S is for Sword, Sabre and Scimitar

And there's a Kantana or two down the bottom right!

A is for Automatic or 'AK'...Burp Gun, Grease-gun, Kalashnikov, Sten, Stirling, Submachine-gun, Tommy Gun, Uzi...

 

Industrial killing in the hands of the individual...

...soon we'll all need one; just to go to the shops!

K is for Knife, Kenner and Knight's Morning Star!

Knives, Bayonets, Daggers and a Khukuri (Kukri)

Maces, Chain-maces and 'Klonkers'

a couple of bats or clubs and err...a Light-sabre!

H is for Hatchet...Battle Axe, Ceremonial Axe, Double Axe, Fire Axe, Wood Axe...and Tomahawk!

Some evil pointy-axes on the right!

B is for Bazooka...Rockets, Recoiless Rifles and RPG's

L is for Lance.... Assegai, Harpoon, Javlin, Pike, Pole-arm or Spear,

I was surprised buy the number of Harpoons (4) in this 'odds & sods' bag!

R is for Ray-Gun...Atomic Lance, Blaster, Fazer, Lazer, Needle-gun, Particle Weapon......

Mostly Kenner Star Wars action figure weapons, or their knock-offs!

Some (mostly Britains) escaped to another bag!

P is for Pistol; Automatic, Handgun, Revolver, Sidearm

Just for fun...spot your favourite!

B is for Brown Shirts

I don't really have a 'wants' list, as the dozen or so 'big ticket' items I'm still looking for are obvious, while the list of things I still haven't tracked-down probably runs into the tens, or hundreds, of thousands, so a list would be pointless, although I do see people going round the shows holding thick wodges of A4, with double column lists in what appears to be 8pt. text, so clearly some do try to list them all!

However, this was definitely one of the absentees...only I had hoped to get it in the smaller pack as I have the 'other' four sets in the little packs, but beggars can't be choosers!

The artwork...like a lot of Atlantic stuff; this set is surrounded in myth, and while I'm sure it wasn't on display in every country it was available in, I'm equally sure it wasn't a universally 'under the counter' item, being one of the first of the Atlantic sets and running for some time...however, the nature of the subject and it's treatment by sellers and collectors over the years have made it undeniably hard to get.

This was my final purchase at the Plastic Warrior show, and I nearly lost it to one of the chaps up from ACOTS in the antipodes, but luckily for me he was tempted by an Airfix play-set instead, and I was able to take it home and then settle-up the following week at Sandown Park!

The two different frames (the only difference is an additional character figure of Hitler with the resultant snuffling down the runner of the other figures), from both sides.

It is another of the oft-quoted myths that Atlantic put anything in a box - I've handled many sets in all scales over the years, my own collection, a collection bought-in from the States and a dealers stock, and can say that actually with the odd exception, the contents are usually pretty consistent.

If there are anomalies, they tend to be the total sprue/runner count in the larger HO play-sets, or the figure count in the later 1:32nd scale blister packs. There is also a problem with the two artillery sets in the red 'export' series, in that the box-packers couldn't get their heads round the two variations, so both sizes can appear in both boxes! (that will be a future post!)

However, while the sets content are usually consistent, there is the problem of the contents not matching the given contents as stated, here the six frames are way off the advertised contents of "94 pieces"...

...so back-of-a-fag-packet maths was called for! The closest are the five runner combinations, specifically the 1 Hitler-runner and 4 others combination, but it's not quite there.

The six runners (3 of each) included in my set make the box bulge, so can't be right, and with one a little less opaque than the others I decided to 'de-sprue' it for a photo-session, my lose examples being in storage. I suspect this is one of those cases where the artwork was signed-off with a typo, as there is no way you are going to get the maths to tie-up, no matter how you cut it? Later boxes did away with a contents total!

So here they are, I will post better images of the large-scale versions one day as they came in the big purchase in 2010 but are also in storage.

The 'jeep' looks more like one of the post war Iltis/VW Safari vehicles than anything that rolled into the land of the Rus in 1941, and unlike the 1:32nd scale set where the windscreen clips in, with this set the pantograph has reduced that clipping-in detail to the point where it just 'sits in', and is therefore easily lost.

M is for Mega Heroes

Also in 99p Stores (we just looked at Deadstone Valley below), are these chaps, Mighty Morphin Power Ranger clones if I ever saw Mighty Morphin Power Ranger Clones!

These have been around for a while, probably in different packaging? I first started picking them up in mixed lots about ten (?) years ago, and have a few of the smaller ones, in various states, in storage. The larger versions have either 3 pints of articulation, or none, I couldn't tell, and didn't bother looking, just shot them on the rack!

Peter Evans had given me a set of four littlies a couple of years ago, so these are they, note that the current issue have darker green and yellow versions, and I may have a pink one in storage...but I might be getting confused with the Galoob ones so don't quote me on that! The 99p Store ones are shipped by ITP Imports of West York's who are conveniently close to a Poundworld megastore!

D is for Deadstone!

Currently in both 99p Stores (single carded figures) and my perennial favourite The Works (boxed sets with several 'dead' figures and the graveyard staff)...

For 99p you get a lot, issued by UK importers H Grossman under their Ozbozz distribution branding, the company website no longer has details of the Deadstone Valley toys, hence their now appearing in clearance outlets, but the Deadstone Valley website still seems to be supported?

There is also a code in each set that can be used on the above website, and - doing a quick bit of research on the range just now - it seemed some of the figures have a head-swap feature, a second quick check - of this chick - confirmed that she has indeed got a plug-in head!

I'd add that the Works' set seems to include figures not included in the website's listed 12, a vampire for starters...and they have a slot-base system not apparent on this figure, so the 'real' source may well be continuing with these, or has issued some sets ex-HGL?

A bit gruesome and not something I'll be in a hurry to track-down the rest of, but they will be of interest to someone and if you're that 'someone'; now's the time to seek them out, while they're cheap!

H is for Heudebert

So...I said we'd look at some of the Heudebert flats which came from Brian at the Plastic Warrior show and here is the first lot...a set (or sets?) of farm animals and rural 'types'. Unusual in being soft plastic, which probably dates them later than most 'margarine flats' in the mid 1970's?

I say 'sets' with a question mark, as it seems most of the 'small' animals and poultry are in white or cream, while the larger pieces are in chocolate browns. However The exceptions (cat on pot, or foal) are not found in the opposite colour, so I suspect they are the one set, on two moulding-tools, produced in contrasting colours, but there's a possibility they may have been complimentary sets a few months or a year or so apart?

Equally it may be that you got a white/cream one in  a smaller retail unit, and a brown one in a larger pack? Heudebert seem to be producers of bready-biscuity things, "processed bakery products" these days! It should also be noted that 19 is an odd number, not just on the number scale but also for an issue of premiums, so there may be a missing 20th item from the set/sets, ducks are notable in their absence, as are piglets?

I would tentatively suggest these might have been manufactured by Jean Hoefler, despite being flat, they bare several 'hallmarks' of Jean in design and material. but that's pure conjecture on my part! I haven't put Jean in the tag list for now, maybe a German viewer can help here?

There are three types of base mark (or lack of mark!), being from the top, HEUDEBERT, Made in west Germany and blank. The second being very much on the Jean style.

Colours are from very dark plain-chocolate brown (blank bases) through darker milk-chocolates ('Jean' Germany mark) and pale milk-chocolates which are the Heudebert marked ones.

The 'white' set comes in pure grey or blueish whites and creamier colours with no base mark 'rule'!

The largest moulding - by length - suffers from distortion of the type you get from early removal of the moulding from the tool, before the plastic resin has set properly otherwise known as 'shrinkage'.

One other thing to note is that Heudebert did do a set of hard plastic farm premiums in that typical 'margarine' flat ivorene-look styrene, so these might have been issued from a German production facility at the same time as the styrene ones were being issued elsewhere? Clearly more to discover or tie-down with this set!

FIM is for Farming In Miniature (Book Review)

If you collect toys, toy vehicles, farm or zoo animals, horse-drawn wagons or equipment, farm vehicles or just about anything in the world of toy collecting...you should have these books on your shelves!

I'm a bit biased as I watched them taking shape and know how much effort went into them, but nevertheless, these two volumes are stunning works and while the authors were very strict to lay down and keep to a tight criteria with regard to inclusion or qualification, the depth and breadth of knowledge and the companies covered are broad and both books should be considered indispensable if you study British old toys or toy companies.

The first volume was issued about two years ago now, with the second volume being published in the Autumn of last year, and Adrian Little (who's main field of contribution was the plastic producers, and wooden toys along with the more esoteric hollow-cast stuff) assures me the 1st weights over a kilo and the 2nd nearly a kilo-and-a-half!

Peter Wade-Martins was the expert on Tractors and contributed a lot of the hollow-cast photographs from his own collection, while Robert Newson was chef-de-Die cast and the chap in charge of researching the histories of companies...which means he now knows more about the history of telephone directories in the 20th century than anyone would want to!

But all three of them contributed to all sections, with regular editorial meetings, endless phone-calls and the cross-issuing of lists of things to find, photograph, check, correct and "get right". One of the problem they had was a change of publisher half-way through (and after Vol. 1 had been published), which they weathered to the point where the second volume follows the format of the first perfectly.

Brian Bastiman and Mervyn Spokes both contribute sections to the whole and many others are name-checked. I have witnessed many contributions, by way of brief discussions at Toy Fairs, or the unveiling of  a new colour of tractor carried reverently in its own well-packed shoe-box in time for the printers to add it in!

Contents leaf of the second volume; both volumes carry companies you've never heard of, and follow an alphabetical format, the first volume having a lower company total, but covering the larger archives of companies like Britains and Corgi...Cherilea, Cresent and DCMT (Lone Star).

Indeed the formatting followed is one of the aspects of these books which make them so easy to use and indispensable to the collector.

Each company is given an introduction and history followed by a description of any farm-specific toys, models or other products which might be in any way considered Agricultural machinery, horse-drawn equipment or the animals or figures to populate the same...and finally pictures of the described toys, in the above example - Escor; a smaller Co. - This is a page of text with references and further reading along with a page of pictures.

For the larger companies the product listing goes into great detail, with all known colour variation, mould changes, model changes (if the catalogue number was retained) and other points to note or 'of interest'. All these entries are cross-referenced, in bold text, to the photographic sections, so it's easy to find and compare pictures with text while keeping them in their sections.

In this example, from Britains, the introduction and company history runs to  7 large format pages, the product descriptions to more than 20 (covering the main hollow-cast and die-cast production and the Lilliput,  Mini-sets and Model Farmyard ranges) and the illustrated section has 84-odd pages of high-resolution images and close ups of catalogues and other publicity material, all horse drawn carts, wagons and implements, tractors, trailers and machinery, boxed sets, box types &etc.

Tables and side-info. boxes are also employed to get the data across to the reader in clear and concise chunks that are easy to find and follow, usually coming at the end of the relevant section, here we see an old price-list reproduced to explain a point - the last issues in 1941 before the replacement of toys with munitions on the production lines - and the pricing.

A sample of the illustrated section from one of the bigger entries shows how all known variations are listed, be that box or model, and where the authors where unable to picture one it will none-the-less be described in the text section, often with a cross reference to a similar change/variation in another model or its box.

I can't rate these two works highly enough, and to not have them on your shelves is to have a big gap in your knowledge of vintage toys and British toy companies, which you won't be filling in a hurry as the three authors have spent thousands of hours, travelled thousands of miles and spoken to hundreds of people in order to gather and present the data for you!

And the information contained within the two books, while Farm specific, will help all toy and play-thing collectors, researchers and, yes, even Bloggers!

Also, I know there are plans for a third volume at some point, which will bring together all the new information which has come to light, a lot of it as a direct result of the previous two tomes!

FIM 1 - Farming In Miniature Volume 1: Airfix to Denzil Skinner -
2013
Robert Newson, Peter Wade-Martins, Adrian Little
ISBN - 978-1-908397-55-3
Old Pond Publishing, Ipswich
On Amazon

FIM 2 - Farming In Miniature Volume 2: Dinky to Wend-Al -
2014
Robert Newson, Peter Wade-Martins, Adrian Little
ISBN - 978-1-908397-56-0
Old Pond Publishing / 5M Publishing, Sheffield
On Amazon

Adrian's sales page - Mercator Trading

Robert's Website - Toy Car Collector

More Reviews

They both have copies available from time to time if you don't 'do' Amazon!

R is for Rag....and Tag & Bobtail!

To Sandown Park Toy Fair yesterday, where I shot more stuff for future posts, including these three little chaps...

Manufactured in hollow-cast lead by Sacul, these are the three main characters from a glove/hand-puppet show which was part of the old BBC daytime thread 'Watch With Mother' in the late 1950's and early 60's. As such the bottom halves must be invention, but they've (Sacul) managed to get the glove-like posture of Rag, so he's not just a generic rat, and remains recognisable as the child's favourite!

T is for Through the Ages

Box ticker today...

The game-playing pieces for 'History of the World' by Avalon Hill, very useful figures for war-gaming, if only one pose per era! Acient Egyptian, Babylonian (?), Roman, Viking/dark-age type, Mongol, Conquistador and European colonial soldier of the late 19th/early 20th centuries. 25mm give or take!