Q is for Question Time - Russian Metal

I say 'Russian', but my knowledge of Cyrillic is all but non-existent and attempts to put a brand-mark to theses have so far proved fruitless, they could be Bulgarian or something - one of the letters is apparently a Belorussian-Ukrainian used 'i'. [All since sorted see below]

Packaging is quite complicated, with a flat card fixed - by staples - to a curved L or C-shaped front piece made of clear propylene or polycarbonate sheet of some kind. The figures are tied-in to another L-shaped card with fine copper-wire of the sort you pull from 'phone-cable, and this card slips tightly into the cover-assembly making an over-all b-shape. Rack-tree wire-hanger holes are provided in the main 'wrap' and on the end of the insert, but if you hung them vertically from that hole, some would likely lose the outer-cover?

Each card carries a white metal element consisting of one mounted figure, and either five foot figures and an artillery piece, or seven (or - in one case - eight) foot figures, to which is added a plaster (chalk-ware) or resin scenic piece which on my five samples is always a low dry-stone wall with a slight curve and some ivy-like vegetation climbing or embedded-in one or both ends.

I suspect one of the figures is a character figure, and you can see from the Airfix guardsman that they are about 35mm. The figures are unmarked and are fitted to the bases after the figures have been formed, but possibly 'as' the base is being formed/poured.

The figures are flat-colour painted, the plaster/resin scenics are washed with a gloss weathering varnish, giving them the appearance of wet-walls and making it harder to decide on the material without taking a sharp instrument to them, something I've resisted so far.

Same unit, different contents, with two walls and the figures, we have enough for a last stand . . . just need some enemy! The Cyrillic text seems to be the original of the English text to the left and might have a clue to the maker in the last line - ФІОП = Efiope = FIOP? ФІОЛ = Efioel = FIOL?

Which is where the previous paragraph and the intro' would have left it, but for Nazar getting back to me earlier this week and confirming that it is FIOL out of Kiev in Ukraine, although that leaves the last clue (bottom of post) for further study, were they bought-in as unpainted castings, or did they just commission a sculptor who signs in the Latin alphabet?

There is something of the Del Prado part-work sets (or was it DeAgostini, I have them somewhere and we'll look at them some time) about these, but less of an army-builder element, suggesting a decorative aim rather than gaming?

Other eras are also touched-upon it seems, these from the wars with the Ottoman Empire (next one; any day now!) I assume, but the cannon is just a re-paint of the previous piece.

That's the piece they need to give 'Johnny Turk' a headache, my tourist keepsake of the Tzar Gun! In both cases, 17th and 19th Century's there are no gunners supplied which is a bit odd, especially for any war games, or gaming system, so they may be directly aimed at the tourist market like the old plastic Tzar Gun?

I think I bought them in the 2000's from a dealer at one of Andy Harfield's shows down in Kent, and they looked slightly aged then, so possibly 1980's, certainly 1990's, and/but they may have been a Herne purchase?

Ah, Johnny Frenchie . . . or should that be Pierre? Some fine Wellingtonian enemy for the earlier Russians, and his (Wellington's) nemesis is there too, look, the little corporal of Emperor'ness!

The round-based figures have the same two-part appearance with two foot-pegs (?) semi-melted into the base, while the horses have a thin, integrally-moulded base. We will look at the oblong bases in a minute - saving the best only real clue 'till the end!

I don't know why one has eight foot-figures against the usual seven, and the cavalryman is the same but the mount differs. Both have the Corsican in command, another clue to tourists over gamers as an intended end-user group.

These are all bearskin'ed imperial or old guard while the other set had some line infantry or young guard in shakos. And . . . luckily, one's come loose!

And this is he, nothing to write home about on the painting front (but you can get a Blog post out of it!) but it's solid enough for a commercial paint-job at this scale and probably stands up well-enough against the - slightly smaller? - part-work figures previously mentioned? Note also that the base is a more standard integral part of the moulding and has a small cypher mark in the corner on the underside.

Seems to be a Roman alphabet J&D rather than anything Cyrillic, but I turned it the other way up just in case? Does anyone recognise these figures, sets or the mark, or know from whence they came?

And thanks agin to Nazar for his help in getting these straight. 

News, View Etc . . . Vectis General Toys Sale 23rd January 2020

Latest press release (the missing one pertains to a sale later-on in the month!) from the office at Vectis has come in for next Thursday's auction . . .

"The General Toy sale to be held on the 23rd of January features a good selection of boxed and unboxed car, van, and truck groups from Corgi, Matchbox, EFE, Lledo, Hot Wheels, Spot-On, Bburago, Maisto, Solido and many more. Plus, Dinky Gift sets, Corgi Heavy Haulage and Haulage of Renown models; Franklin Mint aircraft, and Britains unboxed farm figures. Further items include TV and Film related vehicles, Robots, space and novelty toys, Scalextric, Midgetoy, and Western Models. The sale will also include catalogues, magazines, books, cabinets, Children's bicycles, games, jigsaws, plates, pictures, Lego and much more."

News, Views Etc . . . More Paratroopers

The next lot of parachute toys have gone up on the new page, being the ones . . .

. . . I think of as civi' sky-divers, or more-so than some of the other commoner designs!

C is for Christmas Exhibition - 6 of . . . err . . . 5! - Tour Eiffel

While editing part three I noticed a reference to another model, and - upon returning to the library here in Fleet after Christmas - found that indeed there was a final model perched on top of the main cabinet, out of the way of the hands of smaller visitors!

It's Blackpool Tower I think, or maybe the Funktürm in Berlin . . . Ally-pally? One of those giant pylons anyway! From a Gloucestershire-based company - Apples to Pears - it's more Meccano-like stuff but with the aid of the modern IKEA furniture-construction tool; a hex-drive!

Joking apart, the Eiffel tower is extraordinary, as it's A) huge, compared to all its look-a-likes and B) was built on a whim with no end-use other than being looked at or enjoyed . . . and it's still there!

This one comes carefully packed in a small tin!

C is for Christmas Exhibition - 5 of 5 - Low Display Table

The exhibition extended to a side table, where some of the earlier systems get a second outing with ephemera for a more nostalgia-related display than the ready-to-play stuff in the upright cabinet . . .

. . . which looks like this! The two items which aren't further looked at in the next four images are firstly; the late green/red Meccano set (bottom centre), I know it's late as it has a yellow plastic tray insert to hold the components, but the earlier colour scheme with grey wheels. My brother and I had yellow vac-forms but blue/yellow plates and silver-anodised beams, so ours must have come just after this set.

Note also the aircraft engine, propeller and wing-struts (along with non-standard wheels?), all job-specific parts, but the piece I like most is the bolt-on RAF roundel!

The other item of note here is a catalogue of exhibits for an exhibition of construction toys at the Science Museum, issued by the Ministry of Education no less! I can't make out the date but it looks to be either 1945 or '55, and would be a wonder to view now . . . are the items still in their archive?

Trix catalogue and parts, as I mused a couple of posts ago; I think this is a licensed product re-branded to Trix (or from Trix?) and that a US company is also known for these triple-pierced beams? The cog and disc are very similar to Meccano parts, but the spanner has the added value of being included* into a model . . . so long as you have a second to tighten the nuts!

*I tried 'assembleable' but it seems to be a new-word too far!

Minibrix; we didn't have this system as kids but many of our friends did, I found it a bit boring, as (like Bayko, missing from this year's exhibition at Fleet Library, but seen in past displays) it can only make endless variations of a few basic building types - no cranes, no spaceships, a crude crocodile maybe, if you tried hard enough and had both a good imagination and good visio-spatial planning skills, but not realistically set up to model anything other than another 'box' with or without pitched roof!

In its defence it was made out of a very stable vulcanised rubber, like vehicle tyre-rubber (unlike that Italian stuff which has melted vast tracts of Toy Soldier history to sticky, furry lumps of nothing!), and while you sometimes find it with a perished surface (a sort of flaking hardened 'varnish' as a top layer), most is as useable now as it as when it was made 50 or 60 years ago.

Note the door; along with the windows, small points top and bottom of the element locate into dimples along the surface-edges of bars or bricks. And - like truck-tyres - it was bloody heavy!

We saw the ballast/mineral wagon in an earlier post, here's most of a passenger coach! The image seems to be of an auction lot and shows a whole set which also builds a windmill, a rail crane and section of track looking to be about G-gauge or 'Big' in plastic parlance!

Masterbuilder handbook and parts; again very similar to Meccano, but actually the 'rims' are better modelled than those of Binns Road's system, in separate scales they wouldn't look out of place on a Morris Minor or a Massey Ferguson!

The whole collection is still on exhibition now and to be seen in Fleet Library (North Hampshire - Berkshire - Surry triangle), and should - if previous years are to be a guide - continue 'till the end of January 2020.

News, Views Etc . . . New Page! Parachute Toys & Novelties

As the pressure - and material - for the firefighter page is building-up, I'm 'encouraged' by circumstance to clear the parachute-deck, so the first post in the quick-build of that page, over the next few weeks/months, has gone live here, or above.

The idea is to build the basic page in eight or nine chunks in the near future, each chunk going at the top of the page, pushing the already-published stuff one block down the page each time, so today's post is the newest stuff, design wise, and the oldest will end-up near the top, but actually novelties will probably go first . . . I'll see how it pans-out!

C is for Christmas Exhibition - 4 of 5 - Frank Hornby's Meccano

I'm not sure who invented the first pierced-steel construction system, nor which side of the pond, or Channel, it first occurred on and how much the first influenced the subsequent lines of their rivals, but just as stone-age kids played with stones and bronze-age kids played with bronze figurines (well; they might have, if they were rich enough!), so it was only a matter of time before someone in the industrial age invented something which looked like Meccano, and I suspect several sets appeared independently, at around the same time, with similar properties, but here in the UK we tend to think (and be told) Frank Hornby was first?

Certainly, it was [arguably] the most successful, and despite a few hiccups . . . survives today, as a French-owned brand with a tenuous link back to French Hornby or French Dinky, and would survive for longer - if it went final tits-up tomorrow - through the many clones coming out of mile-long factories in Szechwan and Guangdong!

Ancient and modern . . . little and large!

Although several of the components are vintage, especially the boiler, it has been put together with the modern bolts, which contrary to my previous comment in the preceding post aren't cross-cut Phillip's, but small (3 or 4 mil') hex-drives.

The racing car is built to a vintage plan but seems to be mostly recent components, or at least components I recognise from my childhood Meccano - 1960/80's, while the 'plane would seem to be referencing Tin-Tin's, and thus is probably from a larger French set?

Some more shots of both.

Some more small pieces and a wounderful vintage aeroplane which has a many model-specific parts or 'shapes' as the Metalcraft Spirit of St. Louis in the previous post, something I have to confess I wasn't aware of.

We had tons of yellow/blue, our cousins inherited a multi-drawer cabinet of red/green heavy-gauge vintage, and while I knew there were the odd specialist part (the motorway-construction and army sets in the 1970's had a pre-formed lorry-cab I think?), this is quite a specific model, of a De Havilland Moth? Hawk, Puss . . . Tiger?

C is for Christmas Exhibition - 3 of 5 - Metal Construction Systems

The lower shelves of this year's display are on the metal building systems and again the upper of the two has non-Meccano, the lower all Meccano, this post addresses that first, upper, Meccano-free tier.

Two from the same manufacturer at 1 and 5, one being Tobar's contract manufactured Junior Engineer's Workshop Racing Car and five a Bulldozer credited to FIA Toys marque; Nuts and Bolts Engineering. You can see the plastic parts are identical despite the plethora of brand marks!

The scales (9) seem to be a direct copy of- and contemporaneous with- early Meccano, from Masterbuilder of Loughborough, Leicestershire. While at ten we have an army Land Rover (Series One I think, or is it a Mini Cooper! See previous post!) from the Gift Box Co., who sound like another importer.

In front of the Lanny we have a vintage crane on a rail wagon from AC Gilbert's Meccano-similar Erector sets (6), note the nice truss-girders used on the arm. In the foreground is a snowmobile form German brand Eitech.

Hidden by flash reflection the 3 on the roof of the blue truck announces a Breakdown Truck from the department store chain Marks & Spencer, who credit it to Germany, as it has the same Phillip's driver holes as the Eitech, that might be a clue, but to be honest; I think even Meccano (still going as a French-owned brand) have gone over to crossed, from slotted?

The footbridge (7) is another vintage rival to Meccano; Trix, although I think it's a licensed US product, I just can't remember who, the third line of holes in the beams is the giveaway.

At the back is a nice looking Harley-D (11) type from Remco in the US, but not vintage; it's another modern Chinese import (and thanks to Chris Smith Remco will be reappearing soon have now appeared here recently!), brand-marked Steel Tech.

The two new ones here (from the previous picture) are another import from China; the little plane (4) is branded Metal Mechanic and credited to Padgett Brothers (A-Z), another rack-toy importer we've seen here before, while behind it we see a very old rail wagon from Primus Engineering (presumably the same people who made the camping stoves for the old Empire's expeditions and military?) with pre-shaped, real wood parts.

This doesn't have the flexibility of the other systems (although the engine, wheels and struts are re-usable) and is probably aimed at adult collectors? Credited to Metalcraft Corp., of St Louis, and unmistakably the Spirit of St. Louis which that wotisname fellow crossed the pond in.

Yep! Definitely a Series One!

News, Views Etc . . . Herald Toys & Models

I also have a rather old email from barney, which won't be in time for the bargains I'm afraid, they tend to go in the first few days, but he's also reminding you that requests are taken, so if you're looking for something special drop him a line, he may have it or be able to track it down . . .

"Dear Collector, to mark the New Year we have for sale some of the very best models from our own collection of Britains 'lead mould' farm animals and figures, a number of which pre-date the merger with Herald.

We also have a small collection of early Herald mounted Wild West Cowboys and Indians. If you're looking for anything in particular do let us know as we have many hundreds of models not currently listed on our website."

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis Sales This Week

I think I have an unread press-release from a few weeks ago on the later sale this Jan, but I found one yesterday pertaining to this week's three sale-days, so we'll run with this one for now!

"The Specialist sale to be held on the 15th of January starts with 419 lots from The Cornish Collection. Lots include boxed and unboxed Corgi vehicles, including road and racing cars, commercials, emergency vehicles, buses and TV and Film; Plus, Matchbox Regular wheels vans, trucks, cars and counter displays. This is followed by 162 lots from The Swiss Collection, which includes, boxed an unboxed Dinky, French Dinky, JRD trucks, Metosul, Lion Cars, Joal, Diapet, Brooklin, Minichamps, Solido, Paya (Spanish) tinplate and Matchbox Superfast. The sale will conclude with further models from Dinky, Corgi, Britains, Meccano and many more."

"The Specialist sale to be held on the 16th of January features four private owner collections. The Leicestershire Collection includes Corgi Fawlty Towers vehicle sets, Inspector Morse, Noddy and more, plus buses, road and racing cars, commercials, military; Dinky buses, farm vehicles, commercials and trucks. Part 3 of The Hereford Collection includes Dinky cars, buses, commercials and pre-war sets; whilst The John Ramsey Archive Collection features further Dinky vehicles, pre-war and accessories; Corgi, plus books, and ephemera. The Swiss Collection includes groups of resin and cast metal car kits plus aircraft groups and the sale will also include further Corgi, Dinky, and Triang Spot-On."

"The Model Train sale to be held on the 17th of January features OO Gauge British Outline and Kitbuilt, HO USA & Continental Outline, N Gauge, and Narrow Gauge, plus Hornby Dublo 2- and 3-rail; Wrenn, Triang Railways, Trix, and Bing Table Top. There are further items from the Lawrence Scale Models OO Gauge Single Owner Collection, a Single Owner Collection of Meccano & Other Constructional Toys, including Factory Display Models, Dealers Display cabinets, Sets/Outfits, Meccano Parts, Show Cards/Price Lists, Magazines and Catalogues plus others from further Vendors. The sale continues with Gauge 1 & Larger, G Gauge; Hornby, Modern, Finescale/Kitbuilt and narrow O Gauge, plus Jigsaws, Product Catalogues, Books & Magazines, Pictures & Prints and our usual good selection of General Trains."

Catalogues have been up for some time and are downloadable from;

Vectis Auctions

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

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

All sales commence at 10:30hrs

News, Views Etc . . . Airfix 1:32nd Scale US Paratroopers

I've got a page up for the above mentioned set, over on the Airfix Blog.

Nothing too exciting as I don't have much, but it's got quite a bit on the Hong Kong copies which may be of interest to some.

C is for Christmas Exhibition - 2 of 5 - Hillary Page's Lego!

So we're on to the original Kiddibricks clones, they sat on their laurels for a long time, but since the 1990's have been pushed to extend their colours, shapes and themes by their various rivals, not least - Mega Blocks.

They have also shown themselves to be both extremely litigious and secretive, and Lego seems to account for about 1-in5 of all the visible polymer items in the ocean!

Licensing; everything's licensing and a lack of imagination in the industry leads to a lack of imagination in the kids, there are kids who only want what's in the box made-up to what's on the box-lid and who will burst into tears if something falls off!

The lion is a more traditional piece; the blue truck is technical Lego.

The new 'Belleville' (?) is clearly an answer to Character Options more realistic figures, while the two louvered slope 'elements' on the front of the little locomotive are a lift from Mega Blocks who had similar bricks first!

The thing which looked like a Land Rover a minute ago is a new shape 'Mini Cooper' illustrating the limitations of Lego for all but the most dedicated adult offal's (or whatever they call themselves...awfulls?), something K'nex might escape now they are brickifying their - previously - tubular system? Mega Blocks were first with dinosaurs as well but in more realistic and muted colours.

Another angle . . .

. . . and back up the other end!