Q is for Questionable Quaker Quandary Question-time?

When I say 'unknown', I've yet to find them but they may be out there somewhere?

These came as a single lot about 20-years ago and there are about three times the number I've shot, in all four colours but with green short, most separated and hard to make into sets, suggesting more in the original sample. I haven't added a single figure to the lot since I found it, nor had I found any prior to finding the lot.

Now . . . is the central character Cap'n Crunch? If he is, I think that narrows it down a bit to Quaker? The Cap'n Crunch's I've seen have no hackle in their hat, larger moustaches and obvious epaulettes, but these things change over time and it would tie in with the Gladiators and Airfix offers (Combat Group and Wild West).

You can see they are all based loosly on other pre-existing figures from Marx, Thomas-Poplar, or Charbens and there are two strips of five found in the lot, an 'A' strip and an 'F'* strip. Strangely, the guy to the right of the cartoon character seems to be based on the dead-german from Marx? He's looking a bit uncomfortable that's for sure!

Whether this means there are others to be found, or just that the factory used un-similar letter stamps for east of identification is unknowns, because no others have turned-up and the 30-odd+ figures I have are all from the two strips?

* It might be 'E', but they are back in the attic and I forgot to write it down!

Set 'F' (or 'E'!); again some recognisable poses from the larger scales, but all hand 'drawn' copies, not pantographs. All mine are green, blue, red or the above, rather flaccid, yellow, and with no shade or hue variations, all clean, so clean they may even be factory 'blanks' or test-shots which never got a commercial release?

While - as I said - they don't all make up strips, enough of them match-up to see how they were cut off the strips after 'purchase' - that yellow 'A' set above is complete. While I can't make a whole F/E strip, I can make two runs of three (in different colours), one from either end, so I know - from the 'overlap' and a complete 'A' that it's just the two strips in the collection/lot.

History never explained why the pirates had a Grenadier Guard's Saxophonist aboard ship, but luck was clearly with the condemned on this occasion; they would die happy!

As you can see they are wholly compatible with HO and OO-gauge related figures, coming somewhere between 23 and 25mm at around (a round?) 24mm! As far as I know, these are new to the cereal premium guys, new to you 'plastic warriors' and new to the Internet?

R is for Resin Rascal Raiders

Apart from the fact that he has a slightly piggy face, I rather like this chap, and it is further evidence of the slide into resin hell . . . Mr Evans has sent me several more as well; I don't rate the stuff but it's piling-up!!

See what I mean about the piggy-face! He's also a chunky sculpt, obviously lots of pies on the last ship they caught . . . and he ate them, all! But non-the-less, a lovely, warm colour palate on a cheerful looking chap.

No marking but he was one of these two-quid jobs from a charity shop a few months back so I'm not complaining and he's big; a basic 120mm without the full height of the hat, berserker is taking a chance, my experience of the post-war British bayonet is that it will struggle to dent that boot and only further annoy an already irate-looking pirate!

Imagine Brain Blessed's voice . . . "The little man's doing WHAAAT?"

I also bought another of those Penn-Plax resins (hell cometh-fast upon me!) for the pirate and that odd 'diving-bear' (who came from another charity shop a week later, and still needs ID'ing as to likely character) to fight over.

Having failed to show you better images of the Penn-Plax Easter Island heads earlier - this is constructed in the same way as the larger head (the smaller head was a solid), and it looks to be the same basic technique as a hollow-cast soldier, but with a larger exit-hole; pour, swill-round and tip out the excess.

But I suspect there's more to it, for a thicker material which will flow more turgidly over a wider 'front' and take a while to start solidifying (molten-lead sets almost immediately), there may be some mechanical/rotary device involved and the exit 'hole' is obviously a mess which - after setting - needs removing with a saw or grinder.

TP is for Taller Pirates from Thomas-Poplar

Again, similar to another maker's pirates; this time MPC's 'ring-hands', but again, the role of Thomas in the industry might suggest they were first, however the similarity is less obvious with these than the ones we looked at an hour ago, the MPC versions being much heavier sculpts and less animated in posing.

I'm not sure if the oars are part of the set, and Thomas have lanterns not included in MPC's accessories, also the 'belaying pin' of MPC is more of a cudgel here and Thomas seem to have two cat'o-nine tails to MPC's one. MPC have four poses while I've found five Thomas-Poplar so far, but no PVC vinyl-rubber versions have appeared as far as I know.

There was a nice trio on feeBay a while back with several swords including a larger cutlass than my thin sabre, they were listed under Tudor Rose, and it's worth trying if you're looking for these. I'm still looking for hats and a treasure chest, and don't believe T-P ever did the/a cannon as MPC did.

I'm not calling the copyist, but it's  fact the MPC flag is the better one, having a full skull and crossbones on both sides, while Thomas-Poplar have a smooth rear, also theirs is a little too long, which could point to them being the sinner here? MPC went with the larger 60mm bracket, the T-P's are closer to 54mm

They also come in 40/45mm, but I think I subjected you to this pair last year! Both sizes have spigots on one foot to locate with holes in a pirate ship, or at least that's the role for the 60-mil's, the 40-milimeter figures are still a bit of a mystery and they lack the ring-hands (so presumably also lack the accessories?).

Going back to the oars for a moment, in Plastic Warrior 166 (http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.com/) an article from Juan Martin Garcia showed a Spanish Reamsa pirate ship, with different (copies of Marx/MPC) figures,  the ship was an MPC copy/licensee and while the plug-in lanterns were nicer than the above T-P examples, there was also a little deck-boat with two oars, so that may legitimise the above oars in a convoluted fashion?

TP is for Tiny Pirates from Thomas-Poplar

I think we looked at the 'other' 40mm's from Thomas-Poplar last year, but I picked these - first Three - up in the course of the last 12-monthes, then got the grubby, rubber one (at PW's show I think) a while back, only to find a bunch in storage! So I retook the photo's and Bob's your pirate-uncle!

The three additions, There are shades of other makers work in there, Marx for instance have contributed to the middle figure from two of their leter HK 54mm's. Colours are the same as for the Romans and Spacemen from the same maker/s; it's increasingly obvious that the only real difference between Thomas and Poplar in the UK is the packaging, so I tend to lump them together nowadays.

These turned up at some point (in the past) and appear to be either copies (the peg-leg is larger and detail seems poorer than on the T-P originals) or a later issue. PVC rubber and a basic paint-job, you'll recognise two of the poses from the Ideal/Glencoe figures . . . 'pirate pirates'?

A comparison between the three, I believe the chap in the middle is a T-P moulding, the size difference with the green ethylene one being excused by the shrinkage of the more elastic polymer (elastomer) as it cools.

You can see how the third figure - as well as the fatter peg-leg - seems to have poorer detail to the fingers of both hands, but it's a moot point and they both have the little button visible on their chest; there may have been more than one cavity per pose on the tool? I wouldn't want to create a variant which isn't really there!

All mine together, six poses in total - there are three taken from the Ideal set, the two swordsmen and the 'gunslinger', the hat and bare-heads of the Ideal poses here replaced by scarves. Although, given the ages of all these things and the seminal role of Iselin Thomas in early plastic playthings, it's more likely that Ideal were the plagiarists, not Thomas Toys?

Two other points - these have been described as being '...only sold in England for a short period.', yet were clearly on sale/in production long enough to produce two or three generations in two materials, so perhaps they were available for a while, in actual fact?

Incedently;  It is almost impossible to 'Google search' these as all the search-engines insist on assuming you're looking for Thomas [the Tank Engine]'s Pop[u]lar toys, and my tagging-up this and the next post won't make a happeth' of difference!

Finally, they take a while to amass, and turn-up in small quantities so I wonder  (now we know from Plastic Warrior's piece on Space Premiums a while ago) if they were supplied to Tom Smith for use as cracker-prize inserts?

S is for Soma's Silly Sailors

Although the first set-post today, they were the last lot to fully come-in, with four out of storage a month ago the rest purchased couple of weeks ago, and a missing one (seven) arriving the other day!

In the 1980's Soma who had been contract-manufacturing for some time before that, began issuing their own branded lines, and by the late 1990's several of these slightly childlike figure sets had been issued, the pirates arrived in 1991 and unlike other sets where you find two colourways (Robin Hood for instance), they only got the one scheme, Issued in three blister-sets of four, two sets of six or a window box with all twelve.

Number 10 (each figure is numbered on the underside of one foot) looks like the love-child of MacDonald's 'Hamburgler' and the popster; Boy George, while I think you could use the facial expressions to make the 7-darves out of some of them, well, seven of them! Number 12, with the all important swag-bag, seems to have been equipped with a fully-automatic Walther or Berretta?

He also looks mighty pleased with himself, possibly because he has possesion of the loot!

I bought these two Penn-Plax fish-tank ornaments a while ago and they seemed ideal for these chaps to discover! I don't know if Pirates ever put-in at Easter Island, but it seems like a nice place to hole-up, chill-out, get drunk, sing bawdy songs, bury some loot and draw a map with a big X on it!

ITLAPD is for It's That Lingo-Affectation Post's Day . . . Aahhaarrrrr!

It'be thart toime o'yere again! Interr'national Talk Loik a Poirate Day! Which in this'ere neck o'the woods means moiself,  troi'in to wroit a West-contrymaan's aahkcent . . . poorrrly! Aahhaarrrrr . . . to the Poirates, mee'harrrtiees; to the Poirates . . .

Aaaand, take a deep breath and return to English as it was intended (typos excluded!). ITLAPD is really an excuse for faceplanter's and tweet-twits to talk silly to each other in Starbucks or at work, here at Small Scale World it's a hook I've used to hang Pirate posts on over the years . . . when I remember to!

The key ring was sent by Mr. Berke of New York with the others we looked at ages ago, but this one had to be saved for today! I think the eye pops-out when you squeeze it! Can't quite make out the importer's brand-logo but it looks like Kalan (or Kalin)? Cheers Brian!

On the left an unmarked resin pirate bear which was included in a mixed lot from somewhere recently; Charity shop I think? On the right a yellow version of some silver ones I thing we've seen before, in every other way (than not being a Ninja) he is the same as those Ninja's Peter Evans sent a couple of months ago, so probably RedBox elsewhere and HGL here?

Similar fodder, no idea as to origins - beyond 'China' - but there will be more of them and I'll track them down for next year's ITLAPD maybe, or the year after! Thanks to Peter for these three too!

These are all over feebleBay at the moment (BIN, free direct-post from China), and looking at the common'ish accessories, the figures are on the large size; 60/70mm? I have been tempted to get them for this year's ITLAPD but the low number of figures per lot and the unknown quantity of poses sort of put me off, again; maybe for next year!

Looking at them again just now made me wonder if they mightn't be propylene copies of old Schleich or Papo sculpts, they both 'do' this size, and both have (or have had) a man carrying a cannon on his shoulder, not exact copies, but based-on?

This chap is also in the large bracket and is one of the few figures you can still find in older corner shops being sold loose from a shop-stock box, softish PVC-substitute and a bit cartoony, he's the only one I've got so far, but you see them (and a similar, equally base-less, set with poorer paint) on eBay quite a bit, so another one we'll return to when I get more of the set.

Picked this up at PW's show in May, my first small scale pirate from Fontanini (got the African warriors out of storage the other day, so we'll see them here in the autumn). He's a creamy white ('ivorene') polyethylene, stained down by way of 'antiquing' or aging with a sepia wash and is one of the better pirates we'll look at here all day!

Oh! Are we sorting pirate's boss? I'll look in here to see if it's big enough for me...ny, err, 'many' pirates to fit in!

Nah! Too small, but that plastic one looks better for cats...taing lots of pirates boss! Just need to empty it so someone in admin can  . . . err . . . try it for size. I'd delegate, but . . . YAWWN . . . as I'm here, I might as well . . . ?

So that's the 'Odd's and Sods' up-first this year; next-up - Soma's dwarfen fatties, or is it the PSTSM in mufti?!! Do you suppose Dildoheft Hildabrand had to pose his cat on that pile of stuff, or is it entirely co-incidence they keep publishing stuff that resembles stuff seen here first? They are too funny, in their transparent stupidity . . . pirates really!

B is for Brown-water Navy

Quite by accident and without noticing I seem to have built a small fleet of Vietnamese Resistance vessels, gun-smuggling, for the use of!

Top left is a Hong Kong-made cake decoration fisherman on his little boat, based on earlier lead models originally used to decorate bonsai or miniature rock-gardens. Bottom right we have the small vessel from the Atlantic 'Mao and the Chinese Revolution' sets while the other vessel in both shots is a celluloid 'ivorene' touristy keepsake thing (like the little wagons) which may be factory painted, but I suspect a war-gamer's brushwork; from the matt-finish and accuracy!

Seven pieces for the factory glued one, the other having five-pieces for self-assembly in a plastic which doesn't like gluing! The  first - fisherman's boat - is a single moulding with a wire rod, a second wire-rod for fixing in the gravel/cake has been removed.

And the ironic thing is, while I think of them/present them as Vietnamese, one's actually Hong Kong-Chinese, the others Japanese and the third an Italian rendition of a Chinese boat and all pretty fictional/out of scale with the real things; but they look the part!

150 is for Comic Book Flat Civil War Soldiers

These have been Blogged elsewhere, so really just a box-ticker, I've said before, that "It will all appear here eventually", and from time to time that means covering stuff covered elsewhere, today it's some 'comic book flats'.

Lesser items; The guy second from the right in the middle row is - I think - supposed to be blowing a bugle, but all mine (on both sides of the fratricide) are moulded in such a way as to be open to interpretation, and it seems that taking a drink off a southern 'Belle' (actually a nurse) is preferable to swallowing a wasp or poking himself in the eye with a Remington, the other obvious explanations for what he looks like he may be doing instead of blowing a bugle!

You get a whole bunch of charging chaps, some of whom tend to have miss-moulded bayonets, there are quite a few cavalry and well and a second sword armed soldier; an officer to the NCO or dismounted cavalryman of the previous view.

Meanwhile you can send no less than three USS Monitor-class 'iron-clads' into maritime action against the same number of CSS Merrimac's! They should be  CSS Virginia's - the original built on the USS Merrimack (with a 'k'), comics huh? Like the Daily Mail but with better pictures!

The opposition come in an electric blue polymer and apart from the three different vessels are the same mouldings in the same numbers.

USA          ●           CSA

   Monitor Ships x3 - 3x Merrimac Ships

Gatling Guns x3 - 3x Gatling Guns

Coast Mortars x3 - 3x Coast Mortars

Scouts (binoculars) x3 - 3x Scouts (binoculars)

Officers (Stetson) x3 - 3x Officers (Stetson)

Sergeants (kepi) x3 - 3x Sergeants (kepi)

Hospital Wagons x3 - 3x Hospital Wagons

Hospital Nurses x3 - 3x Hospital Nurses

Buglers x3 - 3x Buglers

Cannons x9 - 9x Cannons

Sharpshooters (kneeling firing) x9 - 9x Sharpshooters (kneeling firing)

Infantrymen (advancing) x15 - 15x Infantrymen (advancing)

Cavalry x15 - 15x Cavalry

News, Views Etc . . . Herald Toys and Models

Barney's eMailed me to say he's got new stock in for the Autumn, including nice Briatians Herald English Civil war items including a fine loose example of the Mounted Roundhead Officer on an early smooth white plastic horse.

http://www.heraldtoysandmodels.co.uk/catalog/landing_page

I have to correct some idiocy on the Trojan post which will have to happen tomorrow, and I notice we went over the most posts in a year's record the other day, so everything from now to Christmas is a  Brucie Bonus!

S is for Subbuteo's Snappy Songsters!

Although known to be by Subbuteo in the UK, it's likely these were bought-in, and probably from Hong Kong, for several reasons, not least that a falco subbuteo (European hobby), as a small raptor, probably eats beetles when it's had a poor day's hunting larger pray!

Two other [proper!] reasons for suspecting importation are that 1) they were also issued carded in the 'States with white rosette-backs as lapel badges, presumably to cash-in on a US Tour?

2) They are made of a softish plastic which could be either a polyethylene or a dense PVC, either way; it's a much better material for making footballers than the brittle styrene Subbuteo was using at the time.

Nevertheless, they are very well-done compared to all the other 'Beatles' cake-decorations we've looked at, although Subbuteo sold them as stand-alone (stand- together!) figures in a window-box set. All three guitars are different shapes, with well-registered stickers applied, and all are held in place with a small black rubber-band on the note-forming/fret-board wrist.

The drummers stool is glued on and the Drum-kit usually has more than just a bass-drum if I recall correctly (with a stand of some kind?), but a slip of the scissors (you had to cut the kit out) and you might easily end up with just the main drum! Indeed, the lack of a 'proper' drum-kit may point to the US badges coming first?

R is for Rock Chick Rolls Around Again

I thought I recognised that Japanese guitarist the other day and sure enough; when I got the civi's out of storage there she was again, as an unpainted Mattel import with most of her band -mates (I'm missing one).

Sold as both CUTIE (Coolest Ultra Tiny Individuals [on] Earth) in four figure random blister-packs and Tiny Trendies as full set of ten window-packs, by Mattel and also five-figure sets, maybe? The one we saw the other day may be a Japanese Bandai-issued original, marking is the same on both.

A is for Archive Material

I had a fancy a while ago (26-years ago according to the drawing) to send some stuff to the readers hints page of a modelling magazine, and knocked this up as a first attempt! Needless to say I never sent it - application is not an aspergics' strong point, we're good at ideas, not so good at applying them!

I drew it on blue graph paper as blue used to be lost in the reproduction process for plans and drawings, although; why I thought a modelling magazine would have thermal blue-print equipment is anyone's guess, but as technology has - in any event - moved-on somewhat, it's now stuck with the hundreds of blue lines being read digitally, although I'm pleased to see most of the Tippex (another near-dead tech'!) seems to have faded-out in the scanning, so you win some - you lose some!

Also it's not so much a conversion or modelling-tip, as a graphic explanation of a bodge! It used to wind me up, just putting the tracks on a new kit was often enough to snap the drive-sprocket or idler-wheel (or both!) cleeean-orrff! So I got to the point where I was doing this with new kits as I constructed them from the box. I don't know if it was my imagination, but I seem to recall Airfix was the worst offender, with Esci a close second!

For the replacement axle in part 4 I used sections of plastic tooth-pick, it was stronger than Evergreen or similar polystyrene strips/'polyrods' Also; see, I used to use the term 'sprue' for runners!

This Russian KV 'Heavy' from Esci (a nice, neat, clean little kit) needed the rod-trick on the rear sprockets (and I should have done the front at the same time!) but because it was done before the deck went on for the last time, you'd never know it.

I notice it's lost an MG in the move, there is quite a bit of damage in the kit cabinet, one of the guys helping me tipped it on its back (because he'd seen the danger of the drawers falling out) and all the whitemetal and resin kits rather crushed the plastic ones as they shot back! I have a few nights gluing in my immediate future!

I also did this to explain the way I made the spare magazines for my quadruple flak, another project which hasn't progressed beyond the state it was in when I shoved it on the Blog! But I do now have two of those Frozen sleighs to add to the final diorama - if I ever go back to it?

Just use a set of dividers to score-out a circular strip, but before you cut through the two outer rings do some shallower ones inside them, which will pick-up paint and look like the reinforcing stampings on the originals. To fit them into the kits magazine-slots you have to remove the two shaded areas.

If they are going in the racks at the base of the gun, paint the top ends brass (for ready ammo'), if they are being littered about on the ground paint one end black (for an 'empty' shadow).

On the left are seen the commercial magazines on an Esci Flakpanzer kit, on the right homemade ones on an AHM (Hasegawa) half-track, they are not brilliant, I wasn't doing any measuring, it was all rather 'by eye', but you get the idea!

M is for Marx . . . Marching in Asia

I don't know where to look at the moment, or what to shoot! I'm like a kid in a sweet shop, every box I open either has old friends, things I'd forgotten, stuff that came in as I was packing up or things which need to be combined with the stuff that's come-in since, this is a combining lot.

The loose Marx Miniature Masterpiece stuff outgrew their box years ago and looking for a line to draw I put all the WWII and medieval (? Me too?) in a new box, although if that pairing wasn't bad enough I also put all the gun teams in with them, despite the fact that the rest of the ACW (including the Limber crews) stayed with the Wild West, jungle, Disney, light brigade et al in the old box?

Anyway the old box ended-up here, so we've had dips in it for Disney oddities and Wild West Ri-Toy comparisons in the last few years, but in cross-loading the ones for the other box I shot these.

The Japanese - we have looked at them against the Rado ones I think, but here are my four main colour variations, the darkest ones (top row) are as common as the others, but seem to be confined to eight poses (I forgot to shoot one - the clubbing guy), so it may be that part of the tool was blanked-off for a specific order, maybe the smaller window boxes? The other three; yellower, paler and greyer have all the poses.

These are all soft polyethylene and the green, red and white paint on the bottom row is 'previous owner-applied'.

Close-up to show the colour variation more clearly; and also the variation in paint between batches/orders/contracts.

On the left are the two types of base marking found with these figures, some having the larger Marx stamp, others a smaller stamp and balancing 'blank' - as per the cake-decorating figures the other day - believed to be mould-release pin marks.

On the right are my entire collection of hard polystyrene plastic Japanese! It's funny, with the GI's I have a large bag of hard plastic, a much smaller bag of soft plastic and only one unpainted figure from the late window boxes, yet with the Japanese it seems to be the complete opposite?

I don't think there is any significance to that; like the Tinykins/Disneykins these were much marketed in various configurations and set types/sizes, and the vagaries of Marx's global production will mean different territories got different stock when it was ready/they needed it and from whichever factory was slated to have the tools at that time, in whatever material they were running!

However . . . it's annoying, because the US got lots of the hard plastic batch for the various sizes of their Iwo Jima boxed sets, and they have extra poses; second tool! Mine are all damaged, the additional poses are on the top row but I don't know how many of them there are to find, for the longest time I thought I was only looking for a third officer (drawing his sword), then these three turned-up!

When the Japanese went home the vacuum left while the various colonies waited for their French and Dutch [&etc.], administrations to return was filled by a strange temporary administration made of the odd British colonial who was kicking about, US military personnel, trusted members of the out-going Japanese forces and any resistance fighters or local 'figures of standing', along with anyone else who thought they could administer (and possibly some fledgling UN personnel?).

Anyway - it was all very much a mess of an ad-hoc, buggers-muddle and the locals got used to a bit of autonomy, so when the French or Dutch, Portuguese or even the Brit's returned they found they were no longer welcome in someone else's country - not that they ever really had been, just that the 'Go homes' were louder and more forthright!

I know I've plugged them before here and elsewhere on the Wibbly Wobbly Way, but anyone who wants a concise account of France's loss of 'Indo-China' would be well advised to read Bernard Fall's Street Without Joy (incidecently, mentioned in the Long Grey Line I think (or Chikenhawk) as being read by US junior officers in Vietnam a few years later, trying to make sense of their own Kafkaesque situation), while his Hell in a Very Small Place is a day-by-day, blow-by-blow, almost (and at times) shell-by-shell account of the final unnecessary sacrifice at Dein Bien Phu, in part from the mouths of the survivors - on both sides - who he managed to track down years later.

Marx - as we saw briefly the other day - visited the conflict, in the height of the conflict, the Daily Mail said nothing!

The top row is all marked 'Made In Hong Kong' the lower rows are 'Made In Taiwan' and Taiwanese colour variations, the Taiwan sourced figures seem commoner over here, but I wouldn't say I have large samples of either. The schemes are the same from batch to batch but there is variation with red/orange, various shades and hues of blues and a move through brown to grey.

They go very well with the slightly-smaller scaled Japanese celluloid tourist keepsakes I've been collecting as well as those Villagers we looked at - and here we see three Viet Cong running past a wagon while elsewhere one of their comrades directs local peasants away to safety while the Ride of the Valkeries echo's over their 'Ville' mingling with the Chop-Chop of the Hughes Aircraft Corporation!

The Hong Kong marking is to the left of each pair, the Taiwan to the right; they should be readable if you click on the image. The Taiwan cartouche has a slight step or shoulder round the outer ring, suggesting they are the later version, with a slight re-tooling to allow for different stamps which probably doubled-up in service as release-pins, being interchangeable rods running through the tool-block.