News, Views Etc . . . Peirwood / Featherlite / NZ - Early Airfix Update

As icing on the 'New Zealand Day's cake, I've added an image from Glenn Sibald to the relevant post on the Airfix Blog (link), with a new colour; a pale powder-blue.

https://airfixfigs.blogspot.com/2010/06/1949-1960-approximately-early-toy.html

NZNAM is for New Zealand National Army Museum Figures - Reds on the Bed!

So, more 'New to Hobby' figures, although - I'm sure - known already to other Antipodean collectors, hinted at earlier this week, here, and not my discovery; but sent to all of you reading Small Scale World by Glenn Sibbald, who then had to draw my attention to certain aspects of them - long after I'd taken the first set of shots for this post.

I'd clocked that they were a bit special, by dint of them not being mentioned in the original 1978 supporting paperwork, but I hadn't noticed the obvious differences, even when editing the images, apart from the runner being complete.

A quick look at the figures first; reds are a bugger to get right, photographically speaking, but a green background seems to help, as do neutral beiges! I angled them slightly to get the semi-flat nature of the sculpts across. And shot to match the order of the earlier issue - which is chronological.

Not only were they absent from the original competition paperwork and the collector's magazine review, turning up later on the secondary market, but they have had a cavity-shuffle with regards to the order in the injection-tool, and must have been sold in a different format as they don't carry a flyer and haven't had their runner's end trimmed-off to fit the original bag-sealer's setting.

As well as changing the order of the figures, the short channel-runners leading from the main frame-runner to the figures have been spaced more equidistant to each other and directed into the undersides of the bases, rather than the offset 'kissing the rims' (Ooh! Matron!) of the older tool's configuration.

Yet, the flattened terminal 'blob' where the 'real' sprue came in, is the same on both samples, so the outer components of the tool and the main frame-runner are unchanged.

One suspects they were actual National Army Museum stock and it seems the obvious conclusion, but why they chose red for the re-issues is anyone's guess as it's a bloody-odd choice? I suppose it's colourful - helping to attract kids in the age of action-figures and movie promotional toys (1980's or even 1990's? They've only turned-up on the secondary market this century), sparking a bit of pester-power at the gift-shop's checkout tills perhaps?

Now we come to my bit of 'spanner in the works'. Although they are clearly by different sculptors, it seems to me that the less skillful sculptor on the NZNAM figures had at the back of his mind (at least) the slightly more consummate sculpts of original 'early-Airfix' figures, the similarity of pillar-like statuesque, casual, upright poses, the small 'penny' bases - I don't think it's accidental, and it's definitely food for thought? Of course photographing all the reds together -rather [falsely?] reinforces the idea!

Further - I think I'm right in recalling Lincoln (who made the NZNAM figures) used to issue Airfix kits in that part of the world - there can't be that many tools of a Sunderland Flying Boat? If Lincoln had a relationship with Airfix, they might have produced the set we saw this/last Monday, borrowing the mould before or after Pierwood? More mind-food!

And if you don't like the idea of Lincoln being behind the earlier figures, we learnt from Les Collier's article in Plastic Warrior (Issue 162, pp.22/23), that the head/founder of Lincoln was a chap called Les Tolmer . . . of Toltoys . . . further sustenance for the grey-matter?

I shall leave these three paragraphs hanging here until more is dug-up and it all becomes clearer!

Finishing with another close-up, this is the dismounted Mounted Rifleman from the South African campaign.

Many, many thanks to Glenn Sibbald for all these figures (he sent the only pack with an original price label!), I can't thank him enough, and I hope you've all enjoyed these three posts, along with the early Airfix/Pierwood/whoever posts on Monday, the finalising of the board game pop-stars and  . . . .there's still an couple of Antipodean posts to come, with an NZ-angle!

And if you want some - he's still got a few on the runner, along with loose; sets and figures, contact me and I'll pass your eMail on (maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com).

K is for Kiwis . . . and These Kiwis Flew!

A real red-letter day here at Small Scale World, and red figures . . . and a red box!

Mr. The Right Honourable the Lord Glenn, Sir 'Sibby' Sibbald of Poly-Mer, currently of the parish of Morrrdorrr, the Shire, Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains, Rivendell, Rohan and the Ridermark and the lands of Gondor, has only gorn and went and sent the Blog (for free, gratis, asking for nothing in return) a 'New To Hobby', mint as it can be after 65-70-years, New Zealand issue of the Airfix/Pierwood cellulose acetate figures . . .

. . . looking like the figures were shot yesterday in a factory in Camberley and rushed-over here, by courier, still-warm! Not an easy colour to photograph and the shots on the Airfix page are marginally better, or easier on the eye.

Normally when I post these they go straight on that Airfix page, with a link-back here, but due to the importance of these and my desire to do them justice, I'll post them over there  at the same time, with new pictures.

All eight poses, arranged - top left to bottom right - differently to the listing on Pierwood's card (to be seen in the Plastic Warrior magazine Early Airfix'Special') but sharing their adjusted figure-descriptions, as I was still waiting to locate the 18thC fusilier/pirate and both the pilot and the Japanese/infantryman, it's lovely enough to have them all in one shot, but the real treat today is the packaging.

The box; it has a small tear at one end I will fix eventually with a near invisible mend. It is a single colour litho-printed graphic with no brand or maker clues anywhere. However there were a bunch of plastics firms that came and went in the 1950's/60's in New Zealand, while the possibilities; least-likely first - are that

• Airfix supplied the product, bulk - for repacking
• These predate Pierwood with the tool moving on to Oz.
• Pierwood supplied the product
• These are post Pierwood with the tool sold/lent to NZ

If they are New Zealand-produced the further question raised is: was it an independent company or an Airfix subsidiary - they had many? While I would love it to be New Zealand manufacture, I fear - from the like-for-like figure titles - that it's the third option?

As we will see later in the week, there is a slim possibility (and it's very slim) that there's a link with Lincoln and/or Toltoys, but - from the dates - one more of inheritance than production, if any at all.

Tantalising hints of other colours (E is the 5th letter of the alphabet), although the '8' is probably referring to the figure-total and obviously the correct figures were in the 'Red' box. Does this mean the other boxes were coloured for their contents - Pierwood also did yellow, silver, bronze, white and blue; I think, although the NZ-sent figures from Norman Dunckley on the Airfix page may well be/probably are NZ figures, not the previously assumed Australian-made ones, and they have a fawnish-grey/tan!

Also the figure graphic on the long-side (same both sides) clearly show the 'Lemon Squeezer' of New Zealand troop's service dress, not the Australian slouch-hat with its pined-up side. I love that it's called a lemon-squeezer! The Americans have their 'Smokey Bear', we have the 'Boy Scout' . . . what do the Canadians call theirs?

There's only so much you can waffle-on, about one little set, and I'm wont to stop, but all good things come to an end . . . I can't thank Glenn enough for this kindness both on my own behalf (I get to see them every time I go in that Airfix box!) and for the Blog, which only benefits from getting such treasures in the tag-list for all of you to enjoy.

There are other treasures to come from Glenn's parcel, but this was very-much the 'icing on the cake'.

H is for Hiding . . . in plain sight!

Back in November 2011, I posted the below image as part of the early draft of the '1949 - 1960 (approximately); Early Toy Soldiers' page on the Airfix Blog, saying at the time:

"...various mould variants of the Paratrooper seem to exist - both versions shown in the Plastic Warrior publication 'Airfix - The Early Days' have different arm-gaps from mine - and each other."

Then - in 2014; whenever I did the Khaki Infantry Page, or soon after it was posted in its early form, Barney Brown kindly sent me a bunch of images for it. Most of them were clean examples of easy ('ish - for Khaki Infantry) to ID stuff which was slotted into the appropriate sections of the page. A couple were more problematical and went under the question marks section, one of them was the image below, which remains there, un-annotated.

I now think; as all the above has been screaming at anyone caring to notice; that they are not Airfix, but both the still to be identified (until Saturday-gone when it struck me!) Trojan figure/s from set 1193 - Parachute Battalion, which, according to the little A7'ish buff-covered catalogue I have, contained 3 carded figures.

Now, it may be that you got three of the same figures, or a mix with the ex-Timpo 'solid' GI's binocular guy and another, yet to be ID'd pose. Equally; it may be that some of the other unknowns from the Khaki Infantry page (with similar paint) were part of a larger [un-catalogued] boxed set, but whatever, there are no other 'unknown' figures - like the two above - that I know-of, which would fit the bill, so I suspect you got three copies of the Airfix-Pierwood 'Airborne' figure on your [complete] carded set 1193?

The most obvious difference between the two figures (Airfix-Pierwood and Trojan) is in the base, where the Anglo-Antipodean figure has one foot forward of the other and a neat, smooth-domed, sharp edged base with a clear release-pin mark dead-front-centre (arrowed), while the Trojan figure's feet are together and the base is a lumpy, blobby thing that looks like a cast of a piece of used Blue-Tac!

Apropos nothing in particular - what the hell happened to Pritt 'Buddies' . . . anyone else remember the little rows of squidgy, pink squares, lined-up like a brigade of Napoleonic map-markers on their grease-proof sheets?

Equally obvious is the difference at the other end of the figure, where the Airfix chap wears a helmet-net on his helmet, the Trojan having a slightly lopsided smooth 'blob' which is found painted as both a herb-green helmet or a maroon paratrooper beret, but rather fails to convince as either!

Other differences are in the gaps between the arms and the body where the Trojan has more of an ovoid 'atoll', while the Airfix has more of a shoulder-of-mutton shape! The quick-release buckle is actually better rendered on the Trojan figure than on the Airfix, where it looks more-like a Tunnock's tea-cake, and the main-member of the open-frame 'para' butt - on the pop-gun both figures are equipped-with - differs slightly with Airfix having a broader tube which appears to taper toward the working-parts, while the Trojan one is a thin wire of constant thickness.

The two (Barney's on the right and mine to the left), look to be quite different between them, but carful study suggests most of the differences are down to the lighting and angles of the two shots, along with the fact that mine is  a little more play-worn, although different cavities or even tools can't be ruled out, especially given the numbers of 'Unknown' still in the Khaki Infantry ourvre, some of which seem to have 'Trojan' paint matching these.

But I wouldn't present these to you as I have, if I wasn't pretty sure they are the Trojan Parachute Battalion figures. And thanks to Barney for one of the pieces in this jigsaw, bit's of which have been hidden in plain sight for years, here - on Small Scale World . . . what else is lurking?!

Due to the vaguries of 'Pages' over 'Posts', I have already updated the other two pages as some of you may have noticed on the Airfix blog yesterday afternoon!