Timpo Station Figures boxed

 I went along to the Sandown Park Toy Fair last weekend and this is what I found:

The Timpo Station Figures are fairly common but I've never seen this boxed set before, I thought the artwork was quite stunning but at £350 it was too rich for may blood (and thankfully not really my sort of thing anyway!) happily the vendor very kindly agreed to let me photograph it to share with you.

Inside the box the figures are separated by cardboard dividers and include station staff with various pieces of luggage, missing are the sailor on leave with kitbag and one other.  Sculpted by Roy Selwyn-Smith before he went to work for Zang and subsequently Britains, it includes portrait figures of him and his wife as Mr and Mrs Smith (top row third compartment in blue jacket leaning on cane and last compartment sitting on suitcase.

And so to the figures I did pick up for myself, all from junk boxes and mostly needing some attention I paid an average of £2 each.  Above Britains General Officer and Officer of the 11th Hussars.

An as yet unknown (but I'm working on it) French made 45mm solid Turco, a Britains gun, a 48mm Prussian infantryman marching made in Germany by Heyde and a Britains Senegalise who will be joining an existing unit.

Three medieval knights made in France by CGB Mignot the first two utilise the body of the archer with quiver moulded at the waist but have been given shields and sword/axe (missing) to make them into Men at Arms.  See previous post here.

The sitting U.S. Military Policeman was made post-war in West Germany by Arnold and goes in a tinplate model of a Willys Jeep, I have the other figures that go in it with him but always seem to miss out on the vehicle itself.  

At first glance I thought the mounted Lineol officer saluting was King Leopold III of the Belgians but sadly when I cleaned the grime of ages off him I discovered it wasn't.  Both Elastolin and Lineol painted in the whites of the eyes on their personality figures, and that's the quick way to identify them, but they sometimes used the same figure with a basic paint job as an unnamed General Officer, as here, and the eyes were drawn in by pen.

And finally three plastic Crusaders made in China and sold under the name Supreme, modern production but theyy usually come in large poly bags and I have only wanted these particular poses.  At 65mm they are a bit large to go with most other manufacturers ranges but they are great designs, made under licence from King & Country and will paint up great.

Who remembers "Civil War News" cards by A&BC

 Well, hopefully anyone reading who had been a schoolboy in the 1960's!  

I couldn't get enough of them, I was addicted to them.  In each pack you got a few cards, a piece of bubble gum and "Confederate dollars"!  There were 87 different cards in the set, dramatic bloodthirsty artwork on the front and a press report on the reverse, they were currency for swopping in the playground, and when I'd collected them all I sent off for the album.  I poured over them for years but when I left school I forgot about them, until one day I gave them away.  And I have regretted that ever since!

Until recently, when a random ebay advert popped up in my newsfeed for a complete set, I clicked the link and sure enough I could get all 87 again for just £144.  YIKES!  Nostalgia is a powerful emotion but not THAT powerful!  

Happily there were several lots of cards on offer and among them was a seller offering reprints of the entire set for a much more manageable £16.99 available in 3 sizes, I opted for 110mm x 75mm which is 50% larger than the original cards.  If you remember the similar Battle News cards covering WW2 they've also reprinted them, and I'm pondering whether I should get a set?

In the meantime I'm very pleased to have the Civil War News cards, I don't know what I'll do with them but they are an itch scratched.  I remember every single card vividly, the images are so powerful, I think they will provide inspiration for conversion ideas and perhaps wargame scenarios, we'll see.

I'd always assumed they were imported from the U.S. but the cards state they were printed in England by A&BC (American & British Chewing Gum Ltd.)   A firm originally set up in 1949 by four soldiers demobbed from the British Army, who opened a factory in Cricklewood to serve the post war craze for bubble gum.  Their first set of cards were issued in 1953 to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and in 1959 they teamed up with the Topps Company of USA to produce and distribute Topps cards in UK, so that's where the American iconography came from.

Action at Kassassin 1882 - 54mm Battle Cry game.

Casting around for our next game, Anthony came upon a Battle Cry scenario for the Action at Kassassin 1882 on the Commands & Colours website, so we thought we'd give it a spin, here's how it went:

This link to the Commands &Colours website will give you the map and special rules used in the scenario.   The Egyptian Army under Urabi Pasha have spent the day attacking the British line attempting to break through to Ismalia and the Suez Canal but have been repulsed and thrown back to their trenches.  

The game opens late in the day as reinforcements arrive under Gen. Sir Garnet Wolsey, and they prepare to assault the Egyptian lines.

The railway runs alongside the Sweetwater Canal, together they snake their way through the centre of the battlefield.

Because the action is starting so late in the day a dice is rolled at the start of each round to ascertain the impact of fading light on visibility and effective range of the artillery.

The scenario calls for a railway gun so those ingenious chaps of Her Majesty's Royal Navy have mounted a suitably heavy cannon on a flat car and wheeled it into action.

The formidable Egyptian trenches are supported by a line of guns in the hills behind them.

The advance falters in the centre and the railway gun is brought up to soften the enemy trenches.

The fearless gunners bombard the Egyptian trenches but counter battery fire forces them to retire in haste.

In the fading light the Household Cavalry and Dragoons launched an immediate charge in a desperate attempt to cut through the infantry and reach the guns behind them.  Although rifle fire has taken a terrible toll of the gallant Dragoons nothing can stop them from crashing through and spiking the guns, but they are now a broken force and fall back in disarray.

The British advance on their right fares better, running skirmishes slowly drive the Egyptian infantry from the surrounding hills and force their guns to fall back on the centre.

Urabi Pasha looks on in relief as his Centre holds and the British line falls back, despite some success they were unable to turn his flanks but they still block his path to Ismailia, as darkness descends he knows he will have to fall back on his defences at Tell El Kebir.

The order of events surrounding the various actions at Kassassin are a little confusing so I've taken some small liberties with the narrative to make it fit the scenario of our game.  That said the "Moonlight Charge" of the Household Cavalry at Kassassin has entered the realms of British Army legend and was immortalised in a poem by Arthur Clark Kennedy. 

Plunder from the Plastic Warrior Show 2026

 I usually take a lot of photos at the Plastic Warrior show, particularly the more unusual items that turn up, partly to share information and images for those collectors who can't attend but primarily for use in promoting the show the following year.  This year I took my camera along but spent so much time running around I completely forgot to take any photos, so apologies for that and here are some of the bits I managed to pick up.

First up an early Monarch brand Conquistador in red/brown plastic which carries the lozenge shaped indent marked "England" under it's base which was used by Hilco (John Hill & Co), seen here previously: Collecting Toy Soldiers: Converting Monarch Conquistadors   I have lots of these and don't really go in for collecting all the different plastic colour variations but this chap was in a 50p junk box so he deserved rescuing.

My prize find of the day was the figure of Queen Elizabeth I from the Sir Francis Drake set made by Charbens, I am now just missing the figure of Sir Walter Raleigh to complete the set.  Everything turns up eventually and it's that quest which keeps us collecting.

The 75mm Warsaw Pact Sailor in blue is made from some sort of PVC plastic, he was made in the former East Germany by PGH Effelder, and is marked as such under the base.

The Standard Beaverette Light Reconnaissance Car (produced by the Standard Motor Co and named after Lord Beaverbrook) is an unusual item, it was an improvised armoured car with armour plate being riveted onto a commercial car chassis.  Considered unsatisfactory for overseas service it was issued to the Home Guard and RAF Regiment for home defence so I'm not sure what I'll do with it but I like the concept.  This is a 3D print and is very robust, I bought it from John McRae who has started a new venture making 3D printed figures but I think he said this was made by someone else.  I've noted with such 3D printed vehicles that they often seem to have this pronounced riveting, which is not particularly accurate but gives the model a bit of character, and I rather like it.

The Infantryman standing to attention is an early Zang for Timpo, there are several versions of these figures but this is the first I've seen in a beret, a forerunner of the figures Roy Selwyn-Smith would later design in plastic for Zang/Herald.

A copy of the Britains Armoured Car (based on the Crossley) which was issued from 1934 until 1941, the body and wheels are a one part white metal casting with separate revolving turret so it's quite a weighty piece.  I missed one of these at last year's show so was delighted that the same seller brought  along another one this year, it will see service in any number of 1930's scenarios.

An assortment of composition French infantry, the first made in Germany by Manzsoldaten dates from about 1910 he's not fully round and is what the some collectors describe as "Demi Ronde".  

In the centre a 60mm Poilu made in France by INCA (no relationship to the Belgian firm Incamin), according to the French "soldatplastique 1/32 forum" trade catalogues show the firm was based in Paris and made toys between 1957 and 1965.  They produced a small range of WW1 French and Colonial troops, including mounted, and are sometimes marked INCA FRANCE along the front edge of the base (none of mine are marked). 

The 80mm Standard Bearer was made in France by Cellose, the flag staff is complete, but out of picture, and is missing the cloth flag, fortunately I have one somewhere to make him complete.

Now this one is a mystery which I'm hoping some of the French collectors on the soldatplastique 1/32 forum or one of the facebook groups will  be able to identify.  Made in a composition material he stands 100mm tall, has no base and no markings, my first  thought was it's made by the French firm J.R.D. who's figures were on the large size and sculpted in a cubist art deco style

Rear view of the 100mm Foreign Legion figure above.

John Clarke very kindly cast eight of these smaller explosions for me in white metal, along with the recast of a Taylor  Barrett deep sea diver, and passed on four of the larger resin example, which were made by Paul Watson.  The explosions are copies of originals from the 1930's made in Germany by Lineol, can't wait to get these painted up and see them on the table.  

The three English Civil War conversions were made by Eric Kemp and kindly gifted to me by Graham Apperley, who knows that I'm a big fan of Eric's work, from the ECW collection he acquired last year (see link to Graham's blog "Tales from the Toy Room" in the list on the right) 

Last but not least Andreas Dittmann gave me this mix, a post WW2 composition infantryman made byy Solido Belge, a 1980's resin copy of an Elastolin WW2 marching drum major and three plastic horses made in Germany but I can't remember who Andreas said they were made by. 

An eclectic haul, as always at the Plastic Warrior show, because anything can turn up, and many thanks to John, Graham and Andreas for thinking of me and passing on these goodies.

New Replicants French Resistance figures at the Plastic Warrior Show 2026

The Plastic Warrior Show was held on the 4th July this year, there's no significance in this and it wasn't planned, simply the only date the venue could offer.  

It has become something of a tradition now that Peter Cole uses the event to showcase the new products he has created for his firm Replicants. This is very appropriate because Peter was among the first of us enthusiasts who met at Peter Evans place in North London, talking toy soldiers and unsuspectingly creating the lifelong bond of friendship which became the very heart of Plastic Warrior.

Peter's offering this year is a bit of a curve ball, a set of French Resistance fighters which could equally be used for the Spanish Civil War, or pretty much any urban conflict of the last century.

First up a radio operator with clandestine wireless set, next to him a man throwing a Molotov cocktail, a woman wearing headscarf and bandolier firing a rifle (although to my eye it looks a lot like a flintlock musket) and a man kneeling firing a Sten gun (Shepherd Turpin ENfield), the eponymous automatic weapon favoured by Resistance Groups across occupied Europe.

Showing the underside of the woman firing rifle, Peter is now moulding the Replicants logo into all these figures.  A Saboteur about to press the detonator and blow something up is watched by a woman, clutching her baby while drawing a revolver from inside her coat!  Originality of pose like this is something we haven't seen in plastic before but have come to expect from Peter.

And finally two crawling figures, a man and woman, who were previously released many years ago as rock climbers (the woman has a rope coiled around her) but have now had plug in rifles attached  to them.  At one time they were also sold mounted on pins to be worn as broaches, the Replicants workshop is situated in the basement of an artisan jeweller shop and the broaches were sold through the retail outlet above it.

The kneeling radioman was also a previous release making his debut at the 2025 PW Show as an individual figure, being an homage to Roy Selwyn-Smith who had been a signalman in the Merchant Navy during the war, I didn't manage to pick one up last year so I'm glad to see him included in this year's lineup.