F is for Follow-up - Dragonbird Whirlyflies . . . Well, Actually, 'Helicars' & 'Helijets'!

Just got in from work to find this treasure in the inbox from Brian B in New York, on the subject of Sikorsky S-51's (previous post, below) and their relationship to Dan Dare! In his own words:

"It was delightful to see the blog post on Tudor Rose helicopters, as I coveted them as a kid but never owned one. 

I remember being aware of the S51 from the movie 'The Bridges of Toko-Ri'

When Frank Hampson created the world of Dan Dare in Spacefleet, he based the helijet on the S51.

When I built my train layout 'Northern Heights', London in the 1950's, I had to have a hint of Spacefleet so adapted a model of an S51 into a Helijet, just as Frank Hampson did."

And obviously that's what I was remembering when I mentioned Dan Dare in the other post, you can see where Fairy were coming-from with their Rotodyne too, and the similarities betweens names and designs extends to the IM 'Rotorship'.

I really love the conversions of railway figures (?) to Spacefleet personnel, including two Treens! From the left I think we have Dan, Digby and Sir Hubert Guest, arguing about how to do the dangerously impossible, and save the World . . . again!

Cheers Brian, a real treat!

Two hours later - Brucey Bonus as the rabbit-hole provides!

https://downthetubes.net/unearthed-early-dan-dare-designs-by-frank-hampson-inspired-inspired-by-innovative-1950s-inventions/

R is for Red Thunderchief Movie Car-90 or Something?

With a nod to Pete and Dud for their skit, which I've posted the link to here, and elsewhere, more than once, so won't bore you with again! And it's all because this is one of those moments when TJF's criticism of me holds some water, if only because I do, from time to time, get it wrong, but I tend to then tell you, giving a lie to his arrogant-git's attempts to paint me as an arrogant-git, although I may well be over-confident in my self-assurance sometimes!

I saw this going cheap on evilBay, can't remember if it was BIN or opening-bid, but I secured it for a reasonably small amount, thinking two things, firstly, "It's a copy of that big thing I got in two parts, but smaller and made as a single piece" and secondly "It's that little space man (fifteenth image down!) with the plug-in ariel who is still a question-mark".

 

Well, when it arrived, very quickly and well-packed I'm pleased to say, I knew instantly that I had been a very silly boy, as not only was it the smaller half of the X-40 Thunderchief Movie Thing, but that meant I'd had the pilot, AND had posted him, before I posted him again as a question mark! Doh!

 

Anyway, as you might have noticed it was also damaged, so, with nothing to lose, and a better one in the box, I carefully prised the two glued halves apart, by running a fine blade round the joined rim until the two halves fell apart, and the contents fell out!

I then cut away the remains of the cross spars, and polished the scars away with my finger-nails (the best way to get rid of the whitening of damaged polystyrene, you can also use jade polishing tips, or the old ivory finger-nail buffers), and heat-polished the transparency by rubbing vigorously on my jeans until I could feel it heating up, a technique which requires a bit more care/practice as you can crack the piece or actually melt it and instantly pick up fluff which equally-instantly wealds itself to the softened plastic

 

I then washed off all the greasy finger-marks from the inside of the canopy and put it all back together again, although you may have noticed the wheels have changed size, and it's lost its spigot/pitot/anemometer thingy . . . whatever they call the spike!

Major 'King' Kong, goes to space war! Yeeharh!

 

When it turned-up with different front wheels, and because I needed to dig everything out to unify it all, in one place, a quick look at the box, and comparison with my whole (ish) one, revealed that it had been mucked-about with and should have had the larger wheels, so they were swapped-out, and the pitot tube/prong went on the bigger model at the same time.

 

It's actually a carefully sanded, rolled-paper, lolly-stick (the new Q-tips, or 'don't-put-these-in-your-ears', ear-cleaners have them too), from the previous owner, to which I have applied a silver Sharpie! At some point in the future, I will do a little more work, especially to the rear, to make it more of a space-taxi or airfield/space-field apron vehicle!

F is for Follow-Up - Hong Kong Circus

Having finally tracked-down and Blogged the plate-spinning Gorilla, earlier in the year, my Christmas-present from Adrian was a loose lot of the Marty/M-Toy/Maysun (May Moon) circus animals, with duplicates of most of the performing animals, including a second Gorilla and the, then, still sought Poodle with tyre!

 

Seems a bit cruel really, but that's why animals have been all but phased-out of most circuses, certainly those in developed, enlightened countries/regions. I thought it was missing from the forehead, but it's perched on the nose, and it's not a small tyre, it's a whole wheel/tyre assembly of wheelbarrow, or bigger variety! Below are the rest of Adrian's with one or two I had here/screen-caps, for a visual check-list.

With three of the previously seen animals.

More paint on the plate!

Commoner Crescent piracies.

Ex-Crescent people.

The main sample are in storage, except the female animal-trainer who is here on the carded set, I am still seeking the rearing Giraffe, a Britains baby-giraffe conversion, which should be the last to find, but new sculpts do keep turning-up!?? Thanks, Adrian!

O is for Oh, Go On Then . . . Have Some Merry Festive Disney!

A few Disney bits which aren't going to make stand-alone posts, or which have escaped previous posts or might have been seen already!

 

From the cannibalised show report from November 2021, I picked this little lot up for a tenner at the last Sandown Park show of that year, which, at less than 75p each, is a bargain, but intrinsically no more than such little pieces of plastic should ever be? Marx Disneykins, most from the general set, but a couple from the 101 Dalmatians set.

 

I shot this on a dealer's stall ages ago, he has a man who 'does' for him, mending lead, antimony or whitemetal parts and breakages, and occasionally he plays with the stuff in the bits bin, and this was the result of one such play!

 

Minutes after I took the shot someone jogged the table and the figure fell, with the head coming-off, so it's now with me, awaiting the magic of superglue, because mending lead is a skilled operation I wouldn't even attempt, slightly too much heat applied to the original piece, and it turns to liquid! Micky says;

"Be nice to the poor in 2024, or I'll re-slot yer' arse wi'me arrows, init!"

Somehow this escaped several posts and follow-ups on the Marx/Wilton cake decorations and similar 'toy town' figures, these are the two sizes of the Babes in Toyland guards, and are both by Marx.

And did we settle this a while ago? This is the commercial version of the pre-production stuff which turned-up in the Dave Pomeroy archive, as depicted on the Minimodels shop-stock boxes. Being Shere Khan from the Jungle Book.

M is for Merry Mass of Malleable Model Mayhem! 4 - Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Cartoon, TV & Movie

So we're up to part four, with what I think will be five to come, and I've combined a couple into two others, in fact, this is one, it was sci-fi and Fantasy as one post and TV/Movie as another, but after a couple of collages it made sense to throw them together, although I think one may fall under 'circus' which should be in the civilian post!

Army Ants, ants in armies! These were more popular on the other side of the Channel where in Italy they were known as Combattini, elsewhere Terminators (termites? Yeah!) I think I erroneously told Chris they were Exogini, which is another line altogether! There's loads about them on the LRG sites, and I first encountered them in Lucky Bags in around 1994-97, when, as a small-scale only collector hoping to find old Giant mouldings or at least new HO stuff, I passed these on!

 

The same Lucky Bags were also full (well, one figure per bag!) of Novalinea (TMNT) and Panosh (Horror, Ninjas) stuff, and from the colours and softness of these, Panosh is a good bet for originator factory, in the 'States Hasbro picked them up, but did them in flat orange and blue. The glitter-bums (a term coined by the LRG groups, not me!) are removable, but prevent some of them from standing-up properly!

Four more Bi-Trons from Pikit/Gordy, and a colour variant, there's already a follow-up on the way, surprised the two-P's haven't managed to find these on evilBay, or Worthpoint yet and Blog them as 'new' or never-seen-before!

 

This is fun! It's a vague US Marine Corps amphibious personnel-carrier (LVTP-7 / AAVP-7A1), but with three axles instead of two caterpillar-tracked units, and contains the smallest AFV's you ever saw, except for some smaller one I could spend awhile listing!

Chris reports there were two, the other a more obvious green/camouflage, and the realistic-coloured AFV's and white rocket went in that, while this silver one had the blue/silver kit. Very-much in the vein of those UFO's we looked-at, at the end of last month - a Polly Pocket / Mighty Max knock-off, micro-playset!

The other rocket-bomb to come-in recently, and it's slightly different to the previous one, having more rivet-detailing. Behind it to the right is a Weetos Moon Landing premium from 1994, over it is a rocket which looks like the Jean one, but I'd have to check, there are so may of them, all slightly different.

 

Under it is a Lik Be/LB space-tank! Lacking it's rear load, but 'fitted-for-dozerblade', I may have one of the Lone Star knock-off pom-poms in the spares to fit? While in front is a robot, who also appears to be a projectile of some kind, possibly from a larger Transformer's fist?

All sorts! I think the two zombies are from the 'Zombies!!!' role-playing game, there's a bit of Bluebird (in blue!), a Tente astronaut, a Toyway astronaut (as we've seen here previously, if it was GLJ* it would have silver paint!).

 

Another astronaut/spaceman is the silver Giant clone, the little chap down the front might be from the Warhammer micro' sidekick Epic? The head is obviously from an old toy, and while he could be a racing-car driver, or a pilot, he looks a bit spacey to me, almost Thomas Toys or Flash Gordon'esque?

 

Which leaves an Egyptian looking LRG I can't place and a warrior from the King Kong 3rd (2005) remake playsets, which were by Playmates I think, very-much in the style of Galoob's Action Fleet stuff, they also did a small range of Star Trek items.

 

* That's the G.L.J. Toy Co., Inc., of Syosset, New York, of course, don't forget to mention the town, even if you haven't on a thousand other toys, you must mention the town with GLJ, because I did once, I forgot just now, silly me, but I'm still learning!

Having mentioned them in the Snakes & Ladders post the other day - a Bobby Bruin from the Bruin Boys, set in what I hoped was his original card-holder, obviously from a board-game, research quickly revealed that actually he's from a bagatelle set, and went on a different holder!

 

Two Nestle or part premiums to the left, a cake decoration Putti in the centre, and a 101 Dalmations figure (also Nestle), with a Marx (Swansea or Hong Kong) for Codeg, Trumpton Peter the Postman on the end.

Morph! It's only a bloody Morph! God-knows who the pink lady . . . lamb (?) is, but she's possibly newish, and clearly from a vehicle, as is the Thunderbirds Lady Penelope, from Dinky, we've seen the Disney Pecos Bill copy before, while the dog in a dinner-jacket is an actual Dinsneykin - Mother Hubbard's. The green & yellow thing is possibly a modern mobile-phone cord accessory, while the monkey . . . 

 

. . . is off the wall! He may be from a circus set, as the only pose I can imagine is riding a unicycle, but that would need to be about the same size as the monkey, and have a base, and I can't think of a single Circus, Space or any other set that fits the bill. It's painted polyethylene and about 50mm. Cake decoration?

 

Two Nazi's and an oil-drum! I recognised these home-made Star Wars characters almost immediately, as being the accessory figures/drum, from the old Tamiya German WWII and side-car kit, as we had it when we where kids.

 

The greatcoat of the standing figure being ideal for paring-back to Wookie-fur with a pyrogravure, while Han should be carrying an MG34 on his shoulder, coincidently the gun used by Imperial Stormtroopers as the DLT-19 Heavy Blaster! While a rather giraffe'y R2D2 is 'manufactured' from one of the oil-drums which also came in that set!

H is for Homemade Halftrack

This is a bit of fun which came-in with a mixed lot of AFV's from off of that evilBay, I was bidding on the lot for something else, but this was with them . . . 

 

. . . recognisably the old Airfix Sd.Kfz 7 tractor for the 88mm Gun, it's been quite neatly converted into a GS-wagon/workshop bodied version, just needs some markings, although it's going to need rear wheels and some paint to stop the melting! If you recognise the work, why did you let it go? OBE, box-ticked!

H is for How They Come In - Chris - Intro'

As I mentioned the other day, Chris Smith sent another parcel of chuck-outs, oddments and things beyond his collection parameters to the blog the other day, and I've enjoyed the initial opening, the sorting and the putting away (the last of them went up to the new flat earlier this evening!

 

So it's time to share them with the rest of you, both to entertain as to what is out there, and in the hope you may be able to ID some of the odder items?

 

The parcel commeth;

 

The unpacking and initial sorting! Because they are heading to the larger agglomerations that are the 'To Be Sorted' (TBS) boxes, which contain most of the last four or five months of incoming stuff, from Chris, four or five shows, Peter, charity shops and evilBay stuff*, they first get sorted thematically, so I can then spend a few evenings further sorting them into those boxes, which are also thematic, at which both some go in existing bags with their own kind, some get new bags.

*And in this cycle a nice gift from Jon Attwood.

I though we'd do the 'regulars' here to flesh the post out, and there was another nice bunch of parachute toy figures, as always missing their 'chutes and as always, at lest one with the remains of his strings . . . they are always 'he'!

 

The large painted one is all new I think, current, and we have seen them in several iterations and two or three sizes, but the only other one this size is grey I think, so a single figure vastly improves the overall sample!

 

The blue blow-mould is nice and the third from the left may be an 'all new' version into the collection, the rest will be mostly colour, shade or size variations of existing figures in the wider sample. That page will progress once I'm out of here.

And then there was this guy! It's a man-bat, and probably an unlicensed version of THAT Bat Man . . .but look at his features, his plastic type/colour and his face/overall sculpting . . . then look at these . . . could they belong together? I'm imagining a two blister rack-toy card with this chap and his folded parachute in one blister and a handful of the 'Bad Bat Bots' in the other? Not exactly canon; but a distinct possibility, I think?

 

Seated figures are usually another handful or feature of any lot from Chris, Peter or Trevor, or most of the type of mixed, junk lot I like to bid on. Divorced from die-cast or plastic vehicles, beach toys or model kits where they were drivers, passengers or crew, there's many to find, and many to ID . . . a future project!

 

The green chap looks like he may be from a slightly comical wind-up toy? His arms are movable. I do have a Hong Kong brand for the Kinder-like guy on the right, but I think there are a few sizes of that figure, so they will need careful attribution. If he's the one I think he is, he drives a pull-back motor trike.

 

Finally, this can go here! It's a OBE conversion from a Britains Cossack, into an Indian or Burmese (?) drummer, which Chris got in a mixed lot, it's not the best, but I doubt I could do better, and it's a fun piece, I only hope it was a damaged figure before the work started!

Many thanks to Chris, we will work through the contents of the parcel over the next few days, alternating with . . . drum-role in New York please . . . canoes! If everything goes according to a dodgy plan wot I have got! This will enable me to restock on new plunder at the Plastic Warrior show and get that sorted and shot!

O is for Old-fashioned Odd & Sods!

The finale post in this hexapartite mini-season on old fashioned cars, brings us back to the Americans, even though one's a British brand! Yes - of course I Googled synonyms of 'sixth', I'm not that bright!

We looked at this years ago, but on that occasion we looked mostly at the figures, with a quick look at a car I had removed from the game-mechanism . . . this time we're concentrating on the car, as I found another going cheap in a charity shop and took photographs as I went about the vandalism! Love the artwork!

Made for Parker by Tonka, but as everything, box and components is CE marked, they must be recent enough to be from the Tonka-Hasbro-Funrise era, which - these days - also includes Parker Games, among many others! Hasbro's tentacles are very-much like the old Lines Brothers!

The spinning cars are easily removed with a sharp ker'nighff, and because there is a 'curb' running along the . . . err . . . running-boards, it's easy to get a nice straight line! I actually did the job without the driver in the way, proving that these shots are posed 'fake news'!

Which leaves us with a nice, if rather simplified 'ready-made' hoodlum's runabout, a mid/late-20's, prohibition-era, sports-convertible with the roof down. Would I be way-off to suggest Buick lines? And quite large, maybe around 1:40th in scale?

Last time we looked at this I think I may have said something about the small, simplified driver, but I've realised that as an American Mafioso 'drive-by' car, the non-modelled steering-wheel would be the same side as the shooter ("Get your hands on the wheel dude! Jesus!"), and what's actually modelled isn't a shrunken driver, but the violin-case associated with hiding Mr Thomson's famous, fully-automatic firearm!

These three are actually Disney! And a really nasty PVC which sweats an oily/greasy liquid, like a damp, chewy-sweet - they all had to be washed twice before they could be photographed! The wheels are non-turning, but are on a rigid - probably polypropylene - chassis which is clipped to the PVC body. Somewhere between my vague 'mini and 'micro' designations, they might suit 15mm figures?

I think they were made for the UK Disney Stores (most of which seem to have gone now, Reading's might still be in situ?) by Rainbow Toys, however, Rainbow (also connnnected to Toy Options) worked with LJN in the 'States, so it might have been that they are wider-known toys, possibly sold through actual Disneyland shops in the US or near Paris? Equally, Rainbow supplied Argos the UK catalogue shop, so there could have been several ways of getting your hands on a set?

'The Set' being a re-hash of the old 1960/70'sDisneyland play set from Louis Marx in America, which did have a car similar to the middle one above. It also had an omnibus, but a single-decked affair rather than this double-decker  . . . ♪♪ Big four-wheeler, scarlet-painted, London Transport, diesel-engined, Ninety-seven horsepower om-ni-bus! ♫

Did/do they have a red double-decked jobbie at the Paris Disneyland? I've ever been, something I'm quite proud of, almost as proud-of as the fact I've never watched the Kardashians! That's Old Fashioned Cars for a while, but we will return I'm sure, I found another couple of Hong Kong carded ones taking everything to to the storage unit, and we haven't done the Micro-ones yet!

C is for Casually Converted Cool Container Cap Cable Coil Carrier

6th of the line in the slightly silly Hugh's Handy Helpful Home Hobby Hints thread, but from time to time something simple and easy presents itself for further dissemination, so today we're looking at model railways, or at least vehicle loads.

I think these are - possibly French - water-fountain seals/caps, but they could just as easily be - also possibly French - mineral-water bottle caps from the 1970's, gas-tank or tube seals or something else entirely, and I won't bore you with the explanation for the relative scarcity of detail in the preceding sections of the paragraph, as it's based on about 5 fragments of non-memory!

Collin's however state - for 'Negociant' "A wine merchant or wholesaler; specifically, one who buys grapes, grape juice, or partially fermented or finished wine from others and sells the wine produced under his or her own name", so it may have been grape-juice? Presumably pronounced as 'nego[tiator]' and '[pres]cient' with a French ey'ont flourish? And - thinking about it for a few minutes; Mum did do home-brew at one point, so it all sort of makes sense!

Suffice to say I have in the past here at Small Scale World mentioned the sub-collection of Triang/Hornby cable-drum carriers, for which there are a few lorries as well, and when I found these sorting out the garage, I realised instantly that all they needed was a hot-glue gun!

Suitably weathered and scratched by up-to 30 or 40-odd years in sheds and garages, no work beyond lining them up properly before the hot-glue (actually a synthetic wax) sets, and voila! - as the French say; and they all know what they're saying because they all speak French!

I have a small flat-car, which is similar to the cable-drum car, but has two beams across the bed, I think it was the 'novelty' single car-carrier from the early boxed goods-train sets, this will go in between the beams nicely.

And while I would wind some wire round it for cable, it might look good as it as, as they mist have rolled-steel drums for special or particularly heavy cable and they would cost so much to make/hold, they would be returned empty for a deposit?

F is for Follow-up - Marx Romans

Regular contributor and Loyal Reader Brian Berke from the Big Apple over there, sent this as a memory trigger (just as real life was getting frisky again here), off the back of the recent Marx Romans post, so here - in his own words - is that story, illustrated by Brian, by way of a follow-up!

"A few years ago I contacted Paul Morehead [Editor of Plastic Warrior magazine] with a sketch of a pose that I remembered from the 50's.

It was of a figure that was sold in Woolworth for 3d unpainted as part of their Romans. Back in 1957/58 I had converted with craft knife and Plasticine this figure into the character 'Wulf the Briton' then appearing in Express Weekly comic. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Express_Weekly]

Paul identified it from a Marx catalogue and I found it reissued in Russia in a set of Romans [by DZI or now; Ark Models]. Luckily for me it was a few years ago as now I avoid anything Russian.

Attached is the figure in contest with a Roman recreating the scene from 1958, this time using modelling putty not Plasticine."

Many thnaks to Brian for sending this; the figure works well and  that hair is rebelliously distinctive!

I don't remember Wulf the Briton at all, yet it's drawn by one of my favorite commercial artists; Ron Embleton, of Fleetway's famous Trigan Empire strip, so I will try to catch-up, now - Google informs me - the stories have been reissued in bound volumes. I've bought the bound Trigan Empire, a present to myself with a small portion of my father's legacy a while back.

And I should note that there is no consistency throughout the blog with my choosing of colours, fonts or size of text when trying to differentiate or highlight other people's contributions or quotes!