I know, I know, but if you think about it, there is some sense in that, a method in the madness!
I like to think that over the years a lot of the important ID work on both Zang (composition) and Palitoy (early plastic) aircraft has been done here, slowly, as I've found them, not knowing Mig Bonnefoy already knew more about the Zang than me, but wasn't publishing online!
In recent months I've had a couple of good chats with Mig, on the subject, and shared two of these Zang revelations with him, but in the meantime a loyal reader 'Down Under', sent more revelations on Palitoy and some Antipodean angles on 'dine store' plastics, therefore this post is full of interesting stuff, new to Blog, Internet and some further corners of the Hobby!
So, in the order in which they were revealed to me, let's get stuck in!
We've seen the
Boeing B17 in both silver and camouflage, and both British and USAAF markings (indeed, the examples on that occasion, came from Mig!), but for years, people have always been careful to say things like 'believed to be', 'said to be' and such like, when discussing the '
Zang for
Timpo', I know I have, and the confusion, aided by Joplin's big yellow book, was always best left as
Zang if loose,
Timpo if
Timpo-carded!
But here we have, on opposite tail planes, both a Timpo mark and the Zang mark, as a nice underlining confirmation of the relationship, and the first time I've seen it. And many thanks to John Begg for saving this one for me.
Then, a couple of weeks later, I found this at Sandown Park, and I've pulled it from those plunder-posts, to get it all together here. I was able to show it to Mig, literally minutes later, and an eMail exchange then ensured to decide whether it was a Yakovlev Yak-3 or an Ilyushin Il-2 (Flying Tank), and the Yak was settled upon! But nobody knew these were out there.
No Timpo blue-triangle label, although there may have been one where the paper blemish lies under the nose of the righthand Yak, but the box is quite fancy, and reminiscent of the JE Beale's department-store one, which reminds us they are still all Zang first, and only Timpo if so packaged . . . or, now, sometimes, marked!
Mig also gave me an updated list of the Zang/Timpo 'planes;
- Airspeed Horsa (Glider)
- Boeing B17 Fortress
- Boeing B29 Super Fortress
- Bristol Blenheim
- De Havilland Mosquito
- Gloster E28/39 (Jet)
- Hawker Typhoon
- Lockheed P-38 Lightning
- North American P-51
Mustang
- Supermarine Spitfire
- Yakovlev Yak-3
-
- Fairy Battle (mentioned in an Article by Sue Richardson )?
- While we both think there should be a Hawker Hurricane!
So I still have at least, four to shoot, five to find, as the Horsa we saw here wasn't mine!
In the meantime, a loyal reader who doesn't want naming, but is happy to go by the moniker '
Ozi', sent me this, from Australia, and it's clearly a metal copy of the later/better
Palitoy spitfire moulding, under the name of
Merry Toys, missing its landing gear and propeller, but, there's no missing those lines, as we've seen them here, on the Blog,
most recently this January, just gone.
Ozi said: "I will attach a few pics of the “Merry Toys” metal cast item;
which I think owes a great deal in parentage to the Palitoy “Spitfire or
whatever it is”. The wingspan of the Merry Toy is spot on four
inches. I don’t have a Palitoy Spitfire” to go alongside it. The
casting of the Merry Toy is pretty crude anyway. Would you please let
me have your thoughts on the possible parentage of this item? I found
it in a model shop about twenty years ago" .
Well . . . my thoughts are, who copied who? There is clearly a relationship, but the Aussie one is both lacking the strange indented line down the fuselage (of the Palitoy one), and has a better cockpit. So I am minded to think, given how poor Palitoy's version-one Spitfire was, that they are also responsible for the first iteration of this beast, and Merry then improved upon it?
Also, haveing placed the Palitoys firmly in the 1940's, there is something of the 1950's tinplate about this Merry antipodean one, albeit, it's actually a die-cast alloy model?
Ozi also sent a very clean Mossie . . . from Aussie . . . sometimes I should just be jailed! Ozi found it on Gumtree, down under, so some made their way down there. I think I read, there is both a real Mosquito and a Lancaster being rebuilt in that part of the world?
It's not the only Mossie being rebuilt I believe, and likewise I think an American (or second Canadian?) Lancaster is under rebuild. Having seen the then, only two, flying Lank's together, at Farnborough, a fair few years ago, now, imagine what four would look/sound like, and likewise, three Mosquitos!
In a follow-up eMail Ozi sent these four pictures (above and below) of smaller 'novelty' 'plane models, and I'll post his musing on childhood fandom and memories of toy aircraft at the bottom. Here a rather nice
Vampire, in marbled pinkish-maroons.
North American P-51
Mustang and De Havilland DH.106 Comet
"In my school days, growing up in a smallish country
town in OZ and later in a City, with only my imagination for company, it
was natural to have a liking for toy aircraft. It was a bit after WW2
and no one wanted reminders of it – but I was curious about the
aircraft. Over several years, I saw the Dinkies, the Timpo “Bomber
Station” set (with what I later recognized as Lightnings!), a small
scale plastic set of apparently locally produced items and – best of
them all – the plastic Palitoys. Particularly the Wellington with its
transparent gun turrets with guns!
They were all out of my reach and I
just had to drool. The Defiant and the Wellington were moulded in a
sort-of camouflage pattern [the distinctive marbling of early Palitoy's. Ed.]; which made them very distinctive.
And then
there was a series of plastic toys contemporary with the Korean War;
Panther, MIG 15, Shooting Star a nice Sabre with RAAF markings and they
had wheeled undercarriages. In various colours; blue, yellow, red. I
managed to somehow get a couple of them. There might have others in
that series. I am pretty sure they were local knock-offs of the US
Empire brand – or they might have been licensed copies. I don’t know, and I don’t think anybody knows now.
There was another series out
about the same time – no undercarriages on this lot ; a Hawker Hunter
(Only saw red ones), a Canberra and a DC3. And a bit later were the
giveaways with packets of “Aeroplane Jellies”. I have illustrated the
only one of those I have ever seen. A Vampire, not very well moulded in
a dark purple colour. Similarly, I somehow managed to swap for or find
examples.
The first pics are of the “Aeroplane Jellies” Vampire.
Wingspan about 2.5”. Next are a couple of examples of the small scale
locals – a Mustang and a Comet in silver. Wingspan about 2.5”. Only
ever saw these in silver, and I am pretty sure there was a Canberra in
that series and also a Lincoln. Next is a pic of an American Empire
Grumman Panther. Wingspan about 4.5”. Despite looking for years for
examples of the OZ made Panthers, MIG15’s etc, I have never seen a
single one.
In more recent times I have obtained locally a very
distorted Palitoy Defiant, a couple of Lockheed bombers; plus eBay examples of the post-war Wellington and Sunderland. The occasional
Timpo Lightning crops up here, and also their B17. Usually very play
worn.
A couple of ZANG Mossies were a welcome find a few years ago. A
local site had a listing some time ago of a collection of small plastic
toys; FD2, Lightning and others and I put in a bid, but it was not good
enough. Apparently they were local KELLOGG'S giveaways and dated rather
after my school days. . . .
. . . I should
mention seeing the toys section of one of the new supermarkets (COLES)
having Palitoy “Spit-whatevers” and Vampires and possibly other types
finished in what appeared to be chrome plating."
The 'small scale locals' would seem to be yet another iteration of the MPC 'Minis', also done in hard plastic by Blue Box, but possibly only one or two? And many thanks to John, Mig and 'Ozi' for helping bring this lot together!
