S is for Supreme/SP Toys, Part 3 - Articulated Transport

The various cab-units, The standard cabs are just civil models in military colours while the half-tracked cabs are quite Gerry Anderson!

The half-tracks pull the three smaller rocket carriers in the foreground, the 'Big-Rigs' tow the TEL's (Transporter/Erector/Launcher) at the back, and other designs shown below. It has to be said the TEL's seem to be carrying SCUD's in US markings! But a quick paint job would turn them into nice Iranian or North Korean equipment or even the fabled Iraqi WMD's!

The other trailers I currently know of, there may well be others, and again I don't know for sure which came in both Desert and temperate schemes and which were only issued in one colour variant?

Fully loaded and ready to hit the Basra-Kuwait city highway! Most of these would be equally at home with a bright coloured re-paint and a job to do on a model railway!

S is for Supreme/SP Toys, Part 4 - Armoured Engineering

My favorites from the Supreme stable are the three engineering variants on a rather generic chassis with dozer-blade...

An extending shovel/back-hoe and long-reach crane both fold up nicely for travel, while the gloss, puke-green road-roller is clearly an afterthought taken from the civil construction sets!

The Bridge-layer is a hell of a piece of kit from a HK/China producer, especially one selling at pocket-money prices. Fully working and far more robust than the Roco one, every modern army should have one!

Winter Butterflies at RHS Wisley

Photographic results of a visit to RHS Wisley and the annual winter butterfly season in the main tropical glasshouse. They have been doing this for several years apparently, and I would urge you to go next year (but not on the same day I go!) as it is a wonderful experience and three minutes from the M25, one minutes from the A3.

Malachite - Siproeta Stelenes

The most beautiful Butterfly there on the day, I preferred them to the Blue Morpho's that everyone was getting excited about, the photographs just don't do it justice.

Tree Nymph - Idea Leuconoe

Another stunning Butterfly, the printed cards, which seem to have been prepared for the whole season, don't have all the butterflies you find on the day, I guess the suppliers have to work with whatever chrysalises they have at a given moment. On the card this is shown as a black and white one, but as you can see, when we went they had a tint of honey staining.

Clipper - Parthenos Sylvia

I kept calling this the 'Tiger-striped one', and it was one of the more numerous ones. I didn't get a shot of one closed, some seem to settle open, so you can't get a shot of the outside, some seem to settle closed so you can't get a shot of them open! Anyone watching might think they don't want to co-operate with human photographers!

Clockwise from top left;

Not sure what this first one was, the card had a 'Postman' (Heliconius Melpomene)but that was black and red, and when we did see one, it was so far removed from the illustration on the identification card, it wasn't until we got home and checked the book that we could say it was a Postman. There was nothing like this one though, it may be a variety of Clipper? Just sorted all the Photographs into separate folders, which helped make sense of them all, this IS the Malay Lacewing! I'll post the others in a day or two.

The Blue Morpho (Morpho Peleides), these were the biggest, and among the more active, and kept landing on people! They are stunning 'in the flesh', but for me didn't quite beat the Malachites.

A Scarlet Swallowtail (Papillo Rumanzovia), these were very much past their best when we went (late February), there were a few, slow to wake in the morning, and very faded, this was one of the more remarkable examples.

Pretty sure this last one is a Malay Lacewing (Cethosia Biblis) open, the card shows a far more orange one closed, so this is probably a variant, therefore the Latin name is probably not quite right? This is a brown variant of the Lacewing.

News, views etc...Three Column Link

I've added a link (top right) to THE best instructions for changing a two-column 'Minima' template to a three-column layout. As you may have noticed I changed mine about three weeks ago and have been 'trialing' it since, and I'm well pleased! You don't have to scroll so far down the page to find all the 'other bits'.

I would recommend the follow-up instructions, vis-a-vis column width, which are on a different page to the one I've linked to, but once you're stuck-in, it's all very clear. In the column margin instructions he gives 5 and 10px for the sidebar measurements, this left mine a bit squished, so I took his further advice and tweaked them, they are now 4px and 11px, which is what you're viewing.

Good luck if you choose to jump in, don't blame me if it all goes horribly wrong! (copy your code first into word or something, then if it all goes pear-shaped, you can restore the original settings!).

Link's here too; Three Column Blogger

He also has instructions for;

Denim
Minima Dark, left, leftystreach & Ochre
Rounders
Rounders 2, 3 & 4

And you need to make sure you've got the right one or your widgets will go all over the place. My screen is now too wide in 'Layout' but a bit of scrolling to 'save' occasionally is a small price to pay.

Glass Houses

Empires only exist so rebels have something to throw stones at.

I is for Ingap

Now - We were labouring our way through vehicles last time we met, and had veered off to Italy by way of a break from US/UK Dime Store/Pocket Money toys, so lets stay there for a moment and look at Ingap... Industria Nationale Giocattoli Automatici Padua, making tinplate vehicles, dolls and general toys since 1922...gone now!

Funny little firm by the late 1950's - rather on its uppers, there is - it seems - quite a range of civil cars in an approximate Ho/1:86 scale, but there was also a small military range and a number of aircraft, boats and the like. This is the biggest military set, containing one each of the military vehicles. A small pick-up truck with van cab, an Austin Champ (probably a copy of the Morstone/Budgie or Britains Lilliput models), a spring-loaded launch-platform and the rocket to leave it, a generic M26/46-47 Pershing/Patton and a reasonable rendition of a 25lbr Field Gun.

What I call the medium set, again all 6 items, but this time on a card only, and mirrored by a set of six aircraft on the same sized card. Unusual (to a Brit) in having an Aeroflot example, we didn't have 'commie-shit' in Britian in the 1950/60's, but the attitude was clearly a little more relaxed and liberal closer to the Balkans where they would have been a far more common sight in the skies overhead. [I think it was quite late in the 70's before Airfix tackled post war 'Soviet' designs, but that may be a false memory caused by my Russkie-sheltered, service-life childhood!!! (Sorry Dimitry, but that was then and it was a very differnet world!).]

The 'Small' set, every set has the tank & 25lbr , but you then get either the two transport vehicles or the rocket assembly, this is constant, I've seen quite a few of these over the years.
[I could not get the background, flash, spot and cards to produce a well balanced image on this one? Cards are a fawn with red printing.]

Clockwise from bottom right; We have three boats, the off-shore power boat at the back and the lake-side cruiser in the foreground are both somewhere in the 'H0/00' realm, the tug is a much smaller ratio. The two colours the military sets are found in, two cars from a range better described on one of the 1:87 scale websites, and finally an 'Empire Made' copy, which would go on to be much copied over the years, particularly the 25lbr, which turns up in various forms/sets.

Do we have an Italian reader who could cast greater light on them?

News, views etc...Plastic Warrior 136 (Feb. 2010)

The new Plastic Warrior magazine is out now, if you don't subscribe, you're missing out on;

* Plastic figures by Hong Kong companies from old Britains Hollow-casts.
* Bumper readers letters section.
* Informative 3-page follow-up to the recent 'Soldiers of the World' Article.
* Marx Mexican War figures by Debbie Stevens
* Rare Herald Farm set by Barney Brown
* Handcart Pioneers by Paul Stadinger
* A look at a near mint cardboard theatre with Cherilea Plastics included.
* Matt Thair continues his detailed overview of Cherilea 'Swoppets' with the first part of the Indians.
* An article on Airfix artwork by Jeremy Brook, editior of Constant Scale.
* The usual page of small-ads (FREE - to subsribers!).
* New product reviews on Victrix and DSG
* A page of 'What the !&*$?' needing identification/further information from readers.
* Starlux get a book review.
* And there are updates on Speedwell horses and Britains Twizzletown to finish.

Not to mention two lovely cover images. To subscribe, click on the Plastic Warrior link (Top Right)...Do it!

M is for M8 American Armoured Car

I is for Italians

As I seem to have mentioned the post-war Humber utility vehicle once or twice in the last few posts, I thought we'd better look at this one;

Sam Toys of Italy, probably aiming to be around 1:48th scale, making the figures a bit small, this is clearly a straight lift from the Dinky original. It's the only Sam Toy I have and I know little else, but it leads us to other Italian Producers...

Dulcop produced in two sizes, the above row being around 1:48th for the A/Car and close to 1:72 for the two trucks. The armoured car was probably also taken from Dinky, and would go on to be copied both in Hong Kong and in Spain, where Montaplex produced a clip-together version.

The lower row are small at around 1:100 and will have been taken from the Roscopf range, the paint on the end two is not original, but being gloss would not come off well with oven cleaner, yet because the plastic is styrene I can't use caustic paint stripper either so until I find better examples - it stays!

Politoys were a better class of maker than the preceding two, and these are really nice toys for their day. Again shades of Dinky and French Dinky, but nicely executed. The truck has the Lone*Star inspired rocket launcher, another HK favorite while the M20 has a ridiculous-sized MG. Gotta' love the camouflaged boxes though.

K is for Kleeware

So we're back to the UK to look at some of the non-space stuff from Kleeware, in the smaller scales. They made/marketed both Pyro and Ideal originals, and downscaled their own work (see last image).

First as promised the 25mm'ish trucks, these are of Pyro parentage, and their origins as more brightly coloured civil vehicles can be seen from the load/body types. The one back right clearly started life as a Soda-crate delivery truck!

These are - I think - Kleeware originals, and are based on the Humber mentioned below, this time with the cab-rings and covers. About 1:160 (N-Gauge), this truck is one of the items most copied by the Hong Kong guys, and is still turning up in Christmas crackers, I'll cover them in the next few days.

The range of body-types would suggest that Kleeware were copying the Lone*Star range, but with a simplified mounting on the Plug-ins and a couple of covered superstructures. Manurba in Germany had a go with their truck design and sold them within the UK under the Tallon brand.

Close-ups of the little trucks, with the canon from the famous Kleeware Castle. Construction of the cannon is the same simple one-piece of the early space stuff Like the X-100 shown below somewhere, while the little trucks require quite complicated pre-sale assembly, having a chassis, cab bed and body/plug-in.

The small scale version of the 'Crusaders Castle', the figure is 54mm. I think this is complete apart from two more corner strengtheners and a flag pole, however the original has a square tower at either end, so there may be a large chunk still to find?

It's the only one I've ever seen so can't have been as popular as the 54mm one and Kleeware can't have had high hopes for it as they didn't scale-down the cannon which - therefore - barely fits in the courtyard!

M is for Mysteries; Slight Mysteries?

I've covered these before, but a couple of things I noticed while preparing the photographs for the Banner and Pyro posts below are worth a mention...

The first thing I noticed is that there are two mouldings of the saloon car, the green one is noticeably longer and has a few detail differences, smaller hole in the towing-hitch, chunkier bumpers (fenders) and some variations in window size.

The second query is really anal; The two saloon-car number plates BV4672, top left and right, with the coupe bottom left - DP 7189. Now Kent Sprecher over at toysoldierhq has the saloon being DV not BV, is this a typo or are there two different number plates for this car?

Could BV be 'Banner Vehicle' with the DV being a Pyro copy? And could the larger, slightly cruder civilian version be a Kleeware or Tudor Rose re-tool?

The mould-number (?) in the roof of the cars, it doesn't look it, but the 4 is a very crude hand-scratched thing, it seems to have been straitened by my attempts in Picasa to make it visible! The 6 is about half the size and is a standard engineers mould-punch, done correctly - back to front - so that it reads the right way on the product, something the Hong Kong producers often forgot to do, using instead product-punches, leaving the HONG KONG upside down and back to front, they were helped by the fact that only the 'N's and 'G's were noticeable, and then only to a close observer.

Interesting also how the thermo-printed star shows through the roof as a faint...er...star!

P is for Pyro (and Others)

So from Banner lets move across to Pyro (They share the same container so I could take all the photo's at once! Another of the dime store plastics producers from the 1940/50's, indulged in a fair amount of mould-sharing, and a bit of 'l'Homage'! The executives of Model Shipways called them 'Pirate Plastics'!

Very much compatible with the Banner trucks at around 1:48th scale is this - really quite sturdy - model of a generic 1950's tank. Sort of Centurion without toolboxes crossed with a T44!

This is also about 1:48, with hard styrene figures glued in. It's this arrangement which I'm sure Ive seen with the Banner trucks below, but with plug-in soft ethylene figures? There were several body types for this truck, which is similar to the Dinky or Lone Star takes on the post war British Humber 15kwt class utility truck (which - itself - became the basis for the 'Pig' which served-on in Northern Ireland with various engine up-grades/up-armours until the late 1980's) but without the cab-roof rings for convoy sentries.

These are much smaller and can be used with 20/25mm figures without looking out of place, especially if your doing 50's pulp or steam-punk roll-play. One trailer-bed gives three very different looking wagons and I've covered the jeep in depth before.

Top; I have the four non-articulated versions as Kleeware, so will cover them next, however to show that these are identical bar the stamp in the roof - the one behind is the Pyro...I think!

Below; The Wannatoys cab-unit and two trailers, these were separate designs, rather than the Pyro variant-glued-to-standard-flatbed. While the Wannatoys tractors were styrene, the trailers were cellulose-acetate and suffer from shrinkage and warping which pulls the tow-hitch off eventually!

C is for Cold Cast Bronze Animals

Wasp in the greenhouse

Woke this queen up the other day pulling out last years Tomato canes, she wasn't too amused!

B is for Banner, Bergan, Beton (in alphabetical order!)

The order is practically reversed alphabetically in that Beton, the trade mark of Bergan was bought by Banner! Having won a few late - ethylene - production Beton (Bergan Toy & Novelty company) 60mm figures I thought it would make sense to photograph them with their trucks. From top of helmet to underside of base they're actually 70mm.

Having only the older edition of O'Brians book, I'm not sure if another version of this - approximately 1:48th scale - truck exists, as he only has the same two body-types (page 252 - 1988 ed.), yet I have a vague memory of one other, similar to the Pyro/Kleeware ones, i.e. with smaller scale hard-plastic (styrene) sitting figures, the cab being completely different on the other makes.

Certainly the truck bed has little square holes cut for 6 'somethings' on the benches (three each side) and another 2 on the tailgate/step. However this moulding was used for civilian toys in brighter colours, and the holes might have been for milk churns, a wrecker-truck superstructure or something similar?

The Banner Staff Car, marked clearly (inset) on the bonnet (Hood) in the manner of US military vehicles of WWII through to the 60's or later. The scale of this is greater than the trucks at around 1:35, while its wheels are ridiculously small.

I don't know the make represented (any more than I do the trucks or final photo!), but it's what the Americans called a Woodie, and we named a Shooting Break, the Americans a Station Wagon and we an Estate Car. What they actually were is best described as an non-aerodynamic brick!

We had Morris Travellers when I was a kid, and they hit the air ahead of them like a turd hits a pond, while on the motorway the rear turbulence caused the fuel-gauge needle to drop in front of your eyes!

The figures, the best explanations of the history of these figures are probably O'Brians books, however Kent Sprecher's toysoldierhq has a good guide as well. Suffice to say they started life in Cellulose Acetate in approximately 1938, and went through various incarnations with/without separate bases, and have been copied/licenced/supplied to/by a dozen or so other concerns.

These are the commonest form, softish polyethylene, with the clearly visible BT mark (inset) of 'Bergan Toys' in a disc'ed indentation on the underside of the base, note the one on the far left has suffered from the release of an oily-powdered residue in the same manor as a lot of Matchbox Production, particularly the brown ones (British Inf., DAK, and 8th Army). There are more poses than shown here, and I'm after the kneeling MG gunner for starters!

Interestingly, the Paratrooper betrays his later addition to the range by having a nicely moulded M1 helmet, rather than the generic bone-dome/dime-store design of the older moulds. The marching figures - to be fair - also have a better helmet design (rifle, telephone, bazooka and flag), while early acetate mouldings have the British Mark 1 'piss-pot', called a 'Brodie' or M1917 in the States.

Finally and closer to HO scale is this Grader/scraper/leveller, I believe it can be found in the 'Army' green, but I only have a silver one! Notable here are the rubber wheels; Banner also made a gun similar to the one issued by Merit over here and Auburn (among others) in the USA, but they both used hard wheels, while the Banner one used the same wheels as this road builder.

O'Brian reports that Banner were sold to Rel around 1958, but Rel (Plasco - Plastic Art Corporation) only made Wild West stuff, so presumably either ONLY bought the intellectual property rights, OR sold/scraped the moulds. Selling the molds would explain why some Beton copies are both as good as the originals, and of 'younger' plastic?