C is for Comet: Comet-Authenticast and Comet-Gaeltacht

A play in two acts, opening in New York and closing in Eire! That's Eire with a 'F'!! I won't bore you with the history today, that's one for the A-Z entry one day, but there is a book which deals well with most of it, and we're really box-ticking here, although with a lovely set from Jon Attwood to start us off!

Their HO scale figure set, as produced and carded in the Republic of Ireland, there are a few lifts from other makers not least Hornby's pre-war sets, while some others have the unmistakeable signature of Holgar Eriksson's sculpting style about them, one wonders though, if he had been happy to know (if he knew) or would have been happy to know they were side-by-side with piracies?

 

A gatefold flyer, with the O-gauge on the front, a mix of both scales in the middle, and a plug for the Authenticast soldiers and sports sets on the back. Jon's set can be seen middle-right on the opened centre pages.

 

Reminds me I have some of the shrubs, and they work for either size, at about 2cm high, they are actually very crude and look like home-painted Skytrex! For all the hype about centrifugal casting, the 'authenticast' process, the railway stuff was mostly pretty basic in the paint finish?

The box Jon's card came in, it's the standard artwork for the time fitted to a smaller, squarer area, to the more normal long-thin toy soldier boxes, but a lot of the railway range had similar dimensions, as one can see in the flyer above.

 

The obvious lifts include two figures from Hornby, flanking a Horton-Trix-Britains Lilliput passenger in the middle, and, given the era and subject-matter, it was more likely laziness than any idea of fakery, which led to these three?

Copies of copies of old Xerox or 'Electrofax' sheets, from the James Chase collection, again the O-gauge leading with HO on the second page, now with vehicles, but all really aimed at the parent company's US market.

 

Probably Eriksson's, but could be the work of Frank Rogers, who was clearly influenced by the master. Those O-gauge which are Eriksson's are often marked HE, as the male in the recent show-plunder post was, but in the HO, it's not so clear, and we have the piracies to contend with, which I don't think he would have countenanced?

 

I have posted some before, both O and HO I think, but under which Tag I can't remember, it was quite early in the blog's history I think? Many thanks to Jon, again, for the rare card and box. We are slowly coming to the end of these, but there's still a few to come!

P is for Partially Seen Elsewhere - Acédo African Scene

I posted my small sample of these elsewhere, the same day, I think, but I shot a better sample on Mercator Trading's stall at the show (last London show of last year?), so we can have a better look at this French production now.

Acédo, the plastics 'arm'  of Domage et Cie (Domage and Co.), the company also behind Aludo (aluminium production), are responsible for this little set-up! Obviously made in polymerised cellulose acetate, and apparently depicting a peaceful, or civilian take on African life in a rural village, sans modernism!

 

I wondered about the trees and huts, as they looked a bit homemade (huts) and converted from something like Playmobil (trees), but a quick Google that evening revealed similar huts and some similar, but very different-shaped trees, so I think the pieces were made as flat sections, or bare boughs, and then assembled, with heat, glue and hand-held pyro-gravure work - to hide the joins. Portable hairdryers were invented in the 1920's, and can be set 'too hot' (for scalps!), so all very doable.

 

The running boy and drummer being not warlike, although the full set does include a warrior with spear and shield and a white hunter in pale safari-suit, the warrior is sort of waving his spear & shield as if 'beating' the game toward the hunter.

Close-up of my previously seen sample, other colours of loin-cloth turn-up including dark blue and white, but I don't know what other animals might be considered part of the set, a rhino, hippo, ostrich and more monkeys were in the 'zoo' sets, so there was a species-bank to pick from!

 

Usually found decorated, and the only one seen, on the day, I don't know if it's a late production thing, unpainted, or if it has been stripped, due to poor wear of the original decoration?

I is for I Was Going to Post Something Toy-Related Tonight, But Went and Did This for Faceplant Instead!

The West is ethically and morally bankrupt, wedded to a broken economic system which is working for no one but a few billionaires, and sliding in to a sort of everyday-workaday, fake-news fascism!

 

C is for Christmas Cracker Cosmonauts

These were first identified in Plastic Warrior magazine a while ago now, with the presentation of the original ad' in a trade publication, I think, there is another one kicking around, but that's for the Thomas (or more likely Poplar ethylene's) spacemen, issued in Tom Smith crackers, if I recall correctly these were in a more generic advertisement, but I've forgotten the issue number!

 

Equally, I can't remember which of these images were taken on Adrian's stall, which came from evilBay and which are mine, and some of Adrian's eventually came home with me, so may have been shot twice!

 

The thing is, they used to share space with the Lido (previous post), although marked-up 'Rex Depose' which I now know they aren't (but I'll put Rex in the Tags, to correct past musings), so they've also been sharing the same folder here since at least 2012, when I started collecting the images for both posts!

 

You can see from the Ajax/Archer type helmet that they are smallish, compared to some of the 'pulp' stuff, but still come-in at a reasonable 54mm each, and sculpted to slide into Christmas crackers, and fly out again without doing themselves, Granny's eyes or the Christmas spread too much damage!

Basically they come in three colours, metallic silver, petrol-blue and jade green'ish, the pink ones here are purely a trick of the light and I can assure you they are as silver as the other two, because two of them ARE the other two, and I just got them out to measure them!

Four poses, two command-types with their legs apart delivering sterling speeches of an ordering-about, sacrifice, for-the-flag/glory/humanity's future variety, and two trooper types, at attention, preparing to eat-dirt - again, on someone else's shitty home-world - again! And like the previous post's Lido Space Rangers, each has a groovy logo on his suit, which is unique to that figure.

This, captured in the wild from feebleBay, is an abomination, and almost certainly started its public life at Vectis Auctions in the North East, where a lot of similar 'carded' stuff has appeared over the last fifteen or twenty-odd years or so, often pretending to be Zang/Herald for Britains half-moon cards. Which isn't necessarily Vectis's fault, they sell what the clients bring them, and they do tend to caveat the listing, to alert, but they must know who keeps turning-up with these Dr. Moreau creations!

 

What we have here, are, top-left and bottom right; Cracker spacemen, in the middle; a Texas/Isas alien, and top-right/bottom-left; the rockets from Triang's Battle Space launcher, which are probably worth more, being sold separately, than on this cobbled-together stale-confection!

So we have two polyethylene & rubber model-train accessories, two polystyrene cracker novelties and an Italian plug-based, 'ethylene toy soldier, the figures material-colour matched, and further given a splash of casually painted (as out-painters would have) silver highlights to further 'unite' them, all on a card which is one of the relatively common cards (see Tags) from Italy, which has had the legend cut-off!

It's a fake, a phony, a curates-egg, designed to deceive, and many of us know who's behind them, but Western law is designed to protect landowners, Politicians, capitalists and yes, liars and fraudsters, from the truth, and if I named him, I'd leave myself open to a charge of defamation! If you bought it, sorry, but you were sold a parvo' pup!

In its natural habitat!

L is for Lido's Louche Luna Lads

Not a mystery, although they were to me for a while, as they turned-up in 'Blast Off' the other day when I was looking-up Jet Cars! I used to think they might be the French Rex, but they weren't and for a long time I didn't have a clue, but they are to be seen in the aforementioned tome (pp.142) in a Lido 'Toy Parade' header card as Captain Video Space Rangers, which reminded me these were in the queue!

 

Four from evilBay back in 2014, and four from my own collection in three poses, I've never seen these alongside the robot/bird-man aliens of the more common Captain Video figures from Lido, so I think maybe they could have been a seperate issue within the line, or a seperate line using the same branding and accessories (the little 'train' of space vehicles), rather than a part of the larger set?

Knowing so little about them beyond Lido, 'styrene, 50mm'ish and Captain Video Space Rangers, they are just a fun box-ticker! Also while the common line has the cartouche/ovoid bases, these are pod-feet chaps!

S is for Seen Elswhere - Juguetes ALB

I wasn't sure if these were the Argentinian ALB figures or not, as the only other sample I know of, didn't have any sailors! However, I posted them elsewhere - or at least the dirty line-up, I've since cleaned them - and they were confirmed by another Walter; Walter Rodriguez!

Best described as baby-faced, they are clearly little caricatures, rather in the same vein as the terracotta figures from Spain, which we have seen here several times, and may make excellent adult supervisors for the bubble-gum babies, which we haven't seen here yet, but there’s a tub of them somewhere!

Those other samples;

https://soldaditossudamericanos.blogspot.com/search/label/%28C%29%20Juguetes%20ALB

And I think we're looking at, from left to right, merchant marine, two Argentine Navy, Summer Dress and a civilian pleasure-boat skipper? He's 55mm, the other three closer to 60-mil, and they are a rather sticky PVC.

M is for Marx's Massive Moorland & Mountain Men

A quick box-ticker today, these are the six-inch 'Scottish Soldiers' from Marx UK factory in Swansea, and were a standard 'going-home' or 'attendance' present, at Birthday Parties when I was a kid.

 

For those who don't, or didn't practice such a thing, this was when all the kids who went to someone else's birthday party, got a little something, usually of the novelty or 'Christmas stocking' variety, to take home, in part as a memento of the occasion, and in part because watching one child open lots of presents (at least one of which could have been yours, if you hadn't handed it over!) tended to bring out the green-eye'd monster in some!

There was a bit of a party circuit in the late 1960's early 1970's, and several of the members had large gardens or grounds (such as Elvetham Hall, now a hotel and 'village' development!), and these keepsakes would, if the weather was inclement, be hunted for, outside, like Easter eggs!

 

If you found more than one, though, you had to surrender the spares to those who hadn't found any, in the great divvying-up! I remember the hard-polystyrene Indians also from Marx, and little bags of the Minimodels/Culpitts wild west (very frangible!), card-tube kaleidoscopes one year, and the rubber snakes mentioned here yesterday. The whole concept was meant to teach, in the nicest way, sharing, fair-play and decency? Some just resorted to lucky-bags as everyone was leaving.

 

I only have five (5th below), but I found this site which has all six;

 

http://marxsoldiers.british-classic-motorcycles.co.uk/index.php/scottish-soldiers/

 

Which was funny-ironic, as I was expecting a second bearskin for three pairs, and actually it's a third Highlander, leaving two lowland/fusilier types (with odd headdress I'm thinking, sort of French colonial, 18-somethings, 19-oh-whatever?) and the one Scot's Guard. That site's are cleaner than mine!

The other 'Fusilier'

Slight colour variation between batches?

A couple of - also soft, unpainted, polyethylene, 6" - Wild West cowboys who have come in at some point, I haven't obtained the hard, factory painted, polystyrene Indians from my childhood yet, but they were the 'thin' sculpts also done in 'HO', and the archers and spearmen tend to damage when you do see them.

H is for How They Come In - Charity Shop Backlog - 2023, 3 of 3

So to the last of the Charity shop plunder from last year, a pretty average bag of mixed animals, but it did have a figure in, or did I buy him separately for 50p or something, I really can't remember and shot them together, so, whatever!

Looks like one of those reusable fresh-veg' bags Sainsbury's were experimenting with, I think they've dropped them now, but they are useful for running bulk lots of paint-stripped figures through the washing machine, saves checking the filter afterwards, as all the larger flakes of paint end-up in the corners of the bag!

 

Mostly Dino's, and mostly generics, but when you think how many there've been in the last three posts, and how many Jon sent to the Blog in the autumn, and how many there are half sorted in that pile I shot on the stairs before they went to storage, and it'll be a mammoth task to make more sense of them all!

 

Wild animals, and a sea-horse which might have been branded, in fact it's here somewhere, and I could look it up, but I can't be arsed and does to matter right now, I've enough for a whole sea-horse post at some point, and such thematic posts are a definite plan for the future!

 

I think these go together and look like pretty current stock, in the two halves glued-together (to help with 'undercuts' on more complicated sculpts) style, they will be one of the carded sets you still see occasionally in the few remaining Independent corner-shops? BJ Toys, Red Deer, Funtastic, somebody like that?

 

This went straight back, or at least I think it's in the box of stuff to go back! McDonald's Happy-Meal thing, or something similar, there's a press-button to make him do something movie-related!

 

Well, I can't hold them all 'till ITLAPD, an ELC pirate, they're a bit big for my liking, but they are lovely sculpts and this is about number six now, with a few fantasy-types, and some knights from the same source!

H is for How They Come In - Charity Shop Backlog - 2023, 2 of 3

Continuing through 2023 backwards, although these are also dated December, so I think I must have either kept-up with most of 2023, or not found much charity-stuff to post until the end of the year, when we were already running through various other things like Christmas posts, Jon's donations, Chris's box, railway stuff &etc? So . . . more animals!

Six bags of mixed animals, or at least mixed themed animals! Two-each, sea life, dinosaurs & reptiles and domestic animals, all of which are rather piling-up against the day when I seriously sort them all out.

 

Some lovely tropical fish, a couple of huge star-fish and half a set of sharks/cetaceans, along with a few other bits, it's funny how some things become popular, in the last 20-odd years documentaries on Penguins have taken-off like nobodies business and as a result there are a lot of model penguins out there, and many have come-in, with purchases like these!

 

The other halves of both sets (future posts, obviously!) duplicates of the star-fish (I now have a huge 'starfish' bag with very few actual items - about six?!). The eel is interesting, as I have several now, and this one is new - I think - and I wouldn't have guessed that eels would be that popular or have that sell'ability?

 

However, my own childhood was full of tales of electric eels, giant eels, men fighting eels etc . . . and maybe that's still true today? I don't know what younger kids read these days, but they don't seem to have all those 'boys own' or 'adventure' books, they don't have the Lion, Tiger, Eagle or Hotspur annuals (Swift, was there a Swift, I seem to recall a Swift annual?), nor do they have anything like Look & Learn, World of Wonder or Tell Me Why? So I don't know where they would get an interest in eels, or giant squid, Pirates, the count of Monte Cristo, the Three Musketeers . . .?

 

Mixed bunch of Dinosaurs, I think the one back left had branding, while the snake is fun. I used to get a shot of nostalgia when I saw these rubber snakes, as we had them as kids, but actually they are a timeless toy and still very much 'around', most toy shops, chains or the few independents, have a tub or basket full of them!

 

More of the same, and the snake is definitely a modern one, ours were never that well decorated! But unless you sit down and research them to the same level as old Starlux or something, you'll never know (beyond the odd 'China' mark) whether they are old or new, reused or re-cleaned tools, unless it's as obvious as with this one, with the previous one it isn't?

 

A quite full sample of the late Britians (now Tomy?) sheep and goats, with a few other pieces and a nice Hong Kong setter. More of the wild 'minis' in the front row.

 

More of the same, larger animals, I think I've seen the slightly colourful horses in a blister somewhere, so we may get a brand for them when I do finally sit down and try to make sense of it all, which will make for some interesting, non-military posts in the future!

H is for How They Come In - Charity Shop Backlog - 2023, 1 of 3

So let's get last year's backlog cleared, and I'll still have god-knows how many folders in the queue! I realise some of it is down to the Asperger's, I open a folder, think, oh, and close it again because I can't get over a small mental block, like how to collage them, or what to delete!

And as if indecision and procrastination aren't enough, I seem to have numbered these (after some thought) in the reverse order, so this lot is from December? Anyway, as you can see, three bags, one farm, one 'zoo' and one with bases!

 

This was the based bag! Four modern, New Ray and ELC I think, all PVC, and two old Hong Kong copies of European makers in front, both polyethylene, although the hen and chicks was marked China if I remember well?

 

Farm was mostly modern, a couple of the late vinyl Britains, some similar, but - if anything - slightly better, and some dafter (Pony in my Pocket?), along with some more of the Safari Horses Jon sent about the same time, in fact one of the reasons for getting these cleared is that there's a horse follow-up in the queue, and seeing these after that would be more boring than the other way round, duplication wise!

 

A couple of nice giraffes, a sub-scale copy of the Britains elephant and that bunch of mini-vinyls with the giant orangutang, two polar bears and two hippo sculpts which leave you thinking "This can't be right?", but actually it's the third or fourth time they've come-in together, so they are a set. A lone Dino' and some older Hong Kong efforts make up the contents of the bag.

 

I thought this was rather nice, a slightly daft face, but not often you find a prone camel, the odd one in Nativity sets maybe, for 54mm or 60mm, while this one (Kinder) might be a tad big for Airfix Arabs, but for 28mm gaming would look good in Egypt, ancient or colonial?

A part set of CollectA mini-dinosaurs, in a container which may or may-not have been theirs but went to recycling anyway! They seem to be from a set of 20 sculpts, and if you have to 'collect them all' in eights, you're gonna' end-up with a lot of duplicates?

Very nicely decorated, and detailed for their size (the 'standard' smallest, if you know what I mean), with different Steggi' types, one with plates in the common fashion, the other (Kentrosuarus) altogether more spiky and exotic!

And this was my favourite in the set, inspired sculpting has a Diplodocus reaching up for the younger shoots/branches, and not obvious from my shots is that the head/neck is also reaching round the side of the tree . . . or tree-fern it would have been?

A is for Airfix Motorcycles

I've done a second update since I last updated in 2018, which I didn't announce here as it was only a few weeks since I'd previously done so! So if you haven't visited for a while, there's now plenty of new stuff there, including the third figure pose, previously mentioned but not seen.

http://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/2018/11/1940s-sometime-wwii-500-500m-501-502.html

R is for Return - or Not? Palitoy-Parker Horse of the Year Game, Anyway!

Something weird seems to be going on, with me and/or my blog, I'm absolutely sure we've actually looked at these twice now, horses and riders only, once briefly as a foursome, once in more depth with variations, which should all be on the Palitoy and/or Parker Tags, but coming a few days after I couldn't find the Jungle flat set I was equally sure I had posted, I now can't find hide nor hair, of raiders or beasts, anywhere on the blog?

 

It doesn't matter as we are about to look at them anyway, but I would have shot more images of the riders, if I knew I wasn't going to find the posts I thought were here, and while I can understand accidentally not tagging one post (which may have happened with the jungle set?), nor noticing it isn't tagged as it makes its way down the front page over days or weeks, I can't believe I would do it three times, twice with the same set?

 

First, let's hear it for the anonymous sender (it was 2021, and I've lost any record of it) who packed this to defeat the best efforts of Parcel Farce and Royal Fail to totally destroy it, but it's the large things with a full wrap of bubble which do tend to survive against the tendency of smaller things to get massacred!

 

Issued under both Parker and Palitoy branding (in that order - I think?), it was the BBC coverage of The Horse of the Year Show back in the 1970's to which I was referring last time, and this set clearly sold well as there's never a shortage of them going cheapish on feebleBay, and well worth the purchase if you also have/collect the Britains gymkhana/show jumping stuff. Although the playing-board is more cross-country/three-day-eventing than a London arena!

 

The fences which look closest to Britains, giving a real variety with full interchangeability between the two end-types, flat and angled, and the various ways you can arrange the boards or poles, along with a gate. Makes you think what you could do with Britains white gate and the wall sections it clips into.

I arranged these as a triple, but they can go anywhere on the board, the little one could also be used for the Britains kids on the Shetland Ponies, in a proper gymkhana! Or, you could put it just in front of the taller lattice-ends one to make a longer-reach jump? Officially, jumps have type-names, and I'm probably inventing stuff which wouldn't be allowed!

The wall and the water, there is one permanent water jump printed on the board, but you can place another one, somewhere else. I haven't played the game, but it seems to be a simple progression through 'jeopardy' cards and dice. I just wish I'd shot the riders better, it is a figure Blog! Still, an excuse to return to them another day, unless the missing posts 'turn up'?!!

 

Riders are a dense/stiff PVC, with one-each of another military (Britains post the other day), police, hunter's pink and female types, while the jumps are all polystyrene and the water-jump is card.