W is for Walkie-talkie or the 'Wire'...Wireless Radios, the 'Blower', 'Coms', Landlines...

S is for Shield...Bouche, Buckler, Heater, Kite, Parma, Pavise, Targe, Target, Scutum

Odds and sods

Hong Kong copies of Timpo

N is for "Not a Gun"; Rifle or Musket, Automatic or Bolt-action, Single-shot or Repeater

 Toy Soldiers

Kits

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!