B is for Big Blue Bellend!

But no Tech-bro' Origin! It's funny, an hour ago I was being sandblasted by warm, horizontal rain, every time I got out of the wagon, and I had to hold the door with both hands to stop it being ripped-back against its hinges, now it's as still out there, as the hour before the heat-death of the universe! How do you get warm rain in December? Oh, that's right, the end of the world, which nobody can be arsed to prevent!

 

I couldn't resist this, at November's Sandown Park show, which, it turned-out, was being sold by 'Ferryman', better known from another Blog, it was he who talked me into than gilded guppy-bus last show, and when we realised who we were, we had a quick chat, and I bought a little machine as well, which will be in the more conventional plunder posts in a few days, but I couldn't resist this, to add to my two German ones!

 

It looks like a giant firework! This is actually my second, I'd forgotten I already had one branded to Lyvia, which, from the artwork, is a slightly later issue. Although it looks like that one may be sunlight discoloured while this one is more of a minter.

 

Unlike the German corporate promotional's, with their simple slots, this one has a fancy mechanism for firing the coins into the domed head of the rocket, from whence they will fall down the shaft. The only trouble is that I don't know the combination, and while with only two discs it should only be 100 possibles, they are very stiff, and it could take hours to crack!

L is for Last May's Lots of Lovely Loot - Dr. Barnado's Collecting House

One of the odder things to have happened at a show, where coincidence often occurs, or things you are only half looking for, happen to turn up was, my purchase of this little piece of social history, manufactured in papier-mâché, it's actually survived remarkably well. Scaled to a vague 25/30mm and sitting well'ish with Airfix'x old Lineside houses - the Dr. Barnardo's collection-box!

Sadly a victim of the development (under Thatcher and the post-thatcher years) of a propensity to steal these, or similar collection vessels from counter tops, by swiping. You won't find any survivors still in use now, but when I was a kid, these were pretty ubiquitous, often sharing shelf or counter space with the collection 'jars' of several other charity causes. The few survivors tend to be substantial plastic, chained to the counter or a nearby wall, and usually a lone/chosen cause per-premises!

I wanted one because of the cross-over with the Britains Lilliput and other scenic accessories, by W. Horton (or Hugar?) and had just been discussing with Adrian, Christian and Gareth, the fact that I had been looking for one, without luck, for years, and that I'd never found one on evilBay, when I saw this (literally, seconds later) near-perfect one on Ann Evan's table for a reasonable sum, and immediately grabbed it, expecting the gods to tap me on the shoulder and demand their pound of flesh!

V is for Von Braun's Vergeltungsparschwein!

Half WWII German A4/V2, half Tin-Tin, and all piggy-wiggy-bank! I would have sent it to someone else, as a bit outside my remit, but they eschewed my input with their own actions, and my remit has changed, so we will see more of this stuff and other things beside, so much to catch-up on!

Shelfie taken in TKMaxx just before the main Christmas decoration display went-in, mid-November, at which point they were displaced, but may be back there now, they weren't cheap though, or I would have taken the silver one, paint on the other was a bit hit-and-miss!

T is for Two - Novelty Vehicular Thingies!

Just a quickie, but as I was sorting stuff to put back into storage I was shooting all sorts of old friends and things I'd forgotten I had, and batch throwing them on Picasa against the possibility of being stuck somewhere in the near future, possibly for months, house-hunting, while everything is in the said storage; these are two of the things I'd totally forgotten being the owner of, and, while 'only' novelties, they are both quite cool from a toy soldier perspective!

We get used to seeing the Award, Grace or Star branded wagons - copied from European originals, typically Timpo or Britains - on feebleBay from time to time, but how about a money-box!

Imported by a D.A.S. of London in an otherwise un-branded/generic packaging. I think this is (or was) quite recent, from the CE mark; 1980's or 90's maybe, I also suspect it was a charity-shop purchase, but can't actually remember where it came from or when, one of those last Birmingham shows, 2011?

She looks a tad Britains in origin, he . . . Elastolin medieval? The whole wagon (with figures) is in hard polystyrene with 'propylene wheels and horses and an 'ethylene plug to release the savings, hopefully to buy another wagon!

It would benefit from a 'paint down' from the current scheme of psychedelic puke! Obviously, painted or not, it's wholly compatible with 50-60mm war gaming or figure collections which is why it's in mine!

While this is more geared toward H0 or 00-compatible war-gaming collections, for which a coat of grey or olive-green would be the minimum requirement! No branding at all beyond the CF stock code prefix, it's a fun thing with two forms of power/locomotion.

Verging on 'shelf' or 'big-box' toy rather than rack-toy, it would have been rack toy budgeted I suspect and it's possibly a bit earlier than the wagon above - late 1970's? It may - of course - have been an overpriced element of the Hoverspeed gift-shop/duty-free exercise? I well remember the piles of Airfix ferry models at the Purser's window of the Enterprise Spirit class ferries we used to get - now a much sought-after kit!

A pair of batteries in the body drive a vibrating mechanism ("Oh Matron!") which causes the brushes to move the hovercraft (Saunders-Roe SR-N4 Mountbatten Class) across smooth or flat surfaces, while a secondary single battery-motor of a pretty standard slot-on design (dozens of toys came with them when I was a kid) will drive it round the local pond, boating lake or bath!

That's it, a couple of boxed-items, box-ticked!

H is for How They Come In - Week 18 - 2 Other Military

We're starting with the money box (known as money banks over the pond), which doubles as a 'bissquit' tin, well, it's primary goal is one of protecting biscuits, the saving of money is the novelty 'added value' afterthought!

I did send this to Moonbase's recent season on the subject, which continues apace with a tram added the other day (I might have a bus somewhere, but buried deep in the garage I fear) , however and in the meantime I had found out a little more about it, so we'll have another look now!

I wondered from the shape if it might have contained the dry crackers for cheese, but on reflection suspect it may have been shortbread, aimed at the tourist market, it obviously bearing the likenesses of several ceremonially-attired British troops, namely a Coldstream Guardsman (paired buttons), Royal Marine bandsman/drummer, a Yoman Warder 'Beefeater' from the 'white' Tower of London and a member of the ceremonial 'Kings Troop' of the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA).

Issued by Huntley & Palmer, a local firm here, down the road in Reading (I well remember the smell!)* it is apparently the third in a series, issued in 1971 it followed the pattern of tins originally issued in 1910 and 1914 (hence the 'apparently', it's such a big gap to the third design, one feels there may have been interim designs?).

*Reading had two smells when I was a kid, the H&P factory's wonderful baking sugar and bread smells and - in the centre of town - the sour, stick-in-your-throat smells of the brewery!

The plastic roof was the innovation on the 1971 version, as was the money-slot and all three sentry boxes are on Reading Museum's website (which is why I suddenly know so much about them!) and the earlier two can be seen here;

1910 - Huntley & Palmer's tin - Sentry Box

1914 - Huntley & Palmer's tin - Sentry Box

I've had an email exchange with Matthew Williams at the museum, and after lockdown they will look at adding images of the other sides of the tins, as while it will be interesting to see who's on the other sides of the 1910 tin, more interesting will be who - if anyone - replaces Germany on the 1914 tin?

[06-06-2020 - In fact the notes have already been updated to reflect that fact, Germany was replaced with Belgium! But the RHA is still described as a Hussar. Oh, and it's the 76th anniversary of D-Day today!]

The marking however, is an HBS, which was for many years an independent 'arm' of the biscuit makers started and run by one of the sons; Huntley, Boorne and Stevens, although eventually it was brought in-house, it will - for half a century or more - have also supplied tins and tin-plate goods/components to other customers around Britain and across the 'Empire' - as was.

Other ceremonial or historical figures in Chris's donation include the large guardsman who goes with the previously seen Guards officer and RHA trooper, but this time is based with the full set of Tringa Toy marks including a date; 2004, showing how quickly things which are 'It's still in the shops' current production, become 'Blimey, it's over 15 years old' collectables, purly by dint of the inexorable march of time!

He's missing what I have half a recollection was an SA80, and I think I may have one in the loose weapons zone, from another mixed lot as some point? If I can marry them up we'll have another look at them all-together, as they (three and a sentry box) have all been donated to the Blog (Chris Smith and Peter Evans) for showing to you, loyal readers!

Due only to the delay in getting these posts out, we now know - from the recent plumping of Plastic Warrior magazine No.179 onto our door-mats that the Herald clones are from the Argentine company Oklahoma, we looked at another a while ago (from Adrian I think - another officer with sword?), however, the mag' shows the ACW bugler was also given the Argentinian Army make-over!

The other three are an Esci gunner, a small Highlander 'mocherette' and another Highlander, who may have been removed from a pop-up toy and wired, but Chris suggested he may be an old, damaged earring? I think there's millage in that.

Medievals; Both Chris and I suspect Poland for the rider, the under-paint polemer is very 'Polish' and I have a memory of seeing plain, gold-paint foot figures attributed to Poland somewhere? The little guy may be a war-gaming figure, but I suspect either a board game or a touristy thing; another 'mocherette' anyway! While the archer is Wild Republic (K&M).

I placed him on a spare horse - also in Chris's donation, and if you think the angles poor for getting a handle on the horse, we'll look at it again in the Wild West shots! It's not the rider's horse, but looks the part of a tough little steppe-pony!

Many, many-thanks again to Chris for sending us all these and next-up; Wild West, Prehistoric and Civilians!

F is for Follow-up - Cap-Bombs & Rocketry

So, we looked at cap-bombs the other day and I said there were a few still in the attic, but the brown one with a yellow spaceman seems to have been totally lost being in none of the places it might have been? And apart from the missing one there was only one other and a buckshee tail-section, but the whole one is different to the others so worth a shot or two.

It has an internal anvil, and exhaust venturi, which as they face forward would/could be seen as retro-rockets on an interspatial vessel! It needed a good clean and I used cotton-buds to remove the rusty gunk from the interior and an old flossing-brush to clean the venturi!

There's nothing to hold a cap or a section of cap 'tape' in place, so I suspect it was designed and/or issued with the plastic-drum caps in strips to place over the end of the hammer-bar. The anvil-plate seems to be set into the plastic, but it's very rusty so I'm not about to shove it around or pick at it to prove or disprove the suspicion!

And, if you're one of the older loyal readers of this blog it may look familiar to you; because it's a copy of the Merit (J&L Randall) one we saw here.

Before it was cleaned up (crap shot - sorry!), it's somewhere between the two common'ish sizes we looked at last time, and has a screw-cap where they had pop-on ones. In the comparison below we see the odd part in dark-olive, they all go in the tub together, and as bits which fit come-in they get put with each-other.

The two on the left are not cap-firers, but rubber-tipped projectiles. The smaller red one being from the rail-mounted 'Battle Space' launcher from Rovex Tri-Ang/Hornby-Triang, it replaced a short-lived die-cast alloy version (also with a rubber nose, but in oxide red).

The yellow one is annoying me as I'm sure I know (or should know) its origin or have ID'd its brand/maker in the past - possibly on this Blog - but I can't find it on the Blog, can't find it in the archives and can't find it on-line, so if you can tell me - kudos to you! Is it ammunition from a 'One Man Army' type thing?

An old internet image (possibly Vectis?) it's a bit fuzzy but you get the idea and we looked at mine years ago (over a decade ago! And I now know the yellow one in that post!), the real aim here is to use the connection of this and the 'unknown' yellow one to get us to this . . .

. . . sent to the Blog by Mr Berke, it's mintier than a minty-mint 'minter' from the Royal Mint! Crescent's rocket launcher; which carries a cap-bomb of epic dimensions, with a fully die-cast nose/firing mechanism on a polyethylene body. This baby would take six or eight caps and detonate with quite a flash, having a much heavier rod that the other's we've looked at.

Unfortunately, because we abused them with large charges, the tiny elastic-band which kept the 'breech block' in place quickly failed and the little piece of mazac is often missing. We looked at the rarer desert variant here a while back, but a temperate/tropical unit was also available . . .

. . . and Brian sent one of those too! Although obviously a cap-bomb, it was originally sold as the Mobile Space Rocket in the red/green combo', with this version normally having a white plastic body for its Corporal Rocket & Lorry (the real corporal was longer and thinner) and the 'civil' coloured truck carrying the yellow bodied rocket.

I thought we'd seen my paint stripped one on the blog, but I can't find it either, not can I find the HK copy's post, but I did re-show it (if I'd shown it at all? Maybe a show-report?) in this post, it's all plastic with a no-cap missile copied from another (Corgi) toy.

Going back a post (from the earlier link) Mr. B also sent this to compliment the spring-loaded rocket launchers of that post, it's the MPC rocket launcher, which is supposed to be rubber-band operated.

Although when I say rubber-band operated, Brian couldn't get it to work so I turned to Ed Berg (who has just Blogged the whole MPC space range) and asked him for help (or the instruction sheet), but he explained he had just as much trouble trying to get them to work, but told us how it should be done and Brian had another stab at it.

But - basically - it seems the rocket gets a little too comfortable in its mounting slot/groove and sticks fast, clearly the rocket designer and/or the launch-pad designer and the tool's 'pattern maker' weren't talking to each other with the clarity necessary? Or the  rubber-band 'interactivity' was a late addition to the toy's features? But it looks the part!

The gang at Moonbase have been running a Money Box Season through lockdown (among all their other stuff!) and I sent my German BAC Spaarraket's over there, so follow the jump for more on them or this link for loads of money boxes (banks), including at least four other rocket types, a spaceman, several globes &etc.

 

It seems BAC Spaarbank is actually a Belgian entity, part of the [now] Dexia combine, previously; Gemeentekrediet van België / Crédit Communal de Belgique

 

Three months later - and it's nice to see Collectors Gazette were paying attention!

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On another matter altogether, the Police Commissioner for Durham has just accused Grant Chapps (Transport Secretary) of "Making it up as he goes along" with regard to Dominic Cumming's shenanigans over the Covid-19 Lock-down . . . well, fancy that, fancy populist fuckwitts on the right making it up as they go along! History will reflect more kindly on my whitterings that mine 'eemies'! Have you injected your dose of loo-cleaner today?!

B is for Bonus Beefeaters!

When I did a round-up of Beefeaters the other day, well; earlier this year (I don't know where the time goes!), I meant to add the last pair of shots from this post, but in my usual disorganised fashion managed to forget them! Anyway, they would have rotted in Picacsa for another year or two (I took them in 2016!) if I hadn't spotted the first item in today's post the other day, and literally the other day, it arrived the day before the May-eleventh PW show.

How cool is this desktop pen holder? Not-very I know . . . it's a Hong Kong cheapie and the three pen-holders aren't even glued in-line and facing the same way! But the figure is nice, although a larger-scaled novelty which will only interest the more eclectic collectors, but then; I am one, and I snapped it up as soon as I saw it.

Box is a bit water-damaged, and as well as carrying the HCF mark of novelty tat (becoming a regular here at SSW), it also carries the originator's mark (AH or HA) on the end flaps, although not sadly in the catalogue Bill B recently posted online, but then it looks to be a 1970's item.

You can see from a comparison with the smaller Chris/Adrian figure - from the previous post - that he's around the 90mm mark, and he has a separate, soft polyethylene plug-in hat and a similar staff finial which is not the correct design for a Yeoman Warder's 'Partisan', yet neither is it the white tower or an obvious axe, nor does it resemble the halberds of the Gentlemen At Arms or anything from the ceremonial elements of the HAC, Artists Rifles and /or Loyal Archers (or whatever they're all called), so a bit of artistic licence there, I feel?

The left-off-the-last-post shots; a bit of vintage metal, with two hollow-cast Britains yeomen on the right and a Wendal figure in aluminium to the left. The latter having a slip-in wire partisan, the weapon's head being also cast in aluminium, with alternate base styles in the second image, while I think the sandy-coloured base is the earlier of the Britains pair.

Due to the tourism nature of their market, I don't think either are particularly rare examples of their maker's figures.

 

December 2024 - The smaller plastic figures are now known to be from a larger range by KT of Hong Kong, so it must have been copied by the other brands/brand-marks mentioned above, it's unlikely to have been copied the other way - from the larger one - as subsequent research has given the KT ones more age I feel?

F is for Flying Tiger Goes to Space!

A theme obvious at the Toy Fair in London last month was space; not the all-singing, all-dancing, enemy alien, interplanetary warfare, 'deep-space', space-opera type space, but 50-years since a small step, NASA moon-shot 'near-space' space!

The same theme was also in evidence on my last visit to Tiger, or Flying Tiger as they are now, camera was forthcoming, shelfies were taken and that's what we're looking at here!

Large astronaut erasers and I mean big; biggly-big, biggerer than a big-thing that's gone to university and had itself elected head of the Department of Bigness! Candy pink or a sort of dark ultramarine were on display, but I know that with the similar animals they've had the last few years, other colours tend to turn-up with re-stocks, so that may be the case with these, you can see they've obviously emptied a stock-box of pink and topped-up with blue!

Various novelty ball-point pens included an astronaut, I didn't buy one as it wouldn't make a stand-alone figure like the regency lady (courtesy of Peter Evans) I converted a year or two ago, due to the visible shaft between his legs . . . Matron! But if you are a novelty-pen collector, rather than a 'figurine' purist; there are three colours to find (that I know of), along with the alien (?) or fish in a bowl and Japanese ladies also visible.

To hold your novelty pen is this rocket pencil-case with a hinged hatch, it looks more like a booster rocket/fuel-tank than a proper Apollo series launch-vehicle, but the homage is there!

More space-related novelties including glow-in-the-dark ceiling decorations of planets with small stars or a packet of larger stars and a slime-filled rocket of more 1950's 'pulp' lines, in fact it looks a bit like the head section of Fireball XL5 - there's a project there for someone!

Plastic money-boxes of rather blunt rockets and weird space-alien monsters, I wasn't taken by these at all; the production values are fine, but the designs (and colours) are beyond kitsch and heading toward horrid, in my opinion!

Next to them were space-themed book-ends (which don't look heavy-enough to do their job) and a nice corner shelf in the shape of a rocket which does temp me - to make my own!

Finally and of no real interest to loyal readers, but photographed because they were there and covered in space imagery was one of those block-things which keep folding or unfolding into different pictures, they work like a Jacob's ladder . . . a bit!

Expect more and more space-stuff this year, both in the shops and on the Blog as we head toward the actual date, and I dare say the telly will be knee-deep it it.

1969 - increasingly looking like the high-point of human civilization, still striving for post-war liberal-democracy, striving for the stars, striving for peace, raising living standards . . . but Vietnam was grinding-on in the background, then came Thatcher, Regan, neocon 'Libertarian' psudo-economics, Afghanistan 1 (and 2) The Falklands, Nicaragua, big-hair and the Spice Girls, 9-11, four Gulf-wars, Internet porn and the Tellytubbies . . . I blame the Tellytubbies, horrid little monkey-faced Brwreakshitieers . . . Eh-ohh! A Mars-bar was 3d!

F is for Follow-up - Paint Your Own Toys

Just a quick one; following up on the Paint Your Own posts, Brian Berke sent me these last week, they are a bit cartoony, but then they are also piggy-banks, or Swineosaurus Geldii, as I believe paleontologists are wont to call them, and need to be fat to take all those pennies!

In Walgreen's as of last Tuesday; should you be fortunate enough to live where Walgreen operates! An excellent gift idea for younger relatives, and as they get older they can always repaint!

Brian also sent these a while ago as part of a mixed lot he was trying to ID, and while I couldn't help, I did suggest Paint Your Own sets, as I had just seen the sets I would later purchase for those posts the other week.

I took them (the pictures) home and had a better look (I struggle with images in Hotmail these days, partly down to limited time on the internet, partly down to the fact they make it as hard as possible to get them to show big enough!), spotted the 'CHINA' (on the rear of the left hand figure) and changed my mind, suggesting they were from a medieval play-set.

But now doing a bit of digging into these Paint Your Own sets (there's a fair few out there), I've changed my mind back to the possibility they are actually from a Paint Your Own set, possibly targeted at castles, museums and historical sites.

The Crescent 'Berserker' clearly booked his annual leave for the pre-Christmas period so there's an approximately 54mm ACW Union flag-bearer as a scaler.

Clearly medieval or early 'age of exploration', could they be from a Pilgrim Father's set, or touristy thingy of/from a US source, do you have them? How many poses were there in a set or what was the set called? Were there Local Indians in the set for the pioneers to trade with?

I found this (Kandy Toys) looking for something else the other day, and while they are more dinosaurs, it's further evidence that Paint Your Own sets are looking to be a rich vein for toy and model figures, animals and such like, have you found any useful ones? I've also seen Paint Your Own plaster figurines.

News, Views Etc . . . Toys in Advertising

Just a quick one; as I subjected you to nature this morning! Looking at a few cases of toys or toy-imagery used in commercial advertising to give the potential consumer (read; victim) either a warm comfy feeling or a twinge of nostalgia! My Brother who's a sort of accidental philosopher (and won't thank me for mentioning him here) stated with the logic of his age when he was about six "If you need to advertise it; it can't be that good?", to which I would add - with the cynicism of my age; if you need to use the warm glow of toys to sell it, it must be shite, which is probably why two of these involve finance!

NatWest have emptied the toy-box in their latest campaign!

This one is using a dinosaur given away on the front of a kid's comic/magazine about a year ago . . . I guess the add-agency just sent a runner to the corner-shop for their 'prop'!

Helping illustrate an article on savings in the Metro on 20th September is this family of piggy-wiggies!

Not a toy per se, but we do see the odd superhero here on the Blog and they do pertain to childhood/youth-culture, so worth a punt. Although I'm not sure Shopper Hero will save Andover from the number of empty-units in its precinct; matched only by the number of empty units in Newbury, Basingrad, Farnborough, Fleet, Camberley, Bracknell, Aldershot . . . and anywhere else I've shopped in the last few years!

Bracknell have just renamed their 'mall', Camberley has announced the third, forth? - I've lost count - facelift in recent years of its main shopping-centre, Aldershot has announced a rescue package, Basingrad is busy giving it’s a major facelift and Fleet managed to repaint the kick-boards at the bottom of the four columns, matt black, the other day!

None of which activity, mostly involving at least some local authority funds (taxpayer's money) will save any of these various high streets from the fact that the world's changed - and changed forever.

R is for Rocketry

A couple of poorish images for you in this post I'm afraid, but it gets a new tag in the list and clears some stuff from Picasa, so win-win for me!

I love this, branded to Lyvia, this Hong Kong made money-box has a mechanism which allows you to fire the coin into the cone, how long before it would crack the cone or knock it off is open to question, but what a fantastic, practical 'toy'! I also love it because it has a combination lock at the bottom; when I was a kid, I had a post-box money box, also made in Hong Kong, so there's a nostalgia hit in this. I occasionally see the post-box one on evilBay, but so far have managed to resist!

I never saw one of these when I was a kid, if I had some serious badgering and car-cleaning would have ensued! A forerunner of the modern Estes rockets, and slightly safer, this seems to rely on 'Epsom Salts' tablets and the instructions are interesting reading, comparing what was acceptable for sale as a plaything 40/50 years ago with what is acceptable today...