About Me

My photo
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.

Saturday, May 9, 2020

S is for Spring . . . Powered!

I don't know who came up with this first; [Islyn] Thomas or Pyro in the States probably, but it could just as easily have been an European maker, and probably harks back to an earlier poured lead / slush-cast toy or tin-plate toy anyway?

Brochet; Christian Hardy; Comic Book Giveaways; Craft Foods; Danone; Dime Store Toy; Food Premiums; Heinerle; Islin Thomas; Islyn Thomas; JC Piffret; Jean Hoefler; Jean Höffler; Koho; Kraft Foods; Manurba; Missile Trailer; Missile Troops; PW153; Pyro; Rocket Launcher; Rocket Trailer; SAB; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Thomas; Unimel Premiums; Van Lynden; Vandamme; Wundertüten;
These are a quite late version I think (1960's? But were the first to be shot so can go first!); Unimel premiums from . . . Now, here's a thing; Wikipedia doesn't have a Unimel page, not for the bee equipment, not for Melbourne University, not for the Portuguese thing (whatever it is - I didn't look), not for the pinterest page/guy/gal, so Wiki . . . not so smart now are you!

For Wiki' (don't say I don't help!); Unimel was a conglomerate created by the merging of four French companies in prepared food production; Brochet, SAB, Vandamme (cakes, 1929-merger) and Van Lynden, the company was later taken over by Danone. They issued various premiums usually sourced from other companies such as Starlux [Sources PW153 / Christian Hardy / JC Piffret], now - I think - all part of Kraft Foods?

Brochet; Christian Hardy; Comic Book Giveaways; Craft Foods; Danone; Dime Store Toy; Food Premiums; Heinerle; Islin Thomas; Islyn Thomas; JC Piffret; Jean Hoefler; Jean Höffler; Koho; Kraft Foods; Manurba; Missile Trailer; Missile Troops; PW153; Pyro; Rocket Launcher; Rocket Trailer; SAB; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Thomas; Unimel Premiums; Van Lynden; Vandamme; Wundertüten;
The other sides are blank, pointing to at least two cavities on the tool, as they are marked on opposite sides, the rocket being closest to the old US-NATO air-defence SAM, the Nike-Ajax surface-to-air missile. And, while the launchers are polystyrene, the projectiles are polyethylene.

Brochet; Christian Hardy; Comic Book Giveaways; Craft Foods; Danone; Dime Store Toy; Food Premiums; Heinerle; Islin Thomas; Islyn Thomas; JC Piffret; Jean Hoefler; Jean Höffler; Koho; Kraft Foods; Manurba; Missile Trailer; Missile Troops; PW153; Pyro; Rocket Launcher; Rocket Trailer; SAB; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Thomas; Unimel Premiums; Van Lynden; Vandamme; Wundertüten;
These are unmarked generics of - probably - older (1950's?) vintage, and may have been comic giveaways here in the UK where such things were once 'given' away! And in the colours of so much of that 'Dime Store' stuff, again 'styrene the rockets however are - again - 'ethylene.

Brochet; Christian Hardy; Comic Book Giveaways; Craft Foods; Danone; Dime Store Toy; Food Premiums; Heinerle; Islin Thomas; Islyn Thomas; JC Piffret; Jean Hoefler; Jean Höffler; Koho; Kraft Foods; Manurba; Missile Trailer; Missile Troops; PW153; Pyro; Rocket Launcher; Rocket Trailer; SAB; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Thomas; Unimel Premiums; Van Lynden; Vandamme; Wundertüten;
Ammo! I don't know offhand what toy the smaller version comes from, but I suspect an AFV (probably battery-operated) or bath-toy of some kind? It looks [a bit] like the old Aussie' Malkara which we put (experimentally) on a ferret (Humber 1-Ton?) chassis! The Unimel (top) has the cleaner lines of the two full sized ones.

Brochet; Christian Hardy; Comic Book Giveaways; Craft Foods; Danone; Dime Store Toy; Food Premiums; Heinerle; Islin Thomas; Islyn Thomas; JC Piffret; Jean Hoefler; Jean Höffler; Koho; Kraft Foods; Manurba; Missile Trailer; Missile Troops; PW153; Pyro; Rocket Launcher; Rocket Trailer; SAB; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Thomas; Unimel Premiums; Van Lynden; Vandamme; Wundertüten;
Jean Höfleur of Germany resurrected the design (with the cruder, extended fin) in the 1970's for its range of rugged readymade's, and 'bolted' it to a trailer with little hex-plugs! Two more were carried by a supporting artillery tractor!

Brochet; Christian Hardy; Comic Book Giveaways; Craft Foods; Danone; Dime Store Toy; Food Premiums; Heinerle; Islin Thomas; Islyn Thomas; JC Piffret; Jean Hoefler; Jean Höffler; Koho; Kraft Foods; Manurba; Missile Trailer; Missile Troops; PW153; Pyro; Rocket Launcher; Rocket Trailer; SAB; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Thomas; Unimel Premiums; Van Lynden; Vandamme; Wundertüten;
There is a prescient foretaste of drone technology to be found here, ten or twenty-odd years before they were a serious proposition, but I think the 'plane, although also Jean (or one of that 'group' Heinerle-Koho-Layla-Manuba?) and contemporary, was from a  different toy which happens to have the same (common) mechanism! The photographs weren't at the best angle but it's a swept-fixed-wing design, which I think I've also seen in green?

4 comments:

Ed and Bettina Berg said...

Hugh This tiny rocket launcher is a gem. I see them offered on fleaBay from time to time. Often times the seller is on drugs and thinks they're worth a mint. They're not but they still tend to get pricey. They were also offered as cereal premiums. I've got to be on the watch for that Jean Höfleur stuff!

Ed

Hugh Walter said...

Hi Ed, I saw one on feebleBay the other day, coloured base with a silver rocket in another varient, the upper, rear fin is totally removed and the catch is on it's own at the back, more like my little one . . . and I bet someone in Haich Kay wholesaled a copy at some point!

I think Lido did the cereal one, your side? Here they were cereal and comics at different points.

H

Hugh Walter said...

And I know what you mean about asking prices! Mine were mostly near-free in mixed lots, or 'reasonable'!

H

A Fuckwit said...


I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more pics of that truck! What scale is it? Is is Jean?