S&S is for Seasonal and Superb

Brian has sent his seasonal shots of Scully & Scully's window display, he said he was fighting refelction, but they all look good to me, and as we all know what's coming, we don't need any more of my waffle; enjoy!

 

Many thanks to Mr. Berke for these, it's an unpaid mission, to fight the New York shopping crowd, and get these images, not just at Easter or Halloween, but especially at this time of year, and they are the most exquisite examples of the slate-etcher's art, even if, these days, they are cold cast rubber, or even metal moulds? And they are beautifully painted as well, a real treat Brain, thank you. It's starting to feel very festive!

 

09/12/2025 - Late addition!

N is for November's Sandown Park - Civilian

Welp. Cleared some crap out of Picasa yesterday! But I'm running-about today, so don't expect the same posting rate! Here's another bunch of the odds from the recent Sandown Park show, and it's the civilian stuff.

 

I'm pretty sure these are French Dinky/Hornby (Meccano), but a quick Google just questioned that belief, I couldn't find them, although Google is so commercialised and generally shit these days, that's an indicator of nothing!

 

I have a larger sample in storage (these aren't that rare), and have had them for years, and I'm sure I found them or someone told me they were French Dinky, but they could be someone else? They are O-Gauge railway figures, and a vinyl rubber, of the old-school, quite dense/rigid, but stable (no weeping oily shite) type, and there were two tranches/issues, one with the little domed, concave cavity in the base, the others flat-bottomed.

 

Not sure on these either, I'm pretty sure they aren't the Marx set, one's similar, but the other isn't, and orange isn't a colour that associated with Marx, but they are more likely a US maker, than Hong Kong, just from the detail level?

 

One day I'll have to bring all the American Football players together, which will force me to research them properly, at which point I'll probably find a web-site with many more than me, that ID's all of them! And thanks to Gareth Morgan for these two, he let me pick through a mixed lot he'd found.

 

Copies of the Marx Power Mite road menders (two to the left), and a knock-off of the Blue Box copy of a Dinky to the right. One day I'll have to do a page or post just on the three - Dinky, Marx, Blue Box and all the copies!

 

Merit newspaper seller from the magnetic Driving Test game, a pretty-good knock-off of the Britains farm-girl, and another cracker-sized athlete.

 

Another question-mark here, it's not the common Hornby-Triang set, still being issued today I think, included with most of the steam locomotives, and many train-sets, so maybe Playcraft, Bachmann, or someone like Jouef? Driver, fireman, and some accessories for the locomotive?

 

These are also a bit of a mystery. The figure sets, as accessory sets, were vinyl, and issued on small runners, so I think these hard polystyrene examples must have been from a gift-set of some kind, it needs a Corgi expert, which I'm not!

 

Four bits of metal, the first is probably a coalman from one of the British minor-make wagon/cart toys in slush-cast lead or die-cast mazac/zamak, the little lead/whitemetal ringmaster, might be a cake decoration? But doesn't look to be that old, while the other two are obviously modern, aftermarket accessories for model racing cars, being Graham Hill in white, and . . . Andretti or Villeneuve, senior? Looks like Senna (again), but the helmet would/should be yellow?

Q is for Question Time - Fusilier in Fez

Can anyone ID this composition figure?

Possibly German made, but no base, so no base mark! And clearly an Ottoman infantryman from the period of the First World War, or from the blue, earlier . . . Russo-Turkish war of 1877? I'd love to put a maker's name to him. He's quite big as well; about 80mm?
 

N is for November's Sandown Park - Sci-Fi &etc.

On to the odd-and-sods of the last show, and these are a bit of a mix, nothing exciting, but it's all grist to the mill, and there's always something new!

 

I think the devil is probably a rather naff Valentine's Day 'thing', but it IS a bendy! While the green chap, also a bendy, is probably more modern, and wasn't easy to shoot, but I decided to leave him in his crinkled bag for now. He has something of the Muppets about him?

 

Straight from a shop-stock / counter display box, three colours/poses of the Cherilea 60mm astronauts, interesting that the whole box, only had these three poses, the non-EM2 Bullpup armed chaps? And colours tie-in with the Tibidabo issues, so I think it's fair to say the Italians just bought-in the product, but never had the tools?

 

If there's anything exciting in this post it's the left-hand of these two from Yolanda, of Spain, being a large Anime/Manga type robot, Marked Toei, while the other chap is marked Troma I think, the US pulp-Video Nasty producer, and both are the earlier polyethylene, some Yolanda were later issued in a softer PVC-substitute.

 

Adrian gave me this, his head is broken-off, so will need pining at some point, but in the last few years several whole, and part, Cherilea Batmans and/or Robins have come in with one or two bases, so I'll sort them all into the best pair and Blog them again properly, one day!

 

'Gygax' spikey, one of the Crossbows & Catapults figures mentioned the other day, home-painted and play-worn, he needs a good clean, along with a Bandai Power Ranger's villain - I think!

 

What looks like a 1:48th scale aircraft kit's gunner, and one of the Aurora figures from the Lost in Space set with the rock-throwing cyclopean alien. He's lost his hand, but as a first sample, will do for now, although I may have these in white-plastic (Mobius) somewhere?

E is for Eye Candy - WWI Cavalry

I shot these at the BMSS (British Model Soldier Society)'s show in Reading, two years ago, on Mercator Trading's stall (thanks Adrian), and they are pretty special; Holgar Eriksson's finest, WWI British Cavalry in the charge. Probably from Comet-Authenticast's set British Cavalry, Field Uniform, 1914, which was unnumbered.

The brown one may be Chinese or something, Eriksson's lists included dozens and dozens of nations, and often it was just a paint-job to create another catalogue listing, but only Boxer Rebellion types are listed to my knowledge, although #56 was an 'unused' number in the later sets. The same - painting to order - was true of the first Malleable Mouldings lists. Or, it could be one of his own figures, from Sweden?

B is for Britains - Seen Elsewhere, Eye Candy and Odds & Sods

Although, some of this might hurt your eyes, but even the mighty falter and in the end, everything dies.

 

Toward the end, Britains tried to get away from 'war' war, and the whole WWII, 'Boys Own', ♪♪♫Two World Wars and . . . ♪♫, "I mentioned it once . . but I think I got away with it / You started it!" type toy theme which had served British kid's so well since 1945, by adopting first this generic UN theme, then some of the silliness below! Standard farm version of the Short Wheelbase (SWB) Land Rover, given a United Nations makeover. Here missing its 'hard-top'.

 

Using the late version US Infantry (solid sculpts, no moving, plug-in arms), accompanying UN troops (Task Force Action Figures) were provided, along with several other paint schemes as 'enemy' or just other units, only available for a couple of years in the mid-1990's, they should be rare, but many retailers were left with unsold stock, and a few years ago most dealers had mint sets on their tables!

Arctic warriors?!

 

Sold with a desert version of the Land Rover as 'Desert Storm'!

 

75p was still a fair-bit of money for a kid in 1996, and that's for one figure!

 

 The final indignity - Task Force Special Units

 

I showed a few of the other-coloured ones on the Airfix Blog;

http://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/2020/02/1983-cold-warmodern-sas-special-air.html

with more shots on the Modern British Infantry post. 

 

Slightly safer ground with these, the two standard packagings for the earlier WWII-themed support weapons 'Combat Weapons', here the British Mortar (also given to the Germans) and the US Recoilless Rifle (also given to the Japanese!). There was a longer card, which was the display one, designed to sit across the top of the counter-top box, and sold last, after the box was empty.

 

 

There was an attempt to relaunch the range in the mid-2000's by First Gear, who had bought the intellectual property rights and a few of the moulds (most are with DSG in Argentina), and a couple of 'realistic' paint issues were forthcoming, I think these are the second tranche, the first having matt-green bases and better paint?

F is for Follow-up - B&M Stores

 As a follow-up to this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/12/s-is-for-shelfies-b-stores.html

 

I did go back and get a set of the mini-animals;

 

12 Dogs.

 

12 farm animals, including another dog!

 

12 wild / zoo animals.

 

12 Dinosaurs.

They work out at less than 10p each! The dinosaurs are much-of-a-muchness, I've got worse, the wild animals are more hit-and-miss, while the farm animals have their scale all over the place, but are mostly reasonable sculpts, the dogs are probably the poorest of the four sets.

 

Two of the poultry were designated to carry the consumer information for the whole set, while a comparison between the farm's collie-dog and the dog's Alsatian, reveals the different levels of expertise in two sculptors!

M is for Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Neither had I, but it's all here;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraculous:_Tales_of_Ladybug_%26_Cat_Noir

 

And I'll quote the first paragraph for the lazier among you!

 

"Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (French: Miraculous, les aventures de Ladybug et Chat Noir) is a French, animated superhero television series created by Thomas Astruc and developed by Jeremy Zag. The series is produced by the French company Miraculous Corp. (a joint venture of Mediawan and ZAG Entertainment), and co-produced with Japanese studio Toei Animation's European division, as well as several international companies."

 

Totally passed me by, yet seems eminently preferable to Paw Patrol or Bluey! It's an age thing, I know, but it's funny how some toy lines sink, and others swim? These were sent to me by Peter Evans about eighteen months ago, and PMI are known for cheapo' toys and sell though, so I'm guessing they were clearance, in one of the Poundland type store chains, or a North London independent discount store?

 

Ladybug ('Ladybird' en anglais, although technically it should be 'coccinelle' in French!) is the red lady, Cat Noir the black, and other characters are beyond the time I'm willing to spend researching this now!

 

The full range? If a toy doesn't 'fly' on first release, it doesn't get a second chance these days, so this is probably all there is; ten human characters and six anthropomorphic blobs of an insecty or feline nature?

 

Very much in the style of the more successful, but also sold-though Poundland (and The Works) on reductions, or as clearance, Fortnite stampers and/or keyrings, so probably sourced from a similar producer in China.

Many thanks to Peter for bringing these to a wider attention, by sharing them with us!

H is for Haskins Circus Baubles

I thought I'd posted these a week or three ago - I hadn't! A very themed collection of Circus baubles, to be found at the Haskins garden centre, between Farnham and Borden, not my thing, simply because there's too many themes and items already, but if I was just setting out on life's journey and had a tree to fill with memories, or a theme, I would be tempted!

 

They are mostly Gisela Graham so can be found elsewhere, both Redfields and Longacre had a few, but only Haskins seems to have A) ordered the whole line and B) ordered similar stuff from other sources and hung them all together.

 

A rather poor shot, or hurried-shot, I took of a hedgehog I left on the hook. I didn't like the landscaped base, it's basically a shelf-ornament converted into a tree-ornament, which is a bit naff on at least two levels, so it stayed where it was - there's definitely a 'personal' snobbery to ornament selecting!