H is for Hong Kong Mongol Hoard...or Herd of Huns

This set is 100% Giant, yet 100% not Giant! We know it's Giant because every single foot figure is marked Made In Hong Kong Giant (P), yet we know it's not Giant, because Giant were never that generous with their figures! Obviously there is the secondary evidence of no 'Giant Plastics Corp. NY' anywhere on the packaging and/or the presence of the retail price in s/d (two-shillings and eleven'punce).

This was the UK (and elsewhere?...it's quite common as these sets go) version of Giant's Mongols, probably let out of the back of the same factory supplying Giant, and consists of about 15 each of red and yellow foot 'Huns' and the same of silver and black [final 'type'] knights, with 6-7 each of the same force's riders.

Loose examples, I don't have all the mounted knights here, but you get the picture and when I get the rest out of storage we can come back to them and look at the forts and stuff. The missing yellow one turned-up and is below!

The knights tended to reuse the bulk of the pose (lifted from old British 54mm figure poses - Crescent and Britains Swoppets) which I've tried to highlight in the silver row - although the pose second from the right is the same as the pose fifth from the right.

I should add that when I did these in One Inch Warrior magazine all those short years ago...I photographed them with siege equipment which was actually from the Marx medieval/Viking fort sets!

Not sure what I was playing at in the top image...trouble with photographing 'off the hoof' without taking notes, but I think the top row are standard, while the under-row show a colour variant (obviously!) and a couple of 'usable' miss-moulds?

Middle shots compares the Giant-marked figures to the real piracies...small HO-sized blobs with unmarked bases.

The final image (a bit washed-out by flash as these images often are - red and yellow...always!) shows darker versions of some of the figures. In the case of the - missing above - yellow one it seems to be down to batch, while the red ones have some black flecks in them and I suspect the plastic was cooked-off.

When I was (briefly) a plastic extrusion operator, I used to get the problem of a brown, darkening line appearing in my extrusions, I'd have to speed the conveyor up a bit (which normally thinned the extrusion to gash quality) and run it as waste until the head cooled down and the mark disappeared. If the mark didn't disappear, I'd have to strip the thing down and clean an - often quite small - burnt speck off the injector head. That's cooking-off...a nightmare!

L is for Little Lions

Lions...Preiser...Preiser lions...hard polystyrene, Railway accessories compatible with European HO gauge, for circuses - not platforms! Wildlife safari parks...they'd work for a safari park...they go well with the Airfix zoo and Tarzan sets too...bargain!

Did I say Preiser? Box ticked...

H is for Hierloom

Well....it's not a toy soldier! It's not a toy or model figure, not a military vehicle, space ship or farm or zoo animal, it's not a woodland creature, an alien or a Little Rubber Guy so what the fuck's it doing here...

...this is a family heirloom, it came over from Southern Germany with the immigrants I call great, great grandparents and is still with us. Recently given its bi-decade soaking with linseed oil, its smelling a bit fishy, but will be there for another generation. Hand-made (probably by Great Great Granddad!) it has a commercially procured cat's bell inside the 'cage' and we used to love rolling it about when we were toddlers!

Luckily, I don't live in the same country as Donald trump so I won't have to pay for a wall round myself, but I do have an inadequate, insular, intolerant, small-c conservative (and big-C!), rancid little-englander of a cockwomble for a Prime Minister, so have to regard this artefact as evidence of my probably not quite yet 'belonging' to the village...although Donald would have to say that of everyone - not on the reservations - in his country if he was honest!

M is for Metallic Metal Metallions

Just a quick scan, I was scanning a bunch of stuff the other day and did this while I was at it. A small range of metal figures called Metallions (metal battalions...geddit!) was issued by Lone Star in the 1970's. They were also issued by Hubley and Kresge (SS Kresge were the forerunner of K-Mart) in the US and included Cowboys, Indians and Pirates along with these Knights.

Six character figures from 'Knights of the Round Table' fame, unlike the Westerners (which were copied from Marx 6" figures) these seem to be relatively original sculpts although one or two look familiar to anyone who knows the Britains Deetail sets. 54mm die-cast Mazac / Zamak alloy, they are then antiqued with a dark varnish wash.

The full story of the figures and ideas on who's were first (not Kinder; that's for sure!) told by Alexander Kutsche is to be found here - in German, but a thorough look at the subject. Small ones can be found here and question marks, overview and sets, Alexander's collecting and origins.

R is for Rollin', Rollin', Rolling, Keep them Wagons Rolling!

I - as those of you who have been following from the start will know - have a soft spot for wagons, especially small scale ones, but most of them are in storage, and most of them were blogged a while ago, but it doesn't stop me setting them up and photographing them from time to time!

So for those who are new followers, or who like me just enjoy wagons, here's a round-up of the Montaplex and early BüM wagons, most of which have appeared once already, but brought together.

Some have separate horses with a distinctive look that sets them apart from all the Giant, Giant-clones and post/non-Giant horses, but most have an integral horse in the manner of Manurba's, but fatter! The wheels are also very easy to recognise with their four-spoke, circus-wagon look and ornate tooling.

So far I've found a covered-wagon, stage-coach and copy of the Matchbox fire-appliance, crewed by astronauts! There is another design, a sort of pick-up truck/trailer thing in one of the Wild West town sets, but it's in storage and looks a bit crap anyway!

A line-up doesn't work properly when you find a yellow (BüM ) one after you've put the others away! Hay Ho...doh! Thanks to Peter Evans for the fire wagon.

F is for Follow-up...Hasbro Star Wars Command

Go on then Hasbro...prove me misinformed - five minutes after I publish!

New Sets Announced

Two big figure sets for 2016...I'll wait 'till they're reduced!

See following 5 posts for significance! But they seem to be bulked re-hashes of existing figures?

2020 - needless to say they failed to prove me wrong (proving me right by default!) and the range sputtered and failed a few months later. :-(

C is for Command...'Star Wars' Command, I - Overveiw

I was quite pleased when these were announced by Hasbro a couple of years ago now, but thought them hideously overpriced (have you seen the price-v-contents of the new Micro-machine sets!) when they arrived and determined not to buy them and to wait until they populated car-boot sales in five to seven years time.

However it seems they have - like the Horrible Histories figures - been pulled before they've had a chance to build a proper fan-base, and just before the movies come out? Madness! Anyway, the local toy chains hereabouts (Entertainer and Smiths) along with Sainsbury's Supermarkets (and other outlets - I'm sure) heavily discounted them and for the last 8 months or so I have been grabbing them one at a time, here and there,  for a half or a third, or less...of their RRP, except the 'Falcon, which was still a bargain.

The five posts below (including this one) are an overview of the sets commonly available in the UK from those above named stores.

This poster-catalogue is included in most of the larger sets - I had to scan it in two and stitch it back together, so it's cropped a bit odd and you can spot the join!

There are two big sets, and three each medium large, medium small and small, they are presented in reverse order in the four posts following this one.

In other parts of the world there have been other sets issued, four 2nd wave figure sets (with one vehicle each) have been available, there's a clone-war figure set and a Jabba/Rancor's Revenge set was cleared in the autumn, so there is more to track down if you're minded.

One each, good guys/bad guys. I have 24 poses of goodies and 26 baddies, but all 'bots are interchangeable, and imagination should allow for spies, undercover agents and turncoats!

Overall however, the bad guys consistently outnumber the good guys, and while it may not matter so much with toy soldiers or war-games models (the 'Allied' commanders get asked to play more games against the plethora of 'German' commanders), here it may have been one of the problems with the range, I doubt it, but Western kids today are quite fair-minded, and with Star Wars, the goddies have identifiable Heroes, there isn't the same imbalence you get with Panzer Black against khaki sacks!

Some of the figures; each set has a painted character figure or two, and then a bunch of what are basically well sculpted, PVC vinyl, sci-fi, 'Army Men'...from a galaxy far away a long time ago! My favourites are the R2 and R5 units...blue is 'good, black is 'bad' and orange? Goes with anyone...the tart!

Vehicles come with Galoob-like stands, or simpler hex-bases. Some of the sets have the daft trolleys seen bottom-left in this collage...because I've edited these five articles in the wrong order to get them stacked-up right for publishing, I've dealt with them further down, but they are a bit daft! The clear plastic bases are hooked onto the trolley. The vehicles all suffer from soft vinyl 'syndrome' and a hot water session will be a must one day.

Small figure sets next...

C is for Command...'Star Wars' Command, II - Small Figure Packs

The entry-level sets are these little carded figure packs, there were only three in the stores I was visiting and on the poster-catalogue, however there was a set of clone-war based figures which is commonly available on feebleBay and some larger Jabba's Palace sets leaked-out as clearance in the Autumn, no doubt they will turn up in numbers somewhere in a year or so like the second series Horrible Histories did.

Packs and poster images, these are 'army builder' sets with typically 2x4 poses and one painted 'unique' pose. Annoyingly, unlike Galoob the two Royal Guards are identical, when they are supposed to be left-handed and right-handed to cover The Emperor equally effectively from both sides...or so I'm told..it's fecking MAKE-BELIEVE!

Pack-backs

Close-ups of a few of the figures. You can see three treatments of the Stormtrooper's base, with a smooth version, marked version and over-printed code version, I don't think there's much of significance there, but know only too well how it will be an excuse for some collectors to seek-out the variations...I do it myself with other stuff...Whhhell...I photographed them...I guess I'm already doing it with this stuff!

Next...medium sets

C is for Command...'Star Wars' Command, III - Medium Sets

I got myself a bit confused sorting these out and because I took the images over many months and obtained the play-sets in an odd order, it all went a bit pear-shaped in the editing, I thought one of these actually belongs in the next part, with it's poster art, but contents wise (using my title headings) these 'medium' and the 'larger sets' have comparable contents, and I'd not obtained the other set for reasons of duplication!

The only differences between these and the next post are that there are no push-and-go 'beetles' in these three sets, instead there are stands of one type or another and while they have the same 10 figures they are two or three vehicles/ships less, in total, per set.

A few figure-shots from these sets; there are subtle differences between some of the painted figures and their unpainted counterparts, but no greater than that between the Character Options mini Cybermen, and I think it's down to laziness at the pattern makers!

As with most of the vehicles in these sets, they have more in common with Galoob Micro-machines and/or Action Fleet, and like Galoob's tend to being out of scale with the figures they accompany...however, mixing and matching some Star Wars Command vehicles and star-fighters with Galoob figures may go some way to getting better ranges of one?

Boxes and poster art, these were probably the best value sets when they were released and were definitely the best value when the clearance prices came in, in the second half of last year, being between five and eight quid each.

Next...larger sets

C is for Command...'Star Wars' Command, IV - Larger Sets

So to the other medium sized sets; These give you several vehicles or spaceships, most similar to Galoob's in size and material, but undecorated. Along with them you get 10 figures, some duplicates, some 'unique' and a couple of simply decorated 'character' figures.

They have weird push-and-go stands which went straight in the recycling bin...or at least the first two did...then I realised I might be able to do something with them in the future, and the rest went in  the 'spares' box!

Ships and box-art from Death Star Strike, the vinyl wings are a bit bendy and hot water will be applied at some point! The 'action-play' artwork is a bit lame, and hints at a laboured, late addition to the line's concept? Maybe they would have had more success just selling them as figure sets - in buckets/tubs; sometimes honesty can pay-off!

A couple of the boxes and the poster art for the three sets, I didn't get the Epic Assault as it seems to be entirely made-up of duplicates. I think another of the problems with these sets is the amount of duplication, even the painted figures which are described as 'Exclusive' (while sometimes slightly different sculpts...or more likely just separate mould cavities) are often just common/other figure poses with a bit of paint!

Which is not to say that similar toy soldiers by Marx or Airfix didn't have the same levels of duplication, they did, often worse...how many Tim Mee bazooka-men did you need in a bag? How many Airfix Paratroopers shooting their mates in the trees! But these are different times, and I think investment in greater pose variety at the start would have had better returns over time.

Next; the biggest play sets..or play-set, I only got one!

C is for Command...'Star Wars' Command, V - Big Boys

Two bigger sets were available, I only got one, the other wasn't worth the effort, being a sub-scale Star Destroyer and what looked to be mostly duplicate figures, and not many of them! Also the only one I saw hadn't been reduced...that's a big chunk of ABS or Polypropylene and must owe Hasbro a shed-load of money!

But the Millennium Falcon gave-up a nice selection of Hoth based figures, two mini-vehicles of vague compatibility with Galoob stuff (MM's or Action Fleet) and the larger Millennium Falcon which I kept as a better scaled model for Galoob's figures.

Big box and poster images, it's a shame this series is reported to be dying a death and it's not that they didn't promote it well, they did, but like the recent Horrible History figures, one feels they should have stuck with it for a couple of 'seasons' to see if it would grow. Especially with the new movies on the way...but these companies are all run like banks or charities or outsourced utilities or private hospitals now...Thatcherite-Raganomic money men rule the decision-making process, not toy men!

Box art...I've been trying to track down the 54mm green Star Wars knock-offs from about 8/10 years ago, when I do I'll compare and contrast. That's what I like best about these sets...'Army Men' colours!

That's it.

O is for Ostentatious

A friend of my Mother's was up at Southeby's for a lecture the other week and they (the attendees) were invited to view the forthcoming action while they were there, Helen kindly thought of me and took these shots of a rather over-the-top chess set.

There is a history of chess sets linked to toy soldiers...well it's obvious isn't it, once you have a range of figures there is an almost natural thought-progression to making them into two sets of 16 and lining them up on a Victorian kitchen floor!

But a bespoke set is a different matter, and while the section on the subject in Garratt's encylopedia is well worth the read and we all know about the sets made by Crescent and Britains and so on, or the sets designed by Stadden, this is in a different league!

Silver, silver-gilt, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, enamel, suede, fine engraving upon engraving...but piled-up. Do the bases need extra stones, more tooling, another line of enamel? It's like they couldn't stop themselves!

More pictures here, but a final hamer price of £17,000+ when things of rareity and beauty sell for much more these days would suggest the buyers found it a bit OTT as well?

The base is too busy, the four corner knights confusing...not that playing light blue against dark blue is going to make forward planning easy, especially when all the royalty are in red! A lovely thing for the blog, but leave it to new-money...this needs a marble sample-table in a footballer's Geoff's Oak mansion really...he says - judgementally!

M is for Massive Mounties

This post includes a few shots from ebay, for research purposes, cropped and manipulated, in order to show the full range of these figures, along with some Adrian at Macator Trading let me photograph and my own damaged sample...

Reliable of Canada; 'Mounties'! Obviously their Tourist draw like our Guards, and therefore plenty of keepsakes available including the Britains figures (and others) repackaged. This is about as big as they get (although I'm sure larger statuettes have been produced at some point by someone?).

I suspect the gold lanyards are the earlier versions and note that one is site-specific to Fort Erie...again I imagine there are others out there?

Close-ups of the various base treatments, the yellow RCMP being glued on. The gold lanyard versions are also the ones with the cursive logo while the [later?] other ones have an engineers stamped marking.

Just remember - before investing - other 6" figures are available! Don't know who is responsible for the left-hand figure...is it a HK (or other) piracy of the Airfix kit? That lance looks familiar, as do the glued-on gloves, but he's clearly in pink (sun-faded red) polystyrene under the paint.

The Alymer premium/counter-top advertising/display model has the best face and seems to be drawing his 'piece' (do Canadians say that?) to exersie restraint on a ne'er-do-well! And while he has a 'brand', I suspect someone else made him and I don't know who either.

I should add that Reliable did a nice Indian alongside the Mountie, who is as common and comes in as many varieties...we'll look at him another time maybe...when I've bought a couple! I should also add these are all factory-painted hard styrene hollow 'kit' mouldings.

T is for Terrible Tommies

Really just a box-ticker, I've put them on the relevant post on the Airfix blog, but I had a bunch of photographs left so they can go here as well!

Dangerous mission, pack, frame/runner (sprue')..."I've lost an eye taking out that German Renault-Sherman hybrid but I've got ammo left godamit!"

Jeep with twin pom-pom and A4? A5? A-Somthing...

S is for Small Soldiers

As Galoob faltered and Hasbro hung around waiting to pounce, other toy companies had a punt with mirco-play sets, with limited success it must be said, Bluebird here in the UK did a Batman range, Playmates had a go and Mattel seem to have talked to Galoob at one point, while Kenner tried their had with a movie tie-in...Small Soldiers, itself a Toy Story clone!

What can I say? One vehicle to Galoob's three or more, two figures where Galoob whould have had half a dozen (if they went with one vehicle), it's a not very appertising toy for a not very successful movie...it didn't last long!

The figures seem to appear in different versions, so the initial production-run must have been quite big (look what that did to DK over the 4th Star Wars film!) and can be found with no base, a flat base or a lipped, marked base and decorated with various paint jobs.

Box Ticked!