C is for Cracker Crustaceans and Other Novelty Flats

I stated writing this last night, but realised I could barely keep my eyes open, and went to bed after the title (which isn't very good, but meah!), anyhoo's, here now and fit to go, more of a follow-up to the cracker posts, of a couple of days ago, and a fun thing for the Crimbo' season!

The rump of the late and still sorely missed Boysey-Boy studiously ignoring the goings-on, his equally missed mother would have been trying to stuff herself into that box, which is just too-small enough; perfect!

 

This is me sorting a bunch of 'cracker flats' into piles by colour, a few years ago, the duplicates to the left went to charity, god knows what they did with them! As you can see, there was a yellow for every animal, but shortages of green, white and red. Those on the right/lid stayed as a 'master sample'.

Aquatic critters

I don't know if it's by design or co-incidence, but the animals in the set break down neatly into four relatively distinct groups of four-each 'type', for a total pose-count of sixteen? You should recognise most, if not all of them, from your own childhood experiences with cheap cracker (the best, for this kind of thing), or from the many H is for How They Come in posts where one or two of these have featured!

The not-quite Insects

Who wants a tick in their Christmas cracker!

What struck me about both sets of full-sized crackers the other day, or indeed, the two mini-sets, and that whether the set with toys and puzzles or the other, there was no real duplication of boxes to tick, and for that to occur, I am imagining, there was a belt running through the packer's stations, where each packer has a bag of say, these insects, or rings, or curling prediction-fish, thimbles, wire-puzzles or whatever.

And with each operator (almost certainly women back in the day) practised to about the same speed of completing a cracker and putting it on the belt, you should with thirty-odd stations maybe, end up with a prefect mix of thirty different items travelling down the belt to the packers, within each 24-cracker group, arriving in line at the end?

Reptiles

I think the little-green is a gecko?

So, whether you have two, four or even six girls at the end of the line, and whether they can (with practice) pick 2, 3 or even four crackers per hand, as they pack the usually 10's or 12's, the chance of duplication is almost zero.

Where you do get duplication of contents, it's usually a 24 or more-crackers box, and then you find a different design/colour of insect, thimble, ring or whatever, there’s still an almost zero likelihood of a full duplication?

Proper insects

There WAS, often, duplication of hats and jokes, but that would be explained by the hats having a smaller variance, usually only five or six colours, sometime with different crown-cuts sometimes not. Bi-coloured crowns reduce full-duplication slightly?

 

While the jokes tend to be on sheets, and each packing-girl would need a bag, box, tote or stillage of cut jokes to grab one of, randomly, with each toy and crown, so A) she could, herself, put the same joke in two of her crackers, consecutively, and B) include the same joke, at the same time as one of her near neighbours, or anyone else on the line, which would be the same thing on a larger box of 18 or 24 crackers?

 

 Lobster and tick on evilBay

 

It's not that I lose sleep over this stuff (plenty of more important things to lose sleep over these days!), but I do like to know, or have an idea how it all works, because it's clever, isn't it?

Different sculpts

Probably newer, possibly a rubberised elastomer?

 

The ingenuity we show, and practice in ensuring there are no novelty/toy duplications in boxes of 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 24 or 32 budget Christmas crackers, is clearly wasted on us if we can't sort out fair pay, fair taxation or the state of the State of Palestine/Israel?

 On the beach!

 

This is what's here, in the TBS (to be sorted) boxes, the black spider is clearly from another set, as is the smaller crab in a fetching mauve! The red spider seems to be an injector-head purge, or colour-changeover figure, rather than sunlight damage?

Upsidedown!

 

And while the two 'stags' are from the same source (as each other and the above set), the red spider is apparently a sub-piracy by another maker. Like Airfix 'army men', parachute toys or Britains farm/zoo animals, there was a lot of copying of copies, of copies going on in the former Crown Colony! Although not the same level of variance as you find with the cat, Scottie-dog or elephant charms.

H is for Hedgepigs

I suspect we've had that title before! This is going to be my fourth Christmas without a tree, and I love having the tree up, but needs must when the state, the market and recalcitrant relatives drive! Yet I have've given up looking for nice things to add as it's been the tradition every year, to add a few, if only to make good cat-loses!

 

And, to that end, I have had a lot of luck in Charity shops, who don't seem to have as many decorations as in some years (less people 'having a change'?), but have nevertheless managed to furnish me with three hedgehogs!

I actually bought the one holding a seed-case (right-hand of the pair on the dark-green background), new, and sort of regretted it as he's a bit big compared to the others, but then the tagless one (bottom left) came in last for 10p, and he's a big'un too, so there will be balance . . . Ohmmmmmm!

I'm best-pleased with the blown glass one, as I'm pretty sure I didn't buy it, for being too expensive, in the big John Lewis in Basingrad a few years ago, now it's mine for 50p!

 

All four together, they will be joining the existing four, yes, I doubled the hedgehog inventory in one season! The little one on the right is a duplicate I think, see below, but the way I tackle the tree, like planning for D-Day, they will be on opposite sides, so as it gets turned (twice daily so you get three clearly viewable thirds), the order will be perfect!

 

I've cropped these out of old images, as I think they have had a collective here, when the fourth was purchased a few years ago, but these are the existing crew, and with the new ones that makes eight, or two per quarter tree! Hedgepigs . . . brilliant!

V is for Vertunni

Having raised the level of the blog (while lowering the tone!) with a fragment of Cellose earlier, I thought I'd carry it on with some Vertunni!

 

Joan of Arc

Originally an Italian wood-carver, working in France who immigrated to the USA, his wife was the only person allowed to paint the figures, which are mostly of French subjects, although a number of others are listed, including a few Brit's, mostly royalty through the ages, particularly those who 'interacted' with the French . . . throws up two fingers to show he can still use a bow!

L'emperor, in various dress, his wife & marshals (and mistress?), shot on Mercator Trading's table (thanks to Adrian), these are something I know of, but will probably never own a sample of! They are really nice, lead, or high-lead-content whitemetal, the painting by Madame Vertunni is exquisite, especially the patterns on the coronation robes.

 

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Ephemera - after the original Corr's leaflet are various cuttings which will be from - in no particular order, because I don't know - Polk's, Bob Bard and either Americana, or [American] Moulded Miniatures? One is clearly dated to just after Vertunni's death (1955) the others will be (from the lower numbers) earlier?

Which - reading from the bottom of the page - would make this Americana or Polk's?

 No, it's the Corr's general catalogue!

These two are probably from Bob Bard's list?

 

I think these two might be from a Moulded Miniatures catalogue?

F is for Follow-up - Funny French Fellow!

Shot this at Sandown Park on Saturday-gone, outside my budget, but a fun follow-up to the Nappy post the other day . . . other week! How time flies! Serves to wind-up my Vichy 'eemies' and get Cellose in the Tag list!

Not one of my best shots, but lighting in that corner of the room is a bit poor, chalkware from France, better known for their dolls, they did a range of these 80mm+ figures which i think are pinned to wooden-disc bases?

T is for Two - Full Size Christmas Crackers

Just a quickie, it's been a funny-old day, today!

We're looking at two complete sets today, both shot a few years ago, and both obtained for pennies, or I couldn't justify the philistinism of destroying them, although both are from the tail-end of the 1970's or - more probably - the 1980's, and both are budget types, so not exactly rare or valuable.

 

This one is a total generic with no identifying features or information. the photo-art on the box makes it recent in the history of crackers, but not ultra-modern, so the 70's seems likely, and there are 12 crackers in crepe-paper with metallic 'collars' - I'm sure all these things have their own piece of specific lingo within cracker-making circles!

Clockwise from top left we have a hair-clip, micro vanity-case/doll's accessory, motorcycle, cocktail ornamental-monkey, relief-flat spider, magnifying-glass key, elephant charm, moustache, two-part ring, fake fingertip, flat car (after a French original) and a baby's/doll's rattle.

 

Contents tick most of the boxes, there's no obvious puzzles or games? The cocktail-glass monkey was originally a design credited to Nosco in the 'States, but early plastics firms over here carried similar products - this one though will be Hong Kong.

The other set, equally cheap types, but in all-stiffer paper, and very 1980's is credited to a Napier Industries, who claim to be manufacturing over here, but using part-foreign pieces, we should get them on a boat to Rwanda!

Clockwise again - ballbearing dexterity game, hair-clip and trick rubber-pencil, Ultraman pencil-top, water squirter, magic maths puzzle, novelty curling-fish, metal puzzle, moustache, motorbike, rubber-spider and elephant charm.

 

Contents again ticking most of the boxes, but with the puzzles and magic tricks, which were missing in the previous set, note also, the motorcycle is a different design, I have bags of both, as with the elephant, but like the similar cats and Scottie-dogs there are many variants of them! Also we get a bi-coloured crown, but in the same easy-rip tissue paper!

 

Some of the LRG collectors get a bit excised over the Ultraman pencil-tops, not realising there were tens of thousands of them in British/Commonwealth crackers, and that they are ephemeral cheepies really!

Both boxes have a 'cut-out-and-keep' (or 'use') feature, for enhanced value-for-money, in a number of place-mat nameplates, which could equally be used as parcel gift-tags.

F is for Follow-up - Märklin

Using only the sheer power of the Overnight-Interwebby-Thing, Jon Attwood has sent the Märklin 0203 set, and in the course of sorting it through the pending railway posts, I found another image he sent for the original post, and because there's lots more to come from other railway brands, I thought "Best get this up here now!"

First his loose figures; better paint than mine (one of mine, you may have noticed, is repainted), but several of his are suffering from what looks like zinc pest (zinc-rot or zamak/mazac-rot), so they may well be die-cast after all, see my note on the previous post - click the Märklin Tag to get them all up.

And 0203, with the correct label, I'll make a mental note to do a comparison shot with the Hong Kong ones arranged the same one way, one day, but for now, thank you, Jon (he's sent lots of stuff!), and another box ticked!

H is for How They Come In - Sandown Park, November, 2 of 2

It's not that I'm trying to beat 2017's post total, that's an imposable target, this late in the year, but we’ve had a few wet days here, which I've used to get some of these folder's cleared-off the PC! Second half of the plunder from the last Sandown show now.

 

A Speedwell Japanese soldier, who had lost his head in all the excitement, already glued back-on, it's not a good job, and as the rifle and hat have been re-painted, I will probably strip him right back, re-do the head with pinning and repaint him more realistically, as a spare, someday.

A Timpo Indian from the earlier solids, taken from hollow-cast moulds I think, and a probably home-cast, probably modern ACW in whitemetal, but he's pretty enough and was in a bag with other stuff!

 

Hong Kong diver, resin anthropomorphic pig, a horse which I think is a bit of Dom-for-Heinerle and a driver sitting on an unrelated crate of bottles in a dense vinyl. The figure itself is polystyrene, and may go with that grey one which keeps turning up?

 

Three odd little aliens I know nothing about, might be Kinder and one has a plug on his foot, along with a Heimo-Bully Dalton brother (Averell or Jack?) from France's Lucky Luke comic strip.

Horton-Trix-Briains Lilliput station staff and passengers,

along with a hotel porter (red jacket)

Acédo Jungle plastic from France

Mostly Marty-M Toy (May Moon) WWII, but the driver is another colour and may be from a different maker, while the chap down the bottom with the marbled Lido knock-off, is taken from the Swoppet mortar man and will be from a third producer.

 

Other figures with the driver include a modern pirate, Manurba swivel-waist, modern cop and - probably - French bazaar cyclist, although he may be a board-game piece or cracker-toy?

 

From the sublime, to the ridiculous, is unfair, but exactly the sort of occasion for that phrase! Lone Star's swivel/jointed-limb farm animals above, we looked at a complete with tab cow here, and, Kinder wildlife below.

H is for How They Come In - Sandown Park, November, 1 of 2

Well, I certainly didn't think I'd be doing a two-poster here, I was still on a tight-leash, and behaved myself, with a total spend of well under a hundred which is not common these days, back when I was a small-scale collector I could go to a show and get away with 60-quid, and still go home with huge bags of shite to sort out, not that you find those bags for a fiver these days! And I've just done a London show for less than 60, but they are future posts!

This was a real bargain, or two, the Brabo soldier (who I've been after since I first saw him in evilBay about 15-years ago) was a grail-find, and came in the bag with the scenic bits I think (Timpo, Britains and Speedwell), but the 'witch' was a surprise find, more so as we saw it here, quite a few moons ago, as a probably American newspaper cutting, the cutting is almost certainly American (it was from the James Chase collection), but this figure, clearly the same, is equally clearly marked MADE IN ENGLAND?

 

As an aside, it had escaped my notice that the Timpo sandbag-walls came in two sizes?

 

Novelty tape-measure, almost certainly from Japan, and you can see the tape is mostly missing, after failing near the spring. A quick google suggests I may be able to track down a replacement with the same dimensions, if not I have some old 'boring' key-ring tapes somewhere, and I bet the mechanisms will prove useable for a restoration job?

 

The Indian is a caricature type, but would go well in a display with the similar figures from Jecsan and Lik Be / LB, as they are all as daft as each other!

Some kind of Transformer knock-off?

 

Space tank! Space rocket! Space robots . . . Spacemen! A few days later, Chris (forthcoming posts) sent me a better rocket! All grist to the mill here, I'd love a brand on the tank if anyone recognises it?

 

Skandi' tractor, German coach and a pile of shite! Actually a couple of useful jig-toy trucks, one of which will need paint stripping, a Lucky Clover chariot (and very brittle driver) and cracker-toy, water-squirt pistol novelty.

 

This is fascinating, if only for its age, it's marked-up Pressman who are still with us, but will be a WWII-era, US, austerity piece, it's seen better days and with both the box and the soldier 'tray' now failing all over the place, Adrian announced it would probably be going in the bin, so I ended-up with it!

 

After I'd cobbled together the previous shots, I finally released them from their die-cut slumber, and popped one together for this post, but they are all in a bag, and I will try to find a way of displaying them at journey's end.

Duplicate Montaplex ACW set, still carrying a late 1930's bomber! And one of the 4D puzzle toys, we have looked at before now, seems to be the same as the Poundland Tiger/M1's of a few years ago, but another issue/tranche, here as a generic?