S is for Sandown Park - May 2023 - Military Vehicles

So to all those vehicles, in point of fact I was more restrained than I thought at the last Sandown, I just took lots of shots and split them into five posts, but there's still a fair bit to look at!

 

I think I've managed to find a Sunderland already, probably posted here, but this one was quite clean, not too distorted and relatively cheap so I grabbed it, Palitoy, but now I'm looking for the clockwork version, and any other undocumented ones like the previous posting on the subject.

 

While the US dime store/slush cast Armoured Car from Barclay was also going for a song, and was also quite clean, a few paint-chips and some grubby wheels, which would turn the purists off, but I'm not so fussed!

This ends-up dominating the post, even though it's a piece of modern crap, but that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes! I have trays of this stuff, Altaya, Matchbox, Eaglemoss, DeAgostini etc . . .  and most of it is pretty, but also pretty run-of-the-mill, a lot duplicated, however I was quite taken with this.

It's a long-wheelbase, GS Truck, Unimax 85061 German Büssing-NAG Type 4500A (also available in a desert/yellow-brown scheme), with a half tilt and two passengers, and was just a bit different, and going for pocket-money, as without the packaging this modern stuff isn't worth a bean! Again - more-fool the purists!

A dodgy photograph, but it looks like it's whizzing past the viewer!

A pair of real box-tickers here; Britains 1263 Royal Artillery Gun, a gap in the collection filled, it was just a clean one and again, reasonable on the money-front, I don't think it's rare, but it was needed, was it the budget/entry-level gun, there's lots of them! And a Timpo siege catapult, which - mercifully - was complete!

Really pleased to find this, it needs the speaker/siren on the mudguard, but I've had the khaki one for years, very distorted now (probably on the Airfix Jeep page?), while this is manufactured a while later, and is a stable polystyrene, the red's a bit leery, but airfield-airside, it's good for fire/accident investigations!

I suspect this was a comic-cover giveaway or Hong Kong knock-off, of those we saw in a couple of posts a while back (lockdown?), the launcher, apart from being candy-pink, is quite a light/flimsy moulding compared to some of the branded ones, and the rocket is marbled from scraps by the look of it (not clear in the photo'), so a nice addition to that side-collection/sample!

LB is for Lanky Bods

Back to spacemen and a whole bunch of Lik Be's lanky chaps have come it recently, along with a few other items of interest, indeed, all these posts were going to be one follow-up until I started editing them and realised it was going to be 30 or more images, even with maximum collaging!

 

Having inherited a lot of Woolbro stuff in the purchase from Jame Opie many years ago now (and many thanks to him), these were a must as soon as I saw them, and so that's what happened! They are the slightly smaller copies in bright colours, unpainted with flat/smooth bases,.

 

Price suggests 1976-78, as a box of Airfix HO=OO figures was going through 18, 19, 20, and I remember; 21p, around the same time? And dare I say seem to be aimed directly at competing with the Nasta Industries sets we saw the other day, both in the artwork and with the contents count/style?

Two of them are seen here in blue and yellow, between the older copy to the left and what I believe are my first two of the iteration carried by Solpa in Greece, they are smoother-etched than the other clones we've seen here (except the really small blobs), but I've only seen them online, so I'm not 100% on that.

More of the Woolbro type here, gunmetal, orange and green join the blue, an online image I didn't bid on as I didn't really need anything in the lot, although the robots were interesting, they look modern and will turn-up on their own for a lower price!

And another evilBay image here.

They look unloved.

While this set has the hollow-based copies, which from the painted forms (far left in the five figure line-up above) go right back to LB's own origins (late 1960's), but here seem to date from the late 1990's, with unpainted figures in a colour I haven't encountered these clones in before, and a CHINA mark?

Obviously more of a summer beach/lawn toy, with the figures not the central theme, but mere targets for the gun, which fires space-rockets . . . Fluorescent, Barbie-pink, space-rockets; what a bargain!

I've also picked up some originals over the last 9-months, and while the white ones will be checked against the master collection with the rejects offered as a complete set for swaps, the chrome ones will contribute to two sets, the very shiny-silver (most of the far rank) and the darker 'antiqued' (near command group), with any duplicates paint-stripped to add to the neutral granule sample we've looked at some before.

The idea being to end-up with four sub-lots; all eight marked as bright & antiqued, an unmarked set of eight cake decorations from the 1990's, and a larger lot of the plain, stripped plastic ones.

Again, no reason to bid on this lot, although I have gaps in the unpainted samples, there was too much other junk in the lot, and one or two of the green and red ones (which I still need some of (painted and unpainted)) looked a bit tatty?

Better known as a Naval artist for the USN, Fred Freeman was also a prolific magazine illustrator through the middle of the 20th Century, and his sci-fi stuff often used the X Craft-Mercury-Gemini suits worn by our LB breadrin'. Here he has them in something akin to a B29 cockpit, with 'vidscreens', in orbit over the moon! It won't surprise you he's well-known for his submarine art, either!

Then this big, bad, burgundy, blow-moulded, beautiful, blooming, bastard turned-up! Obviously a parachute toy (I may have one or two and not previously noticed the connection?), he's been shot separately for that page, about 120mm, but it seems there’s still no end in sight to additions to the LB for Lik Be output and clones!

Just replace LP with Lik Be, it's only three more letters and a gap, you don't NEED to use LB at all, if you really don't want to, fuckwits!

S is for Sandown Park - May 2023 - Civilian Etc . . .

Still playing catchup on the show reports, although the London Show may be one post, I was quite reserved! So, for now, we're back to May for the Sandown Park plunder reports - can you believe July's nearly over?

First a shot of the vehicles, they actually occupy two posts and half another, it was a very vehicular day, but then it is a general toy fair, which started life as 90-odd% die-cast and railway . . . nowadays it's almost half modern shite and Lego! But this is an idea of what's coming, previously posted elsewhere.

 

I already have most of these, but I couldn't remember which ones I still needed, when you're on the spot and all that, so I bought them all to compare, and the spares will make good swaps!

 

After some thought, I'm pretty sure it's the cowboy and maybe the bear I need, I have copies of the bear (or donors?) from UK, Hong Kong and France I think, including a Polar one, but still needed the Lone Star one, and it may be I needed the western girl, not the boy?

 

Anyhoos, these are how they are supposed / intended to be paired-up I think, with the backwoodsman also used for a tussle with an Indian (which is how I have him in storage I suspect), and they make a nice group here!

I'm asking about this elsewhere and would love any info' you have on it? It's Britains/54mm size, and very similar to the Jim one from France, sculpturally, but it's not exactly the same pose, it seems to be an infant's rattle with a ferrous plug in its nether regions (ooh missus!) and the material is some hardened polymer which may have been vulcanised rubber once.

 

Markings are MADE IN [unreadable], in English above and what appearers to be [?]ORTE DE[s?] TCH[?]K below . . . a Czech for German market maybe? A Bata toy?

 

I love this, when I worked for JB years ago (now!) I handled a fair few Snake Oil wagons and Thaddeus Tripps, not to mention a few train-guard variants, and have tracked down several now (it's all in the neck-ties I think, and/or hair colour? . . . They have gone to storage), but I have never seen the box full of bottles!

I had to have it, and you can hide the bottles inside to stand on the box and deliver your spiel! Best from show! And when I say I've never seen it, I mean I've never noticed it, because it must be in the Maughan and / or Plath books?

I have a few of these, nothing old or rare, but they were going cheap with the lot below, and I knew I didn't have the cardinal, or the chap in black, so home with me, they came, Nestle premiums for the Disney Hunchback movie.

 

101 Dalmatians, also Disney, along with the Marx 'Minikins' I think there are three sets of these, and I have various components of various sets, we've seen some here before (cereal premiums?), so I keep adding them, until I can sort them all out!

 

The rest! Another President, Jefferson (as mentioned in passing yesterday), this one painted in the Warriors of the World (WoW) style, a Dr. Sheen from Trash Bag Bunch, by Galoob I think, he's one of the common poses as he was also a cereal premium I believe? A Spot-On nurse and small Indian from Crescent finish of this post!

LB is for Licky Bottoms!

Continuing the series of follow-ups to the output of Lik Be and/or their imitators, and we're looking at mostly feebleBay stuff on the sucker-toys which are probably all knock-offs, both silicon 'jigglers' and the rubber erasers.

 

More of the erasers we looked at here, and with the 'Wotan' bot turning up we can assume the other two 'Vichy' and 'Rocket' are out there to be found, we also get another version of the Bike Cop, with two cup/suckers and more segmented arms.

These are obviously by the same source as the Lik Be copies below, but consist entirely of Deiner Industries eraser knock-offs, in this case as silicon-rubber sucker-toys. Taken from the robot/alien set and the horror set, there's possibly twelve or more sculpts to track down?
 

And you may find them with the LB piracies! These are - I think - the third generation of sucker knock-offs (the ones above might be a fourth, or end of mould, they're very poor quality), we looked at the better ones here, and consist of the poorer sculpts with a single spot of leery paint to add colour to the counter-display box?

 

 

Here's a bunch more, no Deiner sculpts, but a decent idea of the range of polymer colours and the range of over sprayed spot colours! Along with confirmation, they did the robots as well as the spacemen. All six robots seem to have been copied in all 3/4 sets/lines of sucker toys, I'm not so sure about all 8 spacemen yet, it may only be four or six sculpts stolen?

 

Comparison with LB originals

Seen one of these before, the fact that I've encountered several now suggests they aren't that rare and it's just a question of waiting until one without a silly-price turns up! These are the better quality sculpts with several colours, both brushed and sprayed-on.

N is for New Stuff, from New York!

Welp, four hours sleep, but everything that could be painted was, and everything else was washed or hoovered and the house in on the market! I'm having the afternoon off to relax, and this was next in the 'new queue', or 'ready rounds' on the desktop, so with much gratitude to Brian Berke, lets have a look at the contents of his recent parcel!

 

Marx President Hoover (of the dam, not the vacuum cleaners!) who is very useful as there's a whole bunch to collect and I only have about five! And a horse which I think is the Ajax version, again very useful as there's a major update on that Bergan/Beton horse page in the pipeline, although technically it's a Britains Hollow-cast cavalry horse which B/B copied.

 

The ubiquity of Britains in the early 20th Century, throughout the developed world, colonies and Empire (upon which the sun never set!) means everyone copied that horse in metal even, before plastic was even used for toys - you find it a lot in South America, for instance, solid or hollow, and then plastic!

 

Under them two Van Brode figures and a ger'nome . . . because!

 

Lovely O-gauge samples from Marx on the right and Bachmann Plasticville on the left I think, I have the latter in HO-gauge, and possibly some factory painted in O', but it's nice to have the raw ones for future comparison.

 

Below which are some of the comic flat mail-order 100 Dolls figures. I was hoping - as I waded through everything this last two years or so - to find the sticker-sheet for them, but it hasn't turned-up yet, although I think I know where it is, so we will look at it one day.

 

Is this another Mold-a-Rama, or a beach toy? It's sort of in the same style, heavy-walled blow-mold (or rotary mould? I don't know exactly how the machines work), but without a plinth for promotional messages? It'd be funny if I'd got two in a few weeks, after waiting forever for one! Whether it is or not, it's a cool and unusual piece, not much smaller than the elephant

 

Two Carzol Tanks, co-incidental for two reasons; Moonbase only covered the history of this Canadian firm the other day, and they are from the US Mohawk mould tools, of which I have all but the Tank, in Khaki plastic! The New York yellow-cab is unmarked (It's marked MADE IN USA, and is Marx, see comments) while the red cars were Renwal, one family saloon (No.143), one 'space car' (No. 150). Except, I think it might be based on a concept car from a 1930/40's motor-show, but it's a space car to me!

 

Brian mentioned that some of the items in his parcel were covered here, while it was in transit, and it's true we had a 'Space Car' at the time, from Thomas, but the Rewal one he sent is much spacier, when you see them side-by-side! And a decent shot of the cab's graphics.

 

How to Train Your Dragon figures from Spinmaster/Dreamworks, I think I have a few duplicates of these now (Peter too has donated some), so I will have a stab at painting a few when I'm settled in my place of decrepitude!

 

Interesting mix of figures here, the MPC African is particularly nice, as I only have the metallic gold/bronze ones, and a couple of grey reissues, the Hippo is a new sculpt to the collection, and I like the goose and the little 'plane!

 

Oh, wow! I think the large diver might have been a baking-soda toy? He's a bit damaged now, but seems to have had a large compartment (possibly with a missing slot-in powder box) with a small air/water hole, if he was, it's the biggest such toy I've encountered outside the submarines, and much heavier, being quite a chunk of polyethylene!

 

The two Hong Kong copies of the Lone Star mini-sub/two-man torpedo are lovely, and it means there must be a (more colourful?) sub' out there as well! I don't normally collect things like the mini-fig (Bonkers for the Ryan's World franchise), but given how the 'sub-collection' of divers has grown, he's a welcome addition, for completist’s sake!

 

While the creamy-white chap seems to be a hang-glider pilot (I'm old enough to remember the hype and excitement over their 'invention'!), and is probably from a quite sophisticated kite of some kind? Very useful and will make an interesting addendum to the parachutists page when I get back to that . . . I know, I know - the Airfix blurbing-up, the Khaki Infantry page, the A-Z's!!!

 

A spoon-rider! I think it might be Christopher Robin? Quite the American thing, spoon-riders, I don't think UK cereal issued many, or any at all, nor European brands, but in the 'States there's a load of them;, TV/Movie-related tie-ins, brand mascots and others, so a nice thing to get in the post - my first!

 

I've still to ID the baseball player, rubber lady and caveman, all-three around 45/50mm.

 

Finally, Brian sent us images in time for last year's Halloween, but now he's sent the packaging! Which adds the witches to the stash! He also reminded me that the content-count on the skeleton warriors has gone down to match the newer sets, which is a bit of a swizz, but, life as we know it!

Many thanks to Brian as always, this will all enhance the collection, and enhance future posts, and the thematic pages I plan for the future; Divers, paratroopers, there's a firefighter one half-ready in the queue somewhere!

Now. I'm going to have a snooze, then have an evening off decorating/cleaning/sorting to go round to the flat and photograph the stuff Jon Attwood has sent to the blog!

LB is for Like Bullets!

Or at least, they would leap like bullets if they weren't missing their baseplates and springs, for now they are rather stationary but these LB follow-up's by HF had to have an iterative trope in the title and that was all I could come-up with!

 

We have seen these before and two of them were complete, with a spare spring on the third to boot, so they can all share the bottom pieces for any future jumping competitions!

 

In the order they arrived; so, that's six now, two Vichy robots giving-up before they've got going and four of the 'officer' with pistol, so it's starting to look like only the two poses were used, but I'll keep half-an-eye out for more - poses or colours!

C is for Crescent Ceremonials . . . . NOT!

This post was going to have twice as many images and be a T is for Two.... post, but half the post (Trojan Lifeguards) just appeared in Plastic Warrior magazine, so you've either seen them recently, or you need to subscribe! Consequently, it's just a little box-ticker on some nice Hong Kong copies, and by "nice" I mean old'ish and unusual, not high-quality originals!

 

I may have one of these in the pile, but I'd never considered his existence until the recent PW Show (in May), when I spotted one on Adrian's stall and said "Ooh, I'll have that, that's different", and Adrian said "There a few more there", pointing to the other end of the table, but there was only one, someone else had swooped first! At which point Chris Smith who was standing chatting behind the stall said "Yeah, they're Crescent copies, I have a few".

 

We saw both my grabs in the show-report post (en guard and drummer), but these are Chris's, and you can see they cloned the band (so technically Kellogg's copies too!), the fighting 54mm's and the 60mm set. Presumably all of them were copied, of which these are known. The base marks, probably release-pin marks from the forming process, are very similar to one generation of the Britains Herald ACW copies, so may very well be the same source/manufacturer?

Many thanks to Chris for the images, and Trojan another time!