J is for Jungle Shooting Match

Berwick Games attic find! Very redolent of its time, hunting big-game is just not something you'd make a game off now! This was absolutely filthy and nearly went in the recycling; the roofing-felt in the attic is a fluffy variety about 130-years old, and for some time has been collapsing under its own weight having dried to the consistency of cold-war Eastern-Bloc fag-packet cardboard, covering everything in the attic in a black snow.

But, as you can see it cleaned-up OK and was in better nick than I expected, so it's gone to storage for now, and I will chuck it on feeBay at some point in the future. I can well remember this, we had hours of fun on wet winter's days, lying on our bellies and sniping*(1) some of the rarest animals on earth!*(2)

 

The animals were (are!) only vac-formed polystyrene sheet, and it wasn't long before we literally blew one apart, so Mum, who was nothing if not ingenious, made them all backing cards from corrugated-cardboard, and here they are 50-odd years later, almost as good as new . . . Except the gorilla!

 

Not so the cork-firing pistols, one has absented itself entirely (decades ago), and the other is broken across the barrel, but I will try to fix it up at some point, maybe get a post out of that exercise? Quite a James Bond looking thing, I think?

 

Same mechanism as most toy artillery, pull back to the catch, and then fire, the plunger is near flush with the end of the barrel, propelling the cork with enough force to pop the animals out of their little die-cut card catch, and blow the feet off the gorilla! The animal then shoots up with an over-dramatic death throw, due to its elastic thread!

Two pea-shooter tubes were supplied to stand it up on a flat surface, but it's easier to prop it against a wall or piece of furniture. And I think this is a rare survivor, as I haven't seen one on evilBay yet, despite looking quite often, hoping for replacement parts?

 

*

(1) Kids; it's not good to shoot things!

(2) No animals were harmed in the making of this post!

B is for Best Show on Earth! 6. Space, Sci-fi, Fantasy, TV, Movie & Etc.

A biggie this one, I tried breaking it into two posts, but there was no natural split which would leave 7-images each and any other division would leave one still long and the other a bit short, so call it a Brucey Bonus!

Mostly vintage dime-store/pulp space from the 1950/60's, with (from the colour) a larger, original Archer, three smaller copies who could be one of several issuers and two of the Christmas Cracker chaps, with a fourth smallie in white with helmet in one shot, and in the other shot an unmarked-Linde premium type, could be DS Plastics or Siku?

 

The probably-not-Linde again, with a French soft plastic iteration of the Captain Video bolt-grenadier, and three modern PVC-replacement, rubberised astronauts who I think we've seen in harder plastic and a smaller size, so 'the sculpts du jour'?!!

 

A bunch of Bluebird Zero Hour/Mattel Code Zero rubber minis, came in two of the donations I think and will be sorted into the stash, hopefully helping make-up who sets, I know I still have a few gaps!

 

These are rather nice, probably 1960's or even 1970's, the seller bought them himself, and he didn't look older than me, younger if anything, gum-ball, capsule machine prizes brought back from the 'States on his return from those climes! A nice pulp-vibe and dime-store look with a touch of 70's styling!

Two modern game-playing pieces I suspect, either side, both heavily dry-brushed in a contrasting shade of their base colour, I haven't found the game yet. A Matchbox or Hot Wheels sci-fi 'type' from the Mega Rigs line or something, a Bluebird Havoc in need of a base (anyone who remembers the original post will know I have a few, but whether one to match him is another matter!), and behind them a Crescent for Kellogg's cereal premium.

 

He's actually a short-shot, his tool normally resembles a mine-detector with a bigger dish, but like this he really looks more like he has an actual 'space probe' with a specific job!

 

Smaller-scale robots, an overview! The painted four seem to be from the same range, even though one is more humanoid and a tad-larger, all four are unmarked and hard polystyrene - probably quite recent gum-ball prizes? The yellow sucker will be a knock-off/copy of something from Poppy/Bandai or Takara . . . someone like that, and is smaller than the similar LB-knock-off sucker types.

 

The really small one is from the Star Wars Risk board-game I think, the larger blue 80's mech' is from the eraser set we've looked at recently once or twice, the middle-sized bluey is a Mattel M.U.S.C.L.E. keshi (or copy; I didn't check for the distinctive marks!) and the similar greenie will be another gum-ball prize.

 

I thought I had a complete set of the Captain Scarlet premiums (Wheeto's from Wheetabix), but it turns out I had neither of the mini-vehicles, I now have the patrol car! But I also have all the figures lose and bagged! Pursuit vehicle is still to track down.

At the back is the one and only Superthunderstincar's Masterbraun, courtesy of Peter Cook complete with bushy eyebrows! "Eggcellent! Heh-heh-heh!" . . . also issued as The Hood by Kellogg's and Tom Smith.

I bought these from Colin Penn, when I first saw them he wasn't at his table (hopefully finding bargains of his own), so I wandered off, but when I went back round a while later, he said they were a full set (and cheap) so I grabbed them more as a box-ticker than anything else, as I still haven't looked them up and don't know anything about them! Obviously Star Trek, but which arm of the franchise I don't know (DS9, Next Generation?), and who or when? Modern and Mattel or Hasbro!

 

Playmates have held Star Trek licences as well, I have their 'Action Fleet' clones somewhere, but I think these may be older, but not the original series?

 

Dr Who stuff, Games Workshop mostly, but the slightly bigger leading Kaled living-suit is the same little rubber one the Philosophical Toad sent to the blog about 14-years ago! It came from a Christmas advent calendar if memory serves, but who by, I don't know?

 

A random vinyl (possibly electronic game playing piece) figure of a fantasy-ninja type and an equally random Power Ranger type, who came in one of the donations, both need investigating!

 

We saw these the other day in the London show-reports, so simply duplicates which will serve as swaps at some point in the future, Kinder Egg capsule toys of the latest Avatar movie.

 

The two Jungle Book figures are a mystery, they look like Marx Disneykins, but they're not, they are hard plastic, but not Minimodels, so . . . ? Nice figures though; French maybe? 10th - A correspondent says Kinder, which would make sense, they are almost too 'clean'!

 

Next to them is a Bullyland Big Ears for Toytown, a rather knackerd Tri-Ang Perriwincle Penny Brix character, and two of the better fruit & veg' 'Munch Bunch' pencil tops from the 1970's, a carrot and a cucumber I think. Separate hats (or foliage from one maker/issuer) is usually the sign of better versions, the cheaper clones were single mouldings.

 

The Poplar Plastics sledge came separately from the Santa in two purchases, but was a nice find as it's a different design to the commoner one, which we saw here, and has a rigid frame/draw-bars, so can't be used with the cat or dogs, only the deer.

From the left; random fairy! Then a figure I'd like to know more about, we may have looked at them briefly once before, but I don't know anything about them (and this one is very damaged as most are), but I have two or three poses now, several of this green one, a red one and a blue or yellow one? All slightly hippy-dippy, fairy, fantasy dancer types, and I'm wondering if they're from some Hong Kong take on Marx's Miniature Masterpieces of The Trolls or Sword in the Stone variety, possibly by Blue Box, or LB, or early Maysun or someone like that? But then they might even be Marx MM's?

A Hong Kong gnome after Fontanini I think, two of the Matchbox 'Advanced Dungeon & Dragon' figures and two poured-resin anthropomorphic animals lumps, who probably go together and a little angel/putti type, probably a cake decoration.

Thanks to all for everything last month; Andreas Dittmann, Gareth Morgan, Michael Mordant-Smith, Peter Evans, Brian Carrick, Trevor Rudkin, and Adrian Little.

S is for Sharper & Sharper!

Really, an 'F is for Follow-up...' on pencil sharpeners, but as the collection of these 'KT' and related figural pieces grows, there's a sharpness there to the sample as a whole! And I've said before not every title works, but that was my thinking, and if I try to think of a better one, I'll lose interest and can-it for another few months!

 

 

I managed to acquire the guardsmen on a sharpener, confirming a previous suggestion that he was part of this set, so I get to use the 'Told You So' tag again, which annoys my 'eemies' and pleases me! Anyone out there in the hobby who thinks I'm going away hasn't smelt the coffee yet. Anyone out there who thinks I can be cowed hasn't been paying attention.

In all the follow-ups, contributions and acquisitions of these I forget what's what and what I've got, but suffice to say we saw the boxed one a while ago, and I've now found the pair of non-pencil sharpener dancers, just for completion, there may be a connection with Magneto (post forthcoming), and if Christian Hardy goes and looks it up he could be a day ahead of me instead of a day behind, I'd say the same to Mr. Ripoll but he's too busy clutching the monarch's shaft! I had no idea I was being followed that closely, here and elsewhere, by all these nonentities!

I've also picked-up both the Asian dancers previously supplied as images by Brian Wagstaff, so there's more completion there, and despite looking out for others, it seems to be the same ones which keep turning-up?

 

Likewise, the Indian girl, who we saw last time we looked at these (a straight lift of the Commonwealth sculpt), was needed as a physical entity, but she does suggest a cowboy might still be out there (on a round sharpener) in addition to those we've seen from 'W. Germany'.

 

 

Comparison of the bases revealed that the new guardsman has a slightly different sharpener with an opening in the 'wall' of the sharpener's case, at the far end. Probably only a batch/age of design thing, or a KT specific thing, the guardsman is the only KT-marled plug-in, but I'm not about to start looking for another version of each found so far! The other four additions are the unmarked ones, with the base and figure as a single moulding.

 

 

Finally, I saw these, and thought they were fun, some age to them; 1950's I'd imagine?

 

And for those who missed it, or have forgotten it, here's a link to a completely different subject, which I posted elsewhere yesterday, in all innocence to help a chap out - seems to have caused a ripple, in the lake of idiocy!

B is for Best Show on Earth! 5. Historical & Ceremonial

Some of the best pieces from the show ended-up in this category, allowing for the fact that one Rocco lifeguard (Part 4) has escaped this post, along with the Trojan same and Airfix figures which were all in Part 2.

Arguably the nicest thing I got at the show, probably Japanese, but it could be French, and a celluloid-acetate, blow-mould construction, it needs a good clean, and it needs some renovation; the spear is in two parts and the long Arab jezzail musket is broken across the handgrip, while both are also bent in places - my father had two of these guns, a lovely tooled silver/steel one and a mahogany one with ivory detailing, they have, sadly, both disappeared!

 

But an absolutely exquisite piece, with much thought gone into is execution, and a nice paint-job under the dirt, and a beautiful animal; albeit with hollow legs! Cotton thread is used for the reins and camel-furniture and the musket's sling and, well, I bloody love it!

 

At some point I will carefully take it apart - where possible; musket and rider - clean it, straighten and mend the two weapons and put it all back together again . . . like one of the King's men!*

* Except I didn't swear allegiance at the TV, like some mawkishly sentimental, cap-doffing dullard of a sycophantic, fuckwitted serf, so I guess, legally, I don't have a King?

 

Pirate game playing-pieces as a sort of add-on module, I may lose the packaging at some point in the future, but not until I've scanned it on the table-top jobbie. They look like the figures from the game I found a few years ago in The Works, and while that was Musketeers, they'd all go well together, and may share a sculptor . . . on the continent?

 

As you can see, the same flowing, fine detail, overblown drapery almost, with this set having two ladies, although I'm pretty sure 'lady-pirate' is an oxymoron! The third one is not clear, due to his vast beard and mitre-hat, but I think he's a skeleton to boot, so some kind of Pirates of the Caribbean knock-off?
 

Another highlight of the show has to be these Timpo Cossacks, I had intended to try and find these on the day, and got them in the first hour or so, the seller also had the mounted in similar condition, but by then I'd already got the Britain's teepee under my belt, and felt that I'd had enough greed for one day!

 

But these are very clean, they're all basically mint bar the barrel's missing fuse, and two are in a cream white rather that snow white, which by be 'smokers home' or just a different paint, it's not clear?

My other Replicants purchase on the day was a bit of catch-up, the Naval Gun was issued a while ago, but I'm still missing a far bit of early stuff, so I'm trying to pick them all up slowly! The two pirates are original MPC, who can have the spare weapons from the reissue runner in blue plastic I got last year . . . the year before?

 

Also loving the pair on either end of this collage. Probably Argentinian, as is the one behind the British guardsman, the bag is full of bits from two renditions of Airfix's 'Connoisseur' range 54mm Hussar, which came in separate donation, they go in the 'bits zone'! I think the Guardsman is Cherilea, but might be Hilco, I can't check right now!?

 

More Guardsmen, including a novelty Erzgebirge-style tree-hanger, but as likely Chinese-made as German these days! The two 50mm's are Hong Kong piracies of Crescent, and I was totally unaware of them until Chris Smith pointed them out, by which time most had gone I think, but I grabbed the last two, and a post will be forthcoming, courtesy of Chris.

Others are a standard Hong Kong copy of Lone Star, Hilco (I think some call them Fusiliers) and a Sacul trumpeter. Two small scale, one from Christmas crackers, one from the 'Maid Marion' rack-toy set and a rubber swoppet with the wrong base!

Atlantic Gendarmerie band, remains of factory paint points to one of the early window-boxes, but they are tatty and I have the HO sets in various boxing's, so it was just a box-ticking exercise to fill a gap in the collection, and to compare with the others one day! One of each pose!

 

Kinder odds and sods! One-and-eight-ninths of Kinder Zulu's, a Kinder pirate in need of a paint-strip, bits of a Kinder samurai, legs off one from the other Samurai line and a spare ancient/medieval horse!

 

Real mixed lot as the rump of this section, I think I may have the Starlux Napoleon already, it's odd, I had the 1:72nd sculpt from the odd eastern 'character' set in various colours for years, and no other narcissistic corporals, but in the last few years lots have come in, and I have somewhere between eight and, maybe fifteen or more? I haven't been counting, and everything from 30mm PVC to 8-inch ceramics, through metal!

Character figure is from Linde I think, but it's unmarked, so may be another issuer! And I know I have all the variants of the little Hong Kong AWI gun, in both sizes, so I may try to remove the plating on this one's barrel and paint-it up. lead wargame figure and a spare head, join two early British (BMS?) FFL officers and a pair of LB cavemen to finish off.

Thanks to all for everything last month; Gareth Morgan, Michael Mordant-Smith, Peter Evans, Brian Carrick, Trevor Rudkin, Adrian Little and Andreas Dittmann.

D is for Dani!

But is it Dani, M. R., or M.R. Dani, or 'Dani' by 'MR'? No matter, it's just a bit of fun tonight, and I'll put both in the tag list! A rather different thing tonight as well, being Argentinian cake decorations (not different) of Cinderella (not different), but non-Disney!

The bag has been a bit fogged over time with a million folds in the plastic and plenty of rubbing, so I gave it a plain background to get the few graphics clearly readable! I certainly couldn't tell from the on-line images what the set contained, just that it looked figural . . . and fun!

And it is! Not sure about the mouse, he's supposed to have been turned into coachmen or something, but this may be based on a South American cartoon, so maybe someone knows exactly what he's doing there? Thick flats, sculpted on both sides and painted rather crudely; Cinderella is no oil painting, and if you can't recognise her the next morning, you were probably dancing with somebody else!

So that's it, Dani/MR cake decorations of Cinderella, hard plastic, hand-painted flats with small icing spikes, bagged, from Argentina - box-ticked!

B is for Best Show on Earth! 4. Wild West

Off to the wild, Wild West this post, with various cowboys, Native American Indians and cavalry types, a nice Tee-Pee/Tipi and - to start - three additions to the Totem Pole box, which is in storage, so they are currently on a bookcase!

 

They got shot twice! The left and right of both shots are easy, a Landi/Chromoplasto one in black rubber with colourful dry-brushing on the left and the Elastolin composition on the right, but the/a smaller, later one I think, there seem to be several variations.

But the one in the middle is unknown to me, it's a sort of hard plastic which could be polystyrene (Hong Kong or Spanish maybe?) or resin (Barzo? I'm not aware of one), so it'll need tracking down, but I'll find it eventually if no one tells us!

 

Later the same day - I had another look at it this afternoon, and it may be French, it's a lightweight 'styrene, with glue all over the base and some paper/card, where it's probably been stuck into a boxed-set or card, so possibly that Rene Fisher-Jem-Norev string?

Some more Rocco's, it good nick, such good nick I could take them off and put them on their horses with confidence their legs wouldn't break, and both tails intact! A Lifeguard has crept into the shot, but with thematic posts it's the exceptions which prove the rule!

 

Replicants US Dragoons, these were issued in a mid-year I think so missed a PW Show launch, or was it during lockdown and the no-shows era? Anyway, a nice set of unusual figures who haven't been done in plastic before as far as I'm aware, so a lovely addition.

 

Flats; as I mentioned the other day, I may open the Hong Kong pack as I have a better one, but I'd forgotten a bunch of loose ones have featured here since the original pack was shown, so I may leave it as is.

 

We've also looked at the silver chap before, ID'd by Brian Berke as having been in Lucky Bags way back when (late 1950's.1960's?), so he'll join a bunch of mates and there's often one or two in a Chris or Peter package, so that's a growing sample.

 

The blue guy is a bit bashed, but worth keeping as an 'only sample', and seems to have plugged into a base or something else, you can see the locating studs on the hooves of the two more-upright legs.

Small scale, and the usual bag of Hong Kong hollow-horsed stuff for the next big sorting of them, two Marx miniature masterpieces, a cavalryman with rifle intact and a gun, three of the coach crew from the company I can never remember the name of, the lady from the Morestone 'Wagon Train' and a Lone Star HO Indian who is so good I'll have to check him against the original before I can be sure, but I think he's an HK copy.

 

The chap in buckskins is from the Comansi 30mm range, and while painted like this would have been sold from tubs or window-trays, later, unpainted issues were presented in Esci-clone boxes.

French/Euro-premiums! Sam Joyce and three Indians, originally from Café Legal, but there were lots of issuers and I think there are three issuing companies represented here, Bonux and Codec, with the pink one a later rack-toy issue in soft plastic.

These are all slowly building better samples, and when they've all been reunified we'll look at each set separately.

A right old mix here! Chromoplasto in the centre, two Spanish (or Argentine copy) cavalry either side of him, one a copy of the much-pirated Britains Herald gunslinger! Outside them, on the ends, are two rigid ethylene or nylon ACW confederates, who might be Polish, or home-painted Hong Kong? Variations of the same Marx (?) pose, they are different tool cavities, with the sword/sabre version having a finger-guard.

In the foreground are a Coma/Co-Ma mounted Indian in buffalo headdress (so I have to find a horse! Did I post an 'Atlantic style' horse a few years ago? We may have a horse for him in the stash . . . yes!) and another Toumoulage, funny, they were esoteric things in the background of the hobby (as far as my viewpoint went) for years, now I've had several lots come in, and two Blog-posts on them in a year!

Another mix, all hard plastic; two Polish nylon's on the end, another of the Crescent/Lido set (also featured here recently multiple times), a pair of 'probably' French Indians (one painted) and a rather diminutive figure which might be a Reisler 40mm cowboy?

 

More! Soft plastic; Kinder, Dulcop, Timpo, another premium, all good stuff, the broken (?) lance might be medieval and is a mystery, the broken HK copy of Jean is just for completion - this is all the show's plunder; warts 'n' all!

 

Two Cherilea with separate full war bonnet! One's slightly damaged, but his headdress is the better painted, so I will swap them! The Argentine (?) Indian again, a bag of broken Lone Star and the large Speedwell/Trojan horse lifted from Elastolin.

 

And . . . this! Isn't it beautiful? And as you can see, my second this year, so delicate I've left them on the bookshelf (where they've been joined by five totem poles!) in the new flat for now, the show one has kebab sticks for the two flap-poles and both are missing base pegs, but yep; this is near the top of 1950-70's plastic production, The Britain's Herald Tipi/Tee-Pee.

I've left them as they came in, with one having the air-flap poles on the outside, one having them on the inside, without the instruction sheet I don't know which way Britains recommended, but both work, and both methods were used by different Native American tribal groups.

 

Thanks to all for everything last month; Michael Mordant-Smith, Peter Evans, Brian Carrick, Trevor Rudkin, Adrian Little, Andreas Dittmann, and Gareth Morgan.

C is for Canoes - 24 - Langley Models

 Well, having pulled the 24th post and shelved three others, there wasn't going to be a 24th post on this 'canoe season', started by Brian Berke's sending of his images about (over?) two years ago. But Jon Attwood kindly sent these yesterday after some eMail shenanigans, so we have a twenty-forth instalment!

Langly Models have a vast range of civilian and military subjects, aimed primarily at railway modellers, among which are these two modern sports canoes, a single-seater and a double seater of the fibreglass-reinforced resin type.

 

Quite similar in looks to the Airfix commando canoes, you could equip the Matchbox guys with a few of these instead of their silly little rubber jolly-boat!

Many thanks to Jon for these, and many, many thanks to Brian for his original tranche of photo's which kicked this off, and for his patience as it kept being put back for one reason or another, in the course of it all I have added the new 'canoe' tag to a few older posts, and while I probably haven't found all of them, and we certainly haven't covered more than a few, it's a good basis for further study!