It seems to be an inescapable fact that the
longer you collect and/or the wider you cast your eyes, the more obvious it
seems that everything made by Western toy makers, under a certain size (about
4-inches), was pirated in Hong Kong at least once! Case in point . . .
. . . here we have the Triang-Minic push-and-go mini-tank (loosely, very loosely based on a
Centurion tank) pirated in
polyethylene, in a reduced size and sold as a ersatz Matchbox 1-75 type!
Simplified with a pair of carpet wheels, it can't have come from anywhere else,
as no one else made such a monstrosity of the accurists art!
To accompany it, here's a vague take on the Britains 'Beetle lorry', done as an
ambulance. There's no obvious brand on either, a letter 'F' on the ambulance being
probably a cavity mark, and an imagination-medal on the box ends holding no
clue. A US pattern 6x6 truck and Jeep (probably ex-Dinky) were also available, to my knowledge.
These are in similar 'matchboxes', and are
branded to ELM or Elm, a company which was known for
producing small vehicular novelties for Louis
Marx, in the Dinsneykin size. Indeed,
some US sources would have it implied or have you believe Elm were a subsidiary of Marx,
but these and what we're about to look-at, would seem to suggest they were only
sub-contractors for Marx, free to
issue their own production under different brand-marks.
As they are also sold under the Empress
Toys label, as kits, now this is where this post falls-down somewhat and could
have stayed in Picasa for another year or two, the photo's get a bit
muddled/poor, shots weren't taken which I meant to take, and we'll have to return
to them at some point, but heay! What the hell!
Anyway, here we have, from the box
above, the dark green M44 ('ish) SPG
with its corresponding kit, and a loose vaguely Staghound armoured car I had, with its kit. The bi-coloured A/C
suggests a third issue at least, at some point?
2-days later - the other one's here!
From the left; French Panhard ERB; Staghound
and the T34/85 (seen again below), the M44 seemed to get lost at this point in
the photo-shoot, while I didn't do all the card-fronts, so the codes are missing, to
which I must add; I never found the one or two I got from Ash, which may be in
different packaging, so a bit of a fail overall!
The T34/85's
compared, again this was a loose, unattributed sample in the collection until
the packaged ones started to show-up, and neither of the boxed or loose pair
have markings, but each of the bagged ones have a transfer sheet with basic
markings. The kit has black wheels to the colour-matched wheels of the made-up
one.
I have a loose turret, apparently from a smallT54/55 or T62*, which happens to sit on the armoured-car, while it waits for
its body to turn-up in a junk lot (it will . . . one day!), the little one is an
all 'ethylene, probably Christmas cracker/gum-ball novelty and we've looked at both
the slightly churchill'ian one (probably a game-playing piece) and the Blue Box style DUKW, which is taken from
the Matchbox 1-75 Series before. Finger for
scale . . . and I forgot to get the Patton out and shoot it too . . . doh!
* When you have to start sending them to Ukraine,
with called-up, old-man crews, you're scrapping the bottom of the war-losing barrel
Vladimir Vladimirovitch you barking mad-dog fuck. We don't want a nuclear war,
and if you start one we will vaporise Russia, you realise that?