A is for A Few More Follow-ups

Some things which have come out of recent acquisitions and/or donations or which have been covered here before one way or another, and all PVC, except the resin cats;

 

You may remember when we looked at fishermen a while ago, Chris sent a picture of his complete key-ring guy, equally converted to a stand-alone piece as my - suddenly incomplete - chap, well, I had another damaged one come in (far left), which I kept quiet about! And then a whole one . . . Phew!

Also on key-rings passim, this would appear to be the commonest figural key-ring out there, and I have had these three come in recently, one of which has been fully converted to standing piper, with the removal of his ring-loop and the addition of a base. He also seems to be an earlier one, with better paint?

Those poor cats are still for sale with their holes in their noses, a year after I first saw them in The Range, to be fair I think they are now greatly reduced, but FFS people! No one is going to buy damaged cats, no matter how cheap they are, put them out of their misery.

 

I had a version of the dragon Jon Attwood sent us, with the wings in a totally different pose, and hot-water (or transit) doesn't seem to be the explanation (the wing-root is too thick), so they must have either changed the mould for technical reasons, or had two different mould-tools?

I have, once or twice over the 15 years of the blog, mentioned the over-moulded badges of post-war Italy, and here are three versions of the paramilitary mechanised brigade of the Carabinieri, you can see how the three colours of PVC have been 'wealded' to the cloth underneath. These were obtained, as surplus, in about 1978?

G is for Growing . . . 'Brown Water Navy'!

In the bag that was part of Peter's latest parcel, were these three, which are a perfect addition to the fleet we saw here, although neither plastic toys, nor celluloid tourist trinkets, being manufactured of a base-metal or whitemetal, probably with a high lead-content?

Following the patterns of the celluloid keepsakes, these will probably be the next price-bracket up for tourism; ceramic and ivory being above these, silver-neff at the top? A bamboo-raft punter who looks like one of those fishermen who use trained ducks (. . . cormorants?), a small fishing vessel with three crew and a larger vessel with two crew - I'd like to know how they pulled-in that ton of fish without a winch!

From the other side; the five loin-clothed fishermen are all the same basic sculpt, the arms and legs bent to fit their final position/task, the punter seems to have been built in situ with a soldering iron, or at least - his legs/feet have been?

The 'real' Brown Water Navy liaise with a shore-patrol to check out two fishing boats, paying no heed to the old man on a raft . . . death can come quickly to the un-alert, but when your imperialist occupiers are supplied by Baravelli (figures) and Hong Kong (vessel), what can you expect!

H is for How They Come In - Peter

A few days after Brian's parcel, another arrived without warning from North of the river, something some of you are probably expecting as he's scrupulously fair and seems to send parcels together so if he's name-checked at the other place he's shortly thereafter name-checked here, or vise-a-versa!

An interesting sample of mixed 'odds and sods' (which is right up SSW's street!); most of them happy to wear the 'Novelty' moniker. /the contents of the small bag (bottom-left) is now a separate post.

I'm not so sure about the large pink mouse, however the similar mini-bath duck is a happy receipt, so I can't reject his stable mate and one day there will be an overview of all rodents here on the blog (as there - hopefully - will be for everything) and when that day comes he/she-or-it will be ready and waiting . . . for a second viewing!

The three nutcracker'esqe (or 'Babes in Toyland' style-) guardsmen are part of a larger family which hung around in the late 1990's and early 2000's, I've pinned them to two or three brands and - in at least two sizes - they were used in snow-shakers, the sort of mini-trees truckers' put on their dashboards, as novelty earrings and possibly (as here?) cake decorations.

Both the drummer and the blue-jacketed chap were new to me and we will look at them all properly one Christmas, as that seems to have been their destination, whatever the end-use.

The Kinder eggs carried the latest figure type, and they are both nice (well sculpted and approximately 54mm) and disappointing at the same time.

The disappointment steaming from the fact that as stand-alone figures they are all in a silly pose, yet the point of the pose is a bit pointless, you have to balance the 'shield' on the two hands (not easy as a dextrous adult, god knows what kids will make of the job!) and then flick them [the shields], using the over-designed base, at the paper/card flat 'baddie' targets. The hitting of which seems more unlikely than getting the shield to stay put, but maybe I'm just a curmudgeonly old-git and it's easier on a smooth surface?

I had discovered them a few days before Peter's parcel, but typically in situations like this sod's law meant I had found the same figure as two of Peter's so now have three gold'n'green fish-men!

This is charming, possibly missing a few toes, but then he's probably over eighty and clearly survived Corvid-19 so one can't complain! Made in Japan and a fired bisque, hand-painted after firing there has been a bit of rubbing over the years . . . and another cricketer!

Now . . . we saw the female addition the other day and with another from Peter the total's become seven figures in a few months, from one, and five from Peter - here they all are together.

The new one is a second Spanish National Guardsman (like gendarme); an 'other rank' to my previously found officer, but the officer had a cartridge-paper board to his hat (as the Beefeater also has a card rim), while the new addition has the whole hat in the same clay.

He also has a slightly more expressive face, and while - like Erzgebirge - I suspect a regional aspect to the production, equally I suspect a different locale or town/village . . . the clay's a different colour to the other six, as well?

 

11th February 2021 - Now known to be craft figures (artesanos) from Alborox in Grenada

Another fisherman! Sans rod, so I put a 'pole' rod into the hold for the photograph, the original was probably a length of piano-wire with a piece of cotton-tread glued to the tip? Like the Spanish 'toristicas' in the previous shot, he's a terracotta/clay, rather than the bisque of the cricketer, but is also Japanese I think? And he's been glaze-fired rather than painted.

Aaaahh! I'm lovin' this! I already had the archer on the left and had always thought of him as a cartoony/anthropomorphic ancient or medieval type; a warrior archer, if you like, but the new figure from Peter makes it clear there is probably a set of 'sports cats' somewhere, and gum-ball capsule-machine inserts, or Christmas cracker prizes? Anyone else got some?

I shot it without flash (inset) to show the true colour difference.

Another excuse for a group shot was the china cat, which is also a different colour (darker grey), but the flash washed it out, so they look like twins (centre-left), and - as a group -growing ever larger!

I also have plastic copies/versions of the little kittens playing with balls of wool (front row), which are not direct piracies, being smaller, slightly different poses and . . . for another day!

The three Siamese's (top right) are chalkwear (plaster) and named, but I forgot to note it! The two dirty ginger's are Whimsy's from Wade the rest are porcelain 'ornamentals'.

Finally is this interesting chap, a Maori dancer from New Zealand, who has been glued to a paper or card base of some kind, I suspect as part of a tourist keepsake, but has a brand; G.L Models and may have had a second purpose as a colonial war-game figure, he's the right size and material under the paint?

And many thanks to Mr. Evans again, for another collection of eclectic stuff without the sending of which, I wouldn't have been able to share with you!

T is for There's Always Another One!

I totally forgot I had this in the big 700+image folder of other stuff euphemistically titled 'Newest Toy Soldiers', of which; he clearly isn't! But they're fresh in our minds (fishermen figures) so, a quick look;

Resin with a wire rod, and a bit steep for me so I took a shelfie and left him on the shelf! I think he may be by the same people who made the pirates we've seen a couple of times now, indeed I think we saw one for a third time only the other day! And he may have been wholesaled by Cakeboards or the modern rump of Culpitt? Nice catch!

F is for Fishy Follow-up of Fellows Fly-Flinging

Chris Smith sent me an interesting mix of fishermen, and a whale . . . which is not a fish, but which smells pretty-fishy eviscerated on the deck of a Japanese 'scientific survey' vessel, so I've tacked it on to the end of the post.

Gutted! My guy is missing a fishing-rod and I hadn't even noticed; I thought he was holding his catch with a gaff or something! Anyway, Chris's is also a different colourway, has the same ring-chain loop-removal scar . . . and a fishing rod . . . fussa-russa!

Chris also wanted to know about this chap, he's around 60/65mm? I think he looks Fontanini'ish (precepi / nativity figure), but the plastic colour is wrong and the paint's a bit bright, so possibly a Hong Kong copy, although unmarked? Have you anything to add for Chris?

Seeing Chris's reminded me I had one (in addition to the larger Chinoisery one we saw from Hong Kong a couple of years ago), I think this guy is also Fontanini and I'm sure the cotton thread is an owner's addition, but I've never had the heart to remove it!

When I say I think he's Fontanini, he is the same dense PVC as a lot of their other production, particularly the painted stuff, in a flesh-pink polymer; which they commonly used, and has the same dark-green base as the African warriors.

But, it is a solid base (see below) with no hollow, or marks, so he could be from one or two of the other presepi-makers in Italy, such as Nadi, but they also tended to hollow bases and a mark?

That solid base on mine and a couple of size comparisons for Chris's pair, one with the aforementioned whale! Mine is smaller, but he comes from a larger set of European rural or 'rustic' types, while Chris's is in the Chinoisery style of the more upright set of Asian figures from Fontanini we've also looked at here, indeed there's a sub-set of fishing-related figures in the Sino-Japanese set?.

It's a Sperm Whale I think, or is it a Blue? Chris wonders if it's Hill, purely on the painting, which is similar to some of their animals, likewise I wondered if it might be Hong Kong from the similarity with some mini dinosaur rack toy's painting, but it's unmarked (most HK stuff has some mark?), and reading the current articles by Steve Pugh in Plastic Warrior magazine (issues 175 & 176 - current) on early British dinosaurs, it's clear the red-mouth thing was a trope across the toy trade back in the day!

Again, if you can help Chris with either figure, that would be great.

G is for Going Fishing

Well, they haven't 'gone'; they're still here for us to look at! A small thematic post on the fishermen who have come my way over time, they are not all here, the LB set is larger than two figures and I've yet to track-down the Subbuteo fishers - who I think I'm right in saying are sitting on tackle-box stools?

Cake decoration seems to be the final arbiter in how many fishing types we end up with, and past cake decoration rather than current I fear, but trends are a moveable feast and fashions change, small dioramas where long-ago replaced by piles of fruit in gelatine or fancy icing waterfalls!

From the left we have a typical 1960/70's cake decoration (marked SK.No 169.S) in hard polystyrene plastic (with a soft polyethylene rod) of the kind carried by Culpitt here and Wilton across 'the pond'. then two Lik Be (LB) fishermen, one a harpoonist from a whaler (not a country Mr. President!) and one sports-fisherman with a huge tuna over his shoulder, then the Gemodels figure also carried by Culpitt, but not - as far as I know - Wilton; all three polyethylene and finally a PVC key-ring novelty, sans hoop.

George Musgrave's Gem fisherman; many colours (as per the golfer and diver figures), and he seems to have given-up casting his hook in favour of adopting the aboriginal practice of spearing the fish with the thin-end of his rod . . . and; let's be honest; he looks very pleased with the undeniable result!

Back when I was a small scale figure collector (and a bit of a philistine) I used to remove the key-ring loops! It still needs touching-up with a  bit of paint, but these days I wouldn't indulge in such vandallistic practice! Spellcheck says I just invented 'vandallistic', should it have one el or two? Questions, questions!

Fishermen!