A is for Awfully Angry Armed Americans Aggressively Attacking Aitch'urrtherr

So to my favourites after the 'Modern Infantry' and along with the AWI; the largest set as far as poses go, although not that many they did at least touch all the bases, with the inclusion of artillerymen. Also doing the listings, just now, I realised they need a re-numbering table like the connoisseur range?

They were never split (in the catalogues) into Union and Confederate, and while there was the whole 'old school' kepi vs. slouch-hat rule going on, it was only in the mind of the painter/wargame if he wanted it to be!

These are the kepi infantry poses; three figures in the standard walking forward stance of so much of Eriksson's output, and you can see they came in various colours over the years, the unpainted five being Norfolk production, the painted ones being older, a couple even coming back from Italy via Darius - a Blog reader.

The Sloch-hat infantry, as far as I know there were only the two - similar - poses (pack or blanket-roll) and I would be interested to know if there was a third plastic pose? Below them is a slouch-hat cavalryman, there is a kepi version listed in the metal range still available, but he's never been listed as having been available in the plastic range?

This chap is himself a late addition, the 'staff officer' being the only cavalryman in the ACW range for 15/20-odd years; and he seems to have been converted from the Napoleonic lancer by Ron Spencer Smith or Peter Johnson rather than Ericsson?

Speaking of 'staff', these are the command and control elements with a slouched-hat officer, kepied junior/field officer or SNCO and a bugler, the 1860's equivalent of the platoon radioman!

Which - closing the 'staff' circle - brings us back to the chap mentioned above. Originally the ACW cavalryman, he is now known as the staff officer and only available in metal, he is a much nicer sculpt than the replacement who is too skinny, almost semi-flat.

What the Napoleonics are missing - gunners! I love the beard on the moving-wheel guy; he wouldn't look out of place in a Hoxton coffee bar, this weekend, having all-day 'brunch' and plotting Remain, or a dot-com start-up!! While the flash on the tip of the swab-guy makes it look like he's weaponised his ramrod - with a pen-knife.

Listing

Mid 1970’s Production (approximately 1974)

Standard Range

American Civil War

- Bag of 24 Cavalry (walking pose suitable also as staff officer)

- Bag of 80 Infantry (12 officers, 6 buglers plus enlisted men)

- Bag of 30 Artillerymen (officers, buglers and gunners)

Early 1980’s Production (approximately 1981?)

Standard Range (1980’s)

American Civil War

- Bag of 8 Cavalry (walking pose suitable also as staff officer)

- Bag of 30 Infantry (officers, buglers plus enlisted men)

- Bag of 30 Artillerymen (officers, buglers and gunners)

- Bag of 2 Cannon (field)

- Bag of 2 Cannon (howitzer)

Move to Norfolk

Plastic Range

American Civil War

P1 - 30 Infantry in Kepi (charging, Running, Advancing)

P2 - 30 Infantry in Slouch-hat (advancing, walking at the ready) Hard Plastic

P3 - 20 Officers and 10 Buglers

P4 - 8 Mounted Staff Officers (original cavalryman sculpt, switched to metal mid-run)

P5 - 8 Cavalrymen Sabres Drawn - Hard Plastic (later; soft plastic, converted from Napoleonic lancer)

P6 - 24 Artillerymen

P7 - 2 Guns (1 each of 2 designs? Can be used as Napoleonic Howitzers and Field-guns)

P8 - 30 Indians

P9 - 30 Frontiersmen

P10 - 4 limber wheels (all one size, smaller than all gun wheels)

Plastic Sample Packs (contents differ)
SP3 - Standard - American Civil War (11 foot, 1 mounted, 1 gun)

Metal Range

Metal Sample Packs (6 foot, 1 mounted)

SM3 - Standard - American Civil War

American Civil War

C1 Infantry in Kepi Advancing

C2 Infantry in Kepi Charging

C3 Infantry in Kepi Running

C4 Infantry in Kepi Standing Firing

C5 Infantry in Kepi Marching

C6 Infantry in Slouch-hat Advancing (became C7a)

C7 Infantry in Slouch-hat with Blanket-roll

C8 Zouave Advancing

C9 Officers (pack of 2)

C10 Bugler

C11 Drummer

C12 Flag Bearer

CC1 Mounted Staff Officer

CC2 Mounted Cavalryman with Sabre Dawn

CC3 Dismounted Cavalryman (ex-AWI backwoodsman)

CR1 Artilleryman (pack of 3)

CR2 Cannon (duplicates as Napoleonic British 9-lbr.)

Metal Additions to ACW Range

P4 - 8 Mounted Staff Officers (originals were plastic)

P11 - 4 Wagon Wheels (2 large, 2 small)

Other Items

P28 - ACW Beginners Pack (270 foot, inc. gunners, 66 mounted, 4 guns, rules, some metal)

Internet/Metal Years

Standard Range

Civil War Range

C1 - Infantry in kepi advancing

C2 - Infantry in kepi charging

C3 - Infantry in kepi running

C4 - Infantry in kepi standing firing

C5 - Infantry in kepi marching

C6 - Infantry in slouch hat marching

C7 - Infantry in slouch hat (with rolled blanket) advancing

C7a - Infantry in slouch hat advancing (with pack - previously C6)

C8 - Infantry in slouch hat standing firing (with pack)

C9 - Infantry in slouch hat standing firing (no pack)

C10 - Zouave advancing (previously C8)

C11 - Officer in kepi (previously 50% of C9)

C12 - Staff Officer standing, sword raised (previously 50% of C9)

C13 - Bugler (previously C10)

C14 - Flag bearer (previously C12)

C15 - Drummer (previously C11)

CC1 - Staff Officer on horse

CC2 - Cavalryman with saber drawn (on horse) Confederate

CC3 - Cavalryman with saber drawn (on horse) Union

CC4 - Dismounted cavalryman (ex-AWI backwoodsman, previously CC3)

CR1 - Artillerymen (pack of 3)

CR2 - Cannon (duplicates as Napoleonic British 9-lbr.)

 Knocked-up between editing and publishing!

I is for I couldn't think of a long alliterative title for these guys!

The nappies; or is it nappys? No matter, it's a silly moniker and if you check back to the magazines and books of the era these appeared in it was firmly and always Napoleonics or 'Waterloo', which negated the chance of the general public viewing you with pity for you juvenility!

These were a smaller 'set' than the AWI or ACW, I don't know why but can have a guess that maybe the period wasn't as popular before Airfix's figures were issued? Although I know there were metal wargames figures of the era, but smaller, maybe it hadn't taken-of in the larger 30mm? Do we blame Charles Grant and his books full of Marlbrough?

The British - There is a pose missing, an advancing Highlander (who is not listed in the modern metal range?), I got a load of these; all semi-painted or started, but no Highlanders, they obviously stayed to fight another day when the owner off-loaded these!*

The French - The first figure is a Grenadier advancing and while I've seen him described as a Highlander (when found in grey) he has the French bayonet of the other two and no pleated kilt/sporran as it's a greatcoat!

Everybody else! I think these are - from top to bottom - Russian, Prussian and Austrian (listed as Bavarians), but with these figures it was all about the paint, perhaps augmented with a blob or two of Plastacine and something called banana oil!

The Cavalry, all two of them; Lancers or Lifeguards! There were hussars but they got moved to the AWI in the early 1990's! It's how Dr. Who gets away with it; history and time-travel are one and the same thing!

While there were no gunners, we've already seen how the catalogues pointed out the uses of the other guns for Napoleonic forces - presumably AWI carriage for France and its allies, ACW for the Brits?

The AWI could also provide earlier French with bicornes/tricornes, while if you needed dismounted Cossacks there was always the backwoodsmen to paint-up; just cut-away the racoon-tails!

Catalogue Listings

Mid 1970’s Production (approximately 1974)

Standard Range

Napoleonic

- Bag of 24 British Lifeguards (trotting)

- Bag of 24 Lancers (galloping)

- Bag of 24 Hussars (charging)

- Bag of 80 Russians/Prussians/Bavarians Infantry (mixed)

- Bag of 80 French Infantry (3 types mixed)

- Bag of 4 Cannon (2 field & 2 howitzer)

Early 1980’s Production (approximately 1981?)

Standard Range (1980’s)

Napoleonic

- Bag of 8 British Lifeguards (trotting)

- Bag of 8 Lancers (galloping)

- Bag of 8 Hussars (charging)

- Bag of 30 Russians/Prussians/Bavarians Infantry (mixed)

- Bag of 30 French Infantry (3 types mixed)

- Bag of 2 Cannon (field)

- Bag of 2 Cannon (howitzer)

Peter Johnson Years

Plastic Range

Napoleonic War

P21 - 30 British Infantry (15 Battalion Company privates, 15 Highlanders advancing, 15 Highlanders firing)

P22 - 30 French Infantry Advancing (10 Grenadiers with greatcoats, 10 without, 10 Fusiliers)

P23 - 30 Mixed Armies Advancing (10 each; Bavarians, Prussians and Russians)

P24 - 8 Cavalry (4 lancers, 4 Lifeguards)

P25 - 2 Guns (6-lbr’s)

Plastic Sample Packs (contents differ)
SP2 - Standard - Napoleonic (8 foot, 2 mounted, 1 gun)
Other Items

P29 - Horse and Musket Rules 1750-1870 (including ACW demonstration game)

Metal Range

Metal Sample Packs (6 foot, 1 mounted)

SM4 - Napoleonic

Internet/Metal Years

Weren't listed for a while, now found here, sans Highlander advancing.

*If anyone would like to swap a handful of plastic Advancing Highlanders (if they existed?) for either of the other two poses, that would be brilliant - any colour received, you get red . . . with a bit of paint!

L is for Lose-ends

Commonly you would save the lose-ends for the last post in a series, but the lose-ends with Spencer Smith (as opposed to the question marks which litter each post anyway including this one!) are clear; combat and ceremonials.

Starting with the ceremonials and we have err . . . the one pose! It's a nice pose, I'm not sure it was done with Holgar Eriksson's touch, but it may have been? Standing at 'Royal Salute - Present Arms' it may have had the ulterior motive of an 'in' to the tourist trade, but I don't think it ever took-off as such, however a bag of guards was in the lists for most of the plastic years, both from Camberley and Norfolk.

Their real use is for spectacle, line-up a few dozen painted with scarlet jackets and black top n' tails; they would look good . . . I can imagine . . . and err . . . well . . . that's it really; there's little to say about one pose when you have photographs to boot!

And look! Here's one with the equivalent Airfix pose . . . err . . . Did I say they were 30mm? Well - They are 30-milimeters! . . . Does anyone else have anything to add? . . . No?

Early 1980’s Production (approximately 1981?)

Standard Range (1980’s)

- Bag of 30 Grenadier Guards (ceremonial - at ‘Royal Salute/Present Arms’)

Norfolk Years

P27 - 30 Modern British Grenadiers in Full Dress Standing at the “Present”

Not much in the catalogues either!

These were covered here years ago, and it's a poor shot of a few scraps that have come-in over the last few years so I'll only repeat the basics to box-tick.

The sculpts are from Holgar Eriksson, being poses recognisable from various ranges - SAE, Tradition and the Comet's copied by that Argentine outfit Birmania and they actually pre-date the guardsmen above, being advertised by Spencer Smith quite early.

There was a small re-issue of these toward the end of the plastic era, although I'm not sure when (late 1990's?), they are in the shiny grey plastic of a lot of that era's stuff, and have striations or machine-marks on the bases making them easy to separate from the earlier figures, especially the grey ones! They weren't listed at the time?

Mid 1970’s Production (approximately 1974)

Standard Range

Modern Army

- Bag of 80 Infantry (assorted officers, riflemen, mortar gunners, machine gunners etc., etc.)

Early 1980’s Production (approximately 1981?)

Standard Range (1980’s)

Modern Army

- Bag of 30 Modern Infantry

Internet/Metal Years

[Unlisted but available?]

Spencer Smith – Combat Infantry Poses, 30mm range

Generic US M1/NATO helmet, 1950/60’s

- Officer, running, waving, taking pistol out of holster

- Kneeling mortar loader, with bomb, loading

- Kneeling MG No.1, firing

- Kneeling mortar/MG No.2, with binoculars

- Kneeling, Bazooka No.1

- Kneeling, Bazooka No.2, with round, loading

- Kneeling with shell, medium (60mm/25lbr type)

- Standing with shell, large (100/120mm type

- Throwing grenade, SMG

- Standing ready, ammo box and rifle ‘easy’ [smooth base or finger-print base]

- Running, bayonet fitted to rifle, right foot raised high behind

- Advancing, bayonet fitted to rifle, both feet on the ground

- Advancing, SMG

British Mk I-II/American ‘Brodie’ Helmet

- Advancing, Flame-thrower (double-tank type)

- Kneeling, firing rifle

- Kneeling, loading bomb in 2-inch/51mm ‘knee’ or trench mortar

Equipment

- Machine-gun (Hotchkiss?)

- Infantry-mortar (Generic 80mm/3 Inch)

Colours – so far identified

Erwinwatch - Amscan on eBay!

Or P is for Pull the other one; it's got bells on and plays a c-sharp Colonel Bogey in double-time!

While it's heartening to see that [over] a year's-worth of occasional Bendy Toy posts here at Small Scale World has piqued the interest of the PSTSM; I suspect the fool has just been desperately Google'ing 'Amscan' for the last few days, and that indeed; Google is probably too far from his preferred source of not so empirical evidence - feebleBay!

This appeared the other day on that den of plagiarist-iniquity Forum de la whatsit (I would link - but it's locked).

Only; if you follow the link he's provided by way of 'evidence', it's clear that the figure isn't "...by Amscan" but: FOR Amscan! Too stupid for words . . .

. . . they (Amscan) were (and mostly still are) a workaday importer, like a hundred others, they carry paper plates, cake decorations, corn-cob irons, tooth picks, party hats whatever 'novelties' they can market, whenever they see them going cheap, and have done for years, decades even! Toys are a minor part of their oeuvre, and have always been - confined to the sorts of cake decorations, party picks and novelties you find being carried by a dozen other brands.

And while they do have production facilities (all in the US it seems), this was made in the - then - still British Colony - of Hong Kong (touchy subject this close to armed-insurrection day, I'm sure! It's a joke; you humourless gits!) at a time when Amscan probably didn't have production facilities anywhere? They certainly weren't advertising them 10 years ago when I first found them on-line.

Here's how it works - Erwin sees several and makes five . . . no; that was the other day's tedious lecture . . . this is how it works - the manufacturer is not necessarily the person who made the item; it is the person taking responsibility for the item - as a finished item.

In law, that person is called the 'Economic Operator', the economic operator might be Hasbro, 'he' takes responsibility for the Chunk of polymer shite 'he' has had manufactured for 'him' in a factory in Thailand which also makes polymer shite for Hornby Hobbies; another economic operator.

However; the above only applies to something that is marked Hasbro or Hornby despite coming from a Kader plant, or something marked Guiterman of London on the box when it comes from Lucky Toys (a much delayed post - still in the pipeline!), whereas, the bendy toy is marked 'for Amscan' and Bronco!

He's seen a four-looking-five and rushed-off to 'prove' his five right, without even reading the other foot! Because he's making it up as he goes along again (or - on this occasion - desperately trying to make the undersized hat fit), and the evidence of our own eyes tells us so.

But in his need to be believed rather than learn, he still ticks all the boxes

• Makes five from two-plus-two . . . oh! The eBay seller says it's Amscan so it must be!
• '...other stamped...' when did you last see an (or any) other Amscan bendy-toy? Future readers of his comment will think they're all over the place - the hobby's knee-deep in Amscan-marked bendy-toys, huh! Ironically with these Popeye and Olive Oyle's it does seem to be!
• Soon-to-be-dead eBay link (the other bonus to using evilBay links for evidence is that in six months the link will be dead, but the post will always look like you must have known what you were talking about!)
• The criticism of the other day was over ethylene rack-toys from Hing Fat (themselves; pirates of better figures) but he's smoke-&-mirrored it to 1970's vinyl!

Just because it says Amscan, that proves . . . nothing! Amscan weren't and aren't a dedicated or volume maker of figures, nor of toys in general . . . or even a maker of garden or household products (the bulk of their inventory), they are importers, jobbers, shippers, bottom-feeders; they are suppliers of cheap goods and novelties to the discount-store chains, supermarkets and' independents'; they are wholesalers, ordering/commissioning contract-manufactured goods and re-packing generic products from all over the Far East.

Probably also getting/supplying some stuff from/to others in the US or Europe quid-pro-quo; Jaru for instance supply (or claim to supply) a lot of the other wholesalers, I bet they've provided a few HK cheepies to or worked with Amscan over the years, splitting the shipping-costs; but it's still HK/China-made, generic production.

Yes it is Amscan for the purposes of listing in your files, but it's not made by Amscan, and especially not within the context of the Hing Fat / 'DGN' bollocks a he wants it to be, so it proves nothing.

The Bride & Groom fairy-cake spikes/tooth-pick which were around a few years ago were carried by Amscan, Halsall, Culpitt and probably others - SSCO? Grandmother Stovers? There are hundreds of these guys, big and small, they don't manufacture this crap, they order and ship.

There were two issues of both Popeye and Olive Oyle - with foot-sole marking differences - the first release seemingly separate in card holders, the second had both figures in a tin of spinach marked '© 1979 King Features Syndicate, Inc      Made in Hong Kong Exclusively for Amscan, Inc Harrison New York 10528     Item Number 44008'

The fact that Bronco have placed their name on the other foot suggests (yes Erwin - I'm using the empirical evidence you've provided to 'assume'!) that this is just such a case of 'Joint Venture' or joint endeavor, in which both companies are allowing themselves to be seen as economic operators ('partners' in the lingo of the era!).

All guesswork, but as a scenario; in the mid-late 70's bendy toys are doing well; lots of rack toy generics and bigger names like Marx (Disney) and Mego (Planet of the Apes) have them, Amscan wants a piece of the action at the lower-end of the price scale, Bronco can deliver, Amscan takes the financial hit on a licence in the US (King Features), Bronco make them - taking the materials/production-costs upfront - and they both 'go halves' on a shipping agent?

Because it's 'made exclusively for...', no one else can buy them, so there are no unmarked generics, or other marked examples, as is often the case with Amscan's novelties -the contract for manufacture disallowing that.

As to Bronco? Long gone I fear, they seem to have manufactured pop-up puppets for Kohner Brothers, East Patterson, New Jersey with similar "Made in Hong Kong for..." marking and may have been involved with a farm-sales premium for Kernel Renk's seed corn?

While the jibe about colonialism above has a point; the reason Amscan have a strong presence here in the UK may well have to do with the fact that at the time all the intellectual property registrations in HK, were held in London (as Louis Marx found out during the whole Bild Lilly / Gina / Barbie saga) and no, I'm not saying it was because of the Popeye, nor even intellectual properties for certain - but it's a possibility.

Alternately - and because I can offer up no suggestions for the 'CD', there was also the phenomena of 'pseudo manufacturers' - where US marketing (jobbing) outfits would contract-out the manufacture of a toy they (in this case it would be Amscan) had developed (by getting the licence! Bendy toys were a reality already) to a made-up name 'brand' factory (in this case it would be Bronco) which was - in reality - an other-named factory.

There was one called Creative Designs International (with a Marvin Greenberg behind it) which would fit nicely, but they were sold to Jakks Pacific in 2006 for 115-million American squids (which are about .7 of a normal squid - it was .65 of a squid a year ago which is worrying!), so they aren't it, but with 1000 toy makers in HK in 1970, there may be one to fit the CD-bill

But I stress I'm stretching-it as a footnote here, an idea for the CD, not a serious theory - no evidence! The CD could be a production code or mould-tool number . . . 'contract developer'? Developed? And there was Chan Dong-song of Herald Holdings . . . it's another CD!

Co-incidentally there will be an Amscan post kicking-off 'Rack Toy Month' shortly, held-over from last year - detail light / image heavy!

Clever try, but rush-job, very poor. Still I'm sure 'The Rock' will appreciate this latest piece of making-it-up-as-you-go-along and 'Limp Dick' can add Amscan to 'The' lists!

΅΅⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞____◌●◌___⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞΅΅

Now, first - that's a tedious post with little for the majority of you visiting today - sorry about that, not even I like a post of this type; all the corporate stuff is meant to go on the A-Z Blogs.

Secondly, one reads his little two-liner as its pleading 'they did . . . look?' and are tempted to feel sorry for him; that horrid Hugh constantly banging-on, being nasty to Erwin.

But one has to remember that it's only a couple of weeks since him and his puppet-master were ripping into my Fontanini posts twice, complaining that I hadn't researched Elastolin properly - in a Fontanini post! Getting excited about Marx sculptors (Marx was known in Hong Kong as the 'supreme knock-off artist' and Mr. Lemmon's figures are 'after' Simonetti, not the other way round) then talking bollocks about Airfix and hiding the evidence.

The real reason for having a .com I guess; I know I can't edit comments once they're posted! I can't even edit my own, let alone a visitor's, but no such problems at Stad's Stuff Dot Com! Have you read his Commonwealth bit this weekend? He keeps denying his shadowing of me, even as he makes it obvious - risible!

The fact is; they will get away with what they can, when they can, and like a drunk who starts a fight with a couple of sober guys, they don't know when to stay down, despite the fact that they keeps getting hit. eBay is Erwin's primary research-tool for fucks sake!

As no one else is 'having a word' I will continue to, whether it takes another six months or another six years (I'm quietly betting on somewhat less than five!), because of the December 17th nonsense and the crap that led up to it. More coming.

And because this post is a bit shit, here's some small scale on the HK Blog, and a 'rush-job' or 'page-holder' on theA-Z Blog (no company history!).

΅΅⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞____◌●◌___⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞⁞΅΅

From the 'web; I won't bore you with links; it's all European Union stuff with no pictures!

An Own Brand Labeller (OBL) purchases a finished (or component parts of a) Toy from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), which he then places on the market under his own name or trade mark (brand label).

This Own Brand Labeller may not be the person who actually designs, manufactures, packages or labels the Toy.

This economic operator, the Own Brand Labeller, meets the definition of manufacturer as set out in the CE-marking Directives. Own Brand Labeller or Private Labeller are therefore considered as the legal Manufacturer.

Erwinwatch - Plagiarism

So, you may recall that back in October of last year, I suggested that when he's not making it up he goes along, Erwin is just plagiarising other people. I wouldn't have said it if it wasn't true, and while I think I gave examples at the time, since then it's become clearer that he loves a bit of copying!

On the 8th of July last year he was off to his favourite platform for straight-out plagiarism - Forum Gratuit de 1:32; although recent pontification on Stad's Stuff has involved the wholesale copying - and some dodgy translations - of recently published Italian works, he's been loading the Bable-fish processed material on FG1:32 just as keenly; where he started a thread on Rojas e Malaret with the words . . .

"I will do small historical recount of this figures ,makers and else ." (note the 'and else' again, from the wholly defamatory, slanderous 'quote' of me on Paul Stadinger's 17th December 2016 post) and "Base and extracted from various Spaniards blogs and friends from Spain that had help me."

Wow! You might think; such an unusual company, and this guy no one had heard of 18-months earlier is going to give us the benefit of his wisdom - and that of his friends from Spain? Fantastic!

Except, if you've been following the Erwin saga, you will know by now that it's not going to end well.

The alarm-bells ring as soon as you see that he's mentioned "friends from Spain" after the "extracted from various Spaniards blogs", when you then realise he's not going to credit either the extracted blogs or his friends by name - but take any praise on his own sturdy shoulders - the scene is set for an act of the worst plagiarism the hobby has ever seen, and I'm not being hyperbolic.

I don't know, actually - his getting away with photographing a whole German-figure specialist-guide on the same forum comes a close second! For another day.

No - what his post actually consists of is the relevant information and images from ONE blog, no other blogs have contributed, Spanish or otherwise; no other 'friends' - Spanish or otherwise - have contributed.

He has stolen the work of Jose Ignacio Alfonso, author of http://grandesbatallasdelmundo.blogspot.com  (GBM - Great Battles of the World), a blog which went on-line the same month I started blogging and where you will find all-original research, presented in real time, as Mr. Alfonso discovered it. All the connections between Rojas/GBM and Waddington's, Elastolin and others, all the versions of all the games, all the accessory sets, all the figure versions and variants, the boxes, rules - everything; including the museum exhibitions mounted by Mr. Alfonso.

Don't believe me? Won't believe that Erwin Sell would do such a thing? Or can't believe that the moderators/Administrators of Forum Gratuit 1:32 would let him?

Let's have a look;

Using screencaptures, which are an acceptable reference tool vis-à-vis research, providing you credit the source - on the left of each collage is the Erwin image taken from a locked forum so links are pointless; they won't open! On the right is the image taken from the Blog linked to in the previous paragraph, which I recommend you to 'bookmark' if you have (or are likely to have) any interest in the subject.

"J'ai retrouvé ceci dans ma documentation"

says 'The Rock'! who now owes me another 10 images!

"J'ai trouvé ça sur le net"

says Th'iery B'astard!

"j'avais pourtant cette photo depuis quelques temps"

says Grande-turd Oudure

He even copies them in the same order in which they appear on the Blog he's stealing them from! Priceless!

Now, in Erwin's defence (WTF!???), I have an wider point to make in this post and while he stole 27 images and all his "small historical recount" information from Grandes Batallas del Mundo someone called 'GTO' (Grande-Turd Ordure?) has since stolen another 29 and put them on the same thread! That's 56 images stolen from one original Blog; while the 'administrators' . . . don't!

As well as the aforementioned thefts, there are on Forum Gratuit 1:32 literally reams of stuff taken from all over the place, from books and magazines in copyright, websites and Blogs including my own.

One guy, wanting a bit of fame for Hong Kong swoppets, photographed his ONE figure, then just took all the images from all my Airfix Blog pages he could find them on! It wasn't his post; it was my post, I just didn't know anything about it! Oh look - It's 'GTO' again.

Another guy, in trying to escape the charge of plagiarism, copied a Figuren Magazin web-page into a rich-text editor, printed it out in full colour, scanned the sheet of paper back on to his PC as a .jpg and then uploaded that image to FG1:32!

Dude; it doesn't matter how complicated you make arriving at the final image - it's still plagiarised!

It gets worse, people connected with the forum but having a web-presence outside of it (Mr. Frowny In-need-of-the-little-blue-pills Hussar), take and reuse those images, crediting not the original author, but FG1:32!

If you want to know about Rojas e Malaret? Check-out http://grandesbatallasdelmundo.blogspot.com it was one of the first Blogs I added to my Blog link-list, and as one of the moderators on FG1:32 was an early correspondent, there's no way they can pretend they don't know of its existence, nor can they pretend other things are out of copyright, or legitimately on their forum.

One has to ask why the rest of us bother with original research, original images or original copy, if it's all going to be stolen by the plagiarist-fuckers at Forum Gratuit?

Yet - if we didn't bother making the effort - there'd be nothing for the plagiarist-fuckers at Forum Gratuit to steal! They are quite literally - in our dust.