T is for Tulips in containers

Sometimes it takes a while for a plan to come together, especially in the garden, and while the second set of photos were taken with Giles’s camera, which I seem to be using more than him these days! (Thanks Giles), the early one's are taken with the failing Finepix (buy something else...I can recommend a Casio Exilim!)

These were planted in November (19th), after I'd emptied the old soil out, well, soil is a bit of a misnomer for the collection of sandy-mud and polystyrene twists! Planted 4/5 inches down and equally spaced on a bed of compost/leaf-mould and soil mixed with a little ash from the bonfire.

Then you just sit back and wait...


...untill the 26th April

As well as the two pots on the stairs I also replanted the end boxes of a retaining wall, (the maroon ones were already in there, and although planted deeper, came first and are just finishing in the upper-right shot.

It's pure luck that the middle one in the pot grew taller than the four outer ones, almost makes you think I know what I'm doing huh?!!

P is for Premiums

There have never been so many premiums around as there are now, they fill the gap left by the old 1960’s Hong Kong rack toys, or 1970’s Lucky Bags, so here is not so much a round-up, as just a quick over-view of some of the toys currently available.


Corinthian are responsible for several of the current crop, as well as Ben10 (which has totally escaped me, something on TV I think…shows my age!) and the Gormiti (Below) they are producing Zoo’s, Pets, Marine Animals and other “…in my pocket” toys, the brand-name originally produced/issued by a MEG/Kellogg’s/Matchbox consortium in the mid-late 1980’s as larger single colour or ‘dab-painted figurines around 40mm in a rubberized vinyl material.

These are around 50mm, in harder vinyl and follow the trend started by Galoob and Co. in the 90’s. The packaging talks of larger sets with more figures per box, I haven’t seen any so I’m guessing Toy Chains like The Entertainer or the ubiquitous Toys’R’Us?

The Gormiti have the added ‘bonus’ figures in unpainted gold or silver and being smaller (25mm – ideal for role-playing) come two per the smallest container. Like the Ben10 you get a small bag of cheap, undersized jelly-beans and a leaflet with some of the others in the range.

Zeta (Barcelona), Zàini (Milan) and a third company beginning with Z which I can’t find right now (all from Spain and probably all the same firm) have aimed at the Kinder market, with cheap toys from China in the Christmas Cracker mould, sometimes rip-off or direct copies of Giodi or Res Plastics (both Italy) or Bruder (Germany) products.

The subject of the egg (or other object, the ‘other Z’ did hollow-chocolate Bears a few years ago) has no relationship to the contents as you can see from the jet-fighter that came from this ‘Flintstones’ egg! Pink Princess gift-eggs were in Poundstreacher a year or so ago, probably the same set-up?

The current set of Lego point-of-sale collectables, in the style of trading cards, Character Options are fighting back with a Dr. Who set, the Dalek for which I have added to the ever-lengthening Dalek post, while an overview of construction-block figures has gone on the Other Collectables blog. And I mean ‘Fighting Back’, there’s been a ‘Free-Figure!’ war in the red-tops for a week or a few now!

Not illustrated here today are a set of Superhero eggs with 30mm hard styrene figures currently doing the rounds of local shops, and the endless out-put of Tomy in their shopping-mall dispensers…no chocolate with those but they’re the cheapest at a pound a shot!

B is for Blockmen (or Cubix as some are calling them!)

Just when I thought I’d got all the Daleks I could on the Toy Soldier page, I found another one! I’ll put it over there so you’ll have to go and have a gander separately.It all came about because I found a free offer of an Amy Pond figure.


They were being given away free in the paper the other day, and I thought they were Lego, but it turned out that they were actually Character Options, who already have various licenses for Dr Who stuff.

In fact the papers have been having a bit of a gift-war in the last few weeks, with Lego, these and other toys on offer most days! I was pleased to see they were putting proper feet on them…typical that they were in fact somebody else’s figures then, as the history of Lego figures has always been “Where our rivals lead, we will follow”!


Predating (the UK Toy Industry Award winning) Lego Space (1978) by some years was Tente Space from Spain, which was advertised on TV when I was still quite young, and I can remember it coming to Fleet Toys and Mum not letting us have it, because she’d heard on Woman’s Hour or You & Yours than it wasn’t compatible with ‘another leading brand’!

Early figures had non-moving arms (top left), while later figures (top right) were not only better articulated, but also had connection points (female connection on the back-pack, male on the ‘butt-tocks-sirrr!’), both versions of the figures had male-connectors on their feet. The soldiers that ran alongside them had no connectors (bottom right).

The back-pack usually had a 'Space' logo; to start this was a metallic blue, then a plain blue, before being reduced for the second design and finally dropped (bottom left).

The original Lego Space (top center) and other figures including the Nestlé ‘Nesquick’ Bunny, one of the first uses of Lego ‘minifig’s’ as an advertising premium by another company, some enemy of Spiderman with a shaped helmet and a Gamorrean Guard with an all-over body-shaper.

The two Martians make use of the design tested on/coming from the skeletons and – then – new Stap battle-droids from the Star Wars franchise. While finally the Pirates are by COBI, with the beard which clips on to a hole on the face of the ‘Captain’, mirroring - in construction - the figures produced by Res Plastics and others for Kinder in Italy in the mid-1970’s.

Once Lego had got the ‘collectable’ idea, and realised the implications of Adult Lego fans, they got well into the production ‘sets’. The first were the sprung-loaded Basketball players, and now a set of 12 new and ‘unique’ (nothing unique about something produced in its millions – if not tens of millions!) figures appear next to a million tills every 6-months or so.

The South-sea islanders from the ‘Pirates’ range, these have been added to over the years with Newspaper-freebies and the new collectable figure sets, and are among my favorites from Lego. Actually from ‘Enchanted Island’, they seem clearly related to ‘Achu’ from the Adventures range!

Lego were sliding into oblivion about 15 years ago, and it was touch-and-go whether the newly purchased (at the time) Star Wars franchise would save them, but it did!Here are 3 types of Stap battle-droid, the Dri-Decker droids and some Gungans!

Main picture shows the vinyl Snow-monster from Megabloks, which led-off the Lego 'Artic Explorers' by several years! The Lego version stands behind.

To the left are two more Megabloks, with more realistic feet, swiveling arms in all plains and better heads (two of which are to the right). Like Lego they started with a simple ‘smiler’, and added individual features latter, as all these makes are really following Playmobil/Little People, it’s all a bit achademic!

Bottom left, and the level of ‘realism’ is getting silly, with a chunk of hideousness from Megabloks from the Medieval/Ork? Range, this range also beat Lego to a Viking Longship, and having seen the price of the follow-up from Lego, I don’t know how they get away with it, or why some of these other brands aren’t more popular?!

Bottom right shows the tool-set that came with a Megablok's Spaceman.

News, Views Etc...Show Dates

Don't forget the Plastic Warrior Show is this Saturday at Richmond, Queen Charlotte's Hall, details - the same as last year, are on the Plastic Warrior website, link; Above right. Be there or miss out! I'll be in my Tusker's T-shirt as usual, although it's getting so holey I'm going to have to find am alternative...?!

M is for MPC...Miniature Military 'Minis'

In 1997 - just as I was moving house and he was moving States! – I read about Bob Maschi’s publication on MPC Minis, due (if I remember correctly?) to the issue of an update actioned by his earlier reader’s feedback. He kindly sent me a copy with the fatal words “We can sort the money out later”.

Well, the more astute of you will be ahead of me on this one…I never managed to pay the man, lost the guides, lost his new address details and now 14 years later I find myself unable to locate him, even on the internet! So if anybody knows the current whereabouts of Bob Maschi, could they either let me know or pass my email [maverickatlarge@hotmail.com] on to him, so that I can remunerate him properly?


These little vehicles (They also did ships and Aircraft which I will cover another day and civilian cars of which I have hardly any) were issued in various forms and supplied to other people as premiums, but there was usually also a ‘standard’ pack with the complete set or a large number of the range contained within it.

This is the box for the military vehicle’s – also known sometimes as ‘Teenies’. When I got it; it was in two parts among several boxes of paperwork, the back panel/instructions having been torn away down the fold lines. However, as the tears were ‘clean’ it was a simple matter of supper-gluing it all back together again!


Some thematic shots, I’m missing 8 in total, which I think should have been in the box, so they’ve gone the way of flesh I’m afraid. My ‘Beep’ (Big Jeep) was found in the UK years earlier and is missing its aerial and a bit dirty, however I have the aerial for the missing set Beep, only it’s a different shade of metallic Blue! So far I’ve only seen these in metallic blue but seem to remember Bob saying they came in green early on.

There are also piracies by a Hong Kong producer in green marked IPA (I think? I’ve got a T54 somewhere but could I find it for the photo-shoot! I’ll have to add it another day). The subjects are all either late WWII or 1950’s kit, so would have been pretty incongruous to the child-collector of the 1960’s. The self-propelled 88mm (or 105mm?) and the CMP-cab’ed allied truck being the most unlikely vehicles to have served alongside the latter stuff!


American 6x6 trucks, THE military symbol of two generations, but increasingly only seen in home waters these days, among my favorites and the GS was seen here a while ago when I covered them separately, but I saved the other two for this post.

The Honest John is rather ruined by having its product information carved in relief down the sides, but considering it’s a three-part model in less than 1/100 scale, you can’t really kick-up too much, it’s a lovely little model.


The collection to date, less the Beep which is a darker blue and I’m missing one of the plug-ins for the SWS (a radar dish). The most felt absence is the Land Rover. I’d also like to locate the two missing British Armoured Cars and the Sd.Kfz.234 Puma.

Also missing are a Weasel, and an 8” Howitzer tractor, plus two French vehicles (no loss! They probably stayed in barracks).

AV - for the last time, but it seems to matter?

Did anyone hear Lord Owen begging for a 'No' vote on the Radio this morning?

This man believes in Proportional Representation (PR) and thinks that a No vote for AV will result in an imminent vote for PR. The same man who ruined the Liberals for a generation and helped contribute to Labour's 20 years in the wilderness, yet - still thinking he has a superior faculty of judgement.

He has done more damage to political life in this country in recent memory than any other citizen bar the other three members of the 'Gang of Four'...one of whom was - if memory serves - a Televisual 'presenter', it says all you need to know about politics and the 'Ruling Class' in Britain for the last 35-odd years! And he got a Peerage!

Vote in the AV referendum, get out, and get your friends and neighbours out, Vote 'Yes' to save us from ourselves!

Or we will get the system we 'deserve'...a complacent, destructive, disinterested system lacking humanity and barely fit for purpose…

V is for Vote; for AV please - sorry 'Toy Soldier' people

I am putting this on all my blogs and it will stay here until after the referendum of the 5th May next month. I am one of those people who are always writing letters to a newspaper in their heads, but never actually do anything about it! The war ends, the politician goes to jail, the celebrity gets over their hissy-fit and life goes on, a new letter forms and gets edited in my head...

Indeed, the whole point of the PPE/Rant blog was to get some of those letters out there, but firstly; I rarely write anything on that blog and secondly; I'm the only one who reads them! The moral of the story...stick to toy soldiers! But today, I feel so strongly about something that I will 'Send the letter'...here.

I think it is absolutely vital that we 'The People' in Great Britain vote YES in the AV referendum next month and that to not do so will be to condemn ourselves to another hundred years of hollow promises from self-serving politicians who have grown far too fond of the support they leech from the pockets of a relatively anonymous, venal, moneyed-class.

Why do I think it is so important, when it is only a 'compromise' cooked up between the Conservative and Liberal democrats to get the coalition off the ground? Because it's a step in the right direction, and history is made of small steps. The illiterate Paleolithic tribes of the Serengeti didn't become the modern European democrats of today overnight, they didn't even do so in a series of easily defined moments, they did so in a trillion trillion little steps, with great slides backwards into right-wing, small 'p' protestant, reactionary bloodletting like the Dark Ages, the 'Reformation' and the Juntas of the 20th Century.

There is a lot of vitriolic rubbish, emotive nonsense and general brick-battery being put about by both sides, as far as the lobby groups go, the 'No' campaign is making more noise and of a seemingly more desperate fashion (which is usually a sign of a weak argument/feeling you've already lost the debate), but - while supporting 'Yes' I subscribe to neither camp as all lobbyists have - or think they have! - a secret hidden agenda that usually has nothing to do with the long-term goals of the man or woman in the street to see a greater level of fair play, decent governance, access to justice and advancement of the species, all preferably achieved without destroying the planet for their children.

It was said by someone the other day on Radio 4 of AV, that "Instead of the most popular candidate, you’ll end up getting the least unpopular candidate" as if to vote for such a thing would be the end of civilization as we know it! The truth is that with some people in Parliament right now, care of LESS than 1 in 5, 1 in 8 or even 1 in 10 of the adult population in their constituency or ward, it would seem to me (call me a retard if you're in the 'No' camp) that it will be a lot more 'civilized' to be represented by someone who has had at least one vote from over half those who turn out, than the current state where you might be represented by someone with less than a sixth of the votes cast - especially in a three-way marginal with a dozen candidates where one of whom is a 'Big-3' spoiler.

The fact that in a constituency with say 10 candidates, you will get the chance to rate all ten, and know that you have contributed to the final placing of all those you vote for will give you a greater 'vested interest' in whoever gets elected (and you don't have to vote ten times, if you like the old 'First past the Post' system, just cast one vote, and lose your voice if your candidate fails to get elected!), along with the feeling that because you gave the winner one of your ticks, you have more right to expectations of service from them.

Marginal’s will end up with a definite 'winner', 'safe' seats however will become two or three or more-way races, still with a definite winner, but not necessarily the colour who's been winning for the last 70 years! It means however, that all the candidates will have to mean what they say on the hustings, and then spend 4 or 5 years actually 'doing' the job we pay them for instead of filling their duck-pond from the gravy-train, while they line themselves up with a job in the industry they were supposed to be regulating, moderating or policing!

Moreover, if they have to prove themselves BETWEEN elections in order to justify themselves AT election time, there will be far less of the broken-promise politics we've endured for the last 50 years, they will actually have to find a way of legislating against BOTH rogue Landlords and rogue Tenants, instead of passing several score Rent, Property, Landlord & Tenant and Housing Acts, Regulations, Guidance notes and Amendments over half-a-century which achieve very little! After all, they managed to pass two gun laws and a dog law in weeks following Hungerford, Dunblain and the News of The World's various shouty-rag campaigns. Speaking of the Tabloids; If under AV politicians find they need to impress all their constituents most of the time, they might learn to ignore the most of the gobshite brigade all of the time?

And yes, I know the three pieces of legislation mentioned above were flawed, why do you think we don't still win the Shooting medals at the Olympics we used to! But they were enacted under First Past the Post. At the end of the day, History from time to time requires change, that change can come violently, or peacefully, but having been bankrupted by the Thatcher/Ragan-Bush/Blair generation of autocratic paper-money gambling grey-men, and being told we will have to pay, the NHS will have to pay, Social Services, Libraries, local services will have to pay while the grey-men move their bonus money to Nassau using 'Tax-minimization' vehicles, it would seem to me that now is a time for change?

AV offers that change. Whether we feel the need to go on to PR (Proportional Representation), or stick with AV only time and experience will tell, but to not chose change now would be - in my opinion - a terrible failure to our future selves. There are problems with both PR and AV in some of those countries that have already adopted them, but they are not in the same league as our One-party/Three-colours State (What? You mean you can still tell the difference between them!), and none of those countries are contemplating a return to First Past the Post?

Britain has always laid claim to lead the forward march of progress, democratization and tolerance, sometimes - it has to be said - at the barrel of a gun (history is always full of guns), one of the first to move against slavery, building a commercial empire while Napoleon destroyed Europe and the Congress of Vienna solved little. Standing alone against the Generals, Colonels, little chaplinesque-corporal and fat Italian who held so much of Europe in their collective grips from the 1920's until the mid-70's in some cases, paying the bill for that stand by giving up the Empire while America (currently paralyzed by the mad-hatters) payed for Germany and Japan to re-build.

Yet now we seem to be following, if we can't lead we should at least catch-up! Detractors say there will be a low turn-out? Prove them wrong, whichever way you chose to vote, there is still time to register if you've forgotten to do so...

Register, Turn-out, Vote...it’s easy…
I'll be voting YES to AV, yes to change.

I haven’t been payed anything by anybody for this (worst luck!).

Herne Show This Weekend

31st Plastic Soldier show

20th of March 2001

11- 16 :00 hours

Kulturzentrum

44623 Herne

Be there or be miserable stuck in a no-horse village in the middle of nowhere like me!!!

Have Fun!

W is for Webbing

Another update of the Royal, Loyal, German, American! This time he gets armed and dangerous! 60th Rifles are go!

A collage showing the file of paper and card oddments, the three sheets selected (two neutral 'linen' colours and a black for the Rifles belts and straps) and in the main picture the little strips cut ready, using both the Airfix template and the Chappell artwork as a guide, cut longer they will be trimmed down as I work on them.

By the numbers;

1) Waist belt, rifle sling and two 'webbing' traps cut ready for use. The waist belt and rifle sling have been dampened (I just lick both sides) and are being shaped.

2) The ends are folded over two pieces of fine wire, to make the sling-swivels. Old motor windings will produce nice workable wire in copper, bronze and brass finishes (although I think this came from a shaped-wire Christmas decoration of a basket/star thing?) while phone line gives steel wire and fuse-wire and solder provide very soft 'steel' wire in several thicknesses. Thicker wire in brass or steel finish comes from power flex, while stiff (tensile) steel wire can be bought from music shops as piano wire or guitar string. Finally; model shops have a selection of stiffer brass finish wire/rod and the same steel wires sold in music shops.

3) Once the superglue has set, the wire is folded round and over itself and trimmed-off. The joins will face the figure where they won't be seen by the casual observer.

4) Shaped and ready to fit, again a second damping helps, it actually looked exactly how I wanted it to look at this stage, slightly falling forward in line with the angle of the weapon and the effect of gravity.

5) By the time I'd mucked about with it for five minutes, damped it again, had it fall off, re-glued it and then 'set' it with a painting of superglue, it had lost the 'perfect' shape, but was still OK.

6) The finished strap against the un-worked off-cut. The coat of superglue gives a dirty/sweaty, 'used' colour and a bit more texture.

O is for On Yer Bike!

There are some Hong Kong items which come into the collection one at a time, or in such small quantities it can be stated with some assurance that they only ever appeared in Christmas Crackers. This is one of those 'sets'...no doubt someone will now turn-up a carded or bagged set to prove me wrong!

Straight copies of both poses of the 54mm cyclists from Britains, but in approximately 25mm/OO gauge, and a simplified version of the Britains bicycle. Painted-up they are perfectly good for a model railway layout, giving a bit of movement to the sometimes too static scenery/background. Memory serves that you got two per cracker in a little poly-bag.

There seem to be two generations, the guy with the orange bike being a far inferior casting to the others. He does not have the locating hole in his shin, which the other standing figures do, and while the eye for a waist-spigot is still present on the bike, he does not have the required protrusion. Also he's too short to stand up so has to be propped against something! The (older?) versions though, do stand-up in both poses as you can see.

P is for Pop-together?

This popped-up at the NEC this weekend, seems to be an Athlete (vest and pants/leotard). with a buckled belt, and is in the style of both 1970's Breakfast Cereal giveaways and Monta-man from Montaplex.

Smaller than Monta-man, but in a very typical Motaplex colour, the quality too is more 'Sobre' than 'Sugar Smacs'. I initially thought he was supposed to be Tarzan the Ape-man swinging through the trees, but suspect (after photography and closer inspection) that he should be swinging from a parallel-bar?

Markings are as overlaid; anyone got any idea as to his make, origin or identity?

13th June 2015 - He is on Kent Sprecher's site as Mattel for Shell Petroleum 'Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus'  and he goes with set #10 Trapeze Artist and set #11 Accessory Act. The 'overlaid' markings were never published - I used to upload pictures without saving the edits in Picasa, and they'd lose the changes! I think it was only a (C) mark on the lower back?

U is for Update - Royal American

Just blocking in the colours before all the straps, belt and normal panoply of gubbins the PBI are loaded down with is added to him.

'This week I'are be mostly using....ACRYLICS' and they seem a bit bright for the job in hand; a sweaty soldier two years on campaign in the Iberian peninsular, in the middle of a battle. Also the camera (still; Thanks Giles!) cuts straight through any thin bits! I want the trousers to end-up blacker, more like the border of the collage.

D is for Kaleds...and Davros, Doctor...Dapol?

Pre-Scriptum...I love Daleks (from behind the sofa), but I increasingly hate the BBC. So, a bit later than I had hoped, here is the Dalek/Dr. Who round-up I mentioned in the autumn. There are a few thanks due on this one, thanks to the Philosophical Toad for A) sending me the earlier Dalek and Cyberman from the Doctor Who Adventures Magazine and B) telling me about the later ones and thanks also to Bill from Moonbase for sending me the white-metal Doctor and a lose Citadel Miniatures Dalek and Cyberman in sand plastic. These are about the same size as real life relative to each other, but there is a poorer quality line-up lower down for a definite scale/size comparison. From Left to right - top to bottom; 3 Marx 'Rolykins' Citadel Miniatures Kit 2 Character Options Daleks Doctor Who Adventures magazine Dalek, earlier version (maker unknown...Toad? Still got the card?) Premium World Dalek, later version (Doctor Who Adventures magazine) 2 Fisher Price/Strawberry Fayre board-game pieces 2 Product Enterprise Daleks Cherilea 'Swoppet' Dalek Premium World 'Dalek Slime' container (Doctor Who Adventures magazine) Henbrandt 'Build Your Own' Dalek (Doctor Who Adventures magazine)

Bottom shows a comparison shot between the two types of 'Rolykin'. When Product Enterprises first announced these in the...err...(quickly checks the boxes!)...late 1990's! I remember the collecting and Sci-fi press waxing lyrical about the return of Rolykins and other lapped-up bumpf from the toy companies PR department, but they were in fact quite different, first the base was rather too heavy (Boo!), but yet!...the detail was much better (RAY!!), although they were very pricey for such a small toy (Boo!), something to do with the amount of packaging I don't doubt! However the Entertainer chain of toy shops in the South-East would remainder each range for almost no money after it's 'run' and if that moment happened to occur as I visited the store I'd pick one up, so managed to get 4 from - I think - 2 series (RAY!) They are shown in the middle shot, left to right; 1st is a chrome plated 'movie' Dalek in silver, then the gold movie Dalek followed by the Dalek Invasion of Earth Limited Edition; Dalek with Sensor Dish Black / Classic Dalek and finally a Special Weapons Gunner Dalek. The convoy lights/horns are the main way of telling them apart, the first series had short ones, the second series had long ones. The full range would seem to be thus; 1999 Dr Who and the [TV] Dalek Rolykins (short lights on head) - Drone (Blue) - Imperial (White) - Supreme (Red) - Emperor (Gold) - Command (Black) - Battle (Pale Blue) - Darlek Invasion of Earth Limited Edition; Dalek with Sensor Dish Black / Classic Dalek 2000 Dr Who and the Movie Dalek Rolykins (long lights) - Blue/silver head - Black - Red - Silver/blue head - Gold Chrome-plated Limited Editions - Gold - Silver - Cherry Red 2000 - Others - Special Weapons Gunner - Incubating Dalek - Davros Rolykin The top photograph shows some of the other Marx Rolykins, Batman and Robin - having clearly eaten all the pies - are pretending not to see the Dalek threatening Earth... "What was that noise Robin, that noise that sounded like a Dalek threatening Earth?" "Farting-fireworks Batman! I think it was an auto-exhaust backfiring" "Yes, That'll be it, let's move over there a ways, I think I saw a Kebab-van go round the corner" Meanwhile - Lenny the Lion (I think he was called Lenny? Not having the web here as I write this, nor having time to look it up before I upload it later this week you'll have to Google it yourselves!) our 1966 Savior intends to give the Dalek a good old British drubbing with a Milbro orange-plastic World Cup football! "Exterminate That! You shriveled-prune in a colander! Three-nil, threeee-nilll threenil....." It must be said however, that despite the vast sum these change hands for, boxed, at shows or on FeeBay, the body is still the most accurate representation of a badminton shuttle-cock in the toy world. There may be others to find, gold, blue or yellow?

The rather fuzzy 'sizer' top left, construction of the Fisher Price board-game Dalek, the lump of metal in the base often comes loose and rattles around inside these - now - quite old models and similar break-down of the Chrilea Dalek. Finally the 30mm white metal Doctor sent to me as part of a swap by Bill at Moobase. I think it's John Pertwee in his foppish Victoriana, but Bill thinks it's [someone else I can't remember and can't find the email and I've got 3 minutes to finish editing this so maybe he'll tell us who it was!?] any other votes?. The Fisher Price Dalek is a classic example of the madness of collecting vis-a-vis dealers. This game, or the lose pieces always fetches a pretty penny at collectors auctions or toy shows, yet turns up at car-boot sales almost as often as Kadgagoogoo 12" singles, for pennies. it was issued by Strawberry Fayre for a while before the Fisher-Price re-branding and may have had a Mattel label as well, ran for a fair few years and sold by the bushel. The only problem is the automated Maginot Line cupolas in place of a Dalek head! As both companies also issued the Dad's Army board game with cardboard flats of the main characters, it may be that Strawberry Fayre were the licensing 'arm' of Fisher Price, until corporate image became all in the 1980's and it no longer served to have separate labels in-house?

The Citadel/Games Workshop bits, strangely for a company that has spent the last 34 years turning 22mm into 32mm by half-millimeter increments these were almost too small! and are the smallest on show here today. But perfectly formed! I hadn't the heart to take the sand ones off the sprue, as the grey ones had come freed from the card anyway at some other time, so it was brilliant when Bill sent me a couple. Next question; do I risk stripping the paint off the Cyberman or wait for an unpainted one to turn up? The excess stock of what seems to have been a unpopular line (as part of the GW oeuvre, yet now having quite a cult status) was cleared in the bag shown, and some were kicking around a dealers stall at Andy Harfields show a few years ago, where I got the loose one.

All the recent stuff from the BBC's Doctor Who Adventures off-shoot. Various companies supply the giveaways/premiums and you do have to be quick to get them, this - in an age of failing/short-lived kid's magazines - is usually sold out within a day or two, well it is round here! Known lines (all shown bar the orange one which is only in the group photo's above) Issue No. 98 - Cybermen (x5, approximately 25mm, grey) Issue No. 99 - Daleks (x5, approximately 20mm, original type, gold) Issue No. 170 - Dalek Soldiers (x5, approximately 30mm, new type, orange) Issue No. 183 - Dalek Slime [container] (approximately 45mm, new type, green) Issue No. 186 - Build-your-own Dalek kit (approximately 54mm, new type, black & white) Issue No. 203 - Dalek Army (as No.170, but 17 ‘Fat'lek’ Daleks in 5 colours) Issue No. 204 - 16 Mini Monsters/Monster battle Pack (8 Cybermen - as No.98; 8 Sontarians) Issue No. 205 - Dalek Pencil Set (4 ‘Fat'lek’ pencil-toppers) Issue No. 211 - Dalek Slime (reissue of 183) Issue No. 223? - Build-your-own Dalek kit (reissue of 186, red/black, Xcel Concepts) Issue No. 224? - Dalek Slime (reissue of 183/211) Issue No. 229 - Dalek (or other?) Micro-figure (from Character Options) + mini ‘Dr Who’ note pads Issue No. 237 - Weeping Angel Army (16 figures [8x2 poses] in PVC/vinyl; HMA + collector card pack) Issue No .238 - Monster Battle Pack (6x each; HMA Cybermen and Sontarans; 5 Daleks, each of a different colour) Issue No. 241 - 16 Glow-in-the-dark Who Shapes (Some items of use as approximately 60mm ‘Flats’) Issue No. 254 - Mini Monster Army (8 Judoon and 8 Ood) Issue No. 255 - Mini Monster Army (8 Silence and 8 Silurians)

When the Philosophical Toad first mentioned the new design, I thought she was just having a go at the crap modeling of the orange miniatures against the gold ones from the year before, but have since realised that - as part of their determined effort to dumb down the whole country and lose the license fee - the retards at the BBC have built a 'new' Dalek (I guess it was part of a story-line?) which has lost both the Battleship-prow of the original and the 'Soldiers-spine', and in so doing has lost its meanness, its menace, in favour of some PC fluffiness, all roundy-cornered and not so nasty?? If something's not broke...don't try to fix it! As Batman & Robin have eaten all the pies, I guess the Cyberman has been at the cakes?

...[Wane Slob at his babies Christening] "It's not a Buy'bee it's a cayke, Jewanna'piece Vicka'...aw'riot if we cum back next wayke?"

A selection of the Character Options micro-figures, like most of this new production, it starts life hideously over-priced (for what it is), and after a set shelf-life gets cleared for a few pence. Sainsbury's were selling-off the 3-figure sets when we moved here (autumn 2008) for 99p and Toys-r-Us shipped-out the 5-figure sets and ships for a similar mark-down. Way-way-back in the Dark Times, when Dr. Who fans kept their little magazines going with monthly calls for Dr. Who to be resurrected, and the Bloody Bastard Corporation kept saying "No, no plans, no demand, kids/times have changed, ran its course" etc...etc...ect...ad. nauseum, there was a little company in South Wales called Dapol, who fed the fans with a small range of Dr. Who merchandise, and paid the Big Bad Cretins an annual fee for the 'privilege' of keeping alive this dead concept. Now it came to pass that the Boringly Bland Cripples at Broadcasting house, suddenly, and a year or two before they announced the 're-birth' of their dead-baby, ended all licenses with Dapol and yeay, verily, did they give no good reason. Then, Supprrrise! Supprrrise! chooks! a couple of years later...they're issuing all sorts of licenses left, right and centre to global corporate toy giants and faceless marketing concerns, with 99% of all production in China to meet the demand for the bright, new, "worlds ready for the return, can't think why we ever ended it" Doctor. Now...Dapol operate in one of this Unions unemployment black-spots...what the BBC did was against everything it was set-up to represent, everything it should aspire to be and everything that is morally or ethically decent about and within a civilised society, and for that alone they should have lost the License Fee. So that's my Daleks but there are dozens of others, in the larger sizes for instance Marx alone made several in tin-plate and plastic, Poplar (was it?) did a 12-inch blow-moulded one, Cherilea did a bigger one, various plastic money-box Daleks have been produced with or without a license, and talking of no license, Hong Kong and Japan were the source for lots of battery-operated machines. Even now there's a board game with a bunch of small scale gold Daleks I keep seeing but never quite bring myself to pay for!

Such are the mysteries of synergy, that while I was preparing this article the other day I had no idea there was an upcoming issue of compatible figures! Therefore 'Bod' Paul's comments were a bit of a mystery, and I sort of thought "Ah, she (his sister) must have gone to one of those excellent comic markets (like the one I once got the 1st and 2nd issues of Heavy Metal from under Hanover station) and bought a couple of copies of one of the back issues mentioned in this article"!...

...however, I then popped over to Moonbase before my aloted time was up here at the Library, and found a whole bunch of Daleks in new colours and found WOTAN talking about a Dalek 'Army', so over to the newsagents in the main square, where I managed to get the last one! The 'last one' being a pattern that has followed my attempts to obtain these issues from the start! Not only did I now have a Dalek Army of my own, but the 'next issue' feature told me I'd be able to get Cyberman and Sontarian units as well (pencil toppers this week!), so was busy this weekend tracking down two of them.

My Sontarians have been taken out of the mould early and two of them are going to sleep, hot water should provide a cure, while a couple of the Cybermen seem a bit shaky...probably the weight of their body-armour or all those pies?

More updates below - in her own words - courtesy of Philotoadia meandering over from the Moonbase... The badly painted ones are 6 mm metal "Attack Robots" (NOT Daleks, in a bid to avoid paying a licence I am guessing). These are from Irregular Miniatures, and I think there might be rules for playing games with them in the later "Tusk" rule books.

The black Dalek is the one which came from an Advent calendar some years ago. Cannot recall the exact year, but definitely during David Tennant's time. [Well jellous of the last one!]

Absolutely the last update...for now! This was last week's effort, 2D pencil-topping Fat'leks, I love that title Toad...we should go on to Dr. Who forums commando-stylie and use it until they can't help but use it too!

These are currently to be found in Sainsbury's and Toy'R'Us among others, the trick with them if you are a Dalek Fan is; (whispers...) Squeeze the bag, the Daleks are obvious!

M is for 'Multipose'

While I am off-line at home I'm getting 3 toy/model soldier related things done, one is sorting out the archive, both figures/vehicles and paper/ephemera, second is getting a lot of the archive onto PC/disc, including the list of small scale articles someone asked for a while ago (and I've found the list I was looking for a few months ago in relation to that request, see; News, Views etc...Passim), and thirdly is this little project.

Those hoping for an update on the painting comparison with the elves will have to give up; The three pairs were so different it wasn't going to work, the Mantic figures were the ones that threw it, they had so much armour on, it didn't matter what colour scheme I selected, they were never going to fit in with the others, so the whole point of the exercise was rather in-valid! But this chap kept singing to me from the blister, so I took a knife to it and freed his sorry arse!

A surprisingly clean desk!

My employer asked me for a 95th Rifle's ages ago, and when I finally picked this up for him in the big 'Autumn purchase', along with some Airfix ready-made line-infantry (which I offered to convert to 95th's for a smaller fee than building the 'multi-pose'), he turned them both down and announced he really wanted an eight inch paper flat! So while a couple of mates go off to search for expensive antiques of Light Infantry 1800-1900, I was left with this.

I was going to do him from the box, just to 'keep my hand in', but the legs worked with one kneeling and one standing, so we were off...the next thing was to find a better painting guide than the backing card! Philip Haythornwaite's 'Uniforms of the Peninsular War 1807-1814' published by Blandford Press in their Colour Series seems to be the best in my Library which is a bit short of Napoleonic's.

The basic pose.

I am going to model the 60th Royal Americans from Plate 13 of the book, it calls for a small amount of work on the Shako cords, but not much else, as they were all (95th Rifles, 60th and most others) in rags by the time my chap got to taking a bead on Johnny Frenchman (or should that be Jean'ee Frog!), so the rendition of George Simmonds, the officer in shite-order in Plate 12 will be a major influence.

The pack will be dropped, one of the beauties of the illustrations in this book is the realism, not many packs on show, if they are shown, they're misshapen by weather and loot! In fact the Artist; Michael Chappell has got it just right, lots of mud, blood, looted equipment, rags and patches, very few war-gamers parade-dress here! The peak will be cut and I'm hoping to fashion a gourd water-bottle from a Crescent Swoppet knight's plume!

I dropped the arms without changing the angles or doing any of that cut-n-shut stuff, the right armpit opened up as it does in real life (try it, if you adopt the firing pose and then drop the arm while cupping the armpit with your other hand you can feel it just stretch!), so it needed a dollop of Humbrol filler. I've tried Testors and Revell over the years but always come back to Humbrol, the others were too thin and sloppy!

Having said the others are too thin, once the lumpy fill has dried, you need a thinner layer to 'fine-fill' which I make by using liquid poly to water the grey stuff. Also shown is the ammo. box I'm going to have him standing on, it's a soft ethylene plastic one from Merit (I think?) so will need pinning to the base, and he'll need pinning to it, 'cause nothing really works with the softies, glue-wise.

I might have shown the Hussar before, he was made by me about 5 years ago (before my eyesight started to go long!), and while I was pleased with the horse, the figure was flat painted and not only remained unplaced at a BMSS show (once I'd seen the competition I wished I'd left mine in the car!), but also went unsold on eBay and at several shows! It's a very personal thing this painting/modelling malarkey, and while you can share it via a blog like this, everyone has his or her own way of doing things...John, a friend of mine, took it (out of kindness?) off my hands and I'll try a bit harder with my 60th Yankee, who - in fact - by 1812 was probably a German National!.

A shot of the 2nd fill being removed, most of it gets taken away again; you're just trying to get the joins 'invisible'. With the other leg combination; again no cut-n-shut involved, the waist-line needed levelling once the join had dried/fused, but otherwise all it needs is a bit of filler (and another torso?) and it's ready to use. It would need pinning with wire from that heel - through the landscaping to the base though.

Last minute addition to this article, the changes muted above, peak has been cut flat and thinned slightly, apparently a common field modification in this campaign - if not others and while seemingly more common among the officers, soldiers did do so as well. The shako-cords are a bit of a guess-work, based on the photographs, but with all the shakos in the three works I'm referring to having different cord arrangements, I'm not too bothered it has to be said.

I pin the cord in the middle with super-glue, pull it round and anchor again the same way, then soften and shape the run between the points with liquid poly. For the tassels, I knot and stiffen a section of cotton thread and only when it's fully dry, cut it to size and super-glue it in to place. I then discovered that liquid-poly and super-glue mix without curing each other, so buttons were a blob of the thinned filler with cynocrylate, set with the Plastix activator pen.

PS - Anyone who's got the kit, have a look at the artwork, four guys 'running' with both feet stuck firmly to the grass! The guy at the back is starting to fall forward onto his face, the middle bloke is looking worried at his inability to free the back leg, while maintaining a text-book pose and the guy on the left is stoically pulling hard to free the rearward leg. The man on the right has gone into total panic mode and is furiously shaking his hips in an attempt to free at least one of his feet and has started waving his Baker-rifle about like a big girl!

In the background a Nuclear-test has combined with a Turner'esque sunset to provide a distraction for anyone not involved in the immediate battle or the problem of sticky-grass. Indeed the kneeling firer on the extreme right has not yet realised some devious Corsican or Neapolitan engineer has covered the grass in super-glue! Oh, it has to be one or the other...no Frenchman could come up with an idea that clever, one has to remember that while the rest of Europe experimented with hams, jointed-meats and sausages; they were still eating frogs and snails!

S is for Spot-On

It's been a while since these starred in 1" Warrior, and then they were in black & white, so I thought I'd chuck some up here in colour. Not much to say, they were issued to accompany the 1:42 scale die-cast cars from Triang under the Spot-On label. Sold typically as three figures (and the odd accessory) to a card, with a larger boxed (?) roadwork's set.

They are classic early British, sometimes chalky, basic factory paint-jobbed, 30mm softish polyethylene (ICI Alcathene?) figures, mostly of civilian subjects, and dressed to be contemporary - 1958/1969'ish. They were replaced by hard styrene-plastic Tommy Spot figures in the 70's which I'll look at another day when I cover Minimodels and the Havent factory's output.

Top; Soldiers and a Sailor, there was an Officer in Sam Brown to keep the two squadies in order as they perused the shelves of Woolworth's in their lunchtime, but sailor-boy seems to have been a one-off.

Bottom-left; Two paint versions of the 'Postie', as the blue is an less-common colour he may have come with the Sailor and the Traffic Policeman (below), but not necessarily.

Bottom-right; Three variations of 'Old man in jacket with soft hat and walking-stick' he was sometimes issued with two naughty boys to take for a walk/be annoyed by?! Sometimes there were two old men and one boy to the card.

Top; The professionals: University Professor, Priest and Doctor, all - only ever seen in black.

Bottom-left; The three naughty boys, one throwing a stone, one scarpering in a guilty fashion and the middle one is supposed to be sticking his tongue out! It was two of these that Granddad above had to keep amused in the absence of the parents!

Bottom-right; The two smaller children dancing to a street musicians ditty.

In common with all figure collecting, women are a bit thin on the ground, but in Spot-On's defense they had more than most as a percentage of the total, top we see three versions of...farmhand/milkmaid? With the nurse; below left and 'Girlfriend' and 'Woman with dog' to the right.

It should be noted that all these 'Titles' are my own invention, as far as I know they were never given titles or names with the exception of the road-menders (below) who appear as drawings on the back of a Spot-On catalogue with code numbers. Missing from the fairer sex are a lady shopping with handbag and a WPC, that I know of?

Top shows the building trades, left-to-right; 'Chippie', 'Brickie', site foreman's 'Boy' and the Decorator.

Below are three mixed figures; Bus conductor, 'Boyfriend' and Traffic Policeman.

Motor mechanics from two sets, there's a missing pose from the upper set, and these come in various colours but more commonly white.

The figures I collectively call the street traders...

Top; Fruit & Veg. Barrow-boy (actually a middle-aged man!), there should be some sort of leg arrangement or props, that fit into the dent under the apples, but as a small part it was always going to go missing! Anyone got an image or link to a complete one?

Bottom-left; The 'Street Band, and an advertising 'Sandwich-board' wearer, there should be an accordion player and beggar to go with the band, while the hording carrier probably goes with other figures, the paper seller and another?

Bottom-right; The Flower-seller, again missing little bits, which would seem to be 6 bunches of flowers/plant pots to plug into the holes in the display steps.

[I have a spare set of wheels for the barrow, if anyone has a spare prop]

Two sets of three Road Menders, with the codes for the larger 'Road Construction Set', missing is L221/2 a man hefting a moulded-on spade. The inset carded set (which has lost its spade and compressor-drill through the lose cover-film) shows how sometimes the sets are more than one colour, while my two samples were clearly both all-one-colour sets. With 8 poses and various accessories (plank, spade, drill, brazier) the contents of the three figure sets does vary.

The sitting guy is shown as reading a newspaper in the catalogue images; however I've never seen one and the others are different enough from the original artwork to suggest he is the numbered figure from the larger boxed set.

Also note that the packaging is almost the same as the Almark 20mm WWII sets, both plastic British and metal Germans. Indeed the Germans also came as tear-off cards, part of a larger hanger while the WD series just had the sticky vacuumed cover-film. I wouldn't say any of these were Stadden designs, but it's a further link between Almark and Lines

The other busy bodies...

Top-left; Baker's delivery boy, Coalman and Bin-man.

Top-right; Paper-seller from the street traders card.

Bottom-left; Laundry-man and Removals man.

Bottom-right; Short, fat Butcher who's clearly been spending some time divvying-up his produce with Batman & Robin (see Dalek article above!), Milk man with two paint treatments and a deliveryman who I like to think has a large box of chocolates, but as he won't ever take the lid off; I just live in hope!