News Views etc . . . Shows & Toy Fairs Forthcoming This Week

I will prepare pages for both shows/fairs and Auctions, as it takes a surprising amount of time to gather all this together, and it makes sense to keep it all in one place, duplicating each promoter's entry every time will become a fag! Forthcoming over the next week or so are;

Saturday 9th June 2018

Maidstone Vintage Toy Fair - Maidstone

Lockmedow Market Hall & Leisure Complex, Barker Road (Hart Street entrance), Maidstone, ME16 8LW

Tel. - 01622 298 159

Mob. - 01732 840 787

09:00 - 15:00hrs

Admission £2.50p, park & ride, pay and display parking, refreshments

Ray Heard Train & Toy Fairs - Exeter

Matford Centre, Matford Park Road, Exeter, EX2 8FD

Tel. - 01823 48 00 97

10:00 - 15:30hrs

Admission £2, free parking, refreshments

Tony Oaks Toy Fairs - Ludlow Toy & Train Collector's Fair

Ludlow Racecourse, Bromfield, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 2BT

Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

10:30 - 14:00hrs

Admission £2, free parking

Malcolm Townsend - Nottingham Toy Fair

Mob. - 07951 072 790

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Sunday 10th June 2018

Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'Macron'

The Premier Suite, Macron Stadium, Bolton, Lancashire, BL6 6SF

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

Admission £3.50 (early-bird £7), OAP's £3, Children £1, free parking

Eastbourne Toy & Model Collectors Fair

East Dean Village Hall, East Dean, East Sussex, BN20 0DR

Tel. - 01323 899 879

Free Parking, refreshments, admission £1.50, under-12's free, just-off the main A259

SRP Toyfairs - Rayleigh

Sweyne Park School, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 9BZ

Web. - www.srptoyfairs1.co.uk

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Steven Clements Fairs - Devizes

Corn Exchange, Market Place, SN10 1HS

eMail: clementfairs@aol.com

Tel. - 01380 725 322

Mob. - 07958 101 891

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Free parking, café

International

Chris Dyer Fairs - Dublin Toy & Train Fair

(good venue for die-cast plunder I'm told)

The Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan Road, Dublin, Eire

Admission £4

Just off N11 trunk road

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Next week

Tuesday 12th June

Steven Clements Fairs - Hook Evening Fair

Hook Community Centre, Hook, Hampshire, RG27 9NN (Near Basingrad!)

Tel. - 01380 725 322

Mob. - 07958 101 891

eMail: clementfairs@aol.com

18:30 - 21:30hrs

New venue, free parking

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Thursday 14th June

Joe Lock - Theydon Bois Evening Fair

Village Hall, Coppice Row, Theydon Bois, Essex, CM16 7ER

Mob. - 07866 641 215

19:00-21:00hrs

Admission £1

Any show-promotors or venues wishing to be listed here or on a planned [near] future 'Show Dates' page should contact me on the eMail found down the left hand side of the homepage.

News, views Etc . . . Airfix Blog

I've added the above images to the relevant posts on the Airfix Blog in the last few days and they can be found here;

Early Bergan-Beton mounted mouldings (and dogs)

Airfix and/or similar flats

Airfix set S4 - HO-OO Farm

P is for Pop-Picking All Time Top Five Favorites of All Time Top Five Mates!

But sadly Lord Bachmann, the Right Honourable Turner or Noble Overdrive won't be putting-in an appearance! Being; my five fave' hits of this year's PW show, closing the show-reports/plunder-posts for now.

This sat on Adrian's stall until the hall was nearly empty, unloved and unwanted, now . . .  it is damaged and has a replacement spear . . . but it's already one of the top-ten figures in my entire collection - and bear in mind; I have all eight tiny Trojans - twice!

It’s a French-made Clairet Greek Hoplite and to be honest the replacement spear - for which the hand has been drilled - only enhances a superb sculpt, the undamaged original is furnished with some double-barbed stick which looks like it was borrowed from an Esquimaux who previously used it to catch seals! This one though, is about to ruin a Persian's afternoon - forever!

This is a beautiful figure . . . isn't it? Stunning! Best of show.

Who knows? A blow-moulded, semi-flat, celluloid Indian, clearly removed from a larger piece; possibly a decorative picture or mirror-frame? I think it may be pre- or between-the-wars rather than a post-war piece?

As well as the cut-mark/hole at the back of the stump where a backing was, he has also been removed from something below his feet, the hole being neatly covered-over with a couple of wafer-thin slices of ivory or bone, previously board-game counters or tiddlywinks, which only raises the question, why wasn't the damage behind similarly patched?

Nothing too exciting, an Elastolin figure for the neighbouring Austrian market, where the bought-out Tipple-Topple's brand-mark was retained for continuity, or to appease the locals - stop them starting another war! The seller had several poses, but I chose this as an iconic example.

Could be nothing, could be something? Wintershilfswerke (WHW) maybe, or 'from hollow-cast'? The white trousers rather rule out British? He's a glassy or brittle polystyrene, semi-flat, or - at least - somewhat sculpted in one plane and a ceremonial from somewhere? 50/52-mil? I like him!

Really pleased - but a bit gutted. I posted this along with a kneeling firer last year having shot them at the show. This year I managed to get this one, but the kneeling figure - seemingly - had already been bought by someone else! Although the kneeling one had a silly smile and a bent barrel, so I'm happy with this one really.  An Argentine (or 'believed to be Argentinian') copy in polyethylene of a Lineol composition-made, WWI late-type German Infantryman.

Smine . . . sorll'myne!

S is for Six of the Best

The bulk of the show plunder has been sorted and put away, and while some of it will be seen again - in closer detail - soon, some of it may not be seen again for years! While I was sorting it I photographed those things that perticularly cought my eye or imagination, later we'll look at a 'top five' figures, these both figural or not are the also-rans, or the other half of a top ten plus consolation!

I bought this early British bath toy from Steve Vickers (who I think trades under the same name on eBay), like divers or parachutists, these small submarines are becoming a 'side-bar' collection of their own, and as we've recently had a quick round-up/recap on them; if I don't show it now it might be ages before it's seen again.

Totally unmarked and with a semi-transparent upper hull/deck/conning-tower in what can only be called cherryaide-red, lower hull in a charcoal grey-brown and photographed on a mirror to take advantage of the flat bottom; I once saw the Indian Ocean - as far as the horizon - this still, flat and mirror-like.

Adrian Little had put this aside for me, it's about N-Gauge compatible (maybe a little bigger - 1:100th?), and is marked nicely 'Lemco No. ML 75', all wheels go round and I think Adrien thought it was Scandinavian (where there is a Lemeco copying larger die-casts), or might be? I can't find anything about a Lemco or a Lem Co., so it may be a tool-engravers typo? But isn't it a dinky little thing?

A bit of a cheat as three of them are extant (in the collection) from one or two years ago!

As I started saying on Tuesday, Mike Harding had sold me three, he thought last year, I think two years ago? Anyway, I was chatting with him toward the end of the show and saw he had some more, "You have some more Gem skateboarders!" I said, because there's nothing like stating the obvious! "Yes..." he said, "...you had a couple last year didn't you?" . . . "Three, I had three but wasn't it two years ago?..." I replied - yes; this anecdote is in danger of becoming wheels within wheels and disappearing up its own fundament!

"...But you've got new colours?" I continued, and began wracking my brains to remember which colours I already had, luckily I'd only looked at them a few weeks earlier when I had the box out for something else (footballers and over-moulding posts - proper discovery!), and I knew there were only two of the 'flame' colours and couldn't picture the yellow as clearly - in my mind - as the green so I took a punt on already having red, orange and green and I knew whichever 'flames' I had were in rainbow-sequence and yellow would lead to green which I knew couldn't be the case - Heay, this is how Aspergics work!

Which all turned out to be good guesstimation as he had the red, orange and green again, but I took the blue and yellow . . . phew! Then, when I got home and started sorting through the plunder;  I found Trevor Rudkin's bag had a very nice subdued fawn-coloured one which is an unusual polymer colour for either Gem or Culpitt - I think, the whole leading to the above squadron-in-line images!

This was in a little tub of stuff from Adrian I think, and what interests me about it is that it looks a lot like those US-Emenee-Transogram/UK-whoever Fairy Tale sets we looked at here.

Now having tentatively suggested there's still one set to be found (which should contain Jack & Jill), the 'rule' with those sets was 5/6 figures and an accessory or two. Jack and Jill are two, with bucket and a well; you still only have four items, could he be a play-value, make-weight from the missing set/s?

I'm not suggesting he is, his sculpting is poorer in my opinion, but he is the same 20mm lump of PVC and something went in the 8th set - if it existed . . . actually I AM suggesting it, I'm just not committing. Nice addition to the collection anyway!

We've looked at this before, but in green, it's the Raphael Lipkin ConquerorTank, but in red. I've never seen one in red before and presume it must be a 'Ruskie'-red one from a two-sides play-set of some kind, maybe Pippin Toys?

The green ones turn-up more often and I'm hoping to find an otherwise 'clean' one going dirt-cheap with a broken barrel so I can cannibalize the running-gear, which - missing on this example - led to it's also being very reasonably priced!

Presumably from a large vessel toy's deck, I'm tempted to remove the locating/mounting spigot, but I know that if I do I'll immediately see the parent toy on evilBay, missing it's deck-gun, going for a song, but equally; if I don't remove it, I'll probably never find the originator model! I have some large, deep plastic washers somewhere, if it needs displaying in can sit in one of them!

What I like about it is the throwback to early US pod-foot figures of the Barklay/Manoil type, where a guy (often smaller than his set-mates) is posed operating some huge artillery piece all by himself. I think It's an anti-Dalek ray-gun! Does anyone know offhand where it's from?

All good 'Stuff'!

News views etc . . . Auctions Forthcoming This Week

It's getting busy, we're well into the summer season! Four auctions coming-up; there are two this Friday - 8th June;

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John Goodwin are having a 500+ lot specialist sale of toys, railwayana and advertising ephemera at the Teme Hall, Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire, WR13 6NW (via yellow gate)

John Goodwin

3-7 New Street, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 2DX

Web. - John Goodwin Property

eMail - rupert@johngoodwin.co.uk

Catalogue - Collective-auction-sale-6-june-2018.pdf

Tel. - 07968 694 746 (7th and 8th June only)

Viewing - Thursday 7th June 15:00-19:00hrs and morning of sale from 08:00hrs

Sale starts 10:00hrs - finish.

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And the same day a  'Collector's Sale' auction is being held by Greenslade Taylor Hunt (gth) at the Octagon Salerooms, 113a East Reach, Taunton, TA1 3HL

gth

Web. -  www.gth.net

Auctions - http://www.gth.net/property-farm-livestock-antique-auctions

eMail -  antiques.saleroom@gth.net

Catalogue - Catalogue_08_06_18.pdf

Tel. - 01823 332 525

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Wallis and Wallis have a general toy sale on Monday 11th June at their showrooms; West Street Auction Galleries, Lewes, Sussex, BN7 2NJ

Wallis and Wallis

Web. - www.wallisandwallis.co.uk

eMail - toys@wallisandwallis.co.uk

Tel. - 01273 480 208

Fax. - 01273 476 562

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It was actually Bears and Dolls day at C&T Auctions on Wednesday-gone, but the important one is next week; Wednesday the 13th June, when they are holding their next Toy Soldier & Figure auction. The big story is all about a near-mint boxed set of Britains Disney hollow-cast figurines.

Viewing from 08:30hrs, the auction commences at 10am, The Spa Hotel (The Yorke Suite), Mount Ephraim, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. TN4 8XJ (Tel. - 01892 520 331)

C&T

Unit 4, High House Business Park, Kenardington, Kent, TN26 2LF

Web. - www.candtauctions.co.uk

eMail - enquiries@candtauctions.co.uk

Catalogue - http://www.candtauctions.co.uk/online-catalogue/

Tel. - 44 1233 510 050 (from abroad)

Tel. - 01233 510 050 (within the UK)

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Finaly Mullock's Specialist Auctioneers and Valuers have a collection of military and toy collectables and historic ephemera on Thursday 14th June at Ludlow Racecourse, Bromfield, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 2BT

Mullock's

Web. - www.mulletauctions.co.uk

eMail - reception@mullocks.co.uk

Tel. - 01694 771 771

Any Auctioneers wishing to be listed here or on a planned [near] future 'Auction Dates' page should contact me on the eMail found down the left hand side of the homepage.

T is for The Toy Project

One item missing from the Peter Evans Plunder post this morning was the below bag. Peter has been to visit the shop in London, making a purchase while he was there and it's a good excuse to plug a [toy related] worthy cause again!

It’s funny to see the Toy Boarders coming to the secondary market, but I guess it's a few years since they appeared here on a 'New Production News' tag! Along with a generic 'China Toy' mechanic around 35mm, a slight scale difference, but they are both civilians!

Both sides of the header-card, I'll post the relevant URL's again at the end as useable hot-links.

For those who missed the previous post The Toy Project is a charity that accepts donations from private individuals and works with the Industry, using various models of fund-raising to generate money and or Toys for children in need. They recently worked with the Grenfell Tower children - for instance.

Raising money for specific projects by selling either the second-hand donations like these, or new production donations from the industry, they also channel some of the industry donations straight to their projects, if suitable while more conventions fund raising like sponsorship, or coffee mornings are encouraged.

An A5 Flyer (also printable at A4 &etc.) was also present on the front desk at the show.

The TOY Project

WEB

Website: thetoyproject.co.uk

eMail: donations@thetoyproject.co.uk

TELEPHONE

+44 7590 256 530 (from abroad)

07590 256 530 (within UK)

SHOP

99 Junction Road, Archway, London, N19 5QX, UK

Opening Times

Mon–closed

Tues–Saturday 10am-6pm

Sunday–closed

FACEBOOK

Facebook Page

T is for Two - Dioramas

A quick second look at the two dioramas I found in Peter's plunder bags, as stated earlier; one was a home-made affair the other more commercial-looking/seeming, and we'll look at them in that order as that's how the photographs panned-out!

Four medieval types, two foot, receiving and two mounted in the charge, all in pretty full armour. Well-mounted on a piece of pretty inflexible Perspex or similar and not over-landscaped they are painted not in the super-realistic oils of competition flats but rather the black undercoat with flat colour and 'sausage-finger' highlighting (really only to the horses furniture) favoured by a lot of war gamers these days, and they look good for it.

I don't know if this is Mr. Evan's own work or something he picked-up 'out and about'? If I had a large house or museum I'd have found them shelf or cabinet space, but I don't, and having straitened damage to all the long thin bits and stood a figure back-up, the chances of further damage is too great to keep them like this, so they were removed carefully . . .

. . . and added to one of the foam-core storage sheets for miscellaneous metal flats! Two unpainted shiny new cuirassiers have rather collected all the flash as they charge at a lifeguard (I tried several camera angles/flash settings, but flats are flats and are easily distorted!) and I will now be tempted to paint the kingly knight (he has a coronet) with battle-axe, started by an unknown artist years ago, to join them.

To mount the new figures I had to move the rather chunky demi-ronde WWI ANZAC MG No.2 (or is he an Italian with that semi-bowler hat?), leaving an unsightly dink in the row above the them, the other dinks show how by using a couple of sheets for spares, they get tatty, when there are enough for a thematic, set or maker-sheet they can be lightly arranged until they look right and then pressed-in to a 'final' resting place!

Also evident is an ACW officer missing a sword and what looks to be an Eriksson or 'after-Eriksson' home casting, semi-flat WWII German paratrooper. The sheets are pre-cut with a new scalpel to about half-foam depth, a rulers-width apart. Sheets with small parts (like the artillery set we looked-at here a few years ago) get extra, short, cuts between the main lines to help enhance/balance the display.

The other diorama (really they are both small enough to be technically 'vignettes') was this one, which is a more commercial thing altogether, the rock painting with wet over-brush in 2nd [only] colour is very 'factory' in aspect as are the off-the shelf trees and barely decorated figure.

The real question is what was it for? I know some makers (Noch, Bush and in the past Faller?) have produced/are producing little pre-prepared vignettes to include in larger model railway layouts as 'instant detailing' or points of interest, but the heavy foam base - still heavy after an unknown quantity has been removed - suggests it may be more of a stand-alone thing?

Is it a tourist memento of an actual cave somewhere? Or could it be from a jewellery/trinket box, music box or something of that ilk? Collectable lid? A 'no need for watering' decorative terrarium? Fish-tank ornament - it'll float but he'll drown! The figure is so poor he may have been added to something which isn't supposed to have a figure at all?

The trees are unusual in being a soft PVC and the foliage is the more modern foamed fragments rather than the saw-dust clumps or flock of yesteryear and - although civilian - the seated figure looks much like the [Russian?] driver of Airfix's old SAM II Guidline Missile kit!

Whatever the origin, being more robust than the flats; this has been given its own little box and saved 'as is' for posterity - thanks again to Peter Evans for both.

P is for Plunder Posts - 4 - Two Bags from Peter Evans

At the risk of embarrassing him; I thanked Peter in January for staying firmly 'on the fence' in another matter, a course of action others have not chosen, it is a measure of the character of him as a man, a measure myself and the other party have failed to measure up to.

I'll thank him again, here, on the record and thank him for the two large bags of plunder he brought to the PW show for me, and for which - like last year - he demanded a pittance; it was infinitesimal for what was in the bags!

There was a small bag of small scale, but filled with nice things including these Galoob Micro-Machines, there were four obvious new variants (each highlighted), but I have since ID'd 12 that need to be added to the Galoob Page and while I have updated the photographs and screen-cap's I haven't got round to the task itself yet!

The obvious ones were an un-numbered early man-portable, Redeye AAGW operator (provisionally 10 in my page's numbering) in the Navy paint-scheme, two 33's with brown bases and an MP green variant (65) with flack-vest.

The rest of the bag's contents were (on the left) a useful mix of Galoob's other lines, Hasbro Action Man, Mattel Hot Wheels, Corgi and a Blue Box mechanic along with some Rado for Marksmen and the five on the top row who have been issued by Majorette, but also others.

To the right are the larger figures in the bag with a couple of 'China Toy' firefighters, the Mattel Cylon Raider (new to me) and Earth-searching Colonial Viper pilot's (strangely; the latter is far more common/numerous?) from Battlestar Galactica, another Corgi and some lovely semi-flats for model railways. I have some in storage and they are interesting in that they seem to be scaled-up, cartoon'ified (or caricatured?) copies of the Marklin lead flats. They could be European but I suspect early Hong Kong, anyway we will look at them all together in greater depth one day.

We've seen most of the stuff on the left here before - the superhero/wrestlers (thanks to Terranova) and the unicorn 'babies' (99p Stores?) but the non-Disney 'princesses' are lovely! There's some lead/whitemetal odds (2 Turkish Janissaries or Landschnechts with 'a' separate head and a chap in a top-hat!) and a Mattel CUTIE (bottom left).

While the motorbike is large, crude and seen here before (possibly also from Peter?), but is different enough to have already been comparison-shot with the previous one and added to a motorcycle round-up currently in the queue!

On the right a deliberately vague and long-shot, as a lot of this will get a spot in Rack Toy Month, or a Dinosaur round-up, or a 'lets make a tank-hunter' post etc . . . etc . . . I need to glue the petrol-pump without wreaking the packaging, or it would have been included with the Dinky set the other day, although I forgot the Tiger road signs (doh!), while the rubber eye is so bad it's oddly good, and means I may yet use the rather gruesome shots Terranova sent a couple of years ago!!

A bag of 'Armymen', a mixed bag of 'Little Rubber Guys' and cereal premiums and a bag of MPC Africans/hunters from both the 60mm and ring-hand series. Small bag of horses, a wagon which is the level of piracy below the ones we recently looked at, a nice Roman, resin but nice and some Greco-Romans (from a chess set?) marked Roxy, which may be the same Hong Kong Roxy (logo inset) branded to Lucky Toys style racing cars with the same (Lucky) figures?

The chalk-ware cottage is new to me I think and I have several, we will look at them when the rest come out of storage, probably as a Christmas post one year, while the Airfix war memorial in the same bag is probably actually Dapol in that plastic colour?

More rack-toy bits, boxed and unboxed, some of it will probably - in the fullness of time - go on to charity as being outside the scope of the collection, but not outside the scope of the blog, although the 'Smart Shoppers' Supermarket Set will need some thought! Maybe a generic 'Hong Kong' entry under H in the A-Z blogs, for all un-branded HK stuff?

Peter also passed these two my way, and they will get a full 'T is for Two . . . ' later today; the one on the left being a nice home-made vignette of medieval flats, the one on the right being more commercial looking - a hiker resting by a cave - possibly from a model railway range?

There was a bag of capsule-toy capsules which I haven't found time to fully investigate (after three weeks!) but did notice most of them were Balaban or Maraja, so very useful and with Terranova sending me a nice capsule toy just now, there will be a post forthcoming as there is one forming in the queue!

I've over-printed the scan on the right as I have no idea as to the copyright status of it, but I thought this was a nice take on the old play-mat principle; a puzzle which builds into a play-mat, presumably for a HK or - more likely 'China' - farm set from which it has been separated.

Everything else! Novelty Power Rangers pen-top, Wilton footballers and a sample of Spanish sobre envelops with what are called Cromaticos, in English; collector's cards and stickers, two still had a piece of gum attached and are now hors de combat while the Imperial Stormtrooper ^{®, TM & © George Lucas - Lucasfilms - Disney Corp.} toothbush is just what you need to keep your gnashers polished on the Kessle Run - too cool for dental college!

Cheers Peter and thank you!

P is for Plunder Posts - 3 - Themes This Year

As we've already seen today (and will see tomorrow) this year's plunder pile was very eclectic and unlike last year (when I was looking-out for Fontanini and Fonplast), this year I had no real agenda beyond the obvious constraints (or driving-forces) of RTM (Rack Toy Month) and Talk Like a Pirate Day (TLAPD), however, there is/are always a few patterns or trends revealed to be running-through the spoil-heap, once it's sorted and this year there were two manufacturer-based themes in evidence.

Gem, Gemodels, GeModels, Ge-Models call them what you like (they did!), these are mostly Culpitt's anyway! This was the primary synergy in the plunder this year and it raised several paragraphs worth of anecdotal stuff!

You may remember last year (or the year before) Mike Harding offered me three skateboarders, to which I said a hasty "Yes!", well he had some more this year, and there was one in Trevor's bag, so three of them for a start!

I'm hoping the pop-bandsmen are a different brown to the ones I already have, and while the drum-kit is missing a side-drum, it's otherwise complete and will be wholly-so when added to the rest.

The shrub is brittle and missing its 'top-knot' so future photo-background scenery only! But I noticed that the stuff Musgrave issued as Gem, with the base mark (shrub, cowboy and horse guard), are chalkier plastic than the ones Culpitt's had produced for them by a third party (from un-base-marked moulds supplied by George) which are much glossier.

The Santa in the bottom right-hand corner is Festival which are 'Musgrave' of some kind, while the upper-right pair with a set of skis (which fit both) are later HK sourced stuff of/from Culpitt's, probably also carried - in the 'States' - by Wilton. Skiing Bear . . . bear on skis - priceless!

The tennis players however - are driving me mad! There must be a trader at PW who got a job lot of these years ago, and over the years I've bought most of them from him, because; not being the brightest button in the box, every time I see them, I think "Are these the ones I need?", and buy a pair, but every time I get a sunburnt boy with painted base and a flesh-coloured girl with plain base, I need the opposite! Literally - I have three pairs here and another one or two in storage! Big Fat Doh!

I picked-up several more Gem/Culpitt items two weeks later at last weekend's Sandown Park toy fair; boxer's in European and Negro finish, another cricketer, nursery figures, more skis!

The other trend which revealed itself in the sorting stage was Blue Box, it's an annual thing - in part because I do look out for them, in part because they were successful, so the stuff is pretty common, and they had quite a wide range, branded to themselves.

This is both Blue Box and Blue Box-like, I'm not happy with the wheels on the hay-cart (I think they may have been taken from a Tudor Rose type beach-toy truck?), but I have a near mint one with card insert (which we've looked athere), so it can stay as a curiosity for now, while the blow-moulded hay-rick is very different in style and colour from the ones I already have.

The Noah family probably are Blue Box, but there are many Noah sets and at least five or six generations of figures associated with them, they were popular with both Bible or religious book shops, and mail-order 'openers' in Sunday supplements and cheap weeklies through the 1970-80's,  so for now they are Blue Box-like in the sorting, especially are they are all poor copies of the sublime Marx Miniature Masterpiece original!

The tailless 30mm horse has already gone to recycling, but his base stayed!

P is for Plunder Posts - 2 - Fellow Collectors Brought Stuff

Various people save me the odd bit, and while you'll be familiar with their names as I've mentioned them all in past plunder posts, it made sense from an image-number perspective to have a separate post this year, although Peter gave me so much stuff, he's getting a separate day - tomorrow!

This was Trevor Rudkin's bag o'bits; he apologised for the small size of it, yet it had several nice things in, not least a  complete set of Triang Minic Motorway figures (centre right), a bunch of Ge-Models ('Gem') below them and a few Spot-On first type figures. Even the Hong Kong plastic copy of Minic Navy aircraft carrier turned out to be new to collection, when I put it away; it's slightly smaller than the ones that have been seen here before.

Chatting to Trevor I pointed out that it is probably 24 years since he started saving me his gash stuff, HK shite, flotsam, jetsam and other bits and bobs, and my collection (or this Blog) wouldn't be what it is without the contributions of Trevor, the other people mentioned in this post and others such as John Begg, Graham Apperley and Micheal Melnyk or Jim ('from Sandown'!), whether gifted or just 'let-go cheap'.

Due to confusion during sorting and photographing, I don't know if these were in Trevor's bag or Brian's, so I've put them between the two! They are odd things, as they are not that rare, not that pretty, yet quite sought-after, as they are the Hong Kong monsters (issued in several sets and copied/reissued in several generations - with or without additional dinosaurs) which Gary Gygax used to illustrate the bestiary which accompanied the original first edition of his Dungeons & Dragons role-playing rule system.

As a result, they are collected by D&D/Role Play fans for that reason, Then they are collected by straight 'fantasy' fans as non-dinosaur, proper 'monsters', they are also collected by some LRG'ers, despite not being monochrome, or rubber, as early examples of monsters, and they are collected by 'one-of-each' complete'ist nutters - like me!

The one on the right (Pterodacturtle)  is my favourite, and I have him in several versions/sizes/colour-ways, the pineapple-prawn monster is - in contrast - my least favoured! I don't know what they are called in D&D!

This year I had a small bag to give Brian, so more of a swap! Brian's bag - interestingly - had a pile of the same fish Peter gave me last year, but with some variations, I wonder if they split a lot, years ago?

There were two other marine-related animals, a large (but not that large) whale and a sea-horse, similar to one currently offered by Aneco, but not identical, the same can be said of the sea-grass, although this older (Hong Kong) pattern was a common filler in many tubs and play-sets (along with blow-moulded rocks!), as the mini, double palm trees's are today.

Adrian Little brought lots of small-scale bits and bobs for me to look at, and with the bits I had off his stall, I ended up with a large bag of interesting-to-very-interesting things from all over the world, in all scales and from most eras or genres! And he charged me peanuts for them, so they belong in this post.

We'll be looking at some of the highlights in the next few days, so I won't go through the whole image, what can you spot? The rest will come out in the wash over time, or be filtered into the master collection - for instance; the little box (top right) is for the Minialuxe figures for their 'old fashioned car' range, it's incomplete, but I have a few in storage with some spare figures, so it will either be 'made-up' or used to store all the buckshee figures, it should have a layer of cotton-wool as well.

Likewise, I picked-up three more Lido-type space figures (middle left), but won't bore you with another post on them until I get the rest out of storage in a month or two - it looks like it will be mid-August. The same is true of the pod-foot Wild West flat (lower centre, red). The Jig-toy crown will go on the Jig-Toy page, but not until I get another out of storage - with the original instruction card for a fuller collage.

Thanks all!

P is for Plunder Posts - 1 - General 'In the Hall' Purchases

I didn't really take any general shots of Sandown last weekend, the show reports don't get terrific traffic, I guess people who were there know, and people who weren't don't want to be reminded of what they missed! I did take a few shots at PW, and some video, but neither are that conclusive of anything, so I may knock something together in a day or two, I may not.

'Plunder Posts' on the other hand always get good traffic, so I'll show you what I took away in my swag-bags on the 12th of last month. Starting with my general purchases around the hall, I suppose I go round about four times, as a 'thorough look', pop back for a few bits and maybe do another row or two on my way back from the gent's or something, or someone may call me over to look at something and I'll check the odd rummage tray on the way back!

There's no rhyme or reason to these pictures, they are just stuff as it was unpacked and made a vague square to photograph! This was mostly rummage-tray stuff I think (and possibly the floor sweepings at the end - next to the 50mm mounted Indian), which got combined into a couple of larger bags, I know I got the submarine from Steve Vickers and I think some of these were from Colin Penn, but I can't name check everyone!

I look at some of it later and wonder "Why?" But rummage trays are like lucky-dips, 'cos you're going through them at speed, and palming things you 'think' are useful on the spur-of-the-moment! The HK scarecrow for instance; I'm sure I've got one already; a better one - and the reissue Charbens knight it hardly a priority, but I didn't have the reissues when I blogged them (not that long ago) so any future box-ticker can - now - be that bit more comprehensive. And - why did I buy the hard, tinny reissue bull, when I have the original!

Odds and sods, literally . . odds & sods! The Hong Kong 5-inch GI is probably the highlight, although I was pleased with the trio of swivel-waisted gunslingers on Hong Kong card from Barney Brown - we actually looked at them a while ago too, but these will be there next time . . . or Rack Toy Month isn't that far-off!

The cripple's crutch is odd, it's cream polystyrene painted silver and may be from an Aurora horror kit, or something like that? It's not Playmobile or anything of that ilk, but could be a doll's thing? It must have been a make-weight in a 20p tray, or off the floor?

The commercial issue of cereal premiums type mini-kits will get their own post, they are quirky and from Italy. A bag of Charbens horse-flesh will prove useful, the pirates will appear fully on TLAPD with a second group I got the same day.

While the large resin lumps? I know, I know . . . I'm not even that big a fan of resin, but they were a bargain from a mate and I may paint them one day? When I used to go to Herne you'd see a lot of this stuff, from these five-inch 'smallies' to figures about three-feet high - or bigger, usually Vikings or Wild West, but from the Beefeater I guess these are a more British thing?

The three Bonux came from Brian C, the two Montaplex from Steve, can't remember where the others came from, we'll look at the tank more closely in another post, while the buildings are Marx Miniature Masterpiece scenic pieces from the Troll Village or Disney's Sleeping Beauty I think, one of those sets?

A youngish guy who's name I didn't catch had these at a pound-a-piece so I made-up a tenner's worth, but he then came over a few minutes later with an 11th - which was kind. Nothing really exciting, but nevertheless useful Giant, Blue Box/Triang-Hornby and Unimax 'army builder' stuff, the 'plane is missing it's nose, but I think I may have some bits in storage, along with a whole BuM one, but this looks to be a Montaplex original - not an easy science?