H is for Huminiatures!

Miniature Hugh-Mans! Only an overview, visually, because all my existing collection, including the stuff that was here (or round the corner now!) in the attic, was combined and sent to storage a year or so ago! Also it was damaged in the 2007 summer-floods, so is a bit depressing, although it's mostly survived, it lost it's pristineness!

But both Adrian Little And Jon Attwood have between them found all the following, so we can have a half-decent look at their output, and the sort of revelation following, so many thanks to both of them.

The box isn't quite as bad as it looks here, enhancing the contrast so you could more-easily read the information on the labels has resulted in something which looks like a bloodstained artefact recovered from a murder victim in Midsomer or some New England coastal community!

 

Five shillings was a lot of money back in the day, and while these are believed to have been on sale from the war or soon after the end of it, they wouldn't have been that affordable, to the average buyer, even in the 1960's or 70's, more of a luxury, or something architects could put on the bill?

 

They are however (left and upper shots) exquisitely painted, compared to their J&L Randall Merit counterparts or Wardie Mastermodel clones. And I've just chosen my words very carefully, following what's come to light just in the last few weeks as a result of the Minikin find AND re-reading the Brookes book on Kemlows.

 

Before I continue - the lady in a pink top and grey skirt (top right) fixing her hair in a compact-mirror is an interloper, I'm not sure whose figure she is, perhaps Merten? I suspect the figures in the lower image are early Merit, they are quite well painted, but heavier sculpts, and brighter colours on pink plastic.

 

But, it seems the original story, which I got from the Brookes' at the lovely exhibition open-days held in Alresford, Hampshire by Bob Leggett, which was that Merit had got the tooling when BJ Ward went bust, and that the workers being laid-off without pay had carried them 'over the road' to Randall's, was in fact, a tad fanciful.

 

Having said that, I cast no aspersions, the story told, was made clear to be hearsay, and was some ten-years before the book was ready, so before the Brookes were even talking to Stephen Lowe (of the Kemlows family), but reading how Collis Plastics first played a roll in, and were later bought by Kemlows (the firm behind the production of Mastermodels), has made it all clear.

Not clear here - should have used a ruler like some over-efficient evilBayer - but these are the smaller TT-gauge, in the master collection I know I also have the larger O-gauge, both unpainted and painted, home and factory.

 

The clarity came in realising that there is NO crossover in poses, to/from Slaters and Minikins, and that therefore BJ Ward (who carried most of the poses of both!), knowingly, or unknowingly (through his tool/pattern maker Collis) copied, cloned or pirated BOTH firms, to produce the figures, for his otherwise pretty unique range of die-cast, tin, whitemetal, wire and wooden railway accessories. Because both firms were active, earlier than Ward's enterprise!

 

And that's enough for now, as we are going to be looking briefly at both Mastermodels and Merit in the next few days/week or so, and can polish-off the rest then, as it's all in the Kemlows book, sort of. Suffice to say, we have to believe, that for whatever reason, Slater's (a Northern-based firm) must have got their tooling from the early Collis Plastics just North of London?

A flat wagon courtesy of Jon, I may have one or two of these horse-drawn vehicles in the master collection, if so, and because they will be in flood damaged packaging, I will build them as a future project one day!

 

 

From the Carriage Foundation;

 

"Dog carts were so named because they were originally used for carrying sporting dogs in the boot, some would have louvred sides which provided ventilation. First built at the beginning of the 19th century as two-wheeled vehicles, they were later built with four wheels. They carried four passengers sitting in pairs, back to back, and were so useful for all country pursuits that they were found in every country house and used well into the motor age, many of the later examples never being used for the purpose for which they were originally designed."

As well as the O, OO (HO) and TT-compatible figures Slater's also did N-gauge stuff and, I think, the odd-bit of the bigger 1, H, or G stuff, at some point? But I'd have to check with the collection to be sure!

M is for Merry Mass of Malleable Model Mayhem! 5 - Civilians

On to the civilians from Chris Smith's donantion today, always a few surprises here, although some of the more interesting ones, those who are nationally/ethnically-dressed, have been sent to the Ancient/Medieval post to pad that out!

And what a way to start, you know we like divers here at Small Scale World - sticking out of everything else when I opened the box, this, admittedly large, lump of polystyrene is a candidate for best in box! Obviously a fish-tank ornamental aerator, it has a pipe connection at the back of the helmet and a finely pierced ceramic plug in the top, to generate the fine lines of oxygenating bubbles. But it's just so unusual, and a rare survivor from - probably - the 1950?

 

Sports was mostly footballers, with Waddington's Table Soccer figures to the left, and what I think are Ariel's Soccerboss figures, de-pegged to the right, the tennis-player pencil sharpener is a real treat, while the incomplete kicking player could be Parker, Palitoy, even Subbuteo, there are lots, and one day I'll sort them all out. Two athletes and a broken Subbuteo make up the shot.

This is fun, and following-on from the footballers in the previous shot, he's an Airfix footballer under his new skin of Mariachi guitar player! The instrument is from an enamelled metal pin-badge, which I distinctly remember having as a kid/teenager, which has been thickened with a balsa-wood off-cut, totally homemade conversion . . . Wild West or a 1-guage restaurant/dining-car? We'll never know!

 

Odds and sods, what can you spot? The drunk is a magnetic novelty who needs his lamppost to work fully, the green chap next to him is from that Wookie/King Kong game we've seen here in passing before, there are some railway bits, cake decorations and die-cast accessory figures.

 

Police; one marked Funrise (dark blue) and in a soft PVC substitute, the two to the left unmarked in a very soft silicon and 'maybe' Pioneer, the other a common'ish, current ethylene rack toy we may have seen before here?

 

Firefighters; Three from 'big-box' vehicle toys, the third from the left being a really nice composition figure, presumably from the basket of a tin-plate ladder-truck by someone like Tipp & Co., Karl Bub or similar, as is the white chap from a plastic garden-toy

The smaller figure keeps turning-up, and is hard to place, but someone did a Berlin firefighting vessel (River Harvel) kit (Revell?) and he may be from that, or something like that? In the past I've suggested a fisherman or sailor from one of several Tug or Trawler models, but each time he turns up he's in blue or painted blue, so I think firefighter from somewhere/something?

The guy on the left is interesting for being an apparent copy of the Corgi 'cherry-picker' platform truck (forward-control Jeep), which was copied by one of the Hong Kong pirates (TAT/Telsalda?) in a large-scale plastic as a Dinky/Ford hybrid, I think, so he'll probably be from that!

 

The racing car driver is obviously from a racing car, but is looking early-British, plastic-wise, and from quite a big model (1:20/1:24?), he's both new to me and pretty stunning, he must have George Musgrave, George Eric, Stadden or Nibblet behind him? Someone like that, a bit of a 'Find', I think, and another contender for best in box - Chris, thank you!

Shopping lady could be Plasty or Kinder, I think she's the former, but I'm not 100%, and is she West West or some civilian 'doll' village thing? While the policeman is a new'ish die-cast accessory.

 

Seated figures tend to close the civilian page, as paratroopers open the posts! We may have seen some of these before, but with colour variations, there'll be many more to come, and there are shed-loads in storage to sort out and ascribe one day! Highlights here include a beach-buggy driver from a plastic kit, the pull-and-go racing motorcycle and sidecar crew and a Mattel CUTIE seated in pink!

B is for Billions of Blistering Blue Bi-Trons!

Well, over a dozen, and they're not all blue! Just a quick follow-up to one element of Chris Smith's recent donation to the Blog, purely to get them in the tags and attached, that way, to the previous posts as extra imagery for Pikit Toys/Gordy International.

I know that my storage sample of loose ones has more blues, or paler blues to be precise, and while the camera's flash has washed them out, the front pair of red ones are a discernably darker-red than the rear trio.

 

I mentioned last time how the turrets of the little micro-AFV's can be used as back-packs for the Bi-Trons, whether as turrets (which would require some severe bending forwards and looking at the ground around their feet) or as comm's packs is - I guess - down to the owner's imagination!

 

A small patrol of those AFV's out of their blister-packs! And as last time, a reminder that  there is a resemblance to some of the Votom stuff from Tomy-Takara, beyond the similarity of the line's name!

Character Games Limited is for CGL, Not GLJ!

Wouldn't want to get them confused, that could lead to all sorts of awkwardness, you would not know if you were coming or going, had seen them or not, or whether they were what you thought they were, all very confusing, what with GLJ, the makers of those cheepo Hong Kong space vehicles we've seen here a couple of times in the last few years, looking a bit like CGL! Anyway we're definitely looking at CGL in this post, not GLJ which we haven't looked-at, at all today, all day, no need to mention it really!

Shot last year on the way to storage, and what can I say about it, it's a chess-set, for chess-players to play chess with, it's modern, the pieces are a dense resin of some kind, quite heavy for the faux-ivory they are aiming at, but injected, not poured, so relatively robust and nicely detailed.

Tied into the second movie - 2002

The tray

Set-up, have I got the kings on the right colour?

All that effort on the figures and the board's a bit naff!

Boooooo! Boooooo!

Raaaay! Raaaay! Lovin' the Ents!

White wins because it's a morality tale!

Black looses because it's fiction!

N is for Nuts Again!

These are the nutcrackers I've seen out and about over the last five weeks or so,

This was the big Notcutts garden centre in Bagshot I think?

Mounted, but no nut cracking action!

Badshot Lea or Redfields?

Are they bears or dogs and what is it with dogs this year? . . . Oohhhh, Hold On! Hold Everything! Stop the bloody press - that's this year's theme, isn't it? There had to be a reason for all this tomfoolery, and that's it right there, I'd missed it completely! Dog Nutcrackers are the 2023 trend!

A lot of faux fur, possibly in TKMaxx?

M is for Merry Mass of Malleable Model Mayhem! 4 - Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Cartoon, TV & Movie

So we're up to part four, with what I think will be five to come, and I've combined a couple into two others, in fact, this is one, it was sci-fi and Fantasy as one post and TV/Movie as another, but after a couple of collages it made sense to throw them together, although I think one may fall under 'circus' which should be in the civilian post!

Army Ants, ants in armies! These were more popular on the other side of the Channel where in Italy they were known as Combattini, elsewhere Terminators (termites? Yeah!) I think I erroneously told Chris they were Exogini, which is another line altogether! There's loads about them on the LRG sites, and I first encountered them in Lucky Bags in around 1994-97, when, as a small-scale only collector hoping to find old Giant mouldings or at least new HO stuff, I passed these on!

 

The same Lucky Bags were also full (well, one figure per bag!) of Novalinea (TMNT) and Panosh (Horror, Ninjas) stuff, and from the colours and softness of these, Panosh is a good bet for originator factory, in the 'States Hasbro picked them up, but did them in flat orange and blue. The glitter-bums (a term coined by the LRG groups, not me!) are removable, but prevent some of them from standing-up properly!

Four more Bi-Trons from Pikit/Gordy, and a colour variant, there's already a follow-up on the way, surprised the two-P's haven't managed to find these on evilBay, or Worthpoint yet and Blog them as 'new' or never-seen-before!

 

This is fun! It's a vague US Marine Corps amphibious personnel-carrier (LVTP-7 / AAVP-7A1), but with three axles instead of two caterpillar-tracked units, and contains the smallest AFV's you ever saw, except for some smaller one I could spend awhile listing!

Chris reports there were two, the other a more obvious green/camouflage, and the realistic-coloured AFV's and white rocket went in that, while this silver one had the blue/silver kit. Very-much in the vein of those UFO's we looked-at, at the end of last month - a Polly Pocket / Mighty Max knock-off, micro-playset!

The other rocket-bomb to come-in recently, and it's slightly different to the previous one, having more rivet-detailing. Behind it to the right is a Weetos Moon Landing premium from 1994, over it is a rocket which looks like the Jean one, but I'd have to check, there are so may of them, all slightly different.

 

Under it is a Lik Be/LB space-tank! Lacking it's rear load, but 'fitted-for-dozerblade', I may have one of the Lone Star knock-off pom-poms in the spares to fit? While in front is a robot, who also appears to be a projectile of some kind, possibly from a larger Transformer's fist?

All sorts! I think the two zombies are from the 'Zombies!!!' role-playing game, there's a bit of Bluebird (in blue!), a Tente astronaut, a Toyway astronaut (as we've seen here previously, if it was GLJ* it would have silver paint!).

 

Another astronaut/spaceman is the silver Giant clone, the little chap down the front might be from the Warhammer micro' sidekick Epic? The head is obviously from an old toy, and while he could be a racing-car driver, or a pilot, he looks a bit spacey to me, almost Thomas Toys or Flash Gordon'esque?

 

Which leaves an Egyptian looking LRG I can't place and a warrior from the King Kong 3rd (2005) remake playsets, which were by Playmates I think, very-much in the style of Galoob's Action Fleet stuff, they also did a small range of Star Trek items.

 

* That's the G.L.J. Toy Co., Inc., of Syosset, New York, of course, don't forget to mention the town, even if you haven't on a thousand other toys, you must mention the town with GLJ, because I did once, I forgot just now, silly me, but I'm still learning!

Having mentioned them in the Snakes & Ladders post the other day - a Bobby Bruin from the Bruin Boys, set in what I hoped was his original card-holder, obviously from a board-game, research quickly revealed that actually he's from a bagatelle set, and went on a different holder!

 

Two Nestle or part premiums to the left, a cake decoration Putti in the centre, and a 101 Dalmations figure (also Nestle), with a Marx (Swansea or Hong Kong) for Codeg, Trumpton Peter the Postman on the end.

Morph! It's only a bloody Morph! God-knows who the pink lady . . . lamb (?) is, but she's possibly newish, and clearly from a vehicle, as is the Thunderbirds Lady Penelope, from Dinky, we've seen the Disney Pecos Bill copy before, while the dog in a dinner-jacket is an actual Dinsneykin - Mother Hubbard's. The green & yellow thing is possibly a modern mobile-phone cord accessory, while the monkey . . . 

 

. . . is off the wall! He may be from a circus set, as the only pose I can imagine is riding a unicycle, but that would need to be about the same size as the monkey, and have a base, and I can't think of a single Circus, Space or any other set that fits the bill. It's painted polyethylene and about 50mm. Cake decoration?

 

Two Nazi's and an oil-drum! I recognised these home-made Star Wars characters almost immediately, as being the accessory figures/drum, from the old Tamiya German WWII and side-car kit, as we had it when we where kids.

 

The greatcoat of the standing figure being ideal for paring-back to Wookie-fur with a pyrogravure, while Han should be carrying an MG34 on his shoulder, coincidently the gun used by Imperial Stormtroopers as the DLT-19 Heavy Blaster! While a rather giraffe'y R2D2 is 'manufactured' from one of the oil-drums which also came in that set!

N is for Nuts!

We must have had that title before, if not it's well-overdue! It's getting how it isn't Christmas until we've had some nutcrackers here at Small Scale World, and it was all rather accidental in the first place with the Fleet BID giant cracker's leading to my shooting a few, buying a tree-sized one or two, and Brian starting to send shots of what's available over the pond.

 

And who's just got a dog nutcracker for the tree!!

Inclusivity, it hurts no one! Side-by-side like a piano keyboard.

The guards of gingerbread, Pride, lollypops and small white trees!

One of the Rat King's guards . . . Boooooo!

Paint-Your-Own guards!

Paint-Your-Own set of guards!

 

And while one nutcracker is pretty much like another, they are a perennial here now, so these are what Brian has found local to him this season, and I'll post my finds later today or sometime in the next few days, there's no plan here this month, beyond trying not to have two similar posts together, while clearing several 'seasons' - Chris's posts, railways posts and Christmas posts! Many thanks to Brian Berke for these!

P is for Siku, S is for Pola . . . no, they're all DS Plastics!

Or they were for a while! Continuing the season of occasional model railway figure posts, with one of the more esoteric and hard to find in any guise set of figures, originally issued by Siku, used by Pola and passed-on to DS Plastics in Holland where De Gryter definitely used them.

How they are believed to have been issued originally by Siku, and as such they may have had a margarine-premium type issue as well, that being where a lot of Siku's output was going at the time (1950's), but as these fleshy-tan colour they were probably issued as model railway accessories.

I've only picked a few up over the years (the above is an old auction shot), and most are damaged, they are hard to find, in part due to their age now, and the material, they will be 70+ years old now.

Equally hard to find are the painted versions, these from Jon Attwood being the only ones I think I've ever seen, although I recognise the chap with skis as one from my 'unknown' zone! Possibly given to me by Peter Evans or Adrian Little? And almost certainly actually Pola, or technically Pola-Quick, down to the fact that the colours match the catalogue images!

 

Those catalogue scans, the figures are very similar to the Layla/Kibri set, copied in Hong Kong, being semi-flat and somewhat cute in the sculpting, indeed Siku may have been behind some of that too (?), they were very busy with small/novelty plastics alongside Manurba and another one I can never remember the name of, and while the above are all a hard styrene, there are soft-ethylene versions to be found, which look very Hong Kong'y, but they aren't . . . 

 

. . . they are De Gruyter supermarket premiums from Holland, first brought to our attention by Jan Boers in Plastic Warrior magazine many years ago. Here seen, rendered as artwork, in the DS Plastics trade catalogue where/whom De Gruyter would have commissioned them from. DS having inherited a bunch of Siku tooling.

In fact, going on dates, Pola probably had to go to DS Plastics too, unless Siku had a duplicate set? Always more questions than answers when building these networks of clues from fragmentary evidence!

F is for Figural Finery for the Fake Fir

It is a fact, that despite appearing full every year, the artificial tree has an unerring ability to keep taking lade until, one day, presumably, it will just collapse under the weight? To that end, and despite not having the tree up again this year, I have in anticipation of a full-loading at some point in the near future, like next year, with any luck, procured a few figurals/shapes . . . in addition to the three robots, one spaceman and four hedgehogs already Blogged this festive season!

Two more bears, I'm wondering if I've already got the ceramic flat, but I don't think so, there's a similar bird I think? And I'm having second thoughts on the 'gummi bear', he was one of hundreds in baskets all over the garden centre, and was the best one for coverage of the little beads (some had hideous bald-patches, or bald-lines where the glue-boundary dried before the beads were poured), in a decent colour (the flash has made it look whiter than it is), but it's still a plastic, and they never used to be allowed . . . still it's fun, and another bear!

 

The rabbit came in a mixed lot of figures from a Charity Shop, and I was going to take him back with the next lot of donation stuff (I always make a mental note to take them back to a different shop!), when I realised I could get a hook under the scarf/string, so it stayed for the tree, probably home-made and much-loved by someone, once?

 

The gnome is a full, traditional glass-bauble, but mini, so he can go higher up the tree with the other smallies, and get to look-out further, while the soldier-dog, based on the standard nutcracker design, was grabbed in a hurry as Dunelm was closing (for the evening, not bankruptcy, just yet), and I thought he was a bear! But he can stay, he'll be the first dog on the tree though, so a Billy-no-mates!

Speaking of higher-up the tree, these are tiny, sold in threes, one shiny, one frosted and one glitter, they're only 15mm wide, a little bigger than the very small plain baubles everyone uses to 'fill the gaps', so they will be put to the same use, and fir-cones have always been another side-group, with 20-odd now including a really-big, sort of life-size sequoia one in gold!

 

I got this in a funny little independent garden-centre of the type which has almost disappeared round here, and while it's a rather boring fret-cut ply, it IS a soldier, and it's decorated on both sides, was only 99p and came home with me!