B is for Big Box of Bounty - Ancient, Medieval, Historical & Ceremonial

Another interesting assortment of figures from Chris Smith's latest parcel, and it's all the other 'Toy Soldier' periods. I keep meaning to do a post on the classification of these things, as it's never an exact science, do you put Huns with ancient, or medieval periods, what about Aztecs, or Ninja/Samurai, when are ceremonials also soldiers (1850's say), or further afield; the whole sorting of civilians, is a nightmare!

 

So, I'll put the Asians first! The Budda votive statuette is a nice piece of scenery for HO/OO type figures, it can even be an objective for your ANZAC's on the war games table! The large figure is actually marked Marx, with the full Hong Kong disc-mark, and is from a set of tea premiums.

 

The guy carrying the straw bundles is from a Hong Kong rack toy called 'Villagers', which we have looked at here, and another of the Kinder Samurai archers, this one complete, will get the base off one of the damaged/painted ones, in my determination to have one of each, in all three (?) colours!

 

Three Ninja's, two from Hasbro, one painted, one in a clear, blue polymer, and the other, smaller one in the middle, from the Panosh set of Lucky Bag giveaways, and other sources? I have tried finding the Hasbro's, but with little success, and suspect they aren't actually Ninja or Samurai, but from something else entirely, Star Wars semi-deforms? Anyone know?

 

Two Crong medieval horses, sans riders, and there's a post in the queue on developments there, courtesy of a Loyal Reader, a Kinder musketeer, Hong Kong copy of Britain's Robin Hood, probably sold as a cake decoration, colours tie-in with things like the Britains arctic explorer piracies, and a contender for 'best in box'. A Hong Kong clone of the MPC small scale medieval knights, and one of the little Blue Box 'Hidden Adventures' castle figures.

 

The little blob in front, is the jester-puppet, from the tip of a jester's wand, as there are very few such figures in the entire canon of toy figures, I guess it must be Starlux, Mokarex or Café Storm? As they often break-off, it may prove to be a very useful spare, one day?

 

Two lead chaps who've lost their armies, on the right looks like he's probably Minifigs, the one on the left looks to be 'a cut above', and might be someone like Stadden or Suren? But I may just be being over-enamoured of his helmet! Equally, he has an interesting detail in the tin-can sword-fist thing, is he a known character from history?

 

Giant-like but no Giant, the reason I didn't attach two of the towers to the wall ends, is because the wall is from a different issuer and the locating studs don't match up with the holes in the towers! We looked at the different types here (https://butisitgiant.blogspot.com/2021/08/golden-trojans-non-giant-gold-plastic.html), but I didn't think to measure the holes/studs; next Time!

 

Three Euro-chaps, the one on the left, I think, is by the maker located in Monaco, and is a Crescent knock-off, the other two probably premiums, and possibly in JC Peiffret's book on the subject - Les Figurines Publicitaires.

 

The Imperial Guardsman has a furry plume, caused by the fraying of a layer of plastic, which cooled quicker than the core (cold tool?), and has lifted and frayed! I could probably restore it with a pass though a lighter flame, but think I'll leave it as it is, as a fortuity?

 

In a similar vein, these plug-ins are part of a series of similar French and Italian types, from the better known Texas, through to several premium issues, each with different bases, but many figures in common, one day I'll cover them properly, but I haven't the time to try and tie-down these, or the previous ones, right now!

 

A lovely Napoleon, possibly made of casein, and a real treat, as I know Chris has a sub-collection of such things, so this must be a duplicate he's kindly sent us, it did feature here in a question-time, and I think Chris is still looking for a formal ID on the figure.

 

The larger figure I think we've seen before and is a . . . no, it's gone, I'm sure he's been ID'd here, or had his ID told to me, by someone, at some point, but it's escaped me now! I thought he might be Tringa, but he's not in my flyer?

 

The big one is almost certainly missing a sand-timer, off the right-hand spigot, and utilises a Deetail figure, unusual as it's more often seen with Hong Kong Herald figures, but he's meant to be in there, he has a large hole in his posterior for the plastic spigot seen in the second image, which is pushed through from the back of the chalkware sentry-box.

 

To the left, one of the sucker blokes, he's in a bit of a state, but rather a sample, than no sample! The little chap looks like he was made yesterday, and is polystyrene, so he may be, as he's absolutely mint, possibly an accessory for a tourist die-cast vehicle set which has avoided me, or is he a doll's house toy, as in from the playroom of a doll's house? A lovely little chap in any event, but ID needed!

 

Uncivil war, with a marked ABC figure fighting slavery, and a small lead figure (Hinchliffe?) fighting the Norman landed-class for a smidgen of democracy - they went a bit over the top on protestant dourness though, they sort of banned Christmas for several years!

Crescent conversion OBE, and a figure which could be home-made, or one of those 'Oojah-Cum-Pivvy' figures imported by Shamus Wade from India, between them is what I believe is an ocean-washed, sand-ground, or smoothed, Deetail Arab horse rider!

 

Many thanks again to Chris, some interesting stuff here, and still at least three posts to come. 

S is for Seen Elsewhere - Speedwell Medievals

A trio of Robin Hoods, including a rather nice heat-conversion, a pair of Little Johns and two of the Sheriffs men, or eight, but you know what I mean, see elsewhere a while ago, not much one can add!

 

That's it, that's them, enjoy!

News, Views Etc . . . White Tower Miniatures

Matt posted this yesterday;

"Sad day, we have done our quarter one review. Sales are down quite a bit. It must be a combination of three things, firstly the world climate is stopping people buying due to costs and fear. Secondly ebay has added costs to our products, more of that later. Thirdly we are possibly making too much.

So something will be changing, our products will no longer be on ebay. It is marking up prices, gouging on postage and making listing very difficult. Its not worth it, so go to our website to gain free shipping cheaper prices and the full range of our products. Secondly the price of metal has skyrocketed so production costs are beyond sales, so we need to tread more carefully. This means we will still release the next two batches but after that until we start to break even I will use you good people to pick what gets made, I will sculpt figures and put them to a vote.

Sad but needs must till things balance out. Please help me find new customers by sharing our Facebook and website with people you might think will be interested. And you at least will have a say in what goes into production as I will not be able to subsidise the width or figures I sculpt into production. A bit gloomy I know but as a one person operation I can not bankrupt myself for a hobby."

So grab anything you need off of evilBay if you use that platform, before he delists it, or remember to use the website from now on; https://whitetowerminiatures.co.uk

 

You can get hold of him on Faceplant too; https://www.facebook.com/whitetowerminiatures

R is for Really Rubenstein!

Ooop . . . just let me get up on my high horse . . . that's better, now, where was I? Oh yeah! Rubenstein. There isn't much on Rubenstein within the hobby and most of what you will find seems to be conjecture dressed-up as fact! So I thought I'd add my tuppenceworth to the mix and probably ruffle a few feathers!

 

Rubenstein were a US jobber, one of a dozen or so companies/entities started by Irving Rubenstein, sometimes with his Brother Ralph, or possibly a wife, 'L' (?), always in or around North Hollywood, California. Rubenstein International were incorporated in 1977 (too late for some of the premiums they are credited with?), but are no longer active, although several of the companies (mostly involved in B2B sourcing, services, or marketing) are still extant, along with a family foundation.

 

On the left are the Euro-premium pirates (eight sculpts in the UK [Kellogg's] and 20 poses elsewhere, under several brands), on the right my fledgling Rubinstein collection about two years ago, I went on to add about three or four more sets, but they all went to storage about 12-months ago! Some described - by Rubenstein - as 'Made in Mexico', other's (most), 'Made in England' (not 'Britain', not 'The UK'). I have so far found one set credited to having been 'Made in the USA'.

The Robin Hood figures are the same version described elsewhere in the hobby (marked with small 'Canada' monikers), and seen elsewhere on the Blog against the New Zealand-made versions. As one of the 'made in England' sets, this would suggest someone larger than Tatra (for instance) as they must have been big enough to have a Canadian office/subsidiary?

The athletes are after the 'Euro' versions (with Olympic flame carrier), not the Kellogg's or Marx sculpts, and while both figure sets are soft polyethylene, the dune-buggys [sic] are hard polystyrene, like the R&L mini-kits, from Australia, but not marked-up to them.

Other figure sets include the ex-Raja Conjunto do Espaço 'space set' (which explains a question-mark from the very start of the Blog; my shiny yellow one is Rubenstein!), ex-Commonwealth Plastics dolls and possibly the dog breeds, but this is where I need to point out that so far, and I have been looking hard for over three years, there is NO empirical or circumstantial evidence for the Soldiers/Warriors of the World/All nations having ever been in Rubenstein packaging?

 

And if the dogs were issued by Rubenstein (and I suspect so), they were the multicoloured ones (from Mexico; not England), NOT the silver or gold ones issued with Nabisco breakfast cereals in the USA, for which the evidence is as sketchy as for the military set.

 

Indeed, let's get this out of the way, Rubenstein International were an 'Import & Export' outfit, according to their licences, and it's very unlikely they ever "made" a single toy! So whoever was supplying Rubenstein, would also have supplied the cereal or ice-cream guys &etc., and earlier, I think. Also - we know Tatra (for instance) were responsible for the warriors/soldiers . . . in silver and gold!

The R&L styled mini-kits, I now have three of these for us to look at in greater detail another day, indeed I think most of these are the shots of the auctions/BIN's I won, I wouldn't use so many evilBay images in one article if I didn't think I had a tad of moral ground under my tippy-toes! Not sure if I ever succeeded in getting the Cars, but I know I bought two sets of motorcycles, so I can make one set up, for a Blog post!

I actually managed to get the Antique Cars photographed, though! But I think I might also have got the set of Wagons, although I might be confusing it with the Historical Vehicles which I know I got but also didn't photograph? Interestingly, while the Dune Buggys are polystyrene, these are polyethylene, and the Penny Farthing in the Historic's set is probably the one Brian Berke sent to the Blog, as an addendum to that premium kit post!

So far the only set sourced in the 'States which I've found, which is not to say there aren't more, but the same eleven sets keep turning-up, with a possible run of the dogs in multicolours, making a dozen.

 

These are also nothing like the others, and we saw a pale-blue Hong Kong example of one of these in Chris Smith's last donation, so, a common gum-ball machine prize, or those rack-toy cards with a bunch of teeny header-bags for a dime or sixpence?

 

All of which gives us;

• Action Athletes - Mexico, after Manurba/Linde et al.
• Antique Cars - England, after R&L?
  
• Comic Animals - USA
• Comic Moon Figures - Mexico, ex-Raja premiums
• Comic Pirates - Mexico, ex-European tool
  
• Dogs - Mexico, ex-Nabisco premiums
• Dolls of the world - Mexico, ex-Commonwealth 
• Dune Buggys - England, after R&L?
• Historical Transportation - England, after R&L?
• Horse-Drawn Coaches - England, after R&L or Pyro/Kleeware?
• Robin Hood Figures - England, previously/also Canada, after Marx
• Soldiers of World War II - Hong Kong, contents unknown, Airfix clones?
  
• Super Motorcycles - England, after R&L?

Sourced from England x6, Mexico x5, Hong Kong and the USA x1 each, for a twelve-count, which make-up grosses, which is how this rack-toy stuff is ordered/wholesaled thirteen-count; a bakers dozen!

The reason I've question-marked the possible R&L connection, is because R&L is another one where there may be falsehoods hiding as fact. When they turn-up in British or European products as premiums, they usually have A) very fine parts, B) 'R&L' somewhere on the runner, these four/five sets (the Dune Buggys may be from another source) are simpler and unmarked, while there is the various Italian sets of similar kits and the De Gruyter connections to consider.

Still no soldiers/warriors, though! Four days later - Still no soldiers/warriors!

Thanks to the Jabbering Fuck and Kent Sprecer for their contributions, not!

L is for London Toy Soldier Show - December 2022 - White Tower Miniatures

While I was at the London show I shot a few things, and these are some of they, from Matt's White Tower Miniatures stall, while I umm'ed and err'ed over what to purchase! Blurb-light because the images speak for themselves'.

Normans and vikings, all buildings are also available from White Tower

Round stone-walled hovel

Kievan Russ

Not Russians; early Cossacks - Slava Ukraine!)

[Moscow was still an uninhabited fen-land swamp]

Mounted Normans

Pirates, the third time we've had a pirate ship in January!

Close up of the rascal's vessel!

Wild West - lots of character figures

Townsfolk

A cowboy band!

Annie Oakley (R), Buffalo Bill Cody (L) and Calamity Jane (behind/between)

Medieval Fort

Robin Hood and his Merry Men!

Harrying the North?

And White Tower Miniatures can be found here;
https://whitetowerminiatures.co.uk/

A is for Ahhhhhh! The Children's Crusade!

Well, you've seen me frustrate myself wreaking a big red Dinky London omnibus, while my brother sleeps oblivious next to me, you've seen the the pair of us as biscuit-chomping cowpoke gunslingers, now I seem to be a crusader!

I have absolutely no recollection of this whatsoever, however I think it might be 1969 (I look about six - far left) when I stayed with my Godmother while our parents were in the 'States. The guy in the middle is her son Charles, who was a couple of years older than me (so eigh'tish in this shot?), and while I thought the other guy might be an old friend Tobin, I suspect he's actually some one from the School I attended while staying there (Bishops Stortford), as my brother is absent and he must be my age/from my class, as Charles was a year or two above . . . or even attending a different school?

Could be a school-play? But 'Blondie' hasn't gone to the same lenths with his costume? Although his bow looks a little more professional than mine! Am I Robin Hood to Charles's Friar Tuck, or a man-at-arms to his crusader?

Fun thing to find!

The Children's Crusade

R is for Robin's Roustabout Rebels - Part 2 - The Figures

I also grouped the earlier post's figures by character/thematically, for closer comparisons, and this post is the result of those shots, in the course of preparing this pair of articles, they all got put away and taken out again several times, and one of the archers has migrated to another set!

Robin Hood's above and Will Scarlet's below, along with the guy I used to think was falling or sitting, but who I can only picture hiding in a tree now! The guy middle-bottom is an unnamed character - one of the Merry Men - but could pass for Robin or Will!

Now, there is no discernible difference between the two smaller Will's, and in the course of taking these mages I came to the conclusion I'd had the Down Under version all along, which means I need to find a Canada one at some point, just to satisfy myself as to their differences/similarities, as all the other figures do have clear differences between the sculpts and I believe the Canada issue is an unnamed figure?

The Maid Marion/ian's; Marx's 'ian is Rubenesque sexy in a Viking-court sort of get-up, the antipodean 'ion is a bit Hippy-chick sexy in plain Anglo-Saxon villager's garb, the Canadian 'ian sculpt looks like a rather dry Mother Superior or a 'Flanders mare' in full Norman aristocratic finery and Robin would be a fool to get involved with her, she's just gonna' whine alot!

'The Tuck'; my kind of priest - a godless one! I prefer the Marx sculpt, if he's got a staff he can get fightey-bitey, but the smaller ones have him holding a scroll or torch/brazier - it's not clear? This is the other pose (after the archer, if mine are of different sources) which has little change beyond base markings between Australian and Canadian issues - the Canada one is better detailed/etched and slightly taller maybe?

The two sheriffs' (Nott's & Darby!) and tree-climber/falling guy again! He's actually the most dynamic pose of all four sets (I haven't shown/got the other Marx set), but this may have meant he was a bugger to manufacture - lots of weird undercuts, not in the pose per se, but in relation to the layout of the other cavities/rest of the tool?

Little John; the difference between the two smaller ones is clear here with heaver sculpting of the thin parts obvious, while the dagger on the Canadian chap is longer. Neatly; both/all three issuers have gone with a taller sculpt for the man whose name was a play on his notable height, he's half-a-head above Robin and has a good [scale] six-inches on everyone else.

Alan-a-Dale/Minstrel, a close-up of the base marking differences, the 'Canada' sculpt is on the right. I find red plastic a bugger to shoot (so don't know why I concentrated on this one!) but with a black & white filter and some stopping-down it seems to show what's needed. The unnamed 'minstrel' could used as/taken to be the Coeur de Lion's lover; Blondel?

Much the Miller; I seem to remember him from childhood stories, although Marx haven't named theirs, they all share the same hood and similar kilt/surcoat tails, so they were all watching each-other or the Saturday-matinee's for their fashion leads, rather than historical sources, although they can all be painted-up for medieval armies!

Down Under this one's Will Stutley, another one I recall from tales told to me as a child, or read in comics, elsewhere he's the anonymous 'signaller'! One of the missing Marx versions has the green guy shouting with cupped-hand and no stowed-bow!

♪♫♪ Stick-fighting Maaaaaaaaaaaaan! ♫♪♪ The best candidate for converting/repainting to court jester or fool!

The other three! Australia/New Zealand give them all names, Canada doesn't bother, but they still make-up the numbers. The rock guy needs a siege-engine, but there are plenty around to chose from, and Will Stutley would make a good No. 1 to this chap's No. 2. While you can never have enough medieval archers, for Crecy, Agincourt or the other one where we gave Frenchie a good spanking!

Done did!

The lack of available information on the 50mm set from Down Under leaves questions still outstanding, for someone to follow-up, somewhere, sometime;

• ·         Which cereal were they issued with?
• ·         Were they Australian or New Zealand-issued, first?
• ·         Who made/manufactured them?
• ·         Did Canada issue a license or are they pirates
• ·         Was there a Sherriff or 'tree-hugger'!?

And - to be honest similar questions remain over the 50mm 'Canada' figures!

Many thanks again to Glenn Sibbald for revealing the antipodean versions and donating a set to the blog - New to Hobby/Internet - cheers Glenn!

R is for Robin's Roustabout Rebels - Part 1 - Sets

I think (with the pink guitarist) we've looked at all the stuff in Glenn's excellent parcel from New Zealand, bar one item . . . it is that item, kindly donated to the blog by Glenn we're looking at in the next two posts.

And . . . Glenn lives literally yards from the epicenter of the horrendous atrocity which struck Christchurch the other day, so please spare a though for him and his neighbours, as I don't think anyone expected the 21st century to visit the fair lands of 'The Shire', so soon, or so violently.

I did cover this topic back nearer the start of the blog due to a lucky find of the smaller figures from Canada, and the larger figures being in the 'Big Purchase' or a tubbed PW Show purchase, I can't now remember - which are mostly the Ri-Toys re-issue figures also supplied to Marksmen.

At the time, I told the story as it was presented elsewhere on the Wibbly Wobbly Way, but the story seems to have changed once or twice since then, and still doesn't seem to be set in stone, so we'll ramble though it and each can draw his own conclusions!

The total extent of my sample with the previously-seen Marx/Rado 60mm's at the top, the new figures from the Antipodes in the middle and the Canada set - also seen previously - below them.

Now a complication in this, is that the Canadian/Southern Cross set/s are based on the Marx 54mm set, of which I have no examples! The 60mm are from Playsets I think (I'm missing all four of the original 'pose variations') while both the smaller sets were issued as Breakfast cereal premiums.

Another complication is that the smaller figures (specifically the Canadian issue) are also credited to Rubenstein, in the 'States, after the Canadians had finished with them (?) but I have never seen them in Rubenstein packaging, nor any empirical evidence for the accreditation, or for the link between Rubenstein and the Tatra 'Soldiers/Warriors of the World/Through the Ages'?

Knowing - as I'm sure by now you do - how much I like my empirical evidence for statements of fact, I'm maintaining a healthy scepticism of the Rubenstein link until I see something more concrete, but it's credible.

However and having said that, my sample - in multi-colours - is supposed to be Rubenstein not Breakfast cereal, which were [apparently] all-green, and an apple green not the jade-green of a couple of mine? Mine are mostly marked 'CANADA' though, which would suggest that even if Rubenstein handled them; they handled them as a wholesale jobber (Erwin's "...so called joggers"!) or a contractor, not as a manufacturer/mould-tool holder.

Or it means the apple-green ones are Kellogg's US Suger-smacks (and/or Rubenstein) while the multiple coloured ones are Canadian Kellogg's? Kent Sprecher's site says unmarked are from Canada and marked ('CANADA') are from the USA, but doesn't mention the unmarked Aussie/NZ ones? But then there are other colours, and I've seen half-and-half apple-green/orange-brown lots/sets being offered which seem to have come together?

Upon posting this - it's changes again! Colours are less of a 'set-in-stone' now and apparently the Canada-marked are Canada-issued, the opposite of two years ago . . . like I said, draw your own conclusions it'll likely have changed again in two years time!

The Marx/Rado-Ri Toys/Marksmen set, from the top-left to the bottom-right;

• ·         Robin Hood
• ·         An unnamed 'Merry-Man'
• ·         Main Marian
• ·         Friar Tuck
• ·         Sheriff of Nottingham
• ·         Little John . . .
• ·         . . . and three more unnamed Merry Men.

I am missing the four 'adjusted poses' from the original 60mm set which are on Kent Specher's site here (just over half-way down the page), but my 'guy blowing horn' seems to be my only Marx original - the more astute of you will have noticed he had some 'work-done' half-way through preparing the articles - he's as brittle as hell!

The Rubenstein-via-Canada-whoever set was a fourteen count - with the missing archer now in the Antipodean line-up below (see note on next post), these are the slightly finer-detailed of the two sets, but really only noticeable in the thickness of weapon-handles/bow-strings and other thin elements.

Base markings are on one or two circular depressions and are also reading from top-left to bottom-right are thus;

• ·         Canada / Robin Hood
• ·         Maid Marian Canada (single ring)
• ·         Friar Tuck / Canada
• ·         Canada / Sheriff of Nottingham
• ·         Little John / Canada
• ·         Minstrel / Canada
• ·         [large release-pin mark but no text]
• ·         Canada / [blank]
• ·         [blank] / Canada
• ·         Canada / [blank]
• ·         [blank] / Canada
• ·         [blank] / Canada
• ·         [blank] / Canada 
• [other 'Will Scarlet' archer unknown]

The new kids on the block! An apparent set of twelve poses; the Canadian 'Nottingham has seemingly gone 'walkabout' (with a teenage Jenny Agutter?. . . Who wouldn't?) along with the falling-back/sitting guy, who Glenn suggested might be hiding in a tree, which I thought was a lovely idea. Glenn hasn't seen them Down Under and I don't know if the two were part of that issue?

Again - left-to-right, top-to-bottom

• ·         Robin Hood
• ·         Maid Marion
• ·         Little John
• ·         Will Scarlet
• ·         Alan-a-Dale
• ·         Friar Tuck
• ·         Much the Miller
• ·         Will Stutley
• ·         Derwent
• ·         Quentin
• ·         Timothy
• ·         Archer

They are all named with the exception of 'Archer', understanding - of course - that the modern surname (much encountered in Borsetshire!) is based on the old occupational title!

One should also note that while the Canadian set carries a scaled-down version of the Marx 54mm Main Marian (as the whole set is copied from the Marx 54mm set), the Australian/New Zealand issue uses a new pose as Marion - which I've seen credited to the Marx 60mm 'Richard Green' TV tie-in set's version, but she seems to be actually a wholly new sculpt.

The Ri-Toys packaging; Marksmen used a variety of their own header cards and the guys who ruined the market by going direct to Ri-Toys (Rado Industries would only sell in large quantities) sold loose. Note the additional colours (over my sample) of red, blue and white figures. They only seem to have carried the nine poses, not the 'conversions', so a separate tool for the other four?

I can't find anything on the Australian/New Zealand end, or - at least - not on-line; there's nothing on Astronit and nothing on Crater Critters, so I'm assuming we have Mr. Sibbald to thank for bringing them to us as 'new to hobby' or 'new to Internet'. Cheers Glenn!