H is for How They Come In - Charity Shop Backlog - 2022, 1 of 2

I think we're looking at the later stuff first, but that's how it worked out and I reckon you don't care! Trouble is I'm a details' person, and with the Asperger's, tend to worry more than I need to, about facts, or other things, of no consequence? Anyway, some nice bits among the dross;

Two bags of mostly dinosaurs,  but there were a few figures and wild/domestic types in the larger one, which was a bit pricey at a tenner, but had over a hundred items in it, so it worked out at less than a quid each?

Most of them, the left-hand bag seems to be missing, I don't know if they went back to storage, or I hid them from myself as they are a bit naff, pull-back motor toys, but the over-mouldings were quite good!

 

The farmer guy definitely went back in the next donation, infant action toys are a no-no, it's not that they won't need to be listed, or at least mentioned in passing on the A-Z entries, just that I haven't the room to collect something I have no interest it, and little connection to, we didn't have such stuff when I was a kid, infant figures tended to be wooden or plastic 'plugs', likewise Playmobil, although I have allowed myself a Roman and a Pirate . . . as examples!

I regretted buying this bag, I hadn't noticed the broken (missing!) barrel on the semi-deform Elephant/Ferdinand, but I could see it was rack-toy shite, and it was really greed which brought it home. The AFV's will prove useful I suppose if I ever do get round to sorting all the Mings, Wings and Wah's out properly?

There are animals in the tub here, which are missing in the photo, whether I forgot to take a shot or what I don't recall, it may be that they were damaged? But it was a reasonable lot for probably four pounds, with a PVC Giraffe and Lion, some cereal premiums, a couple of nice paint survivors (Hong Kong copies of Britains Ibex and Zebra), and even the two cows have nice paint, not top-collector standard, but not ratted either!

This was a nice find for 50p I think, quite big, about 7/8-inches, and has an arrow on the front of the base, I don't know if it's an instruction to whoever was melting the foot-plugs into the base, or an instruction to the buyer for lining up on a bigger display base? Probably one of the newer makers like Mojo or CollectA, not that I've seen them with bases, but someone like that?

 

The wooden one was already in the collection, but I thought it should be posed with the 'polystone' job, as they have a similar simplicity about the pose/sculpting. We will have a big season on cats one day!

 

£1.40p? Cheaper than chips these days! Although the chap on the Aldershot road out of Guildford (Google says Empire Fish & Chips, I was in a hurry!) gave me what looked like a fivers-worth for two-quid the other night, and they were bloody good chips, so many thanks to him!

 

The green lad with the orange glasses went back, with the farmer, but the rest were useful enough to head for the stash, we looked at the Spanish granny-lady a while ago, for some reason, but it's all grist to the mill! More to come.

S is for Seen Elsewhere and Sharna Ware (Cherilea)

Posted these elsewhere a while back, the figure pages from a larger Sharna Ware catalogue, dated 1974, Sharna being the buyer of Cherilea. I nearly wrote 'buyer and last iteration', but the solids all reappeared in recent years (Marlborough-Dorset-Imperial, Monty and Rommel are now in metal, shock horror!) while some of the swoppets (not in this catalogue) went to Italy (Tibidabo) and others were pirated in Hong Kong!

 

Typically, they've loaded in reverse order and I can't be arsed to sort them out, these (top two) were bought-in from Timpo, while I have a similar triangular flag in white, very crude. I'm not sure if the fort even got issued, it looks to be an original design (if plastic) or routed-wood, probably a particle-board, but I'm not sure if I've seen one with walls that high, however I do stand to be corrected, I can't know everything?

The medieval fort was sometimes sold in a Sharna box, and the knight we saw here as one of my early 'star purchases' after I began collecting the larger scales (when the blog made it inevitable, we discovered with One Inch Warrior magazine, that once you've covered a few rarities and some smaller makes, you rapidly run out of sufficient copy to keep a small-scale thing going!), had the same dragon as the flags on the fort, hanging from his lance, and despite not being in the shot above, probably came with the fort as it's 'Lord and Master'?

 

Below it, is all Timpo product, presumably as they got into difficulties they looked to expand the range without the expence of production-costs, and Timpo would have been happy to shift more stock, even/especially to a rival! Note the gun team kept both their Timpo horses and riders.

I think I'm right in saying the Covered Wagon/Buckboard was an earlier all-Cherilea design, albeit quite similar to Timpo's, while the Stage Coach was later bought-in from Timpo, but given Cherilea's bigger horse team and driver?

I have a few of the ACW, and one or two Crusaders, but I've not sought-out the Mexicans, I always thought they looked a little silly, and will wait 'till they are part of a mixed-lot or bulk-purchase, one day, if ever? I might have some dodgy Hong Kong copies though, somewhere, all semitransparent cloaks/ponchos in purple and pink?

Love the 'Commandos', and have decent examples of all three generations now, while the space sample is growing, and I've a couple of the Union, on foot. The spacemen have been much copied over the years, but the others are stand-alone!

Love the knights and I almost can't stop buying them, but I do stop myself if they are plain silver, the other colours however . . . I'm a sucker for them! While the Wild West I'm not so enamoured of, they aren't the best anatomically, and while not as silly as the Mexicans, I'm in no hurry to fill a quota!

From Companies House;

Solarprior Leisure Limited 30 Dec1957 - 10 Jan 1992

 

T/A

 

Sharna Ware (Mfg.) Limited 30 Dec 1957 - 09 Jun 1983
Sharna Tri-Ang Limited 09 Jun 1983 - 20 Dec 1988
Tri-Ang Leisure Limited 20 Dec 1988 - 09 Oct 1990
Dissolved 17 Mar 1994

 

Liability/debt litigation carried on until at least 2020!

P is for Panits Laszlo, or is it Laszlo Panits?

There are four things I can say about these, and with little else to say, I might as well get stuck in without a long opener!

 

The first thing is that I could have sworn we had these on the Blog about 15-years ago, but I'm damned if I can find them now, they are not in the Tag List, yet the above image was taken before I ever had a Blog, and had gone to the dongles as 'done', so they must have been posted somewhere, maybe they were on my long-defunct Imageshack account, which I had for about 18-months, about 16-years ago! In which case they may have been posted to a long-gone HäT Forum article or something?
 

I think the upper ones are copies of Preiser, the lower set a mix of Esci-Ertl and Airfix sculpts.

 

The second thing is that I genuinely don't know if the firm/shop/chap is called Panits Laszlo, or Laszlo Panits? In trying to research the company (Google has got shit in the last ten years), I discovered quite a few of both, but without the comma we'd use in English - Hugh Walter or Walter, Hugh - it's imposible to work out which is commonly the surname or the forename, how they are typically presented, or if, indeed, in Hungarian, there's no difference, but the fact that there are quite a few, suggests it's the equivalent of a John Smith, or Andy Brown.

 

And neither point is meant to upset any Hungarians reading, I'd love input from them, to explain the points? But it's Panits Laszlo on the back of the card, so that's what we are going with.

The third point is the obvious stuff, they are factory-painted, HO/OO sized (1:76th scale), whitemetal piracies of Airfix, mostly RAF Personnel, or Esci NATO Ground Crew, here, I suspect, painted up as Warsaw Pact Hungarians, with the other sets painted-up as WWII USAAF-USAF, and with at least one figure taken from Airfix's set of that American title.

 

Set contents also vary from card to card, so you could - presumably - choose a card that would most closely allow you to set up your diorama, with whichever kit you were making? And I think the message stamped on the front just says "Model Figure Card" (blister/pack).

 

And I've forgotten what the fourth point was going to be, but it's worth mentioning that Panits Laszlo were probably responsible for the other Esci copies seen here in the past - which I also can't find, Doh!!

 

So, we'll have it 'again'? Also copies of Esci, also factory painted whitemetal, not seen on these cards, and here not divisible by six, there may be some damaged ones in the bag taking the sample to 24? But they otherwise seem to be the same idea/concept as the air force figures above?

And that's it, that's them, box ticked, I don't know a lot, I suspect it/he (Panits Laszlo) was also a model shop in Budapest, and if anyone can add anything, their input will be welcome.

H is for Hong Kong

I think that's the first time we've had what is such an obvious title! And it's an odd one today, as it's mostly musing on ephemeral stuff with little of substance, but a couple more HK companies for your archive.

 

Jon Attwood sent me this image of nominal OO-figures, copied from pre-Hornby Triang platform staff. I actually have the three on the right, but in storage, they come in various shades of blue, as here, and usually on/with the base of the second figure from the left, so I suspect the other two have been removed from their bases and given the little clear-plastic patches, while the one on the left I don't have, but he looks to be maybe a conversion?

Now for years I've been trying to ascribe them to a maker, or brand, they are Hong Kong, and I fancy - from the other civilian figures we've seen - that they might turn out to be Blue Box, but so far no banana! The closest I've got is this sheet from the archive, showing sets offered by a Moonbo Toys of Hong Kong.

However, the close-ups are less than conclusive, with the figures in the upper shot looking like they may be painted versions or copies of the Airfix hard-plastic rail workers, from before Dapol gave them landscaped bases, while in the lower shot, they just aren't that clear, but could be the soft-plastic figures Jon's sent, at a stretch?

 

But they also have the look of only being there for the press-shots, and may well have been replaced by other figures, in production, even the ones we're looking for here? 

Equally, I'm not sure Moonbo even made the stuff, as the (Saddle tabnk?) Locomotive 1928, is among the more common Hong Kong trains, appearing in various generic and branded sets, the above, on evilBay years ago were marked-up RBM, and came with card buildings and a mixed bag of mixed-scale farm, of the sort in all those generic Home Farm's and My Farm's.

 

While this one, imported by Janbo Trading of London, is accompanied by a bag of accessories more normally associated with Wild West rack-toys! A log cabin and various bits of greenery, along with a farm windmill!

 

Meanwhile, Kamco Industrial have a similar line, with a similar station, rolling stock is different, and the canopy stanchions are heavier, so I'm not about to suggest that they are related, or at least, not related to Moonbo?

 

The figures however, look to be similar to the soft rubber civilians which came with Blue Box's Airport play-sets, and consequently, there could be a connection there? With the chap in the sheepskin coat and the seated lad (Scooter Rider) being taken from the Airfix Civilians set, probably along with the other three, but it's not so clear with them.

 

I've also isolated the animals and trees, which, again, are standard generic fare, probably bought in, but again, as with Moonbo, they [Kamco] may only be a middle-man, with all of it bought-in? Calf is a Corgi-copy, also copied by Blue Box.

 

To which end, Motron Enterprises (a name which almost says 'shipper/jobber', but they are looking for OEM work?) have the Kamco set, side-by-side with Silverlit/Multimac space-tanks and some dodgy-looking, probably illegitimate die-casts!

 

As to my hopes for Blue Box's involvement, this set keeps turning-up, sans figures, as does a boxed clockwork locomotive, which looks to be HO/OO (the above is sub TT-gauge I think?), but which doesn't have figures either!

 

So, we haven't really proved anything, but we've got it all out there should anyone else like to join the hunt, or join-the-dots. Who made the pale-blue soft plastics, what sets do they go with? Is/are Moonbo and/or Kamco manufacturers, or just jobbers? Are Motron behind Kamco, or vis-versa? Did Kamco/Motron get their figures from Blue Box/are they the same figures as some BB airport sets? Questions, questions! RBM and Janbo are just importers/jobbers.

And with thanks to Paul Morhead and Jon, I think I just added four Hong Kong makers/jobber's names to the tag list while other people bang-on about Wello and Star as if they are the centre of a very small universe!

D is for Dragonology!

We had Pirateology back on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, last September, and heaven forfend that I now influence people who used to influence me, but I've put another 'ology on the back-burner and pulled this out of the queue sharpish!

Dragonology, like the preveous Piratology, a pretty-standard board-game under the trope of the dragon theme - gotta' have a hook to hang it on! Nice graphics, although I forgot to shoot the board, but there are two views of it in the post and you can see it's a journey-round the board doing/collecting stuff, with card forfeits/jeopardies.

 

Still carried here by Paul Lamond for Sababa, but also crediting Templar Publishing who hold the 'ology series, there are other games, based on other titles in the book series, with two for Wizardology (heehee!), but not yet an Egyptology one, which is the one I'm waiting/hoping for, although if they do make one, it may not have figures! While the newer books haven't had the momentum yet, to generate the desire/need for games?

 

Obviously the figures are the all-important bit, and this set actually carries more than the Pirate set, with six figures, rather than five, several of whom bear more than a passing resemblance to the characters from Cludo!

 

 

They all have names, as do the dragons (have identities), but I was a little disappointed to see, or not see . . . a Welsh one, but I think Switzerland is doing the heavy-lifting for both Cymru and the Vikings! The right-hand human images seem to be taken from much-larger, highly detailed master-sculpts, rather than than the eventual 35/40mm'ish production figures, which have lost a lot of that detail.

 

You can see how Beatrice Cook could double for Miss Peacock, Dragon Man Dan for Colonel Mustard, Phineas Feek for Professor Plum, one of the others could be repainted for Mr. Green, and while one of the missing women could be covered by the Oriental girl, Miss Ta, either Emery or Drake (best for Mr. Green) would have to re-identify, which would excite the Trumpy Broflakes, wouldn't it!

The nine dragons are all equally well-done, and as per the B&W sheet, display some of the different physiognomies or traits of various dragons from myths and legends around the world, although scale is a little-off, I feel, the Chinese dragon should be one of the bigger ones

The other/another angle for eight of them, not much I can add, they'd go better up against 1:76/72 figures, than anything larger, perhaps with all the fantasy stuff coming from Caesar and Dark Alliance - EY, I'm thinking of you - and you can pick them up for cheapness on feeBay!

 

While the little Knucker (closest to a Viking Wyrm, or the great Earth Worm), has a nice metallic belly which is totally lost when it's on the board!

P is for Peter's Perfect Post-Christmas Parcel! 2 of 2

The other half of Peter's parcel, and in the order I shot them, as I was sorting them for the local TBS boxes, I have five stacks of the smaller cardboard 'produce' boxes which stack on the corners and have open tops and the odd slot/handhold in the ends, through which I can post things without taking the whole stack apart!

Three bigger animals, two makers? The cat's are similar plastic/sculpting, the girraffe is more sort of early-learning or infant-toy with a slightly cartoony look, but all useful and needing ID'ing one day!

 

Some medieval small-scale odds, I think we're looking at Revell's iteration of Accurate's Brit's on the left and something Itlaeri-Zvezda on the right, they'll go down the line to make up complete sets, from odd's, when I have the time!

 

Three Del Prado part-work figures from the Waterloo 'wargame', and a nice flat, probably modern in physical production, but from antique slates? The loader came apart as I was shooting them, which means we can look at how the parts go together!

I actually got the part-work for some time, a local shop kept getting a few in, for months after it was supposed to have gone subscription-only. In the end, I dropped-out, as I did the maths! But we will look at them in depth one day, it was about 20-years ago now?

 

Airfix bits and a Merit feather-edged fence-panel. Figures, kit bits and 'readymade' AFV parts/odds, it all has its place! The series I/II Land-Rover (from the Bristol Bloodhound set), looks a bit like my Uncle's Austin Gypsy did when I found it behind a barn, about ten years after I'd last seen it driving!

 

A very red sample of Poplar Plastic and Tudor Rose soft-platic Westerners, we're aiming for one of every colour on the Poplar's (unlikely, but you never know), and they always seem to be more Tudor Rose horses than riders, so all useful stuff!

 

Two for the spares box, a German parachute bag from Timpo and a small 'old school' dustpan or hearth-brush, probably from a cheap rack-toy doll's set, or budget Christmas crackers?

 

The saltier half of a pair of Friar cruets on the right, with some Kinder 'fidget-spinners'.

 

A sample of early British Khaki Infantry, they were a nice sample, but Royal Fail or Parcel Farce conspired to deny them a future of use, however they are unpainted and very clean, so could be a worthwhile sample, and will be kept for now, until the next big sorting of that sub-genre.

 

Likewise, this chap, who is not damaged in the post-production sense of the word, but is a short-shot moulding with a constricted, kidney-shaped base and short muzzle-tip, where cooling plastic failed to fill the cavity properly!

 

Many thanks to Peter for this latest parcel, especially at what is the quiet or 'down-season' in the hobby.

P is for Peter's Perfect Post-Christmas Parcel! 1 of 2

Back at the start of January I got a suprise in the post, a donantion to the Blog from Peter Evans, roving-reporter for Plastic Warrior magazine and keeper of the knowlage! And we're going through it's contents in the next two posts!

The opening of these parcels, whoever from, is always the best-bit, as everything is fresh and unknown, even if it's grubby and duplicate, if you know what I mean, and it's all in a jumble, prior to any sorting, so you spot stuff among stuff, under stuff, next to stuff!

 

Three more of the smaller cake-decoration footballers, I've been looking out for them, but so far I haven't seen a retail set, and both Hobbycraft and my Clapham Junction haunt still stock the larger ones! The other guy is a rubber/PVC chap we have seen before, but possibly not attributed and without the base, he's been ID'd but is another of those I keep forgetting the maker of, similar figures are found on springs as more generic 'table football' games.

 

A couple of cave men, we've looked at similar, we may have looked at these and there is a folder of sets from evilBay and sucklike waiting for the great sorting out session! While the Hong Kong version of Cavendish's policeman will be a useful addition, as they are always different when you find one, different pain usually, but sometimes different plastic.

 

Three khaki infantry (Britains and Lone Star - actually a Para') and that pesky naval-gunner/MTB crew-looking chap again, really starting to bug me now, I now have about four here, and several in storage, so whatever toy he came with, must have been quite common, but what the hell was it?

 

China-farmer, as found in the Padgett Brothers (A-Z) sets, and others, a Britains lamb and Barrett & Sons (B&S) calf, along with a larger calf, which may be modern or a clean earlier example, unknown to me.

 

Nice polyethylene Hong Kong swoppet Confederate who's stolen a Unionists hat, he'll need ID'ing against the folder of such things, and one of the PVC Toyway Indians sans plug-in disc-base.

Love this! Semi-relief flat of Santa Claus and his sleigh, obviously meant to be laid on the icing, I managed to stand it up in a moulding detail on the lid of the scanner! Santa looks like one of the Elf on shelves!

 

Firefighter from a large carpet/garden/beach toy, and a bunch of the Lucky (et al) figures form the large-scale plastic copies of Western road vehicles, they will all need to be checked against the 'master collection' for variation, new base-marks etc.

 

The usual gaggle of seated figures and road-workers, the red chap on the right is a marked Buddy L figure, the left-hand one is a short shot, while the three in the front look modernish.

 

Two Hasbro Star Wars Command figures, I'll have to have a go at painting some up, one day! And a novelty 'Munch bunch' style, or actual, pencil-top, who will join all the others in another 'To Be Sorted' project, he's missing a hat or greenery frond, and there are many generations of sub-piracy!

Thanks to Peter for this pile of treats, more to come in the next post.