J is for Japanese Machine Gun/Gunners

Paul Woozley kindly sent these in, in response to a conversation on one of the old Almark  / Minimodels posts, with reference to my comment of never having seen the Japanese MG and team;

They had to be there, as both figures were on the Almark reissue runners, but they aren't on the four-page gatefold flyer, and I'd never seen one despite sorting a large collection of these for someone else, a collection with had multiples of the US mortar and mule, and the German version gun-team, indeed I think the baseplate and MG are the same as the German one?

But it's nice to see them in the distinctive Minimodels paint scheme and plastic colour, so many thanks to Paul for sending them, and if anyone can help Paul with a replacement/spare machine-gun, I can get you both in-touch.

H is for How They Come In - Peter - October

Hot off the postal van, this is Peter's third parcel recently, and very recent, like last week! Another nice group of his chuck-outs, but I want to address the Hing Fat thing hinted at in the previous post first . . . 

. . . . this is the publicity shot from Hing Fat's Faceplant page (not regularly updated), and you can see all the poses (except the prone figure) have the oblong bases, including the two poses we saw with ovoid bases in the previous post . . . 

 

. . . while this is another lot from Peter, and you can see we now have three different figures sporting the ovoid bases? I don't know if it's multiple cavities (per pose) in the one large tool, or more than one tool? They [ovoid bases] don't seem to be as common (maybe 1-in-4?), so I suspect a few extra, duplicate cavities tacked on the end of a larger tool, but I don't know, and now wonder how many poses have the two versions?

 

Lovely elephants and a box-ticking hollow-cast cow who's seen better days, two hollow, two-part animals in a fetching orange polymer, I think they may be Red Deer, some of their other stuff has the same construction values? Flocked bear key-ring and a cake decoration dove, marked-up to Anniversary House, but a copy of a much older model.

 

And another hollow, two-part jobbie, which is obviously a gargoyle, and possibly a touristy thing, or a Harry Potter thing? If the former: it might represent an actual, real-world gargoyle, if the latter: purely fictional?

Papo pirates, in the small size; Papo have promised to send me these about three years running (with lockdown - over the last four years), but never do! But I'm really happy to have the chap firing a cannon from his shoulder with a cross-belt for a satchel full of cannon-balls!

 

Kinder and Phiadal bits and a Superman key-ring in a soft, foamy, rubberised polymer, or elastomer! I'm loving the 'pink section' (of the toy shop!) walking-out/church on Sunday cart, some kind of Polly Pocket thing?

We saw the parachuting skeleton and the three mummies on the 31st, lovely things to get in the post without warning! But equally interesting is the diver, who seems to be a recent/current model and new to blog/collection. The Ninja is a capsule toy, and seems to be from the same people who produce the footballing/skating aliens, another footballer cake decoration and a Hawkin's Bazaar ger'nome make up the shot.

All much appreciated here at Small Scale World, and thanks to Peter for sending them, and having missed the pirates, at least I got those last four out in time for Halloween!

H is for How They Come In - Peter - July II

Right at the end of July another parcel came from Peter Evans with all sorts of goodies in it, and it's all right here, right now!

I think the upside-down blister card is a set of sea-life, which I meant to blog a few days/weeks later, in what was, then, about to be Rack Toy Month, but I ran out of time or something, 'cos there's plenty of sea-life for another round-up . . . soon maybe?

 

Hing Fat's current US infantry on the left, with late Ri Toys (Rado Industries) or early Hing Fat clones of Ri Toys on the right. The US are interesting because while the publicity shot shows everyone having oblong bases, rounded ones keep turning up as we shall see in the next post, for now though, both the kneeling firer and flamethrower operator here, have oblong bases in Hing Fat's own catalogue image! Matchbox DNA in nearly every pore!

A very pastoral scene, of various sheep and sheepdogs, some new to the Blog and/or collection, while you can never have too many of the Britains farm-family clones, because there are so many to find!

 

Mixed poultry, another growing corner of the collection, and ducks particularly have their own collector-base, so there's always new ones to find!

 

Scenic stuff, there is - you may not be surprised to read - a whole tub of traffic cones somewhere, and I guess one day I will do a page of them and try to ID as many as possible, they are actually quite easy to ID, once you start digging through catalogues, as they are mostly big-box/play-set stuff!

 

Civilians - Matchbox and Britains on the end, probably Pioneer in the middle, an old Hong Kong farm-girl, now out of China and two of the little Supreme GI's. The spinning novelty looks Christmas Cracker sized, and will go in the tub with all the other spinning-tops and suchlike!

 

While we have two more 'maybe Pioneer' here; fireman (Zita) and soldier (Realtoy/Dacron), with an unknown mechanic and the firefighter carrying a baby whom we saw in HTI packaging (early 'Teamsters' sets) a few years ago I think? I thought I'd keep this pack sealed as a sample of The Toy Project's packaging 'for posterity'! 

 

Thanks again to Peter for a useful collection of bits and bobs which will all find their use going forwards!

H is for How They Come In - Peter - July I

When I said I had three posts to clear from Peter's donations, I was thinking of the previous lot, but then a parcel arrived last week, so there are three! This little lot arrived in July . . . well in time for ITLAPD!

So it's rather pitiful that I then forgot to Blog the Pirate Treasures which I had hidden behind the Pucator spares, imagining I might do this post closer to the time (the one thing you can't accuse me of is not posting much since late July!), so, having them forgot to do this post and the ITLAPD post they'll have to wait until next year, but with the pulled post, that means we already have two for then! And - in my defence - I have been running-round like a blue-arsed fly!

 

These came with the piratey bits, a nice late PVC Britain tiger, one of those 'H' marked Deetail clones (which it looks like may be a Kwong Wah brand-mark), another of the smaller version cake decoration footballers, a lovely academic pig (who might teach me to spell academic!) and a paratrooper!

 

Many thanks to Peter Evans as always, sorry I forgot to blog the Pirate treasure!

T is for Two - Alien Academic Accoutrements

Oh, we like a bit of novelty stationary and stuff here, whether it's WWI rulers from France, 'Erasersaurs', or pencil sharpeners, and in particular, recently, the KT-marked pencil sharpeners, and, related - very recently - the cake decoration astronaut, so we shouldn't be surprised to find more KT novelties . . . 

. . . even when they are a PVC-flat/Ethylene-cap combination, rather than the polystyrene of all the previous finds! Aren't they lovely? Over-sprayed with random blasts of transparent 'glass-paint' giving the soft vinyl a metallic sheen, the black cartoon outlines over-rolled.

 

Did they belong to cheap 'Biro's', or were the caps designed to be universal, they are a bit narrow for most writing implements, so the feeling is they were specific to something? But what? And are they 'Bots or humanoids . . . humanoid droids!

I present a new tongue-twister: A Human boy, called Floyd, annoyed a humanoid droid, named Boyd!

 

The clear K.T. mark, as seen on all previous examples with the distinct full-stops, and they are modelled after one type of cookie-cutter, with the detail raised as low walls on an otherwise flat slab of PVC. The googlie-eyes giving them a certain character, which paint, or raised black-lines wouldn't have!

 

We actually saw this guy (girl, hermaphrodite . . . insert crude joke about female couplings here, well, it's an Alien; it could be a polyp-reproducing hive-mind for all I know!) the other day on a comparison shot, but he obviously got shot a lot! A modern 'CHINA' pencil top, nothing else to say about him, out there still, probably, somewhere!

**********************************

31st Dec. 2023 - Shaun Hite over at Pod Stallions, quickly ID'd the pencil-tops as being characters from Robocon, a Japanese live-action 'Tokusatsu' children's TV comedy, from Toei, with the short fat chap being the eponymous and hapless Robocon, the silver one is his boss-creator/teacher-mentor called Gantsu Sensei I think, while the other might be RoboWaru? Images from a third party, if they are yours, and you want them removed, that's not a problem.

 

From the Mai Kee (MK (T)) catalogue, 1986, courtesy of Bill B

 

Shaun was looking for similar flats to his, and while they are the same as mine (flat yellow, black cartoon line 'walls', transparent red/green spray-wash patches), his are key-rings (with the same gold-anodised connecting ring) and represent characters from another set, possibly Anime, of the Transformer type, not Tokusatsu. So these tops were part of a larger line of items - note the sharks and dinosaurs.

OOO is for N-Guage!

The Trebel-O-Lectric trains from Lone Star, or at least the unpowered version, which was just called Lone Star Locos, and a bit of a box-ticker as there's plenty more online, and I don't really collect it . . . much!

No, seriously, I had our childhood collection in a biscuit-tin for many years, but sold it in a moment of madness, when skint, and doing car-boot sales with a bunch of mates (you wanna' learn human nature, run a car boot stall for a few months, Jesus, we're scum!), back in the 1990's, anyway I got a good price from some chap who knew what he was looking at, at the Wavell School sale in North Camp, I think I asked 20-quid, and we settled on £16 or £17?

But a friend gave me his chuck-out set a while ago, also push-along, and very similar to my old set, but better paint! I had more track, more flat-trucks, the micro-vehicles for them and some Shell Oil tankers, along with a streamlined Mallard Loco, with I think was early Lesney (?), it wouldn't run, just sort of bumped-along the sleepers, but it looked stunning parked-up in the sidings!

In fact, I think there was a smaller Matchbox 1-75 loco, which Mum managed to get Lone Star wheels in? We also had the footbridge ('we' shared everything at that age), of which there is one in this lot, but it's missing a pillar, so I didn't shoot it, and we had a little die-cast level crossing.

 

I will look out for some of the missing bits!

 

Sidings

 

Vinyl cottage from the Gulliver County range

 

 

US style

 

 

UK style, but very-much a European-looking locomotive with those red wheels!

 

 

My favourite as a kid!

 

 

Junction box

 

The electrified version had dedicated left and right crossovers, but in the push and go range it was a single universal job! The lights had 'jewelled' red and green 'lights', replacements for which could be purchased from the gemology shop in Chobham, Martians allowing!

 

As a British Rail liveried locomotive it's considered a Deltic, but really it's a North American design, a market Lone Star were keen to tap, Deltic's were reversible with a cab at both ends.

S is for Supertops!

Bloody knackered, and I'm off to bed, in a nice warm room after a nice warm bath! But I thought I'd shove this out before I retire to the reward for the weary! We saw them here, a while ago now, but not all of them I think, and I seem to recall someone put me right on the Batgirl!

On the left what I think is a complete set of six DC superhero pencil tops of Hong Kong, but otherwise unknown heritage - I need a better paint Batman! Then a colour variation of The Flash, with a bootlegged, fatty-copy, bottom right and a -probably - late issue/reissue from the original tool in generic coloured plastic, a'la Diener Industries and others.

D is for Dude Decorated Dastardly Droids!

Well. I am mid-move and by tonight will actually be living in the flat rather than useing it as a storage overflow, but experiencing problems a minute ago getting online here (BT-WiFi chose this week - of all weeks - to go tits-up and convert to EE-WiFi), and having now got online I thought I'd find something quick to post, as a test, before I go back to the house and grab the bed springs we forgot to put in the van this morning . . . of course they'll fit in a Nissan Micra - they'll bloody have to!!

These were sent to the Blog by Brian Berke back in 2021 (I do keep telling you there's 900-odd folders in the long-queue!), and are his Wicked Duels / SCS Direct droids, after painting, but before he did the bases.

I particularly like his treatment of my favourite, the tracked one, it's sort of semi-military sand-yellow, just the job for sending into the deserts of the post-apocalyptic, derelict wastelands of Badlands Central and eliminating all those rebellious, democracy-loving, 'freedom fighter' liberal scum, with extreme prejudice! 

Previously on Small Scale World:

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2021/12/t-is-for-two-dozens-of-droids-droids.html

Cheers Brian!

T is for Two - Phidal's Recent Additions

We haven't looked at Phidal for a while, and while I do keep a look-out, and TKMaxx have had a few batches of deliveries since we last looked, they have mostly been duplicates or things no-one here wants to see! However, I have picked up two since whenever, and shot them separately as they came in, so here they are:

This one was shot back last December, and yet it missed both the December post and the April posts, plural, so I don't know what happened there, except if you're following things here, we all know I lost the folder in Picasa! Also, the PC was dying back then?

 

Not a lot to add, more Minions! Given the actual sizes of Minions and both the favoured sizes of infant playthings in general, and Phidal's 'premium' inclusions in particular, there are a lot of minions out there and most of them are around the same size, certainly you could force perspective on a huge crowd of them by placing the smaller ones closer to the camera and larger ones further back!

Meanwhile, this has been around for a while, and while I shot it in February, it had actually, already made the December round-up, albeit with a lesser figure shot, so no harm looking at it again for a second bite!

 

All the favourites are there . . . and Christopher Robin!

 

Rabbit reminds me of my own . . . 

 

Now, Hitler never got his hands on my pink rabbit, but we did have to look for him in the fog one night driving up to Ipswich on the old . . . must have been A13, A14? After he jumped out of the window!

 

In those days (before 1969) it was a series of dual-carriageways with intermittent roundabouts, and as I cried-out the instant he 'jumped', Mum had the presence of mind to make a note of roughly where it was (in thick fog, and the dark), as she had to go-on to the next roundabout, drive back to the previous one and then crawl up to the area where hopefully Pink Rabbit had stopped for some fresh grass, without picking-up a large lorry as a boot-ornament?

 

Anyway, he was found, without everyone dying under an ERF or Guy Ant! And he's still here, now guarding the Sharpie zone! He actually turned-up among Mum's things, and I thought he was in storage with my stuff, so she obviously rescued him from my teenage disinterest at some point!

 

He looks like a version of the R. Dakin pink rabbit, which back then probably wouldn't have been shipped over here (a US firm), so he may have been acquired in Bahrain which I visited at six months old, or maybe Granny Hall got him from somewhere like Harrods - who back then would have stocked all foreign brands, as their selling point was everything in the world under one roof, although the urban myth in the playground was that you had to order whale or elephant steaks in advance, and there was a six-month waiting list for a whole, live elephant!

 

Strangely, the playground gurus didn't have an opinion on the waiting time for a whole, live whale, or the instruments of delivery?

B is for Barbarians at the Gate!

It's not so much that I ran out of time as that I didn't really know what to do with these! We've seen them in ones & twos as they've come in over the last couple of years, or so, and there are more in storage, which means this isn't even the 'whole' picture, a picture which is further complicated by my shooting them several times as they came in, seperate to the plunder/contribution posts, but I want the folder off the PC and on the dongles/external hard drive, so I'm just chucking them up here as a box-ticker!

And Shaun at Fantasy Toy Soldiers can fill you in on the rest of the line!

M is for Missed My Mark!

As always, on a 'special posting day', I ran out of time (next post) and managed to miss something . . . 

This was supposed to have been added to either of the skeleton posts but got lost in the October folder! I think we've seen most of them piecemeal in 'H is for . . . ' posts, so thanks to all the usual names for their contributions, but a collective-shot of a few skeletons which haven't joined everything else in storage yet!