D is for Donation - Peter - Odds and Sods

Isn't it typical? Last week I probably lost a few pounds working a six-day'er in that heat, with gardening at both ends, tonight I got rained on! Anybody would think the weather's trying to get rid of us . . . oh! Still, before we slip of this planet, there's still a lot to do, and this is the penultimate post of Peter Evans and Chris Smith's recent donations to the Blog, being all the stuff which didn't get put in the previous posts, and haven't been sent to RTM!

 

An assortment of novelty bits, parts, and what I suspect are the rubber caps from a clothes-horse or drainer? The pea-shooter brings back memories, and you can see from the damage where it was bent against the missing mouthpiece, the downfall of many such weapons!

 

Kinder horse, farm trailer, barbed wire and other scenics, this stuff all has a place, they all have a tub or box where they are sorted by type, annotated when ID'd or otherwise wait for more info' to turn-up, often in eBay lots or old catalogue shots, Argos and Index are useful, but so are the earlier home-shopping ones from Freemans, Grattan, Littlewooods and the like.

 

'Made in Hong Kong'

 

'Hong Kong'

 

'Blue Box'

 

'Superior'

(T. Cohn) 

 

I don't really want to be accruing this stuff, as I have no interest in doll's house accessories, except - of course - that they are part of the history of early plastic toys, and the companies behind them, and I was well aware that one or two members of the Higher Council of the Old Guard had a few shoe-boxes of this stuff, purely for research purposes, and now it seems I am fated to have some too! A car-boot job lot, if nothing else, it's a clear sample of the Superior mark, and Blue Box colours!

 

All brittle polystyrene, except the Superior items which are in the polyethylene soft plastic.

 

Various items of Britains Garden, and the original lead stuff, not the plastic, of which I also have quite a sample, more by accident than design, but it was almost the Lego of its day, fiddly, construction toy with endless configurations, and I think I'm right in saying it was a wider range than the later plastic set?

 

A lovely sheep with lamb, and a home-cast or penny-toy battleship, which has seen better days, but if it's the only sample, it's very welcome!

 

A cake-decoration Robin, needing foot surgery, but fascinating in painted plaster and lead, and more dolls house accessories, but with the sort of age which makes them ornamental, or decorative 'white elephant' bric-a-brac, rather than tacky-placky!

 

The two jugs (or jug and vase) are lovely, they are bisque, and probably German, although they could be Japanese, but very fine work, compared to the white glazed earthenware of British doll's china of the time (which you often find while gardening in older locations), while the smoothing-iron's stand seems to be die-cast?

 

This is fun, and an amazing survivor, from the 1950's or 60's? It actually works as a bell, is clearly a tree-decoration, but is also figural, with a Santa Claus handle, If I wasn't giving these things a home, they'd be lost!

 

We would have never been allowed something like this, our parents had a dim-view of plastic, and all things Hong Kong, and it's a bit kitch, but sixty-years later, it's pretty extraordinary!

 

These really should have been in the TV/Movie post, except the guardsman belongs in the Ceremonial and Historical post, so they ended-up here, they are all Phidal, and I can only assume the Guardsman is from some London/London Sights-related book?

 

This is also amazing, and I don't know if it's Hong Kong, something French, or even more local, it's marked on the sidecar R C I, of which I can find nothing, and in conversation with Peter when he showed it to me I said "I can shoot it in a comparison with the Airfix and the other one", but I can't remember who the 'other one' was by (Fairylite? Co-Ma?), and I was thinking of the ice-cream carts, while this is actually a motorcycle and sidecar, so I was talking nonsense!

 

Mostly Airfix, but mixed so they ended-up here, the yellow chap at the back is from a board game called Fortress America, which I haven't covered yet, despite having them in the stash, from MB Games, and a cross between Risk, Shogun and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (which all play for zones or chunks of territory), it has recently been reissued in an updated form, from Ink Voltage.

 

Cones! There is a whole tub of them waiting a proper sort and ID session!

S is for Spooky, Shifty, Shelfies! Asda

While several of the supermarkets have had large (or 'larger') displays of Halloween stuff, and both Lidl and Aldi have carried their when-it's-gone-it's-gone stuff for a few weeks, the only one which was worth a photo-shoot, was Asda, and these are they! I was surprised by those stores which didn't carry any or much Halloween stuff; WHSmith, The Works, Waitrose and Dunelm to list a few.

 

We looked at these skeletal animals, and their incongruities last year, I seem to recall, but there were a bunch more this year, mostly more realistic, but the rendering of recognisable ears in 'bone' is the daft part, which also serves to remove some of the horror or 'disturbance' from them!

Tree hangers, or hangers for whatever you want to hang this stuff from!

I think these light-up, I can't remember!

Various skeletons, these were bigger than Action Man/GI Joe size I think, at about 14 inches? With various treatments of over-brushing, exhumed body's clothing, glow-in-the-dark plastic etc. . . were common to many stores.

Closer to 12-inch action figures, these seem to be the same or similar to those sent by Brian B, as shelfies, and presented as the same light-string, but with just the one visible in the window.

I don't know if there is a sequel in the pipeline, I know there is a new Beetlejuice in production, and both seemed to feature in several supermarket/large store displays, here it's the Nightmare Before Christmas which is providing the licence!

News, Views Etc . . . London Show Tomorrow

Well, this is new, I was going to write 'weird', but it's not really weird, just 'new', I'm coming at'cha from a car-park on an industrial estate having paid 4.99 for an hour's internet, which seems excessive but that's end-stage capitalism! However, I happen to have an hour to spare, and remembering to tell you about this at midnight, would be a tad late!

 

Going to give the London antique toy fair a go tomorrow, I suspect it will all be wooden games. barley-twist marbles, balding Teddy Bears and old dolls, but there might be something of more interest, and it beats sitting at home avoiding showers, and definitely beats going to work!

 

Kensington Town Hall

Hornton St

W8 7NX

 

October 13th 2024

 

https://www.200yearsofchildhood.com/

A is for And so to London - Loot Bag!

While I'm up 'The Smoke' (which has been smokeless since at least the 1970's!), I always look around for a few things I might not find locally, and Peter takes me to his local discount store, to which end the results of my last trip 'up to town' are this post!

In the said discount store I grabbed a box of three capsule-eggs by a minor-make, imported by Unique Plus Ltd., and from a Turkish outfit called Global, but branded Candy Toys and 'Aras Eggo', I've only shot one, but it was a nice clip-together bicycle around the 54/60mm size. I can't remember if the other two were crap, or if I saved them for another day?

These were also there for a quid-each or less, Toymania from Hunter Price International (whose logo is a large bear riding a penny-farthing!), and looked like a bit of Dino-fun, only the two designs were available, I don't know if there are any others, and a soft rubbery polymer, probably filled with the same corn-syrup Stretch Armstrong was?

And this little babe was next to the Dino-sqishes! She's a bit weird, as she has two clip-on dresses, but ony the front/sides are modelled, so from the rear you can see her pink-underslip! Hence the stand and mini action-figure holder, she's for display, with the odd change of outwear! Also from Global Gida.

On the way to visit Peter's work, we passed a junky-antiquey shop and I asked if he ever got anything from it and Peter said occasionally (without much enthusiasm!), but after missing the bus past his work on the way back, I elected to walk up to the next stop, and the next (exercise is good for you and the weather was fine!), inevitably though; the  next bus went past while I was between stops!

Eventually I realised I'd walked back to where the shop was over the road, so I popped in, there was nothing of interest, but the chap there was determined to 'help' me, and when I mentioned I was looking for vintage toy soldiers, model figures or military/space toys, he went out the back and came back with this!

No brand, beyond a tomato in yellow shorts which may themselves be a Chinese character, and clearly not that old, but mid-to-late 1990's is old for some people! It's a space ta . . . err . . . armoured car!

Clockwork, the key's missing but I have a bag of spares somewhere, it has an eccentric wheel to send it off in odd directions, and a sparking engine-bay (so, much like most Russian tanks these days - Slava Ukraine!), and was a bit of fun so it came home with me!

Walking down to Charing Cross and cutting through St Martin's Place you pass a bunch of Touristy shops, and while there wasn't much, I saw these two in a stand at not-much each and grabbed them so you won't have to!

We've looked at animals with pencil-top holes very similar to this horse I think (they may be in the long queue?), so this is more confirmation than anything else, while the guardsman is a pen-dangler, and a little blob of super-deformed poured resin to boot!

When I went to pay for the toppers or the next lot (below, seperate shops) this egg was on the counter by the till, so I grabbed one on the off-chance and got a figural, Minion slinky . . . or 'slinky-Minion? I haven't noted the brand on this, but I saved the wrapper so it's in the 'archive' for future revalation!

Theseare both good and bad, they're good because they were dirt cheap, they're quite nice die-casts, wire brush-polished for that satin/silk look and then both anodised gold and antiqued with a dark wash, but bad because they are obviously drilled for pencil sharpeners, which haven't been fitted, so either a bloody swizz, or an ugly hole, you chose! Imported from China by Elgate Products - previously importing resin Pirates; see Blog passim, also courtesy of Peter Evans.

100 is for Real Little Dolls!

A follow-up to past posts, most notably this one from February '09, which looked at my two incomplete samples and a few oddities, tying them to the Euro-premiums, some of which some of them were pirated from!

From the archive are a couple of newspaper clippings, one is Dept. DL, which might be a clue to the Detroit Lakes Tribune being the carrier paublication? The other is a more generic PO Box number similar to those used with the comic-giveaway Ad's these 'dolls' also appeared in, but both came to me already trimmed

I played with the pictures and ended up with two usable images! I can't remember why I numbered them, there may be a missing list somewhere! But basically 1-10 are taken from the previously flagged European margarine-premium 'dancers' set, 11-20 seem to be taken from other sources too, 21-29 are more unique to the 'comic' set and 30 is the Santa I'm still missing!

Mentioned in the past, they came with a PVC/vinyl sticker set from which you were to fashion hats, skirts, shirts, collars, capes and bows - for the deer! Like a lot of old vinyl, they are sticky and shrinking now.

Now; I do have this set somewhere, but I'm not sure if these are my scans or someone else's off of that Wibbly Wobbly Way? If they are yours and you want me to remove them, let me know, it's not a problem, I'm just losing track of all the imagery on the dongles!

The missing Santa in the upper shot, and the Berserker doing some scaleing in the lower shot, all the figure images are courtesy of Brian Berke who sent them some time ago, well, about two years ago, it's a long queue now!

The same artwork being used in a rare branded Ad' for Palmer Jones, you can see why some people conflate these with the Giant-branded stuff - there's very little connection beween most comic-stuff and Giant, the exception being the 'board games' by Lucky Products and Helen of Toy, where some components are the same as those used by Giant of New York, World Toy House and others.

There is more on the sets in a brief entry on the A-Z blog here, while I looked at a few of Betterware's versions in this Blog's second ever post!

H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - II Chris - Civilian Life

Civi's this time, and Chris's parcels always have a fair few as I don't think he collects them much - like many of you (?) - and because there are many, many civilian figures out there as supporting actors in other dramas like Christmas, Easter and Halloween, and as added-value in die-cast sets, model kits, board games and novelty toys.

Starting with the sports figures, and we have an unpainted version of the 'kicker', sans kick, as a kit, I believe these were handled by Palitoy at one point, but were also a game-piece and possibly a cereal premium? To his right are two more of the early Hong Kong 'styrene footballers, both tatty but they add to the size of the sample.

The diver is also damaged, she will be matched to the correct sample by plastic colour and/or size (I suspect she goes with the other two - bottom right!), as there are about 12 versions of these (in the smaller sizes). A soft PVC copy of Britains cyclist is next, with a cake-dec' footballer next to him.

The two blow-football figures are from different sources, and I'm building ['putting together'!] a folder of evilBay images of blow-football games, just to ID the dozen or so I now have in ones or twos - along with a few full sets myself, so I can do an ID parade on them all one day.

Finally, a duck-hunter who is - I think - stolen from someone like New Ray, by someone like Pioneer! And similar to the old Matchbox pose!

Infants and cakes! The upper shot are a few loose items from Lik Be (LB, formally LP!), and I have a couple of sets from this range which I must Blog at some point. Their fence is quite distinct with its 'outriggers' and the barn would make excellent 'old school' war-gaming scenery.

Below is a bunch of mixed cake decorations, some probably from Cullpitts, some maybe from Wilton (sometimes a full crossover/duplication on those two!), while the Chinese-looking infant in blue shorts is a current 'baby shower' thing. The driver might be a more conventional vehicle accessory, or a sledder/tobogganist?

TV-Movie (these days we should probably say 'mixed media' or pop-culture) figures, I think the Woody is a Tomy capsule toy, the Hulk key-ring was Kinder a year or two ago, so Jerry probably is as well?

The mini Topo Gigio (The Italian Mickey!) is the third now, all in different colours, and at less than 20mm; almost too small for a board-game, but I have no other ideas, more on him here, where we learn he made it to the Ed Sullivan show in the 'States and went global (I totally missed him?), which must have produced some steam in already steamy Florida!

Corgi batbiker, Kellogg's Golly, Mr Somebody who looks like a minion but probably pre-dates them by a decade or two (nothing new under the sun) and who might be a product mascot? A baseless Sam Gamgee (? Hobbit!) and others make up an eclectic line-up which highlights the words in the opening paragraph.

Seated figures; as I think I've said and like parachute-toy figures, these are so numerous it's untrue, but some come-up all the time, others are nicely new! Second blue one from the left might be a bus-driver, the green one could be from a milkman board-game - several versions with nice 'Dime Store' milk trucks.

Firefighters from various sources including the old Airfix kit (top right) who seem to have provided the influence for Matchbox's (reversed later by Jack Odell for his own Lledo line!) and a bunch of racing-car drivers add to at least two Tudor Rose figures (middle red and bright yellow) for the whole.

Mostly die-cast accessories; the dancer/snow babe flats are the European versions of the US 100 Doll comic mail-away, themselves partly copied from a better Euro-set, and which are not the soft 'ethylene Betterware dancers. the blue 'clippy' lady - bottom right - probably goes with the bus driver as his conductress; someone broke-up a plastic bus from Hong Kong?

I didn't look properly at the miniature doll (who is now in storage), but Chris mentioned the other day that she is marked Wales? Well that could make her Thomas/Poplar, or - more likely - an earlier minor make? Obviously for Doll's houses, she is very different, anyone know her origins? For Croyden-based Bartons? Tri-ang Toys had a plant in Merthyr Tydfil, their sister Mettoy in Swansea, but neither known for marking 'Wales'. However - she's a 'solid' so welcome in the collection!

I like the modern-looking girl/woman next to her too! Yellow-lady is usually found feeding dolphins on the back of a Corgi circus truck, the rubber police-man was a key-ring (another!) and top left appears to be Steve Erwin, the famous Aussie one, so, a board game?

The guy in-line with handbag-girl, to her right, looks very interesting, quite old and to be missing a wheelbarrow (nice find Chris), with commoner figures from HK (Shepherd), Matchbox (fireman and Edwardian 'bobby'), Corgi (milkman) and Mini Models (policeman) completing the parade!

These are the Hong Kong Kentoys (we've seen their 'Wheelers' here as emergency sets and military), and the mini rubber animals from two posts back came with the farm (if only I'd Googled them earlier, I would have looked knowledgeable!), you can see the modular construction of the scenery, although it was the trees which had me try Kentoy in the search-bar!

These don't look as if they go with the Kentoys, and you can't see any in the search results, but they may be hidden in a bag behind the packaging, and the drivers look similar in material to those animals, so it's a 50/50 question mark whether they are the same line or a different maker altogether!

But . . . you know . . . Wagons! Although if you were to utilise their given 1:72 scale (if they are Kentoys) for a model railway layout, I think you'd be wanting to incorporate them in a  fairground-ride on the village green rather than busying the station forecourt!

Again, Thanks to Chris for these, they all add to the whole, and make a fun and interesting post!

S is for Small World; Small Scale World!

I just discovered - through Faceplant (it has its uses) - that an old school-friend of mine is a miniaturist, working by hand in various scales, predominantly 1:12, and she both works to commission and has a catalogue of one-offs, ready for sale;

Magic Minis and Welsh Miniatures

Beautiful Little Things

So if you know any doll's house fans, or are looking for a unique present, give Rosie's website a once-over, you may find just the thing - I thought the Victorian butterfly display in a glass dome was rather exquisite.

P is for Plastic Power . . . ♪♫ I Gotta' I Gotta' I Gotta' Jigga' Jig-Jig . . . Yeah! ♪♪

There are moments when you struggle to believe you've done something, and at Sandown Park the other day week month one of those moments overtook my ability to escape them and I bought a twelve-inch doll in order to add a one-inch doll to the collection!

A crime; a sin; a monumental act of stupidity I have still to fall-for a possible four-more times! Still, it's a while since we added a Galoob to the tag list, and getting the Spice Girls into the metadata won't hurt traffic!

Probably my favourite spice-girl (if I have one?), Posh was a haughty, humorless, thin-lipped tart, Baby was . . . well; a baby! Scary wasn't and Ginger was a bit OTT, but little Mel C was just a spunky Liverpudlian with a bit of attitude and 'up fer'it, jahnowhatahmeeen yer scally!'

Years ago, we had half a pallet of these to shift at the on-line auction house I worked for and they were bloody hard work, with a 99p start-price 'business-model' at the firm, we let a lot go for 99p, even whole sets of five, some people got mega-bargains!

I nearly got my mate JB to bid on a lot for me at the time, but I couldn't bring myself to subject him to the ignominy of taking delivery of-, or providing house-room for- five Spice Girl dolls! I did get him to bid successfully on the Star Wars stuff we were selling at the same time!

I daren't check what they go for now, but suffice to say I paid too much for it, I won't be telling you what that was, and you can be assured that everything bar the little figure was dropped into the Blue Cross animal-charity shop last Monday [last, last, last, last, last, last, last Monday now]! Sometimes you have to cut your losses and run, to save face; not with your mates, but with the chap in the mirror!

The little figure, however, is in the collection for keeps, I've been waiting for them to turn-up in mixed lots since I first became aware of them, and that was so long ago I gave up waiting and bought a whole caboodle a fortnight ago, just to get one!

Marked with a number and based to match the later combat infantry and Star Wars Micro Machines, the Galoob DNA is clear and as a standalone figure, just a young civilian woman; suitable for O-gauge railways! I wonder if that's where they all are; waiting for trains!

By now you've worked-out that each of the Spice Girl dolls comes with its own doll, the packing of which mirrors the packing of the larger dolls box, I still have four to locate and that's it . . . a bit horrid, but it had to happen - Toys is toys . . . all of them!

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis Tomorrow

A quick press-release from Vectis on tomorrow's auction, the first day of a four day'er!

Lot 4005

"The Doll and Teddy Bear sale to be held on the 28th of January features predominantly Charlie Bears, and mainly from the Isabelle collection, there are also Mouseketeers, Scarecrow Teddy bears, Christmas stockings, prints and catalogues and Minimo Collection. Other bears include Pedigree, Merrythought, Chiltern, Artist Bears, Steiff and Kosen. There are also a number of Dolls in the sale; Vinyl dolls including Blythe, Strawberry Shortcake, Tiny Tears, and Teenage fashion dolls including Barbie and Sindy; plus composition, bisque and artists dolls. Further items in this sale include collections of gifts, ornaments, jewellery, gothic ornaments, pottery, annuals and books, plus much more. "

B is for Beefeater

I hope I had Y is for Yeoman of the Guard last time, 'cos if I've used B twice I wasted an opportunity to get a Y in the tags! Since looking at one before Christmas, I've combined the various odds on this subject and shot the Charbens' one while I was at it!

The 'odds' first and from the left; The Doll which came in a Charity shop purchase just before Christmas, only because I'd got the same doll in a household cavalry uniform a few weeks earlier, but I have no good excuse for that prior purchase! Next to him on the plinth is a wooden pop-up, which was from Wilkinson's (Wilco) I think, I also think we've seen it before?

The third figure is [more!] resin, and only joined the team a couple of weeks ago, Peter Evans gave him to me in London the other day, he's presumably a current or recent Tourist thing, but - interestingly - is in the uniform of the old Elizabethan tower-guards, although at that time they would have been guarding the city gates, Bishops' palaces and Windsor castle as well - I imagine?

The fourth was among the first of Britains 'New Metal' figures back when my brother and I were just getting out of toys in favour of hard rock, beer and cigarettes! He has a small square base in a Deetail style, but is himself all-metal with a plastic partisan that seems impossible to replace.

Then the Hong Kong one we saw recently and lastly a little PVC/vinyl-rubber key-ring tourist keepsake (his loop's been removed - it arched over the top of his headdress) I picked-up years ago as a small scale curiosity.

The Charbens one is an odd cove, he has the sort of googly-bug-eyes you might expect to find on Hong Kong sub-piracies, not home-grown figures, but there you go! The unpainted figure is a re-issue and the one on the far right seems to be an attempt to re-ignite the spark of tourist trinkets inherent is the figure, using the recent re-issues, but may just be a gloss home-paint in the Hollow-cast 'Toy Soldier' style.

The group together make a nice sample of different treatments, which I've lined-up in what might be the age order, with earlier, better painted to the left and latter re-issues to the right?