101/30 is for Airfix US Paratrooper Clones

Had the dithering desperadoes over at shitestuff (see this-morning's post) managed any sort of cursory search for some Hing Fat stories with real merit, they might have placed a feather in their cap with this, as it seems to be the missing set of Airfix US Para-clones, I having only managed to ID the two types; from Henbrandt (and others, I think Hans Postler (HP) might have handled them too) and Artform Industrial.

Most of the images on Hing Fat's web-site (which is so poorly maintained it shows different results depending upon which page you're on, so a folders-within-folders/leftover's thing going on there), show what are clearly the un-attributed copies on the Airfix page (I will re-use this collage over there).

However, it's now not so clear which set is which re. these and the Henbrandt-carried ones and I will have to pore-over all these crappy images to decide; it's alright looking at them together, you can see one lot are slightly smaller (or larger depending on which lot you finger first!), but deciding which is which from dodgy catalogue promotional's and evilBay images is less easy.

However we have some clues to work with, we know - for instance - that the pirates have at least two sets of base-marks not including the better originals (with extra poses, almost certainly not Hing Fat), we know that there are at least five versions of the astronauts, some of which (the better ones) probably aren't Hing Fat . . . so, with effort, it will all become clear.

And I think I have a better image of Billy V's set from Hing Fat, but a further complication is a fourth type and new colours have both turned-up, so the Airfix update may be a week or two yet.

To further muddy the waters, Hing Fat appear to have a second set of very good versions!

I think these are actually the Airfix (CTS or TSHQ/Present Past?) figures, shot by Hing Fat for - falsified - publicity purposes, the join-lines, base dimensions  and the flat edges to the bases all seem to match the Airfix originals, the bases are more typically Airfix than Hing Fat, and no figures of this quality have turned-up in rack-toys sets, Hing Fat-marked, or generic!

Returning to one of the collaged pictures and a point made earlier today, the minimum you could order would appear to be 288 sets, not many people can drop orders like that and you'd probably have to order far more than that,  the first few times to become a trusted-enough customer to then purchase single cartons, this stuff has to go in a shipping container and travel half-way round the world; they won't go to that effort for an order which has a cost price of less than, what? 200-quid?

Someone like the Toysaurus could order multiple container's worth and have one sent to the UK, one to Aus' and the others to the States, where they can be broken-down and road-or-rail transported to distribution hubs and stores. But they would order these, or astronauts, Pirates or Wild West, as would Jaru, Imex et al, not rugby footballers, or - sadly - Terracotta Army?

P is for Prototypes?

If TJF and his chattering, ventriloquist's glove, monkey-puppet (see earlier post today) had done a bit of searching instead of picking the low-hanging fruit . . . so low they ended up with their faces in the dirt - they might have found these on a British patent application site;

Registered by Hing Fat in October 1995, and given the design number GB2051216 (now expired), this and the following three figures seem to have been the start of a planned sci-fi range of space warriors and robot/android figures, probably of a 3-to-4½-inch action figure type, but with no obvious points of articulation, they may well have been intended as smaller solids?

From the left; GB2051213, GB2051214 and GB2051215 (I think?), there's an obvious provision for separate weapons, and the possibility of a removable helmet on '15, I would imagine if they were going to be 54/60mm solids that the planned material would have been a PVC-type soft polymer? Has anyone ever seen these are a retail item/commercial prospect?

Both images are false-coloured by me from B&W originals.

I tried to find the original page (to give you the link) and couldn't! Google is really shit now, it's so commercially-oriented, it's almost impossible to find useful stuff, even if you know it was there years ago! But I did fond this page . . . with another figure from this 'set', but registered in 1994! I think the page is actually dead, as it takes ages to load?

Five minutes later and I found a few more, but I'll let you find them from the link! It looks like a set of Power Ranger knock-off's (added to the tag list!) registered in 1994, renewed in 1999 and struck out in 2007, and the set of space figures I'd already found from the following-year? The pages get faster once you've opened a few too!

Note the definite ring hands on what I now suspect were going to be 65/70mm vinyls?

R is for Return - to Hing Fat!

It's funny; TJF has been posting the same things I've recently posted all spring and through into the summer, always following the 'less is . . . err . . . less' rule of proving with no help from anyone (despite lots of help!) that he's not a legend, of any kind, well; maybe a legendary idiot!

The funniest incident was after I did four posts on Jean Wild West and copies, only for him to show us three figures . . . in two shots! A post in which he started by hinting my theory on the moulds might be wrong, but ended-up sort of saying it might be right - in other words; a totally pointless and unnecessary post, which was dripping with cowardice, lacking any moral fibre and ethically questionable.

The weirdest incidence of which (usually it's a single-figure box-ticking exercise) was when he had two days on Hing Fat . . . because I'd had two days on Hing Fat! Insecure - or what?

Back on the 1st of May I did a post on divers which was ostensibly about the Lone Star divers and some of the copies, but we looked at a few other things, and Hing Fat got a mention, as a result there was a follow-up specifically on Hing Fat on the 2nd - always bearing in mind this is A) pretty shite 'rack-toy' stuff and B) mostly-/pretty-contemporary production.

This lead - on the 4th of May, to JTF dancing with ape-men! I've cropped this out of the website's image, TJF did the same, but cropped tight to the cavemen set, this then gave his shitter of a sidekick an excuse to wax lyrical in his trusted manner (relatively incomprehensible) about the Terracotta warriors and some jobbers thus;

"The HF figures come or show first since late 2019 with the terracotta Chinese warriors and two other rests .So far appear not be distributed here yet as far Steven international and DD distributor for main hobby have none yet ,The APE MAN appear to looks as DFC former caveman copies or extracted poses from ..

my thoughts ."

Now, the first point to make is that the webpage is actually dated . . . to January 2016 (international Toy Fair season), not 'late 2019' as he informs us with his usual as-fact making it up as he goes along again prose!

Second, the page (which is almost certainly the artwork from that year's printed catalogue) doesn't show 'two other rests' (I'm assuming he means sets), it shows eight in total.

So he knew the Terracotta Warriors were there, but forgot the rest . . . despite the fact that they were still - and remain - online? Anyway, and in the meantime an innocent (? Or plant) commenter posted a link to the webpage, rather taking the wind out of their sales, but providing the excuse for a second post on the subject, you see . . . if I can have two posts on it; so can they!

This turn of events produced an almost identical comment from the jabberwocky jerk-off, being equally as incomprehensible, yet covering the same main points;

"They looks like have ape heads in body copies poses of former DFC brand cavemen and some variation of then ,they looks interesting still .
So far main two distributor(D&D and Stevens international hobby)here have not distribute then ,but are available from Alibaba express at bulk purchase with very obscure photo again
Will see where they pup up .i’m more interested in terracotta figures set"

Now, the whole exercise raises a couple of relevant points beyond the fact the TJF often acts stupid in a post to apparently facilitate Erwin's wanking-lyrical in the comments; a sort of pre-arranged planting or reverse entrapment!

Firstly neither D&D nor Stevens are 'Main' anything, being a couple of run-of-the-mill jobbers, The main importers - were one to feel compelled to make a list, rather than just making it up as one went along - would have Imperial, Jaru or Amscan ahead of both, and - as we have seen here - the Greenbriar/DTSC cross-border partnership is another who are very busy, as are SCS Direct, Hunsen/JPW, OKK and that little group of brands round Fun Express/OTC, there's Funtastic . . . he is literally dribbling unsubstantiated garbage for the sake of seeing his own voice on the Internet!

But . . . doing so as fact, with the support of Stadinger, and as a result damaging the hobby. Damage such luminaries as Dittmann, Bergner and Carrick are happy to turn a blind eye to, in order to justify their side-taking in a war started by the two miserable muppets.

Secondly, had either of them bothered to visit Hing Fat's Faceplant page they would have found exactly how the figures look, and that they look nothing like the Dimensions for Children (became MTC) figures! This image was dated 10th May 2016, i.e. later the same year as the webpage.

Of interest to us as I think we've seen those red-yellow pterodactyls here at Small Scale World before now, in a generic bagged-set being sold at the seaside?

So, in less than 70-words, repeated twice in a different order (but equally illiterate) he manages [as fact] to miss-attribute the importance of two jobbers, get the date wrong by three years (despite the correct date being handed to him twice - if he looked) and suggest a false origin for the figures! All so that they could look as if they can do whatever I'm doing?

Does TJF think these follow-me's are clever? Does he really think they are somehow victories, of some kind? Is he awarding himself Brownie-points in his own head - toward the Girl Guide's Annual Jamboree 'I beat that Walters' badge? he didn't know an Emenee figure the other day (a couple of weeks after I Blogged the coach set - fancy that huh!), yet has been credited with being instrumental in the finding of the original information? Too stupid.

This would have scored half-a-point - had they bothered to notice it! On the same page were/are American Footballers being offered as Rugby Football players, presumably aimed at buyers from an ex-colonial, English-speaking market, despite the body-armour and grid-iron helmets!

As it happens I agree with him (the cockwackin' monkey-lizard) on the Terracotta Army figures, but anyone who's dealt with Hing Fat will tell you; you have to put in huge orders, multiples of thousands of units, so these may never see the light of day, because if someone like Bill V didn't, or BMC won't order them, no one will.

Aimed at museums, most of the bottom row on that webpage are probably going nowhere, but a large organisation like the Met' or the UK's British Museum, or one of the larger natural history museums might order enough - there's a nice-looking Mummy in the Egyptian-themed set?

The sports sets may struggle for the same reason - lack of fan-base and no one willing to take a punt, those days when the Toysaurus ordered 10,000 units of everything on the page are long gone, and people like Smyths (here) don't stock the cheapies, while Walmart, Target and co., haven't fully picked-up the baton yet.

The date was staring them in the face; they made up a new one!

The facts were staring them in the face; they invented some rubbish!

A small story was staring them in the face; they ignored it!

We are going to spend the rest of today, looking at Hing Fat stuff the derisible-duo could have run a story on, which might have scored some points, in some idiot's head.

F is for Follow-up - More Russkie Raspberry Reds

Although actually, these are a tad more mauvey-purple than the two lots I was thinking of. I know; a day of action figures wasn't on you menu when you got up this morning, so here are some proper toy soldiers courtesy of Chris Smith!

I felt there should be more poses, but by co-incidence both the sets I found the other day were the same four that I already had, so began to think that was it. Chris thinks these 10 may be a complete set of poses.

I really like the pose with the 'potato-masher'; stick-grenades come as drums, separate from their sticks, and are unioned immediately prior to action, or the patrol or whatever. At some point, mid-war, both the Germans and the Russians started strapping a daisy-wheel of extra canisters to the central one to produce more bang-for-the-buck! It was also used by brave fools to tray and disable tracked AFV's, which meant getting too close to many-tons of un-cooperative metal!

Several of the poses have been used twice on both upright and kneeling figures, and I'll have to track the rest down at some point, but for now - thanks to Chris for rushing these over to Small Scale World's command center (read; cluttered desktop!).

Action Figure is for Points of Articulation

Following-on from the earlier post's large sandy-coloured gentleman; this is not the normal output of the Blog, and is presented here as an easy read, to clear Picasa of images going back to 2016, for general information and because it's Rack Toy Month, and these are classic modern rack toys!

I don't collect these, I don't think many of you do, but they come in . . . there are shelfies here from Brian Berke and myself, there are donated samples from Peter Evans, stuff I've picked-up and things which have been included in mixed Charity Shop lots . . . they just come in!

Once they have been annotated and photographed they tend to go on to the Blue Cross charity shop here in town, where hopefully the mint/near-mint stuff provides a nice surprise for a kid who's parent may only be able to afford toys from charity shops?

An overview . . . chronologically according to the dates on the .jpg's!

These are two on the left from Brian, which he sent to the Blog back in 2016 (Combat Soldiers) and 2017 (Desert Force), the latter branded to both Hunson (obverse) and JPW International (reverse), the former a generic. The one on the right is from Peter, much-later (2019) and was just collaged into the trio, it too; lacks a brand mark.

Two of the 'laws' of rack-toy army-men are established immediately; loads of SF (Special [or Security] Force/s) panoply festooning the figures and over-sized accessories - play value comes before realism with these! Although - to be fair - the left hand figure has received a semi-realistic wash paint-job.

Also from Brian, also 2017 came these chaps, similar to the figures in the middle set of the previous trio of sets, these are nevertheless new sculpts and shrinking their berets on the correct side!

A further 'law' makes itself obvious; random accessories such as undersized flags, or oversized rockets from WWII German halftracks! I'm not sure if Super is a phantom brand or an over-optimistic corporate QA statement from the otherwise anonymous manufacturer!

This gets us to 2018, with the two on the right from Peter (we may have seen another in a similar post last year or the year before?), both 'minters' I hope they went on to bring joy to a small person, the larger one branded to Maxxi (a Middlesex-based importer) the other generic.

Some further close ups of the previous pair from peter; the franchise-tied (Call of Duty) but outherwise generic one is actually a very well made and finished figure, possibly Blue Box (BBI) clearance?

While Maxxi have been connected to those crude 54mm'ish Wild West sets also issued by about five other 'brands' in the last three or four years, their figure comes with candy (and may have been seen already, in a candy-container post?). I have a lot of novelty stuff kicking about in Picasa and tend to grab it without much planning during RTM!

Speaking of the Maxxi 54mm solids they are responsible for this chap too (right-hand image); Apache Big Chief, also from Peter, while the Accoutrements (Archie McPhee) Oscar Wild came from Brian, the two prooving that non-Army Man, rack toy, action figures are out there!

Also JPW; Brian sent these shelfies over 2018 and 2019, and there's no way they are in any way connected to a certain stony movie franchise, on no, not at all, and the white guy doesn't even look like Mr Stallone! These are actually quite cool toys, if I was younger . . . and etcetera! They each come with a piece of boxing-gym equipment, so you can build-up a little training-regime, while Sly . . . I mean the guy in the stripped shorts worries about failing the big test!

Taken last October is this overview of some of the above with others that had come in from various sources as lose figures including some pricier branded civilians from younger kids 'big name' toy ranges, I haven't given any sizes, as I haven't noted any as they went through, and those who know about these things will . . . err . . . know!

A couple more loose ones and a set we have seen before I think, from H&H Distribution. I can see the appeal of them, but action figures need more space than I have ever had, and - on the branded side - more funds than I can or am willing to provide!

V is for 'Vivid and Great in Style'!

I've had to squeeze this post in here as I found it after I'd written the earlier and later posts today, and I had thought it was published a year or two ago, but was sitting on the desktop in an un-loved corner 'hidden in plain sight', but is referred to in this-afternoon's post!

Another one from Peter Evans's secret mother-lode of Chinatroop, 'Army Man' rack-toy tat!

Coming from an H&H Distribution here in the UK, and sold in Poundland (I think?), Peter sent these to the Blog on separate occasions which is why some ended up hanging around in Picasa to be included in this-afternoon's post which was meant as a folder-emptying, follow-on from the desert chap in the - now - previous post this morning!

As I had only written the one line before abandoning the post last year, I must have had writer's block on what to write in the intro' and or this image's blurb, both tasks have been accomplished by the comedy of errors and their explanation so we can move swiftly on to the contents!

Nearly every rack-toy, no matter how dismal, will have something of use, whether to war-gamers, modellers or straight 'collectors' will depend on those contents 'contents', but I kept the two B1 Bombers ('cos there's a whole box of sub-scale aircraft - which we have dipped into on numerous occasions), the large packing-crate (it's the sort of thing Jeeps were delivered-in, in WWII!), the two ammo-boxes (useful props in future photography if no other use), the marquee-tent (a new variation of older Rado/Kamley designs) and the tree.

Everything else, from both semi-blind [window-]bags, went-off to charity with a bunch of similar accessories which had accrued over time, for onward transit to someone who has Action Figures - hopefully!

As is often the way with rack-toys, the artwork offers far more than the inclusions can deliver and both the M16 and the tree are made out of that rather bitty polymer which breaks easily, but everything else was a more robust dense polyethylene or polypropylene.

So; some useful stuff with Military Real Sniper, thanks to Peter, box ticked . . . the rest of the Action Figures will now be publishing this-afternoon!

T is for Two - Current Production, 'Real' Rack Toys

The driving force behind the origins of Rack Toy Month (RTM), was the phenomena of August being the quiet month , the slow news month, the hot humid month when one hasn't always got the energy or inclination for deeper articles requiring much research &etc, coupled with a seasonal drop-off in readers/traffic as people go away . . . well; this year there seem to be more people at home, but circumstances have meant the year's not 'panning out' in any way, and I've not been here so much!

Another reason behind the RTM thing was that it allowed me to clear some of the less salubrious stuff, which has some validity, but might not be of interest to all, and this post is one of those!

Both donated by Peter Evans of PlasticWarrior magazine, this will probably go-on to charity, as I have little use and less space for a large, pull-cord motor, carpet-toy, warplane!

But don't think it's not appreciated though, a second set of images are on the dongle for eventual inclusion on the A-Z Blog entry; the bigger-picture being of import . . . it is quite literally - all grist to the mill. And PMS have shown more valid stuff in the past, so will have an importance in the final picture of the 'whole'.

While this is also lacking figures, apart from a simplified action-figure knock-off who probably won't interest loyal readers of the Blog (I stand to be corrected if this is your 'thing' and you follow the Blog!).

Red Deer are currently to be found in independent general stores, although it's almost certainly a phantom brand, however wholesaler-invented rather than retailer-invented, the contents included stuff previously seen in other branding by both Poundland (GE or Funrise) and the now defunct 99p Stores (the above PMS for instance, or Top Toys), actually; the tank - I think - was previously seen carded by Funtastic in Pounland?

Anyway, both out there now, and many thanks to Peter for sending them, another rack-toy box, ticked!

T is for Two - O is for Other People's Rack Toys

A couple of rack toys, both of civilian subjects, both sent to the Blog in the last few months for the purpose of sharing with other loyal readers, a purpose ably dealt with right here, right now, in the order in which they were sent . . .

Theo van der Weerden sent me this a while ago, and it's interesting for two reasons, firstly it shows the other (or 'some more') figures to go with the road workers we looked at here and followed-up here, secondly it ties them into Tootsietoys, although Tootsie' were primarily die-casters and may well have bought the figures in, so the possibility they are/were originally Pioneer remains.

Also the third figure (with clipboard) has some similarities with one of the sets of ground-crew, which may tie them (the flyboys) into Tootsie' too? Although Tootsie' may itself be only a 'bought brand' these days, I'm not sure who owns the brand.

When Britains finally died and the assets were broken up, the Asian toy giant Tomy-Takara bought the branding and the farm/zoo tooling (or elements of it), which is why the US pretend Britains have that mouthful of a brand 'wuhabritain', the attached image is the current carding of spare tractor/harvester drivers, from Tomy, who still use the last common iteration of Britains official logo.

Brian Berke had purchased them for a project he's working-on, for which there will be one or two posts in the fullness of time here, but they are in the long-queue at the moment, maybe for the autumn or winter, there's a lot of nostalgia wrapped-up in them!

Note the painted-overalls are designed to tie-in with the main tractor brands (most are made in the same factories, they just change the body-shells), we see here New Holland, John Deer, Massey Ferguson and Claas/JCB I think/suspect. When you spend £180k or whatever it is these days, you get a free set of corporate overalls.

 I was that guy in red, I was dead-proud of my MF 'body-suit', it zipped right up the front so you could take a pee behind the hedge (or the tractor wheel!), had elasticised, wooly sleeve-cuffs, but loose trouser-legs to go over work-boots, or inside welly's and was made of something pretty tough as it lasted for years and was second hand when I got it -  well, when your uncle gives you his old tractor, he gives you his old overalls!

Thanks to both Brain and Theo for the shots, it's all grist to the mill, and all appears here, eventually!

F is for Follow-up - Koho Wild West

I lied! When I said I'd found some other Koho's in the sort-out after taking the shots the other day I think I stated it was another of the larger and two of the smaller which had turned-up, but it was the other way round; with two of the 70mm and a 40mm coming out of the pile!

So, sorry for that clear attempt to deceive with a wild invention, but anyway, and in the meantime reader Theo van der Weerden found a few figures and something even more interesting, so let's have a check back at 'chez' Koch und Hofmockel's Wild West figures now . . .

Two 70mm figures to accompany my painted Calamity Jane; both native Americans and one armed with a Winchester, so she won't be getting her lebensraum with any ease! They are both slightly flat in sculpting, which probably has more to do with the ease of production than any deleiberate look back at earlier 'flats'; Calamity herself had both hands pushed forward, so although she has a similar base, she lacks the more-obvious two-dimensionality.

Theo provides a third pose of Indian and the larger version of the smaller cowboy we saw the other day and - in the right hand pair - a new plastic colour. There is more detail to the larger figures, with finer etched detail on the cowboy's hems and scarf, but the large mould release-pin mark mars the figure slightly, visible on the chest of the Indian, there is almost certainly one on the back of the cowboys, as all mine - in both sizes - suffer from them.

Nothing exciting; a new colour, he seems to match Theo's cowboy in being a slightly heliotrope red, but I can't say for sure, mine is sun-faded and photography can play havoc with true-colour! Again; the larger manufacturing mark on his back, and I feel this figure is more central or South-American in detailing?

This - also from Theo - is lovely! It's a blow-moulded Teepee (Tipi)! The flap of the entrance being cleverly contrived along the join line, but with the pole-bundle reduced to a decorative finial, by the limitations of the technique. If anyone has a spare one of these, it's gone to the top of my 'wants' list, despite the 'infant toy' look . . . or - perhaps - because if it!

Reverses of all mine, just to get another image up here . . . quite an unsung maker; Koho, despite being in there with the whole Jean-Big-Dom-Manurba-Heinerle band of Wundertüten suppliers, and possibly sharing a sculptor with Leyla?

And many thanks to Theo for the new information.

Beeju is for EVB Plastics

The title of this post was the complete opposite, but when I went in search of the latter link, I found I'd already used it!

From before the idea of rack-toys as we know them, these would have filled the same pocket-money niche, and the early ones date from the late 1940's, so contemporary with other early plastics makers like Airfix, Bell and Randell.

Graces Guide tells us they were making a patent application for "Improvements in and relating to the attachment of axles to toy wheeled vehicles" as early as 1946, while by the following year were listing "Moulded Plastic Toys, Cars, Aeroplanes, Boats, Tops, Dolls, Trains, Plastic "Mah Jongg" Indoor Game, Prototype Electric Toy Motors...", of which my samples are pretty pathetic, but there's enough for a post on the civil stuff today (although I think we've seen most of them before?), and the military another day!

Comparison between an early dairy lorry collecting the churns from farm-gates (as was still quite common when I was younger) on the left and a later (1960's) version, not that while the silver one is perfectly stable in a bog-standard, brittle, 'kit' polystyrene plastic, the yellow one is a more unstable styrol or phenolic/ureic polymer of some type which is - like most of their early production - starting to distort.

Also, while the later model is a vaguely recognisable long-nosed Bedford or Morris lorry, the earlier example is (or 'was' in its day -) a more futuristic-looking fictional design.

Cleaning algae off a Penn

Plax fish-tank ornament!

A mid-era fire appliance/turntable ladder-truck, you can see from the remnants it should have three crew; one sat further-down from my headless ghost-rider, the other behind him on the opposite side. I think they had so many of the old 1950's production figures in a bin somewhere that they went on using them until the company faded from the scene, consequently the figures tend to be very brittle or are often missing altogether.

This version has no passengers in the cab (compare with the yellow milk truck) as it has no floor/chassis.

A 'proper' fire engine, with what is actually the same ladder, but locked in as a load, although you can slip it out to play scenes, it does have a floor and crew! It is also building a coating of dusty-pink 'leechate' which I didn't think to clean-off until I was putting them away again!

The last iteration (still with the same ladder) is not trying terribly hard to belong to a fire brigade, possibly becasue it's a telephone company truck (the difference between fire-bell and cable-loop is marginal, but this would appear to be the fire bell?) being in multiple colours (it has red wheels!), as a lot of the late production was, just attractive 'pester-power' stuff for no money. I think it's supposed to be an incident-control wagon; the same body was issued as an ambulance and - with a camera in place of the bell - as an outside broadcast TV unit.

In the lower shot you can see three generations of underside, the later ones having a more realistic arrangement of 'things'. Beeju also had friction versions with a more substantial chassis-plate to take the weight and stressing of metal/flywheel mechanisms. In the larger scales/with larger toys they also offered battery-operated and clockwork internal mechanics.

This is probably what EVB Beeju are best known for amnoung toy-fair brousers, they did many vertions of single and double-decked coaches, buses, trolly-buses (here on the left) and open-topped omnibuses, in many colours - we looked at these in close-up a while ago [check tag list] so I won't wax further!

A couple of other pieces marked Beeju, we only recently looked at a better version of the Native American canoe, but I mentioned this one on that occasion, so here it is, you can see where the oar used to be, and comments are the same as for the figures really, although I wonder if some antique-dealers back in the day may have whipped some of them to make faux 'ivory' spoons for Chinese snuff-bottles.

The little car is more of a puzzle; approximately N-gauge compatible (but probably too early for that system), I have images of similar designs being used with a larger, boxed, car-ferry toy, or being used as loads on flat-bed versions of some of the lorries above, but none are the same vehicle/design as this, and none have a hole in the driver's seat (UK side).

The hole could be for fixing to something, or for a driver-torso, but the other micro-cars have no figures (larger 1:43rd'ish toy cars do), so it may be from an - as yet - unknown playset, or car transporter?

As mentioned above, I'll look at the military another day, but I also have a small WWII mosquito (seen here passim) and a little boat, neither of which have been sorted to the Beeju tub yet!