S is for Seen Elswhere - 40mm Comansi / Novalinea

These were not only seen elsewhere - on the intermawebby thing - recently, but are the shots (in colour) which illustrated my (black & white) article in One Inch Warrior magazine about . . . err . . . 20-years ago? I really don't know where the time goes, but I suspect Hell has played it's part in stealing the hours, days and years! Only scans, and lowish-res', so captions, rather than full blurb, they'll be looked at properly, again, another day.

 

Long boxes, I believe these were saved from a damp shed in Malta (?) or Cyprus, by that stalwart finder of nice things, Mike Harding, back in the early 1990's.

 

The box art from the three of them.

 

Loose figures as found in the sets, unpainted examples are from the later Novalinea branded sets, painted will be Comansi issued.

 

Horses, Indians get a quiver of arrows,

cowboys and cavalry get a sheathed rifle.

Accessories are the same as for the 54mm range.

Except the Teepee / Ti-Pi / Wigwam, which is downscaled.

 

Both sides of a flyer, which came in a larger set.

This was in the tub my loose samples came from, it went the way of all flesh, being very discoloured and brittle.

Comparison between the Novalinea box and one of Esci's classic red-box sets, a clear attempt to impersonate and (given the contents) mislead. And a bit naughty as Franco died in 1976, while Spain would join the EU in 1986, so there wasn't the 'Franco / dictatorship' excuse of being 'out in the cold' to justify such piracy against a near-neighbour?

Base marking of the 40mm figures.

I'll do a better job in the future with photography!

The Yolanda mark is the same 'Saloon' font, in the same 'TV' frame!

This was the label from a tub of 54mm figures, and the reverse of the sheet shows it to have been recycled from the Thunderbirds line, which included new character figures and some of the earlier Ovni ("UFO") space figures reconfigured as 'red-shirt' army-builders!

B is for Bobbing Bunny!

We've seen bobbing tanks here several times in two designs, but this came-in with a mixed lot of mostly British/Canadian 'dime-store' type plastics, and I'd forgotten all about it until someone came round the other day and we were going through them, indeed, if it hadn't been for that visit and Brian's kindness a few days ago there would have been no seasonal stuff here today at all!

In fact I got two mixed-lots recently, this is both lots together, some (from Mercator Trading) have been seen here in the past, others haven't, and a similar-sized lot came from a charity-lot on feebleBay, among which was the target of this post.

I know I've spelt probably incorrectly - Doh! And the wreaker-truck turned-out to have faint PP's on the wheel-hubs so is another Poplar, but the motorcycle-rider is PVC so probably a Thomas left-over. while the Cheerio's are half-and half 'Canada' (yellow wheels) and 'England' (black/white wheels).

It's a Bobbing Bunny! He appears to be driving the bastard-child of a White's scout-car and an Indian Pattern Chevrolet as supplied to the Long Range Dessert Group (LRDG)! And that's all I can say about it really, it is what it is, and you can see that for yourselves!

I'm not saying my diet's that healthy at the moment but I made the little bugger work for his sugar-coated,Mr Cadbury's Parrot, chocolate mini-eggs! Up and down the carpet, up and down the bedspread, up and down the table, up-and-down the mantelpiece, he's quite versatile and delivers all sorts of treats!

Only marking is a Made in England and tool/cavity mark '2' and he probably came with either Jelly-Tots (or similar?) or a great, big, tooth-loosening gobstopper?

S is for Sorry

I knew you wouldn't want the swan and babies for a whole day, so here's an apology!

When I published the Novalinea set of Lucky Luke with a bit of a "well I never", I'd forgotten that Juan Angel ('Gog' of Toys from the Past) had actually educated me, some time earlier, to the connection when he sent me these two images, so - sorry Gog; you'd told me! I'm not apologising to the rest of you, for subjecting you to a floating swan with attendant rug-rats . . . live with it!

Nice bagged set of loose figures, with an interesting mix of unpainted and painted figures, the header card artwork is the same as the blister-card, but simplified, so possibly a later issue; clearing unsold stock, it's not a full set?

Gog actually sent me several shots of the bag (from both sides) and I used them to get the following collages together of the various figures . . .

Painted Figures

Animals

Unpainted - as per the original premiums

There are several poses here that weren't in the other set, both undertakers (?), the dog and the prison-garb Dalton's, so it must have been a larger set. The dog is actually a spitter for the Scoobie-Doo from Comics Spain?

Also today I published a minor page on sale condition/description, it gets a bit ranty at one point but those male doll collectors take themselves far too seriously!

L is for Lucky Luke

This is an unusual set, branded to Novalinea (Comansi), it contains what I think is a complete set of the Lucky Luke bubble-gum and ice cream premiums made by (and still marked;) Tito.

Obviously with these premiums there was always a search for other ways to market them once the promotion they were originally commissioned for has come to an end, and you often find them turning up elsewhere - as with the Tatra Warriors of the World. But to get the whole set, nicely laid-out is a treat.

A close-up of Luke and his near neighbours, I have most of these loose in storage, so we will return to look at them in grater detail another time. Indeed, I may have all of them, as I think I've got the vulture in another place with the rest of the known or suspected Spanish/Portuguese premiums?

Around the same time as I took these into the collection I also picked-up this copy of the smallest but eldest Dalton brother - Joe, he's a very poor-quality copy, but without any obvious mark, not even an HK so he remains a real question mark.

The copy Dalton's feet compared to the feet of the Indian female - I had trouble getting the mark to show, purely down to the plastic colour, but you can see how poor the copy is, unmarked, without the two little holes all the originals have, but with tons of flash.

Because this is the only copy from the whole set I've found in 30-odd years of seriously collecting, especially small scale (and as a stand-alone piece he is 'small scale'), I wonder if he was the only one copied - because of his size (maybe the vulture as well?) - as a gum-ball gift, he's certainly small-enough for a capsule machine of that era - the Kinder-egg sized stuff is more modern. But that's all just musing or pure conjecture?

C is for Cacti; A - F

Along with my side collection of Totem Poles, which I looked at soon after starting this blog, I've also had a side collection of Cacti for the same reason, scale, there is no scale to cacti, and some can - in the wild - grow to be much bigger than human beings, where cacti have been specifically produced for small scale figures (Marx, Pegasus) they are poxy little things I haven't bothered to post here!

Late HK for Britains 'Herald', Styrene glued into a base, two designs, flat, with detail on the obverse only. Also HK copies by two companies; larger first generation and smaller second generation piracy. The pirates have detail on both sides though!

A selection of Cherilea cacti - three to the left, with HK copies to the right, both the original and the copies of the left hand one look like pond weed!

Two by Comansi/Novalinea on the left and one on the right which could be a European copy, but is more likely to be yet another HK rip-off?

Crescent's effort (first three pairs) then two HK pairs and some singles. The whole point of this one WAS to split it in two with a craft knife, but you rarely find Crescent originals so divided.

All these will be much clearer if you left click on the images.

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.