S is for Saunders . . . Roger Saunders

I hadn't heard of these until a few weeks ago, and I have nothing on them in the archive, so another "Thank you" to Jon Attwood for this submission, and consequently there's not a lot I can say about them, beyond what you see here, with your own eyes! Which is, a couple of railway modelling review articles and an example of packaging, but it gets them up, Tag-listed and box-ticked!

Jon wrote "Roger Saunders is a well known name in the model soldier world and has a write-up in Garrett. So just a pic of the only rail set I have been able to find so far, and a couple of reviews from 1984 & 1985 Railway Modeller magazine.", and I have found and re-read the Garrett entry (pp. 149), which points out he produced sculpts for most of the 54mm solid metal kit makers/advertisers in Military Modelling in the late 1970's/early 1980's!

 

And having read-up on Pendon Museum, which I was living near-to, for several years (!), I think I'd better get my arse over there as soon as I can? Cheers Jon, a couple of rabbit-holes to crawl down there!

E is for Easter Bundesbunny!

 

 

Lady Favorina Lidl has joined the Family gathering!

L is for Lots of Lovely Loot!

Actually it's not much, but there are some interesting bits in amongst the box-tickers, and almost more metal than plastic, which is not a measure of how far I'm veering from the true path, but just the fact that the London show is the sort of show where some cheap metal is to be had!

Not sure if these are colonial French or British 'native' infantry, nor whether they are Indian or Arabic, or ancient/medieval, but I like to grab these semi-flats when I see them going cheap, and these were better than cheap, they were free! Adrian Little gave them to me, after I asked for a price, as they were in with something . . . err . . . much better!

 

Café Storm Coffee premium of Don Luis de Requesens (1520-1576, Wikipedia states b.1528, but admits problems with the page?) on the left, a mounted Arab from Britains 'Second Rate' subscale, pocket-money lines on the right.

 

Machine-gunners, a growing side-collection! Hollow-cast to the fore, a solid, commercial effort from home-casting mould behind him, the larger composition one is also unknown, but may be Belgian or Dutch and a Crescent gunner is behind them all.

Two shrubs, the left-hand one, more composite than composition, may be an early Faller, I've a couple of Faller trees somewhere with similar bases and construction, but with identifying stickers, or - to be accurate - glued labels. On the right is an aluminium one which could be Wend Al, but is probably Quiralu, as it was with a bunch of other Quiralu that Wend Al never covered themselves.

 

Five more metals, and most are Britians Second Rate's again (note the very different treatments of the two marching (US?) sailors), but the pilot is Crescent, and the running sailor is from B&T I think, from a Woolworth's exclusive set, post war.

 

A couple of ceremonials, one plastic and another of those Crescent sub-scale piracies from Hong Kong, [27th - probably an equally interesting Hilco plastic-from-hollow-cast - thanks Peter Evans] the other a hollow-cast and actually Crescent as far as I can tell, detail seems crisper on Crescent's figures than Britains.

 

I owe Peter Evans a small apology, I was holding two conversations at once, when he came over and gave me the red figure (another freebie!), and I glanced at it and said something along the lines of 'Thanks, I think it's from a firefighter board game like the milkman/dairy delivery one?', later I found the yellow one in a rummage tray (possibly the same seller?), and after getting them home, they are clearly spies or secret-agents of some kind, probably still board game pieces, but not firemen! I think I have the game's details somewhere in the archive, so one day the A-Z entry will have them corrected!

Between them is a rather nice 70-millimetre Nardi nativity Wise Man, from a crèche/crib set, or Presepe, he's got a swivel waist, but is otherwise not very swoppet'y!

The rest of what was only a cupped-hands'full, but all good stuff, especially with the large set we looked at yesterday. Clockwise from the top left, we have another of the soft-polyethylene versions of the Hardy (et al) G.I. flats, which I suspect are 'Euro-premiums' of some kind? A dug out canoe from Safari's Powhatan Indians set, a pack of eight Lilliput hurdles, and two of the maybe Charbens cake decoration plastic copies of the Britains' hunters, another Airfix fox-hound/beagle type and a Quiralu (?) black panther in aluminium.

E is for Another Easter Bunny!

 

 

Great Uncle Moldova dropped-by on his way back from Tesco!

T is for Timely Manner . . . No! Toy Show Report . . . No! Torres Maltas! Yes, T is for Torres Maltas!

I am back from Camden! Remembering the criticism of me from 2019, when we were burying Dad, by you know who;

 

"There are three items we can not delay reporting : new figure news, collectible toy shows, and toy trade fairs."

 

I thought I'd better get the reports of yesterday's Toy Soldier Show out, in a 'timely manner', I'd hate to delay the importance of the occasion!

 

I picked this up at the show yesterday, I thought I'd got a mega-bargain, and to be fair I sort of did get a bargain, as it's a rare and usual survivor of old Spanish toy soldiery, but once I'd got it home and had a good look at the damage to the box, and its repairs, I figure it was a fair price, but it WAS, not a lot.

 

We've seen the figures before here, they also did Air Force personal, and there is a definite relationship between these 40mm Torres Maltas ('Maltese Towers') and the larger 54/60mm stuff from Manuel Sotorres, in the styling, the movable arms and the subject matters, but I don't know the exact link, or if I do, it's on the dongles somewhere!

 

The tank is fascinating, filling both the 'space tank' role as a purely fictional vehicle, albeit with shades of M46/7-48-60 in the nose/front glacis-plate, and looking very Hong Kong'y - if you found it in a mixed lot of loose-stuff, you would happily assume it was Hong Kong. The body/hull a blow-mould, the turret, however, injection-moulded.

While the marbled-plastic gun is closer to 54mm-compatible (here posed with a Crescent GI gunner - I got the Joplin big-book out, to save TJF 'having' to make the effort), and has a matchstick-firing capacity with hidden-spring mechanism.

 

Obviously more to come . . . in a timely manner! Very, very important, that you get this stuff out in a timely manner, apparently?

E is for Easter Bunnies - Smallies

 

 

The kid's school has broken-up for three weeks!

They're breeding . . . like . . . err . . . rabbits!

O is for Odds & Sods

Probably had that title before, but the hours draw on, and I want to get this up before I go to bed, for an early start, as it's the London Toy Soldier show in a few hours, and a T is for Two would be a bit over the top for a couple of shelfies, so I added a window bag!

Out looking for Chocolate rabbits (ongoing bit of Easter fun) I also found a couple of bits worth a shelfie, these were nearly purchased, however I managed to stop myself, but they will turn-up in mixed lots in the future, so worth a shot for the archive. The history of Ideal's logo over the last few years is very complicated, but here in the UK, I think these are actually Hasbro sell-through.

 

But the two Gormiti character figures are non-articulated solids, around 54mm, albeit sort of sci-fi-fantasy. They were for sale in the Poundland rival, Poundstretcher, and at about 4 & 6-quid, quite affordable, the other figures, were printed-sticker flats though.

While this I shot, again for the fact that the horses will turn-up in odd lots, not because we've been looking at show-jumping, which was coincidental, and there were only four crude horses in the truck, no figures or jumps that I could see.

 

Those horses, I think they may be hollow polyethylene, like some of the BJ Toys or Red Deer stuff, but it wasn't clear and they may well be solids? Branded to Toy Hub and RMS International, they are also around 50/54mm compatible, the truck however, is instantly forgettable.

This was a purchase, the other day somewhere, I can't remember where, but coming after the Schleich blind-bags (I saw in Smyths), and the apparent ex-blind-bag dinosaur I got as clearance somewhere, also 'the other day', it seems they are now using window-bags, so you can see what you're getting, a far more civilised way of doing things.

 

But back to the show tomorrow, Central London/Camden, so plenty of touristy stuff to do before or after the toy-soldier buying, including Camden Market and the Lock! Details are here;

 

http://www.toysoldiershow.co.uk/index.php?CONTENT=23

E is for Easter Bunnies Expand

 

 

Aunty Ada's off to Aldi's!

T is for Two - Foreign Minor Makes - HO Railways Figures

Many thanks again to Jon Attwood, as these are all his images, I brightened them up a bit in Picasa, and can add a few points of note, but mostly, just eye candy as we box-tick a couple of the lesser makes, but, if you were a Spanish or Danish railway modeller in the 1960/70's, they wouldn't have been that 'minor' to you, as you feasted your eyes on the display at your local hobby shop, so these things are always relative!

Now Aneste Datank, and offering a basic range of Preiser in their own-brand, as a catalogue box-ticker, originally Dat Ank or Datank (?) are a Spanish railway model maker, who, for a while, under the semi-cold war conditions of being in Franco's Spain, were free to produce knock-off's to their hearts' content!

 

And they seem to have settled upon Walter Merten as the target of their plagiarism, although, the lower set may be old Preiser sculpts? Nevertheless, for metal copies of finely-detailed plastic figures, they aren't bad, quite colourful, and were clearly quite plentiful, as, since Jon sent me these images, I have seen quite a few on evilBay.

 

One is reminded of the efforts of Bermania, from Argentina, but these are a superior finish.

 

While up in the colder, wetter north of the continent, Reisler was producing these in an early Cellulose or glass-like polystyrene. We have actually seen these here before, or something similar, different sculpts, but at the time they were 'unknown' or 'maybe Märklin', now maybe Reisler or maybe Lego! They really only have the heavy bases in common.

While these have no bases, and the farm we also looked at previously here at Small Scale World, have very thin bases? So an odd range of sets, which may be bigger than listed on the Tohan site, until someone ID's those others, we won't know!

E is still for Easter Bunnies

 

 

Uncle Brian's back from Morrison's 

and the eldest has six-weeks off from Uni'!

J is for Jumps, More Jumps

We've had a brief look at some of the Britains stuff, and better looks at the other two main producers of show jumping equipment in 1:32, but if you, or a younger relative are looking to make a full arena circuit there is a need for 10-15 actual jumps, even 16 or more, and they all need to look different, as part of the test of the horse, it to visually stun or confuse it!

Except that you usually have a similarity/continuity in look, with both jumps in a double, or all three of a triple. Luckily there are a few others out there, to extend the base from which to build a course map;

These are from the Pony in my Pocket franchise, I have no idea on dates or 'waves', and there are other colours and one made from large bales, more gymkhana than full competition, the lower pair actually look rather dangerous! But I guess we imagine they are all fall-apart and fibreglass mouldings!

 

These are from Kids Globe farming, and while the catalogue is a few years old now, they are still available from various sources, I just googled them! The triple wall-effect would make a good finale!

 

While this is from a Sylvain Families set! It's a bit cartoony, or could claim to be a 'tight' jump? Although it's a bit low, and really I'm just talking shite, because I don't know enough about Show Jumping and wouldn't pretend I do!

 

This is the qualifying course from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (the forgotten games!), and consists of 14 elements, as 16 jumps, 17 with the water 'puddle' in the centre, an earlier large jump (I think the number of poles represent difficulty, not design here) is in-line with the triple. It's all fun!

E is for Easter Bunnies

 

 

 The gathering of the Clan!

M is for Mes Matelots de la Marine!

Well, I nearly published these this afternoon, since when two other posts have published Starlux of one sort or another, that's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes, never sure if it's coincidence or synergy?

 

Not sure if we've had a brief look at these before or not, either, maybe as an early show-plunder post?, anyway, here they are, again? I have a similar box of WWII/post-war French Army figures which Andy Harfield saved for me years ago, it's closed (no window), but has the same ratio of fresh-air to figure-plastic, but on three shelves!

 

It's been 'restored', by me, poorly, by which I mean I usually make more effort, here I just taped some tears back down, and you can see the 3M clear tape on the window, but it holds it all together, I suppose!

The 30mm figures, they have been mucked about with, there should probably be a standard-bearer, and the four pure-white ones are almost certainly additions, they haven't the ultraviolet (or paper/card acid?) yellowing of what were probably the originals.

 

Lots of Starlux here at Eurofigurines

Peter painted one

S is for Seen Elsewhere - Lone Star's Swivel Animals

I didn't manage to shoot the brown cows before they sold, however the cart-horse and a white cow, came home with me, and I think we saw a black one here at Small Scale World years ago, from the 'archive' shots?

 

The cart horse is actually the best of the five, as it's got the extra knee joints, lacking in both the other four animals and the similar Noddy licesnsed figures, also seen here in the past, so he's got 8-points of articulation, quite the 'action figure'! The saddle is very distinctive and must take the draw-bars of the older 'hollow-cast' (lead) carts, while the collar is similar to Britains' one.

To be honest the swivel limbs don't add much to any of them, as only one or two subtly different poses look 'right' the rest (an almost infinite variety) just look a bit daft! And in the case of the horse, any departure from standing or a gentle walk just unbalances it! The cow additionally, has an articulated/nodding head.

I've never seen the donkey or the foal, and while I've seen the pig, I don't have one, although I do have a very similar, 30-odd year's younger one from Kinder (also on the blog somewhere?) which is almost as good, but with a slightly cartoony face?

Now, guessing here, but I suspect the pig only came in pink, while white, brown and black plastic versions of the other four may have been produced, with airbrushed black, white or red-oxide highlights? In addition to the spot-painted pink and black detailing of hooves, eyes, nostrils, a halter &etc.

T is for Two - Rack-Toy Dino'cards

I had occasion to stop at one of the few independent convenience-stores/corner shops the other evening (Lower Bourne, Farnham/Aldershot hinterlands - dodgy part of the world!), with the intention of grabbing a fizzy drink, and I came away with two BJ's . . . ooh'err missus!

The ones on the left look like a larger set we saw a few years ago, as a generic, stiff polyethylene hollows, pegged together (pegging and BJ's; it gets worse!), while the others look like those kids comic ones, but will probably turn out to be from a more common two-colour (plastic and one paint, sprayed) mini's set. They don't have the dotted-in eyes of the comic ones, either.

The trio is actually on a smaller card, and having had this stuff rather trashed (for understandable reasons) in the comment the other day, I now feel slightly guilty posting them, but a blog needs copy, preferably new copy, and while these posts aren't my finest hour, they are what they are, and if you like/collect Dinosaurs, these are both out there now.

The shop also had an 'army-man' set, but it was one of those sets with a rigid 4" figure, two 54mm'ish Matchbox copies and some travesty of an over-scaled, inaccurate Jeep or something, I mentally rejected it before I'd fully noted the contents!