F is for Follow-up - Polish Production

I mentioned the other day that a lot of stuff gets credited to PZG which probably never saw the inside of their workshops and this post is in some way to explain that point, while clearing the smaller samples from my Polish WWII/Soviet-era tubs, most of these are described as PZG somewhere on the Internet.

Stating with a scaler/sizer, we have the Airfix Cold War troops at either end of the top row, struggling to be 54mm at about 52-mil! Inside-one on the right is the full-on 54mm WWII Russian from the same maker, with two of the PZG's from the previous post - the rest are to be looked at below and vary from around 55 to 75mm, bases having a lot to say in the final height though, with 56mm as a starting point.

60-mil with base, but actually the smallest at around 55mm foot-to-crown, these are PZG, and I suppose (like 'assume' Erwin, but a different word, just for a change!) they may be an earlier incarnation by dint of a slight finesse over the chunky based ones, and the fact that they seem to turn-up less often?

Bearing in mind what Gisby said in the comments section of the previous PZG post, these appear to be copied from the Airfix HO/OO (1:76th) scale set! Which also dates them to no earlier than 1964; probably a year or two later.

Base mark, I've dealt with the PZG in the past; Polski Zwiazek Gluchych (Union of the Deaf or 'Polish Association for Deaf People'), the ZSP is an abbreviation for - in Polish - Zwiazek Syndykalistów Polski (Polish Syndicalist Association), which seems to be a second tier of bureaucracy, some collective/state function? I think it's a bit like our putting a 'Royal National' in front of Institute [of the] Blind to get RNIB, or RNLI for the Lifeboat Institution?

The largest are these 75mm prone figures, and the odd thing is no standing or based figures to go with them? Except, I think I may have the standing figures in the still missing box of Eastern Bloc flats, along with another BRDM-type like the ones we've seen here previously, which means they are probably Centrum not PZG?

Plastic Colours also match those Centrum AFV's, along with the flattish nature of the prone poses, the actual 'flat' nature of the upright troops and the AFV's and the fact that their material is cleaner (or 'purer') than the insipid, striated, flaky re-grind and recycled off-cuts PZG tended to use.

Now, these are interesting, I think they may also be Centrum, due to their semi-flat nature, size and the mould-release pin marks, but I don't know for sure. The second-largest at 65mm and carrying the same yellow paint on their bases PZG are known for?

What they depict is equally interesting, it's hard to tell from the sculpted-blob whether it's a soviet style paratrooper badge, Polish paratroopers (most likely) or a UN peacekeepers globe and wreath, if paratroopers it might mean they are Russian production, but the Poles did partake in several UN missions before the 'wall' came down and continue to, so it would be nice to think that's what is depicted here?

[At time of posting - Google suggests they are polish paratroopers Iin UN berets, WITH the polish cap-badge, which is just perfect!]

The Bases; the two central, evenly spaced release pins are similar to those on the Centrum AFV set, but under collectivisation, different toy firms would have been getting tools from the same machine-tool firms!

This chap is very interesting, and the only one I've found of the type, if you didn't know better or if the base was a glue-on, you'd be forgiven for thinking 'Bloody hell, un-documented, rare as rocking-horse shit, Malleble Mouldings khaki infantry figure?'

Sadly the base IS attached as part of the moulding, and the paint points East! But where in the East? . . . your guess is as good as mine . . . but someone knows?

With the leggings/puttees and helmet I'm thinking Czechoslovakia, Hungary or Rumania . . . Bulgaria . . . maybe; one of the lesser Soviet satellite-states anyway, but big-enough to have their own toy-production, over-and-above Russian imports? People use the Airfix Italians as Rumanian troops, from the puttees; so Rumania seems likeliest?

Two orphans, probably both PZG, the radio operator is in blue plastic under the paint, but has a late (?), solid, thick PZG type base, while the harder plastic, cruder-sculpted bazooka-man is less obvious - being baseless - and looks familiar, but I can't place him . . . cut-n-shut of the US Infantry bazooka and kneeling firing 2nd version Para' from Airfix?

Base comparisons of some of the above figures.

Three more which turned-up elsewhere; must have been from the November show in Birmingham 2011, and went straight into storage in the wrong 'zone'! All PZG, but one's a 60+mm against the two standard 54mm's.

The larger guy's base in  a third or fouth variant of PZG's and the second hollowed-out type, with a clever PZG-ZSP with the zed used twice! The 1 - 2 will be a production code or batch number or something equally insignificant, I doubt it's a '1-of-2'!

Z is for Zis, Zil, Maz, Gaz, Kraz or something else with a Z for Zavod in it!

It may even be a Robur . . . Robar, Rober? I can't remember; it's 30 years since I did my Soviet studies course!

This is a rush post as I took these shots in 2015 when the truck joined the fleet, but the rest of the fleet is in the storage pile at the moment, and when I get them out I'll do them all properly, however, as we seem to be having a Soviet era toy day, today, I might as well clear it from Picasa!

Probably in the same medium-utility/light-artillery-tractor class as a 1-ton F/C Land Rover, Pinzgauer or the old Dodge 'Beeps' and I'm pretty sure the Robur was an East German or Hungarian copy? I think it's a Gaz, but my recognition manuals went to Winchester and have yet to come back! When I do them properly I'll Google all the relevant stuff!

Approximately 1:43/1:48th and as well made as anything in the 'West', better than some, but lacking the finer details of top-end 1980's Dinky or Corgi the wheels always remind me of those German or Scandinavian rubber vehicles - something else in the queue . . . with contributions!

We may have had this shot before?

I know the truck is item 17 from the big boxed set that also has the ZSU air-portable SPG we saw here about ten-years ago (item 20, above again), FROG (18, also above) and the Tank Transporter (8) for which I've found the single-vehicle box. I can vaguely remember jack-knifing the cab into a smaller space when packing them up! The whole was too heavy to keep in the box, as it would just drive out of one end as soon as you picked the box up.

There are 19 vehicles in the set (and some heavy die-cast figures) and they were all available separately, I have five or six so far and we may have looked at the 6x6 truck (and copy) already, back in the day, if not - they will come with the others.

F is for Follow-Up - Potemkin's 'Pirates'

Chris Smith kindly sent this pair to the blog to highlight the point I mentioned in passing earlier today, and the other day in the Rasnoexport post - copies!

There's no mystery to it, as I pointed out; all countries have their copies and copyists, not excluding the Hong Kong thing, but specifically within countries, things are 'borrowed' or lent, influence or get influenced by; the difference with the Soviet Union back when it was a collective-economy was that the bulk of the copying was sanctioned, where in the west it was usually more problematical.

The one which is the same as mine is on the right, the one on the left has sharper detail, but it's a slightly smaller figure, so was probably pantograph-copied and then re-etched. It actually makes a better figure, except in the shoe department, where the wide flares of the Rasnoexport figure have been re-cut into shorter trousers and a pair of Olive Oyl's dancing pumps are worn!

While our makers copied each other purely for commercial gain - with or without each-others permission, I think that under the 'Soviet system' manufacturers were told or expected to share tools or designs; in order that toys (the same toys?) be available to kids everywhere . . . far rather that someone in Kiev made copies of something from Moscow, than 'another' truck burn fuel taking them there every few weeks or months? It's all conjecture but it will contain a kernel of truth!

No brand for the copy . . . yet!

Nor for three of these! More copies, seen before; the green one is Bulgarian Progress and one of the red ones will be Russian Progress, but the other two are other works, and which is the Russian Progress is still to be confirmed - I suspect the first on the left of each shot, but without much confidence?

S is for Salute the Bear!

I had one of those rare moments the other day, as reported recently by Bob Legget in Plastic Warrior No.173, of purchasing a cheapie from evilBay on the off-chance, and having more delivered than was expected, not a lot more, but enough!

I'd bid on what appeared to be four loose AFV's and an aeroplane, only for both the original bag and the packing slip to turn-up - having not been in the photographs!

The Logo is similar to the Odessa cultural goods/metal-works factory (Kultbyttovarov) logo we looked at a while ago with the help of Nazar Marchenko, but while that was a cat-bear or bear-cat (?) this is definitely a teddy-bear's head (it's all in the ears!), and the work's title translates as Salute Factory (завод Салют = zeaveode Esaelyute = zavod Salute = Salute works).

The four AFV's which I'd looked for after posting the other rocket-launchers and things a while ago (it's nearly March FFS!); a nice mid-Cold War grouping of 2 WWII/post-war SU's, and a - then -more up-to-date T54 and a PT76, in a size which [we will see below] comes-in at a reasonable HO-gauge compatibility.

The two plastic colours fall either side of the Kultbyttovarov FROG, but these are unmarked, I wouldn't say they weren't from the same tool-maker's though! There is as much duplication among these Soviet toys as there was in British khaki-infantry, French bazaar toys, or US derivatives of Tim-Mee!

The turrets (and gun-breaches) are held-on but allowed to move by having the ends of their locating-studs/breeches melted-back with a hot screwdriver (the breaches are actually melted-in a bit more firmly), creating a retaining 'mushroom', here the operator has got the angle wrong or pressed too-hard and left his mark in the hull!

The four heavies are accompanied by a twin-engined Illyushin Il28 'Beagle' (? - copied by the Chinese as the Hong/Harbin-5) for a bit of aerial support. As you may already have cottoned-on; the paler of the two greens is possibly the most un-photogenic colour I've ever tried to shoot, it sort of soaks-in the flash and spits it out again, as glare, all in the same millisecond - I've deleted dozens of poorer shots, yet the dark-green ones are in proper focus - they're all similarly surface-detailed; promise!

The hull in the top-left shot is the Battlefront (GaleForceNine)'s Pz.Kpfw.IV in 1:100th scale, the T34 is Roco-Minitanks' [rather too-tall] early effort in a nominal 1:87th, while the PT76 is Roskopf's which should also be 1:100, the evidence - as you can see - puts the Soviet Salute stuff closer to the hundredth than the eighty-seventh!

So; with the previously seen stuff, I've now got quite a few Russian Bears in the Right-Revolutionary Ready-made Russkie Regiment! I'll track-down a few more (I know there's a KV II still to find) and then we'll look at them all together.

N is for Naturecraft

Naturecraft were a set of Christmas crackers issued back in the . . . errr . . . 1990's? 1980's maybe, but I think the 90's is closer; they do appear on evilBay on a regular basis, usually a sign that they aren't that old, which is not to say older crackers don't regularly appear on sales sites, but the frequency with which this, one, particular set turns-up, suggests it wasn't that long ago since it was retailed, and it probably only ran for one or two Christmases?

Painted, washed and varnished chalkware animals, I think there are eight in a set, maybe ten, but I seem to recall it wasn't a full-twelve; annoyingly I have all the details on the damaged dongle, but I'm putting-off the task of delving into it with the icare and testdisc software as I think it's an all-day (or many-hours) job, so I can only work with the actual loose sample, who are six!

Each is marked on the rear with a Naturecraft England mark, and I think each cracker had the picture of 'its' animal contents glued to it's main . . . drum? There must be a whole nomenclature for crackers . . . sleeves or grabs? Drum or compartment? Snap, motto, gift, hat, what about the scrunched pinch-points?

I have a half a thought there was a charity or some fund-raising (WWF/WWFFN?) behind the crackers?

N is for Nickelodeon's Ninja's in New York

With nearly 3000 posts under the belt it's getting hard to come up with original titles, so I apologise for the above! It's another quickie! It's another board-game! It's already gone to recycling! It had four figures!

Actually it wasn't a board game, more a sort of 'carpet game', with card discs (man-hole covers) to be shuffled, randomly spread in a trail and then followed by the Turtles. But - the important bit; it has four figures!

The Turtles, around 45mm, soft vinyl/PVC and glued to harder, polypropylene bases, each base coloured to match the bandanna colour of one of the four characters, and that's it really, another box-ticker; Sambro for Nickelodeon, TMNT Foot Clan Street Fight Game . . . four more figures!

N is for Nadi 'Nanimals

Like Nardi, but not! Café Nadi was a European (French) Coffee house, and included these premiums on their coffee to encourage sales through pester-power in the 1950's, as every other coffee, margarine, tobacco, laundry-powder and cereal issuer was, along with various other common 'household' products or 'consumables', that is; those items which are in, or likely to be- in each week's shopping-basket, regular as clockwork.

Not a full set, I could cut-n-shut a few from around the internet, but that would lower me to Giselle's level, equally; I could show his under the implied ten-for-one rule, but as you can see - they really aren't that exciting!

As with a lot of these sets (there are many; flat and semi-flat) it's an odd mix of mostly African species with the odd Eurasian or American animal thrown in and the almost de rigueur Polar Bear and Kangaroo/Wallaby. The gorilla (if that is its designation) is the oddest sculpt; looking more like some kind of an early prehistoric-hominid!

A couple of duplicates in close-up, along with the lion and tiger, the small deer in a darker 'Ivorene' and a donkey who is paler, and greyish and belongs to the Nativity set from Nadi where he bears witness to the birth of the little baby Jesus. The horse is rather fine I think; not that finely detailed, but quite expressive.

Someone - Ludo I think (but don't blame him if I'm wrong) - had tied these flecked/marbled-plastic ones into British Petroleum, also as premiums, but French service stations I suspect, not our BP 'garages', I don't remember these back in the day, but if they were issued in the 1950's they would have been pretty scarce by the time I was paying attention to such things in the late 1960's, so they may have been issued here too? 

T is for The Mirror Should Have Cracked!

With three Hippo's standing on it, but they were quite small and polymer! Just me playing at trying to be artsey with the imagery . . .

. . . using some Timpo hippopotami, with a [later?] unpainted, coloured plastic one (aimed at the infant market?) on the left, and two [earlier?] painted ones in brown from the zoo line, standing on a  mirror with a jungle'y background . . . it didn't work very well; the mirror-image is sort of doubled, fir reasons I vaguely understand but car't be arsed to try and explain; it's all light-angles and crap . . so . . . that's it!

T is for Toy Fair 2019 Reports - Amerang - Nano Metalfigs

Jada Toys 'Metalfigs' are also being shipped into the UK and distributed by Amerang, and I shot a few while I was in London the other day.

This is probably more of a display-unit than a 'playset' per se, and has points for about 12 figures with room for a few more, themed to DC's Batman, it might look a bit silly draped in Disney figures, but each to his own!

Another man-bat and a bunch of other DC superhero comic characters, they don't all have metallic paint, or not everywhere, but it does suit them, and I know I've waxed lyrical on these in the past, they really are lush to handle.

I struggled to get a good shot of this Marvel set - Gardians of the Galaxy, but between the three most-usable images you can - hopefully - get an idea of the finished item!

The Harry Potter line is being added to with the Fantastic Beast off-shoot, and you may just spot the Walking Dead set - bottom right.

Again designed more as a display vehicle than a full-on playset, but this one does have a bunch of accessories for little imaginations to sculpt adventures rund, and those who follow the ways of Nottingham will see that some of the elements may have applications in more grown-up gaming - I'm thinking of the arched windows and pilasters.

A large twenty figure set, I don't know how much this costs; but I've found the single figure blisters in Asda supermarkets to be reasonable and the five-figure sets can often be found in Smyths, sometimes discounted.

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Speaking of Disney - as I was a moment ago - Brian Berke sent these shelfies over from the 'States back in July and they either slipped-past the last round-up of these, or missed it and were waiting for a post like this!

Not specifically branded to Disney Infinity, but rather Disney-Pixar-Muppets, it seems to be designed to carry and carry nevertheless; with almost limitless characters to choose from!

The fact that these are out there in several outlets, more than two years after the Blog first became aware of them suggests take-up has been successful-enough for them to be with us for some time now, which also means they will be around at the fairs in numbers for years to come, Nano Metalfigs are 'part of the landscape' now

F is for Follow-up - " ♪♪♫ . . . aaaaand there were Clockwork-men and Clockwork Cop's & Bot's" ♪♫♫

Mentioned in passing the other day (when looking at the other robots), the Spanish guy gets his fifteen minutes in the limelight today, and another robot turned-up in the Storage lot, so we'll look at it too.

Here he is! Civil Guard - Spanish National Police? I think they are the equivalent of Federal police or Gendarmerie? I stand to be corrected; but he's a Spanish policeman and that's good enough for me!

He had to borrow my Guardsman's bayonet, as he came without one, but the other figures I've seen on that there Intermerweb thingy (Federal and Confederate ACW) both had one. I'm guessing these are aimed at the tourist trade in each territory, and there may be others to find.

The Spaniard compared with my Guardsman, which we have seen before here, briefly. You can see the only physical difference is in the headdress - along with plastic-colouring, and the tampo-printed uniform and face decoration, obviously!

I did try making a video, but the light was all wrong and you have to hold the wound-up figure/s 'till you press record, then get your hand out of the way, at which point they fall over, or go away from the camera or march into out-of-focus, or - when I tried both together - collide with each other, so I gave that up as a 'bad job' requiring five arms, three of which I've yet to grow!

From the sides.

As I say, I have seen Union and Confederate soldiers from the same series, in the US, often quite cheap, but the postage-cost has dampened my enthusiasm, a quick Google or feebleBay search will reveal them.

Base code/markings (or technically 'foot codes') are the same for both, but the Spanish chap has had a branding added to the other foot - he's not Hans, he's mine! The arms swing and the head turns from one side to the other by a few degrees each way, as they march-along. I think this was a charity-shop job, but it may have been in Jim's big box, so shout-out to Jim!

The robot in the left is the addition; we've seen my old yellow and red Christmas stocking one before. The ones we looked at last time (thanks Adrian) and mine are - for the most part - single action toys, just 'marchers', but the new one has similar cam-wheels with pins (to the arm-swinging Guardsman & Gendarme above) between different plastic 'plates' to make the arms punch in-and-out, or the antenna to move up and down as it walks.

G is for Greeks Bearing Similar Shields

Bit of a late one today; as I said [wrote] on Friday [Thursday] I hadn't got a plan for the weekend, and while I managed to get Saturday and Sunday covered, Monday rather went by the wayside!

Also apologies for my inaccuracy on Friday, it's not Vanuatu we're about to sign a trade-agreement with, it's the international power-house that is the Faeroe Islands! As someone with more knowledge of these things than me on the News Quiz pointed-out on Friday night; they're going to send us puffin meat, in exchange for the mould off Ms. Maybe-Maybe-not's jam!

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Another box-ticker, another set of the Toyway-Timpo vinyl figures with separate bases, we're off to Greece this time, and frankly, this set is not as nice as the Romans, the sculpting is a bit . . . sort of lumpy or rubbery! But there are some quirky figures and it's a full group.

The whole set, 10 figures, the painting is also a bit of a let-down, they are all 'text-book' boy's-comic Rome with all the red and silver, and they were - of course - from the bronze-age and Greek! Two musicians and a woman hardly help with army-building either!

Those musicians in full! The guy on the left is obviously a signaller, but the one on the right might be the more Mercurial, godlike character . . . Hermes! Or is it Ares/Mars?

The figure on the left here is also supposed to be a god, well, goddess I think; Athena/Athene (Minerva in Rome)? While the chap on the right appears to have been designed for a chariot, which - to my knowledge - was never offered, but might it have also gone with, or been designed to go with the Timpo Roman chariot, which Toyway may have been thinking of? As it is, he looks like he's about to start a race with an invisible watch!

Spearmen - a hideously unbalanced spear being wielded by the guy on the left, the other two are OK, although the middle figure looks more early Roman to my eyes; maybe he's the General? At least his cuirass is the right colour, while the chap on the right is wearing the latest in kilt fashions; imported from Polynesia!

Swordsmen - probably my favourite figures from the set, perticularly the old man on the left; some crocked Trojan packed-off to do his duty and die properly; the other two quite good poses, the kneeling figures is particularly nice, but all three let down by the fact that their swords have morphed into letter-openers!

The shields are all reasonable designs I think, most taken from actual Greek art or artifacts in museums, although the originals wouldn't have been quite so deep in relief, most being only painted-on? They fall down in the bright-yellow on silveriness of them all!

A scale comparison shot, with similar figures from two Atlantic sets; the woman with amphora being taken from a Roman set!