L is for Lots of London Loot - Sandown February - Animals & Bits

Having had a fair number of the figures in the first post, and then the bulk of the vehicles, I thought I'd shove the rest of everything except the other figures up first and do them last! Animals, mostly horse-drawn stuff and some scenics!

 

Hong Kong hay rake . . . I guess that can be tractor drawn! Ornamental plated coach, might be a cake-dec', but I remember them being glued to ashtrays and those onyx table lighters, desk-sharpeners etc...War gaming naval cannon, maker unknown, a rather nice motorcyclist who could be a game playing piece, from a cheap railway figure-set, or a gum-ball/cracker type thing?

 

The wreaker-truck is a soft polyethylene copy of the Blue Box 'styrene copy of the original Matchbox 1-75 series die-cast, probably by Bluebow, or someone similar, there are several of those knock-off brands out there! And the horse team will be from one of the cheapo' wagons by Morestone or similar.

 

A couple of really nice-paint, early, British, plastic animals, which should be Cherilea farm for the foal, and I thought Charbens for the Giraffe, but I seem to recall looking it up before, and deciding it was Cherilea too!?

 

I bought these to check the three against the recent post on the subject here, and they are all duplicates, hay-ho, I also think the painted-eyes Poodle is Cherilea, but I don't know why I think that, and stand to be corrected for my vague-arsed assumption!

 

The (Timpo?) flocked Kangaroo looked better under the show lighting, he's actually a bit grubby, and it looks like fag-tar grubby! And he's a few bald spots, but still, a sample is better than no sample! The Moose is a reduced-scale copy of the old cereal-premium Moose, which was stolen from Lido I think? Green Scotties are a broach-badge, the Pigeon is Reisler, from Denmark, they liked their red-plastic! And I think the little Doe is Siku?

 

I may have a similar bag of these somewhere in the stash, but it may just be something I handled back in the days of sorting JB's stock, nearly twenty years ago! All I need is the coach now! I think it's actually only two mouldings of horse, and one rider, all duplicated four times!, but if I do find Paramount coach, I may attempt to put it all together!

 

This was a lovely find, we had the 'Japan' made ones as kids, one Christmas in our stockings I think, I remember an Elephant, Owl, Gopher, Squirrel and Hedgehog, I think, and these are clearly cheaper copies from Hong Kong, the Japan ones were better printed within the outline of the cut shape, and had one or two, little 3mm or maybe 4mm, googly-eyes!

 

The seller started to ask 50p for this and then just gave it to me! It's modern, and a dodgy piece of Chinese not-a-dinosaur! What drew me to it, though, was the similarities with both Möbius's Arzak / Arzach and the alien Tweak from the Judge Dredd story 'The Cursed Earth', with the now-banned burger-war pages! Although really it's only the nose which is Tweak's! Basically, when I saw it - it was so bad, it was good!

 

Two horses from Malleable Mouldings, the black one is OK, the white one will need work on the rear leg, both have been messed-up with home paint, I fear. I may try one of those ultrasonic cleaner tanks for the latter, and maybe hot-water first for the former, it's an early, not terribly stable 'styrene I think?

 

Three early German plastic buildings, which we have seen before, following the pattern of the old wooden Erzgebirge ones, a baby's high-chair, or lifeguard lookout from some Bluebird, Galloob or Mattel micro-playset? And an unknown shell, bullet or missile?

 

FG Taylor's farm cart, like the road-roller, a cross-over piece with metal wheels and plastic rest, quite common in this configuration, I think the all plastic one is the rarity?

 

Bits - Kleeware sub-scale garage-service-petrol station with roof parking for micro-cars, the standing platform from the late Corgi circus set and some foliage! The pale tree-stump is actually a sun-faded and very brittle tree which has lost its branches with a few 'snap!'s, but it was free!

S is for Show Report - Sort of!

I don't really do show photo-reports anymore, I've a few left in the queue, going back to 2013 or something, but really a bunch of shots of trays of stuff you saw if you were there and can't do anything about if you weren't? And who wants to be reminded of things they might have missed? I know some people do gush over such stuff, but if you follow their comments, they gush about everything!

However, I do still shoot stuff which is interesting or unusual, or way beyond my budget! And here are a few bits I shot on Mercator Tradeing's stall at last- September 2021's Sandown Park toy fair, but had to leave where they sat.

Airfix 'Rocket Car' racer; there's a spring missing, with which you compress the 'engine' with the wire appliance, like an old starter-handle! And off it goes! I assume it would have been available in various colours/colourways?

Toydell; one of the less common early British composition brands, and clearly aiming at the tourist market, so most survivors will be found abroad (?). They were about 4-inches, so quite big boys, for display rather than play, but as they are closer to chalkware than a more-robust compo', you wouldn't want to play with them, or be able to for long, before they fell apart!

 

These were rather lovely survivors of a bygone age, they are trays of Penny Toys of the sort a street-trader would have carried on the street with him, dispensing one figure for one penny! Interesting to see that a few of them have a basic paint-job rather than the all-over gold or silver commonly associated with the type. And I think Adrian said they were actually Britains' own cheapies? If that's wrong; it's my bad!

These could be that milk-powder based polymer, 'casin', or they could be an 'ivorene' cellulose/celluloid type material, and while I suspect Portuguese in origin, they could be from southern France or Spain, or somewhere else entirely? Rather nice and clearly re-based in the past, they might have been removed from a vanity-unit mirror, clock or other piece of fancy furniture?

In a similar vein, comes this vignette of William Tell and his son, obviously missing a separate crossbow, and all the comments on the material of the rural couple, apply equally here. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a letter-opener or a bookmark, but favour the former myself, the bladed-base being a more solid chunk of phenolic or urea-formaldehyde type plastic

While from the 'It's Not Rare It's Mass-produced Plastic' department comes this shop-stock box of F.G. Taylor & Sons farmers, in mint condition. I think I have the figure in a dark-brown as well, but I might be confusing it with another model in the range. We will see them all when I get round to the A-Z page entry!

F is for Follow-up, Q is for Question Time, W is for Well, Well, Well!

Chris sent an interesting item to the Blog the other day, or pictures of it which is just as good! Further to the water wells I shew (like showed but shorter!)* the other day . . .

*Heay, cummon' Throwed/Threw, Growed/Grew, Knowed/Knew . . . can someone get all those wiggly red lines off my word.docx?

On the left of Chris's line-up here is the F.G Taylor well we saw last time, on the right is the Speedwell again, but the one in the middle is a newie! Chris wondered at Blue Box, I though similar and consulting the farm guru; Barney Brown over at Herald Toys & Models brought a confirmatory response, although he was no surer than either of us, it's just a hunch we all share?

There are two problems with calling-it for being Blue Box, the first is a Google search for all the various Blue Box and clone 'Home Farm' sets and similar items don't reveal this well, and secondly; it's not marked, which most - if not all - the larger items from their farm sets (window-trays or big-box) are/were.

It has some of the tropes of Hong Kong production though, the spray-painted bright green, thick plastic winder, shiny-polymers, even the mould-release pin-marks under the rim? An alternate proposition is that it might be Barratt & Sons, as if the Taylor's inherited the mould in the great post-war divvy-up, the Barrett's would have needed a well for their farm?

Note the separate plug-in woodwork for what is otherwise ostensibly the Taylor design, and the plastic bucket. I'm sure I've seen one of these, I remember the kink in the winding arm . . . possibly when I was  a dealers apprentice! Barney's seen them as well.

I even checked the Codeg Camberwick Green sets in case I'd forgotten an accessory from the larger village boxed-set! I hadn't.

Anyway having contacted Barney I also sought and gratefully received permission to use the image I had mentioned last time, both to embiggen this post and  . . . well, to grow the well of knowledge of wells - I should be stopped!!

It shows another variation of the Taylor design (far left example) which could be any of the Speedwell stable-mates (Trojan, Kentoy, Una/VP), newer 'old' plastics (BMS, BR), or Barratt, or even (shiny polymer!) a Hong Kong pirate? barney says it came in a 'substantial' collection of Taylor farm though?

So; follow-up followed-up, the question marks are does anyone know for definite who issued/made either of the unknown wells . . . well?

Thanks to Chris Smith and Barney Brown for the above images.

Barney Brown of Herald Toys & Models cleared up the Barratt question here, so we are still looking for two other names to pin to the unknowns!

D is for ♫♫♪ Ding Dong Bell ♫♪ Pussy's In The Well! ♪♫♪

Although it's Pussies without the apostrophe as I tried several likely felines and two of the shots worked to some extent;

This is the F.G.Taylor well, suitably equipped with cats! The largest of the three we're about to look at, Barney had a nice copy a while back which I missed, slightly smaller and with a yellow roof and simpler, solid bucket/weight.

Starting the post-proper with the smallest, I think we've looked at this before, but I recently combined the two ('storage' and 'here') samples together, which allows for a better look, although the text/captions render further blurb rather superfluous!

I believe these are all Hong Kong, but there may be a Western origin/influence there somewhere? It's similar to or loosly based-on the Marx well, but with the pivot-handle replaced by a more European winding-mechanism and rain-guard.

This is the Speed'well-well! I thought it might be missing a winding-handle but apparently; this is it! Similar construction to the other two for the roof piece, but with the hidden studs of the smaller one, for a cleaner look.

Back to the Taylor, I don't know if there was a lead version in the T&B days, but I don't think so? Although it would explain the studs coming through - to be flattened-down and hold the roof on? I'll try to find out!

All of them together, sans felines! the smallest I think was only ever a cake-decoration (lucky or wishing-well), the chromium-finished one being presumably for wedding-cakes? Speedwell was always toward the 45-50mm bracket, while Taylor are doing the whole 1:32^nd scale thing!

A follow-up post is here, then Barratt's well's have turned-up courtesy of Barney Brown of Herald Toys & Models

News, Views Etc . . . or - C is for 'Cos . . . You're sick of Bears!

A quick update on the Khaki Infantry page, following his contributions the other week, Chris Smith kindly sent a follow-up group shot of the FG Taylor's in white plastic . . .

. . . and an even more interesting head-swap pair; more on which with the images on that page. I was in half-a-mind to 'call them out' as Trojan's - still to be identified - Parachute Battalion, but for now I have placed them in the Unknown section, they also cross-refer to Rocco's sculpts?

[24-hours later - Paul Morehead of PW Magazine reports the red ones as being pre-Lone Star, 'Harvey' figures, without empirical stuff (you know me!) I'll leave them in the 'unknowns' for now, but add the same note there] 

B is for Blame Chris Smith!

And thank him . . . he adds quickly! Because I tend to load these a day or two ahead, there should be some posts pre-loaded here, but there aren't, because I got a great big pile of plunder parcel from Chris Smith yesterday (Monday) and spent the evening sorting it after I got home, sooo . . . no editing anything else!

Therefore the final part of the Khaki Infantry series is on hold until Wednesday (to publish Thursday), it's weird but things are piling-up at the moment and stuff scheduled for the next day is getting bumped-back, and things which should have published ages ago are still in the ever lengthening queue - I still have three Toy Fair reports; I think!

Not only that but I have several eMails to answer so I can't even do a couple of rush jobs now! However . . .

. . . as I mentioned the other day, Chris had already eMailed some stuff for the Khaki Infantry page, I added some comparisons as I went along, over the last few days, and there was a nice, damaged white plastic FG Taylor figure in the box of treasures, so I'll throw them up (yesterday) on the Khaki Infantry Page, and your mission for today - should you chose to accept it - is to bomb-up, suit-up, fly to Schwienf... . . . no, sorry, different reality, is to reacquaint yourselves with that page, very much a team effort now with contributions from six at least eight or nine, maybe ten people.

Hopefully, there will be Cherilea's 54mm dancing loons and 60-mil bean-poles here tomorrow, probably with the show dates for the next week, and I may post something here later today, if I have time. I was hoping to make this the first 90-post month, that won't happen now, Friday may be a bit sparse as well - I'm not around Thursday - but 80's just doable? Won't beat January!!

P is for Picasa-Clearer . . . Taylor and Barrett Rickshaw with Chinese 'Coolie'

I use the inverted commas as I believe the term is now considered derogatory, at least by some, but that was its title/description back in the day, it was also sold with a Zulu 'cab-driver'!

Another bit of hollow-cast metal, again from Adrian (thank you Mr. Little), and an unusual piece; not re-issued in plastic, either, I believe, so you either have a lead one or no-one, or look at the pretty pictures above! Actually they're not the best images I've done, but they give a flavour of the thing!

P is for Plunder Post - 3. Friends Reunited

One of the best things about a show like Plastic Warrior is you get to catch-up with people you may not have seen for a year, or since the last major show elsewhere, and when they bring you stuff 'into-the-bargain' as it were; it only helps make the day.

I think I've told the tale of how Trevor Rudkin came to be saving odds and sods for me, but he still does, and has for the longest time and this year he turned-up with several bags I hadn't managed to sort when I did the plunder-post photo-shoot, but I have now and there was all sorts of goodness in there!

 

He also had a whole bag of FG Taylor farm accessories, two 25mm chariots, one (a two horsed articulated) complete, one (four horse, rigid) a bit knackered, but it may be savable if I ever get back to a bit of modelling. In addition there was a bag of post-Giant medievals including a bunch of very useful crossbowmen and a bag of slightly damaged R&L aircraft.

Barney Brown of Herald Toys and Models gave me the four Marx 'HO' Vikings, two damaged and two whole (including the all important archer!), I never say no to these - even if damaged - as being hard plastic; they are easily convertible, Barney also gave me the cake-decoration hunter. While a nice chap (Eric Critchley?) was sent to ask me about the other 3 items by Paul Morehead, and after I'd told him what I know; which wasn't much, he gave them to me!

 

The two types of Cracker Indian we have looked at on the blog (here and here - which is all I know - crackers!), while I've never seen the Marx'esque Indian before. It's hard 'kit' plastic or a very brittle polymer of some kind, has an HK-mark in a release-pin type circular depression which is very 'Marx' Hong Kong, is missing an arm and is about 15mm?

 

I wondered if it had come with one of the prehistoric kits but the Aurora ones had much larger figures, with sort of 30mm cave people (I have somewhere) in the big 'scene' kit, so if anyone knows who made this chap, how many there were in a set/kit, what poses etc . . . I'd be interested and a chap in the Midlands will be more so! Were they 'enemy' in one of the troll sets? Is he a mantelpiece statue from a larger figure kit? Land of the Giants? A Swansea attempt to go up against Airfix? Or just a HK knock-off from gum-balls?

This was all from one table, I don't know the chaps name but he was very reasonable, with these being variously from different bags and rummage trays, some duplication with existing items in the collection but all useful stuff, with another Gygax/D&D chinosaur 'chinamonster', some funnimals, 2nd type Lego trees, two soft polyethylene flat Indians, another Betterware national-costume girl and best of all two more of those gum-ball aliens we looked at - last year some time? And a pink rabbit - everyone should have a pink rabbit, he says; not for the first time!

 

I have a serious problem with the Lego trees (1st and 2nd type); I can't not buy them, whenever I see them, and have a whole forest of them split between here and the storage unit!

As well as the new Indians we saw in the show report I got a set of the lovely smugglers from Peter at Replicants, having missed them first time round, with the aim of showing them fully on TLAPD. It's incredible to think Peter does all these from a couple of sketches and a block of wax, in his back garden shed and produces them one at a time on a virtual antique - one shot, one cavity, hand operated injection-press.

I had the usual sweep of the floor at the end of the show and this year got a Sikh's head in white-metal (I know! At Plastic Warrior - what were they thinking of; the floor's the best place for it!, a Timpo set of medieval reins and what I suspect is a pole from a Britains Tee-pee? Rare like rocking-horse shit, they are! If it is; I'll lay it down like fine wine in the retirement fund!!! I Know - but it's a nice thought . . . it might buy me a burger in 2030-something and keep me Blogging for another day!

PS - Don't forget it's Sandown Park toy fair tomorrow - gonna'be a lovely day!

News, Views, etc...Khaki Infantry Page - Charbens, Cherilea and FG Taylor

I've now added Charbens, Cherilea and FG Taylor entries to the new page; UK Khaki Infantry

The Charbens section is no more than a bookmark at the moment and the Taylor entry is a bit frugal, but it's a work in progress and we already have some contributions to come for Reisler and Zang's entries when I get to them.

P is for Plunder, show plunder!

A month late but here is the first stage of the sorting of my plunder from the Plastic Warrior show in Richmond at the start of the month.

Left to right, back to front (vaguely!); Two nice European Cavalry, I think one French one Spanish? Street light from F.G. Taylor. A pile of civilian and farm figures and a pile of astronauts and Sci-Fi figures. All the Robin Hood/William Tell and medieval examples, a tractor from the Timee factory in Germany with a nice policeman by Solido behind, a pile of Napoleonics and two Hong Kong divers with the Blue Box fort in front. In the center an unusual African and various animals including a dinosaur! To the front the additions to my Bonux which I covered a week or so ago, two Merten 40mm, three - probably French - knights and tanks from Jimson (also now covered), Russia (flat) and an unknown (to me, not the Matchbox one, not the Budgie one?), British Die-cast.

Cowboys and Indians, a couple of carded items and the small scale mostly sorted already into 4x5 inch bags. Two really nice Coma figurines; Alpini in white and Bersaglieri in red, with a mint Rosenhain & Lipmann rail-car (horse and cattle wagon), to the front three French combat infantry, a few bits, a load of Timee (most Germany but some US production), two smaller piles of ACW and Ceremonials and a bag of unpainted Prieser ACW peeking from the right.
The size range of the non-small scale stuff, the Marx PVC circus performer (bottom right) is 40mm.

I also got a bag of Britains pirates on Timpo copy bases which I'm saving for a future post and a few other bits that went straight into their 'homes'.