I is for Inflation!

For those Brwreakshiteers who wanted to take us back to the heady days of the 1970's, here is a lesson on the sunlit-uplands of post oil crisis inflation!

Basset-Lowke 'The Waterloo Cannons'

Daily Telegraph Magazine (Sunday Supplement)

No.469 October 26th 1973

Basset-Lowke 'The Waterloo Cannons'

Sunday Times Magazine (Sunday Supplement)

November 17th 1974

 

In less than fourteen months, they went up nearly 25%! That's how it was when we were begging to join the EEC, which De Gualle had tried to keep us out of (The UK's applications to join in 1963 and 1967 were vetoed by the President of France).

 

Basset-Lowke, an old railway modelling name often used by its various owners for oddities which don't belong in the standard lines! Lovely looking guns and just the sort of thing to turn-up in a charity shop, or auction job-lot. Possibly a bit big at around 60 or 70mm compatible? Anyone know them?

K is for Khaki Infantry Page - Update

I've added some images from Chris Smith to the Khaki Infantry page, they are up the top with the Britains sentries, so you don't have to scroll down the page!

I've also added some 828 stuff, started a section for them, below the Hong Kong generics section, moved some of their stuff from there and added notes to the effect the previous '823' attribution is probably just a poorly registered stamp. No firm brand, but enough for a seperate section now. And you will have to scroll right-down the page to find it!

S is for Seen Elswhere - The Italians are Coming!

I almost can't write for excitement, someone made my day earlier this evening, in fact he made my fucking year, it's like Christmas just came early, so a quick post on a few bits I've already posted elsewhere. Mostly Fontanini, but a bit of Garibaldi, all from the Roman Boot!

 

The Knights; We've actually looked at a pair of the larger ones and their Hong Kong blow-moulded clones before here at Small Scale World (which nobody follows - except everybody), but this bunch is, I think (I could put 'we believe' and then you'd really think I know what I'm talking about, huh?) a complete set of eight poses in the 75/80mm line with the same plug-in bases and silver wash over matt black.

Couple of close-ups showing the standard base and . . . errr. . . that's about it! They do all have date-captions, but I didn't think to write them down, so - another day! Lazy research, that'll be the problem!

Then, also from Fontanini we have Brain Blessed and his daughter, singing the Siegmund & Sieglinde duet, from Die Walküre at Bayreuth a few years ago! God knows, the fevered mind of Simonetti as he tried to finish a Commission while hallucinating with a particularly severe bout of gastroenteritis?

But Peter Evans, roving reporter for Plastic Warrior, reports either seeing or buying them from Hastings in the past, so they were a real thing! Aren't they charming? My piss-taking aside, Fontanini did a set of the Italian Commedia dell'arte, so a little theatricalise on their Normans (or Anglo-Saxons; it's not clear!) is to be excused, if not actually expected! I Really need to find the rest of this set!

The two Vikings are in the same size as the Knights, but with integrated bases, so you can see our Sieglinde (well, if she's not a 'she', he's a very pretty boy; no reading stories to kiddies in Florida, in that getup, mate!) is around 100mm in comparison.

Finally, a quintet of Garibaldini from Nardi, another Italian maker. I think they may be supposed to have red kepis, which, if they are, are obviously missing - I may have some spare Kinder ones I can force-on with a bit of horse-gum!

 

The same sculpts were used for Confederate and Union types and RCMP (as these, but no neckerchiefs and wearing lemon-squeezer hats), and possibly US Cavalry? These are a near 54mm. There were larger sizes of these as well, and compared to some of the dancing loons which came from that stable, these are quite reasonable figures.

R is for Really Rubenstein!

Ooop . . . just let me get up on my high horse . . . that's better, now, where was I? Oh yeah! Rubenstein. There isn't much on Rubenstein within the hobby and most of what you will find seems to be conjecture dressed-up as fact! So I thought I'd add my tuppenceworth to the mix and probably ruffle a few feathers!

 

Rubenstein were a US jobber, one of a dozen or so companies/entities started by Irving Rubenstein, sometimes with his Brother Ralph, or possibly a wife, 'L' (?), always in or around North Hollywood, California. Rubenstein International were incorporated in 1977 (too late for some of the premiums they are credited with?), but are no longer active, although several of the companies (mostly involved in B2B sourcing, services, or marketing) are still extant, along with a family foundation.

 

On the left are the Euro-premium pirates (eight sculpts in the UK [Kellogg's] and 20 poses elsewhere, under several brands), on the right my fledgling Rubinstein collection about two years ago, I went on to add about three or four more sets, but they all went to storage about 12-months ago! Some described - by Rubenstein - as 'Made in Mexico', other's (most), 'Made in England' (not 'Britain', not 'The UK'). I have so far found one set credited to having been 'Made in the USA'.

The Robin Hood figures are the same version described elsewhere in the hobby (marked with small 'Canada' monikers), and seen elsewhere on the Blog against the New Zealand-made versions. As one of the 'made in England' sets, this would suggest someone larger than Tatra (for instance) as they must have been big enough to have a Canadian office/subsidiary?

The athletes are after the 'Euro' versions (with Olympic flame carrier), not the Kellogg's or Marx sculpts, and while both figure sets are soft polyethylene, the dune-buggys [sic] are hard polystyrene, like the R&L mini-kits, from Australia, but not marked-up to them.

Other figure sets include the ex-Raja Conjunto do Espaço 'space set' (which explains a question-mark from the very start of the Blog; my shiny yellow one is Rubenstein!), ex-Commonwealth Plastics dolls and possibly the dog breeds, but this is where I need to point out that so far, and I have been looking hard for over three years, there is NO empirical or circumstantial evidence for the Soldiers/Warriors of the World/All nations having ever been in Rubenstein packaging?

 

And if the dogs were issued by Rubenstein (and I suspect so), they were the multicoloured ones (from Mexico; not England), NOT the silver or gold ones issued with Nabisco breakfast cereals in the USA, for which the evidence is as sketchy as for the military set.

 

Indeed, let's get this out of the way, Rubenstein International were an 'Import & Export' outfit, according to their licences, and it's very unlikely they ever "made" a single toy! So whoever was supplying Rubenstein, would also have supplied the cereal or ice-cream guys &etc., and earlier, I think. Also - we know Tatra (for instance) were responsible for the warriors/soldiers . . . in silver and gold!

The R&L styled mini-kits, I now have three of these for us to look at in greater detail another day, indeed I think most of these are the shots of the auctions/BIN's I won, I wouldn't use so many evilBay images in one article if I didn't think I had a tad of moral ground under my tippy-toes! Not sure if I ever succeeded in getting the Cars, but I know I bought two sets of motorcycles, so I can make one set up, for a Blog post!

I actually managed to get the Antique Cars photographed, though! But I think I might also have got the set of Wagons, although I might be confusing it with the Historical Vehicles which I know I got but also didn't photograph? Interestingly, while the Dune Buggys are polystyrene, these are polyethylene, and the Penny Farthing in the Historic's set is probably the one Brian Berke sent to the Blog, as an addendum to that premium kit post!

So far the only set sourced in the 'States which I've found, which is not to say there aren't more, but the same eleven sets keep turning-up, with a possible run of the dogs in multicolours, making a dozen.

 

These are also nothing like the others, and we saw a pale-blue Hong Kong example of one of these in Chris Smith's last donation, so, a common gum-ball machine prize, or those rack-toy cards with a bunch of teeny header-bags for a dime or sixpence?

 

All of which gives us;

• Action Athletes - Mexico, after Manurba/Linde et al.
• Antique Cars - England, after R&L?
  
• Comic Animals - USA
• Comic Moon Figures - Mexico, ex-Raja premiums
• Comic Pirates - Mexico, ex-European tool
  
• Dogs - Mexico, ex-Nabisco premiums
• Dolls of the world - Mexico, ex-Commonwealth 
• Dune Buggys - England, after R&L?
• Historical Transportation - England, after R&L?
• Horse-Drawn Coaches - England, after R&L or Pyro/Kleeware?
• Robin Hood Figures - England, previously/also Canada, after Marx
• Soldiers of World War II - Hong Kong, contents unknown, Airfix clones?
  
• Super Motorcycles - England, after R&L?

Sourced from England x6, Mexico x5, Hong Kong and the USA x1 each, for a twelve-count, which make-up grosses, which is how this rack-toy stuff is ordered/wholesaled thirteen-count; a bakers dozen!

The reason I've question-marked the possible R&L connection, is because R&L is another one where there may be falsehoods hiding as fact. When they turn-up in British or European products as premiums, they usually have A) very fine parts, B) 'R&L' somewhere on the runner, these four/five sets (the Dune Buggys may be from another source) are simpler and unmarked, while there is the various Italian sets of similar kits and the De Gruyter connections to consider.

Still no soldiers/warriors, though! Four days later - Still no soldiers/warriors!

Thanks to the Jabbering Fuck and Kent Sprecer for their contributions, not!

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!