E is for Egyptian Eye-candy!

Having recently taken the 6" Marx Romans to a six-count (once I mend one and 'restore' the other), I have recently done well with the equally wonderful 6" Egyptians, with these three, below, and a couple more still to come, in the PW show-reports.

Colourful versions of the unpainted soft-plastic ones we looked at on the Blog, years ago (try the Ancient Egypt Tag), they are a fine sight, and I happen to know these have been on a window-sill for decades, without noticeable fading or any apparent move to further brittleness, beyond that expected of quite robust 'styrene mouldings!

L is for Lots of London Loot - Jan. Through Feb. 1 of 2

There were several occasions in the first two months of the year which caused me to meet Peter Evans, in London or at shows, and obtain 'stuff'; quality stuff! Some of it may have already been seen, because - as I keep boring you with - it all got a bit mixed-up! The rest should be in the next two posts, then there's a show plunder, a Charity lot and some new stuff, and we should be up-to-date on the recent layers added to the stash?!!

 

If you've followed the Blog for some time, you'll know I like these little Japaneses civilian, rustic wagon subjects, and I have a fair few of the creamy-beige ones in celluloid now, but these are probably styrene, the horses and cowboy (complete with six-gun) are blow-moulds, while the main wagon body would seem to be a crude'ish, probably hand-pumped, injection moulding - lovely!

 

A handful of small-scale Marx or Marx-alike, being three of the Disneykin 'Babes in Toyaland' soldiers, I always get an urge to write Babes in the Wood (A British pantomime) there, I wonder if I've ever let any through here, in the past? Only the trumpeter is complete, but all useful spares. Three Wild West from the Miniature Masterpieces, a Stromboli from the Disneykins series 2, and two of the soft plastic editions from Euro-bubble-gum/ice cream premiums.

 

Three of the Hong Kong copies of Crescent's Mexicans, I have a fair few of these now, but most are in pretty leery colours, pink, purple or mauve plastic, this trio is - by comparison - quite conservative, in their plastic colours!

 

A handful of Hong Kong cows, I've probably got them all, but these will be swapped-in as the paint on all of them is about as good as it gets, and while I do have some clean stuff in the stash, most of the farm and zoo have come in, in tatty'ish or played-with mixed-lots, and are rarely this minty!

 

Back to Marx with a full set of the hard styrene, six-inch Romans, a bit of work needed on two and one's a duplicate, so I shot him with two Vikings also in the lot, we've seen both (Roman and Vikings) before here.

 

And while the vexillarius only needs a spot of glue (after the remnants of previous glueings has been chipped away), the spearman will need a new shaft to the same diameter, his hand drilled-out and a spearhead transplant!

 

Nice sample of Merit service-personal, from three sets, with the emphasis on the RAF, a hollow-cast sailor (Britains?), and a pair of rather well-painted, home-cast copies of the Gemodels cake decoration Naval Cadets.

 

Metal bits, the hollow-cast Lifeguard is a nice addition, as he will provide a side-by-side comparison with Timpo's later plastic version. The standing guardsman is unusual, I don't think he's one of the BR Moulds moulds, nor the usual ex-Schreiber home-casting subjects, but he's something similar; very toy-like?

 

Mounted might be Britains cheapo ('B'?) range, while the gold chap will be a penny-novelty, but they also came in sets, and the two semi-flat Highlanders would appear to have some age, like 1900-1930's maybe, and probably German in origin, but I'm no expert on this early lead stuff?

 

Ancients and medieval, including some sub-Giant stuff, a copy of the EKO copy of Airfix's first version 8th Army, along with a Britains Robin Hood clone, crying out for a repaint, and a modern novelty infant-toy!

 

A couple more for that sample we saw in a previous donation from Peter, both equally clean I think, the Indian may be a shunt from more than one donor, but as the base colour has leached into the foot, that pairing is right?

 

And a bunch of post-Giant small scale foot Westerners, these are the ones we've seen in blue in a carded set, with compartments Spacemen, Guards and Airfix WWII piracies, although I have them in other colours, they are mostly Britains Swoppet copies, with a Crescent Indian.

 

I love this pair, at first glance, more Hong Kong rack-toy 'zoo' animals, but in fact these are both either unique sculpts, or copies of less common originals, unknown to me? But neither of them is marked, so they may BE that esoteric minor-make, unknown to me?

 

They only 'look' Hong Kong, and at some point in the past appear to have been given a wash of water-based, pale-suede/sand, over the factory paint (not the mane), which has subsequently been removed or worn-off, making identification even harder? But they are lovely figures, especially the rather playful cub, swatting a butterfly or something!

 

This is also tangibly interesting, it's clearly not that old (30-odd years at most), being marked China, but it's a nice sculpt, well-formed in that dense PVC, favoured by some makers in the 1960/70's, which I mentioned the other day, and it has a makers mark - WS, with CE mark? There's a 'Wigglytuff'pencil-top on evilBay with the same mark, so this maybe a Pokémon, not a Pterosaur?

 

Nice Dalmatian (Schleich), reasonable Giraffe (AAA), both modern, both soft PVC-substitutes and a Kinder (I think) trash-panda, in a hard 'propylene or similar, who shakes his head when you wiggle his tail!

 

Space, the Giant sub-copies I call version II, and an interestingly poor sample of them, clearly late production they are heat-shrunk dwarves, some in a adarker than normal gun-metal finish, some in a brighter chrome-effect.

 

Vehicular elements, including a Kleeware GS-body 1-ton Humber truck, a sea-vixen from Airfix's Ark Royal, who will join the ones we saw the other day from Chris, with the storage sample, and we’ll do something with them one day, before they move on. The bigger gun is a common touristy thing, removed (like most) from a key-ring, while the smaller is a war-gamer's whitemetal ship's gun.

 

More bits from those micro-wagon kits, again we've seen some others recently here, and they will all go together until I have enough bits to complete one or two, as always it's the little axle-studs which are missing! A Lego motorcycle, from the early years of the 'Legoland' line, and a Wardie/Mastermodels baggage trolley.

 

Wargaming stuff, in various scales, there was a heap of this in a big bag, which was a separate purchase from the executor of Mike's estate, and which hasn't been photographed as it requires a big sort-out, but these are a few bits someone like reader Gisby might enjoy peering at?

 

I think it's mostly Minifigs, (Miniature Figurines) and the latter, not terribly 'collectable' ones, but still worth the box-ticking, some Shogun-era Japanese, verses various ancients and a few 10/15mm chaps, and bits of a siege engine for the spares box!

 

These are a bit smarter I think, possibly Hinton Hunt or Alberken (?) on the left, in the upper shot, two more modern chaps on the right (Platoon 20?), and all HH or early Minifigs (ACW) in the lower shot, but I'm open to info' on all of them.

 

Many thanks to Peter again, and a thought for the Late Mikael Hyde, from whom some of the above probably wended its way to me and the Blog. Lots more equally interesting stuff to come, in part two of this lot!

M is for Marx's Massive Moorland & Mountain Men

A quick box-ticker today, these are the six-inch 'Scottish Soldiers' from Marx UK factory in Swansea, and were a standard 'going-home' or 'attendance' present, at Birthday Parties when I was a kid.

 

For those who don't, or didn't practice such a thing, this was when all the kids who went to someone else's birthday party, got a little something, usually of the novelty or 'Christmas stocking' variety, to take home, in part as a memento of the occasion, and in part because watching one child open lots of presents (at least one of which could have been yours, if you hadn't handed it over!) tended to bring out the green-eye'd monster in some!

There was a bit of a party circuit in the late 1960's early 1970's, and several of the members had large gardens or grounds (such as Elvetham Hall, now a hotel and 'village' development!), and these keepsakes would, if the weather was inclement, be hunted for, outside, like Easter eggs!

 

If you found more than one, though, you had to surrender the spares to those who hadn't found any, in the great divvying-up! I remember the hard-polystyrene Indians also from Marx, and little bags of the Minimodels/Culpitts wild west (very frangible!), card-tube kaleidoscopes one year, and the rubber snakes mentioned here yesterday. The whole concept was meant to teach, in the nicest way, sharing, fair-play and decency? Some just resorted to lucky-bags as everyone was leaving.

 

I only have five (5th below), but I found this site which has all six;

 

http://marxsoldiers.british-classic-motorcycles.co.uk/index.php/scottish-soldiers/

 

Which was funny-ironic, as I was expecting a second bearskin for three pairs, and actually it's a third Highlander, leaving two lowland/fusilier types (with odd headdress I'm thinking, sort of French colonial, 18-somethings, 19-oh-whatever?) and the one Scot's Guard. That site's are cleaner than mine!

The other 'Fusilier'

Slight colour variation between batches?

A couple of - also soft, unpainted, polyethylene, 6" - Wild West cowboys who have come in at some point, I haven't obtained the hard, factory painted, polystyrene Indians from my childhood yet, but they were the 'thin' sculpts also done in 'HO', and the archers and spearmen tend to damage when you do see them.

N is for New Name in the Tag List!

Carrington's the Jewellers of Regent Street no less! Taken from the Illustrated London News, May 1986 'Number' as posh people title their periodicals! A sliver centre-piece, for dining tables or sideboards, you can have him guarding the cheese board and grapes, or staring-down some of your dinner-guests!

 

The obvious question being, is it a Stadden piece? The horse looks a little too smooth in my humble opinion, but the figure has some of the sharpness of folds one expects from the master, and sometimes 'figure chaps' will work with an 'animal chap' (or chapess), as they often specialise in one form of physiognomy? Looks to be about four-inches in scale/size, but he could be as much as six? I'd paint him as a Horse Guard!

H is for He's a Big Boy Isn't He?

There was going to be a Technolog post here but with 160-odd out of 190-odd countries holding the parent country to cultural, military, political and financial sanctions or embargo, I feel it is my duty - as a believer in the basic tenets (at least) of liberal democracy - to do likewise, so, as this only came in yesterday, it can go here . . . in fact I must go and leave feedback!

Marx six-inch Roman, the paint is well done, but the all over blue (azure I think?) is a little disappointing if you ask me, and you sort of did by coming here! Hard polystyrene lump, here compared with the Poplar Roman who at 75mm is three inches himself, so not the best comparison, but the 60mm Marx and 30mm Miniature Masterpieces (next 'Ancients' post) were away to storage some time ago!

It's worth noting that his shield-arm has been rearranged (or was rearranged on the smaller ones) from the straighter posing of the other sizes, I suspect that was a mould-release issue, in the smaller sizes the figure might pop-out without trouble, in this scale you may have had catching, with all the verticals, angle it slightly and it may release more easily? 

I thought the face was particularly well done, I know it's easier at a larger scale, but it's still a skill to be impressed by! Although - a face only his mother (or a succession of possibly desperate eastern European 'models') could love; he looks a bit like Trump straight out of the orange spray-booth! This set was known as the Goldmarx series.

P is for Plastic Poilus from Powys

Ha-ha, did you see what I did there . . . sometimes I even amuse myself! Actually I'm not sure Swansea is in Powys, but that would spoil it, and if Trump can place the USAAF in the AWI, I can place the Louis in Powys!

Frenchies, six-inch monster-men a'fightin' and a'dyin' for the glory of France in some muddy trench somewhere . . . in Belgium! Rifles are a bit small and one of them has a ray-gun! In fact that SMG-alike probably hints at World War Two . . . likely still Belgium though! Remembering one of the rules of French military victory; ignore the fact that the Germans always come through Belgium and build a line of forts somewhere else.

Picture was taken with the old camera and is a bit fuzzy! Marx. Six-inch. French Infantry. Polyethylene. Box Ticked!

B is for Box-ticking - Soviet Era Troops - Russia

I mentioned this chap when I looked at the other two (below) and thought I might as well cover him while I'm looking at all the other Russians, maybe TJF, or well; his mates - can show us more or tell us who made them?

Large blow-moulded Infant toy, as I said last time there are a whole bunch of these I and really like them, but I haven't tried hard enough to grab some more. This chap is supposed to be a naval officer or cadet I think, in 'Best' or 'shore leave'? And he's armed with a toy-like but more WWII looking SMG.

United with the newer acquisitions, he reveals himself to be the smaller size at only five inches!

J is for Jellyman!

This post is entirely due to the regular donations and contributions of Peter Evans, and in this case have been slowly accruing over many years, the boat having been given to me so long ago I can't remember when! Then the helicopter came with the green A/Car and this year a sand recce-vehicle and the cyclist joined the tub, which will remain as a tub, due to their all being that oddest of sub-genres; the candy-container!

So, Jellyman - an armoured car filled with candy, they were those chalky ones a lot of these novelties come with and were secreted in full-view in the clear-plastic superstructure, the turret providing the lid. It has a pull-back-and-go spring-motor and - most importantly - a figure . . . or at least an upper torso, head and left-arm . . . saluting!

They also operate in the desert, literally with Arabic/Halal consumer-info/status and figuratively with the 'paint-job'!

Jellyman's take on the Hind D (or Apache?) helicopter-gunship looks like it's eaten all the candies, being a bit short and fat! The pull-back motor also drives the main-rotor, and can be operated either by pulling-back on the wheels or with a draw-cord.

I tried to wreak the mechanism in seeing how it could work (i.e. how can the wheels wind the motor if the cord is flush with the model, or how can the cord wind the motor if the wheels are jammed in the carpet?), but failed on both counts (wreaking and understanding), so can only assume a clever slipping-clutch mechanism on a dirt-cheapie toy?

I don't know if this is Jellyman or a similar outfit, the two holes behind the crew are not for more crew (although they could be used as such) but rather for a clear candy-tank, now missing.

As pointed-out in the intro-paragraph, Peter gave me this years ago and it just sort of got 'filed' as a novelty to be Blogged at some point in the future, I guess this is that point!

It has a pull-back motor (like Jellyman) and you can see the remains of a desert version (like Jellyman) underneath, so if it isn't Jellyman it must be a direct predecessor?

While this definitely isn't Jellyman, as it's marked-up to Fantasy Toys & Candies (or 'F') and is now my largest bicyclist! His candy-capsule is disguised as a large day-sack or odd-shaped rucksack and his 'Urgent' stickers suggest he's a courier who should have been delivering to me, but the container was empty!

Cheers Peter - The closest we get to this stuff out in the sticks are those Kinder knock-off capsule-eggs with a naff finger-ring, spinning-top or strip of stickers!

T is for Two - Marx Brit's . . . from Britain!

Manufactured in the Swansea plant these two from Marx were going to be four, but I've dropped two, and then made them five anyway, below, so it's all gone a bit pear-shaped on the T is for... front! Still, this stuff is only a box tick!

I picked these up a couple of few-weeks ago now as a foursome with two others, going un-bid on feebleBay and probably because they were a bit tatty. But actually the only bad one is the late colonial/Victorian (?) fusilier (?) - always referred to as a Napoleonic when we were kids - who has a quite chewed rifle muzzle. Ironically I think I have a better one in storage along with the kneeling pose.

These are two of the six inch figures and they were photographed with strong daylight, not an issue, but compare the plastic colours to those photographed after dark with all flash . . .

. . . and, as already alluded to; two plus three is actually five, but one of the reasons for bidding on the lot was to get the officer with slightly chewed revolver for a decent comparison shot with Marx's other British Officers with pistols!

Clockwise from 12-o'clock; 25mm (old US 'HO' @ 1:64th) Miniature Masterpiece in soft polyethylene (they were also issued in polystyrene, in which guise they suffer much damage); a re-issue from the 54mm set - he's in a tinny dense polyethylene; a softer original from the same set and the six inch monster man.

The six inch figure in a conversion/variation of the US-sculpted chap with the ammo-box, the two waving guys look similar but are different in several respects.

F is for Frangible French Fancies and Feebly Fragile Fellows

The reason I've so much in Picasa is because I shoot a lot of stuff without much thought, and then either don't know what to do with it, get a sort of writers-block, or just wait for something else to come along, this post is one of the latter, in that something else came along, but it was one of the former in that I didn't know how to deal with it!

It's a ridged vac-form; but polystyrene rather than celluloid and French; rather than Japanese. Or - at least - those present at the time of the photographing were pretty-much agreed it was 'probably' French, and that included a couple of the Dutch antique toy dealers, so they knew their onions!

For a while it looked like we might get a manufacturer's name, no-one could come-up with one (another reason they sat in Picasa for a while - I was waiting for the following show to see if anyone had anything further to add!), while the designs are a bit space-age for actual cars I think (but happily stand to be corrected; I'm no expert or follower of 1940's (?) cars).

There was only the two designs (on show - I'm sure the range was larger), the above racer and these long, sleek sports coupes, again; more space-age than actual I feel, the sort of thing you'd expect in a Dick Tracy or Mask cartoon! Although . . . the sports-car might be a known 'concept car' from the 1930/40's; with the blue-racer being a rendition of a real vehicle?

Wooden wheels attached to steel-wire axles; it's impossible to see how the axles are attached to the belly-pan due to the flush fairings, but presumably some kind of half-tube is glued over the little trench in the delicate tray, indeed - both body and tray/belly-pan are less than a millimetre thick.

Colours are understated but nice, and one wonders how they ever survived in this state, someone must have loved them enough to keep them un-played-with in a sturdy box, or maybe they were old shop-stock forgotten in a shed or garage?

The same sense of wonderment accompanied these, which were on Mercator Trading's stall at the last Sandown Park (the cars were on the same stand back in September) and may still be available from the website?

They are all different, also 'probably French' and full blow-moulds. They are all slightly different and seem to depict pre- or early-WWI French troops from before the move to Khaki, so could be well-over a hundred years old? I suspect only 'depicting' and probably from the inter-war or even immediate post-WWII periods, but still, how have they survived . . . and near-mint?

I know I shouldn't give the ammunition to my envious haters, but I'll have a guess at a mix of Alpine troops and Chasseurs? Rare as rocking-horse shit anyway! They were about five or six-inches tall (I didn't measure them), glued to 'plasticard' bases and unlike the string arrangements of similar Japanese-made figures they have plug-in arms like cheap dolls or the arms those Action Man clones used to have (except the officer who is a simpler, single-piece sculpt), again; they seem also to be polystyrene rather than the celluloid you'd expect of some Japanese equivalents.

27-07-2018 The Figures are now ID'd as Unis from the 1920s and copies of SFBJ metal sculpts - tags added

U is for Universal, Super-powerful, Superhero Heroes!

I don't normally carry Action figures here, but when we have them, and especially when they are contributions, they will find a place on Small Scale World as they have a place in the small-scale world. Sometimes that will be on the A-Z Blogs (which I've been working on in the background), and that was where these chaps - from Brian Berke - were headed until it seemed there was enough in the Spandex Leotards folder for a small season!

Also I can't be too snobbish about one aspect of the hobby 'tree' when I'm as likely to Blog Christmas-tree decorations or bubble-gum premiums the next day! Different strokes for different folks!

We have seen one of these before, in the Firefighter 'mini-season' back near the start of the year, but along with the firefighter was these Universal Hero figures, all of which could double for both Ninja warriors (with a can of black spray-paint) or Mexican Wrestlers!

Larger sets come with three figures and a helmet/mask, no prize for guessing who that's supposed to represent! Ten accessories include cats-claws, a kebab sword (?) a Katanga, three throwing stars, two odd-looking helmets and a truncheon with Arab-blade at one end and knuckle-duster at the other, which must be the oriental martial-arts equivalent of a Johnny Seven 'One Man Army'!

These two were donated to the Blog by Brian earlier in 2016, the fire fighter was mentioned above, but he came with another take on Captain Red-White-&-Blue! He gets to chose from a pair of swords or throwing stars.

Close-up of the same figure, there's not a lot to add, these are branded to OKK Trading and imported into the 'States by JPW International, I have seen them in the cheapie shops here, but not studied them closely.

LP/Lollipop Toys (who imported the Silvercorn sets) has upgraded theirs to 'Super Powerful' while having them made in a more Ninja-like colour of plastic! With those sandy breast 'plates' it's like they are trying to be heroes in a half-shell too!

That's because half of all brand-recognition is visual familiarity, the colouring of TMNT's being as distinctive a brand-mark as the name, or the shells! You'll notice from the box-art that these are available with a range of familiar-looking eye-masks and come in other shades of green (like TMN Turtles!).

A busy parent will see the colouring, the whacky bike, the two 'bad guys' on the other side of the card and buy these; then, when Junior kicks-off that they're not TMNT's, the parent (thinking on the hoof and lying like a banker) will tell them that maybe the Turtles were busy and recruited some humans to help!

You may have noticed that the first figure had light-up eyes? Well, so does this one and with the same card imagery is clearly from the same place, but is now a Samurai . . . yet looks like a Ninja! He also comes with a full set of accessories, a shield and two helmets - greedy!