NZNAM is for New Zealand National Army Museum Figures - 'Operation Heritage' or Let's Build a Museum!

Many, many, many moons ago, back at the start of the blog (in fact ten-years ago; today - 22nd Jan, and that's a fluke co-incidence I only noticed posting this just now (Monday PM), while looking up the links!), I included in a post on unknown figures a few larger 'flats' (actually semi-flats) I had picked-up over the years, and they were identified by a couple of chaps from New Zealand; Al Clarke and Glenn Sibbald as being from the New Zealand National Army Museum, which reminded me that the figures had been in Plastic Warrior magazine a few years earlier.

Both correspondents offered to send me samples, and Al did so at the time, however Royal Fail/Parcel Farce managed to lose the parcel, and with real life intervening, as it does, both ends of the Earth - time rather slid! From time to time Glenn would get in touch and let me know he hadn't forgotten me, until a week or so before this Christmas just gone - when he was emailing me for an address to send to!

We've had Pink, we've had not-Airfix, but also in 'The Parcel' from Glenn, for the Blog, for you - loyal readers - to enjoy . . . were these chaps;

"Mint on sprue!"; actually mint-on-runner, but some myths persist! This is how the figures looked, in NZ Woolworths in 1978, when you rushed in after seeing the TV slots and handed over your NZ$2.00, six figures in an old, hollow-cast 'toy soldier' style, representing NZ forces over the previous 100-years or so.

Set-out on the runner in chronological order and we find a militiaman from the 1840-70 period, a dismounted Mounted-rifleman from the Boer War, A WWI Anzac, and WWII Anzac, a Vietnam era (SLR with 'Bren-pouches' and bum-roll) New Zealander and an NZ No.2-dress equivalent on 'Staff-Parade' from the 1970's.

Following the original comments and a return to PW's article (which is deep in the garage somewhere) I had/have (?) spent the years thinking they were sold from the/a/museum's gift shop, but with them is a flyer encouraging both individuals and school classes to get behind the fundraising, and while the groundbreaking and laying of 'foundation stone' had already occurred, it's clear that these were a sort of citizens subscription to 'their' museum - something probably very necessary in a country with a small population, and a good idea as it gives 'the people' a sense of shared-ownership in the enterprise.

Text Reads;

'OPERATION HERITAGE'

LET'S KEEP OUR HERITAGE

l. MILITIA 1845 - 1872

     Formed into battalions as a result of the general

alarm in Auckland and elsewhere at Hone Heke’s rebellion, the

first Militia Ordinance operated, as garrison troops in their

home districts, frontier outposts and took part in a number of

skirmishes with the Maoris.

2. BOER WAR 1899 - 1902

     New Zealand supplied ten mounted rifle contingents

comprising 6,500 officers and men, mostly volunteers.

     All ten contingents saw action and earned a

fine reputation- in battle.

3. WORLD WAR ONE 1914 - 1918

     New Zealand troops were despatched to Egypt and

fought in the desparate campaign at Gallipoli.

     Following the return of the NZ Expeditionary Force to

Egypt it was reorganised as an infantry division and a

mounted brigade.

     The division went to Francei while the mounted

brigade continued to operate in Palestine.

4. WORLD WAR TWO 1939 - 1945

     In September 1939 a special force was mobilised

which was to become the nucleus of the 2nd New Zealand

Expeditionary Force.

     A Division was raised and served in Egypt, Libya,

Greece, Crete and participated in all the major campaigns in

North Africa, moving to ltaly in 1943.

     New Zealand soldiers also served with distinction in

the Pacific theatre.

5. POST WORLD WAR 1946 - 1977

     From 1951 the New Zealand Army has served in

Japan, Korea, Malaysia, South Vietnam and Thailand.

     A New Zealand Contingent (Jayforce) formed part of

the British Commonwealth Forces in Japan from 1946 - 1948.

6. TODAY'S SOLDIER.

     Since 1845, the New Zealand soldier has earned a

distinguished reputation demonstrating skill, ingenuity and

adaptability in action.

     Today’s soldier carries on this proud tradition and can

look forward to unlimited opportunities in a professional Army.

I'm not going to bother with the entry-form stuff to the right of the page, but the dates are worthy of note!

I will however transcribe the competition details, as they hold some fascinating clues to some of the background, and raise questions like where the TV slots (video clips?) are now, what were the questions in the end and what happened to the winning dioramas, to wit; were they ever publicised or displayed?

Text reads;

WOOLWORTHS            SOUTH PACIFIC TELEVISION

YOU CAN WIN THESE FANTASTIC PRIZES!

1ST PRIZE:

     Return trip for family of four to Singapore, London and Copenhagen,

including accommodation.

A great way to fly

SINGAPORE AIRLINES

2ND PRIZE:

     Asian Affair Holiday for two - 15 days, including accommodation.

3RD PRIZE:

     Holiday for four at either Queenstown or Rotorua staying at b Vacation Hotels

SCHOOL PRIZE:

     Hanimex synch recorder and slide projector - value $425.

Plus 100 consolation prizes from Lincoln Industries Games.

THE COMPETITION

     South Pacific Television will screen six 60 second short sketches during the

weeks of March 20 to April 8, 1978 at times to be announced later.

     These short programmes will relate to the six model soldiers enclosed with this

entry form, and contain clues that will help you to complete your entry.

     In each sketch, a question will be asked which you must answer on this

entry form.

     Remember, it is important that you see all the sketches as they will provide

clues that will help you answer the questions.

     Competition closes April 14, 1978.

CLASS PROJECT

     1. Construct a diorama of a battle involving the N.Z. Army using models from

the Operation Heritage soldier kit.

     Details on how to construct a diorama will be shown on the

“Hey, Hey, It's Andy” show.

     2. Send a photograph of the diorama together with a short story about the

battle to the address on the reverse side of this entry form.

     3. Competition closes May 12, 1978, but entries postmarked on that day will be

accepted up to May 19, 1978.

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY

     1.All entries will be judged by an independent body, decisions will be final and

no correspondence will be entered into.

     2. Entries must be on the official entry form, and will be judged on correctness,

neatness, and originality.

     3. Proceeds to the Army Memorial Museum Trust.

     4. Prize winners will be announced on South Pacific Television on Anzac Day,

April 25, 1978.

     5. Employees of South Pacific Television, their advertising agencies and their

immediate families are not eligible to enter this contest.

The museum of-course; has a website here but seems remarkably lacking in details of/for these figures or the part they played in its funding/construction, it may well be that they didn't raise the cash hoped for (the prizes alone would have needed a lot of sales to pay for - unless they were donated by the airlines/hotels/travel agents involved, and while you only need to sell fifty sets to find NZ$100, equally (as we shall see in a subsequent post) two dollars was a lot of money for six rather inactive toy figures in 1978!

The eight figures off the runners and ready for their participation in the diorama building, it's a hard one actually (the competition parameters), given the breadth of the time period between the six figures and their neutral posing.

The best thing to do probably, would be to model an actual museum display, with the figures painted as mannequins and placed in glass (clear plastic cut from blister-packs?) cases, or painted as statues on plinths (from Lego?), or something like that.

The figures were issued in three colours' the red rarer than the other two, we shall look at the olive-drab/deep-bronze green ones next. Many thanks to Glenn Sibbald of New Zealand who sent not just the set on the runner, but also a lose set to photograph.

He's still not worthy! He's still not worthy! Under my tutelage the 'Berserker' has adopted a less-aggressive stance in dealing with his sizing role, where these Kiwi figures are concerned!

Glenn has a few sets on the runners and lose sets for anyone who needs them or would like them, eMail me (maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com) in the first instance and I'll pass-on your details.

K is for Kiwis . . . and These Kiwis Flew!

A real red-letter day here at Small Scale World, and red figures . . . and a red box!

Mr. The Right Honourable the Lord Glenn, Sir 'Sibby' Sibbald of Poly-Mer, currently of the parish of Morrrdorrr, the Shire, Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains, Rivendell, Rohan and the Ridermark and the lands of Gondor, has only gorn and went and sent the Blog (for free, gratis, asking for nothing in return) a 'New To Hobby', mint as it can be after 65-70-years, New Zealand issue of the Airfix/Pierwood cellulose acetate figures . . .

. . . looking like the figures were shot yesterday in a factory in Camberley and rushed-over here, by courier, still-warm! Not an easy colour to photograph and the shots on the Airfix page are marginally better, or easier on the eye.

Normally when I post these they go straight on that Airfix page, with a link-back here, but due to the importance of these and my desire to do them justice, I'll post them over there  at the same time, with new pictures.

All eight poses, arranged - top left to bottom right - differently to the listing on Pierwood's card (to be seen in the Plastic Warrior magazine Early Airfix'Special') but sharing their adjusted figure-descriptions, as I was still waiting to locate the 18thC fusilier/pirate and both the pilot and the Japanese/infantryman, it's lovely enough to have them all in one shot, but the real treat today is the packaging.

The box; it has a small tear at one end I will fix eventually with a near invisible mend. It is a single colour litho-printed graphic with no brand or maker clues anywhere. However there were a bunch of plastics firms that came and went in the 1950's/60's in New Zealand, while the possibilities; least-likely first - are that

• Airfix supplied the product, bulk - for repacking
• These predate Pierwood with the tool moving on to Oz.
• Pierwood supplied the product
• These are post Pierwood with the tool sold/lent to NZ

If they are New Zealand-produced the further question raised is: was it an independent company or an Airfix subsidiary - they had many? While I would love it to be New Zealand manufacture, I fear - from the like-for-like figure titles - that it's the third option?

As we will see later in the week, there is a slim possibility (and it's very slim) that there's a link with Lincoln and/or Toltoys, but - from the dates - one more of inheritance than production, if any at all.

Tantalising hints of other colours (E is the 5th letter of the alphabet), although the '8' is probably referring to the figure-total and obviously the correct figures were in the 'Red' box. Does this mean the other boxes were coloured for their contents - Pierwood also did yellow, silver, bronze, white and blue; I think, although the NZ-sent figures from Norman Dunckley on the Airfix page may well be/probably are NZ figures, not the previously assumed Australian-made ones, and they have a fawnish-grey/tan!

Also the figure graphic on the long-side (same both sides) clearly show the 'Lemon Squeezer' of New Zealand troop's service dress, not the Australian slouch-hat with its pined-up side. I love that it's called a lemon-squeezer! The Americans have their 'Smokey Bear', we have the 'Boy Scout' . . . what do the Canadians call theirs?

There's only so much you can waffle-on, about one little set, and I'm wont to stop, but all good things come to an end . . . I can't thank Glenn enough for this kindness both on my own behalf (I get to see them every time I go in that Airfix box!) and for the Blog, which only benefits from getting such treasures in the tag-list for all of you to enjoy.

There are other treasures to come from Glenn's parcel, but this was very-much the 'icing on the cake'.

K is for Kiwis . . . these Kiwis don't fly!

With more Kiwis coming in the next few days I thought I'd better get these out of the woodwork first, they are - after all - the original kiwis! Small, flightless, egg-laying birds from the antipodean islands of New Zealand . . . or are they . . . the last of the Dinosaurs?

There is a sorry story around this one; many, many moons ago, most of a lifetime ago to be accurate, my brother and I were given real-fur toys of a koala and a kiwi - mementos of someone's trip to that part of the world , the koala survives - albeit a bit moth-eaten - somewhere, but the kiwi got burnt.

We had a little friend round (we were five or six?) for a visit and while the parents were in the next room it was decided (I have no memory of the level of democracy employed, nor the logical processes ruling the debate) that 'Kiwi' should go on the fire, and he duly did. At which point my brother, feeling more empathy than the other chap or myself (and being youngest) burst into tears - death does that to little people.

The upshot was that that the grown-ups decided it must be my fault, and a favorite bear followed the kiwi to Valhalla (that's the story now, anyway - I don't recall a bear going missing at that time, and parents aren't that cruel, are they?).

Now I remember the thing being twice the size of this one and having a longer beak, but I was less than half the size I am now, so I suspect A) it was smaller than I remember, and B) that this (charity-shop 50p's-worth) is the same toy.

It's ridged, like a taxidermists' sample rather than a soft-toy (as the koala is) and the beak and feet seem to be composition (probably on a wire former), I have no idea what fur is used (rabbit I hope, otherwise it'll be some other local species probably now as endangered as kiwis!), and I think the black stripe down the back is a dye/stained addition.

I also have a PVC-type all-plastic one in the style of Zowies (still in the queue!), but branded to Stewarts-SSS of China.

---------------------------------

On the subject of Kiwis, I'm deliberately posting (Kiwis that flew) late tomorrow (this coming-Monday), as I'm posting in two places - linked - the updated post would ruin the surprise of the scheduled post, were I to do them now, so I'll do them late on Monday and leave them up for a day or two as I'm off to the London Toy Fair on Tuesday.

M is for More on Rafael's Polymer Vehicles

These are in the opposite order to how I shot them as I'd photographed the tank -  as a quick follow-up to May's red tank - when I saw the transporter and bulldozer at a show-and-tell over Christmas, both have Adrian Little to thank for, Adrian's behind Mercator Trading, and has - as his adverts' state - very interesting toys!

'Made in France' . . . not! Lovely artwork and who remembers when roads were often made of concrete rather than bitumen? This is an export boxing of Rafael Lipkin's 'Mighty Antar' heavy haulage transporter in civilian colours with their bulldozer as a load rather than the usual conqueror tank.

Civilianised with the simple expedient of different coloured plastic, it's all in yellow and red, however there is a more colourful one (un-boxed and sans load) to be seen in Andrew Ralstone's plastics' book I seem to recall, and I think he has it listed as 'unknown French'?

Unlike the military pairing (link), where the tank is polystyrene to the transporter's polyethylene, here both vehicles are all-ethylene, with rubber tracks, although there is variance with the carriers wheels. They are from different production batches though, with the road-vehicle in a washier primrose-yellow, the earth-mover a more 'solid' shade.

As stated above, the wheels here are different to those on my example; being thinner, hard styrene (or a Bakelite material; it's not clear and I only handled it briefly). Otherwise this is identical to mine and carries the full Rafael Lipkin mark on the underside of the cab. The Bulldozer (like the tank) is unmarked.

The 'little man' is hidden by the axle, and photographing yellow can be as problematic as red, so I've had to stop this image down to the max, twice to get the MADE IN ENGLAND mark and LRL-logotype to show. I wonder if the hard-plastic wheels were produced across the channel to justify the 'Made in France' being printed on the box?

The winding handle (yellow) has broken, and the red thing is the exhaust-stack for the 'dozer, but of more interest in that the tool set is in two colours, the blue being possibly the colour of the vehicle in Ralston's book? The construction beast has a plug-in driver who may well be languishing in your 'unknown' zone?

I didn't think to see if they are two parts (driver and seat) but there look to be impossible undercuts for even a three or four-part mould, so it looks like they might have been heat-joined post manufacture?

I had previously shot this to show that the red tank (in need of wheels) I obtained at May's show (link) is covered on the box-art of the green tank, whether this meant there were sets with red transporter/AFV combo's or not I don't know, but a 'dirty-commie' combination is not beyond the imagination in the 1950/60's?

Note also that the labelling of the profile drawing is similar to the labelling of the 'French' box's artwork; they too, seem to have come from the same (British) printer!

The box carried a green one, and you can tell which one is in the box from the hole seen in the previous shot, which is punched through both side flaps and the closing-flap, to line-up and produce an open-window . . . or 'port-hole'!

W is for Wind-up Wobots

As Walter would have said . . . no, not me; Walter the wobot! And don't mess with his boss - he is the law!

We looked at one of these ages ago which I found in the attic here, a left-over stocking-filler gift from Christmases' past, and there is currently a set of figures doing the rounds with these mechanisms, a Guardsman (also seen here), a Spanish Gendarmerie (presumably - like 'our' Guardsman - also aiming at a tourist market), while in the 'States they have a pair of protagonists from their Civil War, in blue and grey.

The wonderfully wonderful Wonderful! 12 to a box, four each of three designs, there was only one original left in the box, so the rest are obviously part of a nascent collection, and as they are all pretty-much the same thing, blurb will be a bit thin after the first one!

This is the Wonderful chap/chapess (probably what is now called a phantom-brand) and while it's easy to say these are trying to be C3PO, most of them pre-date the original movie (I know the attic one does), what they were trying to be was smaller, cheaper versions of the all-singing, all-dancing, whistles, buzzer & bells, lights flashing, battery-operated robots in tin-plate and plastic coming out of Japan and Hong Kong at the same time.

This and the next one have a completely different mechanism for locomotion, hitching or hoicking themselves along with alternate steps, made as the two, long, too-long arms pass the base, helped by near-flush carpet-wheels. Looks like a juke-box!

'Jukebox's brother is some kind of 1950's labour-saving kitchen device (electric coffee grinder?) from the wish-list pages of Woman & Home!

Universal (who would be buying the remains of Matchbox around the same time) are responsible for the last two, apart from the next one, the others are unmarked.

This chrome-plated chap is a bit later (1979 - Tomy) and is it based on the Lost in Space or Black Hole movie robot? Geoffrey Peeters recently showed another here (link) and these would make a nice mini-collecting theme if you are short of space and/or budget, as they turn up pretty constantly, there are dozens of them if not hundreds (depending on where you draw the line) and they are usually affordable, but their mechanisms have often been damaged with over-winding, rust or gritty dirt/dust.

If you cast your net beyond robots, you will find all sorts of figural subjects, monsters, Easter-chicks, eggs, Christmas novelties, cartoon characters; and these dinosaurs, which are quite recent, if not current. There is a similar jumping or hopping mechanism with similar subjects. Many thanks to Adrian Little for letting me shoot these.

T is for Toy Fair 2018 Reports - GaleForce Nine (GF9) - Battlefront

This is the final last-year's Toy Fair report, both it and the other days Battat post had gone into a self-imposed exile, and I didn't find them until I was clearing out the 'My Pictures' folder. It happens sometimes with Picasa - that it arbitrarily decides you don't want to view a folder anymore and it hides it!

Also I don't know what to say about all this, which will be hopelessly out of day any day now, and of which those gamers who may be interested have much better blogs to go to, while those who don't won't be that bothered!

Battlefront are a New Zealand outfit, GaleForce Nine seem to carry the stuff over here and I think it's all 1:100 AFV's with 1:144 aircraft, and not many figures - which would be a tad fiddly for what appear to be quite formulaic tank-warfare systems.

I think these are Team Yankee which seems to preclude figures all together, so a chess-like (without the skill), systematic slugging-match from rule-book fire & movement-tables?

Ditto

Catalogue pages.

Tanks? A WWII version of Team Yankee? Most of the scenery would scale-up for other 'small-scale' gaming in '76th or '72nd?

The absence of figures is odd; all wars are won or lost on the ground-gains or losses of the infantry! And there's a lot of GW-type emphasis on buying into the whole experience with team-dice and such-like.

Catalogue pages.

The third system in offer - Flames of War actually seems to allow for some soldiers to join the fray! Although this outbreak of largess seems to be limited to anti-tank artillery crews or the odd driver?

Catalogue pages

There are more figures on the boxes than are otherwise in the catalogue!

GaleForce Nine also supply 1:100 (described as 10-15mm) scenics under the Battlefield in a Box label for all their systems and more besides (note the sci-fi gun-towers).

Although smallish at 1:100, some of these modern designs would make very useful background-buildings on HO or OO-gauge model railways, where sub-scale can help give a sense of depth.

Brand-logo's to look-out for.