Being among the most frightful figures in my collection, these do bare more than a passing resemblance to some large scale (100mm?) comic characters originating in - I think - Europe which included a clown, or even some of the Marx 'Nutty' biggies. Likewise there were the Wierd-o's kits issued by several companies under one title or another. Clearly the tail end of some odd late 60's/70's fad for over the top caricatures! 35mm give-or-take.
First up is a close up of the two moulding variants of the Herald/Britains Robin Hood figure, note the feather.
A comparison shot similar to the one I showed when covering the WWII range with Tudor Rose a while ago, but with other figures. From left to right; Holgar Ericson 20mm for Comet/Authenticast, US 'Grunt'; Spencer Smith 25mm ACW Confederate/Slouch Hat; Spencer Smith 25mm 'Connoisseur Range'; SAE/Swedish African Engineers 30mm ECW musketeer.
Gratuitous shot of three Giant chariots!
The figures they are most noted for, known as 'Snow-babies'. These are vaguely 1950's kids in generic woollen/kapok? romper suits enjoying the snow, and were primarily designed to attend the Royal Icing of an Empire-standard, stiff-upper-lipped, rock hard, log of Christmas Cake, hey, don't argue, people did themselves injuries trying to cut into those things, knives were broken and teeth were lost, once entry had been forced - due to post war privations the 'icing' was - I think - in fact a semi-edible concrete!
Two styrene HK copies of the Festival poses, and a Muttley the Dog from the 'Wacky Races' and 'Catch that Pigeon' (is that what the off-shoot was called? Dick Dastardly?) T.V. cartoons. Muttly came with the marked Festival sled he's lying on, yet he is in a quite solid vinyl, not a Festival material at all, however he fits the sled perfectly, so I suspect Festival bought him in (possibly on commission) from someone like Bully or Heimo in order to take advantage of a popular slice of Watch With Mother. [04/03/2012 - He's Corgi! just happens to fit the Festival sledge!]
The Festival Santa's with an HK copy top right, the copy is again in a hard styrene. The sledge rider is in two distinct versions, one (far right) much deeper than the other (riding), I tried to show this in the photo, but fear I failed! It also has a different fixing system, the left-hand one is glued on, while the right-hand one has a locating-stud type feature.
The bulk of Festival's range was aimed squarely at cake decoration, and the vast majority of that seems to have been Christmas cakes, here are more seasonal offerings, all marked with the festival brand. The stag has been much copied over the years, one enterprising HK producer even making a reverse image. Hard styrene copies of the snowman are common.
The wagon is a recent eBay acquisition and prompted these articles, the little 'Queen' has a locating stud in her back and is probably a fairy sans-wings. Cupid was presumably aimed at budget wedding cakes, while the hard plastic robins seem to have been bought in from HK, indeed the log appears to have been designed to take an already common stand-alone feature of Crimbo-cake decorating since the pre-war days of imported highly toxic lead decorations from German catering suppliers.
Festival were also responsible for a lot of the miniature candle holders that were such a feature of our - certainly my - childhood. Here are a couple of sets still in the packs. The logo on the trains is the mark visible on the bases of all the non HK figures & undersides of the sledges in the above two posts. I would like to point out that the trains my brother and I had were the same as the cars, NOT pink!!
This set manages to cover all the bases, copies of Britains Kahki Infantry, Merten Sailors, TriangMinic ships, their own 45mm US Infantry, Crescent 54mm Artillery, Roco Patton, Marx sandbag defence, MPC minis aircraft...someone else's helicopter...Yep, Blue Box really knew how to rip-off a design or two! Four tier sets exist for the civilian range as well, usually with a mix of Matchbox/Corgi/Dinky in the same box!
Similar contents on a carded - probably later - set, the soft plastic figures used here were also issued by late Marx, adding to my contention (in a series for Plastic Warrior magazine's One Inch Warrior off-shoot - see Vol. 10 & 11) that at least one of the Blue Box factories was supplying Marx (the same factory that took over Beeju's production).
These are the piracy's of the Merten Sailors quite enlarged (the originals were HO scale 18/20mm) and are among the less common Blue Box to track down - at least they are loose, in mint sets like these they are easier to find.
Close up of the more common Blue Box items, the lorry is a Bedford RL, they also made a later Bedford MK and both took all manor of body types, this flat bed being the most often encountered, with various plug-in accessories, but there were Ambulance and GS bodies as well. The RL was probably based on the Dinky truck, but the MK is considered to be a Blue Box original.
From the top; Hard plastic gunmetal, soft plastic gunmetal, Hard plastic chrome silver, hard plastic chromed gold, hard plastic white. All carry the LB mark except the silvered chrome ones and the four at the bottom and these may be the ones by Hover (a HK for the US company producing similar Spacex stuff), Blue Box or similar. Those last four have been painted by the owner.
These are the extra figures available with Spacex and Golden Astronaut sets, the four to the left being based on MPC 5 inch figures, the two to the right being based on MPC 50mm figures. The silver one above the row is what happens when you leave them in the sun, not a deliberate silver chromed figure. While the one below the row may have had is chrome stripped, if not he's quite unusual, being made of that 1950's type (mixed granules) plastic? These were never marked, but were sold mixed with LB marked figures in the Spacex/GA ranges.
An incomplete collection of the Triang smaller vehicles, each had 1 figure, so with 50% being the common LB designs, you had to buy a lot to get all the MPC poses (which is why I only have 5 decent examples, and one who's been in the wars!).
Three others, loose, I could list them all, but you're far better off going to Project Moonbase. Presumably in the 21st Century (later, much later!) we will palletise all goods on hover pallets, doing away with the need for two long thin arms on fork-lifts/pallet trucks?Since corrected to Lik Be / LB.
These are all 6 poses of the Robots in small scale (25mm), with slight variants, the gunmetal being soft ethylene, the chromium-plated one's like their 54mm brethren are a hard styrene, most a neutral grayish, but the lower fat one can be seen to be an emerald green under the chrome. The lower 'biker' is yet another unfinished project of mine, undercoat and mapping pen highlights wait for a blue (Police?) wash and tyres, while the upper fish head seems to have factory painted eyes?
These astronauts are unmarked, but the base is very similar to the LB marked Robots and both were still being sold from cake decorating display stands in the late 1990's, so inclusion here is guaranteed, there are only the two poses.
These divers are also marked LB and were probably sold as fish-tank decoration as well as for cakes. I don't know if this was all of them, and they (Lik Be) are probably responsible for some of the older sharks and octopi that turn up in mixed lots from time to time?
Two more marked LB, now, Culpitts carried the astronauts by Lik Be, but tended to move Gemodels product when it came sports and pastime figures, or the HK copies of same. Were these released in direct competition with one of their main clients, or did Culpitts carry these as well? And...How many more were there in this set/series, 6/8?
A colour variation that came to light courtesy of wishes to remain annonymous, paint remains show a common scheme of green base, blue belt and gold helmet.
A Mikephil carded set, these are standard marked figures, the vehicles are very similar to the ones below, but slightly different, slightly more detailed/complicated. Of interest; they are not vehicles issued with Spacex or Golden Astronauts. Roco give up their Pz.IV, or at least the chassis again!Since corrected to Lik Be / LB.
Here we have a white figure almost the same size as the 54mm originals, but with a hollowed out base, either side of him some unmarked silver figures around 45mm with similar but slightly heavier mouldings in the same size but multicoloured above.
The figures in this 'Acrobatic Team' carded set are marked with a small 'HONG KONG' as are the 'planes, I particularly like these aircraft, as while being based on 1950/60's Cold War machines, they could - with a bit of paint - pass for 'Atmosphere Craft' of the Trigan Empire or some of their allies or enemies.
Silicone rubber sucker / window stick-on's of the robots
Some vehicles that have accompanied some of the lots the above figures came in, they may or may not be connected, wheels are very like some Blue Box wheels? The pilots are straight copies of the pilots from the Triang Spacex range.Since corrected to Lik Be / LB.
Another favourite of mine over the years has been the vast range of variants of the LB/Golden/Tri-ang Spacex figures, along with their Robots, and I'll be returning to them again, but for now here are a few of the larger ones.
A good range of different treatments in 54mm of all 8 poses of astronaut. From left to right we have two 'painted fronts' (as opposed to paint both sides/all over) in soft ethylene white plastic, followed by an unpainted one, then a couple of the late coloured ones, a very late hard nylon type plastic one with a chromium finish and two unpainted final versions. These last types can still be found languishing in the dustier corners of older bakers and cake decorating shops.
The later 'Painted fronts' have blue eyes, rather than the black of earlier versions.
The very first runs were painted on both sides, and here we find the earliest styrene issue, again all 8 poses, but showing the reverse, you can follow the issues by how much paint they have! Paper on the base points to them having been glued into Blue Box type window-boxed display sets.
More early issues, again painted on both sides but in ethylene, these early products even have the bases painted, the first thing to go! I have later red ones with no paint, but have yet to find a green one. The green one - of course - does away with the need to paint the base!
A carded set with the Robots in large scale, they're quite uncommon in the bigger size, usually turning up with the small scale figures. Note also (not that clear in the picture I know!) that the two Robots are both fitted with piercings, almost certainly this set was produced after the mould had been permanently converted to produce Key Ring charms. Also of note is the ubiquitous pirated Roco-Minitanks Pz.IV chassis!
Another chassis but with different superstructure (the Lone*Star rocket launcher, another much pirated design!), three more - earlier - Robots and another with the key-ring piercing, unusually he's the only one in my collection of these in a PVC vinyl.
The relative rarity of the Robots in larger sizes probably stems from the visual appearance of them once the holes had been drilled, these HK producers would hawk their wares to all and sundry, and people wouldn't have put in orders for 'damaged' mouldings.
Since corrected to Lik Be / LB.
Either side are old Shire Albums on British civilian and military wagons, both nice little works, and usually pick-up'able for a few quid or less. In the middle is the Blanford Colour Series, which is doubly useful as it give the foreign names alongside the English. Again should be able to find this on Amazon for 'Pennies'...
Two of the three versions of 'White Box' Prussians from Airfix. The third version is the red graphics without the 'New' flash.
Forces of Valour Russian Infantry with Cossack.
Colour variants of Timpo solid knight with battle-axe. Of interest - two base types pointing to two moulds.
Britains Indian Elephant packaging.
Basic boxed set of two figures, looking at the below photo, you'll notice there are slight differences between the bases, whether this helps the real experts date them or not is open to question?
Closer views of the two pairs in my collection, I'm sure I used to have a mounted Alexander/Greek and a mounted Knight but...
Close-ups showing how he built them up from soft-solder on a frame or armature, they are quite crude, both in paint and execution (the chain-mail appears to have been made with a lino-cutter!), but charming for being each an original. The earliest date from before the war (Garrett dates to 1928), which is why they fetch such silly sums, particularly from US dealers, however these are the more common ones from the 1960'/70's.
The Originals (shooter, bottom left) were produced as premiums all over the world, and various other sets either influenced the premium set, or were based on it. There are at least ten poses running through the various issues, from left to right (footballer ended up in two files? I'm tired!);
Markings and size are the reason for the 7 ranks, and are as follows;
