F is for Follow-up . . . P is for Pony-Tail or Professional-Appendage?

True to his word the other day, Chris sent images of the believed donor figure for the strange 'officer' type in my set of Home Collection 'army men' from the Anker Group. I think it's easier to hand over to Chris for the first two images and come back at the end -

I bought a figure from a junk shop in Tallinn in Estonia in 2006. Plastic about 1/32 scale wasn’t sure if was a soldier, policeman or a railway worker, although nice the moulding wasn’t great. He is holding something in his right hand (gun ,baton or flag?) but it is moulded to his right leg and unclear. Posted in PW what the F&%$ but had no response…

Fast forward to 2018/19 and I spotted what appeared to be the same/similar figure in a junk lot on Ebay, so purchased that lot. [There] was in fact two of those figures from your blog today. Compared against my original this figure was smaller, and only based on by being a mirror image of the original but the shoulder strap is the same as the original. The original had no pony tail.

The new figure looks to be holding a large spoon/ladle (Special catering Corps!) One other figure in that junk lot which seemed to match the pony tailed chap but again pretty poorly moulded wearing a gas mask with a 12 gauge shotgun. Again I didn’t recognise the pose, have wondered if they are based on Fishel or New Ray figures? Or are they character figures from a computer game (Modern warfare or the such like)?

Now looking at mine (without Chris's to hand) I suspect Chris has measured 'under slightly, with the original being closer to 'Euro' 70mm? If only because mine is heading toward 60mm and may be the smallest of the three? Here posed with the 54mm Crescent 'berserker' and one of the other Anker figures, over whom he towers.

Either way, mine would seem to be a third version, with a huge hole for no reason, and two mould-release pin-marks (rear, left ankle and upper-small of back) lacking from the copy in Chris's possession.

The item (now in the left hand) looks like a platform-guard or dispatcher's paddle, again - until recently - more of a Euro-'thing', but now seen on several UK carriers, especially those owned by European transport companies. On the Tallinn 'original' and in the right hand it does look more like a pistol or machine-pistol? If a train staff-member is depicted, the pony-tail could be a scarf, but they tend to be worn by the female staff (one of whom this isn't obviously depicting), and round the neck, not knotted to the back of a service-cap?

Can anyone else add anything more to these interesting figures? And thanks to Chris for adding what he has.

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Later the same day . . . 

Chris sent a sizer which clearly shows his are both around the 1:32nd mark, which means mine is a - if not giant - slightly larger copy?

I'll check the Airfix German against my 'pony-tail' (and the crescent berserker) tonight for a possible further follow-up! They don't make it easy for us these little plastic men!

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The next day . . . 

Update here now;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/02/w-is-for-west-end-final.html

T is for Two - Boxed Dinosaurs

Except that there are three boxes with seven animals so the 'T is for . . . ' trope doesn't really stack-up but you'll see what I mean! A big box from TXMaxx the other day, and two from 2017 and the now defunct Poundworld-Plus.

I also shot this shelfie in TKMaxx, about twice the size (of this morning's Poundland set) and five for a tenner they work out as less of a bargain, but still cheap and also reasonably sculpted and decorated, although a bit gapey-mouthed 'Chinasaur'! They're branded to NBC Apparel, which I think is also an in-house, phantom brand?

Top left to bottom right we seem to have; velociraptor, stegosaurus, tyrannosaurus rex, spinosaur and triceratops. That last one's a tad too babyish-looking!

We may have seen these, certainly we've seen other examples from the same multi-branded set of six models, and we saw some of the Poundworld-packed ones, but I don't know if I showed any from this sequence which I found in Picasa. Dated to the end of June (right) and beginning of July (left) 2017, so they may have been left out of other posts?

Triceratops and spiky-bastard-a-saur, they have been carried in two color-ways by at least four brands and in five or six packaging types(both sides of the pond) including pairs and trios, and would here (packaging has long gone) be branded to Toy Bank.

Other brands and known outlets are/were Henbrandt (singles in counter dispensers), Lollipop/LP (carded), Pounland/Funtastic (separately boxed) Out of the Blue (singles) all in the other - common -colour way, then TXMaxx (pairs and triples, brand-mark unknown) and these - both in the later paint-scheme.

TXA is for Madeupname Prehisterror!

Shelled out the princely sum of three quid in Poundland the other day; we buy this shite so you can too - they're really rather good and at two for a pound, worth a punt if you collect dinosaurs.

There are three pairs in what would appear to be an initial tranche (note the 'Series 01' in the bottom right-hand corner of the pack) from 'Total Extreme Action', certainly a phantom-brand; sharing a postcode with many other Poundland-exclusive 'brands'!

A medium small size of toy dinosaur and well decorated in at least four colours, some five, and - like pretty much all sets of dinosaurs - box-scale rather than a constant scale. The animals are moulded in a reasonably dense PVC-alike material.

There is no 'naming of the parts' so you have to guess the species, from top left to bottom right we seem to have a large raptor, tyrannosaur, generic kerthunkersaurus, dipp'y or bront', triceratops and spinosaur. And you can see the rule here is mouth open = five colours; mouth closed = four colours!

In-scale group-shot; these are nice models and four the money, you can't go wrong, although prehistoric-purists may want to tone-down the triceratops; that green makes him look more like an iced birthday-cake!

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!