A is for All-sorts of Argentine and Ante American Armed-forces

Both loyal readers and more casual visitors will be aware of the successes I've had tracking down various bits of South American toy soldiery and model figurey over the years, especially in the last few, with 20 of the 35 uses of the Argentina tag being in the last six years, and here's a few more Argentine or believed to be Argentinian pieces, and some other South American makers.

 

This chap was sold as an Argentine model of Santa Anna (Mexico - Alamo insurgency), but I wondered if he mightn't be one of the Argentinian revolutionary heroes, so googled them, they were all in blue jackets! So I returned to Santa Anna, only to find he's always in blue too! Simone de Bolivar? . . . Blue, or blue-black! So your guess is as good as mine, unless you're an Argentine collector and know who he was sold as?

Although he fits much better on the horse in the previous shots (an old Elastolin composition horse copy?), he was sold with this horse (vaguely Britains), marked Gulliver (which the figure isn't) of Brazil, which he really isn't comfortable on, so as well as not being sure who he is, I'm not sure if I've found his horse yet!

 

I guess all those South American revolutionary wars were modelled to some extent on the French Revolution, or the American War of Independence, to wit; throwing off the yoke of the old European masters, or a more-local tyrant, and, as such, the leaders would have looked to Washington or Napoleon for their sartorial guide, beyond the prevalent fashion of the day?

 

And, as we saw the other week, Napoleon liked he blue AND his green! So I'll go with Santa Anna, as the slight;y more popular figure, historically, across the whole continent, possibly for being the last South American to give Uncle Sam a bloody nose? I've seen other Gulliver figures on this horse, and they fit it properly.

Along with him and the second horse, there was another Gulliver piece, the African warrior at the front, a horse far to small for the General; a copy of the Britains Trojan horse, marked Industria Argentina and an unmarked copy of Charbens or Britains draft-horse, which is unmarked and could be Hong Kong output, but is I suspect from the same lot.

 

I think we've seen the more modern triangular lozenge mark in a previous Gulliver post somewhere, but here's the earlier one in a sort of 1970's Lettraset curlycue'esque font, it's not the best image, but . . . black plastic!

Ind. Argentina announces this rather battle-damaged Jeep as another Argentine piece, it's also marked 'Eplax', whom we have to assume to be the maker! A composite model, with a hard PVC or vulcanised rubber body, soft rubber tyres on steel axles, a polyethylene steering wheel and a sheet-alloy (probably pure aluminium) so soft it bends if you look at it wrong!

 

Hopefully a future find, even in a similar state, will give me the missing wheels/axle? Until then, this will sit in the collection as a 'better a damaged one than none' example! It seems very similar to a Birmania one I have in a set which I thought I'd shown here (should have been part of the Plastic Warrior show reports), but have shown elsewhere, only that one is lacking the seat-holes.

This is also similar to a tree in the Birmania set, a polystyrene plastic flat with detail in relief on one side and a blank reverse, painted as if the detail it there anyway, but in a more basic fashion than the obverse!

A bit of an oddity, this one, it's a sort of blow-moulded rubber bath or pet toy, sans squeak (not that there's a hole for one, or ever was one, I'm just trying to describe the feel of the thing, under the paint), and may be home painted, and not Argentinian at all, but it came with some of the other pieces on this page, so can sit here, until its origin is more empirically known! 54mm'ish assault-boat!

Another Oklahoma figure has jointed that growing sample, you may remember I missed-out on some at the Plastic Warrior show, back in May, but picked-up a mounted lancer. This guy is obviously based-upon the Britains Herald American Civil War trumpeter.

 

The closest match I could find on these near-60mm figures, was some Gulliver/Casablanca production from Brazil, but not exactly the same as my pair, and mine aren't marked. This and the next shot were my attempts at arty-farty photo's, with views of the Toy Soldier library in the background, both images 'seen elsewhere' a couple of years ago!

 

This is actually Mexican, from Ara (or ARA? Family Arakelian) and depicts a Mexican lifeguard trumpeter, in the uniform of the Mexican-American war, I can't find any modern images of them as ceremonial troops, so I don't think they survive as such, but I could be very wrong on that one?

 

This is a set of figures from Trovador, also of Argentina, the warriors were copied by someone else in an unpainted form I think, and I dare say a couple of shields are missing here. The figures seem pretty unique, but the elephant is lifted from the Britains' baby elephant.

 

Another seen elsewhere image, these may be Oklahoma too, as they seem to have targeted Herald for their mentor! However, another Argentinian company - Grafil - are known to have targeted Lone Star, while the Marx figure could be another South American company, but seems to crude for the Mexican Plastimarx who used original moulds, not forgetting there's a Timpo sculpt in there too!

W is for We Buy This Shit So You Don't Have To!

I managed to get a bloody parking ticket the other day, so this little lot from Poundland has proved to be more expensive than it should have done!

 

Peter Evan's; Plastic Warrior magazine's roving reporter, told us about these garden/houseplant ornaments, on his Faceplant group a few weeks ago, so while I was in Farnborough on another mission, I popped into Poundland and grabbed a handful, at a quid each they weren't bank-breakers, and will make useful additions / accessories to or in the stash. The little tree is broken but it's the only one they had left.

These are interesting, as we saw . . . no we didn't, they're not on the Blog, so they must be in the queue somewhere, I'll hold on that for now then, and just say - these are fun! Blind Bag collectables, from Toikido (as in 'toy-kid-o'?), also responsible for the 'Amoung Us' blind bags, seen here recently.

 

And we'll have more on them later today now (as I've just found a whole 'missing' folder of shelfies I sort of knew I hadn't found . . . or had lost?!!), without chains in their heads, I can confidently predict there won't be a Series 2, as we will see later today, these are a clearance exercise!

Lucky Bags! The modern take on them, and contents are very disappointing, for figure collectors; a four-year-old would probably be very happy with a colouring thing, a bouncy-ball (always good for annoying adults) and a bunch of stickers!

 

These aren't shit! They were in Peter Evan's last parcel to the blog (just in time for Rack Toy Month!), HTI set of China animals, the Panda is similar to the AAA one we've seen twice recently, but that would be too much of a coincidence, and actually this one is a little different and smaller!

 

Neither are these shit, but interesting, manufactured by Gulliver in Brazil, they are somewhere between the 1:76th and 60mm of the Atlantic originals they're copied from, at about 40mm, but are here being handled by a Fanabri of Portugual.

 

Easily findable on eBay, or they were a year or so ago, you get 2-5 mounted and 10-15 foot in an assortment of bright/primary colours which appear to be identical to the Brazilian output, or leftover production taken in lieu of debt, apparently Gulliver (Brasil) folded with debts, as did Gulliver (Germany)!?

B is for Best Show on Earth! 2. Airfix and Related

I had some luck with early Airfix at the show, and there were some related bits, so I shoved them all in one post, except the two early motorcycles which ended-up in a mixed shot in the Civilian Vehicles post!

Two of the Airfix mounted figures after Bergan/Beton, both mounted on soft polyethylene horses (with the correct bent tail and cavity mark), although being a hard polystyrene themselves. The lefthand shot is missing the hunter, who turned up later, hence the rethink on how to do the posts!

 

As a result that image also has two probable Argentine figures a ceremonial type (top right, integral moulding) and a Native American (bottom left, separate rider) along with two other 'styrene riders, one of whom seems to belong with the marked-Ajax horse, the other is from the Magnetic 'Bucking Bronco' novelty act - the third I've picked-up in a few months, typical; isn't it, like buses; you wait ages for one, then three turn-up together!

A mixed bunch of the early 'eight figure set', being, from the left; Airfix Paratrooper, possible pair of BR Moulds Japanese and three of Peter Evans' home-casts. The first having the clear mould-release pin-mark which seems to differentiate the Airfix originals, the two Jap's missing an obvious mark, hence the possibility they are BR and the trio being a sharper, rigid resin to the softer pink one we looked at last year?

 

In the last lot from Chris Smith, I held over a bunch of these from the plunder posts, and I picked up a few more the other day, so a major re-hash/addition to that page will be forthcoming, as are similar changes to the mounted 'Bergan Beton' page where an awful lot have come in recently, in addition to the two above.

This is a fun shot, or at least the upper one is, the lower one is a closer look at the five Gulliver Japanese infantry, one of which is based squarely on an Atlantic 'Sendai' sculpt (Gulliver's go-to for piracies when they weren't copying Reamsa, Comansi or Jecsan!), the other figures being four old Airfix Sculpts.

The upper shot has, in addition, two rather wreaked Airfix originals for a not-very-useful comparison (they've both had their feet mucked-about with), suffice to say the Gulliver are a little smaller, but well sculpted. And in the foreground, a gloss-painted 'Toy Soldier' style home-cast piracy in lead/whitemetal with a wire bipod.

Not Airfix but of the same era, the same rarity value as the 'eight' and the same esoteric range, are two on the left from BR Moulds, a Lifeguard which is almost certainly from the Trojan set (post coming) and an Indian who doesn't seem to conform to any of the known BR mould-tool catalogue descriptions, and has something of the Sacul guards in his plastic colour, but seems to be from hollow-cast, so got included here!

 

These were mixed in with everything else! They go in a big bag which gets sorted into the master-collection/future stock every few years! I actually found a Prussian advancing from the Waterloo sets the other day, trod into someone's lawn, so Airfix 'HO-OO' have become a standard feature of the Anthropocene geological layer, along with crisp packets, chocolate wrappers, drinks bottles & cans, cigarette filters and vehicle parts/metal or rubber fixings!

 

Thanks to all for everything last month; Brian Carrick, Trevor Rudkin, Adrian Little, Andreas Dittmann, Gareth Morgan, Michael Mordant-Smith and Peter Evans,

Thanks to all for everything last month; Peter Evans, Brian Carrick, Trevor Rudkin, Adrian Little, Andreas Dittmann, Gareth Morgan and Micheal Mordant-Smith.

H is for How They Come In - London Show December 2022 - General Purchases

And so to London, as the saying goes, with the final toy soldier show in the calendar at the Haverstock School, Chalk Farm, where I had quite a good show, given it's mostly metal these days, but various 'Plastics' guys are there and between them gaps were filled and rarities found!

This came from a mate, and he actually had two different, but I only grabbed one and it'll feed my need for regular injections of horse-drawn stuff, but it is both a delicate and space-consuming heft of packaging, so one is fine, my first Brumm, known from the catalogues which aren't rare and of which I have a few and very well-made when you actually get to see/handle it.

Modern combat forces got a good boost, with a bunch of Frenchmen from Cofalux, Starlux and one or two others . . . I picked up a few more a week or two later, then got some more in the machine-gunner lots, so I've done well on Frech plastic this past autumn/early-winter!

To their right are a bunch of Japanese from Britains Deetail range, I knew I only had one or two, and realised (quite late in the afternoon) I had seen all of them on two different stalls, so having some cash still warm in my pocket rushed round as people were starting to pack-up and purchased both lots.

Thus giving me five of six poses, alternate painting of the advancing chap, and two different treatments of the LMG, along with the US recoilless rifle re-purposed to the Land of the Rising Sun, to keep Britains' costs down! I'll have to hope the missing pose is among my existing few!

Below is two shots of a very clean Trojan jungle fighter, I seem to be building my Trojan Japanese, Australian/Anzac and 14th Army samples one figure at a time which isn't the cheap way, but it'll be fun when I find the last one - about another ten years at the current rate!

Now, I didn't shoot or record the maker (on the back of the cards) before they went up to the unit, but I may have some of these already in the collection (I've certainly seen them before), so when everything is sorted out, we may well de-card a duplicate, set them up and have a return post with all the details . . . modernish (1970's?) and aimed at the tourist trade I suspect.

Had a good score on Gem/Gemodels, with four knights (from the 'orange paint batch'!), one of the King's Men from the Humpty Dumpty cake decoration vignette (he appears to be laughing and pointing at the 'scrambled-egg'!) and two others, the snowman with an icing spike and a skater in yellow base polymer, along with a Hong Kong copy of the Crescent Santa Clause, I already have one or two in that section, but I think the paint on this chap is far superior to previous finds?

These were from Matt Their at White Tower Miniatures, and while you know my views on 'new' poured metal (as displayed in the last post!), the smaller guys aren’t so expensive (despite having higher overheads/unit costs), so I try to support them when I can, and while I always admire Matt's stuff I haven't previously bought any, so I thought I'd better rectify that with a  swift purchase!

I bought one glossy 'toy soldier' style finished figure from the Robin Hood series, and one matt painted figure from the Wild West range, and they are both really nice figures, Robin himself summoning the Merry Men for some shenanigans, the Indian is from an older hollow-cast moulding I think Matt said, but now done as a solid. Matt also sells all of them as unpainted castings.

This MTB/PT-Boat was nice, some age (dime store type/era), and pretty clean, but there is a small question mark over the opening beneath the conning-tower, and the two openings just in front of it, I can't work out if something is missing, or if someone has had a dig to fit a couple of figures, now missing, no brand or brand-mark, nor the typical Kleeware/Tudor Rose circular mould-release/blanking disc marks, so maker is totally unknown but could be an early Thomas or Lido/Pyro/Reliable type thing?

A pair of beautifully painted Commonwealth 'World Dolls'; Ms's Hawaii and Holland, and painted by George Hanger, who used to paint stuff for the BMSS museum and their magazine articles, indeed, given who I bought them off (who also gave me their history), I'm guessing those Mokarex/Figurines Historiques Musketeers (bottom of post) were painted by George as well?

Polish [French] cavalry from PZG, going for a song in a little bag, I'm not sure on the horses, so gave the most obviously different one to the Trumpeter, and the other odd one to the 'officer' in white!

Smaller single/rummage-tray pick purchases include (going vaguely clockwise from the top left); Kinder fantasy figure, I've several of these come in recently (so not rare) in both blue and green, a large native American Indian type from . . . Lido? Tudor Rose? Someone like that, he's in the archive somewhere and probably tied-in with a Lone Ranger or similar movie? And finally in that shot -  a US MP with pod-feet, again I should know, I've seen him before and I think I have him in dark blue, so this may be a 1990's reissue?

Poplar tractor (another!), an aluminium totem pole (Wend-Al or Aludo?) and a tin of my favourite brown! I have the old Authenticast semi-gloss leather version and the bog-standard gloss, but this matt dark-brown is hard to find these days, or seems so to me, so I thought I'd grab a 'newie' when I saw it!

A Toumoulage French soldier in metallic mauve polystyrene (why not!) and a rather nice-paint Cherilea Egyptian share the line-up with a less common cake-decoration deer sculpt and one of the Airfix (or Frazier & Glass I think . . . now!) cadets.

Finally another big Indian I should know, and another of those teeny-tiny Topo Gigio (Louie Mouse) figures from Italy, which I keep finding (or being sent), I have four or five now, I think in three colours, but all the same pose? Board game pieces maybe . . . or were they an early Kinder or a gum-ball capsule-dispenser thing?

The Toumoulage Indians we've already looked at above, with a mix below; the big guy is a Marolin, probably post reunification? Next to him is a better-quality Hong Kong copy of a Herald sculpt, with a French-made cowboy on the end of the row. In front a Marx 45mm PVC-rubber cowboy and a French (or more likely Polish) Indian with peace pipe, one of several (with pipes) who've come-in recently.

Big Joe from Big, what Jean Höfler became, a Gulliver late-issue copy of an Atlantic cowboy and a Pech y Hermanos artilleryman, the gun in front is similar to the Pech one he should be found with, but bigger and a Hong Kong (or early British garden/beach toy, it's unmarked?) Aussie jungle 25lbr without splinter-shield.

Quick note; I've finally bitten the bullet and switched from Firefox to Chrome, still getting used to it, but it has changed the gaps between images and paragraphs, nothing I can do about it, the Internet like most everything else these days seems to be slowly fragmenting and getting worse not better!

M is for Minotaur

This has been in the not finished zone for so long, I can barely remember when I started it! I wanted (want!) to do a little vignette of the mythical creature belonging to King Minos of Crete, being despatched by Theseus.

The base is a Hong Kong copy of a Gulliver 40mm piracy of an Atlantic American Indian, to which I have added a real Stag Beetle's head...no I didn't, it had been hit by a car! The head is a loose fit, but a bit of filler will help get it looking right and blend it into the body.

Placed next to a 1:72 scale figure (Zvezda?) for scale, he is intended to be Theseus goading the beast. For accuracy I suppose I should be looking at a bulls head, but I like the slight fantasy element of using something else, which still has 'horns'!