I is for Itlerpud - Part Five; The Plank

All good things come to an end shipmates, even ITLAPD "Aa'haarr!" and this post is a few things that got left out, as - with my usual chaotic planning - a couple of posts became four and the comparison shots ceased to make so much sense as they contained figures from a 'still to come' post, whichever one went first!

So, to the main purchases this year on the piratical front; Zizzle and Safari mixed, and mixing well, it has to be admitted! Peg-leg is a bit on the short size, but he is an elderly chap and would be, equally they both have taller figures (top right), while the Zizzle sculpts are generally heavier that the Safari figures, with Davy Jones ('lobster claw') a particularly heavy chunk of vinyl!

You've probably noticed by now that the sculpting (?) of the pistols in the Safari set is very weak, old Peg-leg looks like he's carrying around a rasp-file to carry-out running carpentry repairs on his ersatz appendage! While Little Miss Lady Pirate looks to be watering the lawn, with an invisible hose?

Here we have one each in the upper shots with Marx (hard plastic 54mm) and Hing Fat prisoners at the top and Marx Swansea (from WOTW moulding) and Charbens in the middle, all eminently compatible with the newbie figures, we looked at all these, many years ago; American and Other Makes.

The lower line-up show's a Safari figure with some of the smaller stars of this year's TLAP Day "Aa'haarr!"

Romance on the high-seas! Both the new sets had one example of the bane of PVC, a bent figure, nothing hot water/cold water dips won't sort but a pain nevertheless.

That's it, that's your lot for another International Talk Like a Pirate Day "Aa'haarr!" And remember if you haven't spoken like a pirate before midnight tonight you might get a visit from Davy Jones . . . maybe . . . probably not!

I is for Itlerpud - Part Four; Small Scale Scurvy Scallywags

I don't know how these guys have evaded their 'fifteen minutes' for the first eight years of ITLAPD, but time's winged chariot caught them in time for this year's, and then it's back to the relative obscurity they've enjoyed thus far!

We'll be looking at the sets 72001 Sea Warriors English Pirates 18th Century from Orion and set 31 Pirates by LW.

According to PSR's entry the LW set is supposed to contain 16 figures in various singles and pairs along with a two-man gun-crew and two-part gun, however; mine has one each of the pirate poses, two each of the gun crew and two guns (four parts), this disparity will not be a surprise to anyone who has bought multiples of LW or the other brandings in that stable (EVO[lution], HYTTY, Kervella, or Odemars) and I'm sure the boxed re-pack of the same figures; Set 2014 Buccaneers is subject to an equal variety of contents? As a small set it has also been issued as EVO set EVF 016

Two quarters of the Orion set, some (many!) of the figures may look familiar, because they are scale-downs of larger figures from Marx's Warriors of the World, as a result it's a half-reasonable set, given a lot of that early (1997,8,9) Eastern European stuff was a tad . . . err . . . crude - You can shoot the messenger but it doesn't change the message!

The other runner has another 12 figure poses, and to prove the point re. the copies being superior, a skeleton, semi-flat; depicts a man who in life stood about nine-foot-six in his stocking, which look like they were pulled over size 26 feet! Good for 28mm D&D gaming!

Above the left runner we see a couple of the clone-donors for comparison, changes are slight; the oar has been angled the other way, the shovel turned to face the front. Above the right-hand sextet are the LW figures, made from a plastic which is more glass than grey and a bugger to photograph, indeed, they don't show much detail to the naked-eye, but are actually quite nice figures; certainly equal to the Orion sculpts.

Back of the pack for Orion finds them all titled by runner-number, the pick of the 'new' poses has to be the chap with a blow-pipe (16); very different! And both the female figures are nice, one heavily armed and looking for trouble (15) and the other (8) described as "Resisting Pirate", but could as easily be scolding her 'old man' in a dockside- pub, or with a scrap of super-glued tissue - waving-off her beau, hair blowing in the onshore-breeze, rather than being pulled by 7 as is intended - if they are assembled together as a vignette!

In the Legion of Nightmare (set PF12, bottom-left) from Odemars we get three passable pirates, passable that is, in a universe where everyone has been stripped back to an empty-socket, eyeless-skull! Set them to looking for their nine-foot skeletal mate!

On the left is a chap looking more like a Venetian cut-purse or Medici's assassin, a proper pirate geezer in the middle has a proper wooden-leg and everything proper piratey (no parrot, or monkey though!) while the guy on the right is really a French pre-revolution musketeer, but is suitably attired for a bit of pirating.

Is there such a thing? I think Pirates indulge in piracy, but go a'pirating? There's probably a degree-course in there somewhere! For people who haven't got enough B's and C's for Meeja Studies or 'The Comic as a Cultural Phenomena in the 20th Century' - who am I to scoff; I collect plastic toys!

The other two shots are the respective gun-crews, who can combine to create a landing force of some power . . .

 . . . which is why it's an absolute, 22-carat pure gold fact, that my pirates have a gun-line which is 100% more effective than my British Grenadiers gun-line!

Why did Airfix never do AWI artillery? Especially as they had the really useful chap carrying a powder-barrel! Because of the way he's sculpted you can't see his cross-straps as you can with the rest of the two AWI sets' figures, so he makes a very passable pirate, while his officer (both from the Washington's Army set, there are no suitable Grenadiers) with his open flapping coat feels/looks equally at home under the Jolly Roger!

Which is not to say there's no place for Airfix's Grenadiers - someone has to provide 'revenue men' or the pirates will take over and not just on TLAP Day "Aa'haarr!"

I is for Itlerpud - Part Three; Safari Toob

Aa'haarr, mee 'arrtiees we been getin' to parrrt thrree and we'rrrr go'win on ah bit of a safarrriee!

These were bought the other day especially for ITLAPD "Aa'haarr!" and they arrived in a pack big enough for six sets! Safari have made loads of 'Toobs', mostly animals, but there are some figure sets for the AWI, ACW and Wild West and some civilian stuff I think, however, they also make a set of pirates and like the Zizzle set we looked at earlier, they are around the 54mm 1:32 mark.

Along with a few accessories you get eight actual pirates and they cover all the tropes; beenie hats, head-scarves, wooden legs, hook-hands, tom-boy girl with weapons, man with spade, Errol Flynn'alike, map, big hats, big swords, someone who looks like (and would make a great) Dick Turpin, parrot, swash and buckle - plenty of Swash & Buckle! But no eye-patch? [Shock emoji]

Different background and from the other side, each figure has a title under the base, and they are - top left to bottom right;

- Pirate w/Bandana

- Dueling Pirate

- Pirate w/Long Coat and Sword

- Holding Treasure Map

- Pirate w/Hook

- Peg-leg Pirate

- Pirate w/Parrot

- Lady Pirate

You even get a gay biker - Tom of Finland seems to have had a hand sculpting the guy top left!

When you're a pirate (with apologies to the Village People)

♪♪♫♪ Where can you find pleasure, search the world for treasure

Learn keel-haul technology?

Where can you begin to make your depravities come true

On islands or on the sea?

Where can you learn to kill, play in bars, skin men alive

Ignore Deuteronomy?

Sign on as a Brigand and sit on the hot sand

Watch where your peg and leg do meet!

♫

When you're a pirate!

Yes, you can sail the seven seas!

When you're a pirate . . .

Yes, you can catch a French disease!

When you're a pirate . . .

You can pillage ships at ease!

When you're a pirate . . .

When you're a pirate . . .

Rum, buggery and fleas.

♪♪

Follow the treasure-map inland

When you're a pirate . . .

Come on and join the brigand-band

When you're a pirate

Come on scurvies and make a stand

As a pirate, as a pirate, as a pirate,

♫

...Oh . . .

♫

They want you, they want you

They want you in their pirate crew!

♪

If you…

♫

If you like adventure, don't you wait to enter

The roughest dock-side bar fast

Don't you hesitate; there is no need to wait

They're signing up new pirates fast

You'll never be too young to join up today

So don't you worry 'bout a thing

For I'm sure there will be always badass pirates

Plundering the land and sea

♪ ♫

When you're a pirate!

Yes, you can sail the seven seas!

When you're a pirate . . .

Yes, you can catch a French disease!

When you're a pirate . . .

Come on scurvies, fall upon the bloody sand

When you're a pirate . . .

Learn to smoke when you've hook-hands?

When you're a pirate . . .

♪

When you're a pirate
Follow the treasure-map inland

When you're a pirate . . .

Come on and join the brigand-band

When you're a pirate

Come on scurvies and make a stand

As a pirate, as a pirate, as a pirate, as a pirate,

♫♫ ♪

They want you, they want you

They want you in their pirate crew!

Who me?

They want you, they want you

They want you in their pirate crew!

♪

But, but, but, I'm afraid of slaughter

Hey, hey look man

I get seasick even watchin' through my patch!

♪

They want you, they want you for Jones, Davy

Oh my goodness

They want you

What am I gonna do in a Brigantine?

They want you

They want you, they want you for Jones, Davy

♫♫

When you're a pirate!

Yes, you can sail the seven seas!

When you're a pirate . . .

Yes, you can catch a French disease!

When you're a pirate . . .

Come on scurvies, fall upon the bloody sand

When you're a pirate . . .

Learn to drink when you've hook-hands?

When you're a pirate . . .

Follow the treasure-map inland

When you're a pirate . . .

Come on and join the brigand-band

When you're a pirate

Come on scurvies and make a stand . . . ♫♪♫

As well as a parrot, you get a monkey which is a bit different (although Charbens had one climbing their palm tree); is it a macaque, or a little squirrel-monkey? You can also see from the close-up that while the painting is clearer than the Zizzle's; it's sprayed through pretty poorly registered stencils and both sets would benefit from re-painting.

My favourite piece in the set, unrealistically posed in an upright position which - in reality - would have resulted in a pile of bones, if you ignore such a literal viewpoint and allow the skeleton a bit of residual or supernatural life-force; a nice touch.

Publicity shots for this set often show them with grass-green bases, but mine are on a sandy beach as can been seen.

The other accessories, the gun is OK, it's a fixed barrel, at maximum elevation and the ship's a joke - unless you war game micro-ships in which case it may be quite useful . . .the wagon in the wild west set is a joke, but it's fine (ish) next to the Airfix HO/OO one in an ad-hoc wagon-circle or barrier! While the other pile of stores - sans skeleton - is very useful.

Descriptions - left to right;

- Cannon

- Ship w/flag

- Cannon Balls & Powder

- Sitting Skeleton

Halfway thrrew mee 'arrrtiees, Aa'haarr!

I is for Itlerpud - Part Two; Pirates of the Caribbean

Zizzle - having one of the main licenses - are responsible for various Pirate's of the Caribbean figure sets from the small ones we looked at here ages ago through a set of 60/70mm figurines on bases which are scenic (bits of ship's deck, piles of rope; that sort of thing) to full-on 'action figures' in different sizes and points of articulation, but they also produced the figures we're looking at here.

These are they, and they are not easy to find, I only have the six; bought expressly for ITLAPD "Aa'haarr!", despite looking-out for them for several months and it's clear there should be more, Googling them briefly only lead to vague mentions in passing on forums dedicated to the larger action-figures. The important thing is they are a reasonable 54/60mm in size, making them compatible with older figures.

Moulded in a medium-dense PVC vinyl rubber, they are only painted to what I would call an OK level and all seeming to be from the third movie (?), the one with Davy Jones Locker (Davy Jones himself being the 'lobster claw') and all the monster crew-men, anyway!

Quite apart from the fact that obvious figures are missing including Jack Sparrow; the anti-hero of the movies, another thing that points to a larger set are the strange animal silhouettes on the bases. I have no idea as to their meaning, a couple are realistic, a couple simplified and one (the mouse) cartoonish? Could there be an accompanying card-game, or some other parallel collectable of some kind?

Aa'haarr! Morrre in a while, me arrrtieees!

I is for Itlerpud - Part One; Bits & Bobs

Which sounds like one of Adolf's paw-prints, but is in fact ITLAPD . . . AaHaarrrrrr! Mee'Artieees! It be Int'ernationaalll talk loik a Poirut day! Again begorra! It be almost loik it's everry yearrrr?

Thaall'be foive postin's to come this foin day, this'un be'in the firrrst ov'em! AaHaarrrrrr!

I think that's enough talking like a pirate, so long as you're seen to be making the effort! So, the first post will look at the odds'n'sods that I have picked-up or found since last year's ITLAPD "Aa'haarr!"

These were 'unknown' last year (or the year before? Mass nicht!) in different colours/poses, but I recently found them on my old phone, taken in 2009 in clearance store Poundstreatcher (I think? Mass nicht!), they were attached to the backing card of a large window-boxed 'Pirate Ship Play Set' and branded to Halsall (now HTI), they would have been branded to others/nothers elsewhere and are really generics, but it's nice to put them in a named-place if you're a UK collector!

I think this has missed a couple of TLAPD's "Aa'haarr!" having been put in the unknown/TBS civilian box as a kid in dressing-up clothes, which he is, but they are Pirate clothes, so he should have been included in a  previous TLAPD "Aa'haarr!"

He is - as some of you will have recognised straight away I'm sure - a Hong Kong copy of the old rubber Thomas Toys dolls house child, others included a girl dressed as the Statue of Liberty. I have somewhere in storage a similar copy of the Dutch Boy with his ill-fitting trousers, and when I say similar; I think it's the same 'army-man' green plastic. So from a set of kids not from a set of pirates - but definitely piracy!!

As we're on copies, let's stick with them for these two pirated pirates pirating (centre, yellow) who are 'based-on' copies of the Ideal pirates (outside, grey, here re-issues by Glencoe), they are not exactly the same - the left-hand one having simpler buckled slip-on shoes (against bows on the original), no bows on his stockings, no pistol in his waistband and no hat, in addition his collared-shirt is a sleeved affair, open to the waist at the front with the sleeves rolled up as opposed to the string-vest of the original sculpt.

The right-hand diminutive imposter has lost the turned-down 'cavalier' boots in favour of the shoe/stocking uniform, has added a neckerchief to his otherwise equally bare chest, replaced the waist-belt with a cummerbund and had a haircut!

I've had a Google for them and found zilch, they have some of the look (and size) of 1970's European bubble-gun and ice-cream premiums by Gelados Olá, Mundi bubble-gum, Tito, and the rest, but they lack the typical release-pin holes in the undersides of the feet typical of those makers/issuers figures, still,  someone must know of them?

22-09-2017 - Paul Morehead, revered editor of Plastic Warrior magazine, thinks they are Poplar Plastics which makes sense, but then why didn't they scale-down the spacemen or Romans; 'cos they had the moulds?

Finally in this introduction to TLAPD "Aa'haarr!", are the chaps I picked out of Peter Bergner's rummage bins, thinking I didn't have enough for ITLAPD "Aa'haarr!"; how wrong I was, but, here they are again; generic Chinapirates!

I've seen them in various colours and two versions; some are less well-fed than these - and look a bit better for it, these are not terribly realistic having the squat look of badly designed war-gaming lead. Someone suggested they were Toy Major, I can find no evidence for it, although Toy Major are a jobber and have carried all-sorts, but this lot aren't in their current inventory.

Now known to be Tai Sang's 'Redbox' and carried by various wholesalers/generic or phantom brands

These appear to be the thinner, better-looking version.

That's it for now, next part of ITLAP Day "Aa'haarr!" in a couple of hours . . .

A is for 'Alfa'!

Civilian/domestic cars rather leave me cold, and even though I pay attention to these plastic vehicles in order to build the bigger picture of the 15 or 20 brands and brand-marks involved, I can't get excited about them, especially this one which has no branding to speak of.

Box with car - there is no branding on the box other than an 'Empire Made'

Car with box, the only marking on the base plate is a 'No. R445 Made in Hong Kong' which is not related to Lucky's numbering system, so it'll be one of the others, which as they aren't linked with figures or military 'stuff'; can go hang!

Did I say it was an Alfa?

There may be more at Planet Die-cast, links for which were in the older posts, but my coldness toward cars means I can't even be bothered to go and look for likely targets to link to now! Also this is the forth post I've written in the last few hours and . . . blearh . . . whatever . . . you know the score; bruum-bruum-car; boxed; plastic; Hong Kong!

Better stuff tomorrow...

R is for Racing Car Transporter

This is a little peach, but only because it comes with two smaller racing cars, and I have a sub-collection (or branch of the main collection) of small scale racing cars, so envied these; also shot on Adrian's Stand a while back and branded to Fairylite who imported a lot of Hong Kong's larger plastic vehicles.

Otherwise 'mint' . . .  someone has removed the two larger stickers; as it's been done very neatly on both sides, despite the other stickers being still firmly established I suspect there was a reason for it but what that reason was I/we/one can only guess at, but feel the lorry may have escaped a re-paint by the skin of its teeth!

Box . . . is a box is a box!

Racing cars! I didn't photograph the under-plate, just forgot . . . I think? If Adrian still has it I'll try to remember to look for it at the show yesterday, (but in three days time as I publish this) and add the image here with any note. I have a feeling it may have been blank though as I did photograph tomorrow's post's base-plate at the same time?

G is for Guiterman

This toy was issued by Lucky as the Beford Fire Engine, but as with yesterday's - both the base-plate and the box, fail to match that antecedence! Around 1:48th scale it was also copied in smaller scale for the Fire Station (12 pieces) set we looked at back in April/May.

Hinged, extending ladder and chrome-plated parts, siren and 'fast friction motor' are the main selling points, but really; it's a bright-red, fire engine and cheaper than Dinky; that's what mattered on a damp, grey Saturday in September, back in the day!

The two little mounting holes at the back of the base-plate are a bit of a mystery, but may well be for another motor housing, they tended to be manufactured by third parties and do differ from batch-to-batch or brand-to-brand (or: branding-to-branding is more accurate!), even companies like Japan's Marusan apparently moving away from branded toys to the supply of sub-assemblies.

Box branded to Guiterman, another of the old-school importers ('well-old' in this case!) like Fairylite, like Clifford, while the base-plate is branded to NFIC, who are better known for smaller-scale copies of Dinky including the London Taxi, Daimler Ambulance, Quad tractor and a range of different bodied Humber 1-ton trucks.

You may have noticed (I forgot to mention!) the difference between Brian's Canadian and the earlier - posted - Telsalda buses motor-housings; the axles, wheels and tyres were the same, but the housings were quite different with the Ottawa one having rounded ends, the Telsalda more box-like, although both fitting the same tab-slots.

Previously seen, for the hell of it and with a couple of comparisons; these are the 'war games' size from NFIC and I cropped the Marx gun out as it would be its third outing here and I try to keep duplication to a minimum.

Don't forget - it's Potter's Sandown Park Toy Fair today!

D is for Dennis

Although this has no moniker, it has the look of the Dennis Fire Appliance's I remember from my later childhood? Also I'm not that sure of scale (about 1:24th?) as there's none given and there never is with these Hong Kong vehicles; even when issued in 'sets', they were meant as stand-alone toys and scale wasn't an issue - it's one of the things that makes following them so hard, with three sizes of Jaguar (for instance) you're not always sure what you're looking at on-line!

Clifford carried a fair bit of Lucky's stuff, but they carried other stuff as well, so nothing definitive, but it all adds to the whole. The artwork shows the back door opening along with one of the side-shutters, and that's what you get, the other doors are all integral to the moulding except the crew door, which is absent on both the models below, although there are signs of it having been there.

The real reason for photographing it! Two figure sculpts, driver and sit-arounder! They are the best gauge of scale, being 70/80 mil, which gives a size between 1:22 and 1:25th scales. Made out of the same colour plastic as some of the smaller Lucky firemen, it's another clue both to this being lucky and to Clifford's relationship with Lucky being a further clue to the LP link.

Branded to neither Lucky nor Clifford though, it carries a base-plate for WS Toys! I'd like to think it's a made-up brand, but as I said above: nothing's definitive with these plastic vehicles, and has we've seen with both the figures and the London Bus, and base mark can change or dissapear!

O is for Ottowa?

Did they have red 'London' buses? Do They?

We're going to have a quick season of plastic vehicle articles, two of which are left over from the last 'follow-ups to the Lucky post's season, two of which I shot the images for at the next Sandown Park show (so thanks' to Adrian Little for all four post's images, and don't forget it's Sandown this coming Saturday), and this posts which was sent in by Brian Berke about a month or two ago.

This is basically the Telsalda bus again and everything I said last time - of an opinionated perspective - applies equally to this one, however there are detail differences which need to be pointed out, but which serve only to underline everything I was getting at in those previous musings.

The first is that the box while being the same at a glance; has no Telsalda logo on the end of the building, while the BOAC logo (British Overseas Airways Company) on the side of the bus in the image has been replaced with the informative - but unnecessary? - Double Decker Bus!

In the box (unlike last time) the stickers bear no relation to the box-art, with Ottawa, Canada and huge Union flag graphics down both sides, I can't begin to guess whether this was an attempt by Hong Kong to find 'any' market for the toy, or something with UK Tourist Board money behind it, or if Ottawa actually had red buses to sell toys of?

The other major difference is a deliberate removal of the code-number by drilling a bloody great hole in the tool-block where the number was placed and allowing it to fill with plastic. Also the silver plating on the wheel-hubs hasn't happened, so they are a neutral-granule looking; creamy-white.

Brian photographed it with the likely donor a Dinky die-cast model, however my comments last time about the number of donors holds true with the 'not'-Telsalda having a more rounded frontage to the roof and a more pronounced curve to the body-panel which comes down off the floor of the upper deck to the pillar at the back of the engine compartment

The box of the Telsalda version we looked at last time, along with three others to show the size variation of these plastic vehicle models;  the tipper truck from that previous tranche and two fire appliances we will be looking at in the next few days.

Then we must have a News Views or two - a PW168 review is due - it arrived yesterday; full of lovely things!

While posting I double-checked Brian's email and . . . "I bought this in Ottawa back in the late 70's. They had old London RT's running sightseeing tours, most memorable for all the wood worm eaten floors on the upper deck!", so my bad, and a quick Google reveals open-topped ex-London RT's - which pre-dated Routemasters - so a ready market for a Hong Kong plastic toy.

B is for Baden Powell's Boy Scout with Battery Torch

And U is for Unknown . . . again!

Just the one picture today, but I think you'll agree: interesting, nevertheless? I actually thought I'd already posted him, but I can't find him on the blog, so apologies if I've already asked about him.

I haven't the faintest idea who made him, when or where . . . well, actually, being the big head the Vichy claim I am, I do have a slight inkling; ironically enough, I think he may be French! But; more likely Danish.

He's a slightly 'soapy' polystyrene or celluloid/phenolic plastic without the heavy smell of the urea-formaldehyde or early celluloid compositions, so I think late 1950's or more likely the 1960's as he's in an advanced, stable polymer. The French were good at that sort of stuff, once they'd got through their crumbling, melting, splitting phases! [a quick coat of plumber's sealant - it seems to have worked for that Belgian figure and it seems to have worked on my sticky Starlux!]

Speaking of Belgium - could he be from there? He also has a lot (more?) in common with Kai Reisler's output in Denmark; they have a similarly posed GI, and cowboy and they're the only one going in the tag-list!? If he is British, I would favour Subbuteo; as the closest figures to him I know of - domestically - are the Subbuteo Beatles? Which might make him a board-game playing piece?

Obviously a Boy Scout or Cub Scout, is he part of a bigger set, or was he a token (jamboree attendance) or fund-raiser of some kind? He has no mark of any kind, and his 'swivel arms' have got a bit loose, being strait plug-ins with no ball or swelling to hold them in. He's approximately 54mm, but that would scale him to 60-odd as he's meant to be a juvenile?

Can anyone shed a little more light on the subject than his torch is able to?

Later the next day . . . Doh! Lucky I only put them in the tag list!