S is for Seasonal Shelfies!

In a recent 'News, Views . . .' I added a shot of an 'off the shelf' nativity scene/ready-made set I got from a charity shop a year or two ago, I actually got two, and the other is also in the queue, but in the meantime Brian Berke sent us a few shelfie shots he took in New York the other day, in part to confirm my suggestion that you can still get these craft sets (last two shots) if you look around for them, and in part because it's Christmas!

The seller was describing them all as 'ceramic' but these look to me to be poured resin, the sharp-edged detailing and the amount of dislodged polystyrene balls from the expanded packaging trays point to that, and both sets are short of what seems to be the average of 12 pieces, but still give you the Holy family trio, three wise men and a smattering of shepherds' & stable-animals, the set to the right also gives you an angel!

These are ceramic, and there seems to be five or six Mary's, at least three Little baby Jesus's, assorted Kings/Wise Men and an angel, but Shepherds are thin on the ground and Joseph has obviously stepped outside to look at the Star! Pick & Mix, or mix-and-match Nativity

Rather like how the French Santons, Italian Precepi or Spanish terracotta figures (what's their Spanish name?) are sold, indeed, the larger ranges from Fontanini in the smaller sizes (40, 60 & 80mm) were sold the same way, so you could add one or two support characters - rural subjects/artisans, or another camel - every year or so.

Available now! Just like my 'vintage' one; which may not be that old - see future post? The same 'crafted' wooden stable, the same moss; green and soft for the first few years, and similar sets of slipware (hollow) 'fairing' figures in china-clay or bisque porcelain, glued to the base, any mess hidden by the mossy carpet of 'straw', indeed some sets have straw, or hay.

Many thanks to Brian for these, as stated above; they're all out there now. We'll be looking at a few more Nativity sets, interspersed with Chris's donation posts, for the next few days.

C is for Chris's Autumn Parcel - Combat Types

The 20th Century, all boring and Khaki, but where most of our Toy Soldiers, or an awful lot of them, are set! And as has become the tradition here with both Chris's and some of Peter's donations, we start with the parachute toys!

Paratroopers; to those who don't get excited by these they probably all - from post to post - look similar, but there are so many poses, so many issuers and so many variations of each that there's always something new in a lot like this, and as I see them go through evilBay, I slowly get to ID . . . some of them!

These are a bit of a mystery, they are very similar to some of the Domplastik (Heinerle/Manurba) stuff, but their's was all post-war fatigues or NATO, while this pair are apparently WWII Germans, and while there's an outside chance they could be Franco-era Spanish fascists, the belt-order equipment is very German, I wonder if they could be accessories for a large 'beach-toy' type vehicle/big-box set?

A nice group of odd's and sod's here with, reading from the top left; kit figure (quite small so may be from a Revell 1:48th AVF, two of the smaller Arco Rambo set figures and a vintage Airfix piracy from Hong Kong, followed by three Supreme's and a Polistil die-cast Russian, also taken from Airfix - his green wash has mostly washed-off!

Two larger figures, one older, on the left, a 2d generation piracy of one of Blue Box's 5" figures I think, we saw a Blue Box painted radio operator a while back I think, the other a modern GI, seen often in smaller sizes.

Like the paratroopers and the civilian equivalent of this line-up, what 'junk lot' would be complete without a bunch of vehicle drivers, motorcycle riders and passengers of various types!

The most numerous type here come from all those makers who've had a go at the truck we looked at here, and quite apart from the fact that I've still to sort them all out properly, the crew will all need to be matched-up one day too!

While the other three will be from similar vehicles, the painted one in the middle may be from those Hog Kong 'Cricket' rocket launchers, the pale-face is polystyrene and could be from a kit, the smaller chap is definitely new to me, and obviously slots into his seat with the lug on his bum!

Rather taken with these, I have a lot of these Hong Kong-produced Airfix 8th Army clones, but none with these bases, and as they are unmarked, they could - again - be from a generic 'big-box' play-set . . . which might have carried a Western branding or two? New to Blog anyway!

Four Cromoplasto figures in three poses and two paint schemes, I actually bought these from fleaBay only for it to be Chris who was the seller, so they came in the same parcel and can go here! They tend to be a love/hate thing with collectors, being semi-flat'ish and a odd vulcanised rubber, usually this brown or black, but the space figures were a silver grey, I quite like them (but what don't I like!), some are not so keen!

We've looked at these, but the bulk of my sample is from one source/batch, while there are many shades and several types, so this selection where hardly any are the same colour will definitely enhance the 'master collection'!

The smallies, various branded types in PVC-alike from Kentoy [HK] (top left), Galoob - four figures from three lines plus a civi' mechanic and Redbox's Motormax clones of Matchbox figures, with two newer Americans in polystyrene which I think might be Valiant - terrible helmets, they look like Volg's!

Finally; a pale grey polyethylene Matchbox copy and another of those Airfix 1st type piracies. Many thanks as always to Chris Smith for letting me share these with you all, off to a good start, I think!

C is for Chris's Autumn Parcel - Intro'

OK, it looks like the Canoes will be January now, if they are lucky, it's not that I've got tons of stuff in the long queue, that's a given (!), it's that I've lots in the medium and short queues too!  And if I don't clear the Christmas stuff - or at least some of it - it will be hanging around for another year, while I must catch-up with both donations and show-reports (Sandown and London are sitting here!), so I'm going to try and alternate Chris's donation with nativity stuff first, and then we'll see what's left of December!

Signed for and collected the keys to the flat today, so I'll be busy in the background getting this place empty! Made some space in the storage units at the weekend . . . sorting cold stuff in minus-3, in a steel shipping container, while losing the light is no fun I can tell you! But it keeps me young!

The seen elsewhere shot; all Chris's donations have been fantastic, however I get the feeling he's got more of a measure of the Blog and it's needs over the years, as this one was particularly super, with lots of unusual figures, rare gap-fillers, one-off's, novelties and things which, while we may have looked at them before (Tyrolean weather-clock figures for instance), will undoubtedly enhance future posts on the same subject.

One of the things I didn't shoot separately for the other posts (I think we're going to get 8 or 9 posts out of the whole box) was a bag of Kinder bits, and while I'm not sure if the Esquimaux see above was in the earlier post, mentioned the other day in a follow-up, it might have been; it's been a pretty chaotic last few months!

I actually picked up a few the other day with that yellow Arctic denizen, but the two medieval crossbowmen in that other lot were as brittle as hell, so when we get round to them, they will need a bit of strategically-placed blue-tack to be remotely photogenic, but I have others!

While the 40mm horseman here needs his paint removed, they also suffer from brittleness, perticularly of the thin parts (from day one!), so that'll be a careful, or gentle job, once I'm settled elsewhere.

A bag of bits on the left (nice barrel) and a bag of Giant/Giant-like bits also went to the mighty* sorting zone without a closer look. The green blob is one of those palm-squirters from a Christmas cracker, several bits of meat were rather intriguing, the red thing is a petrol-pump and I'm loving the Scot's Monarch's Arms, paper sand-castle flag . . . there's a tub-full of similar items somewhere in the stash, waiting for their 'overview' moment!

* mighty because of its daunting size, not because it's powerful!

This was a lovely thing to find in a toy parcel! It's a self-published book from 1997, the author goes through the building of a home-injector, part-by-part and it's real Heath-Robinson stuff (or, because the author is an American; Rube Goldberg'ian stuff!) , I aspire to have a go, but I'll need a workshop, and probably can't run to one on what will be my budget in the Spring, but I was thinking of joining one of these craft/tech cooperatives, so maybe yet?

Cheers Chris; another fantastic lot . . . I'm off and running; 'combat' stuff next to keep the fighty-bitey bits as far from the 25th as I can!

H is for high Street Menagerie

The last of the 'Local' posts for Local People! These are actually from August 2021, they didn't do anything this summer - as far as I know, and they haven't done a Christmas one since I covered the giant nut-crackers a few years ago now.

But there have been some replacement Christmas lights, so maybe the budget went there? No blurb; it's really an exercise in clearing stuff from the laptop, and most of the animals are the same as last time, but there are a few changes (penguins and giraffe?), and I didn't get the leaflet, so don't know if this is all of them? But, they are figural and plastic . . . of a sort!

M is for Mawkishly Meowy Moggies!

A bit of non-Toy Soldier self-indulgence today, but it is Christmas and if I can't post this sort of stuff at this time of year when can I?!!

I found - at the back of a cupboard - that I'd inherited a rather Disneyfied mug with two cracks in it, as I wouldn't normally give such a pinkly sentimental piece house room, and as the finishing of any drink in it would result in two ceramic ears butting your forehead, it rather had to go. But it was loved enough by my late Mother to be kept at the back of the cupboard, so the overly-sentimental Hugh thought something better be done to retain the memory, for another decade or two, gods willing, at least!

A sharp blow from a heavy kitchen knife seemed to be the likeliest move, so placing a folded towel on the floor and kneeling over it I'm afraid I gave kitty a bit of a sharp whack up the jacksie with said implement, which worked a treat! Glued over the glaze with a bit of slip, the slipwhere kitten popped-off with barely a scratch.

I then filled her (pink bow?) with tiling-grout, let it go off, causing it to shrink back into the hollow/cavity, repeated the exercise and gave the rough finish a bit of a carving and filing.

Ergo; one slightly surprised looking, pink-bowed, all-white kitten joins all the genuine fairings and 1950's 'mantle ornaments' in the cat zone of the collection!

Where she will be joining - among others - these Charity shop, 50p jobbies! Three chalkware (mother-cat needs replacement eyes) and one ceramic of the Siamese type, these have been in the queue since 2016! Siamese's were very popular when I was a kid, you don't seem to see them so often now.

Back when the motorway network consisted of the M1 and A1(M) and getting round the top of London involved long journey's through Berkshire, Buckinghashire, Bedfordshire and Essex (where you raced from traffic jam to traffic jam!), there was a house somewhere which had two straw Siamese cats sitting on its thatched-roof, I sometimes wonder what happened to them? There were others, one gatehouse had a peacock, another cottage had several foxes!

The ceramic one (right) was made in Sussex (but not the famous Joan de Bethel 1923 - 2017), while the chalkwear examples (left) are just 'British Made', all seem to be cheap, smaller attempts at the better known and more sought-after Goebel or Winstanley Siamese's? Which is why they are 50p, not 50-quid!

That's it, something more acceptable to the hardliners later!

T is for Two - Machine Gunners

As I may have intimated, I acquired a few machine-gunners the other day, and while most of them will just be filtered into the collection for future use, there were one or two which are worth a closer look as stand-alone figures.

This is the Belgian firm of JSB, you may remember I had a very poor figure from them which I seemed to save with a thick coat of plumber's sealant a few years ago (he was still fine and stable last time I looked), he was also a pretty realistic figure, not something which can be claimed for this chap, who's channeling American 'dimestore' sculpts from the likes of Barkley or Manoil; single-highhandedly engaging aircraft (or cliff-top dwellers) with a 40mm pom-pom!

His barrel was very bent (further up, like a priapic flaking flak gun!), but I mannaged to bend it the other way with the hot-water system, although I was very careful and had several incremental goes, as I do't know what polymer this is, some phenol, formaldehyde or cellulose-based material I suspect? Proper toy soldier!

As is this fellow, a seven-part assembly of blow-moulded and vac-formed polystyrene (or celluloid, but I think the former in this case) sheet from Japan, he has moving arms and may have had a moving head once; it's now glued, fixed to the front. I don't recognise the logo-mark, which seems to be a single China-Japan-Korea compatible ideograph character ' 金 ' ?

But what a fantastic survivor of 1950's novelty tat. And; out of six successful bids (and one bidding war) to get most of them (one lot was lost to someone else), not to mention some mail-fail, probably my favourite out of the whole lot!

1-Horse Towns' are for 1-Elephant or 1-Camel Too!

I've been after more of these for ages, but what turned-up was a variation on what I was expecting! There are the W.Germany marked originals, the origin of which is supposed to be Manurba but these days that could be open to correction, then there are the Hong Kong copies, both of which come with moulded-on/in wheels and separate wheel/axle assemblies, but these arrived with separate wheels and metal axles, like a lot of other 1960's rack-toy jeeps and things.

This is them, the giraffe wagon is very similar to my German one, and with two each of horse, elephant or camel as draft animals it's reasonable to assume they are a complete set, I particularly like the elephant-drawn ones which have a monkey and cat on their roofs respectively. I think the orange one is the laundry wagon; it has a chimney and t-shirt drying in the kicked-up dust . . . nice!

Here in the 1966 Wilton's catalogue, they are the same colour/wagon configuration as the new sample, so we can be pretty sure they are the same set, and that the 'complete set' assumption was correct!

Whether it goes as far as six tools run in six colours (to match the catalogue art!), but those colours only, consistantly, or just coincidence I don't know, but I'll keep an eye out, and the evidence so far would suggest so? Fifty-cents for the set - those were the days!

PW is for Polymer Warriors!

Just a quickie, picked these up the other day as part of the 'machine-gun' lots, I missed them first time round although I was in the room I think, but I was there as a small-scale collector only and probably turned-down the free one at the door . . . shock horror!

The guys at PW have over the years managed to commission a re-run of Dulcop's tools, import Hing Fat, save the Rocco moulds, liaised with the saving of other moulds, offered other figures from time to time, published, or supported the publishing of a number of other books and guides, and - I think it's fair to say - supported the fledgling Replicants? A list which all other toy soldier magazine teams can only envy!

To commemorate the occasion of their 10th year of publishing and the putting-on of their legendary shows, they gave away one of these to each entrant to the 1995-show, back in the Queen Charlotte Hall days, just off Richmond town center, I think the door figures were red plastic, but lots of other colours/shades where run-off.

Those other colours were also available at the show, in these bags of five, but for a few silver-pieces, and as you can see mine are two dark, two mid- and one lighter green in that shade/range I call 'herb' green, which is 'errb to our French and 'urb to our US readers!

The figure is a late C19th 'colonial' era soldier, standing at attention, wearing a solar topee/pith helmet (safari helmet, salacot, sun helmet), or sola/shola topi - Indian, because it's made of shola pith!

Designed and sculpted by Peter Cole (of Replicants) for the magazine's tenth birthday, and it was intended (I think?) to go with those early Zang/Herald for Britains figures similarly posed - Sikh Indian, Highlander, 'Khaki Infantryman' and Guardsman (a few of which were also in the lot with these).

I now have a few, to make up from my previous heretical approach to the larger size, with red, bright green and purple-marbled ones being seen here in the past I think, so hopefully I'm forgiven, but I'll stand-by for corrections on the above details as it was a while ago and I wasn't paying attention at the time!

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