S&S is for Sublime and Seasonal

Brian Berke, our roving reporter in New York, has come-up trumps again, with this year's Christmas flats from Scully & Scully's window display in that fair city. Fighting reflection, and retaking a few, it's an interesting lot, with some of the more whimsical ones we're used to, and one or two more Dickensian styled vignettes of older children doing more mundane or domestic tasks . . . Well, one, roasting nuts!

No blurb needed on these now, you know the drill!

My favourite I think, I like the allusion to the Nativity story!

Many thanks to Brian for these, and everything else he does for the blog, in the course of a year. I believe NY is pretty arctic at this time of year, so going into the street and releasing fingers to operate camera's is dedication! And it's only ten-days to the big event, so I'll wish you and yours, all a merry Christmas, in case I forget, nearer the day!

G is for Grail Found!

I managed to find one of my non-toy soldier 'grails' at the November Sandown Park show, we had the Captain Scarlet MSV (Maximum Security Vehicle), with it's repurposed Hornby O-gauge packing crate, filled with gold bars, and this beast, but we never had the little red Security Vehicle, although several of our friends did have it, but this was the one I always missed, after they'd gone to the great church-fate monster!

 

And this one was both cheap, and the early version we had, so perfect. The Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle (SPV), a rather mad, windowless, half-tracked space-tank! It seems to have two jet-turbine engines making it pretty vulnerable to frontal fire, and the shtick was that Captain Scarlet controlled it from a desk, deep in the heart of the vehicle, but, he's approximately 1:76th, so always had loads of infantry support, courtesy of Airfix, for a vehicle the size of a house!

 

It was only cheap because it's missing its missile, but I have several in various colours in the bits boxes. I saw three rather well-renovated Shadow 2's last weekend, from the other Gerry Anderson staple, UFO, and nearly bought one for the missile, just so I could shoot this with it, but they had the evilBay repro' versions, and they just aren't right! So we'll return to this one day, Mike Burrows goes through the various versions here. Looking at his, mine could do with a clean!

B&H is for Bauble Bears and Hairy Hangers!

Yeeeeessss, I do seem to be compensating for another treeless Christmas, with a spending spree on baubles against future traditional Christmases! We've met the bears before here, but I seem to have added five without really noticing!

This was in The Range, and is a flocked blow-mould

 

 

While I regret purchasing this one now, a garden centre standard from Gisela Graham, it's in a baby's romper-suit, and is a bit schmaltzy? But it was the first one I found this year, although second to be shot, and now it's met the others I guess it'll have to stay?

This was Homebase, but actually glass, not the plastic they've been using for the last few years, now going bust, some of the stores have been taken up by the above-mentioned 'Range, but not all of them. He ticks two boxes on the tree themes front, being both a bear and a soldier!

 

Charity shop rescue bear! I vaguely remember these being piled-high in somewhere like Clintons Cards a few years ago, and are clearly now being cast-off in favour of whatever 'this year's' fashion is. It has stitches all over and patches and stuff, and I think there were lines of cards and stationary attached to the licence? I don't know if it had a title, but has Me to You on the foot, which may be the franchise? . . . quick Google; Ah yes! Tatty Teddies!

 

Finally, another faux-distressed or 'aged' bear, but this one brand-new from Morrisions supermarkets, in that 'old' fur which first appeared about twelve years ago with grey-rabbits, one Easter, if I recall correctly?

 

A group-photo', there were about 24 last time I did the tree, and a couple more have been added in the last few years, so I think it's probably over 30 now, or ten-plus per turn. Having the mild ADHD which comes of being on the spectrum, I'm very strict, and will sort them into three piles, small-medium-large, resin-flocked-blow mould-glass, grey-brown-polar white etc, and then they go on the tree smaller ones near the top, larger ones down the bottom, equally spaced, like ursine snow!

T is for Two - Fairylite

By the time I was a kid, Fairylite (like Chad Valley), were as likely to be importing (rebranded Jimson, for instance) as claiming the stuff for themselves, but in the early days, they were a British producer, and recently I've come into two nice pieces of early, marked 'Made in England' output.

 

A lovely little HO/OO-compatible steam road-roller, before and after cleaning. I don't know how many toy road-rollers there were, but as they were still being used as the M4 started to snake its way through my local countryside as a kid, and the various duel-carriageway schemes on the A30 happened (I think diesels had replaced steam by the time they built the M3), they were still an everyday thing, rather than the exotic traction engines which were already appearing on mugs and tea-towels and being marketed as 'old-fashioned', so I guess most toy firms had one!

 

Then, at the same show, Adrian Little of Mercator Trading, gave me this, after no interest was shown in it by the general-public - who were never a good guide to true value!

 

It's a slightly 'stag', variation of the slide-puzzles more normally consisting of words, sums or a single picture, here you can keep going to your heart's content, making sillier combinations, once you've lined them up correctly . . . a lovely little novelty item. It's missing a set of lower legs, to allow for the movement of the other tiles, resulting in at least one child/dwarf each time you stop!

 

Proof, if proof were needed!

F is for Follow-up - Noreda and Injectaplastic

I mentioned in a comment the other day that I try to avoid 'khaki' subjects in December, and that's true, especially the more war'y stuff, but the odd bit gets through, and these ready-made AFV's are a perennial favourite of mine, with two purchases in recent months, both European brands.

 

I think this is the Injectaplastic Jeep, with a gun that's new to the collection, the owner has added waterslide transfers which some of you may recognise from plastic kits (Airfix and Esci - I think?), and which completes the line-up with their Munga and Kubelwagen, both seen here passim. It's darker green than my existing sample of these, though.

This was in the same purchase and is the Noreda one, which I seem to already have, but the trouble with show-purchases is that you are pressed for time, and have to make split-decisions on whether or not to buy something, based on what you can remember having, what you think you may have, and/or what you've seen and/or posted from elsewhere!

A comparison shot with the Triang Minic tin-plate in clean state, but missing it's key, hopefully I'll have one in the spare key zone! All a similar kid's handful size, and two of them needing a comparison shot on the Airfix Jeep page!

 

Also with the two jeeps and gun, came this truck with yet another take on that 1950/60's staple, the twin AA 'pom-pom' gun, now euphemistically referred to as a 'technical'! Again this seems to be Injectaplastic, from the wheels, and is new to the existing sample, but needs paint-removal, before I take better shots.

 

Then I picked these up last Saturday, from Tony Herrington, long time 'plastic warrior' who was stalled-out at the London Toy Solder Show, these are the Noreda truck we've seen before with canvas tilt and GS trailer, but now, also, as a tanker version, with tanker trailer and an additional 'goulash cannon' field kitchen.

 

The kitchen, while simplified for production in one shot as a pocket-money toy, follows the basic design very well, we had similar trailers on field exercises in the 1980's, four hot-plate/bain-maries over an oven and grill with the chimney long-enough to take the gas fumes (wood smoke or burnt oil in earlier times) away from the faces of the troops operating the equipment, or queuing-up for 'range-stew' - baked-beans, tinned potatoes and tinned mixed-vegetables cubed, with cheap sausages, diced in a thick gravy!

T is for Transports of Delight

I know I'm supposed to claim to be a toy soldier and/or model figure collector, but vehicles have always had a place, not least because of the Airfix 'readymades' when I was a small-scale collector, but just as scenics and then spaceships started to feature, alongside Dinosaurs (quite recent) and erasers or cracker/gum-ball novelties, so mini and micro-vehicles have taken a growing corner of the stash for their own.

 

The fact that collected brands like Manurba, Pyro/Kleeware or MPC gave-up micro-AFV's, or the little trio of gun/armoured car/carrier thing, which came with so many rack-toys, was the start, but once you're into novelties, vehicles feature quite often, and these have all been added to the pile this year!

Actually, the exception which proves the rule - this came in some time ago, if the bedspread is anything to go by, it's been in storage for well over a year now, I think! A soft polyethylene copy of the Matchbox Greyhound coach, possibly from an earlier 'styrene Blue Box one, but starting to get a bit truncated, almost a 'deform', and smaller than the original. This may have been a put-aside from Gareth Morgan or Chris Smith.

 

A die-cast Benbros Qualitoy Gypsy wagon, these were the sort of wagon the itinerant knife-sharpeners, tin-smiths and other crafters would take village to village, all gone now, but there were still one or two on the road when I was a kid. Now rich 'celebrities' have fake ones placed in their gardens! This also shows other ways vehicles sneak into the collection, firstly my side-interest in wagons, and secondly; small-scale horses!

 

Two pieces of slush-cast lead, probably British, and a die-cast fire-engine, probably American? These were saved for me/donated to the Blog by Adrian Little, a while ago I seem to recall, and help with ID'ing them would be gratefully received! They may all, also, be board-game playing pieces?

 

Picked up in the September Sandown Park show, we have four from one series and a racing-car from another, all polystyrene, and all Hong Kong product. We looked at all my 'moulded-on wheels' micro-stuff a year or so ago, but there's also tons of this working wheels stuff, a lot of it marked W Germany, but plenty of British and HK lots, so these will join their samples against a proper look at them all one day.

 

Two of them are marked Made In Hong Kong, while the other two have an additional stock or tool number, but wheels/axles tie them to each-other.

 

I'm loving this, I'm pretty sure I already have one, possibly in the same red, which may have been on the Blog already (another Chris Smith jobbie?), but I seem to remember it having damaged engine-nacelles, while on this new example they are all present and correct. I suspect this might be a slightly upmarket (but still budget-end) Christmas cracker inclusion?

 

 It's also a spinning-top, which looks as if it should also whistle or howl, through those slats in the bodywork, but I can't get a note out of it! Of interest is the three nipplettes arranged around the spin-nipple (all my own nomenclature!), which help to prevent it from tipping too soon, or wobbling, so, help keep it spinning!

 

The flying saucer (here seen after cleaning!) came with these and the items in the next image, all around the same size, but obviously from different sources, the plane here being a bubble-gum capsule, a small piece of generic pink gum, similar to that which came with the little tanks, being stuffed in the nose and wedged against the tapered body as the two were closed together.

The yacht could be another cracker prize, or a basic/budget bath toy, or even supplied with a piece of bubble-gum 'cargo'? It was a much produced/copied novelty from both W Germany and Hong Kong, back in the day, but this seems to be the best quality one (with realistic, relief-sculpted, racing markings on the marbled sails) in a growing sample of them (we've seen a few over the years, not least a whole card of Rado/Ri Toys ones!), and while unmarked, may be British?

The wheeled passenger-boat is all soft plastic, and probably the most modern thing in the post, maybe as late as the 1990's or 2000's, and could be cracker, gum-ball or rack-toy, while the HK copy of a Manurba mini-sub is one of several generations of piracy, previously seen on the blog as rack toys.

 

Once they've all joined their like-for-likes, we'll return to them here, hopefully with details to add, or just 'bigger-pictures' as far as numbers in sets, or polymer/paint colours go! I was going to add some Internet images to this post, but there's so many of them, they can be another - 'lazy' - post, another day! And thanks to all who save this stuff for me, in addition to those named above.

Fer is for Philmar Phort!

I've almost (temporarily) lost my mojo, there's still too much happening IRL (as they say on anti-social media), which means there's a ton of stuff been piling-up over the course of the year, and it's mostly going to come out piecemeal rather than as show reports or donation posts, and this is a good example, I think it was in the first/earlier Sandown park stuff back in the late summer, a purchase from Mercator, I think.

 

The Philmar 'Toyland' Fort, a simple-enough, and quite sturdy cardboard fort in a game/puzzle type box which also provides a plinth-base for the pieces to be seated in. Colourfully printed in a definite toy-town style, it would look good with some of the stylised Wend-Al or Britains toy-town figures or (because of weight), probably better, with the Marx/Wilton 'Babes in Toyland' soldiers?

The base, turned-up . . . side-down (upturned!), and the components. Only twelve pieces, but there are still some fiddly moments in the construction, which could lead to unwanted folds, creases or dog-ears, if one isn't careful, so hopefully Mum or Dad would lend a helping hand!

Completed; the luckiest aspect is that the flag hasn't been bent or torn, often with these card toys, it's the flags which go first. Plenty of flat-topped surfaces for displaying figures, and once it's together, quite robust.

Paper sheet is a single sheet, folded in half, with a rather over-enhanced 'finished item' picture on the fourth side! I - typically - didn't follow the instructions, and had to undo a large portion to get the corner-tower to sit properly!

 

A quick sizer with 60mm (Pal/Athena), 45mm (Kleeware/Tudor Rose?) and 35mm (Kinder) bits I had to hand at the time of the photo-shoot! I think 30-35mm would be the best size for actual play, German flats for instance; its walls are really too high for the Airfix guards.

A is for A Starman Came Calling . . . With Several of His Mates!

Would you believe our blow-moulded friend from Christmas's past is back again in a third (or fourth?) guise, but there's more this year! First found in Primark (checks Tags, it is four!) in blue, then a pearlescent one turned up from Asda, before a red one came unbranded from a charity shop, now we have a surrealistically decorated one, from . . . Poundland I think, or Morrisons, I've forgotten?

 

The electric blue gloves and boots are a bit speculative, but with Musk, Bezos and Branson regularly exercising their penis extensions now, corporate logos and uniforms are making themselves felt on the launch ramps! And that looks like a Morrisons price-label!

Previous three can be found here, a group shot in a year or two, and what colour will we find next, or where?

This then came-in, and it's a proper blown-glass one, an unbranded generic from TKMaxx, also more realistically painted, with silver standing-in for the white of the original moon-shot suits, but, they are baubles, and silver is sort of metallic-white!

 

Another glass one, which I left on the self, and rather regret doing so now, I sort of felt it was a bit mawkish, with the star being held, but it's a bloody Christmas bauble isn't it, and I was probably being a bit stuck-up, so I may see if I can get one in a day or two! Can't honestly remember where I saw it, possibly the big Longacres garden centre in Bagshot, or Haskins near Birdworld on the Bordon road?

 

And then, as a seasonal Brucey-bonus, this joined the stash this evening, picked-up by chance in a gift-shop in Farnham, well, OK, maybe not purely by chance, what else was I looking for in a gift shop, in Farnham! A 'Space Exploration' pencil from Suck UK, with topper AND clinger!
 

The rocket will join all the other mini/micro space-ships and Anderson stuff, while the figure is a fun piece, who, though skilful sculpting, loses little in the positioning of the pencil's shaft-tunnel, for want of a better word! All spacey/Christmassy and out there now!

 

And . . . I'd better do a quick shout-out for the London Toy Soldier Show, tomorrow in Camden, last show in the calender, and, therefore, the last show for several months, I'll be there!

6 is for Dinosaur Figures

In my most recent visit to B&M I did buy a smaller set than the six-quid one looked at last night (which I'm probably going back for), and, with larger animals, about the same value for money at less than 50p each.

 

All quite nicely decorated except the Stegosaurus which gets a screaming fluorescent green paint-job like some leather-backed tree-frog, but the others were quite well-done I thought. The sea-monster is posed with the two from the Phidal set we looked at a while back now, and that's them, nothing exciting, but out there now.

A packing slip with consumer information and EU licences ties this set to an Anderton Toys of Hitchin, in hertfordshire.