DY is for Dah Yang

Not often we have bone fide Taiwanese stuff on the Blog, I'm sure some slips by under the 'generic' label as Hong Kong/China, but Taiwan (whatever Beijing thinks) is quite a different place, and these are a lot of fun!

Equally - not often we have ray guns on the Blog, but it has happened before, although I won't know until I publish whether I tagged them as such? Also - do you think the gun is based on the artwork (nicked from a comic, annual or pulp paperback), rather than the artwork reflecting the toy? It's all a bit Dan Dare or Buck Rogers!

Dah Yang; new to me. The gun has a double mechanism of cap-firing and dart-firing and looks to be more modern that the card-art would suggest? This is a 'proper' ray-gun, with the dish-thing that makes it really lethal, the stacked-disc ones are all show and no firepower, I read it in Ray-guns & Ammo Monthly!

They make handguns too! Not only does this one have stacked-discs, but it's got the in-line tube/ring things too; Ray-guns & Ammo Monthly has very little good to say about them! But it's a repeater, and in enclosed spaces?

Just imagine; if only we could get every teacher, shopkeeper and bus driver to have their own - legally held - ray-gun, how safe the world would be?

C is for Carded Collection of Canned Cavalry

Slowly adding to the PRB ouvre, this being the third visit to them since the swivel-head contribution from John Roquas and the follow-up courtesy of Theo van der Weerden's memories; tying the combat infantry figures into bubble-gum.

We now have a clear logo - a sort of antenna-sporting alien with his (or her) own electron halo and a checkered-banner or pennant on what appears to be a lance?! The figures - on identical cards - being approximately 50/54 and 35/40mm (the riders are slightly bent and hard to measure with certainty), the horse being a single sculpt, the lot taken from German Manurba sculpts.

Quick note here; One Erwin Sell; he who makes it up as he goes along, has stated they are licensed from Manurba, where he got this nugget of corporate information from is anyone's guess, but as he makes it up as he goes along . . . the Manurba set are better, but heavier sculpts and the horses (four poses) have bases.

Licensed production - if new tools are generated - usually follows the design parameters of the licensor's product (Tim Mee for instance), and indeed - as far as toys go - usually only extend to re-branding of supplied or like-for-like product (all those Answer Robot/Magician games). These are quite different - still I look forward to his publishing the copies of the licence he must have to make such pronouncements - as fact.

Indeed, I would say the overall state of these is 'poorer', something you couldn't say of the swivel-heads seen here at SSW in 2017, against the blobbier, single piece Heinerle versions. It would appear that both the Italians and the Germans are the copyists here; PRB of the Manurba knights, Heinerle of the PRB swivel-heads?

Andreas Dittmann in his guide to Manurba published by Plastic Warrior magazine states that one of the companies which received Manurba product to sell-on was PRB, but these - in today's post - are not Manurba product!

The cards are the same size, but the artwork is miss-registered in the case of the 35mm set, or the guillotine-operator had his settings wrong!

As well as only using the one (base-less) horse pose in both scales, they seem to have only adopted three or four human poses and I've only seen three in 50mm and three in 35mm, the 50-mil's getting a copy of the jousting/lancing knight with separate lance not apparently re-produced in the 35mm line.

We did see these before on SSW, ten years ago (turns out I'd shown the little pirates before, so ITLAPD was their second showing on the Internet!) in an 'unknown' post, it's nice to be able to go back and add some pink-text ID'ing them, and even nicer if no one else has ID'd them in the meantime as I get to keep the credit and Breizhtt gets to call me an egotist; win-win for everyone!

The loose ones have more colours as far as horses go, and I must thank Adrian Little of Mercator Trading for finding me the carded set, between them they - both samples - are only offering the one horse pose and the three mounted-poses.

All of mine together -  I was trying to show the horse colours, but flash/reflection and a yellowish light-effect means I'm not happy with the shot and there's a couple more below. Suffice to say it's nice to have a name to put to the three old ones at long last!

This is a better illustration of the dark-chocolate brown against the black and three clearly different shades of white, being - from the left; very light-grey, cream and snow!

This chap has been languishing in Picasa since a photo-shoot I did of all the - then - extant medieval's in larger scales, around 2012 and if I don't show him now I may never! The horse is Hong Kong and only there because he fits it! Indeed - you can just see the HK-mark down it's inside front-leg.

But the figure is not so clear; he's midway between the two sets above, and was once a darker bronze-colour (I suspect), but an additive colourant seems to have leached-out, leaving him 'antiqued' with a pinkish, powdery bloom, yet slightly translucent at his thinner points.

He's much-of-a-muchness as far as rack-toy/bazaar/pocket-money shite is concerned, and not obviously one of the Manurba sculpts (although he could be a 'cut-&-shut'?), I suspect he is Hong Kong, but he could be late'ish production French, Spanish or Italian . . . anyone recognise him?

 

The rider is probably Rumanian, see comments (thanks Gabriel), I have since seen harder-plastic, painted PZG versions from Poland too.

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events +

Saturday was looking a bit thin for toy shows, but a few have surfaced, while Sunday is crammed with venues and those using the M1 or A40 to drop down for the London show, could pop into Potter's bar if they have time and kill two birds with but the one stone; although, in the midst of a mass-extinction event, you shouldn't be trying to kill any birds, while doing so with stones is just mindless cruelty and extraordinarily inefficient!

Also; Thanks to the ladies at Vectis Auctions, for sending me pictures/details for their forthcoming dates, I know you all like something to look at while you're reading.

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Toy Fairs

Friday 16th November 2018 (Today!)

Reminder of the Alfreton evening fair flagged a week ago here at SSW;

Alfreton - Toy and Train Fairs (Malcolm Townsend) - Evening fair

The Leisure Centre, Church Street, Alfreton, DE55 7BD

Web. - www.tttf.co.uk

Mob. - 07951 072 790

19:00 - 21:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

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Saturday 17th November 2018

Abington - Transport Collector's Fair

Abington Church Rooms, Park Avenue North, Northampton, NN3 2HT

Web. - www.facebook.com/northamptontransportfair

eMail - steve7941@hotmail.co.uk

10:30 - 16:00hrs

Admission £1.50p

Enfield - NLETE - Enfield Transport Bazaar

St. Paul's Centre, 102 Church Street, Enfield, Middlesex, London, EN2 6AR

eMail - nleevents@outlook.com

Contact - SSAE to: NLETE, 8 The Rowans, Palmers Green, London, n13 5AD

11:00 - 14:30hrs

Admission £3, accompanied children free

Exeter - Ray Heard Train & Toy Fairs

Matford Centre, Matford Park Road, Exeter, EX2 8FD

Internet presence unknown

Tel. - 01823 480 097

10:00 - 15:30hrs

Admission £2

Free parking, refreshments

Hereford - Chris Dyer Fairs

Hereford Leisure Centre, Holmer Road, Hereford, HR4 9UD

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £2

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Sunday 18th November 2018 [Busy-busy day!]

Buxton - Barry Potter / BP Fairs

The Octagon Hall, Pavillion gardens, St. Johns Road, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6XN

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £3.50 (early-bird £6, from 08:00hrs), OAP's £3, Children £1

Devizes Steven Clements Fairs -

Corn Exchange, Market Place, SN10 1HS

eMail: clementfairs@aol.com

Tel. - 01380 725 322

Mob. - 07958 101 891

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

Free parking, café

Llanelli, Wales - Chris Dyer Fairs

Llangennech Community Centre, Off Hendre Road, Llangennech, Wales, SA14 8TH

Web. - www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 01643 702 757

Mob. - 07966 694 579

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission £2

London - MKPS - International Antique Doll, Teddy Bear & Toy Fair

Kensington Town Hall, Kensington, London, W8 7NX

Web. - www.200yearsofchildhood.com

eMail - hap@mkps.co.uk

Tel. - +(44) 7875 874 854 (Daniel Agnew or Hilary Pauley)

10:00 - 15:30hrs

Admission charge unknown

Saturday gala dinner

Potters Bar- Toy & Train Fairs

Elm Court Centre, Mutton Lane, Potters Bar, Middlesex, EN6 3BP

Internet presence unknown

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

10:30 - 14:30hrs

Admission charge unknown

Spalding - J&J Fairs (J&J Webb)

Springfields Events & Conference Centre, Camelgate, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE12 6ET

Web. - www.j-jwebbtoyfairs.com

eMail - jandjfairs@virginmedia.com

Tel. - 01522 880 383

10:00 - 14:30hrs

Admission - Adult £2.50p, seniors £2, 1st child £1.50p

Walsall Wood - Transtar Promotions - Toy and Train Collectors Fair

Oak Park Active Living Centre, Coppice Road, Walsall Wood, WS8 7DG

Web. - www.transtarpromotions.com

Tel.- 01922 643 385 (Geoff or Linda)

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Admission - Adults £1.80p, seniors £1.50p, child £1

Refreshments

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Tuesday 20th November 2018

Wootton Basset - Steven Clements Fairs - Wootton Basset Evening Fair

Memorial Hall, Station Road, Wootton Basset, Wiltshire, SN4 7EN

eMail: clementfairs@aol.com

Tel. - 01380 725 322

Mob. - 07958 101 891

18:30 - 20:30hrs

Admission charge unknown

Free parking, café

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Auctions

Friday 16th November 2018 (Today!)

A reminder of another from last Friday's post

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis (day 2 of a 2-day sale)

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

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

01642 750 616

Model Trains

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Saturday 17th November 2018

Bury St. Edmonds - Lacy Scott & Knight

Web. - www.lsk.co.uk

eMail - oleggett@lsk.co.uk

Tel. - 01284 748 600 (general enquires)

Tel. - 01284 748 623 (Oliver Leggett - auction)

Toy and Collectors Models

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

Mixed toys, vintage and modern

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Tuesday 20th / Wednesday 21st November 2018

Newbury - Special Auction Services (SAS - 2-day sale)

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

Web: www.specialauctionservices.com
eMail: mail@specialauctionservices.com

Tel: 01635 580595

Fax: 0871 714 6905

Music and entertainment sale

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Wednesday 21st November 2018

Warwick - Warwick & Warwick

Charlton House, Scar Bank, Millers Road, Warwick, Warwickshire, CV34 5DB

(Auctions held in Court House)

Web. - www.warwick&warwick.com

eMail - richard.beale@warwick&warwick.com

Tel. - 01926 499 031

Facsimile - 01926 491 906

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Other Events

Now - until the 6th January 2018

Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne

Web. - townereastbourne.org.uk

I'm not suggesting you travel any distance to this for any toy possible content, as most of the exhibits are more mainstream 'art' fare, but if you are local it might be worth a punt for any other works by Tony Cragg if the above is anything to go by. I can see a few toys in the . . . collage, work, heap? And they are presumably all pre-1978 items!

Any one of us could do a rainbow carpet, thicker too, but all in figures!

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Missed!

These flyers were much in evidence at Sandown Park last Saturday, but it's a bit late for getting on the Internet for a show the next day, no one is going to rush home and late-promote your show, after an early start and a long-day getting a sore throat under that air-conditioning! Better luck next year guys; try a week or two before the show?

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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

From the 'i' (9th Oct. '18), illustrating some dry piece on social-mobility with regards to educational attainment! It's a poor advertising agency or photographic studio that uses the HK copies off of evilBay, over the original Preiser or Noch we normally see in kinds of shots! Although, as Small Scale World was part [unwittingly] of the original publicity by the pirates, I should probably keep my head down on this one!

Piggy Bank! Also from the 'i' (1st Sep. '18), this was in an advertisement for inheritance tax avoidance advice or something equally thrilling.

Other News

Get painting - if you live in Kansas!

http://fortscott.biz/news/toy-soldiers-painting-contest-entries-due-nov-30

New Zealand - wacky place; you're looking for images 7 & 8 in the slide-show at the bottom of the piece!

http://coveteur.com/2018/11/14/inside-new-zealand-2018-world-wearable-art-show/

Q is for Question Time . . . Quorgi?

Many thanks to Adrain Little who as good as gave me this last weekend, having saved it for me knowing I like oddities, the question is can you add anything to the description?

It looks like the Corgi Toys logo/mascot, it's made from a dense, white PVC-rubber, like a lot of Corgi's die-cast accessory figure production, and it's large, almost Action Man compatible, yes, it's a chunk!

My suspicion is some sort of show display or retail sales-unit finial, but there's no sign of glue or other fixing, so it may just be a dolls house accessory or some generic toy animal. There are no marks of any kind, so it's a bit of a mystery!

H is for Hitler - in a Dress!

Or is it Rodney from Only Fools and Horses? I've actually picked-up four more Drevopodnik since we last looked at them, an MP/Traffic Sentry - who has already been put away - and two other duplicates, but of slightly better condition than the ones I glued back together in 2012.

The fourth figure is obviously from a civilian or railway figures set and wears the typical uniform of a waitress, but God! Is she ugly! I can't decide if it's Rodder's doing a Hitler impersonation or Adolf channeling Rodney! Still, it could be worse; the paratrooper's got a beak! But it's the naive charm that 'makes' these Czechoslovakian figures as far as I'm concerned.

I is for Is Nothing Sacred!

Well; what to make of this when you first see it . . . from Hong Kong, to Italy, to Germany, to the Potter's Sandown Park toy fair and then . . . into the stash! Where it should be safe for a decade or two.

Yes; it is exactly what it looks like . . . almost! A Hong Kong copy of a Britains Mini-Set, apparently made for an Italian importer/jobber; GIG, which as several Italian toy firms both old and current have a Gio...g... in their long-titles is no real help, but as none have turned-up in the US or UK, the inference has to be an Italian exclusive, as some Baravelli (or Solpa in Greece) stuff is relatively unique.

The still extant GiG were importers of more universal/generic 'army men' at the same time they were carrying the Galoob Star Wars mini-figures and LRG knock-offs, they fit the bill, and I suspect are the same company, despite the different logo-font?

The Britains original as advertised on the retail shop door-card (left) with errors and in the catalogues (right) with some errors corrected (shield/bow hand), and a headdress which better resembles the sticker actually issued, however the rear Indian is still not crouched enough.

The clones, rather obscured by the packaging - one day I may open it carefully, but I'd rather look out for loose copies now I know they're out there! The cowboy is coloured more to match the other Wild West Mini-Set, but the Indians are a good likeness and they got round the sticker-issue by painting-on the headdress.

Britains set less the small dead tree/shrub for which I still need the base! These are a funny thing and worth a bit of pontification;

As a small-scale-only, private collector for the longest time, usually on a low budget, I have picked-up most of them (no tractor and the footballers are a bit slim-on-the-ground!) as bits & pieces in job lots over the years, these are from a bagful' with lots of figures, two trees, a little tree, no outline base and a shortage of individual-bases in all colours, I'll get the missing bits in the end, but . . . with three base colours, there must have been quite a bit of production.

Now - once I'd become more involved in the public hubby, it became clear from their dialogue that I was in 'competition' (to locate/purchase) with the 54/60mm guys, who had come down a scale and 'rated' these because they were Britains AND because 'They weren't very popular and are really rare - especially the late six', but actually they're not!

Even the second tranche can be found (I saw three tractors on the weekend just gone - two on one stall), and as bits there are a few at every show I attend. The boxed sets, or even complete sets are hard to find intact due to the number of small pieces per set, so their premium price might be deserved due to rarity (but there's a lot of ex-shop stock around still), but overall, I think they have been appended a mythology (and value!) they don't actually merit.

Funnily-enough, or ironically; if one set seems rare, it's the second diver set (with shark), which we (my brother and I) had as kids!

The clone's tree is slightly smaller, with simplified branches, but a bigger vulture! The 'outline' or containing-base is a lot larger than the Britains one, which was quite tight from the outer-edge to the individual-base edges. The vulture is also painted, unlike Britains', and with a green tree; the copyist has almost made a better set!

There were colour-variations with the Britains figures too, again pointing to a larger volume of production, if not actual sales.

U is for Update - Tupperware & Lido Posts

I've added the missing giraffe and a colour/base-variant camel to the end of last year's (last November's!) Tupperware post, putting it here - as a 'Follow-up' - would have been an unnecessary complication! Picture follows as a thumbnail if you can't be arsed to follow the link to what even I'd admit is ephemeral, novelty shite!

Similarly, I dug the Lido vehicles out of the garage the other day and have done a comparison shot with the Hong Kong-made copies we looked at back at the start of Rack Toy Month, and have added it to the end of that post.

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Apropos the 'digging-out', 'coming-across' and 'finding of stuff' from the storage collection, which is a genuine and ongoing 'thing'; I find it quite amusing that TJF is also now on an almost daily basis 'finding stuff out the back' or 'being surprised what turns up', a recent literary phenomena on his part, yet his circumstance haven't changed quite as dramatically as mine since July? The man has no originality of thought whatsoever!

Coming on the back of the long-running 'I've got one of those too', the recent 'he's showing cats, quick; find me a cat with toys picture' and the almost instant 'Oh no he's got-up stuff from his archive, I need a kit instruction-sheet to photograph' (badly!) memes, he's now trying to write like me!

It's pathetic, and I mean that most sincerely, there is an element of pathos in the way he is quietly traducing himself, in public, in his stubborn attempts to win a war he should never have started or to 'prove the legend' he never was. He's a dealer not a collector, he simply hasn't got the stuff; he keeps showing us the same things over-and-over again and he seems to think that if he does what I do, or says what I say, it'll help him catch up - it won't.

Instead of justifying, validating or ratifying this tragic nonsense with their continued support, perhaps Messieurs's Dittman, Bergner, Carrick and Dildobrand Hildabreath would be better employed trying to help the idiot find his own voice?

As for the 'Webmaster' Matthias Berthoux, if he thinks I'm a cunt, he's a double-cunt with a well-used, hairy cherry on top, the silly, naughty, stupid little boy! In fact - I'm uninviting him to my next birthday party and you all heard it AND he will never ever ever be my best friend never ever again, SO THERE! And he has poo in his pants I smelt it!

N is for Nil, None, Nicht, Nought, Nada, Nuno, Nothing!

Lazy weekend, watched a movie last night, ignored the pending queue today, buggering-off 'ome!

Maybe something [later] tomorrow, but I fancy a few days off! And I need to go to Basingrad tomorrow; vape battery and a roll of loft insulation (livin' on the edge 'ere!), so maybe not?

C is for Clowning Around

When we looked at the 'Crazy Clown Circus' a while ago, I mentioned the fact that there was a die-cast penny-farthing from Morestone (Budgie) with a similar clown, and had the good fortune to shoot one at the weekend on Adrian Little's stand at the Sandown Park toy fair at the weekend;

You can see he has all the elements of the crazy clowns with the bobbles on the trousers, the collar-ruff, the pair of juggling balls, the bobble-hat and the wide tops to the trouser legs (I haven't the faintest idea what they are called in the fashion trade, but they're like old cavalry trousers?).

Now I don't think the polymer ones are a direct copy (I did at the time of the previous post), but suspect both toys are reflecting a specific clown 'suit', clowns often being registered as unique designs, while more generic or traditional designs are named within clowning, or wider afield, like 'Pierrot' for instance, from the commedia dell'arte, but I don't know the name of this one

This near mint example has a little dog; lacking on previous examples I've seen, although the dog can't reach the peddles and the clown is too busy with his balls (ooh-err missus!) to get peddling (and wouldn't reach either, so issues of/with both scale and perambulation!), making a rather static piece, but charming nevertheless, and would it go well as an additional item with an actual Crazy Clown Circus!

04-04-2019 - Which are now known to be from Fraser & Glass (F&G).

News, Views Etc . . . Bits and Bobs!

Not hard to Believe
So, Remembrance-/Veterans-/Armistice day yesterday and TJF's post reveals he has no conscience, no decency, no class, no taste and no brain! They were all in 'Nam together you know . . . Birmi'Nam; Alabama!

Something like this might have been a better use of his time;

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/17213792.photos-of-toy-solders-at-war-memorial-for-armistice-centenary/#gallery6

Customer Announcement
From Barney at Herald Toys & Models comes . . .

"Dear Collector, this week we are delighted to offer you not one but three superb boxed Britains English Civil War mounted figures (2 Roundhead Officers and 1 Cavalier Officer) from the same private collection. Like London buses, you don't see one for ages then three come along at once! Rare opportunity to obtain a boxed example of these highly desirable figures! Happy collecting as always, Barney."

A Bit Wooden

Now, I'm not saying this is pretty cool, but fuck . . . this is pretty cool - if a little 'folksy'!

https://folksy.com/items/7199467-Wooden-Toy-Soldier-Christmas-Bunting-Christmas-Garland

Bloody Useful
I was impressed enough to consider a link before I'd scrolled to where a 'phone got involved! If I ever have the room for a nice set-up like this - it's a definite!

http://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2018/11/talking-about-taking-pictures.html

 It's an Old Trope . . .
. . . but they're always fun!

https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/11/02/this-toy-soldier-family-from-manhattan-beach-took-halloween-by-storm/