P is for Perfect Polymer Propine - Wild West

So we arrive at the Wild West section of Theo van de Weerden's lovely donation to the Blog, and there are some real treats here too, starting with the best thing in the box . . .

 

. . . the Koho Wigwam (Teepee / Tipi), unusually, for the era, a blow-moulded piece, looking like a Hong Kong-produced beach toy. And when I saw it, I was ever so pleased and eMailed Theo to the effect I'd chatted to someone about it a while ago, only for him to remind me that he was the co-respondent in that original exchange, and it was his photograph of this item, which I was remembering, from a follow-up post! I can't retain it all in my small head!

 

So, we have seen it before, but worth a second look, as it's actually quite fragile, in it's shopping bag thin material, and complicated moulding, and therefore probably quite a rare beast these days?

 

The Timpo Teepee, I used to think it was the 'late' version, but, in fact it was the counter top version, being to big/bulky for the boxed sets, and actually ran alongside the slot-together for many years, with the similar over-moulded design elements on the alternate sections.

 

Starlux Tipi in a hard polystyrene, I think this may be a later version, as I have seen heavier mouldings of the same tent, and it would seem the walls were thinned, with a wider male insert to the mould tool?

 

Theo also sent us his Koho figure sample which greatly enhances mine, and with one or two having come-in in odd lots, or from Chris Smith, since we last looked at them, when we return to them next (in a few years?!) it'll be a far more comprehensive post!

 

Britains spares.

 

These are useful, I think, in time, they, like those knights the other day, will turn-out to be ABC (or 'HK' or CMV), but it's a question of finding them marked, while they do turn-up in other packagings, either unmarked as generics, or with what are probably phantom brands?

 

And, like the 'Khaki Infantry' of those three otherwise unknown Hong Kong manufacturers, there are - across the set - Britains, Crescent and Lone Star copies found, in several versions, from full size with larger squared bases, through to very small ones with bulgy alien-eyes.

 

Three larger figures, middle is Cherilea, right is Hilco, and the guy on the left, crawling with rifle, has me stumped, one of the less common Jean's? Another Koho? Something European though, I'm pretty sure!

 

Two Crescent who may benefit from a repaint!

 

This is lovely and not that common, a Texas mounted Indian, while the foot figures are often found at UK shows, or on evilBay, the mounted figures are harder to find, and he's sitting on the donor horse for the small-scale Hong Kong one I call 'Mexican', which, while commonly associated with Giant, was also a wagon-puller for several brands (such as WHC/Success and MPC) for years after the demise of Giant.

 

A couple of Swoppet parts, neither of which is immediately obvious to me, but there is a large box full of minor makes, unknown and Hong Kong samples, and I'm sure these will prove useful in helping complete stuff in that box. Is it late Elastolin legs, and . . . a French-made hat?

 

Many thanks again, to Theo, for all these, as I'm always keen to say in these contribution posts, it's all useful, helpful, and grist to the mill of the 'bigger picture' and all gratefully received.

P is for Perfect Polymer Propine - Military

Apparently it's Scottish for 'sacrifice'! Theo, long-time friend of the Blog, has had personal tragedies recently, putting my own firmly into context, as a result of which he divested himself of his collection, but saved a few items of interest for the Blog, which arrived a while ago and have been sat on the laptop waiting for me to get a grip and post them, and, while I'd describe my grip as only tenuous, with many thanks to Theo, I'll try to get them posted over the next few days, interspersing them with a few new-purchase rack toys, to mix it up!

 

These were a real surprise, as they often turn up, but scruffy and weaponless, and usually only two poses, so to get three poses, with weapons and good-to-new paint was a real treat, and they were on top of the parcel, so got shot first!

 

And, these were with them, four different mounted figures in a similar state of near-new! Again, I may have seen the bowman, tatty, a few times but not the others, and like the foot figures, all are based on the Britains Swoppets, but you feel, probably hand-copied rather than anything as accurate as a pantograph?

 

9th Aug. - Peter Evan has suggested ABC for these, they are unmarked but could be, and I've posted a marked one on foot, ages ago, he also pointed out that the mounted legs are from the Herald Agamemnon, and you can see the sandals and greaves!

 

This may be the horse for the above, the other likely candidate would be the Timpo-copy with caparison (as found in the 'States in Ideal playsets), but I think they only have Timpo-copy riders. This one is a scale-down of the big Thomas/Poplar sculpt.

 

These are a useful addition to the Crescent Roman piracies, especially the chap far left and far right, who is one of the three Gladiator poses, and was missing when we looked at them last time, although I have an all-blue HK copy of the pose. It struck me that he would go well with the Charbens ancient set!

 

Marx 'swoppet' GI's, a real treat! I do have one somewhere, and a bag of bits, but there are three complete, here, sans one weapon, a B.A.R. I think, but at some point in the future it's going to enable a single photo of all the possible combinations!

 

An actual Crescent Roman! A damaged Cherilea knight, who may be the basis of a future conversion, he only needs a weapon to replace the missing lance, and one of many French 'bazaar' figures, or at least I think he's French (Koho, thanks to Theo - https://www.lastdodo.nl/nl/areas/4866119-koch-hofmockel-koho), and a bazaar issue, and he'll be sorted into the rest when they all come together, soon I hope, but I've been saying that since 2021!

Nardi and Lone Star, paint is good on both of them, and finding the Lone Star figure with complete spear is getting rarer, one of mine broke after the last photo-shoot, so being sent one and having him survive the postal services of Europe is another treat!

 

Three Cherilea; 54mm, 60mm and, err, gi'huge!

 

Two Tim Mee European issue, a nice Cherilea 60mm swoppet, first version with the separate boots, and four more of the smaller Monogram copies from Hong Kong, which will be filtered into a larger sample of them, for a definitive article one day, we had an interim look at them here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2016/08/m-is-for-monograms-men-made-much_10.html

 

with another set looked at here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2021/08/t-is-for-two-khaki-infantry-rack-toys.html

 

And, it's the large number of variants of these Hong Kong knock-off figures, which makes all samples so useful, toward finding the full story of them, one day!

 

I can never remember who these are by (and I've been told often enough!), with scabards and base markings they are Timpo 1st version, but with plain belts and smooth bases they are . . . Charbens, Speedwell . . . someone like that?

 

Finishing off with a lovely, clean sample of the CMV-marked Hong Kong copies of 'khaki infantry' from old Britains Herald, Lone Star and Crescent sculpts, so clean they look like they were made this morning! Thank you, Theo, sorry it's taken so long to get them posted!

Q is for Question Time - F is for Four Fierce Freebies and other Feathered Fellows

A bit of a follow-up to the previous post because for many years I had this chap . . .

How it nearly looked the other day!

. . . in the same bag as the Hong Kong chromium-coated Crescent chaps we saw the other day, as he looked to be a well finger-worn member of the same clan, but in fact he belonged somewhere else and is actually just marbled in grey and purple with a slightly metallic sheen.

He's actually a Clairet-copy, previously issued (from the manufacture) as a Nestlé premium at some point and copied by Starlux in more than one version. As far as I know both French 'commercial' types are based, rather than the tripod arrangement of this chap, while the Starlux have the left forearm raised (Indian doing 'How', backwoodsman holding an European pipe) and a taller, thiner log-seat, but this chap is a mystery to me.

Also and because I thought he went with those HK 'plated' chaps I'd assumed (never x-assume and all else my very great friend!) he was polystyrene, but I now suspect . . .

. . . that he belongs with these other three? They too had been mis-christened, and were in with the Koho's (also seen here recently) as the bases are similar, but more have turned-up now and all in the same subdued/darker colours, so I think they are separate.

The kneeling guy is a copy of a Linde coffee premium, while I think the running guy is taken from another (to Clairet) French make? I have seven or eight now (already put away!) but only the four poses and the same shades of cooked and uncooked meat! I suspect they are all premiums of some kind, probably French or one of the Low Country's (someone tell TJF that's a geographical reference, not a 'racist' epithet!), and I would love to know more about them?

In the meantime [this was supposed to follow-up on the Crescent post the other day but for a bunch of reasons the best part of three weeks have gone-by!] I have picked up an actual Koho pose (previously show to us here - as Koho - by Theo van der Weerden), but not in Koho's cloth, being clearly marked MIR, French laundry powder (and there's a couple more here).

The green one, which in common with the 'meaty' ones also looks (from the neat, thinnish, ovoid, parallel-sided base) like it could be Koho, also isn't! It's actually one of the old Siku sculpts (issued in various guises and two sizes), but is manufactured in soft plastic, and has more in common with those polyethylene copies/issues of the Lido 'Captain Video' figures we saw here . . . earlier this year? I mention that only as it may prove in the future to have been a clue as to who is/was producing these apparently modem soft plastic copies of old 1950's stuff?

A close-up of the mark, no doubts as to this one's origins, the figure is half-ruined by the mark - slap-bang in the center of his chest!

He is however a better 54mm than the Koho-proper's in my collection being halfway between their 40 and 70mm.

A bitty post, but hopefully of some interest?

F is for Follow-up - Koho Wild West

I lied! When I said I'd found some other Koho's in the sort-out after taking the shots the other day I think I stated it was another of the larger and two of the smaller which had turned-up, but it was the other way round; with two of the 70mm and a 40mm coming out of the pile!

So, sorry for that clear attempt to deceive with a wild invention, but anyway, and in the meantime reader Theo van der Weerden found a few figures and something even more interesting, so let's have a check back at 'chez' Koch und Hofmockel's Wild West figures now . . .

Two 70mm figures to accompany my painted Calamity Jane; both native Americans and one armed with a Winchester, so she won't be getting her lebensraum with any ease! They are both slightly flat in sculpting, which probably has more to do with the ease of production than any deleiberate look back at earlier 'flats'; Calamity herself had both hands pushed forward, so although she has a similar base, she lacks the more-obvious two-dimensionality.

Theo provides a third pose of Indian and the larger version of the smaller cowboy we saw the other day and - in the right hand pair - a new plastic colour. There is more detail to the larger figures, with finer etched detail on the cowboy's hems and scarf, but the large mould release-pin mark mars the figure slightly, visible on the chest of the Indian, there is almost certainly one on the back of the cowboys, as all mine - in both sizes - suffer from them.

Nothing exciting; a new colour, he seems to match Theo's cowboy in being a slightly heliotrope red, but I can't say for sure, mine is sun-faded and photography can play havoc with true-colour! Again; the larger manufacturing mark on his back, and I feel this figure is more central or South-American in detailing?

This - also from Theo - is lovely! It's a blow-moulded Teepee (Tipi)! The flap of the entrance being cleverly contrived along the join line, but with the pole-bundle reduced to a decorative finial, by the limitations of the technique. If anyone has a spare one of these, it's gone to the top of my 'wants' list, despite the 'infant toy' look . . . or - perhaps - because if it!

Reverses of all mine, just to get another image up here . . . quite an unsung maker; Koho, despite being in there with the whole Jean-Big-Dom-Manurba-Heinerle band of Wundertüten suppliers, and possibly sharing a sculptor with Leyla?

And many thanks to Theo for the new information.

M is for Marx's Mardy Misses

Or; technically, W is for Wild Western Women, as two of them aren't Marx! And several are re-issues.

As loyal readers know I didn't start collecting large scale (apart from a composition Cossack, Tim Mee Jap' and a couple of hollow-cast on display in my old kitchen) until after I started the blog back in 2009/10, so I've only been at this 'full-on' malarkey for a decade, but I seem to have picked-up a few Wild West women and when I was sorting the Wild West a couple'o months ago, I shot some of them together before splitting them up.

Not only are they mostly Marx, they are mostly Dale Evans . . . how boring! No, but several of them are, and from the left we have;

Marx 60mm Dale Evans - Roy Rogers [early] Playsets - PVC vinyl-rubber*

Marx 54mm Dale Evans - Roy Rogers [late] Playsets - polyethylene, earlier, painted

Marx 54mm Dale Evans - Roy Rogers [late] Playsets - polyethylene, re-issue

Marx 54mm Dale Evans - Roy Rogers [late] Playsets - polyethylene, re-issue

Koho 70mm Calamity Jane - polyethylene, early, painted

Marksmen 60mm - ex-Marx Town - polyethylene re-issue (via Rado/Ri-Toys)

Marx 60mm Townswoman - Town sets - chalky polyethylene (Swansea?)

Marx 60mm Cowgirl - Ranch Cowboys - polyethylene (re-issue?)**

Marx 60mm Cowgirl - Special Town + Sets - PVC vinyl-rubber (paint may be home-added)

*early version, later mouldings had an added base/stand

** I don't know what she's supposed to ride but she fits several of my hippo's and a extra-large lion!

I also have this poor casualty, and she's a casualty twice-over having been apparently sculpted as a casualty, and then lost a hand and a foot due to the brittleness of the material coupled with rough handling!

I am assuming she's a [Ron] Barzo piece, being sculpted in a two-part epoxy/PU-resin, but she could be a garage/aftermarket or home-sculpted piece? If Barzo she may be a one-per-box from one from his big boxed play sets? Not that she is definitely Wild West even; he did many other 'horse & musket' periods/theatres including pirates?

In the searching for the Koho (Koch und Hofmockel) babe's details I managed to ID two others, both from the smaller 54mm line, and after this shot was taken a yellow 60mm Indian with lance turned-up, along with another 54mm cowboy, same pose, so; another growing corner of the collection!

Some cruder-looking versions of the 54mm were issued in France as premiums by Jeunesse, who are still going in the health & beauty market which makes the issue of Wild West figures a strange promotion in any age, you'd expect something like costume dolls from the sexism that drove 1950/60's marketing; maybe they launched an aftershave or men's deodorant, or something like that? Kid's bubble-bath or toothpaste?

M is for Manurba's Miniature Military Men

Or; T is for Tallon's Terribly Tiny Toy Troops!

Depending upon the order all these 'stockpiled' articles get published, you may by now have realised that I shot some of the German plastic over the last few weeks, among which was these intermediate scale chaps, in a sort of NATO/generic 'army man' US-G.I. style.

Eight poses including two baseless figures, one kneeling, one prone and not much fighting being done . . . but then there's only four M1 carbines and three [holstered] pistols between them. A sign of the genuine unpopularity of 'war toys' in the post-war Germany; although not quite earning - the rumoured - full ban, it was nevertheless an unpopular subject.

Sharing base designs quite similar to what little I know of Koho's output, these have been attributed to Manurba (so BIG-branded play sets and Wundertüten too?), while over here, in the UK, they appeared in Tallon packaging, as a small-bagged, pocket-money, rack-toy line.

Possibly an early painted version, but I suspect home-painting; those headphones are drawn-in too finely! Commonest in green, the second most common are the grey ones, with other-colour versions also out there - as seen above.

About 20% or one-in-five of all found examples are marked 'Made in west Germany' and the lack of marking on same-poses suggests a multiple cavity mould-tool, at least three of each with no marked kneeling or prone figures. You can also see that while the grey is pretty constant (there are a few darker ones) the green can vary considerably from a yellow-olive to a dark olive-drab.

T is for Totem Pole

One of my 'side collections', like trees, all totem poles are far too small for the figures they are issued with, so actually some of the best - height wise - for 1:76/72 scale figures are the poles issued with 54mm figures, although if you include realism, the only ones that come close out of all those below are the first one from Playmobile/Fisher Price/Exin, the Reisler and the second two from the left in the second photograph (unknown and Greg Wolf). All we need now are decent Northern or Backwoods/Woodland Indians to dance round them, as they have all been issued with Great Plains or Southern Indians who never used them!!!

Left to Right;
Playmobil, unknown european polystyrene (probably French), Labere School, unknown tourist item from Canada, Reisler, Commansi/Novalinea

Atlantic 1:32 (see 1:72 below), unknown - Marx re-issue?, Greg Wolf - "Handcrafted in Canada", Modern "China", two piracy's of the Britains pole, Feu Orange air-freshener - possibly made by Brevete S.G.D.G.?

Cherilea 60mm (See 54mm below), Britains piracy, Britains Herald - late polystyrene, Timpo, Timpo colour variant, Britains Piracy, Timpo Piracy.

Britains piracy, Unknown, Timpo Piracy, Two different unknown cereal giveaways (came on small sprues with other scenic items), unknown european vinyl - possibly Koho or German Marx late production, Charbens, Cherilea 54mm (see 60mm above), unknown metal - possibly also Cherilea?

Factory painted Korona Imperial giveaway, unpainted Jean original of previous pole, two Britains piracy's, Speedwell/Trojan/Kentoys/Hill?, modern vinyl from micro-machine type playset - Hong Kong/China, Marx - Miniature Masterpiece, two Atlantic 1:72 (see 1:32 above).

Notable absentee is a Britains original from the Swoppit/early Herald era, It's around somewhere with a few more big ones, but I can't find where I hid them! It came in two versions (big ovoid and smaller round base) and many colour variations, both base plastic colour and paint-job.

Baravelli Indians have been used as a size comparison, they are both piracy's of Airfix mounted Indians who have been given bases.