C is for Christmas Exhibition - 1 of 5 - Construction Blocks

The Fleet & Crookham Local History Group had got their Christmas exhibition up and running the next time I visited after mentioning it the other day week, and I duly shot it for posterity and our annual visit, which starts here!

This year they had a themed display on each shelf, concentrating on construction toys, ancient and modern and I will be looking at each shelf on a separate post to limit the images to manageable 'lumps'

It's not just Lego that copied (stole, pirated . . . ) the Hestair Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks of Hilary Page, many other clones have come and gone, some compatible some [deliberately?] not, while the search for an alternate system also goes-on, K'nex having come closest so far.

The top shelf of this seasons display contains various other makes, and here we see (from the left) a Minibrixs signal box for O-guage model railway layouts (11), a farm loader (or 'tele-porter') from Click Brick (6) and a Kreo 'Transformer' (1) and one imagines there was no more care paid to a Transformers license as there was to a Lego (or Kiddicraft) license!

Sta-Lox soft-plastic polyethylene bricks come from the former colonies (Canada) and we all seem to have had a few kicking-about in the toy zone when we were kids, although I suspect a fair few of them were actually Hong Kong sub-copies, or locally produced under license by Merit or Peter Pan or someone like that? They were meant to represent real house-bricks, they made better stone forts (as here) and were quite useful, if you wanted something simple, in red, as that was the extent of their invention!

Ignore the blue thing, that's Lego on the shelf below (next post) and starting with the tractor (2); we have products from an unknown contract manufacturer for My Toys/Kandy Toys, an importer seen here at Small Scale World a few times now, a mini-jeep/ATV and gun, also from Click Brick (3), with modern architecture (well, when I say 'modern', I mean a mid-century/post-war, Bauhaus/post-modern Walter Gropius style of modern!) in the centre, from Bell (8), Merit (J&L Randall) would inherit the moulds, and there are both Spanish and Italian copies or licensed-versions of this simple polyethylene, stacking, infant toy.

Behind it is an Ice Castle from Mega Blocks (also Canadian - 13), with a pirate ship from K'nex with the new(-'ish) blocks bringing it closer to Lego (12) off to the left, Click Brick's tele-porter in front. While going right we have a Block Tech (Poundland, The Works etc...) Rock Drill (4) with a Wilco (also Block Tech - as contractor) dinosaur in the background, there's another, baby one on the corner.

We finish with Airfix's Eurofighter Typhoon (9) and Character Options Challenger Tank (14) with two from Nano Blocks - Big Ben and Tower Bridge, a sort of half-scale or miniaturised Kiddicraft/Lego block system from Japan (5).

A look back down the shelf for a better angle on one or two of them, the gun and dinosaur are probably better in this shot.

Still on display in Fleet library.

News, Views Etc . . . Plastic Warrior 177

A prestigious calibre and how long since issue 22! A few weeks on the mat for this one but December's issue often gets a later review (I'm much better than I used to be!), but if you've already received yours you won't be worried, and if you don't subscribe maybe this will convince you - back numbers still available - details at the end.

Articles

* The first article this month is Colin Penn's overview of Britains Hospital sets over three pages and with added helicopter!

* The third part of Peter Evan's look at Fontanini's historical military statuettes which pleases me as I have some stuff I can now put on the blog!

* An editorial covers the Lone Star Zorro and Dick Turpin figures with information and images from a number of sources.

* Gerald Edwards makes the suspected connection (first suggested here) between Taffy and Poplar Plastics with the aid of the catalogues

* Part 2 of the BR Moulds coverage begins to clear-up all sorts of mysteries and mysterious figures previously of 'unknown' attribution'

* Peter Nussbaum returns to the Bayeux Tapestry, figures which may be based upon it and other points raised in correspondence following the previous article

* 'What The !&*$?' is busy as always with an eclectic mix of figures to ID

• ·         Colin Penn is hoping readers can put a name to his dinosaur
• ·         A frogman seeks Branding
• ·         Peter Evans seeks help with a large'ish figure marked Walt Disney and possibly a Marx Swansea test shot (I thought it was a footballer!)
• ·         An African bearer also seeks information on his origins (French?)

* Eric Kemp's 'Converters Corner' applies knife, glue, Greenstuff and paint so some of Replicants ACW marines to produce Danish troops of the First Schleswig-Holstein war! They're brilliant and such an unusual subject.

* The issue also carries a rolling theme this quarter with items of an archaeological bent to the fore including

• ·         Colin Penn supplies photographs of a charming Cleopatra diorama using Cherilea figures and a possible shop-display (jewellers?) Egyptian palace with multiple-levels
• ·         Coverage of Dan Morgan's 'alternate' history of the Sussex Downs and it's archaeology - as seen at last May's Plastic Warrior show and exclusively featuring Replicants figures
• ·         More archaeological 'digging' comes from Les Collier with several dioramas of the stages of opening a tomb in the Valley of the Kings

Regular Features

* 'NEWS and VIEWS and other stuff ' covers

• ·         News from the family on The Hamilton Toy Collection
• ·         The editor muses on the possibility of changing tastes as he gets more civilian submission against toy soldier (or military?) articles?
• ·         Report of an article by Robert Crompton in The Times on the subject of plastic (as opposed to other media) toy soldiers
• ·         The Arndale Centre's Help for Heroes display is filed to PW Towers by roving reporter Chris Smith
• ·         New on the tie-in between LOD Enterprises and Ron Barzo
• ·         The regular explanation of re-subbing gets a reprise
• ·         The date of the next PW Show is confirmed as 16th May 2020
• ·         While Tiger Hobbies have news of a new relationship with AIP
• ·         Finally - the inordinate hype over 'rare Timpo' I stayed well out-of has gone to court!

• ·         In addition to all the above or below-named; Andreas Dittmann and Barney brown get credits for providing additional pictures

* 'Readers Letters' include

• ·         Feeback from John Treanor on previous outings of A Call to Arms artillery
• ·         James Delson of The Toy Soldier Company makes his position very clear!
• ·         There's still more on BR Moulds and the origins of the figure sculpts from Brian Carrick
• ·         Barry Blood also makes his position clear (on team colours) while following-up on footballers
• ·         Mike Weldon-Linne finds two more 'lefties' in a set of Marx AWI figures
• ·         Brian Carrick's a quick return; this time ID'ing Eric Critchley's Camel riders, but you need to subscribe to get the answer!
• ·         Rainer Maul follows up on old Russian flat articles, with his recent finds

* 'Book Review' has been replaced this issue by something among everything else!

* 'What's New' has two sets from Engineer Basevich, both 1918-21 Civil War cavalry;

• ·         28 - Workers Soviets' or Bolshevik Cavalry?
• ·         29 - Cossacks (or White Russians?)

[I think?]

* Plus all the usual readers small-ads

* Covers - More imagery from Les Collier's dioramas

* 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

News, Views Etc . . . Jig Toy Page

I've had a photo-session on the 'master collection, and will be adding stuff to the 'Jig Toy' puzzle page over the next few weeks or months as time allows.

To that end, and allowing for some duplication with stuff already Blogged, I've shoved the ships and vessels on there today.

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events; Saturday 11th - Friday 17th January 2020

Right, I had intended to get back into the swing of things this week, but went down with the dreaded man-flue death's-door-lurgie, so I've actually spent the week monging-about feeling sorry for myself and not doing much, well, actually I've finished nineteen articles, worked some more on the paratrooper page, done a book review and hopefully over the weekend I'll get December's PW review sorted, but I haven't posted any of it and won't 'till Monday at the earliest, so . . . ce la vie!

And it also means I'll not be doing eMails until next week either, I'm dreading it as I know there'll be 800-odd in the inbox, and 400-odd in junk, at least ten of which will have to be found and 'safed' before I block the rest! I have just done the comments here.

A quick dates post; not much this week, and an H is for . . .,

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Show Dates

Saturday 11th January 2020

Blackpool - Brian Tattersall - West Coast Toyfair

Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool, FY2 9AA

Internet prescene unknown

Tel. - 07498 711 514

10:00-15:30hrs

Tables £30, admission charge unknown

Herne Bay - SRP Toyfairs

The Kings Hall, The Beacon Hill, Herne Bay, Kent, CT6 6BA

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

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Sunday 12th January 2020

Stafford - Barry Potter / BP Fairs - 'Stafford Showground'

The Preston & Argyle Suites, Stafford County Showground, Weston Road, Stafford, ST18 0BD

Web. - www.bpfairs.com

Tel. - 01604 846 688

Mob. - 07966 527 177

Fax. - 01604 771 070

10:30-15:00hrs

Admission £4.00 (early-bird £8), OAP's £3.50, Children £1,

Free parking

Worthing  - SRP Toyfairs

Charmandean Centre, Forest Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 9HS

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. - 07739 998 012 (Paula or Gerry)

10:00 - 14:00hrs

Admission charge unknown

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Auctions

Monday 13th January 2020

Lewis - Wallis and Wallis

West Street Galleries, Lewis, Sussex, BN7 2NJ

Web. - wallisandwallis.co.uk

eMail - toys@wallisandwallis.co.uk

Tel. - 01273 480 208

Fax. - 01273 476 562

General Toy Sale

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Wednesday 15th January 2020

Tunbridge Wells - C&T Auctioneers

The York Suite, The Spa Hotel, Mount Ephraim, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 8XJ (Venue)

Unit 4, High House Business Park, Kenardington, Near Ashford, Kent, TN26 2LF (Auction House)

Web. - www.candtauctions.co.uk

eMail - enquiries@candtauctions.co.uk

Valuations - jamesopie@yahoo.co.uk

Tel. - 44 1233 510 050 (from abroad)

Tel. - 01233 510 050 (within the UK)

Viewing from 08:30hrs, sale starts 10:00hrs

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Wednesday 15th-Friday 17th January 2020

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (3-day sale)

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

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Sales commence at 10:30hrs

Day one - specialist sale

Day two - specialist sale

Day three - Toy & model railways & trains

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Other Events

From Thursday 19th January (yesterday)

Until Sunday 23rd February 2020

Cardiff - St. David's Shopping Centre - Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N.

St. David's Shopping Centre, Wales

Web. - www.avengersstation.co.uk

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Until Monday 20th April 2020

Manchester - Nathan Sawaya (Lego builder) - The Art of the Brick

Great Northern Warehouse, Peter Street, Manchester

Web. - www.aotbmanchester.co.uk

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Until Saturday 25th July 2020

Brighton - Toy Museum - Lego Before Lego

Brighton Toy & Model Museum, Trafalgar Street, Brighton, East Sussex,

Web. - www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk

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Sunday 12th January 2020

Stafford - MGM Fairs - Doll & Bear Show

Members Pavilion, County Showground, Weston Road, Stafford, Staffordshire, ST18 0BD (venue)

Linnet Lodge, The Village, Wembworthy, Devon, EX18 7RX (promoter)

Website - www.mgmfairs.co.uk

Email - enquiries@mgmfairs.co.uk

Tel. - 07818 462448  

10:30-15:00hrs

Admission - adults/seniors: £2.50, children: 50p

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable, military, historical or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here -  FOR FREE  - or linked to; please eMail me -

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc. And a link; if the event or your organisation has a web-page.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!

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Received With Thanks

Although I haven't answered my eMails, I did glance at them a while back (last Friday?) and downloaded imagery from Brian and Chris I think? So thanks to both of them and I will answer everyone next week (Tue/Wed., probably; on Monday I'll have to post!)

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H is for How They Come In

I only managed one bag this week, which I picked-up in Basingrad; charity shop of course! I also got some more stretchy-aliens on the way back from town the other day, but I've done them as a separate post.

A big bag of mostly Asian-sourced 'Army Men', and at four-quid it was arguably a bit pricy, but I spotted a couple of useful figures so it was worth the punt, and the over-spill will go back to charity locally so everyone's happy in the end!

A studied study in disinterested distain - What? Cummon . . . there's no box, no paper, no bubble-wrap and those PVC zippy-bags smell like a beach that's had a visit from the Amoco Cadiz AND the little green men-mice are all Hong Kong shite, I'll leave my nest and 'help' you when you get something worth my 'helping' and not before!

The ones still in the bag are those China-marked HTI ones we've looked at both in detail and as shelfies, they are the common 'rack-toy' here at the moment and will go back to charity once I've compared and pulled-out the colour/pose variations missing from the 'master sample'.

The Airfix Russians are part-playworn, but I think I'm missing the running guy in standard grey, so a gap filled there and I have to check weather the US officer is the late one or the common one. The US Para' clones are the ones issued by Henbrandt I think, although they also appeared in similar generic header-cards.

The real reason for the investment was the four at the top, which a casual perusal will reveal to be poor-copies of the CMV piracies, which - the quicker-minded of you will have sussed - means I now have an excuse to shoot them with the CMV donation from Brian B and get them on the Khaki Infantry page!

Next lot down are hollow-based Airfix-copy Germans, nothing special, nor are the paler green lot, but they are interesting in having figures from three other sets; Airfix para's and US Infantry and Matchbox's Americans.

The last lot are the copies of Galoob something's, we've looked at them here at Small Scale World before, briefly, but as on that occasion, I'dpoint you to Shaun's post which covers them fully.

More common German copies and I have a bunch somewhere already, but with the colour variations I am anticipating keeping a fair few of these, the same (unidentified) source produced them in HO-compatible, 23mm as well.

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T is for Three of a Kind & Then Some!

A post which is neither as complete as it might have been, nor as short as it would have been if it was complete as originally planned, so a real bit of a curates egg, despite having a tight parameter, subject wise! Hoping the opening line is suitably cryptic - let me explain;

I picked up the later-version Merit gun in the course of the year, can't remember where or when, but it's probably in one of the 'H is for...' posts, the same as the one we saw boxed a few years (?) ago, but with plastic wheels rather than the wooden ones we looked at last time.

I put to one side intending to shoot the two together, forgot to do so and managed to put it away back in the summer as I'd uncovered the Merit box in the garage doing the Rack Toy Month Blue Box shots.

However I hadn't shot the boxed one which was buried in the attic, so the photo's for the new one sat here for a few months. The other week I dug out the old one, shot it separately and collaged the two closest-similarity shots together, otherwise there would have been a single image here; either way it would have been 'end of post'!

But after I'd finalised the above images I then remembered I try not to post military stuff in Christmas week (try not very hard if you check past Christmas posting here!), although these are exactly the sort of thing you'd get in a stocking 40 or 50-years ago, so put the pictures on 'hold' . . . I then got an eMail from Chris Smith who had no inkling of the above, literally about 48-hours later, showing this silver Hong Kong copy.

Anyway I'll schedule it for 12th night, which is still within the 12-days, but suitably far from Christmas-week to salve my soul!

What interested him was the fact that it has Empire Made on one side and Made in Hong Kong on the other, clearly a crossover or interim piece from the point where the Americans started to get more heavily involved in the colony's toy industry and the HK toymen realised they needed a less specific - or even less limiting - moniker on their toys, less 'British Empire' and more 'we're here and we make toys'?

Chris also commented on the numbers of copies you can find of this gun, and those who got Plastic Warrior's Charben's special last year will see one (non-firing) on the cover, with red wheels, while we've looked at sub-scale silver and gold-styrene ones from the Crown Colony here in the past, a few times now.

Anyway, that got me thinking, and I dug them all out and now we've got a full-post! Although, I must admit; the above and the next three are re-used images; mostly from the Airfix blog.

While Chris's is roughly the same size as the Merit version [point of order - if it's Merit chances are the 'original' original will be someone like the USA's Pyro or even the UK's Bell], these other ones are all HO-OO compatible, less than half the size of the big ones, but unlike the Charbens copy, do retain a rudimentary firing-mechanism.

Woolbro contracted to have their guns sprayed gold!

These generic sets will give you two guns with nobody to fire them or one and a rudimentary crew, although in both cases you also get a ship!

This is one of my favourite HK carded sets, dating from 1969 it has two men riding an Honest John tactical nuclear missile into ground-zero, bright-blue paratroops, four of the little guns, a bunch of Airfix piracies, some Giant space-men copies and a Beechcraft serving the Imperial Japanese Air Force . . . and if that's not enough to shut little Johnny up for an hour or two; look at the artwork - it's the end of two worlds! It's the Trigan Empire invading one of their neighbours! It's the end of Blazing Saddles with a navy and space-rockets!

It's madder than a bucket of frogs on the top-table at a wedding reception . . . there's a another Beechcraft, on the tail of an intergalactic spaceship, in a sky filled with paratroopers, Dakotas a Stratofortress or two and several Mirages, one of which - apparently serving with the International Red Cross - is about to crash into the beach having been brought-down by field guns!

Meanwhile, behind the plastic Beechcraft something terrible seems to be happening to a Bruster Buffalo or similar carrier prop-job? One day I'll carefully remove the staples and scan that card for posterity . . . or comedy-effect!

My thanks to Chris for his timely email, expanding this post from two, to eight frames, and thanks to James Opie for several of the Hong Kong, small-scale sets.

A is for Animal Crackers

As a direct follow-up to the Chris's Parcel posts, I wanted to return to the cracker animals before twelfth-night!

The animals I'd found to date, less duplicates but showing three hippo similar-colour variations, I've been collecting these for about as long as I've been collecting, there may have been one in the old biss'quit tin back in '77!

They definitely came in Christmas Crackers as that's where two of mine came from, and probably also saw service in gum-ball machines, Piñata, Sobres, Wundertüten, and maybe got thrown from windows at kids in Malta; a very similar line to one in the 'school-novelties' post a few weeks back, but it's that kind of product!

The three new poses in Chris's lot include a horse, kangarallaby (I still don't know how you tell!) and a fat pig, along with a dinosaur. The dinosaur is interesting for being a larger size; as Christmas Crackers - in the price-bracket that might contain these - are dirt cheap, they will be manufactured on a unit price per box, or per gross or per gross-boxes, or something like that, and the dinosaur would have been maybe 1-per-12 crackers to the animals 2- or 3-per-12.

It may be that they were animal crackers in which case it may be one dinosaur for every 11 smallies, or one in five? But the point is the dinosaurs aren't as common as the other animals.

Also of interest is that Chris's sample whether it came from one set, or a big corporate 'do' of some kind (best places for cheap crackers; works parties and those organised-event people) has a limited palette of colours taken from jade green and earth brown . . .

. . . while many colours exist. This is the result of 40+ years of beavering-away and you can see Chris's donation increased the sample-size by nearly a fifth and the pose-count by a quarter - overnight! It leaves the question as to how many poses there are in total, how many dinosaurs there are and what colours of either have still to be found . . . questions, questions!

The dinosaur question might be part-answerable, as I may have had them come in separately from the animals on different occasions, which - if I didn't make the connection - might have led to them being put in with the unknown small, polyethylene dino's, so I'll check next time I get them out; it would only be one or two if there are any, but it would be a start

The 'connection' between smaller animals and larger dinosaurs being the flat plastic 'shelves' running between limbs across the torso, to minimise undercuts and produce a simpler, or cheaper mould-tool. It's one of the reasons I've always had a soft spot for them - their very distinctive look.

In fact looking at them and following the join lines, it may be a sort of hybrid four-part mould, with two body-halves as the main tool and two push-through blanks which - at the same time - both create the negative space between the limbs and act as mould-release pins at the end of the cycle? Equally; it could be a single 'beam' doing the same job configured as a three-part tool.

The scale of the things! There is no scale as they are clearly (alluded-to above) unit-price sized . . . like box-size! So a water-buffalo is a bit small for OO-gauge compatibility, but would be Ok for Roco's HO US in Vietnam at a smaller scale, however the 'Roo will do nicely against the Airfix Zoo-roos!

I like these, you may be able to understand that, if you're a 54-60mm purist you may not be able to get your head round the fact, but consider this - today (I'll look them up when I post this) on evilBay the search (worldwide for posting to UK) for Britains Deetail has 1,300 results, while the search for Swoppet Knights (same parameters) gives 35 results, but where would you even start with these?

Cracker Toy Mini Animals gives 3 results and 15 similar results of which none are of any use!

You have to keep your eyes peeled at shows and in mixed job-lots on-line, finger-tip search rummage trays of broken detritus and check the junk boxes under model railway dealers' tables in cold village halls on Tuesday nights for the hope of finding one or maybe two a year! If you're really lucky though, a friend sends you six (and a dinosaur) for Christmas!

Many-thanks again to Chris Smith.