C is for Canoes - 1 - Introduction

Voyagers Canoe - image origin unknown

 

So, this has been building for sometime now, and I can't remember if Brian Berke started it or answered a call, but back in the Autumn of 2020 he sent me a shed-load of stuff on Western canoes, which got me digging out and shooting mine.

 

Then something happened and it all went on hold, then Mum passed away, then time, then I posted something else, then I ran out of time again, then I lost my Mojo, then my Brother, then HMRC, then HMCTS, then I posted something else, yada, yada, and, and, and . . . they're here now!

 

This is Brian's 'sizer', we'll be looking at all these and more over a series of, err, about 22 posts? Which with real life and other stuff will get us pretty much to RTM, given I will alternate with other posts, so you don't get Canoe'd out!

Also, because it was a while ago that the notes were taken, Brian may have to correct the odd detail as we go! So, from left running down the column, then the right, we have;

• Don't know! Big, polystyrene.
  
• Hong Kong copy of Britains trapper/2nd type
• Dulcop
• MPC
• Timpo 2-berth
• Hong Kong 
  
• Hong Kong Knick Knack 1-berth 

-

• Post Giant 25mm figures with 6-berth canoe
• Not sure, I think it's the Cherilea/Dorset re-issue?
• Star Toys copy of Timpo 2-berth
• Tim Mee
  
• Hong Kong loosely based on Herald/Briains 1st type
• Hong Kong Knick Knack 3-berth

My storage sample, it has since received all the ones here and gone back to storage (as have the Totem poles been reunited and shipped off again, so we'll look at them again in a year or two!) We did manage to look at the rafts a while ago - they were supposed to be the opener to this season!

The pale one on its side is similar to Brian's dark one, two from the bottom in the right-hand column of his photo, see also below. It's a basic line-up, to which I haven't added that many, a few HK ones and the copy raft seen previously.
 

One of my Sizers;

• Supreme copy of Britains trapper/2nd type
• Copy of Supreme, even down to decoration!
• Hong Kong  copy of Britains trapper/2nd type
• Hong Kong loosely based on Herald/Briains 1st type
• Hong Kong rack-toy rubbish (Rado, Hing Fat, a lesser brand?)

You can see how that pale one is more like a theme-park canoe, with smooth [aluminium] sides, and the trashy one is very loosely based on the Britains trapper/2nd type

Another, from the left and working up to the right;

• Beeju
• Junk one
  
• 'Theme park' one
  
• Herald/Briains 1st type
• Hong Kong copy of Britains trapper/2nd type
• Timpo 4-berth

Two of Brian's with his idyllic little island, which will reappear through these posts and serves as a further sizer/scale guide, here a Hong Kong copy of the Britains 2nd type which I'll be calling the 'Trapper' as I think that's when it first appeared, however by the end it was the only version still in production . . . during the Deetail years. Behind it, the pink Hong Kong one, it's actually quite dinky, but more of a hollowed log . . . for Amazonian Indians!

 

Here we see the 3-berth 'knick-knack', the previous two and a Timpo 2-berth, the Timpo look like they might be on dodgy ground here, he's drawn his knife and the other three boats are rather bearing-down on them!

 

Brian's blue one [is Dulcop] loosely based on Britains 1st version, but with a bowed hull, it has the stars on the prow (or stern here!), a detail Timpo also sort of copied, so the first post will be the Britains family as many of the others come-off them, although there were many metal, wood, US plastic and probably a few Hong Kong novelty ones (like the Knick Knacks) which predate the Herald, but we are looking predominantly at the plastics, and it's a starting point!

Ah, yes . . . if you're really lucky, you might find someone in the Deep South selling their exclusive Terricata canoes! Say it like you heard it dude (or dudess?), Google is obviously for 'woke' pussies! Somebody give them fifty-bucks, they've probably got a jacked pick-up truck to feed!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - Intro'

As I mentioned the other day, Chris Smith sent another parcel of chuck-outs, oddments and things beyond his collection parameters to the blog the other day, and I've enjoyed the initial opening, the sorting and the putting away (the last of them went up to the new flat earlier this evening!

 

So it's time to share them with the rest of you, both to entertain as to what is out there, and in the hope you may be able to ID some of the odder items?

 

The parcel commeth;

 

The unpacking and initial sorting! Because they are heading to the larger agglomerations that are the 'To Be Sorted' (TBS) boxes, which contain most of the last four or five months of incoming stuff, from Chris, four or five shows, Peter, charity shops and evilBay stuff*, they first get sorted thematically, so I can then spend a few evenings further sorting them into those boxes, which are also thematic, at which both some go in existing bags with their own kind, some get new bags.

*And in this cycle a nice gift from Jon Attwood.

I though we'd do the 'regulars' here to flesh the post out, and there was another nice bunch of parachute toy figures, as always missing their 'chutes and as always, at lest one with the remains of his strings . . . they are always 'he'!

 

The large painted one is all new I think, current, and we have seen them in several iterations and two or three sizes, but the only other one this size is grey I think, so a single figure vastly improves the overall sample!

 

The blue blow-mould is nice and the third from the left may be an 'all new' version into the collection, the rest will be mostly colour, shade or size variations of existing figures in the wider sample. That page will progress once I'm out of here.

And then there was this guy! It's a man-bat, and probably an unlicensed version of THAT Bat Man . . .but look at his features, his plastic type/colour and his face/overall sculpting . . . then look at these . . . could they belong together? I'm imagining a two blister rack-toy card with this chap and his folded parachute in one blister and a handful of the 'Bad Bat Bots' in the other? Not exactly canon; but a distinct possibility, I think?

 

Seated figures are usually another handful or feature of any lot from Chris, Peter or Trevor, or most of the type of mixed, junk lot I like to bid on. Divorced from die-cast or plastic vehicles, beach toys or model kits where they were drivers, passengers or crew, there's many to find, and many to ID . . . a future project!

 

The green chap looks like he may be from a slightly comical wind-up toy? His arms are movable. I do have a Hong Kong brand for the Kinder-like guy on the right, but I think there are a few sizes of that figure, so they will need careful attribution. If he's the one I think he is, he drives a pull-back motor trike.

 

Finally, this can go here! It's a OBE conversion from a Britains Cossack, into an Indian or Burmese (?) drummer, which Chris got in a mixed lot, it's not the best, but I doubt I could do better, and it's a fun piece, I only hope it was a damaged figure before the work started!

Many thanks to Chris, we will work through the contents of the parcel over the next few days, alternating with . . . drum-role in New York please . . . canoes! If everything goes according to a dodgy plan wot I have got! This will enable me to restock on new plunder at the Plastic Warrior show and get that sorted and shot!

UFO is for Undersized Forces of Offworlders

As a sort of 'follow-on' rather than follow-up from the recent eraser and other mini-UFO/Space type posts, including the Buck Rogers stuff (which Woodsy and Mitch managed to miss!) I found these, but they are all teeny-tiny little things no bigger than a thumbnail, so we go down a size, to Micro-UFO territory!

 

These are currently on Amazon, branded to Kid Fun, for possibly a few too-many quid, and seem to consist of 24 sculpts, each of three colours for a 72-item count, no more than 30-somthing pence each, so one can't be too harsh, if you are looking for things to fill party bags, 20 kids will get at least three each?

While these may have a bit of age about them, although not as much as the graphic might suggest? Japanese minis sometimes referred to as 'glico' due to the use of similar minis as premiums in the Glico food combine's confectionary products, and here, possibly intended as erasers?

 

Looking at the two sides of the card, there 'might' be one or two other designs, but I suspect this is all of them, there are six designs here, all slightly different, but all marred slightly by the little finger-grip rod sticking out of the top of each.

 

Obviously, my Japanese language skills are less than rudimentary, but I think the right-hand view's card is showing the types of movement 'observed' by UFO watchers? While the left view a more fanciful showing of 'known' UFO designs! Branding looks like it could be Crescent! Or Crescent Moon?

There is a seventh item in the bag which I suspect shouldn't be there? Unlike the hard vulcanised ribber of the other six, this one is a soft silicon of the stretchy-animal type, and is either a malformed piece of factory-junk, or a bag with two corners tied-in with string?

 

If the former; it's just fallen or been thrown (by machinery?) into the bag accidentally, if the latter; it belongs in a different set, perhaps with a figure to hold/carry it? It could however be a bonus item (like Strelet's streletsi?), to be collected one at a time by multiple purchases of different sets to build a 'free' set? You can see the fine detail on the actual UFO's also contrasting with the smoothness of the probable interloper!

And they really are all no bigger than a thumbnail!

 

They remind me of two of my favourite sci-fi shorts, one of which might have been done as a Tharg's Future Shocks cartoon in 2000 AD? In the first a mighty invasion fleet has spent many-years in hyper-space travelling from wherever to invade the luscious looking Earth, only to materialise in front of a big-rig on a US highway which promptly smashes them into a billion pieces without ever seeing them, as they were no more than a cloud of gnats in our scale, the other story was similar, but a dog licked them off his food after they landed, or something like that!

Haha! Two hours later and Geoff found this one on eBay, now (nine dollars plus postage), same set, same soft silicon-looking addition, but clearly a 'death star' type space station, with one or two sucker 'ears', which have obviously deformed on mine, so that's that mystery solved!

M is for Minor Swivels & Swoppets

Bit of a mix here, some 'seen elsewhere', some old Picasa clearance and one recently 'in' who's gone out, and he isn't really a swivel or a swoppet, but he is an over-mould, so he's here!

A 54/60mm motorcycle dispatch-rider from Manuel Sotorres of Spain, from their sort of post-war/contemporary range back whenever. They seem to have been quite common in Spain at the time, but don't turn-up so much over here, which meant I grabbed this when I saw it!

 

Nardi of Italy provide this swoppet cowboy in the style of Britains' own Swoppets, or at least his belt is modelled after theirs, otherwise he's more like early-Timpo or Charbens; all polyethylene, some paint and none of the PVC accessories Britains gave theirs.

 

Torres Maltas, 45mm figures, also from Spain, and yes, I get both (these and Sotorres) mixed up, and if I'm being particularly dimwitted I can confuse either with the Miguel Torres winery and their plastic bull seal-tags - seen here in the past!

 

I have a bit of a mental block on these for another reason too, I keep thinking I have a bunch 'somewhere' in the pile, but actually I think this is all I have, and I saw some others, somewhere else, and just think they may be hiding in the stash! So three mounted, helmeted troops and a sailor - they have swivel arms.

While this chap could be Nardi, but I suspect he will turn out to be Xandria from Holland, when the dust settles. He is part PVC and part PE, but the two over-moulded or heat-welded in 'layers' for a 'solid' figure, unlike the movability of some of the key-ring 'stacks' from Xandria.

And in conversation with Peter Evans and the recipient of it (I liked it, but I knew someone who's need was greater) we agreed it's probably depicting St. Nicholas, rather than some random bishop or archbish' handing out magic gloves, paired amulets and anointed rods-to-god to any old Tom, Dick or Charlie!?

F is for Follow-up - Return to Infant Farms

We've looked at these twice now;

 

First Visit

Second Stab

 

But there is always more to find, another chapter of the narrative to be told, and today we're looking at a 'West German' version from Magneto (more on them in a subsequent post), a name which could the one jhnptrqn remembered as his brother's 'French' set, on the original post;

 

The generic we looked at last time was clearly aping this set, even to the clear polystyrene lid, however this (original?) has a deeper box and floating tray, but is otherwise very similar. And it establishes the rules followed by the Hong Kong clones, to wit; three smaller houses with pitched roofs, one larger one with gable-ends and a slightly larger door, the towers with their bridge-piece and the designs of animals, figures and trees.

The sides of the box offer clues to information which my incomplete sample would otherwise not give-up, sheepdog and sheep, a pine/fir tree, a trough which seems to be a reduced-size version of the bridge and the fact that they were intended as beach toys as well as home-entertainment! It also gives suggestions of ways to use the few building elements to combine for larger structures or a church!
 

 

The roofs are glued on with this set, unlike the HK ones, where they are loose, and all the buildings are larger than their clones. While the 'sprulettes' which came in the box seem to be suggesting the four missing sheep were a softer polyethylene, everything else here is polystyrene.

 

It also looks like the Hong Kong makers we've seen previously here at Small Scale World may have invented the other figures, but there may well be a 'W. GERMANY' marked town set or village with the other poses?

M is for More Mini Military Machines

I only posted Bren Gun/Universal carriers the other day, but I was also posting them elsewhere, then a Lone Star one turned-up, and I had a separate shot of the Tudor Rose one, to which I've added a couple of comparison shots to give the post some originality!

So, the new member of the team first, it's not a particularly fine example, and it could have done with a clean before I shot it! But as a sample it does what is needed.

 

Lone Star, die-cast mazac/zamak early version, also came in sand paint, often with German markings, not inaccurate as the Germans captured a fair few during the run to Dunkirk, and would also press them into service when they captured them in the Western Desert. [Oooh! Just avoided a 'dessert' typo there; I wonder how many of them there are on the blog, Doh!]

Some more shots of the recently seen here, Marx Battery operated late version carrier, not much to add to whatever waffle I appointed it with last time, needs comparing to the Timpo one, I think they are a similar size - biggish?

 

The Tudor Rose version on the right, also a late pattern, with the Dibro tinplate novelty push-and-go tank to the left, the both, trundling down a French country lane, lined with Lombardy Poplars, still on the Cofalu card - possibly aimed at the Tour De France line, or the farm?

 

The trees are hard polystyrene, the tank is quite common and must have been very popular at one point, probably due to its cheapness, maybe one of the first, affordable toys, mass-available after the war? The carrier has both Bren-guns intact, which is uncommon for this model, they are both easily damaged.

Comparing Marx, French composition, Lone Star and Tudor Rose mini military machines! I still need a Britain's slush-cast one to compare with the TAT's, and when that happens I'll try to remember to dig-out the Timpo one!

R is for Rubber Riders

Just a quickie, from the 'Seen Elsewhere' folder, I happened to find, while sorting a while ago, all the common iterations of Thomas's rider figure in one place, at the same time, so I shot them together.

From the left; Vintage biker with 1930/40's soft 'driving' hat* and googles, the motorcycle in hard polystyrene, the rider a soft PVC, then the Jeep driver, who we worked-out might double as a stretcher-bearer, he's polyethylene, although PVC ones can be found I think, finally the Mexican on a donkey, all PVC, but the donkey can be found in polyethylene. His hat is a plug-on . . . or wedge-on!

*It's actually more of a 'Newsboys' hat, than the true driving hat, aka; 'Ivy 'or Flat hat

B is for Battle Dressed Combat Soldiers!

When this post was in the queue for Rack Toy Month last year, it consisted of about 20 appallingly bad shots of the contents of the bag, with tons of reflection, in which I was trying to shoot at least one good shot of each pose, for collaging into groups, but I ran-out of time to crop and edit them.

There weren't all the poses in the bag which was another spoiler of the project and then, when getting toward the end of the garage emptying, I found their box, and managed a whole new shoot with loose figures and a few silver 'plated' ones!

The oddity with this set (and the reason I had them stored separately in two 'zones'), is that the ANZAC clones are, generally, a tad bigger than the 8th Army clones (both from the Airfix 1:32nd/54mm figures), so, for years, I thought I was seeking two sources! I still am of course, but now it's to find the chromium-guys set, rather than two nationalities of set!

 

How many officers? You can see here that the ANZAC Officer with pistol (converted from the Airfix Commando) is heading for 45mm, the other ANZAC's being around 40mm, with some of the 8th Army no more than 35-mil! And they go very well with the Rado Industries/Ri-Toys, definitely not Blue Box ANZAC's! Which means they could be used with the actual Blue Box too!

The mark shows up better on the metallic-sprayed set, and err, that's it for now, currently an unknown originator's 'generics', I'll return to them when more comes to light! I aught to add that I think the two chromium ones here were from Chris or Peter, as the officer wasn't in the storage lot and these images were from the old folder, so thanks - as always - to both.

W is for White Button Walkers . . . and a Jumper!

Having seen a jumping Guardsman in the previous post, I guess this little lot can slot in here, as, while they are mostly robots, there's another of the riders first!

 

I think we are actually talking US cavalry here? But with Union and Confederate versions of the white-button walkers out there, he could be drafted into the Union forces. Size wise, he could be a useful officer to a bunch of Playmobil infantry, if you're into that kind of thing  - and two recent books on toy soldiers have both touched on them? It's not for me, I haven't got the room for more juvenilia, and I have enough infant toys, not least; US Cavalry Jumpers! And Robots;

C & D industrial (or Industry) Ltd., are claiming responsibility for this slightly demented-looking blue-meanie! It's almost like they've tried to apply the rules of those spiky Manzinger Z/Gundam types to a traditional walker, with a bit of the then current big hit - R2D2 - thrown in for good measure!

 

Lovin' this guy, very similar to the yellow childhood one who was the first of these seen here at Small Scale World, and he has a similar removable, coloured, transparent dome and chromium-plated gubbins beneath, however I think he's a rival set as the dome is deeper and the feet are different, I well remember when the yellow-one was found in a Christmas stocking, the other stocking had a different design, but the domes were the same!

 

This guy is definitely mirroring one of the larger battery-operated types, but in miniature, it's almost a disappointment his cabinet doors don't open to stream-forth a shower of sparks! I also think he's probably the newest seen here yet, and modern China-production (no markings), maybe even quite contemporary?

And, yes, I'm still up, listening to the local election results, Tories are getting a kicking, and Labour are under performing, so the Librals and greens are picking up the slack!

U is for Up! And Down! The Squway'ah!

This is as close to any Coronation bollocks as I'm going to get, so if you're wetting your kecks at the thought of all those gushing 'Royal Correspondents' on the flickering cod's eye this weekend, this is as good as you're gonna' get here! And Lizzy said Cam'ie could be Queen Consort, not "Queen"! They don't have my allegiance, inheritance-tax evading, promiscuous popinjays . . . and I'm certainly not muttering an oath at the telly on Saturday, like some slavish serf!

 

What's the actual fucking matter with people, find your balls, you sycophantic soap-dolls! We could be a secular democracy with a written constitution holding the government to account and a figure-head president of the type Italy or Germany enjoy, instead people are having paroxysms of wetness, at the inheritance of accumulated wealth, stolen from us!

Aaaannnnd . . . rant over! Well . . . it's all so silly and medieval! I have picked up a few novelty and other ceremonials since Christmas, most in a single purchase from someone thinning his collection, and one or two others, there was a newie in Chris's lot (yes, I thanked him elsewhere the other day, Chris Smith has sent another fantastic parcel of oddments!) but he'll appear separately in future posts, as he's paired with a policeman.

Here we have a pair of resin guards and a clicking-biro with flocked bearskin, a 'white-button' jumping mounted guardsman with two more resins; one cartoony the other a teddy-bear, which is the third iteration of Bear Guardsman I think, so well have to gather them together in a post of their own, one day!

 

He's called a 'Cugglie Wugglie' which is almost as nauseating as your average Royal Correspondent, but some marketeer though it was a good idea, even cuddly-wuddly would be an improvement on that massacre of the language! Branded to EPL, good luck finding anything about them on Google, English Premier League takes all the spots! There's plenty about CW's and plenty about EPL CW's, but nothing about the company?

The big guy seems to be some sort of powered-novelty, with a red light in his chest, but I can't work out how he works, his moving-arms, err, don't, and his flap (which hides a red light) just falls open, so I'll have to unscrew him at some point and look for a battery compartment . . . and possibly a broken spring or catch of some sort?

Two 40mm Spot-On Tommy Spot figures, one fully decorated in matt paints, the other half-decorated in gloss? Not from the Pomeroy stuff, so a mystery as to the reson/origin of the second one? And two Japanese blow-moulded celluloid 'doll' types, I have quite a few of these now, all slightly different, and never pass up on a cheap one!

I think we've seen these before, but they were here and got included in the photo-sesh' round-up! A pooping guardsman dropping a Putin and another novelty Biro!

 

Disney (and Warner) goes to London? Guys? WTF? NO! Dress them as US Marines, by all means, but we don't want you colonising our pomp and circumstance . . . the 'pomp being pomposity, the 'circumstance' being that William the 1st stole all the land, and they've held on to most of it! Another Coronation? It there no-end to them? Perhaps we could book-end monarchy with a pair of Williams' . . . now there's an idea! Yah-Boo, Sucks!