E is for Eclectic Donation!

Well, I seem to have found a fix for the problems with editing since the changes in 2020/21, especially the annoying habit of not loading images in the right/desired/numbered or even date/alphabetical order, preferring to sometimes load in reverse or just reverse the first and last images . . . I think at lest once or twice, it's totally jumbled them!

 

And of course blogger have locked all the chats screaming for a solution, but this kind person has an answer, I've just tried the piece of code, the 'bad' code was there, I replaced it and these all worked in one hit! And I forgot to add the xxx's or any text, and it still worked!

https://www.listph.com/2020/10/fixed-new-blogger-upload-images-in-reverse-out-of-order.html

Shooting yesterday's plunder earlier I realised I still have a London Show and possibly a Sandown to Blog, so I am behind again, but they are self-imposed criteria which probably don't bother you anyway! This is the second of Jon Attwood's donation parcels - which was taped, piggy-back fashion, like a space shuttle, to the main-booster tank of his third parcel!

Jon is having a clear-out, so it's an quite eclectic mix he's been sending the Blog, which makes for more interesting posts, as there's something for everyone! This is a lot of figure-modellers or figure-painters stuff, mostly whitemetal with a bit of plastic/filler, and some repainted or home-cast solids from Hollow cast, and it's a question of what can you spot?

I have a soft-spot for Hussar uniforms, inherited from my late father's interest in Yeomanry uniforms and that excellent series of articles on the same in Military Modelling in the 1980's! I think the WWI/BEF type is an original (Britains?), as is the farmer's wife, but she has been repainted, and I may try repainting her again to something more blue maybe, certainly less pink!

Schneider moulds, or maybe (UK) Agasee, what I like - as a sample - is the variation on the blue, giving us a European on the left, British on the right and Central American in the centre! A lot of guys melt this stuff down to make their next figures, but I like to hang-on to it, as a sample of what went before, these could be home-cast/painted or something more commercial?

The horses that came with the above. The one on the plinth looks more ornamental than 'toy' and the two medieval ones in front need a name as they are definitely commercially painted. I have a fancy a bunch of these were seen/discussed at the NEC years ago, and someone ID'd them as a Spanish make, but I could be confusing them with some other's, they had similarly decorated riders with lances in swivel-arms I seem to recall?

 

Adrian Little kindly looked at this for me, and he thinks it may be Hyde, but without a rider he couldn't be sure what set/series it was from. He suspected a jockey in silks, but it's sadly lacking a tail. Again, it would have been ornamental rather than a plaything, and is quite large (1:25th'ish?), but a useful sample nevertheless!

 

Now, these are fascinating! One of the articles in the long-queue is the recent 'Steam Punk' sets from Hornby under the old Bassett-Lowke branding, and while I shot pre-production stuff at one of the toy fairs, these are the actual figures (BL8011 Steampunk Passengers Standing Pack 2), one of two initial sets, there were also some 54mm figures, for figure painters. A really useful addition, thanks Jon!

 

Not my best shot, but I'll shoot them again and add them to that forthcoming post.

 

I also loved this, it's the Cadbury's Caramel Bunny, who - you may remember - had a breathy, flirtatious manner with a voice provided by Miriam Margoyles, in a sexy West Country accent, imploring the other woodland animals (or her beau) to "Take it easy with Cadbury's Caramel!" !

 

Funnily enough, I had just taken in a small set of Lone Star Treble-O-Trains, so there is a small overview in the pipeline, I sold my childhood sample at a car-boot about 25-years ago in a misguided moment, and have regretted it ever since, so it's nice to be reclaiming those memories!

 

I think these three are Dinky, and hoses and taps are missing on the pumps, but again it won't stop them featuring in future comparison or over-view posts, so it's all useful stuff to arrive unexpected in the post! Funny; the Lone Star N-guage traffic lights had little paste-jewelled red and green lights, while in a much larger scale you just get spots of paint!

Pairs of Matchbox road signs, two die-cast on the left, two plastic on the right. I think we've seen these before, but they are always useful as they tend to lose the little waterslide transfers, and you definitely need pairs of Level Crossing signs!

 

Marked Strickets (C) 1993 (I think), if that means anything to anyone, I first thought he was a Native American making a bison sign, but I think he's a dark-age warrior; Viking or Anglo-Saxon type, making a bull's head sign with his thumbs, some kind of tourist memento or museum keepsake? If anyone knows more, we all need to! About 45/50mm?

 

For some reason, he reminds me of Nigel Planer's Hippy from The Young Ones! "Like, man, you love the bull, you play the bull, you ARE the bull, d'you see, Riiiick?! Possibly from a fantasy boardgame, although I don't think so?

 

The Leyland Motors sign has joined the pub-sign already and is the swinger from one of those cocktail-stick/toothpick type publicity things, barrels have their zone, and Paddington will be off across 'The Pond', as a small thank-you to another contributor, who I know, knows a Paddington fan!

 

Cereal premium dog (Rice Krispies Champion Dogs), and a bear which I should know, or do, but van't recall, something like Corgi Circus I think, Jon identified the horse between the two as one of Salco's little wagon horses, from the gypsy wagon I think?

 

Probably another home-moulding shot, but it could be from a boardgame, but with so little paint remaining, it's hard to call! Around 35mm in scale/size, and we have seen a few similar ones over the years, both larger and smaller, with a few more in storage, we will have a good round-up of these, one day!

 

We saw the painted 'Huminiatures' from Slater's a while ago, but we haven't looked at the more modern sample. I thought we had, but I got a bit depressed about that box when it suffered badly in the 2007 flood, so I've looked at it a few times but not shot them!

 

However, I'm now keen to do the complete overview, as these are the unpainted Huminiatures, in a crinkly cellulose pack (for railway modellers on a budget), along with a pack of bases (pre-cut clear 'syrene in the Roco/Preiser style), which I didn't know existed.

 

Note the continuation of both Wardie/Mastermodels and Randall/Merit DNA in the sculpts . . . There are related posts in the interim queue! And one day I will try to pin the whole story down, but I need everything out of storage first, and as the chap from Pritchard's (Gaugemaster/PPP and now Ratio and Modelscene) couldn't bring himself to tell me, beyond an exasperated eye-roll a few years ago, it may never be accurately transcribed! Briefly I think it goes Mastermodels-Merit, with Slater's copying, but that's over-simplified, as we shall see shortly!

 

Many thanks again to Jon for all this stuff, it really is all gratefully received, and - as mentioned - will enhance future posts on motorcycles, Slater's, even barrels & water-butts!

However

Q is for Question Time - Famine?

It's been a while since we had a Question Time, and this is an odd one, but I feel it should be more obvious an answer than I have so far uncovered, or failed to, so can anyone help ID this figure?

About sixty or seventy millimetres, but of a child so 100-mil plus in scale. He is clearly holding a bowl, but is it an empty food-bowl, or a begging bowl, and is he in an aid-queue or looking/waiting for non-existent food?

Polystyrene and with no signs of glue or other fixing on the underside of the base, I feel he must be some kind of famine-relief fund-raiser, or token of such, but who issued him, the UN, War on Want, Oxfam . . . There are so many NGO's trying to save the millions of souls failed by capitalism and dictators (there is enough food, land and money on this planet for all eight-million to enjoy a decent standard of living), it could be any of them.

And when, 1970's, 1980's or earlier? If this rings a bell with anyone, I'd love to know more about it. He seems to be more Asian than African or generic, and the lack of gunk on the base-underside, suggests he wasn't attached to a donation receptacle/collection-box, but issued as a figurine? Was he part of a set, maybe a family group?

P is for Pressman's Paper Parade!

Shot on Adrian's table at yesterday's Sandown Park toy fair, these are lovely, box has collapsed a bit over nearly a century (WWII'ish), but Pressman are still with us as a games and puzzles manufacturer.

Simple die-cut press-outs, with seperate 90° slot-in bases, they are sort of Military Academy type 'proper' toy soldiers and I thought they were rather lovely! Thanks to Mercator Trading for letting me shoot them.

B is for Blimey, That's Big!

Or at least, it was three nights earlier! I have from time to time tried photographing the Blue Moons, 'Harvest' Moons or the odd eclipse over the years, results being usually only for home consumption! But this recent one was so close, I got a half-decent result with my little pocket Nikon!

 

Typically, particularly as we have been sweltering under clear skies ever since, it was cloudy on the night, and the next night, but on the third night after the full moon I managed, with the aid of a farmer's fence - up at relatively light-less Blackbush - to get this image of it with a big-bite out of it, but still very close to Earth.

 

There will be another chance to see it on the 29th I believe, not as close, but 'closer than', if you know what I mean, and I might try getting a shot of the New Moon over the 14/15th, which I've never tried before, but if it's so close it may be photograph'able?

A is for Apropos The Previous Post

Just a couple of quickies; 

 

First, don't forget it's the Autumn Sandown Park Toy Fair tomorrow, it's going to be a lovely day for it, and while the air-con' might struggle to keep the place fully cool once it's full of exhaling, warm bodies, it's never too hot, although it will give the all-day attendees a dry throat! Anyway, get on over and fill your boots with old kid's playthings!

Secondly, I found a few more of Claire's Creations images from this Spring (couldn't find the Lifeguard?), so here they are if you're thinking of dropping her a line with an idea for a figure.

The Guardsman

The king

An old-school Gypsy wagon

A canoe! With a mouse!

This was the online image from which Claire modelled the Horse guard she made for me. I might have a go at sewing-in the red cord which runs round the centre of the cartridge-belt?

F is for a Bit Floofy!

Well, soft anyways! Some of you may have noticed that some event for non-self-determinist fan-boys occurred up in Laarden Tarn' earlier this year, in celebration of which an old friend of mine, Claire, produced some hand-knitted (or crotch-et-ted) members of the Royal Family,  Life Guards and Royal Guards, to which, when I saw them on Faceplant, I added my usual pithy call for Horse Guards, and damn-me if she didn't make me my very own Horse Guard

 

We had similar soft-toy animals when we were kids, my brother had 'Bill' the guardsman, who ended-up with some of Grandad Hall's miniatures, a sam-brown from a fancy pet collar and a paper-knife sword - he should appear on the Blog one day, he's somewhere in all the stuff I've been moving around.

While there was also a blue and white lamb and a Santa Claus, I think they all came from patterns you could buy in newsagents, or that came with housekeeping type magazines . . . there always seemed to be a table of them at church fêtes!

Beautifully made, he's about eight inches in his boots and the metallic wool is very clever. I'm sure Claire's Creations would accept commissions if you have a good reference for her to work from, and you can contact her on the above details.

 

Guarding one end of the bookcase!

H is for How They Come In - New Name!

Actually I have mentioned Jon Attwood a couple of times already, as he has been partaking in the day-to-day life here (comments, feedback, emails etc . . . ) for a while now, sent canoes in time to catch that 'mini-season' and - as we will see in a minute - we've already seen some of Jon's contribution in the novelty animals post a few days ago, but first I find myself thanking someone for their supreme generosity in sending their odds, sods and chuck-outs to the Blog, rather than eBaying, car-booting or charity-shopping them.

 

And once they are sent, it is right I share them with you, as I'm doing here, that's half the idea, but the other half is in the strength all these donations contribute to the 'whole-picture' going forwards, as evidenced by that 'funnimal' post, which can sometimes take a little more time to work through, however, for now, many thanks to Jon, for the three parcels we shall be looking at in the next few days . . . and a fourth, which I'm still sorting/photographing for future sharing.

 

Somehow they have loaded in reverse order, I'm afraid Blogger is dying! Like the schools, courts, roads, water/sewerage systems, and even democracy itself, blogger is a little broken now - so-many updates over the years have rendered it glitchy!

 

But this was going to be the last shot, it has now (sniff-sniff) gone to charity, it went with the permission of Jon, because it's a little outside the parameters of the Blog, and very large, but it is figural, and it is fun, so I am very happy it came through my fingers, and I could shoot it first!

UK readers will instantly recognise it, but for our foreign readers, this is Bertie Basset, mascot of best-selling, household-name Basset's Liquorice Allsorts ("which sort of Allsort is your sort?" went the tag-line / ear-worm, for many years), here rendered as a CD holder, with secret drawer. The drawer would have contained a plain, crinkly bag of Allsorts, and has room for a few more CD's as you can only get a few in the round compartment.

It would have been a novelty item issued at Christmas, probably repeatedly over two or three years, or maybe at Easter, but you'd expect something more seasonal tying it into that latter holiday? All polystyrene, it's a survivor, that's for sure!

I think these must be garden-centre fare? Or florists/cake-decorators stuff, to which I suppose we should add window-dressers? Large, polystyrene dragonflies in two sizes of transparent plastic, there's no sign of a wire, nor a stick of some sort, but heat could quickly introduce such a thing to the underside, while florists wire or clear tape could lift/fit them into an arrangement/display?

 

Again, a bit outside the Blog's remit, but I've hung on to them as the insect zone isn't as well-represented with samples as other branches, and when the thematic pages come to be added to the A-Z Blogs, they will make a larger section for the dragonflies, and a better comparison shot with all the others! And they will be brilliant for fighting spacemen, with coloured lighting!

I adjusted the contrast to highlight the detailing, but collaged both images as the 'before' image wasn't that shabby really!

Getting into stuff you'll recognise; and with the porcine catapult ammunition from Horrible Histories (Worlds Apart) are the mini animals we looked at in better depth the other day, I'd forgotten when writing it, that these three had come in so soon, but the cat one is the most 'cermaic' knock-off looking, with a decorative finish clearly aping a glaze. The 'Roo with a Joey is Kinder.

 

I think all the dogs are new to Blog/Collection, while the laying sheep is early British, but I can't place him right now (he'll be on Barney's pages!), and the camel is a chunk of Wend-Al aluminium. The mini cow is a lovely wooden Erzgebirge piece, and I particularly liked the little white deer (bottom left), who is polyethylene and very well sculpted, but unknown to me . . . a die-cast farm, zoo, or hunting truck maybe?

Army types included a nice sample of home-painted comic-flat Washington's insurgents, who need to be finished-off (with paint!) at some point, so much effort has already gone into them, it would be a shame to strip them and throw them in Boston harbour?

 

Top left are the smallies, mostly Galoob, but the blue 8th army piracy is useful. Top right are mostly spares, but useful-enough, especially the Minimodels bits, which being polystyrene can not only contribute to the renovation of their brother figures, but also more esoteric modelling/scratch-building with other 'multipose' stock from Airfix, Tamiya, Historex &etc.

While the Roman is Blue Box (BBI for Poundland over here) and lacks a shield, and the chap lying in front of him is another of the Aurora Japanese AFV crew, and seems to have been painted by whoever painted the officer I've had for about 25-years! I'm sure it's coincidence based on the limited pallet available to modellers way-back, when!

Jon wonders if the firefighter is a Cherilea hollow/slush-cast, while the other two are from the Airfix kit I think. Loving the Mr Man, and a Lucky Toys mechanic is always useful, to compare with all the others, re. base-mark. The two colourful teenagers are Galoob again (untransformed Power Rangers).

 

The really interesting figure is the dancing girl, she is about 25/28mm compatible, soft but dense polyethylene or 'propylene, similar to the earlier (?) flat dancers ('Euro-premiums', 100 Dolls etc....), but fully-round and I can only imagine she is from a boardgame of some kind - as the archer next to her, is? At first glance I thought she might be a Merten unpainted medieval lady, but no; she's in soft plastic.

These are both interesting, on the left unknown mechanics, possibly from a kit, but they don't seem to be Aurora, Tomy or anyone like Preiser, so an ID, if you know, would be very useful. While on the right, are what I suspect are pretty recent (i.e. China not Hong Kong) copies of the old Triang Scalextric figures, and again, a positive-ID would be a positive advance! They may be late/currentish  Hornby, manufactured for them in China?

A very useful bunch of trees and foliage, including the three lead pieces to the right, a number of Britains pieces and three palm trees which I think might be above-average quality cake-decoration pieces, possibly from one of the Britains Hawaiian dancer/ukulele sets?

Vehicles and accessories; lovin' the eyes! They'll definitely make a come-back here in a Halloween post at some point, you can still get very similar items (I saw some in The Works the other day), while the ships are Manurba or Siku? There are hulls as well I think, but I have growing bags of such vessels from a dozen sources, and again they will come back here one day as part of a fuller overview.

The little green tri-wheel'er is Balaban Guida (a capsule toy issuer from Spain or Turkey?) and the blue wagon is a Hong Kong copy of the Preiser/Roskopf one. What else can you spot? It's all grist to the mill, and you can never have too-many Christmas cracker motorcycles!

Only a few days after I mentioned the product-placed Gogo Crazy Bones (Disney etc), here's two English Premier League footballer Gogo's! Beckham? who's he? There is a growing tub of cocktail-stick/toothpick pub/restaurant signs, very common when I was very young (1960's) they've totally disappeared now as a publicity device? I'm guessing they have their own collecting community and my sample will only ever be a 'sample', but this is a rather nice addition.

The Piratey bits and Halloweeny cat are by Rinco, (Yiwu, China), and the Post Office pillar-box is new to me, and might be touristy or from a die-cast set, while the antique wooden spinning-top will join that growing tub of tops and counters.

Finally, (and this was supposed to be the second image?*), a few boxed items; The Germans will get made-up one day . . . I have a bit of a stash of unmade kit figures; Tamiya, Heller, Airfix, Bandai and the Monogram family etc . . . and there will be a thematic 'ID' page on the A-Z's one day, to which these will contribute.

 

The Westair 'Mocherettes' are very useful for having a site specific packaging; Bath 'Baths'! While you may recognise that the Airfix Hussar bits are the third lot this year (there were two lots in Plastic Warrior's plunder), and there's probably enough to make up a whole figure now!

Many, many thanks to Jon for all this 'stuff', it really is all grist to the mill, in the best meaning of the word, and builds the bigger picture. It is amazing that people like Jon (and Adrian, Brian, Brian, Chris, Gareth, John, Trevor, Peter el al.) save this stuff for me, and I only hope I do it justice in sharing it with the rest of you, and will use it fully going forwards as it contributes to comparisons, overviews, thematic posts and company listings - Cheers Jon.

*Yes, I could move them all about, but life's too short, and if that's how they loaded, that's how I'll blurb-them-up!

S is for Seen Elswhere - 40mm Comansi / Novalinea

These were not only seen elsewhere - on the intermawebby thing - recently, but are the shots (in colour) which illustrated my (black & white) article in One Inch Warrior magazine about . . . err . . . 20-years ago? I really don't know where the time goes, but I suspect Hell has played it's part in stealing the hours, days and years! Only scans, and lowish-res', so captions, rather than full blurb, they'll be looked at properly, again, another day.

 

Long boxes, I believe these were saved from a damp shed in Malta (?) or Cyprus, by that stalwart finder of nice things, Mike Harding, back in the early 1990's.

 

The box art from the three of them.

 

Loose figures as found in the sets, unpainted examples are from the later Novalinea branded sets, painted will be Comansi issued.

 

Horses, Indians get a quiver of arrows,

cowboys and cavalry get a sheathed rifle.

Accessories are the same as for the 54mm range.

Except the Teepee / Ti-Pi / Wigwam, which is downscaled.

 

Both sides of a flyer, which came in a larger set.

This was in the tub my loose samples came from, it went the way of all flesh, being very discoloured and brittle.

Comparison between the Novalinea box and one of Esci's classic red-box sets, a clear attempt to impersonate and (given the contents) mislead. And a bit naughty as Franco died in 1976, while Spain would join the EU in 1986, so there wasn't the 'Franco / dictatorship' excuse of being 'out in the cold' to justify such piracy against a near-neighbour?

Base marking of the 40mm figures.

I'll do a better job in the future with photography!

The Yolanda mark is the same 'Saloon' font, in the same 'TV' frame!

This was the label from a tub of 54mm figures, and the reverse of the sheet shows it to have been recycled from the Thunderbirds line, which included new character figures and some of the earlier Ovni ("UFO") space figures reconfigured as 'red-shirt' army-builders!

RTM is for Rack Toy Moment

Because Rack Toy Month is over! It's bloody September already? How did that happen . . . I blame the movement of the planetary bodies in the heavens, paying absolutely no heed to my needs!

 

I've actually taken the last apple off the tree, six to eight weeks earlier than any previous year? And the blackberries/brambles are going over a few weeks early too, while the raspberries did nothing . . . we haven't got long, these are signs of severe stress which has the plants desperate to seed because they think/know they are going to die.

 

To which end all the azaleas, except the big yellow one, have gone, the bay went and all but one of the mini Japanese acers. Next door have a brown chunk in their hedge, two doors up have lost their roadside leylandii (despite all the rain this summer) and I've given up trying to save the box from the invasive Box Moth - three attacks since March!

In the meantime, Brian Berke found this in his home city of New York, and it's a fine curtain-closer, for Rack Toy Month!

In his own words, as I can't add anything;

 

"In the last hours of Rack Toy Month I came across this set: SANITATION

Now in NYC there are Sanitation Department Police who give tickets for health violations so that vehicle is OK.

The header card says: ACCOMPANY YOUR CHILDREN TO GROW UP TOGETHER! which is fine but look at the top two figures, Rambo who no doubt is part of NYC's war on rats and then a soldier with a shoulder mounted bazooka! A little excessive even for NYC rats, I hope they never get that big!

I like the recycling bins."

And those figures look similar to other 'Army men' we have looked at here, so it might be possible one day to tie them in with a branding, although it is carrying one; Huan le D-somthing? Many thanks to Brian!