News, Views Etc . . . Plastic Warrior 173

A bit late I'm afraid but the December issue often is, especially if I don't do it literally the same day! A load of good stuff though, so if you're still not subscribing, here's what you've missed!

Articles

* An interesting look at early Hilco Wild West horses by Joe Bellis with additional editorial material on the similar Lone Star examples, with a view to comparison between the two, kicks-off the issue

* Andreas Dittmann reports on the new interactive book/games from Dorling Kindersley (DE), each with a pair of figures; Roman Gladiators or medieval foot-knights

* Steve Morris discovers Kraft Dairylea giveaways

* James O'Connell (lovely chap, we'll be looking at a piece of his erudition, in depth, here, soon) looks at the sort of make-believe armies we used to paint-up, when we were kids

* Scalextric figures go up a size with Adrian Norman's coverage of the rarer 1:24th scale figures

* Les White is back with his lovely conversions, this time a German WWI Schutztruppe in Africa on an Armies in Plastic (AIP) Egyptian base-figure

* Bob Legget (of SAS Auctions and the Alresford exhibitions) 'Shows and Tells' on a very special Triang Spot-On medieval castle

'What The !&*$?' has five queries again this month (there were five in PW172!)

• Colin Penn seeks an ID for a Dr Dolittle-alike
• Brian Berke wants help getting an ID on his Desperate Dan, previously seen here (answers to PW please)

• The Editor is asking for information on a tent (see above, answers likewise)
• Brian Carrick has a knight in need of a name
• Colin's back seeking info on a lovely tradesman's wagon, I know the answer; should be lots of feedback from France and Iberia!

* Speaking of Colin Penn, his F&G 'Crazy Clown Circus' is revealed by Michael Bonnefoy of the Plastics Historical Society to be made by . . . [Subscribe!]

* The Replicants mounted Comanche figures launched at the PW show last year are reviewed by Tom Stark

* The set of eight relief-flat 'Kings and Queens' from Shredded Wheat are fondly remembered and critiqued in depth by Peter Watson

* Finally Brian Carrick covers the 'multipose' kits of S-Model - Ivan Wieslawa from Poland

Which - as I use the same template for these reviews - means there's an extra article squeezed in there somewhere, over the PW172 count; I needed an extra pink asterisk! What? I have to order them from Ulan Bator!

Regular Features

* 'NEWS and VIEWS and other stuff ' covers

• PW show date - Saturday 11th may 2019
• 100th issue of US Playset Magazine
• News on Britains old factory from Peter Evans
• Call for last few copies of Suspended Animation by Peter Cole - when they're gone; they're gone!
• Website news
• Email anomalies (I've been getting the same thing with some Blog comments)
• Paul J Robinson a 'Marx' man has passed away
• Paul Stadinger has news on a figure for-/the retirement of Ron Barzo
• Chicago Toy Soldier Show date - Sunday 27th September (shurly shome mishtake? Ed. Must be Sunday 22nd or 29th or Friday 27th?)
• Reader request for an unpainted Starlux source?
• Editorial (?) request for Speedwell boxed or bagged sets to photograph

•  Jack Shalatain gets a picture credit

* 'Readers Letters' include

• Norman Nevard has a question on Britains sheep and the relationship between catalogue appearances and availability
• Eric Keggans has repainted Cherilea Sikhs and a lovely set of soldier erasers to show
• Musing on the last PW show and Naval cannons comes from Ashley Needham
• Still more on the Olympians/premiums from issues 171 & 172 comes via Les Collier, Rainer Maul and Andreas Dittmann (I'm waiting 'till all the smoke blows over before showing mine!)
•  Kent Sprecher feeds-back on the Wild West 'What the !&*$?'s from PW172
• Brain Carrick suggests an answer for Chris Smith's figures from the same issue
• There's more on Barrett's coach from Brain Heaps
• While [deep breath...] Erik Kemp, Peter Evans, Brian Carrick and Les White all answer John Rafferty's call for help with gluing and glues.

* 'What's New' covers recent releases from;

• Un-branded figures from the subsidised Russian co-op everyone (in the Old Guard)'s busy pretending is fifteen separate concerns!

o   Romans

o   Slavic's

o   Teutonic's

o   A mounted Conquistador

• Paragon Scenics - Plains Indians

• Expeditionary Force

o   Roman

o   Ancient Barbarians/Celts

• Engineer Basevitch

o   Sumerians

o   Hittites

All available from Weston's Toy soldiers (www.plasticsoldiers.com)

Plus all the usual readers small-ads and a commercial supplement

Covers -

Front has A. Dittmann's Dorling Romans

Rear shows the B. Legget Cotswold fort

PW's contact details;

Facebook

Blogger

eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com

Website's back on the menu but won't be updated (email first) . . . www.plasticwarrior.com

Tel: 01483 722 778

Address; 65 Walton Court, Woking, Surrey, GU21 5EE, UK

And they are on Paypal

T is for Two - Catering Novelties

A couple of oddities from the collection now, both from what is strictly called crockery! One from years ago and the 'small-scale-only' collection-days, the other a pretty perfect 54mm and given to me by Peter Evans - the other day.

This came from a Euromark picnic set carried by Tesco supermarkets about 18-years ago (item dated 2001) and was rescued by me when it started leaking! Let me explain; they were double-skin plastic mug/cups with a twin-liquid filling and these roughly 20mm-compatible Simpsons characters in the liquid which sort of bobbed about at the boundary between the two liquids - one blue (heavy spirit?) below and one clear (water or light oil?) above, they are weighted with steel bearings to keep them the right way up.

Anyway, one of them started leaking on the shelf and I (night-shift!) offered to take it out to the skips after it was written-off, and left it to drain under my car in the staff car-park for later retrieval and recycling into the collection! I haven't the faintest idea what the three-eyed sharks are all about, but assume a specific episode of the TV cartoon?

There were other figure designs and other items of crockery involved; bottles, flasks &etc.

Previously seen - complete - in Plastic Warrior magazine, this Reiko Kaneko-designed chap seems to have been clearly based-on the old Britains Deetail Japanese office, but that's probably more of a co-incidence than an actual relationship.

He started life as one of a matching trio, all arranged in a ring facing inward as an egg-cup! The egg rests on the three fists and is held in place by the heads/swords. It should still be findable on the Internet, I'll try and find it and post a link. [Seems to be off the market, but this is it]

On the matter of the soldier's uniform; he's sort-of half WWII Japanese-looking (Katanga sword) and half Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese forces (belt-yolk and helmet), so it's a wonder he got past the checkers (he was designed in Japan, made in China), as he's more Nationalist than either revolutionary Mao'ist forces or Japanese invaders - just the sword . . . and water-bottle?

T is for Two - Movie Characters

Another couple of stand-alone pieces shoved together under the 'T is for...' trope, we're off to the movies today and it's to the VHS paradise of the mid-1980's 'Home Cinema' experience we turn!

Totally unmarked, but it's got to be John Rambo! Frown . . . check, clenched-fists . . . check, sleeveless-vest . . . check, knotted-bandana . . . check, M60 ammo-belt . . . check, bad-attitude . . . err . . . he lives in the controlled environment of a carded, self-seal bag, so I don't think so! Also Mattel (see below) had the licence at one point, through Arcotoys? A search was not helpful - we need more quality Bloggers!

I know - that was Arnie', but either of them could have been parachuted into each-other's 'action movies' without much change! Steve Wright in the Afternoon, best thing that ever happened to popular-radio - Wharkkwharkkwharkk . . . "Get the geese off!" I'm wondering if he may be from a short-lived board-game, given that he turned-up on his own and I've seen or found no others?

Battlestar Galactica was a lower-budget, rush-job designed to cash-in on the Star Wars phenomena back in the late 1970's, which was better than it might have been and Mattel grabbed a licence, issuing a couple of light-and-sound space-fighter toys each of which had a little pilot figure.

The figures are of a mini-action figure design, but come in at around the 50mm mark. Four points of articulation (hips - riveted loose through the groin; shoulders - sealed into the torso-halves) and are very hard to keep standing-up, they really only had to sit in their cockpits or die spectacularly as the owners narrative directed! The grey Cylon Warrior seems rarer than the earth-bound human. Note - the arms and legs are the same mouldings on both figures!

News, Views Etc . . . Out There Now!

Quick run of some domestic and contributed shelfies;

I shot these in The Works on the 30th January, might be of some use to ship war-gamers, I'm guessing they are old 1960/70's tools put-back into production for the express production of a cheapie toy and three-quid's not a lot for a ship kit, even a small and perhaps dated one, anyone recognise the original from the instruction diagrams . . . or the artwork?

40-odd parts and can be finished as waterline, and while I suspect the artwork on the side of the box is the whole [four-kit] line (and my local store only has New Jersey's), they are all large capital ships with class-sisters who could be modelled from duplicate kits? Anyway, out there now, try the website?

These were TKMaxx, 6th February, more from HTI (Halsall)'s Teamsterz, a three-deck boxed set of approximately 1:48th/50th die-cast emergency/first responder vehicles with two more figures which will start to turn up in charity-shop bags soon and in rummage trays at show in a year or two!

Indecently - the card shipping container/port-a-cabin is an old Blue Box trick! Tom of Finland's got his truncheon out; he must be a special constable! But what's with the peaked, chef's hats! Out There Now!

Kinder egg's, pink, nom-nom-nomnivore for the use of; have a new series of Barbie's, I've lost count of how many lines there are in the range now, this must be the fourth or fifth line-up? Film Director Barbie, Doctor (or vet?) Barbie and . . . err . . . cage-fighter Barbie?

Figures are quite nice but idiosyncratic, with two clipping firmly into their bases and the other having no fixer and constantly falling-over! And they all have some kind of card interactive or backdrop, which are hideously bent from their time in the ovum and just get in the way, it's not even clear what the left-hand ones do, some sort of game I think, but multi-lingual pictogram instructions leave you with no real idea!

Each also comes with a mini sticker-sheet, but they are those paper ones Kinder have always used, which curl, dry and fall off over time. I wish they'd go over to the vinyl type that Lego use, if you get them straight and rub them on with a finger-nail; they stay-on! Out There Now, don't eat them all at once!

Sticking with capsule-eggs, but switching to contributions, Brian Berke found these Disney toy eggs in the 'States back in the late autumn, you can find Zàini in the UK, usually smaller independents or the sort of General Post Office/stationers which are becoming an endangered species in the South East!

I do have a few interesting Zàini-LZ (Luigi Zàini), Maraja, Metro, Zepter, Partizan (et al) capsule toys so one day we'll have a 'mini-season' on the minor-make capsule toys here, once the box turns-up in the garage! Although; Peter Evans gave me a bunch of Maraja last May, which are in the queue somewhere?

Brian also shot these at the end of December last year; really quite good-looking copies of Matchbox Afrika Korps in a nice sandy-coloured plastic, branded to Arcady from DA Toys Group, in the 'States Now!

And having mentioned Peter; he shot this set somewhere in North or Central (?) London (I guess) on the 14th of January. The fort - an apparently unbranded generic (there may be something on the back of the box?) - looks to be a solid, stackable modular thing, in a soft rubber or faom-plastic of some kind, while the figures have DNA from Starlux (archer) Cofalux (pole-arm) Timpo (mounted jouster) and Supreme (swordsman) among others!

He didn't say exactly where he'd found it - in an (un-named) discount store of some kind, but I've not seen them locally (we have 'Stepford' universal-brand high streets round here!), so try larger inner-city or out-of-town clearance places? It's bit pricy at £12.99 (for tight-wads like me) but very useful and a bargain at 2-for-twenty-quid; if it is in your budget. Also two forts would make a very substantial piece of baronial real-estate! While a single one would be equally useful for small-scale gamers. Out There Somewhere!

T is for Two - Kentoys

Sliding rapidly from the sublime to the ridiculous in this post, as far as the expression goes anyway, in actuall fact they are both of interest, but to different ends of the hobby, in several ways.

The 'old' Kentoys (KENTOYS, also Victory Industries - VIP) with one of the mechanics from KY35 Race Track Officials, we will look at them all together one day, I think I have the rest somewhere, but none are quite as mint as this chap who looks like he was made yesterday - not unusual with these; ending up with the Victory slot-racing sets, they didn't always get the same play as other toy figures.

The wheel/tyre (tire) is identical on both sides, with no sign of where breaks or an axle-stub might attach . . . maybe he's wheeling a Polo over to the stamping-shop to have its centre removed, now the mint is fully-grown?

The other or 'new' Kentoys was probably a phantom brand, which appeared and disappeared in the late 1990's/early 2000's with a range of nominally 1:72nd (closer to 1:64th - US slot-racing 'HO' scale) articulated lorries (big-rig trucks) and such like under the 'Wheelers' moniker; among which was a military set (NO 29645 - Military Base 1:72 Playset) with a rocket-launcher and transporter I think?

Anyway, it's all in the archive for a future A-Z Blogs post, but these were the set of eight figures that accompanied the set, we looked at the police set recently, around 25mm with thick bases making them a tad taller, and really quite good renditions of mid-1990's US troops with 'Fritz' helmets - apart from the Matchbox .30/.50 Cal, MG-gunner clone - slightly spoilt with a dodgy paint-job and each lettered on the base:

A - Man with Radio

B - Binoculars

C - Kneeling Firing ATGW

D - Advancing with M16 Across Chest, Sunglasses

E - Firing M16

F - Pistol and Grenade

G - Advancing with M16

H - Kneeling Firing HMG (similar to Matchbox figure)

F is for Follow-up - Novelty Highlanders

Having looked at a pencil-sharpener here among the key-rings and things, I've since found a pencil-top . . . all I need is a highland piper eraser - there must be some - and I'll have a full set for the start of the new term!

Rather than the splayed-legs and 'up the jacksey' of a lot of these figural pencil-tops (He-Man, DC superheroes, The A-Team's BA Baracas), this one has been given a Dalek 'skirt' to hide his modesty! And - despite being a several-generations-down-the-line clone - you can still clearly see the Britains Herald DNA in the pose.

40mm from the bottom of the Dalek skirt to the top of the Busby and originally manufactured in a softish PVC, which is hardening with age.

Further to the Hilco post I found a pin and it fits, I know it looks as bit loose in the photograph, but I can assure you it fits snuggly, like a glove, settling-in with a nice, satisfying click! I suspect however the original was a little longer though; this is a standard, modern seamstress's pin.

When we were kids (those of you of a certain age will remember, but for the younger loyal readers-) there used to be charity 'flag days', where you gave to a representative in the street with a donation and were given a token of your gesture (a bit like WHW!), usually a flag (I remember white ensigns for the RNLI and wings for the RAF Benevolent Fund), and they had longer pins to deal with the paper/flag and the giver's lapel, I suspect Hilco used one of those for a slightly more realistic length? The pinned-flags were replaced in the 1980's with stickers, and then - in recent times - the dreaded, door-stepping 'chuggers'.

They may well have blunted the end though?

S is for Stamping Thundercats

Licensed from Telepix by HG Toys (the same Harett-Gilmar who made that series of TV/movie related play-sets in the 1980's), I don't know how many were in the set but hope this is all of them - two good guys and a pair of baddies, bought together from an aged shop-stock box in an older corner-shop around ten years ago?

Good guys (fluffy-cats?) are the outer pair (red bases); Thundercats which I could look up but can't be bothered to, one's a lion/man the other a panther/person . . . I think! The bad guys (blue bases, smelly-cats!) seem to be based on a simian of some kind and an explosion of purple crazy-string!

Seven years in a storage facility's shipping container has somewhat dried-out the blue inc-pads - found in the cap - but the two red ones are still going strong (good always triumphs over evil!) and they produce 20mm paper flats . . . sort of!

As you can see - from the risks our 'Berserker' takes on your behalf - they are 65mm if you remove the stamp and stamp/ink-cap. And it won't have escaped your notice that their role as handles leaves them a bit statue'y - Oscars for kids!

It's funny - of all the stuff I missed gallivanting around as an adolescent farmer, soldier, ski-instructor and festival-goer (box ticking!), these were probably the one's I know least about, I caught the odd episode of He-Man, watched the rise of the execrable Scrappy-Doo, joined some late-night stuff sobering-up with a microwaved pasty occasionally (Serenity, Terrahawk re-runs), saw PC'd TMHT quickly revert to TMNT in the early nineties after I returned to UK, but never really had much awareness of the Thundercats (or the various giant robot ones!), yet I have managed to accrue quite a bit of it in the last few years, even the last few months - I scored a bunch at a charity shop back in September, in two scales.

B is for Beefeater

I hope I had Y is for Yeoman of the Guard last time, 'cos if I've used B twice I wasted an opportunity to get a Y in the tags! Since looking at one before Christmas, I've combined the various odds on this subject and shot the Charbens' one while I was at it!

The 'odds' first and from the left; The Doll which came in a Charity shop purchase just before Christmas, only because I'd got the same doll in a household cavalry uniform a few weeks earlier, but I have no good excuse for that prior purchase! Next to him on the plinth is a wooden pop-up, which was from Wilkinson's (Wilco) I think, I also think we've seen it before?

The third figure is [more!] resin, and only joined the team a couple of weeks ago, Peter Evans gave him to me in London the other day, he's presumably a current or recent Tourist thing, but - interestingly - is in the uniform of the old Elizabethan tower-guards, although at that time they would have been guarding the city gates, Bishops' palaces and Windsor castle as well - I imagine?

The fourth was among the first of Britains 'New Metal' figures back when my brother and I were just getting out of toys in favour of hard rock, beer and cigarettes! He has a small square base in a Deetail style, but is himself all-metal with a plastic partisan that seems impossible to replace.

Then the Hong Kong one we saw recently and lastly a little PVC/vinyl-rubber key-ring tourist keepsake (his loop's been removed - it arched over the top of his headdress) I picked-up years ago as a small scale curiosity.

The Charbens one is an odd cove, he has the sort of googly-bug-eyes you might expect to find on Hong Kong sub-piracies, not home-grown figures, but there you go! The unpainted figure is a re-issue and the one on the far right seems to be an attempt to re-ignite the spark of tourist trinkets inherent is the figure, using the recent re-issues, but may just be a gloss home-paint in the Hollow-cast 'Toy Soldier' style.

The group together make a nice sample of different treatments, which I've lined-up in what might be the age order, with earlier, better painted to the left and latter re-issues to the right?