MKI is for Московский Комбинат Игрушек

Or . . . Moskovskiy Kombinat Igrushek, literally translated as Moscow Combine [of] Toys, properly the Moscow Toy Factory, one of the 20-odd which were grouped under the Krugozor 'super combine' (which I mentioned the other day) for the late 1970's through to the 1990's, they (MKI) managed to survive and hive themselves off again!

I love these, I only have one pose, but I have pictures of all of them and will slowly build a collection, also, they were - I believe - originally sold in matching sets, horse and rider in the same colour (there are many colours), with a non colour-matched lance or spear, if required; some have sculpted-in weaponry, swords and the like.

Different sources state that they were copied by a co-operative in Odessa (under collectivisation this would have been a permissive thing, like the different sets of Progress revolutionary cavalry we've seen here at Small Scale World in the past), copied by a Polish company and re-issued under Krugozor, while someone was supposed to have issued a complimentary 'new' figure a few years ago, but I now can't find the details of that?

This is my original MKI jobbie, he's a synthetic-rubber/PVC (like Malyesh's output), and has a larger ring-hand hole, so gets a kebab stick as his replacement lance!

The sculptor of the originals is given as Mikhail Anoshin and what I love about them is the stylisation, they remind me almost of the Bayeux tapestry, or - more poignantly - the work of Russian artist Ivan Bilibin, whos work I've loved since I picked-up a book of his theatrical/operatic stage-designs in 1981 or '82, and an exhibition of who's work, in London, I managed to get to, in the early 1990's.

Mine is the 'Russian knight' I believe (or Bogatyr, contemporary of the Redcat Rus we saw earlier today), but which one I'm not so sure, there seem to be two? This is a later version/copy in polyethylene; it's a dense one too, which makes the rider a bit stiff for the horse, but a good shove does the trick! He has a smaller ring-hand hole, so gets a toothpick!

The set would appear to be a 12-count, but with the copies and possible mould-damage at some point leading to a new horse and possibly some detail changes, it is now an arguable 13 to find? There is a good thread on them here, and armed with the scratch info' here presented (for the first time in English?), you won't need Russian-language to enjoy the pictures, the sculptor is seen at work on them on page three, there's a stunning line-up at the top of page five, while page six has the 'main 12' in high-resolution.

These are the supposed '13' of them:

• 1. Polish Winged Hussar
• 2. Knight (Teutonic/mid-late medieval)
• 3. Bogatyr (early/Rus knight + Polish copy)
• 4. Roman
• 5. Saracen
• 6. Tatar
• 7. Hussar
• 8. Cuirassier
• 9. Cossack with Spear
• 10. Red Guard (two versions of horse)
• 11. Dzhigit/Zaporozhye with Saber (Ottoman/Caucasian and Central Asian horseman)
• 12. Budenovets (revolutionary horseman)
• 13. Kuban/Don Cossack (on a cuirassier horse with 'harem' trousers) 

While, as I said above; MKI extracted themselves from Krugozor after the fall of the 'curtain' and can be found, still-trading, here.

Red is for Cat

A real box ticker here, rather like them, don't know much about them, although their WWII stuff was all over the place about five years ago (Peter Evans sent the Germans to the Blog I think, and I'm not sure they got covered properly?), but to get Redcat (for it is they!) into the tag list, here's nothing!

Modern Russian producer, but not charging 40, 60 or even 80-quid for the set, but rather a few dollars with six dollars postage! Which is the intrinsic value of a handful of made in China rack-toys - for that is what we have here, bagged with a header card and manufactured in a tough ethylene, or a polypropylene/nylon type polymer!

Sold simply as 'Soldiers' СОЛДАТИКИ = SOLDATIKI = soldiers, and as 'set II' by the seller, I've not encountered a set I, nor had the seller got one (I asked!), so they may be stand alone or a continuation of a series? I think they represent Russian knights of the12-14th Century period.

They reminded me of the recent third or fourth generation copies of the old Marx knight sculpts, imported by Padgett Bro's./A-to-Z, and while there's no actual connection I took a shot and hopefully you can see what I was thinking of!

Weapons on the new figures are a bit leery or oversized and the mace (?) on the far right needs . . . something! Work; it needs work!

A first outing for Redcat in the Tags/on the Blog, so a bit late for a box-tick, but I'm only human! These are some of the other sets mentioned above and I'll try to find the Germans and get them up here.

Occasionally you take a couple of shots which - if animated together - produce a slight 3D effect and this is one of those cases, the two shots used here would normally have been deleted in favour of the upper image in the second picture above, but they make a fun thing!

News, View Etc . . . Vectis - Late October

End of October press releases for Vectis Actions, which kicks off with tomorrow's sale on Fire Engines, I don't know if this is part two or the previous collection, or the previous collection rescheduled? Anyway Fire Engines tomorrow!

Lot 3024

Tuesday 20th October 2020
The Mike Linham Fire Engine Collection - starts 10:00hrs

"The Mike Linham Fire Engine Collection to be held on the 20th of October features over 600 lots of boxed and unboxed models, including Fire Engines, Fire Chief cars and vehicles, Station houses, boats and Horse Drawn wagons. The collection includes scarce models, sets, presentation sets, trade boxes and kits and includes tinplate, plastic, pressed steel, and diecast. Manufacturers include Marklin, Schuco, Mettoy, Timpo, Chad Valley, Charles Rossignol, Hubley, and Lego plus Corgi, Dinky, Triang Spot-On, Lledo and many others."

Catalogue and download

Lot 4361

Thursday 22nd October 2020 10:00am
Specialist Matchbox & Modern Die Cast Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The Specialist sale to be held on the 22nd of October starts with The Californian Collection, a nice selection of Dinky vehicles, Trade packs, Sets and accessories, plus catalogues and promotional ephemera, Pre-War, French Dinky and rare variations. The sale continues with a Dinky Ex-Shop Stock Collection, 18 lots of Dinky aircraft, ships, military and space vehicles. Plus, The Matchbox Code 2 Collection, featuring 47 lots of Matchbox Models of Yesteryear mixed code 2 groups, and a Private Owner Collection includes road, racing, rally cars and Dioramas from manufacturers such as Vanguards, Minichamps, Spark (Minimax), Remember Models, SMTS Model, Schuco and many others. Further items include Dinky Pre-War, cars, commercials, emergency vehicles and military; Corgi, Triang Spot-On, Matchbox Superfast, and Regular Wheels, Minichamps, Revell, plus decal sheets, groups of White Metal parts and advertising literature."

Catalogue and download

Lot 5399

Friday 13rd October 2020
Toy and Model Railway Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The Model Train sale to be held on the 23rd of October starts with OO Gauge British Outline including part 2 of a Single Owner Collection; HO & American Outline, N Gauge and Hornby Dublo 2- & 3-rail. The sale continues with Wrenn, Triang and Triang Minic Motorway and OO Gauge Trix/Liliput, Brass and Exley OO/HO Kits/Kitbuilt. The sale will also include Meccano & Other Constructional Toys, Live Steam, Gauge 1 & Larger, G Gauge, and Hornby, further and modern O Gauge. The sale concludes with Books, Magazines, Catalogues, Railwayana/Railway Photographs, Pictures & Prints and our usual good selection of General Trains."

Catalogue and download

There's also a book and ephemera sale next tuesday (the 27th of Octotober), with a lot of old Sci-Fi paperbacks amoung the early lots and for which the blurb goes;

"The second Vectis Books and Works on Paper sale is to be held on the 27th of October. The sale will include further collections of Science Fiction and Fantasy Adventure, including Star Trek and Dr Who; Israel history, culture and wars; Military history, history and culture, Space, humour and cartoon, plus General Interest and a collection of Royal Airforce Limited Edition Autographed first day covers."

Catalogue and download

*************************************

The ongoing global health scare means various special instructions are still in place . . .

COVID - 19 RESTRICTIONS
 
Please note there is still NO viewing, or attendance in person at these Auctions.
 
Absentee bids can be emailed to admin@vectis.co.uk, or placed via the Vectis or Invaluable website, up until 2 hrs prior to the auction commencing.
 
ON THE DAY OF THE SALE, LIVE BIDDING is available on www.vectis.co.uk or www.invaluable.com, or TELEPHONE BIDDING can be arranged.

For telephone bidding please contact Vectis prior to the day of the auction. We will arrange for you to be involved live via telephone on the day of the sale. We will call you two or three lots prior to the lot being offered for auction.

There is no charge for telephone bidding.  

SHIPPING

Please be aware there is still a slight delay with our current despatch times.

Our packing team have been working hard to catch up with the 5 weeks closure we experienced in March/April. When we re-opened in April we did so with a skeleton staff, we are now back to full capacity and they have been working tirelessly to ensure your parcels are packed as quickly and professionally as possible; the team are now currently packing and despatching September Sales. 

We thank you for your understanding and patience in these unprecedented times. 

COLLECTION   

If you wish to collect items, we would ask customers to first call and pay for their purchases. Ask for a collection appointment date and time. This will allow the packing team to prepare your items and have them ready for you, reducing waiting times.  

PLEASE ENSURE YOU WEAR A MASK WHEN COLLECTING LOTS (UNLESS EXEMPT)

And Vectis can - as always - be contacted here;

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions
Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel - +44 (0) 1642 750616
Fax - +44 (0) 1642 769478
Sales [currently] commence at 10:30hrs 10:00hrs

Sothern Office (which is advertising for a part-time driver)
Unit 5A, West End Industrial Estate, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 1UB
Tel - +44 (0)1993 709 424

Frog is for Krugozor

Actually it means Flies Right Off [the] Grownd! This is definitely a convenient hook to hang stuff on; I've had the scans hanging around in Picasa for nearly two years while I wondered what to do with them, and the black-background'ed image is from nearly a year ago, from the photo-shoot of the parcel Chris Smith sent to the Blog before Christmas last, while the other shot is from a more recent donation also from Chris, they allowing me to get the others off the laptop whilst covering another Russian brand in passing, with - probably - British figures!

Not particularly rare, a Google-image search provides enough pictures of sets and part sets of the Frog F139 - RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) Oakley-class North Sea Lifeboat to work out that the kit seems to contain two of the plain, arms-down, standing poses and one coxswain/helmsman ('driver'!), advertised at 1:48th, they are 40mm figures and manufactured in 'kit' styrene.

Most of Frog's mould bank 'went East' at the end of the 1970's, where they have been rather passed around, most starting life with the Soviet-era Novo, as the Lifeboat did, only to turn-up in various colours, this tool is currenyly held by Alanger. However for a while there was a domestic issue of the model by Krugozor.

Literally translated (there's no direct translation) the larger text gives '<<Saver/Rescuee>> boat' where boat is the small word above the longer one. Obviously this is 'lifeboat' in English and a kit history is to be found here, albeit missing the Krugozor section!

The small banner - bottom right - translates as 'assembly model' or as we might say in the West/in English "model-kit".

Moscow Toy Tactory «Krugozor»

Krugozor was a large combine created in the early-1970's and formalised in 1975, by bringing together under a central management structure the assets of approximately 20 other factors in the greater Moscow region, including at least two of the Progress factories (Michurinsky plant and Moscow-proper), the 'Kid' factory (Malysh), the Moscow Doll Factory, the No.1 Soft Toy Factory (I kid you not) and others - probably including Horizon (Gorizont ) and Moscow Clockwork (Moskovskiy mekhanicheskoy).

A complication being that most of them continued to use their old logo's, now as 'brand-marks' of Krugozor rather than the former 'factory brands'! But the [two-kids] logo of Krugozor-proper slowly became dominant and is often found on the later stuff which is more likely to have survived with packaging.

From around 1973 through to about 1988, the various assets were brought together on one site, to create 'Europe's largest toy factory', and following the upheavals of 1989-91 it was transferred to private ownership where it continued to trade for some time, being a major supplier to the Mir department stores until the mid-2010's. The site is now a commercial park and office complex.

If you're familiar with the earlier versions of the kit, you will have recognised the artwork above as being a cartoon version of the Novo iteration's box-art and it would appear that the transfer sheet was replaced by card cut-outs on the bottom of the box, which was of the 'Airfix figure' design, opening both ends rather than the more standard lift-off lid type of model kit box.

Instructions for the placing of the cards!

Many thanks to Chris for the two lots of figures, it's another ticked-box here. A more detailed history of Krugozor - than the thumbnail above - can be found here and it is that which I used for producing this overview.

And; while I'm at it, here's F.R.O.G. on Wikipedia.

B is for a Bit of Fun!

 Well . . .

. . . that's got that sorted!

I've no idea who did this, it's a meme which has been going round the Internet for some time in various forms, but it's an inspired piece of comedy, perhaps not quite up there with Werfing Nebels but not far off!

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis This Week

I'm not being lazy in this hiatus, just idle! I've translated the ID info on 150-odd Russian brands and looked in depth at one of the later combines, which only serves to confuse the former as the "plants" of the later, retained as 'brand-marks', the former's "factory" 'brands'!

I've also got more Polish follow-ups in the pipeline, caught up with the condolence correspondence; apologies to anyone who wore a 'new' Christian name; I C&P'ed the first paragraph as it was all still a bit raw. Thank you all, both private messages and the post commentators.

And - best fun of all; one of TJF's shills tried to get me banned from another site, only problem with his grand plan being . . . he had to admit, in his complaint, to being both the people he was denying being one-half-of, in one of the private 'Mails . . . summing up the general level of innate stupidity which has accompanied all members of the PSTSM and their associates, in their dealings with me since the forked-tongue attacks of December 2016.

In the meantime we've had a press release from Vectis about this week's auctions and advance warning of the stuff latter in the month.

Lot 504

Tuesday 13th October 2020
TV & Film Related Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The TV and Film related sale to be held on the 13th October features a large collection of Vintage and Modern Star Wars items, including loose and carded figures, accessories and vehicles, plush items, Silver Anniversary Editions, Convention Exclusives and Gentle Giant carded figures. Further items include Transformers, Action Man, Batman, Terrahawks, Harry Potter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and He-Man. Plus diecast vehicles, Bigtrak, Tomas The Tank and other trains, Funko POP, and vintage games, comics and books. The sale will also include Care Bears, My little Pony, beanie babies and Disney Beanies, posters, and autographed displays."

Catalogue and download

Lot 1444

Thursday 15th October 2020 10:00am
Specialist Die Cast Sale
Matchbox Sale Featuring The Bruce King Collection Part 1 & The Mike Linham Fire Engine Collection Part 1 - starts 10:00hrs

"The Matchbox sale to be held on the 15th October features two impressive collections. The sale starts with Part 1 of the Bruce King Collection which includes over 340 lots of cars, commercials, buses and farm vehicles from Regular Wheels, Accessory & Major Packs, King Size and Models of Yesteryear. The Mike Linham Fire Engine Collection features Regular Wheels, King Size, Models of Yesteryear, Superfast, Super Kings & Speed Kings, and includes cars, engines and trucks, plus gift sets, fire stations, and horse drawn."

Catalogue and download

Lot 2501

Friday 16th October 2020
General Toy Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The General Toy sale to be held on the 16th of October features a number of boxed and unboxed groups from manufacturers such as Vanguard, Corgi, Matchbox, Minichamps, EFE and Lledo, plus single lots of Oldcars boxed transporters, Brooklin models, Corgi Haulier of Renown, Original Omnibus Company and Aviation Archive. Further lots include Scalextric, Airfix kits, vintage computer games and consoles, Lego, children toys, books and magazines, CDs and DVDs, plus football programmes and cabinets."

Catalogue and download

The ongoing global health scare (global except for Singapore, New Zealand, Vietnam . . . South Korea et al!) means various special instructions are still in place . . .

COVID - 19 RESTRICTIONS
 
Please note there is still NO viewing, or attendance in person at these Auctions.
 
Absentee bids can be emailed to admin@vectis.co.uk, or placed via the Vectis or Invaluable website, up until 2 hrs prior to the auction commencing.
 
ON THE DAY OF THE SALE, LIVE BIDDING is available on www.vectis.co.uk or www.invaluable.com, or TELEPHONE BIDDING can be arranged.

For telephone bidding please contact Vectis prior to the day of the auction. We will arrange for you to be involved live via telephone on the day of the sale. We will call you two or three lots prior to the lot being offered for auction.

There is no charge for telephone bidding.  

SHIPPING

Please be aware there is still a slight delay with our current despatch times.

Our packing team have been working hard to catch up with the 5 weeks closure we experienced in March/April. When we re-opened in April we did so with a skeleton staff, we are now back to full capacity and they have been working tirelessly to ensure your parcels are packed as quickly and professionally as possible; the team are now currently packing and despatching September Sales. 

We thank you for your understanding and patience in these unprecedented times. 

COLLECTION   

If you wish to collect items, we would ask customers to first call and pay for their purchases. Ask for a collection appointment date and time. This will allow the packing team to prepare your items and have them ready for you, reducing waiting times.  

PLEASE ENSURE YOU WEAR A MASK WHEN COLLECTING LOTS (UNLESS EXEMPT)

And Vectis can - as always - be contacted here;

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions
Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel - +44 (0) 1642 750616
Fax - +44 (0) 1642 769478
Sales [currently] commence at 10:30hrs 10:00hrs

Sothern Office (which is advertising for a part-time driver)
Unit 5A, West End Industrial Estate, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 1UB
Tel - +44 (0)1993 709 424

Heads-up - Forthcomming sales for later in the month

Tuesday 20th October 2020 - The Mike Linham Fire Engine Collection Part 2
Thursday 22nd October 2020 - Specialist Diecast Sale (this is a date change)
Friday 23rd October 2020 - Model Train Sale
Tuesday 27th October 2020 - Books & Works on Paper Sale

News, Views Etc . . . Heads-up - Auction

Not usually on my radar, but I've had notification of the following auction heading this way from Weiss in New York, USA, and they've got comics and comic-art coming under the hammer on Thursday 19th November (just in time for Christmas!);

Toys, trains and toy soldiers auction – more than 500 lots in all – on Thursday, November 5th, at 10 am Eastern time. The trains portion will feature more material from the Neil Padron estate, with high-grade and rare Lionel post-war trains. Toys will include Part 2 of a toy airplane collection, with many lots of Japanese friction and battery-op examples.

Weiss Auctions is always accepting quality consignments for future auctions. To consign an item, estate or a collection, you may call them at (516) 594-0731; or, you can send an e-mail to Philip Weiss at Phil@WeissAuctions.com. For more information about Weiss Auctions and the firm’s calendar of upcoming auctions, visit www.WeissAuctions.com. Updates are posted often.

Weiss Auctions
74 Merrick Road
Lynbrook, New York
phil@weissauctions.com
(516) 594-0731
http://www.weissauctions.com

About Weiss Auctions

Weiss Auctions is a full-service auction company specializing in the liquidation of estates and collections featuring fine art, antiques and collectibles.

K is for Kioskowce II

Well, if TJF's gonna' copy my output I'll copy his! Only in nationality of subject though (and Morawski is in the queue!), it is amusing; he spent six days trying to think of something 'as good as' and ended up following my format but without the research, translations or links! We - loyal readers - are supposed to think this makes him a 'legend' and me the idiot!

Anyway; this isn't copying layout or anything, it's harking back to a previous post here at Small Scale World, when we looked at the 'Kioskowce' (tobacco kiosk's) production of Andrzej Kawecki, based in Lódź (thanks to Konrad Lesiek for the information on that occasion). Also this's been in the queue for five weeks and I said it would post in a day or two; those five weeks ago!

This time we're looking at very similar sets from another producer; Spójnia supplied by (and thanks to-) Maciej Jasinski who reports memories of these figures being produced in Poland between around 1985 and 1987. he's also sent very high-resolution imagery; so be sure to open them in a new tab or window to get the full effect.

Three sets today; each is in a little bag with a stiff card to pull everything together before sealing which has been done with a bread-bag heat-sealer. Card-art is of the same type as seen previously with these Kioskowce and figures are copies of Western makers' output.

This is lovely as it has a version of the Airfix 'Wagon Train' box art, but with contents taken from Atlantic 'The West' cowboy set's Life on the Ranch (larger figures and Longhorns) or Stampede (smaller figures and buffalo-bison) sets. The quality of these is better than some previously seen Kioskowce - check the coffee-pot and fire - and look as good as the original Atlantic product.

This is even more quirky, as the more original card-art suggests the 8th, slogging their way up the spine of Italy, while the contents are most of the poses from both Airfix's [2nd version] German Infantry AND Matchbox's rival set, and again quality is very good for such diminutive clones.

The final offering today is the 14th Army, or elements of it! Artwork and contents from Atlantic's stable and it looks like the collection of pirate cutlasses (in lieu of kukris) that came with the original were reproduced, but are equally easy to lose!

Maciej also scanned the cards separately at a higher resolution, so we'll look at them now in the same order as above;

While on one level Spójnia (also the name of a top (?) Polish football team!) is just a branding, translating it in Google lead to 'bond', 'connect' or 'couplings' so there's maybe a reference to kits or models within the brand-mark, or teamwork?

As well as the aforementioned Andrzej Kawecki post, I have put the Globus and Universal issued Kioskowce on the British Paratroopers page of the Airfix blog and reading the blurb on the Kawecki post, I still have Napoleonics from Spojnia to come . . . so - next time I pass that box I'll dig-it out!

They (Spójnia) were based in Gdansk (previously Danzig, home of Solidarity) and I believe were still going, also known as Hobby EME, as a more conventional kit-maker (aircraft and AFV's) into the late 1990's?

I will organise some of the images a different way for use on the Wagon Train and German Infantry pages of the Airfix Blog for completion, another day and - in the meantime - many thanks to Maciej Jasinski for today's new to hobby, new to Blog and new to Internet, little-treat!

News, Views Etc . . . Herald Toys & Models

This is a bit old now, sorry, but stuff happens and the world turns-on without a backward glance, so suddenly a week or two have flown past!

Latest from Barney -

"We are pleased to announce the arrival of Part III of the Roger Saunders Collection. Roger built up an impressive collection of mainly Britains and Herald models over many years, including some old shop stock still in boxes. The latest installment includes some fine Britains English Civil War figures from Herald's Historical series."