News, Views Etc...Bits, Bobs, Blue Box and a Battleship

I've so much for a 'News, Views' post that I'm going to hold back the links for another day, although I've been sitting on them for so long now, some have been published elsewhere, so I'll get this one out of the way...

Takara-Tomy (assuming everyone has a smart 'fone and high-speed link, this takes ages to load)
Japanizer (quicker loading Blog)
Little Plastic Man (has adopted them as his banner image and taken new pictures)

Little Rubber Guys, Plastic Warrior magazine and others have also covered them and evilBay dealers are selling complete sets.

Andy Warhol once said that "Pop will eat itself", and this is a prime example of what he was getting at. Minions or Turtles? I know, lets make Super-dooper Teenage Hero/Ninja/Mutant Minion-turtles! You can't have two sets of characters from two imaginary universes combined, it dilutes both, and to a certain extent....breaks the fantasy.

There's a lot of this around, I've seen Star Wars Turtles, Simpson's Minions, Super Hero Minions of the Marvel/DC variety and almost every day there is a new take on a couple of old memes.

Those who think I'm being a humourless stick-in-the-mud are missing the point that it represents a lack of imagination, a lack of new ideas, a need to regurgitate two old ideas to sell more crap to consumers in order that the 'Bread and Circus' take their minds off the coming storm of likely extinction within the lifetimes of people already born...because of that consumerism!

Weird search-terms department: Concept Art Foreign Legion Buckets! Brought someone to this Blog! I hope they found what they were looking for...

Many thanks to Nazar Marchenko of Russia, who kindly sent me these two, back in March; the missing poses from my sample of Blue Box Japanese Infantry. He didn't want anything in return, just thought I should have them in my collection! I have got a 'wants' list out of him and will try to find something nice to return the favour...Thank you Nazar.

Andrew Boyce emailed me with images of a ship he's looking for a maker's name for. I've run the usual suspects past him conversationally; Comet/Authenticast, Trafalgar and Wiking, but it's not really detailed enough for them I feel?

It's quite large, and hollow-cast at about 12cm long. As Andrew points out the profile is quite good, but from other angles it's toy-like with a single gun moulded on the axis-line of each turret.

Can anyone suggest a name/maker for this rather nice looking toy. Could it be a board-game piece, or an under-scale accessory for a boxed-set of flats?

In Andrews words...

"The original was in about 3 colours, grey, green, brown sprayed on. It may have been original. I have repainted it in a water-based grey paint which should be removable. I have seen about 3 other models in this series.

Suggestions for it have included a wartime toy, a recognition model (the profile is good, although the top view is not- one gun in turrets where there should be two) or a model used on a plotting board as seen in many old war films.

There are lengths of wire for the masts. I actually like it for its crudeness!"

So do I Andrew!

Having slagged-off their ridiculous pricing of the old (and simplified) gun emplacement in a rant a while ago, I feel I should balance my neutral credentials by pointing-out that this new play-set reissue is a bargain, only by a few quid, but nevertheless it is a cheap way of getting the whole Napoleonic oeuvre from Airfix, including the farm and the accessory set.

The various links to this set on press releases and the Hornby website don't make clear that the accessory set is included, but it definitely is.

Finally - some toys in advertising and promotion seen recently, magna-whatevers used in some financial 'vehicle' bollocks and toy soldiers on a book.

S is for Scots...Pine

Capturing the look of the real tree quite effectively, the Scots Pine gives a bit of height to a war games table, and with no low branches can have 'stuff' parked under it, a radio-shack truck or sneaky '88 Flak always looks good!

Standard list of parts, base (ethylene), bough  & branches in a harder plastic that can be bent into shape and a set of foliage, with this tree the foliage seems to be made out of the same denser-plastic as the trunks, not so it can be bent, but rather to retain a level of rigidity?

Made-up.

Another angle.

T is for Two...Bagged Spacemen

Comparison between an American hard plastic (polystyrene) original and a soft plastic (polyethylene) Hong Kong generated copy. Neither gives a brand, and while the original is unpainted, the clone is given a three-colour stab-and-hope scheme of pink-flesh, black and silver 'highlights'.

The note on the back of the Hong Kong example - in James Opie's inimitable hand - tells us it was purchased in Islington (London) in March 1962 for the princely sum of sixpence - we (my brother and I) were still getting sixpence pocket-money in 1969, and it went a long way, especially if they were a few weeks in arrears when the Bank of Mum & Dad paid-out!

I think the 'A-OK' is by Ajax, a little smaller that the Archer space family, and distinctive by dint of the concertina elbow and knee joints.

B is for Beech: Young Copper Beech

Britains did do a green 'standard' beach, but it was sold as a 'silver birch'! Basically this is the silver birch, with red-brown leaves and - usually - a darker truck, my example seems to have been put-together from bits and has the silver-grey trunk of a birch and some non-matching foliage.

Twistable tree moulding and integral branches in a dense plastic, probably a polypropylene, with an ethylene base and foliage.

Given it's dodgy heritage, it looks OK for a younger tree, but not quite one of the the mighty boughs you see in those woodlands on the downs around Hindhead or Haslemere in Surrey! To be fair: it was sold by Britains as 'Young Beech'!

Colour variation of the foliage.

R is for Rosedale

Another Box-ticker really, large scale (120mm figure?) farm tractor from (or marked) Rosedale. Actually an 'imprint' of and the parent for Tudor*Rose, and I really only photographed it because I thought it identified the pieces I've been digging-up at the bottom of my Mother's garden, but in fact they are from a similar-sized but different model!

Rosedale used to be a confusing moniker to me, as while it is not a 'Smith' or 'Jones', and seems unusual (as a brand name) there seemed to be several users of the title and for years I couldn't work out who they all were or if - for the most part - they were related or not.

1 - This Rosedale was one of several brands used by Rosedale Associates the company started by Norman Rosedale and one of the companies close to Islyn Thomas/Thomas Toys (see FIM Vol.II for more). This is the one I think of as Tudor*Rose.

2 - There was a Canadian branch (Bonar Rosedale Plastics?) who seem to have used Rosedale in preference to the Tudor*Rose more common over here, and continued to do so later (1980's?) than the T*R mark became ubiquitous in the UK.

3 - Rosedale Figurines, now part of Fleurbaix Toy Soldiers made soft, poured or centrifugally cast, white-metal figures in various larger (54mm-up) scales.

4 - Rosebud...where the confusion stemmed from, and (I've just Googled it) still seems to. Rosedale/Tudor*Rose seem to have had a 'Rosebud' doll, but a company called Rosebud near Northampton also made toys and dolls in plastic. A listing on the Internet right now describes "Vintage sweet little tudor rose or rosebud hp doll 1950s in darling outfit". Rosebud - the company - was responsible for the model train kits in HO gauge taken-over by Airfix. The rest of the company was absorbed by Mattel in 1967 becoming Rosebud-Mattel for a while.

P is for Poplar (Lombardy not Plastics)

Continuing with the Britains trees, we look at the cleverest. The construction of the poplar tree is very ingenious, bears little relationship with the other trees in the range, obviously the materials, base and foliage are in the same pattern, but the way it's all put together to look like a poplar tree - which it does; is just incredibly clever.

The truck is broken down into small interlocking sections, like swoppet figures, with specialist sections at the tip and toward the base, while  another moulding for the base of the trunk is employed where it meets the base of the toy.

The four components lined-up ready for final assembly, different types of foliage are used on the different sections in order to further enhance the look and get round the difficulties presented by the challenge of producing a toy poplar tree which looks like a real-life poplar!

It works! There is a slight flatness to the sections of foliage, but my Grandparents had a row of poplars in the drive when we were kids and from memory I know this is pretty good.

A few years ago (nearly ten!) I had the job of sorting a load of trees for a dealer and remember these suffering from brittleness in the foliage, but mine seems OK still (fingers crossed), so it's probably a luck-of the draw thing with them?

N is for Nom-nom-nomnivore!

Yes! Back to figural edibles! Picked these up in a conveniace store in Basingrad the other day, but don't know how widespread they are.

Jungle Buddies from Au'some, there is a parent company in the 'States, these are courtesy of Au'some UK Limited, made of the same soft, slightly floury jelly of the original Jelly Babies (Bassett's?). believe it or not, the one on the right hand side is supposed to be a monkey...they are very nice. Box Ticked.

O is for Oak Tree

One of the largest trees in the Britains range and often seen in the background of war games in the old books on the subject, like all the Britains trees it was a better scale size for 20-25mm stuff than the 54mm it was ostensibly made for.

The main component sets: A base, main trunk, branches and foliage, due to the design, all the parts are polyethylene.

Trunk with branches added at random, a very well thought-out design means that you can pretty-much place any of the branches anywhere on the receiving spigots and after foliage is added they don't really foul each-other.

Looks like an oak-tree to me!

QC is for Quercetti & Co-Ma

This has been in Picasa for the longest time (years!) and I didn't really know what to do with it other than shove it on the correct archive dongle, but then the Coma ones turned-up and we had a post...of sorts!

Trouble was I photographed the box intending to shoot the contents too, but a customer bought it! And then I had to get it out (gingerly) to show him it was complete, it was beautiful, but frangible; with very fine polystyrene vanes and equally delicate legs - god knows how they survived more than one flight intact!

Then these turned-up, also catapult launched, they don't have a parachute attached, returning under their own steam. Consequently they are not delicate, but rather chunky-lumps of softer ethylene that can withstand a gravity-landing!

They also come in gold plastic and it's nice to find something else from this sought-after maker. Do you take it out of the bag? I think so - carefully, those elastics still look good to go!

A is for Apple Tree

That's it really...apple tree, begins with 'A' you know...

Still on the runners, and that's how it's staying, once those apples are loose, it's curtains for completeness! Britains...it's an apple tree - I think!

I'm not being factious; I'm really, really tired. This is just a taster, most - not all - the Britains tree's will be appearing here over the next week or two, but I thought I'd start with a taster to give an idea of how they came, as there's not much you can do with a 'sprued' one - image wise, especially if you don't have the box.

....40 minutes later he wakes from a nap to find his neck and wrist hurt as one wert'leaning on 'touther! Points to note, mixed polymers, the base is a standard ethylene as are the branches, the fruit (apples!) are a softish PVC while the twistable trunk is a harder plastic probably polypropylene?

News, Views etc...Khaki Infantry Page Update

Added Tenco (?), Polish (PZG) and Hong Kong examples of the Britains and other Khaki Infantry to their page, will add a few general shots to earlier sections later tonight and then it's the 'question marks' which is a large file of images I've yet to sort out so there may be another interminable wait before I get the page finished!

B is for Background

We've looked at these before, but I managed to photograph 4 in sequence, which show the way the background joins between cards to make up a continuous scene. I have also photographed about five more cards individually, and with these and the original, I hope to stitch a complete run at some point!

Last time each card had a white astronaut and a silver one, as can be seen above, the packers actually didn't care what mix you got or which pose/s went on which card...indeed the only real usefulness of the card numbering is to aid in collecting the background, which - as I pointed-out last time - you would then damage getting the blister off?

These cards also have the little bubble-gum pastilles still in situ.

While we're looking at them, these seem to be copies, possibly from Spain or South America? The painted one in white plastic is a decorated Jean original; you can see how the copies have dispensed with the helmet antenna, probably to aid low-skill production?

Put bases on them and you have figures that will not only stand up a little more easily than the Jean originals, but that will carry a message, should you so wish...

..., in this case Treff 'kraftfutter' which got various translations including; Feed Stuff, Feed Concentrate and Concentrated Clutch? Treff themselves seem to be one of several grain mills in a larger group, so I'm guessing kraftfutter is some kind of flour? Maybe a rusk, a baby-formula or suchlike? Can anybody from that part of the world let us know what this was/is?

Jean produced lots of premiums for other people (some collectors get a bit excited by the Linde examples?) and the brand would be carried on the base, so obviously the astronauts needed bases. I think they had the helmet decor as well, but they are easily lost through play-wear.

By the by - I have a rule of thumb when describing space-based toy figures...if they have NASA or Cosmonaut attributes (air-pipes, power packs, non-aggressive tools and equipment) they are called 'Astronauts', if they have wacky or non-standard spacesuits or equipment, or 'para-military' uniforms and/or weaponry, they are titled 'Spacemen'...these are definitely Astronauten!

Even though one of them has a pistol...Doh!

A is for Alien Arsenal

So to past show-table photo-shoots, about a year ago I think for most of these - and most photographed on Mercator Trading's stand; some possibly still available?

Ray guns! Water-pistols or sparkers, rattlers, torches or cap-guns, everyone had a couple of these in a childhood, now the local copper's are likely to kill you real dead if you carry one outside...best keep them in the packaging!

This is a sparker, with it's distinctive heavy trigger from Omed Srl. near Naples, and possibly quite modern, the company seems to either be still be in business, or to have only recently vanished. The clip-on telescopic sight is a nice touch, but memory serves it was always the first thing to break!

An importer from Milan (Interglass Sas.) brought this one in from Hong Kong; another sparking toy. The card says Super Ray Gun but I think the wacky graphics on the body of the weapon are actually trying to say Spider Ray Gun? A tad older then the previous one I'd say; from both the card design and the plastic colours, and it's got one of the less comfortable flat triggers...hey, this stuff matters when you've got small hands!

Ideal Toys water-pistol, but not that 'Ideal Toy Co.' of the US...this Ideal is (or was until 2003) actually J.G. Schrödel of Nuremberg, Germany, now part of the Heinrich Bauer Group...indeed the frequency with which these turn up suggests they were in production recently? I just want to convert it into a space-ship...Look! Small-scale crew!

This is clearly the fighter to the bomber above! a single pilot with a determined countenance powering his machine into the enemy system to splurge them with sun-heated tepid water...Summer days huh?

Ah! Yes! ... The least rare 'ray gun' in the history of ray-guns...this one is a crank-handled 'clicker' making a noise similar to the great Marx Tommy-gun we had as kids, these were originally made by Pyro as the Pyrotomic Disintegrator Rifle in that distinctive mix of bronze and silver plastics which sums up the Pyro range, but has since been found to have been produced in Argentina, Brazil, Portugal (where these five Hercules hail from) and Spain.

There are differences between the various guns and these Portuguese one's were all over the place about three years ago following a warehouse find!

If you think that line-up is fancy, check out Geoff's Post on them!

M is for Marx and MPC...and Multiple...and Model...Military Men!

A funny one (the title) as for years some people thought MPC meant Marx Plastics Company (or Corporation), a misnomer that wasn't helped by JG Garratt putting the 'fact' in his encyclopedia! It actually stood initially for Multiple Products Corp. (still sometimes erroneously referred to as Multiple Plastics Corp.), but the abbreviation became a corporate logo in its own right and was retained on packaging after the company had changed its form of 'address' to Multiple Toymakers.

However it's not as simple as that! On the model kits, they tended to call themselves 'Model' Products rather than Multiple which has some thinking there are two or more companies.

The trouble with researching toy companies is that it's often a reversed 'family tree', with lots of branches [children] below [past] and one or two (sometimes separate) trunks [grandparent] above [present]...and it's easier to quote the not always reliable (but here sufficient for the point) Wikipediea on this one:

"Ownership of the MPC name - About 1970, General Mills bought MPC from Toteff, who stayed on as president. General Mills also had purchased Lionel and the MPC name and logo even appeared on early 1970s train sets next to the Lionel logo. After [-which] these two names was stated, [as being] "...of the fun group at General Mills"
...
In the late 1970s, General Mills created a separate identity for its toy and hobby arm, CPG Products Corporation. During this time, MPC kits were marketed as part of CPG's Fundimensions Division. General Mills' ownership lasted until 1985 when it sold off its hobby companies. General Mills then floated its remaining toy division as Kenner Parker.

In 1985, MPC was purchased by The Ertl Company, which had also acquired AMT in 1981. Ertl, in turn, became part of RC2 Corporation in 1999, and was subsequently absorbed into TOMY International Inc. From 2008, MPC products were re-issued under license from TOMY by Round2 LLC, which ultimately acquired MPC's assets outright in 2011 (along with those of AMT and Ertl)."

Which is why for a while in the early 1980's you got Airfix/AMT/MPC/Ertl Star Wars kits, with different box'ings in different countries/regions, and you find companies like Britains and Waddington's are in the mix above as well.

Marx (Louis Marx and Co.) thankfully let us off a repeat headache here, they really only abbreviated to Mar- on some lines (Mar-toys, Mar-lines), while collectors have tended to use Mx in check-lists and catalogues. Marx did carry lots of other peoples stuff but tended to either ignore the suppliers origin/branding (Blue Box/Marx Sunshine Series), or sell as the sub-brand without a clue to Marx's ownership (ELM Disney-themed mini-vehicles and four-wheeled trolly thingies).

That's an awful lot of waffle about the post header/title! On to today's subject, which is the GI's from both companies.

Above are the 54mm US Marines from Marx, as issued in the play-sets. I am no expert on these (see links at bottom), but suspect some of them are later re-issue colours, from after the heyday of the Play Set as an American toy standard.

This should also be a complete pose sample - of the 1st version GI's. Of course the way American soldiers dressed in WWII, Korea or Vietnam means that the 'Marines' and GI's are  quite happy fighting alongside one another in a homogeneous unit, but that was how Marx sold them, and great that they did as it means more poses for your battles!

This is a shot of some of the new poses in the '2nd' set of GI's, which Kent Sprecher calls the 'medical' set for obvious reasons, in that the set contained a stretcher team and casualties. It also contained a few of the earlier figures from both the original GI set and the Marines.

The Stretcher team and wounded man, the actual stretcher is a Hong Kong copy, I don't have an original, but it fits!

Below is a shot to show the reused figures in that 2nd set, while to the left are a couple of compatible figures from other sets/sources, the marching chap is from an occasional addition to some play-sets, you got six marching with an NCO and Officer (neither in my collection I'm afraid!), while the seated chap presumably came in sets that had suitable vehicles (the Jeep?)

Good quality Hong Kong copies exist, here the darker green ones and the kneeling figure in pale green (although he may be an unmarked re-issue from the old moulds?), the other kneeling figure with the Tabs is - I think - the Brumberger/Superior/T-Cohn copy?

The MPC GI's, 54mm above and 50mm below, although as we'll see in a second; there's not much in it. When I looked in depth at the Soldiers of the World, I suggested that the MPC and Marx figures shared a sculptor, when you look at them all together it's obvious that they don't, just that the one (probably MPC's) sculptor was - shall we say 'influenced'? -  by the other!

I could go back and change that, with some more salmon pink, but there's plenty on that post already. Since all the speculation on that post was clearly shown tp be speculation, and given that the whole debate was rather ended by the Tatra discovery following a comment on that thread (amazing how many people then accidentally found the Tatra website - which had been there for years - without reference to this blog!), which negated the original debate;  it's all a bit academic really.

Also; the point I was making back then - given that at the time people where still trying to establish a link with the US as originator - was valid and stands, all three sets of figures are similar, but I'd say the closer to the Tatra in sculpting style are the MPC's, the Marx lend the base!

Colour and moulding variations in the 54mm set from MPC, I don't know if they were in a multi-cavity mould or had a complete re-sculpt at some point, but the differences vary from slight to almost a new figure?

Comparison shots between all the sets, like I said: "...not much in it." really, the smaller MPC's are smaller, but on a battlefield not everyone is the same size and thanks to the sculpting style of most of the figures they go together well - I think? The Marx are undeniably more accurate in dress/equipment/webbing, but it's not noticeable in a group or when you're 12 and/or not an 'Army Brat'!

A is for Artillery...Big Guns, Cannons, Howitzers...

Not all of them by any means, but a sample of mostly small scale artillery from two photo-shoots I've done over the last 20-odd years. the bulk are scanned photographs from 20 years ago, the rest are rescued from my Imageshack account with a loss of resolution, and were taken about 10 years ago - the first time the collection was in storage!

At the top is the diminutive take on a British 5.5inch gun by EKO, which they did themselves as far as I can tell, there was no Rocco/Roskopf in the mix! Below it is the common Hong Kong take on another British stalwart, the 25lbr. Shield-less, this is a common enough HK piece turning up in various sets through the 1960's and early '70's.

Here we see the HK one again - this time with red wheels, and sharing the frame is a grey version of the Airfix first version gun. In this colour it's probably the latter Brumberger/T Cohn version and I cut the ears off thinking they were flash/blemishes, long before I knew what it was, so no 6x6 truck will pull it now; the designed way, so I've drilled a hitching-hole!

Below are the two later Airfix offerings, the 25lbr again and a German PaK 36 type? I painted the one on the left a lifetime ago, I'm not owning up to the gloss mud-puddle on the right!

At he back of the superscript shot is the matchstick-firing beast from Manurba, with it's eponymous little brother to the far right, and again badly painted behind on the subscript shot (missing it's firing 'pin'), in front of that is the Tudor Rose madeupname Mk.1, while the large pale-green one may be Hong Kong, but I favour South America or Spain from the styling and lack of HK mark.

Montaplex/BuM top and Atlantic bottom. We'll come back to the Atlantic again as they are among the more problematical sets in the 'Export' series, being designed for two different boxes, the staff in the packaging department (and/or subsequent dealers) not being able to tell them apart, they tend to end up in both boxes, but the contents lists are different but constant depending on which set they are...on the sprue/runner

Lump of very soft, home-cast, lead from roofing, shot-gun or Air-rifle pellets or fishing weights probably - at the top. Dinky 25lbr below, father of many copies! And the nearest the observer is interesting, it has all the hallmarks of a penny toy from between the wars, but has ethylene plastic wheels, these may have been stuffed-on to replace something older (people used to make and mend, not upgrade to landfill every 12 months!), or it may date it as a sixpenny-toy from the late 1950's?

Equally it could be entirely home-made, as the barrel is again a crude lump of lead, the wheels taken from another toy and the carriage cut from thin sheet tin.

Blue Box provide the polystyrene copy of a Crescent WWI Horse Artillery gun and the very simplistic die-cast is a late Matchbox effort.

The hard styrene gun below is from the Italian maker INGAP, and seems to have shades of 25lbr about it.

Three from Hong Kong, the on eon the left turns-up from time to time, but I've yet to tie-it down to a set or group of sets. The brown one on the other hand is or was common in the late 1970's and into the 1980's in cheap rack-toys. The Dinky copy was a bit earlier, but again - quite common in it's heyday.

We'll be looking at these more closely when (if) I ever finish the series on small scale copies of Britains and Crescent I started well over a year ago. I may well cut and paste the ones I've published into a new page and carry-on below them? There is a third design with a four-legged cruciform mount. All three carriages can be found with both guns.

Top are Marx and NFIC, while the bottom one I should know, well I do but I can't remember, one of the lesser US makes I think? Dom or Dom-for-Heinerle. We looked at the smaller Marx one the other day with it's barrel (a black-painted recoilless rifle looking thing), back when I took these I thought it must be some sort of towing bogie!

The one on the left is the remains of the - I think - Corgi die-cast with Tom the Cat, a poor TV/Cartoon tie-in [Tom & Jerry], but it may prove useful one day...maybe on the wall at the Alamo?

The two top right have previously been ascribed to Kinder in early German 'Eier Sammlerkatalog' (egg collector's check-lists), but I never went with that as they are too big for a standard Kinder capsule, and I don't think they are still in them (the checklists), worse though is that I'm sure I have their real origin somewhere, but can't find it, I seem to recall there is a third design though? Technolog boxed toy soldier sets! And there were several other designs and other siege equipment!

The little HK piece still in it's blister is probably the commonest design out there, originating at the tail-end of the 1940's with one of the early US plastics guys (Pyro, Thomas, Lido?) it was copied by most of the other pioneers, they then shared their moulds with various UK makers, Merit had a stab and Hong Kong producers spent 20 or 30 years copying all of them! It comes in every size from huge to this one and in hard, soft and various rubberised polymers and Merit gave some of theirs wooden wheels!

Saving the best to last (well they were the best when I was a dedicated small-scale collector!), these are mostly Hong Kong. We've looked at the multicoloured one - back-right - before (Lucky Clover), in front of it are three post-Giant copies of the old Marx ACW piece, each showing difference in wheels, barrel length, or detail and all probably from Christmas crackers.

The blue one is Eagle Games (I think? It's also on the Airfix blog's ACW Artillery post - I think), the black one is anybodies guess? Pirate-ship toy of some kind is the obvious best bet, but it could be a game playing piece? The other three are also Hong Kong.