C is for Cabinet Of Curious Things 1

R is for Rescued!

Into the valley rode the six-hundred...some of the horses returned without their riders...

I dug this out of a flower bed on Tuesday, recon it's been there for at least 40 years. I thought it might be Crescent but it doesn't seem to be, therefore I'm going to guess a German make as the detailing is too good for Britians? Hussar? What to do with it? It's too far gone for restoration so it will go in the 'Cabinet of Curiosities'!

B is for Bonux (and other premiums)

During the 1960's and 70's Bonux washing powder nearly always contained a premium/gift of some kind, and with military subjects being to the fore, it was only a matter of time before this French company came to the blog.

The most known Bonux premiums among toy soldier collectors are these three sets of four contemporary French troops in the garb of regular infantry, para's and Foreign Legion. The 'NATO' helmeted lot and para's have reasonable poses and equipment, the FFL are a bunch of shouty-fist-wavy guys with no hope in a fire-fight! Although the guy on the right is missing his stick-grenade...yeah, exactly!...Stick Grenades?

However, I'm being too judgmental, they were toys after all. Coming in various shades of Olive and Olive Drab, they are clearly marked Bonux on the higher side-edge of their sloping bases. The manufacturer is unknown but the bases have a lot in common with the bases of the Styrene figures issued in the larger scales by Mokarex

Bonux also issued sets of AFV's, Aircraft and Civilian Vehicles, both assembled and in kit-form, vintage and contemporary, along with various other figures.

The Yellow Para's are a latter issue of the Bonux figures by a company called Johnson, while the two Bonux members of Louis XV's army are missing their waxed hair-pieces! JC Piffret reports them as being made by a company called Jou-Plat. Likewise the blue figure is Prince Charming to La Roche aux Fees' (a dairy products company) Sleeping Beauty. The magician in black is also by La Roche...

The AFV range are better illustrated in the French Premium site listed in my favorite links column, however I do have an unmarked (all Bonux stuff is well marked) petrol tanker in the same colour of plastic as the half-track, which is not listed on that site, and may be connected via supplier only? If anyone cares to; I have Blue-Box and Tudor*Rose to swap for more examples of these.

Unmarked versions of all the original figures are as commonly available, and I suspect were sold in bags or carded as pocket-money rack-toys by whoever supplied them to Bonux.

Bonux also gave away the National Costumes/Dolls of the World I looked at some time ago, but with an antiqued wash and faux Chinese ebony-wood base. They issued the Kellogg's animals in silver and gold and the Disney Robin Hood characters issued by all sorts of companies all over the place!

Z is for Zippo...but not!

My Great Aunt (actually Great, Great once removed...I think?!) Betty, who passed away a few years ago, was what Miss Moneypenny would probably refer to as "something in the Foreign Office, James". As part of her 'clerical' duties she managed to end up in the officers mess in MAAG (Military Advisory and Assistance Command) some time in the mid-60's (it was renamed MAC-V by the height of the war), where she was given (or bought - but she wasn't a smoker!) this lighter, obviously a Zip...er...the famous Wellington 'Windproof' from Japan (wot? not Hong Kong?!).



When she was packing to return to her native Australia, she gave me this, and while I know it's value to collectors, I feel it was made to be used, and so I've used it to the point were it's not as mint as it was. Compared to a lot of Zippo rip-offs, this is engineered to a similar standard and is holding up well to the abuse it gets in the garden.

I will have to get it re-enamelled one day as apart from the missing chip at the far end of the motto banner, that dark patch in the main cloud is blown enamel which will crumble when I'm shifting stone or something and it bangs against my pocket...I'm a Philistine sometimes!

Speaking of G.Aunt Betty, she also gave us (my brother and I) a copy of The Magic Pudding, a brilliant book which makes The Hungry Caterpillar look tame! If you've got kids, search out a copy, they'll love it.

P is for Patton & Pershing, by Airfix and Jimson

About time I did another Airfix post, and a purchase at PW last weekend gave me an excuse to look at the Patton tank, in it's various guises...

First a look at the various offerings from Airfix in the 'mint' state, with the two Attack Force turret versions, carded and a boxed late type 'Readymade', the box is a bit tatty and I should have up-graded it by now, however I tend not to get too bothered by post 1970 packaging, unless it's something more ephemeral like Hong Kong carded stuff, there's still plenty of the big name's stuff around.

Interestingly the two Attack Force cards are very different, the Pershing getting a higher, deeper card with the tab going over the whole model, rather than the deck. One should always be careful buying these 'carded', they are not as rare as some would have you believe, and there are a lot of very good fakes out there.

The three moving forward to contact, with the later flanked by the earlier efforts. The late version is basically an early production variant of the M60 , but missing it's return rollers. The running gear of the Attack Force models is quite accurate for the M26/47/48 family, but the hull, while having features of the M48 rear deck and M26 nose is a little fanciful, the turrets are an M48/60 hybrid (bottom) and some weird thing, which bares a less than passing resemblance to an M47, but is so common among toys of the period, it must be based on something trailed at the time, or released as a PR/Press image (top).

Airfix also released the Attack Force in a buff/sand-coloured plastic, here unloading from a Mighty Antar, while below; my purchase last weekend, a Jimson pirate (also issued by Fairylite), in approximately 1:48 scale of the Attack Force Patton.

It has been copied to the smallest detail, with the hole Airfix used for mounting the SPG and APC superstructures crudely filled in with a bit of welding on the mould, after the original, with a hole, had been pantographed! It also has a push-and-go motor, making it a better toy - play-value wise - than the original...it was issued boxed, as this one on Moonbase Jimson Tank , and in a larger set with a Tank Transporter, but not - strangely - the Antar, rather a US prototype looking like something somewhere between an FMC and Pacific, suggesting the tank was copied from the Superior/T.Cohn versions along with another US makers transporter, rather than a specifically Airfix model?

Show Report - Plastic Warrior 25th Anniversery

Quick show report from the Plastic Warrior show in Richmond, with some of the guilty and a shot of my booty pile! Among noticeable trends this year; Prices were down, usefull if you are a buyer, a couple of major collections are being broken up and coming on to the market, and both 'rarities' and 'large-ticket' items were in evidence. Buisness was brisk, the 'gate' was good and all those under 12/13? (Paul?) were given a free gift at lunchtime, which is becoming a regular feature of the show and is a valid attempt at getting a new generation of collectors on board. Paul and James Morehead flank the unstoppable Peter Evans as things begin to quieten down in the afternoon, Peter - in the best traditions of Theater-land - turned up on crutches 'cos 'The Show Must Go On'! James did Stirling-service on the door all day, helped by Paul's grandson Ben, who - while I was taking this - was probably helping himself to the 'Free-gifts' one dealer had left behind under his table! Peter H; You need to carry a dustpan and brush, you're giving it away!! John Begg of PTS collectables (eBay; pts52) keeps one eye on his premium 'Timpo, loose' and the other eye out for a bargain! He also had some nice Britians Swoppet Knights, a range of Airfix and other goodies, and some interesting Nurnburg Flats. Atlantic 'Big Tickets' E100 each! Reasonable, and the Circus had gone when I took this, but packaging was still being arranged! These were on Jean Claude Druart's table (Toy Soldier Museum - Belgium), anyone who is interested in the Egyptian palace can eMail me as I have an eMail for him but I'm not sure if it's right, and wouldn't publish it here due to the old spam/phishing problem. A fine load of Plunder! There's a bag of Brazilian copies of Britains Herald Khaki Infantry on Timpo style bases and two Vac-forms missing from this shot! Barney Brown signed a copy of his 2nd book for me which was kind, and - as you can see - I got far more large-scale than small, indeed another trend is that 'new' (to market or me) small scale is getting very thin on the ground these days, apart from all the new production, but that's not going to be 'collectable' for a decade or two yet! Although, having said that, my first purchase, an hour in, was the Dark Dreams European Knights which I let Peter from PB Toys talk me into!!! (They are lovely figures).

News, views etc...FFL, PW Show

I've posted the Captain Gallant comic over on my Everything Collectable blog, and stuck a link to it in the original post; Below.

Plastic Warrior's 25th anniversary show is this Saturday, 8th May, I'll be there, I hope - if I make it - I'll be wearing my tatty old 'Tuskers' pink T-shirt if anyone wants to say Hi! Details are on the Plastic Warrior website, link; Above right.

The link to the 'Three Column Minima (Layout version)' wasn't working, it is now.

B is for Bits and Bobs - Unknown figures and new production

In the pound shops as I write, these are by Funtastic, I have two play sets from about ten years ago marked Fun-Tastic, I assume they are the same import company? What they've been importing in the intervening years is anybodies guess!

They are skeletal dinosaurs, just what Fantasy role players need as heavy shock troops in their undead armies! And a pound for three? Arranged around some alien man-eating plants I'm working on!

Other resent purchases have included the two plaster figures on the left and the composition machine-gunner who came this week. He's marked 'Foreign' and will be from that period between the two World Wars when we wished to hide the fact that we were importing toys from our old (and soon to be again!) enemy; Germany. Indeed the base is similar to Elastolin with the square shape and a (hidden in the photo) raised edge.

Next to him - as I'm looking at large composition figures - is the only other from my collection, a Cossack I bought at the A3 car-boot about 7/8 years ago, he seems to be made of resin, or a very fine composition which gives a very smooth base, anyone know anything about him?

To the right of them is a pair of Fantasy figures approximately 42mm, I'm assuming they are either home-casts from something like the old Phoenix Atlantis white-metals, or unpainted members of a paint and/or cast-your-own chess set. Again any information gratefully received.

Back to the two rail officials, one of whom is clearly Japanese Railways, the other possibly having European features, they are both approximately 'O' gauge and I'm assuming they were made in Japan, if only because I can't find anything like them in Reinhard Schiffmann's book. Ideas? The bases are a temporary addition used to help them stand!

C is for Captain Gallant (Comic)

These images tie in with the Captain Gallant figures I posted on the Small Scale World blog the other day [12/10/2012 - now the same blog, if scrolling - should be a post or two below this, otherwise use tags Marx or FFL to find it below this post], anybody who wants one should try pts52 on eBay.

The cover, there is no issue number so I'm guessing it was published purely to increase interest in the forthcoming TV serial. From the fact that the only ad. is the Heinz ad. on the back page, and that Heinz are mentioned by a character, one suspects that Heinz Foods had something to do with the production of this issue - perhaps as a mail-away offer? - and were the main advertiser during the commercial breaks on US T.V.?

It's copyright'ed to 'Frantel' NY,NY and was published by U.S. Pictorial inc. (whoever they were? There is a Frantel Communications in Rochester NY, and a Pictorial Inc. in Indianapolis)

There were five separate stories, a feature on the grave of Georges Bohnert and the Heinz stuff, plus a Junior Legionnaires membership card on the back cover.

Buster Crabbe was the lead; 'Captain Gallant', while 'Cuffy' the horrid little boy was played by err...a horrid little boy! And one of the characters seems to have had a questionable relationship with a camel....it's very lonely in the desert!

News, views etc...Plastic Warrior 137 (April 2010)

New Plastic Warrior magazine is now out, those who haven't subscribed are missing;

* Australian Made Toy Soldiers - Part 3, Les Collier.
* Cherilea Swoppet Indians - Part 2, Matt Thair.
* Andy Patridge's paean for the lost charm of 'Toy' soldiers.
* Book Review on Barry Ford's Better Dioramas.
* Carriers by TAT.
* Steve Weston's review of the 2009 toy soldier year.
* Conversions by Arthur Belshaw.
* More on the Kleeware Fort I published a while ago.
* A poser on Marx Swansea by Eric Johns and other 'What the !&*$ ?'s.
* Kilty's/Bonnie Bilt by Brad DeSantis

Not to mention two cover images, readers letters, small ad's and more...

L is for La Legion Etranger by Marx, Marksmen, Rado-Ri Toys.

One of the problems of having over a million figures in 12,000 click-shut bags, and a thousand plus boxes, packs and larger crates is that from time-to-time I confuse myself! Case in point, the other day answering a question over at the Airfix Collecting Forum on the following figures, the answer I gave was - while not inaccurate - not as comprehensive as it could have been, in that; I gave the impression that there was only one set of Foreign Legion, and that the Arabs had been given a similar release pattern to the FFL, the truth is that there are two mouldings of FFL, and the Arabs were only carried by one source...certainly in the UK, at least!

So - I threw the whole lot on the kitchen floor last night and sorted them into what I hope is a definitive history...for now at least, if you know different, comment!

These are Arabs/Bedouin, based on the Marx Arabs, issued in the US in large scale with the Captain Gallant play-set. In small scale they were sold in factory painted styrene as Indians/Afghans, for the Marx Miniature Masterpiece play-set; Charge of the Bengal Lancers.

Now, this set poses a sort of mystery, The first three and the sixth poses were not issued in the large scale sets and a quick study of them reveals that the four 'unique' poses, are based on existing figures. 'Man waving rifle over his head' is based on the (inset) advancing pose, The first figure is based on the standing firing pose, with the 'waving dagger' mans upper torso and he also provides the body for the other two figures; 'Carrying rifle' and waving dagger' and the 'Advancing with rifle across waist'.

These were supplied in the two colours shown to Marksmen by Ri-Toys (Rado Industries) a company with close links to Blue Box, or at least Blue Box moulds!

To fight them they got copies of the Captain Gallant TV show tie-in French Foreign Legion; the Grass-green and Navy-blue figures above. The paler figures are the later pocket-money carded/bagged rack-toys, and are a smaller size. They also didn't come with Arabs to fight, but rather the good old piracy's of Airfix (pictured below). Again these figures were available originally in Marx Miniature Masterpiece play-sets and again we seem to have a unique figure in the small scale; the sixth guy in the row with his rifle accross his waist. This time however we loose a large scale figure, the 'Lying firing' pose.

Captain Gallant is the forth figure from the left (and provides the bulk of the extra pose) and 'Cuffy' is the little boy/cadet. They are a right old mix of summer and greatcoat uniforms with Gallant and his doppelganger wearing a tie, but all have that 'Toy' charm.

[I have posted the Captain Gallant Comic on my other blog; Everything Collectable ] 12/10/2012 - Now integrated with this blog and appearing a post or two above this one in a 'Marx' search or immediately above this one in an 'FFL' search.


Modern issues of the FFL and Airfix copies, these should still be findable, as they were all bought within the last 10 years. Note they are not marked Ri-Toys, leaving one to suspect they are from another source, a feeling which is reinforced by their having a smaller size, however see below for my theory on this.

Loose-ends and packaging. Close up's of the combat infantry, size comparison with Airfix Bedouin, and my kitchen floor mid. photo-shoot! There were several boxes on the table behind me as well, yet I still managed to forget the green FFL officer in the main line up and the white Arab who is inset in the first photo! Also a shot to show how the blank base of the marksmen supplied figures was replaced with a 'CHINA' moniker for the HK issued versions.

All sets were approximately 30 figures, however Michael Ellis of Marksmen tells how these 'HO' figures came loose in huge boxes of thousands (if not; tens of thousands?) of figures and he had to sort them into the little cellophane bags he used with his header-cards. Obviously there is a big difference between an obsessive collector like me sorting loose Airfix into complete sets and a commercial operator getting stock together, so he tended to count loosely up to thirty of the same colour/type and bag them, consequently you don't always get every pose in every bag, or lots of one pose and one each of others. On the up-side however, you usually get more than 30 figures, Bargain!

These are earlier 1970's or early '80's sets by Ri-Toys, and you will notice that the vehicles and accessories are the same as those in the generic's marked Ackerman (UK) and Wentoys (Germany) above. I know there are lots of variations of the copies, but these are the same, so I'm confident they are Rado. I guess, they scaled them down to fit in with the existing Airfix copies, thinking that carded sets of Arabs and FFL wouldn't sell well?

The lack of a Ri-Toys logo on the modern packaging reflects the changes in the toy business since the '70's. Salesmen used to hawk these round the old independent newsagents and corner shops, now import companies do the selling over here and they want their logo/sticker on the packaging. Ackerman is a common rack-toy name and I have all sorts of cards/bags by them with figures from a half-a-dozen sources.

As a footnote, the mounted poses (two Arab and one FFL) were never issued to/by Marksmen/Rado but were in some of the old Miniature Masterpiece sets.

There are vagaries in the issuing of the large scale between the US and the UK, but anyone wanting to know them should get Plastic Warrior (link; top right) Volume's 130 and 132, where Debbie Stevens has covered them in depth.

O is for Orange Tip

Finally got some shots of the Orange Tipped butterfly, I've seen quite a few this spring, but this was the only one who'd sit still long enough to let me get a shot off.

He moved as I clicked the shutter, and I thought I'd missed him, he did let me get quite a few closed shots, and to be honest, after all the trouble I've had getting the wing uppers, I think he's more beautiful closed, with his green and white camouflage.

And - Yes, I think that's his tongue in the lower picture!

H is for Hummer, Humvee, HMMWV, HumBug

The Hummer, which for some reason turned into Humvee (a slightly longer abbreviation?!) was based on the Lamborghini Cheeta, which Tamiya made a motorized kit of many years ago.

It has now been in use for 20+ years, and has had time to become a common plaything, with various accurate and not so accurate versions available. I posted the Supreme/SP Toys examples here a while ago, so lets look at some of the others...

Top to bottom, left to right;

Simply marked 'China' this hard topped troop carrier version is covered in markings, and looks like the sort of thing you'd find in a military parade somewhere in the Far-East. Next we have the Johnny Lightning/Playing Mantis open pick-up 'GS' version and was issued with a nice GMC pick-up in the same colour scheme. Another 'China' model finishes this row, an M966 TOW launcher.

These three are all by the same Chinese company, are much smaller than the others at around 1:87/1:90 scale, they are also quite crude models.

The bottom row starts with another Chinese model, a soft-topped GS, again covered in markings, most imaginary! Finally the two variations of the Hornby Railways Hummer as issued in the Battle Zone play-set. They are the only all-plastic ones in this line-up. [They are to be re-issued this year (2010) in the same play-set but with a new name; 'CODENAME STRIKEFORCE']

Finally - a few versions of the modern - made in HK/China - Matchbox Hummers, one civilianized as an H1 Hummer (not called a Humvee? even though Mattel have called it so on the box!), although using the same moulding as the military versions, along with three paint variants of the M966 TOW vehicle. Two with quite good US desert camouflage, and one in a sort of Giraffe pattern! These all came from Tesco over a couple of years for about 99p each.

The figure used for scale, is a new Chinese piracy of recent Revell production, being a 30mm copy of a 23mm American soldier.

S is for Sobres - Montaplex Wild West Sets

As I was looking at pocket-money Wild West stuff the other night I thought it'd be a good time to cover these; Spanish Sobres, sold - like Hong Kong carded stuff - from corner shops, tobacconists and the little street kiosks you still get in the wider boulevards of some European city's.

The main producer and certainly the first to get wider coverage outside Spain, with the fledgling internet (HaT in particular covered these in the early days of their website) and Plastic Warrior (have you subscribed yet?) was Montaplex. Among the many sets they produced were a bunch of Wild West Forts, one being this Fort Apache, clearly it's loosely based on the eponymous Airfix Fort, with the raised quarters in the top left-hand corner as you view the gates, the lookout tower has been omitted,but...see below!

One figure is missing from the figure sprue having been mis-moulded, well, not moulded at all, but his scalp is just about present on the end of the branch!

Two slightly different designs of Fort Cheyen (Spanish for Cheyenne), and Lo!..the tower from the Airfix Fort Apache!, otherwise these are basically copies of the Hong Kong Fort Cheyenne's, the raging battle on the packet artwork leads to great disappointment when you open it to find two small and rather wooden wagons, unless you have a soft spot for small wagons, like me!

In the upper shot, we are looking at - from left to right - a Hobby-plast wagon, the two Montaplex wagons from the above set, and a wagon from a 1990's release by BuM ('Boom' in English apparently, although the fact their racing car system is called BuM-Slot, leads one to suspect an British hand at the tiller somewhere?), it's obvious that all three in the front row are identical, so the suspicion's are that Hobby-plast and Montaplex were either the same company, or buying-in stock from an independent source, and that further; BuM started life clearing the old stock from these two, before getting into less ethical stuff...frowns! I see Pirates!

In the lower picture a Montaplex fire engine - loosely based on the old Matchbox design but with astronauts as crew (One crew member is missing). [The proper place for the astronaut; Moonbase ]

H is for Hobby-plast - Wild West

More Sobres, this time from Hobby-plast, they have a lot of items in common with Montaplex, but also seem to have some unique items. The addresses on the backs of the packets (which are generally - with these two companies - thin, A5, printed envelopes, sealed until bought) would suggest the same company parentage. However there may have been different sorces, or marketing stratagies for the two arms?

This set contains the common stage coach in HO'ish scale, but accompanies that with 54mm pirates of Airfix cowboys, these are reasonable as copies go, certainly as good as Hong Kong ever gets!

Three more sets from Hobby-plast, the right hand set in the upper picture comes with twice the contents as laid out, while the left hand set gets one of the same sprues and a wagon. These figures are copies of the Airfix Ho/00 High Chaparral/Cowboys and Indians

The bottom set has to be one of the most disappointing ever, once you open it! No bucking bronco's, no clowns in barrels, no bulls...just the worst copies of 54mm Cowboys and Indians I've ever seen, they make 99% of all Hong Kong production look 'well detailed', although the horses are quite good in comparison with most HK hollow horses.