About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Monday, September 4, 2017

A is for 'Ancient Siege Machines'

Every time I buy a mixed lot of plastic toy soldiers there seems to be at least one of these in the lot! They must have been one of the best sellers of Britains output and for the longest time.

The publicity graphics changed every couple of years with the images changing from coloured line drawings to photographs as printing techniques improved or got cheaper. The crew are given quite generic helmets in order to allow their use with both ancients and medievals.

Positioned with the Swoppet knights in early catalogues, they gravitated toward the Herald knights and Trojans in the mid 1970's and then went off to the artillery pages.

Looking at them in alphabetical order - the Ballista crew come first! Common/early or longer running colours to the left, later figures to the right. The nose protector rather places them in the 1066-crusades era.

Catapult crew with an unpainted ex-outworker's example in the middle of the lower line-up. Someone (I think in Plastic Warrior years ago) compared all the rock-holders/throwers in the Toy Soldier world once, and there are dozens of them!

Ammunition!

2 comments:

Jan Ferris said...

Good Lord. Look at those boulders, but boys should have been taught that it is not safe to throw stones.

Hugh Walter said...

Sticks & Stones Jan and . . . err . . . rocks!

H