A is for All The King's Men

No, not the old shop and poured 'new metal' maker, but the answer to the question-mark figure from Parker (clearly - now - a home-paint) which we looked at a while ago here.

Once I'd spotted them, looking for something else, I grabbed the cheapest one I could find on feebleBay as I was really only after the figures, consequently the one I ended-up with was a sun-faded one (most of them are, there was a period when printers used some really crap ink) and so this is enhanced somewhat in Picasa and is not true to life, but it gives you an idea!

The real reason for the shedding of shekels; The kings (left) are perfect 54mm accompanyment, which your own eyes will tell you leaves the knights (middle) knocking fifty-mil and the bowmen a tad over 45-millimeters. There are two 'army' colours with 1 king, 4 knights and 7 bowmen per side.

The board which looks like a conventional 8x8 is actually 7x8 and the movement controls make this a chess/draughts mechanism, but more constricted than the former, I did save the rules to the archive but didn't read them so can't bore you with them even if you want me too!

I rather like the little vignettes at either end of the board which are vaguely Bayeux Tapestry as it might have been rendered by a 1970's hippy, or a moonlighting Heavy Metal (Metal Hurlant) artist, of the day!

New employee . . . not! He's hopeless and we'll see more of him soon but suffice to say rather than sitting in boxes or climbing into bags, he likes inspecting individual 'mice' with his mouth . . . which is a fightey-bitey one, so I will have to watch the rarer figures carefully when I have them out!

Public Service Announcement - on behalf of the Do we Really Need a 'Royalty' Party

What colour will their blood turn-out to be?

Blue as a monkey's arse - apparently.

Andrew hiding from paedo-investigations (in Woking's Pizza Express! They won't be putting that on their flyers!), the Duke dying at 99 but no one actually admitting it, Anne on girlfr . . . err . . . husband number four? Or is she single these days? Charles, well, there's that whole Diana thing before Camilla, no, after Camilla, no, before . . . oops! Edward, a right Royal stand-up, on husban . . .  err. . . wife number 1, the horrible anus thing, isn't it time we were shot of the whole freeloading, dysfunctional lot of 'em?

And the whorey old excuse that a President would be worse (the 'horrific' example used to be Berlusconi, became Farage (rhymes with c**t) and is now Trump!)* belies the fact that we don't need two heads of state, we have a Prime Minister who does all the leading-function stuff and biggly-wiggly meetings, just keep him representing us as he represents us, we ARE after-all a representative democracy, or we're supposed to be!

*Giuliani would be a better stand-in for Berlusconi! I wonder if they go to the same guy to get their hair done?

T is for There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens

I was apologising to a correspondent and regular Blog Fan, the other day, for leaving not one but two poultry posts at the top of the home-page for three months (an irony in itself as the fascist Folgor once accused me of only posting 'cartoon mice and ducks' or something similar!), when he suggested I'd have been better-off calling the second one "There's nobody here but us chickens", which gave me this great idea!

I will get back in to posting in a week or so, one can't mope forever, but in the meantime; here are those chickens . . . 

They are some of the finest ivory carving you're likely to see, each pegged to the stand with a separate rod of ivory, funny stuff these days as you can't buy it, and you can't sell it, for perfectly obvious and 'good' reasons, so you can only enjoy the surviving stuff from yesteryear, while hopefully remaining conscious of what was wrong with it all along . . . Trump's Mid-West matrons might still believe in the Old Testament's invitation to us to hold dominion over everything, but it hasn't worked out that well has it?

About a perfect 54mm compatible, the cock slightly larger (but more fluffed-up) than the Britains' ones, it's an odd game of pooh-sticks isn't it, which will come first; the last living elephant or the loss of the right to even own something like this?

Cheers Andy!

One night farmer Brown was takin' the airs
Locked up the barnyard with the greatest of care
Down in the hen house, somethin' stirred
When he shouted, "Who's there?"
This is what he heard

“There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So calm yourself and stop that fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
We chickens tryin' to sleep and you butt in
And hobble, hobble hobble hobble with your chin”

“There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
You're stompin' around and shakin' the ground
You're kickin' up an awful dust
We chicken's tryin' to sleep and you butt in
And hobble, hobble hobble hobble, it's a sin”

“Tomorrow is a busy day
We got things to do, We got eggs to lay
We got ground to dig and worms to scratch
It takes a lot of settin', gettin' chicks to hatch”

“Ohh, there ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So quiet yourself and stop that fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
Kindly point that gun the other way
And hobble, hobble hobble off and hit the hay”

“Tomorrow is a busy day
We got things to do, we got eggs to lay
We got ground to dig and worms to scratch
It takes a lot of settin', gettin' chicks to hatch”

“There ain't nobody here but us chickens
There ain't nobody here at all
So quiet yourself and stop that fuss
There ain't nobody here but us
And kindly point that gun the other way
And hobble, hobble hobble off and hit the hay”

“Hey, hey, boss man, what do ya say?
It's easy pickings
Ain't nobody here but us chickens”

Late shot - Britains hen comparison

T is for Two - More Poultry!

Hey, it's Christmas and I always do 'other stuff' in December, and I meant to get this up yesterday, as a follow-up to the other one, managed the text, got the tagging done this morning, but only succeeded in finding the time to publish now!

It actually predates yesterday's post and is one of the 700-odd languishing in Picasa, when I titled the other post's folder 'Poultry' it defaulted to Poultry_1; reminding me this pair was there too!

I posted a growing sample of these a few years ago and thought it was worth a progress-shot; my growing flock of Cherilea 'large scale' hens and cockerels! Normally you only have one adult cock in a flock, as soon as the 'teenagers' start to look like wanting to fight, they go in the deep freeze! You can de-spur them to minimise damage if they are serving a larger flock in a big free-range setting, but it's easier to just have the one.

Many years ago, and soon after I first joined my father in Alderney we were given a bunch of poultry by the outgoing tenants of Rose Farm and made the mistake of letting two spurred cocks get together in a pen and they tore each other to hell, but separating them wasn't easy and they can do you damage when their bloods-up. And it's not just the spurs, they will be pecking to get an eye out.

'Q is for question time' on this one; it's hard polystyrene, stylised and semi-flat with an England mark on the starboard tail! Possibly from a large tin-plate truck or Doll's House accessory set, something like that.

A close up of the marking, needs a clean too, I think I've seen these in a pale greyish salmon-pink and possibly black, but I might be getting confused with the soft plastic ones with the heavy-cone bases, which turned out to be Thomas-Poplar and from a farm pick-up's accessory crate.

I'd like it to be Airfix, but suspect it's probably Kleeware or the Lines' family of Triang-Mettoy?

P is for Postponed Posts, Poultry and Pottering About!

Right, real life is going to make increasing in-roads for a while, it won't stop me posting, but some of the stuff penciled in for December will probably slide into the new year, other stuff won't happen and I'll pick at what's hanging around here half-done!

It's a pain, yet I can hardly claim 2020's been a vintage year, but I was hoping after a slow late-summer/autumn to pull a few stops out at the end; that probably won't happen now. A joint 'season' with Brain B has almost certainly gone for a Burton's, but I'll try to work at it for January, a space mini-season with another contributor will probably now be a single follow-up and plans for Santa's & Snowmen will wait for next year, but I have some Nativity in the can, which I'll try to get finished in the moments available!

I think I've mentioned before that increasingly I'm going for thematic/subject matter sorting of the collection, rather than maker/scale, and to that end one of the early subjects was the whole bird-world and poultry sector!

These are all the recent acquisitions (last 9-months or so), and some will have been seen before in H is for . . . 's, but getting them together to take to the relevant boxes in the loft was an excuse for another picture!

Clockwise in a spiral from the top left we have; a terracotta owl ornament, a probably French key-ring (wine and cockerels? It's not Barnsley!), a modern China goose in PVC, crappy HK turkey, British duck (Britains or Hillco? Another day!), Kinder flamingo, Crescent family group, a very-solid piece of - possibly cast iron - metal duck (modern), then a blow-moulded swan (probably from a Hong Kong doll's set), larger blow-moulded novelty duck, a green bird which could be an Indian Runner duck or a stretching goose, but is - I think - supposed to be a penguin and finally a novelty 'rubber ducky' in blue, probably a cracker or gum-ball capsule machine prise, also blow-moulded.

I'm actually building quite a group of those miniaturised bath-ducks! They were/are - along with swan sets -  a popular novelty and I've seen carded 'families' in different sizes.

With them were these wooden flats (from Peter Evans I think?) which I left in the bag for a reason, as I was pretty sure I'd another one!

As I was taking them up, I found another, a rather nice cockerel who could be that French/Portuguese family of PVC products being the same stiff material, but from the eyes I think he is a newer cartoon character by someone like Phidal?

When I took them up, I found the similar pickings from last year/early this year were sat on top of the stack waiting the 'full-sort', which was probably when I got the idea for this thematic post! And there was the other wooden flat!

Snaking down we have a pair of modern Chinese ducks, one large one small; we've seen these before, both from my collection and a contributor and they are always well painted - like owls, there is a sub-hobby who only collect these ornamental ducks.

The standing mallard-type is ceramic and probably a fair-ground prize or 'fairing', below him another well painted model of a goose (or non-UK-native swan?), another ceramic owl, a chewed 'chook', two more duckies, one a pink blow-mould, the other a 'proper' rubber duck with squeaker and key-chain hook and finally a moulten-glass sculpture which may be a duck with a broken upper beak, or some kind of tropical toucan thing? Always listed by hopeful evilBayers as Murano, they rarely are and I tend to pick them up in Charity shops for 50p

"Revenge of the Giant Chickens! Opens Bank-Holiday Monday, in a theatre near you! Be amazed, be shocked, and be sure to buy a choc-ice during the intermission!"

Quickly brought together, these are from larger Erzgebirge-style sets, and similar stuff exists in most countries, but from her garb I suspect some Eastern import, probably between the wars . . . Poland or Czechoslovakia?

I think I may have other animals (pigs/sheep) from the same set somewhere, and you do see them in rummage-trays at the 'London'  toy soldier shows in among the ratted hollow-cast, we imported a lot of Christmas decorations from both countries in that period, and we seem to have shipped-in a few of these!

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis - Early December

 Next two Vectis auctions are later today and tomorrow; nice things in both . . .

Lot 183

'Go Home' 

Thursday 3rd December 2020 10:00am
TV and Movie Related Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The TV and Film related sale to be held on the 3rd of December features an interesting collection from a Hasbro employee, items include standard samples and prototypes, from Transformers, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, and Star Wars. Further items in the sale include Action Man vintage equipment, accessories, outfits, vehicles and figures. Star Wars carded and loose vintage figures, Legacy Collection and 30th Anniversary collection; Planet of the Apes carded figures, Dr Who, Austin Powers, Lord of the Rings, He-Man Masters of the Universe, Star Trek and Superhero figures. The sale will also include My Little Pony, Mezco Studiocraft Enchantica figurines, Cherlilea Military vehicles, books, magazines, annuals, Lego, signed photographs and displays, and games."

Catalogue and download

Lot 1265
(see also 1266 and 1271)

Friday 4th December 2020
James Bond '007' and Specialist Die Cast Sale - starts 10:00hrs

"The James Bond and Specialist diecast sale to be held on the 4th of December starts with The Buckinghamshire Collection which features vehicles from Autoart, Minichamps, Kyosho, Corgi and Johnny Lightning, plus slot cars from Carrera and Scalextric. James Bond figures also feature, from Corgi, Action Man, Sideshow and Exclusive Toy productions, and the collection includes gift sets, props, books, memorabilia, and promotional items. The Sussex Collection features Corgi Gift sets promotional sets and posters, and The 50 Years of Bond Collection includes further Corgi vehicles and gift sets, Limited Edition Gift Sets, Autoart, Kyosho, Little Soldiers James Bond sets, figures, guns and pistols, Corgi Icon Figures, original and replica props, DVDs/VHS, advertising material, posters, and signed framed pictures. The sale will also include Part 2 of The Kempshott Collection, featuring Dinky buses and coaches, pre-war train sets and French Dinky; The Ian Townell Lotus Collection, a Mechanical Horse Collection and further items."

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)

Please note we will be closing for the Christmas break on Thursday 24th December

and will reopen Monday 4th of January 2021.

 

If you would like to collect your Lots before we close, please contact the office

to arrange a collection date and time.

 

And Vectis can - as always - be contacted here;

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
Unit 5A, West End Industrial Estate, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 1UB
Tel - +44 (0)1993 709 424

Public Service Announcement - On Trump's Progeny

 

Someone - who shall remain nameless to save him from being associated with my disrespectful shenanigans! - sent this as a follow up;

I've also seen some mock-ups of a My First Presidency (in Mattel branding?) which came with artwork suggesting further 'collectable' play sets! Personally I think he's losing his mind; Trump, not the contributor, him AND that nuttly-nuts lawyer of his!

C is for Ceremonial Christmas Cracker Cloned Copy Chaps

Finishing a brief look at the novelty end of the figure market as it pertains to British (or other) guards in bearskins with these Airfix clones, which we have seen before, and which I still need to put properly on the Airfix Figures Blog, but I only had one figure to-hand for the comparisons so these can go here and I'll re-shoot, pose-for-pose comparisons for the other Blog another day!

These are the better copies, and come with sharp-edged, smooth bases, also they copy both Airfix sets; Guards Band, and here; Guards Colour Party. Only the two poses have turned up so far as seen here - officer and ensign colour-bearer!

The band however (upper shot) seem to have been copied almost in their entirity, the exception being the drummers where both bass- and side- are replaced by a guy with a half-moon stuck in his tummy! In the top image the red sax-player on the far right is the Airfix original.

These are the lesser quality lot, they have both drummers, so while copying the same originating set, are otherwise unconnected to the other lot. Marked Hong Kong diagonally across the bases they are easy to separate into their respective 'groups', these also having chamfered or ogee edges to their bases. Airfix still to the far right - Guard's division; they're all a bit up themselves!

The second lot also appear in the Interesting Toys packaging, but both types seem to have been issued in Gum-ball machine capsules, 'Lucky Bags' and Christmas crackers, I'm sure they managed a window-chuck in Malta at some point and may have found their way into Piñata too?

W is for Wooden Warriors

I wonder (from the colour of the trousers more than anything else) if these weren't originally intended for, or commissioned by, someone in the Danish tourist industry? However I think I bought them over here, but to be honest I can't really remember when or where they came-in to the collection, just that they probably pre-date my visits to Herne in the 2010's, and wouldn't have been an eBay purchase?

The box is marked 'Taiwan' and nothing else, while it looks like a couple of the figures have 'Foreign' on the base but they are quite tight to the card sides of their shrink-wrapped tray, so that's not clear!

The blue collars and cuffs also point to Denmark rather than Britain and while other countries retain similar bear-skin headdressed ceremonial troops, I can only think of some in white uniforms or the Danes alternate dark (winter dress?) jackets. Also the cross belts are a bit of a giveaway!

A quick comparison with the closest similar figures; on the left is a current wooden guardsman with card arms, I've seen them being sold on feebleBay as cake decorations, but more commonly they are sold by crafters as doll's house's playroom toy soldiers.

The figure to the right is the relatively common Ertzgibirge figure, who would match the Taiwanese ones if they didn't have those large plinth bases! he usually comes one or two figures per little wooden village.

Evidence!

Danish tourist souvenirs?

News, Views Etc . . . A Few Links;

A Connecticut estate-auction is coming up on-line, with 'Lead Toy Soldiers' and 'Metal Toys & Figurines' in the descriptive blurb it may be worth  a looksee?

https://patch.com/connecticut/milford/classifieds/for-sale/185651/milford-connecticut-online-estate-auction

While Vivian Lord made the evening news on CBS and it looks like the 'Army Gals' will be out for Christmas, but what will be generally available as true toys, and what's only available as go-fund-me pre-order specials isn't made clear? She was briefly on Reddit too, but the post was removed?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christmas-how-a-7-year-old-won-the-battle-to-make-female-toy-soldiers/

I didn't realise Rahway was PSTSM! Oh well; he'll prove useful! In the meantime:

https://www.facebook.com/events/512899045951704/

And riveting Rosie's on Motherly, I wonder if Rahway will find a different link to the same story for this one!

https://www.mother.ly/news/how-a-7-year-old-girl-inspired-this-toy-company-to-make-female-army-soldier-toys

 

OTS's autumn number is now available in the Tradition shop

https://www.traditionoflondonshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=17149

Coverage of Tarn-et-Garonne: the Toy Museum of Montauban

https://theblend.ie/tarn-et-garonne-the-toy-museum-of-montauban-is-tf1s-christmas-favorite/

JFK and the Black Watch - 1963

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/nostalgia/1745173/jfk-and-the-black-watch-battalions-lasting-bond-with-president-john-f-kennedy/

This Is Colossal

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/11/simon-laveuve-miniatures/

and

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/09/miniature-calendar/ (more at the end of the article - Preiser again!)