C is for Crackers!

It's beginning to feel a bit like . . . something's about to happen! And when it does, you'll be gutted they don't have stuff like this in Christmas crackers any more, not even chap ones!

I picked these up at the Sandown Part Toy fair in November, the one on the left is junk, a curiosity; cheap copies of Blue Box copies of Britains farm animals, of the type we saw in the Cragstan box on the Aussies post a while back.

But the one on the right is a little more worthwhile, for the shelf-space! A set of wild (or 'zoo') animals in a little bag of the type you might also find stuffed into the larger gum-ball machine capsules or on the easy blocks near the thrower at a hoopla stall.

They are all 'bag scale' (ie; no scale), with the monkey the biggest 'in scale' and the elephant the smallest, although it's weird that most of the animals are realistic, while the elephant seems to be based on the NOSCO drinks-glass cocktail novelties?

The lioness doubles-up as a tiger! However, the thick portion of neck leads to shrinkage if they are taken out of the mould too soon, with resulting distortion pulling the heads to one side and/or shorting the neck/dropping the head.

The bear comes from Britains, via a solid-moulded HK version, although both are copies of the previous one on the time-line rather than sculpt-clones.

R is for Rubbed-out

The other noticeable trend - which we've been showing here for a couple of years now - is the modern, crumbly-rubber eraser trend; kids have always collected rubbers (I once fancied a girl who collected them!) so that's not as new as the material which seem mostly to be aimed straight at collectors.

I shot these shelfies the other day in a discount store (Home Bargains) in Basingrad, I've collaged all four images as the reflection was diabolical! Around the 70mm mark, these are like the Iwaco rubbers, having a slot-together 'swoppet' element to their make-up, but much bigger.

And: a new name in the Blog's tag-list! Sambro seem to another of those modern equivalents to the old FOB-jobbers, handling licenses and their applications, rather than inventing 'new' stuff, wearing their branding but manufactured in an anonymous great OEM-factory in China.

Brian Berke sent these to us at different times over the last year - on the left is a London Bus (in New York!), with a pull-back motor in the lower half (the body of the bus seems to be in two parts) while the torso of The Batman is  also pierced for use as a pencil-top, but he's a bit heavy! Your handwriting would suffer long before RSI kicked-in . . . stick him on the desk-top as an ornament of popular culture! Thanks again Brian.

This goes with the little Bluesky shuttle/spaceman combination we've already looked at on the Blog, a hybrid modern multi-role fighter with something of the Typhoon and both Mirage and Saab's latest offerings, along with a Russian or Chinese looking rocket eraser.

Finally you can't go wrong with this from the same maker as the Turtles, but shelfie'd in TK Max . . . an army of minions! There's actually only five sculpts (four of each) and they don't all seem to interconnect, some of them have different dungaree designs, therefore different neck/shoulder shapes, but 20 Minions for a few quid? Bargain!

R is for Round the Bendy!

So a rather surprising trend this year has been the apparent revival of the 'Bendy Toy'; I've posted them four times this year and here they are again!

This is actually a vintage one which came in at some point this year, can't remember when or where; sorry if you gave it to me? It may have been in that mixed lot with the Cherilea?) A monkey, looking like a chimp rather than trying to cash-in on Kong Kong, so probably from a  set of several animals? Then compared to two we've seen before, as a sizer.

The first bendy-toy article was on the plant-ties, the second included the other two above, the third was the the miner/MPC family then we had THE Batman and Robin - pictures Brian Berke sent to the Blog - and he then sent me the actual figures, which was bloody kind of him, as I hadn't asked for them (but I did love them!), they were a heavy thing to post over the pond and they are now appearing over here. There's loads of them! Well . . . at least fifteen . . .

These shelfies (geddit! Did I just invent a new word?) were all taken in TK Max about three weeks ago, obviously just in time for Christmas! They are now also available in large sets as evidenced by this Box of Bad Babes - it should have been called!

But I love the old-school TV series ones the most and here is a set of them too, with the two we've seen alongside three 'new' villains. Compare this cat Woman to the modern one above, this is by far the more preferable isn't it? Depends on your 'generation' I guess :-) .

The Batman strikes again - A third sculpt comes in this set of Justice League figures, again five to collect on the single-cards, or as a set a couple of quid cheaper. I didn't get the make, but it can't be Five below!

On the subject of my brilliant new word - Hummmmmmmm . . . Doh! I'll add 'Shelfie' to the tag list, as it may prove useful as a ready-reckoner for stuff that may still be in the shops, if someone is on the search!

D is for Chinasaur...and other Dippy Dino's

This has been in edit for so long, I've A) done several dinosaur posts since I uploaded it, B) referenced the carded set as if I'd published it (fuckwit!), and C) now have another in the queue, so this must 'go up'!

Rhaaarrh! Christmas present to a younger friend last Christmas - finger-puppets! I bought her story-cubes as well, so she could make-up stories and act them out with the finger puppets - she's only 8! Nine in January; she'd correct me!

Whoops! I referred to these in another post mentioning Fleetwood, thinking I'd published them, when I'd actually only uploaded them . . . Doh! Fleetwood's packing of my favourite rubber chinosaurs (see D-posts passim), although the one I like (Dimetrodon) is in a shit colour . . . white? How the fuck are you supposed to wax-lyrical about a white dinosaur?

These have been in Poundland for a year or two now, for a pound! I've also seen them in sets of three in TK Max in sets of three, and in other brand-graphics in Wilkinson's. That's over eight-inches of wallowing veggie-saur for a pound!

It's also going to lead to the first new polymer tag for years, as it's in this new soft foamed-PVC (plastisols) material which is getting more common with larger toy items, so needs a tag to itself.

Finally . . . ? I don't know for sure? I think they are Marx mini-saur remoulds, as issued by Marksmen a few years ago, but I don't know for sure? At least - I think they are Marksmen's small scale set as advertised, but Kent Sprecher's site credits no small-scales to Marx, so . . . ?

News, Views Etc...Plastic Warrior No.165

The Ink's barely dry on the last issue, there must be something wrong with me; three prompt in a row! Anyway - Issue 165 brings the following Toy Soldier stories to your doormat, if you subscribe . . . and I know of at least one new subscriber!

Also - I thought that with only the one image in this morning's post you'd all be feeling slightly cheated!

Articles

* The first article is a fascinating brain-food theory on the likely origins and appearances of Dan Dare toy figures, involving Thomas/Poplar, Tom Smith, Eagle, an outfit called Mead & Field Ltd., and something called a Jollibom! All pulled-together and mused-on by Gerald Edwards. In addition he rounds-up the other suspects with Crescent, MG Southall and Kentoys nodded-to - if that doesn't prick your imagination into subscribing and you still aren't - you probably never will!

* An editorial piece on the board-game 'Market Day' by Holdfast Enterprises is equally interesting

* Alwyn Brice also ponders, in his case on Trojan, but with less success than Mr Edwards I fear!

* A lovely journey of discovery by Peter Watson details his life-long uncovering of Cherilea's production, one set at a time!

* Robert Newson (die-cast expert and co-author of the FIM's) looks in detail at the various versions of Lone Star Landover - and who knew there were so many - along with the figures/accessories that sometimes accompanied them

* The well known German collector and regular contributor Andreas Dittman returns with an overview (and call for more information) of little-known Berlin maker Miniplast

* Another editorial looks at some lovely Crescent clones from Hong Kong

* Tony Sowerby explains his diorama of a Landsknecht gun position using Elastolin figures

* Robert Mackenzie contributes to coverage of Simon Tonge's animal collection, Simon is the numero uno at Paignton Zoo, so knows what he's looking at!

* Colin Penn tortures me with a Blind Bag set from Frozen just in time for Christmas - sorry Colin but I have a sore point over Frozen merchandise, having listened to the bloody woman's doll sing the Frozen theme all day long, on Christmas Day, in SPANISH two years ago . . . I live in trepidation of seeing a Moana doll round my Brother's in two weeks time!

'What The !&*$?' has three items this month, all ladies, one 1940's looking in a nightdress (or fur coat it's not clear!) pencilled-in as 'maybe Spanish', a rural granny type (early British plastic?) and a more medieval-looking, French-looking, rural wench, help needed on all three.

Finally news of the forthcoming ACOTS convention looks forward to their thirtieth anniversary five-day toyfest next Easter.

Regular Features

* 'NEWS and VIEWS and other stuff ' consists of an obituary for Dave Scrivener, reprised from this Blog, news of James Opie's next three C&T-scheduled auction-sales and news of a HäT crowd-funding experiment (which I believe failed while the issue was at the printers).

* 'Book Review' looks at 'Britains Toy Soldiers - The History and Handbook 1893-2013' by the above-mentioned James Opie

What's New covers the following this issue:

·         Chintoys - Sharp's Rifles (with mention of Nappy's Staff)

·         Expeditionary Force - Zulu War Redcoats

·         Mars - US Marines (Vietnam)

·         Replicants - British C17th (?) Dragoons

 All available from Steve Weston's Toy Soldiers

* 'Readers Letters' is four packed pages this time with two from yours truly (Gordy Int. & Noki) and other submissions from:

·         Barney Brown who passes-on a paint-stripping tip

·         Musings on Hornby/Airfix's plans from Peter Watson

·         James Peter Young on possible Aussie pirates (of Hilco)

·         More on Cherilea Baronial Knights from Malcolm Cotton

·         More on the state of the hobby from Pedro L. Cunha re. modern production

·         Happy Feedback on the Chicago Toy Soldier Show from the organisers (Jan and Roger Garfield)

·         'a person' has something to say about Stuart Marconie - who's he?!!

·         Brian Heape shows more smooth-based Crescent knights

·         Thomas Korecek shows rack-toy modern GI's from Prague

While finally; Erik Critchley and Dennis Donovan add to the clown-type from PW 164's What The !&*$?

Plus all the usual small-ads

Both Cover pictures are further shots of Tony Sowerby's diorama

Remember also; for subscription details or to 're-up', for contributions, letters or queries, Plastic Warrior is now on-line through various platforms:

Facebook

Blogger

eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com

And they are on Paypal.

The old website is to be run-down/retired.

And if anyone thinks the inclusion of my Blogs URL in the obituary was a little 'off colour', they're probably right, but it wasn't in the submitted piece and in his defence - the editor adds URL's to any contributor's piece when he knows of it, has to fit everything round a deadline and had probably already sent the smaller pieces to the printer; as I sent them in a while ago. So maybe unfortunate, but no eggs broken.

G is for Ginormous Jungle Man

He's ginormous, and he's a man, from the jungle! No making it up as I go along here! Shot this two or three years ago now, but as I try to steer-away from the army-man stuff at chritsmas i thought you'd be interested.

He's 'believed to be' Spanish or South American in origin, although he ticks all the Hong Kong boxes apart from being marked with anything. A blow-mould about 5 1/2-inches (bit smaller than Action Man/GI Joe) with the (probably slightly bulging) base removed to give him a flatter standing surface, that's it: Ginormous Jungle Man . . . with a monkey!

S is for Sorry

I knew you wouldn't want the swan and babies for a whole day, so here's an apology!

When I published the Novalinea set of Lucky Luke with a bit of a "well I never", I'd forgotten that Juan Angel ('Gog' of Toys from the Past) had actually educated me, some time earlier, to the connection when he sent me these two images, so - sorry Gog; you'd told me! I'm not apologising to the rest of you, for subjecting you to a floating swan with attendant rug-rats . . . live with it!

Nice bagged set of loose figures, with an interesting mix of unpainted and painted figures, the header card artwork is the same as the blister-card, but simplified, so possibly a later issue; clearing unsold stock, it's not a full set?

Gog actually sent me several shots of the bag (from both sides) and I used them to get the following collages together of the various figures . . .

Painted Figures

Animals

Unpainted - as per the original premiums

There are several poses here that weren't in the other set, both undertakers (?), the dog and the prison-garb Dalton's, so it must have been a larger set. The dog is actually a spitter for the Scoobie-Doo from Comics Spain?

Also today I published a minor page on sale condition/description, it gets a bit ranty at one point but those male doll collectors take themselves far too seriously!

P is for Pedalo

Perfect for Christmas, although like the previous five, I uploaded it to edit in February! But it's a nice novelty item that gets us into the spirit of . . . I'm about to start talking mawkishly sentimental bollocks aren't I? Lets just get on with it . . .

Kleeware swan for the local municipal pond's pedalo-hire with children possibly bought-in from Thomas, but they don't really fit, so that may be bollocks too!

 That's it! A Kleeware swan with Thomas Toys brats, what more do you need, the machine-operator's name? Mike probably, or Mick . . . Fred maybe?

P is for Postponed Plunder Post - Plastic Warrior 2014 May Part-V - Box Two of Two!

So 2014's Plastic Warrior show was a cracker, and we'll finish with this box, as among other things it was full of Christmas cracker type novelties! It was also full of Hong Kong AFV's, scenic bits, broken bits and err . . . other bits!

I'd already started sorting it when I remembered to take a photograph, so you'll just have to imagine what other treats were in the box; second of the Auction lot, but it was good! Indeed rather than me waffle them off, just click on the image and see what you can spot!

There were also a bunch of figures filling the gaps and here I'm sorting them into type and maker piles! Again, see what you can ID - I'm afraid it's a fuzzy shot, even with flash it was a low-light situation and my current little Nikon struggles if the light's not perfect.

P is for Postponed Plunder Post - Plastic Warrior 2014 May Part-IV - Box One of Two

I also picked-up a couple of boxes someone had bid for me on at an auction, the other was full of bits and will be the last post (tomorrow) on these late - very late - show reports!

But this one was a bargain with two soft-polyethylene ready-made forts from the early Airfix 'cartoon artwork' play sets, both missing their flag-poles, but I think I have some in storage, just a question of hoping I've a colour-match for the Wild West one! I have a comparison article in the queue for these.

Underneath them was a mass of 'Hollow Horse' Cowboys & Indians, getting harder to come-by cheaply these days, you see lots on evilBay all the time now with silly start prices or BIN's, but people do go for them, you used to get a bag like this for a fiver or less!

Starting to sort them into some sort of order, how I do this will become more obvious when I pull my finger-out and get a move-on with the HK Blog, I've got a lot of the images done, it's just a question of deciding how to best present them so that people with similar piles of mixed stuff can get them into some sort of order?

It was actually quite a clean sample, with these easily ID'd as post-Giant, Giant clones (the leg studs are different - but it'll all be on the other blog now!), the reason for the two columns of horses is that all the ones on the left had one cavity-mark, the others - another. Not also how - even with a large sample - you never get every pose (in good condition) in every colour, so the collecting goes on!

The ones I call 'Wavymane', with the Crescent clone horse, described elsewhere as Giant, it isn't, well, it can be! It's the first one in the queue for the other Blog and all will be explained - they're not Giant, but one set with Giant product (the fort) did carry these figures, probably because the set was gathered together from more than one source by a shipping agent or export concern.

Some of the more interesting things among the minor makes after the two big lots had been sorter out of the main heap included Britains-cloned Romans/Trojans from two sources, three actual, original, properly-real Giant figures (top right) with their horses. Plus five miscellaneous horses and a hand-full of figures from a similar number of sources, these go in a separate bag, and every few years I have a mega-sort of all the scraps.

P is for Postponed Plunder Post - Plastic Warrior 2014 May Part - III Another Bag!

I've got myself all confused! This was four posts, is currently five, and I think should be three, as the next two are really one and this one probably came from Gareth a week or two later at Sandown Park, but the photo's were all together in Picasa, so we'll run with it 'on the hoof'!

Also I'm A) running out of things to say about bags of bits, and B) starting to question previous pronouncements on bit I've posted, such as the cereal kit aeroplanes above; I think the car boot guy's ones must be in storage, and the ones we looked at earlier this year are the above ones?

Also another Jet petrol premium car (also looked at before) and a nice Ri-Toys blister pack of small-scale Airfix copies. Several 'piles of stuff' (see shots below), a bunch of bubble-gum tanks (again - looked at previously) and various other useful bits.

The farm and zoo animal pile gave-up this little lot, some of them went in last December's novelty posts, the others we looked at in Rack Toy Month! Also a couple of Matchbox horses and a dinosaur.

The probably not Giant pile! This is par for the course on a bag like this, with a handful of bits from 10 or more sources, plus a sub-pile of 'to be sorted' figures! Nice group of Britains Trojan copies from two sources and the little Marx clones

Hong Kong 'combat' pile gives-up a few ID'able Rado, and a bunch of generics, mostly Airfix clones bar the two ex-Blue Box French Resistance fighters and the big heap of Woolbro supplied Britains/Crescent copies.

All sorted and bagged ready for further sorting/storage!

P is for Postponed Plunder Post - Plastic Warrior 2014 May Part - II Goodie Bags

Continuing to look at the plunder from the Plastic Warrior show 2014, and two bags were brought to the show for me, both Trevor Rudkin and Gareth Morgan having saved bits through the year for any use they may provide the blog (or the collection!), and sorting them is always a joy, as while there's lots of common or damaged stuff, there's always the odd gem!

This is how I see the lot at the show, hints of lovely things hidden behind multiple layers of ethylene click-shut bag!

The larger bits and bagged sets sorted out, I think we've looked at most of these now, but a few are still 'in the queue', while the Battlebeast has only recently be shown here!

The contents of the smaller bags, the main highlight for me was probably the animated boxer novelty, but the Lego flat trees are a find, additions to the Marx Disney/TV 'kins are always nice and the silver figure with the hoop is curious; over the years I have picked up several of these in slightly different poses (one's holding  a triangle above her head), with no idea where they originate, they seem to be from a plastic kit - circus, zip-wire, maybe a board-game?

The other lot was a bag of bags!

We've looked at the comic giveaway 'planes (twice now, since this went into edit!), while you can never have too many 1-Ton Humber trucks via Hong Kong, the interest here is the mirco-die-casts to the left, anyone know who made them? They are sort of Takara Votom size, but solid metal casts.

Highlight here are the HK copies of INGAP watercraft, the rest is grist to the Blog-mill, a blue Box Armoured Car needing a spare wheel, some Kinder and a large chicken (Playmobile)!

Another large chicken! And a very nice, complete Blue Box stable unit.

What's not to like . . . 30mm backwoodsmen, dinosaurs, a giant crab, a monster (who went on to star in the original D&D ruleset/guidebook) bits of two jig-toy horses (both sans ears, always sans ears!) and one of two bulk lots of those funny little lions I've blogged and a large duck or two.

More dino's, a witch, some Blue Box knights, a Starlux copy, we've looked at the racing cars in better condition now - all good stuff!

The last bag - clearly sourcing a railway modellers bits box!

All sorted and ready to go away, or be combined with existing samples of the same stuff, it takes a couple of weeks to fully process this kind of lot, and with 75% of the master collection in storage, it's all going in temporary boxes at the moment, one day there will have to be a mega-sort! But in the meantime, it makes even common stuff relatively useful; Blogwise.