C is for Canoes - 16 - Hong Kong II

This was also sent to the Blog by Brian in time for last year's Rack Toy Month, and again I posted it in the bag as I knew we had his close-ups in the queue, more of an infant toy, made in two halves of polystyrene and equipped with four carpet wheels.

From the reverse, the card suggests some age to this set, 1950's maybe? And that would mean if there is a donor set they could be hollow-cast figures, not that I've checked Joplin as I should have done!

The juvenile quality is continued with the two holes 'hollow-log' style, and so far they've only been found in the fetching pink! And the standing figure is a copy of the plastic Crescent chap, so really I'm just running out of things to say about canoes aren't I!!

 

Just in case he is from a hollow-cast figure, or if anyone recognises him (let the rest of us know), mine is in the same red as the set Brian sent me, his are a more realistic brown plastic, and you need to bend the oar/hands to get the latter to hold the former. And, thanks again, to Brian for images and donations.

H is for How They Come In - London, March, Sc-fi, Fanatsy, Cartoon & TV/Movie Figures

Continuing with the London show plunder, and it's the fictional stuff tonight, slipped over midnight somehow, but I'm a bit bleure this evening, and I don't know if it's a head-cold or overdoing it in the garden and getting a lungful of pollen?!!

Kinder first! We saw my sample of these a while ago now, but several more complete or not so complete have since come-in via Chris, Peter and my own purchases, and I picked these up for a song in London.

 

There's even a spare boot, the sort of bit that's often missing, and while there are only two complete figures (and one of them has the wrong helmet I think), it's about the fun of trying to get four of each boot/helmet/belt-backpack in each of three colours on three or four colours of figure, a relatively unattainable goal unless you're a dedicated Kinder collector!

 

We looked at my small fleet of these not that long ago, but this is a colour variation, with all three landing feet intact, so it came home with me, it's one of the tropes of Kinder to issue the same toy in different or - sometimes - opposite colour-ways.

While this is becoming a bug-bear, I've posted one before I think, shot a few for somewhere else, then had a couple more come in, re-shot them, then this chap turns up and has to go here (ocd rules!), so the rest are on hold again, but by the time I remember them, it'll be time to unify everything and shoot them again . . . properly! Kinder fantasy barbarian in loin-cloth and para' jump-boots!

 

I think these are Esso premiums, and while they are claimed by French collectors, there must have been a UK issue (or issues) as we had some when we were kids, one of my favourite toys going back to when my memories begin is the hedgehog from the woodland animal set.

 

Here we have two cartoony ones on the outside, and two Disney characters from the Jungle Book in the centre, but there were other sets, including the aforementioned wildlife, dinosaurs, Babar the Elephant &etc. They can be described as erasers, but are in fact a silicon-rubber which just smears pencil!

Aaaaaaannnnnnd, we confirm a solving of a mystery! Returning immediately to The Jungle Book, and here's some more painted ones, so anyone whose been following this micro-saga since the sad news of David Pomeroy's passing and the stuff I managed to save, will see this is the evidence that while one of the snakes was a pre-production design, and some of the plastic colours may have been experimental, there are commercial ones out there, as this is the second source/lot to come in along with the Tiger which turned-up so fortuitously and soon after the initial bag of workshop bits.

 

Not only that, but this Mowgli is the fourth I've seen and possibly the third I have, not put with the others [yet] as the other two came in as 'Maybe Marx', years before! And the fact that he has a separate, glued-on, clear base would have kept them separate if this lot hadn't appeared! 

And this might be Disney, might be branded, but I've forgotten even if it's hard plastic or PVC! And it's gone away now; so it'll have to be properly Blogged another day? Obviously a cartoon cat in the style of Marx, or early Heimo, Comic's Spain or similar?

These are current Kinder, and obviously from the recent Avatar II movie, being the two leading characters, I watched a sort of speeded-up highlights/précis thing on YouTube the other day and now don't have a burning need to watch the film, as I know what happens!

Don't know if it's a full set, but I picked-up a few more at the PW show, which are all duplicates I think? And the bottom row here are all second views, so there's only eight sculpts present; two humanoids (previous shot), three sea-monsters (top) and three flyers (middle) with printed fabric wings.

C is for Canoes - 15 - Hong Kong 1

I should have keyed this in after the triples, as it's another version of the stretched-limo' of canoes, somewhere between the post-Giant HO one and the various MPC-Toy House ones with Tim Mee-clone figures, as we saw on Saturday last.

Brian actually sent one of these to the Blog which we looked at here, but I didn't open it as I knew we had this lot in edit! Detail wise it's as featureless as can be, but it has the lines, with the swept-up tips, and as a 'war-canoe' can be stuffed with figures, for a proper carpet raiding-party!

At last! The skulking guy on the Island gets picked up for a day trip! The funny thing is, we're going to have to return to this, because despite all the photo's in two posts, there's no decent shot of the interior, so I can't show how it differs from the other similar canoes! And that's my fault 'cos I had the bloody-thing in front of me at one point! When it all gets sorted at the other end . . . !

 

 

In the meantime, I did have a few of the crew in the loose, unsorted zone (standing with the scalp), and with the canoes in the canoe & raft box (paddler), but I hadn't made the connection between the two, thinking the scalper was more of a Texas knock-off type thing!

I think the rower has an original (Cherilea?) oar, and I've placed him in one of the worst of modern rack-toy canoes, and I mean sub-Hing Fat (who are responsible for one of the Britains' 'trapper' canoe copies), which is no more than a silver blob, and manages to look like an inflatable beach-toy!

H is for How They Come In - London, March, Boxed & Bits

Playing catch-up again with the show reports! Back to the end of March and the London Toy Soldier show first, where I wasn't expecting to pick-up much but ended-up with some useful stuff anyway.

 

 Worth mentioning, that while there was some pessimism around the new combined (soldiers and modellers/wargamers) one day show, it seems to have gone well, and most I chatted with were pleased or pleasantly surprised; next one's only about six-weeks away now!

I don't actually know (or remember my reasoning) why most of these weren't subsequently photographed, but with the exception of the Kinder barbarian (bottom left) they haven't been? I know the EMCE (top) are featuring in a forthcoming post, but why the rest were spirited off to their TBS boxes without a photo', is now a mystery.

 

Points to note include two Fontanini Nappies, a Cane Turk, a nice bag of khaki infantry types, two UNA in sand, a small bag of post-Giant Romans, and . . . the Guardsman pen with flocked bearskin????? I took him off to shoot the rest of the Novelty ceremonials (we looked at on the 4th May), and forgot to come back and shoot the rest didn't I? That's what happened!

As soon as we arrived I asked one seller if he had anything nice, and he basically said I need to shift these, they're yours for [insert ridiculously low price here] if you'll take them, so I was off to a good start with mostly Atlantic small scale!

 

Also boxed were these two Minikins sets which will be part of a bigger post but not for some time, while the farm animals are Tamiya, and I bought them from one of the kit-dealers in the other - additional - room! Just for fun, really!

 

Other boxed items from the 'other team's' stallholders include the JB Models (now Airfix) 105's, I intend to do one in Wainwright two-tone, towed and the other firing in Falklands black & green. The ACE Models half-track 'Diana' SPG, is a nice variant, while I think I already have the space set (from Dark Dream Studio), but I'll de-runner these and make-up the assemblies.

 

I bought this from the Legendary James Opie's table, although I believe his colleague is behind them, there were several, but I thought this had potential for a lot of different figures/eras? Obviously you trim-back to the base of the fort and stand it at the back of a display shelf, there were a whole bunch of them. The fat chap in a bicorne wasn't a purchase on the day, but happened to be to hand for an example of how they look!

 

I have several of these now, they tend to come in with mixed lots and are mostly - I suspect - from cheap, rack-toy 'knock-off' action figures, god knows if I'll ever get them all ID'd, but there are sites which look at all the also-ran's, so one day . . . maybe!

 

This is fun, I saw a heated discussion out of the corner of my eye, toward the end of the show, and when it had petered-out, I wandered over and asked what was the interest, and the seller explained the buyer had wanted one building, but that as it was a complete run, he wanted to sell them all together, and for only twenty-quid, so I handed over the money before anyone else realised what was happening!

 

In the event I found two duplicates and one missing, but they seem to appear on feebleBay regularly, so I'll find the missing one soon for the complete set. In the meantime they are an interesting thing, Waddington's HO-gauge scaled building that slot together without glue and which can be collapsed and put away again when Mum needs the table back! Eight of the smaller/medium-sized ones were also issued as Weetabix premiums.

C is for Canoes - 14 - Tim Mee

Tim Mee have two canoes, I've seen the first in red, green and yellow, but we're looking at all yellow ones today, courtesy of Brian B again;

The first version is a slightly clumsy design, presumably meant to be a bath toy, but given long rods on either side (missing here) to help its path as a carpet-toy by keeping it upright, the over-emphasised keel otherwise making standing level impossible - Brain has leant his against the bank of his encampment here, to show it to us in a realistic attitude!

 

An online image shows one of the two long rods or spigots which contact with the surface and keep the boat level for flat-surface play, lifting the figure to the same height as any of standing around it!

 

The re-design gave it more of a 'waterline' look, and it's one of the problems with these (the Cherilea particularly), how realistic do you make something which only stays level in a bath or basin, but which is going to be played with on the floor or a table?

 

This, both Tim Mee's in fact, are smooth-hulled models in the streamlined style of modern canoes, but I guess by the time US forces or the RCMP in Canada were using commercial designs of plank construction, some must have found their way into Native hands? I'm musing out-loud here, I don't know for sure!

L is for Lazy Post, Lazy Day!

Yeah, I had a bit of a session on the garden yesterday which left me a bit stiff this morning, and so I rather chilled today! I did get over to the flat and start shooting the PW Show plunder for forthcoming posts, however I still have the first of the year's London shows to Blog, and another lot from Sandown this Saturday-gone, so it doesn't rain, but it pours, however; I could have worse things to whinge-about, than to many toys!

Vehicular purchases from the weekend, I missed out on a Tudor Rose forked-lift truck, not that I wanted to buy it, but I meant to shoot the driver figure to help ID one of those primary-coloured ethylene seated figures which come in, before it sold, which I failed to do, however I did manage to photo a few others, and the Taxi here (also Tudor Rose) has a driver.

 

A second Surry (with a fringe on top!) means one can be un-bagged and assembled at some point in the future, while the PP marked version of the Donkey comes with a hay-cart which seems to be the donor for those Christmas cracker minis, and shares a wagon-frame with the Easter bunny we saw here, a few years back now!

 

A 'Military Police' jeep from Thomas is all polystyrene, and more stable than the phenolic polymer army-green one I have, which has been slowly folding-in on itself since before it was mine! Likewise the Ideal steamroller will be compared with the olive-green Banner and Pyro ones at some point in the future too, it's going to be a busy point!

T is for Two - Scarlet Space Fleet!

These two came flying-in from the US-of-A a week or so ago. I think I did add an X-100 about a year and a half ago, possibly a blue or silver (more likely) one, which I vaguely remember putting with the others and sending-off to storage, but I think if you're going to have a Pyro one, it needs to be red!

 

It has suffered a dink to the rear fin, which has been smoothed-off by a previous owner, but is otherwise a clean one with all wheels and a clear Pyro mark under the left wing, which is in exactly the same place as the Kleeware/Tudor Rose 'Made In England' one we looked at the other day, confirming (to me, as I've not compared these before now) that it was a removable drum in the tool, which I have suggested in the past.

This is a Thomas Toy 'ACME' futuristic Airport Limousine, which has most of the future bits firmly anchored in the 1950's, as each decade's sci-fi tends to sit within the meilleur of its own time, Star Wars managing to be an exception, keeping a similar look throughout, which Star Trek didn't quite manage, think of the 1980's uniforms of the early movies!
 

Duty pilots switch at launch-bay Red 1, while service droids get busy with maintenance and pre-flight checks!

C is for Canoes - 13 - Heyde

Not mine and only shot yesterday at the Sandown Park toy fair, but squeezed into the queue for a quickie, and what a charmer; the Heyde (pronounced hide'ah) solid lead novelty Kittens in a Canoe! And why not!

Punting on the Cam, or sculling on the Havel, an attempt at modelling a Norwegian tiller (rope operated) shows the level of detail Heyde would go to with their superior work! Thanks to Adrian at Mercator Trading for letting me shoot this. Back on track tomorrow!

P is for Perfect Plunder Post!

 I'll be knackered again tomorrow evening, so I thought I'd preload this one as well, it's some more stuff I've already posted elsewhere on the stuff I picked-up last weekend, let's hope i find something nice today!

It won't affect the show report posts, as I have decided to combine all the stuff from all sorces and have thematic posts like the recent 'season' of Chris Smith's donation, and it'll all be a week or so away yet, I also have the last London Show plunder to Blog, and will have some more from today with any luck!

Boxed, bagged and carded!

Dime Store transport

40mm Starlux

Atomic Age space figures and a later chap in white

Combat types and WHW

Wild West - no canoes!

Historical and Ceremonial

C is for Canoes - 12 - Triples

Welp, I'm already at Sandown Park for a day of toy mania, but for those of you who aren't with me, or already wending your way to Esher or its environs, here's a few of the 'three-handers' available for your generic Native American tribe!

The re-issue of the Cherilea canoe is getting harder to find itself, but for those whose budget can't stretch to the original which we saw here (shot on Adrian's stall, at Sandown ironically - and equally ironically; I don't have either model yet!), it's a nice model, if a little hard to keep level, yet probably too heavy to float well?

Here it is off on a raid with a Dulcop-Timpo combination on the left, Dulcop providing the boat, while a Dulcop-Hong Kong combi' on the right have the crew coming from Italy! The Cherilea is in five parts, with each crew-member having a plug-in station on the deck insert.

 

Also from Brian, is this shot of the later (?) MPC offering, another triple-crewed vessel, this one has three of their own 60mm  'ring-hand' figures who had holes in their bases which slid over a stud in the deck of the boat.

 

While this (which won't enlarge much, I'm afraid) is from a Toy House/World Toy House leaflet and is probably a Hong Kong copy of MPC's other trio-boat, with piracies of Tim Mee's 60mm figures. It would fit with the wagon recently seen on Ed's Blog, and seen a while ago here. MPC also did a two-hander in the Jungle range.

H is for How They Come In - Chris - Everything Else!

Oh no, it's the last post! Being everything Sci-fi, fantasy, TV and Movie related, plus an animal which ex'caped the earlier post! And speaking of capes, as I managed to with some convoluted slight-of-English . . . 

These came in together! Now, I actually bought the Robin because I knew I needed his base, and in Chris's lot was both the Batman head/cape AND the Robin cape, which I'm not sure if I knew I needed! More than that, I don't really recognise the batman head/cape at all, so, while I thought I had a whole batman (needing base) and a couple of Robins' also needing bases, I think I may have had (prior to this lot) a bat man body, and a couple of robin bodies - who thankfully have a head!

What is also interesting is that the studs on this base are offset from each-other, symmetry-wise, while the one I got at a Sandown park a while back and showed here has studs with more symmetry, so they are figure specific . . . and I should now be able to produce two complete figures at some point in the future when - the now three - stashes are brought together! Indeed that, there, is a complete - Cherilea - Robin the Boy Wonder; it will just be a case of which one's got the best surviving paint!

Another of the articulated Dinosaurs! But this one is more 'monster-like, so ended up here with the premiums, which include two Weetabix stackable Poppit 'Puff-Kin' cereal premiums, and two of the Pop Pallino's from Raja ice cream. It's very hard to date the dinosaurs, the three that have turned-up so far, are all so clean they could almost be current (however, I've not encountered them?), but the styling is equally 1970's, gum-ball novelty/capsule-toy type, so . . . any ideas?

The King of the Seabed Serenader's, Neptune himself courtesy of Kellogg’s's Puffa-Puffa rice, found here in the UK, as a set of eight, and in Australia as a fifteen-pose count. Another of the 'Macrobot' astronauts we looked at a while-ago, a modern chap who might be Ben-10, and another polyethylene 'monochromatic' robot type.

 

He may go with those small spaceships we looked at recently - I saw four in eraser rubber the other day which mentioned Dunkin (not empirical, it was an evilBay lot!), but the lot included one of these mecha's, and I have several in both materials, so there may be more to come on the whole-lot; mini-ships and robots?

Three from Disney, a Marx full-size thief from 101 Dalmatians, along with a Disneykin Captain Hook, and a rather nice Peter Pan from JIM of France, damaged, but happy to take him as a first sample.

 

Another of the sucker things, I did get a name for them the other day, but I've forgotten it! Some current or near-current 'blind-bag' collectable though, with a Kinder (or Nestle?) Frozen to the far right, they flank a skeleton archer from Polotoy, hard to find, I still only have three or four now, but I think Shaun of the Fantasy Figures blog might have bought them all!

 

A LotR game piece and deform Star Wars pencil top, a Harry Potter (or knock-off) and a figure who could be a policeman, could be a chauffeur and has some of the look of a Gerry Anderson character about him are the middle row, that last one probably needs the trouser paint removed?

While the bottom pair are a Hasbro Action Man (new type) micro-figure and a Star Wars 'Twi'lek' from Wizards of the Coast, a line/range we will look at properly one day, I had a large tub of them from years ago, and bought a boxed set with extra figures not that long ago, but all currently in storage!

A couple of battered 'dime store' spacemen, but of interest as they are the smaller ones around 40/45mm (and I picked up another three at PW last weekend), I assume, from their UK purchase that they could be Tudor Rose or Kleeware, but it's by no means certain!

 

Finally, this chap missed the animal post, but cartoony stuff ends up with the above at first sort anyway! I love him because I think we had some when we were kids, possibly, therefore, a cereal premium I'll have to look-up on Cereal Offers at some point, not sure if it's the Pink Panther, or just a cartoon animal, but it's obviously missing its slot-in arm section.

As always, it's many thanks to Chris for everything we've seen in these posts, some sell this stuff at car boots, some give it to charity, a lot throw it away, but when I bring it all together at the other end, you'll see how it forms the whole and fills the gaps (that's a mixed metaphor, if ever I used one!) - Cheers Chris, lots of wonderful things!

C is for Canoes - 11 - Dulcop

In the continuing checking of stuff for these posts, I found the blue one from the introductory post (which was in the Hong Kong folder) was actually the Dulcop one from Italy, so I've corrected there, and we'll have a quick look here!

Quite a nice model, but still - design-wise - the sort of thing you find for hire in aluminium or fibre-glass reinforced resin at the lake/riverside today! I think these are the correct figures too, and unpainted like this, they'll be from the later production which included the stuff contracted/imported by our own Plastic Warrior Magazine, but I don't know if they carried this piece.

 

Re-crewed with Timpo's chaps, no knife out this time, but I don't think axe-fishing is a particularly successful technique! As this is a brief post, Brian's river/lake surface is worth a moment's study, I don't know what the surface is, painted wood, Vinyl/PVC or some other sheet material, but I thought Tom's varnished floor-tile was also quite good the other day.