confess I have a very small sample of these, and most of those I do have are damaged, but these are very sought after, and tend toward Christie's rather than SAS, or BMSS auctions rather than dealers tables, so don't come up often, and fetch serious money when they do!

The two main packaging types, foot figures were sold singly or in fours, while the mounted examples were sold on the same base as the quadruple-packed foot figures. Produced by Rene Daniel, they were popular with Hotels and Airports, where they would be found in display cases in the lobbies etc...Garratt reports a fine display at Orly, I wonder if it's still there?

The base mark from a mounted figure, the foot figures were unmarked. There is a website devoted to MDM here; 1er.Empire but I can't tell if it's an old one, someones lost interest in, or a brand new one that's still being built as it's one of those annoying one's that tells you it was last updated when you clicked on it, rather than when the owner last did something to it!

A few more figures, the one on the left has - I think - been re-based to match someones wider collection. Like a lot of French companies, MDM only produced figures of the 1st Empire; 'Napoleonic' French Units and their allies, I've never understood this, everyone else manages to produce allies, enemies and even neutrals (except Crescent - who had a problem with the Germans), but the French tend to stick with their own, how can a kid have a battle when every one's on the same side...Oh...La Revolution; take 2!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

S is for Space

More 54mm. There's a story behind these, I talked my mate John into 'lending' me these, so that I could paint them, with the intention of giving them back to him to put on eBay, this was about 4 years ago!

When he was helping me with my flooded storage unit a year and a half ago, we found them and I asked him if he wanted them back (they'd been packed in a hurry and forgotten about, only to turn up in one of the damaged boxes), and he insisted I keep them after 'all the work' I'd done, so they are here in Berkshire, looking for a shelf, as even I can't bare to put them on eBay now!

One of each pose of the Airfix Space Warriors, painted with PVA/Acrylics, something I'm still getting my head round, but it does cover the larger figures well without flaking as easily as spirit-based 'enamels' used to.

I consider these to be the 'good' guys, hero and heroine on the ends, government trooper in the sand suit and a special agent in the red helmet (although he could be a 'neutral'...assassin or something).

I base with a fine soily sand I collect from beaten doormats, and run through a fine sieve, then a gauze tea-strainer, it sticks well to a thick layer of paint, but PVA white/wood glue would do the same job. The different colour of the bases comes from the underlying paint, not the soil.

The 'bad' guys, left to right we find Lizard man (they're always bad!), evil Manga robot and Darth Vader (TM)'s cousin Frank.

I used to hate this set, but actually they paint up quite well and half the hate was down to their lack of availability in the Airfix HO/OO range. Why is this about the only set the Chinese never copied in small scale either?! There were a couple of HO copies in a later kit from Airfix?

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

News, views etc...

Richard O'Brien has published a collection of all his old articles on toy soldiers, it is available as a self-published book from Lulu, Get it here Toy Soldiers

N is for Newsflash! - Political Expenses....Latest!