H is for How They Come In - Chris - May - 4

Vehicular 'Access All Areas' with this post on Chris's recent package to Small Scale World's Central Control Room, with a look at flying, floating and free-wheeling types - can you tell this first paragraph is sometimes the hardest to fill? If the muse has turned-in for the night, then she's turned-in for the night and that's it!

From the cake decorations and premiums pile; two Festival candle-holder trains, particularly pleased to get the yellow one as previously I though only Hong Kong had done it! Teeny-tiny coach with its father (a Hong Kong copy of a Manurba one) behind and a cereal premium 'Transport of the World' Chinese Junk.

Actually, there seem to be several iterations of the set, both either side of the Channel (La Manche) and either side of the pond, with cereal premiums claimed (UK/USA), margarine and coffee premiums (Germany and France respectively) and others, and different issues having different line-ups, there are also soft plastic copies from the colonies and bagged sets in opalescent pastel-colours which probably came via beach-side vendors at the sea-side, consequently (like the athletes) every example adds to the whole picture . . . one day we will look in depth at all of them together, this Chinese vessel is a subtle pink-white.

Hong Kong sports car on the left, odd body-shell on the right which might be Triang Minic or Jouef-Playcraft, they both had similar lines as rail-drive/new vehicle delivery items on their model railway flats/low-loaders/transporters? They were also both Lines Brothers!

Also a civilian car I suspect, probably from a bagful of rack-toys, but in a military green which makes it a staff-car! It actually looks quite like the Zephyr Dad had sometimes when he was 2IC in Hereford, or commandant in Brecon? Or was it a Zodiak? Big bench seat and wallowy suspension like American Cars, my brother and I thought it was better than a Rolls!

Another which is shadowing the verge between civil and military, both Chris and I have Googled all the likely movies with no luck and haven't found anything like it so it would appear to be from a  minor cartoon/movie or even small scene-specific? It's marked Disney so should be a shoe-in to ID, but so far no banana!

If you know, put us out of our misery! The driver slides back as the other [same] guy pops up to man the 'Gatling Gun'! We both suspect McDonald's, but the lack of any other mark beyond the 'DISNEY' (not even a date) rather rules that out as their Kid's Meal toys are usually covered in consumer information and licensing marks?

It's bloody cool though? Very Indiana Jones, or WWI'ish, and would [will!] go well with the Disney Store Indy' stuff - I wondered at Incredibles II which I haven't seen, or the latest 101 Dalmatians?

Actual Military now, with a Micro-Machines Frog/Scud divorced from its 'TEL' (transporter/erector/launcher), and a current twin-gun rack-toy tank, which we may have seen or not, there are a few out there!

Now . . . this is brilliant, a traditional, 1970's style, rack-toy BRDM, in four-part clip-together polyethylene, with the standard (for the era) US roundel from early-war aircraft! But . . . clearly a copy of the Play Art die-cast model of the same vehicle, most unusual, and a very gratefully received present!

Mini and Micro 'planes, I rather like the Iwako style eraser helicopter (plastic skid landing-gear and prop'), and again the rack-toy 'ethylene AWAC is fun. The teeny one on the middle is a Fairy Fulmar from Airfix's 1:600 Ark Royal - I ruined one when I was a kid!

The silver trainer type jet has a plug underneath and may be from a larger scale Carrier toy, while the mosquito is an MPC copy.

One the right two from cheepie sets, one camouflaged, one more colourful and a nice bronzed/weathered pencil-sharpener which will join the rest of the 'mocherette' accessories, for that still-in-the-pipeline page! All die-cast alloy.

W...T...F...? Gotta'be a wing-walking team, but who? Galloob? Corgi? 'China'? And why do only two have their goggles painted in (making them look like extra's on The Fly!) . . . that's the pilot, in brown, by the way - on his back . . . four ladies dancing on an aeroplane's wing . . . Mono- or Bi-? Answers on a postcard, or just let us know in the comments!

Naval elements include two Chris had previously sent me images of for a follow-up which never sort of happened, but it was also conversational in that emails were exchanged, they being the outside two.

Nearest the camera and the aircraft carrier are Hong Kong copies of TriAng Minic Waterline ships, while the coloured one is Galoob Micromachines. Which leaves the one I had question-marked against the WHW vessels and possibly also being WHW, but I fear it's looking more likely they are a lesser HK thing? Jury's still out on that one.

Ahh, yes . . . Royal Fail and Parcel Farce, conspiring to carnage! The Marx 'miniature Masterpiece' medieval horse will glue, as will the rather fine terracotta Santon with fish-baskets on a yolk-carrier, but the fixed-turret, twin-barreled, rack-toy tank has been well and truly unfixed!

I can't complain because thanks to Chris Smith they were all free! And it'll be the military figures next.

H is for He's a Big Boy Isn't He?

There was going to be a Technolog post here but with 160-odd out of 190-odd countries holding the parent country to cultural, military, political and financial sanctions or embargo, I feel it is my duty - as a believer in the basic tenets (at least) of liberal democracy - to do likewise, so, as this only came in yesterday, it can go here . . . in fact I must go and leave feedback!

Marx six-inch Roman, the paint is well done, but the all over blue (azure I think?) is a little disappointing if you ask me, and you sort of did by coming here! Hard polystyrene lump, here compared with the Poplar Roman who at 75mm is three inches himself, so not the best comparison, but the 60mm Marx and 30mm Miniature Masterpieces (next 'Ancients' post) were away to storage some time ago!

It's worth noting that his shield-arm has been rearranged (or was rearranged on the smaller ones) from the straighter posing of the other sizes, I suspect that was a mould-release issue, in the smaller sizes the figure might pop-out without trouble, in this scale you may have had catching, with all the verticals, angle it slightly and it may release more easily? 

I thought the face was particularly well done, I know it's easier at a larger scale, but it's still a skill to be impressed by! Although - a face only his mother (or a succession of possibly desperate eastern European 'models') could love; he looks a bit like Trump straight out of the orange spray-booth! This set was known as the Goldmarx series.

H is for How They Come In - Chris - May - 3

So continuing with the nice lot Chris Smith sent the blog at the beginning of May, brings us to the civilians, and kicks off with the sports figures!

I photographed the diminutive circus chap the wrong way round, and he's off to storage a while back, so a bit of a boo-boo there! He's in the style of the mini-copies of the Commonwealth 'dolls', but clearly a circus performer or ring-master, I guess a cracker prize/capsule toy, but he could be from an as yet unknown set!

The athletes we've seen before, and it's the large number of them in many sizes which makes every example useful against a future post on all of them. While the other item is fascinating - he appears to be a tobbogan or luge rider, so-far so normal, but his 'machine' is a large slab, and on the underside is a grove with angled striations which would seem to suggest movement over a simple worm gear? So some kind of enclosed, interactive plaything he's come lose from? Anyone recognise him? He probably goes back and forth in a slot or track of some kind?

A page of Firefighters is definitely in the pipeline, but in the meantime they keep coming in, and I haven't progressed much on the labeling, despite the fact that Theo van de Weerden has helped ID a lot, including some of these!

Racing drivers! Like firefighters these are many-aplenty in odd/job lots, and ID'ing them all will take the rest of my life! Two big ones, from beach/lawn toys, and a little die-cast chap from something which should be easier to find?

Likewise the many, many seated figures who have escaped their vehicle, horse, railway station or wagon over the years, the red one - front, is Tudor Rose I think, the red one - rear an Airfix or similar 'old fashioned car' model kit's driver in 1:32nd or 1:35th scale.

The rider (horse?) bottom right seem to have been coloured to match early Thomas rubber kids, but is a Polyethylene Hong Kong thing. Painted blue - front, looks like a Century 21 or similar Hong Kong chauffeur, while painted blue - rear, is from a similar Hong Kong item, possibly a crane, dump-truck or a variation of the popular fork-lift truck toys? The other three are random rack toy fodder!

Solider ground here, with two from a modernish (1980's/90's) set, an armless Blue Box mechanic with the larger 45mm Marx road/construction worker (sold here with the plastic, Hong Kong Muir Hill type dump truck, where the figure was also made) behind, and finally two of the possibly Lucky mechanics, taken from Dinky via Blue Box!

An eclectic mix here, with a guardsman! How do the ceremonials keep turning up in other themed shots . . . don't ask Hugh; you should know, you took the photographs! . . . anyway, I'd love to know who copied the Britains Shetland-pony in smaller scale, I have several now although this is the first in a  realistic brown, some Polly Pocket type thing?

Second upscale Matchbox game shooter clone this year, having never seen them before! A reverse colour-way of the cereal-premium hunter we looked at here. Behind him is a board-game hunter we may have seen here, or he may be one of two in the queue, but he might actually be new, he looks like a 3D version of the Trek (Spears Games) 2D flat?

Which leaves the figure I was told was used in those weather-clocks, but I believe he actually [also] turns up in cheapo copies of the Blue Box safari Land Rover?

Love the craft-carved 'yokel', he has the look of Greece, Turkiye or somewhere else in the Balkans? Common Ertzgibirge to his left, there's a Matchbox-copy farmer in a soft silicon ruber, I've yet to ID the set but it will be a rack-toy or die-cast of some sort.

A pair of legs (Barbie/Kinder?), two heads (Star Toy knock off's of some vintage action figure I've mentioned before I think) also copied as Monta-Man by Montaplex sobres, in monochrome.

The medic is Corgi - as an unpainted moulding - but I'm still not sure about the painted ones, die-cast accessories anyway, also die-cast; a wagon horse to be ID'd, and a PVC Micromachine Policeman finishes the shot.

And back to sports or 'horseflesh' as the trade has it! The two green ones are from that educational package set, the outer two are cracker toys I think, I used to believe they were from a board game, but many variations and colours have turned-up now, so Christmas crackers from the budget end of the spectrum seem more likely?

Many thanks again to Chris for sending them all for us to enjoy - vehicles and AFV's next . . . after more Romans?!!

News, Views Etc . . . Barney's shops!

New news from Herald Toys & Models;

"...We are delighted to announce that we have now acquired the remainder of the Wiltshire collection, which has particularly strong sections of Cherilea, Crescent and Lone Star, including many harder to find figures. This week we are kicking things off with the Charbens section, including some superb ACW Confederate and Union 'Moveable' soldiers. We will also be selling a large number of Britains Deetail toy soldiers and Timpo Swoppets, from the same collection, mainly via our Herald Toys and Models eBay Shop, though some will be available here through our website..."

There's an eBay shop? I didn't know there was an eBay shop! So . . .

Website

evilBay

F is for Fanciful Fellows!

Bit of a box-ticker, literally as it's the contents of the Charbens & odds ancients tub! I don't have many, but have managed to find most types (I've just realised I think there's a blue Hong Kong copy missing?) and all the poses.

My two originals, paint's a bit thin on the ground these days, but then the ground is shiny polymer which never held paint well, and although some early Charbens were chalky for the reason of pain adhesion, this set was a late addition to the range and didn't get a chalky iteration.

Unpainted/home painted, they may be from one of those home-paint sets, I don't know, but it would make sense? Flesh plastic and another two poses, you may have noticed they are all fighting over the wild strawberries . . . in their scale; the size of watermelons!

He's just helping himself with an axe swing! They were sold as Romans, but everything about them screams Greek, and a rather fanciful, pre-Classical era, Trojan War/mythical Greece at that!

This one is unpainted hard polystyrene, and may be a Prindus (Prison Industries) figure who avoided the painting phase in his hurry to find giant strawberries?

Duplicates from the recent/current form of re-issue, a dense, rigid polymer in a neutral grey. You may have also noticed the kilts are a bit short? The greaves look a lot like pantomime booties as well, so there's a quite theatrical look to them, but they have plenty of charm, and might work as Etruscans against true Romans?

Because there's a bit of room in their tub, they get the odd's which are - from the left; an Athena Greek . . . Greek tourist figure, not that rare, but finding the spears intact (polystyrene) is always a bonus.

Then a chess-set pawn, who's a bit more Roman. I think you can still find these in various finishes on Amazon, as whole (and not cheap) chess-sets, in metal or plastic, but these older ones are often to be found in rummage trays at shows, and while not a copy, his shield seems to have been influenced by one of the Marx 60mm set. Finally a modern Greek from Conte Collectibles, I think.

This guy's also in the same tub, a bit bigger than the others around 60-65mm (I didn't check at the time!) and from the liberal quantities of gold and silver paint; probably Argentinian! The fish-plate or scalloped armour has me thinking of Poseidon, was he from a set of gods? Also quite Ray Harryhausen'esque!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - May - 2

The second post is the shortest, but I seem to have photographed most of the piles on the bottom row first and that's the vague order they're coming in, although I fattened this one with the Wild West!

That Toffee Hammer! I posted one as part of the new nostalgia thread, itself only really an extension of the old 'other collectables' thread which was previously a separate Blog, back in the first couple of years here, and anyway (digressed there a bit!) he sent me his old Walkers one.

There's no apostrophe, so not the crisps Walker's, but another Walkers altogether! And the hammer looks to be otherwise identical to the Sharps one, so I imagine the same foundry provided for several firms through sales teams, the hammers being crudely sand-cast to a similar pattern? Cheers Chris, brilliant, more that two of anything is a new collection!

An eclectic mix of cracker gift magnifying-glass/key (a common combination with no logic! A few minutes after publishing - I suppose it goes with keys on a key-ring, although that 'styrene loop wouldn't last two minutes on a metal key-ring!), two cocktail stick-swords could prove useful one day, but as I don't collect larger action figures . . . repainted and crossed over a castle's door? And a rather crumbly chalkware ger'nome.

I had a Santa' in similar condition years ago (I mean; he's still in the collection, I think we've seen him here but not like this) and I just dribbled wood hardener (or concrete hardener?) into him, let him dry, filled a few holes with plaster-of-Paris and then repainted following what was left on the figurine.

Odds and sods; you may remember news that the Dinky sacks were on their way, both clean but with age, so those yellow ones we saw last time would seem to be modern production, but from the old tool?

Nice camp-fire, maker unknown, sort of Playmobile size, but I have a couple of theirs and this ain't them, so some digging required (Mega Bloks Vikings?)! Love the dumpy little plastic tree, the yellow thing is the magnetic 'radioactive' drum/load off of a Dinky Eagle Transporter from Space 1999 - set 23 years in the past and all we’ve got is Bezos' penis-mobile!!

I like the box strapped under a tarp/cloth too, and we're about to look at the creamy white thing; bottom left . . .

. . . I think . . . it's meant to be a mud brick-mould? Or should that be mud-brick mould . . . call it a mud-brick-mould! Handle is wrong for Playmobil, material wrong for Lego . . . any ideas? It's fun anyway!

Larger Wild West; as I've said before the kinder swoppet bits go in a bag and every now and again I manage to build a whole one! Another Lone Star target Indian, and the missing pose in the correct colour to make me a set with a extra opposite colour pose I think, so box definitely ticked!

For some reason one of those Lucky-Bag guardsmen crept in to shot! New colour though - I think! The green one is interesting, I think he's a Deetail clone, blue one is Cofalux (from memory?), the oxide-brown Indian could be a Siku copy (?) and three Marx clones of Pecos Bill (cracker/lucky bag premiums) join a 30mm Britains piracy and another of the Crescent/Lido et-al 'dimestore' plastics.

Giant clones out of Hong Kong; Chris very usefully left the larger lots in separate bags, very important for sorting and attributing riders with horses when there are so many to ID! The bag on the left is someone's childhood leftovers and a mixed sample which will require further sorting, the bag on the right is a clean sample of Wavymane III, and can go straight in the box!

In front is a smaller mixed lot of post-Giant foot and foot with the same base-mark as one lot of Romans, I think as Wild West they go with the horse I call 'Jogging'. Final heap of brown is the Blue Box small scales.

Thanks again to Chris Smith for all the surprises, and we'll look at the civilian and sports figures next.

I is for Incongruous Infantry!

There is a trend these days, a minor one fortunately, but a trend nevertheless, to do 'medieval' sets with a few Romano-Greek types thrown in for good measure, I think the fault lies with Supreme/SP Toys, who managed it in several scales with two lots of sculpts, much copied and the trend has since been seen in another unpainted polyethylene set, but today we're looking at a current set which I found as a generic in the UK but which has been branded in the 'States.

No stickers, no labels = no title! There was no wraparound either and I suspect it was mailed direct from China in a plain brown wrapper! So we'll call it 'Castle with Figures'! The way it's packed in the tub is the only way it'll fit, if you don’t put all the small pieces up one end first and then the long wall; corner-to-corner, you can't get the lid on!

If the set was/is commercially available over here it would/will likely be through Tiger Hobbies, their sometime customer Strawberry Group or the rival HTI? While European sets might be Simba-Dicke and Toy Major could be handling them too; anyone got a set with a title?

The castle is more of a gilded Mile-Fort, which, given some of the figures included, is pretty apt, but it's very basic and went to charity some time ago, seven pieces with the gate pre-fitted.

The figures! They are all quite passable, but three Romans and five medievals of a 1000-years later . . . plus! The archer is more Gladiator than legionary, what with the heavy greaves and toy-bow but the rest are passable, the King is very good and has a nicely scaled, integral sword, while he also has a gripping-hand, as do six of the others.

I wouldn't be surprised if they turn out to be copies of larger (ELC/Papo/Schleich) types?

While this is - I believe - if not a direct copy, harking-back to a Planet of the Apes play-set accessory? Pretty sure something like this was issued in the 1970's by someone like Mego or AHI for human prisoners, fun piece for kids anyway - mobile gaol!

The fort is manufactured in polystyrene, the accessories mostly a nylon or polypropylene while the figures are a substitute PVC polymer.

The accessories and separate weapons, the former being a bunch of naff-shite make-weights, the latter being mostly a bit oversized, in the style of Lego or Playmobil type stuff, and while the set lacks instructions among it's non-existent paperwork, they are pretty figure-specific. Note the difference between jousting lance, lance/spears and distinctive Roman pilum, likewise the obvious Roman shield against the two smaller heraldic lozenges!

You can swap the two spear/lances, but the rest are pretty much the best fit, you could give the casual green guy the King's jousting lance, but a King shouldn't really have a pole-arm which is a melee weapon for the lower orders!

And really, the yellow Roman needs a more 'Roman' weapon, but the green Roman would look wrong with anything other than the pilum? Meanwhile the red 'Noble' needs the shield which matches his surcoat so the blue guy has to have the screaming emergency-orange one as he's the only other medieval with a spare arm!

In the USA, this set is being handled by Creative Kids through Liberty Imports who are one - of the many - people linked to the [originally] Supreme Wild West Airfix copies with similar play-set accessories, so some symmetry there, just not clear what/how/why!

I think a loyal reader sent me this but I can't find an attribution - my bad (leave something in the comments) sorry. They were marked up "SUPREME (China) Crusaders and Knights", but seem to have some non-standard/set weapons; it's improved them!

If these softish-to-medium density, PVC figures are Supreme, that would make them their fifth or six set after the large 'Silver Knights', the Esci copies (medievals and Crusaders), the common sets (Halsall-HTI/Simba/Toy Major), the Simba/Strawberry/Tiger Hobbies/Toy Major set (Deetail style bases) and possibly the strange 'construction worker' set with the spangel helms (also Simba) . . . etc! Two of which lines ('Silver' and common) also contain Greco-Roman sculpts!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - May - 1

Just before the May show I received a big parcel from Chris, which was lovely,  but I explained to him that while I was trying to keep up to date with the H is for's, I would probably do the show reports first, and with Sandown immediately after PW, and a few other things to hand, a month has gone by! So, let's see what the blog got . . . around the date of my birthday, as it happens!

Sorting, left of two; I tend to go through Chris's parcel picking out all sorts of treasures and quirks until I've no room round me (I sometimes a take a shot at that point, but forgot this time!), then I realise I need A) some order and B) to empty the box, so I pile by theme, which doesn't take long.

Here we have from top left to bottom right - paratroopers, 20th century military, historical/colonial/ceremonial, Wild West and part of the civilian pile, then, below, small-scale Wild West/Giant/Giant like, cake decorations & premiums, cartoon/TV & movie related and finally animals, birds & fish . . .

. . . while, starting with that part civilian pile we have; civilan/sports, aircraft & water vessels, fantasy & Sci-Fi and a bag of Hungarian stuff which will feature in future posts, so only a tantalisation today!

The bottom row is civil vehicles, biblical, military vehicles, odds & sods/scenics and a bag of Toltoys figures, which again, we will look at another day, in fact I think both bags have gone to storage now, so it will be a while! And a small toffee hammer we will look at properly in the next post!

Then I used to photograph the highlights, however traffic-stats say you like these posts, so most of the more recent ones (and the show reports) have taken to showing most items, even if we've seen them before, there's something fascinating about the breakdown of a mixed lot, isn't there?

This time the animals got enough shots to provide a post/fill this post, and were shot first so here we go. Very pleased with the mouse, we HAD this mouse when we were kids, I'd recognise those relief-flat whiskers anywhere, despite many similar mice being issued by the former Crown Colony. Ours discoloured after a lengthy sojourn in the garden, lost his tail and went the way of all flesh, I’ll look after this one!

The other three are similar silicon 'rubber jigglers' with one of my favourite Chinasaurs, a seal and a snake which also - along with the Dimetrodon - has childhood familiarity!

Polyethylene and polyvinyl here with another snake, an unusual (in age and subject) Narwhal whale and a dolphin apparently from the same set, a ladybird ('ladybug' if you have to!), a per'terra'dacktill and a Natural History Museum dino' from Invicta Plastics.

Two Torres wine-bottle tag/mascots above and three deer below, I don't know if they are Preiser or Merten, but it will be one of them, and they might have been home painted which makes it harder to decide without pouring through the catalogues which are all in storage! I think Preiser, purely from the smoothness of the finish?

A santa sleigh deer here, which will be useful, as mixed lots of cake decorations of the sort I get occasionally are often missing one end of the team or the other! Three Quaker horses, very useful, and a Tupperware alphabet animal make-up the rest of the shot.

Domestic[ish] animals and a zebra! The highlight here being the dog, which is clearly another of those cracker animals, but in a larger size than the wild/farm ones, and like the dinosaurs (also discovered by Chris) points to a set of dogs? Cats? More to come on them anyway, I suspect!

Tacked the Biblical's on at the end as a make-weight! The two on the outsides have probably been seen before although there are variations, the two in the middle will add to a growing collection and fill gaps which will complete future posts, I think the smaller one in from ART out of Hong Kong, who we have looked at in the past, but he might be a better finished original 'donor' for the subsequent copied ART ones . . . and - in which case - like the larger one, possibly Italian?

Often in the background but rarely interfering helping like his Mum, although he has a habit of wanting to help, with his teeth, if really valuable stuff is being looked at! Many thanks to Chris for another cracker of a 'red-cross' parcel and part two will be Wild West and bits.