News, Views Etc . . . Charbens

I've found a better selection of the Charbens US GI / khaki infantry figures from the Timpo sculpts and put them in the correct slot on the Khaki Infantry Page.

N is for Ninjamites!

Giveaway premiums across Europe, blind-bagged in Italy I think (ours are in a soft PVC polymer), they were also available in the US in a rigid-plastic as boxed-tray and blister-card sets (see link at end) with glow-in-the-dark paint-highlights.

A small sample, but they are near-deforms, with scale a bit 'loose' (30/35mm) so it's as many as I need, given that the box is now ticked and a few-more will come in with mixed lots in the years to come!

Originating in 1985; I think most of mine were from Mr. Lucky bags in the mid-late 1990's?

Soupie nailed the pose-count and US-side of things here, he also has more links to various other relevant sites.

And no! I have no idea why one of them has six arms! I'll have a guess that it's a bed-bug 'mite' in-joke!

N is for Ninja Fighters

These came in the day after the start of Rack-toy month, courtesy of Peter Evans, made by Tai Sang's RedBox and brought to the UK via those consummate rack-toy importers Grossman - or HGL as they are now branded - and I photographed them the next day; since when they have been stuck in the queue!

A 12th figure is out there somewhere; eleven is an odd set-count! Diminutive at around the 40mm mark, they match a set of similar pirates we looked at last year on TLAPD in silver, which helps ID them in the question-mark department. As RedBox they came originally in a lovely little play-set with atmospheric scenery pieces you can see here about halfway down the post.

Simple, clear China mark; the detail is there under/behind the difficult to discern glossy-black or red plastic and they would paint-up well, if  a little child-like, which is more due to the loose, baggy clothing than any fault with the anatomy . . . arms a bit short; maybe?

Generic card suggests they should be available elsewhere - look for them near you if your 'thing' is ninja fighters!

News, Views Etc . . . Festival Products Inc.

Right - I'm running hideously late, but have lots 'in the bag' for later in the week, suffice to say I'm throwing up Monday's posts for today and Yesterday's for tomorrow, and them tomorrow I should have time to sort the pile! eMails tomorrow (New York - Got, Thanks - Artist, Got, Yes, Weekend, anyone else -  will read/reply tomorrow!), well . . . I forgot it was a Bank-holiday!

Timpo as American rack-toys, over on the A-Z pages; Festival Products Inc., more info would be appreciated, but it's a start! It's funny isn't it; I start loading stuff from the archive and he decides to photograph an instruction-sheet - badly! Too funny.

T is for Three-ring Circus

Except it's only got the one ring and a small one at that, but the magic of photography means we can have a three-ring circus if we want one!

Bought this at that last Birmingham show in 2011, and though I'd not sorted it, but I had slipped it into the mixed civilian and sports box, mainly because it had come apart so was easy to slip down the side of the tubs with the pack of figures on top of the mixed circus tub! Luckily it still holds together for a photo, and I scanned it flat at the same time.

Three rings; mostly the same-old-same-old copies of Crescent's set, seen before here in miniature and under Maysun and generic HK marks, these are generics, indeed, the performing seal has no marks at all.

But there are other items of less obvious piracy; I love the polar-bear playing the horn, while the animal trainer is looking a tad French or American in origin? I thought the clown might ride the elephant, but actually he only falls off the elephant, but he does stand-up independently, so 'just' a clowning clown!

I have lost track of these, I have a bunch with the unknown dancers, a bunch with the unknown cake-decorations, a bunch with the unknown novelties and a bunch of small-scale/mini's, she has been copied so often it's silly; with Britains, Fontanini and Gem (in addition to Crescent's dancer) to plagiarise, there's bloody hundreds of them!

The day anyone gets a Tiger to balance on four balls for even an instant is probably the day he or she dies a wild and savage death - from a thousand claw-strikes! I think someone misheard an antiques-dealer talking about 'lions-claw ball-feet', too funny? Bear's bloody brilliant!

The monkey can't ride the horse as it's got Crescent's great ostrich-plume 'palm-frond' growing out of its back! However, he does manage to ride the elephant quite well! You can see from these 'bag-opening' mint figures (lots of paint-chips in the bottom of the bag though) that the glossy-plastic monkey has probably been bought-in from a different source to the chalky elephant?

We've seen these two before, they came-in a year or so ago, but they do suggest that the contents list of the above set may be fluid and changeable from batch to batch or even box-to-box?

Crescent clown and 'berserker' conspire to deal with the piracy! And you thought Crescent's clown had a stupid nose!

Because the circus tub was underneath; Not a full set, but under the paint of the bear and the clown are four matching yellow polystyrene (hard plastic) figures who must belong to a larger set.

One's first thought is cake decorations, but they've been glued onto something . . . in fact . . . I vaguely remember removing them from some article or infant toy, I recall the lions paw disintegrated and I had to build it back-up from three crumbly pieces! So there may be something in the files? Music-box, clockwork toy, covered-lid, something like that?

The clown looks well-pleased with himself, but I think the tiger's too close for a clean-shot in the time left-available and a flag saying 'bang' never saved a breakfast from happening - the bear knows exactly what's coming . . . ulp!

Cum'mon lazy-bones', you've got a show to put-on!

M is for Men of Many Origins!

I lied - I managed to get this together late Thursday night, but there's nothing for Sunday and Monday will still be a late post!

When we looked at the Innovative Promotions Inc., / Shell premium 'Men of '76' AWI figures and sets last year (and the year before), slowly building the picture with much help from contributors, I think I mentioned once or twice that I had a few in storage, well; these are they!

They are not quite as I had remembered them, being both disappointing and surprising, some things I thought I had, I don't (must have seen them when they passed through the stock of the dealer I worked for a decade ago), but I'd forgotten a useful, small-sample of the Hong Kong copies, so very much 'swings and roundabouts'.

Small sample of the Shell premiums, looks like the contents of two bags (Shell 7 and 8) and a spare or so?

The carded Men of '76 versions, I'm not sure about the Frenchies with facings in Red and Purple, there may have been some mucking-about and checking with the catalogue and from last year's posts - set seven seems like a likely candidate . . . with a body-swap!

Plus a bunch of 'bits and pieces'; interesting to note that the kneeling Hessian can have high boots or shorter ankle- or George-boots*, all done with paint; over the same moulding.

* Presumably George III . . . like 'Wellington-boots' a few years later? Where Jack fits-in I don't know!

S for Star / Star Toys; shite, utter shite with all-polyethylene mouldings, no arm articulation, unpainted white boots, Japanese Katana-sword (even worse than Innovative's), real 'rack-toy' crap! Their hats fall off, the hair follows, their epaulettes are taking flying-lessons and they are more Timpo than Britains!

Needs work! Even between the Shell and MO76 the hats don't fit or are loose, the foot-spigots are different diameters, so these all have to be sorted very carefully when I have a bit of life to kill!

You may have noticed in one of the 'stash' posts recently tubs of the Timpo and Britains 'donor' versions from the big purchase and I think what I will do is have an AWI page, once these bits and the bits already here are sorted and the two lots of figures brought together.

I'll have a final look at all of them on a new page with the Britains and Timpo at the top, these three in the middle and MPC, & Marx Solids, a few French and Polish-made figures, cake decorations, Accurate &etc - at the bottom?

Plans! You know me and my plans - it'll be unfinished forever!

The sort of detail that page will look at, the Innovative-for-Shell on the left; fine detail, properly marked Innovative Promotions Inc., and nicely finished; In the middle the [also Innovative] Men of '76, the underside has been 'hammered', the holes are larger, the 'soil' pattern on the upper-side is cruder and it's clear that something happened to the tools between the two issues - I think I've raised the point before? It's as if they started again from scratch, copying their own earlier offering!

On the right we see Star's poor imitation of Timpo's base, with a third hole for the card's holding-peg and the odd 'chin-straps' at either end.

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

Last quiet week of the quiet period, I haven't got anything ready for the weekend, and I'm too busy sorting my stuff to pop-up the library on Saturday, so it's these dates and something late on Monday!

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Toy Fairs

Sunday 26th August 2018

Rayleigh - SRP Fairs

Sweyne Park School, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 9BZ

Web. - http://srptoyfairs1.co.uk/
eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk
Tel. - 07739 998 012
10:00 - 14:00hrs

Cirencester - Retro Ronnie Toy Fairs

Bingham Hall, King Street, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 1JT

Web. - www.retroronnie.com

Tel. - 07708 385 061

Tel. - 07900 266 427

Monday 27th August 2018

Bridgnorth - Toy & Train Collectors Fairs (Tony Oakes)

Bridgnorth Leisure Centre, High Town, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, WV16 4ER

10:30 - 15:00hrs

Tel. - 01270 652 773

Mob. - 07825 631 323

Admission £2, accompanied children under-16 free.

Tuesday 28th August 2018

Garstang - Janet Pearson (evening fair)

Kirkland & Catterall Memorial Hall, The Avenue, Churchtown, Garstang, Preston, Lancashire, PR3 0HR

01282 439 009

18:00 - Finnish

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Auctions

Tuesday 28th - Wednesday 29th August 2018

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis (2-day sale)

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ
Web. - www.vectis.co.uk
eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk
Tel. - 01642 750 616

Wednesday 29th - Thursday 30th August 2018

Newbury - Special Auction Services [SAS] (2-day sale)

81 Greenham Business Park, Newbury, West Berkshire, RG19 6HW

Web: www.specialauctionservices.com

eMail: mail@specialauctionservices.com

Tel: 01635 580595

Fax: 0871 714 6905

Wednesday - Robots Galore!

Thursday - General Sale

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Toys in the Media

Halifax again, one landscape and one portrait, same classic wooden building-bricks!

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If you are an event promoter/show curator/auctioneer and you want your toy, model, collectable or popular-/youth-culture type sale/exhibition/event listed here - FOR FREE - or linked to; please eMail me -

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com (corrected!)

- stating the date/s of the event, address of event, contact details, opening/viewing times, admission pricing and any other relevant facts/details or features - parking, travel notes, disability access, availability of refreshments, event subject matter &etc.

And please mention any flyer-art or poster-/leaflet-scans but send by separate eMail, in case they go to the 'junk' folder, from where they can be recovered and marked safe, but only if I know they're there!

C is for Complete!

A real box-ticker; we've looked at these once or twice over the years, but they were among the first things to be sorted together from the two stashes, and it seems that more by luck than judgement I have managed to get all six poses, although two are still tatty examples!

These are they, LP's 'deep-sea' divers, of course, when I was a kid, people still used suits like this for industry (oil & gas) and pleasure or naturalism/scientific exploration, yet now they are archaic-looking set-ups which make you think of Captain Nemo and his Nautilus!

They all seem to come in every colour, naturally as the six poses would fit on a small tool, and other colours are available, including the buff-yellow one someone sent-in last time (I'll try and find the link and put it at the bottom when I upload this), the colours seen here are also all to be found in the 54mm astronauts, along with a dark green.

Plastic Warrior magazine (No.166) showed some Lifeguard-branded four-figures cards from 1970 in Zenith (New Jersey) importer's packaging, with silver highlights instead of gold, black gloves and new plastic colours, but they may turn-out to be copies; as have Lucky's astronauts also been much plagiarised?

T is for There's Some Rack Toys in There Somewhere!

Traffic was up on the other two 'stash' posts and as I've been busy with other stuff, Rack Toy Month's plans have all gone a bit pear-shaped, so here's another sneak preview of stuff heading to Small Scale World in the weeks and months ahead.

Cowboys; enough of them, but nothing terribly exiting! I don't know why that 'bendy' is on top, he should be in the bag with the other three . . . maybe he's a last minute 5th? All the stuff from the last Birmingham show (2011) and quite a bit of the big-purchase in Portsmouth (a year earlier) was still unsorted when it all went into storage, and some of that will on top of these loose 'to be sorted' piles.

Injuns! A surprising amount of Crescent (or Kellogg's) in evidence, the rest pretty run-of-the-mill.

Siege Engines; emphasis on the small scale, but MPC's boxy hideousity is there and the Lone Star sets along with two early Kinder's (little bag bottom left) which Peter Bergner (PB Toys) gave me years ago.

Red-but-not-dead-yet commie rat-finks, sah; loads ov'em! Polish, Italian and East German-made figures along with Russia's own take on Warpact troops, two tubs of arctic stuff and Toyway's Greeks. All good box-ticking stuff!

I think I got most of the Toyway stuff in a single feebleBay purchase in 2009/10, which is ironic as I've started collecting them again in dribs and drabs here; they'll all be spares now!  But I seem to recall I needed some bases, so they may end-up baseless spares . . . Doh!

Next layer down, more Greeks, some barbarians (with presepi?), more Russians from France and Czechoslovakia this time along with Italy again, and two tubs of Natives/Africans, some African exploiters explorers, colonial troops and a German with a butterfly-net . . . natch!

Ditto! With added backwoodsmen and Vikings, sans butterfly-net! Two more layers can wait.

Another box! Nappie-types, 7 and 30 YW, ceremonials and Mounties along with some West Point'ers. The blow-mould is Fontanini's Hussar, right-royally ripped-off, wearing what looks very similar to HCF's little, gold, sticker, but printed with HK not 'Empire Made'

More of the same with some Mexicans!

Mexicans swapped for Greeks!

Again, there's two more layers of goodies underneath, and more boxes, I haven't even spotted the WWII boxes yet, all the 8th Army and DAK to come at some point . . .