T is for Two? I Suspect Not!

I said I'd follow-up on some of the Hong Kong piles in the lot from Peter Evans last week, and this is the first of two quick posts looking at what appear to be current but interesting production from China - no brand or packaging.

Four figures have one kind of base, and while the two blue ones have an eyeful of Airfix 1:32nd scale DNA, the Native American is more Britains Herald Hong Kong knife-man and I'm not sure where the yellow guy's parentage lies, but he's not a well-worn pose and has a meaningful stance with forward momentum.

These have another kind of base and were in a separate pile if/when you saw them on Friday last, there's even less recognisable here; the blue Indian again seems based on Airfix's 54mm figures along with the legs of the green one and the green cowboy, the rest are pretty one-off?

Upper shot shows the different bases, with one as flat as an iron's arse, the other with a built-up rim, the lower shot shows . . . err . . . the pirate-crew Indians! I think he's (the green one) the Britains Deetail chap with the horns, isn't he?!

"What shall I give him to disguise his origins boss?"

"Err . . . try a big Ottoman sword!" (also Deetail!)

"What about the other chap?"

"Try this Timpo Roman thing?"

Anyway, as the colours matched, the sculpting was similar and they are all marked CHINA on their bodies, so it's pretty obvious they all go together (from behind - that yellow Indian's ex-Deetail too), and make a nice sample, Thanks again Peter.

T is for Tom's Vineyard

Like Martha's, but smaller, much, much smaller! These wing'ned their way here from the Antipodes last week at the same time as yesterday's Mecki cards were being wung-over from the big apple, with more from Chris arriving on the same day, a sort of Autumn toy-harvest!

Tom Clague spotted this window display for 'Bolly' Bollinger in a wine shop in Oz, and managed to get a few shots off in passing for the readers of Small Scale World; a full-on HO-gauge compatible diorama of a vineyard . . . after a fashion - I'm not sure how many 'Chateau' look like semi-detached, Victorian railway cottages!

I think we looked at the Preiser version of the little motorised horse when I covered the carts and wagons (and nudes - as I predicted; the post with the most traffic out of the series!) a few years ago, but there's some pretty violent pruning going on - it has to be said, the lady on the right has clearly taken against some sour-looking samples and is despatching them like the grim reaper, with a scythe!

While Tom pointed-out the less than orthodox pruning being employed by the chap in the centre here, indeed with the exception's of the driver and 'bo-peep' with her rake, all the workers are wielding scythes - clearly this is the new laurel-privet school of grape husbandry!

I had to cut someone's head off for this image, but as he claimed to be 'no 007' he'll probably be relieved at the retained anonymity. Although, if Bond's main role was spotting toy and model figures while out and about, you'd be a shoe-in for the role Tom; thank you very much, for a charming if anachronistic glimpse at viticulture Down Under!

I'm guessing Hornby resin for the cottages, Preiser or Noch for plastic figures and accessories and people like Noch, Beka, Heki or H&M for the trees and landscaping?

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!