T is for Two - Marx Brit's . . . from Britain!

Manufactured in the Swansea plant these two from Marx were going to be four, but I've dropped two, and then made them five anyway, below, so it's all gone a bit pear-shaped on the T is for... front! Still, this stuff is only a box tick!

I picked these up a couple of few-weeks ago now as a foursome with two others, going un-bid on feebleBay and probably because they were a bit tatty. But actually the only bad one is the late colonial/Victorian (?) fusilier (?) - always referred to as a Napoleonic when we were kids - who has a quite chewed rifle muzzle. Ironically I think I have a better one in storage along with the kneeling pose.

These are two of the six inch figures and they were photographed with strong daylight, not an issue, but compare the plastic colours to those photographed after dark with all flash . . .

. . . and, as already alluded to; two plus three is actually five, but one of the reasons for bidding on the lot was to get the officer with slightly chewed revolver for a decent comparison shot with Marx's other British Officers with pistols!

Clockwise from 12-o'clock; 25mm (old US 'HO' @ 1:64th) Miniature Masterpiece in soft polyethylene (they were also issued in polystyrene, in which guise they suffer much damage); a re-issue from the 54mm set - he's in a tinny dense polyethylene; a softer original from the same set and the six inch monster man.

The six inch figure in a conversion/variation of the US-sculpted chap with the ammo-box, the two waving guys look similar but are different in several respects.

W is for War-gaming on the Waves

A couple of comments on older vessel posts the other day reminded me I had these in Brian B (Terranova)'s folder (there's lot of good stuff in there, I will try to post more of it), and as we don't have much war gaming stuff on here; it's time to look at this interesting exhibition, which he ran into on a visit to the Grolier Society, where a member had this little display; I will be pulling the biographical details from the wall-cards Brian also kindly photographed.

I know this is the 'Holy Grail' if you happen to be a fan of naval war gaming; Fletcher Pratt's original 1940 wire-bound, manuscript-publishing of the - by then - well play-tested rule set. Illustrated by his wife Inga Pratt throughout, this copy actually carries the bookplate of his close friend John D. Clark.

As well as military and Naval history, Fletcher Pratt (1897-1956) was also one of the early 'pulp' science-fiction writers and Dean of non-fiction at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont (not as odd as it sounds). The Pratt's organised naval war gaming began in 1926, the games being played in their apartment in New York.

The 10th of October issue of Life Magazine in 1938 carried an article "Life Plays the War Game" on the Pratt's and the popularity of the gaming which - as can be seen - had spread to the military - which had bigger floors! The same issue carried an article on the Munich Conference entitled "Hitler listens to Reason", so it wasn't just Chamberlin!

The really interesting thing here, apart from getting across the grandeur of the old Naval Reviews, is; no flat-tops? I think there are 184 vessels, or part-vessels in the shot but nothing which looks like an aircraft carrier? The two long, dark ones toward the back may be, but they look like capital ships/battleships to me?

I love that there's a huge 'NORTH' posted on the mezzanine walkway to remind everyone - at a glance - where they are, and where they are supposed to be sailing/shooting! Note also - civilians roll in the dust; senior naval officer's squat - stiffly!

I have no idea . . . well 'some' idea as to who made the model ships, in that it's probably safe to assume they are Comet? Although the exhibition seems to suggest some were home-made by the Pratt's - highly likely as they 'invented' the genre!

But there were other quantity, lead/whitemetal, model-ship makers; Wiking in Germany have a reasonable list and a Trafalgar in Britain; although I'm not sure if Wiking were that early and my early-photocopy/roneo'd catalogues (possibly from the 1950's) for both all three companies are in storage (they will all end-up on the A-Z pages). Also the Trafalgar lists may be imported Comet or Wiking?

I do know that Comet and Comet-Authenticast produced Naval Vessels in 1:1200th (280+ models representing many more actual vessels - within 'classes'), 1:500th (25-odd US military vessels), and desk-top/promotional models from 1:100th scale to 50-feet long (by commission), so I would imagine that the former (1:1200th)'s what we're looking at in these shots. Indeed - Comet originally supplied models to the US military to use as recognition aids, so the naval ones will almost certainly be Comet.

However, there are always smaller makers and home-casting to consider! Thanks - as always - Terranova, another treat to post.

News, Views Etc...Plastic Warrior No.170

The first true day of Spring! I saw several Brimstones, but there's a chilly evening breeze getting up now; it's almost like living on an islan . . . oh! Well - big one!

Technically a month behind this time; another bumper issue brings us . . .

Articles

* An editorial delivers the potted history of Atlantic's UK-arm and a number of the adverts from the press of the day

* A double-helping of Cherilea begins with Barney Brown's third visit to the early farm animals as he studies the Feeding Horse

* Which is followed promptly by a boxed Cherilea Farm Set from Chris Goodard

* The third part of Adrian Norman's - Scalextric series finds him looking at the TV crew, camera tower and race-starter

* George Nixon digs out old Cereal Offer Ad's from equally-old Eagle comics for Britians Lifeguards (Lifeguard cosmetics?) and Airfix's diminutive 'Combat Group' (Sugar Puffs)

* A Lone Star boxed set of divers is shown from C&T Auction's last auction catalogue

* An old Black and white article on Spanish Conquistador types from Paul Stadinger is resurrected in colour with additional information from Juan Hermida

'What The !&*$?' this quarter is an extended question-fest as;

•  Joe Bellis asks after a Cowboy and Indians (Segal?) and shows a Riding set he thinks may be Malleable Moulding    
• There's a Diver and Indians from Daniel Lepers
• David Pye seeks more info on the Pepsi athletes
• Brain Petrin asks about his mini caricature bandsmen
• Brian Carrick has a Quaker Oat's Quaker, a deer and a Grenadier
• A gondolier in search of a brand is presented by Barney Brown
• Gian Piero Larizza asks after a paratrooper
• And Andre Schell is seeking more on his unmarked, fully-boxed fort

* Peter Evans muses on Cherilea/Hugonnet Elizabethans and Francis Drake's additional pose

* There's a feature on the late John Clarke's Diorama's

* This quarter's three-pager is an insightful piece from Colin Penn on Lone Star's production; specifically in white plastic

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Regular Features

* 'NEWS and VIEWS and other stuff ' covers

• The forthcoming Plastic Warrior show
• GeModels' museum being up for sale
• More on the Toys R Us saga of woe
• Plea-for/details on contributions
• Belgian readers willing to cover Solido
• Cover beg for info.?

* 'We Know Wot' has Daniel Lepers ID'ing Nardi as being responsible for the previous issue's knight's horse

* 'Book Review' is actually Book Reviews with two tomes covered

• A precis of Jürgen R. Schüler's Militärisches Spielzeug aus der DDR by Andreas Dittmann make the book look very interesting
• Alain Thomas's latest work Soldats Plastique, Tome 3 Acedo & JSF is reviewed by the editorial team

* 'Readers Letters' include

• Bob Legget on Daz/Crescent packaging
• A. Pedant waxing lyrical on Elastolin's equine maths
• Owen Hoye with a request for 1:35th Russians to man some kits
• James Peter Young follows up on the Sally Army band sets . . . with a sorry tale of hungry ants
• David Pye gives an Antipodean angle on the same Salvation Army sets
• Andreas Dittman and Daniel Lepers both write in on Koho Knights
• Another letter seemed both political and at odds with the facts!

* 'What's New' covers recent releases from Expeditionary Force

• Napoleonic French Lancers
• Napoleonic French Dragoons
• Napoleonic French Chasseurs
• War of 1812 American Militia (in civil dress)
• War of 1812 Royal Marines
• War of 1812 Highlanders

Plus all the usual readers small-ads and a commercial supplement

Front Cover - shows a couple of unknown - probably French - conquistador figures

Back Cover - Another Atlantic scan

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And - of course - it's just over a month to the best Plastic Toy Soldier Show in the world!

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Contact details, as always, are . . .

Facebook

Blogger

eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com

And they are on Paypal

News, Views etc . . . Running Late and Toy Fair

I've been running around like a blue-arsed fly today (Wednesday - in the rain!) so haven't posted much for tomorrow, but should get something up here in the afternoon at some point, in the meantime, news of a toy-club meet . . .

 . . . the Windsor International Toy Fair - next show is the 5th of May, exactly a month from today, and a week before the Plastic Warrior show, which is still more than a month away - whatever you've read elsewhere!

Car and model vehicle oriented, but there's always lots of plastic to be rummaged for!

A is for Alice in Wonderland III - "Curious'er and Curious'er" said Alice

We'll finish-off today with a more conventional figurine, which being of a human is more of a lifelike representation and less of the cartoon caricatures of the earlier figurines we've seen here today.

This is - I believe - from a larger set of figures (I think I saw a couple of similar ones on evilBay recently), not sure on a maker (possibly after a ceramic model by Goebel or from the Spanish company Palés) and there are no markings on the polystyrene model, which is decorated by airbrush through stencils, maybe originating in Japan?

I photographed all of today's figurines/novelties on Adrian's table ages ago, and wasn't really thinking about size at the time, I think this was a little bigger than the others at about 3½ or 4-inches to the 3-inches of the others, but you may be able to add an inch to all those measurements?

Again, definitely showing the lack of markings on this figure, I'm not suggesting anyone as maker beyond the above vague possibilities, the quality of the face is quite European doll-like in execution, the painting reminiscent of French composition/chalkware, although the gluing of the body to the legs/stand (too substantial to call it a mere base - I feel!) is quite like some of Hong Kong's production, so your guess is as good as mine, or your knowledge - superior!

Added 05-04-18 - It's a watch-stand, seemingly issued under both the US Time and Ingersoll labels - thanks to Matt for the heads-up and there's a link with his comment, Matt has the Alice in Wonderland Blog.

A is for Alice in Wonderland - II - Novelties

The other figure of 'Mr. Chamberlin' was a bit of a giveaway with his arse-written Hong Kong, but heay; it was a bit of a last minutes thing - which reminds me; apologies from any typo's over the Easter break, but I short of panic-loaded 11 posts over two days last week, while the cat's head was exploding - long story I won't bore you with, but suffice to say I learnt kitchen-paper doesn't soak-up much puss [euwww!] and he's fine now, but thinks the collar is an evil alien; out to get him!

Hong Kong 'Nodding-head' novelty, the difference between this and this morning's Marx figure is no greater than the difference between this morning's Marx figure and the Marx figure below.

Having never seen the movie I can't say for sure which of the three is closest to the movie imagining, or why the other two are so far off, I contemplated one of them being a different character, but they all have the price ticket in the top-hat, so are definitely trying to be the same chap!

A gratuitous shot of his feet, I shot this primarily to show it's unmarked (other that the rump-branding), so not necessarily made for Marx even though it looks like the sort of thing they were commissioning in the British colony, as the next piece [probably] ably demonstrates.

Marked clearly on the Dormouse's rump as being from one of the Hong Kong factories/suppliers; this ramp-walker - with the third distinct 'Hatter today - is in a polystyrene plastic and painted in the style of Marx's other HK stuff. Now the mad one has white hair (would have made a better Chamberlin - just not stuck to a dormouse!), but the nose is closer to the swivel-limbed one we looked at earlier.

Yet; he has a very different countenance overall? I'll look-up some movie stills before publishing (if I remember to read this in 'preview'!) and try and work out which is the more accurate, but I suspect the swivel-limbed figure from this, morning is the best likeness, being controlled by Marx in a US (or the Swansea?) factory, the ramp-walker is next closest having some Marx oversight of the contractor and the nodder -  an inaccurate, rushed HK novelty, not that they aren't all novelties - they are!

I rememebered - Marx swivel IS the closest (but the hair's wrong), the Hong Kong one is next, the Marx walker looks nothing like either of the movie characters, but has the closest hair!

A is for Alice in Wonderland - I - Twizzle Town'alikes

Not exactly Spaghetti Trees, I left the 'Hong Kong' on one of their arses for starters and problems with the paint thingy meant I couldn't get the moustache right or turn all the hair grey, but hay-ho, first attempt at an April Fool's, maybe I'll do better next year!

He was - of course - a novelty Mad Hatter from Lois Marx promoting the Disney movie Alice in Wonderland! The resemblance to the Twizzle Town figures from Britians is down to the fact that this type of 'animated flat' goes way back to the days of wood and paper toys, carried to both Marx and Britains through Japanese and German tin-plate.

The one on the right has the body the wrong way round, but shooting them in a hurry at a show I didn't have time to fix it. Also; while I wove a tale around out-workers for the gag, I think it's just a late version, sans paint.

The Mad March Hare, also undecorated and with that chocolate-brown head, looking both perfect for Easter, and more like the Nesquik bunny! You can see the Marx 'disc' on the red body in the right hand image, while the license message acknowledging Disney's property rights is occupying the same spot in the left hand shot.

More views through the looking-glass later.

P is for Papo - 7 - Loose Ends

In my attempts to shoot the comparison shots between the three sizes of knights and pirates I first tried shooting them on one of the glass display-cabinets, but obviously that was not terribly successful due to the transparent nature of the medium - irrespective of the lighting-versus-flash problems mentioned in the first tranche of these reports.

However the shots reveal some of the other stuff on display, of which some weren't to be seen on the video, or in the other posts, so the next three images are a Picasa-clearance which may interest you?

The bits you can see below the toob are all new for this year, while shop-display merchandising is visible in the background. Other loose-ends include . . .

. . . the catalogue scans of all the stuff 'New for 2018' which include 70mm figures of a circus animal trainer, Inuit/Esquimaux and cave-man, additions to the Fairy Tale, Fantasy and Knights lines, new dinosaurs, cetaceans and sharks, horse riders, wild animals and a very useful set of horse-show tools which will have/find many other applications for/with modellers, I'm sure.

Along the bottom row are the new compressed card play-sets/play-forts from Isiploy as supplied exclusively to Papo. You can see - in addition to those highlighted in previous posts - a fairytale house, two jungle sets, a volcano and a stable building for the horse riding stuff.

Some of the Fantasy and Fairytale figures new for 2018, I will trying to get my hands on the Puss in Boots, I think it's a lovely sculpt and every good home should have one!

These are some of the other Mini+ sets in the catalogue; in addition to the full-on Fantasy range, there is a pinky-purpler range which I have been referring to as the fairytale range, this is a non-Disney (refreshing!) look at various recognisable Grimm brothers or H.C. Andersen type characters and here we see the Mini+ offering in that range, titled Enchanted World.

Also illustrated are the full range of Mini+ Dinosaurs, the contents of the farm toob and the two sets of wild/zoo animals, one exclusively African, the other quite 'International'.