P is for Persons of Interest - Chris's Parcel III

I could have done these as one post but it would have been long and unmanageable, I could extend it out to ten or more posts such was the quality and interesting nature of the contents (but would have been bound to still miss one of the things Chris might be expecting me to single out!), but it will all appear here eventually, the pieces we've missed in these three posts coming back after sorting, in thematic, whole-set or maker posts in the future, for now, these are the other items I feel are worthy of a quick spotlight . . .

 . . . by dint of their standing out as I was sorting, or making themselves photogenic!

Footballers, wiff-waff player and the two ice-hockey flats, the cyclists were more 'bits and pieces' for marrying to past or future finds. I think the guy in the packet (Nestlé?) is actually 'The Gazza' himself; Paul Gascoigne, or trying to be him? And I think the yellow goalkeeper (bottom right) might be a baseless example from the same set of premiums, the shirt-markings being paper stickers supplied with each figure?

While the blue figure - 'Ally McCoist' - having a good left-hook whack at the ball (bottom left) is a third player from the Crocco premium set I knew nothing about twelve-months ago, and have had to rely on others for all three - the other two coming from Peter Evans!

The Table Tennis chap looks more Wilton than anybody else, but that's only the look, there are no other clues, so; late'ish Culpitt?!

The flats are probably Eastern European (they share features with The 'Hungarian' Romans) and definitely aren't PJH Effelder! But (like the Russian/Bulgarian Progress cavalry sets) one would seem to be a second generation copy of the other. Equally; they could both just as easily be lower grade Spanish Sobres or unmarked, Hong Kong, gum-ball machine, capsule prizes!

The Divers; we've had these before recently, or at least two of them, which may be a sign of them coming on to the secondary market as a generation moves on from their toys, or a specific big-seller, and any information on either would be much appreciated, the two black ones presumably go with a boat in a play-set of some kind? The smaller, although an action-figure (of limited articulation) is a pretty prefect 54mm, giving you an idea of the size of the others.

Two biggies and an imprisoned Britains! The Welsh lady from Wales (it's not a seagoing mammal Mr. President) is made of slate, but ground-down to a powder and bound with - probably - a two-part epoxy . . . like cold-cast bronze, but slate!

The guards officer - I think - goes with the RHA Hussar-type Chris sent to the Blog earlier in the year/last year (don't know when these will publish yet!) and the Artilleryman is the better figure, this officer should be marching, with the sword out, or standing at attention, not wandering, 'wandering' isn't in the drill manual!

His duel decorations are a bit of a fiction too, but he's a new figure so I'm not complaining, and while officers don't 'stag-on' sentry boxes, it's a really nice box, which will have a wait before we do them again, as they stared here twice earlier in the year. I think the RHA chap will look better in it, and these would seem to be up-market tourist figures, could we be talking the Buck' House walks? Do they have a 'gift shop' in the nation's main palace?

The final piece is very interesting, clearly a Scott's tourist thing, he is a HK-production Britains Herald piper, held on a cork plinth with a piece of textured green Plasticine . . . and a blob of glue? The tartan band, other than hammering-home the Scottish nature of the item, is probably hiding a clever join at the base of the bottle, or a not-so-clever join bodged with glue?

Label says Frae Scotland (from Scotland) and I nearly bid on a mixed job-lot with one of these in it earlier in the year, but with flights to pay back I was a bit of a spectator to feebleBay this year, I did manage a few smaller lots where a BIN was going wanting or it was 99p with five-minutes to go on a Wednesday afternoon, but the worthwhile job-lots tend to be bid up to proper money, which makes Chris's sending of his duplicates and cast-offs to this Blog all the more extra-ordinary.

This was nice; the pole was broken as it usually is with these by the time they get to the secondary (or subsequent!) markets. But finish is otherwise unworn and all the other likely breakables are still there, having sent the other two boatmen to PW earlier in the year/last year I won't bore you with all three now, but if I find a fourth . . . !

The highlights from the medieval pile include from the left; a Hong Kong copy of the MPC knights, we looked at them years ago here, but I don't think I've seen a mounted example from Hong Kong yet and; this one is marked.

Then another (we looked at the whole lot a few weeks ago) of the Cherilea sub-scale re-issue, a Hong Kong copy of an Italian (probably Fontanini) precepi/nativity figure, a Safari knight (toob-size unlike the Indian we saw in the initial post) and another 'girly prince' (there was one in the civilian line up in the same initial post), there are many of these originating in the pinky-purple section of toy stores!

I've a fair-few copies of Airfix Russians, and I think we looked at them earlier this year/last year, but I've never seen them in a cloudy-clear like ghosts! The kneeling soldier is either a short-shot or meant to look like that; it's hard to tell with the material he's made from, but the left wrist is definitely miss-moulded/hand missing.

And I have never seen Hong Kong or other (they are unmarked and could be Solpa from Greece) copies of either the Support Group figures or the Ghurkhas? The base on the Ghurkha is very like Solpa, but the spotter has a thinner one which is more Hong Kong'y

Clockwise from the top left; we've seen it mended, but this is how Hermes left it on the doorstep! It mended fine, but the interesting thing was that the damage revealed a steel-wire/rod armature holding the wings on/out; it's constructed just like its composition forbears, but poured rather than pressed and set in minutes without an oven!

The Gemodels Lifeguard cake-decoration/touristy-chap has been painted as a colonial trooper of some generic type but I think he's rather nice and Chris's loss is definitely my gain; I won't be paint-stripping him . . . indeed - mental note to self - Hampshire Yeomanry next? All blue and silver! The Houshold cavalry do have a khaki riding/barrack dress, but it's greener (based on No.2's) and is worn with a service cap al la WWI.

Twelve flags for twelve brothers! I have a tub of these flag-types somewhere in the garage with various sizes of pole or base and lots of flags, but most of the common flags are in this one lot from Chris! Along with some of the less common ones; oddly though, the US stars & stripes is missing, but is probably the commonest in the normal course of events (it comes with a lot of the Airfix US Marine piracies in small scale), as are both the German/Belgian Red-amber-blacks which I have previously seen.

Finally, I sent my versions of these to Plastic Warrior awhile ago in answer (or part answer!) to a query, but these have come in together, same paint, and it's better than the examples I had up to now so a nice upgrade, and I might re-paint the older top-hat pose as the elusive Dr Doolittle of the original query? but - while it's clearly based on the Doctor - I still think it's from a circus set?

I hope you'll all agree that Chris's generosity is a cut-above, and it's a pleasure to thank him again for this parcel, and nice to share it with the rest of you.

N is for New Novelties - Chris's Parcel II

It's really only by collecting everything that you can get the 'bigger (or best) picture' and to that end I have all sorts of junk, crud and novelty crap in the pile, and some not so crap novelties, thus I am always happy when other people send the Blog junk, crud or novelties, and whether of crap or quality! Here's some of the more esoteric stuff in Chris's most recent parcel.

I can't for the life of me remember who these are attributed to, but I know I've posted their A-Z entry, so I'll look them up when I'm up the Library to post this and put the brand in these brackets; here (Ace Acme - same poses but colour variations and a new green)!

They were capsule toys and tend to turn-up in ones or two's, although I think one of the US dealers was selling them by the handful back in the 1990's, and I hope I have both new colour variants and a new pose in this trio.

These were also a welcome addition to the vaults, I have a few already, and I know they are Christmas Cracker inserts, but there are three new poses here (there's a whole post coming) and a matching, larger-scaled Chinasaur who is new to me, and extends the 'story' of these otherwise unremarkable, unattributed mini'mals.

This is fun despite not being a figure at all really, rather a graphic representation of a . . . err . . . penguin? But he comes after this post (yes- the title was diabolical!) the other day and is probably the 1970's grandparent of the newer, all polyethylene ones, having a steel-bar axle for ethylene wheels with a styrene body.

I vaguely remember posting a link to these a few years ago, some memories of a mail-order catalogue's scans . . . or screen-caps from a .pdf? Anyway, here they are in all their flat, floppy glory . . . fridge magnets!

AND - continuing the running trope in Plastic Warrior magazine recently - the 'orange force' are all left-handed, left-hooking, left paws! Due to their all having being mirror-flipped vertically at the printers! Brilliant!

Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub!

How cool are these? Cool enough for firefighting school; that's how! Pencil tops of Trumpton firemen (they were definitely firemen, not firefighters in those days!) and I'm not sure they are among the six named in the ditty, being the station commander and his boss? I'll check with Youtube, there's bound to be a clip there? Later . . . Captain Flack on the left and Barney McGrew on the right!

I recognised the way the trees were attached to their bases as being the same as the trackside accessories from the old Mettoy Playcraft plastic-railways of our childhood, and knowing there were Hong Kong copies of it (our childhood track (all village-fête buys) was more HK silver than Playcraft red!) I looked them up in Bill B's catalogue, and sure enough, here they are; from Rays Ltd., (Wah Hing Industrial Mansion) of Kowloon - another one nailed!

The scale is more G-gauge ('Big') than anything else, which is, the Rays' stuff; the Playcraft rolling-stock was all smaller, aping Brio. And looking at the inner set's track (black), this would appear to be more compatible with Big Train or Timpo's Wild West trains than the Playcraft stuff? But the outer track (blue) does seem to have the Playcraft wheel-channel system/design. I think Tomy had a similar system?

Cheers to Chris, all found a happy home here now! Coming next - some other highlights.

B is for Booty-Box of Beautiful-Bounty for the Blog - Chris's Parcel I

Chris Smith has sent another fantastic bundle of goodies to the Blog but when I say 'another' it belies the quality of the contents which are arguably the best yet, the box was packed with stuff and none of it was unwelcomed, truly; a Christmas present . . . which I'd better quickly share with the rest of you!

Initial sorting into piles that seem to make sense as it's happening, numbered for this blurb, I'll start at one and work through; All vehicles, buildings, scenics or parts thereof are in 1, 2 is ancient medieval and prehistoric, although they joined the dino's at 7 after the photograph was taken!

3 is ceremonials, ethnic and national dress and touristy things, 4 are the parachute-toy paratroopers and 5 is the Wild West. Back over to the left and 6 is animals (wild and domestic), 7 is the aforementioned dinosaurs (two nice rubber ones and another we'll be looking at again shortly), 8 are also to be Blogged, 9 were the novelty/cartoony stuff, 10 - cracker toys - are getting a second mention in these posts and a post to themselves and 11 are divers.

12 was footballers, but some ice-hockey players and cyclists were added to the pile later, making it 'sportsmen', 13 are fridge-magnets we'll look at closer 14 is all the space, sci-fi, fantasy and TV/movie-related character pieces while 15 is the last hundred years military (proper 'army men') although as I write I've spotted a cyclist in that pile - who did get sorted-on! Finally 16 is all the other civilian stuff

So working through some of the piles in numerical order for a few highlights (a hard choice as it was all so good)  we're back to pile 1, where we have an interesting Hong Kong army van, which one might expect to be from the old Matchbox range, but I don't recognise it, there was a municipal rubbish lorry with a similar cab but it had a arcing bin-store body with sliding doors, this looks more French . . . an early Majorette copy maybe?

To the right are two HK copies of - originally - US-made mini vehicles, which will join a larger sample sent to the blog by Brain Berke several years ago, and since joined by some storage ones, all of which have been photographed - with other stuff - for a series of articles which are still in the queue; novelties tend to get pushed back by everything else (all those Shopkins, Moshlings, Zomlings and 'Bones are a couple of years overdue now!), but it will all happen, eventually!

Another HK car might be Blue Box, but early with the windows blocked-in (?), or any one of a number of similar pirates, while the Jaguar in front is very interesting . . . I have one somewhere, either the same green or a pinky-colour, but mine is so crushed (I always hang-on to damaged stuff of it's the first/only sample) I never knew for certain if it was a Jaguar or a Citroen! I now know it's a Jag', but also it seems to be a very good copy of the Lone Star Treble-o Trains vehicle. but with a much thinner skin that the die-cast donor and in a polystyrene. Did Lone Star replace their metal ones with plastic at the end? Anyone know anything about this? Deck ornamentation for a ferry model-vessel kit?

The rocket is fun, the trees have been nailed in a forthcoming post and a Merit gas-lamp has been posed with three really useful Victorian street lights which would be ideal for 1:76/72 war-gaming or diorama-building. I suspect they are either accessories from something like those Silvercorn/LP suitcase sets, or a Mighty Max/Polly Pocket type thing?

Another bunch of parachute novelty paratroopers including a proper, marked, Imperial 'Poopatrooper' in snow-white, a 'space paratrooper' and the camouflaged one from carded sets we've seen here at Small Scale World before.

I needed a loose one to re-do the size comparisons of the three types of these Small Soldiers-like sculpts I've found now, some with help from Brian and Peter, so he's really useful despite being the newest in the line-up!

But with the previous - similar sized - bunch of these also from Chris, and another lot from Peter Evans (I think), I will have to re-do all (or most) of the images in the nascent paratrooper article/page? Not a hardship!

The Wild West lot are all interesting, or useful, or both! Royal fail and/or Parcel Farce managed to brake the black, two-part epoxy totem-pole, but as you can see it mended OK, and joins two similar tourist type poles in the collection, while the other (Jean copy) totem might be a variation of the one we looked at a while ago, necessitating a follow-up to the - at the time - follow-up!

Two more of the Lone Star shooting-game Indians, one a colour variant, I still have to locate the sixth figure a bison-head, but I know he is due to appear in PW at some point (with the sixth base points-value), so 'least said' and all that!

Among the HK efforts is a really nice Union cavalrymen copied from the Britains Swoppets who are getting so brittle now, they will soon be but a memory, their horses out-living them for a few more decades! But there's obviously some HK copies to replace them with! The two eagle-dancers are from separate sources (Royal Fail/Parcel Farce worked their magic on the red one . . . actually I think it was Hermes?), some Marx and Airfix piracies (one Italian) or re-issues are joined by two of the six-gunner's we've looked at in depth before and I'm not sure if the two painted ones (middle-right) are home-painted or comercial, but they are rather nice versions in a sub-scale.

There's a lovely little Pocahontas (bottom right), who was glued to a larger base or plinth-display of some kind (McDonald's premium?) at some point, but is now perfect for all those camp-fire scenes.

While over to the left is a trio of figures we've looked at recently here (Waddington's, Britains Miniset and the lucky-bag flats), so they will go away for a while until a time when a return to the subject or an A-Z entry gets them out again! Finally the painted Indian next to them is Safari, but bigger that the 'small-scale' (actually mixed-scale) figures I remember from the 'Toob' covered by Plastic Warrior magazine a few years ago.

The Space-Sci-fi-TV-Movie pile is a right-old heap of pure eclecticism with a wotsit-cat, several doobries, a thingamabob and one or two of those what-a-names! There's even a Star Wars action-figure baddie, but 'es 'armless!

Highlights include three board-game Magic Roundabout Dougal-dogs, I have pictures of the game (off evilBay) somewhere as a 'wants list' item, so they were a real treat to find, I think it's a six-player game, so still three to find, but that's the fun of collecting.

Does anyone recognise the elfin chap in red shift and boots - middle-right?

I guess the large purple lady and the gent on steroids are from the same source, but I don't recognise either character? I also like the babe in blue . . . a sort of power-ranger, but helmetless? Another highlight is the 'evil santa' (top right) with what looks like a Russian Orthodox priest's hat, could he be a Technolog (or similar) Russian novelty?

The military section had lots of stuff, a lot of gap-filers, or one-offs and various things we've seen one way or another, so I haven't shot them all today, but there were enough PVC figures to produce this size comparison of most of the figures mentioned in that series of posts a month or so ago, which may be of use to some of you - so I shot them as they were. The Remco chap has an M16 so large he looks like a kid in a muscle suit - Don'pushmeeeee! 

If you pop-back up the page and study pile 15, you'll see all sorts of other interesting stuff in this lot, among which were the (capsule?) figures sometimes found with a separate belt and for whom I'm still looking for the weapons, Chris's lot contained three or four of them with new colours and a new pose I think. There was also stuff for the khaki infantry page and the next round-up/follow-up to the Tim Mee GI's, including new (to collection) Toy Story variants.

From the civilian lot is a similar sizer, including new firefighters from Remco and Soma, but there are more below, and Brian Berke let me know over Christmas he's getting his firefighters shot for the forthcoming page, so that will be a priority target for the spring I think, and there are more . . .

. . . in the main body of the civilian stuff.

Highlights include . . . well . . . pretty-much all of them! There's so much of this stuff, most of it rather anonymous accessories for die-cast or plastic vehicles or sets of one kind or another, from probably half of all toy makers, over seventy-plus years, that the fact that people like Chris, Peter Evans, Glenn, Jim, Adrian, Michal Melnyk, Trevor Rudkin and Co., save it for me and/or send it to the Blog is really humbling to me, and good news for you, loyal reader, as it's slowly getting to 'all going to be in one place' . . . one day!

A particularly interesting item is the green, child-like farmer (top right-hand corner) with spade, who from style (semi-flat), paint (basic) and material (dense ethylene or propylene polymer) is probably from the same source as those rather atrocious Chinese Warriors I picked-up at PW last May?

Also of note are the two kit figures, who look like they came form an early 1950's model kit of a US car, but are in a marbled plastic of maroon and blue, which might point to them having been either factory-painted at some point, or chromium-plated? The white girl above them to the right is a more standard kit figure in a single, neutral, white colour; all three are polystyrene. She looks like she's standing on the end of the caber-tosser's pole . . . ooh, missus! He's a metal 'mocherette'.

The motorcycle in HO is probably from the Merit Driving School game, he's better detailed that the normal cracker/capsule fare, while the chap falling to the ground (top-middle) is - I think - from the old Accoutrements/Archie McFee set of movie victims from about 20 years ago? I also like the two tampo-printed red-plastic F1 racing-crew figures that are new to me and the two sub-scale vinyl farmers with yolk and scythe.

The three bottom-center are all the same make, solid, polystyrene, but unmarked and the Russian dancer is a flat, soft polyethylene and possibly an addition one of the many sets referencing the old US comic-flat '100 Doll' set.

Thanks very-much to Chris - next we'll look at some of the novelties and juvenilia within the above.

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events Saturday 4th - Friday 10th January 2020

We are at war with nature, therefore we are at war with ourselves, we can only 'win' that war by losing everything.

But if we have the grace to surrender (suicide pills? Compulsory neutering?), nature may recover quite quickly?

That is the thought for the year, bearing in mind that Australia is on fire like never before, Delhi is looking at having its first frost since the last ice-age, yet we were about to drown here a week ago, while everyone's glaciers retreat faster than the climate-change models have been predicting they will - since the 1970's when we had 50-years to sort it out, now we may only have ten.

But, in the meantime, toys and their collecting make a fine distraction, and if you collect plastic ones you're helping keep them out of the Great Pacific Garbage Dump! Which is a serious misnomer for what should be called the 'Great Pacific Plastic Raft' or the Great Pacific Micro-polymer Factory!

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Toy Fairs

Went-up here last Monday-week (23rd December 2019), previous post!

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Auctions

Went-up here last Monday-week (23rd December 2019), previous post!

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Other Events

Went-up here last Monday-week (23rd December 2019), previous post!

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Overseas Events

Went-up here last Monday-week (23rd December 2019), previous post!

Which leaves me to cover a few other bits and bobs . . .

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Season's greetings

Christmas has almost left us, but the tree's up 'till Monday . . .

. . . and six more decorations have gone on somehow!

The final sextuplet of choccy-treats included two figurals; a rather deformed elf and a jolly little snowman.

The blog received its first Christmas card! You can tell from the group of reprobates involved that it winged its way here from New York, and it appears they are about to get a sobering soaking from the authorities, come to break-up the fun . . . careful with that axe Eugene!

Paddington will sort it all out using a bucket-full of icing sugar, a decorator's ladder and a feather-pillow with a hole in it - I'm quite sure!

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Received with Thanks

As well as posing an eCard, Brian also informed me he is shooting his firefighters for the forthcoming firefighter page, and it must be said friends and followers of the Blog seem to been more enthusiastically receptive to news of a firefighter's page, than for the paratrooper/parachute toys page which was my preferred choice for first in the queue! I guess I will have to adjust my plans or get them both done with more speed . . . I've been doing more work on the para's over the break; than I have the firefighters!!

The day after Peter Evans' little parcel arrived in time to post last time, Hermes dropped-off a Christmas cornucopia of a donation from Chris Smith, but he told me not to open it until after Crimbo, so I didn't . . . but now I have! I have since been working on a few posts about it, but to be honest it was such a high-quality 'job lot' (see what you can spot), it will be contributing to posts for a long time to come!

Angelo's next post however, was held-up by my needing his advice on a couple of images I wanted to add to it, but that resulted in whole 'nother post! Consequently, and because I've intentionally had a lazy holiday, they will both post next week or the week after now.

There might have been one or two other bits come in, but I've had a quiet time on purpose and not even gone out much over the holiday, to which end eMails will be addressed/replied-to next week, but thanks to everyone for everything and all help!

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H is for How they Come In

There is one from the start of the holiday, and then this week was a bumper post-Christmas chuck-out fest!

This was the earlier lot, and was pretty non-descript Chinastuff apart from the branded Papo dinosaur in grey with a moving lower-jaw who is rather fine, but I like the kerthunkersaurus with his radioactive thorn-suit!

But then this week it all went a bit critical on the finds front, with these five bags on Tuesday at a quid each; mixed farm, zoo and 'funimals' with a bit of Erzgebige and a few of the Kellogg's premium animals. Three tailless horses went straight to recycling, but the rest will be sorted into the pile with the animal element from Chris's parcel, to which they've already been joined!

I knew there were two more, as I'd only had a fiver on Tuesday and had to umm'n'arh on which five bags to purchase, so I went back on the off chance they were still there today (Thursday) and they were!

You can see why they were the two I left on the first visit, mostly vinyl Britains in one and mostly small-scale/common in the other, but I took them on the second opportunity for the little Hong Kong seated tiger and the HK-copy of a Charbens wagon horse.

Meanwhile 75p in another charity-shop secured more Erzgebirge! Seen on the left is that purchase, with all the week's finds on the right, it was the figure which prompted the payment, they are often quite worn but this one is clean.

Note also the unusual (or 'less common') decoration on the sun-faded lot, our childhood ones had the commoner two-window arrangement of the left hand cottages, but our church was the same as the one with the right lot, although it had a small onion-tower straddling the roof-ridge.

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F is for Found Objects

I once designed a whole range of street & garden furniture, shelters and plant cloches round some broken bits I found in a car-park in Stockwell! It was (still is) a standard materials exercise in the first year of most art and/or design courses in most colleges and universities, along with the 'group bridge-build and test' project, and it also teaches you to keep your eyes peeled!

So I found this in a car-park in Basingrad two weeks ago; slightly scuffed, I think it's the comm's-tower for a large (but cheapish) battleship or aircraft carrier toy, but it looks just like a bit like one of those Arco/board-game robots, except it's a little bigger - commander, or heavy-weapons robot perhaps!

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The Lost Patrol

December's 'eye-candy' have now been spotted in New York, patrolling even denser Jungle!

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They Also Serve Who Lie Around Doing Bugger-All!

My assistant got exactly what she wanted for Christmas, a pile of wrapping-paper with sticky-bits on it!

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New Year's Libations!

As well as the rowdies seen higher-up this post, Brian and Theo van de Weerden have sent these in the last few weeks with other images and I thought they'd go well together to toast in the new Year. A Mecki monk (or monk Mecki?) and the Good Soldier Švejk from Prague! The Good Soldier is either poured-resin or a chalkware/plaster from the look of him; the Mecki-monk is a late, all plastic one and carries the same gum-ball capsule-machine prize bier-stein I gave to one of my Palitoy Action Men 45-odd years ago!

He had a stool (my Action Man) made from a pizza stand (what happened to them?), little green camping stool with four legs (they used to hold the pizza box-lid up?), and he would sit with his back to the Spartan personnel carrier's main door, supping his stein, while his mate (sitting on the Jungle Explorer's folding stool) had a can of Heineken converted from a key-ring, also from a gum-ball capsule I suspect!

Anyway; many-thanks to both for the images and - here's-cheers and a happy New Year to all loyal readers! Hic!

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