L is for Lots of London Loot - Jan. Through Feb. 2 of 2

A continuation of the previous post, and as I tend to post these in the order I shoot them, we’re back with the leery pink background first . . .

 

A trio of the really rather exquisite Les Higgins English Civil War figures, gang-up against a Minifigs (?) Royalist! Although he's more of a fancy-pants, so may be a Swiss mercenary!

 

Matchbox US policeman and a similar firefighter from Hong Kong/China.

 

Bullyland Cacophonix.

 

Another Marx Moses (we saw a brown one the other day), a . . . Gormiti type thing? And a doctor from a set of infant or early learning toys? These actually come in two sizes, but go back-off to charity every now and again, I think we've ID'd one type here, with a Toy Fair report and the others may be 'Tikes or Mattel or someone  like that?

 

A couple of Hong King divers with the plug-in heads, we've seen small rack-toy sets of these, but it's nice to get a few loose samples for close-ups. The Dinky road menders watchman, a Huskey/Corgi policeman and a couple of other HK pieces.

 

Airfix or Airfix-related, nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!  I think he's meant to be a crusader though, and it's the daft shooting-skyward para' under all that modelling! Finally, my favourite ACW Confederate pose (never available as a Union sculpt), seen here as a home-cast copy!

 

A selection of kit figures, mostly Airfix, but the sailors may be Tamiya or another MTB/Fast Boat kit's crew, and the two air stewardesses could be another maker too?

 

In the background we have two lots of early Airfix HO-OO copies, a small bag of Roco Minitanks with stab-and-hope flesh paint and a near complete set of Matchbox commandos - missing their boat!

 

In the middle-distance is a nice sample of Britians Lilliput, which will help top-up that boxed set we saw here a while ago, and in front of them a few Lone Star 'Afrika Korps' are about to be neutralized by a larger contingent of UN paratroops from the same maker!

 

A nice trio of interesting combat types, with one of the so-called 'Bonnie Bilt' semi-flats to the left, but in the more-local soft polyethylene, a home piracy or minor-make (?) copy of Britains in the centre, and one of the probably Pioneer (for Stonegalleon or Zita?) figures, which could also be Realtoy or someone else!

 

Bits and bobs! Mostly generic fencing or model railway walling, with a Supreme Wild West sign-post (top right) and three pieces of Lik Be (LB)'s farm fencing - bottom left, along with a bag of Airfix Betta Bilda bricks.

 

Various Hong Kong trees/plants, and a fireplace from Merten.

 

 Bellona pup-tents, a Wardie/Mastermodels station bench,

 and a couple of boxes for the spares zone!

 

More spares, including the Mafia 'violin-case', from a (Monogram?) car kit, a ship's yard, solitaire piece, Action Man pistol with broken trigger, Britains musket, plastic toothpick and some runner oddments! Also, an ornate pressed-tin washer of the sort you used to get on toy holsters and gun-belts from the likes of Crescent, Lone Star or Marx.

 

I thought these were stands of some kind, but I think they are dividers for old multi-drawer component storage units, of which I have several types in actual storage, so they may prove very useful going forwards!

 

A mix of mostly pretty generic farm animals, although it's hoped some will be ascribed over time, and while the purple-patch rabbits have a loose association with Blue Box or Tai Sang, it's not concrete at the moment.

 

Likewise, poultry and game, with an errant pair of Crescent-copy lambs!

 

Slightly more substantial in the interest department are these Britains lambs and duck family, better-quality Hong Kong rabbits and a rather nice PVC hen.

 

Modern 'China' farm animals.

 

More nice cows (see previous post), the pair on the left need a bit of digging, while the one on the right has suffered horn-surgery!

 

Two Crescent farm animals, foal and donkey, with what I think is a Britains in the middle, but is it an O-gauge horse (which could even be Hornby?) or a 54mm foal?

 

As well as a large quantity of previously-mentioned pewter/whitemetal war gaming stuff, there was all this Atlantic, mostly loose, and a bunch of flattened boxes, but not a lot could be made into whole sets, and some brittleness will mean a better sort into my similar stocks before it all makes sense!

 

Thanks again to Peter Evans, and another thought for the late Mikael Hyde, the Atlanitc was his, all useful grist to the mill, or bricks in the wall!

L is for Lots of London Loot - Jan. Through Feb. 1 of 2

There were several occasions in the first two months of the year which caused me to meet Peter Evans, in London or at shows, and obtain 'stuff'; quality stuff! Some of it may have already been seen, because - as I keep boring you with - it all got a bit mixed-up! The rest should be in the next two posts, then there's a show plunder, a Charity lot and some new stuff, and we should be up-to-date on the recent layers added to the stash?!!

 

If you've followed the Blog for some time, you'll know I like these little Japaneses civilian, rustic wagon subjects, and I have a fair few of the creamy-beige ones in celluloid now, but these are probably styrene, the horses and cowboy (complete with six-gun) are blow-moulds, while the main wagon body would seem to be a crude'ish, probably hand-pumped, injection moulding - lovely!

 

A handful of small-scale Marx or Marx-alike, being three of the Disneykin 'Babes in Toyaland' soldiers, I always get an urge to write Babes in the Wood (A British pantomime) there, I wonder if I've ever let any through here, in the past? Only the trumpeter is complete, but all useful spares. Three Wild West from the Miniature Masterpieces, a Stromboli from the Disneykins series 2, and two of the soft plastic editions from Euro-bubble-gum/ice cream premiums.

 

Three of the Hong Kong copies of Crescent's Mexicans, I have a fair few of these now, but most are in pretty leery colours, pink, purple or mauve plastic, this trio is - by comparison - quite conservative, in their plastic colours!

 

A handful of Hong Kong cows, I've probably got them all, but these will be swapped-in as the paint on all of them is about as good as it gets, and while I do have some clean stuff in the stash, most of the farm and zoo have come in, in tatty'ish or played-with mixed-lots, and are rarely this minty!

 

Back to Marx with a full set of the hard styrene, six-inch Romans, a bit of work needed on two and one's a duplicate, so I shot him with two Vikings also in the lot, we've seen both (Roman and Vikings) before here.

 

And while the vexillarius only needs a spot of glue (after the remnants of previous glueings has been chipped away), the spearman will need a new shaft to the same diameter, his hand drilled-out and a spearhead transplant!

 

Nice sample of Merit service-personal, from three sets, with the emphasis on the RAF, a hollow-cast sailor (Britains?), and a pair of rather well-painted, home-cast copies of the Gemodels cake decoration Naval Cadets.

 

Metal bits, the hollow-cast Lifeguard is a nice addition, as he will provide a side-by-side comparison with Timpo's later plastic version. The standing guardsman is unusual, I don't think he's one of the BR Moulds moulds, nor the usual ex-Schreiber home-casting subjects, but he's something similar; very toy-like?

 

Mounted might be Britains cheapo ('B'?) range, while the gold chap will be a penny-novelty, but they also came in sets, and the two semi-flat Highlanders would appear to have some age, like 1900-1930's maybe, and probably German in origin, but I'm no expert on this early lead stuff?

 

Ancients and medieval, including some sub-Giant stuff, a copy of the EKO copy of Airfix's first version 8th Army, along with a Britains Robin Hood clone, crying out for a repaint, and a modern novelty infant-toy!

 

A couple more for that sample we saw in a previous donation from Peter, both equally clean I think, the Indian may be a shunt from more than one donor, but as the base colour has leached into the foot, that pairing is right?

 

And a bunch of post-Giant small scale foot Westerners, these are the ones we've seen in blue in a carded set, with compartments Spacemen, Guards and Airfix WWII piracies, although I have them in other colours, they are mostly Britains Swoppet copies, with a Crescent Indian.

 

I love this pair, at first glance, more Hong Kong rack-toy 'zoo' animals, but in fact these are both either unique sculpts, or copies of less common originals, unknown to me? But neither of them is marked, so they may BE that esoteric minor-make, unknown to me?

 

They only 'look' Hong Kong, and at some point in the past appear to have been given a wash of water-based, pale-suede/sand, over the factory paint (not the mane), which has subsequently been removed or worn-off, making identification even harder? But they are lovely figures, especially the rather playful cub, swatting a butterfly or something!

 

This is also tangibly interesting, it's clearly not that old (30-odd years at most), being marked China, but it's a nice sculpt, well-formed in that dense PVC, favoured by some makers in the 1960/70's, which I mentioned the other day, and it has a makers mark - WS, with CE mark? There's a 'Wigglytuff'pencil-top on evilBay with the same mark, so this maybe a Pokémon, not a Pterosaur?

 

Nice Dalmatian (Schleich), reasonable Giraffe (AAA), both modern, both soft PVC-substitutes and a Kinder (I think) trash-panda, in a hard 'propylene or similar, who shakes his head when you wiggle his tail!

 

Space, the Giant sub-copies I call version II, and an interestingly poor sample of them, clearly late production they are heat-shrunk dwarves, some in a adarker than normal gun-metal finish, some in a brighter chrome-effect.

 

Vehicular elements, including a Kleeware GS-body 1-ton Humber truck, a sea-vixen from Airfix's Ark Royal, who will join the ones we saw the other day from Chris, with the storage sample, and we’ll do something with them one day, before they move on. The bigger gun is a common touristy thing, removed (like most) from a key-ring, while the smaller is a war-gamer's whitemetal ship's gun.

 

More bits from those micro-wagon kits, again we've seen some others recently here, and they will all go together until I have enough bits to complete one or two, as always it's the little axle-studs which are missing! A Lego motorcycle, from the early years of the 'Legoland' line, and a Wardie/Mastermodels baggage trolley.

 

Wargaming stuff, in various scales, there was a heap of this in a big bag, which was a separate purchase from the executor of Mike's estate, and which hasn't been photographed as it requires a big sort-out, but these are a few bits someone like reader Gisby might enjoy peering at?

 

I think it's mostly Minifigs, (Miniature Figurines) and the latter, not terribly 'collectable' ones, but still worth the box-ticking, some Shogun-era Japanese, verses various ancients and a few 10/15mm chaps, and bits of a siege engine for the spares box!

 

These are a bit smarter I think, possibly Hinton Hunt or Alberken (?) on the left, in the upper shot, two more modern chaps on the right (Platoon 20?), and all HH or early Minifigs (ACW) in the lower shot, but I'm open to info' on all of them.

 

Many thanks to Peter again, and a thought for the Late Mikael Hyde, from whom some of the above probably wended its way to me and the Blog. Lots more equally interesting stuff to come, in part two of this lot!

T is for Terra by Battat - 2025

So this year I didn't see any Terra at Birmingham, but did shoot these in London, on an after-market suppliers stall, again I didn't note the company's name, but they had mostly third-party, early-reader books and soft-toys, if I recall correctly.

 

Taller, thinner versions of the fat tubs, now 'toobs' and probably with fewer duplicates or a one-of-each pose count, or something like that?

 

The huge buckets again!

 

The larger tubs of smallies are still out there, but they are having their flimsy 'cartons' and lids replaced with more substantial, long-term storage 'jars' with coloured lids and carry-handles.

 

I don't think I've had much, at all, of this make, come into the collection, since Brain's original shelfies in 2017, but I will keep an eye-out for the new, thin toobs, and grab them if I see them, just for the sample. I suspect there may be some of it among the unknown sea-life or insect zones?

T is for Terra by Battat - 2023

As a first update to the previous post, there was nothing of note at the 2022 show, and while I missed the 2023 show due to other commitments, I did make it to the Spring [gift] Fair at Birmingham's NEC, where I shot these on a whole-seller's stall, whose name I didn't record.

 

Close-ups of things we've seen before, for the most part, I haven't seen that much 'out and about' but I'm guessing natural history museum's or zoological garden gift shops are a first choice for searching for them, with - maybe - a garden centre chain I haven't found yet being another likely source? We have shelfied a few in TK Maxx I think, but I haven't seen them in Smyths or B&M?