F is for Follow-up - Beatles Cake Decorations

The last time we looked at some of these (if not the time before as well!), I think I mentioned that I had another set in storage, and these are they!

They are midway between the smaller and larger examples we've seen here before, but Ringo at least (if you're a cake decorator) comes firmly attached to a drum! Like the previous sets you can see these in other colours on the Wibbly Wobbly Way, I've seen them in a similar pale blue to the smaller set, apple green, lemon yellow and primrose.

When we looked at the - still title-less - pop star board-game playing pieces a few months (weeks?) ago, I hoped out-loud I might have a 6th-colour in storage, I didn't, I had these two who are now 'for swap' duplicates, also in the box was the rather sullen looking grunge-babe who I think can be dated to the 1980's 'pop scene' by dint of her pixy-boots!

She's marked 'Japan' and definitely comes under the 'factory-painted LRG' (little rubber girl!) classification.

1st May 2020 - Turned out a few weeks later she was one of the Mattel 'Cuties'

F is for Follow-up - Gem Models

A couple of things which have either been raised in the past as being 'in storage' or coming out of a recent Gem post, and starting with the recent post . . .

How they come in!

. . . I got a Tom the Piper's Son figure at the last Sandown Park show (next one's only two weeks away), and had totally forgotten when buying it that I already had one!

Fortunately, the one I had has the other piglet! So now I have a small convoy (or patrol?) of Tom's stealing pigs, with the new on having a piglet looking to the left (looking - in fact - rather surprised at its predicament; it has to be said!), while the older one has a piglet looking forwards.

The third piglet I'm not sure about, it's overall quality and finish is just a cut above the normal production of Gem/Festival, and I'm not convinced it's Gem at all, it's even finer than the other farm animals, it's feet-bottoms are neatly flat to the same plane.

I have been assured by a collector of some repute whom I respect greatly for his knowledge, particularly of animals, that it is Gem and it's also in the PW Special on Gem, as Gem, so I've put it in the Gem box, but with a note stubbornly stating I'm not 100% convinced!

It's hard to explain, but the quality of the sculpt is just way above the normal output of Mr. Musgrave, it's more 'manufactured' or engineered than the other production; comparing the piglet to the other two is like comparing a Marx 54mm GI with a Gem snowman, the etching is fine-lined and the surface smooth against the rougher, hand-finished effect of the other two . . . if that makes sense! Anyway; I'm giving it a big question-mark until I know the context that lead to its being voted Gem!

Arguing against myself, the candle-holders of Festival, particularly the racing cars have similar high production-values, and the later Festival-for-Culpitts slot-together Santa is equally commercial, so maybe this larger piglet is from that 'tail-end' era?

I think I have referred to these several times while looking at other stuff, or even smaller numbers of these? The A1 - Spaceman from Gem, who I've always thought of as a spacewoman, and the fact that the catalogue says otherwise won't stop me thinking of 'her' as a space-babe!

Now, I think the order of the above is two Gem-for-Culpitt/s on the left (chalky, marbled, more paint - black lead in icing . . . Mummmm . . . Nom-nom-Nomnivore!), two Culpitts under licence from Gem (minimal paint, shiny ethylene, less shrinkage) in the middle and a Culpitt copy (with or without George's permission) on the right?

It must be said that there are size variations of other Gemodels stuff though, so they may all be from the one place. But I suspect it was reduced in the 1970's to run-through their (Culpitt's) packing-line and fit their new plastic counter-stock display units and revolving catering-shop dispensers; both of which had small compartments.

Most of the height loss has been achieved by removing the middle-depth of the base, but deeper sculpting of the harness and air-lines, along with feet further apart (and a saggy bottom!) suggest a copy rather than a pantograph or a chop to the tool.

That the copy is so similar would suggest it was with Musgrave's knowledge, if not involvement.

The fact that they all look slightly different sizes in the first shot is down to slight curvature away from the blue figure caused by holding the camera too close and at a slight angle.

T is for The Thin Grey Line

Having looked at our own ceremonials this morning, let's look at someone else's this afternoon, with some undated, unaccredited stuff from the archive, I believe it will date around 1950-54, from the other stuff that came with it, although the article would appear to say 1952 precisely! And it may be a syndicated piece from a Floridian paper of the time.

Coming from a lifetime in Florida's Keyes has resulted in humidity/damp damage to the pages- as a pink staining

Text reads . . .

The Colorful Kaydets

Realistic figurines, here pictured for the first

time, form pageant of West Point uniforms

IN HONOR of West Point’s sesqui-

centennial,  which  is  being  cele-

brated  this  year,  a  series  of  21

small   military   figures  has  just

been completed, to show changes in

the  U.  S.  Military Academy’s uni-

forms since the first was adopted 150

years ago.  Standing  approximately

10^[*^] inches in height, the little cadets

took more than a year to make. They

were originally sculptured by T. H.

Jones of the Heraldic Branch of the

Quartermaster General’s office in

Washington, D. C. Later, they were

cast in plaster, and then meticulously

hand-painted by two of the Branch’s

artists, Jack Ocenasek and Jackson

Buchanan.  Often,  because  of the

plaster’s porosity, the painters had to

apply several coats to make details

stand out realistically. Following its

unveiling at the West Point Museum,

the collection is slated to be sent on

a tour of other museums. Ultimately

it  will  be  returned  to  the  Point,

where it will be a permanent exhibit.

NEWS COLORFOTOS BY ROBERT CRANSTON. DANIEL JACINO AND FRANK LIVIA

. . . * Ten inches is approximately 260mm

Text reads . . .

Here's [the] uniform [that] U.S.M.A.s

first grad [uate], Joseph Gardner

Swift of Massachusetts, wore

in 1802. It was patterned

after those of engineer offi-

cers in [the] Revolutionary War.

PAGE 4

Text reads . . .

Between West Point's original 1802 dress uniform (below, left [now above]) and the

current 1952 one (below right [now just 'below']), these uniforms were worn, at one time

or another, by Academy cadets. Their dates are respectively (l to r.)

1814, 1825, 1840, 1840, 1857, 1875, 1886, 1890, 1899, 1220 and 1930

. . . the 1899 looks surprisingly 'Confederate'!

Text reads . . .

Today, cadets have special uniforms for various occasions. Left to right:

Summer full-dress "50/50"; Summer chapel attire ([model/model's painting?] to be revised because

of inaccuracies); hop manager; all-white; lst sgt. in dress gray; sgt. in

"50/50"; officer of the day in "f. d. gray"; yearling in overcoat with cape.

I presume (like 'assuming' but using the circumstantial evidence in the text!) that they are still to be seen in a cabinet at West Point's museum/visitor centre somewhere; has anybody seen them? I also bet the current wardrobe at West Point differs greatly from that of 1952!

While I am on the subject; I can't recommend The Long Grey Line by Rick Atkinson highly enough, along with Chickenhawk (Robet Mason) and the one by a tracked-carrier officer I can't remember; it is one of the seminal memoirs of that era, helping to explain not only the Vietnam conflict (as the other pair do) but also the mess of the mid-to-late 1970's that may well have contributed to the truck-bomb catastrophe in Lebanon a few years (1983) later.

F is for Follow-up - Guards Musicians, 35mm

We looked at six of these after the May '17Plastic Warrior show and I got a message from Mr. Morehead at PW Towers at the time suggesting there might be ten poses, however I suspect - with the storage-set previously mentioned; now out of storage - that there are only the eight?

Two from the percussion section with a rather large 'side-drum' placed [centrally] off the waist-belt, and a cymbalist. The Brass section has four practitioners, with - from the left (and Mr Morehead will correct me if I'm wrong . . . at least there's no sousaphone!); trombone [Tuba], saxophone, bugle (? [Cornet!]) and French horn (?) while woodwind have two; oboe [Clarinet] and flute/fife [I was corrected!].

Some of them have two arms (for three parts), others have the whole as a single-moulding (for two parts), Britains got round the problem with plug-hands, here we just have quite complicated sculpting (for Hong Kong) and the obvious effort gone-to in manufacturing them is repeated in the fine painting. The drummer is the exception with four-parts - and a sticker.

The percussionists in close up to show how the arms move and to give an idea of size.

Re. the point about cavities earlier today, you will notice that these are not all exactly the same height, the moulding here used for the cymbals is smaller than the others with a slightly squidged headdress, this will be a cavity thing (multiple cavities), but the arms fit all the figures, except the saxophonist who's arms don't like parting at the elbow-line and he insists on poking himself in the eye with his instrument!

A quick reminder of Peter's donation/additions and how they have been cleverly placed in old HK Swoppet bases (two S-for-Star/Star Toys and another buckshee one) with the remains of the icing/cake spike sheered-off, flush, with a blade.

14's enough for a bandstand 'soirée', all I need now is an O-gauge railway with lavish Victorian park gardens!

G is for Gloriously Garish Guardsmen!

These are my absolute favorites among many 'absolute favorites'! By which I mean, of the 12 or so smaller-scale Hong Kong guardsmen these are the main men, and it's all down to their almost edible colours!

It doesn't come any leerier than this lot; does it? They look like they were moulded from tooti-fruity flavoured, bubble-gum chews, five minutes ago, but in fact were Christmas cracker novelty 'gifts' a few years ago, although when I say a few years ago, I'm forgetting the passage of time, and I mean the 1980's!

It has taken the full thirty-odd years to amass this lot, they have come in one or two at a time, three if I'm lucky, but some years there will be none added, and it wouldn't have been possible to mount this parade without the help of people like Trevor Rudkin, Michal Melynic, Peter Evans, John Begg, Chris Smith, Adrian Little and Gareth Morgan, who've all added the odd figures to the bag over the last 20-years.

There seem to only be the five poses, but never-say-never; I've only found four fifers . . . fifers four! [Brit's will get it - it's a Scottish football reference] Which is a small enough sample to suggest at least one may still remain 'un-found'.

Similar to - but distinct from - the Shackman 'Mocherettes' that came in little matchbox pencil-sharpeners I guess they must be based on the Eyes Right guards band from Britains (their anatomy is too good to be from the Herald Hong Kong efforts!), but they may be more original than that?

A scale guide; we will have a proper look at the other small-scale guards now they are all out of storage and put together with the ones we looked at a while ago, but on the relevant Airfix posts, rather than here, while the 35mm chap we looked at recently, will be looked at again later today.

The Drum-Major has provided the means for several copies, but as stand-alone figures with no additional musician poses.

The first four came from Mr. Lucky Bag's in the mid-1990's and I managed to get a handful (well a soggy pocket-full) when I helped clear a snack-food wholesale warehouse in Mychett after a fire! Note that the four are on two base types - thick and thin; while the blue and green ones are shorter, this is true for all colors and points - beautifully - to a multiple-cavity mould-tool.

The next two seem to be sub-piracies of the Mr. Lucky Bag moulding, and the last two who have just started appearing in mixed lots are very poor quality shite, probably from £1 store/shop/land type Christmas crackers, using a copy of the tool of the previous pair (the release-pin marks running through the feet?) but with no QA/QC leading to consistent shot-shots and no mace, while poor pantographing has rendered them semi-flat and flashy round the join-line.

News, Views etc . . . Forthcoming Events

That's it people; the summer's over, you can all get back to work for the man, but as a reward for your labours, the weekends are chocka' with shows again!

I ran out of time on the old Rack Toy Month front with a few missed days and the move, but I'm not going to save them for a year so the seven-or-eight still in the queue will be slipped in between now and Christmas. There's nothing that exciting, but there was some 'Armymen' follow-up stuff and some fish and some dinosaurs and some big trucks and . . . shows, we're looking at show-news here!

If you've come later in the day and found this, there are three new posts underneath it, with a further two on the Hong Kong Blog!

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 1st September 2018

Bexhill-on-Sea - SRP Toy Fairs

St. Barnabas Parish Church, Cantelupe Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, TN40 1JG

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail - srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Mob. - 07739 998 012

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Brecon, Wales - Chris Dyer Fairs

Market hall, Town Centre, Brecon, Powys, Wales, LD3 7LG

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £2

Rhyl - 'Rails in Wales'

Rhyl Town Hall, Wellington Road, Rhyl, Wales

[No other details available]

10:00 - 16:00hrs

Admission £2, under-12's free

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Sunday 2nd September 2018

Chester-le-Street - Jim Corr Fairs

Lord Lawson Academy, Birtly Lane, Birtly, DH3 2LF

eMail - jim_corr73@hotmail.co.uk

Mob. - 07504 035 955

10:00 - 15:00hrs

Admission £3, children/senior citizens £2, 'Early Bird' £5

Exeter 'Westpoint' - Bulldog Fairs

Westpoint Arena, Clyst St. Mary, Exeter, EX5 1DJ

Web. - www.bulldogfairs.com

eMail - bulldogfairs@aol.com

Tel. - 01373 452 857

Mob. - 07917 125 641

10:30 - 14:30hrs

Admission £4, each under-16 free with adult, 'Early Bird' £10 from 08:30hrs

Falkirk, Scotland - McLaren Models

Tel. - 01324 624 102

(All other details here)

Huntingdon - J&J Fairs

International Indoor Arena, Kings Bush Centre, Wood Green Animal Shelters, London Road, Godmanchester, PE29 2NH

Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com

eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com

Tel. - 01522 880 383 (J & J Webb)

10:00 - 14:30hrs

Admission £3, seniors £2.50p, 1st child £2

Stafford - 'Stafford Showground' - Barry Potter (PB Fairs)

The Preston & Argyle Suites, Stafford County Showground, Weston Road, Stafford, ST18 0BD

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

10:00 - 15:00hrs

Admission £4.00, OAP's £3.50, children £1, 'Early Bird' £8 from 08:00hrs

free parking

Worthing - SRP Toy Fairs

Charmandean Centre, Forest Road, Worthing, West sussex, BN14 9HS

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012

10:00 - 14:00hrs

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Friday 7th September 2018

Alfreton - Toy and Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend)

The Leisure Centre, Church Street, Alfreton, DE55 7BD

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

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Toy Auctions

Monday 3rd September 2018

Lewis - Wallis and Wallis

West Street Galleries, Lewis, West Sussex, BN7 2NJ

Web. - wallisandwallis.co.uk

eMail - toys@wallisandwallis.co.uk

Tel. - 01273 480 208

Fax. - 01273 476 562

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Friday 7th September 2018

Chippenham - Wessex Auctions

Wessex Auction Rooms, Westbrook Farm, Draycot Cerne, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN15 5LH

Web. - www.wessexauctionrooms.co.uk

eMail - enquiries@wessexauctionrooms.co.uk

Tel. - 01249 720 888

Viewing - Thursday 6th 10:00 - 19:00hrs, from 09:00hrs on sale day

10:30 - Finish

On-line catalogue, general toy sale

Sheffield - Shefield Auction Gallery

Windsor Road, Heeley, Sheffield, S8 8UB

Web. - www.sheffieldauctiongallery.com

eMail - jmorgan@sheffieldauctiongallery.com

Tel. - 0114 281 6161

Viewing - Thursday 6th 10:00 - 16:45, from 08:30 on sale day

14:00 - Finish

Model railways and collectables

Taunton - Greenside Taylor Hunt (GTH)

The Octogon Saleroom, 113a East Reach, Taunton, Devon, TA1 3HL

Web. - www.gth.net

eMail - antiques.saleroom@gth.net

Three toy-auctions on the same day, at opposite ends of the country? I'm sorry, but all three of them should be ashamed of themselves; with 300+ days to choose-from (including Saturadys?); doubling-up is bad enough, but three in one day is a piss-take, and it means none of them can be delivering the service they claim they are to the sellers.

It's not enough to say people [read 'dealers'] can leave bids at all three venues (if necessary), it's the fact that all buyers (including a lot of dealers) are on a budget, and holding three sales on the same day will result in overall lower final sale prices on the day, frankly - it's a bit shocking!

Good news for canny buyers though!

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Toys in the Media

Halifax again, broken piggly-wiggly-bank this time!

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here - FOR FREE - or linked to; please eMail me -

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!