H is for How They Come In - Chris - Monsters!

It is always the unexpected oddities which make 'mixed junk' lots so interesting and fun to unpack and sort out. I've had an odd finger puppet in the collection for many years, a vaguely Kaiju looking monster.

One of the first things I saw when I'd lifted the bags of small scale Hong Kong Wild West off the top of Chris's parcel contents was another, a frisson of disappointment crossed my mind, because when you find a second of something, there's always the possibility that 'that is that', a one-off, of which you now have two . . . 

 

. . . but then I found a second, buried, and instantly thought 'another', then saw it was different and looking again at the first one, realised neither is the same as my hanger-around (who has a smoother 'skirt'), so immediately went to officially bloody chuffed with these! I further have a vague memory of a fourth now, in brown, but I may have invented it in my head?

But, yeah! When it comes to 1970's (or even 1960's/) rack-toy tat, these will take some beating! And I love them, cheers Chris!

Another oddity in the most recent lot from Chris was this, which is sort of a bull, sort of something more fearsome and nameless, Devil'some even, yet also cartoony!

 

I'm guessing it belongs to one of those double string things, with the discs at either end. Where it would dance up and down the lines, due to the holes in hands and feet. Like the skeleton and Devil-Santa we looked at in [a] previous lot/s from Chris. But it could be a sort of Jacob's ladder climber type thing - fun anyway, and new to Blog!

C is for Canoes - 2 - Britains Herald and Copies

So, who didn't have one of these when they were a kid? You didn't? You may have a case at the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, or wherever - 'parental cruelty'! I think we probably got ours in our Christmas stockings around 1969/70? But they may have been a summer treat to play-with in the inflatable paddling pool?

 

This was a different packaging than I remember, although it changed several times, in fact the following of the canoe-cards, the Elephant-boxes and especially the catalogues in the 1960's & 70's is a journey in itself from B&W, to psychedelia, through flower-power and glam-rock to something more conservative and boring in the 1980's!

Brian has two, both manufactured in the earlier marbled plastic which was to try and recreate the natural wood and hide products used in real life, but, it has to be said, the design itself was 'Theme Park', I remember hiring canoes like this from Wellington Country Park, and they were aluminium shells with fibre-glass-reinforced plastic seats and fittings!

 

The crew of his fawn one have the later, more colourful, paint-jobs, the grey boat's crew have the earlier 'buckskins', and the boats had stickers of the US interwar pattern, international military-aircraft recognition roundel!

I believe that when the type 2 appeared, it first appeared in this guise, as a trapper's boat with a Native American Indian . . . mate, partner, guide . . . servant? Both vessel types had the bent wire-rod counter-weight, which serves as a keel and keeps the otherwise very buoyant toys level and realistically low in the water.

 

Mine; I too have a marbled 1st type, with the trapper-era type 2 in the middle and a final iteration on the right of the trio, new mouldings of crew are given a Deetail compatible 'wash' finish in a leery orange!

 

Although the crew of the third canoe are genuine Britains, the boat itself is from the Red Box (Redbox) 'Buffalo Fort' play set I think, which has mostly Airfix figure copies - Indians in red and the cowboys in blue - for US cavalry!

 

Comparisons, the pictures pretty-much say all that needs saying, the new ones were a tad bigger, but then with Deetail, everything was bigger than Herald, with heavier sculpting too.

 

Brian has a nice copy, no brand attribution at this time, but similar to and probably 'after' the Supreme one, but it's superior for having a crew!

 

The Supreme one is a bit more colourful, but didn't get a crew, so I've used a couple of 'unknown' crew, which I've also shot in close-up, as we won't see them again in these posts. 

 

One of the Supreme sets which the copy came in, we saw a copy of the copy in the introductory post, smaller, but copying the same colour-scheme as the Supreme/SP Toys example. Note also; the raft and oar.

H is for How They Come In - Chris - Animals

So, an eclectic bunch of animals in the latest parcel from Chris, dinosaurs, wild, farm, zoo and domestic, it's all grist to the mill!

Particularly interested in the larger version of my childhood favourites, the rubber 'jiggler' Dimetrodon, immediately below one of those childhood steggie's, who is next to a Natural History Museum one from Invicta, the collection of those is growing now, I think I have four, with a duplicate Tyrannosaur, always look out for them in charity shops! But the highlight . . .

 

. . . was another of the 'cracker toy' dino's and it's another Dimetrodon (four in the parcel!) . . . my favorite Dino! As with the other example Chris found (see Blog passim) it is bigger than the wild/domestic animals I have been collecting for years, but has the same block-design to the third part of the tool.

 

A couple of Hong Kong novelty hollow 'styrene horses, the one on the left new to me, the one on the right is a 'realistic' colour version of some I have in chromed gold I think? Not sure if bottom right is a sheep, a goat or a something else, adult or kid? But it's new to me!

 

I thought the swan might be for matches or toothpicks, but Chris said probably a pencil sharpener, and there is damage suggesting something was set into it, so I think he's right, it's a very delicate moulding. While the pink cow seems to be from a peg-board type infant toy like the one we saw here from Raphael Lipkin, but with more realistic animals?

 

The sausage dog is a relief flat, probably from a Christmas cracker, likewise the little poodle, while the other - white - dog, is the Matchbox pointer/gun-dog.

Two of the Merit/Cereal premium animals, a wooden lion which might have been part of a mobile, maybe off a pram? A lovely blow-moulded lion and two cracker/gum-ball elephants. The rhino is another cereal premium; Kellogg's, while the gorilla is a new sculpt to me and the slightly-daft looking giraffe is resin and probably a modern gift-shop piece?

 

Chris pointed out the smaller, better detailed, novelty/charm elephant which I had noted was hard 'styrene and better sculpted (early), is actually marked BERLIN with a sash/swage across his body, which I hadn't seen! So he could be a memento of the Zoological Gardens ('Zoo') which I knew quite well as the two pairs of ornate entrances opened onto the busy area of pre-unification West Berlin, and I did visit it once. And something that small may have been a premium gift with a child's ticket?

 

Taking to the water, and we have a rubber jiggler crock', two pencil-tops, a frog and a shark, a magnetic novelty tortoise, who might be meant to be a turtle it's not clear, but they look like feet, and a flying fish. There is a bag of magnetic turtles/tortoises, and they will - eventually - all be paired-up. And a hooped duckling - from a home fairground-sideshow type game, or a gum-ball, capsule-machine charm?

 

The rest, a Hong Kong novelty pig, a pretty blue lemur, a Hong Kong ape, sans arms and a really nice composition rock ape, which Chris did try on evilBay, but no takers, so I was the beneficiary of apathy and disinterest! The closest match I can find is Lineol's Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus), but the face is forward, not turned as is the Lineol, so a lesser makes copy?

Thanks again to Chris, a couple of monsters next, but more canoes tomorrow!

News, Views etc . . . PW Show!

Well, you can't say I haven't been busy! We're only four and-a-bit-days away from the big one, the best Toy Soldier Show in the world, by a country mile, but a couple of things to note;

Peter Evans has pointed out there's a rail strike on Saturday (just fucking pay them, Christ; the amount of money the Tories have shovelled into their own pockets or let Truss piss up a wall!), which will affect travel in the area of the show;

"For those of you planning to come to PW on the 13th

At present, there is a train strike on that day.

 

The Tube and London overground will be running, National Rail will be affected

From Richmond station, buses 110 and 490 leave from the front of the station and go to Whittham.

 

Journey takes about 20 mins.

 

Hope to see many of you there."

 

To which Brian Carrick added;

 

"If taking the 490 bus, you will need to change at Twickenham Green and take the H22 to Whitton Station.

 

There is also a major event on at Twickenham Stadium (date moved due to the Coronation) causing restricted parking in the streets around the venue north of the A316 but no restrictions to the south of it in the streets off of Meadway (TW2 6PW).

 

The A316 can be crossed by a subway (underpass) from the top of Meadway to Jubilee Avenue, see map:

 

https://www.bing.com/maps?q=meadway%20twickenham..."

The 'event' is the Army v Navy match . . . now, having in my past been responsible for signage at both Twicker's and The Stoop, I can assure you that The Winning Post can be heaving on an International or Cup Final match day, it shouldn't apply so much to the services match, as many of the audience/supporters will be bussed-in and bussed-out by their units, and probably won't head up to 'our' venue.

But it may get busy nearer kick-off (2pm), there will be some private travel up the M3, from the Aldershot area (home of the Physical Training Corps who like a sports event!) and Portsmouth/Southampton (Navy) so I'd advise sellers to travel early to guarantee a park (but there shouldn't be a shortage in the morning) and buyers to travel early for pedestrian traffic reasons.

And if there are parking problems toward midday, The Stoop, halfway between The Winning Post and Twickenham Stadium (on the other side of the road) opens it's parking for what I believe is a reasonable rate - for London! As does the field between The Stoop and the Hotel, so there won't be any real problems.

See you there, and if you've got a bag, box, tin or tub of 'interesting' junk, bring it along and I'll probably give you money for it! The guy's on the door can point me out!

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?