M is for Marx Space - Tom Corbett

For years, I thought this was Tom Cobet, I guess you read what you see, and the dyslexia (now known to be Asperger's) may have been a part, but I think a lot of people probably read words, new words that is, or especially names, wrongly! As a kid I read tons of Sci-Fi, and rereading now, you realise how poorly you understood the made-up names of aliens or their planets, and I suspect lots of us do it! Also, some of my LotR/Hobbit name-readings were way off too!

 

Still missing a couple of poses, and I think all the paint's going to have to come off, as I said in the Introduction, Tom Corbett - Space Cadet was a TV serial (as they were called before they became series (UK) or seasons (US)), on all four main US Channels (not just the NBC of my notes), and these uniforms seem to tie-in well, with the costumes of the TV series. The crawling figure, middle left, is an Alien.

 

More here;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Corbett,_Space_Cadet_(TV_series)

 

I already had one of the missing chaps, with the mic, who I seem to have shot twice now, and there were two unpainted figures in the lot, which leaves two other blokes and the single female sculpt to find, I think, but that's the fun of collecting! Throwing money at complete sets, if/when you've got it, gets boring! All mine are PVC, aparently later ones were polyethylene, with bases added to earlier baseless figures.

 

These were pretty ubiquitous I think, and included in lots of the space sets, and while it looks a bit classroomy, they are all mean to be more 'control-room' than office! I think I got the small cabinet of component drawers on its side, without my glasses I thought it was a bookcase full of box-files!

 

Big important machine on the left and uppy-downy-side-to-side radar array to the right, there is a small hole in the top of the giant cash-register, which is for a mesh-cullender-dish type thing, missing from these two examples, but we'll see one in a later part.

 

Educational interactivity was provided by the morse signaler boards, which changed over time, with at least two versions of code sheet. On the right is one missing the code sheet slider-insert.

 

From behind, obviously by sliding them up or down, you can flash morse messages in either red or black, with the printed dots offset by just enough to allow for them all to go white on the push (red), or pull - black.

 

Close-ups of the two different sheets I have, there may be more?

Black includes numerals, red has letters only. 

 

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a big computer or a giant filing-cabinet, or should I lay it flat as a cargo-pod? The beauty of imagination in play! One thing I discovered while shooting all these was that the scenics/accessories were completely replaced over time, apparently by some pretty casual pantographing, resulting in the replacements being smaller all round.

 

Early versions were polystyrene, later stuff is in a tough polyethylene type polymer, with some (the red-orange stuff) having more of the feel of polypropylene?

 

Size difference is quite notable, and while I say I 'discovered' it, I couldn't find anything on the Internet about it, but I'm sure the experts in the defunct Plastic Figure & Playset Collector, or it's still extant offspring, Russel Kern's Playset Magazine will have highlighted such details at some point, and previous to my observations! The Americans take Marx as seriously as the Germans worry about the colour variations of Timpo Apache legs!

L is for Last May's Lots of Lovely Loot - Military Figures

On to the second post of the plunder from May's Sandown Park (the next show's on Saturday), and it’s the military stuff, which was a quite eclectic assortment from across the ranges of scales, materials, and eras depicted.

 

This was a lovely find, a very, very clean Kentoys guardsman, with the correct (for purposes of identification of several vertions ) Sentry Box, in a near mint box which also shows how the stretcher-party was sold from the same carton.

 

And, speaking of stretcher teams, this Starlux set came home with me, I know I have the small-scale set in several configurations of base-type, paint, or plastic colour, but I'm not sure about the big one, I think I may have a stretcher, but no casualty or orderlies?

 

And these were a nice find, despite being the less loved of the company's output, they are every-bit as historical (as artifacts) as their earlier Nazi brethren, being instead, the East German, collectivised Lineol factory's production of Volksarmee Cold War soldiers, with both the Soviet-influenced helmet and side-caps. The sculpting is much more 'wooden' that their pre-war/wartime stuff.

 

This came with them; I always like a bit of scenery! But I have no idea which side of the border, or even which side of the war, this was made! The pack suggests West, the quality post-war, so probably Elastolin, but unmarked.

 

 

Grist to the mill with these, and the foot figures are a bit bashed, but it's all useful stuff, and these Culpitt/Wilton cake decorations are polystyrene, so paint and glue is probably in their future? It would be nice to do a few of the French/Hessian uniforms.

 

I can never resist these smaller-scale, early British mounted subjects (here, Cherilea 50mm'ish), as there are quite a few of them (Cherilea, Crescent, Rocco & Hill), they tend to come in various plastic and/or paint colours, and are often a bit play-worn, so making sure you have the best sample, means grabbing them whenever you can!

 

A soap guardsman! Needs a careful damping to lose the white bruises, but I'll save that job for a day when I have the time, space and tools for the task, as you don't want to wreak it! I tried an Avon search, and he doesn't seem to be one of theirs (which were normally ' . . . on a rope'), so a minor make, a seasonal or touristy novelty!

 

Chess set figure, seen before, I think, but all need bringing together and comparing.

 

And from Adrian's cheapie tray I got some nice, hollow-cast lead samples. Without the books in front of me I won't try to ID them definitively, but US Marine and colonial Brit', on the left, colonial and regular French on the right, and some of them Britains (including the small one, a B-Series?), maybe a French made one or two?

S is for Shot on the Shelf!

A few shelfies which were a bit too big or pricey for Rack Toy Month, here; and I think they may have been shot over some time in three stores?

 

New 'Britains' farm sculpts from Tomy, shot at the Country Market store in the garden centre near Borden a while ago now, I don't remember the git=rl being in even the last tranche of real Britains, while the vet/farrier is a totally new sculpt.

 

While these are the latest iteration of mouldings over sixty or seventy years old!

But you wouldn't transport postpartum ewes, with both their lambs, AND a ram!

 

Just a bit of fun - sleepy-cat chopstick rests! Homesense, Farnborough.

Just the kind of thing which will be appearing in those charity shop bags of mixed scale/era/make figures, quite shortly I'd imagine! Jada Toys, I couldn't tell if it was a polymer figure or another of their die-casts with a matt finish? About 75mm? TK Maxx, and I'm tagging for Gaming and TV/Movie as a film is due in 2026!

M is for Marx Space - Intro.

A bit of a box-ticking exercise, I bought another Marx space set the other day, it was packed with stuff, but not necessarily the stuff which should have been in it, lots of figures, which is what I was after, so I was happy enough, though.

 

However, because it was all a bit mixed, and because there are better US sources for all this stuff, which can be quite complicated, especially when several long-running playsets all carried similar stuff, I'm going to look at the figures over a few posts, as a sort of conversational overview, and some of the other stuff will come along for the ride!

 

So, this was the set I got, a bit tatty, but all in one piece, and supposed to be a 'Captain Space' set, however the contents were more suited to a 'Moonbase' set, with the figures surviving from the Captain Space set, along with their tinplate compound.

 

Compared with the tin Cape Kennedy carry-case I bought a while back.

 

The stuff I've left out of the posts, the tin-plate compound is in a bag, there's a ton of rocketry, but some of it's in a poor state, so I'll need to track down some better stuff later, although I haven't sorted them with the stuff in the main pile, or the extras in the Kennedy set, so something will come together.

 

The orange version of the launching gantry we saw, in white, in the Canaveral set, is definitely a Moonbase item, not a Captain Space thing, while I think the big rocket is MPC. Weirdest is the quadruple ray-gun platforms, there's about nine and a bit in this shot, plus a couple missing which were with the photo-shoot stuff!

 

Bases/lauchers, or parts thereof, from several other sets, and another piece of tin-plate, and a couple of things which aren't Marx were also kicking-about in the bottom of the box! Somehow missing the shot, was the Gemini module, but with a silver pilot, not the colour-matched get-up, we saw here, but the capsule was in the same leery orange-red!

 

But all these guys, gals and Aliens, along with a robot or two and a near full set of the larger 54mm NASA types were included, so it's through them, that I'm going to look at some of the more interesting bits, over a series of posts.
 

The grey ones are the Tom Corbett figures, with uniforms matching the NBC TV serial, the blue ones Rex Mars (Marx's own property), and the orange ones the Space Patrol figures, a set used to pack out the other pairs' sets, while the green ones are a set of Aliens pulled from the Rex Set for later issues like the Moonbase set.

 

I'm assuming the paint is all home-added, I can't find others similarly painted, so one day I'll clean them all off.

L is for Last May's Lots of Lovely Loot - Vehicles

Before I can get on to the very late Plastic Warrior show reports, I need to get the previous, and even later, Sandown Park's loot out of the way, which was purloined a few weeks before the PW show, so let's get them out of the way sharpish! Although I don't think you can say sharpish, when the posts are three months overdue!

 

A small Gescha/Gama style tin-plate tank, bearing more resemblance to some early post-war APC's, with a small turret, and high superstructure. I can't remember if it had branding, or if someone gave me a brand? Space Tank!

 

Two mystery (when I saw them) die-cast military vehicles. a nice inter-war armoured car, actually Charbens, it is die-cast alloy, but has lead wheels, and a British tanker-truck, which was marked Britain or England I think, the trouble with doing these posts so long after the event, is you forget stuff! But while in the style of Dinky, it's not, and is probably a re-painted Benbros Esso tanker - note the red on the paint-chips! Interestingly, a re-issue of an old Timpo mould.

 

Vintage Tootsie-Toys AFV's, one marked the other anonymous (can't remember which was/is which), I think the lorry may be pre-war (1930's), while the Armoured-car might be just post-war? But that's going on the wheels/tyres (or 'tires', they're American after all!), which could, just as easily, be replacements? You won't believe the trouble I had, getting the two MG's to look right, they are suspended, free-floating or hanging, between small bumps in the moulding, and loose with age, and were a bugger to get right!

 

Another Charbens, this all die-cast, wheels and body, and darker green than some I've seen, and while not the most accurate version of Humber out there, it's a darn-sight better than the plastic one they did later!

 

Two more French 'readymades', one each Noreda (front, Jeep-like) and Injectaplastic (behind, DKW with Jeep trailer), we've seen them both before, but they were clean, and cheap, so I took them home with me!

Banner 'row-crop' tractor in military green, possibly depicting an Oliver tractor (US Readers?), and two copies, the copies are slightly smaller all-round, and have a few detail differences, unmarked, I hope they are in Bill Hanlon's book!

 

Again, newish to me, similar to some Archer space cars from the 'States, I was told these were actually British so Kleeware or Tudor Rose, but the larger one is a Marx future car, the smaller however is a Pyro/Kleeware moulding, so could the Marx also be a mould-swap with Kleeware?

 

Two teeny-tiny battleships, probably from a late-Edwardian board game, and a larger lead yacht, which could also be a board-game piece, or a smaller component of something more decorative? It's covered in what appears to be black paint, but which could just be severe oxidation?

 

Because they came with a T4, these two reprobates have got themselves into the vehicle post! In the style of MUSCLE or Kinnukiman, these two Thunderbirds Keshi are new to the collection, along with the little Thunderbird Four.

 

A damaged Manurba coach and spare helmet crest for a Lone Star knight are snuck in at the end, just to get them off the laptop!

I is for Irreverence!

Time for another collection of Internet memes I've sidled away for such a rainy day, and it was a very rainy day today! I nearly published than last night, but gave up and went and did something else, somewhere else (photographed toys), however I found the last one, just now on Faceplant, and it spurred me to action!

 

Can't shoot, won't shoot!

 

The revenge of Tim Mee was brutal!

 

There are several R2D2 one's like this kicking about, but Bungle is priceless!

 

Noooooooooo!

 

I love his grin!

 

One of my oldest friends is taking parcel after parcel of HO-OO stuff in, for his brother, so the brother's wife (no names, no pack-drill!) doesn't cotton-on to how bad it's got, they are both in their 60's, so it's no great crime, but I immediately thought of them when I saw this!

 

Ooops!

 

Hot off today's internet, I thought the following comment, from a Gary Karst deserved to be wider-shared;

 

"It's commemorating the courageous efforts of the U.S. Army Corp of Landscapers in this underwhelming battle. Semper Ficus."