F-UPP is for Follow Up to the Previous Post!

From the "If you're going to mention him in the text you might show them the bloody thing Hugh" department, come not one but two miners, one of which is definitely Australian!

Forgot I had this one (hiding in the 'mocherette' folder with all the Westair, Peltro and Kinder crap), his axe is broken, but a semi-precious stone that size will break most tools! In a copper alloy and 'antiqued' to match all those tourist pencil-sharpeners (probably retailed off the same shelf!), he's digging some interesting stuff - I think the pale one is a piece of Larimar, the dark blue a poor (or low-value) piece of Opal (Sapphire cabochon)?

This is the one I mentioned in the previous post; one has to assume he's from Wales, Scotland (at a pinch) or even Cornwall, but he too could be Australian, from the Ruhr, from the former Czechoslovakia (Ertzgibirge?) or even somewhere more exotic like Chile or South Africa; without a label we'll probably never know, although the stones should be a clue, he's standing on Marble (Italy?) and attacking something which looks to be a bit like unpolished Black Tourmaline or Enstatite?

The coppery one is around 25mm, this one is closer to a war-gaming 28mm and manufactured the same way; whitemetal in cold-cast rubber moulds, although I think the blob of Araldite is a post-retail 'mend'!

H is for How They Come In - They Come Back!

My late Mum was a hoarder, not the daytime schedule/early-evening, TV reality-show, whacko-piles of damp newspaper that eventually kills the occupant in a stairs triggered landslide of old news and sports reports type hoarder, but rather someone who went through the war and it's deprivations, and determined never to throw anything away which might be useful. Consequently the sorting of her estate has been a long, slow process - which is ongoing - and which has thrown-up some interesting stuff, among which was this . . .

. . . I'm not sure if it's an old J&J/Boots fabric-plaster box, or an early Cotton-bud/Q-Tip container, but the contents were momentarily a complete mystery to me (given that she knew I collected this stuff and would pass on the odd bit she did find), until I remembered she had taken a few pieces from my Brother and I, years ago (mid/late-1970's) to try her hand at casting them in silver, using the 'lost-wax' method, but with pre-formed plastics rather than wax sculpts . . . she may have intended to experiment with plaster moulds too, I can't remember.

The reminder of this event was actually a small Britains baby bear (of which I had several in my Ancient Briton army!), which is missing, but I seem to recall both the bear and a small elephant or lion 'not working', so they must have been lost in the 'losing' process?

You can see she took items which might be commercially popular as novelties, Guy the Gorilla was still popular in the national memory, big cats, little cats and pigs are always popular as are rabbits, the highlander was once one of my most prized possessions, like the 'last man standing' Airfix German Paratrooper officer, I had gone to some effort over the painting of him!

There is also the possibility that another incident started the thought process which led to this micro-hoard . . . we were on holiday somewhere, and Mum had made us follow her round some antiques place, you know the sort of thing - with lots of 'kiosks' or bays - and as a reward for our behavior whilst obviously bored, asked us if we'd like to chose something from a cheapie cabinet, I can't recall what my brother chose, but I chose a piglet, landscaped on a plinth; a mini vignette. She then tried to talk me out of it with a disdainful "You don't want that"!, but I was adamant, and the thing was purchased, what she had spotted which I hadn't was that it was a Britains piglet (as above) heavily glossed (black & white) to resemble glazed ceramic, landscaped with Pollyfilla^TM stained with watercolours, on a stack of old coat-buttons, glued together and painted gold! She pointed all this out back at the car, but hadn't wanted to be rude in front of the dealer! I was still happy with it, but the pig soon broke-free of the filler and joined the other animals in the farm tub!

And no - I don't know why there's a Christmas Cracker miniature compass in there with them!

Point of focus was different on the two shots! Highlights include the Britains running rabbit and sitting cat, along with the piglet being fed from the later farm figures' set.

Now . . . I thought I had one of these, but it hasn't turned up in all the sorting and consolidating I've been doing since January, so finding our childhood pair (Mum bought us one each in Fleet Toys, not because we wanted them but because she thought they were dinky!) has been a useful bonus, although one of them has been more chewed than the other; I'll blame my brother as I just don't remember playing with them that much!

This article - on stone animals - has been in the 'long-queue' since 2014 (ignore the given date - it's how I sort stuff in Picasa), and now needs a complete re-shoot, which won't be done for a while yet, but one image was worth pulling-up and adding to this post as it's . . .

. . . another Duck Billed Platypus! Although if you know anything about these critters Duck Billed Dinobeast is more apt, they have a poison spur and a bad temper! But if you are the last/only living species of your entire taxonomic family and genus AND used to be hunted for food by the pink monkeys; you'd be a bit mad.

This one is bronze with 18/22ct gold-leaf on the bill and webbed-claws, the whole soldered/braised (?) to a stone! He's about twice the size of the Britains plastic platypuses, -pusses? Platipii? And must be an upmarket Australian tourist memento thing . . . I have a cheaper miner with pick-axe, in whitemetal, similarly attached to a piece of stone, which might be Antipodean, from the Ruhr or Welsh?

News, Views Etc . . . Herald Toys & Models

 New press release from Barney

" . . . this week we are pleased to announce the arrival of the Wilmslow collection of Swoppet Knights, kicking off with one of each pose of the ever popular mounted "Wars of the Roses" figures. To follow will be some thirty (yes THIRTY!) dismounted knights in all six poses and in various colour schemes . . . PS - we have been working behind the scenes to improve the site and iron out a few gremlins to ensure that your experience is an enjoyable one"

Barney's site - https://www.heraldtoysandmodels.co.uk/catalog/landing_page

A is for Atomic . . . Space Ship

You may recall we looked at this beast before (ten years ago, where does it go . . . WHERE?), a contribution from an anonymous follower of the Blog, at the time he had some space-battle damage to one of them but has since sourced a whole one, so sent a follow-up here to Small Scale World.

Not much to add to these as we have looked at them before, and I was going to save the shots for a 'pulp' season at some point, but thought I'd try to clear some of the contributed stuff now, and so when I do return to dime-store space, hopefully use all the images 'in the bank' in better context?

Largest of the single-moulding (plus wheels) vessels, the Atomic Space Ship was a convoluted pile of three aerodynamic buses, piled on two V2 rockets, given a subway car front and four huge afterburners at the rear! Sort of what I said last time but possibly more prosaic . . . time's tighter this time!

Like most of the contemporary space ships it was carried by more than one company (Pyro too?) and while these are  both Tudor Rose, even these two are not quite the same, the silver one having a thicker chin-line or skirting below the forward cab and thinner window-bars on the three upper sections, which - finding these differences - is half the fun of collecting!

Cheers Anon' - you know who you are!

E is for Empirical Evidence!

Many thanks to Gisby for these, he probably sent them over a year ago, I really can't remember, what with the passing of Mum, Covid-19 and everything associated with both horrors it's all got a bit hectic in Hugh World and time is running to its own tune here at the moment.

But I've a few hours to spare over the next few days, and while I should be in the garden or taking stuff to storage/charity/clothes banks, it's too bloody hot, so I'll try and get some stuff up on the blog, and try to make it all contributions as it's unfair to the contributors to have ALL their stuff pile up with mine . . . SOME will, inevitably, but not all!

I posted these as part of a Toy Fair revue thing a while ago here, on Padgett A-Z, and said at the time "... if you do manage to track them down, do try to send the Blog a picky or two of the runner/contents..." to which call, Gisby answered in full!

Further comments I made about possible motors and potentially simplistic design were both out, as you can see from this StuG IV (with StuG III undercarriage - on the artwork!), the kits are well executed, dense PVC clip-together 'puzzle-toys' seemingly from the same stable as those I purchased in  . . . . The Works (?), ages ago . . . "Yes, The Works!" he says after finding the requisite link, but branded 'Build & Play' not 4D and a better scale.

The Sturmtiger, I said last time that it could be a useful conversion platform, but in this material that's not so likely, PVC chunks can turn a blade quite easily, while sawing will render it a rather furry material! However, plumber's pipe-weld will glue it solid for all time, so construct; then cut-up?

Not seen but mentioned last time -
Pz.Kfw IV -Tiger 1E

Not sure about the green of these, yes, it's a shade of 'feldtgrau', but their vehicles tended to grey or yellow as a base coat, however, looking at the stuff on Blogs and in the modelling press these days, there seems to have been an 'acceptability slip' on late-war colours and I don't know if that's just fashion (like heavy towers on Elephants, parade finery at Waterloo or using shoulders as firing-rests for machine-guns!), or more empirically-based; on the stuff being pulled - almost daily - from Eastern/Central European bogs, lakes and rivers these days?

This does look like it might be better than the Airfix Panther (less 'hybridisation'!), but hard to tell with the pieces face down, however we will have a follow-up as I've just helped myself to 12 of them, not twelve Panther's, 12 AFV's!

OK, here's a fun thing that just happened while writing this up . . . I went and looked for them on feebleBay, and found that prices vary from a little (£3/4 each) to a lot (12-quid+, each) for these four, but that there are another eight! They also vary equally with some price-scalping the arse off them and others being quite reasonable!

Best for the eight (very cheap) is

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324451888581?hash=item4b8ad6edc5:g:~X4AAOSwPZhfocYK

While this guy has the four @4.49 each, some of the eight (similarly priced), and other nice things!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/aha21/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

As I say; we'll return to these one day to look at the whole fleet, iron-out any construction issues and compare with the slightly sub-scale 4D's!

Bought this the other day going cheap, intending to put it on the Airfix Astronauts page, but realised it could go here first! I 'de-bagged' it 'cos it's a modern thing, and found it hard to put together once I'd chucked all the pieces in a pile, even though about ten of them were already assembled/part assembled!

But, it IS a puzzle, and with the photo of the finished thing (the exploded drawing is less than useful) found that constructing the three main sections (landing-plate and legs, engine-box and recovery module) and then lining them up together and adding the four fiddly bits made sense.

Things I learnt about the Apollo landing module: 1. More than half of it gets left on the moon. 2. The whole thing is bigger than I thought and 3. The recovery section is tiny!

Also I would note - if you're minded to seek it out - the four little frame pieces (retro-rocket deflectors) are very fragile, but if you line them up with their little holes they do go home firm.

Branded to Fame Master Entertainment Ltd., imported by Quay Imports and carrying the 4D trope - 3D + details! A second iteration in which the main sections are completed in the packaging is also available under the 4D Master labeling.

And thanks again to Gisby for the tanks!

B is for Burma Jeep - The Ford GTB . . . Lazy Post

I took these years ago at Beltring Hop Farm's annual 'combat wombat' shindig, and it's been a while since I posted some proper stuff, or had a lazy post (there have been several recently!), so for those who might be interested here are my pictures, and if you want more - https://www.google.com/search?q=Ford+GTB+Utility+Burma+Jeep+WWII&tbm=isch&ved

Above are four shots (restricted to one side by it's being parked too close to the Navy fire truck behind it!) of the standard bomb crane/tractor varient.

While the above is a GS/Cargo varient, there is a rather sparse wikipedia page with a potted history of sorts here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_GTB

M is for More . . . Giant WWII

I've posted some more Giant World War 2 stuff over on the Giant . . . or What? Blog;

Just scans of several old cards and a couple of archive shots.

News, Views Etc . . . New Stock at Herald Toys and Models

Latest press-release from Barney over at Herald Toys & Models;

" . . . this week we have two interesting collections for sale, both from the county of Norfolk, but quite contrasting. The Diss collection is a charming childhood collection of plastic civilian figures, featuring an original Herald early boxed farm set, farm animals and Wild West figures, whilst the Norfolk Collection is a large collection of plastic toy soldiers, diligently accumulated by a dedicated collector to acquiring full loose sets by a number of makers, including Lone Star, Charbens, Cherilea, Crescent and Speedwell."

Lots of 'nice paint' stuff, but it's going quickly . . .

O is for Once, I was a Soldier!

Your author, circa December 1984 . . .

 . . . looking so young! With everything that's happened in the last 24 months, it's almost as if it's not so much 'a lifetime ago', but several other people's lifetimes!

And, this is the only picture of me in uniform with badging to the Royal Hampshire's, as a few days after this was taken I was cross-posted to the Gloucestershire Regiment and completed my service with them. I was - a year later - offered a return to the R. Hamp's /asked to 're-badge' to the 'Glooms' but declined both options, which pissed my OC off, as while I was happy to serve-on as a Gloucester, and proud too, equally, I was born in Hampshire, lived my first 18-odd years in Hampshire and was recruited from the Channel Islands which was the 'Tigers' area, so my Private's logic rather collided with the Major's view of how things should be done to keep the paperwork clean!

I don't think the Russians lost much sleep over the prospect of meeting me on the North European Plain, do you? But, there's a determination in those eyes . . . or is it more of a "Shit, I actually passed basic'!"?

B is for "But is it Giant?" . . . Yes!

The long neglected 'Giant or what? page has got some copy, and it's the first piece which does actually look at some Giant output, and not something I'd got around to in the One Inch Warrior magazine series (a few back orders may still be available from Paul at PW?), so if you want to see the AFV's from the WWII range . . . 

. . . head over there; http://butisitgiant.blogspot.com/2021/06/giant-landing-craft-crew-and-wwii-afvs.html

T is for Typical!

You wait ages for an LB post and then two come along together! Further to the other day's finds; I saw some knock-off 'sucker-jigglers' going cheap and they arrived this morning, while I also scanned the Culpitt's catalogue entry for 1985.

These are similar to those sold as 'Moon Platoon' by Imperial, see image below, and are the more colourful version of the plain Hong Kong-marked ones (no logo) which I've been after for a while, so well pleased to grab them.

Taken from an Internet auction the above example has some of the more muted ones I already had, and is all robots, while the five additions are brightly-bright and has two astronauts.

I also scanned the Culpitt catalogue from 1985, the 60mm's are as I found them in North Camp's balloon/party shop (can't remember the name, but it's long-defunct anyway) back in . . . err . . . sometime between Autumn 1997 and about 2001/2? The white 'NASA' figures, which should be contemporary, aren't listed, but may have joined the catalogue later, or been phased out already, only the robots are shown in the smaller size, only the spacemen in the larger, they all hung around for ages in bakers, and cook-shop's anyway!

Listings
BV 5336 - Large Silver Spacemen
V5217 - Small Assorted Space Figures

L is for l'Hommes de Lune

I was going to post these a few weeks ago, but realised I didn't have one of the poses! Bonux washing-powder premium, astronauts, I think [someone said] they are based on someone else's sculpts, but can't seem to find out whose?

The missing chap, I did have him, but with all his thin bits broken or chewed-off! Fortunate happenstance or synergies lead to Moonbase Central posting a picture of a guy wearing something similar the other day and it's obviously meant to be some kind of jet-pack as rendered by space/sci-fi artist Robert 'Bob' McCall - original hanging in the University of Arizona.

As you can see they are biggish at 70-mil with base, but manage to enhance the LB figures out of Hong Kong, having similar, figure-hugging X-craft/Gemini space suits, rather than the chunkier stuff we've since found you actually need to wear; to go into space in!

The other nine poses, a decent number of 'ray-guns' are distributed among them, but there's also a lot equipment being moved about, and one chap has taken his helmet off (or never bothered to put it on!), and all poses were available in black and silver, in what's quite a soft polyethylene.

"What do you mean 'nobody's brought the machine that goes *ping*'? We're surrounded on three sides by brain-sucking alien reavers who eat humans for breakfast and all we've got is a 'good luck' ray-gun made by my six-year-old from a toilet-roll to conform with launch-weight restrictions . . . brilliant!"

Yeah, well, I was so pleased to track him down, I rather over-shot him as a result!

Herding Zombies . . . it turns out they are quite docile after they've had a whole pack of Tunnock's Caramel Wafers each! Zombie figures from the now defunct Box O'Zombies/MyGeekyGoodness (MGG) dot-coms.

Yeah! He got a .gif as well!

That's Bonux astronauts; box ticked!

T is for Two, But We’ve Already Looked at One! Capri Games . . .

It wasn't until I was looking for the folder for the earlier game's images that I [was] remembered I already had an 'Ariel' on the desktop, except, I'd miss-titled a Capri folder . . . doh! My desktop is shocking; it has 34 spaces left of a possible 126, I really must do something about it, there's stuff from Theo, Adrian, Chris and Brain, while Jason sent a load of Highlander stuff ages ago!

At the risk of repeating myself, this year will be a bitty-one and the keel of the good ship Small Scale World won't be even until at least this time next year, and stuff will pile-up, but in the meantime I'll post what I can, and here's that other Ariel Capri Game!

I always sort of knew this existed and found it on feebleBay once or twice, but never got around to purchasing it, however a few months ago I saw one going cheap and popped my cash in the pot to 'tick the box' as far as the collection is concerned and with a pitiful image count on this post, no more than tick a box here!

The reason I believed in its existence before I know of it for sure is because I found the red arm-up guy (top left-hand corner) in the alleyway next to my old house in North Camp, a bit smashed-up. In fact, he looked more like a saluting Nazi from some unknown WHW set, but I realised he must be some kind of sportsman, probably from a board game!

There are a set of hurdles with and without penalty forfeits attached to their cards and a high jump in card, and the mechanism is collecting points by attempting various track & field events, aided or hindered by dice, cards and tables. The 'high-jump' chap (bottom pose) looks like posh-guy from Scooby-doo! That's it; 12 35mm figures of sportsmen in three poses and four colours!

The box also contained a Brucie-bonus, a flat which seems to be from a mine-related or fairground board game? Klondike Pete, golden nugget, haunted mine, ghost train . . . something like that! Also these thick flats need a new name, they aren't strictly flats or semi-flats, nor are they the hollow or smooth-backed relief flats . . . coin flats, fat-flats? Token flats! Whatever; it's another figure on the Blog!

Z is for Zoo Quest

Just a quick box-ticker really - not enough to photograph, not enough to say! I looked at Trek from Spear's Games the other day and a similar set with an animal buying/bagging mechanism rather than the stores-accruing of the former marks the main difference with this set from Ariel Games.

Zoo Quest was a BBC TV series most notable for giving David Attenborough his start in presenting natural history programming, and this licensed tie-in game will date from the same time, between 1954/5-1963 I guess?

The 25mm soft polyethylene explorers are the most useful thing here and the reason it's in the collection, they are a tad larger than the Airfix Tarzan figures and while technically semi-flats, th nature of the pose and the depth of the sculpting means they could paint-up quite well with 25/28mm role-playing figures.

I got to thinking about Ariel's title with this game being TV related as was the Gillette Cup televised by the BBC for many years (cricket game we've seen here passim), and it struck me they might have been named for the aerials (different spelling) down-which TV signals were sent?

It turns out that while there's no evidence for such (they were a division of Philmar Publishing, eventually bought by Gibson's), they did produce a large number of mostly children's television program related card games (snap, happy families etc), featuring both ITV and BBC staples of the late 1950's and the 1960's, so it may be the reason . . . I like the idea it might be!

B is for Bwahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaa!

 No comment!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333954611338?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=333954611338&targetid=879842586457&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9046429&poi=&campaignid=9445986154&mkgroupid=95782681917&rlsatarget=aud-381667280803:pla-879842586457&abcId=578896&merchantid=232685721&gclid=Cj0KCQjw16KFBhCgARIsALB0g8JbsOMnDG7zITAAvlwOAYk_tKeSVpFi6Kssd_miDJToN87RcTb5cHQaAu3_EALw_wcB

 and for when the listing has long gone . . . 

 

Madness!

And that's with 5% off . . . Bargain!