Wednesday 22 December 2010

PLASTIC IN ITALY

























It is many years since I started taking an interest and collecting toy soldiers, animals, civilian and manger figurines, but besides getting keen on collecting as much as possible, I have  tried to get as much information as possible about the story of the Italian firms producing the objects we longed for. It has been a hard task to find news and documentary evidence on paper about the production and marketing of the italians.




During the fifties and the sixties, contrary to what happened in other countries like Great Britain or France where the toy-manufactorers edited every year, with outmost care, up-to-date catalogues, in Italy there was a scarce diffusion of catalogues, magazines or other materials for agents, relative to this kind of toys. The news we collected are the result of an exchange of information among collectioners, flea-markets and epoch toys exchange hunting, and lately, Internet searching.



Books of great interest have already been published about the famous Italian marks of toy soldiers like C.C.Confalonieri, Chialù,






Books of great interest have already been published about the famous Italian  toy soldiers like C.C.Confalonieri, Chialù, Salpa, Figir etc. These production are mostly in composition of various materials like plaster, kaolin, glue etc, surely nobler than plastic and PVC, but more difficult to conserve.



A special note is to be made for the glorious mark Landi-Xiloplasto which put on the market a huge and very beautiful series of toy soldiers both in composition and PVC, and would deserve a special publication for the variety and vastness of its production.



For the same reason we omitted the well known Atlantic mark, whose production has been so extended that one needs a book all of its own, a specific treatment. I considered interesting filling a gap and extend research about the so-called “ lesser marks”, which are perhaps less known but surely amusing and made for the play of thousands of children, at a much more reasonable price than their rich relatives! I point out with pleasure some specially original subjects, of singular charm. For instance:



• Fratelli Nardi, the series of magnificent didactic albums, realized with semiflat animals in composition



• Rovella Porro, the characters inspired by the Disney comics



• ISAS, the mythical and very rare lattex astronauts



• COMA, hard plastic Selenites, a kid’s dream, who hoped to find them into the mythical Tide boxes



remember these, together with other marks such as Torgano, Fontanini, Dulcop, Texas-APS, POLITOYS, Canè, Tibidabo, and probably it shall be possible to discover many more. In the next months I shall publish posts  with photos, documents and catalogues of these marks if I can find them. Please notify me of  the existence of any interesting material on the subject. The book “Italian toy soldiers” by  Franco Paoletti, is dedicated to the children of 40-50 years ago who still remember the battles fought among plastic armies on the cold home floor, …   This  production are mostly in composition of various materials like plaster, kaolin, glue etc, surely nobler than plastic and PVC, but more difficult to conserve.



A special note is to be made for the glorious mark Landi-Xiloplasto which put on the market a huge and very beautiful series of toy soldiers both in composition and PVC, and would deserve a special publication for the variety and vastness of its production.





nardi
Religous plastic figures are still available everywhere made in plastic






• COMA, hard plastic Selenites, a kid’s dream, who hoped to find them into the mythical Tide boxes

Tuesday 21 December 2010

starlux st.just

It was in  calais at the newsagents in the ferry port that i bought this 54mm figure of st just.
The tradition of popular characters in clay, porcelain, wood, and lead goes  far back in time, collecting them is perhaps not so old but  children had their soldiers lead and parents stored their statues on the shelf or the Office. It is clear that this kind of applied art does not claim very faithful representation of the model, the resemblance is often limited to simple name.
mokarex
st just by mokarex





As is known, one of the ways to retain customers and to promote a product is to launch a collectors gift for the sold product, whether it's a mini-jouet, a magnet for the fridge, a calender or … a figurine. For the complete series, the consumer is obliged to continue to buy the same product. Thus the brand of coffee Mokarex had very long ago an idea to equip their packets of coffee figurines of characters from the revolution. The idea was so successful it took  several series of figurines and on different themes. Coffee Mokarex is active no longer, but its figures continue to supply the auction market
starlux st just
In 2002, on the occasion of the victory of Jacques Chirac ,  Starlux  marketed  their series of 35 figurines "great characters of the revolution", to celebrate the "continuity of Republican traditions" . You could choose between Robespierre and Saint-just, Marat and Charlotte Corday, Louis XVI and Madam, alongside simple sansculottes and soldiers of the Revolutionary Army.

Son of  Louis Jean, Knight of St. Louis and ex-Marshal of the gendarmerie, and from the thirty-year-old Marie Anne Robinot, daughter of a notary, he moved with his family, even before  a year to Nampcel, in Oise and, October 16, 1776, in the small village of Blérancourt, where his father bought a House; the father's death, on 8 September 1777, is sent to study in College codde of Saint-Nicolas in Soissons.
above family home

He graduated in 1785, the year after a relationship with Thérèse Sigrade-Gellé, the daughter of the notary of Blérancourt, who denies his consent to the wedding; It seems that this refusal, and subsequent marriage of the girl, has been the cause of his sudden departure, on 9 September 1786, for Paris, where was arrested on 6 October following the complaint of the mother , stolen the silverware.

After a time in the House of Madame de Sainte-Colombe, in rue de Picpus, 7 March 1787 he can return home, with his mother and her two sisters, Louise and Marie Françoise, and is  as trainee in the study of a lawyer of Soissons.
In October he enrolled at the Faculty of law at the University of Reims, where he graduated in less than a year, on 15 April 1788.Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (French pronunciation: 25 August 1767 – 28 July 1794), usually known as Saint-Just, was a French revolutionary and military leader. Closely allied with Robespierre, he served with him on the Committee of Public Safety, becoming heavily involved in the Reign of Terror and was executed with him after the events of 9 Thermidor at the age of twenty-six.In May 1789, he published twenty cantos of licentious verse (after the fashion of the time) under the title of Organt au Vatican. The poem was strongly critical of the monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church.




He was elected lieutenant-colonel of the National Guard of the Aisne, and sought to become a member of his district’s electoral assembly.



In 1790, he wrote to Maximilien Robespierre for the first time, asking him to consider a local petition. The letter was filled with praise, beginning: “You, who uphold our tottering country against the torrent of despotism and intrigue, you whom I know, as I know God, only through his miracles—it is to you, Monsieur, that I address myself. Through their correspondence, the two became friends. With Robespierre's support, Saint-Just became deputy of the département of Aisne to the National Convention. He gave his first speech, a condemnation of Louis XVI, on 13 November 1792. This gained him attention, and he soon became a prominent figure of The Mountain. His close friendship with Robespierre became known to the Convention, the Jacobin Club, and the people, and he was dubbed the "St. John of the Messiah of the People" (saint Jean du Messie du peuple).



 Involvement in the Revolution

Saint-Just supported the Revolution from its outbreak, and became involved in local political affairs. In his earlier years, he boasted about the current government (constitutional monarchy) and showed great political knowledge beyond that of most young men his age. The treason of the King changed his mind, as it did many others and he was one of the main driving forces which brought the king's death. He proclaimed that the king should be judged, not as a king or even a citizen, but as an enemy who deserves death  He spoke at the Trial of Louis XVI, “As for me I see no middle ground: this man must reign or die! He oppressed a free nation; he declared himself its enemy; he abused the laws: he must die to assure the repose of the people, since it was in his mind to crush the people to assure his own. Did he not, before the fight, pass his troops in review? Did he not take flight instead of preventing them from firing? What did he do to stop the fury of his soldiers?” More importantly, however, his argument changed the fundamental ideology of the revolution by stating that “every king is a rebel and a usurper,”therefore illegitimating all monarchies and monarchs as treasonous. His ideology and argument were closely followed by Robespierre and eventually became the official position of the Jacobin Party.After his maiden speech at the King’s trial, he was elected to the National Convention where he as the youngest member of the Convention,[4] only a few days over the minimum age requirement of twenty-five [5]



When the Girondists (Girondins) were banished from the Convention on 30 May 1793, Saint-Just was elected to the Committee of Public Safety. In the autumn of that same year, he was sent on a mission to oversee the army in the critical area of Alsace. He proved himself a man of decisive action, relentless in demanding results from the generals as well as sympathetic to the complaints of run-of-the mill soldiers. He repressed local opponents of the Revolution but did not agree in the mass executions ordered by some of the other deputies on the mission. Saint-Just succeeded in inspiring the Army of the Rhine and Moselle. Taking a lead role in the fight, he saw the frontier secured and the German Rhineland invaded. Upon his return to the Convention, in year II (1793–1794) of the French Republican Calendar, Saint-Just was elected president. He persuaded the Convention to pass the radical Ventôse Decrees, under which confiscated lands were to be distributed to needy patriots. These were the most revolutionary acts of the French Revolution, because they took from one class for the benefit of another. He returned to Paris in January 1794. Joining with Robespierre, he was instrumental in the downfalls and execution of the Hébertists and the Dantonists. During the same period, Saint-Just drafted Fragments sur les institutions républicaines, proposals far more radical than the constitutions he had helped to frame; this work laid the theoretical groundwork for a communal and egalitarian society. Sent on mission to the army in Belgium, he contributed to the victory of Fleurus on 26 June 1794, which gave France the upper hand against the Austrians. These months were the high point of his career. But his rise to power had wrought a remarkable change in Saint-Just's public personality. He became a cold, almost inhuman fanatic; even more daring and outspoken than his idol Robespierre. “The vessel of the Revolution can arrive in port only on a sea reddened with torrents of blood,” Saint-Just once declared to the Convention. He said on another occasion, “You have to punish not only the traitors, but even those who are indifferent; you have to punish whoever is passive in the republic, and who does nothing for it.” In this way, Saint-Just saw social passivity to be the real threat to society.



As for the external policy of France, “I know” he said “only one means of resisting Europe: to oppose to her the genius of freedom” (Béraud97). He did not want the military to be made up of slaves, he wanted free men to fight for France. Saint-Just proposed that, through its committees, the National Convention should direct all military movements and all branches of the government (report of 10 October 1793). Under this policy, Saint-Just, along with friend and fellow deputy Philippe Le Bas, was dispatched to Strasbourg to command military operations. Saint-Just's experience with terror in Paris guided him in dealing with suspected treason in Alsace. In Strasbourg, he repressed the excesses of Jean-Georges Schneider, who, as public prosecutor of the revolutionary tribunal of the Lower Rhine, had ruthlessly applied the Terror in Alsace. Schneider was sent to Paris and guillotined. Later, he served with the Army of the North, where he gave generals the choice of victory over their enemies or trial by revolutionary tribunal; he organized a unit specially charged with eliminating deserters. Once more he saw success, and Belgium was successfully occupied by May 1794.



Robespierre and Saint-Just shared the ideals of Enlightenment and some even say that Saint-Just was superior to Robespierre in many ways, political and otherwise. Anything Robespierre wanted to get done, Saint-Just was sent to do it. At the end of May, Robespierre recalled Saint-Just to the capital, but he soon departed again with the army until 28 June. According to Barère, on 23 July Saint-Just proposed dictatorship as the remedy for society’s disorder. This report, however, is highly questionable: as a leader of the Thermidorian Reaction, his testimony is suspect, and it has been argued (Fayard, p. 311) that this alleged policy is not at all typical of Saint-Just. At the famous sitting of 27 July 1794 (9 Thermidor), Saint-Just gave his defence of Robespierre. While he tried to present his report as that of the committees of General Security and Public Safety, he had actually refused to show it to them the previous day. He was loudly interrupted by his fellow committee members, and the sitting ended with an order for Robespierre's arrest. The following day, twenty-one men, including Saint-Just and Robespierre, were guillotined.



 Death of Saint-Just

The fate of Saint-Just is inextricably linked to that of Robespierre — his mentor and close personal friend. Robespierre divided and conquered his enemies, denouncing anyone who was or could be a threat to his position as head of the committee for Public Safety which made Robespierre de facto dictator of the revolution. Danton and many other popular leaders in the Convention were removed one by one.



The remaining members of the convention finally joined together and removed Robespierre and his associates including Saint-Just.



At the end of his life, Robespierre gave a famous speech on 26 July 1794 (Thermidor 8): “It has been said too often that the greatest mistake made by Robespierre in his speech of Thermidor 8 was his failure to name any of the men at whom his denunciations were leveled” .



Although Saint-Just remained loyal to his ideals and Robespierre, Robespierre did not. After his arrest, Robespierre attempted suicide, but only succeeded in shattering his jaw. Saint-Just was found beside Robespierre attempting to minister to him. Robespierre, semi-conscious, did not respond. Saint-Just went with his guards in silence and alone.



Robespierre and his fellow ideologues were guillotined the following day, 28 July 1794 (10 Thermidor). Saint-Just accepted his death with resignation.



 Character

In contrast to the manner of early antics such as "Organt au Vatican", Saint-Just assumed a stoical manner throughout his adult life. In combination with his devotion to a "tyrannical and pitilessly thorough" policy, as described by the Encyclopaedia Britannica, this was a lifelong characteristic. He thought the only way to create a true republic was to rid it of enemies, to enforce the “complete destruction of its opposite,” and to embrace the notion “a nation generates itself only upon heaps of corpses.” Saint-Just was repeatedly described by contemporaries as arrogant, believing himself to be a skilled leader and orator as well as having proper revolutionary character. This cocky self-assurance manifested itself in his superiority complex, and he “made it clear…that he considered himself to be in charge and that his will was law.”  Camille Desmoulins once said of Saint-Just: "He carries his head like a Holy Sacrament." "And I," replied Saint-Just, "will make him carry his like a Saint Denis." The threat was not vain: Desmoulins accompanied Danton to the scaffold. Because of his intense ambition and self-assurance, some theorize that Saint-Just aided in Danton’s execution to further his own political career by getting rid of the respected and experienced leader of the Convention.



 Camus and Saint-Just

Saint-Just is discussed extensively in Albert Camus's philosophical essay of 1951, The Rebel. His actions during the course of the Revolution are examined in the context of Camus's analysis of the progression of rebellion and revolution towards enlightenment and freedom throughout history. His fierce advocacy of the execution of Louis XVI and his philosophical treatises on the nature of the Revolution in speeches to the Assembly, are both used by Camus to illustrate how the downfall of the Bourbon monarchy was brought about and from what basis the political ideology of the Revolution grew. Camus claims Saint-Just "introduced Rousseau's ideas into the pages of history" and incorporates Saint-Just and his ideals into his humanist study of the progression of humanity towards enlightened liberalism and democratic pluralism; and the traps and mistakes that have ensnared previous revolutionary attempts towards this goal.



Saint-Just and his fellow Jacobins are lauded as 'Regicides'; with Camus attributing the gradual decline of absolute monarchy that spread throughout Europe following the French Revolution and the resultant growth of popular representation and democracy to the philosophical and political developments initiated and executed by Saint-Just and his fellow Jacobins.



The theological implications of Saint-Just's rhetoric are also discussed by Camus. In successfully arguing for the King's execution, Saint-Just destroyed the façade of monarchical divine right and ensured that kings could never again enjoy such unchecked power as the Bourbons did. Camus identifies Saint-Just's successful advocacy of the execution of Louis XVI as the Nietzschean Twilight of the Idols.



However, Camus also holds Saint-Just as a cautionary parable, a lesson in how revolutions, their ideals, and the idealists that lead them can descend into despotism and tyranny. He discusses how Saint-Just and his fellow Jacobins would not compromise their ideals to accommodate the will of the common people, the sans-culottes, and so brought about the Jacobin Terror and their eventual downfall in the events of the Thermidorian Reaction.








Friday 17 December 2010

bits

large plastic marines once made in Italy

These Italian soldiers were painted by hand


Anyone know where the unpainted Britains are freely available

I'm selling these off price is 30 pounds the three

Thursday 16 December 2010

bits and pieces

Someone said these are britains, no way. But are they?

These are some of the best Italian plastics ever done,great style and moulding . But there are no St.Johns Knigts take them on. If replicants  could do it then great. I stopped buying them after they got steve weston on board (not my cup of tea) but they do nice stuff for sure. One thing would be that they did so I doldiers all in the same uniform pose like as in Guard attacking with bayonet for instance so then you could buy 20 in the same pose but Replicants are too individual . also weston's prices are too high for buying in bulk. I liked the 1 pound deal which I thought was fair but above that then I don't.

wooden and a bit boring but only divinia Hill does English culloden figures. I got interested in the battle after reading John Prebbles book on the conflict. Did you know kilts are English Victorian inventions? So the next time you see a Psy Yankee going round london in a Kilt then he's most likely a trans.

Saturday 4 December 2010

weirdoland

I wouldn't go along with the idea prompted by many toy soldier magazines that everything in the sector is A.1 honky Dory. For instance I stopped buying Replicants when its present seller asked for close on 800 pounds just for info on how he set up his operation, citing that it had cost him that just to set up his operation-eh....wasn't that his thing not mine?
Anyway if I had of got my production set up Steve Weston would be selling the soldiers now as he does with replicants and others.
 I would still like to get a cheap plastic production set up but dealing with the Chinese is tremendously difficult, it seems like you are talking in riddles when you try to set an operation up.
I'm in this business as a hobby and not for one moment am I thinking of profits.I pump everything back into the business to be honest.It was fun doing business with Peter Cole though

stalingrad CRESCENT



If you grew up on American films about WWII, then you're used to seeing German soldiers portrayed as big dumb guys who live on strudel and sauerkraut. In the film Stalingrad, we focus on three German soldiers, all involved in the siege of Stalingrad, where over 1 million people died. The personalities of the soldiers are revealed and we witness the changes that take place as the stressors of war are relentlessly applied. Artfully directed, the suffering of the Russian winter and the horror of combat are expertly portrayed. Some scenes are disturbingly graphic, but how could a responsible film about WWII be made without illustrating the violence? We found the scenes to be vital to the completeness of the film.It was a f9ilm rumoured to have been scuppered by the fascism of international zionism who while liking the sentiments of Ryan didn't like the reality from the German side
it was ten time's better than ryan





Guenter Rohrback, the producer of Das Boot, was involved as one of the executive producers of Stalingrad. We thought that the film equaled the quality of Das Boot, possibly one of the greatest films about war at sea ever made. Joseph Vilsmaier (also directed Brother of Sleep) won the Bavarian Film Award for Best Cinematography (1993). Stalingrad also won Bavarian Film Awards for Best Editing and Best Production.


"It is one of the best movie I ever seen, the 8th army should have won the battle for Stalingrad and,those pigdog ruskies shot. It's a shame that when you mention atrocities German soldiers comes to mind, Those Ruskies also committed a lot of crimes against their own people too. Well enough of this shit. The film is superb and I have seen it 12 times already."

Thursday 2 December 2010

kit carson: Legend in his own lunchtime






Later he became a rancher in New Mexico. During the American Civil War, he helped organize the New Mexico volunteer infantry for the Union. When the Navajos tried to take advantage of the military slack caused by the outbreak of the Civil War, the United States government sent Colonel Kit Carson to settle the uprising. His mission was to gather the Navajo together and move them to Fort Sumner on the Bosque Redondo Reservation. When the Indians refused to move and hid in the Canyon de Chelly, he began a campaign of economic warfare, destroying crops, livestock and villages.
By destroying their food supplies, eventually he convinced the Navajos that going to the reservation was the only way to survive. By 1864, about 8000 Navajo had surrendered to the U.S. Army, while another 8000 hid in the back country. Kit Carson finally went home to his family. After the Civil War, Carson moved to Colorado, where he died.[

Wednesday 1 December 2010

RIO BRAVO

The Rio Grande (known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte, or simply Río Bravo) is a river that forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes. According to the International Boundary and Water Commission, its total length was 1,896 miles (3,051 km) in the late 1980s. Depending on how it is measured, the Rio Grande is the fourth or fifth longest river system in North America.[1] It serves as a natural border between the U.S. state of Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. A very short stretch of the river serves as the boundary between the U.S. states of Texas and New Mexico. The tremendous water use of big cities and vast irrigated acreage along the river has taken a heavy toll on the river's flow; less than a fifth of its historical discharge reaches the sea today. Near the river's mouth, the heavily irrigated Rio Grande Valley is an important agricultural region.

By the river








Rio Bravo






I walk all alone






And I wonder as I wander by the river






Where my love has flown














All the birds in the cottonwood above her






Know I love her






Know I care






But my dreams, like the songs, she sang in Spanish






Seem to vanish






In the air














I wonder where














So I wonder as I wander






Will love come along






Must I live ever after






By the memory of her song














While the river Rio Bravo flows along






(Choir: Rio Bravo, Rio Bravo)






While the river Rio Bravo flows along

















The Rio Grande's drainage basin (watershed) is 182,200 square miles (472,000 km2).[3] Many endorheic basins are situated within, or adjacent to, the Rio Grande's basin, and these are sometimes included in the river basin's total area, increasing its size to about 336,000 square miles (870,000 km2).The Rio Grande rises in the eastern part of the Rio Grande National Forest in the U.S. state of Colorado. The river is formed by the joining of several streams at the base of Canby Mountain, just east of the Continental Divide.
 From there, it flows through the San Luis Valley, then south into New Mexico, passing through Espanola, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces to El Paso, Texas. Below El Paso it serves as part of the border between the United States and Mexico.
The official river border measurement ranges from 889 miles (1,431 km) to 1,248 miles (2,008 km), depending on how the river is measured.[1] A major tributary, the Rio Conchos, enters at Ojinaga, Chihuahua, below El Paso, and supplies most of the water in the border segment. Other well-known tributaries include the Pecos and the smaller Devils, which join the Rio Grande on the site of Amistad Dam. Despite its name and length, the Rio Grande is not navigable by ocean-going ships, nor do smaller passenger boats or cargo barges use it as a route. It is barely navigable at all, except by small boats in a few places.

THE FILM .LIKE CHINATOWN the title is a red herring the river does not mean anything to the film.
At the Texas border town of Rio Bravo, Joe Burdette, the brother of wealthy rancher Nathan Burdette, shoots and kills an unarmed man. Sheriff John T. Chance arrests him with the help of his former deputy, the alcoholic Dude. To prevent Chance from taking Joe to the Presidio to stand trial, Nathan hires a small army of professional gunmen to bottle up the town. Although Chance expects that it will take several days for help to arrive, he requests assistance from the U.S. marshal by sending a message via stagecoach.




When Chance’s friend Pat Wheeler arrives in town to deliver a shipment of explosives, he describes Chance’s situation as having "a bull by the tail." Seeing that Chance’s only professional help is the crippled and elderly deputy, Stumpy, and the shaky Dude, whom the townsmen ridicule and call Borochón ("drunk"), Wheeler offers his services, but Chance refuses, unwilling to risk the lives of "well-meaning amateurs." Chance tells Wheeler that Dude had been an excellent deputy, until a failed romance with Feathers, a female gambler, caused him to take up the bottle two years earlier. Wheeler suggests that Chance hire his new guard, the young Colorado, and praises his intelligence and gunmanship. However, Colorado declines the job, saying that he is better at "minding his own business," thus earning Chance’s respect because he feels no need to prove himself.



To protect Dude, Chance orders Feathers, who has just returned to town, to leave on the next morning’s stagecoach. Feathers takes a room for the night at the Alamo Hotel, which is run by married couple Carlos and Consuelo, and is also where Chance boards. That evening, when Chance sees Feathers winning at the card table using a deck missing three cards, Chance confronts her with an official notice reporting that a man, wanted for cheating at cards, is working with a woman who fits her description. She admits that the notice is referring to her and explains that her husband was cheating without her knowledge and then abandoned her. Weary of dodging her bad reputation, she suggests Chance search her for the missing cards. The tension is broken by Colorado, who suspects that a different player is cheating, prompting Chance and Colorado to search the man. After they find the missing cards up the man’s sleeve, Chance, acknowledging Feather’s innocence, says he will clear her name with the authorities; however, he still insists that she leave town.



When a gunman shoots Wheeler in the back, Chance assumes that his friend was killed for supporting him against Nathan. Chance and Dude investigate the stable where the shot originated and roust Wheeler's killer, who then runs to a nearby saloon. While suffering the derision of the saloon patrons, Dude discovers the murderer hiding in the saloon’s loft and outshoots him.



During the night, Feathers, who is attracted to Chance’s reserved charms, and Carlos worry about the sheriff’s safety and, while he sleeps, Feathers stands guard outside his room without his knowledge.



The next day, Nathan rides into town and demands to speak to Joe. Chance allows Nathan to enter the jailhouse, but threatens Joe with an "accident" if there are any attempts to storm the jail. After refusing to leave town, Feathers declares her feelings for Chance, who admits that he might return her interest if the situations with Dude and the Burdettes were less complicated.





Click for larger image





That night at the jail, Dude, noticing the burgeoning romance, reminds Chance that he once warned Dude about Feathers. When Chance and his colleagues notice that musicians have been playing the same song all day, Colorado states that the song is "El Deguelo," the "cutthroat song" played nightly by Mexicans to the men besieged at the Alamo, adding that he heard Nathan pay the musicians to play it as a signal to Joe.



After Chance re-deputizes Dude, who has abstained from drinking for several days, Dude celebrates by shaving and taking a bath at the hotel. During the night, Chance discovers Feathers asleep outside his room and carries her in. In the morning, Dude, suffering delirium tremens, is captured by Nathan’s men.



Soon after, three men ride into town claiming to need a doctor and, when they encounter Chance, they train their guns on him. Feathers, instructed by Colorado, distracts them by throwing a flower pot through the hotel window, allowing Chance and Colorado to shoot the men dead and rescue Dude.



Afterward, Feathers, who is upset by Chance’s near death, drinks too much and drunkenly declares frustration with her unrequited love, to which Chance responds that he is glad that she stayed. His confidence lost, Dude resigns as deputy and is tempted to resume drinking. To Stumpy’s dismay, Chance gives Dude a bottle of liquor and taunts him about his past humiliations, believing that treating Dude "rough" works better than sympathy. Colorado has changed his mind about accepting the job of deputy and, as Colorado is being deputized, Dude discovers that his "shakes" have subsided, passes on the liquor and takes his place with the other two deputies.



Observing that Nathan has caused trouble only when they are outside the jail, Chance decides they should take refuge inside it, using Joe as a hostage until the marshal arrives. Dude and Chance then go to the hotel for supplies, unaware that Nathan’s men have already overtaken it. After capturing Chance and Dude, Nathan orders Chance to fetch Joe, who will be traded for Dude. Escorted by three gunmen, Chance returns to the jail, but he, Colorado and Stumpy outwit and overcome them.



Upon returning to the hotel, they find that Nathan and his men have departed with Dude and left behind instructions for Chance to meet him with Joe at the edge of town. Colorado points out that Nathan cannot allow Chance and Dude to live, because their testimony in court regarding the murders will result in Joe being hanged. After ordering the less agile Stumpy to remain at the jail, Chance and Colorado take Joe to Nathan. As the prisoners are exchanged, Dude tackles Joe and knocks him unconscious, inciting a gunfight. When Nathan’s men attempt to surround them, Stumpy arrives and shoots them. After Colorado warns that Stumpy is standing next to a wagon full of dynamite, the older man retrieves a box of explosives and joins Chance. Working together, Stumpy throws sticks of dynamite toward the building sheltering Nathan and his men as Chance ignites each stick with a gunshot, causing an explosion. When the building erupts in fire, Nathan surrenders.



Later, Dude, who no longer desires alcohol or his lost love, sends Chance to Feathers.






















The Rio Grande rises in high mountains and flows for much of its length at high elevation; El Paso is 3,762 feet (1,147 m) above sea level. In New Mexico, the river flows through the Rio Grande Rift from one sediment-filled basin to another, cutting canyons between the basins and supporting a fragile bosque ecosystem in its floodplain.
From El Paso eastward, the river flows through desert. Only in the sub-tropical lower Rio Grande Valley is there extensive irrigated agriculture. The river ends in a small sandy delta at the Gulf of Mexico. During portions of 2001 and 2002 the mouth of the Rio Grande was blocked by a sandbar. In the fall of 2003 the sandbar was cleared by high river flows of about 7,063 cubic feet per second (200 m3/s).





















Millions of years ago, the Rio Grande ended at the bottom of the Rio Grande Rift in Lake Cabeza de Vaca. About one million years ago (mya), the stream was "captured" and began to flow east.

plastic soldats


new plastic russians of the revolution