News, Views Etc . . . Composition Page

Welp! I have finally published - with all faults - the composition page I started editing about fourteen or fifteen years ago! It was near-ready about ten or eleven years ago, and I sent off edits to a few people to proofread, and I must thank Paul Morehead of Plastic Warrior for being the only one to get back to me, with an edit (which I hope I've corrected in the current draft!), the other's know who they are, and have disappointed, but that's pink-monkeys for you; always disappointing when they can!

 

 

Brent - smaller version

After the above, was ready to go, the whole article disappeared, poof! Like some negative-reaction magic trick! And I never got it back, while Blogger/Google have yet to reply to my eMails of ten-odd years ago! Anyway, while I started again, I was rather disheartened by the whole business, and rather left it on the back-burner!

Luckily, I had the draft I'd sent out, and could get the images back off the dongles, although by the time I was about to publish, I'd reworked most of the second section, and that's now quite different, and probably not as good at it was first-time around, these things tend to flow better in the initial attempt? Or they do with me?

It's incredible! He has to have the same story, a better story or something similar scrapped off evilbay! Like the braggart in the playground, who won't be bested, yet always, only reacting!

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2025/11/sometimes-great-lotion.html

I mean, I'm not saying he made it up, but timing's everything, so no sympathy here! I lost a bigger, better, more erudite document, not five minutes ago . . . not! Little tosser.

Japanese composition Wild West

While I know I've lost some links, and I've since added most of the British makers here, in individual posts, but they're not linked to, on the new composition page yet, so there will be more editing, and there are a couple more to go up here, to finish-off what I have on early British composition. But I have checked the links there, and updated one, although, the STS Lineol link keeps defaulting to Kinder here, but I think that must be a 'me' or 'my machine' glitch, if it happens to you, 'copy' the link and go through Google.

 

Three lead and a bisque pilot, with variations of Timpo/Zang 'Timpolin' airmen

The page remains a guide only, and 'work in progress', with the 'Rest of World' maker's list particularly poor and bitty, so any help there will be gratefully received, but at least it is 'live' now, which is an advance on yesterday! Much shorter pages will appear at some point on ceramics and tin-plate, with polymers and size/scale/ratio/gauge, still some way off!

 

 

Unknown leopard - a plastic copy of a probably Lineol animal,

heralds the end of composition. 

 

I must also thank Adrian Little, who has let me shoot all sorts of interesting things, on his tables, over the years, not least a lot of the stuff on the Composition Page;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_25.html 

H is for Highland Sentries!

In addition to the aircraft we looked at last week, I had another Zang purchase back in the Spring, the Highland infantry boxed set. We did look at one I think back in the early days of the blog, but to see how they came, and probably how the guardsmen we saw a couple of years ago were issued too, is nice.

 

Unbranded lid

 

Full set

 

Close up

 

No sign of a gummed Timpo label, so I guess these were Zang's own retail idea, but as a generic for small stores? Like my existing loose fella', two of these are snapped-off at the ankle, but composition figurines in approximately HO-gauge, of men with bare legs were always going to be a long-shot!

A is for Airforce One . . . Hundred and Eighty!

I know, I know, but if you think about it, there is some sense in that, a method in the madness!

 

I like to think that over the years a lot of the important ID work on both Zang (composition) and Palitoy (early plastic) aircraft has been done here, slowly, as I've found them, not knowing Mig Bonnefoy already knew more about the Zang than me, but wasn't publishing online!

 

In recent months I've had a couple of good chats with Mig, on the subject, and shared two of these Zang revelations with him, but in the meantime a loyal reader 'Down Under', sent more revelations on Palitoy and some Antipodean angles on 'dine store' plastics, therefore this post is full of interesting stuff, new to Blog, Internet and some further corners of the Hobby!

 

So, in the order in which they were revealed to me, let's get stuck in!

 

We've seen the Boeing B17 in both silver and camouflage, and both British and USAAF markings (indeed, the examples on that occasion, came from Mig!), but for years, people have always been careful to say things like 'believed to be', 'said to be' and such like, when discussing the 'Zang for Timpo', I know I have, and the confusion, aided by Joplin's big yellow book, was always best left as Zang if loose, Timpo if Timpo-carded!

 

But here we have, on opposite tail planes, both a Timpo mark and the Zang mark, as a nice underlining confirmation of the relationship, and the first time I've seen it. And many thanks to John Begg for saving this one for me.

 

Then, a couple of weeks later, I found this at Sandown Park, and I've pulled it from those plunder-posts, to get it all together here. I was able to show it to Mig, literally minutes later, and an eMail exchange then ensured to decide whether it was a Yakovlev Yak-3 or an Ilyushin Il-2 (Flying Tank), and the Yak was settled upon! But nobody knew these were out there.

 

No Timpo blue-triangle label, although there may have been one where the paper blemish lies under the nose of the righthand Yak, but the box is quite fancy, and reminiscent of the JE Beale's department-store one, which reminds us they are still all Zang first, and only Timpo if so packaged . . . or, now, sometimes, marked!

 

Mig also gave me an updated list of the Zang/Timpo 'planes;

• Airspeed Horsa (Glider) 
• Boeing B17 Fortress
• Boeing B29 Super Fortress
• Bristol Blenheim 
• De Havilland Mosquito
• Gloster E28/39 (Jet)
• Hawker Typhoon 
• Lockheed P-38 Lightning
• North American P-51 Mustang
• Supermarine Spitfire
• Yakovlev Yak-3
•  
• Fairy Battle (mentioned in an Article by Sue Richardson )?
• 
  
• While we both think there should be a Hawker Hurricane!

So I still have at least, four to shoot, five to find, as the Horsa we saw here wasn't mine! 

 

In the meantime, a loyal reader who doesn't want naming, but is happy to go by the moniker 'Ozi', sent me this, from Australia, and it's clearly a metal copy of the later/better Palitoy spitfire moulding, under the name of Merry Toys, missing its landing gear and propeller, but, there's no missing those lines, as we've seen them here, on the Blog, most recently this January, just gone. 

 

Ozi said: "I will attach a few pics of the “Merry Toys” metal cast item; which I think owes a great deal in parentage to the Palitoy “Spitfire or whatever it is”.  The wingspan of the Merry Toy is spot on four inches.  I don’t have a Palitoy Spitfire” to go alongside it.  The casting of the Merry Toy is pretty crude anyway.  Would you please let me have your thoughts on the possible parentage of this item?  I found it in a model shop about twenty years ago" .

 

Well . . . my thoughts are, who copied who? There is clearly a relationship, but the Aussie one is both lacking the strange indented line down the fuselage (of the Palitoy one), and has a better cockpit. So I am minded to think, given how poor Palitoy's version-one Spitfire was, that they are also responsible for the first iteration of this beast, and Merry then improved upon it?

 

Also, haveing placed the Palitoys firmly in the 1940's, there is something of the 1950's tinplate about this Merry antipodean one, albeit, it's actually a die-cast alloy model?

Ozi also sent a very clean Mossie . . . from Aussie . . . sometimes I should just be jailed! Ozi found it on Gumtree, down under, so some made their way down there. I think I read, there is both a real Mosquito and a Lancaster being rebuilt in that part of the world?

 

It's not the only Mossie being rebuilt I believe, and likewise I think an American (or second Canadian?) Lancaster is under rebuild. Having seen the then, only two, flying Lank's together, at Farnborough, a fair few years ago, now, imagine what four would look/sound like, and likewise, three Mosquitos! 

 

In a follow-up eMail Ozi sent these four pictures (above and below) of smaller 'novelty' 'plane models, and I'll post his musing on childhood fandom and memories of toy aircraft at the bottom. Here a rather nice Vampire, in marbled pinkish-maroons.

 

 

 North American P-51 Mustang and De Havilland DH.106 Comet

 

Grumman F9F Panther

"In my school days, growing up in a smallish country town in OZ and later in a City, with only my imagination for company, it was natural to have a liking for toy aircraft.  It was a bit after WW2 and no one wanted reminders of it – but I was curious about the aircraft.  Over several years, I saw the Dinkies, the Timpo “Bomber Station” set (with what I later recognized as Lightnings!), a small scale plastic set of apparently locally produced items and – best of them all – the plastic Palitoys.  Particularly the Wellington with its transparent gun turrets with guns!

 

They were all out of my reach and I just had to drool. The Defiant and the Wellington were moulded in a sort-of camouflage pattern [the distinctive marbling of early Palitoy's. Ed.]; which made them very distinctive. 

 

And then there was a series of plastic toys contemporary with the Korean War; Panther, MIG 15, Shooting Star a nice Sabre with RAAF markings and they had wheeled undercarriages. In various colours; blue, yellow, red.  I managed to somehow get a couple of them.  There might have others in that series. I am pretty sure they were local knock-offs of the US Empire brand – or they might have been licensed copies.  I don’t know, and I don’t think anybody knows now.

There was another series out about the same time – no undercarriages on this lot ; a Hawker Hunter (Only saw red ones), a Canberra and a DC3.  And a bit later were the giveaways with packets of “Aeroplane Jellies”.  I have illustrated the only one of those I have ever seen.  A Vampire, not very well moulded in a dark purple colour. Similarly, I somehow managed to swap for or find examples.

 
The first pics are of the “Aeroplane Jellies” Vampire.  Wingspan about 2.5”. Next are a couple of examples of the small scale locals – a Mustang and a Comet in silver.  Wingspan about 2.5”.  Only ever saw these in silver, and I am pretty sure there was a Canberra in that series and also a Lincoln.  Next is a pic of an American Empire Grumman Panther.  Wingspan about 4.5”.  Despite looking for years for examples of the OZ made Panthers, MIG15’s etc, I have never seen a single one.

In more recent times I have obtained locally a very distorted Palitoy Defiant, a couple of Lockheed bombers; plus eBay examples of the post-war Wellington and Sunderland.  The occasional Timpo Lightning crops up here, and also their B17.  Usually very play worn.

 

A couple of ZANG Mossies were a welcome find a few years ago.  A local site had a listing some time ago of a collection of small plastic toys; FD2, Lightning and others and I put in a bid, but it was not good enough.  Apparently they were local KELLOGG'S giveaways and dated rather after my school days. . . . 

. . . I should mention seeing the toys section of one of the new supermarkets (COLES) having Palitoy “Spit-whatevers” and Vampires and possibly other types finished in what appeared to be chrome plating."

The 'small scale locals' would seem to be yet another iteration of the MPC 'Minis', also done in hard plastic by Blue Box, but possibly only one or two? And many thanks to John, Mig and 'Ozi' for helping bring this lot together!

N is for Not Christmas Odds & Sods!

These were sort of pencilled-in for the Christmas season, but aren't really Christmas stuff, with the possible exception of the Carol Singers, however it seems easier to post them now as civilian stuff (despite the connection some of them have with Nazi Germany!), over the festive season, than shove them down in Picasa's 1968 with the other eight folders of pending Christmas stuff, or elsewhere, or just leave them choking-up 2025 in the short queue, before the year's even properly started!

 

Vaguely nutcracker'y, but not really; no bushy beards, proper muskets, lack of overemphasized uniform elements, but they do have the huge epaulettes, this would appear to be a belt-buckle of some kind.

 

But it doesn't seem to have the robustness to survive on my trousers, where I've broken heavy die-cast buckles over the years, yet seems a little too whimsical to be part of a genuine military panoply, not even the historically-dressed 'old guard' many British regiments still have a few of, for ceremonials or KAPE - Keep the Army in the Public Eye.

 

So, my guess is some sort of costume jewellery or actual theatrical costume?  The clasp clearly hooks to a bar or rod similar to the belt loop, and the whole has been cast from three repeats of a single figure moulding, with the joins between them barely hidden, possibly using the lost-wax method - I'd add that the paint's probably been added by the/a later, hobbyist owner.

And while it looks brass, it doesn't really weight 'brass', so it may be a brass-coloured (alloy) base metal type material with brass clasp and copper or copper-bronze wire loop, which could be brazed, but are more-likely soft-soldered, suggesting it wasn't meant/designed to take any great strain, or long-term work-load . . . any ideas greatly appreciated?

These are a mystery also, they are composition, rather than bisque, and painted in a similar style to some of the Zang 30-40mm's we've seen here before, but with more effort on the faces. You can see from the damaged blue figure that the composite material is similar to Zang's too, however they came with some WHW figures (next section below) and may be Winterhilfswerk?

 

If they are WHW I'd love to know the set, if not, festive cake decorations from Zang are a possibility, or someone like them, of 17/18th century garbed carol singers or street musicians seems to be as likely? Equally, some French/Low Countries composition uses that plaster/pumice base? A real question mark?

While these ARE Winterhilfswerk, nine of a ten-set of Grimm's fairy-tale characters, with - from the left - Snow White and five dwarves, a lovely Puss-in-boots, a frog-kissing princess, a goose-girl, a generic witch, a very small 'giant' or hunter, a girl with blue birds (I remember some story about the bluetits sewing a dress or something?), whatever the Grimm version of Tom the piper's son is called (Tomas?) and Red Riding Hood on the right.

The box is probably not original, but I will keep them in it, it's a nice little fake snake-skin embossed paper from the 1940/50's (probably a gift box, from a watch or pen), and will keep them together until they inevitably have to be handed on, one day.

 

They are the typical bisque of such sets, looking quite like French fèves (which are traditionally hidden in tarts at this time of year), with a firing hole, that doubled as a receptor for the chemical fixer/glue blob we've seen on these before, for when badge-pins are added (two issues?), and the tenth turned up hiding under the faux-wool when I put them away - Sleeping Beauty, still holding her bobbin of spun thread!

Also, please note Dwarves six and seven are moulded on the rear of Snow White, albeit undecorated! And I don't know the set's issuer or issue date/s.

 

Finally came this witch-like, rather troglodyte, femme-sinister, who you can see from the chip at the baseline, is in a red terracotta, again reminiscent of other WHW sets/subjects, but would appear to be a beer (or Bier!) promotional, the monogram is not clear, but could be HB (Herforder Bier?) or RB, and whatever that answer, she may well be contemporary with the other pieces above, excluding the brass number!

 

Clearly she's holding the moniker'ed Stein, but what is in the crook of the other arm? A swaddled baby, some kind of brötchen or pretzel, or a sheaf of brewer's barley?

 

You can see she's barely 30mm to the more standard 40-mil of the other two, and more questions than answers with all four here, once I'd sat down and typed the blurb! So any help with these, sets, dates, issuers, origins, gratefully received!

T is for Two . . . err . . . Four, Engines!

I picked up a couple of rather interesting aircraft models a week ago last Saturday, neither of which seem to be elsewhere on the Internet, so we'll look at them both and thoughts are welcome on these two mysteries, the first is a kicker for Brit's . . . 

. . . as I suspected first that Victory Toys were likely a US firm, before finding it (as an aluminium Jeep manufacturer) in the archive as being a Dutch/Netherlands maker, but the point is, it's inescapable that this composition B17 Flying Fortress is a world away from the lumpen models we've seen here previously from Zang for Timpo. I don't know if the dodgy-looking characters (possibly a dog, a human and a duck) have any significance, or are a further clue to anything?

 

I wondered if at first it was aluminium, Victory seem to have made figures in the same material, as well as the Jeeps (all around 60mm), but it's definitely a composition; you can see where light rust on the prop-shafts is just starting to split the cases on the port-engines. Also, the varnish, where it hasn't worn off, is starting to bubble, like the unit/nationality shield transfers on a WWII  German helmet I used to own - clearly reacting with the paint underneath.

 

Only, it's a very finely finished model, as you can tell from this comparison of another recent airborne discovery here at Small Scale World, the Zang B29 Superfortress, you can see it's a much cruder beast altogether, and you wonder if, at that level of finess, we don't still have composition toys, but that's forgetting the frangibility of the material, and the fact that it's only survived because the box has soldiered-on, getting a bit battered, defending the contents!

 

Typically, the B17's from Zang which we also only recently looked at, are in storage, but that will give us an excuse to return to the whole Air Wing one day, as there are some lead ones too, and a wax one!  Going by the scale on the wing of the next, below, these are about 1:300th scale?

 

The other 'plane I found that day was this cast-aluminium MR2/Mk.2 Shackleton, long range maritime-patrol/reconnaissance aircraft. The official recognition model was a 1:72 scale celluloid/phenolic model, made by Cruver, and most of the desk-models I could find are far more detailed/larger, so I was minded to suspect an apprentice piece, however, the 52/986 looks like a stock-code, so it may still be a recognition model, or perhaps a targeting-aid, but I'm not sure that I'd be very happy if our gunners were practising on models of our own aircraft?

 

Now, 52 could be the year, and 986 is close to codes used by Avro for both the Shackleton (696/716) and Lincoln Bomber (694/695), so this could be an Avro factory/design office model? I can see there's still more to learn about this!

 

The small recess shows no sign of glue or fixings, so seems to be designed to fit easily on a stand of some kind, and be removed again, while the yellow-brown paint is crudely done, compared to the all-over green, but seems to be original?

 

And here's another thought, the Shackleton has direct descendancy from the Lancaster, via the Lincoln, and I wonder if the fact that around the world, three Lancaster's have now (I believe) been rendered airworthy, is down to the number of Shackleton parts still kicking around here or in South Africa?

L is for Late Show Report - Ceremonial and Historical

Not much in this section from May, and I was going to combine it with the Ancient/Medieval images, but decided to move the images around instead, and add one from the archive at the end, so it'll do, it's only bragging on odd & sods, when all's said and done!

 

Small scale guards; a very broken Airfix was in the bottom of one of the bags! Running back up from him we have a Hong Kong swivel-head, a Zang composition with brown base (I think my existing sample have green bases?) and two of the 1990's Luck Bag/Christmas cracker ones.

 

When doing these temporary 'to be further sorted' sorts, I tend to put pirates or Zorro stuff with this class, so he's here! Those who have followed the Blog for any length of time will know there are a lot of these Kinder 'bits' bags now, with pirates, cowboys and Indians, Samurai, medievals etc . . . and he will join them for the final big sort! Missing his small parts but otherwise all there.

This was funny, a seller had a decent sample of the Colorado Argentines, and knowing I had a few, and fearing the price, I'd tried to ignore them all day, at the end of the day a mate came over and bought a sample of the foot figures (which I have), and I overheard the price, and quickly descended on the mounted pair, which I didn't already have!

 

In the course of the day I also picked up an arm in white plastic, which could be another Colorado, another Argentinian make or the Spanish Torres Maltas; I won't know (the pennant's different) until I can compare with an original or match-up with an 'armless guy!

 

I pick these up all the time, as part of my attempts to get them all sorted-out once and for all, and while I think these are all Airfix, I'm not sure on the academy cadet, he's had paint added I think, and won't fit on either horse without falling off, so may be a mucked-about-with Frazer & Glass, or a Bergan/Beton original, or another?

Horses are both 'bent-tail' Airfix, with a hard-plastic on the left and a soft plastic on the right, Lifeguard is definitely Airfix too, which would have been the end of this post (except it was originally the first image!), but I added this . . .

 . . . which was taken just over a year ago, and excluded the master collection, which was back in storage already (as all the above now is!), but includes that which had come in over the previous two years or so (on the left) and a lot from SAS Auctions on the right, with some sorting of horses and consolidation going-on in front.

 

Two posts were produced over a few moths for 'elsewhere', and it's intended to fully update the relevant page on the Airfix Blog, but I haven't got round to it, and may wait until everything's in one place, to try for the definitive narrative? You may recall there were several of these in Chris's last parcel, and the sample grows continually . . . and yes, there's an Airfix fireman hiding in there somewhere!

Many thanks again to Adrian Little, Barney Brown, Brian Carrick, Chris Smith, Michael Mordant-Smith, Paul Stadinger, Peter Evans and Trevor Rudkin, for contributions to this year's plunder-pile.

A is for Another One

Coming so soon after the recent expanding of the envelope with a B17 Flying Fortress (erroneously described as a B29 at the time), in part in answer to Collectors Gazette's apparent attempt to précis this Blog's work on the range over the years, comes an actual B29 Super Fortress!

Not exactly a rack-toy (yes, this August has been a bit of a wash-out on the RTM front), but I bet it was cheaper than a bag of chips back in the day! Another believed to be Zang for Timpo/Model Toys composition (Timpolin) aircraft model to add to the previous post's listing;

• Boeing B17 Flying Fortress
• Boeing B29 Super Fortress
  
• De Havilland Mosquito
• Gloster Whittle
  
• Hawker Hurricane (or Supermarine Spitfire?)
• Horsa Glider 
• Lockheed P-38 Lightning
  

Alphabetical this time, and new to blog, Internet and hobby, I think, what will turn-up next?

H is for Happy Birthday to Me!

Yeah, it was a while ago, but before I get into the other April/May donations and show stuff, Adrian gave me a nice parcel for my Birthday, so I'm Blogging that first!

Having already supplied several of the missing Circus M's (M-Toy, Marty, Maysun & May Moon), along with the poodle (see previous posts), Adrian had found another lot of the Circus stuff, and look what that monkey in a vest - previously seen from Chris Smith - sits on...

A Unicycle! Which leaves, as far as I know, the rearing version of the Britains Baby Giraffe as the only item in the line, still to be found loose, but it may not be that simple? The lot also contained a Festival clown and a teeny-tiny 'styrene clown, which may have been an early Christmas cracker or gum-ball capsule-machine charm?

The clown is - I think - the first I've found with the Maysun mark, usually, but not always found on the Ringmaster. While the wheel seems to be an odd one from something else, the stub-axles having a square cross-section, which I suspect are meant to lock into a heavy metal object, allowing the monkey to balance on a 'high-wire'?

The reason I'm not sure what's still to be found in the line, is because these were also in the lot, and while they look like Blue Box (or Holly), I suspect they may be part of the M's sample, and there's nothing to place the zoo fencing with the figures, beyond the fact that they were all in the same 'mixed' lot? A family of three different sizes of the same ex-Britains sculpt crocodile.

These semi-flats were added to the tub, when I picked it up at the BMSS show, the two Brits are a mystery, seemingly being die-cast and quite crude sculpts, they aren't known to be home-cast mouldings, and are relatively unique poses? The German or 'Euro' gunner is a more common home-cast piece.

 

A lovely art-deco take on a 'Greek' war horse (?) cocktail glass decorative ornamental in blood-red, transparent polystyrene, originally credited to the industrial designer Don Manning, and they (a range of between 8-12 sculpts) were first produced in the USA, in larger sizes as Lucite ornaments, before NOSCO reproduced them, smaller (in several sizes) as novelty cocktail-glass/cheeseboard/finger-buffet decorations, in cheaper materials, as we see here.

 

Again probably Blue Box, but could be Holly Toys, New Maries or another maker altogether, what's interesting is the goose family (common in the Blue Box and Sunshine Series sets) is joined by copies of Britains hens from both the hollow-cast and Herald eras, of the British donor's production. Indeed, Britians ran the central ex-Hollow-cast mould in plastic themselves.

 

The nearer sculpt is quite common, but the rather chewed one behind it is my frst sample I think? It has the raked-bow of the WWI-era 'Dreadnought' classes, and I suspect is from another source to the commoner one, possibly from a board game, but more likely a budget-price, cracker prize.

 

The de rigueur handful of Hong Kong, post-Giant, hollow-horsed Wild West mounted figures, we will dig down into all these on the Giant Blog eventually, but this seems to be quite a clean sample, with just a couple of interlopers from another source?

 

Bag of bits! Two useful Lone Star rockets and some hand weapons are joined by the radio ariel from Airfix's Comet tank (I think?), a Corgi sack, and a lovely hand-saw, in an early polymer, probably from a toy truck/van's tool box?

 

The brown cat is from a set of early learning things which could be placed on one of those mini-whiteboard/peg-boards you could get for the playroom, Merit or Bell, Raphael Lipkin maybe? The little kitten looks modern'ish, but the other might (and it's a big 'might', I'm not calling it!) be Gem or Festival?

 

This was an interesting find by Adrian, it's the 20mm composition pilot, from Zang (for Timpo), but aping the Skybirds lead pilots, in having a white suit . . . for 'civilian'? Although, probably painted over the more common khaki (broken one lying at his feet), it appears to have been done in the factory, as the pink face matches my other samples?

 

I think the flocked puppy is probably Polly Pocket from Bluebird Toys, while the teeny chick has a W GERMANY mark on it's base, so small you need a magnifying glass, or jeweller's loupe, to read it! While the Mini Mouse is of unknown origin?

 

A collection of railway and die-cast accessory figures brings this eclectic little gift to a close. I got quite excited by the figure on the left, thinking it was one of those celluloid figures from Japan, until I realised it was an over-painted Hornby figure!

 

PVC chap on the right was Corgi, and the silver boy/driver is probably Dinky or Spot On? My gratitude to Adrian for a lovely suprise, which came between shows, and gave up all sorts of new bits!