K is for Kilgore and Kinder

Astronauts need Astrocars! A 'Jewels for Playthings' dime-store toy car from Kilgore with a couple of figures from Kinder.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Keys?"

"I haven't got them, you had them last"
"URRR! The last thing I said to you was do you have your passport, mobile and KEYS! 'Oh Yes' says you, 'Got'em here' says you..."

"No..actually, No, You asked about the passport, but you already had the keys, and my mobile was on charge in the car all along..."

"Aaarrrhh! Well we're stuck now aren't we? The house in another dimension for at least a month...do you have any idea how long it's gonna' take to walk to Toysoldier Prime...My mother said 'Don't get involved with a Bird-Man, they're nothing but trouble', did I listen?...."

C is for Cold War APC's by Airfix, Diapet & Jean

Well it's a while since I fed the Airfix completists a bit of eye-candy so I thought I'd use the opportunity to do so that was raised by Michael Witt's ( WWII Modelzone ) sending to me of some lovely bits, among which were old Jean readymades in the same mould as the Airfix Attack Force, from his childhood collection - so thanks Micheal, I'll eMail separately!

Well, here are the Airfix offerings, both MG versions, the taller pintle-mount was from the T Cohn originals, then Airfix reduced it to a lower 'clamped' mount, presumable to prevent loss? It was long before Health and Safety started mollycoddling us all! Not really based on any real-life vehicle, it has features of both M75 and M59 struggling to peek through!

Close up of the MG's, both reasonable renditions of the 50 Cal., though given very different treatments, and inset the later 'Readymade' from Airfix which replaced the earlier effort. This too is a bit of a hybrid, having the main lines of a British FV432 Trojan, but the dust guards of a M113. The rear hatch is all 432 though and the MG is just about recognisable as a GPMG 'gun'.

At around the same time Jean in Germany (then - of course - 'West' Germany!) were selling these at pocket money prices on rack-cards of 3 or 4 vehicles. The one on the right could be said to be loosely based on the Spz. 11-2 Kurz from Hotchkiss crossed with the HS.30/12-3 Spz. Lang from Hispano-Suiza! The one on the left was found in a dragons egg - I think?!

Diapet, with Japanese seriousness were - reasonably contemporaneously (mid 70's) - producing a very accurate die-cast and plastic model of their Type 73 AC. Claiming to be 1:75 scale, the figures (in a rubbery PVC) are compatible with Roco, but then the Japanese are smaller overall, so not the best comparison. The model is superb, with two opening cupola's and a main troop compartment, PVC tracks and fully 'running' running-gear.

C is for Cacti; A - F

Along with my side collection of Totem Poles, which I looked at soon after starting this blog, I've also had a side collection of Cacti for the same reason, scale, there is no scale to cacti, and some can - in the wild - grow to be much bigger than human beings, where cacti have been specifically produced for small scale figures (Marx, Pegasus) they are poxy little things I haven't bothered to post here!

Late HK for Britains 'Herald', Styrene glued into a base, two designs, flat, with detail on the obverse only. Also HK copies by two companies; larger first generation and smaller second generation piracy. The pirates have detail on both sides though!

A selection of Cherilea cacti - three to the left, with HK copies to the right, both the original and the copies of the left hand one look like pond weed!

Two by Comansi/Novalinea on the left and one on the right which could be a European copy, but is more likely to be yet another HK rip-off?

Crescent's effort (first three pairs) then two HK pairs and some singles. The whole point of this one WAS to split it in two with a craft knife, but you rarely find Crescent originals so divided.

All these will be much clearer if you left click on the images.

C is for Cacti; G - Z

Missing from these posts are the Playmobile cactus, which is huge, and in two parts, I have a top half which I will base one day and what passes for a cactus from Lego, which was first issued with the underwater sets and then as a tropical plant in a Star Wars / Naboo set, it's a sort of four-fingered thing which can approximate a cactus! On with the tour...

Left to right - Gemodels, Manurba, Quick and two HK copies of the Quick version. Gem did make several cacti but so far the others have eluded me!

A selection of the Timpo cacti, with various base styles and plastic colours. The small one in the middle was made in the darker green, but rarely turns up, also the left hand one of the two has the thin hollow base which is quite unusual.

Left to right again; Plasty/Airfix, an unknown one which sneaked into this photo? Starlux, Una. The last three, being the same design as the marked Una one will be Kentoys, Speedwell or VP, but your guess is as good as mine as to which is which!

U is for Unknown Cacti I

Right, now we're looking at those I don't know much about, any help identifying these would be gratefully received and acknowledged.

These are all by the same company, the bases don't give much of a clue, but the general style of the sculpting - slightly 2D - could point to Charbens?

Again these are all by one maker, quite thin bases and they are practically 'Flats'. They could be a Hong Kong product, but I don't think so.

Also a single manufacturer, these are far too tall for the tiny little hexagonal bases. The similar design/layout suggests a very lazy sculptor!

I think the one on the left is Cherilea, but have no proof, so confirmation would be nice? The next one is a factory painted Prickly Pear, and seems to be common without the flowers, but I think that's just the owners cutting them off! The last two are hard plastic copied from the Quick one above, but with a hollow back. It's some reasonably current HK/China company and a mint set will give a name!

U is for Unknown Cacti II

Not a lot to add, more unknown cacti, with whatever I can add to help identify them.

On the left is quite a dense ethylene or nylon/rayon plastic with a base like a medieval clipped coin! The red one is a hard plastic and I'd hazard a guess it's a cellulose-acetate, as per. the next two, these are both very similar to the Starlux one above, but neither are marked, so they could be Cleiret, Jim or some similar French company?

The one on the left is really pollarded trees, but they look quite cactus-like! Also, I suspect it is Hill under the Johillco label, but would like confirmation. The one on the right is a heavy chunk of polyethylene.

The two on the left might go together but the bases are not the same, the two in the middle are based on but not direct copies of the Cherilea cactus and both have a lozenge shaped base. Any help with any of these gratefully received and acknowledged.

These are all plug-ins. The first and third having HK type bases, but no reason to assume they ever started life in this fashion, they may have been put in the bases after damage, they are also very well detailed with spines. The one in between them has an early Cherilea 'Swoppit' type base, and could be Cherilea? The one on the far right is A) damaged and B) missing one 'branch' so you may know it as a quite different looking thing. Basically; three branches slide into three drum-shaped receivers in-line?

S is for Sobres by Tylers, Dunkin etc...

Another set of premiums that are hard to place - producer wise - are these soldiers, issued by various bubble-gum brands in Spain. Tyler's by Mundi and Dunkin both carrying them at one point or another and probably others. Indeed, although I only have samples of Tyler's packaging, I've seen the Dunkin bars and they are to all practical purposes the same shape/size.

The Russians, available in green or red, in summer dress (top row) or winter greatcoat. The Millionsoldiers website used to have some blue figures which I think were Russians? But the website seems to have died? I have no idea if this is all the poses, I suspect not.

The Japanese, these seem very hard to find, but then I would have said that about the others until I'd gained a few! For years I only had the man with the spade and used to think they were Afrika Korps!

The US troops. Again while I have spares, the overall size of my sample would suggest that there are still poses to locate. The influence of late production Marx and MPC dates these nicely to the early/mid 1970's!

The Tyler's/Mundi envelope and figures, all US troops but in a more garish yellow, note the third grenade throwing pose! If these yellow figures and the blue ones mentioned above are taken as Tyler's, then one could assume that the more 'realistic' colours were Dunkin, sadly it's not that simple, and will be more about batches than anything else!

Inset is a Jap who seems to be factory painted? It's unlikely he would have been a premium, out-painting would have made him prohibitively expensive from the profit point of view, so someone must have tried to market them as stand alone or boxed set figures?

R is for Regiment by Raja

Raja were (still are?) a Portuguese Ice Cream manufacturer who gave away various premiums during the 60's and 70's which were not the usual premiums doing the rounds with Kellogg's/Ola/Nabisco/Nestle etc...Instead they concentrated on native Portuguese TV output.

The best from a Toy Soldier fans point of view was 'Regimento' or; The Regiment, a weekly (?) serial set in a US Cavalry fort. The Raja set contains 16 named characters between 25mm (standing poses) and 30mm (kneeling poses).

Top row, L to R; Tenente (Lt.), Capita'o (Capt.), Sergento (Sgt.), Comandante, Cabo and Ted.

Middle row; Tony, Nick, Bill (bugle), Filha do Comandante (Commandants daughter, short pencil skirt - one for the dad's there!), Frank and Kirk.

Bottom row; Burt & Jack (over sized kneeling poses), the original comic ad./flyer, Rod and Tom.

Common colours are the red and metallic blue, the others are not so easy to get.

Raja also produced/issued (See note at end) this set of Sci-fi figurines from another Portuguese TV series, this was a cartoon (I don't know it's name - can any Iberian readers help there?), and seems to have some similarities with the Italo-French Captain Harlock/Albator cartoon made by Toei Animation. I'm not sure if all the figures in the last two rows are part of this set?

In Peru I believe it was known as Galaxica Crononauta.

The yellow figure of the female astronaut is unmarked, slightly larger and of a harder plastic, so may be a copy, or just from another producer.

Other figurines bearing the Raja mark on their bases. Again I have no idea what they are called, or indeed what they refer to, however it seems they targeted girls as well as boys, as Montaplex did in Spain with their 'Sobres', something UK premiums rarely did.

Note: It's unlikely that Raja made these figurines themselves, food and plastic production are not happy bedfellows! Judging by the colours I'd put my money on Tito as the source, but that's not to be taken as read by any means, R&L (Rosenhain and Lipmann) in Australia also used this colour palette, as did several (Portuguese speaking) South American producers.

S is for Supreme/SP Toys, Part 1 - Armour

Having looked at old plastic AFV's last month, I thought I'd have a look at some new plastic to address the imbalance! In particular a rather interesting range, which should be readily available if you search for it.

Supreme/SP first appeared as a standard Hong Kong rack-toy producer about ten years ago, with little carded play sets, each containing 2 or 3 30mm PVC vinyl figures (which I will cover another day), a building fascia and a vehicle or two. All the usual subjects were covered - Fire, Police, Construction and Ambulance - and tie-ins/re-badging for FunFings, Titan, Ackerman and other UK/European toy importers resulted (sometimes with different figures - hence the need for a separate article at some point).

Around 2003, they started producing large military play sets for Wilkinson (the successor and contributor to the demise of Woolworth's) each Christmas several years running. These sets had a variety of vehicles, simple aircraft and various scenic elements in a large window box. Theme was either desert or temperate, and not all vehicles got all treatments.

Above is the heavy armour, a rather non-descript Abrams in around 1:87, and two generic SPG's which are a M109/FH90 hybrid in a larger 1:76. But for war gaming, especially the Terry Wise school, they are fine!

They also issued a nice Bradley MICV/IFV close to 1:72, although 'Health & Safety' have got hold of the cannon and made it 'safe and healthy', so they would need to be replaced if you were to war game with them.

MLRS, these have a very simple hollow Launch-pallet, as can be seen from the elevated one front left. However, a simple floor plate could be added, and after a repaint you'd have a nice battery on the cheap.

S is for Supreme/SP Toys, Part 2 - Soft-Skin Transport

A trooping bus and a variety of Hummer's/Humvee's. These are closer to 1:72, and fully compatible with the better offering from Hornby a few years ago, and the metal ones from Matchbox.

6x6 trucks, the tankers have a WWII Chevrolet type cab, while the GS/troop carrier has a more modern chunky design. I once saw a window display that had used the contents of a couple of these sets, and therefore know the GS truck has been done in desert colours, but don't yet know if the tanker came in a temperate scheme?

Smaller soft skinned vehicles, most are militarised versions of the civil carded sets, with a red Fire engine to compare. Again we find a WWII Beep rubbing shoulders with modern stuff. The silver van is an armoured car of the bank delivery type.

These Oshkosh M977/985 HMETT's only need a quick re-paint and you have some nice modern vehicles in several configurations. I'd drop the ore-carrier though! Note two different crane designs and body types. The tractor unit - without the ore-wagon trailer leaves scope for scratch building another variant such as the M984 wrecker.

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.