R is for Return - to Nazi Flats

So we looked at these a while ago and I asked whether they might be post-war, maybe East German or Russian parodies of Nazi's as part of some propaganda exercise, possibly cigarette premiums, but I had shot them hurriedly, at a show, and had not had time to investigate them properly.

Now that I have looked at them closely (they are in the collection!) the only fact remaining from the earlier musing would seem to be . . . they might have been cigarette premiums! Everything else is up for grabs!

The first clue is that they are all marked DRGM (Deutsches Reich Gebrauchs Muster = a minor patent or registered design), which was [one of] the German equivalent[s] (they had dozens) of the English 'Pat.Pend' or French/Italian Depose, and which ran from before the Nazi rule, until after it, so wherever they came from, the evidence says it was within the confines of either 'greater Germany' or the later West Germany?

The next clue is that the flag has a large swastika clearly visible upon it, and if you're wondering why I obliterated the swastikas on the Atlantic set but not here; it's simply that the Atlantic set is a weird modern 'homage' to a vile, murderous, militarised, yet 'civilian' political regime, while these - as we will see - are probably 'historical artifacts' - it's all about context!

Another possible clue is the short arms on the flag's swastikas, which could point to something? Did the SA use short arms; production likely during the NAZI period, or did the artist not know the correct dimensions because it was so new; production likely before the Nazis came to power?

Swastikas are also suggested on several arm-bands, and the reason this is such a clue is that the showing of Nazi iconography was made illegal soon after the end of the war as part of the de-Nazification effort, which means we can probably rule out West Germany, as we have now ruled-out the East.

Which leaves the figures as German-made and set in or just before the Nazi's came to power? Here we see that the helmeted figures have the side-studs for mounting things like face -guards/visors on, and - while the tops have been rendered slightly flatter by removal from the runner - still, the lines of the helmet are the squarer one of WWI Stosstruppen 'Boxheads', rather than the later, rounder/cleaner-lined one which 'soldiered-on' with the West German fire-brigade until quite recently.

Other clues include the grey-green coated figures; the Germans used a very similar coating on their steel training ammunition to prevent surface-rust (arrowed - where the varnish seal was broken extracting the black-powder) in storage, while it is a neutral varnish to the figures green, the thinness, with metal showing through, and the all-over, thin-wash, one-coat nature is the same, it's not conclusive evidence, it's a clue, and it allows me to show you a rare'ish piece of militaria!.

Bit of a departure mid-post, but I'd better explain; The rounds (stained pink for an unknown reason; mould inhibitor, 'live' status designator?) are wooden, they would not have travelled far, or done much damage, but at short ranges (indoor or pipe-ranges) might have marked a target, while on exercise; they would have provided realistic 'kick', noise and smoke/smell, and could launch rifle-grenades without mishap. However, the hollow in the wooden bullet, would have caused drag-turbulence and lost momentum very quickly - they are basically blanks!

The cases are steel (cheaper than brass; by '43 they were losing the war) and compared here with a modern 5.56mm SA80 blank-round (which is brass). They are sitting in the magazine re-loading clip they came with, which is very similar to the ones we used with SLR's in the 1980's (but then the cartridge bases are near identical on both rounds) but this is stainless, or a non-ferrous steel-like alloy , while ours were steel, painted gun-black and would rust in damp pouches!

They were de-activated many years ago by yours truly, who put the black powder to good use, that is; if you consider Tobin and myself nearly blowing our faces off with a home-made chair-leg cannon and then almost drilling a large hole in my brother's head with a tractor-wheel bolt-grenade 'good use', otherwise the black-powder was recklessly used in haste, dangerously, but all three of us had a brilliant afternoon - 41 years ago, summer half-term!

So, back to the figures; there are several possible scenarios, the first (1) still being that they were piss-taking parodies?

But now of German origin (rather than the Ost Deutsche or Soviet proposed last time) and from someone on the 'Left', satirising the early Nazi's; all that prancing about with Ernst Rohm and his mob of bully-boy, brown-shirt, boy-scout SA, happy-campers! And most of the figures are wearing the little SA kepi?

Being manufactured before they came to power, in which case it's a fair bet everyone involved in these figures may have ended-up in a concentration camp, a - likely - fate which would add a certain poignancy to the set.

But then -  Rohm was a bit of a short-arse? If the 'Hitler' character (third from left?) is a piss-take of Rohm, these could be SS or NSADP-sanctioned (2) piss-takes of the SA, in order to prepare the ground for The Night of the Long Knives? Or even - referring back to the same, in order to explain/excuse [propagandise] it, after the event?

I can only find this and while he was banned by the Nazi's, he wasn't killed, and his style is different?

Or . . . (3) that they were comedy figures - but possibly based on characters that would have been known to the populace at the time, perhaps from a newspaper strip-cartoon?

Taking the Mickey out of one's own military in order to humanise it (especially when it's rightly regarded as the instrument of a totalitarian, fascist dictatorship, busy 'disappearing' people in the middle of the night . . . or broad daylight!) has a rich history . . .

. . . one thinks of Old Bill and Woodbine Willy in WWI, the 'Two Types' in WWII, or Bilko, Beetle Bailey, Dad's Army, It 'Aint Half Hot Mum, ITMAR and The Navy Lark on radio or MASH, and all the great double acts; Abbot & Costello, Bud & Lou, Laurel & Hardy had/did military parodies?

This guy almost looks 'familiar', was he one of the characters in a series of Nazi propaganda posters, or have I just Blogged him too much?!!

Lined-up with a few known-WHW's, were they - indeed - (4) comedy WHW's?

From the left we have a bisque miner from a set of profession/occupation broach-figures (pin rusted to almost nothing), a composition pilot with string-hanger hole in his floatation collar (no Mae West 'boobies' for the Luftwaffe!) possibly from Elastolin or Lineol (?), two of the aluminium figures, one polished, the other coated, an unpainted WHW policeman, a painted 'historical uniform' figure (I seem to recall they were issued as Guard Regiments of Berlin) and one from the set we looked at the other day.

The police set has been tied-in to the Gau of Berlin (as issuer) also, but there are actually several versions, painted, unpainted and heavier-based, so like the commoner 'combat' set, there seems to be a history  of multiple issues and/or multiple issuers behind the set.

Finally (5) they could be 'just' post-war parodies, getting out before the ban on Nazi regalia and iconography took hold? But I think - now - we are looking at something earlier.

Unifying the animal samples for a comparison/completion shot or two I can report that they are all unmarked with the exception of the rhinoceros which is clearly marked 'FOREIGN', suggesting they (some or all?) were imported into the UK at some point, where they would most likely have been Christmas cracker novelties.

The similarities in base are unmistakeable, but the animals - both farm/domestic and zoo/wild are of a slightly poorer finish, so a late use of older moulds perhaps? Hanomag and Fokker are still going strong, Elastolin survived until the 1990's, no reason why a small toy-maker or metal-fabricator from the Nazi-era shouldn't have dug it's old animal moulds out in the 1950's or '60's and run them again?

Mine have come as two, small, mixed lots (farm & zoo together both times), possibly with the Rhino' separate (I've rather lost track of them all by blogging them in the wrong order!), so it's all only conjecture, but I think a common-source is quite likely, especially as flats are often ID'able from the nuances of the bases, not that these - injection-moulded alloy - are exactly 'traditional' zinn flats!

H is for Hitler - He Only Heffted One Heir-Henge

Stones? Oh never mind! Apparently there may have been some truth to the rumour (which might have let Pike of the hook, (pike, hook - I'm on a roll here!)) but I doubt it. Anyway, he may have had an un-descended testicle; there is a scientific term but I can't remember it!

Why didn't they use vacuum-cleaners? Apply the nozzle to the scrotum, switch-on, when the patient screams, switch-off, bingo - two descended testicles! Might have saved the world a whole heap of trouble...?

Atlantic, closer to 60mm than 54, and looking like he's about 21-and-three-quarters, it is the devil incarnate, Adolf Hitler, and, not half as rare as its price at toy shows would suggest! They've got the hair right though and the little 'tash is present, so he could be painted-up quite adequately by someone more skilled than me.

We have actually seen the whole set in1:76/72nd scale here so this is a real box-ticker, and there is no difference between any of these other than the rear-axle of the Volksdunekubelbuggyvargen which plugs-on (like the front one) in small-scale but slides through holders in the large-scale one.

Also there are various extra holes (in the larger scale), which I think may have been for seats which were replaced by clamps before final tooling, these are to hold Der Fuhrer when he's standing in the back ranting some racist bollocks at gullible, stupid people.

The rest of the mob, don't they look happy! Nothing like a bit of genocide to put a smile on your face; ask the Burmese, ask Bolsanaro! Note these are in a completely different colour, a sort of purple-brown to the previous chocolate of the Hitler and vehicles, I've also seen them in a ginger-brown; so they must have had at least three runs of the tool and can't be rare, just hidden!

To be fair I've seen toy-show dealers with multiples of the Hitler and Mussolini/Carabinieri band sets, the hard ones to find (in both scales) are the Mao and Stalin set, but only because they sold better, however they do turn-up in dribs and drabs in lots of colours, so again plenty made.

Yer'man again! Maybe it had descended, and got pushed back up again by the wearing of all those tight jodhpurs and tailored cavalry twills? No wonder he had a temper! They should have adopted battle-dress earlier - baggy as a sack, but at least your own sack hung free!

We wish! But to be fair - I don't think it would have solved anything? As you can see; the figure is well over the line for 1:32nd scale.

T is for Teutonic Tropische Toy Troops in Tunisia

Some more box ticking I'm afraid, it all needs to be done, if only because some people are only interested in the mass-produced stuff (shock-horror!) and couldn't give a fig for all the novelty treats I Blog! And, because it trips the nostalgia buttons . . . AND because it should have been in the tag-list years ago!

Charbens! The 'command' group includes a very busy mine-detector and officer with two broken arms* While the gun seems to have been captured from Timpo's 8th Army, even to the stuffing of the belt into the working-parts/trigger mechanism, rather than the feed tray!

 * I served with a chap who had arms like these, he'd got them both broken as a kid, trying to steal milk-bottles off the back of a milk-float when it drove off, dragging him behind it! He used to be jailed every Monday morning on Battalion muster-parade, the RSM didn't even look for him, he just marched onto the square and shouted "Jail that man Corporal Thomas!", and Tom'o would double him down to the guardhouse as he struggled to remove his belt! The crime - you could see daylight between his arms and his torso when he was stood at attention!

Once in the guardhouse he was given a cuppa, and instead got to avoid standing-around on muster, listening to some 'uplifting' crap from the RSM like the rest of us! It was a standing joke which was supposed to raise moral in the rest of us raw recruits - the Army's alright . . . even the RSM has a sense of humour? Really it was the singling-out of one man for a physical disability/abnormality!

The Charbens riflemen are a better prospect, four of them and all looking pretty enthusiastic, the weapons are rather non-descript, and let's face it; short trousers with jackboots is not a flattering look, but it would get you a drink or two down the Blue Oyster Club!

I have a heat-conversion, which came from the Portsmouth purchase I think, both elbows having been heated (probably with a hot pin) and moved, the pin-holes, or whatever marks, then smoothed over with a heated knife, from the new positions of the arms, one feels he's been converted to stand in a truck or half-track, possibly the Airfix or Dinky machines?

The central shot shows them both with the Lone Star version to whom they are very similar, however I think - given the differences between the other troops - it isn't a case of same sculptor, just co-incidence?

There's a small variation in plastic colour with some being a faded pea-green rather than the pale grey of most of my sample. Had I known how much the flash would wash them out I probably wouldn't have bothered, but you can still get some idea of the greener shade from these.

Atlantic Wall - Page Holder

You can here from Youtube huh? Sorry, it's embedded in a post scheduled for publishing at 9.30 on Friday 11th Oxctober! Try again then for more on the context and siting of the bunker in the video.

News, Views Etc . . . Khaki Infantry Page

I've added a Timpo hollow-cast mortar set to the aforementioned page (link), shot back in May at Sandown Park on Adrian Little's Mercator Trading (link) stall, it add's a nice 'missing piece' to that section being the original source of all the subsequent plastic mortar's, mortar crews, kneeling medics &etc.

T is for Two - 54mm 8th Army

We're going to do a bit of box-ticking of common'ish WWII stuff over the next few days, get it out there, get it in the tag-list!

Crescent (not for Kellogg's!) desert troops were much copied in small scale by Hong Kong rack-toy makers, but are otherwise relatively unique although I think I've seen the officer somewhere as a larger scale piracy.

A bit disappointing looking at them now, with one chap (running) carrying an SLR and the other (jogging) having something more akin to the EM2, they are otherwise poorly armed, owning only a pistol and grenade between the six of them to add to the two anachronistic weapons! Also the berets are not recommended in a war zone; these are clearly Armoured troops, on foot, peace-keeping in Palestine or Cyprus!

Perfectly compatible with Timpo and similarly sculpted, they may be the same sculptor, I can't remember, but the Crescent's are slightly better finished, so would probably be the latter issue if that was the case.

The Deetail came later from Britains (early 1970's, but not the first tranche which placed the '71 on the bases, these were '72 or '73?), and on one level are a decent set of fighting sculpts, but are made of floppy PVC with finely-sculpted weapons that consequently bend and the painting is poor. The best way so sum them up is a workaday set of workable figures which need work before you can put them to work!

These six chaps probably share a sculptor (Ron Cameron) as well, with Airfix, who's figures they are very similar to, but more to the additional poses in the 1:76th scale sets than the original seven (Charles C Stadden-handed?) 1:32nd scale poses?

He'd be even smaller without the very deep and annoyingly 'wrong material' base!

F is for Flixstars! Flickable Flexible Superstars!

I think? Who cares! They're DC which gives them an immediate advantage over . . . ahem . . . the 'other lot', here at Small Scale World, and these have wung their way over the ether from New York for Rack Toy Month, courtesy of Brian Berke.

If blind-bags are an annoying phenomena as I suggested the other day (and not for the first time!), an even dafter idea is random content window bags, as you - presumably; if the line proves popular enough - run the risk of a queue of kids blocking the isle, comparing a handful of bags as they try to get one of each and/or the least number of duplicates in a set!

Nice from the front! But they have hollow backs like the board-game skateboarder we looked at a while ago (Christmas or the spring?), or a rack-toy prince/princess pair I seem to recall shooting in a car-park back at the beginning of the Blog?

However their primary trope is as novelty 'flicky-flyer' kung-fu panda types, so one can't complain that they have been kept light with a bit of liposuction! Coming in at around 60mm according to the Berserker!

Painted up and displayed on narrow shelves you won't even see the hollow backs! Thanks to Brian for sending these to the Blog, I haven't seen them in the UK, so I guess they are a US thing, but they should be available on-line for Euro-buyers.

I must say though, that given that he has no actual 'super powers' per se; I think the Man Bat may be making a serious error of judgement in drop-kicking the son of Jor-El, a man with a stomach of steel, who can set cars alight with his eyes! Just sayin'!

P is for Plant'tastic Plastic

Another carded blister of rack toy tat from those mighty toy suppliers; Kingstar International, and another from Peter Evans, this being donated back in the spring. RTM comes to a close and I feel I haven't done it justice, but actually with over 70-posts in August at the time of writing, I think it just went so smoothly it only seems like I didn't do much!

However there are so many in the queue we will still have the odd one though the year - as always!

This is interesting not for the toy animals, which are a typical set of mini, soft PVC-alike rack toy generics, but for the false-plant/fish-tank accessories thrown-in as make-weights/volume-fillers, but we'll have a quick look at the livestock first . . .

. . . all eight of them! Ignoring the facts that they are not in scale and that the kangaroo has sloth lichen in his fur (the elephant's aluminium, and the lion gold so why not!), they can be seen as reasonable for what they are, the llama type is unusual and both the bear and the lion are also nice sculpts.

I have - still in Picasa from last year - a folder called 'RTM- Henbandt et al' which deals with about ten or eleven of these sets, it's now penciled-in for next August, but I may try and get it done in the next few weeks so's to compare with this lot, who ended up getting their own post, due to the plants.

The 'plants' are three plug-in sections of larger synthetic plants/artificial flowers, although - from the leery colours - I suspect fish-tanks as an end destination for the bulk of the production, however a few ended up in these blisters, and while on one level fruitless fillers with no means of being stood-up as 'trees' they are very interesting from a technical point of view.

The easier to understand are these, where it would appear a twin-nozzle injector-head is used to fire a shot of yellow (or light green) polyethylene, followed (instantly?) by a shot of red (or dark green), the second shot pushing the first up the cavity as it mixes with it for yellow-orange-red or gradated green effects.

This however, presents one with more of a headache, as it appears that the (and this is all guesswork on both types) green is shot to almost full-cavity, then a jacket of red is shot over it, but it's not over-moulding as the green survives at the tips of the leaves and is visible under the red at the branch-joints and end-plug/loop.

I can only guess that the green goes in at under-[optimum]-pressure, then the red is immediately shot at a higher over-or-optimum-pressure, slipping over the top or 'surface' of the green, but also pushing the green into the tips?

It may be that a red polymer-stain/colorant is injected into the mould before the green has fully-cooled, but it's not clear, and both aught to lead to more/redder leaves nearer the gate at the end-plug/loop?

Either way it's very clever and I'd be interested to know more, however the way other posts here looking at technical aspects have resulted in further work appearing elsewhere, I'm sure someone will go and find out and wax-knowledgeable, in the near future?

I haven't got the time; next week we are World War II box-ticking and while I have the images, I haven't done the blurbs yet! Some clues here . . . 

https://www.plasticmetal.it/en/multi-injection-molding-machine/

. . . suggest it's a form of 'bi-injection'?

ZZ is for Whatever You Want to Believe!

But belief is the realm of the religious zealot, or the tabloid-reader of limited mental-faculties, not the empirical researcher.

A funny thing happened recently, or, at least; I think it's funny, but then I seem to have a lot of amusing enemies at the moment, enemies and critics, or critics equating to enemies (or 'emies' as TJF calls his!), so when they advertise their own idiocy, it amuses me, if it doesn't amuse you, read no further and I'll try to post some toys later.

Back at the beginning of August 2016 I published the results of much digging by several people on the subject of cheapo-knockoff plastic figures, farm & zoo animal rack-toys and tin-plate tree-hangers by Ingo Roggatz's ^Z_Z-branding here, yet recently Hildabreath Dildobrand (side-taking, self-identifying, associate of the PSTSM, so 'fair game') has been informing people (as fact) that the brand actually pertains to George Zimmermann's ZZ-branded metal fabricator's in Zirndof, Germany - this is a falsehood.

Firstly because '^Z_Z' the rack-toy importer started after 'ZZ' the German household goods manufacturer ceased trading and second because 'ZZ' the German household goods importer has been associated with few toys or playthings, there being a reference to their tin-plate 'piggy-banks' and a single example in the local museum (above link) of a toy truck, around 1:24th/25th (or larger) which is a huge chunk of beach/garden/sand-pit plaything composed of tin-plate, rubber and die-cast parts, showing its age, not a shiny, minty, 1990's, small tree-hanger of the sort imported by '^Z_Z' the rack-toy importer!

Now, this is not me being a 'clever-dick' (as someone calling herself 'Pardeilhan' would have you believe), this is my putting the record straight before more damage is done to the hobby by that group of loudmouthed, gobshite, blowhards centred on TJF and the Penn State Toy Soldier Mafia and their various AFD associates, idiot affiliates and Vichy hangers-on.

Witness the fact that some people are still using DGN in feebleBay listings as a brand-mark, despite the fact it is now appearing on other toys, by other brands, for its true purpose; to denote the English word 'design' as an abbreviation.

It should be noted that while the above illustrated dealer has tried to ride the coat-tails of 'vintage' tin-plate, he knows he's pulling a fast-one, hence the £3.50p start price, and the single bid was either speculative or made by someone who wasn't taken-in! £6.75p - with postage? . . . bargain; but only a small one!

Source:

https://www.zirndorf.de/Die-Metallwarenfabrik-Georg-Zimmermann-100-Jahre-Zirndorfer-Industriegeschichte.o4167.html

The dates may refer to a temporary exhibition, but there seems to be a permanent display (or collection) at the museum as well?

Text reads:

"Founded in 1880 by Georg Zimmermann sheet metal processing company employed in the year of the city survey 1912 over 700 employees. Today only a few things are reminiscent of the once flourishing metal goods factory Georg Zimmermann, which exported to the whole world. The company founder, who was awarded the title of "Kommerzienrat" because of his pronounced social commitment, was given a street. The former family villa on Nürnbergerstraße is still standing today. Behind it was the large factory area with an imposing main building and numerous workshops, sheds and other attachments. In the exhibition you can still admire them on old photos. To trace the former importance of the company, the museum team has spared no effort in recent months to reconstruct the wide range of Zimmermann products. Some came from far away by mail, others were carried by Zirndorf citizens and former employees into the museum. In addition to metal and celluloid mirrors adapted to the respective zeitgeist, smoking sets, picture frames, housewares, gift items and children's money boxes made of sheet metal, the broad assortment. Because they were usually cheap commodities, their lasting preservation was given little meaning. All the more we smile today about the shiny table accessories and household goods of bygone days, some of which are now quite in the status of an antique ascended. Since over the decades a comprehensive modernization of the company and the product range did not occur, the company, which was run in third generation, ceased operations in 1972. This ended a large chapter Zirndorfer industrial history. In 1990, all buildings were demolished and the whole area with a supermarket and parking built."

The upshot being; the factory Mr. Bildaburg Beiderbecke wants us to believe imported plastic shite from Hong Kong into the 1980's and carried the same tin-plate tree-hangers as Schilling through the 1990's, actually ceased trading in 1972, and seems to have made few toys, and then only larger ones; manufacturing them, not importing them?

Meanwhile - and well within a year of Zimmermann's demise - Herr. Ingo Roggatz was registering a ZZ trade-mark (after all: one had just been 'freed-up') with the German authorities responsible for such things . Now the fact that he would select a moniker rendered as a cipher, similar to one recently defunct, would add weight to the theory that the Rissen Farm and Riesen Zoo logos were deliberately similar to Stock chocolate's brand marks . . . what we have here is a consummate entrepreneur, exploiting the visual power of brand-recognition! And . . . as far as listings go; ZZ is second best to AAArdvark; one tends to look at both ends of a list first!

Nice try Deadleaf Hairbrand, but no banana! The red triangle is an old Victorian/Edwardian shipping-trope signifying 'quality' as Nabisco used to tell us on their cereal packets . . . every cereal packet! I think it goes back to old dock-side or Customs/Revenue stamps on imports (or exports?), but I haven't studied the origins, maybe they painted a corner of the crate to show it had been checked or passed or something?

We shall return to the ^Z_Z (not ZZ) tin-plate when I find my three in the garage . . . which - according to my notes - may only be two, after-all! I found them! There are only the two, and you can see from the 'Berserker' that they are actually very small, 1990's Tree-hangers!

Carried by Ingo Roggatz's ^Z_Z (in Europe), Schilling (in the USA) and possibly/probably Tobar and/or Hawkin's Bazaar (in the UK), not Zimmermann, who further; definitely, never handled the plastic tat from Hong Kong!

And while these state 'Germany' it is cleverly positioned before the ©-sign, the ©-sign being positioned alone, meaning nothing (officially), the whole basically saying whatever a lawyer might need it to say at some point in the future! This is modern Hong Kong-Chinese production for Herr. Roggatz.