T is for That Tortle, No, Turtapin, no, Terratoise . . . Doh!

Speaking of Holly musicians (as somebody might have been?!), here's a small orchestra of them from my own collection! I've mentioned this tortoise several times over the years, and I think we've seen him in a mixed-lot post, and this picture has been sat in Picasa since 2016! And, actually, he's got cartoon hands (four digits), so he's neither a turtle nor a tortoise, and definitely not a terrapin! While, maybe only two of these are Holly!

 

The two probably Holly are to the right, neither associated with the Gygax stuff we looked at recently, and not seen together, in a set, I mean, yet, nor do they have the 900-codes of some of the Holly funnimals. But on the left, are cruder copies of both, in the style of stuff by Diener or Imperial, but not marked to either brand, however, manufactured in the same soft silicon-rubber which makes for shite erasers, but excellent pencil-smudgers!

 

The pig will be a lesser-make cake decoration, probably a set of musicians, but maybe just three (the 'Little pigs'), I don't know, while the Topo Gigio character (another left-hooker!) could also be the Portuguese Balin, but I don't think so.

W is for What do You Think Readers?

I've been trying to ignore the sniping from across the road, it's mostly low-level and trying to 'tick' my Tags into your Tag list with evilBay scraping's isn't exactly the height of sophistication, when 99% of my stuff is original copy, but it's all getting a bit silly, isn't it! Nor is posting 'LP' every time I post LB (Lik Be), especially if you have to shake-down feeBay to do so!

 

These are mostly internet images, and are the only the ones in Picasa, I haven't looked at the dongles, but we saw most of them as a follow-up to a mini-season on farms, using the set from my own collection, back in April, and there's always more to say!

 

One origin of the guitar-playing turtle!

 

Although the lower set is on a Wilton's catalogue page alongside Lik Be (that's an LB, because it's B for Be), I think the set is actually by Holly although some of the animals are similar to those issued by Colonial Studios, so were probably also supplied by Holly to them.

 

But the zoo-keeper is certainly, like a number of the animals, in the style of Lik 'the LB' Be's products, although here "Created by Jak Pak" ? . . . I don't think so!

A mixed internet lot with some US stuff down the foreground, but with the Lik Be (where we get LB from) tractor in the background, it's a safeish-bet these two more realistic farmers went with the more realistic farm stuff from LB (for Lik Be), which I think I've mentioned before! Perhaps , as I write, Copisey is scraping some off evilBay, or Worthpoint, what do you think, readers?! Certainly the bases are similar to others in the L for Lik, B for Be oeuvre!

 

This farmer with rake/hoe, though, is more likely to be Colonial Studios, Holly, or another maker, being one of the 900-coded mouldings with no 'A' or 'B' prefix, actually just number 943. Note readers, how he's not got a base, like the zookeeper! I wonder if our Forest Friend up there in the Wirral is busy searching Worthpoint for the original image, even as I edit this?

 

"I love these silly little Colonial farmers", he'll say, as if he knew all along! What do you think, readers?

 

The one on the left is Farmer Straw from Noddy 

The one on the right might be a beer or tobacco promotional. 

 

There's tons more of this stuff out there, and there's plenty more in the archive, but I try to post empirical stuff, I've seen and handled, and only really use internet stuff, in context, to enhance a post with my stuff in it, and while 'if you can't beat them, join them' has led to my using more images than I have in the past, some of these have been on several devises without ever being used (this one came-into Picasa in 2014), and that's how I hope to continue.

 

But if Sticky the Woodentop wants a fight, he can have one? I used to get on with him/them, but then about three/four-years ago (?) he just started niggling, and ignoring the drip-drip of his nonsense hasn't been easy; I've had a couple of pops back, but this last few days it's been so obvious, it's getting silly!

 

Bad enough they post 'antipodean' aircraft the day after me (without, apparently, either of them knowing the relationship between Matchbox and Universal, or the logo of the latter), or pretend he's just discovered the Buck Rogers erasers (a couple of months after commenting on my post, on the subject), or try to tick-off Tags missing on their site, but seen here, often with the most spurious post of the thinnest gruel, however Forresty is older than me, and should be wiser?

 

What do you think readers? Should I quickly tick-off the few dozen Space and TV-related Tags he's got which I haven't, either from my archives, or a quick visit to feebleBay? Or should I just carry-on doing what I'm doing, and ignore the petty little phuqtard?

 

Am I a 'founder and administrator', readers? Or just a bloke shouting into the void, what do you think?

 

Comments are not required, Traffic can go up or down, other Blogs' are available. 

A is for ♪♫♪♪♫ All-in-All, Theyyyyy're All Just Bricks in the Wall ♪♫♪♪♫

Definitely ticking the 'other collectables' Tag, these are a fun novelty which seem to have been with us forever, or at least the mid-1970's, when I got my first, but, being a magpie, I now have four! Fake sponge bricks!

 

The collection,

"More than two of anything . . . "!

 

My original Christmas stocking brick, one of the 'practical' gifts which were always included; novelty soap, toothbrushes, combs, wiggly straws, things which, however-much fun they were, were also meant to be used daily! It's a soft bath-sponge material.

 

This was my second, it's a harsher foamed polyethylene, still a batheable foam, but more like garden-game balls, or pet-toys, and was given away at corporate newspaper events, or even with a daily-paper? I can't remember the promotion now, but I dare say, given it's The Sun, that they were for throwing at 'Lefty' politicians, or foreigners?

 

Once I had two, the track was inevitable, and over a few years I picked up two of these, more modern brick design, and made of recycled foam-rubber granules, much heavier, and not so good for washing!

 

In the US, they remain a strong, current phenomena, with corporate logo's to the fore, I think they are for throwing at referees' in disgust at their decisions, although I've never seen a clowud of them hitting the pitch, so I guess, once you've paid money for one, your desire to retain your investment in bricks & mortar, mean you hang on to it and just shake it threateningly toward the Man In Black?

 

While this is Art! A design by Alexander May, for a concrete-block sponge!

 

There was a trend for mattresses made out of the same heavy, granulated-foam, of my third brick, but often in greys or neutral colours, and they were a favourite of early fly-tipping when they started to break up, and you'd see this stuff in the rubbish pile, odd-shaped lumps, which looked exactly like concrete!

 

A very commercial one here, from Milton Bradley (MB Games - that's almost like LB for Lik Be!), and hitching a ride on the trend . . . nay, 'craze' for all things Karate, back in the 1970's - "Ah, Soh, Grasshopper!".
 

Contemporary one, available, new on the Internet as I write, this is expanded-polystyrene, and looks to be pre-coloured, so a few chips or a knocked corner would only add to its aura of realism!

 

Also current, but a bit naff, and more of a face-cloth? There's a sponge-foam core, but it's covered in a printed-pattern fabric 'pillow', sewn-flush, and over-printed with crude holes, I'd leave this on the self, as the point of the collection is that they look vaguely like bricks, and this doesn't! Although, I guess it does, if you don't display the 'holes'!

F is for Follow-up . . . "Bestest follow-up ever, Mr Gruber!"

So, I posted the soaps and the Cherilea tank, quite close together, went off to work, came home to a cryptic comment and these in my inbox! It's only the US take on our Peruvian friend Paddington and his jar of marmalade, courtesy of Brian Berke in New York!

 

Three main views.

 

A somewhat pro-washing propagandist piece, obviously written by grown-ups!

 

Brian tells us Eden Toys held the US merchandising licence for the BBC series, so Bioessamce might be the maker, although only describing themselves as 'distributor'?

 

"Careful, you could damage a chap's nose with that!"

 

A much better sculpt than the British one we looked at earlier.

I hope Brain doesn't mind, but I've tried to get a better colour balance into the photographs, they had that slightly yellowish tinge you get with indoor digital photography sometimes, I've been getting it with my new camera, and while I took the blue of the box as the best guide, they now all look a little washed-out, but I think the colours are truer?

 

Best bear soap ever!

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! AFV's

So, the other half of the 'Army Men' post (which was going to be one post, but I couldn't face all that typing in one hit!), their transport, and it's an eclectic mix with a few interesting bits in it!

 

I know, but it was a Jeep! It was a Hugonnet card! It's otherwise the same rack-toy shite churned-out by Hong Kong, but a worthy addition to the collection, and confirms loose figures I've got somewhere! Starlux piracies!

 

These were from Isaac, who's surname I've never caught, but he'd saved them for me (along with the Wild West swoppet bags and some other stuff), and they were a real revelation, as when I got them home I found they were confirming one of the possible combinations suggested by me in this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2015/09/p-is-for-pick.html

  

With the 'Long Tom' on the odd coastal-artillery type platform, as well as getting the 'Speedwell' tank, with/in the same card/bag, so a very useful addition to the collection Something I would have been even more excited about, back when I was a small-scale only collector, and new things were getting thin on the ground! Now I've seen the all-scale polymer mountain to climb, I'm a little more jaded, but these are much appreciated.

 

The CTS (now BMC) Sherman Tank, apparently a bit smaller than the rarer Airfix one, and in a hard'ish ethylene or propylene, I didn't get this from Matt, who I now know WAS Matt!, But either from Steve Weston or somebody near him? On one level it's a gap-filler/box-ticker, but on another level, also a nice model, and it looks the part, which is important with Shermans, get one major dimension, angle or curve wrong and they can instantly look very odd, or daft!

 

They need a clean, but for reasons you don't need to be bored with, cleaning's out at the moment. Also, we've seen them before, they are pretty common, but belong to a family of rack-toy stuff, including the Jeep-trailer/gun combo's we’ve also seen here,with and without plug-in crew, and with two or even three new colours, they are adding to the story, if we ever tease the full story out!

 

And the comments on Sherman's were specific, because this gets a lot wrong! Can't remember of this was a purchase or a contribution, but it's the sort of thing you see on eBay, and think "Even if I get it for 99p, it's not worth the postage!", but it was a box that needed ticking, and it has its own rack-toy charm!

 

Also, a generic, over-branded to Woolbro, and it has a telescopic barrel, to keep the box as small as possible, while the turret on the box art is even whackier than the turret in the box!
 

Thanks especially to Issack, but also Graham Apperley, John Begg, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Peter Evans, Adrian Little, Michael Mordant-Smith, Trevor Rudkin, Steve Vickers, and with no emails since the intro-post, anyone else who gave me stuff, who I have forgotten to add.

L is for Little Lead Lump!

I shot these shelfies on a stall (probably Adrian's table?) at the BMSS annual show in Reading, back at the end of April, it's a not very accurate rendition of the late-war/post-war M26 Pershing I think, from Cherilea?

 

That's it, just getting it up here! The figures would later be reproduced in plastic, and can be seen on the Khaki Infantry page, link at the top of this page. I may have one in the stash, but I think it's a bit tatty and may sport a banana-barrel!

C is for Cleaning Up!

Having seen the guardsman the other day, I thought I'd dig these out of the David Pomeroy folder, not sure if he was involved in the sculpting of them or just had them for reference, but we have two more soaps to look at, and no convoluted plots, which require watching the extended episode on Friday!

 

The better of the two soaps, in the poorer box is Mrs Cobbit from Camberwick Green manufactured by Wright, Layman & Umney Ltd., of London (apparently still making Wright’s Traditional Soap for Smith & Nephew), and I have a vague recollection we might have had a pair from this set one Christmas, probably in our Stockings?

 

While the better box came with a slightly battered Paddington Bear, who wasn't the best of likenesses before his hat got so simplified, and dented! Made by Richard's & Appleby of Jermyn Street, they seem to be still trading, and still making novelty cosmetics.

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! Army Men and Combat Infantry

The meat and two veg' of Toy Soldier collecting . . . toy soldiers! I had quite a good run at the show this year on the khaki-front, in fact, I've just split the folder into two; troops and AFV's, as it was 27 images! So, this post is that plunder, less all the vehicles! And we seem to be starting with pretty-much the last thing I bought at the show, probably because it was on top of a bag, and got shot first!

 

One of the American dealers was over for the day, was it Matt from Hobby Bunker? And he had these, in most colours, I went for the pink! BMC's GI Janes! I've not got them out of the pack, as Brian Berke sent us a nice khaki sample when they first came out, so they can wait for another day, but it was a definite box ticked!

 

Two blow-moulds which I think we've seen before, but here they are again, and they'll be back soon, as Peter Evans gave me a pair not a week ago! He remembers them being part of a shooting game with [I think he said;] four each of these two and one officer?

 

A Marx six-inch British infantryman, and Blue Box (or BB-clone) five-inch GI, complete the larger figures found in June.

 

Not my finest moment, but we all make mistakes at shows, hurrying, poor lighting, trying to hold-down two conversations, but whatever, I bought a lemon - the lewis gunner team are mucked about with, I thought they were a pair, but actually the No.2 is a conversion . . . heay-ho! Some Chinese made Matchbox clones (Shin Hing maybe?) and an earlier Rado or similar Russian.

 

French, very early Starlux (ovoid bases), or Quiralu, I think, possibly from aluminium moulds? I should know, and if I spent longer going through the folders I would know, but nice anyway!

 

Bagged small-scale and a couple of loose figures.

 

The right-hand bag had some interesting mould-purge figures in green/blue.

 

I actually went to the show with only one thing on the absolute wants-list; Hilco Anzacs, and managed to get all three with a colour variation, from one stall, and a seller on the opposite side of the aisle had the Trojan 14th Army types, so I grabbed them at the same time! The Hilco's are cut-n-shut 'conversions' (in the loosest, just-escaping-a-plagiarism-charge, meaning of the word) of the Timpo 'solid' 8th Army poses.

 

Also picked-up two of the Airfix 1st version Para's neither of which seem brittle, a problem with them now, a Thomas/Poplar 'ubiquityman' (driver, gunner and stretcher bearer), Blue Box GI in 50mm and three Lido-clones.

 

More small-scale, with Corgi 'chocolate bars' from the gift-set, Blue Box Germans in 'styrene, a similar Hornby-Triang 'Battle Space' radio-operator and a few other bits.

 

To be sorted, mostly Hong Kong, mostly Britains clones, and mostly to appear on the Khaki Infantry page at some point, I haven't done as much on there as I'd have wanted to, due to circumstance, this last few years, but I did add a few bits there, the other day, and there is more in the queue.

 

More Hong Kong, copies of Airfix 8th Army and Monogram GI's, all very much grist to the mill, but all having a place in the oeuvre, and will all need to be sorted into the correct tubs and samples, to build the bigger picture.

 

For instance the two colours of 8th Army clones, are from two sources, one marked Hong Kong the other just HK, and a difference in quality between the two. The aim being to eventually get them all tied into the correct sets/packaging, and hopefully get the odd brand-ID on them, I happen to know the HK's are probably Ri-Toys (Rado)!

 

More thanks to - Issack, Graham Apperley, John Begg, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Peter Evans, Adrian Little, Michael Mordant-Smith, Trevor Rudkin, Steve Vickers, and with no emails since the intro-post, anyone else who gave me stuff, who I have forgotten to add.