B is for Baden Powell's Boy Scout with Battery Torch

And U is for Unknown . . . again!

Just the one picture today, but I think you'll agree: interesting, nevertheless? I actually thought I'd already posted him, but I can't find him on the blog, so apologies if I've already asked about him.

I haven't the faintest idea who made him, when or where . . . well, actually, being the big head the Vichy claim I am, I do have a slight inkling; ironically enough, I think he may be French! But; more likely Danish.

He's a slightly 'soapy' polystyrene or celluloid/phenolic plastic without the heavy smell of the urea-formaldehyde or early celluloid compositions, so I think late 1950's or more likely the 1960's as he's in an advanced, stable polymer. The French were good at that sort of stuff, once they'd got through their crumbling, melting, splitting phases! [a quick coat of plumber's sealant - it seems to have worked for that Belgian figure and it seems to have worked on my sticky Starlux!]

Speaking of Belgium - could he be from there? He also has a lot (more?) in common with Kai Reisler's output in Denmark; they have a similarly posed GI, and cowboy and they're the only one going in the tag-list!? If he is British, I would favour Subbuteo; as the closest figures to him I know of - domestically - are the Subbuteo Beatles? Which might make him a board-game playing piece?

Obviously a Boy Scout or Cub Scout, is he part of a bigger set, or was he a token (jamboree attendance) or fund-raiser of some kind? He has no mark of any kind, and his 'swivel arms' have got a bit loose, being strait plug-ins with no ball or swelling to hold them in. He's approximately 54mm, but that would scale him to 60-odd as he's meant to be a juvenile?

Can anyone shed a little more light on the subject than his torch is able to?

Later the next day . . . Doh! Lucky I only put them in the tag list!

K is for Kioskowce I

If by the end of the article I've managed to sound like I know what I'm talking about here, it's only due to the debt of gratitude I owe to Konrad Lesiek who translated both sides of the boxes and the little insert slip, explaining the social/historical background as he went!

Kioskowce were the Polish equivalent of French Bazar, German Wundertuten, Spanish Sobres our own Lucky Bags or the very smallest size of header-carded, bagged, rack toy.

These 'Miniatures' were issued by Andrzej Kawecki, based in Lódź, in the 1980/90's as the Communist government first relaxed rules on private enterprise and then disappeared into the pages of history following the events of the Autumn of 1989.

You get a little box with a pull-off lid, which is big enough for a small army to hide in! From the colour differences it would seem that there were three small tools to make this set, suggesting a very-small, possibly hand-operated injection machine, one tool for the combat figures, another mould for the prone poses and boat crew, and the last for the boats.

The figures are obviously Airfix piracies and I'll post some comparison shots on the relevant Airfix Blog posts at the same time as this article. Here the 1st version US Marines have been cloned, and to be honest; compared to the equivalent Hong Kong output as carried by Baravelli at one point, these are quite good copies.

The combat poses are leeching the same kind of greasy powder/film that you often see deposited on Matchbox figures.

My other set is also of Airfix piracies; the 2nd version British Infantry, a set which prior to getting these I would have said was one of the few sets NOT to have been copied!

I can't actually remember where I got these, it could have been one of Andy Harfield's shows back around the turn of the century, or even a Plastic Warrior from the Q. Charlotte Hall days, but I suspect it was from PB Toys at Peter's show in Herne about ten years ago? Anyway, Konrad reports that they do come-up on Allegro (a Polish-language feeBay/Craig's List type platform) occasionally, if you want to find a sample yourself.

The packaging states they were made from locally resourced/ recycled materials (the translation including the term 'Ivory' [or bone], which may be a reference to the small 'ivories' made from scraps and off-cuts, such as the little bear we looked at here, a while back?), and in the case of both my examples that recycled-material is a very soft PVC rubber - quite the very best thing to make a rubber-boat out of!

Again, with 50% in 'plain chocolate' brown and 50% in 'milk', the suggestion is that two tools were required for each set. I would also say that the cardboard made in communist Poland was a darn-sight better than the cardboard made in East Germany; which - in my experience - fell apart if you looked at it harshly!

Konrad also explained how under the state collectivism of the post-war, pre-glastnost Poland, the kiosks were all called Ruch, now they have been re-distributed to the private sector and are called many names and he has sent a couple of local examples, I'm sure they will be recognisable to viewers as that pretty-universal convenience-store known variously as corner-shops, drug-stores, newsagents' or tobacconists - kiosko, tabaque . . . 'Spar'!

He added that Kioskowce also included larger figures of local design; probably Centrum flats, PZG and others, without packaging. The insert slip - in one of the otherwise identical boxes - lists other sets being available as follows:

1 - US Infantry

2 - US Marines (above - and now here)

3 - British Infantry (above - and now here)

4 - Japanese Infantry

5 - Medieval Knights

6 - Cowboys & Indians

7 - Napoleonic Period Soldiers

8 - WWI soldiers and

9 - Ancient Romans

While I assume Airfix to be the donor for most; it would be interesting to know what the Napoleonics, WWI and Wild West look like, or if there were other sets?

Finally - Thanks again to Konrad for his help in the preparation of this article. I'll badger him about Spojnia next (their Napoleonics are Esci/Ertl copies) and then we'll look at their output!

T is for Ten-pins and Terrasaurs!

For which spell-check is desperate for me to use Pterosaur! Clever spell-check, but no humorous intellectual, not that I would claim to be eye'ther . . . eei'ther but you know what I mean; these AI algorithms improve with every generation (which according to Moor's Law is not long), but they'll never quite grasp the finer nuances of human idiocy.

Anyway, we're back to rubbers, and as I've had had various 'follow-up's' and 'again's' for erasers in the past I needed another title and its explanation has provided the lead-in paragraphs!

From four-quid to two-quid to a pound, and it's probably been halfway round the planet, maybe twice! Novelty shite . . . in one image, you have all the evidence you need for the potential end of human civilisation, it's now a race between whether we will poison the planet before the weather does for us! House of Holland clearance via TK Maxx.

The reason for my purchasing them - given my above opinion - is that A) they were there already, nothing I could do about that and B) you may remember I showed a bunch of mostly Christmas cracker bowling pins a year or two ago, and while the bulk of them were the same size, there were a couple of others, and in various materials - with more than two being a collection; these have increased the scope of that 'sub-' collection!

In the meantime a far easier to justify set of erasers winged its way to Small Scale World Towers via Brian Berke; Imperial Toys being the ultimate culprit for the supply of this particularly pure stash of addictive substance!

They appeared upon initial inspection to be a better version of the Wilko ones we looked at a while ago, but after studying them I decided they are probably all of the same origin.

They proved impossible to photograph so here are two shots, neither is that colour-true, to be honest, but they are (with the exception of the - always hard to shoot - orange) quite muted pastels anyway.

Wilkinson above and Imperial below, the colour reproduction is a little better but the orange has burnt-out. The differences are numerous, in that the dino's are different colours, the egg is slightly different in its base 'dent' and both the mix of dinosaurs and their dino-poses is different.

However the orange carnivore is both the same shade and the same moulding,the ceratopsians are also identical, the two-each of four colours 'rule' applies and so I think the differences are down to batch/contract, rather than any indication of another maker's copying.

The question is whether Wilko are getting theirs from Imperial, or if that they are independently both going to the same factory gate or shipping agent - these days as likely to be an Alibaba wholesaler's page as any of the old firms?

I might suggest that there's probably an eighth pose to find (maybe more?), and I've posed them with Airfix's Boy the 'dinoheard' from the Tarzan set to give you some idea of how very small they are.

Thanks as always to Brian Berke for adding another piece of the puzzle to the whole, which reminds me; he also sent a couple of Jig Toys which I added to that page last Thursday, nothing new, but interesting colour-way on the helicopter.

B is for Bristol Bloody Missile Crew!

It's not often I get that excited about a figure or bunch of figure's rarity, all this stuff was mass produced, and even these do tent to turn-up from time to time, not just loose; but in unmade or part-made kits, so even they . . . aren't that rare, but still it's nice to find three together, which happen to be the 'missing three'!

I thought we looked at their officer - as an ersatz boat/landing-craft commander - way back at the start of the Blog (but can't find the post/image), these are the other three, issued with a large, box scale (approximately 60mm/1:30?) polystyrene model kit of the RAF's air[field]-defence Bristol (BAC) Bloodhound missile by Frog-Penguin (Triang-Lines subsidiary) and apparently manufactured for them by Poplar Playthings.

I don't know if there is any empirical evidence for the link, but PW have interviewed some of those concerned and they certainly have some of the same 'hallmarks', the flat, baseless feet being an obvious link with the Thomas/Poplar Spacemen, Cowboys & Indians and Romans, the large size and clumsily-casual, or laid-back posing being another link with the latter charioteers, although these guys are chunkier.

Described as being "Accurately detailed from official prints" - referring, presumably, to the missile - the crew figures actually look more like members of Dan Dare's space police than any RAF 'erks I've met.

Picture: Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bristol_Bloodhound_missile.jpg

I remember coming into RAF Wildenrath half a lifetime ago and seeing dozens of Bloodhounds out of the window in batteries of maybe 6, arranged all around the end of the runway and out through the fields to the tree-line, not white, or silver or any of the colour-schemes you see them wearing in both old books and modern museums, but matt green and black, like squat little Dalek combat-stations!

R is for Rey's Speeder

Just a quickie, bought this in one of the discount stores for a pound the other day, another remaindered Mattel Hot Wheels die-cast Star Wars toy from the force awakens.

In the box

Out of the box

Playing with backgrounds to try and make it fly!

That's it, haven't seen the movie, won't until the DVD hits charity shops, ain't gonn'a dig the smaller Hasbro one out (if there was one?) to compare (or not until I've more to make that post) so that's it!

Nice toy though, useful addition to the Micro Machine/Action Fleet . . . err . . . fleet!

S is for Solid Six-Shooters and Sheriffs

Continuing to clear that folder I found with odd Timpo shots in it, we have a few Wild West to clear-out, to which I've added some recent additions.

The top row is another of the shots I took back in 2007 when my 1st digital camera was brand new, so macro and flash were still strangers to me! It's just a look at the different colours Timpo's second version solids came in, with the powder-blue ones being from the later Action Pack boxed sets, the brown possibly Toyway issues (they look too new?) and the red and yellow a bit earlier, but post the painted-period.

The two lower shots were a couple of pairs of Action Pack figures I chucked on feebleBay early in 2009, at 99p each  - I think they sold!

Older figures, newer shots; the solid bandit to the right has lost his bank-box of plunder, I suspect deliberately, but it may have broken-off, they are getting brittle now. He came in the mixed, less than 'junk' lot last year with the Cherilea saloon and Roman stuff, along with the three first versions - from-hollow-cast figures.

Interesting that they follow their metal forbears in having gloss paint, while the 2nd version chap has a matt finish, aping the Britains Herald figures he will have been designed/introduced expressly to combat.

F is for Funny How Things Come Together Sometimes

Or: H is for Henbrandt . . . Again!

I was walking up to the station the other day and a saw a piece of orange plastic in the detritus building up in the rain-channel the local authority gave-up cleaning as soon as they had installed it!

Picking it up (I'm a right old pikey!) I recognised it to be a jumping-toy mechanism and stuffed it in my pocket . . . for the spares box, you understand!

Only to notice a rather mucky blob of green rubber a few days later in the same damp leaf-pile, taking that home too - for a good wash with a toothbrush, it was obvious they went together . . . probably thrown from a passing car by a stroppy infant, or dropped by the occupant of a pram?

Thinking maybe it was a Frogglet from the Clangers, and possibly a freebie from one of these kids magazines, I put it to one side intending to include it in one of the future Christmas novelty round-ups or a [the] Clanger post (which has been in Picasa for a while now!) after shooting off a few pictures for whenever; and thought no more about it, for a week or three.

Then, when I popped into The Entertainer in Basingrad for my occasional look to see if there are any new rack-toys around, or any developments in Star Wars or Micro Machines &etc., I found a whole box of them! 50p each! You'd be mad not to (or less mad than me? Doh!), so I bought one-each of the four I didn't have.

Because we'll probably never return to them, and I quite like them - in my immaturity! - I took too many photographs, so here are a couple more! 

The blue one reminds me of Plug from the Bash Street Kids!

Branded to Henbrandt, and part of a promotional, pocket-money, toy stack/display called Fun Time, they were alongside the usual segmented snakes, yo-yo's, bouncy-balls and so on, all @ 50p per unit.

However, when I went to pay for my four-for-two-quid Jump-up Monsters (for that is what they are called on the receipt), the cashier said "That's one-fifty sir", says I "I think you'll find it should be two, there's four here and they're fifty-pee each?", "No" replies the lad; "They are on offer, it's all three-for-a-pound on that end", "Blimey" says I, "I'll have another look" . . .

. . . returning moments later, to the same till, with three parachuting aliens, each holding an umbrella - as an emergency 'shute - and a book to read on the way down! The three also in Henbrandt 'cellophanes', a quid: bargain!

In the meantime, I had found this further along the same footpath, but definitely a pedestrian's loss as it was where the path is further from the road - maybe a secretive baby is feeding stuff he wants to see on the Blog, to the Blog, by 'accident'!

It too is branded to Henbrandt, and I had seen them, a while ago (but can't remember where, as I never imagined I'd need to know!) in larger bags of 10 or maybe 20 units for a couple- or few-quid as bulk-buy, party favours.

[chant]

♪♫♪ Allll to'getheeer'now - alltogethernow! ♪♫♪

♪♫♪ Allll to'getheeer'now - alltogethernow! ♪♫♪

[up an octave]

♪♫♪ Allll to'getheeer'now - alltogethernow! ♪♫♪

[shout]

♪♫♪ Aaalllllll toooo'geethhh-eeerrrr NOW! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

[repeat until you're sick of it in your head - earworm!]

C is for Combat Cannon

As opposed to a Stay-at-home-and-get-the-tea-on-or-do-some-ironing Cannon!

This was supposed to be part of Rack Toy Month, but due to the vagaries of my budgeting, the fact that RTM overran and that Royal Fail use a bank-holiday Monday as an excuse to do bugger-all for about four days, it didn't arrive until the late posts were publishing and I wasn't near a computer.

I'd been watching it on feeBay for a few weeks (months maybe?) and it had come down in price so it ended-up being a bargain, but had I been flusher it would have been cheaper still . . . and this may be worth noting as a sales technique if you are a seller:

Having reduced the lot (there was another bag included which we'll look at another day!) by a pound after a few re-listings, the seller still didn't sell it (although he would have if I'd been in a better position, but I had insurance to get!), so kept it off evilBay for a few days and then re-listed it with a 10p increase . . . it immediately got two watchers?

When I saw it had been re-listed I grabbed it - having been the only watcher over the previous few weeks! But it makes you think; a steady price-increase might get watchers to strike before it goes up some more? Worth a thought . . . anyway; let's look at it.

On feebleBay it was hard to gauge the figures, I thought they were about 55/60mm and new poses, or new to HK copies of less common US or Euro figures from the 1960/70's. It turned out they are common'ish copies of the old 45/50-mil Monogram (later Revell) GI's, with another pose - see below.

The gun - the real reason for the purchase as I've never seen one before - is a quite crudely manufactured, spring-loaded, shell-firer with a satisfying, clicking, elevation-mechanism noise.

The firing rod can be fitted either way, and due to it's length matching the breach-length rear of the catch-slots, I suspect should be the other way round but this was how it came, and both it and the spring are laid in the breach-cavity, then the two are pinned together and the whole held firm by an ethylene O-ring and the barrel.

One of the shells is a miss-mould . . . or a dum-dum!

One of the 'Unknown' MPC spaceman copies has been ID'd! Or at least attributed to a generic rack-toy and married to some Monogram copies! Maybe the 'dum-dum' is a chemical munition!

Range, at a vague 35% of elevation, is a pretty consistent 'over 3-meters' and at near point-blank will knock-over a Britains Deetail cowboy!

Base-mark on both is a small, neatly-lettered but poorly-stamped, full 'Made in Hong Kong'

How they go in the archive; gun, shells and figures one side of the index card, header-card, bag and staples the other. Both the staples and the shells get their own smaller self-seal bags (I don't use the term 'baggies' - it's baby-talk), of which I only use four sizes across the whole collection, all others (as they come-in) are used to go back out, or given to trader-mates.

The main reason I de-bagged this one was that the staples were so rusted, the card needed a clean/to be protected from them and was going to come loose with handling at some point anyway. The card will get annotation at some point, I just photographed it first!

The staples are kept so that when/if I need/desire to restore the packaging, I can match them with new, clean ones of the same size; feeding them through the same holes and closing them by hand.

T is for Two - Parcels (Follow-up to RTM '17)

So . . . Saturday just gone left two parcels on my doorstep, one from a Mr. Peter Evans of a nearby but apparently somewhat smoky parish, and the other from a Mr. Brian Berke who lives in a big apple!

Both parcels contained donations to the Blog for which I am - as ever - grateful, and while some of the bits will filter-in over time or even be held-over until next year's RTM, two of them are pertinent to the recent Rack Toy Month, so I thought I'd better post them 'as soon as'!

Sent by Peter before I posted them on the Blog, and with no knowledge of the fact I was about to, so an example of fortuitous synergy; having stated I wasn't happy with the New Ray moniker on various figures (11 and 12 in this post and 26 in a subsequent post) being so ascribed elsewhere, I believe these are closer to the actual New Ray and a quick comparison with the figures published here the other day will show these to be a superior material with a smother, glossier finish.

However I'm still to be convinced these are 'they' either! The prone figure especially is not to the same level of detail as New Ray originals, nor do the upright figures have the same chamfered edges to their bases as the originals, but their bases are more substantial than; and the overall quality is better than the ones we looked at the other day, also; they are good copies of the New Ray poses, so another one to add to the unknown's! Thanks again Peter!

Meanwhile also on the doorstep was a load of nice things from Brian among which was this loose policeman, New York, riotous denizens in, for the use of! As I have rather depleted the bloggability of the loose, larger scale HK/China 'unknowns' from the emergency services box I though it's better to post him now; while the others are fresh in our minds.

I think he's a missing pose from the bottom row in the line-up, and also from the Jaru 'Emergency Rescue Police' big bag (seen in red plastic) Brian previously shelfied for us, which leaves Jaru having carried three sets of vaguely/basically 50/54mm police figures in the last ten years or so. Thanks again Brian!