G is for Guards - 60mm Figures

There were three 60mm sets of guards produced in the classic factory-painted, soft-ethylene, 1950's toy soldier style that I can think of, the two below and a set of non-musical Cherilea figures one of which appeared in the En Garde post the other day.

The other Cherilea set were musicians and I only have the three at the moment, they will re-appear over the next few days in more of these thematic posts.

The other set was by Crescent, these came courtesy of Mike Melnyk (who has helped with a lot of these guards/ceremonials) and arrived about a year after I took all the other photographs, so they are not in any of the other posts (I think I've queued-up 16), so the standing firer wasn't in that post the other day, and the officer was missing from 'his'. There were 3 other poses and when I've tracked them all down we'll have another look at them. They have more than a hint of the Charbens sculptor about them and are very different from the 54mm set by Crescent.

C is for Corgi Combat

There were not many figures of a military nature from Corgi, they weren't that keen on military stuff, remaining more of a civil vehicle producer with a growing range of licensed cartoon, film and TV character related products.

The previous sentence obviously divorcing the modern brand 'Corgi' (who churn-out military stuff like it's going out of fashion) from the old Corgi Mettoy.

In the Husky range there were a few vehicles given a military finish, a Citroen Ambulance, a petrol tanker and such-like, all without figures. Once the Corgi Junior brand had replaced Husky, there were a few more military vehicles issued, of which my favourite was the rather large-scaled Daimler Dingo, top left with an MG gunner who matched the figures from the play-sets (dark chocolate brown ethylene or polypropylene) and was pivoted in a manner that allowed him to spray bullets like a demented-demon!

A Jeep had a similar matching driver and two of the figures (on their distinctive shared base) came with a small gun which I think is aiming to be an air-portable US pack-howitzer, and  it achieved that aim to a far higher standard that the Matchbox offering we looked at the other day!

My other favourite (and who wouldn't like a vehicle made by someone called Cadillac-Gauge?) was the V-200 Commando, that icon of cold-was television news bulletins, being used, sold, licensed, supplied or copied to just about everyone not in NATO (or the Warsaw Pact), who had an army or police force! Indeed remembering a gloss-blue one at Stuttgart airport in 1977, some members of NATO took them as well.

So the few figures of a military nature from Corgi; The chocolate brown ones ran for a number of years (decades even) and apart from the odd change in shade of chocolate, there's no surprises. The pair front-centre are the more common as they came as crew with the pack-gun, the rest came in the play-sets which - due to their higher cost - shifted less units.

These near-25mm figures and the late Corgi Junior vehicles (V-200, Jeep towing the howitzer, Helicopter, Dingo, Land-Rover ambulance and Land-Rover pick-up truck (wrecker) were issued in the late 1990's or early 2000's by the then Woolworth's owned (and - then - recently resurrected) Chad Valley label.

The figures have the feel of Polypropylene, but the poor-detail suggests a high-density ethylene.

Below them are the roughly 1:48th scale figures that slightly pre-date them, on the left; the crew of the AMX Armoured Recovery Vehicle; you got two of the squatting pose with a pair of trestles and an AFV's spare barrel, all in a dense PVC. On the right and in the same ethylene/propylene as the brown 'Tommies' is the MG-gunner from the Sd.Kfz.251 Half-track. One wonders if it was intended to produce some German 'pairs' to combat the Brits?

It's interesting to ponder for a second why Corgi went with an AMX ARV while Dinky sat on the opposite self with a Leopard ARV despite the fact that at the time (mid-late 1970's) Britain had several indigenous ARV's, BARV's and AERV's and the like -  the old Centurion and newer Chieftain engineering and recovery variants? I can only suppose that both companies were pandering to wider markets than the domestic?

At the time of the marketing campaign I call 'the Corgi flood' (turn of the century and a good 6-8 years either side), there were several military ranges, in various packaging, some were given as a set 1:48th scale, the others (budget range!) were less forthcoming on scale but several of them came in at 'war-gaming' size, and two of them are shown above, a Churchill and a Scorpion (taken from my old Imageshack account so lower-res), the vehicle box is somewhere else at the moment! There were two Shermans from this range and that missing box in this post; S is for Sherman

We looked at the two recent sets in another post a while ago...Here while the old plastic-chassis forward-control (FC or F/C) Land-Rover from Husky can be seen Here. I will do Husky one day, but it will be a while.

G is for Guards - Band Majors (Drum Majors? Pipe...)

Wanting to be clear of the facts before posting I thought it would be a good idea to get my head round the difference between Band Majors, Drum Majors and Pipe Majors...

...almost the first result on Google was a handbook for pipe band drum majors! That is; a Drum-Major in a pipe-band, so I gave up...someone with more sense than me might explain it to us, in the meantime I'm guessing they're all Drum Majors? Oh and they're not majors they're Sergeant Majors!

Left to right; Lone*Star (re-issue); Sacul - from hollow cast; Charbens, soft plastic, Charbens, hard plastic.

C is for Corgi Canines

We have seen this policeman a couple of time in the last year or so, these things often overlap! A quick overview of the canine component of the Corgi population;

There is at least one missing from this collage, the corgi mentioned the other night which came with the jubilee Landau. Clockwise from top right; St. Bernard with in-built alcoholic revival system and handler; Chipperfield's circus dog-trainer with poodles, some require the bases to stand-up properly, they form a small pyramid, there were standing black ones in the set and the white ones can be found in cream (probably because they've been left in sunlight);Farmer's sheep dog; Two dogs from the four that came with a Kennel-club truck.

Paint finishes on the Circus trainer and the policeman with his Alsatian, this dog was another of the four that came with the kennel-club vehicle.

The hand-painted faces all end-up with their own distinct character, and Mary Chipperfield was no exception.

All the above were vinyl except for the performing poodles who come in styrene and have often lost the rear-paws and locating stud.

G is for Guards - En Garde

"Halt; Who goes there, friend or foe?"

"Friend"

"Password?"

"Answer"

"Advance one and be recognised"

[Member of the other party advances]

"Pass Friend"

Left to right; Britains Deetail, newer, older, Cherilea 60mm, Cherilea...er...not 60mil!! Crescent 54mm

C is for Corgi Cavalry

These are one of those exceptions that prove a rule; getting exited about scale is a waste of time...

The figures being 50mm, while the horse is perfectly compatible with 54mm stuff. These came late'ish to Corgi if I remember correctly and included a horse-box and Land-Rover Country LWB. The little blonde girl being from the 'Corgi Pony Club', the other two being obvious!

The scarlet-jacketed postilion (?) is from the '1902 State Landau - The Queens Silver Jubilee 1977' set. He plugs into a plinth which also had a small corgi dog.

The last shot shows the size in comparison with a Britains Guardsman, as you can see the figure looks a tad diminutive, but the horses are quite alike, if anything the Corgi steed has a bigger butt as our friends across the pond would say!

G is for Guards - Unknown Swoppets

In some of the previous posts last week and in some of the posts to come I refer to these as 'Unknown (Charbens?)', but as there are other 'swoppet' guards of a non-Timpo persuasion; I'm not sure if they are Charbens at all?

So - any of you large-scale collectors know who these were made by? Lone*Star? Cherilea?, I know they are not the Crescent ones (my favourites - and I don't have any!!), the reason why I'm not sure is that there are some other more Timpo-like swoppet guards, with very similar (to Timpo) bases and separate rifles that are a sort of Charbens brown? The annoying thing is I have known in the past...Doh!

probably meant to be six in the range, the shouldered-arms guy fits three legs and the officer would go on marching legs if I had both as spares.

News, Views etc...New Pages, New Website

New Pages

I've added a couple of pages, they are the first of many, while the cross-reference one is still a woeful version of what will sit there in the end, time waits for no man, and I've had other stuff on my plate!

The first (added about a week ago) is a list of company status terms some of which are present on toys and figures or their packaging as marks. The other (added just now) is a list of foreign terms with a brief translation into English...this is not a dictionary, but rather what the word or phrase equates to.

Anybody who would like to contribute suggestions, corrections or additions to either page, or any of the forthcoming pages can eMail me at the usual address; maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com. All contributions will be gratefully received and acknowledged.

'Pages' are the floating words immediately below the border of the banner-header at the top of this page.

New Website

Barney Brown has a new site devoted to Herald toy figures and animals which can be found here;

Herald Toys and Models

There is also a sales page here;

Catalogue


I will add the site to the side bar at some point along with the ones in the Plastic Warrior review the other day.

C is for Catch-22

Do you remember when I looked at sprues used in publishing; Here

Well one of the more recent (2005) budget reprint's of Joseph Heller's most famous novel now has sprue! Not only that but it's credited on the back cover as being a vintage plastic kit of a B25 (North American Mitchell) Bomber, although it doesn't state what make, I'm guessing Revell or Monogram?

One of very few works of fiction I've bothered to read more than twice, hell, it's one of the few novels I've bothered to read more than once!!! I also always watch the film when it's on, it's not true to the book, but it's not far off and has all the set pieces of tragicomic craziness, or plain surrealist hilarity, I can laugh till it hurts reading this or watching the absurd logic of the human condition unfold on-screen.

The above version is at the Bargain Book Warehouse near Waterloo station at the moment (opposite the Old Vic), for next to no money.

Can anyone identify the kit?

Added 28th Jan 2014 - it's the Mattel-Monogram 1/72 Snap-tite North American B-25 Mitchell C24, thought one of the aircraft guys would get that one first...there's one currently on Todeccio-whatever-it's-called; the European collectors auction site!

News, Views etc...Plastic Warrior 152 and 153!

Even later than last time with the announcement this quarter I'm afraid, but still been busy doing other stuff. The 152st issue of PW has been out for so long another one has arrived! What's worse is that I actually picked-up 152 a day or two early, and then never did the review! So to help me catch-up there are two to cover this time.

Starting with 152;

*  Lone*Star sailors get an overview, this also covers the Toyway-Timpo issues.
* A look at 4-inch Payton figures from Thomas Stark including Wild West, medieval and Arab/FFL.
* Editorial coverage of the new Horrible Histories figures from Worlds Apart.
* Alwyn Brice gets grubby with a look at filthy lucre and "...that well known auction site..." - I'm glad to say that like me Paul (the editor) has always followed a 'try not to mention money' policy.
* James Lloyd looks at the set of three 18th Century figures issued by Bonux.
* Debbie Steven's coverage of Marx UK gets to the Boy Scouts.
* There are two book reviews in this issue with Barney Browns's Britains Herald covered by none other than the inimitable Jame Opie and Barry Blood waxing lyrical on Juan Hermida's 'Plastic Toy Figures Made in Spain', which after a few false starts seem to be finally off the press, that's Andrea Press this time so hopefully if you pay your money you'll get your book?
* Mike Blake brings a report from the 54mm front-line, covering War Games held at Andy Harfield's March show.
* New product reviewed include figures from;
- Armies in Plastic
- Ivanhoe
- Replicants
* What the !&*$? has the quidgy-topped space tank which is around the Internet for those who've surfed it.
* Readers letters and contribution include a bumper crop this month including updates on...
- Pom-Poms Biscuits-Soldiers of the World (James Opie again)
- Acedo (Christian Hardy)
- Publis (Mathias Berthoux)
- Teixido (Juan Carlos Martin)
* Plus all the usual small-ads, news and views. Brief o-bit's on Charles Biggs and Ronald Cameron.
* This issue's cover-shot is of the Lone*Star cardboard LCT.

Now a 'back issue' it will be available from Paul via either the blog or the website.


So to issue 153;

* 'Animation' gives an overview of some of the more dynamic sculpts, from Thomas Stark
* A very interesting article on Vandamme premiums by Christian Hardy is worth the cover price alone (I love a new name!).
* A look at the Fort Apache Playset by Marx from Karl James studies the Sears exclusive.
* More musings on Linde Wild West from Andreas Dittmann with the American Indians covered this time.
* Chris Goddard gives a 'show-and-tell' of his recent purchases of American Insurgents from Award International in both scales.
* Editorial content this month is a focus on the Lone*Star Frogmen.
* Juan Hermida looks at early Spanish make Gama and their Swoppets.
*  John Curry (from the History of Wargameing blog) looks at early war gaming and the role of plastics in its popularization.
* Tony Elvery's 'Converters Corner' features nice mounted Napoleonics and some 18th century Germans.
* Alfred Plath; writes a tribute to his friend Norman Tooth who has sadly passed away.
* What the !&*$? finds Les Collier seeking information on two interesting figures from hollow cast moulds, both prone or near-prone.
* Readers letters has updates on Payton 4-inch cavalry from the previous issue (courtesy of Peter Rushton), more from OWN (Mathias Berthoux), the Space Tank is identified by Gerald Edwards, and much more.
* While  cover images this quarter are shots of Peter Cole's diorama of the Battle of Hastings
* New products covered this month include figures from...
- Toy Soldiers of San Diego (TSSD)
- Replicants
- Parago
- Austin Miniatures
- Engineer Basevich
* Plus all the usual small-ads, news and views.

Out now! Both issues raise other matters, for which a round-up is easier....

Plastic warrior is now online here;
Facebook
Blogger
eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com
and they are on Paypal, however the old website has closed.


New websites of interest are;
Nardi
C and T Auctions

M is for Matchbox Kit Figures

I have in the collection two boxes in the 'Unknown Dept.' containing kit figures, one has all the large scale (40, 50 and 60+mm) GI's from the whole gamut of early era kit makers (Pyro, Revell, Renwall, Monogram, Snap, UPC et al), most of which I do have a clue to, but because they all seem to have copied/licensed/borrowed to and from each other I can't give any of them a definitive place. The other box has all the small scale stuff, including bags and bags of pilots left off 'plane-kits and a few AFV crew.

Despite Matchbox being relatively easy to identify, there were two of these in that box for a number of years!

Allies - The French and Americans don't get many...one kit each! The gunner from the quad.50cal half-track is taken from the commander figure in the turrets of some of the Battle Kings AFV's. The Russians only get one figure, but he's a corker! A pity they never did sets of Russian and French in the figure range as they would have been good. The rest are British or Commonwealth, including the 4 casually dressed chaps from the SAS/LRDG set.

And then there are the figures from the Flower Class Corvette model - I don't actually know how many figures come with that huge 1:72 scale vessel-kit, nor do I know how many poses there where/are (Revell is re-issuing it sporadically).

The Axis; all Germans (we have to look to Esci for Italian kit figures), but some could be painted-up as allied troops. Top right are some conversions that have come my way in mixed lots. The three-figure seated vignette from the Sd.Kfz.11 half-track can be separated easily to help spread them about a bit.

The two main types of boxing during the flourishing of the Matchbox kit period. In this case a Sd.Kfz. 234/2 'Puma' armoured car. There are minor variations beyond these two, and now there are various Matchbox/Revell and Revell/Matchbox boxing's.

One of the minor variations is the 'free' glue offer from C.B. Baggs, as it was a sticker on the cellophane it's quite a rarity now. This was the kit that offered-up my 'unknowns' as the two gun-crew looked more like Hasegawa than Matchbox!

Top left - The only other attempt at a hard-styrene palm-tree I can think of is the Aurora Rat Patrol ones. Although a bit of thought later - actually there's the Marx Miniature Masterpiece ones as well - factory painted, and some jungle/dinosaur scene ones...also Aurora?

Top right - My Sherman Firefly hiding behind a farmhouse (by Pola - I think?), I added a wire aerial and some sandbags from grey Humbrol filler, it's my preferred filler, the green Revell stuff comes out a bit soft and crusts too slowly while the Testors stuff is like working with gritty-snot! Or - it used to be; I never used it again and was turned-off it about 20 years ago! 

The Humbrol grey filler on the other hand can be run-out in a tube and left for five minutes to crust, then it can be cut into 1cm sections, left for another couple of minutes to crust again and then the 'bags' can be formed in the fingers and squidged together on the vehicle just like the real thing. The fumes will glue them to the hull and a rat-tailed file rolled over them will leave a hessian (burlap) patten in the filler which will dry-brush/highlight beautifully.

Bottom left - if you have a good pose, use, use and use again! From the left; Battle King, US kit figure, US Infantry figure set, German Infantry figure set and German kit figure, the pantographing of the pose again and again reducing the German kit figure to HO gauge!! there are some rather good Hong Kong piracies of these figures that take this pose even smaller!

G is for Guards - Taken from Hollow-cast Moulds

A few figures were produced in plastic from old hollow-cast moulds, or maybe from moulds taken from Hollow-cast figures - as most of them seem to remain 'unknown' when it comes to maker. here are a few I've picked up;

Both in the 19th Century dress of the Crimea or Post-Crimean War era. I suspect the kneeling one is from a Britains mould? The other has some similarities the the Hilco figure of an officer walking I posted yesterday, but equally doesn't fit totally.

These are quite common, appearing from time to time painted or unpainted in cellulose acetate, polystyrene or soft polyethylene. The four on the left and the highlander seem to be a stable cellulose acetate (but it could be an early - tinny - styrene) and are courtesy of Adrian Little. 

The standing firing chap has the same paint as the others, but a green base, so in this case might be from another set?

They are about 50mm and again one of them has the full webbing straps of an earlier era, when Line Regiments as well as guards wore this type of uniform.

M is for Matchbox Battle Kings

Actually there are a few 1-75 Series in this post, but they are here because they need to be, or it makes sense (to me) to put them here!

The vague 25lbr/Air-portable howitzer called Field Gun. This was the first time the figures that would become Battle Kings appeared, on bases they would lose in the larger range, designed to fold-up and fit in the standard box, they can be removed and trimmed-down to two individual figures.

The Weasel - a fictional vehicle given that it is neither the US M29 Weasel or the Bundeswehr 'Weisel'. Named to fit in with the Badger (gold thing top right), someone I'm acquainted with has named everything looking like it in his 'definative' book 'weasel', when in fact most of them are Ferrets! Which this is - minus the turret - replacing the older model (bottom right), not that Ferret's didn't have turrets, they did, just not like this and not called Weasel.

The Badger also had a commander figure who can be considered part of the Battle King range, being roughly the same size and the same polypropylene material.

The figure range on my 'check-list' sheets. Not sure how it will reproduce on the PC until I publish, but it's the best I could do with the old camera and Picasa! Two sets of numbering and an odd combination of 5 GI's, 3 Germans and 5 beret'ed post-war/Modern NATO types, but then the AFV's were an equally incongruous assortment of WWII, Modern and fictional vehicles...and they were toys!

Also the camera flash has changed the look of the figure columns, with some of the darker ones going light and some of the lighter ones going dark, but hopefully you get the idea - there are visually lighter and darker issues in each of three colours; mid-green, azure blue-grey and sand. Then there is the less common orangey ones I have placed above, along with a very dark green damaged 1C-6C who may be a HK pirate of another toy range all together?

Some but not all were also paired-up with a connecting strip and all 'mint' ones whether single or paired should have the little 'spruelet' drums. In one of the early catalogues they show a set in sky blue, I have asked about them, nobody seems to have any and the only person who claimed to have some failed to produce them?

Two re-painted and venerable survivors of childhood here in the 'Israeli' SPG and Patton from one of my old armies! The others picked-up in adulthood as having figures of the same style as the individual ones (and the Badger above).

These AFV's came in two ranges, the first being hideous metallics (there's a metallic apple-green tank under that Patton's Humbrol 56 or whatever number; 53?) including a silver King Tiger!, the second issue were more realistic and they're the ones I've tried to pick-up, but as you can see it's still a bit bright! Also the running-gear left a lot to be desired but...they were toys!

A few loose ends, plug-in tank commander and MG along with the troops from the half-track. The three German poses above and compared to their subsequent 1:76 scale compatriots - below left.

The Battle Kings figures were made from either a high-density ethylene or a polypropylene (I favour the latter) which allowed for high-detail and fine parts (a property of PP), but which leaves them with slightly brittle extremities. The Germans suffering particularly from this flaw, with the barrels of the SMG and Officer's pistol and the stick grenade more often missing than not these days!

G is for Guards - Standing, Kneeling and Prone; Firing

Guards firing, because as soon as you've marched past Horseguards Parade, gone down the Mall, negotiated the Victoria Fountain and disappeared behind Buckingham Palace, you're off down the ranges in your best kit...didn't everyone know that?

Unknown sucker from Hong Kong (the same people who do the LP space-man knock-offs), Lone*Star - smooth headdress and round base, Lone*Star - furry headdress and oblong base, two colours of HK piracy of the Lone*Star and a separate base Honk Kong Herald

Crescent, Timpo early type, Unknown (Charbens?), Britains Deetail and a penny-figure from a hollow-cast mould and in a polystyrene plastic.

Lone*Star (damaged), Britain Deetail, two HK copies of Lone*Star, separate-based HK Herald and Crescent.

The kneeling ready guy is only here because he's nowhere else to go, or he didn't have until I did the figures from Hollow-cast moulds above! He's not firing he's 'Ready' and is kitted-out for the late 19th century. The lying firing are both Hong Kong produced Herald with the two silver paint styles, bayonet and bayonet & rifle-barrel, they are also very different mouldings, particularly the headdress.

M is for Matchbox Military Bits and Pieces

Military bits and pieces here, not everything, just a round-up of a few things not covered above, and/or photographed in the big session last year.

Mostly 1-75 Series small 'box-scale' stuff, I don't know when the Stingray fish-thing was made (there's probably a date on it but it's back in storage) but it must be before Carlton had the franchise in the late 1980's? Metal to plastic wheels, metal to plastic hooks, the ambulance lorry is a repaint, the Stalwart is missing its cover, a late trailer and dump-truck...all a bit of a mess but this stuff is sub-scale and not on my main radar. Indeed about half the above are left-overs from my childhood that somehow refused to die through adolescence and house-moves! Oh, and a Jurassic Park dinosaur tow-truck!

These are Matchbox Collectables from 1995, not sure if the mouldings have appeared elsewhere (Altaya, 21st Century, Del Prado?), this would have been some Universal or Mattel marketing thing with Dinky copyrighted on the same boxes!

They are rather nice models, compare the Battle Kings Sherman with the MC one. Die-cast and plastic parts, good level of detail and the finish is realistic, something always absent from the Battle Kings! Like the same-generation Corgi stuff there's a ratio of 5 parts packaging to 1 part model!

It was a short-lived venture going to clearance with a year or two and I missed out on a couple of others by not acting quickly when Andy from Harfield's got a few in the late 1990's!

Colour variations of the standard 1:76 scale boxed figure sets, with 'European Theatre' grey-blue Afrika Korps (top left) and grey NATO Para's (top right), I think they ARE grey now but these were a few years old a few years ago!

And - below them - the mad bright blue German Infantry I bought while visiting friends in Berlin in 1994 which must have been an early run under the Revell ownership? By which I mean there was/is a very small Revell graphic on the box but it was a year or two before you could get re-issues of Matchbox figures in the UK under the Revell banner.

The dreadful PVC offerings of the 1990's, least said - soonest mended, but...those images aren't distorted, the figures are that shape!