These may look like normal cones, but they are both the size of a house-brick!
Hanky Panky
10 hours ago
About Me
- Hugh Walter
- No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
- I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Monday, February 22, 2010
S is for Seeds and Fir Cones
These may look like normal cones, but they are both the size of a house-brick!
N is for New Acquisitions
As I mentioned the other day, here are a few bits I've been picking up in recent months, most - it has to be said - for peanuts!
These four are all eBay wins around the 99p mark. Clockwise from top left;
These two were poorly described by a 'non-toy soldier' seller and I was expecting 'curiosities' around 4/5/6 inches tall, sort of - mantelpiece ornaments/tourist items (I had just won the 5 inch copy of the Britains Robin Hood, sans base in a hard vinyl), but what turned up was a couple of rather nice 54mm figures with small indentations in the base marked 'HONG KONG' in the manner of Marx or Blue Box HK production. I have a feeling I have seen a Henry VIII or Raleigh in this style, and am going to tentatively suggest they are British/Swansea Marx, made in HK as an answer to the US Marx 'plinth' series of Presidents, Disciples, Nativity etc...? Designed to depict personalities from British History. Thoughts? [I should point out that these are marked on the front face of the base; Julius Caesar & Lord Nelson. Further - I've just picked up a damaged 'Duke of Marlborough' in a mixed lot, so rather confirming the likelihood they are a set of major characters in British History?]
10/12/2012 - I've been told they are Blue Box.
Speaking of Marx, this is the 60mm 'swoppit' Indian/Native American, I've encountered these in ethylene going very brittle, but this one is vinyl as are his accessories and all are still in rude health.
Two Speedwell Robin/Sheriff of Nott's. figures. These came from a dealer called blackdragoncollectables, and I got them for the magic number (99p!), he had lots and started putting them up in three's and fours, so as people gravitated to what became a bit of a feeding frenzy, the hammer price rose a bit, but they were still very reasonable. Worth checking him out has he did have 300+ lots on at one point. [I don't represent him in any way]
Finally I ought to know these as I've seen them before, and got one in desert scheme, however I've lost (or failed to take) the notes pertaining to them, they are by someone like 21st Century or New Ray and came/still come (?) with Die-cast vehicles.
A 'first toy' or infant toy I couldn't resist, this is a unique take on the stacking cups of a 1960/70's childhood, in that; large chunks of ethylene can be built in a number of ways into an ever changing castle. The maker?...Merit, the reason I had to have it!
The colours are the same as the colours of the Circus & Noah sets I covered back at the beginning of this blog, so this must have been part of the same range. Best displayed with a few Christmas Cracker HK guardsmen standing round the base! I'd love to track down some spare orange and/or yellow components if anybody has some hanging about in their odds box?
As well as loose items I've had a punt at the odd carded/boxed lots, and these are a few of them, as before;
The Dimestore Dreams re-mould of the old Pyro X-200, sold in the UK by Great Gizmos a few years ago. I have one of these, but thought it would be nice to have a second for a future painting session, and as the box is also tattier than mine, I'll slice it open and stick it in the paper archive.
Air Raiders Battle Squad by Hasbro, I have over the years picked up a few of the Purple Force soldiers, and listed them under Hassenfeld, but had no idea what set/series they belonged to, now I know! And only have a purple officer to track down to make the 'set', I will de-card these, they were meant to be played with, and the Action Figure collectors (another branch of the hobby altogether) will - I'm sure - have plenty of these saved for posterity in immaculate condition!
The HK Wild West set are pile-of-junk copies of Britains/Timpo 'swoppits', apart from the figure top left, who has parted from his base but seems to be quite an interesting hybrid copy of Nadi & Cherilea! Also; the trade mark/name (Benkson) gives another entry in the eventual book!
The Precision set came from the US, and I bought it purely as an 'Example'. The back is type-written 'MADE IN WEST GERMANY', so they will originally have been Noch or Kibri or someone like that.
Finally - doing the rounds of pound-shops, discount stores and market stalls are these die-cast and plastic AFV's, the generic 'Patton' tank in around 1:68th (?) is a bit big, while the Hover-craft (judging by the windows) is a bit small (1:100?) but both are OK for any small scale wars where you're not too fussy.
These four are all eBay wins around the 99p mark. Clockwise from top left;These two were poorly described by a 'non-toy soldier' seller and I was expecting 'curiosities' around 4/5/6 inches tall, sort of - mantelpiece ornaments/tourist items (I had just won the 5 inch copy of the Britains Robin Hood, sans base in a hard vinyl), but what turned up was a couple of rather nice 54mm figures with small indentations in the base marked 'HONG KONG' in the manner of Marx or Blue Box HK production. I have a feeling I have seen a Henry VIII or Raleigh in this style, and am going to tentatively suggest they are British/Swansea Marx, made in HK as an answer to the US Marx 'plinth' series of Presidents, Disciples, Nativity etc...? Designed to depict personalities from British History. Thoughts? [I should point out that these are marked on the front face of the base; Julius Caesar & Lord Nelson. Further - I've just picked up a damaged 'Duke of Marlborough' in a mixed lot, so rather confirming the likelihood they are a set of major characters in British History?]
10/12/2012 - I've been told they are Blue Box.
Speaking of Marx, this is the 60mm 'swoppit' Indian/Native American, I've encountered these in ethylene going very brittle, but this one is vinyl as are his accessories and all are still in rude health.
Two Speedwell Robin/Sheriff of Nott's. figures. These came from a dealer called blackdragoncollectables, and I got them for the magic number (99p!), he had lots and started putting them up in three's and fours, so as people gravitated to what became a bit of a feeding frenzy, the hammer price rose a bit, but they were still very reasonable. Worth checking him out has he did have 300+ lots on at one point. [I don't represent him in any way]
Finally I ought to know these as I've seen them before, and got one in desert scheme, however I've lost (or failed to take) the notes pertaining to them, they are by someone like 21st Century or New Ray and came/still come (?) with Die-cast vehicles.
A 'first toy' or infant toy I couldn't resist, this is a unique take on the stacking cups of a 1960/70's childhood, in that; large chunks of ethylene can be built in a number of ways into an ever changing castle. The maker?...Merit, the reason I had to have it!The colours are the same as the colours of the Circus & Noah sets I covered back at the beginning of this blog, so this must have been part of the same range. Best displayed with a few Christmas Cracker HK guardsmen standing round the base! I'd love to track down some spare orange and/or yellow components if anybody has some hanging about in their odds box?
As well as loose items I've had a punt at the odd carded/boxed lots, and these are a few of them, as before;The Dimestore Dreams re-mould of the old Pyro X-200, sold in the UK by Great Gizmos a few years ago. I have one of these, but thought it would be nice to have a second for a future painting session, and as the box is also tattier than mine, I'll slice it open and stick it in the paper archive.
Air Raiders Battle Squad by Hasbro, I have over the years picked up a few of the Purple Force soldiers, and listed them under Hassenfeld, but had no idea what set/series they belonged to, now I know! And only have a purple officer to track down to make the 'set', I will de-card these, they were meant to be played with, and the Action Figure collectors (another branch of the hobby altogether) will - I'm sure - have plenty of these saved for posterity in immaculate condition!
The HK Wild West set are pile-of-junk copies of Britains/Timpo 'swoppits', apart from the figure top left, who has parted from his base but seems to be quite an interesting hybrid copy of Nadi & Cherilea! Also; the trade mark/name (Benkson) gives another entry in the eventual book!
The Precision set came from the US, and I bought it purely as an 'Example'. The back is type-written 'MADE IN WEST GERMANY', so they will originally have been Noch or Kibri or someone like that.
Finally - doing the rounds of pound-shops, discount stores and market stalls are these die-cast and plastic AFV's, the generic 'Patton' tank in around 1:68th (?) is a bit big, while the Hover-craft (judging by the windows) is a bit small (1:100?) but both are OK for any small scale wars where you're not too fussy.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
M is for Minerals - Rocks and Fossils
Thanks to 'Liz' for this nice group of Rocks, polished fossils and the like...
Thursday, February 18, 2010
W is for Wild West by Merten
One of the favorites in my collection are these H0/00 scale figures from Merten in Germany, great rival to Hausser Elastolin in 40mm, they also produced a prolific range of primarily model railway figures. Indeed until Preiser arrived in the late 60's Merten had pretty much cornered the market from the composition/wood/plaster makers of the inter-war period.
As what the Americans call 'Old Timer' trains became popular, this little range was produced to play along with them.
The 'Cowboys' could become Mexican 'Banditos' simply by changing the sprue, while the Indians were quite superb for figures so small.
Sets to augment the Wild West figures include the 'Early 19th Century' sets and the Blacksmiths, several other rural sets could be used to populate your western village. Here we see three sets of 2162 showing colour variants and a set of 2156.
The studs under the crinoline dresses designed to hold the figures in the pack would need to be removed before employing on a layout, these are more diorama models than 'toys'.
Finally a set of 20th Century children (2197) playing give us a couple of apprentices!
As what the Americans call 'Old Timer' trains became popular, this little range was produced to play along with them.
The 'Cowboys' could become Mexican 'Banditos' simply by changing the sprue, while the Indians were quite superb for figures so small.
Sets to augment the Wild West figures include the 'Early 19th Century' sets and the Blacksmiths, several other rural sets could be used to populate your western village. Here we see three sets of 2162 showing colour variants and a set of 2156.The studs under the crinoline dresses designed to hold the figures in the pack would need to be removed before employing on a layout, these are more diorama models than 'toys'.
Finally a set of 20th Century children (2197) playing give us a couple of apprentices!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
C is for Cofalu
Well, the great all-scale collection begins, with strangely a French company, only because I already had the 30 and 45mm figures, and won a couple of French eBay lots in recent weeks.
Garratt with his usual love of plastics describes them as "Poor quality and obviously derivative.", and it's true that they follow a style common to a bunch of French minor makes, and if the carded Wild West set I bought the other day is Cofalu when I get a better look at it, they are mostly Lone*Star or Jean copies. But the military figures in this post resemble Starlux if anything?
The full range of their output is ably demonstrated in this first picture, a 30mm figure rubs shoulders with two closer to 65mm. He is ethylene, they have ethylene uppers (cowboy), nylon type legs (both) and over moulded heads, he is solid, the others are a form of simple (few parts) swoppit, a style also favoured in Italy.
The six combat poses, the grenade thrower on the right is a hard styrene plastic and I suspect an early moulding. The 54mm range is a bit small, closer to 50mm. The ethylene 30mm's were apparently given away as a food premium.
The basic range of poses was used throughout the Cofalu ranges, and here we see Foreign Legion (50mm'ish) and Marines (closer to 60mm) sharing pose with each other and the previous 'combat' set.
A single cowboy completes this photo, suggesting there are many more to find, and Indians too!
I think these represent Gendarme/CRS from the 1950's/early 60's, with the metallic blue ones being the earlier with factory paint, the green ones being a later attempt by Cofalu to turn them into soldiers (the CRS being very unpopular in France in the 1970's [Like the SPG in London around the same time]).
Garratt with his usual love of plastics describes them as "Poor quality and obviously derivative.", and it's true that they follow a style common to a bunch of French minor makes, and if the carded Wild West set I bought the other day is Cofalu when I get a better look at it, they are mostly Lone*Star or Jean copies. But the military figures in this post resemble Starlux if anything?
The full range of their output is ably demonstrated in this first picture, a 30mm figure rubs shoulders with two closer to 65mm. He is ethylene, they have ethylene uppers (cowboy), nylon type legs (both) and over moulded heads, he is solid, the others are a form of simple (few parts) swoppit, a style also favoured in Italy.
The six combat poses, the grenade thrower on the right is a hard styrene plastic and I suspect an early moulding. The 54mm range is a bit small, closer to 50mm. The ethylene 30mm's were apparently given away as a food premium.
The basic range of poses was used throughout the Cofalu ranges, and here we see Foreign Legion (50mm'ish) and Marines (closer to 60mm) sharing pose with each other and the previous 'combat' set.A single cowboy completes this photo, suggesting there are many more to find, and Indians too!
I think these represent Gendarme/CRS from the 1950's/early 60's, with the metallic blue ones being the earlier with factory paint, the green ones being a later attempt by Cofalu to turn them into soldiers (the CRS being very unpopular in France in the 1970's [Like the SPG in London around the same time]).
S is for Scalecraft - Saladin Armoured Car
As I begin to collect the larger scales seriously, and as I experiment with eBay and try to build up the dreaded (and increasingly meaningless) 'Feedback', I have been picking up a fair few bargains which I'll be showing highlights of over the next few days. This was one of them.
Reasonably accurately described by the seller, as 'Scalecraft Saladin Tank Near Complete' or something similar, it had no bids and I picked it up for 99p with a hour to go? When you see what two people will bid each other up to for a pile of schisser sometimes, you begin to realise eBay is a madhouse!
It is in fact totally complete, even down to the stickers and has only two bits of minor damage, a loose command pennant and a broken lifting ring/towing eye, which was broken by the good old Post Office and is sitting in a clic-seal bag waiting a superglue session, as this is made of an ethylene and will be hard to glue.
It's true that it has no motor, but they were sold with or without, built or in kit-form to fit every budget so that's no problem!
Scalecraft made a few of these kits, including an imaginary amphibious truck, an MTB in near 1:76 scale and the best Thunderbird Two! I think they made T1 and T3 as well? All clip together and pre-coloured.
I guess the lack of interest lies in the fact that it's not German, American or from the Second World War? But it's real life cousin has seen more action than a lot of post war designs, famously in the streets of Kuwait City and along the beach front when the Iraqis invaded in the early 1990's, but also Oman/Radfan, Indonesia, Central/South America, Sri Lanka and various African conflicts.
When the Saladin was withdrawn from service 'down under' the Australians put the turrets on their US supplied M113's, but proving top heavy they replaced them with Scorpion turrets as soon as they became available (rather like our 432B/432-30 with the Fox scout car's 30mm Rarden turret), however it meant half-a-saladin saw service in that iconic cold-war conflict - Vietnam.
Reasonably accurately described by the seller, as 'Scalecraft Saladin Tank Near Complete' or something similar, it had no bids and I picked it up for 99p with a hour to go? When you see what two people will bid each other up to for a pile of schisser sometimes, you begin to realise eBay is a madhouse!
It is in fact totally complete, even down to the stickers and has only two bits of minor damage, a loose command pennant and a broken lifting ring/towing eye, which was broken by the good old Post Office and is sitting in a clic-seal bag waiting a superglue session, as this is made of an ethylene and will be hard to glue.It's true that it has no motor, but they were sold with or without, built or in kit-form to fit every budget so that's no problem!
Scalecraft made a few of these kits, including an imaginary amphibious truck, an MTB in near 1:76 scale and the best Thunderbird Two! I think they made T1 and T3 as well? All clip together and pre-coloured.
I guess the lack of interest lies in the fact that it's not German, American or from the Second World War? But it's real life cousin has seen more action than a lot of post war designs, famously in the streets of Kuwait City and along the beach front when the Iraqis invaded in the early 1990's, but also Oman/Radfan, Indonesia, Central/South America, Sri Lanka and various African conflicts.When the Saladin was withdrawn from service 'down under' the Australians put the turrets on their US supplied M113's, but proving top heavy they replaced them with Scorpion turrets as soon as they became available (rather like our 432B/432-30 with the Fox scout car's 30mm Rarden turret), however it meant half-a-saladin saw service in that iconic cold-war conflict - Vietnam.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
M is for More Space Stuff!
This image was sent in by a reader/follower from Finland, who wishes to remain anonymous, however many thanks to him for doing so as there are two bits of real interest here...
First is the reversed colourway for the Space Hawk/Spaceship from Pyro/Poplar, which rather confirms my suspicion that the 'Tudor Rose' one below is actually another Poplar moulding. I was told it was Tudor Rose and the 'Made in England' rather throws you...but the Welsh (in the 50's) weren't as bothered by their status as some are now, and 'England' would get exports more recognition than 'Wales'?
Of more interest in the photograph are the four X-100 Space Scouts at the back, these are in a semi-transparent/marbled plastic, and in conversation with the guy who supplied the photo, the thought is they are local production. If not Finnish, then Scandinavian at least...Now, the Ajax/Beton/Everybody else mounted figures from the very early days of plastic, were carried/produced in Europe by an unknown French company, Airfix, Remsa and, in Denmark, by Riesler...could Riesler have produced these four?
The other two are a silver X-200 Space Ranger like the red one below [this is a pyro original] and an Atomic Space Ship (with a damaged nose), [marked] Tudor Rose.
First is the reversed colourway for the Space Hawk/Spaceship from Pyro/Poplar, which rather confirms my suspicion that the 'Tudor Rose' one below is actually another Poplar moulding. I was told it was Tudor Rose and the 'Made in England' rather throws you...but the Welsh (in the 50's) weren't as bothered by their status as some are now, and 'England' would get exports more recognition than 'Wales'?Of more interest in the photograph are the four X-100 Space Scouts at the back, these are in a semi-transparent/marbled plastic, and in conversation with the guy who supplied the photo, the thought is they are local production. If not Finnish, then Scandinavian at least...Now, the Ajax/Beton/Everybody else mounted figures from the very early days of plastic, were carried/produced in Europe by an unknown French company, Airfix, Remsa and, in Denmark, by Riesler...could Riesler have produced these four?
The other two are a silver X-200 Space Ranger like the red one below [this is a pyro original] and an Atomic Space Ship (with a damaged nose), [marked] Tudor Rose.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
P is for Poplar Plastics (and Pyro?)
Normal service will be resumed in a day or two, in the meantime here's a couple more additions to the 1950's space fleet. I will re-do the last few posts in a more informative and ordered fashion soon.
On the left is a Poplar Plastics (UK 'Spaceship'), copy of a Gilmark (US 'Space Hawk') model, on the right is [probably not] a Tudor Rose (UK 'Rocketship') copy of a Pyro (? US) model, but being reversed colours to the Poplar, it could be another one of theirs? [I think it probably is - see above post] The Poplar is unmarked while the single engined one has the typical 'MADE IN ENGLAND' of Tudor Rose, and Poplar were based in Wales. It could also be a Kleeware design, or even Marx, they used bronzey colours on some of their readymade/dimestore stuff? Either way it's missing its dorsal fin!
On the left is a Poplar Plastics (UK 'Spaceship'), copy of a Gilmark (US 'Space Hawk') model, on the right is [probably not] a Tudor Rose (UK 'Rocketship') copy of a Pyro (? US) model, but being reversed colours to the Poplar, it could be another one of theirs? [I think it probably is - see above post] The Poplar is unmarked while the single engined one has the typical 'MADE IN ENGLAND' of Tudor Rose, and Poplar were based in Wales. It could also be a Kleeware design, or even Marx, they used bronzey colours on some of their readymade/dimestore stuff? Either way it's missing its dorsal fin!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
M is for Monopoly - Playing Pieces Through The Years
Originally posted on the 'Other Collectables' site - which I've now closed down - without text, I guess I should add a bit of text to explain the image...
They are basically arranged oldest to the rear, newest to the front, with a plastic set (which I believe was a limited edition) as the full front rank, with a new car design and a sausage-dog/Dachshund.During the war there was a set with card flats in little slotted wooden holders/bases, which I have yet to track down, and there have been a few changes over the years with the battleship being replaced during my childhood with a Norfolk Broads type river-cruiser thing, the thimble changed for a scottie-dog, and the slipper becoming a boot. The racing car was also 'modernised' (and one assumes there must have been somthong before the mid-cenury design?
Maybe the gun, as I have seen antiqued lead versions of it, but this one with the other three items are from a recent limited edition. The rat might have no connection with the game whatsoever, and the two plastic cars at the back were from another - racing car - game altogether and were also issued by Tom Smith in Christmas mini-crackers.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
X is for X-400 Space Explorer
A family tragedy means no urge to write for a few days, this will have to do...
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
S is for Sorting-out
Having mentioned 50p bags somewhere in the comments section, I dug out this old article I prepared for posting just before my old Lap-top crashed last April. This is the contents of a small bag someone brought to the big toy fair at Birmingham's NEC. Needless to say they aren't 50p any more and I think this was about a fiver's worth. And thanks are due to either Trevor R. or Jack S. - I can't remember but they've both saved me useful stuff for years now.
This is the contents of the bag spread out in a vague order, like a spider-diagram, you start in the middle and work out adding in themes! Airfix ending up top right, Kinder top left etc...
Some of the better pieces, the two pink flats came soon after I covered some others in one of the 'unknown' posts I did about a year ago (I'll do some more soon), Quaker at the bottom, a Marx soft plastic African warrior and a couple of tiny racing cars for the Waddingtons Formula One board game I'm working on...I want to increase the number of lanes and run 6 teams of three cars each with a few rule tweaks! The problem has been finding 3 grey and 3 orange cars so I'll probably resort to painting some spares, but most teams have 3 original cars now, I'll post them sometime...
Three modern HK figures from some die-cast play set, unknown unless you know better (Majorette, Johnny Lightning, Tesco?!) [Arlin Tawser kindly confirms/identifies these as being from the Matchbox Safari Pack - Action System 5 (7 piece set, stock number 50711-5, copyrighted/issued 1996, made in China) and pointed out that there are a couple on eBay at the moment!], an HK copy of an Airfix Guardsman , Disney Dalmatian food premium and a common horse which keeps turning up so again probably came with a Matchbox 1-75 sized safari thing?
The Kinder in the bag, the Ancients are always damaged! Note: you can just see the RP of Res Plastics if you click on the image - behind/below the saddle of the brown horse.
Other purchases at that show included a nice Woolbro bagged Giant copy, the WWI tree moulding I've already covered, an old bubble-gum tank (HK copy of Manurba), Diver and mini-sub (HK copy of Manurba again!), two die-cast flat race horses from a board game and a superb space tank with mile-high carpet wheels! Kleeware ship and HK Olypian wrap it up.
This is the contents of the bag spread out in a vague order, like a spider-diagram, you start in the middle and work out adding in themes! Airfix ending up top right, Kinder top left etc...
Some of the better pieces, the two pink flats came soon after I covered some others in one of the 'unknown' posts I did about a year ago (I'll do some more soon), Quaker at the bottom, a Marx soft plastic African warrior and a couple of tiny racing cars for the Waddingtons Formula One board game I'm working on...I want to increase the number of lanes and run 6 teams of three cars each with a few rule tweaks! The problem has been finding 3 grey and 3 orange cars so I'll probably resort to painting some spares, but most teams have 3 original cars now, I'll post them sometime...
Three modern HK figures from some die-cast play set, unknown unless you know better (Majorette, Johnny Lightning, Tesco?!) [Arlin Tawser kindly confirms/identifies these as being from the Matchbox Safari Pack - Action System 5 (7 piece set, stock number 50711-5, copyrighted/issued 1996, made in China) and pointed out that there are a couple on eBay at the moment!], an HK copy of an Airfix Guardsman , Disney Dalmatian food premium and a common horse which keeps turning up so again probably came with a Matchbox 1-75 sized safari thing?
The Kinder in the bag, the Ancients are always damaged! Note: you can just see the RP of Res Plastics if you click on the image - behind/below the saddle of the brown horse.
Other purchases at that show included a nice Woolbro bagged Giant copy, the WWI tree moulding I've already covered, an old bubble-gum tank (HK copy of Manurba), Diver and mini-sub (HK copy of Manurba again!), two die-cast flat race horses from a board game and a superb space tank with mile-high carpet wheels! Kleeware ship and HK Olypian wrap it up.
Monday, January 25, 2010
M is for Mop-Tops - Culpitt 'Battle of the Bands'!
More Culpitt's - These are 45mm 'Beatles' era musicians, if you want a collection they turn up all the time on eBay, however, don't pay silly Buy-it-now prices, you can pick them up for pennies if you're patient!
The pale blue variant I mentioned in 'lazy post' last night, this is a 'full band' there was no left-handed guitarist, so they never tried to be the Beatles, although there are at least three lots of figures in 54/60 & 70mm that do represent that very band.
The various parts of the drum-kit with the brown boys, note; there is a slight colour variation with some a pinkish-brown, this doesn't show well in the photo, but there is a clear difference. The skins on the drums are paper stickers and were applied to one side only.
Two of the three green band with Culpitt's footballers, the footballers were never made in the brown, but there may well be yellow band around somewhere, but I've yet to come across any, nor indeed red ones? Yet the drum-kit only seems to come in red!
The figures are unmarked, and late production would have come from Hong Kong, however early production will be UK-sourced. The lack of a mark makes it hard to say for certain weather they were by Gemodels or Festival. Most think Gem, however the base designs, size/scales and sculpting are so similar between the two companies, I'm beginning to suspect that Festival was a trade-mark of Gem, but they may just have been sharing sculptor!
The pale blue variant I mentioned in 'lazy post' last night, this is a 'full band' there was no left-handed guitarist, so they never tried to be the Beatles, although there are at least three lots of figures in 54/60 & 70mm that do represent that very band.
The various parts of the drum-kit with the brown boys, note; there is a slight colour variation with some a pinkish-brown, this doesn't show well in the photo, but there is a clear difference. The skins on the drums are paper stickers and were applied to one side only.
Two of the three green band with Culpitt's footballers, the footballers were never made in the brown, but there may well be yellow band around somewhere, but I've yet to come across any, nor indeed red ones? Yet the drum-kit only seems to come in red!The figures are unmarked, and late production would have come from Hong Kong, however early production will be UK-sourced. The lack of a mark makes it hard to say for certain weather they were by Gemodels or Festival. Most think Gem, however the base designs, size/scales and sculpting are so similar between the two companies, I'm beginning to suspect that Festival was a trade-mark of Gem, but they may just have been sharing sculptor!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
U is for Unknown
Can any one tell me what the following means, or what company used this marking on its products?
BTES.G.D.G
This is on the draw-bar of a Western stage coach with copies of the Ajax/Beton/Tudor*Rose hollow horse?
BTES.G.D.G
This is on the draw-bar of a Western stage coach with copies of the Ajax/Beton/Tudor*Rose hollow horse?
Friday, January 22, 2010
B is for Battle Ground, by Marx, a Miniature Masterpiece!
Generally I am not much of a fan of the mass hysteria and rivet counting that surrounds the bigger companies on the toy/model soldier horizon, the reverence in which some people hold Airfix, Britains & Timpo here, Starlux in France or - in the States - Marx, is while not a mystery, none-the-less an example of the sheep-like mentality of human beings. To regard half (or more) of all known production as nothing but rubbish, ignoring the cultural significance of most of it, to lose track of so many companies they become forever-after known as 'unknown', is not only to lose a valid part of our heritage, but if in doing so we elevate certain companies to god like status, it is to help devalue our own intelligence.
I say "Not a mystery", because while these companies often produced an awful product, or historically inaccurate examples (for how many more decades are the owners of Airfix going to peddle their Sd.Kfz 4323424whatevvverrr with 'those' mudguards?!), or ride roughshod over the wants, needs and goodwill of customers, there is an undeniable frisson of joy upon opening an Old School play set, so; proving my own hypocrisy; witness far too much blogspace devoted to this little gem of inaccurate crap from the land of 'Empire Made' badged to that master of exploitation; Marx...
A quite unassuming box and the worst of play-mats, a play-mat printed on something halfway between cereal box card and lavatory paper! Note the rather small beach on the Northern side of the river.
The contents include two Marx 'generic' tanks, and landing craft with Superfortress cupola! Some nice guns in hard plastic are included, although the ammo tray/bogie thing is very puzzling, the machine guns most closely resemble Vickers on .30cal mounts and the jeep design never left a factory in real life, not to mention the horse-and-musket era tents? Still - the dead trees and ruin are nice!
June 2015 - The 'bogies' are actually carriages for recoilless rifles, which must have been omitted by the packer? The trays then sit between the trail-legs of the gun - presumably it all works better on the 54mm originals?
The reason for the small beach on one side of the river...the Germans are rather outnumbered (by a factor of about 5 figures and 2 pieces of heavy gear to one), I guess they build a barricade out of the Merit-copy barrels and sacks, drape the barbed-wire over the whole pile and exit stage left while the Americans are still blowing all their boats up!
Three points of interest in this (apparently?) mint set; The only duplication in U.S. poses is the officer with life jacket, was he added (one jacket is a darker grey), or were there meant to be two as commanders for the two landing craft? There is no flagpole, the box art shows the flag flying from the lead tank, so did lazy old Marx just throw a flag in the box without a pole (other sets with flags get poles)? Finally; should there actually be 16 or 18 strands of wire?
All three questions are an academic exercise for the rivet counters, as I broke the seal on this set myself about ten years ago, and it's only been looked at a couple of times since!
To those of a humorless disposition...this post is meant to provoke thought, and I well know Airfix produced some of the finest figures ever...along with the junk! Starlux Empire Napoleonics are stunning and the Britains Swoppet Wars of the Roses Knights were a pinnacle in the toy soldier world, I'm not so sure Timpo or Marx can claim a pinnacle in anything?
I say "Not a mystery", because while these companies often produced an awful product, or historically inaccurate examples (for how many more decades are the owners of Airfix going to peddle their Sd.Kfz 4323424whatevvverrr with 'those' mudguards?!), or ride roughshod over the wants, needs and goodwill of customers, there is an undeniable frisson of joy upon opening an Old School play set, so; proving my own hypocrisy; witness far too much blogspace devoted to this little gem of inaccurate crap from the land of 'Empire Made' badged to that master of exploitation; Marx...
A quite unassuming box and the worst of play-mats, a play-mat printed on something halfway between cereal box card and lavatory paper! Note the rather small beach on the Northern side of the river.
The contents include two Marx 'generic' tanks, and landing craft with Superfortress cupola! Some nice guns in hard plastic are included, although the ammo tray/bogie thing is very puzzling, the machine guns most closely resemble Vickers on .30cal mounts and the jeep design never left a factory in real life, not to mention the horse-and-musket era tents? Still - the dead trees and ruin are nice!June 2015 - The 'bogies' are actually carriages for recoilless rifles, which must have been omitted by the packer? The trays then sit between the trail-legs of the gun - presumably it all works better on the 54mm originals?
The reason for the small beach on one side of the river...the Germans are rather outnumbered (by a factor of about 5 figures and 2 pieces of heavy gear to one), I guess they build a barricade out of the Merit-copy barrels and sacks, drape the barbed-wire over the whole pile and exit stage left while the Americans are still blowing all their boats up!Three points of interest in this (apparently?) mint set; The only duplication in U.S. poses is the officer with life jacket, was he added (one jacket is a darker grey), or were there meant to be two as commanders for the two landing craft? There is no flagpole, the box art shows the flag flying from the lead tank, so did lazy old Marx just throw a flag in the box without a pole (other sets with flags get poles)? Finally; should there actually be 16 or 18 strands of wire?
All three questions are an academic exercise for the rivet counters, as I broke the seal on this set myself about ten years ago, and it's only been looked at a couple of times since!
To those of a humorless disposition...this post is meant to provoke thought, and I well know Airfix produced some of the finest figures ever...along with the junk! Starlux Empire Napoleonics are stunning and the Britains Swoppet Wars of the Roses Knights were a pinnacle in the toy soldier world, I'm not so sure Timpo or Marx can claim a pinnacle in anything?
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
P is for Paramount - Little Farmer Series
I covered the Paramount tractor when I did a post on tractors a while ago (about a year!), but here is most (?) of the rest of the series. The first time I got one of these I showed it to Paul Morehead at Plastic Warrior (link - as always - to the right!) and he said "Paramount" without hesitation. Now I have a rule that I don't accept anyones word for anything whether in print or in person, until I've seen a boxed/bagged example, or a marked example or a photograph of one or the other. Needless to say although I politely took his advice, it wasn't until I found the rake-harrow that I fully believed him!! [sorry Paul!]
Bagged examples with front and rear of the same card, I'd love to know what the 'Amphibious Ferry Boats' looked like and why you got more than one (boats is plural?) but only the one car...I suspect a typo and it should have been 'Boat' and 'Cars'.
A couple of tractors in close up, both the figure and the overall design of the vehicles puts them in the 28/30mm scale bracket, and while the front wheels use the Hong Kong wagon wheel 'pop-on' system, the rear wheels have an quite heavy eight-gauge mild steel bar to plug on to.
The implements I've tracked down so far. Rear row from the left includes a pair of gang-mowers, disc-harrow, rake-harrow and three furrow plough. In front of them are two trailers and a silage cutter, with a 'bit' in the foreground!
The red section of the rake-harrow (much pirated by our friends in Hong Kong, including Blue Box!) is well marked 'PARAMOUNT PR ENGLAND'. I don't know if animals were also made, or bought in?
Close up of the gang-mowers, the bit and the silage-cutter. The gangs have a pin for another set to cover the cutting gap left by the front two, whether this would have been a single or triple I can't say. The bit seems to be a road bogie for one of the towed items but - try as I might - I can't get it to fit any of my existing items, so at least one is missing? Bogie wheels are the same as the tractor fronts, so it's definitely part of this series.
21/12/12 - It turned-up in a mixed lot a month or so ago, it is the plug-in rear bogie for a 2nd trailer design! All I have to do now is track down the trailer, as the one that turned-up had someone else's name on it..Doh!
01/01/15 - Also; The Paramount would seem to be a copy of a TN Thomas/Thomas Toys original, differences now blogged Here with the Oxydol premium.Some of the above equipments are actually Thomas as well, but I will blog both families another day.
These are well made little toys, and given Paramount's history of rip-offs of Britains Herald Wild West a bit of a mystery (like so much early British plastic). Made of what I consider 'standard' soft polyethylene of the Airfix ready made type, colours are 'toy' rather than realistic, and if anyone has further items to swap I have tractors to reciprocate!
Bagged examples with front and rear of the same card, I'd love to know what the 'Amphibious Ferry Boats' looked like and why you got more than one (boats is plural?) but only the one car...I suspect a typo and it should have been 'Boat' and 'Cars'.
A couple of tractors in close up, both the figure and the overall design of the vehicles puts them in the 28/30mm scale bracket, and while the front wheels use the Hong Kong wagon wheel 'pop-on' system, the rear wheels have an quite heavy eight-gauge mild steel bar to plug on to.
The implements I've tracked down so far. Rear row from the left includes a pair of gang-mowers, disc-harrow, rake-harrow and three furrow plough. In front of them are two trailers and a silage cutter, with a 'bit' in the foreground!The red section of the rake-harrow (much pirated by our friends in Hong Kong, including Blue Box!) is well marked 'PARAMOUNT PR ENGLAND'. I don't know if animals were also made, or bought in?
Close up of the gang-mowers, the bit and the silage-cutter. The gangs have a pin for another set to cover the cutting gap left by the front two, whether this would have been a single or triple I can't say. The bit seems to be a road bogie for one of the towed items but - try as I might - I can't get it to fit any of my existing items, so at least one is missing? Bogie wheels are the same as the tractor fronts, so it's definitely part of this series.21/12/12 - It turned-up in a mixed lot a month or so ago, it is the plug-in rear bogie for a 2nd trailer design! All I have to do now is track down the trailer, as the one that turned-up had someone else's name on it..Doh!
01/01/15 - Also; The Paramount would seem to be a copy of a TN Thomas/Thomas Toys original, differences now blogged Here with the Oxydol premium.Some of the above equipments are actually Thomas as well, but I will blog both families another day.
These are well made little toys, and given Paramount's history of rip-offs of Britains Herald Wild West a bit of a mystery (like so much early British plastic). Made of what I consider 'standard' soft polyethylene of the Airfix ready made type, colours are 'toy' rather than realistic, and if anyone has further items to swap I have tractors to reciprocate!
H is for Heller (and others)
Covered some smaller versions of these a while ago, Here and dug out the original photo I took a couple of years ago.
Picture shows painted versions (could the painted ones be Cromoplasto as in 'painted plastic'?) in 60mm hard plastic, an unpainted original in green (Xiloplasto/Landi ?) soft ethylene and a complete Heller Paint-your-own set in a dense nylon'ish plastic. Formaplast has also been mentioned in relation to these. Thanks also to Ron Chiasson.
Although Heller are (were!) French and a couple of the figures look like Saint-Cyr cadets, the rest do have an Italian feel to them, anyone got any ideas? I'm pretty sure they are all modern (ish) ceremonial figures rather than Napoleonic era officers but what do I know!! Indeed - more info on these would be gratefully received and posted here with acknowledgements.
For instance there are 14 poses here, last time I hinted at a possible 20. Anybody know the true total?
So - Following a protracted session of comments, and what came to light last time, we have a potential list of manufacturers-to-figures as follows;
25mm - Hong Kong (?) - ethylene (Yellow and ...) [No. of poses unknown]
30mm - Formaplast (?) - ethylene (White, Green, Orange) [3 poses (?)] *
60mm - Cromoplasto - harder styrene/ethylene alloy (factory painted)
60mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?)- unpainted (various colours - 50's style!) [50 Poses] **
60mm - Heller - grey nylon type plastic [14/20 poses (?)]
* Previous article Unknown Military
** Green one above
while R.O.Plast Partenopea had nothing to do with them!
Added 01:09:2010
The left hand one is a 15th pose, and some are in 'alternate' paint schemes, they seem to be factory painted again?
Added 02:09:2011
The long lost Heller box which started this post has finally turned-up, so a couple more pictures to add to the mix.
Both sides of the Heller painting guide sheet included in the box, and being the 10 unpainted figures above.
The covers of the box, again hinting at only one or two more poses (the photographs) while listing around 50, (printed list) some of which sound like Atlantic or Co-Ma figures ...'paratroops'... which would bring R.O. Plast back in the frame!
Picture shows painted versions (could the painted ones be Cromoplasto as in 'painted plastic'?) in 60mm hard plastic, an unpainted original in green (Xiloplasto/Landi ?) soft ethylene and a complete Heller Paint-your-own set in a dense nylon'ish plastic. Formaplast has also been mentioned in relation to these. Thanks also to Ron Chiasson.Although Heller are (were!) French and a couple of the figures look like Saint-Cyr cadets, the rest do have an Italian feel to them, anyone got any ideas? I'm pretty sure they are all modern (ish) ceremonial figures rather than Napoleonic era officers but what do I know!! Indeed - more info on these would be gratefully received and posted here with acknowledgements.
For instance there are 14 poses here, last time I hinted at a possible 20. Anybody know the true total?
So - Following a protracted session of comments, and what came to light last time, we have a potential list of manufacturers-to-figures as follows;
25mm - Hong Kong (?) - ethylene (Yellow and ...) [No. of poses unknown]
30mm - Formaplast (?) - ethylene (White, Green, Orange) [3 poses (?)] *
60mm - Cromoplasto - harder styrene/ethylene alloy (factory painted)
60mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?)- unpainted (various colours - 50's style!) [50 Poses] **
60mm - Heller - grey nylon type plastic [14/20 poses (?)]
* Previous article Unknown Military
** Green one above
while R.O.Plast Partenopea had nothing to do with them!
Added 01:09:2010The left hand one is a 15th pose, and some are in 'alternate' paint schemes, they seem to be factory painted again?
Added 02:09:2011
The long lost Heller box which started this post has finally turned-up, so a couple more pictures to add to the mix.
Both sides of the Heller painting guide sheet included in the box, and being the 10 unpainted figures above.
The covers of the box, again hinting at only one or two more poses (the photographs) while listing around 50, (printed list) some of which sound like Atlantic or Co-Ma figures ...'paratroops'... which would bring R.O. Plast back in the frame!
Monday, January 18, 2010
C is for Cavendish Miniatures
Back's still hurting from the ladder incident the other day and now I have a cold so like most men, I'm monging about the house uselessly doing nothing, convincing myself it's worse than it is! So more larger scale stuff from the archive tonight...
Tony Kite's Cavendish Miniatures is one of those funny little companies that comes, contributes lots of figures in various materials to the hobby, and goes leaving lots of questions?
I'm not going to answer them here, just look one of it's products, the Beefeater or Yeoman Warder. Strange that apart from a few cartoony tourist keepsake key-rings and the semi-lunatic Charbens moulding (check his face sometime!) this is the only decent Beefeater made in plastic.
Top Row, left to right, Cavendish with separate metal axe; separate plastic axe (both; Yeoman Gaoler) ; the Chief Warder's 'Tower' staff, in real life the tower model is silver; the halberd or pike (known as a partisan), and finally; the later moulding with integrated pike. Note the similarity of painting style between the left-hand and right-hand figures, the metal accessories must have been a late addition, I'd always assumed they came before the plastic staffs?
The moulding was exploited by Hong Kong copyists and the two to the right on the bottom row are examples of the second version Cavendish in hard plastic, over to the left is one pantographed up to 60mm.
Cavendish carried these HK copies themselves after they'd stopped producing the ethylene originals, sold singly and in sets of various sizes, a large window box contained this figure, a Lifeguard, Horse-guard, Policeman and Guardsman with a copy of the Britains sentry box.
Tony Kite's Cavendish Miniatures is one of those funny little companies that comes, contributes lots of figures in various materials to the hobby, and goes leaving lots of questions?
I'm not going to answer them here, just look one of it's products, the Beefeater or Yeoman Warder. Strange that apart from a few cartoony tourist keepsake key-rings and the semi-lunatic Charbens moulding (check his face sometime!) this is the only decent Beefeater made in plastic.Top Row, left to right, Cavendish with separate metal axe; separate plastic axe (both; Yeoman Gaoler) ; the Chief Warder's 'Tower' staff, in real life the tower model is silver; the halberd or pike (known as a partisan), and finally; the later moulding with integrated pike. Note the similarity of painting style between the left-hand and right-hand figures, the metal accessories must have been a late addition, I'd always assumed they came before the plastic staffs?
The moulding was exploited by Hong Kong copyists and the two to the right on the bottom row are examples of the second version Cavendish in hard plastic, over to the left is one pantographed up to 60mm.
Cavendish carried these HK copies themselves after they'd stopped producing the ethylene originals, sold singly and in sets of various sizes, a large window box contained this figure, a Lifeguard, Horse-guard, Policeman and Guardsman with a copy of the Britains sentry box.
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