TMHT is for There's More Hero Turtles!

Like Ninja Turtles but safer for poor little British kids who might otherwise be corrupted into whacking each-other over the head with broom-handles or something . . . humm . . . that worked huh!

A quick follow-up from a post last January, and I don't need to subject you to a back-link as they're all here; they are Ninja's. not heroes!

Brian managed to find the missing pose/character from the Playmates set he shared with us back then, and it is the above 'Mikey' Michelangelo to be precise, complete with nun-chucks! That's two broom-handles-worth of mayhem! Perfect 54mm as well!

Complete line-up, you may recall I'd had one come-in from Chris, and at some point I'll get the others myself, just to box-tick, but as far as the Blog's concerned and thank to Mr Berke, the box is already and well and truly ticked here now! Cheers Brian!

ABC is for Another Building Collection

Just a quick follow-up to the previous post on the WWII copies from Hong Kong's ABC, I managed to get the officer in Sand off to Chris and he kindly shot them all together for us, so this is the ABC '8th/14th Armies', as they are currently known to exist.

Not that there's any empirical evidence for them being sold even as 8th Army, and almost certainly not as 14th, but . . . it's the shorts stupid!  The big question now (as it was last time) remains how many poses were there in total, and what poses remain to be found?

Chris is rather hoping for the Timpo/Kentoy (et al) Vickers machine-gunner to be among any missing figure poses, I rather hope someone (whoever was responsible for the known four) might have added shorts and an Infantry beret to the Monogram bazooka-team?

Which figures would you like to find loyal readers? I think it must be limited to one or two of the poses already in the Timpo 'solid', Crescent 8th Army or Monogram/Revell GI sets? And do you have any of the missing poses?

And many-thanks to Chris!

News, Views Etc . . . Fits & Giggles

So, he's mentioned Bum, in passing . . . because I mentioned them the other day? Tragic! Re-posted a link to the 'interview' in which he apparently uses words he's never, ever used ever, in conversation or on his blog, and re-iterated the old 'collector' hackery! Is he that stupid? Are his followers that dim? I guess they must be! He's clearly that insecure!

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Onward and upward . . . a few links; new ones, not two year-old stuff edited by someone else to try and make me look better!

Another mention of GW

A polemic against the Nottingham mafia's rather sickly bandwagonning the other day is frankly well overdue.

In the course of the article you'll find the use of a new accronym; 'SJW', according to Wikipedia its definition reads . . . "Social Justice Warrior (SJW) is a pejorative term for an individual who promotes socially progressive views, including feminism, civil rights, and multiculturalism."

Because who wants civil rights huh? Who wants to treat women the same as men? Who wants to respect the religious or cultural beliefs of his neighbour? Why try to build a nicer, better, more tolerant world? It'll be those bloody red-pinko' commie rat-fink, socialist swine, no doubt! The abbreviation is quite clumsy, but it was invented by intolerant, reactionary, meat-faced, drive-at-the-crowd, Trumpundbrwreakshiteers, so it was always going to sound a bit forced!

Although, if you say it with a hard, southern drawl, it sort of slides snakelike off the tongne! Eesssjaydubeeyah! - The 'silent majority'; demanding regressions since the dawn of time!

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Another Museum

This one in Turkey - Istanbul Toy Museum

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Another Obituary

Sadly another collector has left us, although - as well as toy soldiers - he seems to have collected pretty-much everything! Joseph Manalang

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And, because I've not been doing the Friday 'show dates' posts for obvious reasons, I've not been properly thanking people for their contributions, which sometimes disappear into the long queue for any length of time . .

. . . so a quick acknowledgment and thanks to both Brain Berke and Chris Smith who have sent all the above follow-ups, bits and bobs and other stuff in the last few weeks, some for soon, some for laters! Recieved with thanks guys!

K&M is for Wild Republic

When I covered the space figures here I called them K&M (Wild Republic), but these days most of the output is branded to Wild Republic, the space figures however still carry the K&M marking on the base.

This US firm was founded as K&M (after the owners children) by G.B. Pillai in 1979 and for many years was best known for soft toys of a more realistic (if very fluffy) nature than your average pink rabbit or blue squirrel!

Vinyl animals followed, aimed at museum and safari-park gift-shops and then, after an opportunity to go into retailing itself (presented at/with the Vienna Zoo) was taken-up, the company increased its range of lines to equip that kind of emporium. The result was that sets of 'heritage' figures (and astronauts) joined the catalogue, and there's nothing more heritage than knights!

The parent is now K&M International with offices in at least 8 countries, including - interestingly given current geopolitics - China AND India. In the US it's a 'd-b-a' (doing business as) what in the UK would be T/A (trading as); Wild Republic.

There are two sets, a better set with figures around the 70mm (16656 Medieval Nature Tube) made for them in or by a Hui Zhou of/from China and a smaller set (22862 Mini Knight Polybag) from the Victory & Valour (UK spelling) line, credited to Shantou, which consists of duplicates of four of the larger poses, reduced to a 60mm range.

Peter Evans kindly sent these to the Blog a while ago, and explained that the smaller header-bag had had two-each of the four poses, one-each of whom were detached to another detail before the parcel left for SSW's command centre!

The larger set, I think a slightly darker-blue chain-mace chap has been in one of the Charity shop purchases, while Chris sent the kneeling archer in his last parcel for the Blog, again there are shade-variations with a lighter bow and darker mail.

The falconer is rather nice and a bit different, I can only think of the Starlux pageboy chap, off the top of my head (and Exin's 30mm mounted, poncy-looking Prince type), but I seem to recall someone did a whole line-up of them in Plastic Warrior magazine a while back?

I've said before I'm no expert on armour, but I think it's fair to say you get three early types and one 'high Tudor' tournament type, who looks (in the 70-mil set) as if he should glow in the dark, but it's just a pearlescent polymer.

As you can also see the scale is not constant within the two sets, the yellow guy matches the smaller ones better than his own mob, while 'her majesty' is heading toward 80mm, without the crown! I think the black chap has also turned-up before, but whether from Peter, Chris or charity I don't know; by the time I get them all together they'll need a whole tub to themselves!

Backs of the other five bigger ones, and a group showing how the kneeling archer can also be used with the smaller set, it's not a brilliant photograph, but I was concentrating on getting them all still standing-up!

Cheers Peter, a brief overview, but we'll return to them in future comparisons I'm sure.

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis - Late July

The blurb came through for tomorrows train sale, along with next-week's sale dates, so I'll hand you over to Stockton-on-Tees!

MODEL TRAIN SALE

Friday 24th July 2020 10:00am

Lot 3647

"The Model Train sale to be held on the 24th of July starts with Part 2 of the St Martins Bay Collection, which features OO Gauge British Outline and TMC Models from Hornby and Bachmann plus other manufacturers & accessories; HO Gauge American & Continental Outline, N Gauge and OO Gauge Kit & Kitbuilt. A further private owner collection, The CMM Collection, features Hornby Dublo 2-rail, 3-rail and Accessories. The sale continues with further British Outline OO Gauge and Hornby Dublo 2 & 3-rail, plus HO Scale, Wrenn, Triang, Triang Minic and Triang TT; Z Gauge, Trix, Brass HO, OO Gauge Kitbuilt, Meccano & Other Constructional Toys, Live Steam, O Gauge and our usual good selection of General Trains."

Specialist Die Cast Sale
'THE JOHN WATKINS MATCHBOX COLLECTION - PART 1'

Thursday 30th July 2020 10:00am

Lot 4320

"Part 1 of The John Watkins Matchbox Collection is to be held on the 30th of July, the private owner collection will feature over 500 lots of Matchbox Regular Wheels, Gift Sets and more. The collection includes pre-production models, factory colour trials, promotional issues and rare colour and wheel variations. Interesting lots to look out for include a pre-production trial 36c Opel Diplomat, a rare reverse issue Wreck Truck and a Regular Wheels no.3 presentation set. The collection includes boxed and unboxed models, single lots to groups and features something for every level of collector."

MILITARY, CIVILIAN FIGURES, EQUIPMENT & ACCESSORIES

Friday 31st July 2020 10:00am

Lot 5269

"The Military, Civilian Figures, Equipment and Accessories sale to be held on the 31st of July features Britains Limited Edition modern issues; contemporary issues from Del-Prado/Osprey and others including Heyde, CBG Mignot, Astra, and DeAgostini warships. Further items include Britains sets, series and figures, plus Pixyland Kew, John Hill, Charbens, Dinky, Taylor and Barrett and others. Plastic Issues include Swoppet series from Britains/Herald and Timpo, Crescent, Timpo Solids, Cherilea and Dragon Models. The sale will also include bagged Airfix aircraft series, vehicles and trackside series plus boxed kits and original Roy Cross artwork; pre and post war tinplate, Militaria, Britains boxed and unboxed Military Issues, Military Books, Catalogues & Artwork. Plus Plastic Issues from the Connoisseur Collection, Britains Racing Colours including uncatalogued, pre- and post-war issues, and Benbros Boxed Sets."

And Vectis are contactable here;

Vectis Auctions

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

Sales [currently] commence at 10:30hrs 10:00hrs

H is for How They Come In - Medieval Knight Types

I've been buying more off of that evilBay during lockdown, and grabbed a mixed lot of medievals the other day, going spare, for one particular figure, but there were other items of interest in it and as they are a theme, we might as well have them as a post!

Cherilea 60mm, swoppets and solids, nothing terribly exciting, but the black-wash over bronze polymer swoppets were new to me and will be retained, while the yellow plug-ins will help with complete figure building - I have a bag (they're too big for tubs) of finished ones and a bag of detritus! Among the solids I think I like the pinky-maroon re-issue the most, he looks like he's been cast in 'boiled sweet'!

The other usable figures, it was the yellow 40mm from Cherilea I was after (previously seen here), but I have a base for the brown Kinder somewhere, who may turn-out to be a different colour to the one I've got?

The headless 1st version Cherilea will go in their spares tub and the Charbens (top left) is a hard plastic one, they used to be a bit of a mystery to me, they did, now (post PW's 'special' publication on the subject) I assume Prison Industries - Prindus?

Nothing else leaps-out, but they are all complete, which is more than can be said for the third 'third' . . .

. . . who have already gone to 'Recyce' for onward conversion to Solent P! This stuff isn't rare, so there's just no point keeping it in this state, unless you happen to be a converter who wants to work with such an awkward material - and that's not a dig, I have much admiration for those who produce workable figures from polyethylene!

F is for Follow-up - Large Scale Cake Decoration Golfer

Rack Toy Month seems to be creeping-in a few days early here, but given Covid-19 has rendered the whole year with a veneer normally associated with that quiet-news period during the summer 'hols' (albeit with a week's worth of proper news every day, all of it viral!), I guess a few extra days won't hurt!

Picked this PME cake decoration up in Hobbycraft Farnborough the other day, we have looked at it before, both in a break-down/review and in the golfer posts more recently; but here's a new colour-way!

Not only is it a new colour scheme, but I then saw yet another on feebleBay the other day, so I will keep an eye on that hook-board, and we'll look at him again when they get the next batch/colour variant!

P is for Priceless Prize Prick

I was going to sort this at noon today, but I had other stuff to keep me away!

This. Here.

Which (because I've posted a few links in the last few days!) was accompanied by three links (to prove he does links! See?!), to the SAME site - a near inactive, commercial site; half-built and passing off articles taken from the publications it was plugging when it (owned by four entities you've never heard of) was properly active - if ever! And that's if it will load "waiting for partner.googleadservice"!!!! It doesn't even have a proper homepage!

https://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home . . . it's still using clip-art for fuck's sake!

You just can't pay for that level of comedy-stupid! You have to hope the gods will deliver, and in TJF they seem determined to keep doing so! He keeps saying he'll have nothing more to do with me (I've repeatedly made no such undertaking), yet he can't leave me alone and has to have the last word . . . it's like pulling grass-seed from a hedgerow at the end of summer - too easy!

Headplant, shakes head, lifts one eyebrow, does the little one-tear sad/angry face thing...

Realises later - he also mentioned circus in the same post, which I'd mentioned the day before! It's pathetic.

News, Views Etc . . . Couple of Links

Literally only the two, but a couple of goodies I think you'll agree?

Nice thumbnail life-story of George Musgrave here.

The [Sussex] Argus Newspaper (formally the Brighton Evening Argus?)

And a nice overview of a museum in Valencia here.

L’Iber Tin Soldier Museum

"Scary old hermit"!!! Yeah, I think that's more of us than would like to admit!

And if you never make it there; most of it is here!

F is for Follow-up - Poundland Wild Animals

Quick follow-up as I turn a third into a half, sample-wise!

Popped over to Farnborough last week for a few essentials (and another handful of face-masks . . . now in Sainsbury's 10 for £8) and dropped into Poundland to see if they'd a new selection of the Play2Discover Wild Animals - they hadn't had on the previous visit, and they had; six of these!

A water-buffalo, more Asian than African? And an embarassed brown bear who's going to hide his embarassment by biting yer' heeed-orff! Who thought that was a good idea, who came to a production meeting and said "Well, now we've got this half-decent sculpt of a brown bear, I think what would really enhance it would be some blasts of airbrush in International Orange on both cheeks"?

And to be honest his dentistry is more Shrek's donkey than Ursus! They are what they are and as I said last time: 50p each; you can't complain!

R is for Roman Bums

Look, we need to get this straight now . . . every time we look at the output of this strange half-resurrected Montaplex, half resin-pirate, we will make a joke out of their name, because they want us to! They didn't call their track-racing system Bumslot for nothing you know; I'm sure there's at least one British ex-pat' in there somewhere!

I think I intended these to go on the Airfix Romans page, where they are still an obvious absentee, but I seem to have shot them without any comparisons to the aforementioned UK-made figures, so we're having them here, now, and I'll re-shoot some comparisons for the other page another day!

Very crude copies, they get round-tipped (Republican?) shields with Imperial-era uniforms, so . . . Spanish mercenaries? And most of the Airfix figures were copied, but - mercifully - not the running-waving-pilum guy, who was quite idiotic enough first time round, although, the marching chap hasn't been cloned either and he was one of the more useful ones, along with the Persian archer type.

The chariot has had a complete redesign in Ed Roth's workshops and now looks more like a field conversion of a Celt's muck-cart! And it has been reduced from 4hp to one, often the way with those custom jobbies, lots of noise and a fancy paint-job, but as soon as you join 'Run to the Sun' they burst into flames . . . some summer weekends that A30 South looks like a technicolor, smoldering, retreat from Moscow!

There was a 'big box' set as well, but I think the vessel-kit was bought in, I haven't studied it but would imagine it's probably from Academy rather than the older Aurora or the Heller/Směr ones? The same single runner of figures won't provide much in the way of useful crew though and the transfer sheet (there's another in the first image) looks like the bastard-child of Revo and Games Workshop . . . on acid!