I is for I Just Couldn't Come-up With a Good Title!

Following on the heels of the Britains Trojans and Cherilea Roman 'returns' and the other day's box ticker on Toyway, comes the next obvious one in the queue, Crescent's Romans, although going with an RG prefix and some of the sculpts the accurate title is probably Romans and Gladiators!

For some reason (not thinking, that's the reason!) I didn't shoot the overview shot in numerical order, although the next six collages are in the right order which is;

RG1 - Kneeling with small round shield (Gladiator)

RG2 - Spearman (Legionary)

RG3 - Standard Bearer (Legionary)

RG4 - Wounded with Arrow (Legionary)

RG5 - Advancing with small round shield (Gladiator)

RG6 - Full-on Gladiator (Gladiator!)

Basically; a rather odd assortment, let's look at them closely . . .

People consider him a roman soldier, but the small round shield says Gladiator to me, I know they each have a name for their role/uniform & equipment, and one or two were dressed as 'regular' Romans, but the shield is designed to be a weakness, while the short stabbing dagger is a gladiatorial weapon, designed to wound and prolong the 'entertainment'.

I think the base on the left-hand figure is a re-paint and I'm not sure about the bright silver on the other (comments that apply to a lot of these), which came from a collection with a lot of re-painting, the final one is unpainted and I have no Hong Kong or other copies of this pose . . . yet!

This is a nice rendition of a Roman legionary, he is armed with a straight-shaft spear or lance rather than the more expensive (to produce) pillum, I don't think that's particularly anachronistic, but would bow to more knowledgeable members of Slingshot!

Also he carries a proper Roman gladius short-sword with broad blade, sheathed at his belt, suggesting that the 'dagger' of the above Gladiator was a deliberate act by the sculptor. Happy with the painting on these two, early on the left, later reduced-paint; centre, and a Hong Kong dwarf on the right!

Standard Bearer, I can't remember which is which or what one this is called . . . signifier? I should have waited 'till the books were out, or stuck to non-Latin 'toy soldier' stuff! Another legionary, and paint looks good on both Crescent examples, while there's a slight colour variation on the HK's wolf's head headdress.

The third legionary is not much use, being hors du combatt! Re-painting to the earlier scheme I fear, but following the original and a very nice sword stuck in the ground/base.

I'm sure this is a gladiator, he's got a Greek bell-cuirass and an attic (?) helmet with fancy plumed-crest, there was a gladiator called a 'Greek' (or Illyrian?) I think, but seem to remember he only had one greave? Again the small round shield says 'slightly hamstrung'.

I don't have one of the HK dwarves for this pose, but a much nicer full-size blue chap, who must come from a bigger pose-set? I think the paint's right on the two Crescent's but I'm not sure?

Definitely a gladiator (retarius?) and having two equally colourful paint-schemes and a heavy sword, he is handicapped by the ridiculous helmet restricting vision - as it boils his brains! The Hong Kong copies are the best of a bad-bunch and some have a red belt!

So that's that box-ticked, an odd set as you've got one obvious gladiator, two probable's, a wounded man and a standard bearer, which leaves the fate of all Rome and it's mighty Empire in the hands of a man with a sharp stick! But, if the idea was to pull on the draw of the Spartacus movies, I'd say the gladiator's have this one in the bag!

Funnily enough there was a small lot on feebleBay the other day with the missing 'aitchkay' copy of RG5, but it was more than I would pay for what was two duplicates and a piece of shite, even if it was a piece of shite I'm still looking for!!

F is for Foreign Fellows on Phut-phuts

Heay, I don't care - anything for an alliterative heading, me!

So soon after the last two-wheeled round-up, but I was re-jigging the garage stuff to make room and found several boxes I was happy to re-acquainted myself with, including the motorcycles box, and so we're back to them with a quick look at some of the larger ones from foreign makers.

Across the North Sea Reisler were turning this out in various guises including civil and police colours as well as the 'Friendly' (with rider) and 'Enemy' (abandoned!) force colours seen here. Made from an early polystyrene, it has a soft, warmness to the touch and a naturally glossy finish, to which they added minimal paint-highlights.

Some Spanish outfit - I'd better not try ID'ing them in case it says something else in TJF's bookie-wook, leading him to another on-line rage'gasm. In the shot bottom-right, you can see the holes present in all machines for a side-car, and both variants seem relatively common, sharing the swoppet elements of figures by Manuel Sotorres with the moveable arms also seen on the smaller figures from Torres Maltas, this rider though has more in common with the larger output credited to Juguetes Teixido . . . damn! Committed myself . . . helmets on!

From the land of Uncle Sam came this rather nice machine, sans rider, a Harley' or an Indian? Milwaukee steel-horse anyway! Made by Pyro as part of their dime-store military range and also included in some of the larger 'big-box' sets, it never had a rider as far as I know and was out of scale (larger) than most of the other vehicles in the range.

Covering Germany from Italy, comes this crude'ish sculpt which can be taken as a BMW R75 or Zündapp KS 750 due to the front forks being an accurate rendition of neither!

The Atlantic figures are stiff and the machine is chunky, and I think my back-seat may be a battlefield modification from an anti-aircraft mounting . . . you can't win 'em-all! This is a later issue in a leery colour, probably from the blister-packs with collector stickers.

From 'Chye-Nah' as the Orange Loon refers to them; comes a modern road-bike/tourer type with 3-spoke alloy wheels, a camouflage paint-job and convoy/escort beacon. New Ray's is a lovely model but the equally well sculpted (yet rather over-burdened - given his storage pannier's size!) rider cannot be made to hold the diminutive handle-bars which is a pain and something which should have been sorted-out at the production stage; maybe he's from another machine?

A few more shots of the New Ray pairing!

Warh! Err . . . Well . . . , this isn't foreign, what's it doing in this post? Someone must have sneaked it in here to advertise another post? Ah! That's it; check this out . . . Airfix, don't you know!

A is for Another - Sculptures UK; Highland Piper

Like an 'R is for Return...' but new and differenter (which should be a word!), we looked at one of these Sculptures UK figures (from Peter's plunder bags) back in the summer, and it turns out that not only was there one in the storage-pile, it may be one of the first larger scale figures to join the collection, being - from memory - a charity-shop purchase in Newbury or Hungerford in late 2008 or early 2009

Looks to be a different sculptor, or maybe he was better at layers of flowing garb (the face is similar to the previous figure's), but I think a different hand/technique is involved here? The pipes and - I suspect - the hands are a single metal casting set into the resin, which is sensible as otherwise the thing wouldn't survive removal from it packaging, while this has survived losing its packaging years ago, a trip to and from charity and seven years in storage!

As with the previous post I haven't the faintest idea who's tartan this is, or indeed; whether it's a made-up one? Following Gisby's lead last time I found several Highlanders including Royal Stewart and Black Watch piper paint-ups of this sculpt - this is neither. But it's cleverly done with four colours over the base, which is finely etched with both lines and a cloth-pattern, giving the appearance - by eye - of a very fine print, all done through 'technique'!

As you may have gathered by now, the Highland box turned-up the other day, so I will be giving them the same treatment as the Guards, but I need to combine with the attic stash first and look up Regimental-tartan, hopefully over the weekend?

Q is for Question Time - Highlanders

These are odd, I had five in storage and picked-up a couple more this year somewhere; PW's show or Sandown Park? I have a feeling someone once told me who made them or where they come from, and they are similar to the Toyway vinyl run of Timpo solid late version combat highlanders (a dense, glossy-painted PVC), but obviously these are parade/musician types with smaller bases.

Upper shot, let top right - the four poses so far discovered by me (that's not a 'discovery', they do turn up and I'd seen them before with dealers and so on before I started collecting larger scales a few years ago); Drum Major (Pipe Major?), drummer, bass-drummer and piper.

Lower shot - there are several tartans on display, leading one to wonder if they represent real or generic cloths and might be touristy things. I seem to recall Britains collectors saying the all-green one (second in) is Black Watch, but I'd need to gen-up properly before attempting the others!

I love the little 'big' cat's head over the shoulders of the bass-drummer! The bass drummer needed a hot-water treatment before he would stand-up properly, and follows the pattern of most similar figures in having the drum affixed by a long, integral spigot spearing the drummers chest!

These two drummers are actually different mould-cavities, note the thicker base on the right-hand example in both pictures (yet he's still also slightly shorter) and the yellow-weave stencil of their tartan is slightly different too, suggesting they may have been sprayed together while still on the runners?

I'm not sure if the left-hand drummer is a repaint or not (again the thinner-based, taller moulding), looking at the little area of waist-band between the halves of the jacket, there's no sign of a previous scheme so I guess the kilt is genuine, but I suspect the white may have been touched-up by hand . . . including the eyes!?

The most recent piper (right-hand of pair) has a deposit/film on the base which seems to have been some reaction in the factory, as it's under the green paint, and doesn't scrape off with a finger-nail. Perhaps someone sprayed a mist on the tool to cool it and it puddled on the flat area of the base? Too much mould-release lubricant . . . something like that?

Anyway, that's them as I have them so far, are they Toyway, or the same HK lot that did the Salvation Army bands, someone else . . . anyone know? And thanks to Chris Smith for the latest additions.

T is for Tiberian Troops from Toyway

Bit of a cheat post, or even 'cheap' post, as I spent so much time on the Halloween stuff, I left myself with nothing for today, and no time to post it - if it had been ready - so quickly shot these, but they sort of ran-out of background and as I was being lazy, instead of setting-up a better 'set', I just shot them at a steeper angle - and definitely a box ticker!

Three lightly-armed auxiliary types, their grannies have knitted them lovely surcoats from brown wool, look; an open chain stitch; you could use them as mail shirts in a movie! Joking apart; it's nice to see the mail a bit rusty looking, as I'm sure it got so, after a few weeks on campaign, especially in the cold, wet, Northern 'provinces'.

Three 'proper' empire-era legionnaires with the lorica-segmata (or whatever the spelling is), overlapping plate armour, the only three in the set and looking like a reconnaissance patrol rather than a well drilled maniple.

Four more of the lightly-armed troops make-up the ten figures of these Toyway sets, these all given a helmet and shield, but nothing else bar a baldric to hang their sword's scabbards' from - the centurion and the archer have both drawn a belt from the QM's stores though!

All of them, from the rear, although mostly rather casual (all the sibling sets are the same) and lightly armed they are nice figures and I like them, they are also quite well-painted for china-troops.

The one oddity with all these sets from Toyway, is the separate base with its small 'CHINA' in the hollowed-out underside, where a single mounting spigot is set very near the edge of the quite-wide disc, most figures having a choice of two holes (some only have one) they all end-up 'standing back' on their little piece of universe - the kneeling guy and the standing on a rock guy being the two exceptions; they are also the poses with only one hole!

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

Easing off now as we get closer to Christmas, but still some good shows out there, and more to come (Sandown next week!), so see if there's one near you and 'fill your boots' with plunder - THAT'S why pirates have baggy boots!

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Shows

Saturday 3rd November 2018

Beconsfield - Toy & Train Fairs

Beconsfield School, Wattleton Road, Buckinghamshire, HP9 1SJ

Tel. - 02082 051 518 (Peter Levinson or Diane)

10:30 - 14:30

Crawley - SRP Toyfairs

The Hawth Theatre, Hewth Avenue, Crawley, Sussex, RH10 6YZ

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

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Ludlow - Tony Oaks Toy Fairs - Ludlow Toy & Train Collector's Fair

Ludlow Racecourse, Bromfield, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 2BT

Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

10:30 - 14:00hrs

Admission £2

Free parking

Oxford - Richard Atkins Fairs

Exeter Hall, Oxford Road, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1AB

Tel. - 01869 347 489

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Wrexham - Barry Stockton Fairs - Hobbies & Model Rail Show

Wrexham Memorial Hall, Bodhyfryd, Wrexham, LL12 7AG

Web. - http://barrystocktonfairs.co.uk/
Tel. - 01513 343 362
10:30 - 15:30
Admission - Adult £3.50, children £1.00

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Sunday 4th November 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

Exeter 'Westpoint' - Bulldog Fairs

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

Web. - www.bulldogfairs.com

eMail - bulldogfairs@aol.com

Tel. - 01373 452 857

Mob. - 07917 125 641

10:30 - 14:30hrs

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

Falkirk, Scotland - McLaren Models

Tel. - 01324 624 102

(All other details here)

Note - Gerry at SRP Fairs has cancelled the Herne Bay show previously pencilled-in for Sunday.

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Auctions

Tuesday 6th November 2018

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

Antiques, fine art and militaria

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Tuesday 6th / Wednesday 7th November 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

'Specialist Sale' both days - subject unknown

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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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Thanks to Bob De Silva for pointing out that the Vintage 20mm site link was no longer working, but the time you read this I should be fixing it!

2 minutes later . . . Done;

http://vintagewargamingfigures.info/rblack/index.html

News, Views Etc . . . Yoga Joes +

Remember those shlefies Brian sent the blog a year or so ago, well, they have a Blog of their own, I would get some but they aren't cheap and they're not doing much, however . . . everthing you need to know or (see) about Yoga Joes here;

https://www.yogajoes.com/

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It's only seven-odd weeks away!

https://folksy.com/items/7195927

Q is for Quintet of Qhaki Qombat Qontributions

As a follow-up to the earlier post . . . 

We did look at my 1st version [very] small sample a while ago, to which I have added a few bits, but not enough for a return; however Theo van der Weerden sent this to the blog , these are late issue, intermediate type (no separate boots) with the same bases as the final types (previous post) and you can see both the rival Timpo DNA in the webbing and the helmet carried-over almost the same to the last version British troops in the previous post.

When they come with these blue-grey helmets I suspect they are trying to be more UN infantry, so I've left that in the Tag list from the earlier post, but I've added 60mm, as some of these chaps are heading that way. Also note that they get an LMG/Bren instead of the GPMG and their rifles appear to be 'up-and-under' shotguns! Cheers Theo!

D is for Does Anybody Not Know What These Are!

If you follow Plastic Warrior magazine (subscribe!) you probably remember the excellent series of articles on theses written by Matt Thier a few years ago and recognised the figures straight away, if you are in your fifties and remember 1970's toy soldier production, you'll clock these instantly and if your shtick is British production you won't need me giving you an ID on the following.

But . . . if you get excited to the point of hysterical public orgasm by 1950's Spanish rubber while suffering 'knowledge-base' brain-freezes on endless samples of more recent stuff . . . well, luckily for the other readers; this isn't your Blog!

Late production Cherilea swoppets, the third generation, in their British Infantry guise with a clear nod to Timpo's figures and a vast improvement on the previous two generations, although; I prefer the toy-like charm of the earlier attempts while getting annoyed by the idiosyncrasies of this set!

The Brit's though are probably the best as their helmet with its two-colour flecked or marbled scrim-net cover is the best of these figures, and the weaopns are half-decent with the SLR, GPMG and SMG quite well modelled, the other two are a bit 'off-the-wall' though!

The 'Germans'! Grey and black . . . it's all a bit jingoistic now, but back in the day it was the acceptable way of doing these things, as the Germans have never gone to war is this shade of grey and didn't use the illustrated weapons; the anachronisms are what make them 'toy' soldiers!

At least the piss-pot with a cut-out on the rim works reasonable well for the WWII era 'Fritz' helmet.

I think these are meant to be US 'Doughboys' in an olive drab but as you can see the helmets don't work at all with them and you think they're half finished in some way, and of course these were in the shops year before the US armed-forces starting experimenting with the current 'Fritzie'!

They don't work any better for the UN troops, but at least the Soviet-looking RPG/A-T rocket-launcher is more explainable with a generic army of unknown origins than it was at the top of the page in a UKMF/BAOR rifle-company!

The weapons; top-left to bottom-right we have an FN/SLR, an RPG7 type (or even a half-decent stab at a PzF 44), a FN MAG/GPMG, Stirling SMG and a sort of Ingram/Uzi type 9mm automatic 'sprayer'. The GPMG is a tad oversized but quite recognisable, and for some time now (1995) a US service weapon too, where it's called an M240B, replaceing the M60.

Same torso, different legs! There are five leg poses and five weapon-specific torsos, although the nine-milli' body can carry most of the other weapons as with the far-left figure in the German shot above.