HT is for High-speed Transport!

Continuing with a theme, why not? These are the same size as the Politoys (previous post) ones, but represent cars from another era, with their exposed engine-blocks. Made in Hong Kong, they may be copies of Western-made originals, but whether plastic or die-cast donors; I don't know - the 8-car is similar-looking to a Hong Kong-made Marx die-cast I have somewhere in a larger scale?

There seems to be only the four different models, numbered in evens from 2 to 8 on the bonnet/nose and the belly-pan. And possibly two tranches, with one of mine having different wheels, but they could have been replaced at some point, or a deliberate attempt to get extra toy-world mileage (pun intended) out of an old body-type model, after the change to racing slicks (and new bodies) in the real world?

Each car from 2 at the top to 8 at the bottom, with the 4 in both wheel variations; if I was more of an aficionado of racing cars I could probably guess the intended makes (are 4 a Lotus and 8 a Ferrari?), but they are also pretty crude and generic!

The HT mark could be Hang Tjuk but the only logo I can find for them is a rounded-cornered, rectangular cartouche〔‾〕, but they were making plastic vehicles in the mid-80's - probably sometime after these cars were produced.

Other HT's with either no known logo, or different logo's or markedly different product lines are Hang Tat, Heep Tung, Hinstar Toys (who did do some rack-toy shite?), Hopewell Trading Co., or Hanung Toys & Textiles (Singapore, HTT?), whilst Hartung Trading (Germany, with 'China' product) and Hayakwa Toys (Japan) aren't Hong Kong companies and Helen [of] Toy would be stretching it to breaking! Hang Tjuk are 60/40 against, and I suspect it's a long-lost 'nother HT?

The red 4 - with the 'correct' wheels - is a repaint which could be factory- or home-painted; it's hard to tell, and the model underneath is an off-white. All the drivers seem to have had a gloss-red helmet when new, in the same shade, so the car may be a factory-job?

Front row - from the left; this post's number-2 car, then a die-cast Ferrari 36V G.T. R-102 (possibly from the Zee/Zyll/Zylmex stable, but I don't think so?), a Politoys and an unmarked but like and probably Bruder - it has the Made in W Germany mark (with the W blanked-off, so post-1991?) and a numeral 42, along with the same wheels and construction methods as other marked-Bruder's . . . and representing a car from a later era.

Rear row - from the left; A hard polystyrene plastic racer with no marks which could be early British, or early anyone, including Hong Kong, then either a copy of it, or another model of the same car, but hollowed and cheap-looking, and finally a similar car of a different source.

Both the latter two were sold in bakers as cake decorations, probably through Culpitt.

There only seems to be the one design for this size (I have other sizes of cake decoration/rack-toy racers; for another day!) and as you can see they seem to be being driven by men in Tommy/Brodie helmets!

Italy is for Politoys!

So I had these two Ferrari's which were marked Italy and I knew nothing about them, beyond the fact that they must be Italian toys, therefore when I received the Sam Toys stuff (previous post) from Angelo, I sent him a couple of shots (immediately below) and asked him who they were suggesting Dulcop as a maybe (my Politoys military are clearly marked with the brand so I'd rather ruled that out as a possibility!) because the Dulcop army lorries I have are unmarked.

The two cars's garnered the following from Angelo . . .

"The cars were made by Politoys in the sixties.

Politoys made two series of these cars in 1/77 scale.

The first series was composed by only seven cars and on the bottom reported "Sistema Dep" the name of the model and "Made in Italy".

These were:

N. 1 - Cooper (Norton)
N. 2 - Ferrari (500)
N. 3 - Connaught
N. 5 - B.R.M. P25
N. 6 - Ferrari 156
N. 8 - Vanwall
N. 11- Maserati

The second series was composed of 12 cars and on the bottom only "Made in Italy" and the name of the model.

These were;

N. 1 - Porsche
N. 2 - Ferrari (500)
N. 3 - Cooper
N. 4 - Connaught
N. 5 - B.R.M. P25
N. 6 - Lotus
N. 7 - Cooper (Norton)
N. 8 - Ferrari 156
N. 9 -  B.R.M. (G.P.)
N. 10 - Maserati
N. 11 - Mercedes
N. 12 - Vanwall VW Grand Prix"

For which I thank Angelo profusely, it's always nice to ID something, but to get the other 18 with pictures takes the biss'quit!

The second set of twelve, as sixes, 1-6 and 7-12.

Now, from the photographs, I think it's fair to say the main change was to the base section, but obviously some of the bonnet numbers were changed in the second set/issue, the numbers Angelo has given which explains the quirky-nature of the first seven's numbering.

Also I'm not sure which-is-which in the second collage, but it gives a good idea of the colours available, through both sets

Cheers Angelo!

F1 is for Sam Toys!

The next article kindly sent into the blog by Angelo in Italy, and more on Sam Toys, who's lone Humber truck was an early visitor to the blog a decade ago. There was little blub sent with the images as the catalogue page and photo' titles told the story, but I'm no vehicle expert nor an Italian production expert so blurb will be to a minimum as we look at these lovely, evocative models which are around 1:43 scale, I think . . . call it 'toy size'!

The catalogue page wasn't the best image and taking a screen-capcha hasn't reduced the quality much more, but it has enabled it to grow a bit if you click on it.

The vehicles looked at below are down the right hand side of the page, but I thought the left was worth a comment or two; firstly if the bases of those road-signs are die-cast, it will be one of them which was in that little lot of magnetic/magnetised civil stuff I picked-up at Plastic Warrior's show a couple of years ago?

Secondly the aircraft are an odd mix, and look very similar to those carried by Bonux/Bonus washing powders, as B/B got a lot of their premiums from other - known - suppliers/producers the Sam's may also be bought-in from Jou-Plast or Cle or another, or they may be copies, or they may be the originals? There was so much of this stuff around from the mid-1950's-mid-1970's.

So - the Sam Toys racing cars share the quixotic numbering of the military range, with a longer line-code and sub-identifiers, the line code changes between the three Grand Prix/Formula-1 cars and the five sports/endurance 'super cars'.

Above we see the first three under the 425-code;

425-1 - Maserati 2∙5 litre GP

425-2 - Vanwall Formula-1

425-3 - Ferrari 2∙5 litre GP

The next five carry the 426 prefix and start back at a '1' for the model identification numbers;

426-1 - Mercedes

426-2 - Aston Martin

426-3 - Fiat Turbina

426-4 - Jaguar D-Type

It may not be a Ferrari, but it's still a 'proper car'! You can keep your Mercedes; taxi drivers use Mercedes in Ulm . . . and in Bagdad!

426-5 - Renault Etoile Filante

This looks like it may have been a speed-record entrant?

The vehicles were polystyrene with metal axles and the earlier three racers were the more complicated, even 'detailed' models (probably based on Dinky cars), I'm not sure sure on the other five, but both the Fiat and the Renault are unusual vehicles. Race numbers and plastic colours do vary as well.

Thanks again to Angelo for another interesting post, and it doesn't stop here; I sent him a couple of made in 'ITALY' images to ID, intending to add them here, and he sent back a second post! Which will now be publishing, here at Small Scale World, in an hour-and-a-half - local time!

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis TV & Movie Memorabilia Sale - Palitoy

Vectis' sale next Thursday [week] contains a fascinating series of lots from a former employee of Palitoy (British Cascelloid), who joined just as they became part of the General Mills Group and worked in several departments/roles at the main plant in Coalville, Leicertershire, and the following press release has been received from Vectis Auctions promoting the Lady's sale items.

●              ●         ●   ●∙●∙●   ●          ●               ●

Mandy Hurry (nee McCarthy) is an ex-Palitoy employee who worked at Palitoy for 13 years, starting just before the first Star Wars film was released.

Lots from this Vendor include Star Wars figures, loose and in baggies, plus Cascelloid Limited Handbook, and the Palitoy employee personal paperwork, dated from 1977 to Kenner Parker 1990.

Lot 5382

This unique record of employment for Miss M J McCarthy, spans thirteen years, and includes Palitoy Parker Bradgate Conditions of Service and Standard Contract of Service, Statement of Main Terms of Employment, Grievance Procedure, photographs and a detailed account of Miss McCarthy’s role at the factory, plus much more.

A Unique opportunity to acquire part of Palitoy history. NB: from an ex-Palitoy employee;

"My Palitoy Story

On 13/05/1977 Leicester education committee careers sent a letter to my home address regarding vacancies for Factory workers at Palitoy Coalville. As a 15 year old leaving school and looking for employment Palitoy seemed like a good choice as I lived a 5 minute walk from the main factory on Jackson Street. I applied for the position and in a matter of days was given an interview at the main site. On the 24/05/1977 I received a letter from Palitoy HR offering a full time position with a starting date of 13/06/2019, the starting date being 2 days after my 16^th birthday and only a few months before the release of the first Star Wars movie, little did I know how important that movie would be for my time at Palitoy.

Lot 5317

My first job at Palitoy was working on a conveyor belt boxing Pippa dolls, I remember thinking how friendly and helpful everybody was.

A selection of other areas and lines I worked on:

• Assembling Intruder dolls, part of the Action man range.
• Spraying white markings on the head of Action man horses.
• Packing Chic a boo monkeys.
• Starting the Tree House belt, this involved drilling and assembly.
• Making the boxes up and packing Tiny Tears dolls.
• Bagging Play doh accessories before packing.
• Dressing Action men before packing.

Lot 5315

I then moved over to the 3¼” Star Wars figures. When the Star wars figures first came into the Coalville factory for packing onto blisters there were only 2 machines with a team of 4 on each machine, 2 operators working opposite each other. The first person on the line would de-bag the figure and place it in an up-turned blister, second on the line (my job) was to put the blister into a mould and place a card on top of the blister (this was done in pairs), I then pushed the heat machine over to the opposite side of the belt where the operation was repeated and sent back to me, the completed blisters were moved over to the end of the line for cooling and packing. It wasn’t long before the demand for the figures increased and a new automated machine arrived, this was called the ILLIG and it’s the machine that appears in most of the Star Wars related photos taken at Palitoy, my job on the new machine was to open the figure bags and place the figure in the up-turned blister, the machine did the rest.

Lot 5316

I worked at Palitoy for a total of 13 years between 1977 and 1990. During that time I was involved in many games and activities that Palitoy arranged, a ladies football team and a Miss Palitoy competition (I came 3^rd) just to name a couple, the social nights and Palitoy clubs, the Christmas doo’s all fond memories. I had many visits to the factory shop in Baker Street, Coalville. In the early years my younger brothers and sister enjoyed all the benefits of having a sister that worked at a toy factory, in the later years my own children had bin liners full of toys from the factory shop, if only I had kept them all.

It was a sad time leaving Palitoy as it was one big family and looking back it was the best working years of my life. Living in Coalville I still see many people I’ve worked with and we often talk about the Palitoy days.

Mandy Hurry (nee McCarthy)" 16th Dec. 2020

Lot 5383

Lots include: 5315 – 5323, 5382 and 5383

For further information please contact Kathy Taylor on +44 (0) 1642 750616 or email admin@vectis.co.uk

The TV & FILM RELATED SALE will be held on Wednesday 29th January 2020 at 10:30am

Viewing is available before the sale and the catalogue is now online.

MM is for Miricleman, no Marvelman, no Miri . . . Doh!

Or; what Carol McCaptainface looked like before her Hollywood-funded transition!

I remembered these shots were in the 'follow-ups' folder and thought they'd make a good (the best) follow-up to the Phidal set! Courtesy of Brian B we have the proper, pre-op' Marvel Man! There's not much I can add Blurb-wise to Brian's mail;

"Attached are photos of only the second Lego style figure I ever purchased.

Maker is unknown, so not a licensed item. He's more Miricleman than Marvelman who I loved as a kid but as there were no Marvelman figures to own unless you were adapt at Plasticine I had to have one.

He's shown with suitable feats of strength on Marvel Comics reprint of his adventures. The shot with Bender gives the size with a Dinky Pillar Box for comparison."

What I would add though is that a subsequent search leads to the eBay seller Onlinesailin (OLS) and there is one available here; 254326065503, and that this, being such a 'professional' sort of conversion, with batch duplication, would seem to be what the die-cast guys have been contending with for years, a 'Code 3', that is something of a factory-manufactured appearance which is really home-made, 'garage' or after-market, yet has commercial 'legs'?

There's a mass of it going on in the Playmobile-world as well; Carthaginian conversion kits, colonial pith-helmets, vinyl-graphic sticker sets, heat-set transfer sheets, resin replacement parts &etc.

Footnote; most of you will know but for those who don't; Code 1 is a/the factory product, Code 2 is a commissioned promotional, premium or factory-sanctioned batch-conversion.

MM is for Miss Marple . . . no; Marvelous Missus . . . no; Mrs. Marmite . . . Miriam Margoles . . . Doh!

Love her or hate her; it's all too silly for words, but blurb has to be produced or procured and a bit of controversy at the start of the year is no bad thing!

This Phidal set was reduced to £2.50p in the post-Christmas shelf-clear at TK Maxx the other day, and was the only reason I bought it, having rejected it several times at full-price over the last year or so.

Carol Danvers - Captain Marvel

The reasons why I kept not buying it when I saw it, include the fact that it was one of the rarer sets with only ten 'figurines' (instead of the normal 12) for the money and the fact that it's one of the even rarer sets which are 'blind-bag' screened so you don't know what's in them, which meant it could have been one of the sets containing 'semi-deforms' - which are not somewhere I want the collection to go particularly!

I don't know why a few sets have this blind layout, but interestingly the only other one I've purchased cheap, was one reduced after being damaged by someone browsing in-store, who forced the corner of the cover up and couldn't get it back resulting in a clearance price-reduction. . . one of the DC sets we looked at last year?

That the one was forced and the other end-of-year cleared, would suggest they aren't a popular move by Phidal, and one hopes they will be phased-out? Presumably they are aimed at generating hype through 'influencer' box-opening on social media?

New superhero -

The Amazing Morphing-Hips'n'Hair Woman

Anyway, having had a dig at the packaging, let me be equally unhappy with the contents, firstly - as I've said -  we only get ten not twelve items; the normal count for a My Busy Book, secondly, of all the poorer or sillier characters to come out of the DC-Marvel 'verses, the main one here takes the biss'quit . . . she 'Carol Danvers' (I'm sure?) used to be a he, she's taken Superman (from DC)'s colour-scheme, Han Solo (Star Wars-Lucas)'s waist-belt arrangement and also has some of the same sort of superpowers as Clarke Kent (no x-ray vision); in short - she's a formulaic, derivative, wet-nurse's pap!

Also she's a Captain? In the Air Forces you have Flight Lieutenants, Wing-thingies and Squadron- or Group Wottsits and Air Commanders or Commodores; not Captains (actually you do get Group Captains - Doh!, but they're older pilots). AND . . . she doesn't get her superpowers until she's gone civilian anyway, so, even if the USAF has flying Captains, it's a spurious rank, and people look down on retirees who hang-on to such lowly ranks anyway, my parents generation where always slighting Mark Philips for hugging his captaincy! Airline and Ship's captains are the exceptions which prove the rule!

In the above image we see her as Air Force- (green, 'who ate all the pies' Carol), Civilian- (blue-jean, 'Helen DeGeneres' Carol) and Superheroine (spandex body-suit, 'cosplay porn-toob' Carol) to the right, with another member of the Alpha Flight team on the far left.

While here we see Ultron in the middle (who in the best traditions of Spandex Comics Inc., proved to be anything other than 'ultra'!), flanked by two Kree, one of whom (on the right) is probably Captain (aliens have the same ranking system!) Mar-Vell (geddit!), expect a Captain De-Cee any day now.

Below the aliens are two Ultron-Bots (useful with Star Wars Micromachines!) and Captain Carol's fighter (which will end-up in the drawer with the Galoob and Mattel micro-aircraft).

Now, I guess the whole trope behind superhero comics is to keep some crippled kid on a trailer-park - with a vicious, feckless step-father and junkie-mother (or vice-versa) - dreaming the 'American Dream (Princess Perfect-Pilot's a true 'patriot' by the way), but the whole by-the-numbers plotting leaves me cold, comic heroes here or in Europe have always been either anti-heroes working to straighten the State, or normal citizens like Tin-Tin, or rebels . . . or drunken, divorcees with issues!

The reason I make an exception for 'old' Batman is because the TV series had obvious, for entertainment, over-the-top humour to take your mind off both the implausibility of it all and the plot-hole craters.

And if you're wondering why I'm being so cynical today, a quick check of past superhero posts will show you the subject often triggers my inner-curmudgeon and I'm full of deadly Asian-radish, extreme-cold-man-flu-lurggie!

However, another point, raised before but worth a repeat; whatever my (or your) thoughts on the background subject matter, or 'blind' purchases, by the time you've got them home and unpacked; you get a bunch of high quality figures (whether ten or twelve) for the price of one [Russian] 'new-production' figure, or about one-eighteenth of the price of a King & Country radio operator!

That's not to be sniffed at.

While the number of these sets issued so far, now make Phidal more prolific for both number of sculpts and number of sets, than Airfix were in their early 70's 54mm heyday, just because they aren't WWII or Wellingtonians doesn't mean the 'hobby' - as a market  . . . for kids - is not perfectly healthy, despite what you may read elsewhere.

L is for Lovely Read

As a complete contrast to the recent disappointment of Toiati's magnum doorstepus, here's another personal journey through toy soldiers which is very readable and really quite charming.

My Toy Soldiers & Me

by Alejo Dorca

Truthfully it's more about war-gaming that the title or cover may suggest but as the author has spent the last ten or so years converting some of his armies from 25/28mm (which he happily lumps together with none of that tape-measure-nazi stuff you find elsewhere in the genre) to 65mm Geobra Playmobile, and has always also gamed in 54mm; it's actually pretty eclectic!

It also reminds me somewhat of 2006's Achtung Schweinehund!; Harry Pearson's memoir of war gaming, albeit without Mr. P's easy use of prose and humour, honed through years in journalism. But that doesn’t mean this book is humourless or bland, it's not, it's a delightful and erudite read, which can be accomplished in one sitting, or dipped into.

If I have one criticism, it's that it's not until you get to the end of it that you realise all the photo-captions are at the back! A second read is consequently much clearer, and you lose the only major criticism you were saving for reviews like this! I understand that an earlier edition was un-illustrated which explains the quirk slightly.

It's funny, you can easily write two-thousand words on a bad book, just pick a chapter and inspect it, but a good book doesn't leave you with the same wide arc-of-fire, so  . . . it's a good book, worth a read and I'd recommend it; I am recommending it!

It won't help you with research much, but you know those moments when you fancy a couple of hours of quiet-time, just you and a coffee, or something stronger, under the big lamp in the corner by the window, fire (or radiator) with a good read - this is one of the ones you will go back-to, for that read.

And it may have stuff to help newer war-gamers - my knowledge of the subject isn't good enough to be more definite - as there are basic and starter rules and a scenario or two among the anecdotes and tips on this and that, all delivered in a modest style - he keeps reminding the reader they don't have to take his advice, nor do as he does or not pay the slightest notice of his last thought!

A genuine little treasure this one and self-published; ISBN 13: 978-99920-3-112-4 it's on Amazonnow - My Toy Soldiers & Me, byAlejo Dorca, published in 2016, get it before it's gone, because I think it may well go!

T isfurr'Towe! Said Old McDonald!

 With impeccable (and almost psychic) timing, Mr. B sent these from the Big Apple the other day, but I only got around to them on Wednesday (by the time you read this I should have caught-up with everything, replied to everyone's eMails and be firing on all cylinders!); follow-up's to recent posts, I was saving them for the next time we looked at poultry, when I realised I only had two posts for Sunday and one of them was animal shelfies, so it all sort of slotted into place!

Hunson/JPW are shipping these as I write, or they did a while ago, either-way they are still findable on the other side of the pond and cover the four main [poultry] food groups; Chicken, Duck, Goose and Turkey,! Sort of like, ooh, I dunno' . . .  Papo/Schleich size . . . but cheaper!

Brian also sent his Auburn Rubber 'smaller animals' as a follow-up or addendum to the post on such things here just before Christmas and a direct comparison with the Ohio Arts figures we saw on that occasion or; better still 'cos I like a challenge . . .

. . . Ohio art are the left of each pair (obviously; I knew that!), and the Auburn are undeniably the better sculpts! Not my best touching-up of images but it was rushed!