M is for Mystery Motorcycle

All research into old, unknown figures is best conducted via the medium of 'teamwork' and this post is a prime example. Following-on from a 'What The !&*$?' submission from Joe Bellis in Plastic Warrior issue 162, which he had-down as an unknown, possibly early British, plastic soldier, probably from a gun-crew.

Now I recognised him because I knew I had some, which I thought were in storage, but that a couple had come in since the move, so went into the attic to look for them with all the other seated unknowns in the 'misc' civilians box.

I couldn't find them anywhere, but remembering I used to keep them with the unknown military (I'd come to the same conclusion as Joe; but thought carrier deck-crew, I had the other coloured jackets see!), I had a look there and found all of them! Why they were still there being added-to I don't know as I had begun to suspect they weren't military, but one gets stuck in routines I guess!

So I fired off some images and sent them to Plastic Warrior's editor Paul Morehead, with the following blurb . . .

"Probably not military, I suspect a Hong Kong set of two or three motorcycles, one with or without a sidecar? Equally could be a bobsleigh or dog-sled team, or futher [sic] adrift: a racing yacht or a tractor pulling a reaper/binder with two opperators [sic] (I'll go though the FIM's and see if they are copies of early British anything?). In addition to Joe's pose, there is a standing with plug-in feet, and a sitting with rearward locating-spike, on his posterior! I have good reason to think the two 1950 Northern European-looking traffic cops are home-paints, if not, they'd give more weight to the motorcylce [sic] solution?"

. . . which - if nothing else gives you an idea as to the effort I put into my spelling here! Paul knows me and is a good editor. He also has deadlines to work to and space considerations, both of which I'm not constrained by, so A) he gave me credit for more than I came up with, and B) we can (with his blessing) look at them in greater detail now.

My images reminded Paul of some shots sent in by another contributor to PW years ago, of a motorcycle with the same rider, so he sent me the shot (upper image above) by way of 'is this it?' - it was!

This then in turn reminded me I had posted the same motorcycle here, in the novelty-posts last Christmas, so I went back to the attic and dug it out, sent him some more images just in time for the Printers (see page 8 of PW issue 164).

This seems to be the correct configuration of two of the figures with the motorcycle, the one riding the PW sample, is actually the passenger, hooking his foot over a plug on the left-hand side, the 'ack-ack' guy being actually the driver. Although Joe's had a mounting-hole in his bum missing from all mine, so he may have accompanied whatever the third guy comes with as well; which would account for his coming in more colours?

The painting style, the paint colours and the plastic type - various shades of chocolate brown - all point to that apparently closely-related 'family' of brand-marked (and unmarked) figures from CM, CMV, HK and ABC (some sold by Past The Post).

A further mystery with my sample is the two 'policemen'; yes, they are painted like 'Europolice' of the era (1960/70's?), yes, they are painted as badly as the others, but . . . I got them at about the same time a mate of mine was off-loading a whole collection of poorly made, scratch-built ambulances through the ages, and some of them were as badly painted. I can't remember if these two (left shot) were part of that particular lot?

The motorcycle is a 1910/20's design I think? Probably early British and possibly based on a kit motorcycle? I wondered maybe Pyro, Strombecker or early Monogram, someone like that . . . or is it a copy of an Italian clip-together model . . . or older tinplate clockwork? Doh!

Also there must be a second vehicle for the standing guy as he has plugs on his feet - for a separate base, and looks to be holding-up another machine?

More images with three other figures in two poses, I suspect they aren't linked, the two Edwardian-dressed figures are probably from an 'old fashioned' car, and look to be early British in a chalky brown plastic (12th June 2018 - which is what they turned-out to be!), but both Joe and I thought that about the bikers, and the paint is just as poor, so your guess is as good as mine?

If no one here knows, I'll sent them into PW's 'What The !&*$?' and the circle will be complete! If not the knowledge . . . but someone knows! There are collectors of HK stuff and someone, somewhere, will have the set/sets mint in box/on card, it's a question of getting them to fill the circle now! And I know I've seen that base, with its flange and texture of neat sand or pebbles; somewhere . . . but where?

Researching the UPS post the other day I can across this lot astride their newly-purchased (by UPS) fleet of American Yales (Huffington Post). The motorcycle is quite similar, not the same as the HK one which is a V-Twin, but the fuel-tank and general arrangement are similar - Yales.

If you study this picture though, you'll notice that the last two on the row have been mocked-up for the press-release, they have no headlights or horns, no cylinder-thing (parafin reservoir?) above the handlebars, and the front mudguard is actually only the left-hand plate only, held-on with a piece of wire.

Also their number-plates have been stuffed in the forks and don't follow the sequence of the rest of the line-up, and both riders are A) in brand-new uniforms and B) looking a little bemused, I think? Who says the camera never lies? That's a piece of corporate, fake, PR-fluff from 100 years ago (1916), right there!

F is for Follow-up; New paratroopers

I said we'd look at this first lot again when they arrived as Brian had said he was sending me a set, and they were pencilled-in for Rack-toy Month, but I ran out of time and had other things in the queue, so they're here now! Who didn't get parachute toys in their Christmas stocking at least once? Well; sue your parents for cruelty, neglect and emotional harm while enjoying the post below . . .

In the 'corporate' colours of the current packaging! They're like a bag of particularity nice sweets! But you do have to do you own parachute knotting which would be beyond the abilities of your average infant I fear?

Brian also sent these to the Blog, they seem to be a pretty generic version, after various Airfix 54mm figures and a waving-dude, I've seen them loose in grab-bins and carded by various brands and brand-marks, we've seen them from Playwrite and Unique here on the Blog before, these come courtesy of MTC.

Doing my job for me - Brian photographed these (left-hand shot) on a recent visit to the UK, and sent us the image, it's a good example of not seeing the woods for the trees being in the way - I go to Poundland all the time looking for 'el cheapies' to blog, and have seen these so often, but somehow not registered them as valid (they are a bit big and a bit action-figure like, but are also a single 'toy' moulding), nor registered them as being the same as the Hunson-packaged ones (also donated by Mr. Berke!) we looked at a while ago?

So next time I see them I will get one! Brian then sent the image of the Toyrific set (the Poundland ones are in their house brand of Funtastic . . . There's a pattern there - Portmanteau happy/toy-words as 'brands') with a note to the effect "Look familiar?", so I Googled them and quickly found the lower-right image on Tobar's site; I'm sure there are more!

Off interest note is that while you get them - typically - in pairs, there seems to be three sculpts, of which one still looks like Max Headroom! Thanks again to Brian Berke, the whole post seems to be down to him!

H is for the Hutt that Jabbers and his Kowakian Monkey-lizard - a very Salacious B. Crumb

I've read it!

I'll deal with it in the New Year, some things should not be published at Christmas, but the publisher has - lets be honest - fallen-out with more people in the hobby than anyone else, and hasn't even had the manners to get my name right, maybe that was deliberate, but still; tells you all you need to know about the man!

Enjoy!

If only he'd followed some of the links provided in the A-Z entry and a recent Red Box post he/they wouldn't be sticking to the falsehoods they/he are determined to so do!

http://www.trademarkia.com/redbox-72259159.html

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39495180@N07/8749761315

http://2009.bodw.com/2008/eng/speaker_detail.php?person=CK_Yeung

The pair of 'em are as dumb as a bucket of frogs at a wedding reception and as thick as pig-shit!


21-12-16
A few days have gone by and I've read the diatribe again, it's almost beyond parody, they had months to prepare that and it reads like monkeys made it out of shit in an afternoon, still the comments section gives us a membership list of the Penn-State Toy Soldier Mafia!
 
And 404-errors on two of the images and one of the links! Making it up as 'they' go along?
 
And while continuing to argue they are separate companies he (the salacious monkey) posts two links making it quite clear they are part of the same group? When found-out; try to bluff it, huh?!
 
Too funny, they're too funny for fiction.

A sarcastic comment about 12,000 words then an announcement of 'other parts' to come! Hypocrisy they name is Paul Stadinger!

F is for Follow-up; Wilco Cats

Available now from Wilkinson's and Wilco stores, these are not the sculpts looked at previously, and rather than blind-bags - the norm these days - are actually in 'which ones haven't we got yet' window-bags, bargain!

In a dolls-house scale I'll leave to others to define (I'll tag them 1:Large Scale!) they are nicer than the set I found earlier in the year, but not quite as nice as the 'chunky' set Brian Berke sent to the blog.

Like the sets we looked at back in the summer, they are simply-painted (no tabbies!) and have big starey-eyes but are otherwise nice enough if you have a separate shelf of cats in the collection! There are dogs and dinosaurs too, also three bags for four, for a twelve-count, Wilkinson's - just in time for Christmas stockings!

UPS is for United Parcel Service

Well, these days Christmas comes in a 'white van' for most people, with the odd red, yellow or blue one! Letters, parcels, supermarket food-deliveries, Amazon sub-contractors . . . and then there are the chocolate-brown ones! You know, the funny-looking "Who made that?" one's . . .although albinism has been known!

Another delightful contribution from Brian Berke, this toy is credited to Nasta Industries Inc., of the old Toy Building - 200, 5th Avenue, but probably commissioned from UPS as an advertising gimmick of some kind? Although once you've made the toy, a retail run is bound to happen at some point?

You can see the corporate colour-scheme (as distinctive as the UK's Royal Fail red, or the 'Euro-post' yellow) is carried over to the packaging, and the figures are a touch larger than 54mm at a small sixty! The set included 8 paper/card parcels; presumably hidden in the van - for safekeeping!

The box with and without it's outer liner. Given how much larger the die-cast and railway hobbies are than the specific toy soldier branch, this would have had a great appeal to kids one suspects, but I've never even seen the figures loose in a tub somewhere, so it must have been a US (and HK?) exclusive release? Brilliant - Thanks Brian!

More on the distinctive UPS vehicles at Wikipedia

Update 19-12-16 - Brain has added an image of the cut-out packages, with the following note;

"As I said when I sent the pix I'm pretty sure that I saw the same figures and conveyor in the UK which on further thought was a Farm Tractor and trailer, hay bales, conveyor and figures. At the time it was amongst Blue Box toys but it may have been just mixed in as there was only one."

They seem to be printed on the underside of the packing tray for the set?

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.