B is for Britians British Heroes...and Villains!

What IS the matter with Blogger? Having had us get used to loading images in reverse for the last three years, they suddenly decided to reverse them to the right order a few weeks before Christmas and have now gone back to reverse order...except the first image loads to the bottom of the stack after you press 'done' - it's enough to induce a coronary!

Right - this is arguably one of the best sets of toy/model soldiers/figures ever made in any material. Given that they are over 50 years old ('58 were they issued?) and had not the benefits of modern production used to such effect on some of the soft vinyl stuff coming out of china these days.

Sadly; there were only ever the five poses, Britains counting the horse as the sixth - they usually producing sets of figures in sixes.

Little John and Robin Hood, the Robin figure looks very young, a bit of a boy in fact, probably why Maid Marion fancied him - she just wanted to mother him!! There were at least two moulds for Robin (and probably the others), the most obvious way of telling them apart is to check the feather in his cap, which I did with an old archive photograph, here; Link to Post

I suspect that most of the mass-produced figures of that era had more than one mould for a number of reasons; expected take-up of initial release, popular figures, mould damage to previous mould etc...and Britains often left clues to the different moulds, the Rabbit Family - for instance - come as either a thin moulding or a thick one (with more bunnies ears). Hand finishing of the mould cavity by the engraver would be one way the tell-tale signs could appear.

Little John from a different angle and the Sheriff of Nottingham on a fine medieval charger, there were no other enemy figures and one suspects you were meant to use the Swoppet Knights as a supply of baddies!

Maid Marion and Friar Tuck make up the rest of this set and the detailing on Tuck with the swinging crucifix, fat belly, 'dressing-gown' cords, belt and such like is superb. Marion would make a good Cathy, wandering over the moors, hair swept back by the rain, cloak billowing in the wind and starey, dead-eyes!

They weren't so much replaced (gap of a decade or so) as followed by these guys, and I have to apologise for such a poor sample, I though I had a complete set of these with a paint variant of either the sheriff or Guy, but suspect it is a false memory of the time I got some sets together for customer orders when I worked for a dealer. Any way this is all there was in the box so it's all I can show, Robin and Will are damaged and the other two are missing their staffs (I think the Friar Tuck from Cherilea next post down has the remains of one!!). I shall replace the photo if I ever get a decent set.

Left to right, top to bottom; Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, Robin Hood

Sherriff of Notts, G...whatisname and Will Scarlett

25/07/2014 - Done! Turned out I'd never had them in my collection; several years ago I sorted out a dozen or so sets when I was working for a dealer as a client wanted a few, we took the rest to a couple of shows where they sold like hot cakes, so I made up a few more sets from the remaining stock. Realising they too would disappear quickly (which they did!) I photographed them, those photographs then became the first in a planned book on Deetail knights, as the book projects have now been spiked, the photographs will make a nice series of posts here in the next few weeks/months. I was going to do them as a page like the Khaki Infantry page (see top of screen), but with the Turks published the other day and Robin already here, I'll just feed them into the normal blog/homepage!

They are not that hard to get and I did contemplate looking on evilBay when I took these shots a week or two ago,but time hurries on. The full set was seven figures (to compensate for the original five!), being; Robin Hood, Will Scarlet, Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, The Sheriff of Nottingham and Guy de Gisborne...or is it 'du Gisborne'...da...die, dei, der, das...who cares - some poxy village in the depths of Normandy he thought he had regency over, where you can buy cheese on a Sunday and everything's closed on Monday - no doubt!

Alright already! He wasn't from over the channel at all; Sir Guy of Gisbourne, Gisburne, Gisborne, Gysborne, or Gisborn

This set was a well sculpted set, and while most of the Detail range was likewise, you get the feeling looking at them that the sculptor himself felt the weight of the heritage of the previous set as he sat down to produce these?

U is for Usurpers

No, not King/Prince John, he was a regent or 2 i/c! I mean Speedwell and Hong Kong, who both took liberties with the originality of their sculpting - if you know what I mean! But we'll look at the Cherilea set first;

Robin's gang consists of the man himself, Friar Tuck and a Little John type, there is - I guess - a sixth character in this set, but I suspect it's more likely to be another man-at-arms than a member of the Sherwood woods lot!

This set - already rareish - is becoming so brittle they do command a premium when tracked down, of my sample (7 figures) only Little John is complete. The friar has had another tool inserted in place of the original staff, which has again broken while one hand is splitting from the previous surgery. Robin's bow broke during the photo-sesh despite my treating them all with kid gloves.

The man-at-arms with the patented half-a-cross-bow (TM; Waltii Industries - we didn't just make TC Gunships!), and the Sheriff of Nottingham doing everything in his power to convince you the viewer that his sword isn't held on with luck and a micron of plastic filament!

I have another Friar and another sheriff, they are both no more than bits in a bag!

Friar Tucks from Speedwell and Hong Kong (bagged). Speedwell borrow from Britains (err...and Sontara!) while Hong Kong soak it up!

From the lack of evidence of staples on the bag (which would point to there having once been a header card) it must be assumed that the HK figure was either destined for Christmas crackers or for use as a cake decoration, as both groups of products often got to the end user in such bags. Given that HK pirates of the Britians ethnic dancer/musician pairs were issued in the same fashion, I favour the cake decoration theory.

The Speedwell sheriff has been to the HK school of originality and is a clear usurper although his horse seems to come from America? Ajax?

Speedwell also lifted the Maid Marion almost exact and here are two shots of their entry..."Tonight Mathew - I'm going to be..."!

The King/Prince/Sheriff is a different-kettle-of-ball-game-fish altogether, covered above (in a day or two!!) this is the Lone*Star figure as good as, and while I thought it might be Reamsa or a similar Spanish figure (from the base), Paul Morehead from PW [Subscribe - you know you keep meaning to!] recalls them being part of a reissue fort play set from France about 10/15 years ago, originally by a company called Gem or Jem, neither connected to Gemodels over here?

News Views Etc...Action Figure anyone?

Please Sir; can I have a toy soldier modelled after me?

Canada's Hero's

You Tube - Canadian TV News Item

Yeah! Sure, a short-arsed, scruffy Gloster, hanging round the less salubrious bars of 1980's Berlin...why not!

G is for Giveaway; Cresent for Kellogg's

The Crescent/Kellogg's figures were (or are) my second favorites after the Britains Herald set, Robin looks like he means business, the Sheriff is clearly an evil chap and Friar Tuck is up for a fight and no mistake - to much sacristy wine methinks, begad!

My examples are not complete for either trademark, with Maid Marion missing altogether along with one of the medieval knight figures, also they are mostly Kellogg's which I remember from my time as a dealers assistant were always more common than the Crescent marked figures. Crescent are painted, Kellogg's not so.

The Robin character figures, these are both for Kellogg's although there are definitely two moulds, one with a bigger base but slightly smaller figure, mine are also from two production runs so are different shades of green.

Alan a'Dale and Little John, the colours were the same for both runs, unlike the knights in armour who were given completely different treatments, with silver for the Crescent originals and blue or white for the Kellogg's set.

Friar Tuck goes Mano-a-Mano with the evil Sheriff of Nottingham, the truth is the poor old sheriff was trying hard to raise one or other of the two massif ransoms we had to pay to get the awful King Richard out of hock, a man who hated Britain (or England as it would have been then), never learnt English and only visited his realm twice!

Three of the medieval knights, with a crescent original in the middle, flanked by the Kellogg's versions either side [That's what 'flanked' means - you idiot!]. They were not actually given away by Kellogg's at the same time as the Robin Hood figures so aren't 'technically' The enemy at all, but I don't know who else you'd use!

The medieval archer, the difference is so marked between the two in both size and sculpting, I'm keen to complete both sets to compare and contrast. it's almost as if Crescent have 'pirated' their own figure as previously supplied to Kellogg's?

A is for more ART

Check this out, it is;

A) Awesome

and

B) The only thing this quality of figure is good for

Mr Joe Black - Made in China

If you like the work; pass the link on - Art enriches human beings, war diminishes them.

Here's another one;

Dan Cohen's 'Patton'

Is there a piece of software that allows for the pixellation of images?

H is for Hood - Robin Hood

Dulcop were another foreign maker to have a stab at the iconic British hero Robin Hood. And as these figures were still available a few years ago are relatively easy to find, although I don't think I have a full set and with my Plastic Warrior check list/guide (authored by; Matt Thier) in storage, perhaps some kind Italian reader could let us know what's missing here...

From the left I'm assuming these are Robin himself, Little John (who needs to be taller!) and Will Scarlet, they are not particularly nice figures, being a little wooden or stilted, however the sculpting - in itself - is quite detailed.

Much the Miller's Son (?) facing-up to the Sheriff? This second, mounted figure is styled in a more European fashion and would maybe make a better El Cid or someone like that, indeed- he may very well be meant to be such a character?

Their 'enemy' are a bunch of knights in armour from a much latter period, and with only 5 poses in my sample/the photograph; I'm assuming again that there is at least one more to find?

Mounted figures from the same set, again I have no idea whether this is it or there were several more to collect, Dulcop are strangely under represented on the Internet!

L is for Loxley; Robin of Loxley

These are the Marx figures in both sizes, side-by-side, while I say 'Marx', my 54mm are all the later Rubinstein issue of the 'Canada' marked cereal premiums, believed to be copies of the Marx set.

The Robin Hood figures are the two in the middle, the blue figure being Will Scarlet and the left hand figure - although looking like a vague scale-up of the 54mm Robin - has no name, so should be a 'man-at-arms' or Merry Man!

March 2019 - It looks as if the blue [marked] Will is actually an Australian or New Zealand cereal premium, not the Canadian/Rubenstein figure I though he was! Updates with that new set from Aus/NZ here and here now

Little John and Friar Tuck are represented in both sets , I prefer the 60mm example as the 54 mil one is not fat enough! Come-on guys...he needs another couple of stone before you can put 'Friar Tuck' on the base!

The Sheriff - bad at being good, good at being bad! And Mr Loxley's paramour; Maid Marian, although the suspicion is - she was no 'maid'; snuggling up in the woods with a sweaty hero? Please!

The only other figure in either set to have a title is the 'Minstrel' (technically 'Alan a'Dale') from the 54mm set, a useful pose for many a 54mm medieval project, not least King Richard's boyfriend (Blondel) hanging around outside castles!

Merry men including two horn blowers, there is a pairing between the two sets up to this point, and while they are never the same some are quite close, Maid Marion for instance and the sculpting is similar enough to suggest the same sculptor, but a few years apart as while he has returned to the old set for inspiration, there is an improved skill shown in the smaller set best seen in the better animation of the figures...

...and the extra four poses. No equivalents for these four were to be found in the larger set. I tend to think of the falling pose an an alternative Robin.

Missing as named characters are Much (the Miller's son) and Nazir/Azeem (the modern PC additions) for the good guys and Guy of Gisborne for the baddies.

P is for Probably...the Best Toy in the World, Ever

[To be voiced by Orson Wells's gravelly tones!]. Or; Probably the Worst Lager in the World! ((c) 1989 Hugh Walter - I hope to sell it to an advertising agency one day and make my fortune!).
This has been on my brother's shelf for a few years, and was a sort of late Christmas present to me, although I've said I'll clean it and put it with the Detail stuff we looked at a while ago. Made by Britains, it predates the Detail range and the figures aren't compatible, neither did they go that well with the Herald figures, but are - at least - made of the same dark olive vinyl.

I genuinely think this has to be up there with the other contenders of best toy ever, if such an award could ever ignore the broad sweep of something like 'Lego' or 'kits' and look at each toy issued on it's merits.

It was a tad dusty when it arrived two days after Christmas, and needed to be stripped down and cleaned. Due to all the stickers that come with it and the fact that it seemed to be surface dust only, it was better to do a dry clean with a paint brush. Illustrated - bottom right - are three brushes typical of the type I'd use for a job like this, from the left; a chef's pastry brush (soft bristles that can get up a nice lather if 'wet cleaning'), a 1/2 inch decorators brush which is a bit stiffer and was the one used this time, and a stiff craft brush of the type kids in playgroup/kindergarten use for poster paint and glue, which is the best for getting years of grime out of detailed mouldings with doing the damage something like a nail brush or scrubbing brush can do.

The model carries a UK civilian license plate, with the 'F-Reg' dating it to an issue date (in the real world) between 1 August 1967 and 31 July 1968, and (without being an expert on Lanny's) seems to represent a late Series II/IIA?

So why is it the best toy ever - in my humble opinion!?...Independent suspension on all four wheels, front wheels steer from the spare, turning the steering wheel at the same time, two fully articulated crew-figures (with separate helmets), two-position co-driver/sentry's machine-gun, opening doors, opening bonnet (with a good stab at a Solihul engine-block), dash sticker and cab-details, pivoting twin pom-pom type weapon with removable, revolving mounting, locking towing-hook cover, radio set...

There are downsides; it's British Racing Green, not the army green of the wagons I knew (although Her Madge' always used to get a Review-vehicle in this colour when inspecting large units or parades), the main armament is totally fictitious and the bonnet tools tended to be broken by people thinking they should be removable (because everything else was!), but it was a toy, and as a toy it had shed-loads of play-value and preempted the modern irregulars 'Technicals' by a decade or two..Rock-on!

All cleaned-up and put back together, I gave the crew slightly more jaunty angles to their helmets at the same time! They're singing "There Was a Gloster Soldier" as they swing wildly between termite-hills and wart-hog holes looking for Mau-mau!!

Various aspects of this moulding (or the wheels!) produced a quite wide range of long and short-wheelbase farm and military versions right up to the early 2000's, with and without soft or hard-tops, drivers, crew or loads.

Go-on then...tell me what's better than this? Must be a single set or box not a generic like 'Action Man', what's your all-time best toy - not favourite; 'best', all-round and viewed with judge-like neutrality!

1970's catalogue illustration.

News Views Etc...Another year dealing with a human-designed world!

Yah, Boo, Humbug!...I hate the New Year as passionately as I love Christmas...

I won't tell you how many figures I have or have not painted in the last 12 months, nor what that equates to as an average, or how it compares to the year before, I'm not going to tell you my plans for 2012, nor how 2011 failed to live up to any previous plan, I wouldn't list my scenic accomplishments - if I'd done any! And can assure you my only 'New Years Resolution' is to not make any New Year's resolutions...However, I will make a prediction or two;

There is a 60% chance white 'Western' civilization will collapse completely.
There is a 40% chance America will drag us into a war with Iran in the next 12 months.
There is a 30% chance we will have a 'conflict' with Argentina before Christmas.
There is a 20% chance we will have a 'conflict' with Argentina before the Olympics.
There is a 10% chance of a multi-faceted, who's-on-what-side, global war that could go Nuclear between Israel and Iran and/or North and South Korea and/or on the Indo-Pakistan boarder in the next 12 months.

To cheer you up after all that, here are a couple of links to arty-farty pages that are both - at the same time - beautiful, odd, weird and uplifting yet slightly disturbing. They also both leave you thinking "I wish I'd thought of that first".

The second one is definitely not safe for work (NSFW), so if you don't have the intellectual compass to deal with the March Hare taking his bunny-girl from behind; don't click on it!

Sebstiano Mauri

Cathie Pilkington

If you like the works; pass the links on - Art enriches human beings, war diminishes them.

B is for Buried, Better, Burger King, BMC, Brent, Bandai and Benbros

As this is the season for getting as many things on your plate as possible (without letting the gravy flow over the edge!) I thought it was the ideal moment to cover a few minor makes or smaller samples from my collection, so here are some minor 'B's'.

On the left (and marked "MADE IN ENGLAND") is a pawn from the Buried Treasure ice cream (?) chess set. These were also sold in the states both as Buried Treasure (?) and Sherbet Surprise. The question marks are down to my not knowing if Buried Treasure was ice cream or some other edible product, and not knowing if they were available in the states as BT or just Sherbet watsit!

On the right and dateing from 1949 is a joke/stag-novelty of a naked woman from Better Novelties Inc. of the US of A, who will only stay in her bath for the person who knows the secret - a sliding magnet. I have similar toys of naked women in [on] a bed and the kissing dolls I think I've covered somewhere in the 450 posts now gone below?

This is apparently a very early Burger King toy from the 1950's or 1960's and consists of the King (himself!!? Who knew or remembered he originally existed?) riding an air-powered go-cart/cartie. Coming as a kit of 4 parts in a nylonish plastic, maybe a polypropylene? His only mark is the R in a circle so favored of Giant - this must have been an American thing, we had the Copyright 'C' and the Patent 'Pat.' but the Registered sign was never of legal worth in Europe and didn't appear on our products.

Above are two bits of hollow-cast I've ended-up with; a Benbros calf and a 30mm BMC penny-toy of a mounted Life Guard, with below; the only other 'volume' producer of composition figures in Britain (we looked at Zang the other day) was a company called Brent, who produced these generic WWII British types with picture-frame nails as weapon barrels/muzzles.

There were about 3 sets of small scale Pokemon, these are by Bandai, I think I've also got smaller unmarked ones and same sized ones by Tomy probably from their gumball machines.

As these are yesterdays 'fad' now, and space needs to be made for Ben10 stuff, there might be good pickings for this sort of stuff at car-boot sales this year.

C is for Christ's Mass

Just finished listening to the midnight mass on Radio 4 (Oh...; I'm an old softee really, curmudgeonly and intolerant but a softee!) as I got the tree dressed, this is the old 'Family' tree at mums and some of the decorations are over 70 years old, been to India and back in the 1940's!

And it got me thinking...dangerous - I know - but stick with it...I've been doing this blogging lark on and off through a difficult period in my own life, and a strange period in the life of the wider society for the last 3 years, and while every year a few people do some sort of 'Happy Christmas' post before they go off for the holidays, in past years it has been only A FEW, this year not only have most people done some kind of 'seasonal' post, several people have done a few, often quite nostalgic ones.

Now I'm sure this is due to the credit crunch (a dreadful expression for the beginning of the end of white western capitalism), in that it seems to me that it has concentrated minds a bit more than normal.

I have a little book in which - since I was a pretentious teenager - I have copied sayings and quotes which grab me, sometimes well known, sometimes not, and I don't always know (or note) the source and one of these is;

"The best time of your life is that to which you always return [to - in your mind] when the present proves too unbearable"

Now; I'm not suggesting that we are all finding right now 'unbearable', but just that you don't remember past birthdays on your birthday the same way you remember past Christmases at Christmas...you don't remember the dead on your birthday the same way you do at this time of year...you don't cast your mind back to childhood birthdays, school birthdays, birthdays with lovers, drunken birthdays in Berlin, other peoples birthdays ON your birthday in the same way you remember these things AT Christmas EVERY Christmas.

We mark the passing of time...by Christmases! Yes; it's close to New Year, but how many drunken New Year's meld into each other in our memories? But Christmas...from the first one we can remember at 3 0r 4 or 5 years old to last years, all the 'big' presents for most years, the disappointments, the snowy Christmas in Bishop's Stortford, tobogganing down residential streets and being hauled back up by your godmothers dog! The first Christmas you could buy your parents things with your own money, Your first Christmas away from home and family because of a new job or new partner, drowning your sorrows in alcohol with your mates stuck in Berlin on Christmas Duties, phone calls home on Christmas Day, jobs that gave you two weeks off, jobs that gave you a day off, early or late 'Christmas Day' with a lover - in secret, unhappy or happy, we mark the passing of time in Christmases.

The point I'm getting to is that this year more people seem to be giving more thought than usual to Christmas Past, and I think it's a valuable lesson as it shows that no matter how commercial the bean-counters try to make it, despite the MacWendyKing's Cranberry Wrap two-for-one offer, it comes down to family, to lost loves, lost innocence, absent friends, family traditions, daft rituals, stupid jokes in cheap crackers, memories - some painful, some to make you smile, some that leave a roomful of people laughing at the re-telling, others that produce a groan...every year, but would we have it any other way...?

I'm a cynical atheist, but once a year I think I'm allowed to waver!

To all the followers of this blog, to any casual visitors, to the several contributors and all commenters, thanks for dropping by and taking a bit of my wittering away with you, and wherever you are, whoever you're with - have the best Christmas you can and may 2012 be an improvement on 2011 for all of us.

A is for Action Man

I imported the listing for these from the dead page the other day, so thought I'd better post the figures while they were still fresh on my mind.

Imported into the UK by 3D Licensing, these were a Hasbro product, and I have an idea a company with 'Strawberry' in the title may have been involved somewhere, but not the old Strawberry Fayre. 35mm factory painted poured resin figurines with a pre-inked stamp in the base producing 20mm images, you could regard as flats!

As far as I know there were only the 6 poses, I get a few of these 'Stampers' from time to time (Kinder often does rolling ones with a continuous/endless track) and always take an image for/on the record card that goes in the bag with the figures.

Sold as pocket money toys, the resin (Oh! Sorry - 'Polystone'...yeah, right, got real stone in it has it?!) is brittle and the ink wouldn't last a day in the hands of a kid, this is the shite-end of the toy market, and you'd expect a company like Hasbro to stay out of it...

The Bears Say;

Happy Christmas to all visitors to the blog; eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow our civilization might collapse like a pack of damp, moth-eaten cards in a hurricane - who are we trying to fool...ourselves?!!!

B is for Boys Toys

This is in my mothers attic, I don't know or remember when it was given to us or how long it was in the games drawer, as both my brother and I were not 'football' kids. I have a vague memory of playing it once or twice but as to who gave it to us and when I haven't a clue...

...but if you were a Football Kid, this would be the best under the tree on Christmas morning, a big box printed in two colours with the magic word "soccer" writ-large!

From the late 1960's judgeing by the hybrid tin-plate/plastic construction, although I think it soldiered-on for most of the 1970's pretty much as an unchanged design, however, the box got more colourful with each generation.

Close-up of the players, the ball - if I remember correctly - was a Subbuteo-sized thing but of lesser quality in a browny-orange? Chad Valley was resurrected a few years ago by Woolworth's, I don't know what happened to the trademark after Woollies demise?

H is for Have a Happy Christmas

Everyone has a favourite tree decoration...

Mine are Pine Cones, old; to the left and glass - modern; bottom right and blow moulded polyethylene.

Painted cones would have been among the first true decorations, along with sweets, nuts & fruits and the odd small carved wooden trinket or straw dolls/craft pieces

Have a lovely Christmas and best wishes for a better year in 2012 whatever your 2011 has been like!