T is for Toy Fair '18 Reports - Minichamps

Paul's Model Art of Aachen trading as Minichamps had a huge catalogue with probably over a  thousand offerings, makes 1970's Corgi or Dinky catalogues look like the leaflet's they were!

But it's a different landscape now, with online sales allowing vast numbers of what are mostly just paint-variations of a few basic castings - a production model you have to add to a collecting model that has field of adult collectors who will be trying to buy all Senna, Schumacher or Hamilton-related or all Ferrari or Beneton-logoed examples or all the 1997-grid teams, across the various manufacturers or scales/materials; no one actively tries to get all the Minichamps, or all the Corgi aeroplanes; the odd IT-millionaire maybe!

However, there were a few figures on show, like the Jada Man Bats (sorry - posts out of order now!), just standing next to their 'wheels', but unlike the Jada sculpts, these are plastic and smaller at 1:43rd scale, or O-gauge compatible; equating to 40mm for the 'average' man.

There was also a sub-line of Valentino Rossi models in various scales and full figurines in resin; a line which was not clear from the catalogue, but seems to offer, or be planning to offer figures in 1:8th (nine/ten inches?), 1:12th (six inch) and 1:43rd scales.

P is for Pull-back Powered Plastic Propeller 'Plane!

Hereafter and henceforth otherwise known as 'My little gay spitplane'

I never did a tag for all these pull-back / push-and-go / flywheel / reverse-spring / self-winding / friction / kinetic motor-equipped toys and it's too late to start one really (there is a tag for wind-ups; 'clockwork'), but there are lots of toys out there with one of several different mechanisms not requiring batteries or a power-lead, and this is one of the newer smaller, yea-verily; even 'itty-bitty' units.

Another Charity shop purchase from the last two weeks, as I have to walk through town every day for Internet at the moment, I tend to do them all a couple of times a week and it's a bit like a car-boot sale where everything is new or clean . . . or both!

This is by Kandy Toys - that West Country lot who have started to feature quite often here at Small Scale World, being another importer of rack-toy generics, novelty toys and 'beach-wear'.

Given that it was probably only a pound, it's quite good really . . . a quick look and you think "A cut-above the usual rack-toy crud", but actually you then realise there is no underside to the wings and under the decoration is a pretty crude moulding.

The attached card insert suggests something vaguely equating to a . . . Hurristang? Pukaracane? Heh-heh! Your guess is as good as mine; and there's what look to be shots of something else on the reverse of the backing-card, looking  a little more like a Hurricane, so there was probably a selection, like the old balsawood, ramin or styro-foam gliders (which are timeless and still found everywhere - one day we'll look at them too!)

However; once you put it together it doesn't look to shabby, definitely carries the lines of a Spitfire well and provided you look down on it from above, you can't see the daft undercarriage or lack of reverse-wing detail. The nose is a bit Mustang and - while I'm no expert - the five-blade propeller is a late war thing, by which time the distinctive pointed, wing-tips had been clipped flat - I think?

I also wonder - if you filled the hollow-underside with card and a little expanding foam, or some sanded-down expanded polystyrene sheet, could you get it to glide . . . with a catapult; I think you might?

The daft thing is someone, somewhere in the Far East went to some effort to ensure the two wing roundel stickers lined-up with the camouflage stencil, only for the person applying them to put them back-to-front on the opposite wings! Speaking of the wing-roundels, they are none-too-accurate either.

But, for, say; garden war-gamers, a box of these would be a cheap way of getting a couple of squadrons airborne, and they are robust enough to take the sort of punishment they might face on the vicar's lawn! The screwdriver did its job admirably, driving the single screw home into the soft ethylene, but I then tried using it to unscrew a die-cast SPG and shredded the soft mild-steel tip, so it's in the recycling bin for Friday with the two blister-trays!

G for Gay, my little spitplane!

Then a couple of few days latter this was spotted in another charity shop for the princely sum of 50p, well; it would be rude not to!

Still in the catalogue as CS90620 Hawker Hurricane, carrying fuselage-code UP ● A and part of the S [for] Showcase line "For the younger collector" (they've got me pegged, clearly!), it's what Corgi euphemistically refer to as FTB size, that is 'Fit The Box'! In this case it equates to about 1:100.

However mine is to a higher standard than the standard S range example and is actually from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Collection boxed set (CC99399), a third version is available in the BoB Fighter Collection (CS90691) with fuselage-code A ● LK with a Spitfire and Messerschmitt, and I'm sure other variations have been issued!

I bet A) it's more than 50p in the high street (although probably not much more!) and B) with no paint-chips; mine's a minter!

T is for Toy Fair '18 Reports - Solido

These are both in the Amerang catalogue as imported, limited editions of a thousand, and a complete departure for Solido, to whom they are credited. Whether that's a thousand units worldwide, or a thousand in/for the UK I don't know, but I suspect the former?

D-Day Cromwell, weathered nicely.

Quadruple 38mm Anti-aircraft AFV

Pz.Kfw. IV Flack-Panzer Whirlwind, with rather leery paint!

They look a bit like both the small range Matchbox imported back in the 1990's and some of the part-work sets issued in recent years, just given new paint, but they aren't clear shots and with moulds for the Italian set of 'up-market' die-casts (Armour Collection?) from the 80's kicking-around and others out there, they could be from anywhere or entirely new sculpts.

Get 'em before they're gone - if they happen, this is a Toy Fair report, not a retail buy!

Solido, via Amerang - 1:72nd scale.

T is for Two - Novelty Figures

Picked-up one of these on my recent trip up to The Smoke, picked the other one up a couple of days later in a charity shop!

And so to Lan'dan Tar'n! Filthy, noisy, place, full of selfish, self-absorbed, shoulder-bargers, glued to their dumb-phones and apparently playing Russian roulette with what appears to be half the vehicular traffic in Western Europe - as it happens, but full of little touristy nick-knack kiosks.

One of which was purveying this little LE'delight and I had to have it! It's too cool for luminary school, and it's a guardsman, so will join the toast-mould cutters & egg-cup, knitted-woolen egg-cosy, bog-brush, clockwork walker, nutcracker et al!

It's by Puckator, who did those nearly-impossible to get out undamaged, resin pirates in plaster blocks, Peter Evans let me have a few years ago!

The downside is that when you press the button you don't just get light in the darkness, you get a tinny rendition of half-a-verse of the Rule Britannia. It sounds like someone coerced a grasshopper to play it on some frayed fishing line, in a biscuit-tin! Still - it could be worse; it could have been the national Anthem!

I don't know about you, whoever you are or wherever you are, but most National Anthems are pretty tedious affairs, one tries to hear as infrequently as possible, especially if one - having been in the forces - has already overdosed on the bloody thing.

It's the one thing I feel sorry for the Royal family about, they get to listen to the same, slow dirge, umpteen times a day, played by amateur bands, rappers, junior-school recorder and triangle 'orchestras', steel bands and foreigners who saw the music for the first time two days previously, or who possess un-tuned instruments (it's on the Internet somewhere!), they get it played on spoons, wash-boards, tea-chest cellos, coloured-water filled milk-bottles, flower-pots and probably - at least once - Imperial Stormtrooper's helmets! They get it acapella from groups of poets, school-dinner ladies, Uncle Tom Cobly an'all.

They must all have been driven slightly insane, or borderline suicidal, by the dreadful tune?

I intend to try disabling that relevant part of the PCB!

This was a nice find, I remember seeing them a couple of Christmases ago in one of those gadget-gift round-up's in the national press, I think they were about £12 plus postage, so finding one for four-quid in a charity shop was a bargain. I think I said a while ago when discussing the dongle-upgrade - I don't mind paying a pound a gigabyte, but more than that - when corporate PR exercises give away 4 or 8Gb data-sticks these days - is madness.

And who can say no to a naughty monkey in a green T-shirt (don't go there; I think I might have, but I think I got away with it! And a jungle hasn't been mentioned . . . Doh!). I like the fact that there's a rubber tag (with a tight-fit) you can slot in the USB hole to keep the two halves together while you're using it.

I scanned the can's wrap-around before it went in the recycling. Imported by Satsuma, and as I said above, was retailing a couple of years ago. I'm after a flash-drive robot I saw a while ago too, I don't know if it's also Satsuma or someone else, but I can see a collection of novelty memory sticks in my future!

Whoops - T is for THREE - Novelty Figures! The Darth Vader LED has been seen here before, but they are now a group, along with the coffin data-stick we've also looked-at previously.

M is for Manageri of Mini Mammals

I mentioned the other day (Henbrandt insect post) the plethora of small-scale animals around and about at the moment and their similarity to each other, I'm going to look at three lots now, one of which we've seen before, but there are several more sets out there.

I think these were a charity-shop bag a while ago, but I can't remember, they are clearly the same 'batch' being all made of a slightly matt or flowery rubberised material, in an orange colour, to which another colour is added by way of detailing!

I quite like the yak thing on the bottom row, and the bear would make a good polar bear with a white paint-job, but most of the rest are poor sculpts, what they all have in common (except the giraffe) is a maximum dimension of 40-to-50mm. The goat is err . . . ahem . . . very male!

 

I then got another big lot of small animals in another charity shop a few months ago, it was a larger lot with some in pairs and some single animals and a few question marks, one of which is the two Hippopotamus sculpts.

They have the same 'China' mark and look to be by the same sculptor, but the mark means nothing as we'll see in a minute, and it would be odd to have two versions in a set which originally seems to have had pairs, especially when there is already a pair of the other hippo sculpt?

The same lot also gave-up these, and there is a mix of scales because the 40 (hyena) to 50mm (wolverine? And otter or mongoose?) rule seems to be being followed! The fox, wolf and panther are quite good sculpting, but the other big cat is a dodgy effort at what I think is meant to be a cheetah?!

Another nice yak-like bovid, a slightly comical camel, two reasonable deer/antelope and another pair - horses; along with a quite good zebra - for its size.

The giraffe is another question-mark being less accurate than some of the others and closer to 60mm, but a bigger question mark hangs over the middle ape (an orang-utan?) as he's a much larger scale, a different style of sculpting and seems to belong to a better range altogether, but he has the same mark as the rest? The furry anteaters are another pairing, but poor decoration.

We then come to a double question-mark; The pair of polar bears are clearly from the 'paired' core-sample, and all three have the same mark, but the creamy-white bear seems to be a baby polar bear from a superior line, while the panda is almost too big for the core-sample set, but probably is from it?

Three different hippo's, you can see the poor, orange polymer one is at the smaller (40mm) end of the spectrum of these mini-mammals, while the other two at at the other end, around 60mm to the 23mm Airfix pilot.

As I say there are other sets out there, I was watching one set for a while, but there were about 4 or 5-each of dozens of animals in large tubs for seven-quid-something and I wasn't willing to pay that sort of money for something I don't need in the collection, no matter how much I may think I want it, also they were in a situation where they couldn't be shelfied, but it will give as an excuse to return to these when I've gathered more information on them!

This is as per the previously seen Henbrandt set/part-set (saves a link-back), I re-shot it after I'd shot the other sides in other images, so it's a re-run! They too are 40-50mm with the exception of the giraffe!

The two sets; Henbrandt and 'Orange' along with one each of the larger sample, it was only when setting this shot up that the slightly smaller size of the orange ones [overall] became noticeable, however their elephant, lion and giraffe are 'up-there' with the others and overall the 40-to-50mm is pretty true.

If you were to get the micrometer out and count all horns and tails it would be 35mm-60mm, but then I'd probably have to kill you for being a pedant and a dick.** I suspect there are animals from maybe four sets above, the Henbrandt, the orange-plastic and two others, with one or two stand-alone's which just happen to have the same mark?

Are these cheesey-dreamies? They don't smell like cheesey-dreamies! Thief! I've been robbed!

Can you help ID any of the above (except the Henbrandt, but even they will have other branding elsewhere!), or tie-down the ape and bear question-marks?

** Given the way the Internet and anti-social media are going I feel I should point out that's an attempt at humour, not a direct threat, although they burned Galileo at the stake for being a tad too accurate and he probably didn't even have a micrometer, so . . .

T is for Two - Novelty Pencil Sharpeners

We like a bit of novelty stuff here at Small Scale World - as you may have noticed! And two additions to the collection have come in over the last week or so, both are pencil sharpeners, but then I wouldn't have put 'pencil sharpeners' in the title-bar if I was going to be showing you cocktail-sticks or bouncy-balls!

This was a charity shop purchase a week and a half ago, and is a die cast moulding, similar to that PVC sculpt from 4M, but that's more coincidence than design, this is a slighter model - with a heavier sword!

The two arms, head and sword are a little loose and wobbly with the body being in two halves once - the whole seems to have been clamped and riveted in one action, from all 7 pieces (including the base), probably under heat, before the/a generic, plastic pencil-sharpener was slotted into place; once the product had cooled down.

Mining polymer beads at an ethylene seam . . . what? Didn't you know? Oh god-yes; they're resting near the surface, up there on the high plateaus in Fantasia Minor, as formally deep-ocean, pre-Cambrian nuggets, now just lying-about in the deserts, regularly revealed by the shifting sands and migrating dunes, the unicorns thrive on them, indeed it's been said the golden-horn evolved purely to dig polyethylene nuggets out and has nothing to do with mating or making flowers bloom at all!! Although, as it's clearly a desert; the flower story is an obvious old-wives-tale.

You may still remember the Massy-Ferguson look-alike I found a couple of years ago, well the same source seems to be responsible for this JCB-likey . . . albeit missing a back-hoe, but aren't we all! The title bar has already revealed it's a pencil sharpener, but it also has a blue, finger-action bucket thing - Ooh Matron!

It also has a plug which A) helps keep the sharpenings in the cab until you want to dump them somewhere, and B) keeps the cab (now with snazzy smoked-glass effect) with the digger if it pops off accidently.

A comparison with the previous find, the tractor came in four colours I think (from memory; red, yellow, green and blue, of which I chose the closest to Massy-Ferguson colours), I suspect the digger does too, but this was the last one in my local Rymans, so I don't know, I do know it was reduced to 99p!

The wheel units and tyres (US, cryptic - tires without getting sleepy) on both models are identical mouldings, so I'm sure the same factory produced both, it's imported (almost certainly from China?) by Strawberry Design & Marketing, who also imported the tractors.

K is for Kaskey Kids

So; following-on from the last post, Brian also sent these other sports related sets from Kaskey Kids, as they are only shelfies of the tubs I'll keep blurb to a minimum, thanks as always to Mr. Berke.

Basketball Guys; this is the one most likely to appeal to a wider audience, as it's a more international sport, like the footballers we looked at last time.

Only three poses plus referee and accessories, I don't get the blue skin at all, and while they are quite well painted, they would benefit from a experts brush, if only to add character to quite smooth or blobby sculpting?

Baseball guys, a more US-centric set, with at least six poses, although only one or two of some. Blue and orange?

Now . . . I wouldn't say I'm a fan of American carry-ball, but A) it's sad to hear of its demise due to the vast amount of brain-damage research-results coming out, coupled with the lack of a real cure or prevention, and B) These are definitely the best of the bunch sculpt-wise as the helmets and distinctive kit (needing better sculpting) make them the most realistic, and they would paint-up something awesome!

Possibly four player poses and referee? I may not be a fan, but of the three sets here, these are the ones I'd buy first, sadly they're not being imported as far as I know? Note that while the basketball and baseball guys are quite poor sculpts the footballers were as well detailed as these, and had better head sculpts than the other two sets.

Website

F is for Football - 4 - Brian's Bits

These days; whenever we do a season, or even a mini-season here at Small Scale World, the contributions of Mr B. Berke are never far away, and the Football mini-season is no exception, this was going to be post number two, but due to this afternoon's post, it's now the closer for the football mini-season, as always; Thank you Brian.

These 'Soccer Championship' rack-toys follow a time-old pattern of large scale football figures; previously Hong Kong, now 'China' - when I worked for a toy dealer we would often get this type of figure in, sometimes with a kicking-action. These don't seem to have a kicking-action, but they are well detailed sculpts (in at least three poses), with swivel-waists and moving arms.

We seem to be looking at a Dutch 'International' with Brazil and Scotland (?) on the card art. It would be interesting to see/know the whole line. It should also be noted that the two on the card-art seem to have had a better decorative regime than the one in the blister, although 'Brazil' seems to be wearing blue-suede loafers! Pester-power shut-'em-up crossed with cake decoration!

Kaskey Kids in the US are behind this tub of Soccer Guys, not the best sculpts and a limited pose range (three players? Plus goal-keeper's and referee). Also it's hard to judge size, but they look like they would go well with either of the Styrene cake-decoration sets we looked at in Part 3, depending on size? Probably the smaller HK ones?

The yellow and blue skin would need paint!

Thought for the Day 31

For those who still think they're better than their neighbour . . .

No matter how rich you become,

how famous or powerful,
when you die the size of your funeral
will still pretty much depend on the weather

- Michael Pritchard

As men we are ALL equal in the presence of death

- Publilius Syrus


Time is an emptied purse in a dead man's hand.

- Unknown

B is for Brucey Bonus!

I'm gonna' keep that alive! I've uploaded the starter for the Airfix 54mm Footballers page, as part pof the mini-season on footballers.

http://airfixfigs.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1971-civil-sportsmen-footballers-sports.html

F is for Football - 3 - O is for Other!

So starting to wind-up the mini-season of footballers with the odds and sods who have come-in over the last seven-or-so years, it's not a priority of mine (sports or football) so it's a mixed bag which only gives a flavour of what's out there, although three theme's are obvious - premiums, cake decorations and board-game playing pieces!

And these probably fall into the former category, semi-flats, seeming a set of three-a-side plus a referee, but that might just be a coincidental happenstance from the make-up of the sample, which I can't remember the origin of but it could have been that Swagman's Daughter feeBay seller with the website, I got lots of interesting stuff from her?

60-mil-ish, I've managed to break the ankles of the white one trying to straighten it! Without a ball they look like they're busy inventing extreme tai-chi!

Now, if you are a completist, or an eclectic collector, or a 'small-scale everything' type (that's "Plastic smalls" to the PSTSM!), or if you spend a lot of time on fleaBay you will have encountered these, in ones & twos probably! They go way back to the 1950's and have been issued under various names and artworks, and are part of a magnetic board-game, interactive 'plaything'.

Originally called Super Soccer 'The Magnetic Football Game' by Balyna, an imprint of Toogood & Jones of Whitstable, Kent; the figures are manipulated by magnetic rods . . . actually - if you want to know more - just Google it, or keep an eye on evilBay as it comes-up quite often, and there's no point my explaining - at length - something I'm not showing you!

The important things to know are that there are slight variations over time in colour of plastic or shirt-paint AND sculpt quality, and the rare ones to find are the goalies, one in white strip with a white base, the other green/green, at only one each per set, they have survived in smaller numbers, although the whole game is only five-a-side.

I know I have a larger sample in storage, but can't remember what colours I have, I think I've got white goalies, but I'm not sure about the green, and I don't have a board/set as it's not my 'thing' at all!

Incidentally; the same Toogood & Jones/Balyna are behind the odd small scale cricketer I showed as unknown once, with the 'ball-receiving' base, he's one of nine fromthe non-magnetic Discbat Cricket Game. While another title for the game was Soccerette.

The larger 'also-rans'! With both an Airfix (far left) and a Wilton (far right) for sizing, these are; from the left - three poorly painted 'old school' Hong Kong cake-decorations, in the style of the larger Wilton/Anniversary House set, but smaller at 50-to-55mm. A pair of gold Total Oil premiums (recentlycovered by in full John Begg in Plastic Warrior magazine - Issue 168); Terry Cooper on the left and Allan Ball.

To the right we see a pair of soft ethylene cake-decorations from the 1970/80's, each of which has a ball. There are other poses and the moulds seem to have gone through several hands over their history, I've quite a lot in storage, so hopefully we'll return to them soonish for a better look at pose, paint, plastic and base variations.

In the centre is a Corinthian 'big head' and to miss-quote a famous footballer and manager; "Do I not like them!", they tend to often come in with large mixed figure lots, I really dislike them and they normally go straight to charity, but this one happened to be around for the photo-shoot. Actually there's another one somewhere (only came-in the other day), green-strip with a dark green base, but someone's chewed his arms off!

Ahh . . . more 'plastic smalls', the small-scale 'also-rans' with an airfix figure on the far left and one of the Balyna (I have no idea if it's supposed to be pronounced Bal-nee-yah, Ball-near, Bally-na or Bally-ner?) second-in from the right as sizers.

The others are - from the left again; Waddington's 30mm Table Soccer player, rather piller-like, they are among the earliest here and conform more to counters than figures, although they have a printed-pitch playing system. Then we have four Italian sourced figures, probably from a board game and donated to the Blog by Dario.

Next are two British board game pieces (MB's 'Pro Soccer'?)**, one of which winged its way here via MoonbaseCentral (thanks guys!) and another pair from Italy (also thanks to Dario) which may be from a board game, or something more akin to the Spanish 'sobre' concept?

The last one has a locating stud, so has been posed on a borrowed Balyna base, he may be from a pierced-board travel-game, or something more like the Balyna (a clone of . . . perhaps?). There are loads of these smallies in storage, so we will look at them again one day!

**I have images of an Australian version with heavier figures (other team in white), it seems to be the common one (there are two on EvilBay today), and both the fact that it's called soccer not football, and Milton Bradley are a US-based parent, means the ID's not 100% fact, as they seem to have left production to local offices; but they are certainly similar.