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 when I cleaned the grime of ages off him I can't be sure that he is. Both Elastolin and Lineol painted in the whites of the eyes on their 75mm personality figures, and that's the quick way to identify them, but not on these smaller 65mm ones and they sometimes used the same figure with a basic paint job as an unnamed General Officer with the eyes just drawn in by pen. More investigation needed.
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.
Thanks for another great report Brian! That Timpo box is beautiful and the figures are wonderful! I don't think that I've ever seen that Britains gun before? And I have always wondered about those Supreme figures. They seemed too nice for the low price that I paid for them! I never knew that they were connected to King & Country!
ReplyDeleteThanks Brad, it was quite a mixed bag, that's the thing with general toy fairs, you never know what will turn up but you can be pretty confident that something unusual will be out there. The Supreme figures are nice and they've done some unusual sets, it's just a shame that they're so large they don't fit in with anything else, I might put these three on a single base and make them a Command unit.
DeleteThe Timpo set is lovely but I can see why you didn't go for it, very pricey but really nice. Some great additions for your collection there and should all fix easily enough to live again on the table top, the Prussian infantry man is really nice.
ReplyDeleteHi Donnie, the rule of thumb with collectables seems to be that an original box will double the price of the contents, that and the whole concept of "Mint and Boxed" turns me off but I did really like the artwork here, I think it evokes the period of the figures perfectly. I'm always glad to give a home to refugees from the junk box and these will all find new troops to command or family to join on the display shelf.
DeleteHello Brian. I downloaded the photo of the box set for my files, that is rather useful. Getting a staff officer for £2, that is a splendid buy. I cannot resist an archaic looking artillery piece, very nice. I have seen some of those new Chinese-made crusaders for sale but wondered on their actual scale. I don't mind a slight variation in my armies but hesitate on 65mm, although I have restored a few Cherilea that arrived in some mixed boxes. You will know how badly Cherilea oxidise.
ReplyDeleteSome very interesting additions, thanks for the view.
Michael
Hi Michael, I think this particular Timpo box is quite rare, so definitely one to keep for the archives. I've never had any of the staff officers and always wanted them, I love the standing horse pose, I decided to pick up the gun after seeing how you'd mounted one on your gunboat (I have no conscience about stealing other peoples ideas!). I have no theme to my collecting but do like a dynamic pose, the Crusaders are too large to join my wargame armies but might appear sometime as a command stand.
DeleteI also use my Cherilea knights as command bases, personalities are allowed to stand slightly taller in my toy soldier wargames. Thought I'd devised some conversions a few years back only to find Tim Gow had done the same several years previously, so I choose now to stay quiet on claiming who copied who, lol.
DeleteI've been moving towards making small vignettes of figures which don't have any purpose in a game but add a bit of set dressing to the table to give it more visual appeal, signallers, engineers etc that sort of thing.
DeleteExcellent haul and fascinating post.
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Thanks Alan, I like a bit of variety!
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