News, Views Etc . . . Show Report - Plastic Warrior's 32nd Toy Soldier Show; Twickenham, London, 13th May 2017

Oh no! I lost the 'who can get a show report out first' competitive-blogging race for the umpteenth-year running, anyone would think I wasn't playing!

I don't know if anyone told you there was a toy soldier show at the weekend; best in the world, so commiserations if you missed it, but a brief resume of the day needs to start with the weather which threatened to be damp and drizzly, and started as such, but about the time the tables turned-up it had started clearing, and continued to improve to the point where we had the post-show 'autopsy' chin-wag on the lawn, in shirts, with tea and bisk'wuits!

Paul Morehead, the inimitable editor of Plastic Warrior was pleased with the turn-out, and table-space was over-subscribed in the end (so dealers: book early for next year!), while I thought the show stayed busy for longer than some years, with quite a buzz 'till well after lunch. I spoke to several stall-holders who'd all had a good day and I think everyone found something they needed, wanted or liked the look or price of!

As well as the two new 'specials' shown here on Friday evening last, the show was also the launching-point for the usual (or 'annual'!) new release from Peter Cole at Replicants and this year's was a delight; four Comanche warriors. I did take the middle image with Peter and the Westons in the background, but it was not the most flattering shot I've taken of him, so I hope he'll forgive me for cropping out the wider angles!

Wonderfully animated figures, with Peter's natural style to the fore, I particularly like the charging guy, reminiscent of the old Britains Swoppet chap, but while the Britains pose always looked to be dancing, Peter's 'local resident' is clearly bearing down on an illegal migrant from across the pond - with intent!

The archer reaching for a second arrow is nice, the kneeling firer is a very well observed pose while the rather gruesome scalping vignette has the perpetrator standing on a victim who - while wearing a fringed jacket - has few other defining details (and not much hair!) so can be painted up as a cowboy/settler/backwoodsman, or another - rival tribe - Indian. He could even be given US Army (cavalry) blue trousers with a nice yella' stripe down the seam - if only the natives had had a wall . . . a really big wall folks!

Also on sale at the show, and still available from Replicants' retail-agents (Steve Weston's Toy Soldiers) were the last set of figures from 21^st Century. They were described as 'WWII British' in the last Plastic Warrior, but are really British Paratroops, equipped as per post-D-Day, and might like to have their smocks repainted to reflect the Denison scheme.

Their helmets also being wrong for infantry as they are neither the old rimmed 'Tommy' or 'Brodie' (as the Yanks called it) nor having the distinctive shape of the Guards Brigade's MkIII 'Turtles', and as well as having the look of the Para-helmet, they have the chin-strap for it. However a couple of the figures are in other headdress, shirt or jumper, so are a bit more flexible.

However they're very good, highly detailed sculpts which would benefit from further paint whoever they were representing. The Bren-gun's magazine on one of mine needs a hot-water treatment to straighten it, but otherwise lovely figures which may prove hard to get in the future, so grab them now!

Five bags of other plunder were returned to Smallscaleworld Towers and their contents will feature in a future post.

The big difference this year was a lack of European visitors, most of the German faces were there as always, but the French and Belgians were missing, as were all but one of the Portuguese? I don't know if this was a Brexit thing, a currency thing or just a busy weekend for events elsewhere.

I hope it's due to developing support structures for the hobby in other places reducing the necessity to drag one's arse to Blighty - certainly it seems the French hobby has progressed a lot in recent years, and that means someone is digging-out and saving the stuff there, so it can in turn find it's way to evilBay for everyone to have a punt at! It didn't seem to effect attendance, and only time will tell if it's part of a trend or just a one-off?

Finally . . . 

Blimey! It's only less than a blinking year until the next Plastic Warrior magazine's Toy Soldier Show, the best toy soldier show in the world!

R is for Run Yourself Ragged at the Royal Tournament

Back when we had an Army (not an manpower-lean, quick reactive, defence force in gravy-coloured pyjamas!) and a budget to match, there was a lot more KAPE (Keep the Army in the Public Eye) activity than there is now, and like any 'club-activity' it had a vague season, with local and regional 'happenings man' and used to culminate in a grand 'National' pageant held at Earls Court called the Royal Tournament.

The events which led-up to it included various one-day or weekend 'Army Shows' and Military Tattoo's including the Berlin Brigade and Edinburgh events; these could be up to a week long.

There were certain memes and standards associated with these shows among which were the four brightly coloured jeeps of the REME juniors from Shrivenham (? Or RE Arbourfield?), which would be driven into the arena, taken apart, moved in pieces, put back together again and driven off; as a race!

The RHA would always be on hand with their 'musical ride'; dragging the guns to music, the Royal Marines could usually be counted upon for a blank-firing arctic warfare scenario, outdoor events would usually include the Red Devils or their lesser rivals while the White Helmet motorcycle display and MP dog display always pleased.

The host unit always had to come up with something, friends from abroad became regulars like the RCMP 'Mounties' and the US Marines Pokey-drill display team (did West Point have a bigger team, all in grey?) and the whole would be interspersed with various bands or pipes and drums, with larger massed-bands or massed pipes & drums (often with guest or civilian bands participating) bringing the show to a crescendo with fireworks.

There was much more (a bit of clowning, some marching stuff, Lipizzaner horses . . . bull-fighting with horned-bicycles!) and another five minutes would drag more of them from the old memory-box - as I sat through enough of them! But the one I always looked-forward to the most was the competition between the Naval Academies.

It had elements of most of the above (no music), with an obstacle course greater than the RMP dogs had to face, broken and reassembled military equipment - each piece of which was heavier than the various jeep components - and spectacle which put the White helmets in the shade and made the Red devils look like cosseted show-offs!

The competition ran through the KAPE season but the climax (when two teams were usually ahead and vying for top spot) was the Tournament week, and each night they would heave, carry and swing their naval guns over, under and through walls, wooden-horses, imaginary canyons and water features in a race of epic drama!

They used various telegraph-poles and rope-jigs to create levers and swing-cranes and the whole thing was pretty awesome to watch. If they got something wrong the DS (Directing Staff) would make them do it again, while the other team crept-away up the course, heaving and yelling like berserkers!

Someone made a set for us to play with . . .

I say 'someone', I'm pretty sure it was Phoenix Model Developments, and if it wasn't, I 'know' who it was; as I have the paperwork in a 40' shipping container in Basingrad! But - I can't find them in the scanned catalogues, can't remember and know that while Phoenix had a range of 30mm ceremonial troops including bands, I just can't find these . . . or the set of White Helmets I think were also made - by the same maker; whoever it was, on Google?

In addition, I seem to remember there was a firm doing the London Shows about ten/twelve years ago who also had a range of 30mm ceremonials which may or may not have been Phoenix, or from Phoenix moulds, or 'after' Phoenix?

Asking Phoenix - who still exist but now concentrate on 1:12th dolls house accessories and larger bronzes (although they do still carry some of the costermen's carts which so pleased JG Garratt) was fruitless, so I'm hoping one of the 'metal guys' (Tim, Doug, Ross, et al?) might have the definitive answer, as it'll be years before I get my stuff out of storage I fear!

Anyway, I'll list them as Phoenix as they are 'in the style' of their 30mm ceremonial figures, on the presumption (far worse that a mere assumption!) that they are late-catalogue or un-catalogued Phoenix - until I know otherwise.

The above shots are of a vignette of the 'run down' after the final firing - they did two circuits if I remember rightly, slightly different order each time, with (obviously) reverse order on the second run down the obstacles, assembling the guns and firing a blank round at the end of the run-up, they then disassembled them again, did the 'part two' and then reassembled the guns, fired another blank and then ran them as fast as they could (with their effort-withered lungs) to the other [mid-point or] turn-end for a finish time.

The DS is looking carefully for infringements!

These all came - I believe - from a deceased collectors estate about 10 years ago, and I don't know what he's trying to do here, two men couldn't pull that gun and limber, that casually, and the paint treatment is very different (compare with the wonderful gun-metalling on the race vignette), while the gun doesn't have the race carrying-pole wedged in the breech, or the rope hand-hoops in the muzzle?

I think he was going to finish this as an in-service piece for shelf-display?

These were also in the set, I think maybe they were going to be the 'march-on' group. There are only three figure types in all these pictures; an officer or ensign, a running man and a marching/walking man, everything-else is done with moveable arms and paint.

One of the arms has gone AWOL, but then . . . one of the features of the race used to be the announcer telling the audience about the worst of the injuries sustained in races and training that year, how many were unable to attend the final race because they were in hospital, or - occasionally - if anyone had died. Both teams in each race had a couple of supernumeraries on the team to allow for injuries while under the stop-watch!

If that's not enough for you; on the last night of the Royal Tournament, after the final race, all the teams would parade for the prize-giving - with all the injured; arms and legs in plaster, a couple in wheelchairs and the hospitalised would get another name check! Those in plaster were also visible working the recruiting stands during the week and manning displays outside the arena - "Join the Navy and you can break you femur in three places, on training, too!"

The past is a not just a different country, it's a bloody rough place! But it helped us win the Falklands back, vastly outnumbered, from thousands of miles away.

Maybe that helps explain Brexit and the apparent (very apparent) popularity of the awful Mrs. May means Maybe, Maybe Not, but another thing about the past is that you can't return to it, progress is inevitable, for good or ill, and anyone who thinks differently is deluding themselves.

The previous owner had started to scratch-build the obstacles, one day I'd like to finish the project but time waits for no man! The limbers were levered over the wall like this, but in reality the wheels would have been removed and they had to be rolled through the hole in the middle of the wall - if the two wheel sub-teams got their timing out, they would wedge-tight as it was only wide enough for one, while if the receiving sub-teams got their part wrong the wheels would be the wrong way round to go back on the limber (or gun) and time would be lost - precious seconds.

Also a close-up of the movable arm, you simply press the receiving stud with a screwdriver blade or something similar to burr it back against the shoulder, which holds the arm on, but allows movement.

The paint difference between the two main elements of this collection, it's not that he hasn't finished the one; it's a different treatment, a different blue. So I suspect he was doing one as a race team from the collages, the other as a WWI or WWII era parade piece?

Anyway, if I ever finish them, they will be a hell of a sight, and can anyone cast firmer light on the maker? I've just Googled both these and the White Helmets (being scrapped this year!) again with no luck, yet can picture the paperwork in my head!

T is for Two - Modern Board Games

I've been busy going round the charity shops this spring - all those unwanted Christmas presents starting to filter through - and among recent purchases were these two board games, both recent, and both on the wants list for the pieces only.

This came out about 10 years ago, from Toy Brokers and was quite expensive at the time, but the Daleks looked good, so I made a mental note to look-out for it at 'car boots' or charity shops and sure enough, a minter came in to one for two-quid!

I've kept the six Dalek's, the six Doctor flats with their full-colour, photo-artwork and the electronic Tardis (which is not bad size-wise for 54mm figures), along with the instructions to scan into the files. The rest went straight in the recycling bin!

I wanted the cat as soon as it was announced (2012/13?) so this one has come-in quite quickly, but then like lipsticking a pig, there's only so any Monopoly sets needed in a world where most families have one, no matter how 'limited' or 'new' you make it (this one as a 'speed die' for faster play!), and the best selling thing in the world will eventually run-out of customers!

The dog has shrunk, the boot has been replaced by the more traditional slipper and had a tread added for the first time, the cruiser and Car have both reverted to older looking versions (although that happened a while ago) and the Iron was cut for the new cat.

Both the wheelbarrow and thimble have also taken a hit, size wise with the barrow being about the worst version ever. The thimble of my childhood used be usable as a thimble, this one wouldn't go over a little finger!

We looked at them a while ago

The giant Formula 1 board-game project is starting to look very doable now, with all these being new (the ones we looked at way back when are in storage now) although we've looked at some of them here in other novelty posts; I've definitely got an orange team now, a dark green and silver/grey to replace the Black, but gold, pink and light blue are looking good, and all the teams could have three cars!

I am now starting to think about building the 'board' as an all-weather outdoor track using Italian glass mosaic-tesserae!

N is for Nomm-Nomm-Nommnivore and No Toy Soldiers

None, Nix, Nada, Non, Nien, Niet, No! No-no-no-no-no, NO! All the toy soldiers worth looking at today are in Twickenham; didn't you know? Better get yer' skates on; the doors open in an hour-and-a-half!

But you want something to look at first huh?

How cool is this? This is too cool for Panzerschule! When I mentioned Paladone-Noki the other day (giant Guardsman sponge/Roman arse-wipe thing) it put me in mind of another modern Novelty company; 50-Fifty, who had a cast metal bottle-opener in the shape of Tim Mee's crawling GI.

Now this 'putting to  mind' happened as I was perambulating through the teeming metropolis that is Fleet High Street, so I thought "Ooh,  the hardware store was where I got that other 50-fifty thing" so I popped into Robert Dyas and asked if they had the bottle opener - they didn't - they'd had a pirate one!

But then on the way back out of 'The Glass Menagerie' (as the main shopping centre is referred to round these parts) I popped over the road into the British Heart Foundation's [charity/thrift-] shop and they had this tank!

Bargain! It is actually Paladone - so some kind of synergic happenstance there - and must have come before the Guardsman egg-cup - which they are currently advertising - for it to have had time to get old'ish looking (and a bit sticky - eeuw!).

Although Two things: 1) looking at the size and shape of the cup; I think it may be better for poached eggs, and 2) E-1 while possibly meaning Egg-one, could also be seen as Ei, or egg in German . . . so what I think we are looking at here; ladies and gentlemen, yet to be seen in Jane's Defence Weekly, are the first snaffled shots from behind the kitchen curtain of that rare beast, the Par-boil Panzer!

It comes with a soldier-maker - for dipping! I assume it's the same mould as has been reused in red-plastic for the current Guardsman?

S is for So . . .

. . . the weekend's here; what are you thinking of doing tomorrow? Washing the car? Yeah, 'cos they need washing, all that rain-water needs to be removed with some proper water huh?

Mowing the lawn? Good idea, 'cos once it's done, it's done, isn't it? No fear that it'll need doing again in a fortnight or three weeks, nah, a good job done for the summer; mowing the lawn.

Taking the kids to where? Thorp dark? Never 'erd of it, sounds expensive, I'd get back to washing the lawn if I were you . . .

. . . the rest of us are going up (or down!) to Whitton near 'Twickers' where we are going to wallow in plastic toy figures for the day and pick up our freshly minted copy of the Plastic Warrior magazine Tintin in Plastic 'special' publication!

This one's penned by Colin err... Penn! And it's a lovely look at the figures of seventeen different sets by almost as many makers, ancient and modern, in all scales. I can't add much to that without giving the game away, but if you've bought previous 'single subject' or thematic specials from PW, you'll know what to expect and we're going to love reading it, while you're parking that lawn.

I can add that the boffins at PW Towers have come up with a second volume for those of us who aren't planning on washing the mower tomorrow; The Plastic Warrior magazine Off With Their Heads special! Being a complete update of the previous, similarly titled volume by the same publisher!

Now, this one I can wax more lyrical about without giving away too much; thereby encouraging you to drop the kids in the washer and head to South-west London's more salubrious outskirts as soon as the sun rises on the 'morrow.

Don't let the Black &White on the front cover fool you; the contents of this guide to modeling and converting plastic figures have been completely updated for the Elizabethan-era with colourful plates of technihued lithography throughout.

Sections on plastic types and British makers, scales, glues and gluing, paint types, tools and converting techniques lead-on to various examples of other people's work, with a very useful section on flag-making.

Erik Kemp's conversions of Culloden Highlanders (wonderful tartans) are worth the cover price by themselves, although I was quite taken by the simple head swapping of Lone Star and Timpo desert troops by Peter Evans, while Matt Thair's Napoleonic troops are lovely.

So leave the mower in the kid's parcour, quickly wash the cat and get the car to Twickenham (plenty of parking) with you in it, as soon as you can - 10.30am tomorrow at the latest - s'my advice - best show in the world!

Apologies to Colin for the wholly-predictable scribe-related pun.

News, Views etc . . . Last call for PW Show!

Let's get the boring bits out of the way first, recent toy news in the newspapers:

Kiddybricks-call-me-Lego

Recently opening a new Lego Store in central London; Lego have now announced 'up to' four new 'Discovery Centres' for Australian shopping precincts.

Iraq

The 'i' announced on the 24th April that following the removal of the so called ISIS (surely ISII? Easier to call them Deash) from East Mosul; toy shops are making a comeback, with Teddy Bears, Dolls and Action Figures available again! They don't say how anyone on starvation incomes will be paying for them?

Hornby

Despite good news in recent 'News, Views...' and better forecasts from the company, there is still 'trooble int'boardroom' down there in Kent (Brexitland HQ) with a major shareholder trying to get one of the directors replaced and himself installed! It's unlikely to get through an all-shareholder vote at the AGM but has negatively affected shares.

Meanwhile the company; which also owns the Airfix, Corgi and Scalextric brand marks, has announced the 1st phase of their planned-recovery complete.

Hasbro / Kenner

News from the press-room of the bleedin' obvious saw Kenner-Parker issue a profits warning about three weeks ago (21nd April) with the announcement of a drop in Barbie sales, then on the 24th April Hasbro announced a 'better-than-expected' quarterly profit result - well fancy that!

Other Bits

This was in one of the papers a while ago, given to the Queen by the Chinese it's one of last year's presents, the deck and bridge look to be of the finest quality, matching old silver neff centrepieces in workmanship, but then it looks as if they gave-up trying on the crow's nests and masts? However: it's about HO-OO gauge compatible, so on the list for me to pay the Pink Panther to perloin for me, once I win that all important triple-roll-over on the Euro-lottery, that I don't buy tickets for!

This is from ages ago, but is worth a quick show; a couple of Preiser (or the new-generation Noch?) figures illustrating a front-page banner [inset] for an in-depth article on earnings inequality in the 'i' back in September.

Also falling through the publishing-timetable hoops here at Smallscaleworld Towers was this Metro fluff-piece from last December with B-B-B-B-B-B-Bob Mortimer putting in a mention for childhood poopertrooper-parachuter Toy Soldiers and having it illustrated by some fresh out of Journo-school picture-editor's junior numpty with a modern 'Made in China' copy of the old Tim Mee GI's - look: no parachute; you dimwit - in three years time he/she'll be on Sky News calling wheeled-APC's "Tanks" - you know I know it!

The nature of Arco-Mattel Mobile Attack Cannons seems to have gone from badder to worstest! "Mr. Ford, Mr. Ford - Herald Tribune here; is it true we can buy any colour of Mobil Attack Cannon we like, as long as it's pink?"

I can't remember which paper this came from but it looks like a Metro column-filler, it's a very fanciful stock-image probably by some Victorian copper-plate artist and needs at least five banks of oars each side. While you'd need at least twelve Zvezda kits just to scratch-build the hull! However, it could be lazer-cut?

This is another one which has missed previous News & Views posts for a while now; the UK mobile telephone network '3' has had various adverts in various sizes with a general aura of nostalgia provided by toy imagery, here a knock-off (or real?) Muppet spews-forth knock-off (or real?) My Little Ponys! Blehhrrr! Weird marketing from those crazy guys at marketing-central! "I puke rainbow-ponies, buy me"

Plastic Warrior's 32nd Plastic Toiy Soldier Show - It's tomorrow peeps!

There is a toy soldier show, tomorrow, here, in England's green and pleasant land, it's the 32nd show - in a row!

There will be rare and valuable single figures for amounts of geld that make your eyes water, there will be bags of Hong Kong tat for pennies and everything loose, boxed, bagged or carded in between; they may be painted or unpainted, home painted or paint-stripped; they may be old, new or copies; military, paramilitary or civilian, spacemen, space-warriors or space aliens, historical, fantasy or TV related; Wild West or wild animals; there will be premiums, sets, bits, parts and handfuls; they will be from 15mm (or below) to 200mm or above; they may be hard polystyrene, soft polyethylene or floppy, bendy, stinky PVC and they will all be under one roof - you need to be under it too!

An updated aerial shot of the scene of the crime, it doesn't add much to previous posts, but it's new imagery!

The map version may be easier for some; that Hospital Bridge Road is the easiest way in I think; turning into Percy Road especially later in the morning as you don't have to worry about the one-way nature of the dual-carriageway, or the traffic!

There is plenty of parking, the local railway station is quite close and further details can still be found from the on-line PW portals:

PW on Facebook

Blogger - The PW Blog

[a bit late to-] eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com

"Your target for the morning gentlemen -

The parkungspaltzen at Polimerfürtt - try not to miss"

There may be a further post here at the Smallscaleworld around Greenwich-tea-time, I couldn't possibly say for sure . . .

S is for Stop the Bloody Presses!

They've only just gone and announced a Judge Dredd TV series!

http://deadline.com/2017/05/judge-dredd-mega-city-one-series-adaptation-im-global-tv-rebellion-1202088620/

Also I got a spammy eMail from someone I don't know, but if you are a fan of 'proper' Kulmbach-Nuremberg tin flats, you might want to check this out;

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Zinnsoldaten-Sammlung-5-071-Figuren-flach-pewter-figure-statuette-collection-/282458653644?hash=item41c3d903cc:g:ZDYAAOSw~y9ZCegG

It's an evilBay link so it won't last forever!

OK - Roll the presses again, news-flash over . . . but Judge Dredd . . . on the telly?

V is for Visit, Spring Visit . . .

. . . to The Works, which proved fruitful, if only to add more ephemeral polymer shite to the stash!

So this was 6-quids-worth of plunder, booty or barrel scrapings - depending upon your point of view! A Dorling Kindersley tome on Kiddybricks-call-me-Lego [do you know; I sometimes spell that ...bricks, sometimes ...briks and sometimes ...brix, yet I have all the notes on a dongle less than two meters away, the only thing preventing me from correcting myself is fucking laziness, and the fact that I know the Tag's right!], a pack of chinosaur dinorasers and a rather nice little Ankylosaurus.

They made a Fergie! I may not know much about anything, but I know that's an MF 135/165 body-shape or my name's Serwin 'Eell! Other than a picture of my old steed, the book is crap, being yet another DK-Lego  inspired marketing exercise in saying nothing with lots of pictures, and most of them are of pretty common fish, still at four-pounds it will add some colour to the bookshelf!

Branded to the same 'Fun Workz' as those risible, n'th-generation copy, propylene, hidiosities we looked at a week or two ago, these are a bit better - imported by TWSL (The Works Stores Limited?) - more erasers; it seems everyone has a set of dinosaur rubbers at the moment, it's the third or forth set we've looked at in less than 12 months! And they had both my favorite greens (apple and puke or is it grass and camel-dung?!!) in one bag - bargain!

The rear of the Ankylosaurus card shows six sculpts, well . . . I saw three of the others and while the Triceratops is worth a punt if they've still got some next time I'm passing and feeling pound-flush, the other two (top right and bottom centre) were disappointing lumps of wasted polymer in the flesh; so I doubt I'll be adding them to the pile - until they turn-up in a cheepie lot a few years hence!

However the Kandytoys model of an Ankylosaurus is a nice little sculpt, about in-scale with Airfix Tarzan figures should you be going down the 'Lost World/Centre of the Earth' path, and you can see how the design of the erasers is semi-flat, even though they are fully round, with the legs sort of welded into one!

J is Just for Fun!

How small is the Smallscaleworld?

Well, we can make it 10-pixels-by-ten-pixels and using an external hard drive could put up to what . . . twenty terabytes . . . fifty terabytes in the single folder? I've got about 45-50 gigabytes at the moment, but a lot of that is 9 years-worth of blog images!

We can of course reduce the title considerably, and throw the folder into space to make it look even smaller! But the Icon is now 18x18 pixels . . . it's grown - Doh!

Ooh, what's this tool here? . . . OK, 9 pixels by 9 pixels; that's better!

Let's reduce the folder title to the minimum and camouflage it!

In fact, why bother with a title? Let's just point at it; now it's hard to see! That's about as small as I could make the Smallscaleworld without Microsoft coming up with new icons!

Or . . .

. . . we can go the Fontanini route and decide the Smallscaleword's over 800mm! Yes, that's nearly a meter!

Of which -  two inches are the base-lump of Italian Carrara marble which caused the behemoth of a figure to come into being. I shot these at the PW show a couple of years ago, it's some show wot 'appens sometimes, don't know when the next one is - probably missed it!

Sold as mantle-pairs, there were 8 sculpts (and a pair of mounted figures with lovely relaxed horses) in the smaller sizes (Fontanini produced these in many sizes from 60mm upwards and many finishes), but I don't know if more than one pair were pantographed-up to this size. You can see some of the 8-inch figures bottom left in the shot.

The Carrara marble gift shops had/have tons of this stuff, and the bases utilised the 'flawed' marble off-cuts, the prime building-material and/or sculpting marble being prized for its pale grey hews; polishing to a lightly striated white, not the dark grey with white bacon-streaks (marbeling!) of most of the bases you find on the Fontanini-supplied figurines.

There is a single figure of the right-hand pose on Etsy at the moment for 103-quid (an odd number, but presumably dollars-into-pounds? I didn't study it too closely!) which is as much as you'd want to pay for a Capodimonte porcelain one, but to be honest, if you keep an eye on charity shops or local auction houses, you can pick these up for £15/20, or only a few quid for the smaller ones; I recently picked-up a couple of the Rococo 'gentry' for 6-quid the pair, and saw a set of six of the chinoisery figures for a pony*!

* That's £25 for the overseas readers . . . £20 is a score, a monkey is £500 and a donkey is a dog is a lemon is a shed is an old car!

S is for See; Told You So!

Also available in blue!

It would be a bit crap if I left it there wouldn't it, a simple display of my ability to predict what I saw in the shop! Tobar for Hawkins Bazaar and others, as I said the other day when we looked at the red one, they were also in blue, but there may be other colours elsewhere, I suspect not, but there may be! Anyway; I was passing, I had the prerequisite 99p on me and I heard him calling!

As we were looking at larger figures the other day and these have been in the folder for too long waiting for a superhero post, courtesy of Brian Berke (you knew that - his 'berserker' is showing the true size of these 6" behemoths!) are these two Marx 1:12th scale Marvel characters; Spiderman and Captain America, also in blue, so filling-out a neat post - if I say so myself! Only 29¢ - those were the days huh?

P is for Paramount

Another box-ticker from Picasa, but a nice clean sample; Paramount cowboys and Indians . . . or Indian!

I'm guessing the one on the left is a later one (unpainted), but he could just have escaped the out-painter? Based on or direct piracies of Britains-Herald the double-gunslinger is the least like the donor pose with his more upright stance, fringed shirt and ten-gallon hat!

15-05-2017 - Paul Morehead at PW reminded me at the show this weekend that Replicants obtained the Paramount moulds, so the left-hand one is probably from Peter Coal as a re-issue.

B is still for Baseball!

These were donated to the Blog by Brian Berke and they are fun! Imported into the US by JPW, they're probably a bit harder to find this side of the pond, but you might try the big craft superstores, where they may be sitting with Wilton's stuff in the cake decorating sector?

Two teams, red and blue, it's almost like war-gaming! Indeed - I'm sure an enterprising cove from that branch of grownups-and-toys (they all seem to call each other 'cove'!) could fix-up some dice-based rules? There used to be pocket cricket, after all, if you can game cricket with a rolling brass hex/drum and stub of pencil, you should be able to sort something out with these chaps!

Each figure is unique due to a number on their shirt-back, although the three fielders are basically the same pose. And I'm afraid the catcher is one of those surprisingly common - within the hobby - poses that begs the ear-worm . . .  ♫ Maaah Maaa-aham-meiiiiii♫

Thanks Brian!