F is for Follow-up - G is for Great Wall

Brain Berke eMailed these to me just as the Corvid-19 crisis began to bite, so it's a bit of a late follow-up, but as a foil to the on/off, point-and-go battery-operated Walker Bulldog I'd found in Waterstone's, he sent this fully remote-control little beauty from across the pond.

Posed with the Airfix Cromwell, it's a Tiger I with rather whacky colouring and markings, but nothing a home paint-job wouldn't put right, and it comes with a 'new' small scale figure . . . looking a lot like the old Fujimi or Esci side-cap bedecked tank-commander, but there's not a lot a sculptor can do with a torso, in a turret! It's lost its lid as well?

Manufactured by Great Wall Toys, the rear of the carrier-box has a rather disconcerting mirror, which is obviously designed to display the details of both the front and the back of the tank at the same time, but it also distorts the whole thing like a stretched super-deform!

It's a long time since I followed AFV's in any depth but I think it's an early/mid variant? I don't get why so much effort goes into such an unrealistic camouflage, and a lot of effort has gone into it; it's a four-colour, approximately 55-15-15-15% scheme, well thought-out as well . . . maybe it's a current Chinese military patten?

But think of it on the drive, hunting-down the straight-line Walker Bulldog . . . one sided it would be, but great-fun!

F is for Fish'er Eagle!

Following my comment on Moonbase about another item from Eagle (I miss-remembered the page count!) Brian B kindly sent the relevant section from New York of/from whichever Eagle Annual it was, and here it is for everyone else to enjoy as it's literally stuffed with low-cost, old-school, good ideas, some of which I've employed in the past.

I have made wire trees, I haven't made an eight-foot length of railway-cutting! I suspect (well, let's be honest, due to some clues in the text I 'assume') the 'piece' is a collecting-together of twelve weekly or monthly parts, and I have a tatty set of the pages somewhere in the archive, but Brian's are very clean.

'Strip wood' . . . from a time before the invention of Plastruct or styrene-rod or '20-thou' sheets! I've had a stab at wire fences, matchstick corrals and paneling from old weathered ply as mentioned the other week in a News, Views . . .

This was the page I remembered the most, as I was never convinced the colour 'target' would be anything more than a rather psychedelic target! Compare the roof drawings with those of Terry Wise in his Introduction to Battle Gaming if you're lucky enough to have the latter.

Part two of the lake and you start to see how it could work if you airbrushed the 'target' and used a dark blue textured glass, or some glass-paint (which I have some bottles of somewhere, probably contemporary with these drawings, but the lids have been stuck-on for the 40-odd years they have been in my possession, so not much use except for purposes of nostalgia!

While the cabins would look good in a Wild West scenario?

If you do four instead of two and butt them to the edges of the cover-plates in pairs you'd have an equally convincing box-girder bridge? The 'American' design is equally good for post-war Europe where so much infrastructure was lost during the hostilities these simple, utilitarian, 'post-modern' types (often pre-formed concrete 'kits') were common.

I tried the barrels . . . made a complete pigs-ear of it, although I think the 'best one' survives somewhere in the stash! I had more success with the coal-load, and you can also do tarpaulin covers by putting the paper over the outside, and folding the ends across (after cutting to an oblong) like a parcel. Once you've folded and before you glue, attach button-thread to 'tie-down' the corners.

In fact these days you could print-out GC-overprinted 'private owner' branded tarp's?

I also have (from some dodgy auction lot) a whole load of crafted telegraph poles like those illustrated, in spot-soldered steel rod and wire and I think many of the early model-railway shops would have a half-a-stab at commercialising this kind of thing, once they'd got a jig set up (holding/placing pins in a piece of balsa or boxwood), they could produce identical units quite quickly?

Notice also; to the left of the telegraph poles . . .

. . . the clever moniker of the artist; Walkden Fisher. . . and the driver of this post's title!

Many thanks to Mr Berke for this blast from the past, it always brings back memories to flick-through these, the annual from which they are taken was all I had to read during a period of childhood illness/bed-rest . . . flu or something?

H is for Horde of Homies

Not really a 'horde' but quite a few and the A-Z trope has been hacked to death now . . . although I'm not sure what a 'horde' consists of; a horde of guns might be less than a dozen, but a horde of enemy warriors tends toward thousands as a minimum!

Mr Berke sent us these just as we all went into lockdown . . .

All new poses with seven homie's and three babe's hanging around the 'hood and three more 'doing something'! I like the Ice Cream trolley and the guy in his bathers seems to be accidentally advertising Macky-D's while the chap in blue reminded me of a figure already in the collection, so before I'd looked to check, I eMailed Brian to say I thought I might have some really early Homies in the storage-section of the stash . . .

. . . but it's not a Homie (bottom middle, blue jacket with the red stripe), he's marked Hasbro or Mattel (I can't remember and I've put him away now! and dated 2002 I think?) on his back but he fits in beautifully and looks like a teenage BA Baracus - Wha'da'yer mean FOOL; I aint gow'in no 'plane! He's been posed with all the front-branded Homies-shirt wearers, from both the donation samples.

While top left we have "But officer; all me'Homies have a pet lizard?" and top right is "OK, so it's Ma' Buggin's Doughnut's on the corner of 7th and 33rd and I tell 'em you sent me, cheers pal; I owe yah one!"

There's a good potted history of the line here, and there's a useful checklist here, they now do Homies big-head deforms and bobble-heads, but I prefer the original gum-ball machine toys!

And many thanks, again, to Brian for another bunch of these charming figures.

H is for How They Come In - Brian

As the current closedown was spreading it's shadows and I decided to self-isolate (more than a week earlier than the PM considered it necessary!), I received a parcel from New York (the virus doesn't survive on absorbent surfaces - so please stop fucking-up the Metro dispenser by pulling one from underneath, you minority of ignoramuses!) and had managed to thank Brian just before I withdrew from society!

But still time to thank him publicly, for a nice sample of stuff from 'across the pond' and to mention that my thoughts are very-much with him and those close to him as New York faces the worst of the fall-out from Trump's arrogant grandstanding, ignorant dithering and crass, childlike stupidity.

More Homies (post already done), top-ups for two of the '100 thing' comic-ad' sets and firemen - large and small - for the forthcoming page, a nice sample of Hong Kong copies of Airfix 1:32nd scale paratroop piracies in 25mm, and in a purplish-blue polymer, which is new to me, along with a charming carded set from Pyro . . . of all people!

A set which is pretty self-explanatory if you know Pyro made a series of early ship kits and vessels some (most?) of which were box-scale, several of which (along with offerings from Aurora and Monogram) scaled-out at around 1:90, 1:96 or 1:100, explaining also the diminutive size, and generic sculpting of these chaps!

Indeed, the walking chap - once painted - would pass for scratch-built and I wonder how many I may have seen, on deck or dockside in the museums at Greenwich or Kensington? Captain, First Mate and four swabs . . . Brilliant! And mint as a minty-thing that's been grown in a pot of mint to be served with lamb . . . or julep!

Needless to say . . . like a rat up a drainpipe, like a moth to a lamp, like a fuckwit to a populist's rally, she was in the box in seconds, for keeps! Just how she likes it - about a quarter of the size that would be comfortable!

H is for How They Come In - Week 12

Really a continuation of week 11, as I always put any Friday purchases in the following weeks News, Views..., and these were Friday and Saturday's snaffles prior to our full shutdown.

On the way to post my brief hiatus-post on the 13th (Friday the 13th!) I picked up a few more dinosaurs and three Henbrandt separates; nothing exciting but a couple of Dimetrodons!

I also picked this up in The Works because it was as cheap as chips and one day we'll have an 'angel overview' here, so into the stash she goes! Real glass in the style of those miniature ornamental Christmas trees, she has a delicate filament of yellow glass for a halo and yellow wings both of which - as you can see - reflect through the clear.

On the Saturday (complete with face-mask) I went into town for the last time to buy stuff to help sort toys* during the lockdown (which would be half-announced the following Monday and not fully implemented for another week! If you rely on your Government at a time like this, you stand a good chance of dying!) and in passing dropped into a charity shop which was still open and found this plaster-dig dino-skeleton from Keycraft . . . I think it will be August before anything else features in these posts . . . although there are two donation posts still to come.

Check out the bent-backwards arms of the Stegocerus!

* Record cards, 'Really' Useful Boxes, click-shut bags and some of those multi-packs of little see-through takeaway tubs in four sizes - I've been sorting the Wild West for the last three eight weeks!

H is for How They Come In - Week 11

Missing from my sudden departure was the H is for... thread, so here it is as a separate thing, which it might have been anyway, as, after a slow start; nothing from the Friday to the Tuesday, I then picked-up quite a bit, just before modern life melted away!

The Tuesday find was four bags of stuff thematically sorted into a bog of dinosaurs, a bag of funny ugly/rubber jigglers, and two bags of domestic animals, one with mostly dogs, the other having quite a bit of Cherilea!

Dinosaurs were a mix of generics and marked examples, with Safari and AAA/'Triple-A' among them, the rubber jigglers were two-each of three designs while among the dogs were some MEG's  - Puppy in my Pocket. I'm loving the shocking-pink flamingo!

The Wednesday saw me blow four 50p's on these, the flamenco dancer goes with the terracotta civil-guards, military and ceremonials we looked at the other day - and because another came in at the same time, we will look at them all again; any day now.

The bear with the phone is another of the HH Hill's we saw a couple of, a while ago, while the standing, anthropomorphic one is unmarked, as is the squirrel . . . I've picked up several squirrels (and foxes) recently, most in resin!

The next charity shop along gave me another ELC fantasy figure, I've since brought them all together, as they have been appearing in ones and two for a few years here now, and will do a post on all of them at some point.

Finally I picked up another bag of figures, the resin otter is not the first recently either? The two footballers are the same 'Gazza' sculpt as the one with base Chris Smith sent to the Blog a while ago, but different 'strips' so clearly you could find your favourite team . . . provided your favourite team is one of the 'big four', or six or whatever!

The civilians are rather in the same vein as the larger ones we saw at the Toy Fair, and while slightly similar to Homies (coming again soon), are a bit too big, and seem to be an exclusivity thing with clear nods to nationality, ethnicity and disability.

News Views Etc . . . Links

A lovely reminiscence of the childhood opening of a Marx Blue & Grey set and it's resultant life-changing influence . . . and does anyone know where the battlefield cloth/map seen in the pictures can be found, it looks modern?


They've definitely eaten all the pies! What happened to trusses?!!!


Don't know how I've missed this, but the cheeriest man in the hobby has a website! I used to lust after the stuff on Andy's stall in Portabello, long before I knew him to nod to at shows, and this is a very professional website (it's actually on WordPress but you wouldn't know it), I don't know how I've missed it, but I'll add it to the main link-list!


Can't argue with a well-written rant, and Clue was very good!


Some actual toy news, about toys, how boring!


Wait for one-minute-thirty in!

L is for Look Upon Our Wonders Ye Hobbyists and Purchase!

A real oddity today . . . and a real survivor! I believe this is an old Aurora shop-window display model, from the early days of both model kits and hobby stores, and has managed to survive a transatlantic crossing with no more damage than two broken block & tackle lifting-rings, both of which I have in a little self-seal bag somewhere!

And the transfers, the original waterslide transfers are being slowly shed like the last fragments of a snake's old skin! Although the modern Atlantis re-issue has the same sheet on better quality stock!

Back in the day, the early plastic kit manufacturers - Adams (Revell/Frog), Hawk, Monogram, Pyro, SNAP and Aurora, (among others) - would set out-workers to constructing so many of each new kit, which would be sent out to adorn the windows or display cabinet's of selected hobby shops to show the finished article.

A basic paint job was added along with a full set of transfers (as per the instructions!), in this case a reasonably austere scheme of black and silver . . . yes, I know, but you should see the gloss Buckingham or racing-green some of them got! It was a different era, and the companies knew 'little Johnny' might be using a tin of household gloss from the garage!

A few highlights. The construction is professional (clearly liquid-poly has been used - long before it was commercially available), everything has been properly trimmed back, all flash and gate marks cleaned-up and the paint seems to have been airbrushed on the runners and touched-up only where necessary, the highlights on the rear deck achieved with a printers roller and only a team building the same kit all day could get the tracks that perfect . . . oh, is that just me . . . Mr. Gardenglove Fingers!

I don't know if these are worth much, after-all you can still buy the kit  most days of the week somewhere on the secondary-market as about three Aurora boxings, two (?) Lindberg or the current [full price!] Atlantix and make it how you want it, so it's probably more of a curiosity? And . . . when you find those 1:30th/1:50th hard 'styrene crew figures in a rummage box, with a basic flesh, silver and gloss black paint-job, they probably came from display models?

1:48th scale, M-46 General Patton Medium/Heavy Tank . . . it just managed to be an M-[19]45! And if you do find one the Atlantis is a slightly different moulding (but matches late Aurora tooling) with the MG placed forwards, two (too thick) aerials added and some other, lesser changes

S is for Scandinavia . . . and the Baltic!

Something completely different today; a World War II British/Allied airman's silk escape map.

When my father was setting-up the International Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol School (ILRRP or 'illerp') at the Fallschrimspringer barracks in Neuhausen ob Eck, South-Western Germany, he happened upon a stash of unused silk escape maps (at Ron Silverman's in London - I think?), and bought them to present to successful students (including Bundeswher members) at the ends of the various courses, as little prizes/keepsakes of Escape & Evation (E&E or EE).

I'm not sure how many designs there were, I think I have ended-up with over a dozen different ones (they tended to be presented to my brother and I more frequently! But when you're only twelve and you've just climbed the Zugspitz with the HAC I think you're ready for the odd freebie!), and they come (came!) in three versions, some are almost 'raw' parachute silk, like home-made, war-time knickers, very silky and shiny, then there is an intermediate type which is slightly papery, possibly a cotton-mix (?), the final type, is this type which is a chalky, stiff, coated/treated silk, with a yellowish tinge, yet - as you can see - still thin enough for the two sides to show through.

Some of the maps, particularly these chalky ones have post war dates (a nice Middle-East map including the Gulf of Hormouz is dated to 1949 or the early 1950's), but this one in an earlier one, and clearly meant for aircrews flying north into the cold of the Arctic Circle (which is marked on the map - so, if you survive the loss of your aircraft, you know why you're so fucking cold!), looking to make their way to the western coasts to try and steal a vessel and get back to Blighty?

Now - the perceived wisdom is that these were sewn into jackets or greatcoats, but I can hardly see the RAF having everyone's linings re-sewn for every new mission/geographical destination, so I assume you were issued them prior to missions under certain circumstances (expected high-loss missions?), or that plane's commanders (or navigators?) received one, or something, and that the hiding of them was down to the ingenuity of the holder?

The purpose of the silk is not its sew-able'ness, but to prevent the details being lost if held next to the skin, but that might mean hiding it in boots, underwear or armpits, where a paper map would A) get damp and rub-away to little wormy pieces, or B) be bloody uncomfortable!

I think they were sewn into some clothing supplied to POW's through the Red Cross, but that was a risky thing and you'd need the relevant maps to end up in the right Stalag, you wouldn't want this map ending up with prisoners held in Italy for instance!

We all know how the Soviets and the Nazis split Poland, while those who do the history 'thing' are familiar with the Finish campaign, but the international boundary-adjustments to this map make it clear that Russia helped itself to anything it fancied prior to the 'Great Patriotic War'!

It's funny, but a certain type of less-educated, 'patriotic' type of British, American or Russian citizen (patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel!) struggles to understand why they or their country are hated elsewhere in the world (or the neighbourhood), but a little study of their history; British Imperialism, Soviet Expansion or American Hegemony, would explain all!

One hopes that when we finally come out of Covid-19's shadows (18-months hence?) there may be the 'great levelling' being talked of, or talked-up . . . but I doubt it, I still see war coming, another repeat of history - how boring!

M is for Manurba's Miniature Military Men

Or; T is for Tallon's Terribly Tiny Toy Troops!

Depending upon the order all these 'stockpiled' articles get published, you may by now have realised that I shot some of the German plastic over the last few weeks, among which was these intermediate scale chaps, in a sort of NATO/generic 'army man' US-G.I. style.

Eight poses including two baseless figures, one kneeling, one prone and not much fighting being done . . . but then there's only four M1 carbines and three [holstered] pistols between them. A sign of the genuine unpopularity of 'war toys' in the post-war Germany; although not quite earning - the rumoured - full ban, it was nevertheless an unpopular subject.

Sharing base designs quite similar to what little I know of Koho's output, these have been attributed to Manurba (so BIG-branded play sets and Wundertüten too?), while over here, in the UK, they appeared in Tallon packaging, as a small-bagged, pocket-money, rack-toy line.

Possibly an early painted version, but I suspect home-painting; those headphones are drawn-in too finely! Commonest in green, the second most common are the grey ones, with other-colour versions also out there - as seen above.

About 20% or one-in-five of all found examples are marked 'Made in west Germany' and the lack of marking on same-poses suggests a multiple cavity mould-tool, at least three of each with no marked kneeling or prone figures. You can also see that while the grey is pretty constant (there are a few darker ones) the green can vary considerably from a yellow-olive to a dark olive-drab.

News, Views Etc . . . Links

There'll be no dates for a while, I know things are being worked on in the background to save something from the mess that is a Global Pandemic! I'll do a separate post on Barney's news in the next day or two, and a prasie of Vectis's mail-shots. For now a few links to pass the lock-down time!


Toy Soldier Collector - avoided Covid-19 in the most drastic fashion.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/mar/09/brian-armstrong-obituary

Made irrelevant by Covid-19, but better pictures than the last (Manchester?) report;

https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/18292036.toy-soldiers-go-display-colchester-castle-support-help-heroes/

Tradition's new 1st Carabinier Regiment, Belgian Army, WWI, lovely figures for lead collectors.

https://www.traditionoflondonshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=16181

I can't remember if we've had this one before, but it's toy heavy, and fun!

https://mymodernmet.com/adriano-alarcon-fifty-fifty-beard/

T is for Toot-Toot!

Back to novelty-corner for a prime piece of post-war, plastic play-thing! It's the ultimate blow-job ". . . just put your lips together and. . ."

Kleeware novelty whistle, I suspect it is actually from a US design, a lot of Commonwealth's novelties had a 2nd life over here, and the locomotive while possibly needing to be that long for the purpose of getting the note out (doubtful; there are whistles in all sizes) is more of a US type 'iron horse' with the cow-catcher (they didn't catch them, they momentarily eviscerated them and exploded them out of the way!) and the enclosed engine-driver's cab?

A 0-6-4 is an odd configuration too, but it is primarily a novelty whistle! I love this stuff; it's ephemeral but it survives! The blue one is a stable polystyrene, but the green one (presumably an earlier batch) is a less stable phenolic resin or celluloid-type plastic.

K is for Kellogg's Krazy Kanines

Except they were spelt properly! Cluck tells us the Crazy Canines were issued in November 1972 as premiums for Ricicles and Coco Krispies, we must have had Ricicles, as we definitely got one or two at the time, but we weren't allowed Coco Krispies as they were 'sugary American pap', which was a perfect example of adults proving to be terrible hypocrites (and lacking consistency) as we were allowed both Frosties (corn flakes with sugary pap all over them) and Sugar-Puffs - the name is the clue"!

Cluck also gives the colours as being Red, Blue, Navy (our childhood 'gun dog' was dark blue), Yellow or Brown, which is pretty much my memory, so I don't know where the purple one has come from, but Tito, Olá and others seem to have carried a lot of the same premiums in different colours, and we know some Kellogg's stuff also found its way into Tom Smith's Christmas crackers, so - on this one - your assumption is as good as mine!

Note that the Boxer is an 'odd one out', as the other five are word-plays on the working-dog's job title, while he is a word-play on his breed's name. The Racer does look like a greyhound/lurcher type though, and while the Police is very British 'Bobby' the Guard is more French-Imperial than Royal-Household!

There's better imagry on the Cereal Offers page here.

R is for Ragged Rubber Redskin's

Ragged because they'd adopted the same furry-black over-coats as one of my Thomas PVC Romans, Rubber because they are manufactured with Auburn Rubber's synthetic, PVC-rubber compound and Redskin's for alliterative purposes only; they are - of course - First Nation Native Americans!

I cleaned them! They are actually very red! That’s it; Auburn's 70mm Indians, box ticked, tags attributed and I'm already on to the next thing!

N is for Necessity - the Mother of Invention!

Ha-ha! I'm back! And the world's still going to Hell in a hand-cart!

I got chatting with the neighbour (from a safe distance of course!) and he offered to let me slave his Wi-Fi, which was bloody kind; they only moved in recently, so we only know each-other on politely-saying-'hi' terms, if you know what I mean?

Anyway, I couldn't get locked-on, but discovered we have a Wi-Fi hotspot (BTWifi-with-Fon if anyone else is looking for something - just connect to it, open your browser and wait - with your card - for the sign-up message . . . I know - I'm a luddite, but it might help someone equally slow behind the times!), and I've signed-up to that . . . it's not that cheap (£39.99p for 30 days?) and it's hellish slow, but I gather everyone else is struggling with speeds ('cos half the fucking universe is in/on lockdown now!), so here we are.

Actually I've been here for over 24hrs, but I had eMails to answer, friends to check up on, comments to deal with and a bunch of other stuff, but will start blogging again soon, and have some stuff ready . . . ish!

Sadly I was right about Trump (he's an infantile imbecile), but we have right-wing populists in power too, and we are going to end-up with high death-rates too, so will Hungary and Brazil, indeed we spent five weeks watching the Italians and having ministers muttering "of course . . . Italy are three weeks ahead of the curve", until we were three weeks behind and exactly where Italy had been!

And still no face-masks (which the rednecks, populists and 'libertarians' are trying to argue aren’t worth using - but hey; something is better than nothing - 'anything' - is better than nothing!), which should have been there, already . . . ready for a biological attack . . . which this is . . .

Toys next!