W is for West End Final

Although anyone who's commuted for any length of time will know that actually some 'West End Final's' have a different cover from other 'West End Final's', suggesting that at some point they issue a Final West End Final-final!

[For readers further afield; the London Evening Standard newspaper (which starts coming out mid-afternoon), runs to a West End Final as the supposedly last, most up-to-date version]

Further to yesterday's post (and please read PeterE's comment below it) I promised Chris yesterday I'd check mine when I got home, and did so, only to find that the wasp-in-the-wood-pile was (or is) the 'berserker' from Crescent who is only 50mm! Anyway I deleted about 20 images trying to get Chris's to compare with my line-up, on-screen, and while this final attempt sort of works, I then remembered that in certain forms of Picacsa's collage tool . . .

Ghosts in the machine!

. . . you can move one image around, over or under the other and the one becomes semi-transparent, so I tried that and as you can see it clearly reveals that both Chris's and my copies are roughly the same height while the original is a tad taller but nothing significant, a lesson for trying to second-guess different things in different places!

Next time I'll just trust Chris and assume I'm doing something wrong, because I was; by not measuring the Crescent dwarf! But we'll stick with him as he's still a reasonable guide.

Anyway, many thanks to Chris for his patience, and to Peter Evans who supplied the original Anker Group 'Home Collection' (which may be the home-furnishing stores added to Wickes builders-merchants' bigger outlets in recent years?) blister-card, I think.

Also with this pesky figure (now an Italian policeman!) and the Riesler copies we saw in another lot from Peter, it's clear that among the ever decreasing-quality copies of Airfix, Matchbox and generic 'Rambo' types, there are - increasingly - a wider spread of donor-figures?

F is for Follow-up . . . P is for Pony-Tail or Professional-Appendage?

True to his word the other day, Chris sent images of the believed donor figure for the strange 'officer' type in my set of Home Collection 'army men' from the Anker Group. I think it's easier to hand over to Chris for the first two images and come back at the end -

I bought a figure from a junk shop in Tallinn in Estonia in 2006. Plastic about 1/32 scale wasn’t sure if was a soldier, policeman or a railway worker, although nice the moulding wasn’t great. He is holding something in his right hand (gun ,baton or flag?) but it is moulded to his right leg and unclear. Posted in PW what the F&%$ but had no response…

Fast forward to 2018/19 and I spotted what appeared to be the same/similar figure in a junk lot on Ebay, so purchased that lot. [There] was in fact two of those figures from your blog today. Compared against my original this figure was smaller, and only based on by being a mirror image of the original but the shoulder strap is the same as the original. The original had no pony tail.

The new figure looks to be holding a large spoon/ladle (Special catering Corps!) One other figure in that junk lot which seemed to match the pony tailed chap but again pretty poorly moulded wearing a gas mask with a 12 gauge shotgun. Again I didn’t recognise the pose, have wondered if they are based on Fishel or New Ray figures? Or are they character figures from a computer game (Modern warfare or the such like)?

Now looking at mine (without Chris's to hand) I suspect Chris has measured 'under slightly, with the original being closer to 'Euro' 70mm? If only because mine is heading toward 60mm and may be the smallest of the three? Here posed with the 54mm Crescent 'berserker' and one of the other Anker figures, over whom he towers.

Either way, mine would seem to be a third version, with a huge hole for no reason, and two mould-release pin-marks (rear, left ankle and upper-small of back) lacking from the copy in Chris's possession.

The item (now in the left hand) looks like a platform-guard or dispatcher's paddle, again - until recently - more of a Euro-'thing', but now seen on several UK carriers, especially those owned by European transport companies. On the Tallinn 'original' and in the right hand it does look more like a pistol or machine-pistol? If a train staff-member is depicted, the pony-tail could be a scarf, but they tend to be worn by the female staff (one of whom this isn't obviously depicting), and round the neck, not knotted to the back of a service-cap?

Can anyone else add anything more to these interesting figures? And thanks to Chris for adding what he has.

***********************************************

Later the same day . . . 

Chris sent a sizer which clearly shows his are both around the 1:32nd mark, which means mine is a - if not giant - slightly larger copy?

I'll check the Airfix German against my 'pony-tail' (and the crescent berserker) tonight for a possible further follow-up! They don't make it easy for us these little plastic men!

***********************************************

The next day . . . 

Update here now;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2020/02/w-is-for-west-end-final.html

H is for Hitler - in a Dress!

Or is it Rodney from Only Fools and Horses? I've actually picked-up four more Drevopodnik since we last looked at them, an MP/Traffic Sentry - who has already been put away - and two other duplicates, but of slightly better condition than the ones I glued back together in 2012.

The fourth figure is obviously from a civilian or railway figures set and wears the typical uniform of a waitress, but God! Is she ugly! I can't decide if it's Rodder's doing a Hitler impersonation or Adolf channeling Rodney! Still, it could be worse; the paratrooper's got a beak! But it's the naive charm that 'makes' these Czechoslovakian figures as far as I'm concerned.

C is for Character Historics

Which one feels ought to be F is for Figures Historiques or H is for Historical Figures or something, they've had several names and no names, a complicated history and according toPSR one of them is a bit of a mystery. In five minutes it will hopefully be less of a mystery, but more complicated!

A bit of background would be helpful . . . these two sets were among the first of the 'new' sets to appear, heralding the current renaissance we are still enjoying, indeed, it's more of a 'new normal' these days; watching the steady stream of new issues on Dave Kean's site, some makers taking a breather, others churning out sets, smaller companies disappearing as others tentatively issue their first set, but that is now, and these which were then . . .

. . . which was about 1997/98 . . . the Internet was something only 'some people' had, or that lucky people got to play with at work, eBay was garnering headlines but no one had heard of Google, Nokia - the most popular mobile 'phones - still had monochrome screens and a character limit of 140 on text messages . . . when first rumours and then fuzzy black-&-white (I seem to recall) images, finally; examples of unknown small-scale figures started to emanate from the newly (well, newish; ten years earlier) liberated East.

If one ignores the minor-makes, the history of plastic small scale had been pretty simple, Airfix dominated for 30 years, then Esci stepped-in to cover the 1980's with Revell (working with a couple of smaller, newer names) introducing their range at the tail-end of the '80's, while Atlantic had burned brightly in the middle of Airfix's dominance.

Looking at the picture today with dozens of makers large and small, all working on esoteric sets we never thought we'd see in plastic, it's hard to picture how hobby shops had only one or two brands on the shelves - for many years.

But as HäT, Italeri and then Zvezda began to expand the market, these little chaps started appearing, their first moments of newsworthiness used to be found on the HäT site, but I looked for them in Everything Toy Soldiers (ETS) the other day and couldn't find them, so they must have been notifications on long-gone forum threads?

But, it was about 1997/98 or thereabouts. I first obtained them from Peter Bergner's PB Toys at that time, from the Plastic Warrior show at Richmond, where he was carrying them in his own packaging with his own codes, but Peter only located/packed the first three sets to appear (the Samurai and first two ancient sets), which weren't the ones I'm covering here!

This is the problem set as far as PSR is concerned, but to me they are Kervella, and are stored as such. Yves Kervella was clearly the lynch-pin with the Eastern makers, and from the marking on the hub of the runner; "FRANCE 98", we can deduce that as well as importing the early output of the - still not really fully-understood - Eastern operators (some became the more professional operators; Strelets*R, Orion/Dark Dream and the later Mars) he was also commissioning figures or at least supplying master-sculpts/instrumental in the 'ideas' process.

As proof of how easy it is to lose even recent history if you don't keep good records, I obtained these on two occasions, once as the whole runner, but previously as four figures (the four lose on the right of the left shot), but I can't remember if I only had four because there were only four, or if I split them with someone like Paul at PW, which did happen with the later pirate set, I listed them as a four, and coming before the eight, so that must be how they came-in, I just can't remember why/if it had any significance!

I can't argue with PSR's designations vis-à-vis the identities of the separate sculpts, but equally would agree with them that several are open to interpretation and - as far as war gamers are concerned - paint and context will help make them pretty much anyone you need at the front! The saluting Nazi (PSR's 'Himmler') could be any German General of medium-build and stature - for instance, while Hitler isn't that clear and could be Himmler!

As given in the above link, but from the standard bearer - clockwise;

- SA Standard-Bearer

- Churchill

- Ernst Röhm

- Himmler

- Mussolini

- Auxiliary

- Hitler

- Rommel

But . . . Kervella - France!

Although, there's no denying that PSR's set is not one I've encountered yet, physically, and HYTTY  listed them both as single figures (mixed with the figures below), and a pair briefly; 001 - Hitler and Mussolini.

The 'Mussolini' is a suitably arrogant-looking, 'who ate all the pies' fat-bass'tud!

Another of the sets that crept-out of the cyber-space/ether of the early Internet was this one, which would go on to have several incarnations, with three makers/brands including rather pointless - risible even - 'limited editions'. Its line-up also changed from time to time, but as far as I can tell, the tool/runner was never altered and the full shot is still to be found occasionally.

Again while it came from the East, the hand of Yves Kervella is all over it, not least in the fact that while the bulk of the figures conform vaguely to Airfix's HO-OO moniker, the recognisably-French characters have had so much cow-muck put in their boots as kids they have pushed themselves to the top of the 25mm spectrum!

Top left to bottom right

- Charles de Gaulle¹

- Julius Caesar

- Attila the Hun

- Grant

- Lee

- Franco (PSR have him as a 'German Officer') *

- Cleopatra²
- Mystery Figure *
- Joan of Arc
- Napoleon

* - The latter asterisked figure is believed by some to be the victim of the former. With one or both being left out of several packagings of this set, it's never clear what was happening with the two sculpts or who they are.

I favour Franco for the former - he is an obvious mid-20th century character missing from these two sets which feature fascists quite heavily, while the kneeling figure was also included in latter, larger sets of the Samurais, so it may well be that was always what was intended, but that there was no room for him on the Samurai runner, which like the earlier set above, was arranged as a 'pin-wheel' layout.

¹ - Looks like he might have been based on a Cofalu 30mm policeman!

² - Based on an Atlantic Egyptian courtier?

Odemars issued the set as 102 S - Character Historics, and while the 'Franco' was supposed to be left out, you can clearly see I got one! This also illustrates the problem of spending all that time and effort on developing a mould for historical characters, how many identical Napoleons or De Gaulle's do you want, or need!

Pre-production samples were sent out (by Yves Kervella I think?) in a leery, fluorescent green polymer which is a bugger to photograph, I've shot with and without flash to try and get across the set as best I can!

HYTTY (wacky name - wacky company!) also gave us two of each, but managed to filter out the Franco sculpts a little more diligently than Odemars. Note there is nothing on the packaging to indicate a limited edition status and it's marked-up as set 1003♥ - Figures Historics.

Also, I would suggest the Cleopatra sculpt has - from the neck-up - far more in common with the famous bust of Nefertiti, not a Ptolemaic Pharaoh (as Cleopatra was) , but an Ancient Egyptian one, however as a whole-sculpt; would make a better Akhenaton, the excised, male, Sun King (celebrated by Philip Glass), husband of Nefertiti, and another ancient?

This might help? It's more likely to confuse! The trouble with someone else's tables is - only the author knows what he's doing! However, it's a screen-cap from a 7-page document which runs to 95 entries, listing the sets first as I encountered them in the late 1990's and then by maker which anyone who fancies a copy can have, just eMail me at:

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com.

Several correspondents call all these early sets 'Russian', but as far as I know they are mostly or all Ukrainian in origin, with a clear French connection - but no Popeye!

Yes, if you're a Trumpundbrixit bully-boy in the Donbas militia with 'I Love Putin' tattooed on both forearms you probably call it Russia, but if you are a friend of freedom, peace, democracy or self-determination (true Russians have never been free; or known freedom) then it's Ukraine, I choose to use the PC cop-out 'the East'!

We then have this appearing on HYTTY boxed sets a few years into their short existence (HYTTY's; not the figures, they are still around), claiming it was first and limited to 500 sets? But a quick perusal of the previous screen-capcha reveals that HYTTY managed to issue L1, 001, 100 and 1001 to three sets, 001 twice, and while L1 was issued to this set, at one point and presumably meant 'Limited - 1'; it was also issued by two other brands, is still available and became the unlimited № 1003! And the later Greek cavalry box was a duel HYTTY-LW branding, LW and Odemars also working closely together.

Answering a question posed earlier in the editing process (and therefore; higher up the post!); there's a similarity between the Kervella-HYTTY-Odemars Cleopatra and the figure to 'her' right in this shot, but only in passing, and only around the front of the skirts/kilt/reed-knit sporran thing/area, otherwise there is no direct copying from any of the Atlantic figures, which otherwise match-up well - as 'Ancient' Egyptians, that is BC/BCE.

I is for Itlerpud - Part Four; Small Scale Scurvy Scallywags

I don't know how these guys have evaded their 'fifteen minutes' for the first eight years of ITLAPD, but time's winged chariot caught them in time for this year's, and then it's back to the relative obscurity they've enjoyed thus far!

We'll be looking at the sets 72001 Sea Warriors English Pirates 18th Century from Orion and set 31 Pirates by LW.

According to PSR's entry the LW set is supposed to contain 16 figures in various singles and pairs along with a two-man gun-crew and two-part gun, however; mine has one each of the pirate poses, two each of the gun crew and two guns (four parts), this disparity will not be a surprise to anyone who has bought multiples of LW or the other brandings in that stable (EVO[lution], HYTTY, Kervella, or Odemars) and I'm sure the boxed re-pack of the same figures; Set 2014 Buccaneers is subject to an equal variety of contents? As a small set it has also been issued as EVO set EVF 016

Two quarters of the Orion set, some (many!) of the figures may look familiar, because they are scale-downs of larger figures from Marx's Warriors of the World, as a result it's a half-reasonable set, given a lot of that early (1997,8,9) Eastern European stuff was a tad . . . err . . . crude - You can shoot the messenger but it doesn't change the message!

The other runner has another 12 figure poses, and to prove the point re. the copies being superior, a skeleton, semi-flat; depicts a man who in life stood about nine-foot-six in his stocking, which look like they were pulled over size 26 feet! Good for 28mm D&D gaming!

Above the left runner we see a couple of the clone-donors for comparison, changes are slight; the oar has been angled the other way, the shovel turned to face the front. Above the right-hand sextet are the LW figures, made from a plastic which is more glass than grey and a bugger to photograph, indeed, they don't show much detail to the naked-eye, but are actually quite nice figures; certainly equal to the Orion sculpts.

Back of the pack for Orion finds them all titled by runner-number, the pick of the 'new' poses has to be the chap with a blow-pipe (16); very different! And both the female figures are nice, one heavily armed and looking for trouble (15) and the other (8) described as "Resisting Pirate", but could as easily be scolding her 'old man' in a dockside- pub, or with a scrap of super-glued tissue - waving-off her beau, hair blowing in the onshore-breeze, rather than being pulled by 7 as is intended - if they are assembled together as a vignette!

In the Legion of Nightmare (set PF12, bottom-left) from Odemars we get three passable pirates, passable that is, in a universe where everyone has been stripped back to an empty-socket, eyeless-skull! Set them to looking for their nine-foot skeletal mate!

On the left is a chap looking more like a Venetian cut-purse or Medici's assassin, a proper pirate geezer in the middle has a proper wooden-leg and everything proper piratey (no parrot, or monkey though!) while the guy on the right is really a French pre-revolution musketeer, but is suitably attired for a bit of pirating.

Is there such a thing? I think Pirates indulge in piracy, but go a'pirating? There's probably a degree-course in there somewhere! For people who haven't got enough B's and C's for Meeja Studies or 'The Comic as a Cultural Phenomena in the 20th Century' - who am I to scoff; I collect plastic toys!

The other two shots are the respective gun-crews, who can combine to create a landing force of some power . . .

 . . . which is why it's an absolute, 22-carat pure gold fact, that my pirates have a gun-line which is 100% more effective than my British Grenadiers gun-line!

Why did Airfix never do AWI artillery? Especially as they had the really useful chap carrying a powder-barrel! Because of the way he's sculpted you can't see his cross-straps as you can with the rest of the two AWI sets' figures, so he makes a very passable pirate, while his officer (both from the Washington's Army set, there are no suitable Grenadiers) with his open flapping coat feels/looks equally at home under the Jolly Roger!

Which is not to say there's no place for Airfix's Grenadiers - someone has to provide 'revenue men' or the pirates will take over and not just on TLAP Day "Aa'haarr!"

G is for Great Patriotic Wartoys!

Really just the dregs of some recent purchases, with scan of an old photograph I took back in the 1990's to illustrate a couple more poses. Like the Chapayevtsi cavalry we looked at back in October last year, these could be from the same Russian factory or several different manufacturer's across the Soviet bloc?

On the left is a group of artillery, all from one source, with a field gun/howitzer at the bottom, an anti-tank gun in the middle and a large (regimental level?) mortar at the top, various crew are busy helping 1 Gloster's keep their heads down, with - the inset (lower right) scan from years ago - showing the flag that the waving guy is supposed to have, but which is so often missing.

The scan also shows some more infantry-looking types and a mounted officer/recce-type with binoculars, above them is an armed cavalryman in two colours, and two slightly different sizes, which might be due to different batches, different factories or different cavities in the same mould.

Similar to the above (and usually coming with them) are the T34's and Katyusha's. These are very different if you study them with the darker Stalin's organ being a much cruder version with a smaller gap between cab and firing platform and a simpler front-bumper (fender).

Likewise all three tanks are slightly different with the nearest having a straight-backed turret which is more KV-looking, the middle one having a sloped-rear but the same barrel, and the far one having a steeper slope and new mantlet with less elevation. As with the cavalry, bases vary with all three, although it's not so obvious

This chap is definitely from another set/source, he's smaller (25mm to the others 35/40mil) and more infantile, he's also less common than the above set/s which is/are quite easy to find, his base is also very different with it's flat-sided oblong and sharp corners! Look's like someone gave an PPSh to that execrable robot from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century...Weeble? Wikitunt? Dweedle? You know! I could Google it - but then I'd have to kill myself!

These naval guys seem to accompany the army troops above (perhaps in bigger sets?) and come in various fetching shades of turquoise (or 'aqua' as bathroom salesmen would put it!) against the jade-greens of the others.

L is for Livonians Laid-out on the Lake

Just as the Americans obsess about the Alamo, Custer's last stand, Pearl Harbour and Iwo Jima, the French;  Jena, Camarón, Bir Hakeim and Diên Biên Phu, the British; Agincourt, Crecy, Trafalgar, Waterloo, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Rourke's Drift, Gallipoli, Dunkirk, Dieppe, D-Day, Arnhem, the Falklands (we obsess a lot don't we!) et al. The Russians have their favourite bits of history for making toys of...

We looked at the Revolution and Chapi's chaps the other day, here is another recurring theme in toy soldiers of the Soviet Era: The Battle of Lake Peipus, and the hero of the hour Alexander Nevsky.

Hero if you are an Eastern-orthodox Russian that is; I look to the Crusader types (silver/green below) as the 'good guys' but to a patriotic Russian, the figures in the pointed ('turkic') helmets (gold/red below) are the good guys!

Before anyone bursts a blood-vessel: they're toys, I'm generalising, and I don't care who celebrates what, or why! Except...Custer got his, well and truly!

10-piece mould tools - one for each side, both with three mounted 'knights' and seven foot soldiery - with the figures joined together by short sections of runner or frame ('sprue'), the actual sprue entering from one end. These came in  polythene bags that were missing their header cards and in such a state they went the way of all flesh a long time ago.

However; I believe it represents a later issue, as there's a certain laziness involved in leaving the separating to the customer, and modern commercialism (in all its forms) seems to be about a gradual reduction in quality/service over time!

Close-ups of both sides of each row of both sets...that's it really, nothing I can add here...if you've followed the link you know as much about the battle as I do, if you're a student of uniforms you know more about Teuton/Livonian and Turkic/Slavic armour than I do, so, just pictures of the frames!

I also have a few loose ones, the green are a part set of the Northern Crusaders, the red being a set of Nevsky's Novgorod forces. The box seems to be correct, it has a standard Soviet-era checkers/QA-label stuck on the back, but it came with incomplete forces from both sides, so I've made-up a full set with a loose figure (the archer is a pinkish batch) assuming the greens had been stuffed in there (the lid sat high) when their own box ceased to be? I'm assuming this is the earlier issue?

V is for Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev

Also Chapaev or 'Chapi', and his soldiers: Chapayevtsi - Followers of Chapi, were a popular subject for infant toys in the Soviet Union (and it's post WWII satellites), among which were the ubiquitous flats. They are the subject of tonight's post.

Chapayev the Man

Four sets following or copied from the same original mould-tool. Three are probably Russian in origin, the forth (second row down) being Bulgarian. The fifth set (bottom row) are a separate set, with all new poses (one being similar or derivative?) and a thicker semi-flat look, but they seem to be another set of Chapayevtsi.

These seem to be the originating set, their detail is the best, the sculpting/moulding the smoothest, and while they are not really semi-flat, they are the fullest figures of the four sets of flats. Given the branding of the next set down this post: I think it's a fair bet to assume these are from the Progress factory, some other figures from which we looked at a while ago.

I think this is near the full set (of eight sculpts), but it may be that the machine gun coach (tachanka - Russian: Tача́нка), was to be purchased separately. I've seen several of these toys, each a little different (i.e., enough for each of the sets presented here), yet they never seem to accompany the sets - this blue one, while matching the sculpting style, base design and plastic type of the red cavalry (Hahah! Reds!) was a separate purchase, years after the mounted figures.

Tachanka's were designed to keep-up with cavalry, and while shown here with one horse, usually employed the famous Russian Troika or three-abreast arrangement for the draft animals, with some having four horses abreast like a Roman chariot!

Chapayevtsi - it reads! The reason for the 'Progress' assumption above is that these are 'also' from Progress, but spelt Проƨрес rather than the original Пpоrресc, the difference being down to the fact that while Bulgarian and Russian both using the Cyrillic alphabet, they are as different as English versus Danish to the users!

These are from a plant in Sophia which we can further assume was a subsidiary or branch of the parent country's company, in the puppet country? These are not exact copies, there is a loss of overall quality, with re-sculpting evident, particularly on the grass rising from the bases to help the horses with their dynamic posing. So licensed or simply a 'second set' of moulds?

Probably back to Russia (but could be another satellite country?) for these obvious copies, loss of quality of the sculpting has been matched by a loss in quality of material which is a tinier plastic.

These are the poorest of the sets, being both poor quality, and made of a dodgy plastic, which may be recycled from off-cuts of something bigger, but poses are still mirrored, and one has to assume that all 6/8 will turn-up eventually.

This set is very different, as hinted at above. The figures are semi-flat or demi-rond, and the poses are all new, although one of the figures can be matched as I have in the first image (middle of the row there, top right in this shot), it's more a coincidental similarity that any continuation of the 'series' that contains the other four sets.

Comparison photo's showing the different types of base, a comparison between flat and semi-flat and four figures in the same pose; the fact that the third set down the page has replaced the rifle with a sabre, suggests it might be the last set made, so take the order 'down the page' with a pinch of salt.

Finally: a marbled effect, probably caused by dirty plastic or an 'in production' mould-purge of a previous colour, rather than a deliberate attempt at such a finish. It could even be burning; if you let the injector-head get too hot you will get dark streaks in the plastic.

This set is also likely to be representing Chapayevtsi, but is in a different style altogether, there are lots of these silver figures with the heavier bases (in a more Polish or East German toy-soldier style) which slotted into little trays you could buy separately - to move them in blocks/units and we will look at the Napoleonics another day, but I thought I'd slip these in here for completion's sake! All new poses and a slogan on the flag I;ve not had translated yet.

The weirdest thing here is that they are flat, yet plastic...it goes back to the point I made the other day while looking at the die-cast 'slush-cast'...people using the new technology to produce toys that resemble the old technology. And it's not something we can regard with self-satisfied superiority as being a sign of a backward failing totalitarian state's industry, as we (in the Coca-Cola 'Free West') were doing the same thing with margarine figurines, Cracker-Jacks, World Dolls and 100-soldier sets! Just a daftness, but I like plastic flats and we'll come back to them!

M is for Militia...I hope!

So, not much posting recently, seem to have caught the 'Summer Hiatus' buzz! Also had a bit of a writers block/can't be arsed type thing going on there and some dodgy Internet service provision courtasy (or not courtasey..) of Vodafone!

Still, Sandown at the weekend means the autumn season is in full flow, Chicago for those lucky enough to attend (one day...one day!) in a week or so...and I must get some 'News, View's etc...' done in the next few days, the PW review has slipped...again!

A quick bit of news; For fans of the old Star Wars micro-machines...Hasbro issued new sets into UK toy retailers last Monday, or over that weekend, they seem very expensive so I'll wait until they get some more sensible clearance pricing in about 8 months time, or in a year or so when evilBay is flooded with them at 99p! I didn't look closely at them but the old 'standard' three vehicle (in this case 3 item) sets are there with a couple of figures each and there are larger transforming head type things...didn't see any all-figure 'army-builder' sets though.



So to the meat of this post - a purchase from Sandown Park on Saturday:

With so much of the Soviet-era toy figure production being semi-flat in either alloy or ethylene, it's always nice to find figures that are either fully-round or polystyrene, just for a change, and this chap fulfils both search criteria...

A note on the box states "Soviet Militia, circa 1962" and with no reason to doubt that I await a more knowledgeable mind than mine (he might be a composition under that thick lacquered paint finish?) to correct me or add anything? he's about 54mm, but doll-like and appears to be a styrene solid in what I guess is a dress uniform.

T is for Two - Timber Toys

Have we had that title before? Probably...hey-ho!

Returning to a recurring favourite of mine; wooden toys - Traditional, timeless, lots of play-value, robust material that ages with more grace than plastic or die-cast alloy.

Still going strong, now as a managed cooperative (History here) Dregano was one of the main marketers for the craftspeople of the Erzgebirge region of North-eastern Germany, falling behind the Iron Curtain for a while, they none-the-less managed to export abroad to 'the enemy' as this English language boxing shows.

It's a whole story in a box, how cool is that! Pigs can be visited, pigs can be fed, pigs can escape! Pigs or people can hide behind trees, the child rides the big pig quite well...of course I tried! Loads of play value, and something like this was pennies when I was a kid.

Another export piece. If you follow the links there are lots of catalogues to download as free PDF's, and while neither of these pieces are in there, plenty of stuff is including my favourite tractors! They still make them with all the different trailers/loads, although they seem to have more modern steering wheels, and no flywheel, but then some of mine don't!

The range of wagons with 40mm drivers are all good for 20/25mm war-gaming once you've unglued the figure and haven't changed in a hundred years, while there are some lovely sports ski-shooters in the monochrome range. The trees are lovely, and the little matchbox range is vast, but they don't seem to carry one of my childhood favourites any-more - the little sets of architectural building bricks in a matchbox?

T is for Two...Tiny Tractors

Do you remember my erzgebirge rant a few years ago...E is for Erzgebirge? Well, I picked-up a couple of the tractors the other day...taking my fleet to 7! There are a couple of differences though, so made in another village, up the road!

The basic tractor is the same but they both have fly-wheels for driving static equipment like Thrashing engines, saw-beds or straw-elevators and they both have a little driver. The big difference between the new machines and the old ones, is that these were made for export and as well as having the 'foreign' moniker in English on the base, the Mobeltransport has been translated to 'Removals'...lovely!

Sadly this isn't mine; although I'm keeping my eyes out for one! Shot at Sandown Park back in the spring, this is a French (CIJ) soft-plastic clip-together kit of a Renault Tracteur Agricole! Isn't it a peach? Nothing to add; it's all in the picture! If it wasn't for the card you'd think it a cereal - or other - premium, but I suspect just a pocket-money toy?

More on the Brand at Wikipedia

B is for Bulgaria

Just a quick one today...these were purchase of the day at the Plastic Warrior show in May, although I didn't have to hunt them out as Peter Evans (PW's roving reporter) brought them to my very hands! Thank you Peter!

He was informed that they were Bulgarian, and there's definitely something 'eastern' about them, although, they are quite unique so may be from Hungary or Romania? The ties between Bulgaria and Russia were much closer than some of the other Comecon countries, and their production tends to mirror Soviet stuff, with twin factories in both nations, mould-share and mould-copy.

28-30mm, swoppet-style, Napoleonic era or (ceremonial?) troops, one with plug-in weapon, the weapon has detail on one side only, almost as if it's stamped-out of a sheet, yet the detail on the sculpted side is clearly injection moulded. I have tried to track down some more to no avail, but will soon have a spy in Sophia looking out for them!

Bases for the foot figures also have yet to be tracked down, but the horse has an integral base and ends up looking very much like (and is the same size as...) Spencer Smith, who - of course - had integral riders! There's still so much out there to be discovered...

L is for Leningrad Forging Factory

These are an interesting set of figures - I had been picking up grey plastic sub-machine gunners since before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the tearing of the iron Curtain in 1989, to which a decade or so ago I managed to add a grenade thrower, all in hard styrene plastic to a standard 40mm compatible with Elastolin and Lineol smallies.

I then ran into fellow collector Chris Smith who carried a very wide range of Soviet era figures at the Plastic Warrior show in Richmond for several years, he had a few and we got chatting, he told me there were silver versions (I may have bought one at the time?) and that there were also an officer and flag-bearer but that they were quite hard to get.

The reason for that rarity is simple to see when you get the set complete, there was only one 'commander' and one flag-bearer per set and only two grenade throwers for every six 'automatic men'. With the flag easily damaged it's no wonder they are impossible to locate!

The title of the set is simply 'Soldiers' and you can see from the underside that while so-called experts might mutter "vac-metallised" under their breaths, the figures are just sprayed silver on a conveyor of some kind which prevents the paint covering the base underside, revealing the more common grey plastic colour.

P is for Progress (Пpоrресс)

This set came into the fold a couple of weeks ago, made by the Soviet Russian 'development company 'Пpоґресс, which I'm assured translates to Progress, it is a lovely set of 'Rus' warriors through the ages. The direct translation of the cover is 'Glory to Russian Weapons', I suspect the meaning is; Glory of Defence of Russia, or; 'defenders of Russia'?...Russian defence...something like that.

Painted to a basic standard on red polystyrene flats and tied in with plastic coated wires - a practice the Chinese were also adopting at this time (1991) albeit with clear or black plastic casing, rather than the coloured sleeves used here). They have not been placed in any particular order, but from the left (ignoring the biro'd numbers) are believed to be;

Dragoon - War of 1812
Hussar - War of 1812
Partisan - War of 1812
Ulan - War of 1812
Warrior of the XVI (16th) Century
Warrior of the XIII (13th) Century
Infantry - War of 1812
Militia (Volunteer?) - War of 1812

The two early ones are open to question and could be the other way round, the difference seeming to be length of coat and number of buttons! I love this set and was going to blog it with those little dancer/ethnic dress plastic flats from the Far east, but forgot the were in storage, but they are very similar and when I do blog them I'll link back to these for a direct comparison.

D is for Drevopodnik

Wound-up in Czechoslovakia around 1998 - some ten years after 'The Wall' came down (actually it was the falling of a curtain!) as another bankrupt former state manufacturing concern and based in Brno (when the Bren-gun gets half its name from!), all I can find in relation to this company is that it was a general household goods manufacturer who also offered glass-grinding, glazing and drilling as well as apprenticeships in cabinet making!

At some point someone thought to manufacture at least two sets of figures in a rough composition (very similar to the old Rawlplug 'plastic wood'), the set shown here and another I've seen with more colourful Napoleonic or ceremonial type uniforms.

These came to us at a general antiques fair, where someone thought they'd be a 'bit of us', and my mate - who's stall it was - said "..go-on then", and bought them while I was out having a cigarette! By the time I got back to the table he was having serious second thoughts, having looked more closely at them and seen that there was a fair amount of damage.

I thought - wow, they're a bit different, I'll have them, I'm sure I can fix most of them! So silver crossed palms on them for the secound time in minutes and they were mine. I won't tell what my friend paid, or what I paid, but suffice to say it wasn't much either way, but probably more than I can afford given my current circumstances...I still owe him twenty-five quid, but that's for something else!!

A quick look at the three sets shows a cirtain amount of damage, particularly the figure top-right on each card. There were also four loose figures from the same set.

As they came out of the heat-shrinked packaging, it became obvious that the damage was a little worse than appeared, with bits falling off more than 75% of the figures, paint damage and other horrors. Also it was clear that Q/A and/or Q/C was not a priority in the Drevopodnik works and they seemed to have been finished - at least partially - by hand.

So each figure was placed in a separate bag, with all it's bits and the bags were stacked (open) in a shoe-box and placed in front of the ducting vent in my flat's wet-room, where hot-air (this was back in the spring) was blown over them for 48hrs, to remove any damp that might have been responcible for some of the finer crumbling.

Then they were taken one at a time to the surgical bench and stuck back together with super-glue (which was of course it's original use - in Vietnam). The really bad ones were left in the bags until the end, and some figures had to be composed from several, to get a 'full set'. Others were fine though and as they were given the once over they were lined-up on a bizarre parade!

When the whole process was complete, the pile bottom-right in the above collage was left over, and after humming and harring for an hour or so - I threw it away. It took two days to fix them all, and I am now looking for some paint to match them, especially the Paratrooper, as the best example lost all his helmet paint as he was peeled off the backing film. I also need to track-down a tube of the aforementioned Rawlplug plastic-wood (that hasn't gone hard), to fill a few gaps...do they still make it?

Top left; The NBC alert guards - three out of four 'aint bad as Mr. Loaf might say! These were particularly hard to mend as they had all suffered their brakes up the legs or around the hips (or both) rather than the more common - and easier to fix - ankle-damage of the others.

Below them is a shot of their bases, with what I presume to be the makers mark's, possibly the wood-working apprentices...using-up wood-filler to produce a Christmas 'cash-crop'??

Top right; are a conversion/head-swap using the staff-officer's head, that came from the bits that were left-over after I'd got one decent set together. The figures on either end of the line-up (medic and traffic cop), had to be built-up from several donors and still need a bit of filler and stuff.

So - if any Czech or Slovakian readers are following this blog, can you add anything? Did you work in the Drevopodnik M. Brna factory in Brno (Bruno), or know someone who did? Does anyone know the extent of the full range?

I think there may have been a card of Indians (native American) as well, but that might be a false memory, and the trouble with false memory in the age of the Internet is that it tends to reappear as someone else's fact!

Note; The figures reached some untouchable temperatures as I bled super-glue into them. I don't now the physics or the chemistry but it was a hell of a reaction...I was using pound-shop stuff, as you get three tubes for a quid and they tend not to produce the white deposit of the more the expensive glues.