News, Views Etc . . . Plastic Warrior 175

Another lovely tome, handcrafted in PW Towers by Mr Morehead, and the one-hundred-and-seventy-fifth issue, that's a hell of a mountain been climbed, right there! And only been out a couple of three-weeks or so, small review-delay being as much down to the personal stuff going-on, as to my usual tardiness!

Articles

* The issue gets off to a much anticipated start, with the first of Peter Evan's articles on Fontanini, as I hinted at here whilst keeping mine brief, he also clears-up my confusion re. the large number of poses, but you need to subscribe to get the details!

* From the sublime to the  . . . errr . . . curious with Peter Coles banjo carrying 'Redder pig'!

* Michael T Hyde returns to ecclesiastical subjects with an overview of Monks and Friars (and an explanation of the difference!), he covers too-many to name here but I've waxed lyrical on this series before, and the latest part also delivers.

* Dinosaurs and a 'dinolizard' from Cherilea are covered by Steve Pugh (Ed - can we have a note on the two Dimetrodon types in 176's News-Views?)

* An editorial with help from Mig Bonnefoy and Bill Hanlon returns to Bergan Beton-like mounted figures from Fraser & Glass (F&G), reminding me I need to update my page to reflect these new revelations!

* Les White's 'Converters Corner' shows us how to get ACW Iron Brigade Federals from French Foreign Legion!

* Tony Sowerby has contributed a nice scratch-built diorama, with figures from A Call To Arms, and an unknown (Elastolin?) gun, which illustrate a bit of interesting history into both early artillery and early 'all-arms' co-operation.

* Finally we find a couple of Airfix box-arts, but with no clue as to whether they are from the Airfix 'archive' (which I assume they are) or Photoshop - which would be disappointing!

Regular Features

* 'NEWS and VIEWS and other stuff ' covers

·         PW show-shot!

·         Apology - Brian heaps was the originator of issue 174's carded Robin Hood set from Lone Star, not Steve Morris

·         Video news on the Chicago Toy Soldier Show

·         Note on corresponding with PW, please address all snail-mail to Mr. or P. Morehead, not PW or Plastic Warrior

·         A call out for shots of-, or anecdotes pertaining to- any Trojan boxed sets which may have been encountered by readers?

·         In addition to all the above or below named; Dan Morgan gets a picture credit

* 'What The !&*$?' is back to 'only' six queries this quarter (after the last issues 13!), but they are all interesting;

• A lion - swiftly proposed by the editor to be Hilco is Eric Crichley's first ponder
• A real quandary from Giampiero Larizza is a military-looking lady, who might be M.A.S.H. or a kit figure?
• A large Scottie dog with collar needs ID'ing, looks the same size as the Corgi (?) corgi see here recently, but in polyethylene, not PVC?
• Timpo-catalogued Mounted Arabs (from the solid era) pose a problem, has anyone ever seen one?
• Brian Wagstaff has a second pose of plinth-based 'Commonwealth' plastic dancer, but unlike the previously seen Geisha (which Brian also shows), the new Thai/Burmese (?) dancer is a more unique pose?
• Finally Eric Critchley also asks about Blue Box packaging, specifically for the ACW sets if anyone can help? (I have a 'T is for Two...' post in the queue which may offer a clue, but it's got GI's and a gun, not ACW)

* 'Readers Letters' include

• VP Lane asks if resin is 'toy soldier' plastic? For the purpose of collecting; a valid question!
• Gerald Edwards has a Merciless 'We Know Wot', it's Ming'ing! (sorry - couldn't resist!)
• Raimondo Torelli reminds those who were asking that The Toy Soldier Company still has stocks of undecorated Starlux, although I could only find FFL on the website?
  
• Dan Morgan points out (with empirical logic) that Harvey (Lone Star) were the copyists, not Britains (Herald)
• Eric Critchley muses on Chris Goddard's khaki Infantry article (PW174) with reference to radio operators and the Timpo hollow-casts
• Brian Wagstaff shows an interesting Hong Kong blow-moulded fort!
• Chris Smith waxes lyrical on several subjects from issue 174
• PL Cuna has a good, but polite, rant at a few things; Timpo bases (totally agree . . . too small!); availability of Napoleonic 'minor nations' cavalry and artillery (and size); AiP numbering; wargame rule suggestions . . .
• Yours Truly follows-up on Gondoliers and Doolittles!

* 'What's New' returns with PW-show releases and other 'new'-news from . . .

• Mars - Pirates of the Carribean
• Replicants - Texas Rangers
• Engineer Bassevich - Colonial era Russian (set 27) and Turkish (set 26) troops
• Chintoys -

                  o       CHT012 - Conquistadores
                  o       CHT016 - Inca Warriors
                  o       CHT020 - Mayan Warriors

• Expeditionary Force - Napoleonic British Hussars

* 'Book Review' is back with three volumes this issue, which are;

• Juguete Completo, Juguete Comansi by Juan Hermida (locally produced limited edition)
• Airfix HO•OO Scale Figures A Comprehensive Guide 1959 to 2018 by Peter Williams (Corsham Print, apparently limited to 50 copies - ISBN 978-1-5272-3716-2)
• Forty Years of Airfix Toys by Jeremy Brook (Crowood Press - ISBN 978-1-78-500-535-0)

I think you'll agree; all three are self-explanatory from the titles, I've only got one so far, Mr. Williams' work, which must have been a labour of love, but has one or two niggles, the appearance of a sculptor called John Nesbitt, credited with about half the sets including all of Niblett's seems to be the result of someone being sent down the garden path, while the constant use of the word 'casting' for mouldings will annoy pedants!

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

* Covers - Both showcase Fontanini figures from Peter Evan's collection

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

News, Views Etc . . . Airfix Update - HO/OO Highland Infantry

http://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/2010/05/1969-waterloo-highland-infantry-s35.html

I've added an interesting use of the figures to the Waterloo Highlander post; the Dawson Castle slot-together card model, another post i need to finish blurbing-up!

7th is for Cavalry!

Do they still have a 7th or was it quietly retired after . . . ahem . . . 'the event'?

Someone should have done that; back in the 1400-somethings when standing armies were first being organised, the Pope or someone filling the place of a UN should have dictated that units would be numbered in sequence from 1, within each country, with units suffering more than, say, 65% casualties in a single action or campaign being retired as jinxed or dishonoured or whatever. I mean - how can you have a 501st parachute unit five minutes after the invention of the parachute, or a 633rd squadron less than 40 years after the invention of the Airforce? Equally how can you have BB1 decades after the term battleship has been popularised!

I digress, and am in danger of getting up on my high-horse and riding off on one! I think we've looked at these briefly before, if we haven't they are in the queue (which I am totally losing track of!) and will turn-up at some point, in a lesser form!

Waddington's board game pieces from the battle of The Little Big Horn game. I do have the complete game somewhere and we will look at it as a briefer post when it turns up, but today we're looking purely at the playing-piece figures.

Bluster and his flag, unlike the other figures we're about to look at, there seems to be only two versions/mouldings of this figure, and the fact that some of them are in a white plastic suggests they may have had their own tool, and consequently, enough were manufactured initially to carry through one of the subsequent publishing tranches. But the blue ones are a tad poorer in sculpting and paint.

The flag also has at least two forms, and the difference between them is more marked than the other variations we'll look at! Late shots (below) reveal there probably are three different sculpts of this figure too.

The Adjutant/ADC/2IC . . . 'other officer' type! Here there seem to be three versions; the darker figure (second from the left) being - probably - the Spanish original, a Hong-Kong'y, stab-and-hope painted figure on the far right and two commoner intermediate figures - 1st and third.

Below the main line-up are two comparisons between the commoner one and the thin-based, in-house copy.

The troopers' consist of standing and kneeling firers, with - again - three variations of sculpt for each, and a second, rarer sculpting of the standing figure, leaning into the shot, which seems to have had a shorter existence, being issued 1-to-2 of the standard straight-legs in Spanish-figured sets? Elastolin-Hausser just had six kneeling cowboys in blue styrene, very boring!

The upper line-up shows, from the left; two commoner types in different plastic shades, a probably earlier Spanish one (larger hat, deeper base) and finally; a thin-based copy. Below them to the right are three kneeling firers, the larger one on the right being the - probably - earlier one, the other two being similar to the eye, but which are different.

With the Indians the main difference is that earlier versions have nicer paint, in various schemes, while later sets tend to contain simple painted-figures in the same scheme. On the left here is a sample of mostly earlier figures with a variety of loin-cloth colours, some enhanced with a second colour.

On the right are the three versions I've found so far, with a smooth-based (three-part tool) on the left, a two-part moulding with join-line in the middle and another thin-based, probably late copy, to the right. The third version came in a sample of all plain-red loin-cloths.

A similar situation occurs here with the advancing-menacingly pose - I think they go top four (Spanish originals, chalky plastic, three-part tool [no join-line], good painting), middle eleven (two-part tool [join-line], smaller base, poorer painting) and the bottom one; smaller, overall.

A closer look suggests the forth figure on the top belongs with the lone warrior at the bottom?

There are only two obvious horse types, three-part tool with a smooth base and two-part mould with a clear join-line running across the bottom.

The various shades of sea/azure-blue saddle-blankets only seem to occur with the better (three-part moulding) horses, probably from the earlier sets, with the glossy later (?) sets only having the red-fringed yellow blankets. Spanish-issued sets (see link below) also have red blankets.

The shot bottom left compares the (Spanish?) original on the left with the (right-hand) copy.

The riders are much harder to separate, but there are clues; better paint, fuller sculpts and I have tried to line up the bowmen by type, best at the top, while with the shooter, apart from three obviously better sculpts at the top, the rest are a bit of a free-for-all?

Somewhere I have true Hong Kong copies of the rifleman, unpainted on crappy horses, probably nothing to do with the game; rather, some capsule or Christmas cracker knock-offs?

♦---------------------------------------♦

2nd photo-session

I have stuck with a plethora of 'probably's above and question-marked the few attributions to Spanish originals because I don't know the answers as to why there are at least three tranches of these, or why there's an extra standing rifleman in the cavalry - sometimes (!), or why the flags and horse only have two apparent types (both white plastic?) or even why there's two Bluster's of the 7th, in different colours?

And while I always post this link as to being the last word on all these sets originating in Spain, from Rojas y Malaret, and licensed to both Hausser (two games) and Waddington's (Little Big Horn) along with the French Capiepa, he doesn't have much on these differences either, probably because he's dealing with Spanish originals and the odd sample of British, German or French versions.

He does however highlight the differences, crediting the third (?) set to Hong Kong, but I don't know where the attribution comes from (they're not marked) and around a third of the Waddington's sets are Spanish-figure equipped anyway. The Spanish figures have Jecsan-like bases, but the horses are more Reamsa-like, but I don't know who supplied Rojas'' - I think Lafredo have been fingered as well? Elastolin used their own figures (shipping the Macedonian elephant over from Spain - a bit like the Hannibal originals!), and Waddington's had the top-ups!

My guess - for what it's worth, is that the set sold so extraordinarily well, so quickly, Waddington's were 'jumped' into finding tons more figures at short notice to supply demand from big and/or powerful clients; mail-order firms or department stores,  probably in the run-up to a Christmas?

Whether Waddington's sourced the copies in the UK or HK is a moot point. And any source trying to state Waddington's only used their own/Hong Kong figures is bullshitting (you know who, over at Vichy!), 'early' Waddington's sets contain Spanish figures; my own (when it turns up) has a set of mint, chalky, orangey-brown, well painted Spanish figures.

Anyone who's been collecting in the UK for any length of time, who's rocked-up at enough shows or who knows the odd dealer will know this set is not rare over here, with some dealers having a 'stock' stack of them, and most shows turning-up at least one, with loose figures seemingly in most rummage trays! And most donators to the collection/Blog have heaved a few this way over the years.

And the obvious thing is; the British boxes are all the same, whatever figures are in them, so while it would seem to go: 1 Spanish - 2 Spanish-like - 3 Honk Kong'y, and common-sense dictates such, there is no empirical evidence for either the order of issue, or the origin, Waddington's may even have had the Spanish tool - for a while?

The conclusion being; it was a very popular set - the year I was born!

They are still going strong!

'West' is for Panini Sticker Album - Plus!

Previously issued in the 1970's as either a sticker-only exercise or with other (commercially available) figures - it's not terribly clear - the Sticker Album 'WEST' was re-issued in the 1990's with a figure included in each pack of 6 stickers, today we're having a look at them.

I imagine you could also purchase the whole set (with card fort frontage and figures?) from the UK page of the website for a while-after (link at end of post) as you can order complete sticker sets for some foreign issues (50-quid-plus for a sticker album!) to this day, but I don't know how well-developed, or 'international' the site was in the 1990's?

Mounted figures for the cavalry, six different poses, of which only two are engaged in any sort of fighting, which may be a clue as to what happened at the Little Big Horn . . . too much saluting, bugling and carrying of small flags, not enough fighting-back!

Joking aside; I particularly like the Indian scout while the chap in buckskins could pass for General George Armstrong, but he'd need a bottle of Grecian2000 'Blonde' first! Am I right in thinking only the scout is wearing his braces correctly?

The US get eight foot poses, each of which is numbered (the mounted poses are unmarked), here we are looking at - top row from left;

23. Kneeling Shooter

24. Sentinel

25. Soldier with Gun

26. Standing Shooter

. . . and the figures are sized to around 50mm or 1:35th scale

Again using the top row, from the left we have;

27. Standing Shooter

28. Standing Shooter

29. Running Soldier

30. Standing Shooter

. . . and all the figures are manufactured from a  softish PVC replacement polymer with decoration mostly done through stencils, although there's some hand-painting.

Horses are probably the poorest element of the set, suffering from the softness of the plastic and slightly effete sculpting. There are three poses, which are also marked on the bases;

A2. Cavalry Horse

B2. Cavalry Horse

C2. Cavalry Horse

. . . two of the poses are very similar (either end), with only the feet reversed while the other seems to be pacing or high-stepping in a formal fashion?

The Indians get very similarly-posed horses, but with blanket saddles;

A1. Indian Horse

B1. Indian Horse

C1. Indian Horse

. . . their decoration is also more muted with various over-sprays on the same hazelnut-coloured animals. And as they are numbered ahead of each Cavalry version, I'm not saying they followed, but probably lead?

They also get six unmarked poses of rider, three in leggings/trousers, the other trio in just loin-cloths. The figure on the far right is particularly fine, shooting over his forearm, downwards into the/an - unseen - mêlée, and they are all more active than their cavalry counterparts.

The natives get ten foot poses, and just as the riders are more animated, so too are the foot figures more imaginative. Again from the left;

13. Indian with Gun

14. Indian with Bow

15. Indian on Ground

16. Indian with Dagger

17. Kneeling Indian

The base-titles however are just as lacking in imagination with these as they were with the US troops, with several having duplicated text!

18. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

19. Indian Lance/Shield

20. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

21. Indian with Bow

22. Indian with Bow

Base marks for - clockwise from top left - cavalry trooper, crawling Indian, Indian horse and foot Indian; the fact that the prone Indian is marked (down his leg) makes it all the weirder that none of the mounted poses have any marking at all? All marked items also have a 'CHINA'.

Thanks to John Begg for these which scraped-in under the 'small scale' parameter (perimeter!) back some time in 2006-7 and have just slid-out of storage..

A useful link with more information;

http://www.paninimania.com

While, in numerical order;

Set Listing

Horses

A1. Indian Horse

A2. Cavalry Horse

B1. Indian Horse

B2. Cavalry Horse

C1. Indian Horse

C2. Cavalry Horse

Riders

1-6. (?) 6x different Indian riders

7-12. (?) 6x different Cavalry riders

Foot Natives

13. Indian with Gun

14. Indian with Bow

15. Indian on Ground

16. Indian with Dagger

17. Kneeling Indian

18. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

19. Indian Lance/Shield

20. Indian/Tomawac [sic]

21. Indian with Bow

22. Indian with Bow

Cavalry Figures

23. Kneeling Shooter

24. Sentinel

25. Soldier with Gun

26. Standing Shooter

27. Standing Shooter

28. Standing Shooter

29. Running Soldier

30. Standing Shooter

Other Items

?. Relief Card Fort Frontage ('stage set' in log 'stockade' construction "Fort Apache")

?. Sticker Album

News, Views Etc . . . Airfix Update - US Marines

 https://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/2010/06/1963-wwii-us-marines-1st-type-s16-hooo.html

A page in need of a bit more blurb, but I've added a few shots to the end of the post

O is for Odd Squad!

Some, but not all the National leaders (neither US President), a couple of famous Generals, but most missing and two Göring's ('Goering'), this was always a bit of an strange line-up for a set, but it's quite popular (although not particularly rare in either size), and is overdue for a box-tick here!

271 Army Leaders World War II, also issued in the larger 1:35th scale a few years later as set 450, itself an odd act, as while it made them compatible with the Italeri and Heller kits of the day, there was no history of 50mm stuff from Austria (or Germany), nor any forthcoming range of matching vehicles or other kits from Roco.

The 'data list' on the back of the card is in a different order to the presentation of the figures on the other side, who are each in a separate blister with their title below. I seem to recall the large scale set come similarly packed, but in one row?

Two Göring's; there are two Göring's for some reason, a hundred allied or axis generals missing, but two sculpts of a fat face-feeding Nazi airforce arsehole, when Roco only made a few aircraft and all of them post-war helicopters - did they do a Storch? Where's Himmler? It's a very odd choice of figures, no Monty or MacArthur? Patton's absence explained by already being in the early US figure-sets (seen earlier today).

If you're going to have even one Göring, where's the Dowding or 'Bomber' Harris? A De Gaulle, but no Vichy? Speer, Franco, any Jap, Manstein, Guderian, poor old Paulus . . . Zhukov? It's an eclectic line-up to say the least, but they are very well sculpted and all pretty recognisable as to whom they are meant to be!

While back to the Goering thing; I guess the sculptor played with a few alternative sculpts and two of them - for the one personality - were considered so good, they couldn't choose which one to run with, so ran them both? It's also worth noting that the two figures are to all purposes the same sculpt - from the waist down! But even then - you have to ask - why didn't they then make-up the set to a ten-figure count?

US Army is for More Clones!

Because I've been editing all the current output over the last few months, things have happened which might otherwise have been 'follow-up's, but a few weeks after I had finished the earlier of today's posts, and the later post today, which was waiting on a set and had put both the finished ones on the back-burner for a while anyway, the following images dropping into my in-box, kindly sent by Dougal Hare (so many thanks' to him) who had no idea the other two posts were in the pipeline.

Like the increasingly hard to fine Bandai 1/48th scale figure kits; this is not a common thing! I had no idea it even existed and I have quite a good Fujimi Mokei archive including all sorts of listings, imagery and several catalogues including an old one. A set of eight figures taken ostensibly from the Revell set but with several figures closer to the Monogram originals; Fujimi F:KIT No.U1.

Classic 1960/70's (I think this is the 1970's boxing?) instruction sheet "...paint the soldiers with civility"! OK? No rude painting of these figures please! No loud colours, no swearing at the cat and do your dressing-gown or smoking-jacket up properly before you sit down at your work station . . . and don't forget to say grace!

The figures, the kit element is limited (as it is/was with both donor sets) to a few small parts; here - attaching the flamethrower tanks and fixing the figures to their bases. The 'modelling' came from the cleaning-up of often quite flashy figures, heavy gate-mark removal and such like, which you can see from the images - in the case with this set.

We looked at their 1:76th scale cousins here (link) and they were equally in need of cleaning-up to get them to a photogenic state! Thanks again to Dougal for sharing this rare set with the rest of us.