L is for Lady Luck

There is within the hobby an expression used by the dealers on the show circuit; "He was spotting my mistakes!", it refers to those occasions when a dealer known to be a bit 'tight', to have cobwebs in his wallet, suddenly buys something another dealer thinks he has priced for 'all the money' without a question, during the pre-opening 'trading'. It means that the other guy has spotted something that is worth more than it's going for.

This post is not about a 'spotted mistake' as the description was quite clear;

15mm SCALE PLAINS INDIANS

Made of hard plastic Painted and based figures, make unknown but 20+ years old.

Comprises a total of 69 figures.

...and the photograph was reasonable;

However, when I spotted this a few weeks ago, I though "Plastic?...15mm?...I'll have to have a look at this!" and realised immediately that it was a old-school war gamer's American Indian force made from Merten figures (first bit of luck), loads of them...69! Of course they are really 18mm, but with war games bases added (and very thin bases originally) were clearly fitting in with 15 mil figures. And if they hadn't been Merten they could only have been Starlux with that description!

So I bid and got them for the start price, which was the second bit of luck, no one else bid? They were in the right category and the photo is clear?! However there was still the gambol that I'd be able to get them off the bases without ruining them, and/or that they hadn't been touched-up with non-factory paint.

When they arrived the rest of the 'luck' slipped into place, they had been based in/around the 1970's with something resembling sun-dried porridge (I suspect a non-rawlplug 'plastic-wood' that dried faster than the war gamer could base the figures!) and apart from the odd cracked - Merten - base as they came out, they all came away with relative ease.

A set of the six poses as they would have originally come out of the box, I have a few spare boxes in storage and at some point will see if any have the right background paper via the old catalogue, if there is a correct one; Lady Luck will have brought a near-mint boxed set to the collection!

We looked at some of the other sets in this range back in the early days of the blog so click on Merten in the tag-list to find that, I didn't know this set off-hand so a really nice find.

W is for With appologies to Stanly Kubrick!

A harbinger of things to come...

Now published a few posts above - a two part overview of the larger scale Pirate figure output both sides of the pond!.

G is for Giocadag

Whom I presume are the importer/repackager of these French figures for the Italian market? This is the third set of these Italian Starlux sets and it's probably the best - value wise - having 12 poses, two of each for 24 figures, far more than the other two sets.

The set complete, the poster-map and the sticker, I don't know how many of these sets were issued, and with neither/both the Circus and Fire Brigade sets having any 'enemy' it's hard to tell, but I think we can assume there was a set of Cowboys (probably 2 x 11 poses for 22 figures? - see coming post; above somewhere in the next few days!).

As only non-military sets have turned-up so far it may be thet the military sets being French wern't offered to the Italians in their own-language packaging...can any Italian visitor help with that?

Close-ups of the figures, the one I like the most is the guy who's found himself a Colt Peacemaker, probably stole it from one of the bodies at the Little Big Horn! The 'Chief' with blanket is also a nice piece and his 54mm version sits (actually; 'stands') well next to the Britain's one we looked at last night.

[Rivet counters please note - I don't want comments on when, where or how the Peacemaker was or wasn't issued, or to whom...they are TOYS! Just call it a 'six-gun' and sit on your hands...]

After checking the published version; you might get a Google '500 error' message when you try to enlarge the second image, keep trying and it will come-up! Here they are announcing a "...new look for April..." when they have yet to get either of the old looks right!!! Is this a slow suicide note by Google...something new and better will take their place if they're not careful....

H is for Herald and Hong Kong

Similar to the cowboy shot the other day, but this time we do have all poses from both sets so; two photographs and a bit more blurb!

Not much more though, these are Britains and - much to my puzzlement - are one of those marks which generate so much interest (the others being Airfix, Timpo and Marx) it's all been said before and covered in greater depth than I can muster the enthusiasm to attempt!

The early set, first made under the Herald banner in polyethylene. Like the cowboys, some but not all poses were carried over to the Hong Kong production phases, to be made in a rigid PVC, namely; the standing and sitting 'Chiefs' in full war-bonnet and the squaw with baby in papoose - along with the camp-fire.

Note how much smaller the PVC standing Indian (far right of the row) is compared to the UK ones to the left of him.

Losing the three (see note below) fighting poses in the production move to HK, they were replaced by these guys, the crawling one was one of my favourites as a child and I still have a soft-spot for him today, but he's not a '10 items to rescue from a fire' pose, as these are pretty common, pretty indestructible and can be found in reasonable condition, with relative ease.

I also like the fact that the standing firer has full clothing, it's amazing how stereotyped 'Red Indians' were in the toy industry of the past, they all seemed to fight semi-naked on hot days! This guy is ready for a cold winter...it's just a shame he bought his PJ's form the local fancy-dress hire shop!

I realised after I'd published - there was a forth figure transferred over to the HK range; the kneeling archer (there is one; top right - first photograph!), so the range went from 7 to eight with four new and four old poses plus the camp fire, Tee-pee (Ti-pi?) and Totem pole.

C is for 'Civis'

A guest post tonight with thanks to Bernard Taylor for all images and the information behind them, it all goes back to 'stupid blog' which was going to be all the text only listings, one of which was the Merit list (now; Here), when I brought them back over here Bernard dropped a comment to the effect that some sets I had bracketed 'May not have been issued' were actually issued as he had some...well; the other day he sent me pictures of the ones he had, which were of such a quality they were suitable for posting, hence...

Photographs of three of the four sets, correctly labelled and a shot of the typical late packing that was probably the first version they came in, missing out on the 'cartoon artwork' and the rail scene packs that preceded this type.

In the original list I had ignored 5128 with a typo duplication of '27' and had them in the wrong order, but as I was working from Merit, Peco and Pritchard paperwork at the time there may be a reason for the wrong order, anyway; unless you read this and follow the link in the first few minutes after I publish it, I will have updated the list by 'now'!

Of interest is that the separate bases in clear styrene common to Merit (and missing from most Model Scene sets) have been dropped in favour of integral bases more like the Triang Model-land/Minic Motorway figure sets of a decade or so earlier, whether these were sculpted by Stadden at the time or as a later additions is unknown, they certainly have the look of his work and could have come from the Havent plant, the Merit pink plastic was the same as a lot of that Triang/Mettoy stuff?

A Prichard Patent Products (PPP from Peco) catalogue scan above some of the figures Bernard is working on for a layout, these are as well painted as any small scale I've seen (sorry Paul, sorry Sam, sorry Peter, sorry Carmen!) and remind one that it's not just toy soldier people who have the painting and modelling skills or an interest in figures! Bernard is taking them back a few decades - to the Edwardian hight-point of 'Steam' - so all the ladies have had their hemlines dropped so's not to over-excite men to whom they are not married! It's not just Islamic fundamentalists you know, ask Mrs. Spankhust - as the National Theater of Brent called her!

Two of these are the Slater's figures - the sailor and the woman with a hat (far right) - that were originally metal Mastermodels (Wardie) sculpts and then early plastic members of Merits population, but that's a story half-touched on before and - fully; for another day! [Bernard added that the shiny ones will get a final coat of matt varnish!]

The N gauge sets - I was pretty sure these both existed as I had one in the late Merit brown & red version of these graphics, I never-the-less marked the one I didn't have as possibly not being issued, as I never accept a product existed until I've seen it!

When Peco picked up what was left of Merit, they re-branded the whole range 'Model Scene' and used the last type Merit HO sets colour scheme for both gauges. As Model Scene these are still current and those few surviving High Street hobby stores still stock them.

Thanks again to Bernard for the info and pictures, we will return to Merit again, as there is a lot to get through.

News, views etc...Plastic Warrior 147 (February 2012)

Forgot to cover this when it came out the other week so quick review now. Since it went all colour on us - a couple of years ago now - it has got better and better, so to this issue;

* Peter Evans looks at Marx swoppet Guardsmen and Mexican Copies
* Cherilea Diddy-Men by Colin Penn
* Matt Thair continues his round-up of Cherilea's British Commandos (part 2).
* A look at a new maker with Scott Lam's thoughts on his new company Expeditionary Force
* Coverage of other new products from
- Kid Robot
- Armies in Plastic
- Dollar Tree and Accoutrements via Paul Stads
* Rare/unusual Timpo Box from Karl James
* Elastolin Copies
* Daniel Morgan has an in-depth look at Britains/Herald Ballet Dancers
* Lone Star test shots and rarities
* Developments in Gerald Edwards research of Poplar Plastics, both Spacemen and Romans
* ...and Alwyn Bryce finding mysteries where there probably aren't any, but we must humour him - he's a journalist!
* Plus all the usual news & letters (BMS French Foreign Legion), and front and back cover pictures that are worth a years subscription by themselves, so subscribe!

And don't forget;

Forthcoming PW show at Richmond confirmed for the 5th May at the Queen Charlot Halls, Richmond, Surrey.

G is for Girls, Grandad and Gallic Gunmen!

Just a quick one tonight, the photograph can tell you almost as much as I can, previously unknown to me these were at an antiques fair at Alexandra Palace this Sunday just gone, and I would assume some sort of decorative items.

The subject matter is a bit 'Dickensian', or...more like the output of both the Italian company Nardi, who - in plastic - do a lot of rural/rustic/nativity stuff and the Spanish firms who make the little terracotta people with paper hats,; Bull-fighters and maids usually, with childlike countenances.

As these are also terracotta, I'm guessing somewhere in the South-west of France? They seem to be a group of 'village' women, an older Shepard and a group of younger hunters? Any other information on these and the company - Senton - would be most welcome. Height is around 65mm.

Later - much later; Now known to be Santons, French nativity scene items

News Views Etc...More Fugging Blogger!

I now have 75 followers and am on-target for my first 11,000 hit month after three consecutive 10,000+ months, so thanks again to all who visit or follow, I can't add the new followers Blogs to my blog-list as I can't edit any of my widgets, even from the design page!!

This is an ongoing problem, and we can only hope that Blogger have only failed to fix it because they are already so busy fixing the image-upload problems!! Ha-ha...some hope!

Details/Discussion can be found;

Here Original Post

Here Google 'Groups'

and

Here Read Only

If you are having problems with 'Quick Edit', the pencil icon, the tool icon or updating your side-bar widgets, or the URL changes stick a polite comment on one of the threads, or you can rant on your blog like me and risk getting chucked-off Blogger, but as they won't stop a plagiarist using my images, there's a 'better die than live like this' element to my "WTF's going on Blogger/Google?" attitude!

To Paul - I bet you didn't believe me...

Well done mate! You are now coming to us from three different places - at the same time! Your empire will blot out Google with it's shadow and we will enjoy wall-to-wall Revell Panthers 'till the end of time!

T is for Tin-plate and Tractors!

You may well have realised I have a side-thing for tractors, and while I tend to call such things 'side collections', the horrible truth is I have so many side-collections they are really all part of 'The Collection'!

I took these a while ago at Sandown Park as I though they'd make for a slightly different post. There is something joyous in old tin-plate toys and food or cigarette tins, I suspect it's the brightness of the litho-printed colours even on rusty examples.

This tractor - made in Germany or; as it states quite categorically - 'Bavaria'! - differs only slightly from the one below, as the other one has all the company marks and dates of an original it must be assumed this is a newer, post-war copy.


Patented in 1916 by Animate Toys of the USA, this 'Baby Tractor' has the recognisable layout of an European tractor with far-set wheels, unlike the row-crop layout I hate! The lines printed on the rear wheels probably represent steel treads on a steel or iron wheel, much-like the contemporary traction-engines. My father tells of metal spade-lug wheels still being used on the family farm in WWII.

This is a bit of a mystery...the box (in its entirety - not just the label) appears to be a photo-realistic/printed 'repro' but still has some age of it's own, the car was not known to be a Schuco design originally, it's of Schuco quality and seems to be pretending to be Schuco and any help given would be greatly appreciated. I suspect a 1970's line of new 'Retro' models, from a Japanese tin-plate specialist? Anyway it's a concept design or 'Space Car' and help with identifying it would be as gratefully received as help with its history or origins.


Unknown British tin-plate searchlight, marked MADE IN ENGLAND, it will date from between the wars where its primary goal was to compete with the imports from Germany by Hausser and Lineol!

A pom-pom type AA gun from the same source, all sort of working features allow fro the projecting of match-sticks over some distance, no wonder all those hollow-cast guardsmen at car boots are always missing their heads and old composition are full of cracks!

"There'll be lots of 'Archie' over the living-room sector Biggles!

W is for War - as a game

Food for toy soldier thought; War as a game?

It seems boundaries are getting blurred...

M is for Montaplex - Part I - Quadruple-bags

As you collect the Spanish 'Sobres' or 'Surprises' you realise that the companies (of whom Montaplex was only one - but the most prolific one) were very good at regurgitating the same few products in various ways or including them in various sets.

These four-vehicle bags being a case in point as they all contain things that had either been available singly, or that had already appeared in the figure sets, where a sprue was often thrown-in to give the set a bit more playability!

The car is quite nice, described as a Ford, it looks quite like a Rolls or other prestige mark to me, the two space items (UFO and NASA return-module) have been seen on Moonbase Central before now, the tanks are a bit lame but the 'planes are OK really, a bit crude and around 1:100, but not that bad.

The bag at the back contains the ship which is so brittle it's powdering in front of itself! It's also a very poor model and not worth putting together - even for a photograph. The scooter is closer to 54mm in scale/size.

Close-up of the astronaut in his capsule, he also mans a Wild West era fire-wagon! And the car on the sprue and with an Airfix 'Officer Type' to give an idea of the size - quick bit of paint, some dry-brushing and you've got yourself a staff-car!

M is for Montaplex - Part II - Single Bags

Before the larger envelopes that are so familier to collectors of Montaplex, they produced single-model Sobres in two-colour printed paper envelopes (black and one true 'colour' on white), I only have a few, on the backs they list lots of others, but the same few vehicles actually keep turning-up, so I suspect a lot of the models never got copied/made/issued?

The Russian infantry (from Airfix) were the only figures I've found in one of these sets, there is another design of helicopter but mine is incomplete so I'll save it until a good one turns-up! The tanks are simplified and too small for most 'uses' - cirtainly with war-gaming - but the Unimog is a very neat little model and as can be seen from the figures is relatively in scale - presumably taken from either Roskopf (1:100) or Roco-Minitanks (HO).

A selection of bags, the car is the same as the one looked at in Part I (above) the, the helicopter is the bag for the one illustrated, but looks more like the 'other' one mentioned!

It's worth noting that within these four bags you have;

Montaplex, Monta Plex and Monta-Plex!

M is for Montaplex - Part III - Other Vehicles

M0st of my Montaplex sets will appear on the Airfix blog as comparisons when I get that page properly loaded-up, so here are just a few vehicles from sets not in the two previous parts of this overview.

The sprue with two little vehicles came in a few sets, being what appear to be an Airfield traffic-control vehicle and a fire engine/appliance.

The other four came with a road-works set that included Airfix civilian copies. There is no attempt at scale with the tractor in a bigger size than the lorries and the car somewhere between the two.

Top - some sets gave you two helicopters instead of one!

Middle - some of the other vehicles you can find in Sobres, the road-roller and fire-wagon seem to be copies of Matchbox, but Lido did produce a similar model, whether theirs was first or another copy I don't know, what I do know is that they weren't crewed by astronauts! The gun is a Manurba copy and the jeep come in a lot of sets although I've only found two plug-ins so far, searchlight and radar.

Bottom - The Montaplex copy of the Blue Box copy of the Dulcop copy of the Dinky Daimler Armoured-Car!...I think!!

A nice lorry with a US marine from Airfix for scale, the set actually contains copies of the Quiralux French soldiers/GI's identified Here, I not sure if BuMSlot re-issued them, I think they did, but not with the truck!

G is for Gunslingers

A few hours later and I'm a dot-co-dot-uk! Why? If it 'aint broke - don't fix it! I was going to do this post so you didn't have to look at my earlier rant for too long, but honestly, Blogger/Google seem hell bent on getting rid of their site owners and destroying Internet security at the same time - I link to 106 other Blogs and 5 of them have disabled their verification words this month, and that's just the ones who've announced it?

Does Google not understand that Bebo has all but surrendered to Myspace/Facebook. that the market leaders when they (Google) came to prominence in 2005 have all but disappeared and been forgotten, that things happen so quickly on the Internet that if someone comes along doing it better, everyone goes there. There is talk - on Blogger's own forums - of people moving to Wordpress, well I'm going to look into it, and if the image limit is the same and the layout can be similar I'll go there and start again...anyone who's bookmarked me but doesn't follow me through Blogger or Google now has a dead link to smallscaleworld.com because I'm .co.uk, despite still editing this in www.blogger.com?!! Feck!!

And they still can't get four pictures to load in the right order! Why don't you fix something that IS broken?

Anyway...here's a pretty picture of some toys! It's not the whole early set, it's not the whole late set, it's not all the paint variations, it's not all the plastic colour variations, but it's a guide to both UK and HK 'Herald' series cowboys from Britains and as I've said before with these small posts - box ticked!

News Views Etc...Fugging Blogger!

Well, not only have I lost the quick edit (Followers are back) but a quick visit to Google (search) shows this is a problem Blogger and Google (Corp.) has known about for months, and while it's going on they have decided to convert the Blogger forums into Google Groups! Soooooooooooooo....the threads about the problem are divided between the old Forum which went read-only a few days ago, the replacement Forum which will be superseded by Groups and the fledgling Groups which are not fully active yet.

A problem thirded is easier to ignore eh...Blogger?

On the funny side...Paul over at Plastic Warriors is now sending me traffic from three Blogs;

http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.co.uk/
http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.com/
http://plasticwarriors.blogspot.nz/

How the hell they've put him in the UK is anybodies guess!!!

I swear - The Internet is getting less interactive and harder to use every fugging day!

The problem/s stem from the introduction of .au URL's (and it would seem .co.uk and .nz...at the same time!), problems with the new version of Firefox (a month or two old now) and Google (who swore they would never do anything 'bad') wanting to rule the planet and buy everything on the Internet that isn't already on evilBay!

The question being; why would the internet leader (Google) want to break up Blogger into national 'islands'? The whole point of the Internet is to make us one people one planet, not reinforce the existing 18th-to-20th Century divisions?

Edited - after I calmed down...a bit!