C is for Canoes - 7 - Beeju & Similar Novelties

As the last post and the next post are 100% Brian's imagery, I thought I'd take the bow on this one, and one of the canoes segues nicely into the next post; we're looking at the less than realistic on this round!

We have seen these here at Small Scale World, more than once, as the collection grows, but still only the one with an oar, but the three together in the later shot. I think they must have been sold as bath toys, you can see a scaly deposit in the newest (blue) one, and the other's both needed a good clean when they first came in.

This was sold as a canoe, but could just as easily be a component of some piece of groovy Habitat interior decor circa 1972? If it is a canoe (joking aside I'm sure it is), it's an odd one, with a heavy shelf running round the gunwales, the whole thing having a sort of hippy-art-deco look! A note with my original eMail to Brian on this one says "Italian I think?", but I can't remember the significance now?

 

This is lovely and connects us to the next post, Japanese celluloid or paper-thin polystyrene blow-moulded canoe with cotton-strung swivel-arms, one clearly dislocated on this example which came off of that evilBay a while ago.

 

While this is modern to contemporary, being one part of a set of Haribo premiums I picked-up in a mixed lot from a charity shop a while ago. The set contained cowboys and American Indians, and unit price means this is bit of a 'super-deform', but then they all are here!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - Wild West

I think I'm right in saying Chris isn't much of a Wild West collector, excepting where that coincides with one of his core themes - Early British minor makes, so his parcels to the blog, and therefore the rest of you, always have a fair bit of Wild West in and a fair bit of that is interesting!

The small scale, as I've said before this all needs further sorting, and will appear, eventually, on the Giant or What? page! Two bags this time, one a right-old mix, the other quite a clean sample, and there were a few in the bottom of the box!

 

The forts too need further sorting as several people had a stab at them or copied/carried them, this isn't Giant as it has the Fort Chyenne over the gates, Giant's was unnamed.

Next size-up and we have a couple of Lucky Clover Indians, one of the - probably - French, reduced-size, premium copies of Jean's swivel waist figures. A pair of Marx, a trio of Blue Box, a horse divorced from its West German wagon, and two figures I've never seen before!

 

Both swivel waist, no more that 25mm and I think I found their horse, which may have come from Chris in a previous bundle. I suspect I have no more than one or two in all the - litaerally - tens of thousands of Hong Kong hollow-horses, sorted or waiting, and I think the other's might be a white one and a limp-green one?

 

But what a thing to find, in a donation! Both are damaged, I'm guessing yellow probably had a pistol on his left hand, and red might have been waving a rifle, but how many are there in the whole set, are they Hong Kong, or some minor make from Italy or Portugal or somwhere, has anyone else got any? Among the 'best items' in the parcel!

Next size up and inset are a small scale who missed the other shot and bits of a CGGC, Giodi or Kinder figure, with a Siku premium top-left in the main image, next to a Christmas cracker-toy of the old Marx moulding of Pecos Bill.

 

The lower row includes from the left, a semi-flat in soft ethylene who might be Hungarian, but wasn't in that bag, another of the ones I think are French premiums or bazaar toys, with the neat, parallel-sided, oval bases and two of a Hong Kong lot who turn-up so frequently I can't understand why I haven't seen a whole set (card or bag) on feebleBay yet . . . but it should turn-up one day!

Up another size for the Toumoulage originals, with - again - believed to be French, probably premiums, smaller copies, the larger unpainted (late production?) 'styrene, the smaller, the softer polyethylene. The green one, actually belongs with the larger figures and is a polystyrene original.

 

Chris has managed to find another three of the Lone Star shooting game figures, all yellow, in three different junk-lots/purchases! I have to confess with a few more come in, in the last year or two, I've lost track of them, but I think we're getting close to full sets of both colours, although they were issued alternating in the sets!

 

Below them, we have one of the Crescent/Lido poses we've covered here recently, and next to him a painted one, which from the clues on the underside of the base, has come straight off one of those W. German pencil sharpeners. Note he's larger than the standard figure, something which wasn't clear in the previous posts on the subject - I've said it before; Pantographing can go up as well as down!

 

Either side of the cowboy pair are a couple of matching hard plastic, painted Indians without bases which would appear to from a similar novelty line/item, but no clues as to what, or how many poses we're looking for?

A small bag of Hong Kong swoppet copies, same note as the canoe post the other day, a late, two-halves with belly-moulded Airfix horse, I'll give him the tail of one with a missing leg or two!

 

Three HK figures 'after' those Bergan/Beton-Airfix-F&G-Tudor Rose (et al) figures, my first Carzol premium, an MPC ACW clone, a hard 'styrene paddler from Thomas and a very interesting copy (unmarked) of a Crescent cowboy? 

Finally, a wagon driver, to which I said in my email to Chris - we always go over the highlights before I share them with you - "The Wagoneer looks modern, but might actually be older, 1970's? Although he's quite realistic, he may be from a comical wagon, or novelty?", only to be looking in the new (newish, I think I mentioned them in the autumn) thematic folders for something to send Paul M when I found him . . .

. . . bottom right! And although the wagon is almost as realistic as him (some whacky wheels action goin' down there), the artwork on the box is every-bit as cartoony as I was expecting, and I'm not claiming it for my abilities as a soothsayer, but more the old back of the mind being triggered!

 

This is lovely, he's missing his feather, but that's the sort of thing which will turn-up in a junk lot or on a tattier, loose figure, but having seen or mentioned Hong Kong, Russia, Dulcop and Kinder on these 'Charlie' figures, here's a Směr one, from the former Czechoslovakia!

 

Finally, this pair were in a lot from Australia, which won't be in these posts, as they are destined for greater things elsewhere! But these two are interesting for several reasons, first we're back with the Crescent hollow-cast/Lido set again with the chap on the left.

 

But he's clearly paired with the mounted figure who seems to be a copy of a semi-flat, possibly home-casting mould, which could be another Schneider or even something more local . . . there must have been Aussie metal manufacturers? The quatrefoil bases should be a clue?

 

And who made these, between the Australian end and the island next door (NZ) there are about a dozen names in the archive now, not all of them necessarily toy makers, not all of them shooting plastics? So tatty, and probably very old, but fascinating additions to the stash, cheers Chris!

C is for Canoes - 6 - KiKo 'Oklahoma Tribe' Carded Bottle Bag

You may remember or be familiar with KiKo (as I will write it)* from Eric Williamson's old site, or more generally their licence to produce some Airfix stuff under their packaging, including, notably, the Medieval fort play set - Robin Hood, well, Brian Berke has sent these to the blog, for a bit of contrast as part of the 'Canoe Season'

 

On the Airfix licence era stuff the logotype is clearly KiKo, on this packageing it's K - I K - O, while I'm sure I've seen it Ki-Ko, and the address details just use the simple Kiko, so you can take your pick!

 

Mexican produced Wild West set, with the almost (for Central/South America) de rigueur Marx copies (the 3" figures being used here), and other accessories, which don't appear to be Marx per se, but the Teepee looks familiar, so it will probably be a copy of someone's?

The bag shots are a bit misleading - given this is a canoe season - as the canoes are almost totally hidden by dint of being stuffed inside the stacked Teepees, which led to some confusion when I was sorting out the images (months after I'd dumped them all in one folder!), as there are several other yellow canoes and a couple of fatter/wide-bodied ones!

 

But in the end I got them all sorted, and you get two, with three crew, two Indians firing bows and a trapper type paddling like fury! These are not Marx copies either, Marx barely bothered with a canoe, using it sparingly in Wild West sets, but chucking it in Boy Scout sets instead, where I think there was a paddler? I don't know whose production these may be based on, but the canoe seems to be a Kiko original, so maybe the crew are too?

 

Kiko on the left, 3" Marx donor in the middle and a Crescent sizer on the right, this is a 'beach-toy' sized set if ever there was one, but I guess, given income levels and the climate in Mexico, it will be designed to be played with outside, in the dirt or dust, and in all weathers?

 

The TeePee, I'm sure I've seen the decoration before, but can't think where, so if anyone has a clue, let the rest of us know! It's also scaled for 54mm figures and gets rather dwarfed by the chap who's supposed to fit his family in it!

 

Many thanks to Brian for these, it's really all about the canoe!

S is for Show Report - There WAS a Show!

So, lazy day, and normal service has not been resumed . . . tomorrow maybe? In the meantime I shot a few highlights of yesterday's plunder for another place, and will post them below with no text, as we'll have full reports once I'm through the posts on Chris's stuff, so apologies if you've already seen them on your favourite Faceplant group, but they will last longer here!

The camel is a hollow celluloid thing - exquisite!

 

V. Rare!

Anyone know where the horse belongs? Who made it?

Knight or Bullfighter?

Lovely!

Up yer' Cardinale, Cardinal!

At last!

 

Nice 'builder bits' with one complete figure.

 

Moldarama are bigger than I thought!

This one's Milwaukee Zoo

 

Good to see so many old faces, had some solid chats, many thanks to Trevor Rudkin, Brian Carrick, Gareth Morgan and Peter Evans for bags of bits, sorted Garath's last night (when I meant to post something!) and Trevor's just now, lots to 'Shoot &  Show' and we'll start looking at all the above again, in context/with blurb, in a few days.

A is for And a Good Time Was Had by All!

Well, the Umpty-somethingth Non- inaugural, All-singing, All-dancing Plastic Warrior Magazine's Toy Soldier Show has been and went, hasn't it! I'm too knackered for a proper post, so here's a quickie from the Seen Elsewhere folder, actually stuff I found at a Sandown Park show a while ago!

These are chalkware and from Japan, probably 1950's, so pretty-well proper antiques now! Trousers are a bit too blue, and the band is brass-heavy, so good for promoting Hovis! No brand/brandmark.

It really was a good day today apart from the Rugby which cost me a coffee, but that's my fault for being too honest, had I pretended to be a Rugby fan I would have got the coffees! Kudos to the team for organising it.

 

I have to push off and do a few bits now, but I'll try and post something similar later, there's a folder full of this stuff which needs emptying!

C is for Canoes - 5 - St. Labre School

We have seen the sub-scale, semi-relief Tee-Pee/Tipi from St Labre, and the Totem Pole (way back at the beginning of the blog and incorrectly tagged Labere School, which I can't edit due to rule changes!), so it's nice to be revisiting them in the canoe 'season', where they go big . . . really big!

Approximately 5" figures with a boat to match, we have what are facially kids (with native features), but dressed as adults, with a full war bonnet on the boy, and the girl holding an Indian blanket. The boat may not belong with them, being from a set of action-figures, but they fit it, so it's here as we have St. Labre in the tag-list already!

 

I've mentioned before that I assume they were some kind of fundraising thing, but I used to think gift-shop or open day types, but you often see mailing boxes in their evilBay lots, so they must have been more of a fundraising catalogue thing?

 

I keep meaning to get the Indian tom-tom drum salt and pepper shakers, but haven't yet! However, I think this is mine (I vaguely recognise the background as a carpet tile I sometimes shoot on!), and she is the third figure of the set above, to which a baby in a stick-frame papoose is a forth human element.

 

Brian also sent a scaler, with a few other items on his desk-top, you can see it's a biggie! There's Timpo there, the Britains 'trapper' canoe copy and Tim Mee in the foreground. St. Labre did do a canoe, in birchbark with leather 'bootlace' stitching, but does anyone recognise this one?

 

And a big thanks to Brian for all the canoe stuff he sent to the Blog, we'll be posting it into June I think, and that's some St. Labre School stuff, box ticked!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - Transport Etc . . .

So many figures ended-up in this post I couldn't actually call it 'Vehicles' as I had intended, but another bunch of interesting or novel items of that ilk were included in Chris's recent parcel.

Starting with bath toys, for the most part. The Hong Kong copies of Manurba's mini-sub, one has been trimmed down somewhat to a self-propelled torpedo, with a smaller boat, which comes from a rack-toy set of about six or eight mouldings - I have them somewhere in the archive, and a few more loose, building for an 'overview' post.

I love the big blow-moulded diver, proper bath toy! Except they tended to fill with water from the little hole in the gate-mark, and you could then use them to squirt your brother at the other end of the bath, until the heat-seam split, and 'Froggie' the frogman went to landfill!

I was in a quandry as to what to do with these, as they obviously belong in the canoe posts, but needed to be H is for . . .'d first, but rather came together as I'd put the canoe season off for various reasons, of some merit, umpteen times, but ultimately, they will be tagged 'Canoes', between two similarly-tagged posts, so it's a minor worry!

I have no idea on the lower one, but match/toothpick/trinket holder is a strong possibility, while the upper one is wooden, so may have some age, or home-made'ness? But equally could be French, they seem to have stuck with wooden boats right through solid and hollow-cast lead figures, the aluminium period, the celluloids and phenolics, right-up unto plastic figures!

A Blue Box ambulance came with one of the larger figures, the ambulance still has the box-mounting intact, which is not exactly collectable, especially if you only want the vehicle for wargaming, which a lot of them were used for, back in the day. But I have two or three now, and it's getting fun to see if I'll ever have one each of them all, still attached like this?

 

The vehicle was meant to be broken/lifted off the clear plastic piece, but the glue meant they would tare away from the paper laminate of the box/tray and then people would usually break off the two tabs leaving the central piece glued to the underside of the vehicle/accessory!

 

Aircraft came in the form of two novelty-whistles - Brilliant! A small rack-toy helicopter, a - probably - knock-off Transformer type and a rather interesting X-15 X-Plane, which might be a load from a larger kit, weren't they launched 'in flight'? It could also be from a desk-top display thing, as the metallic blue paint-job looks like a professional coating . . . but it could just be a rack-toy! It's polystyrene.

 

And no, you can't really photograph lime-green against lime-green!

 

The smaller of the two whistles came in a lot Chris found in Hungary, so was accompanied by another 40mm flat (never get enough of those) and a really nice knock-off of a Western 'dime store' spaceman.

 

Another lovey bunch of oddities from Chris, so many thanks to him, and next-up will be the Wild West or civilians, depending on how tired I am tomorrow evening, but I must do canoes now for the morning, then try to catch some sleep before the early start for . . .

 

The Plastic Warrior Show . . . it's TOMORROW!

C is for Canoes - 4 - Star Toys

Possibly the most amusing of the Hong Kong copy canoes, is the Star Toys effort . . . 

. . . as they copied the Timpo design with the 'stitching', but the material and style of the Herald with marbled polystyrene, in similar colour palates. Brian's is the light/dark-grey one and mine the sand/dun one, I seem to have taken a few shots trying to get some without too much reflection!

 

And while the boat is all Timpo in design, the crew are all Herald! So it's a fifty-fifty split on donors with no cut-n-shutting! The crew on the instruction diagrams bear no relationship to the actual figures. Like a lot of Star's production, they are both soft, PVC copies of the Britains men.

 

The bits in the background are too mixed to attribute, there are what look to be three Star bases, but there were dozens of issuers of these Timpo, Britains Swoppet and/or Lone Star copies and with the fourth base not Star, we have to assume they have/might have - all been mucked about with!

 

Mint sets are the only way to attribute all these properly, and that's a big job for another day, although we looked at a small import/jobber's set by Benkson, not that long ago - Britains and Lone Star poses if I recall correctly?

However, the boat and paddlers are the Star Toys one, in the same colourway as my carded example, but courtesy of Brian Berke, I think (it may be a feeBay image?). That's Star, a bit of a brief box-ticker, but most of these canoe-posts will be!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - Uniformed Personnel and Historical Troops

The 'historicals' and emergency personnel get unified this time, by a matching pair, and I filled the post out with some pirates, well, you would, wouldn't you? It's add them or walk the plank!

The usual shake of Tudor Rose and similar beach-toy/big-box 'ethylenes in the top corner (Theo has given me most of the 'gen on them, for the planned firefighter page), while the motorcycle cop is obviously off another big-box (very big box) toy!

 

He could be re-painted to match the pale fawny/tawny . . . 'taupe' uniforms of Officer's Poncherello or Baker from ChiPs, one of our favourite early evening entertainment slots when we were kids, Harley' Electra-Glides? Only a Sportster trumps them!

 

Two chauffeurs,  the larger having something of the Hong Kong clockwork/push-and-go about him, the smaller could be from anywhere, and a policeman on traffic duty. Now, I think we've looked at him before, and a shout went out in Plastic Warrior magazine - they're having some sort of get-together on Saturday I believe - I think I'm washing my hair that day?

 

But as yet there's been no comeback on what must be a largish toy. He's a hard, but glassy, early polystyrene, with a heavy metal mounting rod, internally set, I suspect a clockwork Hong Kong traffic Island toy (not very British, but a change of figure, and you could produce the same toy for various markets), but equally he has the look of an early British-made figure, so any glues gratefully received.

The pair; they are equally interesting, the breadth of subject would suggest tourist items, but they are quite small (about 45/50mil) and there's no sign of key-ring chain etc . . . yet, while they look quite new, the material on the chipped base appears to be a form of vulcanised rubber, similar to vehicle tyres . . . so I wonder if they are in fact pieces from an older, London-centric board-game, also aimed at tourists?

 

Meanwhile, the pi . . . err officer of the law to their right, is too-humorous to be making 'that' point, and who'd try to get away with it in public, so I'm guessing one of several/many similar pig-occupations, from one of the jewellery-shop window sets of overpriced resin tat?

There were five piratey pieces, two of which are beyond the scope of the Blog really, and have gone to charity, but they have been shot for ITLAPD, and that's why they were sent! These are well within the scope, and we've seen the lady here, the figure on the left is new, PVC and probably from a cheap rack-toy, but I bet there is another pose, if not three (two pairs maybe), so that search is now on!

 

While the one in the middle probably has some age, and is best described as a pre-Soma, Soma-type! Squat, softish polyethylene or rigid PVC and rather play worn, but a nice find on Chris's part.

 

To the above I've added a few full-military types; of which the Victorian paper 'scrap' is probably the nicest item, I will scan it in and post it on the Airfix Colour Party page as a painting guide type thing! The Speedwell is damages and home-painted, but I'm not sure if I have one, so it stays as a sample for now, while the pair of Risk figures will be checked against the rest for colour variance! Even the semi-flat finding is fun, and will get a bag for now, probably an old Schneider?

C is for Canoes - 3 - Timpo and Copies

Some of those children of the 1960's and 1970's who failed to receive a Britains Herald or plain Britains canoe, did so not due to parental cruelty, but because they got given the Timpo one/s instead! This post will look at them and some copies.

Brian's is in a nice - if slightly unrealistic - duck-egg blue, the colour of one of our childhood ones, and while things are slightly calmer than they looked in the introductory post, matey in the stern still has his knife out!

 

I have a couple of the smaller ones, in fawn/sand and cream, and the larger four-man one, in screaming red, which came a bit later I think. But not much later as both these have the earlier painted designs on the prow, done with a print-maker's rubber roller, I'd imagine, highlighting the raised areas of the designs - later issues weren't painted.

 

Also a tad later (I think?) was the trapper version, with the coonskin cap on standard body/legs, but a pink 'white man' head! There was also a pile of pelts/furs in the canoe with a cooking pot and musket (left-hand example) or Winchester (right-hand one) which plug-in to the load.

 

Undersides of both with the smaller counter-weight, I don't have the larger one yet (if anyone has a spare?) and the Britians copy is only there to prop both the Timpo canoes in place for the photograph!

 

Timpo used a copper-plate or anodising to protect their keel-weights, so they are less likely to be set-rigid in the canoe, with rust, like some Britains ones, which had a thin and rather ineffectual layer of galvanising.

 

From the old attempts at 'photo-realism' folder (there's still about 20 shots in the folder!), which must be about 12-years old now? In order to get the shot without the giveaway shadows, or something technical like that, I had to cut most of the bottom off, can't remember exactly why, but that's how it shook-down!

 

Hong Kong copies; I don't have a set/brand or even identified crew for them yet, but they are given away by their more pronounced 'shark's teeth' edges (gunwales?) and slightly more flimsy colours!

 

Brian has an even poorer one, hard to judge, but I think it's a lot smaller and thinner, and as you can see semi-transparent plastic with even sharper shark's teeth! And when I say poorer, that's a judgement on the manufacturing quality, not the fact that I won't grab one when I see one! Also, Brian has managed to colour-match with his Timpo original!

 

The crewman is, again, a poorer copy of another maker's, the Red Box (Redbox) 'Buffalo Fort' play set, however as this pair, will be from a cheaper, probably bagged, rack toy type, and equally-probably modern CHINA production.