HO is for Lone Star Germans

Just a box ticker to get something up here for this afternoon! The Lone Star Germans reduced somewhat!

This is the contents of a full set, almost certainly from the D-Day play-set with large vac-form, you get (got; 60+-years ago!) eight each of the six figure poses downscaled to an HO-gauge compatible 23-odd millimetre size along with two of the sub-scale (N-gauge) Land Rovers from the Treble-O-Trains range range, but in a dark olive, satin finish, rather than the bright, gloss red, black or British racing-green of the railway versions, giving a 50-piece count - 100 with the Paratrooper opo's; we'll look at another day.

The painting here has been restricted to a stab-and-hope dash of matt, flesh-pink in the vague areas of the face and hands - check-out the flame-thrower operators!

Later they seem to have done service as Chinese troops (probably referring to the Korean conflict) with an all-over gloss-red hat and while one might be tempted to imagine that this headgear embellishment was home painting; note that A) the flesh (better registered) is also now gloss and . . .

. . . B) another out-painter has gone with a more detailed attempt at the red-star, Chinese troops (and later the Vietcong) carried on their soft hats; both colours are also in a gloss-finish.

News, Views Etc . . . Bits and Bobs

I'll post something more substantial here later today, but a few things that might tempt you to surf the Wibbly Wobbly Way . . .

A week after his last announcement, Barney Brown has more news about his Herald Toys and Models site;

Dear Collector, this week we have launched an early Autumn Sale on many Britains, Herald and Farm related models, with BIG reductions on many items, so why not browse our comprehensive stock of plastics, click on our SPECIALS and "Get Them While They're Hot!" Happy Collecting as always, Barney.

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Fascinating Blog Post over at Plaid Stallions the other day;

http://plaidstallions.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-last-star-fighter-prototypes-found.html

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Sometimes the world is so crazy you struggle to make it up!

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There's stuff all the way to the bottom boss!

Yesterday - less than a day after ITLAPD - I bought four Pirates in Basingrad! Today a large, unexpected box arrived from a military / film costumier in London (Thank you Peter Evans!) which my assistant pounced on, as is her wont!

It contained several lots of-, and some individual- Pirates! Which means that less than 48 hours after the event I already have three or four posts in the long-queue for next year! See you there in 361!

News, Views Etc . . . Additional Imagery / Copy

Nothing here today, but I've added a group shot of cars to the Jig Toy Page (above) and two bear flats to the Airfix flats post on the Airfix Blog post dealing with them.

F is for Follow-up - Greco-Trojan Warriors

Following-up on the recent Trojan Warriors post Brian sent me a few images of his very 'clean' group and something a little more interesting, a Hinton Hunt metal Greek hoplite with the proper 'Bell' cuirass from 1972.

Here he is, he's in the queue for a re-paint and Brian reminisces;

I used to shop at the Hinton Hunt store on Camden Passage, late 60's early 70's. A wonderful eccentric place depending on whether the husband or wife was manning it.

From the stock I would say production over several days or a week was one range only. This meant that if you arrived just after new stock there would be a range of hundreds of one subject. I remember this one figure had dozens of variations of just the arms and weapons. I must have put this one aside when I ran out of metallic paint.

To which I would add that Rose Miniatures had some lovely Greeks too, around the same time, of which I have some small scale versions somewhere.

Posed with Brian's Britains; you can see he fits right in and scaled to within a gnats-crochet of his plastic brethren, although with a thinner base he's probably the equivalent of 55mm! It would appear that Herald's Trojan Warriors haven't taken kindly to his presence though?

Thanks Brian!

F is for Follow-up - Hawaiian Ukulele Player

When we looked at these the other day, we were looking at cake-decoration sub-piracies in a soft polyethylene for 'Rack Toy Month' who were from the 'Unknown Ethnic Dress Civilians' box . . . well, these - here today - were in the large scale ethnic dancers tub!

I don't actually have a hula-girl yet; Britains or full-size copy, but I got two ukulele players (in the 'big purchase' I think?) and a Hong Kong hard polystyrene clone at one of those 2009-11 shows.

From the left are Britains-Herald's original with an eight-colour paint scheme, in the middle the later reduced-paint version still has six because of the complicated sculpt with flower-garland (Lei) and instrument, while the Hong Kong copy-guy also has eight, but nicely (when you consider how closely those HK Trojan warriors followed Britains) in a new colour-way.

F is for Follow-up - Speedwell Medics and Ambulance Crew

As a follow-up to the recent Mettoy (et al) medic's post, Chris Smith sent me these shots of his Speedwell, suggesting that mine were correct in their paint, as his are as near mint as you can get with 50-year-old-plus gloss paint on shiny polyethylene!

The doctor and patient with bed that I still have to track down! Interestingly, while the figures are among the most original of that group of British 'minor makes' we've looked at on the khaki Infantry page, the bed and the method of fixing the ends-on is very similar to the bed in the earlier, little boxed Mettoy Ward Ten set, which I also still have to track down.

I still think the lips of my nurse have been re-painted and possibly also the base, but the blue highlights now seem original, although the mouth here is not that different, so maybe they got orange on Monday morning and red the rest of the week, although why this nurse lent her lipstick to the doctor is - I suspect - a story for another day; the patient won't tell, he's clearly 'out of it'!

Another view with a better angle on the bed, along with Chris's Speedwell stretcher team, he sent more on the stretcher/s which will go to the Khaki Infantry page when I get round to it, but I've been busy with pirates, sorting a huge box form Jim, show purchases and the storage stuff!

I love how happy the doctor and nurse look with their clearly quite poorly patient! Cheers Chris; they're lovely!

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

I almost forgot to produce this yesterday, so it's a bit rushed, but covers the main events!

Toy Fairs

Saturday 22nd September 2018

Didcot - Retro Ronnie

Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, OX11 7JN

Web - www.retroronnie.com

Mob. I - 07708 385 061

Mob. II - 07900 266 427

Gloucester - Clement Fairs

Churchdown Community Centre, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL3 2JH
eMail: clementfairs@aol.com (Steven Clements)
01380 725 322
10:00 - 14:00hrs
Refreshments available

[Previous announcements of this venue's show seem to have included a spurious postcode for Reading in Berkshire, only God (who doesn't exist) or I can know why, and err . . . I don't, so a big 'Soz' for that double-plus typo!]

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Sunday 23rd September 2018

Bolton - 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 - Robert Horscraft - '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

Kidderminster - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs

Guilt Edge Leisure Centre, Zortech Avenue, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, DY11 7DY

Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

10:30 - 14:00hrs

Admission £1.50p, free parking

Rayleigh - SRP Toyfairs

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

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Auctions

Friday 21st September 2018

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

01642 750 616

Saturday 22nd September 2018

Newark - Northgate Auctions

17 Northgate, Newark, Nottingham, NG24 1EX
Web. - www.northgateauctionroomsnewark.co.uk
eMail - auctions@northgateauctionroomsnewark.co.uk
Tel. - 01636 605 905
Fax. - 01636 612 607

Tuesday 25th -Saturday 28th September 2018

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (four day extravaganza!)

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

01642 750 616

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Heads-Up!
The date for the next Plastic Warrior Show is confirmed as being Saturday 11th May 2019 at the usual venue.

Captain Pugwash
Apropo an email on the ITLAPD posts, someone mentioned Captain Pugwash and it struck me he might be the cartoon character in the unknown premiums, so I had a quick google, he wasn't but I found a useful myth-busting page;

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/captain-pugwash-double-meanings/

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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!

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Missed!

Steam Railway Art

Issuing flyers, at the venue, on the day is not promotion! It's advertising 'in the moment', and at an isolated venue (nature of site, not geographic!) with everyone having to walk past the exhibition after paying their entry fee, you are only going to attract the odd extra trader/dealer to visit, while they are on their fag/coffee-break? And they were lovely works!

Promotion needs active effort in the weeks or months leading up to the event, if you want your even here in time, get emailing! Two people approached me last Saturday about their events, one gave me stuff to scan, the other is going to, they will get extra coverage as a result . . . for free!

M is for Mokkie's Military-Men Moulding Machine

Shelfies today, after yesterday's freebootin' figure-fest!

It's one of the rules of the hobby, as applied to shows particularly, but also a useful general rule, that if you see something and you like it and you can afford it, you should get it, as it won't be there if you come back for it later.

It's one of those self-prophesying rules that play on our tendency to doom and gloom, because actually if you return, you often get the thing you left on the previous pass, but it's the occasions when you don't that seem to reinforce the rule and build to this empirical 'mountain' of missed opportunities in your head!

I should have bought this, as I've been back three times and they haven't got another one in!

Branded to '3DMagic' with an accompanying website and licensed from Irwin RX of Toronto, Canada, this Fortress Battle Set is imported by Mookie Toys a newish name, but one we've seen here before recently; the Italian Buzzbee clearance in PoundworldPlus just before it's demise.

I left it because I thought 'Eight-quid for three figures? Nah, not worth it', but when I thought about it, with three coloured-gel bottles, it's nine figures if you only make one of each, which is less than a pound-a-figure, or around the average for figures at a show, so I should have got when I saw it and happened to have a tenner on me . . . Hey Ho!

They don't look terribly militaristic; grenade throwing (?), head-scratching and waving at a passing bus! But with a spare's tub of old Airfix ' Multipose', Italeri or Tamiya weapons, they could soon be knocked into shape for deep-penetration missions behind the sofa!

Set with a UV-light 'oven', I'm not sure how long they would last, or how robust they would prove to be, that 3D pen (a rather disheartening experiment in barely-controlled squirt-extrusion) I bought about a year ago in Lidl had bio-degradable filament, if this is a similar polymer . . . ?

W is for Westair's Wandering Windies Wastrels

This is a bit unfair on Brain who sent me some 'Mosherettes' back in the New Year, and - paraphrasing - I said thanks, but I'll hold them back for the Mosherette page (which is coming-along nicely), only to post these here, but A) it IS International Talk Like a Pirate Day and B) The rest of the Mosherettes are out of storage, so that project will pick-up pace now!

You don't know it but the last three posts were abandoned earlier today, with no blurb and just small notes that I would come back to them tomorrow if you were reading the notes!

As it happens I raced back to finish them and now (6.30 today) have half an hour in-hand, with an hour and a half before this one publishes, but the last four images are so self-explanatory, I don't need blurb - whatever Google, Blogger or TJF's idiot-software might say!

So as a reward to myself for getting them all done in what ended-up being a bit of a last-minute thing, I'll say AaaHaarrrrrrr Jimlaaad and Avast me 'arties! See youse'all next yearrrrrr, yeerrr land-lubbin' scumbuck'erts!

A Pirate

Another one!

A Piratess!

Guess what . . .

B is for Blind-Box Buccaneers

Peter Evans either sent me these in January, or put them in the big-bags at PW in may, I can't remember, but either way; kind of him, and while deforms are even less of a 'my thing' than resin [ . . . used to be!], they are toys, they are figures and they are pirates, so Spin Master - Blind Boxes!

Like blind-bags, except they are in a box! I'm not sure if they are still in the shops but there are always a few on feebleBay, blind or opened. Obviously tied directly into the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise from Disney.

I'm guessing the gold one is a less common / limited edition thing? But the Skullopus Squidington is brilliant, he would make an excellent additional piece for fantasy role-play gaming, as a daemon of some sort, and while I'm sure the Nottingham Mafia would hate it, I think he could slide (or slither?) into a Tyranid Genestealer army effortlessly?

Can't say much else about them, if deforms are your thing you probably already know more than I ever will! Cheers Peter - loving ol' purple eyes!

H is for Hing Fat's Hooligan Hijackers

A quick return to some figures we first visited back in 2012, possibly the first TLAPD (not sure in had gone 'International' then?); Hing Fat, except that the figures I was then told (2012, two years into being a larger scale collector) were Hing Fat are probably the donors for Hing Fat's simpler set . . .

Being the seven figures to the left of this shot, the rest (blue, red and mustard yellow) are definitely Hing Fat, several of the Toy Soldier shops on-line still have them in stock. This follows the pattern of Hing Fat appropriating contemporary Hong Kong or China stuff and putting it out there again, worse.

The better and slightly larger ones will be someone like Rado/Ri-Toys (Hing Fat pirated their Japanese), Yat Ming or well . . . there's 'undreds really?

Hing Fat on the right, their NASA astronauts in grey were poorer that someone else's donor, as were their take on the MPC spacemen and they have copied  several generations of ex-Airfix Cowboy & Indian, which their rivals have copied better!

I've kept photographing them as they've grown, along with the doubt as to the original set, so here's a bunch more images, these are Hing Fat, not the better ones!

V is for Villainous Venturer's New Version!

Remember the trio of small pirates we looked at in ITLAPD a few years ago, which I then found a Halsall-branded packaging (now HTI) shot of, on my old 'phone, for last year? Well, I found the even-older donors in storage!

These are they, the top three are the poses we've seen before here, the lower trio are 'new to Blog', colourful, around 35mm and a soft vinyl-like polymer.

They too (mentioned in the last post) have things in common with the Tiger/Strawberry Group stuff from the 1990's, credited to Supreme, but that doesn't mean I'm saying they are SP Toys, just that they are of that era/oeuvre, not least that Halsall carried the smaller copies and also carry copies of Supreme knights!

On the right of the clone-pairs are the Halsall copies and you can see they are a bit smaller and thinner all-round, (classic bad-pantographing), but follow the paint-scheme closely, apart from the base-wash. In cases like this they are as likely to be contracted by the originator of the donors as they are to be illegal copies, but again; I'm not saying that's the case, there's no evidence, either way.

They are scaled to go quite well with the Toy Bank vessel Peter Evans sent to the Blog last Christmas, after I had shelfied it; too tight to buy one!

Incidentally, there is a similar vessel appearing on feebleBay and Amazon at the moment, with two 54/60mm pirates, there are several deals, all 'buy it now', at least one direct from China, the others apparently UK clearance/wholesale type eBayers/sellers and all between 5.99 and 10-quid odd, well worth a look, I was tempted and they may be here for next year's ITLAPD!

S is for Supreme's Swanky Swashbuckling Sea-rover's

A bit of a box ticker, but they are nice figures and need their five minutes of fame at Small Scale World!

There are six poses, each comes in two main colour ways, and there were two issues, so technically 24+ to find. These are the later version and there are four pairs of opposite paint-ways and one blunderbusieer (I think I just invented that word!), they are a bit 'smooth' in sculpting style, and the gloss finish only adds to that impression, but - as we'll see in a minute - they are actually perfectly fine figures and hold-up well against the opposition.

The other pose and more blunderbusieers! The lower two are the earlier issue, these have boot-painted bases, although, note the two blunderbusieers (lovin' it!) are different from the one in the larger sample, so if you look for these definitive things it's going to be way more than 24!

Two new and two old Supreme figures compared with four of the main rivals for toy pirate fans affections, who are clockwise from top left; Safari, Zizzle, Charbens and Marx. You can see that behind the glossy paint and smooth sculpting, they hold their own perfectly against the others and only enhance a band of brigands!

Not only is it more than 24 to find, it could be as many as 48+, as the 'other six' (I have two poses still to find)* are more fantasy figures, although all very 'Pirates of the Caribbean' I think they predate the movie franchise by a few years?

I can remember seeing these, in open shop-stock boxes in a large corner-shop/hardware store opposite a car-park in a little town on the way down to Eastbourne around 1998/9, along with the Britains Deetail-like Tiger Cowboys & Indians also accredited/ascribed to Supreme?

*There are several on evilBay, where I've been keeping an eye on them for months, but both sellers want stupid money per-figure for what are modern, PVC-shite, 50p items! And that's more than I've paid for the others, although some of them have gone-up to around a quid-each with postage, but think what the petrol would have cost; and it's still a bargain! But five-ninety-nine BIN, with three-quid postage, for one skeleton? That's a piss-take, and so's the £9.99-odd some Belgian or Dutch seller is asking, for two figures!

R is for Rubber Raiders Run Rampant

Seen briefly earlier in the year, this is the Paperchase carded pirate rubber/pencil-eraser I got in a new-year's sale while visiting PW's editor earlier in the year.

Blurb Kreator 4.2 says; Packaging - forms of ephemeral and/or disposable material used for transporting goods safely and/or hygienically, without damage from factory to end-user, or from one user to another!

The monkey is in three pieces (hung from the yard-arm by the Bwreaksiteers of the North East, you know? But if he was waving a bloody-great knife around - he deserved it; Vichy swine-monkey pirate!), the parrot and the pirate four-chunks each, while the treasure chest is the real eraser; a solid lump!