News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

Saturday's flat but a busy Sunday and plenty going on in the week, it was 10½-weeks to Christmas the 'other day', but err . . . now it isn't! Don't forget the clocks give us an un-earned sixty-minutes in the early hours of Sunday morning, I may spend it writing a love letter to TJF!

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Toy Fairs

Saturday 27th October 2018

Brentwood - J&J Fairs

International Hall, Brentwood Centre, Doddinghurst Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 9NN

Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com

eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com

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

10:00 - Approx. 14:30hrs

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

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Sunday 28th October 2018

Chipping Norton - Don Davidson - Collectors Toy & Train Fair

Chipping Norton School, Burford Rd, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, OX7 5DY

Web. - www.chippytoys.co.uk

Tel. - 01608 641 870

10:30 - 14:00hrs

Doncaster - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'Doncaster Racecourse'

Doncaster Exhibition Centre, Leger Way, Doncaster, DN2 6BB
Web. - www.bpfairs.com
Tel. - 01604 846 688
Mob. - 07966 527 177
10:30 - 15:00hrs
Admission - Adults £4, Seniors £3.50p, Children £1, 'Early Bird' (from 8 a.m.) £10
Plenty of free parking

Great Bentley - R & G Toy Fairs
Village Hall, Plough Road, Great Bentley, Essex, CO7 8LD
Tel. - 01206 251 351 (Gary)
Tel. - 01255 473 509 (Richard)
10:00 - 14:00hrs
Admission £2.00, under 16's free
Free parking, refreshments

Orpington - SRP Toyfairs
Crofton Halls, Orpington, Kent, BR6 8PR
Web. - www.srptoyfairs1.co.uk
eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk
Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)
10:00 - 14:00hrs

Plymouth - Events Frontier - 'Collect-a-Happy' Toy & Train Fair

Plymouth Guildhall, Guildhall Square, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 2BJ

Web. - www.eventsfrontier.com

eMail - eventsfrontier@hotmail.com

Mob. - 07508 548 938

Reading - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs

Rivermead Leisure Centre, Richfield Avenue, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 8QE

Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £4.00, accompanied children under 16 free, 'early bird' (from08:30hrs) £10.00, from 'lazy bird' (from 09:30hrs) £7.00

Parking, refreshments, full facilities

Layouts and displays

Dateline show - dealers should carry stock up to 1995 only.

Seaford - Robert Horsecroft - Toy & Antique Collectors Fair

Downs Leisure Centre, Sutton Road, Seaford, East Sussex, BN25 4QW

Tel. - 01323 899 879

Tel. - 01424 846 676

10:00 - 14:30hrs

Admission £1.50p, children under 12 free

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Tuesday 30th October 2018

Elsecar - Newcomen Fairs Ltd. - 36th Elsecar Toy & Train Fair (evening fair)

Elsecar Heritage Centre, Elsecar, Nr. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S74 8HJ

Web. - www.newcomenfairs.co.uk

eMail - sales@newcomenfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01226 744 425

19:00 - 21:00hrs

Admission £1.50p, children 50p

Garstang - Janet Pearson (evening fair)

Kirkland & Catterall Memorial Hall, PR3 0HR

01282 439 009

18:00 - Finnish

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Thursday 1st November 2018

Theydon Bois - Joe Lock Fairs (evening fair)

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

Mob. - 07866 641 215

19:00-21:00hrs

Admission £1

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Auctions

Tuesday 30th October 2018

Heaton Mersey - Capes Dunn

40 Station Road, Heaton Mersey, Cheshire, SK4 3QT

Web. - www.capesdunn.com

eMail - capesdunn.caroline@gmail.com

Tel. - 01614 321 911

Collectors and Toy Auction

Newbury - Special Auction Services (SAS)

81 Greenham Business Park, Newbury, West Berkshire, RG19 6HW

Web: www.specialauctionservices.com

eMail: mail@specialauctionservices.com

Tel: 01635 580595

Fax: 0871 714 6905

'Express Toys'

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Wednesday 31st October 2018

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis

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

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

01642 750 616

'Dolls & Teddy Bears'

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Other Events

Friady 26^th – Sunday 28^th October 2018 (coming weekend)

London – MCM Expo / *reedpop / / Adnec Group – ‘Comicon London’

ExCeL London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, London, E16 1XL

Web. - MCMLondonOctober@reedexpo.co.uk (promoters)

Web. - info@excel.london (site)

Tel. - +44 (0)208 271 2135 (promoters)

Tel. - +44 (0)20 7069 5000 (site)

Attractions - https://www.mcmcomiccon.com/london/attractions/

Running 'till January? (see note below)

Aldershot - Aldershot Military Museum (with Hampshire Cultural Trust) - The Everyday Tommy Exhibition

Aldershot Military Museum, Queens Avenue, Aldershot, hampshire, GU11 2LG

Web. - www.hampshireculturaltrust.org.uk/aldershot-military-museum

Tel. - 01252 314 598

Artist - Helen Chester's Portraits of the Great War

Although only just advertised in the county magazine, it appears from the museum website and Google in general that this actually ran last year! Check before travelling! However a new work by Helen, commissioned by the Garrison is on display now.

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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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Toys in the media - Milk & More doorstep delivery advertisement in last week's free handout; ES Magazine, timed perfectly to coincide with the news that we all contain polymers, most of which we got from fish (in our guts and expelled) but a fair amount of which is dissolved from plastic food containers (like supermarket milk-bottles) by fats in the contents err . . . like milk and carried into our blood stream!

Look to be Noch or Preiser, I favour Noch (dare I say the paint's to fine for Preiser!), I could look them up but . . . with a scratch-built farm and hen-house and a bit of Photoshop!

Also in ES, who the very-actual-fuck pays 800-quid for a camouflage jacket, someone with more money than sense I fear! Still I'm probably biased - coming from it from the angle that the Queen gave me one for free which is still going after 34-years, although it's getting a bit holey, but presumably that just gets me closer to . . . oh, that's right, he doesn't exist!

It's not even a proper camouflage being the old DPM (1970-1990'ish) with the pale sand taken out, or replaced with a darker brown and the moss green toned down to lichen- it looks horrible, like someone's had explosive-diarrhea in a sleeping-bag! And parkas are supposed to have tails; it's what sets them apart from jackets?

The Levi's one is at least cheap - in comparison to the other two - and fur lined, but it looks like the sort of camouflage you'd find on Central American police or Putin's Donbass militia (perhaps that's who's buying them!), while the Canada Goose is another eight-hundred smackers for something than looks like Swedish army-surplus!

This is why the planet's dying before our eyes; the pink monkeys have lost all sense of reason.

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H is for Here's Something Pretty Esoteric!

No much blurb required, just enough to cover the essentials . . .

Atanlatic S.p.a. of Italy, gunmetal-finished, 'antiqued' mazac-alloy, medallion key ring/key-fob with the German officer from their WWII plastic toy figure range engraved on the reverse - see photo . . . err; that's it.

PS - They're not rare, someone found a whole box of them; ex-promotional things from a toy-fair or something, and they went round the hobby like a tray of  warm birthday-doughnuts in an office, about 12 years ago.

WHS is for Flying Tiger!

We last saw this in another colour-way, from WHSmith's, it's now turned-up in a set in Tiger, who have renamed themselves Flying Tiger. However the set's mini 'sandwich-box' container is identical to those used by both WHSmith and The Works, so they could turn-up anywhere, being obviously a 'jobbed' generic from some importer or wholesaler and it's getting harder to tell when you're looking at Iwako originals or when you're looking at copies?

Set with contents; it's as close to 'war toys' as some companies will go these-days, brightly coloured rubber tank, reasonable rendition of a Browning Auto' .45 pistol and a pair of binoculars, or should that be a set of binoculars, a pair (when they are already 'Bi-') would suggest two whole units (four eye-pieces) surly?!

Seen before, and I have now got three! Two in WHS colours and this one, a whole squadron under Terry Wise's rules I think! I do have a bunch more erasers in the queue but they will be amiable posts over Christmas - if I remember!

T is for Two - Renwal Dimestore Automobiles

A quickie now, approximately 1:48th, proper 'Dimestore' from Renwal and a rather insipid yellow, that's not the US 1950's taxi colour either! The seller (years ago) actually had several of them including some better-coloured ones, but I had limited funds and took these two because one had a figure (small-scale figure!) and the other was a consecutively numbered 'hard top' version of the first!

Posed passing the Kilgore 'space-car' heading the other way and parked-up next to each other I'm assuming they were 103 and -4 respectively in the Renwal catalogue? I'f I remember my though process at the time, another reason I bought these two was that they had paint which most of the others didn't?

The, colour wasn't conducive to photographing the marking (in the engine-bay) but you can see the simple construction and the fact that they were very definitely 10¢! The silver is stenciled with a spray-gun, but the brown has been hand-applied, in a rush, by someone who knows it will be sold for ten cents!

That's it; two Renwal Dimestore automobiles.

R is for Return - Figurines Historiques

I found the small collection of Polk's/Historex tie-up, the Figurines Historiques re-issues, in the garage/ex-storage stash the other day and have been trying to make sense of the sets from what I had in storage and those lovely painted (possibly by William J. Carman) and unpainted lose ones I picked-up at the London show a year or three ago now.

As a result we're going to look at them again briefly (but with lots of pictures) although it all raises more questions than it answers! Obviously the first thing is to ignore the line-ups in the previous post which were chronological by base-date, whereas [I hope!] today's are in the correct sets.

In storage I had some more of the semi-flats in their unpainted state; a white polystyrene of the same easy-glue type Historex used for their own products, with two sets still bagged which helped get the sets sorted, this is both sides of RB3 which I think is one half of 'Soldiers Through the Ages', however I'm not sure, as the small quantity of ephemera I have only fully lists the solids - Doh!

A comparison between one of the RB3 figures and a rather tatty example of a Mokarex original! Because the Figurines Historiques were issued over here they were quite common a decade or so ago, and while everyone else was ticking-off lists of 54mm British or European solids or 60mm US imports, I was ferreting around the shows hoovering-up the smaller stuff, and those of these, we didn't see last time, were among them.

However - I have hardly any Mokarex, and only these other three in semi-flat (and the gold one below), all three of which are from a set of Mokarex Napoleonic uniforms not re-issued by Figurines Historiques. You do see them occasionally, but often for silly money given that both Mokarex and Storme were among the bigger coffee brands and produced millions of these.

I have one or two larger solids (maybe 8 or 10 in total, some WWI and some Napoleonic cavalry in the smaller scale) but they will turn-up in thematic 54mm posts in the future.

Another comparison; musketeers! The gold one ('Buckingham', bottom-left) is another Mokarex original and then there are a selection of painted and unpainted for the two poses (the other is Porthos), along with (to the right) two smaller figures from another set, but of contemporary subjects, being another musketeer (above) and (below) one of Richelieu's goons! They are the smaller 50mm to the Three Musketeer's 54mm. The painted ones may have been painted by William J. Carman.

Now, the mysteries - while the semi-flats (50 and 54mm) turn-up, they aren't listed on the various header-cards I have, while the solids are (as already mentioned) listed, but I can't remember seeing them, or if I have seen them, they were Mokarex silver/gunmetal, not Historex white? And I think I'm right in saying the shots used on the header-cards are old Mokarex publicity shots - not unexpected if the Brethiot family (owners of Mokarex) were helping Nathan Polk and Historex with the re-issue.

Consequently, apart from the two sets I still have on the runner, the other three set numbers are speculative 9along with all the set-titles), while the listing for the solids (toward the bottom) may be for stuff they never ran the tools for! Anyhoows . . . here's what I think it looks like at the moment, one day - hopefully - we'll return to them for a final time with a definitive listing!

I do have a bunch of Polk's catalogues in the archive, so when i find them I'll check if he ever advertised/listed the semi-flats, but I think mine are too early, they mostly date form the 1940/50's?

Listings (Preliminary)

Flat/Semi-Flat Range

RB1 (?) - Kings of France (12 figures, listed chronologically, Mokarex series 1a - Les Rois de France)

[King] Clovis 465-511

[King] Clotaire 1 558-563

[King/Emperor] Charlemagne [The Great] 768-814

S^• Louis 1226-1270 (St. Louis?)

[King] Louis XI 1461-1483

[King] Francois I^..1515-1547

[King] Charles IX 1560-1574

[King] Henri III 1574-1589

[King] Henri IV 1589-1610

[King] Louis XIV 1643-1715

[King] Louis XV1715-1774

[Corporal/Emperor] Napoleon I^.. 1804-1815

RB2 - French Historical Personalities (12 figures, listed reading around the runner, Mokarex series 1b - Grande Capitaines)

Du Guesclin1320-13-80

Jean D'Arc 1412-1431 (Joan of Arc, also Jeanne D'Arc)

Turenne 1611-1675

Conn^BLE  de Bourbon 1490-1527 (Connetable de Bourbon)

La Tour D'Auvergne 1743-1800

M^AL de Saxe 1696-1750

Hoche 1768-1797

Conde 1621-1686

Roland

Bayard 1473-1524

Vercingetorix 72·46·Av.JC.

Marceau 1769-1796

RB3 - Soldiers Through the Ages (12 figures, listed reading around the runner, Mokarex numbers in brackets, Mokarex series 2a - Les Costumes Militaires)

Piquier [of the period of] Louis XIII (Piquet/Night Watch?)

Carolingien 800 (Carolingian)

Merovingien 600 (Merovingian)

Fusillier [of the period of] Louis XIV 1667 (Fusilier)

Infanterie [of the period of] Louis XV 1745 (Infantryman, 33)

Infanterie [of the period of] Louis XVI (Infantryman)

Chevalier Croise (Knight Crusader 1100'ish?)

Capetien 1000 (Norman)

Fantassin 1792 (35)

Grenadier 1771 [of the period of] Louis XV 1745

Gaulois 300 (Gaul)

Franc 400 (Frank)

RB4 (?) - Soldiers Through the Ages (12 figures, second runner, listed chronologically, Mokarex numbers in brackets, also Mokarex series 2a - Les Costumes Militaires)

Archer 1520 1520 (date repeated, no bow, so; man-at-arms?)

Cent-Suisse de le Garde 1558 (Landsknecht - Papal Guard)

Lansquenet 1562 (Conquistador type)

Mousquetaire 1627 (Musketeer)

Garde C^al Richelieu 1628 (Cardinal Richelieu's Bodyguard)

Carabinier 1692 (Dragoon)

Garde Francaise 1724 (French Guard)

Colonel De Hussard 1804 (Colonel of Hussars)

Grenadier 1804

Tambour Major 1804 (Drum Major)

Chevau-Leger 1810 (Heavy Cavalry, lit. 'Heavy Horse')

Cuirassier 1810 (34)

RB5 (?) - The Three Musketeers (12 figures, 'unknown' or Figurines Historiques numbering, Mokarex numbers in brackets, Mokarex series 2b - Les Trois Mousquetaires)

6085 - D'Artagnan 1611-1675 (28)

6086 - Athos (25)

6087 - Porthos (26)

6088 - Aramis (27)

6089 - Maitre Bonacieux (31)

6090 - Madame [Constance] Bonacieux (32)

6091 - Planchet (29)

6092 - Anne d'Autriche 1601-1666 (22)

6093 - [Earl of] Buckingham 1592-1628 (24)

6094 - [King] Louis XIII (21)

6095 - [Cardinal] Richelieu 1585-1642 (23)

6096 - Milady (30)

PS - if anyone has spare unpainted versions of the three I still need I'm sure I can find something nice for a swapsies!

Unknown publicity card

or set's backing-card (solids?)

Fully-round Range (listed as given on above flyer)

1 - French Revolutionary Figures 1^st Series (12 figures)

Roget de L'isle 1760-1836

Camille Desmoulins 1760-1794

Lazare Carnot 1753-1823

Madame Tallien 1773-1835

Marat 1743-1793

Laviosier 1743-1794

Joseph Bara 1779-1793

Hoche 1768-1797

Charette 1763-1796

Princess de Lamballe 1749-1792 (M^me...)

La Fayette 1757-1834

Axel de Fersen 1755-1810

2 - French Revolutionary Figures 2^nd Series (12 figures)

Napoleon 1769-1821

Danton 1750-1794

Marceau 1769-1796

Kellermann 1735-1820

Marie Antoinette with the Dauphin 1755-1793 & 1785-1795

Andre Chenier 1762-1794

Charlotte Corday 1768-1793

Fouquier-Tinville 1746-1795

Mirabeau 1749-1791

M^ME Royale 1778-1851 ('Princess Royal')

'Sans Culotte' 1792 (revolutionary)

M^ME Roland 1754-1795 (not on flyer/header-card)

3 - French 14-18 War Soldiers 1^st Series (10 figures)

Alpine Chasseur

Morrocan Tirailleur

Infantry Grenadier

Foot Chasseur (#1)

Artilleryman

Trumpeter

Engineer

African Chasseur

Soldier of the Marne

Tankiste

4 - French 14-18 War Soldiers 2^nd Series (12 figures)

Soldier at Present Arms

Drummer

Cyclist

Zouave

Legionaire

St. Cyrien

Senagalese

Communications Guard

Foot Chasseur (#2)

Machine Gunner

Marine

Supplyman

5 - French 14-18 War Personalities 1st Series (12 figures)

Foche

Gouraud

Mangin

Petain

Pointcare

Joffre

Lyautey

Guynemer

Clemanceau

Gallieni

Fayolle

Franchet D'Espercy

6 - Personalities of the 2^nd French Empire 1^st Series (8 figures)

Empress Eugenie

Princesse de Morny

Duchesse De Castiglione

La Paiva

Princesse de Metternich

Carpeaux

Prince Imperial

George Sand

7 - Personalities of the 2^nd French Empire 2^nd Series (12 figures)

[Ferdinand] De Lesseps

Thiers

Musset

Canrobert

Hausmann

Lamartine

Corot

Dumas pere

Cantiniere

Victor Hugo

Gambetta

Balzac

8 - French Revolutionary Figures 3^rd Series (6 figures)

Robespierre 1758-1794

Louis XVI 1754-1793

Louis David 1748-1825

Saint-Just 1767-1794

Condorcet 1743-1794

Joseph Viala 1780-1793

9 - Louis XIV and Personalities (12 figures, may have been discontinued early or not issued)

10 - Louis XV and Personalities (12 figures, may have been discontinued early or not issued)

11 - Men at Arms of Louis XI (8 figures, from chess set)

12 - Bergundian Men at Arms (8 figures, from chess set)

Other side of above card

 

Chess Set (no number, 32 figures)

Kings:

Louis XI

Charles le Temeraire [Charles the 'Rash' or 'Bold']

Queens:

Charlotte de Savoie

Duchesse de Bourgogne

Knights (Dukes):

Duc de Bretagne

Duc de Bourbon

Duc de Malines

Duc d'Uytherke)

I had help . . . if you can call it that!

And she always looks so pleased with herself - You don't fit in the small-sample boxes!