M is for More . . . stone!

We've seen this before, or another example, but it's one of those thing I always admire when it turns up, if only for its faint daftness, but also because it carries the same clown 'design' that the Frazier & Glass sets of Crazy Clowns also feature, a point I'm mused on before.

Nobody's peddling, or able to, and trusting a dog (replacement casting) to do the steering, seems the height of faith over stupidity! Die-cast mazac/zamak and not in scale with any of their other lines, it would have been sold purly as a novelty, aimed, I don't doubt, at this time of year.

T is for Two - Foreign Minor Makes - HO Railways Figures

Many thanks again to Jon Attwood, as these are all his images, I brightened them up a bit in Picasa, and can add a few points of note, but mostly, just eye candy as we box-tick a couple of the lesser makes, but, if you were a Spanish or Danish railway modeller in the 1960/70's, they wouldn't have been that 'minor' to you, as you feasted your eyes on the display at your local hobby shop, so these things are always relative!

Now Aneste Datank, and offering a basic range of Preiser in their own-brand, as a catalogue box-ticker, originally Dat Ank or Datank (?) are a Spanish railway model maker, who, for a while, under the semi-cold war conditions of being in Franco's Spain, were free to produce knock-off's to their hearts' content!

 

And they seem to have settled upon Walter Merten as the target of their plagiarism, although, the lower set may be old Preiser sculpts? Nevertheless, for metal copies of finely-detailed plastic figures, they aren't bad, quite colourful, and were clearly quite plentiful, as, since Jon sent me these images, I have seen quite a few on evilBay.

 

One is reminded of the efforts of Bermania, from Argentina, but these are a superior finish.

 

While up in the colder, wetter north of the continent, Reisler was producing these in an early Cellulose or glass-like polystyrene. We have actually seen these here before, or something similar, different sculpts, but at the time they were 'unknown' or 'maybe Märklin', now maybe Reisler or maybe Lego! They really only have the heavy bases in common.

While these have no bases, and the farm we also looked at previously here at Small Scale World, have very thin bases? So an odd range of sets, which may be bigger than listed on the Tohan site, until someone ID's those others, we won't know!

H is for How They Come In - Adrian

Obviously in the normal course of events, Adrian and I run into each other through the year on the show circuit, and he often has a little bag or tub of goodies for me and/or the blog, and from time to time I even pay for the odd thing!

Those normal events are no more! And may not be again for some time . . . (let that sink in, I wonder if the Governor of Georgia is reading this, the meatheaded fucktard) . . . so I was very grateful to receive what would have been May's 'stuff' in the post yesterday, along with the five red, soft polyethylene 'Captain Video's we looked at a while ago, after I'd shot them on his stall at a Sandown Park Toy Show passim.

Only the one shot, it's a treat before bedtime! The gorilla is rather nice, he's hard polystyrene plastic which is unusual, it might make him french, or something from a tourist trinket the rest of which is long gone; anyone recognise him? Seated figures are Slater's I think, copies of the Merit versions of the Wardie/Mastermodels die-casts.

The Corgi cyclist is relatively common and I have a few somewhere, but the bike is much harder to find and is a tiny delight with die-cast wheels and a body/frame made of a flexible nylon/rayon type; early polypropylene? Accompanied by one of the cracker-toy 1:72nd scale copies of Britains standing cylist and machine.

The little boy with the 'UGH!' protest sign looks like Bart Simson, but probably predates him by a decade or two? I think he may be from a board game, and - from the base - possibly MB, but I'm not tagging it, just a hunch at the moment and he could be an early Simpsons tie-in, they went viral (as the saying is now) almost immediately?. The rear of the sign also has a sticker, reading 'NO WAY'.

Various other railway bits including another of the [penciled-in] Tiny Trojan's, the spacemen/aliens and an Indian who looks to be from the same source, while also looking like a European ('an' surely?) premium, which might be a useful clue? The three circus figures have some of the properties of Supreme, some of the properties of Pioneer and some of the properties of New Ray figures, so some work to be done there, but circus sets aren't thick on the ground so I'll get to the truth!

Favorite dinosaurs, or, at least; very similar to my favorite childhood dino's, but a little fuller-bodied. Finally a Spot On doctor and the seated lady (bottom right) might be Spot On too, but Dinky had similar figures and I think both lots of drivers/passengers were from the hand of Charles Stadden - the dongles should hold the answer?

T is for Toy Fair 2020 Reports - Toyway - General

There wasn't much of any substance on the Toyway stand, but there was enough for three posts, so that's today's endeavour and we'll start with the bits and bobs and then look at a couple of things they are distributing for other people within the UK.

Divorced from Minicraft (who may have gone the way of all flesh?), Academy are still out there somewhere (Korea?) and producing the eclectic range of kits they were always partly known for, and it doesn't come more eclectic than a range of box-scale kits of Leonardo (he's not a real turtle Mr. President!) da Vinci's 'inventions'.

I use inverted-commas as some of these were only ever drawings, and where models exist, they tend to be either incomplete or disproving of the theory behind the original idea. That armoured car must be in someone's preferred scale . . . 54mm?

While half-out of shot you can see AFV and aircraft kits, a steam-pumping engine (I think?) and tools - under another brand - off to the right.

A rival range of die-cast aircraft in 1:72 scale from Aviation 72 are designed to give Corgi a run for their money. The Gazelle was always a favourite of mine; only went in one once, but you could (still can occasionally) tell them from kilometers away due to their high-pitched turbine whiney-whistling-wooshing! Sea Hawk above.

Tucano huh? One minute you're blowing them away, next minute you've got so many you may as well start using them. Don't cry for us Argentina 'cos we've got all your T1's! I know it's not that simple, but it's still funny! Folland Ger'nat for a Ger'nome!

De Havilland Tiger Moth, my father actually had one, although it was sold a while ago and spent most of the last forty-odd years in a yellow and blue stripy-number, but it looked like this when it was sold-off by the MOD in my childhood, I sat in it a few times, but never flew in it . . . sniff!

But these! These are branded to Toyway themselves and must be about 1:8th or 1:9th? They're Chopper's, Raleigh Chopper's; I would have stolen one if they weren't in a sealed Plexiglas case (they knew I was coming!), just too cool for the swing-park!

If you remember trying to change gear, finding you couldn't shift the 'shift-stick' looking down and then crashing into something you know what I'm talking about! Go [over the handlebars] Chopper!

C is for Clowning Around

When we looked at the 'Crazy Clown Circus' a while ago, I mentioned the fact that there was a die-cast penny-farthing from Morestone (Budgie) with a similar clown, and had the good fortune to shoot one at the weekend on Adrian Little's stand at the Sandown Park toy fair at the weekend;

You can see he has all the elements of the crazy clowns with the bobbles on the trousers, the collar-ruff, the pair of juggling balls, the bobble-hat and the wide tops to the trouser legs (I haven't the faintest idea what they are called in the fashion trade, but they're like old cavalry trousers?).

Now I don't think the polymer ones are a direct copy (I did at the time of the previous post), but suspect both toys are reflecting a specific clown 'suit', clowns often being registered as unique designs, while more generic or traditional designs are named within clowning, or wider afield, like 'Pierrot' for instance, from the commedia dell'arte, but I don't know the name of this one

This near mint example has a little dog; lacking on previous examples I've seen, although the dog can't reach the peddles and the clown is too busy with his balls (ooh-err missus!) to get peddling (and wouldn't reach either, so issues of/with both scale and perambulation!), making a rather static piece, but charming nevertheless, and would it go well as an additional item with an actual Crazy Clown Circus!

04-04-2019 - Which are now known to be from Fraser & Glass (F&G).

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!

V is for Velodromatics

I bought this at the weekend from Adrian at Mercator Trading and it's brilliant!

I guess it's probably French, most cycling toys are, and while it looks like the Britains one, it also looks like several other ones! I think the rider's posed most like the Britains one, although the hats wrong however and pose is where the similarities end as . . .

. . . this chap is articulated, and attached to a offset-cam wheel mechanism which forces the raider to pedal furiously as you push the bike across a smooth by slightly gripping surface - shiny kitchen worktops don't cut it!

Also of interest is the juxtaposition of materials, metal handlebars, clipped to a - possibly - polypropylene frame with a hard styrene rider - everything then held together by the glue on his hands. 

Close-ups of the mechanisms by which the rider pedals, and you don't want to know how he's fixed to the frame, but we Brits killed a king with a similar novelty - ouch!

Briefer than I'd like today as my Britains cyclists are in storage (and not a great sample!) so I can't expand with comparison-shots and such like, so I've also added a pistol to the jig-toy page and another figurine to the Goebel 'Mainzelmännchen' post.

T is for Toys, Tour, Tonto and Tiny T'ings . . .

Well, this is the bottom of the bran-barrel as far as Rack Toys are concerned, these - would in their day - have been the sub-dollar stuff (with the exception of the metallion bits) in 20 or 50 ¢ or p brackets, or a few cents or a shilling or less for the really early ones.

No wheels, no rotors, but recognisable as a helicopter! The card hints at nicer stuff?

From the same stable, some Christmas cracker/gum ball capsule 'hair tools' - bagged!

Ah, things improve somewhat! A plastic copy of the old (and much copied/pirated/licensed) Lone Star Metallion of Geronimo (they didn't do Tonto but I needed wanted to literate the title!)

An actual metal Kit Carson, but not a Lone Star one, I think this might be Gilbert Toys, but I don't know?  They were issued in several packagings, some store-specific such as for SS Kressege, whether this is a pirate, a licensed product or from the original mould, after onward sale I can't say but from the apparent lack of a title on the lump of grass (which I think was a rock on the original) I'd plump for piracy!

Below it is a Polish copy of the same figure courtesy of  Konrad Lesiak 

The same treatment was given to various bits of the Britains Deetail range including the Japanese and US Infantry, here we see the recoilless-rifle team, expertly antiqued by the chrome-elves of Aitchkay!

Below it is one of those things you'd love to lose, but it has age and adds to posts like this (and the 'whole picture'), so it sort of stays as an ugly duckling, without a proper storage box, worryingly with an ever-growing bag of mixed babies and piracies of the Thomas Toys kids and infants!

The fireplace is probably sold as a dolls house accessory (as was the baby in a basket), and I think I'm correct in saying this was also placed in Grandmother Stover's packaging?

The cycles are fun, and we'll do a cycle post one day, as there is a whole bunch in storage. These will be copies of game playing pieces, there is a super cycle board game page somewhere (or there used to be) with loads of bicycles, including about five games with the Britains cycles in, which is why they are always on feebleBay and wholly over-rated price-wise!

Britains copies aagin, the show jumper, I should get one out and shoot it in glorious techniclose-up, but another day.

That's some older cheepies cleared, more newer stuff to come in Rack Toy Month!

T is for Two - Soft Metal 40-mils

Another excuse to shift a few pictures from the lap-top! The old 40mm standard of the 19th century, which has held-on by dint of the model railway hobby using it for O Gauge, or Scale 7, which can equate to anything between 1:40th to 1:45th depending on what's being modelled.

Bassett Lowke produced a small range of 'character' figures for their O gauge range and this is one of them (!??). Unfortunately he's in a bit of a state, and might be Charley Chaplin, or he might be Neville Chamberlain, both of whom featured in the set (apparently - I can only find Chaplin).

I'm guessing Chaplin, but with those trousers? The seller told me he was Chaplin the first time I saw him, but Chamberlain the next time...doh! And my Googleing has found a different Chaplin pose, no Chamberlain and figures with thinner green bases, so it may not even be what I've just told you it is! Life huh? Gets Bassett Lowke in the tag list, even if under false pretence!

These are by Heyde, the famous old German firm and represent 'Balkan' bicycle troops from the turn of the last Century...Serbs? Croats? Serbo-Croats? If I know one thing...best not go there...they're lovely figures, wonderfully made and an unusual subject, that's enough.

C is for Corgi Competitors

Sports and pastimes manage to both produce unique or interesting vehicles and help sell less interesting vehicles, as a result of which Corgi made quite a few sporting or hobby related sets.

Cycling was a favorite and there were several versions of both Tour de France and more generic cycle-races, with the camera-man hanging off the back of a vehicle on a die-cast platform, while the later 1:32'ish set also having a shouty-trainer (orange figure) but I don't think there was an accompanying cyclist?

The unpainted cameraman with a correctly painted base is probably ex-out painters stock, while the driver with a very Gallic pair of shades was also from one of these sets.

The HK (for Cullpitts) copy of a Corgi boat is as close as I got when these were taken, also I still don't have the Corgi canoe, or if I do it's in the 'unknown canoes' bag! The surfer came with a Mini Countryman.

The rubber boat - one of the later issues I still haven't identified - paints up into a nice rigid raider (that's not my painting I hasten to add!), and due to the large scale of the diver, can be war gamed with several smaller figures quite realistically, four kneeling 28mil marines with an LMG or GPMG facing forward - ideal!

While I am short of the Corgi originals I have plenty of the HK rack toys, as it was one of the smaller cards and ended-up in many a Christmas stocking, and therefore, mint and unused in the back of many an emergency present drawer! This and similar cards (we looked at here) came with varied contents of which copies of the canoeist and canoe, the water-skiing lady (I also don't have a Corgi original of) and surf board featured.

These guys came with several versions of a Citroen estate car, some issued for specific Winter Olympics, others more generic, the two skiers are different sculpts and the sledge is a nice little die-cast moulding.

O is for On Yer Bike!

There are some Hong Kong items which come into the collection one at a time, or in such small quantities it can be stated with some assurance that they only ever appeared in Christmas Crackers. This is one of those 'sets'...no doubt someone will now turn-up a carded or bagged set to prove me wrong!

Straight copies of both poses of the 54mm cyclists from Britains, but in approximately 25mm/OO gauge, and a simplified version of the Britains bicycle. Painted-up they are perfectly good for a model railway layout, giving a bit of movement to the sometimes too static scenery/background. Memory serves that you got two per cracker in a little poly-bag.

There seem to be two generations, the guy with the orange bike being a far inferior casting to the others. He does not have the locating hole in his shin, which the other standing figures do, and while the eye for a waist-spigot is still present on the bike, he does not have the required protrusion. Also he's too short to stand up so has to be propped against something! The (older?) versions though, do stand-up in both poses as you can see.

S is for Stagecoach by Cofalu

Well, as I suspected the carded set I bought the other day WAS another example of Cofalu, or at least I'm as sure as I can be given that they normally have 'Cofalu' on their packageing and this is not given a makers name. This could be because it was part of an order for a chain of stores who wanted 'generic' packageing?

As it arrived; the bases are unmistakably Cofalu, and while the general 'look' of the packaging and colours of the figures have the appearance of Hong Kong production, they are not marked and HK companies were usually quite keen to mark themselves. Also you could say the same about late production by numerous European and other companies; Comansi/Novalinia ended up using florescent plastics, Remsa and Jean both went for bright colours as indeed did MPC in the US., while Heller/Humbrol chose some wacky colours for Airfix re-issues in the 1980's.

It was what they thought might be the answer to attracting kids who were gravitating to other things, and the main reason most of them went bust/disappeared/bought each other out between the release of Star Wars in 1977, and the final desperate wave of closures in 1980/81.

The card was so far gone, after I'd got a few Photographs saved to disc, I took the contents out and started the fire with what was left of the packaging. Sacrilegious - I know - but sometimes it 'ain't worth the effort!

The Stagecoach, even in a mint set it's missing the lantern not visible to the purchaser, and one piece of luggage (the largest) both signs of a company that is desperate to save money by any means? The horses are crude copies of the Jean horses and I say 'crude' as they are worse than the Blue Box Piracy's!

The guy waving his pistol, who we looked at the other day in red plastic, is - I think - a variation of Cofalu's own Circus animal trainer, made as a food premium, but don't quote me, I'm not that sure...I'll try and check that one! The red plastic Indian here looks vaguely like a Domplastic moulding?

Since writing the first article on Cofalu the other day and doing a bit of research, I realised that one of the figures to have come in in a recent mixed lot was an early factory painted Cofalu cyclist, they did quite a bit of 'Tour de France' type stuff.