Heller is for Forma-plast and probably not Xiloplasto...

. . . but they might still, also be Chromoplast, but not now actually Heller! And they may only be Forma-plast in late, unpainted, rack-toy style carded bags? This is pulling together everything from two or three (?) previous posts going back to the early days of the Blog, along with my efforts in Google Translate and leaves just as many questions hanging as previous stabs at it, but also . . . maybe . . . a little more clarity?

The box again but collaged more sensibly than last time! This was why I had pencilled them in as Heller (and why Heller will remain in the tag list!), but translating the text below the giant 'a' gives us;

Auguri di mondadori, Per dipingere I soldatini si consigliano le vernici Heller

(actual text)

Mondadori wishes, To paint Toy soldiers are recommended Heller paints

(direct translation)

Mandatory advice

For painting the figures we recommend Heller paints

(full translation?)

So it seesm Heller were only mentioned in passing, although the large logo being included would suggest money crossed palms somewhere?

Also we have the large a-logo, as none of the brands (Forma-plast, Heller, Landi-Cromoplasto, ROplast Partenopea, Xiloplasto) previously linked with this set start with an 'A', that only serves to confuse? Is it a logo; does anyone know the branding?

The contents of the box; As unpainted figures, they are not rare, appearing as these boxed sets (I've seen or know-of four or five over the years), as rack-toys on runner and as rack-toys loose in sets and singly-packed with the artwork of the specific figure on the card. They are a dense 'Hong Kong' style polyethylene or -propylene and depict Italian Carabinieri through the ages.

From left to right the figures are

Carabinieri

012 - Carabinieri in Cavalry Uniform, 1814
013 - Officer in Full Dress, 1833
014 - Carabinieri in Cavalry Uniform of 1838
015 - Marshall of Carabinieri, Foot, 1876
016 - Carabinieri Officer in Dress-down Uniform, 1927
017 - Carabinieri Officer in Full Dress Uniform, 1938
018 - Carabinieri of the Viceroy's Guard, Occidental Africa, 1939
019 - Carabinieri Officer (Colonial Administration), Africa 1939
020 - Officer in Cavalry Full Dress Uniform, 1940
021 - Carabinieri Staff Officer, Foot Guards Dress Uniform, 1940

I despair for the state of the pink monkeys!

Carabinieri [Carabineers] are (or were) heavily-armed cavalry of the Napoleonic (and other) periods, but I think I'm right in saying they survive in modern-day Italy as a Gendarmerie-equivalent national or federal police, or paramilitary police-force.

Carabiners or Karabiners are climbing aids!

The painting sheet included in the box; also reproduced on the backs of the card hangers of the rack toys, or singly with the individually-bagged figures. A correspondent in a previous post suggested there was never a painted issue, but I disagree, as the figures depicted here in the photographs are as-good-as if not identical to . . .

. . . these figures, and both others I've seen elsewhere and others further down the page! The painting is also too constant, too practiced, yet too formulaic to be an amateur's work, whether a good painter or bad! These are commercially painted by the same workshop/team who painted the figures for the card, the only difference is the lack of 'coverage' of the dark blue paint.

Also; there's the obvious link between these and the sculptor of the Atlantic Greeks (probably also the Egyptians) and late sets in the WWII and Wild West lines, which is why I raised the ROplast connection, as they cleared old/surplus Atlantic at some point.

I happened to number the small scale versions of the next lot first, so I'll lead with them and then we'll look at the larger ones. Again I originally though these (or some of them) might be French (St Cyr, Presidential Guard or plain Cuirassiers), hence the keenness to link them with the logo'd Heller!

At least I got the cavalry type right -

Cuirassiers

037 - Cuirassier in Service Dress, 1910
038 - Cuirassier in Campaign Dress, 1910
039 - Cuirassier Officer, Ceremonial Parade Uniform, 1910
040 - Cuirassier Brigadier, Ceremonial Parade Uniform, 1910
041 - Cuirassier Trumpeter, Ceremonial Parade Uniform, 1910

The smaller yellow ones are from the Carabinieri set.

This quintet are clearly larger than the Carabinieri, and while the tallest of one and the shortest of the other are close, they are - as sets - two stand-alone groups; the masters may all have been to a similar size, but the pantograph or human pattern-maker/s used to produce the commercial moulds set them to different scales!

Another thing I missed last time - the fact that this whole set has different coloured bases! And the first of the last two (second from the right) could be home-painted.

Another set, they were actually five lots of feeble bay about 15 years ago, but I've collaged them a little better than last time. These may well be home painted with the extra gold on the helmets and some uniform differences from the others we've seen.

While the two sets are interchangeable for the purpose of display, if lined up by set they are different sizes, and above was my original picture with approximations, below it a more fastidious measuring of those which are closer together.

The green figure - looking more Cané or Atlantic-like - is still apparently a rarity, I have yet to see another, despite the commonness of both the harder grey ones and painted examples, he is manufactured in a softer 'Airfix' polyethylene

How they come-in, in the rack-toy bags; still on the runner and arranged according to the artwork on the cards, the smaller ones likewise but with a different runner, they (runners) tend to be machined, quite brutally, straight into the tool. Some bagged sets of the larger scale have loose figures.

Various other figures were announced and this (above image) translates (less than fully-accurately; any help appreciated) thus;

Collection of Italian Uniforms

Series 1) Carabinieri - 10 poses/pieces

Series 2) Cuirassiers - 5 poses/pieces; doubled

One Set

Series 3) [10 poses]

·         Grenadiers - 3 poses/pieces

·         Bersaglieri -  4 poses/pieces

·         Alpine Troops 'Alpini' - 3 poses/pieces

One Set

Series 4) [10 poses]

·         Carristi - 2 poses/pieces (Carlists?)

·         Paratroops - 2 poses/pieces

·         Lagunari - 2 poses/pieces (divers, spacemen?)

·         First series of cavalry - Academy - 4 poses/pieces (?)

One Set

Series 5) [10 poses]

·         Second series of cavalry -  Lancers - 5 poses/pieces

·         Third series of cavalry -  Heavy Cavalry - 5 poses/pieces

One Set

Series 6) [10 poses]

·         Officers of the State Maggiore - 5 poses/pieces (Magistrati - magistrates?)

·         Officers of Artillery - 5 poses/pieces

The artwork on the box contains most of the figures from the two sets listed here (also in the common paint scheme, but with all green bases), and the odd Bersaglieri appear on feebleBay from time to time, but it seems, or looks like the rest were never issued? But they may well have been mastered?

Comparison with a lone Lintek they happen to share a tub with, like an idiot I put them away without adding the Lintek set which came-in a while ago . . . ho-hum, next time!

When I looked at them the second time here at Small Scale World, and after a series of possibly less than accurate comments (he went off to run a hideously plagiarist site using text verbatim from Wikipedia or other historical websites/travel sites, using everyone else's images, while pretending to be a woman!), we ended up with this as a provisional listing;

25mm - Hong Kong (?) - ethylene (Yellow and ...) [No. of poses unknown]
30mm - Formaplast (?) - ethylene (White, Green, Orange) [3 poses (?)]
60mm - Cromoplasto - harder styrene/ethylene alloy (factory painted)
60mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?)- unpainted (various colours - 50's style!) [50 Poses]
60mm - Heller - grey nylon type plastic [14/20 poses (?)]

This can now be rewritten as follows

Carabinieri [10 poses]

30mm - Forma-plast - ethylene (red, yellow, orange, blue, green, white - bagged)

60mm - Forma-plast - harder polymer (grey - bagged)

60mm - a / Heller tie-in - harder polymer (grey - Boxed)

60mm - Cromoplasto - harder polymer (factory painted - packaging unknown)

Cuirassiers [5 poses]

35mm - Forma-plast - ethylene (red, yellow, orange, blue, green, white - bagged)

35mm - Forma-plast - harder polymer (orange, green, white - bagged)

65mm - Forma-plast - harder polymer (grey - bagged)

65mm - Cromoplasto - harder polymer (factory painted - packaging unknown)

65mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?) - ethylene (pale blue, mint green - packaging unknown)

Bersaglieri [4 poses (with 3 each Alpini and Grenadiers?)]

55/60mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?) - ethylene (pale blue - packaging unknown)

And (in my inquisitive mind at least) ROplast are still hovering in the background somewhere possibly with Cané, along with between 35 to 41 additional poses? Forma-plast will do for now!

The only other text on the box not yet translated is the colorami e gioca which means 'Paint & Play'.

T is for There's Always Another One!

I totally forgot I had this in the big 700+image folder of other stuff euphemistically titled 'Newest Toy Soldiers', of which; he clearly isn't! But they're fresh in our minds (fishermen figures) so, a quick look;

Resin with a wire rod, and a bit steep for me so I took a shelfie and left him on the shelf! I think he may be by the same people who made the pirates we've seen a couple of times now, indeed I think we saw one for a third time only the other day! And he may have been wholesaled by Cakeboards or the modern rump of Culpitt? Nice catch!

M is for More on Mecki

Mr Berke of New York sent these into the blog, he bought them many years ago in Germany, and hopes to follow-up further, with more of the little Mecki figures, but it might be a year or two before he digs them out of the stash - a situation I can sympathise with!

There's something slightly disturbing about a lady-mouse with bare-legs in tights or stockings! And what's happened to Mr. Mouse's ears, is he trying to do a Micky impersonation? That's Micky the mouse, not Micky the Mrs. Hedgehog. It's as if they never finished them?

Threading a needle and picking Edelweiss of a cliff . . . they can be easier to find! Another worry is how many real hedgehogs were used in the production of the studio hedgehog puppets; that doesn't look like faux-fur to me! Indeed they are really gnomes with a whole-hedgehog head-transplant!

I love the little appfelsaft glass, I have many happy memories of stopping in these big roadside 'country-club'/beer hall/restaurant things in the meadow-valleys of Bavaria or Wuttenberg and having a large glass of ice-cold apple-juice; huge wooden chalets, with painted murals and colourful window-boxes, tables out in the sun and being allowed to say "Noch-mal" or "Eine-mal" and having the waitress tick my beer-mat with her biro!

Meanwhile Macki and Mucki are about to dive into a blank-monge! Funny; you give small black eyes to an alien in a sci-fi movie = evil; give the same eyes to a stuffed hedgehog = cute!

Saving frogs was never more salient than now, to be honest thought, that frog looks either dead and beyond help, or very hung-over! While I'm not sure if he's planting something exotic in the right-hand image, or cursing the spread of the dreaded wild-garlic to his allotment?

The reverse of the cards; thanks Brian, with these and Peter's group the other-day we have definitely 'informed, educated or entertained' the audience about Mecki, here at the Better Blogging Corporation!

D is for Down Under

I've had a few days monging-about with man flu (a mild head-cold!), so am a bit late posting for Tuesday, but there seems to be a full programme for the week depending on how much I get posted-up in the next couple of hours - eMails may have to wait until tomorrow!

Main post today isn't here; it's next door at the Airfix site, where I've posted the 1:32nd scale/54mm Australians / ANZAC's with comparisons and blurb. I know I still have to do a lot of blurbing over there, and still have to produce most of the 54mm pages, but some of it is in the pipeline.

There are to be a couple little posts here later-today, which I will schedule around tea-time our time, hour-or so, wot-wot!

B is for Black Heads!

One of those little gap-fillers which are satisfying to track-down, but which are also a bit daft? Toward the end of their existence Timpo did a five-figure (I think it was five?) boxed-set of German Infantry, some of which got a black helmet rather than the usual grey body-matched one.

Being Timpo the head is removable, so you can - if you only have one - chose who wears it and I've stuck it on an officer, it came with a grenade-thrower sans weapons! The thing is; apart from the Liebstandart AH on parade, or post-war fire-service, no one used gloss-black helmets! It would have been better if they'd done the alternate helmets in GI-green, or that 'dunkel-gleb' sand used by the FFL?

Officer's conference; less Von Stauffenberg and his little suitcase! On the left the earlier figure with separate helmet, then the over-moulded version with red hair and finally the black-domed chap.

Opps! I spoke too soon. looks like it's all going to get a bit messy in the bunker and we're not talking beer-cans and tourist's knickers!

R is for the Real Thing

According to the labels put on it by the seller (some +40-odd years ago), or the collector (I think it was an auction lot) this is a mid-Bronze Age hammer-head. In an axe-like format it was probably used for rough-working wood, for posts, door-frames, cart-parts? That sort of thing; also for post-holes, breaking ground, ditching, digging roots out . . . and chopping dead-wood for firewood? The blunt end would be for banging-in posts or 'nails'; handmade bronze pins, killing livestock and making new hammers!

Other than that I know nothing about it and wouldn't pretend to; when I mentioned it to an archeologist friend of mine (in its absence) I thought it was 'cave man' (i.e. Palaeolithic or Stone Age) and she got quite excited saying "....there's only a few known" but I guess, later metal-age ones are commoner?

Anyway, as part of the occasional ('very occasional' these days, but I hope to have more non-toy stuff go up in the future) 'Other Collectables' thread (which was a separate Blog back at the start of my web-logging), I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, the interesting thing is the double tapered hole which would produce a pinch-point, allowing another hammering-tool or a block of wood, to force it on to a slightly larger-diameter shaft and to then pack the ends with waxed or pitched-rope maybe, before the/any wedges and cross-tying?

I don't know what kind of stone it is either, but you can see it's a fine-grained material, and appears to be a sedimentary rock similar to slate or shale, however from the chip off the 'blade' end you can see the granular look and stepped-edge of something more like a fine granite? It's also bloody heavy!

S is for Shrunken Stone!

You know how it is . . . the neighbours get all the tribes together, six-summers running and build a bloody great henge-a-ma-bob down the road, and you think it would be nice to get Jeff the odd-job bloke to knock you up one between the parterre and the ha-ha? Cost is an issue - of course; you've been taxed the fuck-out-of to pay for the big-chief's one, so you go with a bit of a downsized 'replica'!

This was a charity-shop job earlier in the week, and I was trying to gauge the size of the thing from the very small box, and whether it was the same as the one I bought years ago, after another Blogger (who I'm afraid I've forgotten the name of) highlighted them on his Blog (The Works it was). I reckoned it couldn't be the same; in addition it was only 95p, so I figured it was worth a punt?

Once I'd shot the pictures for Friday's 'News, Views . . . ' I began to suspect it was the same, the puzzle-mat seemed the same and the stones also felt/looked familiar as they fell into place, especially the L-shaped ones in the outer circle, but once it was all in place I thought it looked too small to re-do the battle I'd done on the previous posting. Also I couldn't find the old one on the dongles!

Eventually I found it on the Airfix Dongle as I'd posted one image there (reproduced above as I still haven't found the original sample!), and it's odd, but clever . . .

. . . both sets are by the same maker/publisher; Running Press, and to the eye, the stones seem to be about the same size, but the puzzle-disc base is about 30% smaller, and the whole thing has been contracted - the inner circle are all closed up (you wouldn't get a chariot through the new gap!), while two big gaps in the outer circle have been done away with to pull the whole thing tighter.

But closer inspection reveals that the stone may be smaller too. I will dig the old one out and do a proper comparison at some point (soon'ish - I think I know where it is), and I suspect the stones will be the same 30-odd% reduced. It's hard to judge as these are in a very small box while the others were spread-out in two or three layers of blisters.

Looking at the stones they (or some) look similar but not all identical and it may be that pantographing, or a scaling down of a CAD .dwg for 3D printing was employed in the production of new masters? Their finished state, like the earlier set is poured, cold-cast, two-part epoxy 'polyresin'.

I think these are part of a range of novelty 'things' (toys, games, pastimes and executive trinkets) in little boxes, that you find in places like Waterston's in a dedicated rack-tree; we've seen a Dalek here, and [foam] paper-planes? While the other was a kiddies activity book, but between the two, I may be able to produce a better 'complete' example one day, as it wasn't in its current state when the Romans arrived!

Although for those finding this one only, there were lots of stone circles once, with none of them the size or scale of Stonehenge, so imagination is the only limit and it'll make a great focus-piece of scenery in war-gaming . . . the message of the original post elsewhere I think!

News, Views Etc . . . Plastic Warrior 176

Announced a couple of weeks ago, so pretty much 'new', the latest issue of PW is a welcome addition to the miserable weather which has heralded autumn this year (I live in hope of a week's 'Indian summer; before the end of October as I haven't done the leaf-mow yet, and the grass needs doing again!), with lots of toy soldiery things to read and look at!

Articles

* Peter Evans kicks-off the issue with part two of the Fontanini military figures and there must be a part three on the way?

* A follow-up editorial on Colin Penn's BR Moulding kit reveals more about this fascinating home-casting plastic moulding set

* 'Converter's Corner' is occupied by Les White again, with some simple but striking things to do with an Armies in Plastic (AIP) FFL running figure; providing WWI Frenchmen for several different units.

* Andreas Dittmann reveals Randa-branded Astronauts from Co-Ma, coming out of . . . if I tell you, you might not subscribe?!!

* A round-up of Airfix slot-racing figures comes in from Jeremy Brook, it looks like my Airfix figure which was and then wasn't, is again - Grandstand!

* Bill Hanlon explains all (or enough to start) on the Mack Moulding Co., of Canada . . . and New Jersey, showing rare copies along the way

* 'What The !&*$?' looks at four question-marks this quarter;

• Barney Brown seeks more information on the larger horse I've pencilled-in as possibly the missing Charbens cake decorations
• Eric Critchley hopes someone can name his camel; Camel McCamelface is not an option!
• A cake-decoration footballer needs branding for Philip Alliston
• The seen-previously and 'still unknown' cargo-loads are bumped-up the list hopefully by Mike Harding - someone must know! Tri-Ang-Mettoy, Marx Swansea?

* Steve Pugh returns to early dinosaurs from British toy soldier firms with a look at the set from Timpo, clearing up the previous issue's extra Dimetrodon (although if you follow the blog you'll know there's never too many Dimetrodons!)

* Trojan's non-plastic products are smuggled into the plastic magazine by Gerald Edwards

* A new series on Britains hospital begins whilst also closing the issue; with the early Superdeetail sets courtesy of Colin Penn

Regular Features

* 'NEWS and VIEWS and other stuff ' covers

• News of the passing of George Falconer and Philip Hamilton (of the Hamilton Collection museum), both collectors and friends of PW
• News on the Airfix HO-OO figures book authored by Peter Williams
• A stockist is sought for DSG figures in the UK
• The demolition of Woking's Toys'R'Us store is mentioned
•  Contact details, subscription instructions and front cover caption fill the gaps

• In addition to all the above or below-named; John Begg gets a credit for providing pictures

* 'Readers Letters' include

• Feedback on the PW Show last May from Ashley Needham, Peter Spackman and Brian Heaps
• Brian Berke asks on possible Speedwell Indians he may have seen, yards from the factory, at the time?
• Peter Cole links Speedwell and Morestone with a sculptor, helped by the Ed.
• Brian's back with memories of Kleeware toys and kits on sale in North London, too long ago!
• Peter C also returns with a mini-report on an arts event with dioramas in Brighton earlier in the year.
• Sad update on the state of Atlantic House from Philip Alliston, can someone not pop-down there with a step-ladder and rescue the word 'Atlantic' while it's still intact?
  
• The recent call for news of Blue Box ACW packaging is nicely answered by Richard Lewis
• Finally Eric Keggans makes some salient points on the current state and future of 3D-printing, specifically with regard to toy soldiers.

* 'Book Review' has a look at Simon Garfield's In Miniature, penned by Peter Evans

* 'What's New' has two set from Chintoys;

• CHT17 - Knights Templar
•  CHT18 - Knights Hospitaller

Plus all the usual readers small-ads

Covers - Front cover is a lovely Hong Kong carded set from the collection of Barry Blood, the back has more on the BR Moulds (one of which is painted to match Trojan?!!)

PW's contact details;

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PlasticWarrior?fref=ts

Blogger - http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.co.uk/

eMail  - mailto:pw.editor@ntlworld.com

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

Tel: 01483 722 778

Fax: 01483 722 723

Address; Mr. P. Morehead, 65 Walton Court, Woking, Surrey, GU21 5EE, UK

And they are on Paypal