C is for Canoes - 9 - Not Giant!

Actually Mikephil in the US and a generic here in the UK, and I've never known if that's pronounced as a rather clumsey 'Mike-Phil', the smoother 'Micky-phil', or something esoteric like 'Mike-a-phil'? Guidance from US or Canadian readers gratefully received!

 

We did actually look at this briefly many years ago, and it will need to go on the Giant blog at some point, but they aren't Giant, they use the two sets of six (and only six) Giant foot figures, possibly even the old tool cavities, but with the lesser, non-Giant mark (Made in Hong Kong), and with new connecting runners, joining them together in rows, one of cowboys, and this one of Indians.

 

The Mikephil (I'm now saying Mick-effhil in my head!) shots here are all courtesy of Brain Berke, the generics are from the collection, except the green one which was a fleaBay image I took years ago, as you don't often see the green canoe.

 

Note that the Mikephil one has a monochrome image in blue-and-white on the back mirroring the full colour image on the card fronts, the generics available over here just have plain, undecorated card backs.

These images might have been used last time? This shows how the strips of figures are attached in the bottom of the canoe; the connecting pieces routed in the base of the tool are wedged in the little forked/slotted studs, holding them long-enough (one or more connections often pop-out while still in the packaging) to further hold them in, with the angled blister!

Brian did a scaler, and I have a yellow boat with the figures, unusually, placed-in facing the other way! Commonly the figures are firing/moving to the right, except the cowboy on the other end, but someone reversed some!

 

I must assume all colours of figure can be found as boats and vise-versa, but some seem commoner than others, so maybe the missing ones went to a country/region where they were less likely to survive the tests of time, like Mexico for instance?

 

One of Brian's sets in situe, the boat seems to be another brighter chartreuse yellow, to my aged lemon, but it could just be flash, the teepee is looking darker in the other image? It's also a perfect demonstration of how most '54mm' totem poles are better scaled for 25mm figures! Thanks again to Brian, for his images/examples.

 

And note this post is really about the canoes, the figures are far more interesting, and complicated, and, while we did touch on them briefly, a long time ago, here, I will do them properly as a series of posts on the Giant blog another day. And, the boat is a scale-down of another we'll look at in these posts, itself apparently; a full-size copy of a third!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - Civilians & Scenics

I fucked-up earlier; I was trying to alternate between canoe posts and other things (which happen to be Chris's posts for a few more 'moves'), but managed to post back-to back canoe posts, and not notice until a few people had seen it, at which point sliding it back into 'Edit' became not-an-option! No matter, the Japanese stuff is bookending itself now, the rules are only mine and there's no real urgency behind them, so, now, here's a quickie on more of Chris's donation!

 

 

We actually used up most of the civilian stuff with the Introductory post, so this is the rest! Of particular interest is the chap next to the Gondolier (who we've seen before), the new one seems to be in the style of those 1950's Japanese celluloid trinkets, but he's clearly more of a Mogul warrior or guard, from the Indian subcontinent?

 

He also seems to be polystyrene and what I though might be an incorrectly re-glued umbrella/sun-shade, is actually a moulded-in shield - he's missing his weapon (possibly a spear or lance), and is consequently; another of the  'best of donation' figures!

In the opposite corner is a waving boy, also of Asian appearance and equally unknown to me, possibly from a kit . . . did anyone do a 1:48th Saigon Embassy, Heuy kit? Is he from a sampan boat kit? The other notable is the lady in white, bottom right, next to the Frog/Krugozor lifeboatmen.

She is, in many regards, the same as those other two (possibly sculpted by CC Stadden), and would appear to be captaining a longboat? Her arm resting on where the large tiller-arm would be, her garb, very outdoor and foul weather. Did Frog do a canal boat next to the lifeboat, I can't find anything on Scalemates? So, I'm guessing, possibly a generic sold as a ship modellers 'spare part'? Merit maybe, Peco or Slaters?

Other highlights include the golfer keyring, the little chap, bottom-left, and the blow-moulded baby who will join a growing pile of unknown Hong Kong babies, who fill several bags now; smaller, larger, PVC, copies of Thomas, and copies of Britains & Mettoy hospital newborns! To which end - identification - I bought a babies bared crib/day-bed at PW's show last Saturday! I buy (or get given!) this stuff so you don't have to!

Foliage; the rather leery orange seaweed/coral will go very well with the Magic Roundabout trees, in providing alien landscapes in future photo-sessions, which had occurred to Chris when he chucked it in the box . . . something missing from the blog are the bigger set-piece shoots I did once or twice in the first year or so (the Spencer-Smith/Tudor Rose advance to contact, and a similar ACW 30 v 40mm photo-shoot), and which I hope to return too soon, I have plans for a proper photography 'station' with permanent features - but that only raises the constant dusting/maintenance problem!

 

The two halves of fir/pine tree don't butt-up against each-other, as they are identical mouldings with no central line of symmetry, so are probably forward facing snow-globe accessories, or from some touristy box-diorama?

 

The palm tree is lovely, and will need to be compared with all the others, while the separate base version of the common'ish poplar is new to me I think, and they all (there are dozens of slight variants) go back to the Lego poplar I think?

This is also interesting and will hopefully be ID'd in a vintage toy catalogue at some point, it is similar to stations in sets by Kader (before they were a major European rolling-stock contract manufacturer), Moonbow, Blue Box and others, but while their little rural/suburban stations were stand-alone, this appears to have plugged into a larger component or base board, could it be the short-lived Tomy system with Lego compatible parts?

Odds and sods, you can never have too many bits & bobs for completing sets etc . . . and while the highlight here is the Starlux Totem Pole (as issued with 20 and 30mm figures) scaled down from the 54mm range's one, there are other interesting bits, like the plug-in horses-head which I think comes from a Hong Kong (or European?) copy of Timpo teepee/tipi?

The desktop PC eraser, carries a kid's 'wants list' of toys, sweets and erasers on its screen-sticker! While the temporary-tattoo booklet of waterslide transfers will join others in the novelty/cracker-toy zone!

And finally all four corner towers for a post-Giant fort copy, again they have to be compared with all the others to work out where they belong, and I have plenty of little bags awaiting that job, including lots of green and orange tower roofs with various flags, so one day we'll give them the same treatment the black plastic ones have already had over on the But Is It Giant? blog.

C is for Canoes - 8 - Knick Knacks!

I'm loving these! These are definitely toys, if you want hyperrealistic 'model' figures, then get your wallet out and go support the Russian War Machine like naïve kidults, but for those who collect 'toy' figures, they don't get much more toy-like than these!

All courtesy of Brian Berke, there is, or there were two versions, a three-man and a one-man, and they are probably celluloid. The packaging reminds me very much of those faux-glass animals which used to be given away as prizes at fairground side-booths; small, low-grade (crumbly folds) cardboard with miss-registered screen-print artwork, but oozing with a charm that evokes a time from almost before I was born!

 

Three-man version, look at that axe, that's for the necks of Henry's wives! Made in Japan, it's one of the ironies of history that a lot of the best novelties of the 1950's and 60's came from Japan and Germany, because while we were struggling to rebuild after the war, money was poured into both economies to rebuild the 'losers' as bulwarks against the permeable curtains of the Cold War!

Sometimes, at the Fair, if you fished-out two of your three ducks, or got two of your three hoops over, you got a smaller prize! Interesting in that he's a fourth pose, not one of the previous three, re-purposed.

 

Other colours are available and I'm going to have to track some down, there's a nice red one on at the moment but postage is silly. It's getting hard to bid on US stuff, purely from the shipping costs, and that's mostly the 'International Shipping Programme' (or 'program'!), there's no bother from Canada, from whence I've had a few bargains recently, and they will have these too, so in time . . . and those US seller's who still use USPost can be half the price of the evilBay-Pitney Bowes-Hermes (call us Evri because our old name is mud) scam!

 

In the meantime; Thanks to Brain for sharing these Knick Knacks with us.

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!