F is for Firefly

An unprepossessing name for a vicious little critter which did a lot to help win the war, and yes, lots of things make that claim, SOE, SAS, Bletchley/Ultra, Bomber Command, Fighter Command, Trinity, Boeing, Hobart and his Funnies, Rolls Royce and their wizard, and to be fair, they all played their part, but this was one of the balance-tippers!

 

Back during a more combative phase of the Blog's past, a lot was made of, and opined, about the announcement by Airfix of new 1:35th stuff, which in fact took forever to get to market, were finally released a couple of years ago, weren't model kits, nor full ready-mades', but rather clip-together, and only appeared - locally - earlier this year, in Hobby Craft, where I shelfied them.. But I thought I ought to actually get them, which I recently did, and this is the first of two posts on the subject.

 

The Airfix 'QuickBuild' Sherman Firefly, a clip-together model which uses the Lego (Hestair-Kiddycraft) mechanism, for that constructive element, even to being compatible with 'other leading bricks', but an addition to your Lego tub it ain't.

 

Everything comes in one bag, with separate instructions and a small, basic sticker sheet, the grey block to the far left is the only piece which might be useful to a Lego fan, being a large, five-way, stud direction changer.

 

My first criticism, and it's far truer for the Sherman than the Tiger, is that the track-links are a bit wank. They go together OK, until you try putting them on the vehicle, at which point they reveal weaknesses which totally destroy the 'playability' of the 'toy', as the slightest carpet-move produces breaks in the tracks?

 

The most Lego-likey element is the instruction sheet, which has full colour stages, each of which involves only three or four parts, highlighted by not being greyed-out, and tracks aside, there aren't many parts, (around twenty-five/twenty-six?), and most of them are chunky bits!

 

Second - obvious - criticism; I had a large spigot of [failed release-pin?] plastic on one of my hull sides, which prevented the construction, until removed, although it resulted in a useful piece of 'styrene rod for the spares box, so "Every cloud . . . "!

 

Turret components, result in a reasonably robust turret, with revolving action utilising the twin-lug system from Tamiya, rather than Airfix's traditional central spigot, for a firmer attachment. Frankly though it's a simplified and toy-like rendition, but that's a criticism for the whole model, and it is meant to be a toy first, and a Sherman second!

 

A small accessory runner in a different colour, this is identical for the Tiger Tank, and contans the turret-interior retaining-piece for the gun-barrel, a jerry can, two ammo-boxes and a pointed entrenching shovel.

 

Running gear; quite simple and straightforward, it took me a minute or so to work-out how the two halves of the drive-sprocket went together, but that might have been more about the need for proper glasses than any failure of my mental faculties, or errors in the instructions!

 

In the end, three useful looking pieces of waste plastic joined the greeble stash! There were a couple more on the track runners, but the tracks are definitely a different polymer, probably polypropylene, which is as much of a nightmare to glue as polyethylene, so they both went to recycling!

 

It definitely looks the part, and, in real life, must have come as quite a surprise to the big cats of Nazi Germany, but it's not terribly accurate, nor that detailed, and certainly not as detailed as it could have been, in this scale. It states 1:35, but seems closer to 1:32nd, but that might just be me, and I'm notoriously bad at judging scale.

 

Although, conversely, the underside has quite a bit of detail, compared to other Sherman models over the years! Also, you can see in this shot, how the drive sprockets don't actually engage the tracks and have been made ridiculously wide as a result, just to keep their teeth away from the track rod ends!

 

The two 'spare' track links don't clip in, and keep falling off, but there are actually quite a few spare links, so you can field 'appliqué' your tank with extra frontal armour!

 

 

 

All-in-all though, a disappointing effort, with track issues that render it unplayable once built, the simple construction is a plus, not including the tracks (and my sprockets!) it can be assembled in about eight-minutes, no more than twenty with track-faff, but simple detailing and stickers, leave it as a toy you can't push anywhere, for fear the tracks will part like the red-sea. I think 7-out-of-10 is a generous score?

F is for Follow-up - Jumping Aliens

I think the last time we looked at these, I both mused they were different to previous ones, vis-a-vis colour schemes, and that I'd found more on Amazon (and left them there!). But, without postage, and at pocket money prices, I picked these up earlier in the week, and while they're not strictly rack-toys, they are in the cheap, novelty bracket!

 

To be honest, I can't remember where I got them, but I think it might have been the party section of Asda, Sainsbury's or Tesco? There are certain differences, and while full size, not the smaller ones from Hobbycraft, we saw last time, the blue 'Cyclops' has smaller horns than previous versions, and the purple chap has changed his hair-do!

 

But they're going to go so well with the vintage jumpers taken from the LB poses (yes, I saw, it's like clockwork, but both logo's were quite clean, and clearly showed a B, so the stupidity emanating from that corner is now pretty awesome!), in a shelf display, one day! Fun Hub, by RMS.

F is for Follow-up - Sticky Stretchy Space Men, Unguent Unicorns and Zlimy Zombies!

We've seen these a few times now, in recent years, from at least three makers, here's another trio, from two additional brands! Courtesy of Peter Evans, these would seem to confirm a quiet trend in younger kids toys, but really a re-hash of the old gum-ball capsule machine toys from the 1970's, when they tended to be monsters, insects or lizards, rather than actual figurals!

 

These are both from Huggables, who I think have a couple of show-reports in the queue, I'll try to dig them out and get them up tomorrow, it's always nice to clear a few of them in RTM! And we have the titular zombies and unicorns, one pose each, four colours, three of each colour.

 

I seem to recall from my own misspent youth, that they are best coupled with a catapult, so they hit the window with such a whack, they stick for a minute or two, before gravity starts to drag them down the window, like slowly dying slugs. All good, clean fun, except for the person who polishes the windows!

 

Kandytoys are doing astronauts, or 'Star Voyagers' (!?), who look very similar to those previously seen here at Small Scale World by Scrunchems, although these have different backpacks, and sharper detail, so the usual sub-piracy from China, as we used to get from Hong Kong!

 

Card backs were an afterthought, as I was putting them away, and don't add much, or list other sets, but it seems there's a dozen or so of the 25/30mm figures types out there under at least six brands. Try smaller or independent/small-chain toy shops or garden centres, and convenience store's revolving rack-toy trees.

F is for Farmers, Firefighters, Fishermen, Footballers and Other Functionaries

Right, now I've really got to photograph the other two bags, as it won't be over 'till they sing, and Rack Toy Month is fast approaching, with plenty to amuse and entertain, or at least add to the whole! In the meantime, the last of the previous photo-sesh' is the civilian stuff, and there some interesting stuff in there, so let's 'ave a luke!

 

Sportsmen, with a large Charbens footballer, from the paint-your-own set we looked at here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2022/10/t-is-for-two-paint-your-own-catalogue.html

 

Another of the cake-decoration (and other sets) footballers, the less common cricket fielder from Gem/Culpitt, and while he may only be uncommon to me, when you get the sets of three, they rarely have this chap so I think it's an accurate identifier.

 

Another of the cereal premium imports for Canada, playing ice-hockey, and one of the Ajax baseball figures, but a late unpainted one, which may have been issued by somebody else? We looked at the painted ones here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/08/i-is-for-its-not-rounders-and-its-not.html

 

And, where did that seven years go?!

 

The smaller components of a firefighter set, probably a rack toy, and the probably chunky vehicles are missing, but it's another sample, another box ticked. I like the no fires sign, with a large FIRE underneath, glad they had time to get that up, to warn people entering the smoke-filled area, past the fire engines and sooty-faced, sweaty guys, in heavy overalls!

 

Two very useful Airfix motorcyclists, I have many more bikes than riders, so these were a must when I saw them, along with a soft PVC sidecar rider, of the racing variety, who may be from a small die-cast, maybe by one of the smaller makers? It's not the Britains one, and I don't think it's Budgie either, but might be a copy?

 

Circus, a clown bendy, and another part- (or most-) clown from Kinder, along with a second example of the strange, flatish, but solid, stylised, possibly die-cast, or harder base/whitemetal like spelter or pewter, ringmaster.

 

The fact that two have turned-up now, years apart, without any other recognisable elements of a circus set, suggests some kind of token, freebie, mascot or corporate thing? Anyone know?

 

Three additions to the Japanese celluloid/styrene trinket side-collection, which, as it consists mostly of teeny wagons and carts, equally diminutive 'brown water navy' vessels, or the larger blow-moulds, makes these a nice addition, being a selection of rural occupations, a fisherman and two woodmen.

 

The one that was missing! We have looked at these several times now, Brian Berke and Chris Smith have both helped with images or sample, on those visits, and possibly even shown us a Tresco original, and while I may now find there is one among mine, loose, this boxed one will start the full overview, one day, as there's about a dozen in the stash now, while we've seen more than twelve, so we can do full comparisons?

 

Farm stuff, the larger ones are modern/current, owe a lot to Elastolin and are a growing sample. I thought the blue chap was from a set of semi-flat animals we have looked at here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/11/q-is-for-question-time-animal-flats.html

 

But he's not, he's a much heavier sculpt, with a thicker base, and might be an early board-game piece, from the metal to plastic switch-over, but aping the flats of earlier gaming pieces?

 

While the other two are metal, and might be Charbens, a tractor diver, who's quite common, and a slightly different figure with half-crossed legs, who might be operating a reaper-binder, a job I have done, for my sins, and bloody hard it is too, with several leavers to mind, adjusting height and angle of cutting bed, while keeping another eye on the knotter, and a third on the contra-rotating packing belts! And you have to keep checking the sheaves you're leaving behind!!

 

But he might just be a chauffeur!

 

We've had loads of these from Adrian Little and Chris in recent years, and I already had a large sample (some 60-plus bags), but they all differ, and will need a huge sort-out one day, trying to tie them into known sets, either from the collection, or from catalogues (Holly, Blue Box), or from the hundreds of images I've downloaded over the years, of sets online.

 

Likewise! But Small-scale.

Two Crescent lead to the right, and a metal dog, complete, but refuseing to stand-up!

 

Road/construction workers and race crew/garage attendants are another subsection with literally hundreds of unknowns, from 60-plus-years of vehicle toys with figural accessories, and there tends to be a wider verity, than in the much-copied multi-generation farm stuff, which has few pose variants (it's all in the size, base type or plastic colour), so I'm looking forward to sorting these and ID'ing as much as possible.

 

Can I get away with a second 'likewise'? Emergency personal (Police, Fire and Ambulance), are another genre with many, many variants, and while I have promised to get a firefighters page done, it's rather languishing at the moment, but police and ambulance crew/stretcher cases will need similar treatment!

 

Rail staff and passengers are another area, where stuff keeps appearing, which isn't from the obvious perpetrators, and here it's possibly Hong Kong copies of the Tri-Ang/Hornby dinning-car and driver sets, two flats in lead and a reasonably common Hornby 'Binns Road' era solid.

 

Everything else! The scout, while similar to the two flats above, will be from a board-game, with that coloured base. The small girl/doll seems to be a cake decoration, while the seated lady and gentleman with cigar with be from US model kits of cars, or 'automobiles'! Funny, when I showed the unknown Chauffeur the other year someone else quickly found him and added him to their HQ, they'll have to find these two now!

 

Many thanks to Adrian Little, Brian Carrick, Colin Penn, Isaac, Matt Murphy, Martin Fahie, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, without their contributions, and those of Chris, Brian, Tony H, John Begg, Gareth, Steve V and others, at other times, these posts wouldn't happen. 

F is for Follow-up, to the Follow-up - Row Cropthz? Oh boiy, oh boiy, oh boiy! Wa-hoo-wee! Lethz's get thiz thing movin', whaddaya thzay?! Wackqwackqwackqwackkqwackqwack!!"

More Daffy than Donald I fear, but I gave it a try! 

 

Well, I barely hide my disdain for the schmaltzy, 'classic' Disney characters, but when Brain Berke, roving reporter in New York sent me these, I have to say, I was quite chuffed, as it's an exquisite treatment of the dime-store style, row-crop tractor genre, and it is a genre, with die-cast and tin-plate, there's a whole field of them to collect!

 

Donald Duck, off to . . . do something . . . to a meadow! Brian reports it has no makers name, although the tyres (tires) seem to resemble the Banner ones, so might it have been by them, as a contract for the gift shops I assume the first two Disneylands (California and Florida) had, before the modern era of licensed and franchised everything?

 

Cheers Brain, a real doozy!

F is for Fireman Pat, the Paw Patrol Builder

There's a ton of this infant oriented stuff out there, and in scanning the shelves I tend to filter it out, what with the American knock-off of Tomas the Tank engine starting to make inroads to British shelves, and Postman Pat now joined by similarly-cloned builders and firefighters (still called 'firemen', shock-horror!), even if you could argue Pugwash or Mr. Ben came first!

 

But luckily, Brian Berke spotted these in the 'States a while ago, and they've been in edit since . . . checks images . . . 2024, in fact, June, so two years ago, and well overdue for an outing here. Also, while flat erasers aren't necessarily a thing, we have had similar robots and dinosaurs, so by default, they are part of the Small Scale World oeuvre now! The law of unintended consequences!

 

 

Apparently direct-from-Turkey imports, or is that a version of Arabic? Zaini (LZ) are well known as a Kinder rival, and we've seen a few figural efforts or vehicles from them over the years, the likely prizes as illustrated on the box, weren't in the box! But do include two figures who may turn-up in mixed lots someday?

 

Instead you got flat-slab erasers with water-slide transfer-printed images of the characters from Fireman Sam on them, credited to a Prism Art & Design Ltd.* Many thanks to roving reporter Brian, for roving, and reporting!

 

*According to the Fireman Sam wiki - "Prism Art & Design Limited is a Welsh entertainment company currently owned by HiT Entertainment, itself a subsidiary of Mattel" - so, wheels within wheels! 

F is for Follow-up - Dime Store Row Crop Tractors

The first of a few (?) follow-ups to things seen recently here at Small Scale World, and it's those pesky row-crop tractors, a design which never took off here in the UK, indeed, while there may have been a few demonstrators, or experimental imports, they were never a 'thing' over here at all, but, nevertheless, British toy companies ran with them, as mould-swaps or straight lifts from US dime-store vehicle manufacturers, and may have instigated some?

 

Partially as a follow-up to this post;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/11/m-is-for-mohawk-and-more-military.html

 

A line-up of the recent additions to the genre, with from the left marked Tudor Rose, x2 unmarked, marbled blue is slightly larger, both likely British, possibly Tudor Rose or Kleeware, the previously seen (in the above-linked posts) marked Made in England in military green, and a marked Banner in dark blue, The last two being bigger again, but not the same. Obvious differences in wheels, also contribute to the question marks.

 

Comparison between the Banner and unknown tractors, frankly the unknown (which I floated as possibly Kleeware last time) is the better moulding, did it come first, or was it re-cut? Maybe it was a mould swap with someone else - Pyro, Wannatoys or Wyandott - with the Banner being a copy of whatever donor's tool, the England mark was using?

 

I then found the military pattern Banner-marked version, so re-took the comparison, light conditions differed, so here's two, the lower image is eye-true colours, and you can see how the engine details are cleaner and more symmetrical on the Made in England - left hand of each pair.

 

The two Banner's, the blue one is marked Banner USA, the military-green one has had the USA removed, otherwise they are the same, and one wonders if it's a case of domestic and export, and if so, which is which?

 

They both have a hole on the right side of the engine-bay, which could be for a missing flywheel (more normally found in the other side in the UK, when present), or a higher-price-point's clockwork conversion, unlikely as the wheel is partially obscuring it?

 

The two known British ones, they are different mouldings, with the yellow Tudor Rose one slightly smaller, and only marked in the upper portion of the hollow engine cavity, while the 'army' one has the Made In England along the length of the engine on the right-hand side.

 

A larger, closer to 1:32nd scale, soft polyethylene Tudor Rose row-crop, in reversed colours from the smaller one, which is an earlier 'styrene, or less stable polymer (phenolic or urea-formaldehyde type?), but with perfectly stable polystyrene wheels.

 

Kleeware marked wreaker-truck (a straight mould-swap of the Pyro dime-store model) behind the 'England' pulling its gun, just for a colour study between the two, and because it was kicking about! The gun is a much copied design, and really, I don't think anyone knows who did it first (Auburn Rubber?), or in what size! And - of course - there was that close connection between Kleeware and Tudor Rose, and between both of them and Pyro on the space-stuff.

 

This artillery combination appears to be the one seen in this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2016/11/d-is-for-dimestore.html

 

Where a mix of a Bell machine-gun, a pair of unmarked Gilmark (possibly Tudor Rose) AFV's in bright colours, and some of the 'Built-Rite/Hardy/Kilty/Loeser/Spencer' semi-flat GI's were all found together with the tractor-gun combo'?

 

We've looked at them before, and looked at three versions of the Merit (J&L Randall) offerings, with solid wood, solid-rubber and hollow-backed plastic wheels like all the above. When I've got them all together, we may be able to work out a timeline of piracy, from US originals, to n'th generation Hong Kong clones!
 

All six. This post doesn't prove anything, but it didn't set out to, beyond the fact that there are many of these, and their heritage/origins aren't clear! When marked, we can say, they are what they claim to be, even if the tool is someone else's, but when unmarked, it's all a bit grey. More images are here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/03/b-is-for-banner-and.html, and I bought them in the end!

 

And knowing at least one was used as an artillery-tractor, I'll have to look at them all again, with the guns present? There were several already in the stash, mostly military green ones, but there are some other 'farm' ones.