I is for Infant Farm

When Chris Smith sent me that load of stuff the other month, he was particularly interested to see what I picked as highlights, and what I didn't, also he asked specifically about these, and I said I had some in storage and would wait until I'd got them out before blogging them.

Well, they are out, so we’re looking at them! They are a very different kettle of ball-game fish but I do like them, there is something of the nineteen-seventies filtered through an Art Deco trope about them and they are figural and fun!

These are the ones Chris sent me, the farmer has lost his hand but that doesn't matter; a sample is better than no sample - and we'll see in a minute; it's an important sample! And hopefully you can see what I mean about 'art deco seventies'!

These were the ones I had in storage, colours are different, but that's not all as we'll see in a minute. I'm loving the trees and the sheep remind me of Wallace & Gromit, despite being nothing like Shaun and his flock!

If you found these as singles or matching pairs you might think they were game-playing pieces, while my three people (from the left; Policeman, Milkman and Postman) look quite Chigley and Trumpton!

I cropped this out of a feebleBay lot a while ago (which had other equally interesting toys to either end), and we can see picket fences (which I think I may have somewhere else) horses in black and white, a dog and farm/village buildings (again; I think I may have the one with an overhanging roof (yellow walls) somewhere) and a fir tree. I also think pigs may turn-up, indeed I'm hoping I may have one or two elsewhere, but nothing springs to mind by way of picturing them so it may only be a hope!

I'm guessing these were by someone like Pedigree (Tri-Ang), [Hestair] Kiddycraft or maybe Galt, but the design-heavy styling could point to something as off-the-wall as Heals or Habitat 'early learners'? The German wooden-toy influence in the buildings is cancelled out by the British 'Bobby' with his distinctive helmet. But . . .

. . . the real present of Chris's donation, is that his are different to mine. His are almost certainly the British originals, while mine are Hong Kong copies!

Not only are mine marked Hong Kong while the ones Chris sent to the Blog are unmarked, but mine are cruder castings, with the cow having sharper edges and lacking the subtle curves to the calves (hocks?). You can see the HK one has heavier ears as well!

Now, I'm not saying they are piracies, we saw with the Britains Herald Khaki Infantry and Wild West how the quality dropped-off after production was moved to HK by the parent company, and it's very possible the two types here were issued in the same packaging by the same brand, but it's nice to have two variants to look-out for. I'll be looking for pigs and a baby fir too!

Do you know anything about them? Brand? How many people/professions are there? Cheers Chris; more to find though!

P is for Parachute Battalion

And I mean IS!

I was struggling to convince someone of my theory vis-à-vis the Trojan Parachute Battalion figure next to the Airfix donor-sculpt the other week, hopefully this will convince him (and others) and put the matter to bed?

One the left we have an Airfix 'early figure set' compatible example, 60mm high,  like others in the set, mould-release pin-mark showing front-centre on the small, round, domed base, as the rest of the set do and it's oozing age. He's soft polyethylene, earlier examples are found in hard polystyrene or even earlier semi-synthetic polymers like cellulose-nitrate or cellulose acetate.

On the right we have a smaller copy, painted to match other figures in the "Trojan" Series of Modern Khaki Soldiers, he is a soft polyethylene also, and has lost some of the detailing of the original in the copying process, including - as I pointed out last time - the helmet netting.

He's also lost the 'shorts' effect of pulling the smock-hem in to the legs with the fastening of the crotch-flap. You can see that all the differences I highlighted last time are clear when they are side by side.

By the time you read this a rear-view will be up in the Trojan section of the Khaki Infantry page.

Trojan mention quite a few items in the 'Airborne' line of Parachute Items and we can see from the catalogue that there are two clues to help us ID the figures/items; one - the price per dozen (or unit) and two - the numebr of items in a unit.

None of these is likely to be 1136 Air Commando Tommy Gunner, but he probably looks like some of them! In other words he will be a blow-moulded parachute toy like the Red Devil (1127 - below) being the same unit-price per-item.

I don't know if this - specific figure - is Trojan or another of the makes this figure has been ascribed to over the years, but a version of the sculpt is generally acknowledged to be 1136A Paratrooper (with raised arms), a bit costly for a smaller figure, but he's not part of the Khaki range, is a tad larger and comes in a  range of what would have been toy-like colours (when new), I've seen blue and green as well as this red (PW reports grey) and the - dare I say - commoner white and browns. If he isn't 1136A, we'd be looking for another blow-mould?

Also the expense will include the parachute, which we can see is very similar to the Red Devil below and seems to have been folded to fit a similar card.

Finally, we have 1127 New Red Devil Paratrooper, which leaves 1128 Moon Rocket - yet to be ID'd and the 1193 Parachute Battalion. Their coding comes within the OO-gauge Tiny Trojan line, and while they (OO) would be too small for parachute toys, do share some of the paint and plastic colour features of the chap at the top of the page. Both he and they share those same features with the Modern Khaki Soldiers who have a changing code-sequence, unlike most other lines.

The Parachute Battalion is priced at one-shilling & sixpence for three figures; all 50/54mm figures in the Trojan catalogue with the exception of the Japanese* are priced at sixpence-each, three sixpences were one-shilling & sixpence! Ergo; Parachute Battalion must contain 3 standard-sized figures.

Last time I posted this; I was "pretty sure", and apart from disagreeing private-emails, there was no feedback, this time - I'm telling you . . . the figure at the top of this post, on the right-hand side of the pair is from the "Trojan" Series 1193 Parachute Battalion and he can't be from anywhere else.

Photo' courtesy of Barney Brown

The question still remaining is - was there three of the same pose (he's certainly commoner than the Airfix original), or maybe two of these and one of the Timpo-copy with binoculars? As the binocular guy isn't listed under the Modern American Soldiers, my guess is one of them and two of the Airfix piracies?

That doesn't actually matter as it was this pose which was the real mystery, while a carded set will turn-up one day, probably - like the Red Devil - for a reasonable buy-it-now with no watchers!

* back in the 1950's British trade (and elsewhere - I'm sure) still held on to Victorian (or Edwardian) principles, and therefore if you made anatomically smaller figures (less plastic) you charged less; profit margins normally aiming to be between 1 and 10% - anything more being considered greedy and not a little vulgar! Consequently the diminutive Japanese were only 5d-each, actually a bit of a pain when we worked in sixes, pre-decimalisation!

Nowadays - of course - you have the Russians wanting a working-man's half-a-week's wages for half-a-handful of figures, while Lanard will sell you a bucketful for a fiver!

B is for Bagging Knights

For someone who claims to be no fan of poured-resin I do seem to acquire quite a bit of it!

These came from Peter Evans at the beginning of August and although a bit tall and thin anatomically are still rather nice and because they are a bit of a box-ticker I've jollied the post up with some notes on storage!

These are the figures, presumably Museum gift-shop or similar tourist-trap items, they are too similar in height/appearance to be chess pieces (unless they are the pawns for a larger 'back-row'?) or something like that, poured resin and 70mm ignoring the base.

One of the reasons I'm not a fan of resin figurines is that they damage or chip too easily; I broke a Mermaid the other day, getting it off the hook in the pet shop and felt honor-bound to buy it! I snuck-back when I saw a different girl on the tills through the plate-windows and bought a second!

So storage has to prevent them rubbing against each other, let alone any external influences, I do this with my two standard click-shut or self-seal (they're not self-seal, you have to help them!) bags, one 4x5½" (100x150mm) per figure which were then top'n'tailed (like sardines) in a larger 5x9" (130x230mm) bag.

The empty ends of all the bags are then folded under the figures before they are laid in whatever is their final receptacle, this provides a bit of extra padding, but - more importantly - all the layers of new plastic will slide around a bit if the container is dropped or treated roughly for some reason, you know; gives the whole parcel a bit of 'give'.

Also, and I don't want to patronise anyone, but . . . it's a good idea to fold the open bags over and give them a squeeze before you seal each of them to expel the maximum air - otherwise you end-up with a pillow full of pillows and the figures WILL rattle around and chip each-other through the plastic films!

Cheers Peter - They're lovely and will be looked after!

F is for Follow-up - Metal Flats; N'animals Not Nazi's

When we looked at those peculiar Nazi flatsthe other month, I said I had a rhino (and possibly other animals) in storage, so I was pleasantly surprised to find I had in fact added nine additional animals to the rhino.

Domestic animals and birds, wild animals and birds, all the bases are covered! The rhino; who I remembered to be smoother and cleaner 'of line', actually looks more like Albrecht Dürer's interpretation of an Asian Rhino!

I have no idea how large the whole set was or . . . 'sets' were, and like the clowning Nazi's don't know where they came from, or when. The suspicion is that the source is the same . . .

. . . both as far as the manufacture of the figures goes, and where they appeared, I favour cigarette premiums, but it's all up for grabs!

They are the same lightweight, tinny, aluminium casts and while the side-flanges are a little different, the overall look is the same, but that difference, along with the more realistic sculpting might still suggest a different maker?

The problem with shiny, looked-after aluminium is that it's impossible to date! A thought though - The Russians and East European members of the 'Soviet Bloc' did use this material a lot, including as flats or semi-flats, even for Toy Soldiers. So, were these to be from 'beyond the curtain', that would back-up the satirical angle of the previous set (especially if they came from the former East Germany) and date them to the 1950/60's?

F is for Follow-up - Coca-cola Flats . . . not!

Having only just posted the soft, polyethylene (or polypropylene) grey versions of these the other day, I was surprised to find a chocolate-brown one in a mixed lot of mostly modern vinyl from a charity shop a few weeks ago; I hung-on to it, knowing I'd have the rest out of storage any minute and here they all are! They raise several points to note -

So . . . firstly, the new one is the lion, bottom left, to his left and running back up to the top are the grey ones from a while ago and the rest is a complete vintage set in white polystyrene, along with a creamy-white plastic 'Euro-premium' variant of the lioness - bottom right-hand corner.

Secondly, the TRUE Coca-cola premiums (of which I have none!) have deeper bases with title messages running around the rim, ergo; I now believe these probably came first as 'Euro-premiums', and a deeper base was employed for the Coke premiums, making the South African addition (a Springbok) worth its 'premium' price, as it must be a separate, small tool, never re-issued.

Coke's Fanta brand issued 12 birds, with the same heavy bases and also in addition to - or because of the Sprinkbok - Coke didn't use the camel sculpt from this set, presumably/or because the offer was in sub-Saharan Southern-Africa, and camels are from the Sahel and Arabia far to the North?

Link To Thread on STS

But . . . thirdly; the original set's tool (for the other 21 animals) does seem to have been re-used, and quite recently, I've been collecting these for an age, and to find two new types a few months apart, in a new plastic type and colours, looking very new is more than simple coincidence?

I increasingly suspect something interactive (like hollow building-blocks, or Phidal type books, but for even younger readers) however; they might just be out there as Cracker-prizes or gum-ball machine capsule contents?

Last time I was wont to suggest they are recent, now I think they might be, I also highlighted the water-buffalo's heavy base as being more like the Coke ones, but it was always heavier, and lastly I now think these were probably first or stand-alone, not a re-shot of the Coca-cola mould, but rather something in a product mould-catalogue for Coke (and/or others) to pick-out.

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.