F is for Follow-up - C is for Carrier Convoy!

Well, computer problems seem ongoing; “Unexpected black-screen in the new laptop area”! Hotmail is kicking-off with a data limit they made no previous mention of and which seems connected to my rejecting and uninstalling of 'Teams', '365' and other online/cloud stuff, which will be another battle. A quick notification of a change in the terms and conditions actual or implied with some penalty charges usually results in a change of corporate mind!

But, suffice to say the mojo is well off-track and the Blog is probably the last/least of my worries. However I have cobbled this together, although it's mostly appeared briefly elsewhere in the last month or two - easier to post minimal text stuff on a Faceplant group!

I had the luck to receive 'first dibs' on this from a mate the other week, we have seen the TAT Bren-gun carrier before, but now I have one with box, which is nice! And it's a clean one with the RAF-roundel sticker still in place.

Just a quick reminder of the light-tank version which turned-up under EM branding and which we also looked at last time;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2022/07/c-is-for-cool-colonial-carriers.html

In the meantime I had grabbed this in passing, larger and the later 'Universal Carrier' mark with full amour-plate down both sides, it is a Marx battery-operated toy with more similarities to the Timpo or Dinky 'boxes', both in size and - with the former - unrealistic wheel arrangement!

 

The Marx Hong Kong mark, I haven't seen the packaging, but presumably it was a late addition to the B/O Patton Tank which ran for years under Marx and other brand-marks, and as various copies.

 

Various views; the battery has actually been disabled and the gear-box removed, allowing full carpet-wheel, hand-action! It doesn't seem to have had a Bren-gun, but I'm pretty sure I have a spare of the Bren which clips to the frame of the old Britains long-wheel-base Land Rover, which will fit nicely on the lip of this carrier's firing -hole?

 

And then, my life was forced to accept an on-going theme situation, when this came in last week, a French composition Renault UE Chenilette carrier, although when I say 'composition' it seems to be a bisque like china/porcelain.

 

Above are before and after cleaning . . .

 

. . . which from the yellowish shade of brown was a few decades of Gitanes or Gauloises!

 

I use clean, cold water and wipes, with a gentle action on something like this, no rubbing or scrubbing. And no, I haven't been buying plastic-shafted Q-tips for several years, but there are a few kicking about and I happened upon some the other day; so thought I'd better get them off to landfill before someone else flushed them illegally - well; you never know!

Maker is unknown, but could be Domage et Cie (who became Aludo (aluminium) or Acedo (plastic)), or SFJB who are known for Bisque items includeing dolls heads? But Elie Tarroux is also known as an issuer of 'general figures and novelties' in composition, from around 1900 to the 1930's (A connection with Starlux is fleshed out in the Thomas/Guillot books); could he/they have survived the war and knocked this out with its Free French flag?

 

Boysie-Boy has no interest in this junk, unlike his late mother, but is looking very pleased with himself for having baggsied my fleece-jacket in the seconds it took to fetch the camera! While I'm very pleased to have picked this up.

 

All three recent additions, off to search for fanatical Hitler-Youth stragglers in the Tory Front Bench! First you demonize them as migrants, when most are subsequently found to be genuine asylum seekers, or refugees, then you call them names (“illegalls”, when they aren't, until they've been found to be, which over 70% aren't), then you switch to calling them “Boats” rather than people, then you deport them (or those who haven't drowned) without judicial process . . . sounds like fascism to me? Go Gary Liniker!

Returning to the TAT's as a final point, I remembered this post, which has a whole TAT gunner who can replace the broken one which I seem to recall one of my (three now I think?) Bren-gun carriers has.

C is for Cool Colonial Carriers!

Those of you who follow the shenanigans of WWII, will be aware as the conflict gathered momentum through the early belligerence's of the 1930's, through the 1940 invasion of France/The Low Countries campaign and into the Japanese attacks of 1941, that many nations around the world were equipped with variants of three staples . . .  

. . . the US 'Christie Suspension' fast 'cruiser' tanks, with designs from America, Russia and the Czechs, secondly, many variations and developments of the old French WWI Renault F17 infantry support tank, and thirdly; so many variations, versions and derivatives; commercial, limited-run and volume production, with one-offs/prototypes and locally produced conversions of the Vickers/Carden-Lloyd Light armoured vehicle range/s, it's impossible to count them all.

And it's two of the latter we're having a quick look at now, we've actually visited the TAT branded early version Bren-Gun carrier before here, more than once, and the TAT tag will provide with additional civilian models, and I think in the transferring of everything over the last year I saw another in the collection, so we may return to these one day, maybe as a posed 'wargame' post in the garden/environment, a carrier 'squad attack' type thing!

The real development, both from the vehicles point of view, and in the researching of old plastic toys, is a turreted version of the TAT carrier, this one branded to EM, previously thought of as another brand, but as evidenced here, it must now be considered to be connected to TAT whether as supplied-to, subsidiary of or phantom-brand from- remains the mystery.

Although looking the same with a turret glued on (firmly, although it may have been meant to rotate?), it is actually a reworking of, or duplicate tool with all new features and a new rear-deck.

Other differences reveal the base-plate has been redesigned to accommodate the new superstructure, the rubber tyres are a new-tread design and the marking is for the same EM (Empire Made?) similar to some of those micro-ship Minic copies (which are marked 'E' only, for Empire Toys (?) and seem to be connected to Lucky) - these carriers being based on the old Britains slush-cast lead one. But the crew-figures, push-and-go kinetic-motor (and housing) and plastic colours tie both models firmly together.

The actual turreted versions of these light-tanks didn't have open compartments at the front and usually had an extra, forth road-wheel, so it retains its fictional toy heritage, and the turret is a common re-reappearing from Hong Kong (in various sizes) on other toys and is taken from the Lone Star AFV series I think?

But if you're garden-gaming the fall of Belgium or the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, finding a couple of these will definitely enhance the defenders forces . . . more quality TAT from Small Scale World!

M is for More TaT!

I'm sure we’ve had that one before, but they were asking for it all those years ago!

Quick look at a boxed truck from TAT of Hong Kong this is toward the larger end of toy vehicle scales at around 1:43rd scale.

For some reason I didn't do a nose-on shot, so it looks like that old favourite of mine a Bedford MK, but I think it's a Ford D-Series? Also, while it's a skip-bodied tipper-truck, it doesn't tip! But it has a standard (for the time) flywheel, kinetic-energy 'friction' motor, so you win some, you lose some!

Box! It's got a box. That's it - box-ticked!

T is for Two - TAT's Tankette!

As flagged-up this morning, these are from Chris Smith, and while we've looked at them before, it won't hurt to have another shufftie, especially as Chris's seem to tie my lose examples together a bit.

The vagaries of digital-photography! That dark one down the bottom right is the same vehicle as the one to its left and the one on the far left in the upper image! But flash aside, you can see that both carriers are different shades of green polymer, and also differ from their own crew's plastic-colours. Painting (if you feel one or two stab-and-hope blobs of pink qualify for the moniker 'painting'!) between the crews also varies quite a bit.

I hope Chris won't mind my pointing out that some of these shots are not the best images (he's only just got his camera and I understand these are some of the first shots taken), but they get the job done. As well as being copies of the Britains slush-cast Bren Gun Carrier, these TAT machines carry copies of the Britains hollow-cast crewmen, which strangely I happen to have a set of in storage, so when they are out and the missing Tri-Ang officer from this morning turns up we will return to the subjects again.

Also I think I'm right in saying this and the Britains donor ARE Bren Gun Carriers, while the later Dinky toy and the miniscule Airfix one are actually Universal Carriers - with the boxy body?

O is for Odd's & Sod's in Olive-drab!

And other colours! The images in this post have been taken in four different years, on five or six occasions, by two people, and, to be honest; it doesn't amount to a hill of beans . . . but it may help you with some of the stuff in your 'unknown' pile! And if Chris Smith hadn't sent me a couple of them the other day, the rest would have sat around in Picasa for another year or two!

Odd's & sod's; Specifically figures from toy vehicles . . . from the left we have the Bren-gunner form the late Dinky Toys die-cast model of a Bren Gun Carrier, a 'troop' from Tri-Ang's Mini-highway amphibious troop-carrier and an unknown, up-scaled copy of an Airfix HO-OO (now 1:72nd!) artilleryman. I can't remember if he's been shown here before, we did look at his painted brother with some Marx stuff a few years ago (2011/12?) and I mentioned him at the time.

Inset bottom right is a comparison of the mounting spigots in the bums of the two figures. Duplication is a feature of this post as everything got shot in different configurations from time to time!

More Bren-gunners, I think the smaller ones are all TAT, but there are subtle differences between the two, the paler one being a heavier sculpt, and with all those HK plastic vehicle companies copying each other, they may be from two sources, I doubt it though, and suspect mould-cavities, or tool-tweaks as being behind the differences!

The respective drivers, the polyethylene Dinky driver has a fold-up steering-wheel on a flexible tag, the polystyrene TAT driver has his integrally moulded, which to do - in the way it's been done - must have had him sitting at an odd angle in the mould-tool, which was a three-part'er, lot of effort for a pocket-money toy!

The TAT are copied of the earlier Britains hollow-cast era, slush-cast Bren-carrier, and while we did look at one here a while ago, Chris sent me more images as I was editing this post, so there will be a quick look later today!

While the Dinky are from the Lines-owned period, so I would guess they are Stadden sculpts, probably from the Havent Minimodels plant, but I'm not going to keep bugging the younger Stadden with questions on such esoteric matters, so it's only a thought! And - even if they are his (the elder's) work, the criteria - being stuffed into a small space, in a die-cast toy, where accuracy is a question of compromise - means they are not his best.

Chris sent me these two shots of the Triang amphibious troop carrier and ambulance. They're loosely based-on the Stalwart amphibious artillery servant/logistics vehicle, and/or the 1-ton Forward-Control (FC) Land-Rover's both of which were newish vehicles when these toys first hit the selves. There's a bit of early Pinzgauer DNA in there too!

These are interesting in being 'crossover' toys from  the Minic era, being half-plastic and half-tin plate, there were 6 different upper body variants  with various numbers of the same figres and including an armoured car with none.

Both are suffering from melted wheel 'syndrome' as the phthalates leaching from the unstable PVC tyres/tires attacks the polystyrene wheel-hubs/rims. If you find good ones, it's best to remove the rubber tyres, coat the wheels with either a clear, matt enamel, or (less desirable an option) a matching yellow - which you would have to mix yourself (add a bit of olive-green to a 50/50 mix of matt and gloss yellow for the closest match?).

You could also try my new remedy for these plastics' problems - a quick coat of plumber's sealant? And if you have some real-world car/auto bumper-gel or dashboard shine (both silicon products) it might be worth a try wiping a small amount on the inside of the tyres before you replace them?

Despite the fact that this is supposed to be the once-in-a-blue-moon Odd's & Sod's round-up, there is a figure still absent, the Officer; who sometimes accompanies these (- lose; boxed he's always in the cab I think?), now I know I have one somewhere, but can I find him - can I hell! He looks like the soldiers but with a peaked cap and no '58 Pattern webbing's kidney-pouches.

So we'll have to return to these again one day, but in the meantime, like the three posts the other day (Lone Star Roadmasters, Kleeware crazy cops and . . . err . . . the other one!), these will be - for a good number of you - one of those 'what are they' questions marks you can now put to bed.

The mystery figures - both copied from the Airfix small-scale Artillery kits 6-lbr and 25-lbr - the pointing figure was in both kits, the guy with an empty shell case/blank was only in the 25-lbr kit.

One is painted to match hard-plastic versions of the Marx 45m figures, the other unpainted and missing a base? I think the painting is more coincidental than anything else; back in the day paint was gloss and came in about twelve colours! Similar painting styles (two, three or four-colour gloss) are found on made-up shop display models from Aurora, Monogram, Pyro and others.

I think they must be piracies, used for something like an early Crown or Aoshima kit, presumably an artillery piece or SPG? Aoshima did a bunch of 1:48th scale AFV's, while Airfix themselves bought-in a small range of 1:35th kits in the 1970's; where they included-in/added-to one of them?

Have you seen the other poses - drill-sergeant/SNCO with swagger stick (25-lbr), Standing at attention (6-lbr) and holding full, pointy shell - both kits; there's no reason to suppose they were all copied, but no reason not to . . . or do you know where they originate?

They have turned-up, a full set of poses from the 25lbr, owned by Nigel Lambourn and shown in Plastic Warrior Magazine 199, there's still no maker/packaging and he's not got their gun but that must be what they are for, they even have the sighter, except instead of free to sit at the gun he's fixed to the same base as the case-holder above, in some wacky 'yoga-joe' pose! And the pointing figure above HAS lost his base, while the 'set' of five seems to exclude the standing figure from the 6lbr kit.

So that's a few odd's & sod's from the vehicular 'khaki spectrum', more on TAT later today.

T is for Tipper Truck

Actually it's called a dump truck but hey! I was raised to think a small 'puddle-jumper' was a tipper-truck and 'dumper-trucks' were to be found in quarries and on major road-works; despite the double-axles and heavy cargo compartment, this is a little Ford puddle-jumper! Don't all write-in - it's childhood versus semantics!

Looking a lot like some late Marx vehicles of the same type (but not their dump truck which was a big, yellow, 'proper' one!) and various OK/Lucky types, it's actually branded to one of those typical Hong Kong (or Japanese) logo's which could mean anything if you don't know the company and while most Japanese companies have been sorted, most HK ones haven't!

As with a lot of these Hong Kong toy vehicles, the attempt to reproduce the functionality [in plastic] of their [mostly metal] western counterparts led to lots of easily breakable small or delicate parts, and while scaling-up helped somewhat, I'd hate to think how much of Christmas would have passed before the tipping mechanism on this would have been busted if it hadn't survived to the present day in its box?

Note that this toy's motor housing has the brass eyelet-rivets, the same system found on the TAT bren-gun carrier I looked at here ages ago (I think? I know I have one and I'm pretty sure it was Blogged!), TAT is another brand with a Lucky cross-over, and like Lucky late TAT stuff is battery operated, but re-branded to Stratco in their packaging.

The brand-mark for the tipper, your choice is as good as mine, although as the 'S' is smaller, I'm guessing we may be limited to a choice of four; HIS, HSI, IHS or ISH! And - like TAT, the logo is on the base-plate as well as the packaging.

Another 'anonymous' outfit only known as NN produced a two-axle version of this truck in various body-styles and with a heavy bumper/fender added at the front.

L is for Lucky Toys!

At last we get to the justification for my banging-on about Lucky with little or no empirical evidence for the last five posts!

This is the full Lucky base-mark, variations of it are used on branded packaging and can be found under the bodies of Lucky's toy vehicles, the vehicles of its own subsidiary brands (Laurie Toys for instance), as well as the vehicles of other brands or 're-box' importers such as Fairylite and Clifford.

Here we see the mark employed on one of today's 'ovoid based' figures, one of the square based figures from the other day and the underside of my VW Carmen Ghia, otherwise badged (by its box) to Laurie Toys - the same mark appears on the floor underside of the accompanying caravan.

Another figure-set I know I don't have all the members of, or I suppose 'figure batch' is a better term as all these figures appear with the other 'batch' figures in the larger sets, even the firemen sometimes get one of the generic drivers.

Missing from my parade are the guy with a large 1950's style motor-racing engine oil or fuel (very dangerous if so!) can/pourer and a guy with a smaller lap-board or larger clipboard than the two we've previously looked at.

The 'lucky' base also undergoes various changes as it's anonymised for sub-contractors or other reasons, first the whole Lucky element (horseshoe and 'L') are scratched out, then a ¾-blank is employed, that's all cleaned-up and the '№' is removed while the code-number is reversed and centred, finally the whole base is re-cut to conform more to the kidney-based figures, there seems to be no 1112 issue of these figures - so far!

Race-goers and Officials (from Tri-ang/Mettoy 'Scalextric' - originally Stadden sculpts?)

540 - Race Official with Finishing Flag

541 - Kneeling Mechanic/Scrutiniser

542 - Spectator Camera

543 - Spectator Waving with Binoculars

Unknown Numbers

? - Guy with Large Oil/Fuel Can/Pourer

? - Guy with Notice Board/Clipboard/Lap Board

K is for Kidney-Base (again?)

I think we had that title on the small-scale 'Khaki Infantry' posts!

I'm on shakier ground with these - in pretending to know that much about them, that is - if only because I know I'm missing a few (who could have different or new base marks) and because the two largest groups of Lucky figures have either these bases or the ovoid ones we will look at tomorrow, so there's more likelihood that some of them (such as the first two below) might only have appeared with a single brand, and/or that there are still base-mark variations to be found?

These two came in some of the pit-stop sets or racing-car workshop vignettes, and both carry the 1112 mark and as yet haven't turned-up without it, so may only have been produced for a specific contract? Equally - I don't know if they have sculpt-origins elsewhere or are original designs, anybody got any ideas? I would pencil in a lesser US make maybe?

Race Crew

495 - Running with toolbox and extinguisher

496 - ?

497 - Kneeling with extinguisher

And those missing numbers I mentioned when looking at the gap in the firemen numbering? Well we have another gap here which could well be a missing pose?

These are a mix of influences, the race crew are (or seem to be from) a US maker, I have Marx/MPC? as the attached note (I'm sure they're on Kent Sprecher's ToySoldier HQ somewhere, but haven't time to look!) but they may be PP, while the commentators, press/media guys and spectators (most tomorrow) are from Tri-Ang/Mettoy's Scalextric range.

Note that the guy top left has a little nipple on his base which is for a spare-tyre which he's rolling across the forecourt/pits, I may have one in the spares bag, but it's in storage!

The other weird (or 'odd') thing about these is that having dealt - up to this point - exclusively with hard or brittle polystyrene plastic (and a bit of softer, flexible polyethylene among the smaller generics and Blue Box 50mm's); there is a PVC vinyl-rubber issue of some of these (probably all of them, but I don't have all poses in both materials) which makes storage a pain as you can't put them in the same bag, they will melt their frangible clone-cousins!

The top shot shows all my PVC versions with both base marks (below), while to the bottom-left we have a PVC cameraman to the right of a polystyrene version, the size difference has nothing to do with pantographs (or pantograph operators!) and everything to do with the shrinkage of PVC against styrene polymers.

One of the reasons PVC is such filthy stuff to work with (and for the wider environment) is the fumes it gives off, those fumes have mass, the loss of that mass causes the figures to be smaller; from the same mould. Also: he's slightly bent!

The camera carries the same code number as the operator and I haven't found one in PVC yet, but have seen a chromium-plated one which looked a bit naff! Most of the 'absent' figures are in a later post, but this one (camera-car catalogue image) was collaged-in with the other cameraman before I decided to break the page into parts/posts.

I have a feeling I've seen a figure which could be him, so he may have been loose and removable; I suspect the camera was fixed to the car, but again haven't seen one to know. If anyone has this figure going spare I'd love to track one down.

The two base marks, I have both types with the left-hand one in styrene only, while the PVC examples in my collection carry both marks.

My Laurie Toys VW Carmen Gia and Caravan (one of several caravan designs from the extended Lucky-and-others fleet), now in storage but fortunately photographed years ago before it went away (you may recognise the old Berkshire flat's carpet!), two holidaymakers or sightseers (campers? Caravaners in this case but I've seen them with 'just' cars), unfortunately I never shot the bases, nor made a note of the numbers, so these are among the 'unknown number' list - if anyone can tell us (the wider readership!) the numbers or confirm the mark-type that would be useful!

Race Crew & Media Types

430 - Rolling wheel/pushing something

431 - Holding lap-board

432 - ?

433 - Interviewer

434 - Camera operator with tripod camera

435 - Announcer with microphone

Unknown Holidaymakers/Sightseers/Spectators

? - Man with Binoculars

? - Woman in Skirt with Hands on Hips