H is for How They Come In - Chris - October 2021 - Military & Sci-Fi Stuff

So, the other half of Chris Smith's Autumn donation to the Blog last year finds us with the helmets and guns, mostly in khaki! But there is a couple of red-coats, some spacey stuff and an Esquimaux!

Always, always, always! They all get carefully sorted into bags of identical figures to eventually get matched-up to branded items or set titles . . . like the firefighters, the paratrooper page is another thing which is lagging, but the work goes on in the background - I found a nice novelty variant of the Trojan red-devil the other day!

ABC and 'probably' ABC; Chris returned the two sand ones I'd sent him, not out of churlishness, but because he found better ones! He sent me the - frankly better sculpted - green ones at the same time (which we have now looked at) and he sent me two - believed to be ABC - in colonial line-infantry uniforms (from Britains hollow-cast) and a variant of the standing sentry with a new arm and new colouring.

The sentry's pose is not a recognised drill movement. but is close to a left-handed "Raise weapon for inspection"! That 'colonial' era spiked infantry helmet still survives in bands, but with No.1 Dress 'Blues' not scarlet! I picked-up three more the other day from the legendary Joe Bellis, and a third pose is blowing on the instrument I get in to trouble for . . . an oboe/clarinet'y thing!

A nice selection of mixed figures, the crossbowman is Exin (seen here - fourteen years ago!), the guardsmen are the denizens of crackers/lucky-bags (seen here four years ago!), while the flat/semi-falt cavalryman with carbine may be Plástico Osul from Portugal?

The Argentine Oklahoma figure looks like the advancing pose also sent to the Blog by Chris, but it's a single pole he's holding, so I fancy he's a standard bearer missing a flag? Something I will sort with a print-out at some point!

Another Spanish Civil Guard in terracotta takes that sample three, the blue knight is similar to some capsule toys marked Saban, but he is unmarked, while the white plastic Britains copy knight is very interesting . . .  

. . . for being clearly marked Petrel. Now; it happens I have several rack-toys marked up/overprinted to Petrel (one or two seen here now), and would have happily accepted they were a phantom brand for someone like 1960's Woolworth's or the Dutch Hagemeyer, but here he is, claiming a factory-tool as his own! How many were there in the set, are they all Britains inspired, do you know? Damaged - but a first here!

Khaki types; The sandy one will be Revell, Aurora, Renwall or someone like that, early box-scale or 1:48/50th kit figure, possibly from one of the missile sets. The diver below him is a lot like the Chap Mai ones, but softer and equipped with a mean dart-tip, he's hunting Moskva!

The two 'army men' at the top are both uncommon, one channeling the Lido pod-feet chaps, but as a unique sculpt, the other seemingly a khaki copy of Deluxe Reading's white one, but without the slot in the base, I must assume therefore another DR piece, from a similar big-box toy?

The large chap in the middle will be for a 1:18th German AFV, but I couldn't tell you who's or which, I haven't followed the phenomena, except to be very impressed with a  mixed battle-group of 1:18th, 1:12th and 1:6th (action man sized!) AFv's running around at Beltring hop-farm!

Finally - another 'army man', who must be from some sort of interactive zip-wire/death-slide, or helicopter (with hook) toy/set; I can't imagine he'd be auctioning a bow-saw to the highest-bidder in the middle of a battle?

Very useful Blue Box stretcher-case in white, I knew it was out there as I have it in a boxed-set somewhere, but I didn't have a lose one, now I do! Posed with the WAAC nurse, also from Blue Box.

These two will be from a modern gaming system, which are similar to but not Bolt Action from Warlord Games, I will endeavor to ID them, to which aim I have ruled out Wizards of the Coast and Flames of War . . . so might be looking for a stand-alone boxed game? they are quite nice though, factory painted PVC, and they've gone to storage in a TBS box, so I can't for the life of me remember if they had base-marks? Same Day - Heroscape! Thank you Daniel - see comments!

I think this chap was on Moonbase, not that long ago, but I'm damned if I can find it, obviously a target for a shooting game, I think it was a little rack-toy pistol? With the Azco/Hassenfeld, Ideal/Kleeware, Kellogg's, Kwong Ming, Lion, Lone Star and May May ones, I'm building quite a pile of targets - with help! We'll have to have a target page here?

Going off-world; there's a probably Kinder (or similar Italian pocket-money toy) space ship, a Micro-Machines command module, some capsule toys, one as a pencil-top (three-headed Kaiju) and one as a charm (green robot).

Robin's lost his head; probably at the sight of the pink block-man . . . is he Roblox or Minecraft? He might be a Minecraft 'hex-fusion' figure whatever the hell one of those is! One day I'll do something with the damaged dime-store/Tudor Rose pulp figure, like graft a small propeller to the wrist?

While we've looked at the two rack-toy Power-Ranger knock-offs before. The blue fellah is a Pokémon I think, and I have no suggestions for the 25mm action figure with moving arms and legs?

Mentioned in passing the other day - this completed my MPC XL5 character line-up, Steve Zodiac I think a reissue in this grey and he was a bit shredded, but a very quick pass with a cigarette-lighter removed most of the jiggits, but it didn't restore his nose! I would never recommend the lighter-technique, it's something you have to be practiced in (or confident of carrying out), before you start, and practice makes casualties! But done right it disappears all those little 'tails' of a worn, sanded or badly-fettled plastic item.

Probably could have been in yesterday's post, a small collection of Kinder figure parts, which will go with all the others, if I ever find the big box, which is still somewhere in the garage! And the Attic stuff has long-gone to storage, so that's a job for next-home now! I think blue-top is an ice-hockey player, there's half a fantasy barbarian, the blue legs go with the Esquimaux, and the horses had those chunky brass-look knights riding them.

"Now you've sorted everything into their little bags and spread them all over OUR nest, can Teddy and I have our Cheesy Dreamies please? We're starving here and it's well-past our bedtime!"

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Found it! FBI Shooting Practice, by Day Fran so now I need to find the Captain Scarlet ones - Doh!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - October 2021 - Mixed Stuff

I think! I have another lot from Chris Smith which is in a folder marked December, so it was further down the list of catch-up 'H is for...' posts, but then I realised I had a sorting picture dated the end of November, so it had come in earlier, and yet these are dated the middle of October, so they too may have been put to one side and photographed a while after they'd come in?

It was all a bit hectic in the autumn . . . still is, just had four days in the garden trying to sort the stuff from the sheds, greenhouse and garage, but don't seem to have got far despite working till dark! Anyway, another 'junk' lot kindly donated to the Blog by Chris, with a view to sharing the highlights with the rest of you and seeing what I highlight!

Starting the sort, and you can see a lot which won't be in the two posts this time, and there's no rhyme or reason for what gets shot and what doesn't, and something which won't get included in one post, might make another.

The things which stand out on the day get photographed, it's all got a place in the collection, and things ignored on the day, might 'make' a thematic or maker post, years from now or provide the only example on an A-Z page entry - when they gather pace!

There was a nice selection of Dinosaurs, which varied from the poor, mono-coloured, multi-sub-generational copies of old US sculpts to the very realistically painted ones top-right and bottom-left (I do like a Dimetrodon or two!), and the two top left, who were fantastic!

Gotta'be a highlight of the whole box! Plug-together, articulated dino's in an HO-OO compatible size . . . bargain! Rather generic 'meat-eaters' and I suspect a cereal premium, or cheap carded rack-toy, mid-1970's maybe? But absolutely delightful - anybody know anything else about them, how many were there, who issued them?

This is interesting, the locating stud/perching spigot on the underside is (I believe) compatible with Lego technical stuff, now years ago I had some chrome-plated jeep stores (jerry can and spare tyre), probably Hong Kong, which went-on as they were beyond the scope of the collection, but they were useable with Lego, so it may be that this pterosaur is a Mega-Bloks, Tomy or other, more minor Kiddycraft-clone's 'playability' accessory?

Other wildlife! Another of those Indian plaster, wire and wood birds, a lovely 'styrene pig who's beautifully marbled and I love the fake netsuke monkey, while I had a scruffy example of the small (35mm) bendy-chimp, but I didn't know he came with a larger bendy-parent!

I think the red horse is from the R&L/Kellogg's horse box (can't remember if it was in two parts or what plastic it was now, and it's away, sorted!), while the flat pair of Dachshunds are a wishy-washy white plastic, so probably Christmas Cracker or gum-ball capsule machine prize, rather than a creamy-white Euro-'margarine premium'? All good stuff!

Chris sent the yellow ones in the lot we're looking at here, and I photographed them with some I'd already put on the side, which may also have come from him or Peter Evans, but may have come in one of a couple of real cheapo' HK-junk lots I'd purchased last year for one or two figures? Point is, solid piracies of Hong Kong swoppet copies (of the Star Toys type), of Timpo - that standard bearer is not bearing Timpo anatomy!

More annoying, I know I have now found a brand-mark for one of the two types (deep, hollowed or shallow, smooth bases), but I can't find the reference just now (the reason I had the others on the side!), so we'll have to return to them at some point when it turns-up.

An eclectic bunch, the Household cavalryman would seem to be a HK-copy of Britains Herald, but with a solid (clumsy) right-arm, the damaged figure is very interesting (one assumes die-cast or plastic vehicle accessory), as he's a scale-up (40mm'ish) in polystyrene of the Matchbox 25mm hunter from the 1-75 range.

Love the angel, she's a bit sexy for a nativity set, and looks vaguely familiar but I can't nail down the memory? The guy in the floppy-hat may be a cuckoo-clock barometer/weather-vane person?

Top left I think I've seen on an LRG forum described as a gum-ball copy of some better Japanese Kaiju/Anime character? Top right also looks very capsule-machine, while the broken gymnast finds a home here due to the number of different versions of them out there and plethora of sizes and colours;  - any sample is better than no sample!

Not quite in focus, sorry! I was going to do a whole page of firefighter figures (and various people; Chris, Brain B and Theo V-de-W helped with shots), and I will, but not as soon as I'd hoped, and when I do; these will all be there! In the meantime; obviously two large-scale vehicle accessories and a more 'army-man' rack-toy type who had a painted helmet when new.

There's a lot to ponder here! Love the 'Cleatus' teeth, because they're designed to give an over-pronounced 'toothy' over-bite, they have teeth-grips instead of being designed to slip behind the gums, or go-over the wearers teeth, consequently I haven't been spotted trying them on, as I don't know where they've been!

Two cracker/gum-ball pistols will join the growing bag of such novelty items and the sack of corn is another thing which I can't place but which looks familiar? Don’t know what the cow's head is from (orange blob), maybe one of the Mattel custom 'chopper' motorcycles?

The 'Tardis' is probably a European call-box, police or breakdown, and an accessory from someone like Majorette or Solido? The well is a nice piece, we had a bit of a mini season on them a while back (back in the early lock-downs?) with help from both Chris and Barney Brown, and this is a colour variant of the Barrat one. Chris actually sent me another well (in the Nov/Dec. lot) and I have in the meantime combined all mine - as they went to storage, so we will return to wells in a year or two!

Finally a nice late Giant-copy wagon, dog-kennel (or z-gauge locomotive shed!), and a standard Hong Kong army-man flag, but with an unusual design on the flag!

This is an amazing survivor; a very delicate, polystyrene, novelty 'plane, which I seem to recall makes a dive-bomber's wailing noise (or bee's hum?)  if you blow or suck on the large engine, but as with the Cleatus teeth, I don't know who sucked it last, so I gave that test a miss, but one day I'll give it a clean and have a go!

Many thanks to Chris as always, and part two will be the military!

B is for Bunnies - 3 - Chocolate Bunnies and Bits!

As I was replying to Brain's eMails last night it crossed my mind I hadn't checked Picasa for any 'Easter' tagged folder/s waiting patiently for their day, so I did and found one with two images, to which I added a third later, this is the crumbs of Easter, at the end of a nusy weekend on the Blog!

A Cadbury's mini 'super-bunny' compared with two sizes of the famous Lindt gold bunny, I think this was my edible haul at Easter 2019, when the world was still sane'ish! And - to be honest - I think most of them are supposed to be hares (Osterhase), but we ran with a Bunny trope this year!

Brian sent these last May and while the aim was a Wind in the Willows post, I felt they were eggy enough for an Esater post, I think they are Ceramic gift-shop ware, but they could be chalkware and I don't know who the maker/branding is?

Downloaded these from an eBay lot a while back, couldn't resist them! They are by Goula (who's wooden station with plastic flats (nice book-ending to the days posts!) we saw on the Blog here - fourth image down), and they too are all wood . . . and wire.

That's about it for today, Happy what's left of Easter!

P is for Polish Roundup - 3 - WWII / Cold War

The third lot of PZG that's come-in recently was this little lot (plus the two figures from 'Four Tanker's & a Dog' we saw a few days ago here in other mixed post) and consists mostly of British production knock-off's, but there are some original Polish sculpts too.

Two ex-Airfix WWII Soviet Infantry, one compared with his donor (grey), all seven Airfix poses were copied, and the clones are a little smaller than the figures they're aping.

Also a pair of US Infantry, again; ex-Airfix doppelgangers, again all seven poses were lifted, and they are painted to match the Soviets, whether this means they were sold as a set of 14 from the same side or two sets of seven I don't know, but the PZG website separates them.

A Polish copy of a Trojan / BR Moulds rendition of an older Crescent hollow-cast figure, painting is quite (six-colour-) colourful on this chap, almost as if the painter liked the figure as much as I do!

Timpo also got the pirated treatment, with the 10 of their larger GI set joining two other (ex-French - Mokarex - production?) figures for a 12-count, these yellow bases can be shared with the previous Airfix clones, as can the paler green paint job on the other crawling chap. From the fact that some of the poses weren't copied by the British plagiarists, suggests PZG took these straight from the hollow-cast originals.

Original sculpts of Soviet-era stuff here, and while the No.2 on the bazooka is missing, they still make a nice vignette of an anti-tank crew or 'brick'. Technically post war/cold war Polish infantry, they can pass for WWII Soviet infantry.

Compatible with the previous set and including the same bazooka, these are painted as Paratroopers, but you can find them with black, blue (UN), green or khaki (above) berets. Both sets are quite large so I have a ways to go, but I've made a start!

B is for Bunnies - 2 - Scully & Scully Ceramics

More from Brian B; more from Scully & Scully's window - they don't have the level of exquisiteness we saw in the sea-creatures a year or two ago, but nevertheless, they are from the same school (possibly the same maker) and are both very fine, and rather fun!

Bank-holiday derby? I guess he's 'City' in that blue"

Awwwwe! A rather crestfallen one in the background . . . what's occurring there? An egg count has revealed filching, I'll bet!

The gold 'paint' is probably real gold leaf, fired-on! Cheers Brian, charming and a little more apt to the season than killer alien Xenomorphs!

P is for Polish Roundup - 2 - Wild West

I also picked up a nice little lot of PZG Wild West figures back around Christmas, and it's them we're looking at here! Fully round, they did get flat tee-pee/tipis, and I have the double one somewhere (on the Blog under the PZG label), but as a flat and before I knew anything about PZG, or collected the larger scales it went in the small-scale, flat, Wild West zone!

Hollowed-out bases, the one in the middle could use a re-paint, but that's not my schtick, and I love the guy on the right, it's a fact that some European makers were far more inventive in their sculpting than the 'Mid-West/Plains' types (with northern Totem Poles!) of most British and American makers, although MPC's witchdoctor is a favourite of mine.

Again the middle one is the poorest, his shotgun has been sawed-off for a blag! the chief also has lost the pointed tip of his lance while the other guy (copy of something East German?) is a tad bigger.

Accessories; the stunted tree is a Britains copy, while I love the fire with a small calf BBQ'ing for the returning war-party. These are basically my first PZG Indians, I have the blow-pipe figure somewhere and the flat, but I think that's it, so to mix metaphors; it's nice to get this duck off the ground and running.

Previously seen elsewhere; a reminder of them as a group shot, with the reverse shots and various base-styles employed by PZG, side-by-side.

B is for Bunnies - 1 - Scully & Scully Flats

So I got these emails from Brian Berke (our roving reporter in New York) last night, which changed today's plan slightly and to which were attached this years Scully and Scully widow displays.

For readers new to Small Scale World, these are a delightful happening which in a good year arrive in my inbox three times; Christmas, Easter and Halloween, but some years they do something else, while this year Brian reports that the windows weren't good for photography, until - I guess - yesterday.

Scully & Scully are best described as an up-market bijou interiors, import and gift shop I think, and if you are new to the blog, best thing is click on Scully & Scully at the end of this post, or in the tag-list down the right-hand side, to find many similar delights, as there won't be much more blurb!

Following plastic, painted, Polish flats; whitemetal, painted German flats . . .

A really lovely lot this year, as always, and I thank Brian again for sending them here to share.

P is for Polish Roundup - 1 - Flats, Semi-Flats & Historical Solids

So the plan was always to have three posts here today catching-up on incoming polish figures over the last 14-months, and as a foil to yesterdays space-horror, which only got Easter Sunday because I thought, well, the eggs! And I didn't have anything more festive.

That changed yesterday evening, with the recipt of a couple of eMails and a quick search of Picasa; so we're going to try six posts (I won't make a habit of it, except on ITLAPD!) before the clock register's Tuesday. How we do will depend on a number of factors, not least the weather - I must mow the lawn - second cut!

This post is the oddments, and we're starting with a small mixed lot I bought a few months ago, mostly flats, but not the hard 'styrene flats I got from Grzegorz Maciak, these are more like PZG (recycled Nylon-66), slightly softer, and painted after PZG too.

Indeed, most are credited to PZG on that site we've visited before, these being found under the last button (Inni) which I think is the equivalent of 'other' or miscellaneous? Clearly a Polish winged-hussar and two Cossack types, although (as some of you will know from your studies and others from recent current affairs programmes) at the time both were part of the Empire of Poland-Lithuania or The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but they posed better attacking each other!

Note to Putler - don't attack the land of the Cossack's with a bunch of Siberian conscripts, you'll get your nose burnt, along with most of your tank-crews . . . and your best boat!

A little light reading I've inherited! I've actually had to pack it for now, but I will read it soon, in the meantime, it seemed to be the perfect backdrop to the two figures.

Another unlikely pairing, a contemporary levy (?) to the previous mounted figures faces off against a Highlander? In a sky-blue kilt with his tartan lines at a rakish angle! he looks like he might be another plastic figure taken from old Schneider's home-casting moulds, but I think the Eastern sculpts here are all originals?

The guy on the right is also credited to PZG, but the other two remain question-marks, and he's a swordsman not an artilleryman, but again for the sake of a photogenic vignette; it'll do. They are also from very different eras!

This chap is apparently Urlich von Jungingen from a set of Grunwald 1410 figures, and note he's posed on two different horses, as that was what came in the lot! More a fully round, he's some semi-flatness to him and his horse, and both have the look of what we or the French might call 'from Hollow-Cast', but I don't know if there was a lead progenerator?

This was a shot I took a while back (two years ago) of my small sample of what I thought were all Napoleonic troops, but actually there are troops of several nations and several conflicts many years apart, so it became my even smaller 'samples'! But it makes a colorful group of what PZG (and another maker I think; I've lost the note!) were capable of.

Seen before but this is the 'appeared elsewhere' image! Bought at the pre-Christmas London Show in December, and note the chap in the middle is the same as my existing one, but a deliberately different shade of blue. There is a fifth somewhere I think, so that's a better sample than some of my PZG sets! But they're all growing.