H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - II Chris - Ceremonial, Historical & Wild West

On to 'Toy Soldiers' proper, except most of these are technically civilians, but civilians with guns! Although some ceremonials at the end of the post get us back on military ground.

The sitting figure here is an odd one, I have him in two sizes (I may even have a missing drum somewhere, but I don't know which sized figure it goes with) and I think the larger (here) may be RP (Res Plastics) from Italy although unmarked, and if not; any one of several others, while the smaller version is probably the Kinder variant, the knees having to fit in the egg-capsule? if the missing drum is right, it's a thin disc more like a tambourine! 

July 2022 - A similar but glossy, yellow one is now known to be by Locati from Italy; similar capsule toys.

The cowboy with lasso is one of several I have now, both cowboys and Indians, all smallish (45mm), all glossy brown (different shades) and only a few poses (two of each?), so probably Christmas crackers or something like that? I love the yellow flat in soft plastic, probably a copy of a Euro-premium! We've seen the cake-figure before and the damaged Herald Copy is a lovely plastic colour, so definitely worth keeping.

There should be a totem-pole with this, but it was shown earlier in the year and them went away with the others! Comansi, late production in semi-indestructible PVC vinyl rubber from Spain, it was previously issued in polyethylene and there are small scale versions I really should have Blogged by now, but they have actually gone away into storage . . . again!

We've seen these before more than once and another contributor - Brain Berke - managed to ID them as Lucky Bag gifts over here, but you can never have too many I suspect, due to the number of poses and colours coupled with the frangibility of them making whole ones that much harder to obtain!

Ah yes! Winners of the worst figures ever, in my book (after some editor nicked the obvious Cherilea first spot when he launched the 'competition . . . no, not bitter at all, press corruption is what Brwreakshit was all about, wasn't it!); the MTC Ninjas, although space-ice-hockey-jockey-Ninjas does them more justice!

A Kinder push-together, two-part Samurai archer in the middle, I'd like to think I'm building a set of these (there are only two poses in two or three colours I think?) but the bows are always broken, so I have a full set of legs with one good body!

Bottom row is a Japanese-made 1950's celluloid peasant, he should be walking next to a cart with a rake or broom over his shoulder I suspect, then another Euro-premium copy of a Fontanini oriental statuette and finally a swoppet practitioner of Kung-fu from Hong Kong via Ward International and others.

This was a real surprise, we've seen the Texan/Alamo cowboys (and cannon) and the dancers, but this is another set of European margarine flats, taken by Betterwear and reproduced in soft polyethylene, clearly a nativity set, it was new on me - and as far as I know the rest if the hobby? There's gonna' be at least ten to find? Lovely.

A lovely bisque cake decoration with drum and another Guardsman key-ring! The latter is in rubber and to stand him up I had to prop him against the cake dec', so you can't see his rifle well, but it is all there!

Three military musicians on the left; a very nice copy of a Crescent/Kellogg's drummer, reduced in size a tad, the Highlander now credited to Scottish International Gift and a European figure, which I think might come from Layla, or one of the other 'minor' German makers?

We saw the Pirates on ITLAPD, but here they are again, Lone Star 'Metallions', or copies thereof, or licensed production, there are about five-names associated with these sculpts in die cast and a few plastic knock-offs. Quite a few!

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

This should have published at 9.30 this morning, but the laptop went phutt last night with one line to do! I spent all day running round Berkshire and Hampshire trying to get it fixed, and then after a nice chap in a techie-shop showed me a cheat while he orders a part, it righted itself! Don't know how long-for though, so, fix will go ahead, and new laptop seems to be my Christmas present to myself . . . they are all Win.10 or II and none of them have a disc-drive - WTF!

H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - II Chris - Animals

So, to the interesting, odd or novelty items among the many Chris sent to the Blog, and I hope I've picked the right ones as I know Chris follows what I pick-up on for these posts!

I shot this bear seconds after opening the parcel, and them shot it again a few days later! I thought it was from one of the Hong Kong circus sets (and it may be) but realised it made an excellent cocktail-glass hanger! It is a variation of the skiing bear seen here previously, but without the receiving-holes for poles or skis.

The glass in the middle is a particular favorite of mine; now inherited, it's very thin glass (there are only four left, I think there were eight when we were kids?) and has been decorated with copper-wheel cutting, so quite old school, and they've always come-out at Christmas-time for the mulled gluhwein, a job they will retain until I cease to breathe; I like a hot-toddy by the fire on a cold day!

But that bear, though - brilliant!

Farm; The two vignettes on the left are New Ray I think, I didn't check, but of more interest are the 20mm'ish (sheep's over-scale) animals to the right, they are made of a very soft silicon rubber, possibly railway accessories, possibly something like a Polly Pocket - or knock-off of such, and I think three came from Chris and I already had the B&W cow hanging around from another origin (even a previous lot from Chris or Peter evans?).

When that happens (a 'new' thing happening multiple times close together) it's often a sign they are recent (last 10 or 15-years) and starting to come on to the secondary market, anyone know where they came from? The two lots are totally out of scale, mind, the New Ray's are a big 54mm - the four little animals wouldn't make-up one of the foals!

Later the same day - They are probably Kentoys (HK/China. 1990's) should have guessed from the bases!

Dinosaurs and monsters; the Stegi' (new to collection) and kerthunkasaurus (chewed!) are from my favourite range of childhood silicon-rubber dino's, while I think the trio of hatchlings are a recent/currentKinder thing? I don't know anything about the dragon who may have been marked (but has gone to storage) while the other two 'Gygax' Monsters are probably Holly Toys, but I haven't checked them yet and others made/issued them; LB/Lik Be, Agglo etc. . . read here first!

There is a post coming on them but not for a while now given circumstances at present, suffice to say they've been over-mythologised, over-rated and over-priced, but it's very kind of Chris to send them to us, and this isn't the first time he's done so.

From Chris - "The three dinosaurs on a base I think are from the “Ice Age” franchise of films, Sid the sloth hatches them and becomes their foster mother" Cheers, totally missed Ice Age and most of the Madagascar franchise!

A fine 'Disney'eque' fawn cake-decoration on the left, and the rest of the animals on the right. The purple elephant's head might be from a Duplo knock-off, but that might just be the coincidental shape/size of the locating stud? The blow-mould fawn looks even more Disney, and was probably flocked originally?

The RAE horse has been seen here before and I now think they were the Arco Noah's Ark animals, but from before Arco were handling them, I'm not sure but a few eBay listings of boxed examples would seem to be showing the same animals as later included in the petrol-station premium set, I'm not 100% sure, but confident it's the answer, read here first!

The little blue bear is also interesting as he's a scaled-down HK copy of the Merit Noah/circus-train animals who were - I think -  copies of a US makers animals! The white duck could be modern China or 1970's Macau via Portugal, he's very good! And the large rat boar/wild pig [I shot it at an awkward angle!] (top left) is a nice example of a fake Japanese Netsuke, while the vulture may be from a Wild West thing?

An eclectic bunch; the damaged cicada is interesting for being a copy of an older tin-plate clicker/penny-toy, although - in plastic - it doesn't click! One of the frogs will need cleaning, I don't think that black paint is original, the whale is different in brown polyethylene and they all have their place!

While saving the best for last - that is my finger in the background! This exquisitely decorated gecko or chameleon is no more than 5-milimeters long? About a quarter of the size of the similarly rubber Schleich-Mini's, I can only guess or ponder that it might be a 'companion' animal from a larger doll or action figure set? Does anyone know anything about it, are there others, are they all this small? It has a babyish or cartoon look to it, is it a character from film or print media, I've missed?

Thanks again to Mr Smith for donating such a bunch of interesting things, love the hanging bear, quite stunned by this tiny blob of green silicon.

H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - II Chris - Introduction

A day or two after the lot from Adrian we looked at last Thursday here, I received one of Chris Smith's 'big box' lots, and it was a fantastic collection of odds, ends, rarities or novelty tat I'd never seen before, and I've broken it down into six posts, of which this is the overview/sorting.

I actually shot them over several days with no real order, so some of it confused me! And a Polar bear got shot before everything else, and again half-way through!

The first thing I do is pick through the box, finding the treasures (to me, some might be quite tatty or damaged but if I've not seen them before I get excited!), then I tend to put them all back in the box and do 'my day' as normal.

Then in the evening, I sort them again into thematic piles - civilian, combat, ceremonial and/or historical, space/sci-fi, fantasy, cartoon/TV/movie-related, animals (sometimes sub-piled; sea life, dinosaurs, farm and/or zoo etc....), Kinder/capsule, vehicles, 'planes, accessories/building parts &etc. That is where this shot finds me - little thematic piles of polymer playthings!

Then they get bagged-up as TBS (To Be Sorted [into the collection]), and yes, the themes are all muddled-up again here, but the fact that I've handled them all three times means I've got a good idea what's there . . . and I'm photographing as I go, as well as putting away anything where the master-collection box or tub is near to hand, or if I need to separate for reasons of frangibility, or forthcoming articles, or folders in the long queue, or for follow-ups etc!

Also I have to work out exactly what to shoot for these posts, for-instance I haven't shot the mini-plastic buildings (upper-left-centre) because we've looked at them here, but due to the three building types (two Whilhelmian barrack/flat-block types and a church), and various colours, they are always welcome in the collection, as there are many variations to find!

Slightly to the right and just below them is a bag stuffed with all the small-scale (15-25mm),which are next, but what else can you spot?

Those small-scale, tipped out of their first bag, for further sorting into smaller samples (same 4 / 5½" bags), the absolute highlight here is a clean pair of Blue Box ambulance men, you may recall mine were sun-stained coffee-colour last time we looked at them, all the more special as the white plastic, civilian stretcher-case came in more recently, with both staples (handles/legs) intact, so I now have a clean team for next time we look at them in detail.

Also of interest are the three soft plastic firefighters, also Blue Box, the pair of (Corgi (?) driver/co-driver) firefighters and the red horse racer, possibly from a  board game, but I suspect Christmas crackers or some of those 'early learning' types we looked at a couple of three years ago - where does it go!

This image - in sequence with the previous, but the next day, threw-me for a moment as it didn't make sense, but study suggests in the foreground I'm still sorting Chri's lot, in the middle distance I've got the TBS Matchbox and Corgi out, probably to sort some of Chris's stuff into, at the far right I seem to have lined-up my growing stash of Russian Malysh rubber Wellingtonians, adding the pastel shades to those I'd blogged the previous October?

While the red blob top left is a piece of Betterware from Chris, which was probably waiting to go up to the loft where the Betterware box was . . . actually they don't have their own box, the have a few of the index-carded 4 / 5½" bags in the A-B Minor Makes box!

A mixed line-up which didn't fit the other five posts! A home-made or heat-converted plastic confederate (I think?), two Cavendish Guards, both damaged but it's about the plastic colours, look at that smoky-pink on the left! Another blow-moulded Russian, you can't have enough of these are there are several sets, each of 8-10 poses and at least three sizes!

On the end of the upper row is a nice  - probably Italian 'precepi' or nativity figure, might be a king/wise-man, or just a villager, below which are four Russian knock-offs of the Marx 60mm Vikings, but closer to 54mm as copies.

They actually highlight the situation this year; I have these figures in the short queue, they are actually on the lap-top's desk-top waiting for final editing, but I don't think these four are in the article? As the article was shot a few months ago, and these came in nearly a year ago . . . they should have been united by now . . . so, while a lot of stuff has been sorted together on the way to storage (and a lot photographed), some things which did have two homes, now seem to have three - I fear these chaps are in that category, and it will be at least another year before it's all been fully put straight!

Another eclectic assortment, smaller sixes, clockwise from top left; New Ray (I think, a US model railway issuer has a similar range, so needs checking), the Hong Kong flat railway staffer we saw here, and a late Culpitts Santa Claus - Topical a year later!

The green horse is one I call 'Large Draft' and I've just (last few days) done a ready reckoner on all of them here, it's not how I'd planned the horse page, but it will help people sort theirs for now and as I post them in detail the riders, foot figures (if any) and accessories will be sorted too. Finally one of the hard-vinyl figures from Portugal who had several issues and - seemingly - several iterations of 'full set', which we will try to get on top-of, one day.

Many thanks to Chris Smith, there are five more posts to come, looking at some of the highlights from the thematic sorting phase, but all of it is greatly appreciated, it enhances the Blog and the readers experience and those figures/items which don't get to shine in these 'H is for . . . ' posts will enhance the Blog and A-Z entries for years to come.

C is for Christmas - At Poundland

From Hobbycraft (see previous/'older' post), I moseyed-on over to that there Poundland to see what their festive offerings looked like, and was pleased to find A) a few bits worth Shelfie'ing for you, loyal readers, to look at and B) a couple of bits worth purchasing for the stash.

I wasn't ever going to buy these, they are shite, they have been covered in more shite, they are priced as if they are far better quality shite than the shite they actually are! But . . . and it's a valid 'but', they will appear in those 20/40/50p baskets in charity shops in a few years time, either in this condition, or so tatty they can be stripped back to the (probable) neutral granule (think - greyish-white) plastic and re-painted or left plain; a generic cake-decoration style pumpkin coach!

The wheels are actually a leftover of European margarine premium/US Wilton cake decoration coaches of the 1950's, but in those cases they worked, indeed the European one came both assembled in a mail-away box and loose as a clip-together 'kit of parts'.

A pair of small 'nutcracker' tree-decorations, very tempted and I might go back for them, but two of each is more than I would want, so needs some thought, but as I haven't seen many worth shooting, and because we did a lot of them a while back, here they are!

I did grab these for a pound of your Earth money, knowing I had the other five in the bag and having surrendered my opposition to resin years ago! An eclectic mix, but I think they are meant to be put in hollow-plastic 'capsule' baubles which seem to be making a come-back, having last been seen in numbers - in the nineteen-seventies!

Reasonable sculpts for what they are and what they are charging, and three Christmas tropes ticked-off, birds, deer and bears - polar! they would all benefit from a bit of home-paint though?

These are also resin, and a quid-a-go, with a gingerbread man (who looks more like a teddy bear), a very happy snowman, similarly jocular Santa Claus and two ger'nomes; one tobogganing and the other opening (or wrapping?) presents. There is one other - sixth - sculpt . . .

. . . a grizzly bear, carrying a Christmas tree with two birds - probably complaining about the loss of their nest! It came home with me, it's fun! Again a resin casting, base apparently sanded after painting!

All the above in Poundland right now. I would add that there was nothing in Wilkinson's I would give house-room to, and apart from the astronaut we looked at a week or so ago, nothing in ASDA or B&M; they have plenty, but it's a matter of taste/preference with these, isn't it?

I haven't been to look in Tesco, and our Sainsbury's isn't big enough, neither apparently are our local Flying Tiger's both of which aren't getting the bauble issue this year, bigger stores are and I may try to get over to Guildford who I'm assured - by the Basingrad staff - do have some.

C is for Christmas - At Hobbycraft

Sliding into the festive season, and here's a few figurals I found at Hobbycraft, in fact, I managed to purchase the cat and soldier again (oh! Hugh; you're so predictable!) last night - I'll take them back and swap them, as there are dozens to choose from, but clearly my short-term memory isn't what it was!

In-store brand, sub-branded to 'Crafty Christmas', they may be local to you (in Europe, the Americas, the antipodes or elsewhere) branded under another name. They are quite small, across the range probably 20-45mm, because they are designed for cakes, cards and dioramas/displays, and - as the header-card states - of resin manufacture.

I got . . . ♫♪♪ Threeeeeeee Bay'bee Bears! Another-with-a-Pen-guin, a-cat in-a-hat - and a San'tah with pres-ents innn hiiiis haaaaaannds! ♫♪♫♪ . . . and a soldier, I got a soldier . . .

He's quite well decorated, but the painting leaves a little to be desired . . . boom-boom! Medals? I'll see me'self out when I've finished the blurb! He's about 28/30mm and a crude sculpt with a helmet that's a black helmet not a bearskin!

The undersides - bog-standard poured-resin fare, briefly kissed with a powered sander to make them flat/level-enough to stand up.

You may have noticed Santa' and the guardsman have thick/raised boots to sink into icing, glue or flock and which will help prevent breakage, common with these, check the packs before taking to the counter, as chipping (or worse) occurs as people browse through them, knocking them, dropping them etc . . . and then put them back!

Hobbycraft now, lots to chose from, tress, several dogs, a couple more bears, micro-vehicles, several pillar-boxes (including one with a  dog), presents . . . all sorts, £1.50p each!

News, Views Etc . . . 'But Is It Giant' Page

 I've placed another of the hollow-horse posts on the Giant or What Blog, quite an important one, albeit only an introduction to a series of posts to come on the commonest of all Hong Kong hollow, small-scale horses; the one I call Wavymane.

Contentious as I maintain that it was both the first and the donor for the Giant 'copy', so worth a read if you follow the small scales.

https://butisitgiant.blogspot.com/2021/11/wavymane-original-hong-kong-made-hollow.html

Meanwhile I also added an image and bit of blurb to the end of Peter E's 'H is for . . .' post the other day, as I found some older images of my version of the farm animal set, it was slightly different to Peter's donation, being a blister, not a bag, and had clues to a maker under the Toys As Fun sticker!

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2021/11/h-is-for-how-they-come-in-november-2020.html

C is for Confused!

Right I'm confused, I'm sure the image I posted a while back was from Andy B, I'm sure Chris Smith sent me stuff on the same subject, which may have included a catalogue and I'm sure I found a catalogue the other day as stuff was going to storage, but that's as far as my being 'sure' about anything goes . . . it's been a difficult year!

I have these four images, which are not titled in a way I would have titled them, so they must have been eMailed to me, probably by Andy B? But they could have come from Chris with the written stuff, or did Chris send me a catalogue and was it the one I found the other day meaning there may be another Hawkin's Bazaar shop catalogue somewhere?

 

I think it's easier to thank both Chris and Andy again, for all they did on Tobar/Hawkin's Bazaar, or as here Hawkin - Tobar (no apostrophe-'s', no Bazaar), and get the images up before my head explodes.

 

Cover

Showing mostly the larger stuff

 

The motorcycles are actually quite big, so having said earleir I would look out for them; I probably won't! All 'China' and I rather like the Romano-Crusader and I'll have to look for the drummer instead of the 'bikes!

 

Space stuff, some of these are 'full sized' replica's of yesteryear's toys, I rather like the two small robots though, 80mm's is not that big?

 

A couple of Japanese made modern toys (but not Modern Toys), and the marked ^Z_Z tree decorations, I must have cropped the top right image out for context last time and meant to do these later, but at the time? [Yes - he adds, ten minutes later - I meta-tagged all the model numbers for the core tree-decoration range last time!]

 

I should probably try to locate the water pump (farm) and there is a smaller motorcycle and side car, but then I said I'd look out for it didn't I . . . heehee!!

 

Andy, Chris - thanks guys, I'm sure you realise by now I'm a flaky, disorganised amateur, but we're getting there, with your help!

T is for Two, no Three - Tinplate Toys!

One of the things which leads stuff to languish in the long queue for years is an annoying habit I have of getting the photos done, maybe even doing any collages or touch-ups, perhaps even starting the text, then thinking "Hold on, I really need x to make the post", going off to feebleBay, finding it's only available as a ten day auction and waiting for it to finish, by which time I've lost interest in the post, or finding it's not there at all and putting the whole thing on the back burner with a vague mental note to get one/some at some point!

Another reason, is that I imagine if I post it before I've located the 'missing element', y'all will rush off and find it first, so better to not raise it with you until I've got whatever it is first!

I say that only because when I posted the tinplate the other day, that's exactly what I nearly did, but in the end I published despite leaving bids on two items which would have made that a better post, and which you might have gone to look for after I published, which fortunately you didn't, despite Andy B mentioning one of them specifically in the comments to that post! Phew!

So, I managed to get both without counter-bids, leaving a T is for Two as the obvious direction to go in. And the first was this lovely inter-war (?) piece of generic WWI limber.

I say generic, it's more a French helmet than a US or British one, however the dark-on-light grey of the cart's camouflage is more a Wehrmacht thing, but then it's been buggered-about-with, the horses are pulled tight to the limber and a bit squashed at the rear-ends by replacement wire traces, so I don't know how original it is, and it's missing a crewman, but if it was pucker it would be 100-&-something quid or Euro's or dollars, or whatever and well outside my budget! But it will look the part on a little shelf somewhere!

The other item I literally went and bid-on half-way through editing the post two weeks ago was the missing Roggaz/^Z_Z-marked military piece from Schilling/Tobar; the ceremonial sentry box with a slightly Prussian or Austro-Hungarian bent, as mentioned by Andy! Luckily no one else from the loyal readership went to look for one, or if they did they didn't bid and I got it for the opener! isn't it lovely? It's lost it's tree-hanger, but is otherwise pretty minty.

Then, a week ago I managed to find this at an otherwise very quiet Sandown Park show, which rather threw the T is for Two trope under a bus! It's a relatively common French 'penny toy' in the metallic 'spirit paint' finish such toys often came in, and again is probably a between-the-wars thing.

The boots and jacket should be gold'ish and blue respectively, but have suffered from degradation leaving little 'liver spots' under the varnish and fading the colours, but the red has held up well, and I'd photographed a better one on Mercator Trading's stall a few years ago (for the Tin Plate Page, if I ever get it finished!), so we will see a better one here at some point!

The two horses with the limber are marked 'MADE IN GERMANY' from where a lot of the early tin-plate came from (Schuco, Bub, Tipp, Carrette, Distler, Märklin et al.), which is why the Roggaz goes with its misleading ^Z_Z GERMANY ©, which can mean Roggaz from Germany's ^Z_Z brand, copyrighted to Schilling or some Chinese firm, or not at all!

Something Schilling would have been happy with, expressly for that 'Germany' provenance, whether they were instrumental in the operation at the start or bought-in after Ingo Roggaz had instigated the line!

So, three new pieces of tin-plate! You'll observe from the previous collage, I cleaned the limber after I'd taken all the other pictures! I wasn't just watching it Andy! And I will get the motorcycle and sidecar when I see a cheap one . . . for another day!

I've also found scans I'd taken, of the other catalogue, which I'll post shortly, or between now'ish and midnight, I must go and cook something!

H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - I Adrian

Because we were all in lockdown for the umpteenth time, this time last year, there was no 'Christmas' Sandown Park toy fair, and therefore Adrian Little (Mercator Trading) kindly sent me the little pile of bits he sometimes puts aside for me and which I would otherwise have picked-up at the show.

I managed to absent-mindedly shoot them with an eBay lot which arrived in the same post (cordoned-off in top right-hand corner!), so we'll look at them in close-up in a minute too. Highlights were the Zang composition aircraft, the De Havilland Mosquito is undamaged, the other three (two Spitfires and a Gloster Whittle) will need restoration at some point.

Merten deer set, two smallish horses (one modern PVC, one vintage HK PE) and Hong Kong copies of Gem's golfer and  Robin Hood also stand out, along with the circus lion, he's cartoony and I think I know where he comes from but it's hidden in the files . . . a Cecil Colman window-box import or Cowen De Groot/Codeg?

The little train is delightful, the rolling stock are PVC or full rubber and have moulded-in wheels (no locomotion), with staples as coupling-hitches. TMR could be Triang Miniature Railway?

I suspect there should be clip-in roofs, possibly tin-plate, and they MAY have had candle-holes? The things which look like release-pin marks may be for the bases of candles, allowing the train to celebrate up to age-nine's! But I don't think it's likely, far more plausable is its being a dolls house train set for 1:12 doll's houses?

While this Beeju canoe (my third) reveals/confirms (?) that while the hull and upper deck are always mono-coloured, the sandwiched interior 'deck' and paddler single-mouldings are always a marbled polymer, so far; always with red as one of the colours.

The other parcel was a mixed lot of Soviet era Russian toy soldiers which I bought for the paratrooper, he's a copy of the Acedo who was then further copied by Trojan, so getting another version was very pleasing! Around the same time I got another Acedo and he's different from my first, so the number of variations of the one pose continues to grow.

The row down the bottom are similar to the Malysh (Kid) Napoleonics in material (PVC rubber) and colours, so I suspect they ARE Malysh and will say so in the tags (assumption huh?!!), while top left is an early Progress figure in hard 'styrene, the same material being used for the unknown pink sailor.

Many thanks to Adrian for the little parcel of goodness!

A is for Astrobauble Again!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It's Astrobauble! How cool is this . . . to cool for space-school, more right than the right stuff, more pearlescent that a pearl-muscles' inner lining, shinier than an ormer! It's a blow-moulded astronaut Christmas tree bauble, in the shape of an astronaut and it's yours for £1.50 if you get down to Asda!

I'm not normally a fan of plastic baubles pretending to be blown-glass, and he won't be going on the tree, but he was never going on the tree, plastic figures go in the plastic figure collection! Although he is very well done for a polymer lookie-likie! I'll take the hook-eye, crown-finial and stuff off and block the hole with one of those white-plastic particle-board hole-sealers, and Bingo! A stand alone, plastic astronaut, about 120mm in a rather leery space-suit!

We will have a few Christmas posts a bit earlier this year so that if the items tickle your fancy you can seek them out. I bought this about a week ago in Asda, Astrobaubles for a quid--fifty . . . bargain!

And if you think the above/preceding blurb rings a bell, it's because I cheated slightly, this is a re-issue of the Primark one from 2018! Which means - at £1.50 - the Asda one's avoided the inflation hitting everything else at the moment!

Then I picked this chap - on the left - up at Sandown Park on Saturday-last, it's a deep-sea diver, rather than a spaceman, and it is proper glass, so will probably go on the tree, but next year; this year's still a bit raw for celebrations on that level, especially as I'm emptying the house, not filling it with trees! More photo's in the relevant 'H is for . . . ' post soon.

Hugh's Handy Helpful Home Hobby Hints - Curtainsider!

H6-5! Best said in a West Country accent; Curr'un Cider! We're returning to the previous post with a simple fix for that rather leery truck we saw.

As it comes from PMS, stickered-up to within an inch of its life, and hardly the low-visibility or 'subdued' scheme you'd want on a military vehicle; with the sun on it, I fancy you could spot it from the International Space Station!

But they are all simple paper stickers and were mostly destined for the bin!

The removal revealed weirdness, moulded into one side as full cavities in a stencil style, the letters ABCOK, which is then fully mirror-reversed on the other side so you can see right through them both like the two ends of a tunnel?

Now does this mean ABC  OK, which might mean the vintage ABC is still extant as part of the modern Chinese toy industry (very unlikely)? Or is it poorly selected random letters because someone detailed someone else to select and cut some letters into the tools for some inexplicable reason? Or is it a more insidious hidden-behind-a-sticker thing, like the abbreviation for 'American Bastard Customer' or 'All Brit's Cocks'?

I doubt we'll ever know, if it was an Early Learning thing on un-stickered civilian versions of the toy it would be ABCDE or ABCXYZ or something wouldn't it? I suspect sample text on the CAD drawing which was accidentally transferred to the CAM tooling and reversed 100% for the other cavity! But there you are - spurious letters cut into the sides of the truck for no [apparent] reason!

I then cut new plain paper stickers from heavy parcel labels and coloured them in with a Sharpie! Simple, but effective, although the sides needed about four coats of Sharpie to lose all the pen-lines and hide the letters underneath. I used an old agate nail-buffer to smooth the sticker down especially round the edges and the four corners

Neatly converts a leery truck into a logistics curtainsider, although pretty fictional and we have to ignore the wheels for now! It's a sort of 5½-7½-ton rigid-bodied puddle-jumper (with a 'big-rig' cab!), around 1:48th/40mm compatible. And as you can see I left the 'sensible' stickers front and back for a bit of interest! And thanks again to Peter Evans of PW for the PMS Truck.