C is for Cabinet Of Curious Things 2

S is for Schwimmwagen

P is for Plastic Hooks

More than one of anything is the start of a collection, more than ten of anything and you have a collection!

B is for Belt Buckles

News, views etc...Plastic Warrior 138 (June 2010)

The new issue of PW is out, and OH BOY! What a treat...it's gone colour! And I mean colour, not a center-spread or something, but right the way through. Not that you needed colour to start subscribing, you've been subscribing all along huh?...Link to right! heh heh...

Anyway, to let you know what will drop through your door in the next day or two;

* Part 4 of Les Collier's Australian production.
* There's a report into the Timpo reunion party organized by Alfred Plath.
* Matt Thair continues his round-up of Cherilea with a first look at their astronauts.
* Two Britains related book reviews
* A history of Cane' of Italy by Giampiero Larizza.
* Coverage of new products from
- Weston Toy Company
- Armies in Plastic
- Paragon
- Replicants/Peter Cole
- Ivanhoe
- Barzo
* Plus all the usual news, letters and readers adds (which are FREE to subscribers remember!).

B is for Back to Blue Box

So, I covered the Bedfords a while ago now, and took these shots at the same time, so lets 'av a loouk...

The US half-track is a very useful war gaming accessory with the proviso that you ignore the earth-mover arrangement of the tracks! Apart from the odd change in shade of colour and positioning of the stickers (real 1970's things on quite heavy vinyl and very sticky!), there was little variation in these and they do turn up fairly often, there are in addition at least two soft plastic versions from more anonymous HK producers, but they can wait for another day.

Bottom left is the DUKW, with a two-tone camouflage, this is ruined by having only two axles, however it is probably the least common of the Blue Box vehicles. The two crew figures are the equipment operators from the Bedfords, while the twin cannon cupola is taken from the Marx (and/or Airfix 'Attack Force') Landing Craft.

The helicopter is clearly based on the Sud Aviation Gazelle. Of real note is the fact that it is identical to the Hornby-Triang 'Battle Space' helicopter, and - so being - helps to further confirm my theory re. Hornby-Marx-Blue Box connections as laid out in One Inch Warrior magazine Vol. 11.

Austin Champ and American M-100 1/4 ton Jeep trailer. The Champ does not have a hitch, however the Jeep does, but has already been covered somewhere on the blog so I didn't photograph it this time. Early Champs have colour matched drivers the later ones have Mr luminous radioactive-man!

The trailer is well copied in soft plastic often pulled by piracies of the Lesney Matchbox Land Rover! The grey one comes from earlier sets which came with two 'armies' one in green, one in grey. Several vertions exist, some with the pre-war hollow-cast type accessory of a fold-down wire-stiffened cotton tent, or two!

The Blue Box Patton, a vague M47, not much to say about this one, there are a lot of copies around usually in soft ethylene plastic. Of note are the three different barrel ends pointing to a fair bit of work on the mould over the years.

Armoured cars; above are two versions of the Ferret, post-war British armoured scout/reconnaissance car, the soft plastic grey being by/supplied to Marx and possibly pre-dating the hard plastic version issued by Blue box, which was itself copied by N.F.I.C. of Hong Kong.

Below is the late Rado/Ri-Toys Daimler armoured car, taken from the Dulcop one, and so recent you can still find it on rack-toys about the place if you look hard enough. Larger scale and a nasty tinny plastic leaves it a quite undesirable piece!

They're bigger!

The last 8 days

A is for Ah!...Summer Grasses...

...all that remains of the dreams of soldiers.

Things I've worn or been entitled to wear over the years - of a now distant youth!. With the exception of the two flaming sword patches which I swapped with a guy called Eddie from the 502nd Infantry at Clay Alley in the US sector when we went on a rappelling (abseiling out of the old UH1 Hueys) course down there. The Green '1' flash was issued to a higher command I was once a part of but years after I'd left the army and the German national flash came off the Bundeswehr surplus shirts we used to wear in the field because our WWII pattern woollen things were bloody awful!

The red '28' and the brass plate next to it are from the 'Old Guard' and are based on Wellingtonian uniforms of the Peninsular and Waterloo periods (when we explained to the French politely - to begin with - that we wouldn't be driving on the wrong side of the road!).

There is also a pre-'Royal' Hampshire cap-badge, we weren't supposed to wear them, but as they shined-up far better than the Hong Kong produced 'stay bright' a blind-eye tended to be turned toward them, likewise - once I was cross-posted to the Glosters I got hold of gunmetal front and back badges at the earliest opportunity!

The little red square is all that remains of my 'A' company sweatshirt!

F is for Freaky Freddy Frogman and his Filosophic Flipper-Footed Floating Freinds

Although this is one of my 'in depth' looks at something, there is only one acknowledgment tonight, the Philosophic Toad who provided the old advert for Nabisco. As this is also in part a request by her, there's a nice symmetry there somewhere!

The original patent applications for Kellogg's, apparently the first recorded case of someone applying for a patent for a performing novelty diver/swimmer was a German gentleman in 1891. quite how a tin-plate toy would have achieved buoyancy is anybodies guess!! I know - It would have been wood or India Rubber or some such? I couldn't find his application, but found these during the search.

Notable is that A) While both applications were made the same day, it took two more years for the double figure application to be awarded? B) The patent is only sought for a period of 14 years, taking it through to 1969.

These actually throw up the most interesting bit of information to come out of the research for this post; The applicants seem to be two brothers, Henry and Benjamin L. Hirsch who apply as "Assignors to Kellogg Co." Now - with more modern applications say for Tomy, Mattel or similar the 'Assignor' is clearly an agent for the toy company, making a patent application on behalf of and signing over (Assigning) the patent to the toy company. Also there is a complication in US Law known as 'assignor estoppal' which I'm not going to go into here as it's all complicated stuff!

However the Hirsch brothers were - incidentally - the owners of a cardboard box manufacturing facility...sounds frightfully posh? I'm tired...they had a box factory! They also hold the patent - as assignors to Kellogg's - for the diving submarine, and other non-Kellogg's novalty patents.

So what? I hear the more impatient among you mutter as you read through all this drivel so's not to miss anything while really just wanting to get to the next 'pretty picture'. Well, if you've been following these cereal premium posts you will recall I made a tenuous link between a UK paper/board magnate and the production of the Soldiers of the World a month or two ago. It looks as if that link was stronger than even I was willing to credence, and that Kellogg's made a habit of having their packers produce/source/invent their give-away premiums whilst they - Kellogg's - held on to any Patents!

Two of the three Kellogg's figures, I have the limpet mine holder in red but he's so badly chewed there was no point including him in the photograph. I aught to point out that while Kellogg's held the patent (if they renewed it after '69?), they didn't hold the mould, and these figures were available in bagged sets as recently as two years ago, the only difference between them and the vintage ones was the level of rust/corrosion on the stoppers, missing on my example, however see the Manurba divers down the page.

Nabisco went with a different system all together, and probably closer to the original German's idea. While Kellogg's divers use baking soda (or - I believe - certain types of washing powder?) to generate gas (air bubbles) causing the diver to rise until the bubble departs the chamber whereupon he sinks again, with Nabisco, a lightweight moulding holds a small air bubble against the pressure of the water - in this case; in the face cavity - and by pulling/pushing a cork in the neck of the vessel you can produce movement in the diver, or screwing and unscrewing a cap, it's all about air-pressure at the surface changing the density of the water the diver is suspended in.

There was only the one pose of 'Freddy Frogman' and I don't know if I'm searching for a blue one or a Yellow one?

On the left we have a modern take on a combined Kellogg's/Nabisco system, I think these were issued 8/10 years ago, a Nylon/Rayon type dense plastic with both air-traps in the hands AND a gas chamber on the foot. The caps have yet to be removed from the 'sprues'. I don't know who issued them but Quaker and Nestle have avoided mention in this post so far...as have Cadbury?

On the right is most (?) of the Manurba divers who follow the Hirsch patent, the two blue figures still having their metal caps.

These are vintage Nabisco and of the same system, indeed they are the same plastic (a quite soft ethylene) and were a later series, coming with six sea creatures (Turtle, octopus, Pelican Fish, Swordfish,Sea Horse & Stingray) I've never seen?. Of note is the fact that the larger mouldings call for two air-traps to produce the same effect, as the mass is greater.

A look at the five types seen above for the comparison of sizes.

Known Issues;

Kent Sprecher over at the Toy Soldier HQ has some smaller versions which he credits to the '54 issue, which makes sense as they have larger powder chambers which are not the same as the patent application drawings. so adjusted list;

US Kellogg's 1954 - Smaller versions of the three large ones (Corn Flakes) [Predates the patent?]
US Kellogg's 1955 - The three large ones (Sugar Corn Pops)
US Kellogg's 1963 - The three large ones (Shredded Wheat)
UK Nabisco 1957 - Freddy Frogman (Shreddies)
UK Nabisco 1960 - Powder blue ones with sea creatures (Shreddies)
UK Kellogg's 1987 - The three large ones [Radcliffe]
UK Kellogg's 1990's? - The three small red ones
Toy Racks 2008 (approximately) - The three large ones

US Kellogg's also issued a rubber-bulb hand pump tube operated diver with Raisin Bran in 1961, this would have been a larger toy similar to the submarine I remember getting in my stocking one Christmas as a small boy.

[I notice that this images has been stolen by Ghislain Oubreyrie and poorly 'Photoshoped' for his mostly plagiarised website, there's nothing I can do about it at the moment, the man's a thief, but one day I'll sue his arse, and the more he puts (of mine) on his site the more I'll sue him for, at his current rate of thievery, I'll be getting the price of a small house off him one day...any French Intellectual Property lawyer fancy an easy case? It's just comparing images (with originals) and site-editing dates! meantime; the high quality originals will always be found here] 

19:09:2010 - An additional frogman pose turned up at Joplin's show a week ago, so here's a shot of all three with the markings laid out. They all have Kellogg co. down the left 'sprue' as you look at them in the photo, with the given number clear on the other arm and blobby/blurry on the reverse of the bottom of the left (right - as you view) foot/lump.

1st Brood Have Hatched

The first lot of Swallows are big enough to peek over the top of their nest, well - I say 'nest' - more of a cave actually, or a mud-hut! They are very sweet, if a little ugly!!

Puie puie! Or, as Bulgarian Swallows go...Pyew Pyew! I've just checked the image with the + sign and there are 6! There were only five last year, then she had a late four...how many this year?

More Photo's as they grow!

A is for Almark Publishing - Books and Pamphlets

There is a strange thing happening with reference books these days, too many of them get filled with 'Internet Bubble' falsehoods and urban myths, rumor and plain old poor research, yet are without doubt very well illustrated. If you could only take the images from modern works and marry them to the text of the old standards, you'd have a hell of a library! These are Almark, who along with Bellona (couple of them sneaked into the picture - bottom left), Arms & Armour Press, Osprey and Ian Alan provided most of our needs in the 1970's and early '80's. What's even more useful is that Almark's were very well illustrated as well!

Still More Wildlife

Mike Beale over at the Norfolk Wildlife blog, link to right, writes in answer to my query about the white moth bottom right "That's a White Plume Moth you have there, Its wings are deeply divided into several 'fingers', each of which is finely feathered, or plumed."

Basic Topiary

It was almost too hot to garden today, but it makes for lighter work if you manage to accomplish something which is more pleasing to the eye afterward than when you started...

Two little box-tree step guardians get their annual haircut, I've made a start on the left hand one, taking about two-and-a-half inches back, basically taking-off the matt, herb-green new growth and taking it back to the gloss olive-green old leaves.

Job done!

The Tools...

Q is for Quandary

A bit of a conundrum tonight, for which I seek the input of those who have an opinion;

Sorting out all the recent acquisitions of Airfix small scale, most of which have come in mixed lots from here and there (this is actually an intermediate 'sort' as the bags in the box contain only the pickings of the last year or so), when I was drawn to a coincidence involving the Afrika Korps...

Two of the type 2 figures seem to have been painted in the same style/at the same time as some of the type 1, meaning they are almost certainly the 'semi-rare' (less than common!) two replacement cavities from the 'transitional' issue.

The quandary being, I usually strip the paint on this stuff before they go in the spares box, if I strip these there will be nothing to link them, but if I leave them painted I have a part-set of 7!

What would you do? Is it even worth getting excited about them, I tend to think not...