C is for Chasseurs - Historex No's 634 & 641

You see the first plate here is what I think of as Hussar uniforms, but they are definitely Chasseurs, and Nappy himself thought they were cheaper than Hussars so . . . whatever!

Remember, although I'm cropping-out the odd dog-ear, these are all roughly A4, and {print to screen} will produce A4 sheets for you, even of the colour plates which are actually closer to A6 in the original.

H is for Hussars - Historex No. 198

Probably could have been tacked onto the previous post, but it has a separate number so one hopes a separate colour-plate will turn-up for it at some point? The sheet lacks detailed sketches too, but is a four-pager.

H is for Hussards - Historex No's 632, 633 & 698

Two things have reared themselves up since yesterday; firstly, I jumped in too quick on Sunday after finding the papers, and they will need a separate page (above, in a day or two) to link to the posts by code number as some sets - like this one - carry several numbers! So we will be building a check list for transfer to the A-Z entry as we go! It will also help us work out what papers are missing?

Secondly, I am shit at Napoleonic uniforms/unit designations, these are 'Hussards' right? Well they are - it says so, but there is a 'Hussar' sheet as well! Then there's lots of 'Chasseur' cavalry who look like what I think Hussars should look like! They are all light-cavalry - as far as I can tell, but I suspect some are lighter than others and some may be considered medium (if heavy have breast-plates) in the absence of that designation as anything other than vague (Dragoons). but . . . look, the Napoleonic war-gamers and figure painters will know what they are looking at, which is one of the points of publishing these!

I was for a short while in the late-19980/early-1990's a bit of an expert on armoured cars and half-tracks, but have forgotten most of it, as I'm now filling the filing cabinet with toys, toy figures and toy-company stuff, and when that cabinet is the grey matter between your ears, there's only so much room! I could Google it and try a bit of bluffing (my PM would!), but what's the point? They are what they are and people will get what they want from them!

If I were to try bluffing it I might have used this page, which seem to be a reasonable preamble through the types, but even he confuses it by using both terms in the same section! I think 'ard is an occasional French version (pretention?) of 'ar? Anyway, the Chasseurs (who will come last in this group of posts) are described as having cheaper uniforms and horses, despite being the ones looking most like my idea of Hussars!

H is for Historex Ephemera - Louis XV and Some Polish Posh Totty

Ages and ages ago, I won a competition ran by MSFoy over at the excellent (and far better written than my wittering's) Prometheus in Aspic Blog, which was for a bundle of old Historex sheets, which variously include English and/or bi-lingual guides to the regiments and uniforms of the Napoleonic wars, and/or some B&W 'detailing' or reverse aspect sketches and/or a colour-plate painting guide.

I thought they were in storage/the garage, but they turned-up last night in a box at the back of the attic! I already had a few of the colour plates, while Mr. Foy sent some extra B&W sheets, so between the two lots a pretty good run of the - mostly French - subjects has been assembled.

They were going to go on a separate Blog, but the last thing I need is a ['nother] separate Blog! So I will proceed to start getting them up here, as nostalgic ephemera, which may be of use to figure painters, with many thanks to Tony, and apologies for doing so little with them, for so long.

Starting with the easiest/smallest, 'Louis the Beloved' who actually seems to have been both ineffectual and corrupt! And his babe from Poland!

There's no set number with these papers; most of the sheets are tied into the catalogue numbers of the various kits one could purchase, remembering also that you could buy separate accessory sets for converting, and larger boxed sets were sold, with various individual numbered kits and some accessories in the one outer, Tony believes that a lot of his haul came from those sets, while I don't know if this pair were catalogued items, or something to be built-up from the other civilian models in the range?

The files for the A-Z listing on Historex are still in storage, so a complete (or as complete as I can get it) listing of Historex's product range will come along later!

C is for Clementoni - Toy Fair 2022

This was a funny one, it looked interesting and had figurines (actually just the one pose, once investigated!) so I went over to the sales team and asked if I could photograph them, to which they were happy to acquiesce.

But as I was leaving the controlled-entry stand (some stands don't like you wandering about and doing your own thing and have guides and booking times  an' shit in'it!) one of the chaps asked me if I'd got what I wanted and I explained it was really the figure I was after, but I'd also noticed it (the line) seemed to be partially compatible with Lego Technical, to which a swift denial was forthcoming. "Really" said I, "some of the components look to be 'like another leading brand's?' ", "No, no it's not" came the reply - with a frown, and I left with an "OK, well thanks".

But five minutes on Google, nay; 30-seconds on Google after hitting enter on 'Is Clementoni mechanics compatible with Lego Technical' reveals that it is indeed the same cruciform locking bars and wheel attachments etc . . . so either the guy was lying to me for some obscure reason, or he had been hired-in for the day/fair, not trained properly on the product and was talking bollocks from a position of ignorance?

Very odd, anyway; it's a nice line of Space Toys, with some basic construction and [definitely] Lego Technical-compatible components you could build-on/off and which is out there now, there's lots online, so I'll let the photo's tell their own story -

I think it's only the red-box stuff (above) which has the Lego-compatible components, the stuff below is more stand-alone toy, but still within a STEM umbrella of interactivity, and the same current-thought space theme?

These seem to come with faux asteroids to smash-open?

And . . .  it is another 28/35mm (I couldn't measure them!) NASA style astronaut, with an EVA back-pack! From Clementoni

Bubblegum Stuff is for Fun Stuff!

First of this year's Toy Fair reports and we're looking at a pile of Llama's! How big the Llama pile is depends upon the dexterity of the players making it . . . except I lied, they aren't Llamas, they're Alpaca's - I'm sure loyal readers are only too aware that Alpacas are cute and cuddly and not much bigger than some Maine Coon cats, while Llamas are the Devil's spawn-units on Earth and will kick you, bite you and spit on you 'till you drown!

This is the thing - Alpaca Stacker, how cool is that? Well, I thought it was, it's better than bloody chairs that's for sure! I didn't familiarise myself with the rules, but I suspect you can get the idea from the pictures! They'd go well with 70mm+ figures, so both the Schleich/Papo types or Playmobil.

The company behind them are Bubblegum Stuff and they seem to be a very small concern (single table and stool type stand, against one of the outer walls of the hall) so support them if you can, the game will make a brilliant present for younger relatives! There's an eco-vibe to a lot of their products although this one is polymer heavy, and they are Alpacas! Not Llamas, with or without pajamas, or is that bananas?

Ph is for Phew!

I'm going to let you into a secret, well, not exactly a secret; just something I'd been keeping to myself while keeping my fingers firmly crossed, although without much hope, as I'd entered that mindset where you think of a worst-case scenario and then convince yourself that is what actually, probably, must have happened!

When leaving West Bershire in 2011, I had recently put a lot of the Giant 'original' stuff in a new box, and remembered it as being a longish, shallow, double walled box. When I got the stuff out of storage a few years ago now, I couldn't remember seeing it, and as I'd run out of time when moving the first time and left a pile of empty boxes for the landlord to deal with, I began to worry I might have left the box too - which would have never been seen again!

Fortunately . . . I found it this summer, on top of everything, but at the back and out of sight/reach, in the garage! It's not shallow, not that long, and a single-wall which was starting to go, so that's why I couldn't remember moving it - either time!

The boxes inside (my standard 150x150x230's and some Lidl's faux-wood salami trays I had started massing, but am now phasing-out) are all still OK, and the top one here is a mix of Mongols and medievals.

Phew! All there! Now you'll realise I've already Blogged the WWII and Aliens over on the But is it Giant Blog, the gold-metallic Romans also got a post and the spacemen/astronauts are in the queue, but the rest are now back in storage, having been sorted into what I had here.

All the missing 'Romans, Foot'; basically they were all covered on the Post I did here, but obviously when we return to them on Giant or What, the samples will all be a bit bigger and more instructive, vis-à-vis identification, bar the very small samples which will be Gum-Ball capsule machine toys, or Christmas cracker novelties.

While this is the mounted, sets and foot figures which had been added since 2011 and made the bulk of the Roman Page article above. Although more of the black forts were in the 'phew not missing' box!

Seen here with the Chariots; left, gonna be a nightmare making sense of them all, but it is doable, as I always keep the figures found with them 'with them', so I can match chariot/horse marks (or lack of marks) to the correct figures. The Tower Fortress With Soldiers set (seen here at Small Scale World in the distant past) is probably the same set as issued by MPC in the 'States?

These were in the attic, and we have picked at them occasionally, the Airfix copies (middle) are mostly on the Airfix blog, and we were working through the Britains/Crescent piracies, but strangely it was the the loose figures which, are elsewhere in their own box, this one is the carded sets, although we looked at all the 'beach landings' sets in the Blog's early years, while the top box is older earlier stuff, some of which has been seen in Rack Toy Month's, the rest will be!

The previous three with their lids off - top = left, a lot of this came in a single purchase from the master's master James Opie, at way below the market value, for which I will be forever grateful, as it is nearly all dated to the day he purchased/spotted them and is one of the more important archives in the hobby and needed to be kept together.

I would add they were never in danger of being 'lost', firstly they went straight to the attic and secondly, anyone who's got these boxes from Mr Opie over the years (a lot were passed through Bonhams in the 1990's/2000's) will know they are large and near indestructible!

I have found many myself over the years; James's are probably a third of the carded small-scale, and we have seen various bits of it here over the years, but all will also be Blogged on the Giant blog, on dedicated/thematic pages, and both 'individual set' and 'comparison' posts on the main Blog, while the odd set will still find its way here to the 'Home' Blog, especially the more generic stuff for RTM - farm, zoo, Matchbox knock-offs, ships, 'planes, nativities &etc.

How the Giant and Giant-like looked after I'd brought them all together, the latest addition (a Shackman tin - bottom right) is (was - this was back in the summer) waiting to be put away! the label/numbering system is a bit shot and will need re-doing at the other end, while the bulk of the loose Airfix and Matchbox copies are missing along with larger and the non-Giant-like rack-toys and the Crescent/Britains box. But, I hadn't lost any . . . Phew!

F es para Feliz Cumpleaños

When I mentioned the other day that cake decorations are a rather un-researched topic, I knew I had these in the queue, but was also making a point. We know what was happening in the UK and US - indeed I've Blogged a fair bit of it here - and can extrapolate that out to Canada and probably Aus' and New Zealand, but what were they putting on cakes in Mainz, Marseilles, Mexico City or Moscow,?

Which is not to say they didn't use other figures (as we did; Britains Wild West being a favourite!) and some (Bully, Heimo and Schleich for instance) are still sold by some feebleBay dealers as just that, but what dedicated 'for cake decorating' stuff was sold in catering supply shops or bakers in other parts of the world? In Argentina, they sold a whole undersea adventure!

Actually at least (I don't know if it's complete) a nine-piece set (the octopus is in two parts and there's a treasure cheats missing from the shot), and in five colours (there are others on eBay with different colourway-lineups), and around the 54mm mark, this set from Argentina is a lovely thing!

Diver and seaweed; they all have icing-spikes/picks and the seaweed are both flat or semi-flat and all are a soft polyethylene, and in the best traditions of those cake decorations we do know of, the painting is a rudimentary stab-and-hope and limited in palette; mostly silver with flesh here, on the diver.

The dolphin and two fish get black & white eyes and more silver, and have a slightly cartoony countenance, whether they tie-in with a local TV thing or are just generically cartoony for the happy-stance of a party cake, I don't know?

The octopus is doing a Disney-style 'walking hand' and the complications of the pose have resulted in a two part model, with separate head and body, usually sold with different colours unioned together.

The treasure chest; it has basic hinges, but more for looks than practicality, if you were to try opening and closing it I suspect they would fail quite quickly?

A quick search for other Argentine cake decorations has thrown-up a nice domestic take on Cinderella and some crude copies of the Culpitt/Wilton Snow White & 7-dwarfes set, but in the future I will try to find out a bit more about cake decorations in other parts of the world!

And, by sheer coincidence (I put this on the desktop to publish a few days ago) it happens to be Moonbase's Wotan's birthday today, so Feliz Cumpleaños Wote, sorry it's a diver not a spaceman!

A is for And so to London!

The Toy Fair went ahead and I managed to attend after a bit of a SNFU at the book-in, Germany cancelled in the autumn and New York cancelled a few days ago, so outside the Far East it will rather be the 'only game in town' this year, hopefully, by next year it will all be so endemic (Covid-19 / SARS-COV-2) we will have a full suite of shows?

London Skyline from Clapham Junction

looking toward Waterloo

The visitor crowd was pretty-much as previous years, and the pub busier than ever, but as far as exhibitors went it was disappointing, Hornby-Airfix weren't there, nor were Lego or Blue Box (although the later stopped attending a few years ago), Papo didn't turn-up even though they were booked, I guess their lorries are stuck in a 'corresponding' queue at Calais to balance the Brwreakshit queue's our side of la Manche? While Schleich was disappointing, but the Mojo/CollectA stand made-up for that.

The upstairs annex was nearly empty, and the downstairs annex was pretty 'roomy', while Tobar and HGL had one stand with combined stock and no Schilling presence. So there wasn't the same quantity of stuff to cover, but I picked up the usual pile of catalogues, a few samples (seen before - World of Marbles' combat erasers), while neither Revell or Schleich were issuing catalogues despite having copies in sight!

The Shard - from Waterloo

It's the best of a dozen images!

So there will be articles forthcoming, but nothing urgent and I've still got 8 articles from TF19 and 16 from TF20 in the long queue, so who knows how it will all come out, some if it will probably be saved now to go straight to the company A-Z pages!

Contrary to you-know-who's past pontification on my output, very little of it is of any real importance! He himself has kept very quiet about how he's going to tell us everything about anything "in a timely manner" this year, given his past grandiose announcements - which always  turn into little or nothing!

Not to mention that I'm still trying to clear the old How they come in backlog, and have a new one there, picked up a few bits yesterday and have a mini season on the desk-top which I meant to get out before Christmas . . . so, whatever, whenever!

News, Views Etc . . . Golden Book of Britains Artwork for Sale!

Latest press-release from Barney Brown at Herald Toys & Models is the news that the original artwork for the forth book in the series, jointly authored by Barney and Peter Cole is being made available for sale;

" . . . this week we are giving you a unique opportunity to own the original illustrations used for the best-selling Herald Civilian Models The Golden Years book by Barney Brown and Peter Cole. Carried out in either pen and ink or watercolour by my father, Rodney Brown (who is now aged 87!) in 2012 and 2013, when we worked on the artwork for the book together, these original line drawings and watercolours would make a wonderful accompaniment to the book or as stand alone pieces that would add interest to for the Herald collector."

B is for Babes . . . in Toyland!

The folder these were in is a new one which was going to sit in the long queue until I could get the Marx originals out for full comparisons, not that I have many, a couple of damaged 60mm's I think and some of the HO Miniature Masterpiece/Disneykin ones (actually around 1:64th - if cartoon characters can have a scale?), but having bumped myself into yesterday's post these might as well go here for now, and we'll have a better look at all the cake-dec' soldiers in a year or two.

A complete set as sold by Wilton, they are - as mentioned yesterday - copies of the Marx set, Marx actually had a fourth pose, standing to attention (Private's Valiant and Hooligan!), but Wilton only copied the marching figures, who, using the Marx names are, from the top-left to bottom-right; Privates Chivalrous & Courageous (drummers), Trustworthy & Archibald (riflemen) and Gallant & Fearless - trumpeters.

The only real difference is in quality, the Marx are better finished and painted, while the Wilton's are probably a tad smaller, I haven't checked. It also looks like the bases are bigger, to anchor them firmly in the icing!

The set was in Wilton's catalogues for over twenty (maybe over thirty-) years, so the figures aren't even slightly rare, and there are always several mint sets on evilbay, but a lot of sellers try to price scalp as if they are Marx, so try not to pay over the odds, I bought a tatty-carded set to keep the cost down!

Compared with the slightly comical, but not so cartoonish guard from George Musgrave's Gemodels on the left, on the right and from the 1966 catalogue, another set of cake decoration soldiers from Wilton, these being made of real cloth and - I think (?) - pipe-cleaners and likely to be rarer, but won't find a home in my collection, they're just a bit too 'off-the-wall'!

 That scruffy card!

 

And I've added a shot to yesterdays post.

T is for Two - Cake Guards!

Actually by the end of the post we'll have seen five lots from at least three sources, but we're concentrating on two recent additions to the pile, both from the 'plastic smalls' end of the spectrum, so we'll just give the PTSM a few moments to grind their chairs and leave the room . . . Hairband! Your satchel . . . Sell - I saw that . . . Stadinger - I heard that! Right, that's better; fancy not rating plastic smalls, they lose-out on so much!

These are quite early I think (like inter-war period maybe, or just after the 2nd? 3rd on the horizon; thanks Putin, if anyone could trump both 2020 AND 2021!), and are either a phenolic resin or an early unstable polystyrene, both losing colour and starting to faintly blister on the flat areas, but, still - how cool!

Sort of French Wellingtonian line-infantry - with the buttons up the seam of the trousers - and fitted for novelty/party candles to be placed in their hats.

Lemon Madeira cake I think? It was a while ago!

The other set are a tad smaller, and while I thought they might be copies of Airfix when I first saw them, and Britains Eyes-Right after they arrived, I actually think they are channeling the later, taller Charbens bandsmen, which should mean there's a trumpeter out there still to find, for a set-count of six?

Painted as a US marching band (they came from America) with white trousers, there may be a darker painted version for the UK market or Denmark (do the Danish have cake decorations - a very under-covered subject; cake decorations?), and I think they may be after, or the donors for, the bright-coloured set we looked at here, which would mean I'm looking for (or might be looking for) a standard bearer, rather than the extra brass instrumentalist?

Quite short spikes (or 'picks') on the earlier set and only the one design as far as I know . . . I only have the four? While it took me an hour or two to realise the pick for the second set (hard polystyrene) could be removed from the soft polyethylene figures.

Unfortunately the Frenchies went to storage before the other set were found, so they are missing from these comparisons, but you can judge them from the cork in the previous shot.

Here on the left we have various cake decoration ceremonials, from Gemodels, Wilton in the 'States (copies of Marx's sculpts from the Disney production Babes in Toyland) and the recent addition, which might also be Wilton, but could be someone else - Carousel, Grandmother Stovers, SSCO &/or-etc.

On the right the newer one compared with one of the standing cake Guards we saw here, the one in the shot arriving yesterday in a nice lot from Peter Evans, and triggering my getting this out of the long-queue and dusting it off for publishing!

It's a scone (rhymes with song) not a scone (rhyming with stone).

And don't forget the wooden set!

And the funnies!

The next day - I found another image while preparing today's post! I think it might be the seller's original shot, it's better than the others anyway! You can see the beginnings of the same distortions/decay some of those F&G clowns suffer from, which might even be a clue as to the origin?

News, Views etc . . . New Links

More Toy Soldier faces from Roger Carter

https://abc7news.com/roger-j-carter-chicago-artist-black-artists-toy-soldiers/10840535/

 

Action figures, but fun in Vancouver!

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/vancouver-news/galactic-empire-invades-vancouver-meet-the-man-taking-amazing-photos-of-stormtroopers-around-the-city-3799124

 

Exquisite miniatures from Agnika Creations in India

https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/arts/satiate-your-miniature-cravings-with-agnika-creations/cid/1816212

Report on Lockdown, Prince August and Lord of the Rings (from last May)

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40290179.html

After an unsung Pennsylvanian museum (last lot of links) comes an unsung Kentucky Toy Soldier collection

https://www.fraziermuseum.org/exhibitions/stewart-toy-soldier-gallery

While the emphasis is more on dolls at the Kansas City Toy Museum

https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/one-tank-trips-national-museum-of-toys-and-miniatures

And then there's Tiny Town, Arkansas (looks like Ed Berg's work!)

https://www.hotsprings.org/places/activities/tiny-town/

 

Meanwhile in Ilkley (Yorkshire) our childhood is to be taught to today's kids!

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/ilkley-toy-museum-to-share-heritage-boxes-featuring-lost-toys-from-tin-soldiers-to-vintage-dolls-3173328

 

Hand carved birch soldiers as conference awards (last paragraph)

https://indiaeducationdiary.in/forests-of-eurasia-karelian-forests/

Holy Cow History of Milton Levine - the comic-offer king

https://insidesources.com/holy-cow-history-how-ants-made-a-broke-gi-rich/

A collector's collection - Richard Schuster

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:QZ75RjEWwkIJ:https://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/retirement/history-marches-in-miniature-in-richard-schuster-s-syosset-home-1.50165295+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-b

Toy quiz! (UK readers - 'Boardwalk' is the same colour as Mayfair/Park Lane)

https://toybook.com/pop-quiz-with-wendy-smolen-february-2021/

Obituaries

Ronald 'Ronnie' E. Springlet - a collector

 

David Dewey - a collector

L is for Limited Stock

Really a News, Views Etc . . . Barney at Herald Toys & Hobbies has located a few remaining copies of . . .well. let him tell it;

". . . We are very excited to announce that we have located a handful of our ever popular Britains Herald Collectors Guides on the Farm, Zoo and Floral Garden Series, which have now become a collector's item in their own right. These limpback books have been out of print since at least 2014 and we are often asked when they will become available again. Well now's your chance! We only have a few copies of each title and expect them to sell out very quickly . . . PS - overseas buyers might prefer to contact me direct and receive a PayPal invoice with the correct tracked & signed large letter postage rate."

I would add that they are very good publications!