O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! Army Men and Combat Infantry

The meat and two veg' of Toy Soldier collecting . . . toy soldiers! I had quite a good run at the show this year on the khaki-front, in fact, I've just split the folder into two; troops and AFV's, as it was 27 images! So, this post is that plunder, less all the vehicles! And we seem to be starting with pretty-much the last thing I bought at the show, probably because it was on top of a bag, and got shot first!

 

One of the American dealers was over for the day, was it Matt from Hobby Bunker? And he had these, in most colours, I went for the pink! BMC's GI Janes! I've not got them out of the pack, as Brian Berke sent us a nice khaki sample when they first came out, so they can wait for another day, but it was a definite box ticked!

 

Two blow-moulds which I think we've seen before, but here they are again, and they'll be back soon, as Peter Evans gave me a pair not a week ago! He remembers them being part of a shooting game with [I think he said;] four each of these two and one officer?

 

A Marx six-inch British infantryman, and Blue Box (or BB-clone) five-inch GI, complete the larger figures found in June.

 

Not my finest moment, but we all make mistakes at shows, hurrying, poor lighting, trying to hold-down two conversations, but whatever, I bought a lemon - the lewis gunner team are mucked about with, I thought they were a pair, but actually the No.2 is a conversion . . . heay-ho! Some Chinese made Matchbox clones (Shin Hing maybe?) and an earlier Rado or similar Russian.

 

French, very early Starlux (ovoid bases), or Quiralu, I think, possibly from aluminium moulds? I should know, and if I spent longer going through the folders I would know, but nice anyway!

 

Bagged small-scale and a couple of loose figures.

 

The right-hand bag had some interesting mould-purge figures in green/blue.

 

I actually went to the show with only one thing on the absolute wants-list; Hilco Anzacs, and managed to get all three with a colour variation, from one stall, and a seller on the opposite side of the aisle had the Trojan 14th Army types, so I grabbed them at the same time! The Hilco's are cut-n-shut 'conversions' (in the loosest, just-escaping-a-plagiarism-charge, meaning of the word) of the Timpo 'solid' 8th Army poses.

 

Also picked-up two of the Airfix 1st version Para's neither of which seem brittle, a problem with them now, a Thomas/Poplar 'ubiquityman' (driver, gunner and stretcher bearer), Blue Box GI in 50mm and three Lido-clones.

 

More small-scale, with Corgi 'chocolate bars' from the gift-set, Blue Box Germans in 'styrene, a similar Hornby-Triang 'Battle Space' radio-operator and a few other bits.

 

To be sorted, mostly Hong Kong, mostly Britains clones, and mostly to appear on the Khaki Infantry page at some point, I haven't done as much on there as I'd have wanted to, due to circumstance, this last few years, but I did add a few bits there, the other day, and there is more in the queue.

 

More Hong Kong, copies of Airfix 8th Army and Monogram GI's, all very much grist to the mill, but all having a place in the oeuvre, and will all need to be sorted into the correct tubs and samples, to build the bigger picture.

 

For instance the two colours of 8th Army clones, are from two sources, one marked Hong Kong the other just HK, and a difference in quality between the two. The aim being to eventually get them all tied into the correct sets/packaging, and hopefully get the odd brand-ID on them, I happen to know the HK's are probably Ri-Toys (Rado)!

 

More thanks to - Issack, Graham Apperley, John Begg, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Peter Evans, Adrian Little, Michael Mordant-Smith, Trevor Rudkin, Steve Vickers, and with no emails since the intro-post, anyone else who gave me stuff, who I have forgotten to add.

J is for Just Right For Your Pocket!

Have you ever got so tired, yet wired you couldn't even snooze, yeah, well that's me right now, I was doing online training all day, with tests, and my eyelids are hurtin' heavy, but I'm sort of powering through! So, in the hope this will tip me over, sleep wise, here's a quickie before midnight!

This was once full, but pretty-much everyone who wanted one has had one, and there were four left, while the box had sort of had my name on it for a decade prior, so it finally came home with me, back-end of 2021!

 

The Trojan 'common' set of Tiny Trojans, and because I'd shot it a couple of years earlier, I think was the reason for never quite Blogging the whole show-report! Anyways, here's a close-up, to get them in the Tags again.

Three ex-Crescent sculpts and a man appaently firing wiff-waff balls from a double-barelled . . . thingy! That twin-barrelled PIAT-M/G really does look like that!

B is for Best Show on Earth! 2. Airfix and Related

I had some luck with early Airfix at the show, and there were some related bits, so I shoved them all in one post, except the two early motorcycles which ended-up in a mixed shot in the Civilian Vehicles post!

Two of the Airfix mounted figures after Bergan/Beton, both mounted on soft polyethylene horses (with the correct bent tail and cavity mark), although being a hard polystyrene themselves. The lefthand shot is missing the hunter, who turned up later, hence the rethink on how to do the posts!

 

As a result that image also has two probable Argentine figures a ceremonial type (top right, integral moulding) and a Native American (bottom left, separate rider) along with two other 'styrene riders, one of whom seems to belong with the marked-Ajax horse, the other is from the Magnetic 'Bucking Bronco' novelty act - the third I've picked-up in a few months, typical; isn't it, like buses; you wait ages for one, then three turn-up together!

A mixed bunch of the early 'eight figure set', being, from the left; Airfix Paratrooper, possible pair of BR Moulds Japanese and three of Peter Evans' home-casts. The first having the clear mould-release pin-mark which seems to differentiate the Airfix originals, the two Jap's missing an obvious mark, hence the possibility they are BR and the trio being a sharper, rigid resin to the softer pink one we looked at last year?

 

In the last lot from Chris Smith, I held over a bunch of these from the plunder posts, and I picked up a few more the other day, so a major re-hash/addition to that page will be forthcoming, as are similar changes to the mounted 'Bergan Beton' page where an awful lot have come in recently, in addition to the two above.

This is a fun shot, or at least the upper one is, the lower one is a closer look at the five Gulliver Japanese infantry, one of which is based squarely on an Atlantic 'Sendai' sculpt (Gulliver's go-to for piracies when they weren't copying Reamsa, Comansi or Jecsan!), the other figures being four old Airfix Sculpts.

The upper shot has, in addition, two rather wreaked Airfix originals for a not-very-useful comparison (they've both had their feet mucked-about with), suffice to say the Gulliver are a little smaller, but well sculpted. And in the foreground, a gloss-painted 'Toy Soldier' style home-cast piracy in lead/whitemetal with a wire bipod.

Not Airfix but of the same era, the same rarity value as the 'eight' and the same esoteric range, are two on the left from BR Moulds, a Lifeguard which is almost certainly from the Trojan set (post coming) and an Indian who doesn't seem to conform to any of the known BR mould-tool catalogue descriptions, and has something of the Sacul guards in his plastic colour, but seems to be from hollow-cast, so got included here!

 

These were mixed in with everything else! They go in a big bag which gets sorted into the master-collection/future stock every few years! I actually found a Prussian advancing from the Waterloo sets the other day, trod into someone's lawn, so Airfix 'HO-OO' have become a standard feature of the Anthropocene geological layer, along with crisp packets, chocolate wrappers, drinks bottles & cans, cigarette filters and vehicle parts/metal or rubber fixings!

 

Thanks to all for everything last month; Brian Carrick, Trevor Rudkin, Adrian Little, Andreas Dittmann, Gareth Morgan, Michael Mordant-Smith and Peter Evans,

Thanks to all for everything last month; Peter Evans, Brian Carrick, Trevor Rudkin, Adrian Little, Andreas Dittmann, Gareth Morgan and Micheal Mordant-Smith.

H is for How They Come In - London Show December 2022 - General Purchases

And so to London, as the saying goes, with the final toy soldier show in the calendar at the Haverstock School, Chalk Farm, where I had quite a good show, given it's mostly metal these days, but various 'Plastics' guys are there and between them gaps were filled and rarities found!

This came from a mate, and he actually had two different, but I only grabbed one and it'll feed my need for regular injections of horse-drawn stuff, but it is both a delicate and space-consuming heft of packaging, so one is fine, my first Brumm, known from the catalogues which aren't rare and of which I have a few and very well-made when you actually get to see/handle it.

Modern combat forces got a good boost, with a bunch of Frenchmen from Cofalux, Starlux and one or two others . . . I picked up a few more a week or two later, then got some more in the machine-gunner lots, so I've done well on Frech plastic this past autumn/early-winter!

To their right are a bunch of Japanese from Britains Deetail range, I knew I only had one or two, and realised (quite late in the afternoon) I had seen all of them on two different stalls, so having some cash still warm in my pocket rushed round as people were starting to pack-up and purchased both lots.

Thus giving me five of six poses, alternate painting of the advancing chap, and two different treatments of the LMG, along with the US recoilless rifle re-purposed to the Land of the Rising Sun, to keep Britains' costs down! I'll have to hope the missing pose is among my existing few!

Below is two shots of a very clean Trojan jungle fighter, I seem to be building my Trojan Japanese, Australian/Anzac and 14th Army samples one figure at a time which isn't the cheap way, but it'll be fun when I find the last one - about another ten years at the current rate!

Now, I didn't shoot or record the maker (on the back of the cards) before they went up to the unit, but I may have some of these already in the collection (I've certainly seen them before), so when everything is sorted out, we may well de-card a duplicate, set them up and have a return post with all the details . . . modernish (1970's?) and aimed at the tourist trade I suspect.

Had a good score on Gem/Gemodels, with four knights (from the 'orange paint batch'!), one of the King's Men from the Humpty Dumpty cake decoration vignette (he appears to be laughing and pointing at the 'scrambled-egg'!) and two others, the snowman with an icing spike and a skater in yellow base polymer, along with a Hong Kong copy of the Crescent Santa Clause, I already have one or two in that section, but I think the paint on this chap is far superior to previous finds?

These were from Matt Their at White Tower Miniatures, and while you know my views on 'new' poured metal (as displayed in the last post!), the smaller guys aren’t so expensive (despite having higher overheads/unit costs), so I try to support them when I can, and while I always admire Matt's stuff I haven't previously bought any, so I thought I'd better rectify that with a  swift purchase!

I bought one glossy 'toy soldier' style finished figure from the Robin Hood series, and one matt painted figure from the Wild West range, and they are both really nice figures, Robin himself summoning the Merry Men for some shenanigans, the Indian is from an older hollow-cast moulding I think Matt said, but now done as a solid. Matt also sells all of them as unpainted castings.

This MTB/PT-Boat was nice, some age (dime store type/era), and pretty clean, but there is a small question mark over the opening beneath the conning-tower, and the two openings just in front of it, I can't work out if something is missing, or if someone has had a dig to fit a couple of figures, now missing, no brand or brand-mark, nor the typical Kleeware/Tudor Rose circular mould-release/blanking disc marks, so maker is totally unknown but could be an early Thomas or Lido/Pyro/Reliable type thing?

A pair of beautifully painted Commonwealth 'World Dolls'; Ms's Hawaii and Holland, and painted by George Hanger, who used to paint stuff for the BMSS museum and their magazine articles, indeed, given who I bought them off (who also gave me their history), I'm guessing those Mokarex/Figurines Historiques Musketeers (bottom of post) were painted by George as well?

Polish [French] cavalry from PZG, going for a song in a little bag, I'm not sure on the horses, so gave the most obviously different one to the Trumpeter, and the other odd one to the 'officer' in white!

Smaller single/rummage-tray pick purchases include (going vaguely clockwise from the top left); Kinder fantasy figure, I've several of these come in recently (so not rare) in both blue and green, a large native American Indian type from . . . Lido? Tudor Rose? Someone like that, he's in the archive somewhere and probably tied-in with a Lone Ranger or similar movie? And finally in that shot -  a US MP with pod-feet, again I should know, I've seen him before and I think I have him in dark blue, so this may be a 1990's reissue?

Poplar tractor (another!), an aluminium totem pole (Wend-Al or Aludo?) and a tin of my favourite brown! I have the old Authenticast semi-gloss leather version and the bog-standard gloss, but this matt dark-brown is hard to find these days, or seems so to me, so I thought I'd grab a 'newie' when I saw it!

A Toumoulage French soldier in metallic mauve polystyrene (why not!) and a rather nice-paint Cherilea Egyptian share the line-up with a less common cake-decoration deer sculpt and one of the Airfix (or Frazier & Glass I think . . . now!) cadets.

Finally another big Indian I should know, and another of those teeny-tiny Topo Gigio (Louie Mouse) figures from Italy, which I keep finding (or being sent), I have four or five now, I think in three colours, but all the same pose? Board game pieces maybe . . . or were they an early Kinder or a gum-ball capsule-dispenser thing?

The Toumoulage Indians we've already looked at above, with a mix below; the big guy is a Marolin, probably post reunification? Next to him is a better-quality Hong Kong copy of a Herald sculpt, with a French-made cowboy on the end of the row. In front a Marx 45mm PVC-rubber cowboy and a French (or more likely Polish) Indian with peace pipe, one of several (with pipes) who've come-in recently.

Big Joe from Big, what Jean Höfler became, a Gulliver late-issue copy of an Atlantic cowboy and a Pech y Hermanos artilleryman, the gun in front is similar to the Pech one he should be found with, but bigger and a Hong Kong (or early British garden/beach toy, it's unmarked?) Aussie jungle 25lbr without splinter-shield.

Quick note; I've finally bitten the bullet and switched from Firefox to Chrome, still getting used to it, but it has changed the gaps between images and paragraphs, nothing I can do about it, the Internet like most everything else these days seems to be slowly fragmenting and getting worse not better!

A is for And so to Bed . . . No! 'London' - A is for And so to London . . .

. . . where we three and thirty, and thirty-three, and more that thirty-more did meet again!

And even some new faces turned-up and a bloody good time was had by all! The weather would have taken some beating (especially after what it gave us today!), the company was fine, the merchandise was piled-high and smelt of old plastic, it had to be the Annual (pandemic's allowing) Plastic Warrior Toy Soldier Show!

Now, I'm not going to bore you with the minutiae; if you were there you know how good it was, if you've been before you have a good idea what you missed, and don't want to be told (it was better - better than ever!), and if you've never been and didn't go, you probably shouldn't be reading this! But one of the features of the show, is the annual release of the latest 'Special Publication'  . . . or even two - in a good year!

Well, this was a vintage year, so we got four! And if you missed them, or the show, or both, I'm here to plug them!

Two volumes on the die-cast accessories that came with or for toy soldiers from the same makers, and the Modern Army Series from Lone Star was one, with all the variations, even the daft blue and chrome ones, a very useful addition to the library.

Crescent was the other maker getting the once over and I must confess I didn't know all the vehicles in the fleet, the M109 for instance, looks excellent, and how many are there in 54mm-compatable, die-cast?

This - however - is essential reading for any British plastics aficionado, it's years since the last black & white version was released, and this all new, all colour edition is a real treat, with lots of new stuff, hard to know where to start, and this is only a quick promo, but yeah . . . if you didn't get one yesterday, you need to get one!

And if the Trojan work is welcome, this in-depth look at BR Moulds is a fantastic volume, some of us suspected it was in the works, the ephemera hinted at in the previous articles we've seen in the magazine clearly pointed at 'more to come' and here it all is, and I mean 'all'; full listings, most known figures, now illustrated with multiple examples, a few unknowns thrown in for good measure, side-by-side comparisons and much conjecture - it is not only a joy of a quick-read, it's genuinely fascinating, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

For all four volumes the contact details are many and available as soon as you've read this;

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PlasticWarrior?fref=ts

Blogger - http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.co.uk/

eMail  - mailto:pw.editor@ntlworld.com

Tel: 01483 722 778

Address;

The Editor

65 Walton Court

Woking

Surrey,

GU21 5EE

UK

 

And they are on Paypal

 

I'll also plug Matt Thier's White Tower Miniatures, Matt was one of the old faces seen yesterday, and he has two catalogues out at the moment;

Last year's Dark Ages catalogue is still available, but it was announced about now I think, back then, so may be in short supply. A very nice range, I follow the Faceplant page and when he posts a bunch en-mass with all the different shields and weapons, they are stunning. There's over 120 figure-castings now, several horses . . . and a bear!

This is  the new for 2022 listing of the Wild West range, and while I'm not a metal guy, I was tempted by some of the many character figures from TV, the movies and real life (each gets a thumbnail biography and either a still of the movie poster, or a picture of the real person), there are also character figures of named Native Americans, a lovely wagon and all the normal stuff.

 

Matt also showed me footage of a range of slot & peg-together building which are on the way, with removable roofs and interior floors etc.

 

Matt is findable here;

https://whitetowerminiatures.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/whitetowerminiatures

 

eMail: matthair7@hotmail.com

 

I also literally ran-into the  proprietor of Soldiers in Silloth as I was taking his flyer from the front table at the show, and promised to plug his toy soldier museum, and as I'm covering everything else (above) here, I'll give you the cover and a bit of blurb and try to do an A-Z entry with a bit more, I'm also going to try and visit this summer as it looks like an excellent day out!

The museum seems to contain all types of toy soldiers including metal and plastic, with cabinets of sample figures alongside vignettes and dioramas, and of course, it's just off the Hadrien's Wall way, so you could include it in a longer walking/camping holiday or make it part of a long-weekend?

Soldiers in Silloth

No.1 Marine Terrace

Criffel Street

Silloth

Cumbria

CA7 4BZ

UK

Tel: 01697 331 246

http://www.soldiersinsilloth.co.uk/

 

**********     ***     *     ***     ********** 

 

And the post's tile? I overslept! Adrian had to ring me from the drive! Doh!

H is for How They Come In - December 2020 - II Chris - Military

Obviously, a lot of you are Toy Soldier collectors, only deigning to touch other genres if they happen to fit your collection's parameters, vis-à-vis scale, maker, period or whatever! So this portion of Chris's donation is probably the best one for you!

We'll start with 'the rest' as I tried to alternate the green and pale backgrounds, needed to separate the medievals and wanted to finish with the Trojan, and for no other reason!

Top left we have five kit-figures, some ex-Monogram and a chap who looks a lot like some of the larger R/C tank crew in the master collection, he also has a locating spigot between his knee and foot, and may-well have been attached to such an item?

The grey figure below him looks a bit like some Portuguese premium Jap's I recently got, but he's not as deeply sculpted and while they are unique sculpts, he's ex-Monogram and a bit Hong Kong'y in execution, but a first in the collection (very heavy base?), as is the damaged turquoise figure, one-place to his left?

Center of the bottom row are two more Special Forces types, these are becoming common, I guess because of their prevalence on both current affairs/news programs and their position in popular culture/gaming?

The white Timpo (et al) copy is interesting; I forgot to check his base, so while he may be HK/China, if unmarked he might be a French bazaar figure? below him, next to the SF figures is a figure which ought to be a Speedwell copy of a Timpo swoppet, but looks glossy enough to be a HK copy of Speedwell! And not a Star Toys pose?

The big boy (bottom right) is a Mattel 'Hero in Action' and I seem to be building a bag-of-bits of these, so one day I might try to get a couple of whole ones and cover them here, they are technically action-figures, but articulation is limited and if you like the Vietnamese summer 'Rambo' esthetic of them (flak-jacket, trousers, boots, helmet and not much else), then they are a fun thing, although they came out when I was a kid, so long before John Rambo started shooting-up his neighbourhood!

Three perennials in four sizes; Pioneer (for Realtoy et al), Smart Toys (new poses), and Soma (with ATV), the two Pioneer/Realtoy are hard to find undamaged, The Smart sample is getting a little lopsided with many more green than sand!

Chris sent me two of his new, probably first, unknown-brand versions of the ABC figures, I have Blogged them now, but here they are again!

Medievals, from the left; these are fun (and a bit funny) they came in various branded and more generic sets (so maybe handled by Toy Major?), and at first glance - or, depending on which ones you find first; closer inspection - appear to be US construction workers, but they are in fact medievals and this one is sneakily hiding his axe behind his back.

Then the All The King's Men board-game piece bowman, if I'd Blogged him earlier he would have come before March's 'reveal'! he's next to a Roman who we had also looked at, but he's definitely a darker shade than the shiny set I found - in liaison with Chris, at the time, I think?

One of the unpainted, mono-coloured Cherilea 50-mils, I wonder if they had a Lucky-Bag or ice cream premium contract for these, as they do turn-up quite often? Penultimate figure in the line-up is a Hong Kong copy of MPC's little 45mm figures and next to him on the end is an MPC original of one of the mounted ones!

I thought I'd put them on the Blog, back at the start but I'll be darned if I can find the images?

Don't know what this is, I'm guessing some kind of wall or gatehouse decoration from a larger-scale action-figure play-set? Pig's head visor, ornate crest and the reverse image is out of focus - sorry!

Chris is as intrigued by this as I am! He thought King, I thought Beefeater, and it clearly plugs into something? It is flat, and has some of the design elements you might find on a lollypop- or cocktail swizzle-stick?

I wonder if it's a long gone and pretty forgotten company logo, perhaps a steak-chain or a smaller chain of restaurants like (but not) London's Old Kentucky where we had several treat-trips as kids in the one opposite the Duke of York's barracks in Chelsea - which google informs me was at 54 King's Road from 1968, there was another in Tottenham Court Road. Beefeater Restaurants themselves did (do?) have a Beefeater mascot, but a bearded one in the current ceremonial uniform, this is an older style.

It's one of those things where if you know you know, so does anyone recognise him, or is he just one of a line of ice cream sticks or something? AND . . . he could be an Elizabethan jester?

At some point last autumn Chris and I either discussed an evilBay lot, or ended up bidding on the same lot, anyway at some point I dropped out before the under bidder, or never bid (I can't remember now) and Chris won it, kindly sending me the one figure I'd really been after as he already had a better one, which puts my Trojan Jap's up to five in four poses I think . . . slowly, slowly, catchee' raree!

I was chatting to someone today round at another toy soldier mate's house, and we were looking at his Wants List . . . now, I currently have five from friends on the laptop's desk-top and have only managed to fulfill one item so far - a bunch of Brent composition to one of the Russian supporters of the Blog, because - as I said in the conversation earlier today, all the wants lists have pretty much the same figures/makers on them, because the harder to find things are the same for everyone! But keep looking and you'll find them in the end - because they were all mass-produced!

The real rarities are all the more ephemeral things like flat Beefeater hangers, that went to landfill years ago, and it's thanks to supporters like Chris that I can get to share them with you. Thank you Chris, we'll be looking at the equally interesting April lot soon!