BMSS is for British Model Soldier Show!

As I mentioned earlier, I popped-over to the BMSS (Society!) show in Reading on Saturday, for support really, I wasn't buying, and while I got there a bit late, the entry-fee was collected against future show organising, and I took a few shots of the competition entries while I was there.

Junior effort, I couldn't have done something this good at 9

I know, because I tried!

Old School!

This was beautiful!

Fantasy, winged witches!

Beautifully executed fun!

Tommy Atkins, 'Dusty' Miller and 'Snowy' White!

These might be Airfix Multipose?

Cold! General Winter!

Northamptonshire's BMSS branch table.

 

Aldershot's table, I think there had been a modelling/painting display, but it was getting toward home-time. They used to organise their own show, in February, but it went the way of all flesh some time ago, one of my first big-purchases was from that show back in 1991 when it was still held in Fleet Library, or the adjoining Hartington centre, if I recall correctly?

You wouldn't want it up you, Captain Mainwaring!

You really wouldn't want it up you!

The Oxford branch, I was tickled by the St Trinian's flats

I can't find them on Google, but definitely fun!

Despite knowing Reading all my life, and managing to find the venue (and a free, legal car parking space) without trouble, I managed to take the wrong exit off the roundabout, going home, and got lost in a town-centre I no longer recognise, before taking the wrong road out of town (Early/Mortimer, not Swallowfield/Heckfield!), a road I also barely recognised!

The amount of development, in just the last fifteen or twenty years is staggering, the flight of industry, the population explosion (nationwide - 10-million, since the Tories came to power, most of it 'legal' migration), makes you realise how insignificant your 60/80-years here, actually are. When I was born in '64, Reading was already in the midst of a major post-war development boom, with new factories springing-up everywhere, but they've all gone, replaced by housing, and the centre has been rebuilt three-times?

Yet, once you get out of the city-proper, the old lanes have hardly changed at all in my whole lifetime, the same daftly tight-bends, narrow passing and overhanging foliage seem timeless, as you pootle through the old villages and hamlets, but a lot of the pubs are boarded-up or already converted to homes, as are most of the village shops!

The point this slightly-sad reminiscing is getting to, is that the show is best described as quiet, gentile, unhurried, and one wonders how many more there may be, from the heady days of filling the Royal National, so next year, try to get over if you missed it this year, like parents, pets or a favourite T-shirt (yes, I just listed them together!), you'll miss it when it's gone.

T is for Tank Tracks

I popped over to the BMSS show on Saturday to pick up a few things including a tub of bits for the Blog from Adrian, two days after a brilliant parcel from Chris Smith dropped-in, so lots in the queue, and I've been bumped into looking out all the Motorcycle stuff for a round-up or two!

 

Coming on the heels of the dragons teeth post, and on the way back from Reading, I thought I'd stop on Hazeley Heath and look at the tracks they dug out of the undergrowth/bog a few years ago, we used to play around there as kids, but it's changed a great deal, and memory failed me at one point, but they are subsequent posts, this is the tracks!

 

Apparently the above is Valentine Tank track, the area was used to test towing cables by the REME, previously probably the Ordnance Corps, or an offshoot of the Royal Engineers MVEE testing facilities at Deepcut/Chobham, up the road (A3), or the vehicle testing site at Rushmoor, across the way, between Fleet and Aldershot?

While this hasn't been ID'd, but I think it's a Vickers Medium Mk.1's tracks from the 1920's, also used on early Mk.2's before the ones with the plates that have a double-cross cut in them, was used. The site was in use for testing, since before the First World War, so interwar track is quite possible. It's so heavy and so rusted, I couldn't lift it to see the underside of even one link.

 

The information board is also tracked, and while seemingly cobbled together from recovered parts (there was half a Sherman turret sticking out of the bog at one point), with [possibly!] three Churchill road wheels and two Valentine return rollers?

 

But the tracks are very thin, they almost look imaginary, however, up close, have both age and casting marks, so a small carrier or one of the late 1930's cruisers? Obviously, the diamond-plate fabricated 'hull' is a modern fancy.

P is for Promotional

You don't see real premiums these days, most people now buy own-brand products which owe some of their cheapness to a lack of promotional gimmicks, and while I know people like Topps do the odd set of animals, or Smarties occasionally add figurals to their tube tops, it's not something which is common or everyday, and while I guess Blind Bags, have filled that niche (at a cost), it was interesting to find these . . . 

 

. . . in an Italian flyer type thing. My Italian being poor it seemed they are plain figures (rather than stampers or something), and you have to visit the store on or after the given dates to get the specific figure, and from the way the flyer was laid-out, I suspect the Italian equivalent of Aldi or Lidl? Anyway it appeared to be called Eurospin, and now we're all on the Internet, it didn't take long to find a set of six, with a previous or future set of another six?

https://www.eurospin.it/kung-fu-panda/

And at €3.99, hardly a 'premium', rather a promotional! Thanks to Jan & Istfan for fetching the flyer back from Italy! And . . . Kung Fu Panda 4? I seem to have missed King Fu Panda 3 all together!

P is for Probably the Best Car-Park Barrier in the World!

Heineken don't do car-park barriers, but if they did . . . I know, we've had something similar before, but nostalgia includes crappy cultural references! I shot this, also in Guildford (see earlier post on dragon's teeth), but a few weeks earlier, only for the shots to turn out so poor (I tend to pass it at dusk each time), I had to go back and re-shoot most of it, a week later!

 

It's a train! About half-action-man scale, so 1:12th/16th, something like that? And it's towing a bunch of flatcars with local wildlife examples! Made out of stainless-steel plate or possibly a bronze-alloy, it's hard to tell as there's no rust, and I'm not a metallurgist!

 

Saddle-tank loco and four flats with an old style guards break-van at the back, I guess this is a sculpture, or 'public art'? I couldn't fine anything about it nearby, but it was getting dark both times, and it's a teeny car-park with about 15 spaces for dog-walkers at the far-end of the now one-way Woodbridge Meadows, and this barrier is almost underneath the real rail-bridge!

 

LBSC 105 is the Fat Controller's locomotive from Thomas the Tank Engine, but it's a red-oxide, not green! The LSWR Bison class had a 105, likewise the class 395's, but they didn't look like this, however the M7's did! So I guess it's a real loco' depiction?

https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&id=304453077&type=S&loco=105

The break-van, children of a certain age know these go at the back of a goods train, as sure as similarly aged American and Canadian kids know where the Caboose goes, but I wonder how many people under forty even know what this is called, let alone where it goes?

 

The reverse of the goods wagons, showing how the wildlife is done like theatrical scenery! Now, you can get phosphor-bronze sheet-plate, and I wonder if that is what we have here, it looks a bit brassy, but without the verdigris you'd expect with a purer brass or copper, and I've mentioned the lack of rust spots, which even stainless will get eventually, so it's some corrosion-resistant metal, which is also pretty vandal-proof?

Snail, Grebe (crested, great), Dragonfly and Kingfisher.

Fish, Newt (crested, great!) and Otter.

Coot, or Moorhen, I never get them two right!

Bumble Bee and Snake, generic!

Butterfly, Bat, Water Beetle (vicious buggers) and a Water Rat/Vole

I like that even as our entire political class descends into a naval-gazing madness of seeking power for power's sake with absolutely no solutions on offer, someone somewhere is still doing this kind of stuff, for the hell of it!

I is for Instant Gratification!

Probably the only time we will ever visit these, because the company has gone, the US parent also seems to have gone, the products are still out there in number, now China imports, and they are very definitely infant-fodder, indeed, the delay in getting them into Europe was the possibility of infants using them AS fodder and choking on a circus performer . . . Well, you would, wouldn't you, especially a whole one!

Originally the US company Instant Products line, at one time called Magic Grow, these were introduced to the UK and Europe at the London Toy Fair back in 2001, which I attended as One Inch Warrior magazine's 'roving reporter' (I think there were three of us, but I was specifically tasked with keeping my eye out for the small scale stuff), by a CCL, who seem to have been a phantom-brand for Europa Consultants UK?

 

Modern generic Chinese ones

The trick with them was they came in a gelatine capsule, like those bead-drugs, which was designed to melt in water, at which point the contents burst open with a florish and revealed very, very small, novelty bath sponges, about the right size for Action man to lather himself up!

 

My original five, as used in the subsequent show report, of little use to toy-soldier or model figure collectors, but nevertheless, if someone give you a freebie you owe them the courtesy of a mention, and thanks to Darnel Penrose (whom I hope went on to better things, with a better-lasting company!) for supplying the samples all those years ago!

 

An old evilBay image, you can see robots, a monster or two, a ghost and skeleton and teddy bear, among the more usual animals, dinosaurs and sea-life. I thought the over printed ones were interesting, I have memories of full sized novelty sponges over-printed with designs or slogans which would leave you with little bits of black or white print stuck to your skin after the bath, and which - as designs - only lasted a few bath times on the sponge!

 

And while the choking was a very real concern this side of the pond, resulting in packaging which was designed to be fully immersed without being opened, they were clearly slow to take off, and have now been totally replaced with this Chinese stuff, probably from the same factory/ies supplying the originals?

D is for Defence Works & Dragons Teeth!

I shot these the other evening in Guildford. When I was going to collage there in the 1980's they were hidden in the undergrowth either side of the old sort-cut path, but, in the 1980's the population of the UK was half what it is now, and the necessary development which has filled the years between has lead to them being revealed, as more formal paths were arranged through them, and in 1998 they are formally recognised with a plaque (bolted to one of them) and are watched-over of not actually looked after! They are yards from the London Road railway station in the centre of town.

One or two are still overgrown in the background, and a better-surviving example was seen here on Small Scale World, many years ago, about a mile to the south, which would all have been part of the same defence plan - to prevent German invasion forces coming up from the South East corner of Britain, getting though the Downs at the  'Golden Ford' and having a clear-run across Surrey Heath toward London.

 

When you realise how many gargantuan flack-towers (Flaktürme) are still blotting the landscape around Germany and Austria, a few Dragoons teeth look quite innocuous! These, unlike the ones down by the river, don't seem to have any pattern to them and may have been individually cast on a Monday morning, or Friday night?!! Built by 578 Army Field Company of the Royal Engineers in February 1942 . . . a bit late really!

Q is for Quiralux

I have to go out before work today, so here's a quick 'L is for Lazy Post'! Seen elsewhere, it's a scan of a not oft-seen Quiralux flyer, it got me thinking I've probably mixed-up Quiralux and Cofalu in the past and probably need to check both Tags, to make sure they are pertaining to the right maker!

If you click on it, then left-click again it should blow-up to a useable image, and if printed on A3 or larger, will be a useful addition to a paper archive. 60mm modern infantry and Wild West, 54mm mediaevals and farm, I think, mixed plastics.

P is for Plasty's Plastic Pole!

Just a quickie, I found Plasty's Totem Poles from Germany a while ago, and got one, there are several colourways I think, and while cursorily like Timpo's, they are actually plug-together, rather than over-moulded.

I was back on the original totem-pole post again the other night, getting frustrated by the inability to correct or add anything, due to its conflict with subsequent rule changes on Tag-limits, and I think I'll break-it down to three posts, but I will leave them on the same date, which is a bit of a cheat, but one we can legitimately call an 'edit'!

W is for William Britains & W. Horton

Who may well be another William, but could also be something else entirely, Wally, or Walt, Warren or Wesley . . . yeah, it's probably William! Confusing, because there's nothing in Garratt, while Grace's has two, the novelty maker (probably our man!) in Middlesex (W.) and the gunsmiths in Birmingham, who ARE William and are still going, while another William played Cricket for Middlesex, around the same time as the toy producer set-up, but while the toy maker moved to Middlesborough, he died in Sussex?

 

Anywhoos, a quick box-ticker as we close-up on the railway figure posts, and with more comparison images to come in the round-up, and some other stuff in the past, linked-to in the Tags, this is a couple of images from Jon Attwood (many thanks again) and three from me, one of which we've seen before, just to get them all up here.

Various packagings for both the Britains Lilliput and Trix TTR (Trix Twin Railway) ranges, both of which used the same figures, although the Lilliput range was enhanced with vehicles in a larger HO-gauge (Half-O-gauge) compatible size, which couldn't be passed-off so easily as TT-gauge (Table Top/1:120), while little people are just little people!

 

I slipped this in to a post years ago with a casual note, and didn't admit to my sin, but as I get older, I seem more amenable to expunging my guilty secrets in public, if only to spread the guilt around and lighten the load on my own conscience, as we've all done similar things.

 

Before I do, just a note that the figures were attached to the platform by being drilled between the feet or elsewhere on the base and held in place with brass cabinet-makers screws of the smallest size.

 

The truth is, I no longer have it, although I did save the figures, but, because I thought it was homemade - it was a car-boot purchase by a third party given to me, because of my then specialization in small scale, although 'specialization' itself is a bit cheeky, given I didn't know what this was, but model railways were very-much a side shoot then, anyway - it got burnt! There, I said it, I used it to light a fire, many years ago, well, it wouldn't fit in any of my storage containers, and looked a bit naff!

 

I now realise it's classic Horton, and classic Art Deco, in the style of Woking station, which I've always liked, despite the tons of haphazardly-added modern shite hiding the true nature of the original, but the - seemingly unused these days - signal-box between the two sets of up and down lines is still relatively untouched.

 

Although Woking's signal-box is bare brick for the most part, but it has the rounded corners and the flat roof, I have the Hornby station in aluminium, and it's the same style, and 'rendered' in cream/orange/green if memory serves, so this was probably depicting one of many, or a generic London suburban halt, from the inter-war building boom?

None of Salisbury's stations look anything like this, being all Victorian multicoloured brick wonders, but I dare say you got a sheet of station names and the posters? One of the reasons it looked home-made was the poor application of the paper elements!

I know, but I'm afraid to try straitening him! The difference between the Hotel Porter on the left and the railway station-staff Porter on the right, a similar trick was played with another figure, while a third railwayman got a cream jacket to become an ice-cream seller, rather than a platform refreshment vendor!

H is for Hamleys, or Harrods . . . ?

OK, I'm presenting these as they are, recolouring renders them pretty awful, and 'adjust contrast' has little effect as they are firmly in the all-orange-brown spectrum! Among the odder things in the archive, and I'm sure there are better quality versions in the Library of Congress, or the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library service, but I don't have either of them, here, in a file! While Google suggests, this 'Junior' supplement for 1939 isn't online in an easily visible fashion, while you need valid Library cards to read the originals held by the aforementioned bodies!

 

Also, I don't know how big they will present, until I've hit 'Publish', but I hope if you click and click again, you should get a pretty mahoosive image to track-around, and hopefully read the less than helpful blurb panels for yourselves?

 

A minute after publishing - yes, the detail is actually very good, find the Adrien helmets hiding behind the logs . . . I've never noticed them! Later still - She's a 'he' (now adjusted, Brylcreem has a lot to answer-for!) and it may all be one piece, still in the workshop? The ornamental elephants in one background (probably real ivory) suggest it could be Harrods?

 

For Junior! See what the crazy Europeans are doing this holiday!

 

If he is working on the back of the big cliff, bottom left, then it could be an in-store display, rather than a window display? I suspect it's several dioramas on a theme (rather the aesthetics of the last/previous war, with the 'sci-fi' Maginot Line and half-tracks!), probably running along a line of pavement-facing windows.

This one recoloured slightly! They almost look like old Egyptian papyrus, which adds to their charm! But they are as brittle as old papyrus, too, so I didn't dare bend-back the little nick in the join on the Ack-Ack gun picture.

 

Within the blurb, credited at one point to British Combine, presumably a forerunner of today's 'press pools', and cleared by the British Censor, the only real clue to where these might have been is in the title-line "Offered in West End Shops", clearly then, this is the myth of patriotism, being used, as it always is, to get people used to and ready for war, a war which was - at the time - still in it's 'phoney' phase.

The hype surrounding the Maginot Line, was so strong that articles with lovely little isometric cutaway drawings, and maps of it, were still a favourite of 'Boys Own' books and seasonal annuals when I was still a kid. It's faded now, and while still controversial, most have accepted the truth of history - it was a very, very expensive white elephant, and complete failure, which tied-up tens of thousands of troops badly needed in Belgium, who never launched a counter-attack, nor got to Dunkirk, to be taken-off, either!

It'll mostly be Britains and Astra Pharos (?) I think, with the small tank from Hornby/Dinky maybe? And you would imagine they were in Hamleys windows, but Harrods were equally famous for theirs, and this could have been tucked down one of the side streets, where the windows have to be sought out, leaving the well-known frontage for fashion and household gifts?

 

The blurb also hints at animatronics, such as the mentioned elevators, another standard of such statement, seasonal window-displays back then, hell, Fleet Toys still had busy displays in the 1980's, think - a bunch of woodland animals playing instruments in the snow, Santa popping out of a chimney, an ammunition-lift to supply the gun, to kill Germans, all good, clean, Crimbo' fun!

I know, I'm over-thinking it, but isn't that half the fun of archivism? The what-if's, or what-actually's!

T is for Toys In The Media - Part the somethingth . . .

 

I was reminded in the early hours of this morning, of the words of Jamie Delson, owner and CEO of The Toy Soldier Company, when he was interviewed by the New Yorker magazine back in May 1992 . . .

 

. . . which has me contemplating, as we've visited them about four times now! Above is one of the pairs the modern Culpitt carried, still available from a few sellers online, they were previously sold by various other brands, sometimes as a six (although only five poses remain), and have clearly been around for several decades! Are you a starving man in the desert, readers, do you know one?

This was illustrating an 'advertorial' puff-piece on watches in The Sunday Times, back in October 2002, and shows what are probably the Toyway reissues of the Lone Star Guard's Band, under the Timpo label.

This was a common ad' back in the . . . 1990's-early 2000's? Advertising an ISA producd for Egg (now the Yorkshire Building Society), and is obviously artwork, but drawing heavily on the Subbuteo footballers designed by Charle Stadden.

Launched on August 5, 2011, the Juno probe to the Jovian system has three crew! Origianlly designed to be crashed into Jupiter at the end of the mission (to protect the integrity of the moons we are hoping to visit in the future), its mission has now been extended (for a second time) until late 2025, so these three are still very-much up there, or out there! I don't know where the cutting came from?

 

Galileo found Jupiter, the other two are more obvious!