K is for Kwong Shing

When I published a plethora of articles on the same day during Rack Toy Month a couple of years ago, on the subject of Kamley/Kositoy/KS and how they all seemed to be one; I'm pleased to say I wasn't wrong! But, there was a piece of the jigsaw missing, and thanks to Bill B, I now have it, and it explains the KS . . .

. . . as the parent company was Kwong Shing. We looked at Kwong Wah yesterday and there are other Kwong-somethings out there! Obviously we have both Kositoy and Kwong Shing together on the one advert graphic here, while . . .

. . . here we tie Kamley and Kositoy into each other with an identical, but over-stickered, set and the KS is brought into the fold through early/mid 1960's sets; where it appears as a sort of brand-marking; and later sets from Kositoy and Kamley (or containing the same product), where it's used as the prefix to stock-codes.

Recognisable stuff from the previous posts along with other items, some generic, some marked up, and some stealing artwork from other1960/70's sets I have in the master-collection (and which probably have nothing to do with the now-four K's). In addition some of the artwork has been nicked from Tamiya!

I'm also pleased to see the 'arctic warfare' helicopter header-card (which was one area where I could have been tripped-up over the previous posts!) is here with alternate and 'known' Kamley/Kositoy stuff in it (Combat Troops - top right) where mine has small-scale Airfix 8th Army (2nd type) piracies.

By this (1986) publicity photo' the Britains khaki infantry clones have clearly been phased out, although a few of the ostensibly '70's sets were probably hanging around to be found in the odd corner shop, we still had lots of independents back then.

The Nazi Spitfire's fun, they did have a few I believe and some (one?) airworthy Flying Fortresses?

A fine spread of civilian rack-toy tat was also on display, with - interestingly - some mini-truck body types never issued with the military trucks, well, two; the crane and the bin-lorry! The micro-cars have helped me ID a couple of mine and I think the tiny jeeps may have been seen in the recent Airfix post on the subject, but the resolution isn't clear enough.

And what looks to be the originator (or an earlier iteration) of the stretcher team we saw in the large set from Peter Evans a couple of months ago, this one is - even at poor resolution - a much cleaner sculpt. With Star's version, the Maymoon/M-Toy (Marty) take-off of the Britains Swoppet one and the brown one with clip-in bearers we've seen here in the past, there is a sub-collection there for someone with little space or a limited budget.

KWI, CWI or RWI? is for Kwong Wah Industrial!

Or Kwong Wah (Lap Kay) Toys Limited.

I've been rather bounced into the first-half of this post, and it will be brief as I know someone else is working on an article about the figures which should be appearing in a magazine which ought to be dropping on your mats four-times a year, but only if you keep subscribing! Also I have very few of the figures and haven't dug-them out.

You will know these, if not from collecting them, for seeing them in rummage trays at shows, you may have picked them up, seen the clear logo-mark on the base and asked a fellow collector or the seller or a passing member of the 'Old Guard' if they know the maker to get an answer along the lines of 'No, Hong Kong though, but I don't know the mark', I know I have!

Chromium-plated copies of Britains Deetail with integral bases. People call them 'electro-plated' but they aren't, they are just sprayed, which is why they wear so badly; electroplating leaves radio-buttons, toaster parts, mobile-phone detailing, or polypropylene B/O robot highlight's shiny for years, Lego elements can be found with electroplating; this is the stuff you can buy in cans from craft shops for a fiver!

Kwong Wah Industrial is the moniker, formed in 1971 and they were still going until around 2008 as Kwong Wah (Lap Kay) Toys, producing more up-market stuff, their slot-racing sets were in many households, as will have been their microscopes, telescopes and robotic stuff. They also had a range of Playmobile-like play sets with larger, simply-articulated figurines. 1986 above, magazine-advert graphic in the middle and 2006 below.

I did still have this copy of the US Recoilless rifle to hand and it's one of the nicer pieces, the weapon is heat or friction-welded to the base, but the figures are just plugged-in. You can see the logo clearly above the code.

I'm giving what little history on the company I have to the author of the article forthcoming, so for now I'll close by trying to disassemble the logo; the earlier cutting dates from 1986 and it's easy to see the WI of Wah Industrial, but how you get the Kwong's K from that basket of snakes is anybody's guess!

There is a possibility (revealed by the cable (direct telegram) code) that there may be an R for Ray in there or that the K has been iterated as a C, or (most likely?) that there is an element of a Chinese character (or characters) incorporated into the logotype?

Note how the stars - small stickers on the Britains originals - have been etched into the helmets of the Kwong Wah knock-offs, on the front of the officer/NCO's helmet and the left side of the soldier/gunners'.

These don't have the Kwong Wah mark and might be another HK maker altogether, being copies (third or fourth generation?) of the die-cast figures known here as Lone Star Metallions, but also part of the Fontanini/Cané/Peltro family of much-licensed/copied/influenced stuff, they were further copied in metal, in Hong Kong and supplied to SS.Kresege (now K-Mart) and Cragstan (and a third brand, I've since forgotten - AHI or the one from Philadelphia?), so whether Lone Star were first, or just a step-on-the-way remains a question.

There's a link to a very good German-language site on these, which should be on one of the 2017 Fontanini posts? The fact that Kwong Wah also did copies of the large Fontanini figures may point to a link though! They were also sold through Zodiac Toys here.

Returning to the theme; we're back to Deetail-copies, but not Kwong Wah, and now Kwong Wah has been indentified, these are next on the list, with their distinctive H? Unlike the Kwong Wah's, these have the separate bases with the little foot-catches and they are copies of the oblong ones, so probably slightly earlier than the Kwong Wah's as well.

The reason I took three shots is not because of the bag-reflection, but that I kept umming and arrhing or whether or not to get them out of the bag, and each time I'd take a shot before opening them and then - not open them! But it does work for the reflections to a certain extent; I think you can make out the three poses copied here.

And the deciders for not subsequently getting them out were that with one figure duplicated twice, there are only the three poses, and also that they are the same colour-schemes as the originals (Deetail Turks), if I find a second sample with a better mix I will probably open than one!

The H is also on the bases so not a 'phantom brand', but a serious attempt at brand-marking both packaging and product with something which must have been known/familiar to the Haitch-Kay Toymen?

I would like it to be Herald Holdings, but that would be too neat, and there's rarely anything neat about HK company naming, look at how Kwong Wah have changed their title over the years.

It's not Herald Metal and Plastics, or I don't think it is and I don't know if they (1980's) were the same as the 1960's Herald Holdings, or if either are in anyway related to Britains Herald (I don't think so) and with forty or fifty + other H's in the colony, of which I've only eliminated 30-odd, it's still up in the air? But it will come out in the wash, one day; as Kwong Wah now has.

The backing card is a weirdly anachronistic battle between Viking long-ships, I can only guess at a tangential reference to the crusades and/or the fall of the Eastern Empire to Islam and/or Viking or Rus mercenaries/traders in the Holy Lands or Constantinople (Istanbul)?!

Unpainted Hong Kong-made copies of Deetail knights also appear in gold, silver, greeny-gold and pale-grey polyethylene plastic, but I don't have any so I don't know if they have the H-mark (making them likely late issues of the above line) or are blank generics, but Brian Berke sent us this China-made, silver one, which is a clear, late third/fourth generation copy, possibly relatively or actually current.

He's marked CHINA and the thinner legs & arms, along with the poor quality of the detail all point to copying rather than any skill with a pantograph! Sized with a spigot-armed Co-Ma copy, he's been promoted from medieval to 'Janissary' with an upgrade from cold steel to Springfield's-finest courtesy of . . . AIP, BMC or TSSD . . . Conte even??

Thanks to Paul Morehead and Bill B for KWI info., and Brain for the late Turk, a Kwong Wah A-Z listing will appear after the other article has published.

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis Head's Up

Vectis Auctions of Stockton-on-Tees have issued their provisional auction dates for November and December 2019, they are as follows;

November

Tuesday 5th - Specialist Diecast

Wednesday 6th - Specialist Diecast

Wednesday 20th - Military, Civilian Figures, Equipment and Accessories Sale

Thursday 21st - Military, Civilian Figures, Equipment and Accessories Sale

Friday 22nd - Model Train Sale

Tuesday 26th - Matchbox Sale

Wednesday 27th - Dr Cornel Fleming Collection

Thursday 28th - Dr Cornel Fleming Collection

Friday 29th - Dr Cornel Fleming Collection 

December (1st half)

Tuesday 3rd - Specialist Diecast

Wednesday 4th - Specialist Diecast

Thursday 5th - General Toy Sale

Wednesday 11th - Matchbox Sale

Thursday 12th - TV & Film Related Sale

Friday 13th - Model Train Sale

Contact Details

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Q is for Question Time - Star Wars Siblings?

These are a puzzle, they are clearly knock-off's of Applause Star Wars, but they (man and woman) both seem to be based on the one pose . . . Princess Leia Organa née Skywalker in her . . . errr . . . not even sure when or if she ever actually wore the outfit in a movie; some corridor scene in III-now-VI?

The Applause original is inset for comparison, she's almost more whatshername from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century . . . Dareling, Darling, Darring?  The Applause base has been copied albeit smaller, and the guy is virtually the same but with sorter, sensible hair and a less-lumpy shirt!

I sent them to Brian over at Plaid Stallions and he fed them to his forum, but nothing came back? I wonder if they might be characters from a board game, with maybe a red and green (or other colours) undershirt versions out there somewhere. And whether a board game or not, are they another Applause product, as the PVC is very similar, and there's no rule against copying your own stuff.

The other obvious suspicion is some cheapo rack-toy as they are painted in the same vein as all those carded princes and princesses you find - we've seen one or two here over the years?

Other questions include; is the male supposed to be Luke Skywalker (or Han Solo) or are neither of them meant to have anything to do with that particular galaxy, far, far away, long, long ago? Or - if they are game-playing pieces -are there more of one sex; say, four guys versus one girl or vice-versa, or are they supposed to be paired (boy/girl) in like-colours?

Note how the man hasn't been trusted with a wristwatch! Someone must know these as the Applause set was only 1996, so they (the copies) can't be that old, do you recognise them?

W is for We Do This Stuff So You Don't Have To

If you go down to your local toy shop or super store, head-shop, gift shop, gaming, alturnate-culture, t-shirt or 'metal-head' shop today you will find Funko, it's like a rash; in 18-months it's gone stratospheric. I don't suppose it will last long, as crazes never do (except skateboarding, but even that settled to a level not matched by the heights of the '77-80 bubble), maybe another five years of wall-to-wall Funko and people will wake-up to the fact they are ugly and over-hyped!

In the meantime, where there is a craze, there will be a knock-off and I shot these shelfies from MGA Entertainment . . .

. . . in Poundland a year ago, they are 'Army Men' (well "Awesome Little Green Men"!) so slightly more deserving of a place here at Small Scale World than most of that Funko output, but it's a marginal thing!

These is only the one design (all four sides shown) of 'Blind Box' and with '100+ to collect' I make that £100+, hardly the ethos of a cheap shop, but then they've been selling 60p or 85p RRP-items for a whole-pound for years, so don't ever think there's any altruism behind discount stores, there 'aint, it's a 'business model' . . . a revenue vehicle, hard-steeped in capitalism and aiming its sights at the poorest in society!

Then Peter Evans gave me this! So we can look at them in all their glory! As you can see the blind box contains two blind bags, a dog tag (you'd be well pleased with 100+ dog-tags in a pile huh!) and a recruitment poster (think identical check-list) in one and a random figure in the other.

Apart from the actual figure (who you can see - comes set in his own vacuum-formed blister/holder) it's all garbage; it's all straight to recyc., planet-destroying, ocean-bobbing, world-ending, ephemeral, worthless, pointless, shite.

Put the figures in blind bags, put the bags in the counter-top display, have the check-list poster as a download and bin the tags! And if you think I'm being ridiculous, this stuff is coming, we have to end the way we currently live our lives, or our lives will end.

He's Ok for a laugh, but note that the expressive faces on the box are replaced by a much plainer affair in the box? Keeps the unit-cost down!

Still 100+ figures, think about it - Airfix used to have from 7 poses in their 54mm sets and issued an average of 3 sets a year over ten-odd years (32 sets '69-80?), or 21+ poses per year, if these go to a second series they will be arguably as, or more successful (by some parameters) than Airfix's 1:32nd scale figures.

Something to think about when you read some of the nonsense some people [in the hobby] opine about the hobby . . . it's not about 'the hobby', it's about the industry and with the likes of Kinder, Phidal, Funko, Jada . . . Schleich, Papo, et al, all producing figures, the industry is doing OK, it's just not issuing many 54mm cowboys these days!

S is for Speedwell and Friends

Except some of them were probably less 'friends' than pirating little rip-off merchant, shit-bags! But, as Speedwell can/could hardly claim a totally original inventory, it's all a moot-point?

This was sitting in Picasa for a silly reason; I'd found a whole bunch of these, and only when sorting them for photographing them did I realise they were the over-spill from a master collection, or swaps, so put them to one side while I waited for the master collection to turn-up in the 'from-storage' lot.

At some point these turned-up, and I shot them thinking they were the master collection, but I don't actually think they are, because they don't contain the farm items in the overspill/spares pile, meanwhile, I'd forgotten where I parked the spares pile, so they aren't here either!

In other words, what's here is some of the master collection being most (or all?) of the Speedwell Battlefield Accessories I have, and some copies, along with an archive shot, but missing all the farm/civil stuff in red plastic (probably most (or all?) of the Trojan I have), except those that are here . . . if that makes sense!

These are definitely, 100%, 24-carat Speedwell! I can say that with some authority as they are both clearly marked Speedwell Made In England! The number 1 pertains to the next-but-one image. Points to note are clean sculpting and surface detail, cracked plaster modelled to the inner wall surface and a sharpness to the 'steps' in the broken brickwork.

There are two cavities seen here, with the one on the right being the 'copy' with a loss of etching-detail and a slightly drunk arch, 'leaning' to one side.

We then get these, and from the level of detail it would appear that they may have originated in time (chronologically), as numbered? With the 2 a quite close but smooth inner-walled copy (Trojan?), the 3 losing detail to the coping-stones and broken-brickwork and in a glossy plastic (Benbros?) and the 4 being so crude at to have been carved by a myopic invalid!

The 2 and 3 both taken from the second Speedwell one with the lean getting more noticeable on each in turn (hence my numbering), but the 4 has a more even arch.

It's also smaller overall with a smaller window and smaller arch with machine-routed stone-work on the inner-wall, however, it has traces of that dark (decades dried Evostick) glue residue known from Blue Box sets . . . and Cherilea sets? Goes off to Cherilea folder on dongle . . .

. . . to find nothing obvious, they have a similar, thinner version in the later window-boxes, but not this 4. However when looking at the bases the 2 stands out as having the least 'copy' base, I still think it came after the 1, but suppose the 4 was first, just cruder in sculpting, with the brown one possibly an independent copy, contemporaneous with the marked-Speedwell and the 2 being last?

The small window suggests the numbering is more correct than the musing, but it's not clear; anyone got any other bright ideas?

Really pleased with this collage, I shot the dark-green ones (1 & 2) years ago (thank you to John Begg) knowing they would come in useful one day, and then the shiny one came in with the 'big purchase', and is clearly a latter specimen, remember; they (Speedwell) did shiny troops at the end).

But also what we see is that they obviously had problems with the tool, probably getting the product off the mould as a wide, flat dome would 'cling' a bit wouldn't it? So, the left-hand of the two chalky, dark-green ones (2) has had both a couple of release-pins fitted (rim-edge, north and south) and a reinforcing ridge added - presumably a few exist with the pin-marks but no ridge - as the act of engaging the pins bent the cooling moulding (it's quite thin across the top), so a stiffener was added as a spine below the surface?

Finally in my example (3), and having failed to solve the problem with the previous changes (?), four more release-pins have gone-in to force the product off the mould with six pins! the edge/rim has been 'heavied-up' and evened-out at the same time, presumably with the same idea in mind as the earlier spine - keeping the product true after it's got off the tool?

The barbed-wire may not be original and consists of security wire of the sort used by gas and electrical fitters to seal meters and junction-boxes with a lead-plug which is stamped over a loop of uneven wire. I think wire 'escape saws' in WWII were a similar design, but a harder material? By the way, while I say 'may not be original'; given the 'made-yesterday' state of the plastic and paint I think it probably is factory-fitted, and both examples in the Plastic Warrior 'Special' on Speedwell have it fitted . . . incidentally; that publication also has an apple-green base version of the 2 moulding.

All marked Speedwell, the white one having lost nearly all of its paint which seems to have been mostly a yellower olive-green. Of the two tan ones; one is all hand-painted (left of pairs) the other (right) is part airbrushed, it has had a stone removed from the low end. Also, note that the left-hand of the two tan ones has only been painted on one side, the other fully painted (and airbrushed) on both sides.

Unmarked for the both, but internal wall detailing and door/window colour say contemporaneous with the 1-wall (above) and they go well together to make a destroyed out-building, stable or hovel.

I haven't a clue! The one on the left is the simpler of the two and quite glossy and probably equates to the brown 3-wall (above), while the multi-coloured one seems to be of similar agency to the 4-wall?

The only clue I do have is that neither are Speedwell; the recent Plastic Warrior magazine's special (post forthcoming) on Speedwell shows marked versions of this with no loophole and a wider or more-spreading base, I think it's made of fatter pillows too!.

I'm lovin' the colour of the right-hand one, despite the lack of realism, it evokes all sorts of 1960's plastic tat, not least Marx Miniature Masterpiece and Merten plastic display-trays or various forts!

I think an over-zelous fettler may have also removed the top sand-bag from the brown one? As an aside - I wonder if George Musgrave had a hand in any of the above? The first wall section has similarities with his little bridge-pieces and Kentoys could be one of the names in the frame for some of the unattributed versions of this stuff?

We will return to these when either the 'rest' turn-up or the big bag of spares, as there's plenty in that to be going on with, I just have to remember where I've put it down!

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis Sale - This Friday

Press-release from Stockton-on-Tees over the past weekend reads;

The Model Train sale to be held on the 18th of October features OO Gauge British Outline from Hornby - including China and Railways, Bachmann, Heljan, Dapol and Lima plus others; HO USA & Continental Outline, Hornby Dublo 2- and 3-rail, Wrenn and Triang locomotives and rolling stock, Triang Minic vehicles and Triang TT accessories. Further items in the sale include Kit/Scratchbuilt OO Gauge from Lawrence scale models and others; Trix /Liliput, Bing Table-Top clockwork locomotives and rolling stock and OO gauge Samhongsa Brass. The sale also includes a further 60 lots from the Lawrence Scale Models OO Gauge Single Owner Collection; an Exley Single Owner Collection, plus Large Scale Models, G Gauge and American Outline S Gauge; Hornby, Modern, Finescale and further O Gauge plus our usual good selection of General Trains, Meccano & Other Constructional Toys, and Live Steam.

T is for Two . . . Totem Poles

Just a quick one for fun; Chris Smith sent the blue one in his last parcel, and a I dug the Orange one out of the stuff we've looked at in the past so they could both go with all the other totem poles, as increasingly; thematic storage is easier for things like this, they stack quite well, albeit like awkward logs!

Soldabar by Plasticom, it'll probably be a copy of someone else's, but I haven't found the donor yet, soft polyethylene lollypop premiums and . . . err . . . that's it!

Original post here

M is for Mechs; Mechanical Men or Mechanoids . . . Motorised Man-Bots!

Just a quickie to get some stuff out of Picasa and on to the blog, I realised I was in danger of killing my lap-top a while ago when I had filled 580-odd of the 654-GB hard drive and have been shoving stuff on pen-drives to get it down to 356, but I'm now trying to clear some of the 300-odd nascent posts or 850-odd images in the two 'miscellaneous' folders, and this post is part of that exercise - as are most this week!

The picture on the left is a Brian B shelfie, the one on the right he sent to the Blog at a later date, note - it's a different design. This was going to be it before moving on to the last image, but I'd though I'd blogged the one Brain sent, yet when I checked the Hunson folder I couldn't find the images . . . because I never took them! As I've now buried the micro-&-mini aircraft box somewhere, for now . . .

. . . we'll have to live with hi-res scans I took of the card, presaging the post I never shot the model for! Instructions on the back and both the known (from the artwork and the shelfies) aircraft/bots . . . and that's it, I'll make a mental note to return to it when I do a Transformer-type overview; lots of pencil-tops and capsule-toy type things kicking around somewhere!

This is a proper Transformer I think, unless it's a Super Grandiser or an Autobot, or Bad-Bot or whatever! I know, someone told me all about them last time I was acting the ignoramus on the subject but I can't know, or retain - everything!

Suffice to say, if it's a Transformer it's the one that's a tank, if it's a knock-off, it's a tank one!

J is for Junior Motor Assembly Plant

'A Codeg Production', so before they saw the light and became a contractor/jobber of licensed (and not so licensed sometimes, I'll bet!) TV-related and novelty stuff from the Crown Colony, they must have been manufacturers in their own right? This has been sat in Picasa since November 2017, so high-time I got it 'out there'.

Did all toys come in red boxes once! Except at Christmas, of course, when they came in patterned boxes with holly leaves! Slightly misleading artwork gives the impression you will construct a whole fleet of eight-foot lorries, but covered by the blurb; against complaints.

Some of you may have heard this already; my mate JB once sold a Britains Garden kiddie's lawn-slide to a chap on feebleBay, who immediately gave him a negative feedback and complained it was a misleading description because it was a toy!

It was listed in the toy section, under vintage figures and Britains, sold for a few quid and was posted to another continent for less than a pair of shoes, what the f*** did he think he was getting? A ten-foot, polished-steel, piece of outdoor play-equipment - with postage - for less money than a shoulder of lamb! Terri-catta . . . lightweight Caribineri!

The sum of the parts! If the artwork in the previous image is to be believed there would have been green parts as well. Also some of the blue pieces are a different shade, so it wasn't a case of dropping whole runners into the box, or even stripping runners or sections of runner, but rather picking from bins of assorted coloured pieces.

Instructions; by today's standards this could be seen as a simpler toy for simpler times, one-and-three-part 'dimestore' trucks in a box, saves on glue huh?!! But suppose it was a crew-cab Toyota Hi-Lux with four clip-in body types? Suddenly it would be all 'modern' and OK!

The design is similar to the lorries carried by Beeju, who did do some scaled-up versions I think, maybe they supplied these to Codeg if they weren’t making them themselves, if they are Codeg-manufactured, then definitely 'derivative'!

Thanks to Adrian Little for the pictures!