We are starting this Plastic Figure Showcase with two updates. The first update is on the Marx sawbuck. As we noted the sawbuck showed up in a couple of Marx playsets and there is debate if it was made by Marx or from a different company. We saw that a party had the sawbuck on Ebay and we purchased one. We did a photo of the two sawbucks, the one of the left is one we got in the playset while the other was the one we got from Ebay. Other the different shade of red, I could not find any difference. I had another party offered me the sawbuck which was the same. So we can say the Marx sawbuck is the rarest western accessory to find in a playset but it is not to find loose.
The next update is from Bill Nevins on the Justen cowboys and Indians. It was thought they were copies of Giant. Bill found the opposite. Interesting as Bill noted there is only one cowboy pose and five different Indian poses.
The next item I want to discuss is the Dulcop fire engine. I was buying some items and I noticed the Dulcop fire engine. The party said to me you have to have it. The Dulcop fire engine brought back a memory. Years ago I was going to attend a toy soldier show by Bill Lango at Schuetzen Park. My mother was living at the time and I did not want her to sit in the car as the weather was cold. Her walking was not good at the end of her life and she used a wheelchair. I made arrangements with Bill Lango to put my mother inside before the show opened. I got two friends to help me get my mother in and then we went outside to wait for the show opened. My mother enjoyed watching the people and she saw the Dulcop fire engine and wanted to buy it for me. I said no as I had no interest at that time.
When I got home I put the fire engine together. The fire engine has the generic Dulcop horses. Dulcop made one horse pose and used it will all of its mounted and wagons. What surprise me it had two unique firemen poses. One was sitting with the whip and the other is sitting with hands at side. I thought that they would have use the generic pose of the cowboy driver. This is a great piece for your western scene. I have decided to keep it in memory of my mother and my one uncle who was a fireman
Plastic Figure Showcase: Things found in a Junk Box
The first photo has a soccer figure made in China, the red Ideal army man in red and English lifeguard about 45mm. Kent Sprecher states the red figure was sold with a hard plastic PT boat.
Here we have two interesting accessories. The first is a sign post with a little bush in front. I like that someone decided to do a different signpost that copy what has been done before. The palm tree is also interest and one of the best I have seen made. I will be looking for other palm trees for my desert scenes.
The next photo shows a heavy set pirate, Marx miner reissue and a musk ox. The Marx miner is damaged, he missing his shovel, but he still can be useful in my stories. The yak I have not seen any before that I can remember.
The last photo of figures has Mattel Cutie which was a companion to the Mattel Guts line. The next figure is an Airfix Commando change to helmet figure. This figure was made in China. The third figure is a Braidwood Apache. Braidwood was an small UK company that the figures were made by patients from the Braidwood hospital. They did a small range of Western figures. The last one is a 45mm soccer figure.
I like these figures as they are different and are fun additions to the collection.
Update
Billy Hill set us a photo of the other pirates in the set with the heavy set pirate. It was offered by Kaybee toys along with shako hat soldiers in a small carry all in the 1990’s. sorry the picture came in small.
The yak is musk ox thanks to George Albany
Les White gives more background on Braidwood figures
I like the Apache, never seen one like that before.
Nice history and tales.
The Dulcop fire truck is a great beautiful original addition to any set, not only western I should said.I got two ,but not a single rider unfortunately. I notice in sales some version older with painted figures on it. Lucky find with the two fireman!!!-awesome!
The soccer if 60 or close to 70 mm I think is from “Awesome” soccer playset plastic carry on case from 2000/2001!?I had to check with mine. May be not!
The palm tree was wholesale distributed by Amscan as party table seasonal summer décor ,sold at Party city, warehouse part outlet and FCP outlet ,all party supply stores companies .I did have and sold out them in large quantities, last were sold last year in October at my site/eBay. You may still some at local party stores in summer season when they stock any old carry over out.
Amscan now distribute other two version that I have few left but done by (tropical express)http://www.tropicsexpress.com/b2b_catalog/partytable.html
http://selltoyco.com/?wpsc_product_category=miscellaneous
Sign is cake topper accessory, I had seen it in other toy bag set or a similar design!?
Braidwood are great poses ,specially the Indians, hard to get x me..nice
Dulcop fire engine is a nice piece and is an interesting subject !
Did Braidwood do cowboys or cavalry too, the Apache is a nice looking figure. Wouldn’t mind having some of those. He looks to be about 54mm is that correct?
Ed,
Braidwood was a hospital just outside Glasgow, Scotland. The story is that the patients made the figures as a kind of therapy to help their recovery. The money received from sales went to charity.
As far as I can tell they only produced 3 sets –
Cowboys, Indians and US cavalry with 8 poses and 16 figures in a set.
Sold in boxes with reasonable artwork.
The Indians had a mix of Plains and Apache, the Cavalry had a couple of scout poses.
The Cowboys were Grey, Indians sand yellow(as in the pic) and the Cavalry were Light Blue. Some examples of Apaches in Light Blue have turned up speculating that they were Cavalry Scouts.
The figure designs appear to be conversions of others work but as Braidwood was selling these for charity I doubt anyone would complain. One Indian is a near direct copy of a Timpo action pack one and one of the apaches is from the swoppet range.
There is a rumour that they also produced a set of Knights, but this has not been proved however, the style of the sculpting of there figures means that it would be hard to identify them with other types of Hong Kong or cheaper ranges.
Braidwood Hospital closed down and the moulds for these figures disappeared, maybe destroyed or maybe saved by someone, no one knows.
Best regards,
Les
Les.The frontiermen pose was done for the cowboy or as part of mohican / else series?
As far I know they did cowboys(I got those) ,Indians and Frontiersmen. I do not know of any more, the(company-low profit) has a short run period I think.
They are 54 mm scale. Indians are the best poses. Some poses remain me of Timpo in the face style crude detail. It is in original clothing and poses that are best. Good plastic x conversion. I think all or some poses were depicted in one of the PW issues years .Adim and collectors from UK know much more about!
Help!?
I have the Dulcop firetruck and several other wagons that I got from Jamie Delson in a trade many years ago. I seem to recall that he was the first one to bring Dulcop figures into the US. I got the whole western catalog from him in return for a scratch built Alamo
building that he wanted. Some great stuff there.
The best Dulcop figure is the Mexican who looks like he got a hot foot, hopping around.
Yea, Dulcop did some nice figures, not all were as nice though. The Tarzan set, ,Napoleonics, Robin Hood,and Zorro sets had some interesting figures !
Minor correction. I think what you identified as a yak is actually a musk ox. Yaks live in Asia and musk oxen live in the northern parts of Canada; otherwise cool stuff.
Thanks Les, does anyone have any pictures of the cavalry? I’d like to see what they look like, I don’t suppose they are easy to obtain huh?
Dulcop some of their figures are kind of nice others are cartoonish, The Zorro Mexicans border on ridiculous, but yes I have a set. I used the legs of some extras I had for conversions. They cut up nicely. Their 7th cavalry figures are, ugh, but again I use the legs for conversions, some nice leg poses.
Ed
The figures turn up from time to time. As I have not been in the UK I do not know the demand and cost of them one cavalry is kneeling with pistol and sword. Here are photos of the
cowboys http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/braidwood-toy-soldiers-162796234
Indians http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/braidwood-toy-soldiers-162796213
Ed,
A friend just told me that the Light Blue Apaches came in the US cavalry set, as scouts we guess. 2 of them are shown in the photo from Erwins’ Worthpoint link. the photos don’t show full sets but a mix to make up the numbers.
Each set had 2 0f each of the 8 poses.
Obviously they were more easily available a few years ago but I don’t see them very often here, where they were made. I expect that they can be found in rummage boxes at the Toy soldier shows in the UK ,but I would think they would be rare in the USA.
I’ll see if I can track down a pic of all the poses and send it to Paul to post here.
The colour of plastic is the way to tell which set the figure came out of as the company didn’t do multiple colours of the same pose, Erwin if your frontiersman is Grey he’s a cowboy.
Value wise I would guess what ever anyone wants to pay, probably higher priced in the USA than here.
Les
Les
When I did the toy soldier shows in the 80’s and 90’s in the UK Braidwood were usually in the junk boxes. It would be interesting to see if they still there or out on the table. I am finding figures collectors put their noses up at are now in demand.
Thanks Les; the pictures were posted by admin=Paul, not me. Any how, my frontiersmen is painted over grey color base,but same pose with rifle across waist as showed in back ground pose with Crockett style hat
Very similar to a Marx pose.
Thank you ADMIN, so I guess that respond my answer.
The frontiersman figure I have was part of cowboys series I guess, I see it in the lot.
I found out the Pirate is a copied pose from Dunkin.
Hmmm, interesting looking, might be worth it if I got them cheap. Thanks for posting.
Seems like there are always figures out there that we never knew existed, or figures we saw as kids, that we have never ever seen again. I remember when I was about seven or eight years old waking up one morning and my Mom telling me she had a suprise for me. She told me to look in a dresser drawer and I pulled out a window box set of six figures. The figures were swoppet type figures that I remember being U.S. WW2 Paratroopers. I remember them being armed with thompson sub-machineguns and M-1 garands. Their uniforms were a gray/green and some of the poses were charging with bayonetted M-1 chest high, standing throwing grenade holding M-1, standing firing thompson chest high, kneeling firing M-1, can’t remember the other two. They had camo-netted helmets and came apart at the waist and heads. The helmets could come off also. They were nicely done. I have never seen these guys since then and have no idea who made them.
I also remember playing with a guy in Baytown, Texas while visiting my Aunt. I remember him having some WW2 figures that I recall thinking at the time that they were cool looking and something I had never seen before. Cannot recall now what they were like.
Anyone else remember figures they saw as a kid that they have yet to ever see again?
BOBBYGMOORE
Bobby
I do not recognize either of the figures you are looking for. I had forty plus year hunt for the Speedwell armored car on fire. For years I thought I might be dreaming until I finally saw one in England. It took at least another five years to got one..
I don’t recall any I have never seen again, I got to a fair amount of shows and pretty much everything has showed up there or on E-Bay. Some I actually found on Stad’s E-Bay store.
Bobby , have you tried Google image something to the effect of “Timpo swoppet GI’s” ,I did and there are some Timpo GI grey /green guys but they are missing their helmets, could they have been a Hong Kong knock off slightly different ?
I tried looking for them some years back and thought they might have been Timpo, but nothing matched what I remember about these guys. Maybe they were an oddball set made by a company that didn’t do many toy soldiers, or maybe a Hong Kong company. I do remember they were nicely done. I could tell that the thompsons were thompsons and the M-1’s, M-1’s. I do believe that if I ever saw them again, I would know. Thanks for the suggestion. maybe I will try a google search for swoppet figures and see what pops up.
BOBBYGMOORE
Did Britians do WWII guys in a swoppets style? I know they did other ranges. I can’t imagine Hong Kong using a window box.
Ed,
Britains did Swoppet Modern British Army which they boxed with WW2 accessories. Each guy armed with an FN SLR rifle, puts them in the 1960’s uniform. The figures were made up of Helmet, head with painted hair, torso, legs (from waist down), base, waist belt, webbing (ammo pouches and back pack), entrenching tool. So quite complex.
The webbing was a rubber material and plugged into the waist belt made of plastic, so if you wanted to have your guys without equipment you could take it off.
There were two types of entrenching tool in silver plastic, a shovel and a pick.
There are many Hong Kong knockoffs, in swoppet form as well as solid.
They are easy to spot as the quality is poor.
In the UK Hong Kong toy soldiers came in window boxes of various sizes, as cheaper gifts than the well known makers.
Les
One other thing to noted on the Britains Swoppet British is the entrenching tool will react to the plastic of the back pack.
I seem to recall getting the signpost with plant in the display box with the battery operated New Ray King Tiger and Sherman tanks back in the 1990s.
I’d really like to see (and buy) the complete collection of those Braidwood figures. I’ve heard of the name before but this is the first one I have seen and I never knew the story behind them.
On seeing the Braidwood Indians and Cowboys in the worthpoint pics, I recognize most of the Indians as conversions of Timpo solid Plains Indians and Timpo Swoppet Apaches, some with added hats or other details. Among the cowboys I only recognize the Lone Star Mettalion “Kit Carson” figure (squatting with pistol in one hand). The Lone Star version had a rifle in the other hand. Interestingly, the standing man firing a pistol looks very similar to the much more recent gambler with sawed off shotgun from Austin.
Mark T
I would not be surprised that the sign post is from the 90’s
I brought the Braidwood in back in old list days which had no pictures. The internet is letting you see more of what I enjoyed discover at the UK shows.
I have the new Ray post but are diferent.The are in cross shape and base is two wood plank in cross flat style.the sticker is generic red cross.the tiger II come with plastic pine and two gas tank plus walking Germans figures.
The Sherman often w sigh and modern soldiers used w halftrack and lee tank too.
I had seen this often.
Bobby G, Check Transogram. I think that they may be your best bet. I have several 6 figure window pane boxes containing Cowboys, Indians, Crusaders and a few others from them.
I have seen WW 2 figures, but I don’t collect modern figures, so I never paid attention to them. The boxes are the same style and size as the Britains Swop AWI figure boxes with a colorful card insert that holds the figures.
Thanks Les, never saw many Britains as a kid so generally they are not one of my pursued items. Someone was nice enough to sent me some parts of Britains swoppets, but they are only parts and I’m, not sure who the parts belonged to as far as era is concerned. I have seen some AWI swoppets and they don’t look too bad.
Two comments
1. those Army swoppets sound like the Timpo copies by RI TI toys, made in Hong Kong.
They made US Inf, Germans and Paratroopers. They also made cowboys, Indians, US cavalry, Confederates, AWI, Knights and Crusaders. Not exact copies of Timpo but close, similar in look to Transogram
The Braidwood figures were sculpted by Norman Tooths assistant doing a bit of moonlighting, hence the similarity to Timpo
Peter,could you please explain a bit the last part more(assistant doing a bit of moonlighting!?)Sorry.