Sunday 28 April 2019

It's surprising what turns up.

The recent mild weather in the South East (UK)  has ushered in the start of the Car Boot Sale season a little earlier than usual.  Our local one is held on a farm, so it's a good long walk in the early morning fresh air, and I like to go along as often as I can for the exercise.  Who am I kidding, I go along for the bacon rolls and to hunt toy soldiers!   It can be very hit or miss but  here's what I picked up this week and last:

A group of modern white metal figures made by Del Prado, the first one depicting Captain Souter of the 44th Regiment of Foot could have walked straight out of the Last Stand at Gandamak painting by William Barnes Wollen.  The remaining five are all types of the French Foreign Legion, this series was issued in France but not in the UK so they are harder to find here, I use them mostly for uniform research and at less than £2 each they had to come home with me.

I know nothing about old tin toys, except that I like them, and I do like to include them as set dressing in wargames.  The saloon car is about the rights size for 54mm toy soldiers while the Omnibus is a bit small but I think we'll get away with it, they both need a bit of cleaning up and straightening out but nothing too drastic.  I don't think there's any great age to them, they look like modern reproductions to me but for a couple of quid each they had to go in the bag.  Likewise the ceramic stable block which was made to take a tea light candle but will now illuminate my toy village.

Finally a hotch-potch of odds and ends that came in at about 50p each from various junk boxes.  The first three Britains/Herald Robin Hood figures are so damaged and scuffed that they will end up as conversion fodder.  The Evzone and horse from the Lone Star Lone Ranger figure will be passed on to someone else at the forthcoming Plastic Warrior Show next month.

The remaining two figures I'll keep, the chap in green is a Starlux character figure of Barberousse (Red beard) from the ORTF (Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise) TV series Richard Coeur de Lion.  The set was issued in the mid 1960's and included two foot figures each of Richard, Redbeard and Blondel and one mounted figure of Richard, they're quite hard to find.  The diminutive figure of Napoleon was made in France by MDM.  The palm tree is a modern white metal item.

The Plastic Warrior Show is being held on Saturday 11th May and further details can be found on the Plastic Warrior blog, link in the column to the left.  Good Hunting!

8 comments:

  1. Excellent finds Brian! It seems that Del Prado is always a bargain. The saloon car would be perfect for Marx or Ideal gangsters! I love the Napoleon, the detail on the map is brilliant! Take care, Brad

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    1. I always wanted the tinplate cars that go with the Marx Untouchables set but when I saw this saloon car I thought it would do the job.

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  2. I'm sure you can make use of the bus but if it is too small to be comfortable with the 54's, it would look just right with 40's.....

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    1. You're absolutely right and as I have to keep reminding myself, size isn't everything!

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  3. Hello... we have 4 of those palm trees here in the Charles Moore Collection. They have adhesive paper labels with: "Great Britain @ the Empire © Eng." And then underneath the label, there is an embossed marking. Difficult to make out but it starts wth an "H" and then maybe "N" and "8". Might anyone know the maker?

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    1. Great Britain and the Empire, also know as GBE Toy Soldiers, was a range of white metal toy soldiers made by Andrew Humphries of Coningsby in Lincolnshire UK. The firm was founded in 1982 and produced over 600 different figures, mostly based on the British Army of 1890 - 1914.

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