Op Shop & Sunday Markets Trawl Part 1

 Whenever I visit Melbourne, I like to visit the Sunday bric-a-brac markets and also the op shops. Below are the figure acquisitions. Some other items I'll post another time.

    Indians with swivel and separatable torsos. I didn't get the horses. When I was a very young child I was given some of these in powder blue, by no other than Santa Claus on the top of the Myer building at Chadstone Shopping Center, Melbourne, probably around 1963. I don't know the brand.

  The blue figure is a different range, maybe Beton. behind them are some smaller scale 1960s WW2 figures. Most of those I had as a boy and they saw service next to their big 54mm brothers. The hard plastic figure at far right might be Monogram.

   These figures are about 45mm and knockoffs. The blue figure looks like a copy of an old metal hollowcast whilst the others are copies of Herald/Britains.

 I liked these green army men figures, as a boy, even though they were 'undersized'. The one with shell would be loading a bazooka or mortar.

  Mostly copies of Airfix. Ho hum! The exception is the darker green one which is a copy of Cherilea. At least the green plastic Germans are interesting, if only for them not being grey.

                              Like most copies of copies, they are a bit smaller than the originals.

     Copies of Wild West Cherilea. These are Hong Kong versions in flesh colored plastic. I got a number of these from the cereal packets. They are nicely sculpted figures. The bowman is very useful, and I painted over twenty of these to use as part of my pseudo-Aztec forces. I also converted one into an ancient Egyptian.

  The taller stretcher bearer is marked 'Ken Toys', probably one of the more rare figures in the pickup. The other stretcher bearer has no markings on the base and appears to be identical to the Ken Toys figure except for being shorter. As it does not have Hon Kong or China on the base it might be another English maker. The hand grenade thrower is Cherilea and the Indian is Lone Star.

                                  Copy of Timpo 8th Army, I think, lone Star Indian shot with arrow, Lone Star kneeling and parachutist who could be used as a surrendering soldier (something never depicted, as far as I know, with Allied forces), a metal and a plastic stretcher, latter with wounded and a Matchbox mechanic (I think). The grenade thrower GI might be Lido. (Accurate corrections welcome).

    The two chunky GI figures with rifle at waist might also be Lido. The tall figure with mine sweeper is Cherilea. The guardsman has seen better days. the dog has no markings but it looks like it might be made in England. The sand-colored mine sweeper is either made in England or a copy. The little hard plastic mechanics I don't know. The nativity figure and FFL are marx, i think.

These two Space marines are from the 80s Space Crusade set but missing their hands and weapons. Tey have removable backpacks so they can help me complete some other Space Marines.

  The FFL are quite nice, although taller than I prefer. I might repair the rifles and paint them, probably in dark blue coats.

  This Thor figure is nice and I might base him and give him some improvements. I'm not sure if I'll keep the cape. He will make a great figure for one of my fantasy armies.

                  Lone Star crawling. The hard plastic Indian might be Lido or Beton.

  The figure (Marx?) with slung rifle has a gas mask. I like figures with respirators as they have a sinister and SF look about them.

  That 'undersized' horse is the right size for another project I'll mention in my next post. I bought it separately for $3, which I thought over-priced, but it is nicely sculpted I have a use for it. It is a cake decoration and cake decorations are collected by some people, or so the seller told me.

  The road workers are useful to convert into Victorian and Edwardian era army pioneers/engineers. it occurred to me that the road worker helmets look very much like Adrian helmets.

  A bunch of 'stuff': I might well find a use for the roadwork equipment. The gun will find its way onto an ork battlewagon. The shovel is oversized but I might cut it up for something. The ladder will go on a building or vehicle.

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  Divers, hmm. To use them in an underwater scene is awkward because of the extra dimension. I was half thinking of cutting heads off and sticking them on walking, standing and running figures as some kind of retro SF scene although I prefer the WW1-type respirators.

  I don't know what this is meant to be, but it would make a good steam stack for a vehicle.

 I spent about $27 Australian on these which, given their condition, is twice what they are worth. I got excited to see bags of toy soldiers and hastily picked them up. many are what are often considered 'junk figures' and other more collectible figures pretty busted up. I could have bought figures individually, instead of grabbing boxes or bags of them and paid a lot less. But I enjoyed sorting them into categories and a number of them will be challenges for 'restoration' and conversion.