B is for British Boys by Blue Box, Pt. I - Kidney Based

While the French Resistance were a nice diversion in the world of 1960's small scale, and the Germans complimented the very similar Miniature Masterpieces by Marx, both the US figures and the British gave rise to or - more accurately - were part of much wider families of Hong Kong pirated figures...

...but before I go running off to look at all the others; we'd better look at the 100% Blue box figures first, easier said than done as there are more to come! The US troops will get their 'in depth' coverage another day - we looked at the immediate Blue Box and some of the post-BB the other day.

So these are the first, we know they are the first as they come in sets with 'friends' [green] and 'enemy' [grey] in those very 1950's recycled cardboard boxes with a simple two or three colour litho'd artwork. They come with the motor-cycle (ex-Dinky O-gauge) in both colours, and the other early vehicles also in green or grey. Greys can vary in shade as with the Resistance figures.

Of the six, five are Crescent poses the sixth being the Britains khaki-infantry Officer, he is the one we'll be following through over the next few posts. They match the US figures in material [hard polystyrene plastic] and in the base type; being kidney-shaped and of vaguely constant thickness, unlike the German Infantry and Resistance Fighters - who have the more Marx-like pile of earth. As with the US post the other day, we have looked at them before; Triang Hornby.

The numbering I'm going to be using for these next few posts is entirely arbitrary and is as much for me to make sense of the hundreds of photo's I've been taking for the dozens of collages I'm going to be putting up here than to force anyone else to use. It will also help to cross-reference these posts/pictures with a round-up list at the end, however as we shall see, numbering such ephemeral stuff is problematical as new types keep turning up, but we'll see how it goes!

 

Some peripheral figures which have more in common with the Brits than the Yanks but which were included with either set of figures or the others we've looked at in the posts below (following this one).

The 'gunner'/equipment operator was also looked at in some depth another day, here; Plagiarism with help from the guys at Moonbase (Project Sword), the puke-green figure top right is the early driver for the Jeep and Austin Champ, he would later come in a dark-green more matching the vehicles.

The two equipment operators to the right on the top row are odd because I have found several of these, with the legs cut-off at about the same place, and used to think they were the crew from the DUKW**, but all my DUKW crews have full legs, therefore; I'm assuming there is a vehicle I've yet to locate from the military range, a possibility backed-up by the figures on the second row, who are hard styrene (everything else is soft ethylene in this picture) and moulded from the waist up, only. Again I have found several loose examples, there are none in any of my vehicle collection and yet they seem to have been 'meant'.

If the hard plastic mystery figures were phased out, it may have been relatively easy to remove the plug and legs of the equipment operator to do the same job? There's also a shell which comes from the copy of the Crescent WWI artillery piece that Blue Box made.

The bottom row - in both pictures - are clearly from the US sets we looked at below, and are hard to find (as Brits) ; the above three seem to be all I have (there may be more in storage?), the green one being almost certainly early Rado Industries / Ri-Toys, the yellow ones being later sub-piracy's. I'm not including them in the numbering as they will come in the US figure's round-up another day.

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**Note/Nerdy-bit:

You can call a DUKW a 'Dee-you-kay-double-you' or a 'Duck', with a silent 'w' and invisible 'k', it is not a Duke, nor is it spelt D.U.C.K. and it most certainly isn't a Duck-wah as my brother and I spent half our childhood attempting to re-christen it!

Stolen from myth-busting (!) Wikipedia;

The designation of DUKW is not a military acronym; rather, the name comes from the model naming terminology used by GMC

• "D" indicated a vehicle designed in 1942,
• "U" meant "utility",
• "K" indicated driven front wheels,
• "W" indicated two powered rear axles.

Decades later, the DUKW designation was explained erroneously by writers such as Donald Clarke who wrote in 1978 that it was an acronym for Duplex Universal Karrier, Wheeled. However, the name is not an acronym.

V is for Variants

We first looked at these as part of the round-up of the Hornby-Triang-Minic figures a year or so ago (18 months - where does the time go!) here; B is for Battle Space, but here they are again with the later sub-types and piracy's...

We'll get the medics out of the way first. These weren't issued in the larger 50mm range so are pretty unique. Five poses of foot figure and an ingenious stretcher that could be carried or stood-up as a field surgery-table/gurney type thing; two long metal 'staples are held in place by a piece of glued-in plastic which allows the staples to rotate.

This set also included another female military subject (the Blue Box French Resistance having the other). Above we can see various shades of blanket from a dark grey through to a dirty white. Bottom right shows a couple painted-up by someone for war gaming.

While top left has a stretcher-bearer who never got his red-cross armband...while in the centre we can see that they didn't always get their yellow cross belt, this is the only pose that consistently gets this variation, so it must have been a deliberate - or change of? - painting policy at some point. I suspect (like to think!) that 'with'; they were Infantry and without; medics?

To accompany the Medics (and provide them with casualties!) are the fighting soldiery, and at the top we see the Blue Box originals from the from and the back with a paint variant of the radio operator we'll look at again below.

Below them are the unpainted ones we also looked at last time and then the smaller ones given the same silver and yellow paint scheme, these are early Ri-toys and were soon being issued unpainted, this is the commonest form you'll find them in (2nd to last full row), the yellow ones are not so common and tend to be a bit heavier so might be by another maker, they were around in about 1974 as I remember buying them about that time. The three figures to the far left are a glossy home-paint and two heat-shrinkage variations.

Then we have the lesser copies of copies; first another scale-down (the painted guy is a home paint) and finally a whole new base design. These will not be Ri-Toys but one of the many little family businesses in the colony (Hong Kong) who took product from the bigger boys up the road and chucked out the poorer products.

A comparison of all the variations and their bases from 30mm on the left of the line-up to about 25mil on the right. You can see how the soft ethylene Ri-Toys figures share a common design through the painted and unpainted generations but the yellow ones have a new base marking which could suggest another maker while the last two are both smaller and quite different in execution.

The Ri-toys painted figures were clearly designed to deceive, as they follow the silver/yellow painting of the styrene BB originals, and I'm still not sure what the relationship between the two was. The links to Marx and Triang, the Merit piracy's and the supply of some of these moulds to Marksmen decades later all muddying the water! It may well be that they worked closely with Blue Box, equally they could have been straight copyists?

 So - to red and yellow helmets etc...

When I was a kid I know I had some of these with red and yellow helmets. In my present sample I have a radio operator with a red helmet, I also have a guy with a black helmet and a silver badge (German?). In addition I have the chap with all the red piping and another guy with a yellow badge. I suspect the yellow badge is just a careless yellow brush movement as the painter has also covered half the base in black boot-polish!

But even discounting him, the others have the 'smell' of genuine about them and with my memories it would seem that some out-painters would get a bit creatively artistic...maybe on a Friday afternoon!! See also the top left stretcher-case in the first image, he's been given a dressing from nose to chest!

There is one other sub-type of the Blue Box US figures and they are interesting for coming not with copies of the Blue-Box Germans, but with four of the similar Marx figures.

They came in two main tranches, the standard army greens (various shades) and a multicoloured set in brown, red, blue and silver. A sub variant in a muddy brown-green swirl are shown about the main line-up along with one who's retained a section of mould-tool runner (sprue!). At the top are three OBE's with a decent paint-job.

The only set I have on me with any of the above are these as the are small enough to go in the same bags I use for all the smaller samples so they have ended-up being filed with them. The name of the importer/jobber being Nadel and Sons of New York. You got eight poor quality figures, there would be a dozen or two attached to a larger card and sold near the till/check-out like sweets or nuts - impulse purchase/nag-buy!

F is for Free French Fighters, Firemen and other Fellows

Although now solved by several sets in the 'right' size, for years there was only one source of plastic resistance fighters for the 'old school' war-gamer who didn't want to pay the rates to obtain metal figures. That set was not commonly had and therefore became quite mythical, I well remember arguments at school between those who'd obviously seen them in their local corner shop (for that was where you got them in the late 1960's-early 1970's) and those who hadn't and wouldn't believe they actually existed.

It should be pointed out that similar arguments broke out over Lancers (probably the Marx Miniature Masterpieces getting confused with the Airfix catalogue mock-up or the Montaplex envelope) and Ancient Greeks, the latter being settled when I swapped some Anglo bubble-gums with Palmer for a handful of the Giant piracies in bright red he'd picked-up in Webb's newsagent in Hartley Wintney...they were added to my Airfix Romans as officers!

Those resistance fighters were - in fact - the 30mm figures from Blue Box (above) and they were like gold dust, being issued in very few of the BB sets, usually 3 or 4 figures to a vehicle in the single vehicle window boxes or the all-transparent boxes with a card base-tray stapled in, again usually with one vehicle...or a Jeep and trailer.

One of the annoying things about life is that it never works-out as you'd like; life and convenience are strangers to one another, and because of that, while I have all the loose figures here, all the boxed and carded BB stuff is in a shipping container 20  miles away which I haven't even visited in over a year and which has been moved on someone else's lorry since I last saw it! God knows what the contents look like but the BB stuff is at least in ridged boxes.

This absence wasn't a particular problem when I was Blogging the larger scales by Blue Box last year as I don't have any mint packaged stuff in the bigger sizes, but it is a bit of a bugger in this case, as it would be nice to blog some of the sets...well; they'll make a nice post another day, and I might have a few shots kicking about somewhere for a follow-up!

As can be seen in the pictures, there were six crudeishly sculpted figures, one; a female. All given a basic stab-and-hope paint-job and issued in various shades of grey and pale-grey-blue. The bluer shade being the commoner. A couple of the poses also seem to bear a resemblance to Marx cowboy poses?

Ri-toys are responsible for the copies which are a lot more common and due to the nature of the copying, slightly smaller which made them easier to hide among 25/28mm war games figures. The green ones ran for years in various bagged and carded sets, sometimes over-printed with an importers/jobbers brand or trade mark; Woolbro, Success &etc...

I prefer the later multi-coloured ones as they sum up Hong Kong for me! I also preferred them at the time, as in an 'unpainted armies' carpet-war, they were clearly civilians attacking all those Airfix dark-grey 'Bosche' in a fetching 'spring collection' of psychedelic tracksuits!

Forty years of collecting gives a straw-poll of degree of rarity...the hard polystyrene factory painted originals being close to hens teeth in commonality, the green ones being pretty common (and not worth some of the sums they've realised on FeeBay recently!) and the rainbow-warriors needing a little more searching for.

The enemy (then - we're all friends now!); the Germans, who also came in six poses, and I've explained the connection with Marx elsewhere so won't dwell on it now, but I will rewrite the old One Inch Warrior article one day as the theory posited there/then - while solid - needs a bit of fine tuning and passing to a wider audience.

Again Ri-toys copied them slightly smaller, where they got included in sets with copies of the Blue Box US troops and - sometimes - the Marx German Infantry poses that were so similar to these in style and paint, but not plastic colour.

Also German in nationality - or at least in their original guise as HO-gauge accessories by Walter Merten, the Navy figures by Blue Box were issued in their sets occasionally and are about as common as the French Resistance figures, that is; not very!

They were actually issued in threes, joined at the base, but the join is so slight they broke apart very easily and so you only ever see the 'triples' in mint sets, although as such - I think they may have already appeared on the blog? Woolbro article?

Merten originally produced both poses in the diminutive size, but used paint to produce a wider 'range', with summer, winter, working dress and parade dress paint jobs - if memory serves!

[04th December 2015 - It wasn't the Woolbro post, it was one of the early Blue Box posts with a few of the boxed sets! B is for Blue Box]

These are not 100% Blue Box, but I'm pretty sure that's who's responsible! The chalky paper on the thick brown spirit-glued bases for one, the ancestry of the US medic for another and the paint style, not least the plastic type all point to these being from the civilian sets by the same company.

And even if I had the mint sets to hand it wouldn't help as - with a couple of Bedford RL / MK exceptions - I only ever collected the military sets of BB production.

If you go to the big annual Train Show (it's more than a swap-meet or dealers event) down at Alresford in Hampshire (well worth a visit) there is a chap there who has dedicated himself to collecting Blue Box civilian sets and he has all sorts of lovely airport, city, town and railway boxed sets and often puts on a display in one of the smaller buildings there. I last went quite a while ago and can't remember what all the civilians looked like but I'm pretty sure figures like these featured among the copies of Dinky road-workers (which might also be Corgi - see Blog passim!) and Britains farmers!

Indeed - and this has only just struck me - the US stretcher-bearer might be the end-product of a linage going back to the Dinky road-worker with wheel-barrow? Note how the civi' above is slightly larger and has more 'closed' hands, the road-worker having a flat-cap and fully-closed hands?

A quick scaler...the Airfix Combat Group figure is almost exactly 23mm, so you can see the Ri-toys copies are about 27/28mil and the BB originals around 30, with the firemen a little taller at around 31/32mm.

E is for Errant Emergency Erks

I thought I had the other one, and I had. But I'd taken replacement photo's, collaged them in Picasa and then 'lost' them in another file! Anyway - here they are, to be looked at in conjunction with this post; C is for Corgi Civil Response.

They came with a play set of the 'chuck half a dozen Corgi Juniors in a box' type which was called; set E3026 Emergency Gift Set, itself replacing the the older set 3021 Emergency 999 gift set. The earlier set having a half handful of the Husky vinyl figures. The police and ambulance crew stands in the later set came in either blue but only one or the other shade.

N is for New Show?

You lucky people within travelling distance of Michigan....

Royal Oak Farmer's Market - Toy Show - This Saturday

S is for Search Terms!

C is for Christmas Present....to Myself!

Not strictly a revue - this one, as nobody sent me a free copy, so more of a new acquisitions post! But as it's still available in Waterstone's (and probably on-line?) it's worth looking at as if it's a review...

...so go and buy it today! It's Brilliant! To quote the Fast Show character called... err... Brilliant

"Ain't it Brilliant that there's a game with Penguins that hunt fish, brilliant! And they steal fish off of each other, brilliant! On little ice-flows and everything... ...Briiiiilllllllliiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnntttttt!"

So, Fantasy Flight Games are responsible for this simple, quick, fun game, and it bucks the rule that the more figurines ('Minis') in a game or the more likely it is to prove popular the more expensive it will be, being only £9.99p pre-sale...that's about 7 dollars! Compare with a Hobbit game containing two figurines which is retailing for 29.99!

You get a bunch of pre-cut punch-out cards with the little ice-flow fish-hexes, 16 Penguins in four poses and four colours, and you can play with 2, 3 or 4 players, varying the number of belligerents on the board. We've been playing 2-player with all four pieces each, and you can do best-of-three within the hour.

The pieces; these are beautiful little sculpts, and working on the principle that cartoon characters and anthropomorphic animals are scaled to the universe of Roger Rabbit, i.e. the same size as equally hight'ed humans - these are 25mm ('Old School', when 25mm was 25mm not 28 or 32mm!).

I don't know who the sculptor is and there doesn't seem to be any credit on the packaging. They are a dense PVC and the red and yellow proved bloody hard to photograph!

The early stages of a quick game, the pieces are shuffled and set up in a block of rows of seven and eight tiles, this is to be done upside-down and then they are turned-over, this is the most time-consuming state of the proceedings, however if you do them on a piece of card, put another piece on top and turn them (carefully) it takes half as long!

Players take turns putting a Penguin on a one-fish hex, when all the antagonists are placed, the game proper starts. A piece can move in any direction, off a side, in a straight line for as many hexes as the player likes. The hex the Penguin has been stood on then gets removed.

In the example above, yellow is leading the move-cycle and in fig.1 has placed its pieces slightly better than red, but red has answered well, both positioned for a feeding frenzy of orange 'threes' or purple 'twos'. Fig.2 and move-cycle 4 is about to commence (or move 7?!), red seems to be stronger with more 'threes' in the bag, but as the game progresses and players begin to isolate each other you can see the yellow seems to be getting the upper hand (fig.3). By fig.4 you can see that yellow is going to clear the 'ones' nearest the viewer, a battle is going to occur far left, far right a yellow will pick up only one more, leaving one untouched on the board, a smaller battle top in the furthest corner will leave yellow up...but in the centre those two reds are going to clear all the 'twos'.

We've played dozens of games now and they are all really close, with the obvious winner sometimes loosing after the final count, with only 100 points up for grabs (10x3, 20x2 and 30x1 fish, on 60 hexes), you only need to count one pile, celebrate or commiserate and start again!

It really is Briiiiilllllllliiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnntttttt!

News, Views Etc...Links, Art Etc...

So a round-up of recent bookmarks and other stuff which may be of interest to others....

Setting off with My Modern Met who I've rediscovered through Facebook;

Pierre Javelle and Akiko Ida play with food!

and

Zeng Chunhui carves wood

while

Brian McCarty makes us think about war

Further afield this made me laugh;

Knitler and the Knotsies

In Morgantown - West Virginia, Toy Soldiers are being used to teach....art and history by the looks of things!;

The Dominion Post/Charleston Gazette

Meanwhile, my namesake has some rather nice watercolours here;

Carlota Attlee Fine Art

And looking at the life-size fad we visited before;

Not a Game!

Wrapping-up this post...

A Company History Prinze August - from the horses mouth!

K is for Kosmic Kit!

I've been hideously busy for the last week so you've only got two days to track these down if you haven't found them yet - although they will probably be reissued a couple of times over the next year or so going on previous performance of these freebies...although that should be measured against the fact that the magazine has gone from weekly to bi-weekly in the last year?

Four, free, approximately 54mm, polystyrene plastic, clip-together, figure kit sprues...in one issue! What's not to like? They come with a pack of the usual collector cards and various other 'old stock' (mostly previously issued stationary sets), if you're lucky you get the T.A.R.D.I.S. pencil top (with notebook), compatible with OO gauge.

There is a least one left in the Sainsbury's by Basingrad's station - as I saw it there tonight and left it (I was tired and not thinking straight!). I will be looking at more Who stuff as soon as I've sorted out the photographs. HMA for Dr. Who Adventures magazine....get 'em if you can.

They aren't the best kits, fit will require filling before painting, but I've seen worse...and they are Free!

B is for Best Wishes

Happy Christmas and the best of wishes for 2014 to all who follow, comment or contribute

to the blog, or who wander through!

The contents of this years Lidl's Advent Calender...and I ate them all!

C is for Corgi Check-list

Not really a check-list but I wanted to keep the 'C is for C...' thing going for another post. This is very much a work in progress, and no more than an annotated list in numerical order of what a lawyer would call disparagingly; 'manuscript notes'! Basically the list I constructed for myself, to make some sense of the preceding 15 posts as I was sorting them out a year ago and posting the Husky and Hornby stuff.

Feel free to correct or add to it, just bear in mind it will probably be copied, pasted and published for profit by a Canadian plagiarist at some point!

Known List (by me that is!)

2 - Citroen Safari, boat, [approximately 1:76, white or brown polystyrene] - Husky

2 - Citroen Safari, boat, [approximately 1:76, blue polystyrene] - Corgi Junior

GS 2 - Land Rover with Rice's pony trailer and pony, pony/racehorse (blanket version).

GS 3 - Batmobile and Batboat, Batman and Robin figures [scale varies, dense or softish PVC vinyl or polystyrene] - Set shares figures with Batmobile (267), both issued/re-issued in several batches over the years with two variants of figures in different materials, see also; 107 and 267.

GS 4 B1 - Massey Ferguson tractor and hay wagon, dog and two children on hay rick (and - policeman, lead and Alsatian dog?) [45/50mm, dense PVC vinyl, policeman - if included; 40mm, dense or softish PVC vinyl] - scale-up from Husky set 1574, see also; 448.

5B - Jeep, driver figure [1:72/25mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors, same figure as; 76, see also; 2508 and E3029.

GS 5 B1 - Agricultural gift-set, farmhand, various animals and policeman with dog from another set/other sets [40mm, dense or softish PVC vinyl].

GS 7 - Daktari gift set, various figures and animals [35/40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; GS 14.

GS 8 - Lions of Longleat, 2 different lions, park ranger [40mm, dense PVC vinyl].

GS 10 - Marlin Rambler set, canoeist and canoe [approximately 30mm, figure is dense PVC vinyl, canoe is unknown].

010 - Road Maintenance Figures, several road workers, governor and accessories [40mm, polystyrene] often mistaken for Dinky, number shared with Dinky set of the same figures, as I stated in the relevant post - not happy with this listing, but it stays for now, please don't snipe on other sites - just makes you look small - clearly sculpted by Stadden and copied in 25 and 30mm polystyrene and 40mm polyethylene in Hong Kong by Blue Box and Lucky Toys among others.

GS 11 - Title unknown, traffic policeman on podium [40mm, soft PVC vinyl, podium is polystyrene] - figure is scale-up from Husky set 1574.

GS 11 C2 - Game Park, park ranger [40mm, dense PVC vinyl].

GS13 - Fordson Power Major tractor and four-furrow plough [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - larger green/brown paint driver, see also 67 for smaller version.

GS 13 C1 - Tour de France set, trainer with megaphone [54mm, softish PVC vinyl].

GS 14 - Daktari gift set, various figures and animals [35/40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; GS 7.

15 - Studebaker camera-car, cameraman torso, [approximately 25mm, polystyrene].

19 - Chipperfield's Land Rover with elephant and cage on trailer, elephant [approximately 40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; GS 48 C1 and 6079 kit version).

GS 21 - (Title/contents unknown but included the tiger from the menagerie trailer in 1139) [approximately 30/35mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; GS 1139.

GS 23 - Circus Models, 2 giraffe, 2 lions, 2 panda bears, 1 elephant [scale varies, elephant; approximately 40mm, dense PVC vinyl, rest; 25mm'ish, polyethylene] see also; 19, GS30 and 607 (kit version).

24 A1 - Constructor set, milkman/deliveryman [45mm, dense PVC vinyl].

28 - "Sea Spray" Mazda pick-up and dingy on trailer [approximately 25mm boat, polyethylene/polypropylene?].

29 - Corgi Jeep and horse box "Pony Club" set, mounted woman and horse [54mm, polystyrene] - see also; GS 47 B.

GS 30 B1 - Circus Land Rover and cage trailer, 2 polar bears (some sets) or 1 panda and 1 gorilla (other sets), clown with microphone [bears; small, less than 20mm, Gorilla nearer 54mm, both polyethylene, clown; 54mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; GS 48 C1.

31 - The 'Riviera' gift set, chap in marine garb [30mm, dense PVC vinyl] - contents same as 104.

33 A1 - Livestock trailer, four calves on base [1:87/HO guage-20mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; 2501 A1.

33 A2 - Livestock trailer, four calves on base [1:87/HO guage-20mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; 2501 A1.

GS 36 - Tarzan, 2 Tarzan's, boy, Jane and hunter [54mm, dense PVC vinyl].

38 B1 - Gift Set - Mini (car) Camping Set, Figure cooking BBQ and chicken on a spit [40mm, polystyrene with die-cast parts].

GS 40 - 'The Avengers' Steed's Bentley & Emma Peel's Lotus, two figures [30mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also 00101.

GS 41 B1 - State Landau, HM The Queen, Prince Philip, various postillions, grooms and horses [50mm figures, 54mm horses, polystyrene].

GS 44 A1 - Police Land Rover and Horse Box, mounted policeman and horse [54mm, polystyrene].

GS 45 B1 - Royal Canadian Mounted Police set, mounted RCMP 'Mountie' and horse [54mm, polystyrene].

47 - Fordson tractor and conveyor, small brown driver and sacks [35mm. dense or softer PVC vinyl, sacks are a polystyrene plastic].

GS 47 B - Pony Club set, mounted woman and horse [54mm, polystyrene] - see also; 29.

GS 48 C1 - Circus set, elephant, acrobat, clown with mic, circus horses, clown and monkey, ringmaster, human cannonball, polar bear [horses; approximately 40mm, polyethylene, 2 poses, ringmaster; 54mm, dense PVC vinyl, human cannonball; 45mm, polystyrene, polar bears; small, polyethylene, clown; 54mm, dense PVC vinyl, elephant; approximately 40mm, dense PVC vinyl, acrobat; 54mm, polyethylene (or; soft PVC vinyl?)] - see also; GS 30 B1, 233, 487 A1, 1130 A1, 1163 A1, and 607 (kit version of elephant).

64 - Working Conveyor on Forward-Control Jeep, farm figure, red shirt and sacks [Figure 30mm dense and soft PVC vinyl, sacks are a polystyrene plastic].

67 - Ford 5000 Super Major Tractor, tractor driver [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - also used on Hover toy tractor from Hong Kong, see also GS 13 for larger version.

67 - Ford 5000 Super Major tractor with scoop/bucket, tractor driver [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - also used on Hover toy tractor from Hong Kong, smaller yellow/brown paint driver, see also GS 13 for larger version.

76 - Jeep, driver figure [1:72/25mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors, same figure as; 5B, see also; 2508 and E3029.

84 - Scout car, figure with Bren-gun/LMG [1:72/25mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors, see also; E3029.

96 - Field gun, pair of crew  [1:72/25mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors, see also; E3029

00101 - The Avengers Bentley, John Steed figure [50mm, poured white-metal] - see also GS40.

FAO 102 - Chevrolet Impala "Kennel Club", poodle and mutt [approximately 30mm, dense PVC vinyl] - contents the same as 486.

102 - Rice's Pony Trailer (horse box), horse in racing blanket, blanket smooth or textured [25/30mm, polyethylene] - larger version exists unpainted or with stick-on blanket, probably from Hong Kong toy, blankets painted various colours.

104 - 4-bearth cruiser - chap in marine garb [30mm, dense PVC vinyl] - accessories same as GS 31, less water-skier.

107 - The Batman Batboat, Batman and Robin figures [scale varies, dense or softish PVC vinyl or polystyrene] - Set shares figures with Batmobile (267), both issued/re-issued in several batches over the years with two variants of figures in different materials, see also; GS 3.

114 - Wild West Stage Coach, several integral figures, [20mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors, see also E 3122.

122 - Wild West Covered Wagon, two integral figures, [20mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors, see also E 3122.

233 - Circus play set, ringmaster [54mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; GS 48 C1.

246 - Chrysler Imperial, seated driver and golf bag [driver; 30/35mm, dense PVC vinyl, bag; scaled larger and die-cast/polyethylene] - bag also issued with and see; 440.

250 - "Kojak" Buick Regal, Kojak figure and torso shooting from window [50mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; 290.

254 - Volkswagen Safari Gift Set, rhinoceros [approximately 30/35mm, dense PVC vinyl] - may be typo and never have existed? See; 256.

256 - Volkswagen 1200 in East African Safari trim, rhinoceros [approximately 30/35mm, dense PVC vinyl] - may have been erroneously labelled 254 at some point, see also; 254.

256 - Chitty-chitty Bang-bang, two adults and two children [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; Husky/Corgi Juniors 1006.

261 - James Bond's Aston Martin D.B.5, Bond and Asian guard from 'The Man with the Golden Gun' scene [1:87/HO gauge/20mm, dense PVC vinyl] - small 'Bond' version in gold, see also; 270 for silver version and 336 (for larger Bond figure).

261 B1 - Spiderbuggy (Jeep), seated Spiderman character [40/45mm, polystyrene].

264 - Incredible Hulk, Hulk figure [largish 54mm, hard polyethylene/polypropylene or polystyrene] - difficult to give a scale to a man who 'grows' when he's angry!

267 - Batmobile, Batman and Robin figures [scale varies, dense or softish PVC vinyl or polystyrene] - Set shares figures with Batboat (107), both issued/re-issued in several batches over the years with two variants of figures in different materials, see also; GS 3.

268 - The Green Hornet "Black Beauty" car, Green Hornet torso [25mm, dense PVC vinyl].

268 - Batman's Batbike, Batman figure and plug-in cape [approximately 54mm, polyethylene or polypropylene).

270 - James Bond's Aston Martin D.B.5, Bond and Asian guard from 'The Man with the Golden Gun' scene [1:87/HO gauge/20mm, dense PVC vinyl] - small 'Bond' version in silver, see also; 261 for gold version and 336 (for larger Bond figure).

277 - Monkeymobile, four Monkey figures, 3 assemblies [35/40mm,  dense PVC vinyl].

290 - "Kojak" Buick Regal, Kojak figure and torso shooting from window [50mm, dense PVC vinyl] - see also; 250.

292 - Starsky and Hutch Ford Torino, Starsky, Hutch and 'perp' [50mm, polystyrene].

302 - Hillman Hunter rallye "London to Sydney", kangaroo [approximately 30/35mm, dense PVC vinyl].

313 - Ford Cortina GXL "Graham Hill", Hill figure with helmet [40mm, dense PVC vinyl].

336 - James Bond Toyota 200GT, Bond firing backwards and slightly larger driver, [30/35mm, dense PVC vinyl] - large 'Bond' version, see both; 261 and 270 (for smaller Bond figure).

342 - Lamborghini 400 GT Mura "Fighting Bull", bull charging [approximately 30/35mm, dense PVC vinyl].

342 - Ford Capri CI5 'The Professionals' Ford Capri, Bodie, Doyle and the other - boss- one [approximately 54mm, dense PVC vinyl].

348 - 'Vagas' Ford Thunderbird, Vagas figure [approximately 54mm, dense PVC vinyl].

381 - Beach Buggy, no figures but included 2 of the surf-boards also used with 485.

403 - Thwaites-Tusker skip/dumper-truck, driver [45mm, soft-to-dense PVC vinyl].

405 - Chevrolet Superior 61 ambulance, stretcher and attendant [approximately 40mm, figure; dense PVC vinyl, stretcher; polystyrene?].

406 C1 - Mercedes-Benz ambulance, stretcher and two attendants [50mm polystyrene].

406 C2 - Falck [as; 406 C1].

413 B1 - Mazda motorway maintenance truck, mechanic [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - oval-based version of mechanic from; 1501, 1505 and others.

430 (early) - Bermuda Taxi, driver in shorts [20mm, dense PVC vinyl].

430 (late) - Bermuda Taxi, driver in shorts [25mm, soft PVC vinyl].

440 - Ford Consul Cortina estate-car, golfer, golf-bag and caddy/boy [40mm, dense PVC vinyl with die-cast parts) see also; 246.

447 - Ford Thames Ice-Cream van "Walls", seller and boy customer [40mm softish PVC vinyl] - see also 474 A1.

448 - Police Mini Van, policeman, lead and Alsatian dog [40mm, dense or softish PVC vinyl] - scale-up from Husky set 1574, see also; GS 5 B1.

449 - Citroën Safari 1968 Winter Olympics, tobogganist and toboggan [40mm dense PVC vinyl with die-cast toboggan] - see also 475.

461 - Police 'Vigilant' Range Rover, Policeman in reflective orange jacket with signs and cones in crate [40mm, figure; softish PVC vinyl or polyethylene, accessories; all ethylene].

468 - London Transport Routemaster bus, conductress and driver [1:87/HO gauge, dense PVC vinyl] - may be more than 1 version of conductress and driver (2nd versions being softer PVC vinyl, 3rd version polyethylene?).

471 - Mobile Canteen, female attendant [40mm, dense PVC vinyl].

472 - Land Rover Public Address Vehicle, politician with microphone [45mm, dense PVC vinyl], see also GS 48/487 A1 for small version of clown with microphone and GS30 for large version.

474 A1 - Ford Thames Ice-Cream van "Walls" with chimes, seller and boy customer [40mm softish PVC vinyl] - musical version of and see also 447.

475A - Citroën Ski Safari "1964 Olympic Winter Sports", skier [30/35mm, softish PVC vinyl, skis, polyethylene/polypropylene - yellow or red] see also 475B, 499A and 499B

475B - Citroën Ski Safari "Corgi Ski Club", skier [30/35mm, softish PVC vinyl, skis, polyethylene/polypropylene - yellow or red] see also 475A, 499A and 499B

478 - Hydraulic tower-platform, street-lighting engineer [40mm, polyethylene].

479 - Commer van "Samuelson Film Service", Cine-camera, operator, (bicycle and rider?), luggage [30mm, dense PVC vinyl with die-cast parts] - some part-painted examples of the cameraman exist.

482 - Range Rover ambulance, stretcher team and stretcher case [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - copies in 54mm exist.

484 - Dodge Kew Fargo Life Stock Transporter with Animals, 5 pigs [50/54mm, polyethylene or polypropylene] - usually one large black and three creamy-tan; 1 medium and two small.

485 - Mini Countryman, surfer and surf-board (surfer; 35mm, soft PVC vinyl, board; polyethylene/propylene?].

486 - Chevrolet Impala "Kennel Club", poodle and mutt [approximately 30mm, dense PVC vinyl] - contents the same as FAO 102.

487 A1 - Circus Parade Vehicle (Land Rover), clown and monkey in skirt [45mm, dense PVC vinyl] - also in; GS 48 (small version of clown with microphone, see also GS30 for large version and 472 for politician).

497 - "The Man from UNCLE" Thrushbuster, two hinged shooting figures [approximately 1:87/HO gauge, polystyrene].

499A - Citroen 1968 Winter Olympic Sports, skier and tobogganist [30/35mm, softish PVC vinyl, skis, polyethylene/polypropylene - yellow or red, toboggan, die-cast metal] - see also 475A, 475B and 499B

499B - Citroen 1968 Grenoble, skier and tobogganist [30/35mm, softish PVC vinyl, skis, polyethylene/polypropylene - yellow or red, toboggan, die-cast metal] - see also 475A, 475B and 499A

506 - Hillman Imp Panda Police car, seated policeman [25/35mm, polymer-material unknown].

510 - Citroën DS Paramount "Tour de France", trainer with megaphone [30mm, dense PVC vinyl].

511 - Chipperfield's Performing Poodles, several poodle poses and female performer [30mm, dense PVC vinyl].

513 - Citroën Safari Alpine Rescue Car, rescue team member and St. Bernard dog [40mm, dense PVC vinyl].

607 - Circus Elephant and Transport Cage, elephant [kit vertion of the common PVC version, tan polystyrene] - see also 19, GS23 and GS48 for vinyl/PVC versions.

647 A1 - Buck Rogers Starfighter, Buck Rogers and Twiggi Robot [50mm, polystyrene].

803 - Yellow submarine, paired torsos of The Beatles [ 25/30mm, dense PVC vinyl].

805 - Hardy Boys Rolls Royce, several figures [size/scale varies - drummer 40mm+, singer 35mm, dense PVC vinyl].

811 - James Bond Moon Buggy, seated driver [approximately 25/30mm, polymer-material unknown].

868 - Dylan the Rabbit, Dylan figurine [45/50mm, dense PVC vinyl].

907 A1 - Rocket Launcher (Sd.kfz.251), Soldier/MG gunner, operating MG [30mm, polyethylene/propylene?].

908 A1 - AXM recovery tank, welder, standing soldier and two squatting soldiers [35mm, dense PVC vinyl].

926 A - Jaguar pace-car, winner and co-driver/constructors representative [25mm, dense PVC vinyl] Corgi Rockets.

1001 - James Bond Aston Martin, integral driver and flick-out figure, [20mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Husky/Corgi Juniors.

1002 - Batmobile, two figures, [15/20mm, dense PVC vinyl] - Husky/Corgi Juniors, scale-downs of Corgi figures.

1003 - Batboat on Trailer two figures, [15/20mm, dense PVC vinyl] - Husky/Corgi Juniors, scale-downs of Corgi figures.

1004 - Monkeemobile, four figures, [15/20mm, dense PVC vinyl] - Husky/Corgi Juniors.

1005 - Man from U.N.C.L.E. Car, two figures (?) fully enclosed in car, [15/20mm, dense PVC vinyl] - Husky

1006 A1 - Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, pair of adults, pair of children [1:87/HO gauge, dense PVC vinyl] - Husky Extra, see also; 256 and 1406.

1006 A2 - Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, pair of adults, pair of children [1:87/HO gauge, dense PVC vinyl] - Corgi Junior, see also; 256 and 1406.

1006 A3 - Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, pair of adults, pair of children [1:87/HO gauge, dense PVC vinyl] - Wizzwheels, see also; 256 and 1406.

1107 - - Euclid TC12Tractor and Dozer Blade, driver figure [details unknown] - introduced in 1958 (as 1103) and re-released in 1963 with a driver.

1117 - Street sweeper, operator [40mm polystyrene].

1130 A1 - Circus horse van [horses; approximately 40mm, polyethylene] - see also; GS 48 C1.

1139 - Menagerie trailer, tiger [approximately 30/35mm, dense PVC vinyl] - also in; GS 21.

1163 A1 - Human cannonball [45mm, polystyrene] - see also; GS 48 C1.

1164 - Dolphinarium, dolphin trainer (and dolphins?) [30/35mm, polyethylene].

1406 - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, four figures [15/20mm, dense PVC vinyl] - Husky, scale-downs of Corgi figures, see also 256 and 1006.

1501 (early - boxed) - Scale Figures (racing team - pit team) [40mm, polystyrene].

1501 (late - blister card) - Scale Model Figures (racing team - pit team) [40mm, polystyrene].

1502 (early - boxed) - Scale Figures (spectators) [40mm, dense PVC vinyl or polystyrene].

1502 (late - blister card) - Scale Model Figures (spectators) [40mm, dense PVC vinyl or polystyrene].

1503 (early - boxed) - Scale Figures (race officials) [40mm, dense PVC vinyl or polystyrene].

1503 (late - blister card) - Scale Model Figures (race officials) [40mm, dense PVC vinyl or polystyrene].

1504 (early - boxed) - Scale Figures (commentators/media folk) [40mm, dense PVC vinyl or polystyrene].

1504 (late - blister card) - Scale Model Figures (commentators/media folk) [40mm, dense PVC vinyl or polystyrene].

1505 (early - boxed) - Scale Figures (mechanics) [40mm, dense or soft PVC vinyl or silicon rubber or polystyrene].

1505 (late - blister card) - Scale Model Figures (mechanics) [40mm, dense or soft PVC vinyl or silicon rubber or polystyrene].

1571 - Pedestrians [25mm, dense-to-softish PVC vinyl] - Husky.

1572 - Public Works Employees [25mm, dense-to-softish PVC vinyl] - Husky.

1573 - Garage Personnel [25mm, dense-to-softish PVC vinyl] - Husky.

1574 - Public Officers [25mm, dense-to-softish PVC vinyl] - Husky.

2501 A1 - Livestock trailer, four calves on base [1:87/HO guage-20mm, dense PVC vinyl] - See also; 33 A1 and 33 A2.

2503 A1 - Land Rover and horse box, horse [20/25mm, dense PVC vinyl] - Corgi Juniors.

2508 - Field Gun set [1:72/25mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors, see also; 56B, 76, 96 and E3029.

2511 - Army Patrol set [1:72/25mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors, includes; 84.

E3026 - Emergency gift set, pair of Policemen, pair of ambulance men with stretcher case and pair of coastguards (meant to be fire brigade personnel?) [30mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors

E3029 - Military Gift set, 3 pairs of soldiers [1:72/25mm, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors, see also; 76, 84, 96, this set's remaining stock was re-issued in Chad Valley branded packaging in the mid/late-1990's by Woolworth's PLC.

E 3112 - Wild West Frontier set, 2 prairie-wagons and stage coach with integral horses and figures [no real scale/size, figures approximately 1:87/HO gauge, polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors, see also 122

9004 - 1927 3 Litre Bentley with Bertie Wooster & Jeeves [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - Corgi 'Classics'.

9011 A1 - Model T Ford, seated male and female [40mm, dense and soft PVC vinyl] - may also have been supplied to Dinky for their 1903 Model T Ford, marked HONG KONG, see also; 9021 - Corgi 'Classics', male driver in boater hat and pink and white lady in bonnet.

9012 A1 - Model T Ford, man using starting handle [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - Corgi 'Classics'.

9021 A1 - 1910 Daimler, man and woman seated, plus one (? or two?) figure/s from; and see also; 9011/9012 [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - Corgi 'Classics', green chauffeur, pink and white lady in bonnet, blue girl with boater hat.

TY 88702 - Ted Glen and builders truck, Ted figure [40mm, dense PVC vinyl].

US 95102 US Army Infantry set, six figures [1:64/25mm, softish PVC vinyl].

US 95103 USMC Infantry set, six figures [1:64/25mm, softish PVC vinyl].

Unknown/various sets/codes?

- Traffic policeman [40mm, either a dense PVC vinyl or a softish polyethylene].

- Pink Panther [no real scale, approximately 40mm less tail, dense PVC vinyl].

- Dougal's Magic Roundabout car, Dougal and Brian the Snail [no scale/size].

- Ambulance man [54mm, dense PVC vinyl - orange] - larger version of figure from 482.

- Ambulance man [54mm, dense PVC vinyl - green].

- Policeman with megaphone [50mm, dense PVC vinyl].

- Boat, man and woman [approximately 25/28mm, figures; softish PVC vinyl, boat; polystyrene].

- Fire Engine (Le France?) Several firemen [25mm, dense PVC vinyl].

- Horse in racing blanket [25/30mm, polyethylene] - larger version exists unpainted, probably from Hong Kong toy.

- Mechanic with large spanner [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - as set 1501 but in reaching man's pose, blue .

- Mechanic with small spanner [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - as set 1501 but in reaching man's pose, orange.

- Mechanic with large spanner [40mm, dense PVC vinyl] - as set 1501 but in reaching man's pose, turquoise smaller figure.

- Frogman and boat [figure - 40mm, dense PVC vinyl, boat - polyethylene/polypropylene] - Corgi Juniors?

- Racing-car driver [30mm, dense, softish or fully-soft PVC vinyl].

G is for Guards - Trumpets, Bugles, Cornets or Horns

Like the tubas, I haven't the faintest idea how to tell the difference between a Trumpet, Bugle Horn (except a straight horn, but then - some trumpets are straight? Doh!) or cornet, but as Paul Morehead (of Plastic Warrior fame) did once explain it all to me, while studying this very subject (guards musician figures), I'm going to quickly Google it so he thinks the lesson hit home...ssshhhh, don't tell him!

Bugles and Cornets have a tapered cross-section, Trumpets - commonest of the three - have a tubular cross-section only widening at the bell end. Trumpets and cornets have three valves, the bugle usually doesn't. Cornet valves are nearer to the face (so better for beginners?), however in American 'drum and bugle corps' bugles can have rotors (whatever they are) or 1 or two valves  - which are really just modified Trumpets, Mellophones, Baritones or Tubas!

What?!! Mellophones?

Trumpets and cornets are very similar, sound wise, commonly found in the B-minor key...but can be found in any other! C, E-minor and F being among them. A single cornet in E-minor is found in a brass-band as the 'soprano', while C keyed trumpets are found in orchestras. The cornet is a mellower sound and the trumpet louder and brighter. Cornets are considered 'band' instruments, while trumpets are orchestral, but both can be used in either!

Flugelhorn - flatter cross-section to the tubing with a larger bell, gives an even more mellow sound.

Baritone trumpet - Larger mouthpiece makes it still easier to play.

Bugle horn - A straight-through or slightly curved 'bugle', no valves, hunting horn, Light Infantry / Jager cap badge type instrument (but not the US Rifles badge), the half-moon or Hanoverian bugle horn is a full half-circle.

French horn - A circular bugle...'post horns on coach-doors! And US Rifles cap badge

Mellophone - Commercial 'French horn' with lots of turns and three valves?

I think!! And medieval fairy-tale trumpeters are actually buglers?

Left to right; Cherilea 60mm, Timpo solid, Lone*Star reissue, Lone*Star original and two Sacul, one in a chalky white the other a garish apple-green marbled with cream.

Crescent for Kellogg's unpainted, Crescent painted and four different Charbens including one in hard plastic on the far right.

Close-up of the Timpo solid showing the typical shoulder marking of a lot of the Timpo solids, although others were marked on the base or even legs.

C is for Corgi 'Classics'

So - the final part of this Corgi round up...for now...

During the 'Corgi Flood' years, the nome-de-jour has been 'Corgi Classics' and covered all manner of mass-produced tat from China, well, it wasn't/isn't actually tat, most of it was/is of high-production value using the latest in modern technology, but there were/are just mountains of it.

It was given away as premiums, marketed in a dozen magazines, advertised in all the Sunday Supplements, leafleted in the TV listings mags and piled high in the windows of toy shops and model/hobby stores...all of it aimed not at kids, but at new adult collectors.

How many highly-detailed die-cast models of a Sunderland flying boat in 1:72 with a box the size of a small family car did they think we needed? How many tons of Eddie Stobart lorries did they think the average family home's foundations could take?

Anyway...along with the separately-boxed 54mm ranges of TV/Movie (James Bond, Dr. Who etc...) and Guards musicians in poured metal (cheap technology I don't rate highly), there were/are smaller sized figures to accompany individual vehicles, it some of these we're looking at now...

These seem to have been included with some of the vehicles, about 23mm or OO gauge, they presumably came ('come' - there's still tons of it out there!) with the precursors of the current Hornby-Corgi railway stuff? The bags seem to have random contents consisting of one of two pieces of street furniture (it may be one of four....post box and telephone box?) with two figures from a wider choice of around 20 figures. There is a flier that came/comes with them in Black and white, but mine's in storage so I'll scan it at some point in the future.

They also appear/ed factory painted (the green-based couple are home painted Corgi), these might not even be Corgi, but rather the originating Chinese factory supplying someone else with 'generics'; figures similar to these (which we will look at one day) accompanied Tesco, Woolworth's and Sainsbury's own brand toys right through the 1990's and 2000's. Anyway, as I'd given up on all this modern stuff by the late 90's, some help is now needed sorting them all out!!

While the previous figures are PVC, there were/are also small factory painted white metal sets, of which this is one...99% packaging, 1% models! Can I add anything else? No.

Has the flood eased....

 

No! But the small scale railway range is quite nice, and the 'planes are lovely, but over-priced for what they are!

G is for Guards - Tubas

I don't know which of these is a Tuba and/or a euphonium or even a 'Keiserbass', whether they are sevens or what! To me they are all tubas...

My only Britains Eyes Right, along with both the Cavendish musicians (Stadden designs - the pair!).

I handle these as little as I possibly can as a mate of mine had three in a little box we found while sorting his things out once, and as I picked one up, it literally exploded, except that most of the pieces fell into my lap, only the head disappearing across the room, so it was more of a violent implosion. Anyway, the plastic had become highly unstable and seemed to be in compressive tension! Inspection of the other two had the same result, there was no squeezing, they just couldn't be handled, and the fear is these two will go the same way...

From the left Cherilea 60mm, Reisler Danish Guard, Cavendish again and five treatments of the Crescent/Crescent for Kellogg's figure.

Charbens 'don't know (?)', Charbens early type, Charbens late type and Charbens early type mould shrink. The last one my be a mould-shrink of the first figure, that being a different cavity of first type?

Another Reisler Danish Guardsman with a different kind of large brass instrument and the Britains Eyes Right chap with another! Both the Reisler's in this post are recent styrene polymer reissues, the earlier - painted - ones can be in a cellulose acetate.

Now known to be Sousaphones, invented in America and part of the Britains 'Eyes Right' US Marine Band sets.