K is for Khaki Madness!

Which isn't very mad at all; certainly no madder than trolleys and a lot less madder than reefers, but there's a lot of it about at the moment! Mostly in PW, but . . . as part of a conversation which used to be 'These might be Trojan' or 'Are they Kentoy?', and which is now 'Could be BR'.

But as these are metal, I thought they could go here, I have sent some of the polymer stuff to Paul at PlasticWarrior Magazine where the conversation has mostly taken place, and there will be more here and/or there.

I saw these going for a song back in September (if the photo-dates are anything to go by, sometime in the late summer/early autumn anyway!) and got them for the initial bid, they look to be a set of home or 'shed industry' soft-metal casts, given a commercial twist, probably around Christmas time . . . at some point in the 1950's?

They were rather dirty and the card had 'had-it' (seems to have narrowly avoided immolation!), also by the time they got to me several figures had broken free, so I determined to remove them all.

The card (which may have lain in a long-gone box) had been cut from a crate of Chivers canned fruit! For those with better research tools than me this may help date them as while I think Chivers are still around as a brand-mark for set-jelly deserts, and have vague recollections of them being behind a range of jams and/or marmalade when I was a kid, I certainly don't remember them producing canned-fruit?

And even if they are still around (I haven't looked in Sainsbury's) they will be no more that a trade mark for a subsidiary of some global behemoth like Nestle, working through a subsidiary like Mondelez or De Monte, out of some anonymous carcass-rendering plant on the edge of a rural market-town somewhere!

Cleaned-up they were quite shinny! Twelve poses/items, and all pretty recognisable, with the slight incongruity of a colonial-era highlander in a kilt with neatly blanko'd webbing and solar topee!

You get eight combat poses and four guys in more base-area or sentry-duty type attitudes . . . almost a 'Home Guard' line-up! I think Crescent are the origin of most, although - believe me - these are lumps of solid stuff which probably contains more lead than was healthy then, let alone now! And not the hollow-castings of the donor's figures.

When mentioning these types in the past I've muttered Agasee under my breath (only because I happen to have a copy of their catalogue somewhere), but there were several makers/suppliers of this kind on home-casting mould, and people are always quick to 'correct' with the German originator of most; Schneider!

Where these differ from others is in having a sort of waffle-pattern to the bases/undersides, which I suspect might be a hinged plate closed on the hot metal to force material into the extremities with excess liquid squeezing out of the waffle channels? It would make a hell of a mess wouldn't it?

Scratch-that, I'm over thinking it!

But it's an oddity nevertheless and does point to a three-part mould, as you'd have to lift the 'waffle-plate' before you could remove the figures from the other half of the main mould OR hinge both halves away leaving the figures on the 'waffle-plate'?!!

There were two reason for my investing in some heavy-metal tat on this occasion; the obvious being that I seem to have found [one of] the donor[s] for my plastic one, I won't add much as I think we've already visited it about four times in the last couple of years, but that's four sizes now, in two types, two materials and one games manufacture's name (Glevum Games 'Dirt Track Racing'; thanks to Adrian Little) associated with what is basically the same sculpt!

Returning to the conversation around BR and the other reason for purchase; the prone figures are of the most interest to us in the plastic's-wing, here compared with a couple of my 'Trojans', they are not exactly the same - the polymer-lots' prone rifleman for instance, has a straitened right arm and a reinforced left arm, simplified rifle and there are differences to the small pack and pass-pocket - but that's not the point I'm illustrating, just that these sculpts were common at the time, and there are different mould sources for a number of figures whether designed for white-metal or plastic.

I bid on this at the same time, but missed it - despite a broken bi-pod! Anyway, he's been discussed in the conversation, the Johillco Bren-gunner, with a variant at the front (raised head to compensate for higher weapon) but the same legs!

And here he is in a scan from the Shilham Miniatures catalogue, along with several of the others,  Shilham was operating about ten years ago when I picked the catalogue up from one of the London shows I think, but I can't find the firm on-line so they may have gone the way of all flesh, it could be longer (15-odd years?) and they were probably using old Agasee moulds, although - as I've mentioned before - there were a couple of mould (or mold!) suppliers in the US until quite recently (one may still be going?) and there will be others . . . have you seen what these moulds go for on feebleBay, it's all maths - "How much is the ingot-metal, what can I charge per-figure/per-set, how much have I made from the moulds I've already bought, ergo; I can bid this much silly-money!"

Indeed, when you start looking, there's tons of it around, one bloke is charging lottery-winnings for old Johillco and Reynolds pirate re-casts, and he'll get the money from the same guys shelling out 60/70/80-quid for a new metal radio-operator! I only bought this set because it was so clearly dirty and with a card on its last-legs; it had to be genuine!

K is for Kulikov, the Battle of Kulikovo

We looked at these briefly a while ago when Mark (Serge) sent us a shot I couldn't resist putting-up, but I did say at the time we would return to them, as they are quite simply some of my favourite figures / one of my favourite sets. And while I'd always intended to show them, and knew all about them from 2009, it's taken a while to do them the justice they deserve . . .

. . . as for the longest time I only had the three, two bought from Chris Smith back in the Queen Charlotte Hall days (probably - from the subsequent correspondence - 2008?) of Plastic Warrior Magazine's show in South West London, the third coming in since?

He had one of those 'bar meal' baskets with a load of them and being a tight-wad (and STILL - at the time - a small-scale only collector) I chose one each from either side in two of the nicer colours (I now wish I'd chosen one of the putty grey ones as they seem the least common!), because I'd gone 'over-scale' with Russian flats a few years earlier!

This autumn, I got into the habit of buying one or two stand-out pieces every fortnight on feebleBay, and one of those purchases was the latest iteration on the Kulikov set, which are currently available in 'Army' bags from Plastmaster in Russia and this is how they arrived, the one; short and fat the other; long and thin (shades of André Maurois' Patapoufs et Filifers!), both half-empty . . . but complete!

Header artwork differs on the two, and the crinkly, card-less bags with a metallic-foil like printing is very Chinese and redolent of other rack toys prepared for European jobbers and the bazaars of the Middle East, I've found a few now and Peter Evans has sent some to the Blog (see RTM's passim).

Here they are from one side . . .

. . . and the other!

Issues over the years seem to follow this order, but it's not necessarily accurate or definitive, and there may be a step missing, in addition, TSC (Toy Soldier Company) seem to have been the main source for them in the USA and I don't know if they went-out lose, in Russian or Chinese packaging or re-packed in TSC bags?

LKZ / Leningrad Carburetor Factory - Original Issues (1980's)

• ·         Red/Blue
• ·         Red/Charcoal
• ·         Red/Navy Blue-black
• ·         Turquoise/Orange
• ·         Yellow/Sky Blue
• ·         + Chalk-marl/Putty Grey, Brown, Dark Turquoise, Gunmetal (and others?)

Alisa / 1-Toy (Moscow) - Interim Issues (1990-2000's)

• ·         Gold/Orange

Plastmaster - Recent/Current Issues (parent was Playdorado, now Knopa-Knopatoys)

• ·         Gold/Silver

Vita Productions (Hong Kong) - Holder of the Tool/s? They also re-issue one of the 1917-1922 Civil War sets with a tchanka-wagon and seem to re-bag Supreme/SP Toys Knights and Saracens sets

Which gave me a nice battle, with the three extra chaps!

While I waited for the overdue set from the USA, and as the Blog post (you are now reading) started to take shape, I asked Chris if he had any left, and he sent me a shot of his in nice subdued/pastel shades of pale blue and yellow.

As mentioned above, Mariya translated these back in 2009, and I sent it to Chris, who'd provided copies of the inserts to any interested customers.

[I have a literal translation, but this is the grammatical one]

HISTORICAL NOTE

At the beginning of the 14th century, while [as?] the power of Moscow grew, the wider Russian people began to fight against the Mongol/Tartar hoards for their freedom from slavery.

On the 8th September 1380 at Koulikov in the fields by the banks of the river Don a decisive battle was fought between an army of the 'Golden Horde' under Mamai Khan on the one hand and a Russian army led by the great Count Dimitri Ivanovich Donski of Moscow on the other.

The Battle - where the Tartars were defeated - became known as the Battle of Koulikov

History states that the battle began with a dual between two 'champions', one from each side, being Peresvet, a warrior monk for the Russians and a Mongol warrior named Chelubei, both of whom died in the course of the battle.

"Koit", Narva. 4272-1991.20.000 [probably village of Koit/town of Narva?]

The other insert translates thus;

Manufacturerd [by the] Leningrad Component Factory [Possibly 'metal-fabrication factory']

Named Koybishev [Koybishev is a famous General]

Name [of game] "Kolikov Battle" [Battle of Kulikovo]

Item [Art.No.]: IPI-0231891

Price 10 Rubles. 00 Kopeks [Expensive for a toy of this type]

Standard Number 17-296-75       Technical Control No. 37.306.011-91

For children between the age of 7 - 12

[The next two pertain to the over-printed stamps]

Quality Control Stamp:   [18-OTK-22 ] Date of Issue: [26 Dec. 1991 ]

Contents List
1. Mamai Khan [x]1 [Leader of the defeated Mongols]
2. Hun warrior with saber [x]1
3. Chelubei [x]1 [Personality]
4. Hun Standard  ['bunchuk'] Bearer [x]1
5. Hun warrior with bow and arrows [x]1 [Composite] [this is the two-man vignette]
6. Hun warrior with bow [x]1 [simple] [this is the rear-shooter]
7. Hun warrior with shield on his back [x]1
8. Russian mounted warrior with sword and shield [x]1
9. Russian warrior with bow [x]1
10. Russian flag bearer [x]1
11. Russian 'Opalchenets' warrior with horn [x]1[militiaman with a bear-spear]
12. 'Peresvet' [x]1 [Personality]
13. Russian mounted warrior with sword [x]1 [raised?]
14. Count Demitri Donski [x]1 [leader of the victorious Russians]
15. 'Box' [carton/case/liner]
16. Box [outer]
17. Historical reference sheet

"Koit", Narva. 4271-1991.20.000 [Repeated]

Leningrad
Manufacturing
Alliance

'Toy' (Igruschka)

In the meantime, I had found another colourway, in the US, these matching the ones I'd originally procured from Chris all those years ago; 'aqua' blue and Chinese orange. But . . . these have a carbon footprint you wouldn't believe, well you'll have to! First is their trip to the 'States (which may have been back in the 1990's when these were suddenly available about the place, such as Chris's little basket of mixed colours), they then came to London . . . where they sat in a Royal Fail cage for three or four days before . . .

. . .being sent to Thailand for Christmas! So fuckwitted, and when I eMailed them they claimed no knowledge of the act, nor that they had even/ever been in possession of them, lying shitbags!

Well, if ever a seller deserved the feedback "Top eBayer . . . A++++" it's lg_minis, who finally got his money on the 20th January, for an item he'd posted on the 3rd or 4th of November! In the meantime, and despite much co-operative eMailing from him and I and the USPS (not our lying Parcel Farce though!) he had given me a refund when we basically gave up all hope of ever seeing it, only for it to turn-up about two months late!

While all that was happening I was having (ongoing) problems with Paypal, and despite ringing them and requesting several new passwords I can't get into my account, so he had to list something crummy for the full price so I could BIN, I suggested he list a stick or a chewed pencil, but he listed some tatty ('ish, but rather nice!) aviator sunglasses, which despite my paying within an hour or two; already had a watcher!

Oh Dear! It really was a 'mini adventure' and I register my thanks to LG again here!

All of which gives us a current total as seen above. And thanks to Chris, and Mark/Serge for their part in this story over the years!

I've seen a note that Chinese pirates copied the set, dropping one of the foot poses, but every set I've seen is complete, the author of the note didn't identify which pose was left-off the piracies and with the mould in China (Hong Kong) and in general use, there's no real need for a knock-off set?

The internet is full of them, and they aren't particularly rare, but they are really nice! A link to Lev Razumovsky (the artist's) pages is to be found on the original 2017 article, where you will find the hard-plaster moulds, sketches and other toy stuff he was behind.

T is for a Tale of Three Trolleys

Well, it's all got to appear here eventually, so by way of box-ticking toward that goal, and because I picked-up the first, die-cast version the other day, it's trolley madness at Small Scale World today; like Reefer Madness but with less murder, divorce and . . . err . . . madness . . . maybe?

Wardie's Mastermodels OO-gauge compatible 1:76th scale die-cast platform/post/parcel/baggage trolley and trailer, this one in an odd colour - as far as railway company liveries is concerned - but I don't know if they came in other colours?

The driver too is die-cask zamac/mazak and plugs-in loosely to two holes in the standing-platform, the control/power lever (sort of dead-mans handle) for these, which is not modeled, were on the face where his left hand is hinted at being, I think?

Merit inherited some of the BJ Ward moulds when the latter went bust and unpaid workers took themselves and some moulds over the road to Randall's in Potters Bar, or so the story goes - one suspects that actually Merit probably shelled-out for some of the intellectual (or actual) property?

Later Merit and current Modelscene sets only supply one unpowered trailer, but the early 'matchbox' issues (which aped the earlier Mastermodels boxings) had two.

Merit have re-cut the driver thought, whether as a new tool, or just in 'cleaning' the cavities//re-servicing the tool, I don't know.

 Airfix's set (bottom right) dates from 1958 (if memory serves) so was probably more contemporary than copy, but they have 'previous form' and the Wardie one would have been around by then I think so . . . no matter, it gives us our trio! I'll chuck a different comparison in the relevant entry on the Airfixfigs Blog.

C is for Culpitt's Cake Characters

We did look at one of these ages ago I think, there was a pre-'how they come in' trope post on some stuff I had found in a cake decorators which closed a few months later here in the 'Glass Menagerie' as some call our mini-mall; the Hart Shopping Centre, currently 80% closed and about 40% unoccupied long before Covid!

Anyway, after I found that Goofy (for it was he!), I went through all the vinyl's (which tend to pile-up in a TBS box [To Be Sorted]) and found two more, then I picked up another three the other day, with a duplicate, so here's the Culpitt's take on Schleich/Papp/Heimo-Bully type PVC Disney Characters.

Minnie, Micky x2, Goofy and Donald, I have no idea how many there were, or who made them, they could be Hong Kong, or contract manufactured by any of the above named, or Comics Spain, Plastoy or some as yet nameless, local concern? Remember someone round 'er ran the Timpo cat-pair tool in PVC? And with two Mickey's we might be looking at two sets of four main characters, giving from a minimum of eight, up to twelve or more sculpts?

That's a few of them anyway!

News, Views Etc . . . New Stock at Barneys Emporium of Good Things!

Perfectly timed to meet my return to Blogging, here's the latest news from Barney over at Herald Toys and Models;

"This week we have a good collection of Airfix mounted toy soldiers, a large collection of Speedwell/UNA/VP American Indians. Arriving shortly is a large collection of Herald farm models, together with a good collection of Britains/Herald Swoppet Wild West Cowboys and Indians."

Vectis have auctions ongoing too (today?), but I won't get back on track with those updates until next week.

W is for Well Now! That's Interesting!

It's nice to put a question to bed, even when it was more of a mystery than a full question-mark, but in this case it probably should have been flagged-up as more of a full question-mark to begin with!

We looked at the - technically - Air Force, cold-war figures from Deluxe Reading/Topper Toys just over two years ago here, at which time I mused that the orange ones might be Politoys output in Italy (who apparently handled the sculpts), but it turns out . . .

. . . they were Thomas Toys! I'm not getting it out of the bag until I find a second one, but I can assure you it's the same figures, with a Jeep which is also not the well-known Thomas-Taffy-Poplar design, but neither do I believe it's Deluxe Reading? If nothing else it's a better sculpt than the hiddeosity which accompanies the Deluxe Reading GI's!

There are no visible marks on the Jeep (which is way over-scale at about 1:24th) to help ID the supplier, or to suggest it might have been a late design of Thomas themselves - which nevertheless remains a possibility?

The suspicion is that Deluxe Reading here in the UK ran the tool in orange polymer as the contract manufacturer for the figures, while - possibly - a third party provided the Jeep, the whole being a typical beach toy; sandcastles; for the use of, as marketed by Thomas?

The card looks old, but the figures - as Deluxe - soldiered-on into the 1970's long after Alden Industries took over Thomas's US operation (if they [the figures] were even available when Thomas were around?), meaning either that Thomas UK carried on for a while (I don't have the relevant Plastic Warrior guide in front of me!) or Poplar (who did a lot of this sea-side stuff) continued to use the brand-mark?

Note that the TNT mark reads;

NTT

While I've had the Deluxe Reading's out, it struck me that the Blue Box 'Secret Missiles Base' figures are also copies of or based on the Deluxe' figures, but being (above) more like the navy guys from the smaller scale range, although this set on Moonbase Central had closer copies of the Air Force ones, also with the flesh painted-in.

The Singapore mark would tie them into one of at least two Blue Box factories in the island nation, but a lot of the Redbox farm and zoo sets tend to carry a Singapore mark, so using the Tai Sang parent for attribution might be safer . . . now we know they all shared the same chairman for over fifty years despite the best efforts of the PSTSM to say otherwise by inventing a whole port/facility!

U is for Ultrapenciltop!

We looked at these years ago when I did a pencil-top round-up, but one or two more have come in including a rather fetching white one (from Chris Smith or Peter Evans), so I thought I'd do a new shot for the family photo-album and share it with you.

I muttered something about super-boy last time I think, but the top figure is supposed to be Ultraman or some similar 1970's Japanese TV character, the robots don't seem to fit Ultraman's 'Mechas' though so may be from other series'; Manzinger or Gundams or something. Four poses found and five clear colours with a lilac variant of the purple and redder-oranges, or an orangier red!

The new addition, definitely the smartest, he's a minter! I'll thank both the above named as things have been pretty chaotic around here and they've both sent stuff since I called a halt to blogging, while a lot's been combined/sorted and I've shot loads of stuff, but lost track of some origins! 

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