S is for Sandown Park - May 2023 - Composition Artillery

This wasn't a find, I'd ordered it in advance to collect on the day, and it's a mixed bag with several items of interest and while the figures are composition, the guns are both a die-cast / tin-plate mix with real rubber wheels.

The groups as bought, I have always wanted a decent sample of the 40mm figures, these are Lineol, and while I have managed a couple of musicians, one or two marching troops and a Tank Commander we saw here a few years ago, I didn't have any 'fighters'.

The mounted figures and standard-bearer can go with my existing paraders, while I'll look for a second gun for these chaps to crew (you will have noticed the further piece here is a US equipment). And I'm very happy to have my first explosion, having admired them in the past!

Adrian had a 70-mil artilleryman in his cheapie tray, so I bought him to A) compare with the smaller ones, and B) have a sample! Both figures are a clearly grey colour rather than Feldgrau or field grey, so a Luftwaffe unit?

 

I think the 3.7cm PaK-36 infantry AT-Gun is by Hausser-Elastolin (who had their own limited 40mm range), and it's a lovely piece, I love the pre-war ones with their three-colour schemes, but this is equally 'dinky' and fires individual, round, paper 'amorces' from an anvil-type firing plate off a finger-trigger, to the right of the breech.

 

The other gun in the lot is proving hard to ID, I mean it's obviously a US 155mm M1 Howitzer (a confusing gun to look at as it's layout is similar to the commoner, smaller, 105mm, and it shares a calibre with the more famous in the public eye Long Tom), and it's clearly marked JAG's Copyrights. The elevating mechanism is partially damaged.

 

But I can't find anything about JAG in the die-cast reference library, or on-line? Although, anyone who's tried using the old black and white French tome, will know it's almost impossible to follow, but my go-to cheat - Schiffer's Emergency Vehicles - doesn't list a JAG either, (and that has everything!) so if you can help with anything on the firm I'd be grateful.

 

There was a JAG's Trophies of London, a few years ago, could this be from a presentation plinth? An unusual piece for a UK company to make as a promotional, as it was neither an item of service equipment here, nor, as far as I know, licence built here for anyone else? It has the look of French Dinky about it, but isn't? It could be German or American in manufacture?

 

It's also in a smaller scale, so goes better with a few Airfix odds I had to hand, the image on the right is from Korea and you can see the model's wheels are a bit smaller than the service item. I'll look out for a 40mm compatible Pak-40 or '88 FlaK in tin-plate, for my artillerymen, but not for a year or two!

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis Tomorrow

So the rest of the publicity blurb - for day two - of the two-day figure sale 'Up North', but on-line for those who can, again courtesy of the Ladies at Vectis Auctions . . .

"Day 2 of the Military, Civilian Figures, Equipment & Accessories sale starts with Modern and Contemporary Issues from Britains, King and Country, Figarti, Thomas Gunn and more. There are 19 Lots of Grenada Studios, Lead Army, Aeroart studios and similar in the Connoisseur Miniatures From Russia; plus Britains Motorcycle Series and Civilian Issues from Benbros, Timpo and Britains Racing Colours; and Plastic Issues including Connoisseur Selection. The sale continues with Britains - Boxed & Unboxed Military Issues, Un-boxed - Special Editions & Paris Office, Militaria including medals, uniform and clothing, and Toy Soldier & Military Books and original Airfix Archive artwork."

 

Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

01642 750 616

 

B is for Best Toy Ever? . . . Again!

This should be the fourth or fifth time I've appended the 'Best Toy Ever' tag to a post here, and hopefully loyal readers have remembered that after the 2nd or 3rd time, I just decided it was something that couldn't be attributed to any single toy, but which could be used from time to time on stand-out items of particular production-worth or great play-value; here's another one!

Speaking of Adrian Little (as I was at the end of the last post), this was shot on his stall at Sandown Park's toy fair, back in September. The contents are somewhat mixed, incomplete or added-to, but the overall 'thing' is a beautiful plaything, that should have brought joy to an owner back in the day.

I say 'should' as someone obviously looked after this to the point where not much play can have occurred, but the items are too clean to have been on display either, which is a little sad - that such a lovely toy was probably not played with?

The packaging has an undeniable circus theme on the top flap/cover, but the rest of it is more farm or countryside themed, artwork wise, and obviously was a standard, dual-purpose factory box, with set specific inserts.

Likewise the internal sheet of press-out scenic accessories are more rural in nature, but a back-drop, box liner, is - again - undeniably circus in subject matter. Clearly a bit of a curate's egg, cobbled together from what was in the factory or with the printer's, enhanced to tie-it in with the contents.

The cages are manufactured from soft wire rod, they will have been set out on a wooden jig and spot-soldered by hand before painting, and there were more than I photographed, allowing for a decent animal 'holding area' to be constructed for the circus.

The safety-tunnel into the ring is likewise produced, probably being trimmed and bent to shape after the soldering and before the gates were slipped into place. We had a go at something similar at Uni' years ago, while being shown the workshop facilities. I made a shelter/gantry for a bus-stop!

A rather fine elephant, I don't know if it's a baby from the 70mm range, a scaled down adult from the same range, or a 40mm line-specific sculpt?

And you thought a 'Bear Dance' was something Native Americans did!

This must be one of the last things manufactured by Hausser under the Elastolin moniker, using composition animals, especially in this smaller 40mm scale, and with both wood and metal accessories?

A whole pride of Lions to train, there were no tubs for them to stand on, or hoops to jump through, leading one to suspect there was more to collect in the wider range, or that a larger collection had already been broken-up prior to Adrian obtaining his sample?

This mysterious aspect of the 'set' is mirrored in the two figures which are of different scales and styles and the only two present, a keeper and a clown? No ringmaster, no animal trainers? No other performers?

I'm not sure if the clown is sharing his moment in the lime-light with a monkey or a mountain-lion/cougar . . . or even a hyena!

A pair of tigers, a zebra and a camel, all things you might find at an old school circus, but in the case of the later two, more likely to be in the day-time 'zoo' than in the night-time performances, and all things you'd equally expect in a proper zoo. The circus ring is the only plastic component, being a trimmed vac-form, with a drop-in 'gate' section, also vac-formed.

The lack of a tent or marquee is another pointer to this being a part-set, and one wonders if the box (part farm-linked) was actually included in a larger set, for which the other liner has gone AWOL, the contents of the sample can fit in the box but only by ignoring the slots and packing everything loose. I suspect there was once much-more to the whole set, yet it is still a really lovely thing - Best Toy Ever ['till the next one] - Cheers Adrian!

D ist fur Der Sport-Vagabund

Or 'The Sports Adventurer' in English, another visit to the world of board-games and a Hausser game, not - as far as I know - copied/licensed to/by Waddington's (in the UK) or Rojas e Malaret (in the Balearics) as others were.

No pictures of the board or box, I've never encountered one, let alone acquired a copy (there are a couple of links at the end of this article), but the figures I have 'sammler'ed' over the years!

Top row is a complete set of early figures, or; playing pieces! There are only the seven - to my knowledge, and while each is coloured (for six players?) the sports car is not so clear, and it may be that less players (maybe four) had to negotiate the board, trying each of the seven sports?

Middle-row is a later set, which - although not clear under flash-photography - have brighter coloured bases and other slight variations (footballer's socks, shade of brown paint &etc), while the bottom row are more factory chuck-outs which appeared, undecorated in the 1990's, but were used in later versions of the game I believe?

You're thinking "Why doesn't he know the game's mechanism if he's posting links?", well, the links are in another article on the dongles here at home (no Internet) and I won't have time to check them when I load the article at the Library, or I will check them (and copy/paste) but I won't have time to re-edit this to make me look smarter than I am! But the links should answer the question marks!

Having seen the yellow plastic bases of the gold figures the other day, it's interesting to note that while the skier and diver have pre-coloured plastic bases (white and blue respectively), the other four have red, orange, yellow and green-painted bases - on white plastic, pointing to the gold-finished figures being manufactured - as a batch - later than these.

The sports car is a 'generic' . . . Mercedes! And there is no marking to reveal its origins, which probably means a few have been discarded by figure-collectors over the years as junk stuff for the 50p rummage tray!

And/Indeed - scarily - it looks a lot like the Disney/Transformers vehicles currently coming out of Phidal 'Busy Books'!

Adrian Little saved me a few more unpainted ones a while back, and I'd taken the above line-up before I sorted them into the main collection from the attic lot. Although the driver has remained unpainted, the car has had its silver overspray.

Obviously I need an unpainted footballer for completeness-sake, and have a few spares for a like-for-like swap - runner, rider, boxer (or swimmer/diver? I'll have to check?); if anyone has a spare footballer? And anyone following PW magazine recently will find the swimmer/diver strangely familiar!

Links

http://www.spiele-check.de/12147-Der_Sport-Vagabund.html

http://www.e-s-g.eu/Sammlungen/Verlage/Hausser.htm

T is for Two - O is for Oddities

As Hausser failed and was taken-over by Preiser in the late 1980's/early 1990's, a lot of interesting things appeared from the factory, which like the similar production of Walter Merten - found its way to feeBay and toy fair dealers, where I picked-up a few examples, two of which are the subject of today's T is for Two.

From the ACW range, these were marketed in a Preiser bag, but I suspect were meant for a tourist trinket/memento/keepsake contract, most likely with a US museum or battlefield site? Whether they ever made that contract too - I don't know, but I've not seen anything on-line which might be the result?

The rider and standard-bearer both have pre-printed fabric flags, the footman having a 36-star version which dates him specifically to 1965-67 (ten years prior to the last stand?), while the mounted chap carries the guidon of the famous (infamous?) Custer's 'Seventh' (formed in '66). To whom are added marching and running officers and a drummer with separate drum.

The horse is moulded in a standard Hauser Elastolin horse colour, while the figures are moulded in a flesh plastic and four, late, marbled apple-green bases make-up the 'kit'.

These (outside pair - shot with two bog-standard figures for comparison) have also turned-up with a full over-spray in gold, again one suspects touristy stuff, glued to plinths or sold in little clear-plastic tubes maybe, but equally they could be aimed at the cake-decoration trade, and again I have no idea whether they ever made it to either job, or were only sold as factory clearance, representing a failed idea?

I stripped a couple of duplicates - so far only the two poses found by me, one Norman and one Turk, all of which are manufactured in yellow plastic (best base for gold), including the separate, glued-on bases - which has some bearing on another article in this sequence.

R is for Return . . . to Romans

We've seen these before here; on the Roman page (where I think they are waiting for blurb!) with their anachronistic card-art, and possibly in a rack-toy month, but having found another header-card set and got the loose figures out of storage, it's time to look at them again, and a few others of similar ilk - Hong Kong/Macau clone'ery!

Not the largest sample but it meets the purpose; there seem to have been three generations of these, the gold/silver ones which were mostly (all?) rack-toys in the 1960/70's, a set of muted colours (Christmas cracker/capsule-toy contents) through the 1970/80's and an issue in 'neon' or electric colours which were quite common as handfuls in the early days of evilBay and must date from the late 1980's/1990's, probably from similar cracker/capsule origins, or - from the bulk findings; those Maltese festival 'window-throws'.

The emerald green figure (in the little bag) was the first of these I found back in the early 1990's (it's the running pose), and I have glued him back together once or twice, but he has the consistency of candle-wax, so I hang on to the pieces for loyalties sake, or until a similar coloured sample turns-up with a bit more backbone! If I chucked him I'd be unable to show he came in that colour - it's how the collection works!

There are minor differences in the bases, with the early metallic figures having their mould-release pin-marks as punched-through holes, the mid-era figures have a slighter 'dink', while the late, bright-coloured ones have barely a sign of the pin, or no visible showing at all. It would seem that the release-pins were a separate process, possibly triggered by hand, or by hand in the early days of the tools life, with some operators forcing them through the still soft plastic, later batches showing more finesse in the phase application!

Compared with other HK clones, they (pink one) are the smallest, and were probably copied from the Elastolin 40mm figures as would the lollipop figures (orange brown one)* have been, after the original figures (far right and middle of bottom row) are the not Hong Kong, but 'Made in Macau' figures in gold and silver polyethylene.

These were probably copied from the 70mm figures, pantographed down to 50mm, but could have been grown from the 40mm Hausser originals. I'm not sure if the painted fighter is home- or factory- paint, but overall they have the makings of cake decorations, although I think they were carded rack-toys in France?

*This is one I think is probably not the Platicom/Soldabar series, but rather, another similar lolly-stick sweet-with-prize issuer as we saw here a while back with the contributions from Konrad Lesiak in Poland; it has the hole, but without the collar and with a smaller, more-oblong base. My sample is also a bit heat shrunk from early removal from the tool. - On the subject of which; there is a section on the Plasticom figures coming to the Khaki Infantry page with new poses courtesy of Chris Smith as soon as I get the blurb sorted!

These (upper figure) were also sold in France (by Jouets Super Plastics?) imported from/via Portugal (by Injectaplastic) as carded sets and are also believed to be from Macau in origin, this one was given to me by Peter Evans many years ago, and is missing what looks to be a polystyrene weapon - probably made soft at the hand-hold by the actions of the free-radicals in the dense PVC, the same thing you see with early tracks on Airfix AFV kits. Below is an Elastolin 40mm original for comparison.

H is for Hausser's Homage to Half-n-Half's

A bit of a box-ticker today, a quick over-view of Elastolin swoppets or 'Steckfiguren' (stackable figures) as they are called over there; where 'The 27' will continue to forge competitive trade deals with the likes of Japan and China, while we get used to 96 new pesticides and chlorinated chicken - lovely!

It's only an overview as I have a mere eight figures myself and one of them's got a question mark over his weapon . . .

. . . the second figure from the left here. The 'European Theatre' figures, possibly meant to be NATO forces or US GI's, they have a mix of vaguely post-war weaponry, vaguely WWII German webbing and vaguely British 'Battle-dress', although the struggling German war economy of 1944 had adopted copies of the battle dress for their forces, so they can be WWII from that point, but these aren't Germans, we'll get to them in a minute!

Helmets are US M1/'NATO-standard', so I think of them as US, although the third guy along from the left is carrying something closely equating to the EM2, looked at here in the past. Of my eight, six came in their separate little bags, two didn't and the second figure here seems to have a non-Elastolin weapon and to have stolen his base from an Afrika Korps-man!

The 'German Infantry' looking a bit too-grey, and far too-Nazi; with their black helmets, of all the swoppets of the 1960's and '70's (these were late to the party), the Elastolin ones are among the least-accurate, but (as you would expect with Hausser) well engineered and quite animated.

The DAK get solar toupees (so we know exactly who they are and where they are fighting!) and red-brown webbing, the grenade is an odd design; very small and easy to lose, while both the grenadier and officer can hold something in their other hands but I forgot to borrow weapons from the others before photographing them!

I'd forgotten to borrow weapons when shooting the others to, and here we see the radioman given a Mauser rifle!

The rifle is a good representation of the original, while the 'EM2' is a bit long, the extra length being in the foregrip - I suspect it's trying to be a G3, but it's neither really! The AK-lookalike is obviously not Elastolin, but as I don't know - offhand - where it came from/belongs, and as it's needed by one of the figures, I keep it with him - for now!

The grenade is a 'pineapple' type fragmentation grenade, the bazooka and pistol are both simplified and the walkie-talkie is of US design-influence. Sold from shop-stock/counter-display boxes, each figure has a little bag to live in and they are clearly marked on the base-underside Germany which means - for the PSTSM's TJF - that they must be Italian (link) but not Nardi!

While I was photographing the GI's the DAK recce-patrol was laid-waste by a dessert rat, but a dessert rat who would happily eat real dessert rats for breakfast!

Secrets of Small Scale World's photography, number 347; Laundry day provides a range of new backgrounds prior to folding and putting-away - Elastolin Swoppets get the t-shirts; green-wash!