N is for Nuts! Nutcrackers - Part Two; Nutty Kings

The reason Brian B's shelfies were so timely is that earlier that morning I had encountered a huge nutcracker outside the gun shop, and when I say "huge" I mean these guys must be six-foot if they are an inch!

This is he; Brazil Nut! The left hand photo' was taken a few days later after I had worked out what the hell was going on, in the meantime I continued into town and found . . .

. . . another one - Walnut - in the window of the little boutique opposite Boots. Well, the game was afoot Watson! Arriving at my destination to find a bunch of shelfies from Brian was the news that the Gods wanted nutcrackers on the Small Scale World this holiday season.

Now while I may be a dyed-in-the-wool twenty-ninth-day non-evental atheist, with leanings toward the one true lord; The Flying Spaghetti Monster, equally; I'm no fool, and if the Gods want, the Gods get.

By now I was digging a vague memory of a flyer coming through the door a few days earlier, from the depths of my pea-brain, and suspected I would find more, and that one was likely to be found in the main precinct, this one!

Cashew Nut also has all the equipment (to his left) necessary to enable younger nutcracker-hunters to temporarily turn themselves into nutcrackers - bargain! To its right is an identical one (apart from his name; Peanut) which was found in the Public Library the next day!

I then managed to walk past a forth yards from my destination, Macadamia being found at Gina G's ice-cream parlour, in a fetching orange, again second images were taken later. It was a few minutes after this I found the mail from Brian and replied 'Funnily enough I've just....'

I also found that my mate hadn't thrown his flyer in the recycling, so was able to get to the bottom of the whole caboodle, it was a Christmas hunt designed to drive custom into the town, organised by one of the local commercial bodies (Fleet BID), which sadly hasn't saved the sweet shop which will close this weekend I think.

It was also at this point I realised they had different names, and nuts at that, hence going back to some I'd already shot to make sure I had all the names.

I spent the next few days looking fruitlessly for the other five with no luck, but after a new flyer had been acquired (all previous flyers having mysteriously disappeared from both houses (the Gods may want this shit to happen but they don't make it easy for the acolyte!) and partially memorised, I found these two (Chestnut and Pecan) in the dark walking home at the end of last week (15th).

Chestnut and the earlier found Walnut have the joint distinctions of A) being reverse colour-ways of each other and B) not having a same colour twin, the other eight are four pairs of identical twins!

The following Monday got me close to the goal of all ten with Cobnut in the dance studio (I explained to the lady that I wasn't in the market for a pink tutu, but if ever I was; hers would be the emporium I would patronise for the apparel!), while Pine Nut was outside the surf-ski shop.

However . . . I had by this point tried every store in or near the place on the map (see below) where Number two was supposed to be and had asked several of them if they were hiding it, all to no avail, so being me, and on the God's work, fired-off a quick maile-electronique (the French add 'e' to everything!) missive to Fleet BID, muttering darkly about competitions that were impossible to complete and local government corruption, which resulting in a swift, happy reply from (Tracy Shrimpton) explaining that it was in the toy shop.

This Monday (18th) found me right down the back of the toy shop, ticking the last box - Hazelnut - but there's something cynical about placing it at the back of the shop; some of the others took a bit of finding but they were all nameable from the street, except the toy shop one.

And if you think I'm giving the toy shop a hard time for no reason, remember it's the same one that places a giant Playmobile figure outside, in the street, every day!

So the Gods hopefully appeased, the trail followed, the nutty kings found, if they follow this up with the same again next year, and with the Historical Society likely to do another toy exhibition, we seem to be laying down traditional Christmas posts here at Small Scale World, but then Christmas is all about tradition!

K is for Kinderfest

I would imagine that despite eggs really being an Easter thing (why did they chose an egg shape and not a sphere?) there will be a fair number of Kinder eggs dragged from the depths of stockings today, a few triple-packs under the tree as 'little presents' as in; "You've had your big present . . . now what's in this?", so here's a few for those of you not blessed by Ferrero's finest milk and white.

This is a shot of Francesco Ferretti's mostly RP (Res Plastics) kinder toys, and it's a joy to behold, he has sent us lots of closer shots and they will run from tomorrow as a 'Twelve Days of Christmas', one per day, little or no blurb as I can't say more than the pictures show and each picture shows enough to keep you looking for minutes so . . . enjoy!

Another long shot, all these shelves will be seen in the coming days, including most of the all-important 'Steckfiguren' some German collectors get quite excited about!

At the same time ' Jargaba12' has got in touch, he is selling his entire collection of what I call Mocherette (for reasons I will one day get round to telling), and anyone interested can get in touch with him by via me.

As well as the Kinder versions he has (or seems to have) all (certainly; most!) of the earlier versions from Val Peltro and Westair, and later Winter Reproductions and Ancestors of Dover, as well as the Russian-made ones issued a few years ago.

An ideal opportunity to fill gaps or build a decent collection of these figures which are as sought-after as the Steckfiguren, which I would take myself if my budget wasn't so squeesed!

'12 days' from tomorrow.

Happy Christmas all!

N is for Nuts! Nutcrackers - Part One; New York Shelfies

I was literally just starting to collate nutcracker stuff for a foreseen post on their return, re-invention, restoration to prominence - whatever you call the phenomena - on my way to the Internet station (currently down) I use, only to find a bunch of these from Brain, who would send several lots in over the next week or two up to last weekend.

So, things spiraled as they do and we now have three posts which while not covering everything; will give a reasonable account of a set of figural 'things' that/who have been pretty-much absent from the blog - today looking at the wide variation in nutcrackers through Brain's shelfies.

So we start with the nutcracker equivalent of deforms or 'super-deforms'! These have deliberately short legs, short bodies and squidged heads to create short, fat nutcrackers, presumably for specialising in short, fat nuts - hazels?

These are more traditional in proportion, but flarxed-up with sequinned headdress'es, lace trim and fancy codpieces, I am reminded of Fanny the Wonder Dog!

Much more Christmassy; the God of the lollipop-stick on the left (see 'White Rod' - my new purchase - in part three), and clearly MacNutcracker on the right, or is it McNuttcraker, I think a massacre in Inverness is required to sort that out; yes - I listened to Mark Steel the other day!

I seem to recall we've had the camouflaged one before? News, Views, or Brain B last year? I'll have to find the post to add the new 'nutcracker' tag! He's compared to a very traditional drummer-boy one in 'Santa-scarlet', not available from Farrow & Ball . . . yet!

To the right is a fantastic post-modern, minimalist take on the nutcracker, this is almost a bare one, all the basic parts are there, sans hat or bearskin; it's just been given a coat of what looks to be gloss-white. Love it!

Here we see on the right some of the 'super-deforms' apparently attached to the hat of a more conventional nutcracker . . . "Shall I throw the green cannon-bauble of Antioch at the guests now, Mr. Scarramanga?"

While to the left; a priceless version with chefs coming out of their own cakes! The heavier base will allow for some serious leverage . . . Brazils' shouldn't be a problem for them, but it looks like they are powered novelties with little actual strenght? I suspect their lollipops may be real, sugary 'snacks' though!

Hummm . . . designer babe, least said - soonest mended; she doesn't even have the proper mouth!

Larger ones in more traditional layouts, Tyrolean musicians to the left, Bavarian guards types to the right, this is the size for a practical, actually use it for nuts, type!

This guy is looking particularly stern, he's also been clothed in starter-flags, while his hat has a weird Hibernian/Polish cavalry Officer vibe! Also he's unusual for having shoes and socks rather than high boots.

The reason I had started collection info. On these the same morning as Brian sent the first of the shelfies, was because these had all but disappeared by the late 1980's; you found the odd non-working, smaller one with hanger in peoples family collections of tree-decorations, and they were still a staple of tourist shops selling Erzgebirge in Southern Germany or Berlin (there was a lovely store full of this stuff in the Europa Centre down by 'The Zoo', and I remember a whole street of shops selling them in Bad Tölz in the 1970's. But - as far as British (and I suspect; other -) Christmases' are concerned - they had all but vanished.

Yet in the last few years they have multiplied like fungi on a forgotten silage clamp, and there is a tsunami of nutcrackers washing over the retail landscape like . . . err . . . a very big wave...

Now my theory for this is a simple one and I'm open to other hypotheses; namely, after the end of the Cold War (actually still healthily chundering-on in the background!) and reunification of the two Germanys, there was very real poverty in the Eastern portion of Germany and in the Former Czechoslovakia, and as a way of producing both jobs and cash, there was a re-vamping of craft-industries, including the wood-based ones, particularly those of the Erz (or 'ore') Mountains.

As a result of success in those ventures, and a triggering of the nostalgia button of Western consumers, they have caused this current plethora of nutcrackers, there may have been a smaller part played - particularly in the UK - by the likes of Lidl and Aldi shipping in sets of wooden decorations, a possibility backed-up by the apparent popularity of less 'Erzgebirge' wooden decorations using the new lazer-cutting techniques. Fashion says; wood's where it's at man!

Next - The Nutcracker Trail!

C is for Carpentry - Field-carpentry

Bit of a box-ticker today, these have been in the queue since 2012, but they are common knowledge and already to be seen on the web, but with all the connectivity issues the last few days, and a big gap in the queue on the 24th (this is being written PM of the 21st), this si the best I can do at short notice!

When your soldiery aren't building heavy timber crosses . . . oh, no, that's Easter isn't it! The catapult from Atlantic, basically a copy of the old Elastolin siege engine, but more likely a copy of a copy . . . if you know what I mean, in addition to Ougan carrying the Elastolin model, various Italian and French companies seem to have knocked-out copies, and Atlantic just scaled one of them down for their ancient series; even the change from a counter-weight to a rubber-band looped over an eye came from one of the larger clones I think?

I am pretty sure this is an original - in every part - model, with both the heavy yellow rubber-band and the rope-coloured button-tread being 'as supplied' by Atlantic in the original box. The mechanism works well and will fling one of the little plastic rocks about four meters across a flat floor from the level position.

A shot of a couple of complete runners, as with everything Atlantic, they come in various colours, but tent to be kept to a range of realistic 'wood' browns, the same colours also seen throughout the Wild West range.

Another reason these images have been incarcerated in Picasa for so long is that I kept meaning to re-shoot these shots, it's not terribly clear (due to the angles I shot it at to hide extraneous background) but this siege tower (also following it's DNA back through larger piracies to the Hausser model) is moving against a shoe box with its lid on upside-down to play at being a fort!!

With all three of these machines the nightmare for collectors are the little wheel-plugs or wedges which don't stop-in, however hard you push them in, but - due to the nature of polyethylene's properties - tend to pop-out and go AWOL when you aren't looking, and I notice from the above I seem to have lost one after managing to husband 24 of them for the preceding 20 years . . . Doh!

The best kind of siege-engine is the one your enemy happily tows into his city for you, despite the oracle telling him NOT TOO! You deserve the government you get, and the Trojans got one that ended their existence, couldn't happen today . . . could it?

I have a bit of a soft-spot for Trojan Horses (which ought to be called 'Greek Horses'!) and have a half-a-plan to one day get an Action Man horse (not much different from this one in size - a tad bigger maybe?) and paint it in a timber-plank scheme, giving it a twig mane and tail, gold ears and those manic Greek-warship eyes!

The trapdoor is a bit of a 'fail' on this model, it sort-of clips on, but can only be on or off; it doesn't hinge. Being a more unique sculpt, it has less parts than the other two 'wooden-wonders'.

C is for Chevaliers - Les Chevaliers Mini!

I picked these up in a charity shop the other day and recognised them as those announced in Plastic Warrior a while back (issue 163) by Peter Evans in his London Toy Show roundup - 'What's new for 2016'.

Feeling very pleased with myself (99p) I snaffled them home for further investigation - after photographing the suitcase they came in, popping the rivets on the plastic handle-holder and leaving it all in my mates recycling bin - collect responsibly; the planets dying and it's down to us!

As I say; they came in a little tin 'suitcase' (well, you could get quite a few of Action Man's suits in it!) which had obviously lost some packing (probably a blister tray) at some point, and while there are definitely some shields and weapons missing, imagining them laid-out in a tray suggests the figure/horse-count is possibly correct, however trying to sort them into 'two sides' is not so easy or clear, so it may be that the tin contained more, or that they are the part-product/s of more than one set?

The horses are lovely although the lance is a fancy jousting one rather than a plainer, more warlike and likely pointed one, and it's been chewed! The rearing horse is particularly fine but the charging one is good too; I believe they are scale-downs of the 70mm chunkers.

You can see that the level of detail while smoothed-off in the way of PVC has been enhanced with paint to the same quality as say the Starlux knights (which then would go OK with), or higher as you can see from the images.

The figures are designed to both sit in the saddle and walk upon the earth, and look good doing either, while a set of weapons and shield were included, even if - as I suspect - most of them have been lost in the mud of a battlefield.

But checking the PW story, I noticed that mine were lacking the finer details of those figures and re-reading the article it became clear that it was announcing a 56mm range, while the chaps I've picked-up are only 40mm! Indeed at least one of mine is a different paint scheme (red with eagle helm-crest) from one of the blue ones in the PW announce.

I don't know when they came out and whether or not they pre-date or followed the 56mm launch, the tin looked new enough to be less than two years old, but clearly the Papo knights (and other lines?) are available in three sizes.

I've not seen them new, but look out for them if you have the older Elastolin, Marx, Merten or Starlux knights in similar sizes as they will go well together, but don't store them together, PVC (such as these) figures have a tendency to melt polystyrene figures such as the aforementioned four brands, if barracked in the same block!

Stop Press! - It wasn't the PW article I was remembering, it was Shaun's posting of them (much more here) and the subsequent comments from yours-truly over there, which I've just found through Google (nice to know it works!), and they do pre-date the mid-sized issue, they were sell-off in the US as early as January 2015!

T is for Two - Teixido . . . I Think!

Another quick one; I did say I'd lost my mojo to a certain extent, and it's Christmas, things are very much in bimble-mode!

Despite what He-who-makes-it-up-as-he-goes-along, again, has said in the past; I don't often post on Spanish stuff and when I do it's usually either common stuff I know about (sobres or Comansi) or stuff I've been sent, so this post is a bit of a departure as I'm happy to admit I'm 100% sure I'm not sure who made either of them!

But I'm pretty sure by way of supposition (the level of presumption below assumption) that they are Teixido, and a quick perusal of that there Intermerthingey (the Wibbly Wobbly Way) reveals that there's not much known about the company by anyone, even the Spanish Blogs, so obviously they were a minor company to whom stuff is still being attributed?

Anyway we'll have a look at two 'possibles' and anyone who knows more or better is free to add their bit! They were both shot at that show-and-tell I posted stuff from a few years ago (2012).

This is lovely; An Amerindian (Peruvian?) clearly; and in the same PVC rubber as the chap Brian Carrick ID'd - also awhile ago - with similar painting but a better size (closer to 54mm), maroon-red Jaguar-pelt notwithstanding; I'd love to see the rest of the set.

More seasonal this one; he seems to be a shepherd-boy, but whether from a farm-toy range, medieval line or a set of nativity 'Belenes' I can't say - as I don’t know!

Again he's toward the 50-mil bracket, again PVC, but the paint's glossier and peeling (not proper PVC paint). The wire could have been added by a later owner, but I suspect it's original, a lot of Early Spanish stuff has wire added, usually as flag or standard staffs, but weapons, and - as we saw with Jecsan the other day - angel's 'sky-hooks' can be wire too!

That's it, I'm afraid - quick and easy!

28th Dec. - Message over Christmas from Paul Morehead at Plastic's Central; "They are both Pech Hermanos. An Aztec and a pirate with a flag on a wire" - Cheers Paul!

M is for Mucking-About!

These are from the old archive of stuff I shot while working for a dealer years ago, ten years ago in fact!

 Captain Nemo's man faces-off against one of the scarlet-crested baddies! I think the helmets were from Airfix 'Eagle' action figures (or something similar), anyway, they fitted; like I say - mucking-about!

The bridge I posed them on (I was sorting stuff) might be Formtech? It's a roughly detailed lump made from the sort of 'aqueous form-filling foam' you buy in cans to fix holes in the side of your house!

Although you can get it from the craft material suppliers as a mix-at-home goo, it's the same gunk those novelty fake drinks you found in shops called 'But is it Art?' or similar back in the 1970/80's were made from, you know the thing, a real glass overflowing with ever-lasteing beer, that sort of thing.

Some of Formtech's stuff is a bit better finished than this, but I'll add it to the tag-list until I know/hear different.

It's neither fish nor fowl, being scaled (vaguely incised stonework, size of buttresses) for 54mm, but too narrow for more than two figures to pass at a pinch, for which job you'd be unlikely to build such a structure, while although you can get 1:76th scale wagons or light vehicle across, the detailing IS out of scale?

Close-up of the rough detailing, poor finish and basic fettling; with eight buttresses and three arches, you'd make it wide-enough for a bloody farm cart - wouldn't you?

{this post has just taken three hours, two downloads of Firefox (new, then old! But not quite the same old!!) and a lot of swearing, to get posted, I have another 18 to load before the 6th of Jan but no idea if it will happen! Sometimes I hate the Internet, geeks, service providers and everything else! Gurrrrrr.}

News, Views . . . Hiatus!

Lost Wibbly Wobbly Interwebthingy for the last three days, don't know what the problem was but it seems to have fixed itself, however; because of the way it happened I couldn't pop-up the Library with a dongle, I must go and sort out all my eMails, then I'll pop back and hopefully upload some stuff!

In the meantime . . . Tree's up!

News, Views Etc...Plastic Warrior No.169

The issue has been out for a week or so, and if you don't subscribe you may just have time to get a copy before the holiday season, but get your skates on - the PW links are below the main body of the review.

This quarter's delights include . . .

Articles

* Andreas Dittman kicking-off the issue with a look at boxed sets of Dom Plastik landsknechts, which is very useful - helped me ID a halberd, now I just need the figure to hold it!

* Part 2 of Cherilea's plastic animals by Barney Brown finds us studying the larger animals and people

* PL Cuna covers the recent issue of Portuguese and Spanish General Staff from Chintoys

* Echoing recent posts here, Peter Watson inspects an HTI (Halsall) rack-toy set of knights and compares them to their diminutive donors

* A lovely Gulliver set of Brazilian Revolutionary figures, recently offered through an auction-house, is shown in an editorial

* Gerald Edwards returns to Kellogg's and Crescent with an update on medieval cereal premiums

* For Airfix aficionados there is a fascinating piece of previously unknown information on pp21 . . . no . . . subscribe!

* The second part of Adrian Norman's Scalextric articles deals with the 'long box' figure sets in the original painted ethylene series'.

* Alwyn Brice's Elastolin at 40 (part 7 9) is similar to parts one to six eight, only . . . a bit different - Huns now.

* Another editorial piece builds on contributions to illuminate the relationship between Lido and Selcol through the knights (one of whom - in my collection - is currently in possession of my Dom halberd!)

* Peter Evans closes the issue by comparing horse-flesh sandbags and Christopher Columbus; if that sounds more than a little cryptic, you still need to subscribe!

Regulars

* This issue's 'Converters Corner' has Brain Carrick creating a 'forlorn hope' from Marksmen British Grenadiers (ex-Marx) for enlisting in the Seven Year's War, while Claude Hart supplies a nice vignette/diorama of Replicant's smuggler's being apprehended by revenue troopers!

* 'What's New' covers recent releases from:

·         Engineer Basevitch - 70 years of the Soviet Army (actually all late WWII/early Cold War poses, but presumably part of a series)

·         Mars - Ex Lintek Napoleonic figures, ARVN (South Vietnam) forces

·         TSSD - Roman testudo vignette

·         Chintoys - ACW Staff for Union and Confederates

·         Expeditionary Force - French Napoleonic Fusiliers and Grenadiers

·         all available from Steve Weston (Weston Toy Soldiers) now

* There is no room left for 'What The !&*$?' this quarter!

Editorial Bits

* 'NEWS and VIEWS and other stuff ' has news of . . .

·         Games Workshop facing a lawsuit, and not for small potatoes

·         The ongoing Toy 'R Us bankruptcy

·         The availability of the last of the late Geoffrey Ambridge's Lone Star Books

·         Toy logo key-rings

·         And a brief obituary for John Clarke*^†

* 'Readers Letters' is particularly busy this issue with . . .

·         A report on ACOTS 30th annual shindig down-under from James O'Connell

·         Musings on the figures in the Dulux adverts on TV from Norman Nevard

·         More on left-handed figures from Les White

·         Erik Keggings reports on Retro-branded figures which look like a new source of the Poundland/99p Stores 30mm stuff)

·         David Buchanan asks about Britains Trojan moulds

·         Acedo moulding and other re-issues are provided by yours-truly as a follow-up to PW's passim.

·         A Robinson Crusoe from Kinder is provided by way of another follow-up, Daniel Lepers the contributor; also asks about Cherilea horses.

·         Peter Evans recounts an interesting memory of Timpo, concerning the (apparently: ever less rare!) prone type-3 cavalrymen

·         Bob Baker requests Barzo articles

·         Paul Stadinger reports on Barzo news

* Feedback on previous issues 'What The !&*$?', includes contributions from Peter Cole, Daniel Lepers, Jean-Marc de Vion, Erwin Sell, Paul Stadinger and O. Adamsberry; between them identifying Speedwell, JSF, PZG and Heimo's Travels of Gulliver set.

Plus all the usual small-ads

Front Cover (and recipe) will need pun'ishment directed at one P. Evans

Back Cover - An interesting Timpo catalogue scan with Lindberg tie-in

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.

*^† Saddened greatly by the news of John's passing he was a lovely man, he carried the enthusiasm of three, incredibly intelligent and friendly despite treading a rocky road, and his loss is proof of the old adage that 'the best go first'.

We once had a minor disagreement about the contents of certain Monopoly sets (some of us are living right on the edge!), a couple of weeks later he sent me a letter through our mutual friend John Begg (because he didn't have my address and John had been party to the chat), apologising for being slightly wrong, and this wasn't a three-line whip, this was a full, handwritten, page of prose, explaining how he had gone about proving the facts, a REAL letter in the age of the email missives -  like wot peepel rote in the oldun daes!

Truly a charming man; we're the poorer for his passing.

There is a cryptic hint at John's diorama's having been shot by the PW editor so hopefully they will be forthcoming in future issues of Plastic Warrior?