F is for Frederico (and Fabiano) Frogman?

Sorting things out for the MPC 'Minis' ships article I promised a while ago (hopefully posted-up over the coming weekend) and found this while the 'Unknown Vessels' box was out again, so fired-off a few shots.

You may recall the Italio-Spanish post I did back in March (only just down the page due to lack of posting in April!), well, I'm told this two-man vignette is also Italian? I don't have a maker's name or era, but it's getting that waxy brittleness of some early plastics so I guess quite early?

The figures are about 15mm in size, but due to their being sat astride a large bomb, they don't look too small with your bog-standard 1:76-72 plastics, as can be seen from the Airfix figure. Note also; the large card-carton staple, used to weight it for bathroom or garden-pond operations! Can anyone put a name to it...from the sculptural style I fancy Co-Ma (?) but suspect otherwise!

[Later the same day] By Request of Anne O'Leary - painter extraordinaire;

With a canvas tender (courtesy of Airfix) in attendance, a pair of intrepid navy commandos set off on operation 'Sink the Scharnbizpitz'! It floats at just the right depth for the little square visors to be above the water.

W is for Werfing Nebels...bloody Nebels, they're everywhere!

Not my joke, this was going round Facebook a while ago, I don't know who originally produced the meme, but I tip my hat to him!

The old Esci (Esci-Revell, Ertl, Aurora et.al.!) Nebelwerfer kit. One of my favourite kits as it comes with a decent crew in heavy winter gear, and with a small, but versatile 'multipose' element.

The tubes can be modelled in a travelling or in-use configuration, but unlike a lot of artillery kits; have to be glued in the position of choice and can't easily be converted to having moving parts.

That versatile crew i mentioned, there are only five poses and a few lose arms, but with the accessories supplied and a bit of imagination; they can make a bunch of workmanlike grunts or gunners in no time.

Mid/late boxing - this set is still available, now part of the Italeri stable. Originally called Smoke Units (they were named to mislead the League of Nations inspectors...plus le change!), the actual weapons were from the start developed to fire HE and later kits are called Nebelwerfer 41.

Plastic coloures above and some OBE's (other buggers efforts) below, I buy these whenever I see them, in whatever condition, as they are such useful figures.

The sprues from both sides, this is the contents of a box (x2 of everything), and if you ignore the launchers, or model them closed for towing, that leaves you with a ten-man section to convert to infantry (or other) troops in winter gear.

The whole set was pantographed-down from a 1:35th set by...well? It seems to have been issued by both Esci and Italeri from the start, there was always strong co-operation between the two. I suspect Italeri were the originator, due to the rest of the 1:35th scale range, but who knows?

I've cut-off the ends of the pre-loaded rockets and drilled the tubes out, the discolouration is bruising/tearing to the long-chain polymers and will be hidden by paint. Here are some I did earlier!

In Action
Towed

 

 

News, Views Etc...Plastic Warrior 157 AND 158 (I know...I'm still hopeless!)

So, don't know what happened there, as I predicted in the review of 156, the next one dropped through the door a day or two after I'd published! Then Christmas and the New Year happened, I predicted the imminent coverage of the new one at least twice (?), only for 158 to arrive (several weeks ago!), so we'll look at both today, to try and get back on track...doh!



As always - still available as a back issue; Plastic Warrior 157 featured..

* The next part of Thomas Stark's series on figure sculpts; 'Animation', looking at the ones that make him laugh! 
* James Opies obituary/tribute to Shamus Wade 
* Hearld 'Notes and Queries' by Daniel Morgan reaches the four ACW figures in both paint schemes 
* The Editor (Paul Morehead) looks at a fascinating desk ornament (?) from Subbuteo 
* Catalogue illustrations wet the appetite for tracking down Mettoy play set figures 
* An editorial center-spread feature on Gemodels is real eye-candy 
* 'What's New' includes...

• Toy Soldiers of San Diego / TSSD (Alamo Mexican Lancers and WWII Germans)
• Engineer Basevitch (Finnish War)
• Replicants (Robin Hood character figures)

* 'Converters Corner' looks at restored Kentoy, Lone Star, Salpa and Timpo figures in a follow-up to the What the !&*$?...its Salpa from issues 155/156
* There's more museing on Cow & Gate farm premiums from David Scrivener and the ed. 
* 'Castle Warfare' from Brad DeSantis looks at a lovely MPC fort set called er...Castle Warfare! The mantlet/shields were new to me
* Juan Hermida looks at a specific character figure of a real-life bullfighter known as "Manolete"
* Brian Carrick looks at some recent production from China he's found including a couple of lovely Gladiators
* There's a look at Marx's Warriors of the World versions of Robin Hood figures from Les Collier
* What the !&*$? asks about a tractor/trailer pairing and a Cyclopean er...Cyclops!
* Reader's Letters covers

• Engineer Basevitch (Mathias Berthoux)
• Tudor Rose-Tim Mee (kent Sprecher)
• Vietnam (Les Collier)
• Shing Hing Plastics/Smyths (Eric Keggans)
• Marx website update (Eric Johns)
• Benbros (Editor)
• Poultry What the !&*$? (David Scrivener)

* Plus all the usual small-ads, news and views including news of Marx recasts (www.classicrests.com), Shaun's Fantasy figure blog and feedback from David Pomery on Johnny Walker, and Eurofigurines magazine
* This months book review looks at Figuras de Plastico Reamsa 1951-1978 by Juan Martin Garcia 
* Cover images this issue are both illustrating the Gemodels article within



While the - still current - Plastic Warrior 158 brings the following delights to your door (if you subscribe!)...

* Brian Carrick takes a look at fish-tank accessories with a view to use as war gaming scenery 
* The Star Wars Command sets from Hasbro are covered by Les White [Apparently like the Horrible Histories stuff, this range is to be dropped already, so get them while you can, they are still full price in most toy chains, Sainsbury's and other outlets, but expect discounting as summer approaches]
* An interesting in Poplar Plastics graphics with Thomas figures is examined by Kent Sprecher with accessories not covered here) and an apparently random Lido Indian! 
* Les White returns to produce a brilliant turn of the 19/20 century's policeman at 'Converter's Corner'
* Thirty Years On is a look back at the development of Plastic Warrior from its inception...fascinating to those (like me) who came a bit late to the party)
* Alwyn Brice is still looking at 40mm Elastolin (like the 70mm but not so well-painted!) 
* 'What's New' includes...

• Austin Miniatures (WWII US Marines)
• Paragon Scenics (Alamo Defenders)
• Expeditionary Force (ACW Zouaves & Militia and Medievals)

* Stevan Dance reports on the latest in Japanese capsule toys (Gashapon) with a look at Panda's Ana 'Green Green Army'
* There's an editorial on the elusive series II Horrible Histories - as I predicted, now filtering onto evilBay and Amazon as clearance 
* Jack Shalatain (who has fed nice small-scale to me in the past) covers the ceremonial output of ABC out of Hong Kong, with nicely painted examples of the US Marines and British Line Infantry
* Reader's Letters include

• David Scrivener shows a Goodman Indian
• Eric Johns announces an update of his Marx website (link to right of this page somewhere)
• Mike Blake reminisces on Herald
• Mettoy feedback from yours truly
• Barney Brown talks glues
• Juan Hermida ID's some of the What The !&*$? and reader's letters items from PW157
• Andreas Dittman expands on the PW figures from PW156
• Drazzen Lulic discusses Karl May with a request for help on the same
• Juan Martin mentions the Wikipedia page on Reamsa
• While Brian Johnson provides an illustrated mini-article on Reliable of Canada and their take on the much-copied Bergan-Beton/Lido horse

* Plus all the usual small-ads, news and views, including an offer of reduced price, final [2nd's] copies of Suspended Animation by Peter Cole, a must for your bookshelf if you haven't got a copy yet
* Cover images this issue are a 'fish tank' diorama and an interesting Chialu figure from a composition mould

Both issues presented in shiny, rainbow, technicolourfulness!



Also, it's now only just over a month to the 30th anniversary Plastic Warrior toy soldier fair, full details here;

http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/our-30th-show.html

E is for Exhibition Report

So, trundled down to Southampton in last Sunday's gales, spent an hour in a traffic-jam minutes from the venue (note; come off the A27 (M) at the A31, not 'town centre and docks'!), was well worth the trip...and the wait!

Character figures featured, with Herr Hitler coming in for a fair bit of ridicule! I believe the Kitchener doll (about 15", larger than Action Man/GI Joe) pre-dates the First World War, and reflects on his efforts in South Africa? - Correction - an hour later...He's a WWI patriotic item...Kitchener Doll

Wartime wooden austerity figures from the States ("Manufactured under licence by Colorgraphic") rubbed shoulders with some lovely Heinrichsens, tin-plate clockwork Westerners and Britians risible swan-song!

The three Heinrichsen cavalry are particularly interesting as they have a moving-arm feature brought about by a sort of tube/rivet/collar running through the body of the flat, joining the arms in free-movement. The Britains figures were reasonable, but the vehicles? Awful, just awful, and it's only when you see them like this that you appreciate how incredibly poor the support stuff for the figures was.

What's going on here?!! Just enlarge (right click, open in new tab) and enjoy...you've got Lilliputian Bluebird tying-down a vintage Action Man, while a modern one gloats, they are being totally ignored by an AT-ST engaging some Airfix Japs and DAK...an so it goes on...I could have spent an hour going round this table spotting stuff!

Architecture provided by Burnett's Ubilder and the entrance lobby of the museum building, part of the old Town Hall, the museum itself is a very modern structure.

There was plenty for kids, voting boxes with a supply of rack-toy figures to vote with (I was tempted to palm a couple of the larger pale green ones I hadn't seen before (I didn't!), colouring sheets, video-loop displays etc...

It's a small exhibition, took 40/50 minutes to cover? The message is social history, with specific regard to war toys, and there is a vague chronological path to follow through the room, with thematic displays.

Not photographed are lots more flats, some really nice compositions, the expected hollow-casts (including some lovely small size Britains khaki cavalry of Boar War typeidge (made-up word!)) and a lot of board games...if I have a criticism - it's the display of the board games; a lot were unopened, some just had the lids off and where they were 'set-up' it was 'token' rather than 'by the rules', and on CAD printed boards, not the actual boards (which were present, folded in the boxes)?

I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in these things, and while I don't know how much longer it's 'on tour' or where it's going next (if at all), it's will remain at So'ton 'till the 10th May, so you've got a month there.

And...I had no problem taking photographs in full view of the attendant - and wish I'd taken more!

C is for Christmas Past

There are many thing's in Picasa (or on the dongles) that languish there because I've forgotten about them, or because I've forgotten exactly why I've photographed them, or that I haven't taken enough/suitable images to get a post out, or make a post work, there are even a few that have just lost their relevance...if I don't post these now - while I think about it - They will be joining the lost stuff in Blog limbo!

So, a round-up of the toys/toy related bits that came my way around the 25th, three months ago...

Presents from Mim were two cats for the Cabinet of Curious Things, including the Wade Whimsies kitten and a resin tabby, two antiqued metal examples of recent (but dated) technology, which I was expecting to have pencil sharpeners in, but they don't, so just 'trinkets' in the best traditions of the 'under a fiver' section of the museum gift-shop! Also destined for the cabinet.

And at the top; a set of Christmas decorations from Fiddes Payne, which - in heavy resin - are better used as cake decorations than tree ornaments and have already lost their gold thread loops!

Presents for myself; a dunny-bunny thing from a charity shop in Alton, there were two, but the other was hideous, this one was painless, if a little pink! having mentioned them on one of the pages I thought we'd better have one up here at some point, I don't know what series/make/type he his, but as a generic example of a Kubrick, he'll do!

I love Christmas for the buying of presents for the kids, and not having any myself, always look forward to spoiling those of my friends, in recent years blind-bag Lego and Mega Bloks have become a staple, and I always get an extra one...for me! Also shows how much bigger the Kubricks are. Finally an old Erzgebirge type tree decoration of a Santa-sleigh that came as a make-weight in a 5-for-a-pound charity shop bauble splurge in Basingrad.

This Giraprendi Madball water-squirter (called 'Fleabag') was found in the street after the Bin-lorry had done it's post festive-season round, making room for newer stuff no doubt, anyway, it made a bid for freedom and - for now - resides in the 'what the hell do I do with these' box!

From the same mentalities that produce designer toys and Kubricks, but aimed at kids, it really is a awful thing, without a redeeming feature (it's ability to wet someone?) and as a measure of human achievement would suggest we are entering either the end of days, or the period of decadence that - like Paris at the turn of the last Century, or Berlin in the 1930's - tends to presage a big war?

Saw this in...you guessed it...The Works for 99p, and had my mother wrap it for presentation on the day! Not much of use to toy soldier collectors, but plenty of nostalgia, two relevant entries and some useful company histories, particularly on Asian and 1980's electronic toy manufacturers.

T is for Toy House from Toytown

As a main course for the bitty aperitifs posted a few minutes ago (previous post, or immediately below this one on the homepage), this is back to a real favourite of mine...the 'infant' toys of J & L Randell / Merit. The same colour range we saw with previous visits to this make.

The set is supposed to contain a Noddy figure bought-in from Lone*Star (which explains why he's the commonest) but this one actually had two, and I photographed the PC Plod for a sizer.

A rather tatty box, the colours on it and the actual contents suggest that all parts will turn up in all colours? Compare with the other Merit bits...Mr Booby ... Castle Builder/Stacker ... Noah's Ark ... Circus Train.

Thanks to Adrian of Mercator Trading for the photographs.

T is for Toys of Toy People from Toytown

I've got all the pictures in the wrong order, so this will jump back and forwards but it's a post of bits and bobs anyway, so we'll press on. I have mentioned the origins of the 'Golly' moniker before, so to recap, I'll copy the entry from the abbreviations page, which I hope sums it up succinctly without causing offence...

Golliwogg/s - Ghul/s Working on Government Service (led to; 'Wogs', a now extremely derogatory nickname for Egyptian natives employed on British government service in the 1800's, which then gained wider use as a general racist/racially-derived slur word)
Golly / Gollie - See; Golliwogg/s

However, it is the only word we have to work with, and when it comes to Robinson's (Jams and Preserves), a sort of 'pax' was called on it's use due to the fame of the brands logo use, and the fact that Robinson's never used him in a negative context...not that most of the thousands of other 'Golly' products, books and soft toys did...Enid Blighton's (sometimes bad Golly) being the exception rather than the rule!

Adrian had this on his table back in the summer and I shot it when I had the chance, it was empty, but I had an idea I'd seen the HFC label before somewhere, without even noticing the image between the jar and the orange above, but that'll have to wait 'till the end of the post...

...in the meantime, the above shot shows some of the larger Marx (UK) figures (which may or may not have been supplied to Codeg / Cowan de Groot?), the two to the right have been paint-stripped, probably by Ron Good of Good Soldiers who casts them in metal and sells them in sets, in red gift boxes, like old Britians! I'm not even sure they're not from two Marx series, as Big Ears seems a tad too large?

Below them, are some finger-puppets, possibly from Christmas Crackers? But unknown in the provenance department and could just as easily be from a pocket-money craft set. Litho-printed paper faces glued to a felt loop, which on some provides the hat or other detail.

Back to Marx (UK) the upper-shot here is of a figure also from the above set (sets?), but which was languishing in the 'Unknown, probably Blue Box' box for years due to his similarity to other Blue Box (or Blue Box-like!) figures that follow the Marx (US) Disney production. It is actually (I assume) Mr. Bear; husband to the Mrs. Bear finger puppet above.

Below him and we're back to the top...where I'd recognised the HFC from; a bit of a disappointment, but it was illustrated on the lid, and pretending to be a Golly Badge (we think the link with Robinson's - established on the box - is tenuous, if not; non-existent) when it's actually a pencil sharpener! These were sold in newsagents and corner-shops back in the early 1980's although; note no date on the (C), a sure sign of everything being not as it seems in the licensing department?

This image was in my files, I suspect evilBay, but I'm not sure, so if you're the owner of the image, recognise it and want it removed, that's not a problem, eMail me...I rarely use downloaded images, and it's presented here for research purposes.

As a footnote; in 2001 Robinson's ceased to produce Golly memorabilia and he was dropped in 2002 with this press-release;

"We are retiring Golly because we found families with kids no longer necessarily knew about him. We are not bowing to political correctness, but like with any great make we have to move with the times"

F is for Fighting Fops in Feathered Fedoras

A quick look at my small selection of Britains ECW figures, I only have the foot figures to view here (I think there's a horseless, broken-sword'ed,  lobster-pot'ed rider somewhere in storage?), along with a couple of knock-offs...

The duellists, we've looked at the red one before, he's marked ABC, the yellow one is more of a generic, but probably from the same source, there were a few Hong Kong brands with similar (or no) marks, we looked at them here a while ago (ABC, CM, CMV, HK, &etc.) , and they specialised in copying the better output of Britains, Crescent and Timpo...badly!

Britains varied the paint on these figures and a group together are really quite stunning, I think one of James Opie's books has a lovely en-mass picture of them and it makes you want to morgage the kids to a poppy-farm and buy loads of these!

If the two above are paired as a sword-fight, and the mounted figures make-up another 'pair', the third pair of this 6-pose set is really imbalanced, a musket against a poll-arm...it's just not cricket! Still, it's a rather tatty musketeer, maybe one of the pikes will get through while he's reloading!

The only figure in this set with a moveable arm; the musketeer presaged the German 'Tommy-gunner' in the Deetail range with the way the weapon is lined-up in the hand.

C is for Crescent Children's Ward

Quite uncommon, due to their being made out of  poor batches of Zamac/Mazac which is notorious for breaking-up and crumbling, they've obviously been well looked after!

There was a Matron figure in a darker pinafore in larger sets, and I suspect the blankets are replacements, the originals should be squarer - apparently - and these are a modern sort of nylon towelling? You will see if you click on the image that the kids and the bedside-cabinets are all on the way out, but they're here for a while now, whatever happens to them and the beds and adults have kept their integrity.

B is for Big Blobs in Bags!

Just as the Montaplex New Zealanders had different contents, so some of the sets in the 100-code numbered series of pocket-money toy 'sobre' (surprise) envelopes had earlier incumbents prior to the better known Airfix/Matchbox/Atlantic copies, it is these we will look at now...

There is a forth set, being equally crude 30/35mm's; copies of the Blue Box GI's (possibly with a few Monogram poses to make the set up to ten poses).

Each set comes with a piece of scenery as the runner they are attached to which are missing from my collection, I'm not sure why the top set has only seven poses (there may be a clue below), nor whether there were three duplicates to make-up the total sought?

The set at the bottom were sold as Japanese, the set above them as Americans, the top set (Germans?) and the missing set (Brits?) are still a mystery to me...any ideas?

Here we see some 40mm Italian originals of the Spanish piracies, these are in hard metallic colours of polystyrene, very much in the style of the CoMa Spacemen and Galenites, although there is no actual connection known to me other then the obvious similarity?

The prone guy seems to have a control box for a rocket launcher or something (like the little Roscopf figures) and the kneeling chap (in gold) was 'using' or operating something. While I believe Serjan copied the mini-submarines (as flats), Montaplex didn't, neither did they copy the flame-thrower (damaged above), which may account for the lower pose count of the copied set?

Note how the Spanish efforts are not pantograph generated copies, but free-hand lifts, much reduced in size.

P is for Pixies from Pixieland, but not by Pixyland-Kew!

Box-ticker, but a nice one...

These don't seem to have survived the move over to plastics, I've never seen them in plastic does anyone know otherwise? Box say everything else...scale? 1:1?

N is for Nuffield Health

These were a part of a recent promotional campaign for a chain of health clubs here in the UK;

I'm not sure if this - clean - image will blow-up at all, it's a screen-grab of a thumbnail I couldn't enlarge, so I've cropped a couple out of a Youtube link, I won't give you a link to as it's got very little to do with the subject of the blog, just a nice use of runners ('sprues') in a design context...

I've tried to ask Nuffield if they actually made them...no reply! Looking at them; some seem constructable, others seem to be missing vital parts, so I suspect just interesting CAD creations to match the promotions theme of wholeness = wellness or some such.

Similar stuff here; Marketing Tools and here; Catch 22 goes Monogram

You'll notice if you follow the links that I used to use 'Sprue' outside the brackets, but it's not correct, and as there are a few etymological usages that annoy me in the hobby (Caisson for Limber among some large-scale or N. American collectors is one, re-cast [for plastics] is another heavily abused term - metal is cast, plastic is moulded) I thought I aught to make the effort to at least get 'runner' right.

The sprue is the deformed (and commonly truncated) cone-shape, usually near the centre of the runner, where the whole thing ('product') was divorced from the mould-tool's injector head. The lack of sign of a sprue-mark on the above is further evidence of their being fantasy creations, rather than the cereal premium stuff I hoped they be! When I first saw them I hoped they were from the same people that produced the recent Dr. Who figures

M is for Mao!

A classic bit of factory-painted Atlantic now...

7510 - Mao - Chinese Revolution; these are in 54mm and mirror the plastic colours I've seen them in in the small scale (red, blue and brown), although here painted. This line included the four 'revolution' sets (I think the backing card is saying 'the great revolutions'...not sure Hitler or the risible Duce were revolutionaries...reactionaries more like!), the Carabineri band and several sets from the Italian modern forces range, but none of the 'true' World War two sets, which it probably pre-dates.

P is for Playcraft

I looked at one of the two sets of figures from Playcraft/Jouef right back ta the start of the blog, intending to show the other a few weeks later...and never did! They are now in storage, but I got a couple of catalogues from Jan Komarome who used to be a sales rep. for Tri-ang-Pedigree in South Afrika the other day, so to help anyone ID them until I get the figures up here (year or two?) these are the scans...

I can say that the painting on my samples is as poor as the ones in the link, but the colours aren't quite as lairy. Supplied by Jouef for Mettoy, the Rail Staff aren't in these catalogues and I notice a code change (simplification) as the range grows. Thanks Jan.

D is for Dinosaurs - Ancient

Having looked at some modern 'minis' below, here are a few older 'mediums' from Timpo and Cherilea, all photographed on Adrian's table at Sandown Park toy fair in February. I only have the Timpo something-therium which is not a dinosaur, it's a giant mammal and it's in storage, so we'll look at it another day.

Tyrannosaurus Rex (The Tyrant King) from Timpo; or is it an Allosaurus (now renamed Alioramus?...no different periods and classes), the nameing of these beasts is not an exact science, like early hominids, each discovery gets a new name (for the 'name' or fame of the - human - finder), only to be found to be something else later, then another find leads to a whole class being excised, or several families being amalgamated...

Triceratops and Stegosaurus...among my favourites, with a Brontosaur or Diplodocus? One of them's gone now too; the Brontosaur is an Apatosaur apparently!

Cherilea, a little smaller, I know them as Brontosaur, Dimetrodon and Triceratops, and moulded in a marbled plastic which works quite well for little toys! Dimetrodon was my favourite as a kid, but the fact that the same few sauropods kept being modelled hints at which were everyone's favourites!

As big as you'll find a 'dinosaur' in this 'Green and Pleasant Land' these days, an Adder swimming across a flood-pool I shot near Fleet Pond (a lake) in Hampshire last July. It's a good 3-feet+ and I've seen bigger nearby. I was fascinated to see how it shot into the reed-bed in an almost dead-straight line - like an slightly crooked arrow!