T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - Games Workshop - Figure Shots

These are just a few shots I took while the Games Workshop sales-guy was giving me the spiel about the starter-set we looked at the other day, some are from that new Age of Sigmar system, others are older Warhammer 40,000 stuff with all the ray-guns and gizmos!

This appears to be a 'quick-game' (?) board game, but there was nothing about it in the introductory starter mag.? Using hexes and two basic armies of Nighthaunts and Stormcast Eternals; there appears to be some over-layed hexes and I know nothing else about it, but - nice figures!

The Nighthaunts again, painted by GW's own in-house guys, I may try to get one of the mounted figures to add to my old-school skeleton army as a commander?

The 'good guys'; Stormcast Eternals, they are sort of sword and armour (no sandals in evidence) version of the Space Marines . . . I think! Is there even a narrative between these and 40,000 . . . I thought plain-old Warhammer was the earlier age?

These are some religious-order from the Warhammer 40,000 universe I think (arch high-priests of recidivism?), again painted to show, and probably familiar to regular readers of White Dwarf as the stars of many an article, painting guide and such-like.

Likewise these guys; I can't remember who they are either, sort of arch-tech sci-fi types (Taui, Toui? Something like that), often painted in a dun or fawn brown (from memory) they look pretty medical in white - sanitising the universe like photographic negatives of crazy, futuristic, Nazi panzer-troops!

GW can also supply branded tape-measure's - for when you've absolutely, positively fallen for all the hype! Some builders-merchants will give you a free one if you order enough sand - just sayin'!

E is for Eye Candy - Esci's Kit Figures

People get frightfully excited by Airfix's various iterations of box art/layout, and understandably so ; it's all about nostalgia! Well, nostalgia and the male-obsession with 'the hunt', but there are almost as many generations of these Esci box types when you look closely at them, these are a few I've picked-up along the way.

Crappy shot, well, it's alright until you enlarge it, but that's it!

K is for Khaki Kit Figures

Not the post I envisioned but I'm sick of encountering them (Esci's British Paratroopers) in Picasa so it's time they went-up, and the main missing item (box art) will be in the next post, so let's clear this little lot as more of a box-ticker!

As with all the other figure sets, there are the two runners in the box (some of the AFV's got three I think?) and it's an odd selection of Airfix rip-off's and rather good original sculpts, some with a reasonable degree of 'multipose' opportunity.

The early Esci (and Revell-branded) sets had a colourful painting guide on the back with the limited assembly information; this was later (1980's - and Humbrol-branded?) reduced to a black & white line-drawing slip included with the contents of the box.

Strangely the instructions seem to depict the back-packs which ended up with the US Soldiers Marine Corps set, suggesting both sets (probably the whole figure-range of the kit line) were being developed at the same time and that the art-workers were slightly ahead of the tool-shop!

Airfix clone wanders-off to exit stage-right, while the more original figure sculpts are seen from the back. The PIAT gunner was a useful addition to peoples armies in the 1970's, and the influence of the Airfix 54mm set can be seen in the officer and radio-operator's berets, something we would see again from Esci in the 1980's when they followed the horse-leading cuirassier and Highland piper/casualty poses (among others) from Airfix's older (1:76th) sets.

Direct piracies (with added packs), taken from the 54mm set, we can be confident that all the Esci 1:72nd's were taken from the 1:32nd scale sets from Airfix, as it would be like working with master sculpts for a skilled pantograph operator.

One of the enduring myths of Airfix's production on some sites/in some books is that some of the later 54mm sets were 'scaled-up' from the HO/OO range - utter nonsense; but the myth persists.

The kneeling firer has some similarity to the earlier 1:32nd scale set, but I suspect that's more co-incidence than design, and with a very different kneeling firer in Airfix's second set (slim, leaning and bereted), one of the more original sculpts in the set.

The PIAT gunner is totally new.

All of them together; like I say, not one of my best posts, but it'll do and it gets them in the tag-lists! They will of-course return on the Airfix page under both Paratrooper posts/pages, hopefully with better imagery.

Dave Kean's Plastic Soldier Review (PSR) has chapter-and-verse on uniform and equipment accuracy and so forth.

G is for Gnomes G'down-under!

Also from Mr B, and also hanging around in Picasa, these were shot at a garden-center or tourist-trap gift shop, I can't remember which, in New Zealand while he was there a year or so ago.

Gnome-Gnapping! Who'd of though it? Two mechanical, near-nano robot alien froglingtons with their egg-shells still attached have grabbed an unsuspecting Gnome, in the middle of his break-fast and pushed-off with him over their wiry, metal-robot shoulders, and I used to want to move to New Zealand - it's clearly a madhouse of unrestrained crime and debauchery!

Meanwhile, and unbeknownst of their possible fate; a family of Gnomes wait for the staff to mow their grassy-clothes, gently growing in the warmth of the sun!

It's funny but you can see that passing potential customers pick the Gnomes up by their hats/heads as their flocking hasn't worn off, but the more people who pick-up the snail or hedge-pig the less likely they are to sell, as the tattier they get!

Do they have them (hedgehogs) in NZ - probably a pest of ground-nesters aren't they? They should collect them all up, and send them back here, ours are endangered! Also - that's one snail the Hedgehog isn't going to eat, it could smother him!

All larger items, included here to 'make' Ger'nome-day! Cheers Brian!

W is for ♪♫♪ . . . We're the Gnomes From America, Woo'ooo-hoo!

. . . We're the Gnomes from America woo'ooo-hoo, we're the Gnomes that any'body can buy . . . dah, dah, dah da'da-darh . . . dah, dah, dah da'da-darh - whoo-hoo! ♫♫♪

As you may have guessed, these were also in Picasa, courtesy of Brian Berke and waiting for 'Ger'nome' day; no, it won't become a 'thing' here . . . merely occasional! In-stores now, that side of the pond; I'll be looking out for them in Poundland, it's the most likely destination here . . . and I don't doubt Peter E will be on the look-out too!

I think that Fairy Garden is the brand-mark, Forest Figurine the over-brand, but with the Greenbriar/DTSC partnership of respectively; US/Canadian importers, claiming for them, they are both probably phantom-brands?

And, throwing back to my point about the naming of the gnomes in the first post; these are being called 'Fairy' even though Disney's Snow White would recognise them as Dwarves, and I think they are classic Gnomes.

Also there are marked differences in size and painting between the see-saw pair and the three stepping-stone menders (I assume that's their occupation from the Fairy Crossing title), but they look like gardeners! So they seem to have been sourced by the two importers from more than one maker (or - at the very least -  two catalogue lines?).

Many thanks to Brian.

G is for Gnome Village

When I travelled-up to London in the summer I was lucky-enough to see Peter Evans' Gnome village, hidden at the top of his garden in North London, and be allowed to video it!

I think we should look at the video first, although I'm afraid it's gone a bit jerky, and I don't know why; other video's have worked perfectly, but I suspect it's down to the lighting on the day, crating large- image size or something (this is the third save and it's still 25MB?), I like to think I know what I'm doing with all this digital malarkey, but I suspect a closer truth is that I know what I'm trying to be doing!

There are many monikers for little-folk; Elves, Gnomes, Dwarves, Fairies, Pixies and Trolls (of the Russ Berry verity, not the warty, live-goat eating, bridge-sitters of European folk-fable!) and fail-not - for fear of something untoward happening - to mention Leprechauns!

Peter has all of them in his little hamlet, although there's not much to differentiate between Gnomes and Dwarves as represented in popular culture (prior to Mr. Tolkien's intervention that is), think Snow White . . . miners, bobble-hats, mushrooms, big boots, small cottages . . . now Mordor's shenanigans and the Nottingham Mafia have rendered dwarves as fierce armoured warriors in the popular imagination, I think we will stick with 'Gnome' here!

They (the Ger'nomes) are living in an eclectic mix of plastic infant toys, resin garden ornaments and novelty bird-table/nesting-box type things in various materials, including wood, but all to a pretty constant scale range between maybe 50-70mm? The overall-look is stunning, and sympathetic planting has left them all in a delightfully [in-scale] wooded setting.

Cake decoration taking to Tobar's chap.

Peter puts them out in the spring and takes them in at the end of the summer, sometimes heralded on Faceplant, so their fame is growing and the community can look quite different from year to year, although I think they get added to constantly and might need to invade expand next-door one day!

The other main point to make is the effort which goes not just into setting the hamlet up each year, but the daily work necessitated by such fiendish foes as urban foxes, cats, squirrels, falling twigs, probably even large lorries catching the odd manhole-cover over the fence on the way past!

There's a wooing going on!

While I was there, Peter had to errr . . . 'first respond' to a minor earthquake which had occurred at the East end of the village; a sandy-whiskered assassin was the main suspect, fortunately all was restored with a practiced hand . . . and an over-practiced mutter about foxes!

I rather liked this chap; at first glance while doing the video I thought he was a Tellytubby, but he's just had a very long hat knitted for him by his Nan' and rolls it up to keep it out of his eyes!

A couple of more fairy-like or pixy-folk, they looked like they were old ceramic or bisque figurines, but true to the cause of the hobby (certainly truer than me, I collect any old material!), they are plastic. I think it was a styrene, but as you can see they are very finely done with a glaze-wash and still look ceramic.

I also loved this chap (seated) as he can only be used on a surface which will allow his right leg to hang over the edge, a clever pose really? I seem to have cropped-off the target of more wooing . . . it's quite a fertile village - obviously!

My favourite - "Wake me when the evening's start to draw in . . . or if somebody fills me'bottle"

Many-many thanks to Mr. Evans, a real treat and a joy to behold . . . and not a soldier in sight!

News, Views Etc . . . Today's Post

Was pulled from Sunday on Friday, replaced with the Padgett stuff on Saturday and will appear later, if I get round to it! I didn't want to load a video three days early!

T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - Padgett Brothers (A-to-Z) - (3) AFV Kits

These were definitely new and while the Paul Taylor from Padgett admitted they weren't up to the standards of say new Hasegawa or Dragon kits, if the artwork is anything to go by, they are plenty good-enough for war-gaming unit-building, and three useful pieces of - inevitably - German WWII kit, and he stressed they were commensurately (compensatorally?) cheaper; which is the main thing.

I know - how many Sturmtigers do you need, but there's conversion potential - ammunition carrier and Bergtigers (I think?), not sure what the 'real working' refers to but they could have the same clockwork (these days usually pull-back) mechanism with hidden floor-wheels of those 1960's Japanese kits in HO and '76th scales, carried by Riko and Hales back in the day?

And - let's be honest - the Panzer V Panther looks miles better than the old Airfix one! Note the stock lable says 1:24 which is slightly worrying, but I suspect a type, as I don't think you could get 1:24th scale kits in those boxes! Also, there's a note of '4 assorted', there were only three on display, the fourth is a Tiger I.

I still have a couple of unfinished Eidai StüG IV conversions somewhere, and have always preferred the eye-vee to the eye-eye-eye SPG's! The artwork here is less obviously a kit so don't be too disappointed when you open it, if it's a bit simple.

I think the advice has to be - buy them if you see them? And if you do manage to track them down, do try to send the Blog a picky or two of the runner/contents, or the finished kit?

You can see they are also carrying simple or 'easy-build' aircraft in 1:72nd scale, a Messerschmitt and some US carrier-thing (Corsair?)I managed to crop-off! There was a Spitfire and Hurricane as well I think. While Padgett are also importing Meccano-likey!

And for more information, stockists or trade-enquiries, Paul's your man;

paul2@padgettatoz.co.uk

Their warehouse is located in Wakefield

T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - Padgett Brothers (A-to-Z) - (2) Farmer Giles' Farm Yard Play Sets

It's nice to go to the toy fair and ID something which was a question-mark not that long ago here at Small Scale World but that's what happened just over two weeks ago on Padgett's stand at Toy Tair 2020.

It's actually rather nice to see some people are still doing the old-school rack-toys; A to Z Farm Series; an eclectic mix of components which can enhance a collection of existing animals in any scale, as there's very little 'in-scale' here, but it nicely covers a 40-60mm bracket!

The figure we saw in the lot from Chris Smith over/after Christmas (I saw it over Christmas; you saw it after Christmas!) is the one on the right here, you may remember I thought it might be from the same source as those funny-little Chinese warriors from Plastic Warrior's show last May and seeing three more hasn't changed my mind greatly, but I'd say these are slightly better sculpted, and less 2D (in the case of the woman at least), but the subject-matter (farmers) is more familiar.

The other set is pretty much the same with an identical half-relief US-Dutch style farmhouse, different out-building, tractor and trailer, one farm and one wild animal, a tree, crops & accessories and a bunch of signs . . .a working level-crossing barrier?

The other two figures; I think I may have the muck-fork guy somewhere as well? These two match the farmhouse with a US 1950's look about them, but the other two are more Russian (her - the big felt-boots), and - weirdly - a sort of Euro-horticultural, for the spade-wielding chap.

Farmer Giles [of Ham!] Farm Yard Play Sets - good fun, and four figures which WILL turn up in mixed lots, because they already ARE!

T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - Padgett Brothers (A-to-Z) - (1) Paint Your Own Dinosaur Sets

We may have seen these before, but if we have it would only further underline the point I was making elsewhere the other day - that of the lack of urgency in these posts due to their paucity of time-sensitive contents! A to Z's Jurassic Beasts; Dino Discovery, Paint Your Own Dinosaurs . . .

When I say 'seen before', I know we've had paint-your-own dinosaurs before, from The Works and Mellissa & Doug for certain, and somewhere else for sure, I don't know if we have had these specific sets?

I cropped this shot to show a couple of other lines, the Relic Dig sets we've also seen before in passing, while the fire-engines are a bit infantile and don't have figures so, pah!

The six-animal one is likely to be the better value, but Padgett are 'rack-toy' importers so wherever they end-up, the unit-price is likely to be kept low. As I may have said before the sculpts are likely to turn-up elsewhere as factory-painted models under another/other brand/s?

The larger, single models look to be very-well sculpted indeed; hardly 'Chinasaurs', and while kids will inevitably cover them in garish schemes, a serious painter could have a lot of fun with them . . . not that a serious painter can't repaint already decorated ones (they do-so with stunning results on the animal-collectors' forums), but a blank-canvas can sometimes help the ideas flow!

The paint mix is a little better in the six-animal sets, I would say, some of these are going to end up pretty bright! Again; both the stegosaur and the T-Rex are nice looking sculpts.

F is for Follow-up - Timpo Rhinoceros

I thought the Timpo rhinoceros, posted in the rush-job post a week ago, looked to have a truncated horn, so as I had them out in the week for this morning's Blue Box post, I dug out the other and dragged-out the one in the Rhino tub (I know; I'm sure I'm not the only one, in the end keeping track of it all becomes impossible!), to look at it properly.

Turned-out it was fine (left-hand, chalkier, painted one), while the later, unpainted one not seen last Saturday might be a tad-chewed?

That's it!

Q is for Question Time - Questionable 'Quatch!

Does anybody know who made this? I thought it was the Timpo orang-utan until I got a couple of them and realised this was completely different!

Is he an orang-utan or is he meant to be a prehistoric hominid of some kind, or is he actually a Yeti / Abominable Snowman (and what empirical evidence is there, prey - for their abominable character?) / Big-Foot / Sasquatch type?

He's marked RD in the center of his shoulders, running down the spine; which could be an abbreviation for Registered Design, and while I thought that was stretching it a bit, there's not much else?

He's carrying two rocks, one in either hand and the impression is - he's gonna' crack some fucker's skull, gezzer, j'a-know-what-I-mean . . . 'e 'aint messin'!

Chalky 'early British' type polyethylene soft-plastic, he could be Spanish, or there's a Charbens, even Cherilea-like sculpting to him?

Compared to the Timpo one, you can see he's not even that close (as I keep saying; I was late to this large-scale malarkey . . . and later-still to a Timpo orang-utan!), but in the same 54mm/1:32nd scale-range and he's a mean Mo-Fo! Can anyone help with this chap?

M is for Menagerie Meander

Yeah . . . well . . . when you keep returning to the same thing, you run out of ideas for titles!

This is one of those posts which grew from a couple of images I wasn't going to post as I wasn't terribly happy with them into something which should be of some interest to someone, through a sort of organic growth, which had me getting everything out for another shot, and another, as I kept thinking of new angles!

Starting with those two poor images! They were part of the big lot of Blue Box and other rack-toys I shot back in the summer, good idea - I thought! Take them out in the sun, keep them in the shade, use flash . . . but it was just too bright and lots of them really need doing again.

Anyway, with these one is colour true (left-hand image) the other has less reflection off the bag, so here's a bit of both! The animals have long-since broken-free of their perished elastic-bands, but the palm tree (again! But more in-context this time) has resolutely remained in-situ!

The base of the palm-tree is marked 'Made in Hong Kong', but I have seen them with the "Blue-Box" mark (more  commonly found on the WWII Figures and blow-moulded accessories) I think? Same as the other-day; copy of the larger Britains one in flat/semi-flat style.

What I could get with the light, the tatty polyethylene-bag and a bit of mucking-about in Picasa! The contents were arranged like a five die's dots (:∙:), the four animals in the corners with the trees in the middle and species vary from card to card (or batch to batch?), certainly I've seen other variations.

The 'gorilla' is supposed to be an orang-utan I think, and there are lots of them out there; here we have the same Blue Box one as from the set, on the left, a SINGAPORE-marked version next to him, a copy-of-a-copy and finally a cheat - an actual gorilla in brown!

I've marked the other one 'Tai Sang' as it (or the Singapore-marked issues - generally) has/(have) been associated with both Red Box and Blue Box (whose name was on the Singapore factory), although smaller; it is the earlier original from which the larger Hong Kong marked one was taken.

Some people will tell you endlessly that copies are smaller because they were pantographed, but they don't understand how a pantograph works - depending on the operator - a pantographed copy can be a little smaller or a lot smaller, a little or a lot bigger, but in skilled hands and with some luck thrown in for good measure; a copy, via pantograph, can be the same size.

You do lose a little of the fine detail, which will often be added back-in by a finisher or tool-engraver; here - for instance - you can see the fur is finer on the original, smaller Singapore animal, and lost on the larger Hong Kong copy.

The same thing can be seen here with the Hong Kong hippo' - larger, yet poorer than the Singapore animal which has the same flat-feet of the Timpo original. They are both three-part moulds, but the HK-one has run the joint-lines over the soles of the feet, Singapore ran the joins round the edges of the foot-pads, as Timpo did

Inset - bottom right - are some more of the Britains-clone gorillas compared to the brown orang-faketan, nothing special, they are mostly sub-sub-piracies, with three HK-marked above, two unmarked (to the left) and a 'China' (far right) below.

I didn't have the crocodile to hand by either company (and I don't think I've found a Timpo one yet?), but knowing where the development of the post was going, I shot the kanga' instead; earlier, painted, Timpo-original 'solids'

With their doppelgangers'! The kangaroo also comes in both Singapore and Hong Kong-marked verities; these are the Hong Hong ones. Note how the orang-utans are closer to big-feet-yetis than the ape they are supposed to be representing, and as if to confirm the species liquidity, Timpo gave theirs a head of raven hair - go; Cro-Magnon Man, begat homo-not-so-sapiens and install him in Pennsylvania!

This is not supposed to be any kind of definitive article, but rather a meander through a few points as they fell-together (or were stuffed into the post by me!), one day I'll pull them all together properly, but they (both farm and zoo) are spread about a bit at the moment and as a case in point, this lot came-in the other day; a pretty-clean sample of Blue Box farm and zoo mixed.

Not sure about the trailer, but it will fit the Blue Box tractor and has higher production values than a lot of these generic Home Farm/My Farm trailers, especially the donkey-drawn versions! Perhaps it's Hing Fat . . . 'course it isn't!

Some of the base-marks associated with the animals and accessories of Blue Box and Redbox; both marques of the Tai Sang parent - whatever anyone else has said. It's worth noting with so many HK marks out there, that the Tai Sang animals - when they have the Hong Kong only mark - have no gap, thus; HONGKONG, it's not an absolute rule but it's a useful guide.

And  - between the two brands, there are maybe a half-dozen 'sets' of animals, both Timpo and Britains-clones (the joeys above) along with a few other Western-brand's animals (the cart-horse above is a Charbens-clone I think), and some unique ones - one set from Redbox were pretty original.