My Plastic Warrior Show in a box!

 

Plastic Warrior flyer leaflet tucked in the box of 130 odd plastic figures to repair

I haven’t made  it to the Plastic Warrior Show in London yet (the next one is Saturday 11th May 2019).  I hope all those who travel to this annual event have a great social time and a good rummage through the boxes and trays of plastic figures. http://plasticwarrioreditor.blogspot.com

Speedwell WW2 German Afrika Korps figures

Instead I have been rummaging through a fabulous box of 130 broken or damaged plastic figures bought from Barrie (“Redhalliwell” on eBay)  for £3 to £4. Strangely no one else bid. That’s about 3p a figure – sent straight to my door!

Barrie mentioned interestingly that 2019 “is our 32nd Show. When we first started it was mainly collectors who came but now we get a lot of 1/32nd war gamers coming as there are cheap figures to be had.” (2019 Show details at end of post).

Some interesting hat conversions to Kepis or cap comforters. UNA (left) Herald copy (right)

Another view of these interesting cap conversions – Korean War? American Civil War? 

These playworn battle scarred veterans deserve some care and attention. Some Plastic figures from the 1950s and 1960s are now more brittle than others and these clearly have seen better days. My Broken Britain’s metal hollowcast figures in some ways will outlive these.

Starlux standard bearer

A dance troupe or 60mm 7th or Union Cavalry? (6 C20 figures, one C21) Crescent figures

Crescent knights and a fine unmarked  Robin Hood figure. Two Crescent M6 M2 (right)

Crescent knights  (far left and right), Britain’s Deetail 2 and 3, Timpo fourth.

Three unmarked but fine tricorne redcoats

A slinky Hong Kong copy of a Herald hula dancer?

Airfix Waterloo figures and a fine ‘premuim type’ musketeer who would make a fine female pirate! 

Timpo and other fallen  desert warriors.

Mechanics, milkmaid and a ‘golden balls’ footballer

Unmarked Beefeater /  Yeoman of the Guard

Oversize 60mm Crescent Indians 1 and 3, and a Lone Star 54mm Indian for scale.

Three Crescent C2 lasso cowboys and a Kellogg’s conversion, looking almost pirate like. Lone Star (fifth along)

Attack of the 60mm Tall Mexican! Crescent C25  Mexican and Britain’s Herald (left) and Lone Star (right)

A few hours later the harsh sunlight was fading and photography was easier.

Lone Star Harvey Paratroops and Infantry except for  a larger Crescent P6 figure running (back right) and Crescent K2 flame thrower  (front right)

A fine Lone Star Harvey Series paratroop Officer with pistol, who could be a great space police figure too.

Bashed and battered Britains and Herald American Indians

Three fine charging Confederate butternuts to repaired. No maker’s name shown.

A mixed and bashed band to paint and repair. Lone Star Harvey Series and Kellogg’s

Some figures were more bashed than others but still useful figures for repair. Headless Lone Star guardsman next to Herald Scotsman (right)

Mostly Britain’s Herald Life Guard and Household Cavalry

Damaged Herald British Infantry and Hong Kong copies.

More damaged Herald British infantry and copy (fourth) with damaged Bullpup rifles

More damaged 1950s and 1960s khaki infantry, one Crescent figure with a melted base and a Crescent mortar man.

Airfix British Eighth Army and left unmarked “desert rat”

Feisty Timpo swoppet style figures. The damaged Digger in bush hat has a very old Donald Featherstone look to his face.

Battle scarred veteran Airfix US Infantry to repair.

Airfix and other random WW2 Infantry – large Crescent K32 radioman

A fine horse with a broken  back leg to repair.

These should be 130 useful figures for the conversion and repair box.

Interestingly my usual repair glue – fast setting standard Superglue  cyanoacrylate –  does not seem to work on these plastics. Any better ideas?

I know there is a special Plastics Superglue with an activator.

——————

From a previous post comment  by snaves?
Reminder: the PLASTIC WARRIOR figure show
Saturday 11 May 2019
The Harlequin Suite
The Winning Post Inn
Chertsey Road
Whitton
TW2 6LS

60+ tables packed with figures, mainly reasonably priced and LOTS of “junk” boxes
Further details tel: 01483 722 778

Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN on Pound Store Plastic Warriors, 30 March 2019.

Vintage Pound Store Transport

15mm Peter Laing figures  for scale against these tiny plastic vintage China Made cars

An interesting web sales site on Etsy and online is The Swagman’s Daughter, a fabulous website by Leonard Holder listing lots of vintage items from old warehouses that she has cleared. https://swagman.myshopify.com

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheSwagmansDaughter

These six attractive small vintage cars were about £3 a set plus postage. They may still have some more.

https://swagman.myshopify.com/collections/toys/products/copy-of-4-vintage-1960s-racing-cars-4cm-old-shop-stock-made-in-hong-kong

I wasn’t entirely sure what overall size they were but having a variety of scale figures, I was sure they would suit some figures in my collection.

I tried some Airfix WW1 British OO/HO scale figures (20mm) for scale as they seem  close enough to the vehicle period.

The Peter Laing 15mm figures seem to match well enough too. I have some WW1 Peter Laing figures to paint and I think that painted up in khaki, these small cars will make effective staff cars and small lorries. They remind me of the Marne taxis of WW1. My chances of finding affordable 15mm  original Peter Laing vehicles are pretty slim.

Six adaptable little vehicles, effectively 50p each. 

Yesterday’s pound store charming plastic tat today!

Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN on Pound Store Plastic Warriors, 28 March 2019.

Tim Mee Galaxy Laser Team figures

An X Wing of sorts – cleverly converted jet model on an old fire station toy turnstile.

I wish Tim Mee toys (“Made in the USA”) were more widely and cheaply available in the UK. Whilst they can be tracked down online, the extra shipping to the UK makes them pricey.

Captain Zap: Hands Up! The Turpentile:  Don’t Shoot, I’m an unarmed Armoured Space Turtle

Very kindly the Grand Duke of  Tradgardland, the Tradgardmastre himself sent  (via the D of T  P.O.)  these spare Tim Mee space figure poses for my collection and for Close Little Star Wars 54mm future adventures on the Back Yarden Planet.

Well it is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings …

Definitely not Chewbacca or the Dredd Darth, sorry, Dark Lord.

In space there are checkout jobs – or is this now  a self scan universe? Complete with unexpected RU1-2 droid in the bagging area. 

Nicely detailed front and  back – I think Captain Zap with his laser pistol is channeling Flash Gordon and Dan Dare as much as Star Wars.

Clever 2017 Tim Mee stickers for different teams or  space jets? Star Patrol vs Galaxy Laser Team.

More Mercury 7 / Cosmonaut type suits. Very 60s …

These last figures look very Mercury 7 (think Sleeper 1990s Britpop album cover) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Seven

One of each pose  is enough for me as they should provide some good character figures to be supported and bulked out by Pound Store ‘space marine’ conversions and the lovely Airfix Star Warriors, Star Wars 54mm plastics and old Britain’s StarGards in my collection https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/in-a-garden-far-far-away/

Here is the Tim Mee website (search online for UK / USA suppliers but beware shipping!) https://timmeeusa.com/products/jl-timmee-galaxy-red-orange

Thanks to the Duke and Duchy of Tradgardland for this kind gift – a suitably magical  response is on its way. https://tradgardland.blogspot.com

These attractive figures wait on the painting table for suitable  colour scheme inspiration to strike. Hopefully sometime by International Star Wars Day on May 4th? Or the July moon landing anniversary?

Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN on Pound Store Plastic Warriors 23 March 2019

Thinking outside the PostModern Paintbox?

 

Turning cheap plastic modern toy soldiers back to Steampunk 19th Century Infantry?

Turning khaki grunge back to stylish redcoats?

What have my oddly painted Pound Store Plastic Warriors got to do with YouTube music sensation Scott Bradlee and his band Postmodern Jukebox?

Could it be that perennial chore of all gamers – “all about that base, about that base”? – to misquote Meghan Trainor?

Lots of different variations on the same cheap pound store penny dreadful figure.

Desert warriors from modern infantry … 

Cheap penny dreadful figures into something more expensive looking? 

So what is the connection between my paint converted penny dreadful plastic toy soldiers and throwaway hiphop or dance music tracks? Postmodern Jukebox (or in toy soldier modelling terms, should that be Postmodern Toolbox or Postmodern Paintbox?)

Take a toy soldier or music track – strip it down, look at it afresh, re-present it in a different way or time period. That is kind of the Pound Store Plastic Warrior blog philosophy and much the same with Postmodern Jukebox.

  I have just finished reading Scott Bradlee’s ‘band’ autobiography

Is the connection – Taking one cheap throwaway thing like a modern pop song or a pound store plastic toy soldier and turning them (back in time) to something else more interesting with a bit of hard craft?

Cheap plastic 32mm modern soldier into 1930s Flash Gordon space warriors …

Talented American piano player Scott Bradlee has teamed up with a range of jazz musicians and vocalists to take modern pop songs from the 1980s classics onwards to today’s chart  hits – and take them back in time. Stylish and spirited “Period covers of Pop Songs”.

What would 90s Canadian grungy punk band Nickelback sound like as Motown?

What would modern pop classics like Myley Cyrus’s We Can’t Stop sound like as a 50s doo-wop number?

What would Carly Rae Jepsen’s modern pop hit Call Me Maybe sound like as a 1920s ragtime flapper number?

That is the musical joy that is Postmodern Jukebox … everything I  have been doing with cheap toy plastic soldiers in musical form!

It’s also what I often listen to whilst painting, if not listening to period specific music to match the figures on the painting table.

There are now several years worth of free PMJ YouTube videos and plenty of albums to enjoy at http://postmodernjukebox.com/home/

Don’t just take my word for it. I’m not the only  Toy Soldier and game blogger to like this stuff. The Duke of Tradgardland himself no doubt employs them as Court Musicians. https://tradgardland.blogspot.com

Postmodern Jukebox PMJ  – court musicians to the Duchy of Tradgardland.

Outside the Jukebox, Scott Bradlee’s autobiography, is an interesting and easy read about being a modern basement creative in the internet and social media age. It reads as an honest mistakes and failure through to success and attendant pitfalls story.

Well worth a listen … anyway, back to Bass-ics? Enjoy.

 

You might also find other YouTube groups like the Gardiner Sisters stripping back to acoustic and slowing down fast modern pop songs into more interesting versions:

Blog posted by Mark, Man of TIN on 15 March 2019.

 

Pound Store Zombie Signs

49p well spent? 54mm adventurers for scale, both repaired or converted hollowcast figures.

Recent trips to local pound stores have revealed little new or useful for toy soldiers or tabletop gaming, except for a kid’s pack of Zombie warning signs stickers. Home Bargains UK store, if you want to know.

49p well spent?

The smaller Zombie signs should prove suitably atmospheric on walls and barriers for future fantasy or science fiction games, featuring my 40mm to 54mm skeletons, zombies, space marines and adventurers.

If you bought two sets,  they would also look good paired up on the side of vehicles.

Fazackerly and the Sergeant face the undead, again …

Pound Store Zombies …

Pound store zombies are available in the UK online as party bag favours, currently  about 12 for £4.

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2018/10/31/zombie-men-only/

More Pound Store zombies roughly 40 – 50 mm …

Blog posted by Mark, Man of TIN on Pound Store Plastic Warriors, 12th March 2019.