1975; [WWII] U.S. Paratroopers, 51464 / 51464-8 / 51564-7 / 951564 - 1:32 Scale (54mm)

One of the late sets which received all the poses of the smaller 1:76th scale or 'HO/OO' set, a set which - itself - had a high number of poses, also a set which quite quickly appeared in a second colour, and it seems to be also that like the HO/OO set, the first; Airfix 'neutral' light grey, is more common than the second; Airfix 'army' green colour, suggesting that a top-up (or end-of-run?) of both scales was produced in the green, to use up some green or because the Ghurkhas or someone else green were also going through the production plant?

Much looked-forwards to when I was a kid, it was strangely disappointing when it finally arrived, having far too many figures doing nothing, standing around doing nothing or prone doing not much. But that was an illusion caused by the number of poses and in fact six of them are fighting/firing, which is more than some of the seven-pose sets.

The bottom right-hand trio are Hong Kong copies we will return to down the page.

29 figures in total, all pretty clearly numbered, in a mint set a drum-like ‘sprulette’ should be present on the following prone/lying figures.

·         9 – on the heel of the right foot

·         10 – on the heel of the right foot

·         11 – on right foot

·         12 – on right foot

The set was pirated at least thrice, with interim second-generation copies also resulting, the near same-size copies were issued with a HONG KONG mark on the base undersides, these were further copied, smaller, and issued as generics.

In the UK the larger figures were carried by Henbrandt of North London/East Anglia, and while the card is similar to the generic there are enough differences, not lest that these are passed-off as Germans on a little label-box!

The generic version were probably earlier (but probably only by a few months or a year at the most) due to the fuller/co-ordinated artwork and at least the nationality matches the uniforms this time! Other than the artwork differences, however, these are the same figures as carried by Henbrandt.

Meanwhile, around 1986 (a bit later than the above sets?) the Artform Industrial Co., of the New Territories, also pirated them (probably separately to the other source) with heavier but neater bases and of a smaller size, matching one of my other copy-samples; which is probably a sub-piracy of the Artform set.

Here's a close-up of the three types with those probable Artform sub-piracies in the middle, the larger generic/Henbrandt to the left and Artform's on the right.

Fourteen poses would have allowed the duplicates to be blanked-off the tool when Airfix switched to the 14-figure boxes, ensuring that each box got all the poses.

The 1985 catalogue carried part of the artwork from the rear of the 29-figure boxes, showing a painting of one of the figure poses from both sides and some like-wise rendered militaria.

♪♫♪♪♫ Let's dance . . . pick up your best grenade and dance the blues

Let's dance; to the song they're playin' on the Werffer of Nebels
Let's sway, while color lights up the foxhole
Let's sway, sway through the line to a safe-throwing space!♪♫♫♫♪h

Further digging (in 2020) revealed Hing Fat to be the producer of another set of Airfix copies, almost certainly issued by several other brand-marks and/or as generics - both bags above are anonymised and . . .

. . . here we see a set branded to Billy V, the now defunct (and short-lived in any event) import-arm of the equally defunct Imex. When I say 'import-arm', most of Imex's inventory was import or joint-venture of one sort or another, Billy V were specifically their 'Rack Toy' arm.

Other revalations in late 2019/2020 have resulted in a 4th identified variation, so just when I thought I could put it all to bed, we're still looking for one's ID! Also a new colour, associated with the un-ID'd set has been sent to the Blog!

Courtesy of Chris Smith came these sandy-coloured figures, probably issued as one of two-sides in a larger rack toy, they are similar to the Hing Fat attributed lot, but (with both these and the larger green sample) there are base differences which point to a 4th source.

Base marks as I believe them to be attributable, but nothing is set in stone with this Hong Kong stuff! The figures from '2' & '3' are almost the same but the bases are very different, and it may be that one pirate supplied duplicate tools to two different makers, one of whom was Hing Fat.

Links

http://biblicrafts.blogspot.com/2020/02/airfix-ww2-132-us-paratroopers.html
http://biblicrafts.blogspot.com/2020/03/airfix-ww2-132-us-paratroopers-part-2.html

[WWII / Brush Fire Wars] Australian Infantry, 51458-3 / 1809 / 51558-2 - 1:32 scale (54mm)

At the time of writing (October 2019) I am still way behind with the 54mm entries (I think this will be six of 33?), while lots of the HO-OO stuff still needs text-blurb doing, but I'll keep plugging away and one day it will all be here!

Today it's the Australian Infantry, although they can just as easily be British, New Zealand or any of a number of troops in the Indian- or 14th Army's from about '42 through to 1945, and the main clothing and equipment carried-on into many of the end-of-Empire 'brush fire' wars.

The basic seven, like most of the early sets, all technically World War Two, and while some people credit Cameron with the sculpting I suspect someone else (Stadden?) may have been responsible for the first few 'sevens', Cameron doing the higher pose-count, later sets, and the additional poses for the [Stadden] sets which were reduced to HO-OO in the mid-1970's?

All the 1:32nd scale posts will get one of these (where applicable; not all the sets have obvious cavity indicators) from the never taken to fruition book project, and if you are bidding on an unsealed 'Mint'-described set, it needs to contain one each of the above, colour-matched to within an hair's-breadth of a gnat's-crotch!

While all sets will get one of these! This is the standard contents of a large or 29-figure box.

Compared with JIM's figures; being a French toy maker they are probably representing the troops who lost Indochina in the early 1950's, relying on a string of forts (like, err . . . the Maginot Line!) which the CT annoyingly went round! The chap in shorts could also suit the Algerian campaign . . . which went so much better!

Lone Star back here in the UK were producing a set nearly-all in shorts, which came as Aussies or African Rifles (darker skin tones), but contains mostly the short-wearers who would be unlikely to be found in the Jungle.

Shorts may have been OK back in India, but in the bush you need constant protection from leeches, ticks/kegs (keds), poisonous insects and spiders, ants, snakes etc . . . etc . . . etc . . . so long trousers, puttees, leggings or gaiters were an absolute.

The unpainted one is a Woolworth's sale and the white ones are recent re-issues, they are a tad heavier in the body as well, so while the marching chap (putting real effort into moving his tired bones) is a useful addition, the rest can be left in the Western Desert!

Also a bit well-fed, the Trojan figures do at least have the right apparel, if being a little dark in the material for the OG's (Olive Greens) issued, however the customary looseness of the garments is as well carried-off by Trojan's sculptor as it was by Airfix's.

Almost a better colour, these are believed to have been meant to represent the North African ANZAC forces. All the trojan's are nice sculpts but they lack the finesse of Airfix's figures, and this guy's damaged weapon-tip would make it longer than the Airfix SMLE.

Box art courtesy of Kostas; a solid and determined crew doing a serious job, but the burning hut in the background is rather reminiscent of the German push across the steps of Russia in '41, as covered by Signal magazine!

Timpo, we loved them at the time, but to be honest, they reveal their juvenile credentials when compared to just about any other figures (bar the Cherilea UN troops!) out there; also the fact that they are equipped with things vaguely resembling an FN and some experimental Italian SMG doesn't help! But the officer and the Bren-gunner can thicken the Antipodean ranks, while the rifleman (far-left) can go a bit  'Audie Murphy' with a Bren-LMG wedged in his mitts instead of his rifle.

With eternal thanks to Glenn Sibald we get to compare them to the New Zealand National Army Museum's fund-raising competition figures, neither of which are close, being a turn-of-the-19th/20th-century's colonial militiaman and a desert soldier, also they are a bit smaller, but they are out there.

The Airfix Ghurkha's probably are all Cameron's work, you can see some of the less comfortable poses he tended to include once the 'standards' had been ticked-off, particularly the Kukri 'challenger' and the chap on the far right, this set has more than seven poses but they will get their own page.

A bit of a problem with these; all of it stemming from Paul Stadinger's Blog and it's de' facto N^o2, one Erwin Sell, who though to tell everyone the Ri-Toys (Rado Industries) figures (insipid greens, lumpy sculpting and duplicated posing) were Blue Box, and that the Blue Box conversely, were Rado! Not content to state this as fact once, he managed to repeat it twice more in two different places, ensuring as many people as possible might believe the idiocy.

I can assure you the Blue Box are the better figures in a sandy-tan with the factory-paint typical of the rest of the line, and the smaller, pantograph-reduced lumps are a second generation copy with nothing-more than box-ticking to recommend them.

As they are mostly wearing shorts, it's off to Monty for some of 'em anyway! But note how the Ri-Toys officer is a cut'n'shut of the Blue Box grenade thrower and the Airfix officer (Erwin further claimed it was 'unique Blue Box'), while the marching guy, signaller and MMG-operator can be used with the Airfix and make useful additions, despite being slightly smaller, they fit in quite well, and would - more-so - if all were painted to match.

Although 'small-scale' the two main types of Hong Kong diminutives, were taken from the 1:32nd Scale set, long before Airfix reduced them to HO-OO and added the extra (Cameron) poses, so technically they belong here, being taken only from the original 7 poses, although the figure comparisons will probably go in the HO-set's entry. These are various brandings of the larger of the two types at around 1:72nd scale.

Hans Postler was a German importer (jobber) shipping stuff into France, Germany and the low-countries, from the early (?) 1970's, although enough of their sets appeared over here (before the onset of the Internet) to reason on either a deal with a UK importer, or stock-clearance? And this set is in their later 1980/90's graphics.

Aglow were a late (2000's) French imprint, while I was buying the Toy Galaxy stuff around 1993/4 at a shop in Clapham Junction which is sadly no longer there.

This set dates from the 1980's and was the earlier, smaller (approximately 1:76th scale) set, although the quality is so poor they look like 2nd-generation copies of the larger figures above, they were probably independently pirated. Hong Kong Toy Exporters had offices in Central District, HK, and - as their name suggests - were probably middle-men/agents or shippers.

There are not as many copies in the larger scales as there are of other sets, but with colour variations and the 45mm lot (who can stiffen the backbone of the Rado dwarves!), there's a few to track-down.

I don't have branding for these yet, but they are part of a wider line which includes equal quality/finish Afrika Korps, Japanese and German Infantry also taken from Airfix and they may turn out to be from the Wing Wah Plastic Factory (The inset logo)? I have even less idea on the two smaller ones, but it'll all come out of the wash one day!

 

More on these has been posted here now.

Bird-eye view of the seven figures to finish-off for now.

Thanks' go to Andreas Dittmann for the Aglow set, Glenn Sibald for the NZNAM figures, Kostas for the box-scan, and Bill B, Brian Berke & Peter Evans for info.

1966; [WWII - Cold War] Attack Force Jeep & Trailer, 1652 - OO/HO (nominal)

This is the first of the 'readymade' vehicle articles, publishing in 2019, it's/they're well-overdue as I started this Blog in 2009! Beginning with the first - listed (by code number) - vehicle, and one which didn't get a second version; possibly because it was out of scale with the latterly stated 'scale' [size] of OO/HO, indeed it could be considered that it was replaced by the Field Gun & Tractor (Quad and 25lbr.) . . .

. . . the Jeep & Trailer.

My collection; not vast but enough to study in this post, with a carded 'minter', a loose pairing and another pair with a play worn jeep, taking this shot mid-way through the photo-shoot, I replaced the carded one without it's windscreen, but you can see how the screen keeps it tight under the card, while the seats prevent it slipping through.

The card; cleverly cut-and-folded from a single sheet, with a retaining flap for the jeep and 'axle-hook' for the trailer, both of which are designed to fold forward as the card is folded back into an L-shaped 'shelf'. A 'rack-toy' hanger-hole is also punched in the card and on both my example and another two seen, the axle-hook was not employed, the jeep sitting tight enough without it.

Component parts; the trailer and jeep being a single shot, but only by dint of not having the connecting 'sprulette' removed in the factory. The wheel/axle assemblies are single mouldings and the windscreen is plug-in with a sort of off-set, bayonet-fitting 'lock' to help prevent loss.

Several of the pieces have what are probably mould-tool cavity-numbers, a hit and miss affaire as we will see with some of the other vehicles, some obvious pieces having no number (Pershing turret, whole APC) others having one (as here), while the common hull carries five different numbers, due to it's being used on four vehicles.

For the jeep though it appears there was the one cavity for each of the three numbered components, 12 for the windscreen, with the jeep and trailer bodies being 28 and 29 respectively. I'll look at this numbering more geekily on a separate page dedicated to these all vehicles!

My first GIF-animation (if it works!), don't expect a plethora of them, and this is hardly the best, the fact that I cropped the two images by eye, means there is a slight variation in 'register' giving it a slightly 3D aspect which actually makes it more tangible.

A few close-ups of the sprulette and the unused axle-hook stamped into the card, the trailer is an odd choice, being a reasonable approximation of the ammunition trailer for 25lbr field guns (and 6-pounders?), usually seem limbered between the gun and a quad-tractor.

It's also equally out of scale with either of Airfix's chosen scale/sizes of 1:32/54mm and the slightly mystic 'OO/HO' or HO/OO!

Various comparisons - for the next bunch of shots; these three are pretty contemporaneous, with - from the left Eldon (USA) with a pintle-mounted .30-cal Browning MG, the Airfix (UK), a Tudor Rose (UK) jeep with two crew and Manurba (Germany)'s offering, the Manurba (Manfred Urban) also being sold in the UK as Tallon.

Rubber jeeps from Auburn (USA) behind; late production PVC, and a similar Skandie-jeep in blue from Tomte Laerdal along with a rather tatty (but quite rare I think?) Frog 'Penguin' Jeep (penguins can't fly; a little joke from the predominantly model aircraft maker!), which is manufactured of an indeterminate material - it could be hardened rubber/PVC, an early styrene, a dodgy-ethylene hybrid or even a composition of some kind?

An eclectic line-up here; the lilac jeep (with spoked wire-wheels!) is by a Sayarat (possibly Israeli, Indian or Turkish?), the white one at the back has a pull-back-and-go motor, is Italian-made and marked 'Gio.' (which could be any one of several makers . . . Giochi Preziosi (GiG), Giocatelli, Giolitto Torino (Kinder), Giovanni Plastics, Il Giocattolo, Techno Giodi (Kinder), et al!) and could be from a Kinder 'Maxxi-egg', or just a more standard pocket-money plaything.

The much distorted (with age and drying-out) MP's vehicle with wheel-arch siren is Thomas Toy's from America and the other 'jeep'/4x4 is a clip-together/slot-together kit of unknown origin, but which could fit in a Kinder egg with very careful packing?

Die-cast line-up; to the left of the Airfix vehicle we have a generic (or currently unknown) HK jeep with ambulance stickers, to the fore are a couple of later Universal Matchbox jeeps with big-wheels, roo-bars and rather lose (but intentional) tilt-covers and - in front of them - two recent Chinajeeps, one (left) probably based on an Indian Mahindra jeep, the other based on the old M38/Wrangler type - did the Chinese army copy them at some point?

Coming back in from the right we have the Matchbox Jeep with recoilless-rifle, from the 1-75 range; it was Battle King compatible and contemporaneous, even to having similar wheels to the Battle King US half-track.

Then there are two Corgi models; the earlier Huskey/Corgi Juniors Jeep in front, with a later, leery-painted one behind. The final model here is a lump of solid die-casting in the style of the old 'dime-store' slush-casts from Midgetoy . . . a brand of the A&E Tool & Gauge Co., USA.

A group of Hong Kong generics (some of which will be attributed over the next few years, there's some good information on HK coming out of the woodwork now) in the same vein as the ones we saw here, with a Payton (?) at the back; I think someone called it MPC the other day, it's unmarked but a quite good quality moulding with the spare-tyre in the cargo foot-well?

Two generations of the same Hong Kong 'mini', the rear one being a cleaner tooling with trailer, the one on front being a slightly tired-looking moulding but seemingly from the same tool, probably toward the end of it (the tool)'s usefulness, which are both better scaled for 1:72nd scale war-gaming. The wheels tie-them into some of the 1-ton Humber mini-trucks, so a maker or brand may be forthcoming on these too, one day.

Getting smaller - front to rear; Marx's Jeep from the Miniature Masterpiece playsets and window-boxes, the Zee/Zyl/Zylmex 'Mash' jeep later handed to Tai Sang and issued by Redbox as Motormax (see also below), the Airfix and two die-cast jeeps; one Marx (tatty green one), the other Hong Kong - the orange one.

Because the Airfix-Airfix comparison further below involves a rubbish sample and the Zee Toys model above was missing it's aerial, I dug-out better samples of both along with the Matchbox plastic model-kit version and a couple of colour-variant Marx mini's and shot them all together. The diminutive Matchbox kit vehicle knocks the others into a cocked-hat, accuracy-wise!

Another smallish HK Jeep is to the left of the main line-up, with a comfortably upholstered back-rest to the rear bench! Next to that is a cartoony novelty Jeep in bright-orange with baby-wheels!

Moving to the right we then have a red HK one, possibly a gum-ball machine capsule prize, I have it in several colours, then a polystyrene one, also probably HK* and possibly a play-set accessory (train wagon or transporter-lorry load?) or another capsule novelty?

The next one is the Roco-Minitanks M38, the silver one is from the Spear's board game Trek (or Safari Trek?) and the teeny blue one is from a Kinder-egg, it was a load on a little recovery-lorry, it also came in green or yellow.

The other blue one at the back is either Montaplex or Mundi Toys I think; the wheels are right! But I'm not sure about the packaging, although it's sealed so I've voted to leave it for now, but I suspect a dealer. Some dealers went through a phase of using those cheap mail-order, freezer-bag heat-sealers to make their stuff look 'more new' a few years ago!

Finally at the front is what I believe is a Hong Kong copy of a US mini die-cast - Tootsie, another Midgetoy, Mattel? It's definitely looking HK, it's missing a windscreen and I also have a green one with pink driver.*

*Both these are unmarked and could equally be Spanish Sobres or similar small 'pocket-money' toys/giveaways from Europe.

Finally (for comparisons, for now); the smallest of the small! I have half a feeling that this is actually either a carrier-deck jeep from a naval model-kit, or one of the cargo vehicles from the similar landing ship kits from Aurora, Monogram or Pyro, back in the day - there were some odd-scaled/box-scaled amphibious-assault vessel kits knocking-around in the 1960's?

Not actually a jeep, and possibly ex-Bachmann (or AHM), it is nevertheless marked Airfix on the base and another open-backed, 'pick-up' configuration, utility vehicle! The very US looking, vehicle from the Airfix Mainline model railway Dr. X play set; is it a Dodge or a Ford?

The Airfix-Airfix comparison which lead to the upgraded shot above, it's not bad, but it's missing the windscreen and has been 'transferred-up' without painting, this was from the Buffalo Amphibian model kit.

I'd taken most of the images in the initial photo-shoot before I remembered or noticed (again!) that one of my three has had its front bumper (fender) removed (or snapped-off - I'm not about to see how brittle it might be by trying to do more damage!), it's a pity they didn’t just remove the rope-coil (probably meant to be/represent a winch) and leave the bar behind, which would be a reasonable conversion, but actually, it's really not that noticeable!

The Noreda Jeep (from France) is the same size as Airfix's, making it as out of scale with the rest of its line as the Airfix one is with the 'Readymade's. Looking at the design of the Noreda one with it's lack of steering wheel and flat dash-board, it may have contributed to some of the many Hong Kong copies in this 1:48/50th range?