H is for How They Come In - April I - Chris - Animals and Media Related

I've twined TV/Movie and animals in this post of Chris Smith's April donation to the Blog, and we'll start with the animals (and monsters!) as there are some very interesting items among them . . .

. . . starting with the hard-plastic giraffe at the back, in need of the liquid-poly vet - whom it has since been seen by! The only damage in the consignment, and probably courtesy of Royal Fail! It's cartoony but not a Lik Be (LB) or Colonial sculpt, as far as I know, it's also frangible polystyrene, but both Culpitt and Wilton carried 'styrene versions of the aforementioned animals, so I'm guessing a similar history for this chap - fun cake decoration for younger celebrants?

Two lovely dogs; one Airfix (? See forthcoming post) 'styrene flat, the other a chalky polyethylene sculpt of some quality, but a larger scale than the usual suspects, so probably a dolls-house set? The small deer will also return in a further post.

The kit giraffe is probably from a R&L circus premium, but could be Italian, they had several issuers of such stuff, while the sheep is Precepi/Nativity. The elephant is a US Cracker-Jack premium, I think, over here - Christmas cracker?

Which leaves a lovely owl in soft silicon-rubber and the grey horse; it is a copy of the Britains stage-coach/prairie-wagon horse I think, but scaled down and used with cake-decoration carrousels/roundabouts/fairground gallops.

Ahhhh! "Gygax Monsters"! There will be a whole page on them in the fullness of time, and these are two of several from Chris while Peter Evan's has sent one or two over the years, but I have lots (you need lots as there are many variations!) including the LB 'minis', here we see 'Bulette' on the left and a swamp-gator who Gary Gygax ignored!

For now suffice to say, they aren't as rare as people would have you believe, and they definitely aren't worth the $400 that someone was paying for them a decade or so ago, indeed, as we saw a few years ago, thanks to Brian Berke; you can still find the ex-Holly mouldings in seaside kiosks now, but there have been many iterations!

I hope/believe, these are the sea-animals which accompany the Nabisco take on baking-powder divers, which are to be seen here (toward the end of the article), they aren't the plain colour of my pair of divers though, being all marbled to some extent and there's no obvious hole for baking soda to be packed in, just larger hollows, so maybe they sat at the bottom of the vessel being used, or floated above the bobbing divers?

Assuming I'm right (never assume! Heehee) they are an extraordinary things to find in a box of mixed chuck-outs!

Disney's Pocahontas, Santa' rocking on a double-bass, a Coca-cola polar pilot, Roy 'Chubby' Bear "Yeah, but those fockers was Messerschmitts!" Boom Boom! and a Kinder Gnome make up the characterfull element!

She's not actually a superhero; 'gold lady' is DC's Lois Lane, I think from a fairly recent magazine part-work adult-collectable, we looked at the funny, semi-flat 'bat-bots' here and this silver one is both a new colour and a new pose!

While the otherwise quite typical eraser space-warrior type (yellow rubber) has wrap-around armour in polyethylene which is unusual? The Star Trek Worf is Playmates' take on Micro-Machines I think, while the other figure looks like one of the lesser Turkish or Spanish capsule toys - LZ or Maraja?

leaving this 'till last, it's fun! A Baywatch pick-up truck with muscle-bound hunk driving and puny sidekick in the passenger seat! Non-turning wheels suggest modern cake-decoration, and it must be 1980's/90's now as that craze is well-over, isn’t it, say it is . . . please!

I know! Some people loved it, I couldn't bear it, those fake tits of Pamela's looked like balloons! And how many believable story-lines can you get out of a strip of beach in Southern California? But lovely toy with two figures - cheers Chris!

Indeed; many thanks for all the above, especially the sea-creatures and the rack-toy robot! Full-combat Toy Soldiers next!

Next day - Chris reports it's Burger King 1987, and came with a similar speedboat and a quad-bike, I should have taken notes on base-marks before I sorted them away - similar note on the skateboards in the previous post.

News, Views Etc . . . Herald Toys & Models - Charbens Swoppets!

New news from Barney over at Herald Toys and Models;

" . . . this week we have for sale a good collection of Charbens 'Swoppet' type movable figures, including a number of Confederates, from the Glasgow collection of plastic figures."

H is for How They Come In - April I - Chris - Intro.

So, back to the folder of folders! This was a lovely lot from Chris (none haven't been!), with some very interesting items, and as I'm struggling to populate these opening paragraphs with words on all the similar posts; let's just get stuck in.

On the left are things which caught my eye in the minutes after opening, on the right what I am carefully picking through to add to the left-hand display, you can see another racing car in yellow, another turtle, a nice small-scale hay-cart . . . parachuting paratroopers!

Sorting into thematic piles gave (clockwise from top left); Military, civilian, historical/ceremonial, medieval, cartoon/TV & movie, Wild West, Space & Sci-Fi and finally; animals - the gold lady in 7 should really have been in 5, as she is a superhero character!

The fruits of my sorting (and Chris's labours), from the vehicular genre; the two racing cars were probably cake decorations, but they can also be found as rack-toy fodder, usually with a simple slam-plate, sprung-launcher, the sports-coupe is fun and the wagon has a series of six articles in preparation for the Giant Blog, this one having been given what looks like a Lledo horse and is most likely from a Christmas cracker?

The jig-toy lorry needs no introduction and the two rubber boats (Kinder? Behind and kit piece forward) are grist to the mill, while the Kellogg's submarine is missing it's conning-tower details, but they ARE the four stumps of the earlier moulding, and the plastic colour is very unusual?

And the liner is superb! I thought it might be a missing piece from the probably Zang set we looked at a while ago, but Chris pointed-out it's plaster, not harder composition, so an old chalkwear cake decoration, but not one I'd seen before - lovely! The three funnels suggests an attempt at RMS Queen Mary?

Some of the civilians included two larger racing drivers, a really nice pair of safari explorers (presumably from a modern play set?) and a better copy of the Corgi copy safari guide than my broken yellow one, seen here before. I think the two large ones had a markers mark but I've forgotten it so I won't make an arse of myself by guessing the wrong one!

The lower shot shows to reissued Marx linesmen (which I wish I'd had when I photographed the telephone-truck! Although it was a much bigger scale), along with an ambulance man who looks similar to a weird military stretcher crew I have - as parachute toys! Final item is an interesting and probably home-made figurine of a woman carved from a close-grained softwood - maybe for a nativity scene?

Some of the more interesting sports figures and a Dinky-copy firefighter who clearly had a push-on hose. The blue lady was manufactured with ring-hands and may be a Hong Kong (or minor make) take-off of the Marx / Cherliea types? But she's polystyrene which is not 'palyable'.

The two running figures may be from those board-games I've mentioned before, where a larger figure/target throws things down a 'mountain' to knock the players over before they complete a task or circuit of the board and start climbing up the sides to get the 'target' figure?

Don't know anything about the skateboarders, (next day - but Chris does; “Tony Hawk” McDonalds happy meal toys 2005/6 each came with a ramp or half pipe to do stunts with) but there are a lot of toys like them around the place at the moment, and they will encourage me to satrt a skateboarder section as I have a few now, mostly cake decorations but others like these. The road-worker is a particularly nice one and I think the 'diver' with a spring is actually a footballer from an interactive board (or 'tray') game?

Drivers and seated; as I've said before, like paratroopers, these are always in mixed or junk lots, or rummage trays at shows, divorced from the vast number of die-cast and plastic vehicles and novelties made over the last seven-or-so decades and the ID'ing of them will be a major job - one day! There are two versions of fork-lift driver here for starters (painted - top left) and I hope to ID the large motorcyclist at some point.

Thanks as always to Chris Smith for sending this stuff to the Blog to be shared with y'all, and it's animals next.

I is for I Forgot One!

Racing myself to get the previous post out before midnight (now gone!) I forgot I still had one purchase on the camera! So a bonus follow-up in the matter of yesterday's/Saturday's London Toy Soldier Show plunder!

This is the beast and technically it's an 3¾-inch action figure accessory, and not really something for the Blog at all, but, three things bring it here with my blessing; 1) it's by Plasty, and we like them don't we with their swoppets? 2) The wigwam's base-plate and packaging are marked Airfix and they are a cornerstone of the hobby, or the UK's corner of it at least and 3) it's almost the same size and design of the Britains vinyl Teepee/Tipi, which is one of the most sought-after items in the hobby, among those who don't eschew Wild West, shock-horror!

You get six long and two slightly shorter poles, a vinyl tent, pre-stitched at the lower join-line with a piece of kitchen string (it's heat-welded above), a base-plate, which is marked Airfix underneath, and a five-part camp-fire in a separate bag, plus box and instruction sheet (vorn = front).

It lacks the finesse of the Britains ones (there are three or four print designs on the vinyl-sheet of the earlier ones), but equally it lacks the handfull of pesky and easy to lose tent-pegs of that better-known one, but nevertheless it will look lovely with a few 54mm figures, albeit with a rather high entrance-hole!

The range was given various names, in the UK the line was known as Airfix Eagles, leading to rarities in the UK (and elsewhere - Spain) and I don't know if the wigwam was included, but they definitely manufactured the base-plate!

N is for Not Going in the Queue!

And so to the London Toy Soldier Show, a rather muted event in a new (to me) venue, but these are the times we live in, and while the Internet is the ultimate winner, society is losing something of itself every day. I thought that rather than adding it to the 'H is for...' long-queue; I'd get it out of the way and try eating down on that queue, going forwards!

I won't bore you with pictures of the show, the organisers (publisher's Guideline) took loads of photographs and video, someone else was taking video, there was a bloke with a dumb-phone taking footage which may already be online somewhere, and another photographer managed to get a candid shot of me - for his mate - which almost certainly won't be seen in public, but ought to be!

So it's straight to the few purchases I made on the day; and we're starting with the Sci-Fi fantasy stuff! Rear-left is an unusual Tonka figurine from 1988's Willow line, I was aware of them from some catalogue or Blog or another, but didn't know they used the Britains Deetail basing method, of a slotted metal base with vinyl lugs on the undersides of the figure (in this case Airk Thaughbaer)'s feet.

Next to him is a Kinder fantasy figure from the late 1980's, I have one with a blue lizard (and green pants I think?), but not the helmet (also lizardy), so he was a nice addition, while Adrian from Mercator Trading had put the robots to one side for me, similar in size and plastic-colour to the Ace Acme robots, I don't know their origins (beyond 'probably' being both Christmas cracker and gum-ball machine prizes) but will find-out one day!

Three Polish-made Napoleonic cavalry from PZG were not cheap but a steal to find at all, and go with a fourth I found - at Plastic Warrior's show - a year or two ago, while Adrian had also found these diminutive Roman/Egyptian copies of larger Marx figures for me, which will entail taking another shot for a post which should have already published!

Also from Poland's PZG came a better WWII officer than the one I have, and my first (I think) 'Four Tanker's and a Dog' figure. The pale copies of Timpo's GI's, probably come from Argentina, but could be Turkish, and feel-like/sound-like polystyrene, although I don't think they are.

Discussing them with several members of the 'old guard' during the show, more votes were for S. American than Turkey, but I still fancy the Turks, so it'll need something more definitive!

Adrian also gave me a box of Blue Box bits and bobs which included a spare cab-floor for a Bedford RL, so I can rescue one from the junk pile - where a dozen or more languish. What's also useful about these is that the Britains poses are the earlier 'kidney' based ones, not the later, commoner, penny-bases.

I also grabbed the Zang figure as every time I find the soldier at attention, he's a different colour, and I wasn't sure if I had this mid-khaki shade with no webbing highlights? Possibly the smallest plunder bag I've ever brought-away from a show, but all good stuff!

U is for Unknown Russian Kids Fantasy Figures?

These are fun, and if any of the Russian or Russian-speaking loyal readers from the former Soviet Bloc can fill us in on them, even a decent link to a Wikipedia page or something, I would dearly like to know more.

I can only assume they are from some Kids TV thing like The Magic Roundabout or Fabulandia, even Sesame Street, or the current In the Night Garden . . . with a fantastical setting and things which look half recognisable, and others which are wholly surreal?

We used to get some kid's stuff, from Czechoslovakia or East Germany I think, often quite scary puppet stuff (I wasn't too keen on) but also cartoons or stop-motion animations similar to The Magic Roundabout, but I don't recognise these figures.

The spanner-man (top left) even has features in common with one of Mattel's MUSCLE men, while the next is clearly an onion, followed by a figure bearing a passing resemblance to the Tin Man of Oz, and a Micky take-off completes the top row.

The bottom row has someone in a large sun-hat or halo, or is it the actual sun? The next is a wooden doll maybe (she (he?) reminds me a bit of Zeberdee), a normal'ish/human-looking fat lady with a huge nose and the most human of all, who looks a bit like Vicky the Viking.

And I use the comparisons not to suggest plagiarism, but because they are my closest cultural references - I'm sure these were all unique designs with full back-stories, fitting their Russian heritage? I believe this eight sculpts is a full set, although I may have seen some of the characters as larger blow-moulded toys, PVC figurines or soft toys, while searching for other stuff on feebleBay?

I have one set in plain scarlet and another in multiple subdued/pastel colours, again a set of eight, I didn't shoot all of them and noticed that while some have a fully-round disposition, some are semi-flat / demi-ronde, but don't know if it reflects the actual TV characters (if it's even a TV thing!), or more of a production/sculptor thing?

A few close-ups to show the subtle surface detailing, the odd noses on the 'tin man' and fat girl (her's looks like it might be a pencil-stub?), 'Mickey's' big ears (similar to the better-known Russian cartoon charcter Cheburashka but also very different) and the hat/sun/halo thing!

Like I say - they're fun, around 45/50mm and a softish soapy polyethylene, similar to the mono-block AFV's we've seen here at Small Scale World. Do you know more about them . . . character names, production name, era, even the toy-maker? Odessa's Kultbyttovarov used the same colours on their small scale ships, 'planes and AFV's?

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

Later the same day - not in pink 'cos there's too much! Chris Smith got on the case before work this morning and nailed it!

". . . had sneaky look at your blog and finished down a google worm hole! This must be the onion headed one, not sure if the others are characters from the film or other popular children’s stories?"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2474800/

". . . looked further. More interesting than work! Your hunch on Cheburashka was right after all. Your description in red."

Петрушка (Parsley) Vicky the Viking (a clown puppet a bit like a Russian Punch)
Буратино (Pinocchio/Buratino) Tinman
Незнайка (Neznaika/Dunno) Sun Hat/Halo
Чебурашка (Cheburashka) Ditto*
Дюймовочка (Thumbelina) Wooden Doll
Самоделкин (Samodelkin) Spanner-Man
Карандаш (Pencil) Fat Lady Big Nose (If you look her nose is hexagonal and pointed)**
Чиполлино (Cipollino) Onion Boy

* This character is currently in talks with Disney, but now - in poplar culture -  looks more like a monkey than the above toy, which is probably why I saw a similarity with the ears, but not the body!

** I was closing-in!

So it's a Russian take on old folk/fairy-tales, mashed together under the central Cipollino (who IS an onion!), some of the characters also having been covered by Disney in different guises, it was also apparently popular in Italy and so successful behind 'the curtain' that we got a set of toys and, later, a full ballet production! And the 'Tin Man' is actually a wooden boy. It also explains why I thought I'd seen them in other sizes and materials, because I must have!

Cheers Chris! Magic!

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

Later still - It is originally an Italian story; Chris sent me another link I hadn't seen . . . 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipollino

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipollino_(film)

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

Even later!

I don't think most of the above characters are from the movie (the apparent absence of king/mayor 'Tomato' was bugging me), I think they are from the Russian kid's books 'Expanded Universe? And it looks like Pencil is a boy!

https://flomaster.club/18407-karandash-i-samodelkin-illjustracii-ivana-semenova.html

E is for Extra Tin-Plate Post

Brian B sent me a shot of his - probably - Shilling tree-hangers, so I went-off and found a cheap MC and sidecar to make a post! It's a little one, but perfectly formed!

Lovely colours; a deep lemon-yellow and a rich tangerine orange, with sky-blue highlights. The motorcycle has a series of thin plates running round and covering the main seam to prevent nasty cuts, as does the passenger, and the sidecar is on the right-hand side for those who have adopted the Napoleonic rule of the road - sword to sword, 'cos the Europeans are always fighting!

As per his comment on one of the recent posts here are Brian's TX507 (Bus), TX513 (Loco) & TX514 (Tram), using the Hawkin-Tobar catalogue codes, I don't know if they extend to Roggaz's ^Z_Z or Schilling, but they are the same tools, same for-Germany marks and same paint-schemes. Note the eclectic stuff around them and the now finished STS Direct impish cyclopean!

H is for How They Come In - March

This is a brief one two, but I suspect it was part of a larger parcel, some of which is in the queue, some of which has been blogged, either in Rack Toy month or more recently! But there are still a few nice bits here, and we'll return to the rockets in a future post.

Peter Evans of Plastic Warrior fame was the contributor here, and we have clockwise from the top left; Toy Major handled (several other brand marks issued-) cave-men bits; a Montaplex Viking boat hull and blow-moulded water-pistol of Christmas cracker prize/gift proportions and another of those Palitoy (and others) kicking footballers.

A small bag of Airfix and other war-gaming plastics lies next to a bag of rocket projectiles and below them is something which is more amusing than interesting, given the state of plastics in the social conscience these days . . . it's plastic (Kinder I think) copies of the old Erzgebirge wooden micro/dolls-house trucks/trains, in wood-effect polymer!

Two castles from a resin chess set in the guise of siege-towers, a small bag of actual Erzgebige items and a couple of mini-pigs conclude the tour, I didn't get them out of the bags as it's mostly stuff building to bigger posts, or stuff we've seen in passing before, and they've been sorted away now, also I was pretty busy back in March, but all it's gratefully received into the archive, thanks again Peter.

H is for How They Come In - January - Mixed Lots

This is a few shots of several small lots I took together as they all came in the same post, and got unwrapped (I think of them as presents even if I've paid for them!) together . . . actually they may have been four little lots from one seller?

Two large vinyl animals from PG Tips (tea-bag premiums, taped to a box of tea-bags - for loyal readers overseas!), with their boxes in the background, two nifty ninja's, a Hong Kong for Cavendish (and others) tourist keepsake guardsman and a lovely HO-gauge compatible composition barn . . . and me' morning-coffee! Self-seal bags are ready to receive their new tenants.

Posed with Britains Lilliput farm figures and accessories, to give some idea of the scale, could be Brent or Zang or someone, but has the colour of European linseed oil-mixed composition, so may be German, Belgian or even Italian?

That design of barn is, or was; 100-years ago, pretty universal across northern/central Europe, the 17 original States of the Union and western Russia, so no guide to origin in the architecture, indeed, it could be home-made or what we now call 'garage production'? But, nevertheless; one of my favorite additions to the collection in the last 12 months.

Because Chris's lot had only come in a few weeks before, it was still half-sorted and to-hand, so I grabbed the similar figure from his donation and they had a reunion fight! I have a bunch of them somewhere and we'll look at them properly one day.

You can see in the background I also unified the three 60mm 'Cavendish's, and saw a pair of ginger cats migrate to the table between shoots!

The fact that two of the guards are damaged is no problem as this is a hard to find figure with the bayonet intact, but all three are different plastic colours (red, smoky salmon and greyish-white), so when we next look at the 60mm's in detail (I need to find more household cavalry!) the three will produce an excellent base-underside shot!

And I took a very similar shot to the one the other day - in fact I probably took them at the same time! The swoppet ninja is from the purchase, the other four were from Chris Smith - Kinder, vintage Japanese celluloid, Award International, MTC and a European premium after Fontanini.

B is for Bisque Basket-Bearing Bounty-Bringers from Bari

One of the towns associated with Saint Nicholas, who I think may be the central figure in these shots! Held over from last year, this is a quickie, the lights are up in town now, the crimbo stories are starting to creep into the news, and, heay, what the hell; let's get festive.

Bisque figures around 4½ inches, so a bit big for cake decoration, but also not the thing for a nativity, so I guess fairground fairings with a seasonal twist. Charity shop purchase and they had a whole box of them, the sort of box traveling showmen might have under the hoopla counter to replace those won, or damaged in the trying to win!

As I said, the chap in the middle has more the look of a Bishop, and while not a medieval one, certainly a historical one, so I guess it's meant to be St. Nick the Real, rather than the four minion santa's he's flanked by, each of whom has a basket full of gifts and are obviously St. Nick the Sintered Fictional!

They're nice, mint (I went through the whole box to make sure I had one of each available and that they were good) and were not many pennies!

GUTS! is for a Massacred Abbreviation!

Ground Troops . . . it's awful isn't it! But the strangulated MUSCLE and CUTIES weren't much better, however, Mattel obviously thought they'd found the magical formula for flogging polymer tat to kids via-TV advertising; with abbreviated group-names! These Guts being issued in 1986, so now sliding into a true 'vintage', they are nevertheless still quite 'modern' and easy enough to find.

Although you may recall I had one 'unknown' and someone had to ID it for me, but I've now tracked down the full set of Laser Fighters, so let's have a look . . .

. . . at what are a fun set of figures. We looked at a couple - which turned-out to be smaller piracies, a while ago from one of Chris's parcels, and - as I said - someone at the time told me they were Mattel GUTS!, but I can't find the comment, so it might have been a private eMail, meaning I can't credit them unless they remind me, but thank you however you were!

Each of the ten sculpts gets a name, they were clearly thought-up in a coffee break before the artwork was "OK'd" back to the printers/art-room and are consequently less than memorable, but they are nice figures, albeit with a real 1980's vibe as far as space-figures go.

They are rocking Cylon Warriors and straight-to-video, post-apocalypse B-movies, imagine some scrambler-bikes with rusty armour and fishing nets, the [Nevada] sky always behind a salmon-pink filter and an old crone with a broken-back who turns into a sexy space-babe after a camera-wobble and flash of white screen, only to seduce our intrepid laser-fighters and suck their brains out!

The weirdest thing is that not one of them is identically uniformed, with every helmet slightly different, every weapon very different and varying paint details are applied - half have painted boots (in three colours) half don't.

Two have black visors, but only the one black helmet - normally you would expect the sculptor to make a matching head or two and reproduce them first; for use on all ten masters, but here; each was separately done.

Packaging of the larger set; poorer kids could save-up for sets of five and as we saw in the above link, someone copied them and issued them undecorated as metallic PVC's, the same material as these originals.

Full set here in a slightly crushed box; not that pricey, for N. America, but if in the UK, you can get them cheaper on feeBay, to account for the postage, if you're patient!

W is for When the Logistics-chain Breaks Down

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

Obviously, a lot of you are Toy Soldier collectors, only deigning to touch other genres if they happen to fit your collection's parameters, vis-à-vis scale, maker, period or whatever! So this portion of Chris's donation is probably the best one for you!

We'll start with 'the rest' as I tried to alternate the green and pale backgrounds, needed to separate the medievals and wanted to finish with the Trojan, and for no other reason!

Top left we have five kit-figures, some ex-Monogram and a chap who looks a lot like some of the larger R/C tank crew in the master collection, he also has a locating spigot between his knee and foot, and may-well have been attached to such an item?

The grey figure below him looks a bit like some Portuguese premium Jap's I recently got, but he's not as deeply sculpted and while they are unique sculpts, he's ex-Monogram and a bit Hong Kong'y in execution, but a first in the collection (very heavy base?), as is the damaged turquoise figure, one-place to his left?

Center of the bottom row are two more Special Forces types, these are becoming common, I guess because of their prevalence on both current affairs/news programs and their position in popular culture/gaming?

The white Timpo (et al) copy is interesting; I forgot to check his base, so while he may be HK/China, if unmarked he might be a French bazaar figure? below him, next to the SF figures is a figure which ought to be a Speedwell copy of a Timpo swoppet, but looks glossy enough to be a HK copy of Speedwell! And not a Star Toys pose?

The big boy (bottom right) is a Mattel 'Hero in Action' and I seem to be building a bag-of-bits of these, so one day I might try to get a couple of whole ones and cover them here, they are technically action-figures, but articulation is limited and if you like the Vietnamese summer 'Rambo' esthetic of them (flak-jacket, trousers, boots, helmet and not much else), then they are a fun thing, although they came out when I was a kid, so long before John Rambo started shooting-up his neighbourhood!

Three perennials in four sizes; Pioneer (for Realtoy et al), Smart Toys (new poses), and Soma (with ATV), the two Pioneer/Realtoy are hard to find undamaged, The Smart sample is getting a little lopsided with many more green than sand!

Chris sent me two of his new, probably first, unknown-brand versions of the ABC figures, I have Blogged them now, but here they are again!

Medievals, from the left; these are fun (and a bit funny) they came in various branded and more generic sets (so maybe handled by Toy Major?), and at first glance - or, depending on which ones you find first; closer inspection - appear to be US construction workers, but they are in fact medievals and this one is sneakily hiding his axe behind his back.

Then the All The King's Men board-game piece bowman, if I'd Blogged him earlier he would have come before March's 'reveal'! he's next to a Roman who we had also looked at, but he's definitely a darker shade than the shiny set I found - in liaison with Chris, at the time, I think?

One of the unpainted, mono-coloured Cherilea 50-mils, I wonder if they had a Lucky-Bag or ice cream premium contract for these, as they do turn-up quite often? Penultimate figure in the line-up is a Hong Kong copy of MPC's little 45mm figures and next to him on the end is an MPC original of one of the mounted ones!

I thought I'd put them on the Blog, back at the start but I'll be darned if I can find the images?

Don't know what this is, I'm guessing some kind of wall or gatehouse decoration from a larger-scale action-figure play-set? Pig's head visor, ornate crest and the reverse image is out of focus - sorry!

Chris is as intrigued by this as I am! He thought King, I thought Beefeater, and it clearly plugs into something? It is flat, and has some of the design elements you might find on a lollypop- or cocktail swizzle-stick?

I wonder if it's a long gone and pretty forgotten company logo, perhaps a steak-chain or a smaller chain of restaurants like (but not) London's Old Kentucky where we had several treat-trips as kids in the one opposite the Duke of York's barracks in Chelsea - which google informs me was at 54 King's Road from 1968, there was another in Tottenham Court Road. Beefeater Restaurants themselves did (do?) have a Beefeater mascot, but a bearded one in the current ceremonial uniform, this is an older style.

It's one of those things where if you know you know, so does anyone recognise him, or is he just one of a line of ice cream sticks or something? AND . . . he could be an Elizabethan jester?

At some point last autumn Chris and I either discussed an evilBay lot, or ended up bidding on the same lot, anyway at some point I dropped out before the under bidder, or never bid (I can't remember now) and Chris won it, kindly sending me the one figure I'd really been after as he already had a better one, which puts my Trojan Jap's up to five in four poses I think . . . slowly, slowly, catchee' raree!

I was chatting to someone today round at another toy soldier mate's house, and we were looking at his Wants List . . . now, I currently have five from friends on the laptop's desk-top and have only managed to fulfill one item so far - a bunch of Brent composition to one of the Russian supporters of the Blog, because - as I said in the conversation earlier today, all the wants lists have pretty much the same figures/makers on them, because the harder to find things are the same for everyone! But keep looking and you'll find them in the end - because they were all mass-produced!

The real rarities are all the more ephemeral things like flat Beefeater hangers, that went to landfill years ago, and it's thanks to supporters like Chris that I can get to share them with you. Thank you Chris, we'll be looking at the equally interesting April lot soon!

H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - II Chris - Space & Sci-Fi

I should have added the TV/Movie image to this post to balance them better, but sometimes I lose the wood for the trees with the number of Toy Soldier posts currently in Picasa!

So a swifter read than the others, but heay-ho; there's a shot in the next post which probably should have gone with the cartoon stuff in the previous post (which was the TV/Movie image!), that's how it shakes down!

Smaller scales/sizes - from the left; an interesting figure who looks capsul'ey to me? A Putty from Galoob; another capsule-toy type I think (is he a character anyone recognises?); possibly another Galoob Micromachine, a character from Marvel or DC, which might make him late Kenner; a nice mini-Keshi of a sort of lobster-man, and a figure who looks like one of Hasbro's Air Raiders, but doesn't actually appear to be one?

A small group of space vehicles - fact and fiction; with two Bruder/Giodi/Kinder types, an Apollo Eagle Lander cake decoration (issued by Blue Shield in the 'States) and the lower half of Airfix's funny little Bell Aeronautics LFV.

This is nice, I haven't ID'd it yet (probably a die-cast or play-set accessory), about 30mm and PVC, I can't make my mind-up whether the visor is meant, or a home enhancement with a marker pen - I suspect the later.

I have apologised to Chris for not crediting him the first time I blogged this, but it was obviously because having shot it for these posts in December last, I then sorted it away, and found it again months later, with some surprise! A pop-up knock-off of an LB astronaut/spaceman! Cheers Chris!