H is for How They Come In - Peter - January

I posted the first few of these elsewhere at the time, but in clearing the section of 'H is for's', their time in the spotlight at Small Scale World is overdue, so a look at the fine lot Peter Evans of Plastic Warrior fame (don't forget the show this Saturday!) sent the Blog back in January.

Various bits for future posts, although we will look at Combat Force and the contents of the bag of loose figures in this post. A nice novelty gun pencil sharpener for the future 'Mocherette' page, a set of 'funimals' which seem to be, or include old Disney sculpts (the Elephant is from the Jungle Book?), a pair of carded WWF figures to balance the two loose ones in the same lot and Toy Story 'pooper-troopers' round off this shot's contents.

A 'previously seen elsewhere on the internet' shot, we'll look at a lot of it below, but the Kinder bods didn't get a second run in the photo-studio, nor did the Goliath from a bible-shop play-set, nor the towers, which are rather nice! Sort of Central European turret design, probably off a larger castle set, and fitted with holes for flags which happen to fit cake-decoration guardsmen!

The policeman has since been joined by another, either from Peter previously, or from Chris the other day, they are a soft silicon (which attracts dirt and pet hair!), in the style of Safari, but probably some minor-make/generic die-cast vehicle accessories? Marx boy scout joins or will join - at some point - the others, I think mine are chalky cream Swansea production, this maybe a Marksman reissue

Jean 'Krip', Redbox or Toy Major ninjas, bits of another nativity set and an angel from a third, all surrounded by a bunch of Mattel's 'CUTIE's'. As it happens their tubs went up to storage the other day, so I added them inn to the existing ones, some of which we saw here in the past, and there were only two full duplicates, and three colour variations, all the rest were new, it's quite a large line with about 50 to find, each in two colours I believe, so a ways to go yet!

A collection of animals were also in Peter's lot, with interest in the brown cow which was new to me, but a nice sculpt, a MEG horse with bucket, unusual sheep, an actual Jungle Book elephant from Disney, but a newer Phidal or similar, not the one referenced in the first shot.

Back to that mixed bag of combat types . . . I've seen these, or at least the upper - green - ones, in umpteen sets on Amazon and Ali', sometimes with Amazon's wacky phantom-brands, sometimes as generics, or on Alibaba under some middle-man branding, and had hoped to get some, when these turned-up out of the blue!

The fun aspect of them being they all have a vignette base with a bit of scenery or battle damaged infrastructure to share their polymer universe with! The yellow ones are more 'bog standadrd' fare, but have some very useful chaps in Jungle (or Boonie) hats.

And these are they; lacking all the trappings of modern webbing/body armour, if you can live with the slightly oversized and generic weapons, they would paint-up well for Vietnam, well . . . paint-up 'bareable'!

Box ticking the missing set from previous posts on the subject, probably PLA-funded toy soldiers of rather generic 'Fritz' helmet/NATO types, they follow the pattern of the previously seen sets from the same branding: Jeu, Jeunow, Vi!Kondo and CCTV7/The PLA. And given what's been happening since 24th February this year, I'll just reprise what I wrote last October . . .

"What I'm suggesting is that by purchasing these, you may well be financially supporting the army of the Enemy! Because, and make no mistake about it; A) That's how these things work in China (as they did in Soviet Russia), and B) despite the rapprochement of Nixon (another lying, narcissistic Republican with the gift of the gab, more interested in power at any cost, and profit over the best interests of most of the people most of the time), China were always the 'other enemy' and are flexing like never before . . . indeed through these toys! What do you think the wars in Korea, Vietnam and Malaya were all about?

Now, OK, if you're a simple-thinking, garden-gaming, kidult, you're not going to give such things a second thought as you squat in the yard going "piow-piow", but I served, and I served for a reason, with a sense of purpose, and I find it all a bit disturbing . . . this watching the American far-right getting into bed with Eastern-European disrupters and mercenary gangs in Donbass or Libya, on the Dark Web, watching Trump selling-out the Middle-East to Russian influence, hanging the Afghans out to dry next to the Kurds, watching Biden going along with it all while Boris kills 200,000 of us while banging-on about Vegemite!

We're fucking rudderless in the West right now, the only rock among all the self-serving wankers, populist liars and religious-Right nutters was Merkel and she's now just keeping the chairs warm for a few more weeks, in a caretaker capacity, while they sort out a new coalition."

Having also linked some of the anonymous new production out of the 'East' to Donbass separatists, I rest my case with my head held high, unlike some of the Trumpy-Orban wankers in the hobby. It's ALL politics, although I'd add that 'like Soviet Russia' is also like modern Russia, Elon Musk is only going to make things worse and my critics are on the wrong side of history!

Big breath, big sigh - here's two of them with their bases.

That bag of equally Chinese production, but no sign of the PLA, or their TV station! Imported by B&J Distribution and branded BJ Toys (who we've seen before), these are 2^nd or 3^rd generation copies of the old Matchbox 8^th Army and Afrika Korps, with a couple of German Infantry to confuse! And in well-leery colours!

Soon after Peter sent me this he found the set (funnily enough just posted elsewhere by Gareth!), minus the angel, so she went back! But I photographed the hell out of her first, as she is a nice figure and you never know if you'll ever find another! Her banner/ribbon reads Gloria in Excelsis Deo, literally translating to "Glory in the highest to God” and in conversational English, “Glory be to God on high".

Close-up's of a few of the figures from the mixed bag, two WWF stampers, and a rather evil looking semi-skeletal hoodlum with knife, he might be a gum-ball prize? Of more interest are the two die-cast 'Metallions', the Wellintonian is nice, but I've never seen the athlete before? I don't think Lone Star ever did them, so Hubley, Cragston, AHI? Universal or one of the generics - these have had quite a few packagings and not all of them originated in Hatfield!

These also came from Peter, but a few days later when we met at the Toy fair in London and are an excuse to post the Toy Project charity link again! We've seen them before, but this is a different 'seen elswhere' shot, with the highlights being the yellow 'Beatle' and the Pirate chap with the flat hat which looks designed to support something, possibly treasure tokens in a board game?

So many thanks to Peter for these and many other parcels over the years, I know I have some coming from other sources at the PW show on Saturday, and if you have bags, boxes or tubs of unusual, novelty or 'out of collection/personal interest/parameter' I'm always happy to take this stuff off people hands - one of everything is an impossible target, but I'm going to die trying!

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PS - I must apologise for any double 'nn's which might have crept-in/got-through in the last few weeks, or even missing 'n's, I have a problem with the n-key which a severe cleaning and a good wiggle of the rubber toggle under the plate have failed to cure, as the laptop will be 12 in November, and has been hammered - by this Blog and its imagery - I fear it's a terminal fault! I must look up the ASCII numerical code/shortcut for both n and N as I may need them shortly . . . Doh!

T is for Two - Ships in Bottles!

A very quick one tonight, I've been having a 'bit of a week', boiler wise! Among the items I've inherited are two ships, in bottles, these are they . . .

This was from a Perrier Water promotion in the 1970's, a friend of Mum's (also our friend Guy's mum!) was a promoter who used to go round supermarkets or department stores demonstrating things and giving out free samples (Mum did too; a while later - I became addicted to mini frozen jam-doughnuts at one point!), and as well as the bottles of free Perrier, there were plastic key-ring bottles (which I should have somewhere, but can't remember seeing it for years?), and reward bonuses, and I think this was one of those.

Google and feebleBay reveal other Perrier ships in bottles, but they must have been different promotions or regions, as I only remember Janet having a few of these for her team. The ship - Loch Torridon, a four-masted barque/clipper-ship; one of the last) is fascinating, although it's history varies on the internet, some thinking it Norwegian when it foundered, some Russian, Wiki's probably best for a primer!

I've also seen this exact model in a different bottle, for a whiskey company's similar promotion, so the model must have been commissioned from a commercial ship-in-bottle modelling company!

This is more of a tourist memento/keepsake, and a fine example of blown-glasswork it is, one sail has fallen off, but finding someone with the skill to mend it is going to take a few phone-calls, as while there are craft glass-works about the place, there can't be many who can do key-hole surgery with long molten rods through the end of a bottle!

It's a more fanciful model of a more medieval type I think? That's it - two ships in bottles!

A is for Aggressive Afghans Again!

This is the contents of the last of the tubs I shot quickly the other day, and consists of more legionnaires and some very colourful Arabian types, with the look of Afghans (which they were sold as - despite little interactivity with the FFL, until the 21^st Century!) or Northern Indo-Asians (now Pakistan) with the loose, soft trousers under the shawl blankets worn in that region. But wearing rather hybrid turbans which are more Tuareg with a hint of Sikh!

But first the colonial overlords! Bayonets are a bit short, and some poses are shared with Lone Star's ACW, indeed we saw one of these when I looked at them, and he happensn to be the eighth pose (missing here) standing firing, so I have them all . . . somewhere!

And I believe some say these were sold as confederates, but I'm not so sure, there are red-trousered versions which I don't have, but equally you occasionally see a white trousered version, and given the variation in painting of the knights, Wild West and the Arabs - we are about to look at - I just think Lone Star changed the painting to 'freshen' them on the retailers' shelves?

Not really among Lone Star's better output, they're a bit flat (some of them almost semi-flat!), and bit grey (very grey actually!), well, you know what I mean, 'uninspiring' is probably the word I'm looking for? But they have the charm of early toy soldiers and both the marching guy and the officer are worth a second look.

I have got all eight of these, not only from the 'big purchase' but because they can tend to brittleness (especially those still in shop stock box ones you see from time to time), and I tend to buy them whenever I see them in good (or reasonable) condition.

You find them in various plastic colours, mostly grey or grey-greens, but white and occasionally red (see below), previously believed to be test-shots, they do seem to have got out to retailers in red.

What I like about these is whenever you find them they seem to be new, new paint scheme, or new plastic colour, I know they were done in batches and a Google image search reveals that, but the number of variations makes them fun to collect

As you might have noticed already, the flesh colour also varies greatly from sunburnt ginger northerner holidaying in Torremolinos without sunscreen, to sub-Saharan African dark-brown, or the unpained, sun-bleached zombie seen here; bottom-left! And that sword!

An old, near-dead Picclic image of an evilBay shot, sharpened and enlarged to show both the rare red one and a size comparison with Charbens (et al) on the left and Cherilea on the right, they're big boys for 54mm, heading toward 60mm.

F is for Follow-up - Hing Fat Egyptian Relics

I said - when I showed the Hing Fat bits Peter Evans sent to the blog - that I'd do a comparison with the similar sets from Safari and K&M/Wild Republic at some point in the future, well, by chance I had to wizz the relevant 'Ancients' box back to the house for a couple of hours on Tuesday, so this is that - brief - comparison!

The main elements, Hing Fat's on the left, both Safari sets in the middle and the K&M stuff off to the right with a Pharaoh's head variation I'd forgotten, All three sets are clearly aimed at both museum/heritage gift shops and middle-school project work more than actual playthings, but they are fun - and all the Mummies are figurals!

The semi realistic Safari Bastet statue sculpt, flanked by two slightly dog-like offerings from Hing Fat, the Hing Fat all come in a gold finish and a salmon-pink which is probably trying to be/represent a bare stone-effect?

Typically, the Atlantic 'styrene one is well-lost in the storage unit, so we'll have to do this line-up again, but we have three resin's, one with a rams head, all showing/sculpted as- a presumed 'how they were',  then the Safari and K&M both showing it as how it is now, with broken nose and severely damaged/eroded lower region and finally a rather stylised one from Hing Fat with a chubby sit-up-and-beg countenance, again more fanciful of what was rather than what it.

While the Safari/K&M stuff is PVC, Hing Fat's are a dense polyethylene or polypropylene, and many thanks to Peter for the Hing Fat sample.

F is for Fertile Crescent!

Well, sometimes a title just presents itself! Although geographically we're staying in the northern point really! And heading-off into the barren western reaches. Crescent's FFL and Arab Warriors, standard Crescent fare, with six-poses each of foot figures and three mounted.

The 'locals'; four firearms and two swords, the red plastic is a bit jarring, they would all benefit from paler washes, although some Arabians go with black or dark-[Malian]-blue (the Tuareg), so it's a moot point, but red's a bit too leery. Ideal figures for destroying (Timpo?) railways a'la the Lawrence movie!

Shield designs include a crescent-moon (of course!) and a hawk, the ruling classes of Arabia and the fertile crescent, and beyond to the 'Stans are known for their hawking abilities, so a nice choice, except Arabian shields tend to geometric shapes and/or ornate/fine calligraphy in worked metal!

The mounted chap with a shield, has exactly the type of thing! While Crescent aren't known for brittleness, I just didn't trust these chaps . . . and wasn't 100% confident of my abilities to get them back on their horses in one piece, so shot them separately for safety's sake!

La Légion Étrangère; As with the mounted Arab, the officers sword is rather truncated, I don't know if this was an early example of toy-safety, or a technical issue with cavity sizes or something, but both seem to be naturally stumpy? Paint is not the best, but Crescent's output never held paint well; the lack of chalk/talc in the plastic (reducing the brittleness) resulting in a smooth, shiny surface which sheds paint!

They were both painted once! Paint's good on the bugler, but I'm not sure what kind of note you'd get from his bugle with it's trumpet missing! Another one for the shopping list!, but at least the officers sword is a better length! The red plastic suggests they shared a tool with the Arab cavalry, but we never find them in blue! That's Crescent's mob of Beau Geste'esque sandmen - box ticked!

B is for ♪♪ "Bobbin' Along on the Crest of a Wave ♪♪ . . . .

. . . . Shit! Whitewater! Hold on to yer'hat pardner!"

A funny one really, I was looking for something to break-up the FFL/Arab posts, and started scrolling through Picasa, hoping to find a near-ready 'quickie', found a couple of raft shots in another place and though "Funnny, they should be in the raft folder" . . . but then couldn't find the raft folder? I had intended to publish the raft post over Christmas, so I guessed I might have, searched the C:Drive and found it in the 'Waiting Sorting' folder on the desktop, where it would be, if I'd posted it.

However, there was no blurb Text.docx, and I hadn't finished cropping the images, so I checked the Blog . . . nothing! I must have picked it up accidentally with a finished post from the desktop (where it was last time I remember it!) and dropped it in 'waiting'? What else is in there though, because often when you do a boo-boo like that you collect several folders/files in the invisible net, I'll have to have a careful check?

So, with the extra images, now all cropped, and months (years) late, here's the 'Rafts & Log' portion of the 'Canoe Season' (which is still in the long queue, but it got more work tonight (3rd), it's going to be at least 14 posts?), a bit of a cheat, as more than two-thirds of the season has come from Brian Berke, while this is all from my stash, but it will all happen fairly in the end!

Britains' raft; the Flagship of Herald's fleet! If I recall correctly it wasn't a good floater, the raft being a chunky lump of polyethylene, you could get it to sit steady in still water, but any roughness and it tended to go over! the punter's pole is snapped short, but they are hard to find in one piece, so at least I have a longish piece

A young collection, my sample doesn't do justice to the variations of plastic and paint colour out there, you can find quite pale rafts, darker rafts, bright orange baggage &ct. Some (early versions?) had the spigots on the figures feet/knees and receiving holes in the raft which was - frankly - the better system, as these reverse locating ones tend to lose the studs as I have on the left-hand one, something which plagued the canoes of both Britains and Timpo.

Timpo's log raft; not much else one can say, compatible with 3rd/4th generation cowboys (?) and pretty common - several dealers have shop-stock to dip into - it's a nice, novelty plaything which also enhances a Wild West collection. I think it came with a wire keel/weight for floating like the canoes, but the boys always get their feet wet!

Timpo also did a more comprehensive raft, but of the 'daft raft race' type, cobbled together from logs, broken planks and barrels, it's the sort of thing Timmy, the two Wayne's and I nearly won with, in 1984 - there was a lot of cheating, involving bare-legs and a divers knife!

I've seen them with two standing, one standing and one squatting cowboy, or this one with a pair of kneeling cavalry legs, mine is a poor sample as the non-punting passenger is clearly panicking and needs pre-float, aversion therapy! Hold on! I think I can hear him . . .

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!  It's the Plastic Warrior show in less than two weeks and we're still half-way up the Rio Grande! Punt harder! We're gonna' miss it!"

The people who do those one-cardboard-building-per-bag, swoppet piracies, also copied the Timpo raft! Here imported by Oto S.p.A. into Italy, but you find them as generics too. It comes with two sacks instead of the sack/trunk combo' of the original, and you also get a Timpo tree copy, albeit with rather sparse foliage! Note also that the top deck is parallel boughs, rather than planks, so they ex-kape a lawsuit!

Strangely most sets with this header-cad have crappy 3^rd/4^th generation copies of other Hong Kong knock-off swoppets, but the two job-specific figures in this set are quite good, being the keeling and squatting legs you don't often find in HK swoppet samples!

A is for Araber aus Deutschland

These used to be simple; "Manurba" would say the German collectors, then they became Dom-Manurba (or Manurba-Dom), now you usually find them listed as Dom-Manurba-Heinerle! I'm not even going to try to pin that down, but suffice to say they are slightly sub-scale at around 50mm and rather charming!

My sample, bringing something nice from the East, to the West! Carpets? Spice? The heads of their vanquished enemies? they are all unarmed so can be used with Nativity scenes as background population, and it's a small sample.

The full set includes mounted figures (some of whom are armed), horses, several different loads for the camels and other colours, and while usually from a brown/fawn/cream/white palette, I have seen them in red, orange and yellow I think.

That's it, that's them; my little handful of Manfred Urban . . . or Domplast . . . or Heinerle Wundertüten Arabs!

T is for Two - Pistoleros!

Another quick box ticker, sees us down Meh'hi'co way, with a quick fly-by the Timpo and Britains Deetail Mexicans, some of whom are Banditos as well as Pistoleros! Although, it's technically T is for Three, as we're looking at two sets and a part set.

I don't have the sixth pose, except I have, but not in a photographable state! We actually looked at the various combinations a while ago but as a headless colour-issue/batch exercise. Two of mine seem to be on cowboy legs (black and pale blue) while I don't have the darker blue Mexican trousers yet, or a pale blue jacket, but they make a decent enough bunch!

I did spot the sixth pose in the spares bag, could have done a quick switch with one of the others, and don't know why I haven't in the past - probably just chucked him in the bag while sorting, without realising I needed him in the sample? It'll have to be next-time now as they're already back in storage, and note that only 'Mexican' bits go in the spares bag, all the 'cross-disciple' Timpo stuff (pistols, whips, knives) go elsewhere.

Britains Deetail Mexicans consist of a set of six foot (and six mounted; I don't have!) figures, but there is a seventh pose, who ran through most iterations of the ever-changing (or seemingly ever-changing) cowboy line-up, and he's the figure in the upper shot, I have no idea how many variation of these there are, because he ran for ages, but note he's the only one painted-up with a Hispanic/equatorial skin-tone.

The lower pairs are from the Mexican set 'proper' and betray their 1970's heritage with a liberal use of purple and orange! Every generation's movies, comics and toys bare the style of the age they are produced in! The comic guys used to talk of Gold, Silver and Bronze ages . . . what do they make of the current 'dark', MU and crossover stuff? The brass, aluminium and tin ages!

Did I say purple and orange, you can add natty yellow jump-suits to that list, these guys are so psychedelic, you think they might be a touring trick-shot troupe on the fringe at Woodstock! "Manolito and his Magnificent Musical Mexican Mustachioed Mariachi Muchachos!"

The earlier version share the wash-style paint of the earlier cowboys and Indians, and the two on the left here are actually quite sensibly decorated! I just looked the DSG ones up on Google and they are more subdued too - a bit too much white maybe, but altogether more believable than Britains original offerings!

Anyway, that's some o'me'Mexicans! Box ticked.