News, Views Etc . . . Blogger?

Haven't had one of these for a while!

 

Trying to find the Kennedy space set on Ed's Blog, now found here (cheers Robert) - https://toyconnect.blogspot.com/2012/06/marx-4625-action-cape-kennedy-carry-all.html - I found his Tags were stuck at Hing Fat, mine are stuck at Maerklin, I hope this is a Blogger/Google thing, and that they are working to fix it, the other day my Tags were stuck in the B's, so they seem to be making progress, it only seems to be affecting those who have adopted the marginal, linier, alphabetical-list format, people with blocks or the random size-for-number ones (cloud/frequency stuff) seem unaffected? But for now, you'll have to use the search-box, which is quite good, I often use it myself!

 

Also, might as well remind you now - Sandown Park's Toy fair on Saturday! Be there or be unable to spot the bargains!

 

Random toy shot!

 

I bought these back in March '23, and never got round to Blogging them! They are part of a long-queue project to look at all these! Interestingly, the bright-coloured and white ones are soft polyethylene re-issues, dating between the originals and the Glenco set. While the dung-green one is a hard polystyrene version of the usually soft Hong Kong copies!

 

T is for 'There Be Dragons'!

Probably a title we've had before, but whatever, we're over 5000 posts now, so you're bound to lose track of a few, or at least I am! Had a nice chat with the Westair guys at Birmingham the other week, unlike Ancestors of Dover who wouldn't allow photography . . . you go to a fair to promote your products, hire a stand to display your products, and then don't allow attendee's to cover your products?

 

But while I was chatting I shot off a few pictures of things which caught my eye, and this is them;

 

Various busts and things, busts are a side-arm of the hobby I've not really travelled to, although there are a few plastic ones in the pile, mostly the old famous/historical persons or footballer/Wild West cereal premiums, and a number of tank crew/commanders, but I know some people almost specialise in busts - for their display potential, if nothing else.

 

We saw these a while back, but worth another shot, they offered me one as a sample, however, I reminded them they had given me one last time, and I'm really, really not at the shows for the scrounge, but to genuinely see what's happening in the hobby, or to the hobby's advantage/disadvantage!

 

Necklaces! It's funny, but they could just as easily be key-rings, phone-hangers or luggage-tag ornaments, and, in the case of those little plastic guardsmen, all four and more - earrings and snow-shakers! Once you move away from the purism of Britains, Timpo, Elastolin, Marx or Starlux, and throw your eyes wider, there so much of this stuff, you'll never find all of it!

 

We've seen all three on the Blog now, in one form or another, but not the Pyramid, which I shall now be looking out for! Many versions of the gun over the years, and I think I have more than one design of the trebuchet, so copies-of-copies abound!

 

Figural, sculptural, Teddy Bears and Rodin's 'Thinker'!

What's not to like?

 

These were all new, I have a feeling the Rep' said they were retailing a lost cheaper than the Schleich/Papo stuff, but price is always down to the end-seller, and if the trade price is low, it could encourage scalping? 

 

Also I think I was impressed to find they were a substitute PVC, rather than resin, so quite robust, but I'm now not sure if that's a false memory or wishful thinking? But twelve, out there now, and excellent enhancers of a Nottingham Mafia game table!

F is for Fanssi

Another Toy Fair piece from Kensington Olympia, these waxed aggregate toys were something I think we covered first in One Inch Warrior, about 25 years ago, but it may have been PW itself? Anyway after that launch (Magic Sand I think?), there have been several lookie-likes, and now this 'magic snow', which I have to say felt really weird, it's basically crumbs of foamed rubber, and it's clammy, but fun!

 

Obviously the attraction - as far as the Blog's concerned - is that there are two sets of arctic animals; one lot on foot, with an igloo, and an Asian tiger! And a set of penguins, with a polar bear. Imported by Teleview Limited, and out there now, try Zoo and Wildlife Park gift shops?

H is for How They Come In - Charity Shop, November

To be honest, while sorting all these out I couldn't remember when or where I'd got these, but I remembered picking the four Timpo 'Action Pack' Arabs out of a bin of mostly shite, and with all the shots dated together, they must have been a charity-shop round-up, I didn't shoot the bags of?

 

They came with a medium-sized Supreme/SP horse, I think it was 20p each or something, so I just grabbed a quid's-worth, I know I have the Timpo Arabs somewhere, but it's a mixed tub of painted, Action Pack and later re-issues in beige, by Marlborough or Dorset, but I thought it would be nice to tick the box here with a matching set of the mauve ones, whether I already have them all, or not!

 

I suspect a mix of Kinder, Phidal and someone else here, all grist to the mill, and it'll all come out in the wash! God knows what's happening with the Pirate parrot, or the chaps either side of him, anyone recognise any of them? The pink t-Shirt is probably a 'Shopkin' or similar blind-bag, pocket-money collectable.

 

This guy was with the above, beyond the fact that he's some sort of robo-alien, in around 45/50mm, with a very, very big sword, I have nothing else!??

 

While these are Phidal, we've seen the two on the left, before, but the greenish-guy with the claw is new to me, however, a few have come in, not from the sets I've tracked down, so I know I'm missing a a few figures from some of the early Superhero issues.

O is for Outlet's Ordure Outflow Operative

Spotted this at the Toy Fair back in January, and took a few shots against the figures turning-up in mixed lots a few years hence? It's an . . . nay, it's 'The' Intergalactic Plumber from an outfit called Outlet Games!

 

"You are an Inter-Galactic Plumber tasked with plunging away the build-up of space crap. The more you plunge, the more money you make!" Need I add more? Looks like fun, brak out the Marigolds!

H is for Half Moon Bay

One of the trends I noticed at the Spring Gift Fair in Birmingham a fortnight ago, was the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, most of it way outside the scope of this blog, even allowing for the nostalgia element, but at least three stalls had related products on display, and this grouping of stuff from Half Moon Bay, did include a couple of pieces which might tempt some loyal readers into parting with their hard-earned!

 

Specifically the snow-shaker, but the pencil top is close to acceptable as a micro-flat and the ceramic 'thing' could qualify as a super-deform! You can also see the corner of a set of place-mats with all the characters, Blue Meanies, Apple Droppers etc.
 

K is for Kennedy Space Centre - Figures

I shot them twice! Again, I had up to four of most poses, with a few pairs and some threes, so the figures of two sets had been left in the tin, I think you should have two of each, but some of the sets on sale seem to have one of each, so I'm not sure, and maybe the numbers were reduced for budgetary reasons as the 1960's gave way to the 1970's?

 

Fuellers or firefighters?

 

Ground-crew and mechanics.

 

The people who get paid the proper money!

 

Stupidly, I failed to do the comparison shot with the other Marx 50mm space and the Deluxe Reading chaps, despite buying a handful of the former, in metallic blue, and one of the latter, specifically to do so! They are all in storage now, with this set. In the meantime I thought "Oh, Brian sent us some?", but I can't find them in the folders, so I think they did get blogged? It means we'll have a good comparison post another day, as there are lots to compare, what with the re-issues, Thomas orange ones and two base-types for the Marx!

 

The pointing astronaut is also made in 54mm, and with the Mystery Space Ship in 35mm

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2014/04/n-is-for-no-mystery.html

K is for Kennedy Space Centre - Rocketry

As well as the larger rocket seen in the truck and gantry posts of this Carry All Action Cape Kennedy Play Set, there were a bunch of smaller ones which seem to slip over identical metallic-blue finned launcher-bodies with matching two part launchers, but there's a twist-and-fire mechanism, which requires springs, which are definitely missing, but easily replaced I think, they are quite wide and open springs, which just slip over the tops!

 

There were three missiles and the parts of six launchers, but only enough for the three needed, however, looking at the artwork on the tin, I think there should be three designs of these, two similar 'tube' ones, with one having a thinner probe-end? So I may need one of those, although there's a set on Etsy with two of the finned-ones, and another on evilBay with the same ones I've got, so Marx may have had given them a more random issuing? And most of the stickers are long-gone!

K is for Kennedy Space Centre - Trucks

A brief look at the trucks in my Carry All Action Cape Kennedy Play Set, there were four cab-units and five trailers, I think there should be three different trailers and three identical cabs, so obviously the contents of more than one set, plus a piece which is a bit of a mystery!

 

High-pressure liquid something?

It can't be 'rocket fuel' because that's the next one down!

"Honest Kev's Scaffolding Co."?

 

The rocket-fuel tanker, it's marked 'ROCKET FUEL'!

 

The rocket transporter, the rocket just sort of sits there, it's not held-in firmly, and you get the feeling it (the trailer) was a bit of a rush-job, or afterthought? Cab is similar to my Aurora tanker kit (although 'kit' is doing the simplified, almost clip-together too much justice!), so a future comparison with other similar types is on the cards! Scale is about 1:70, or bigger, and they are simple 'readymade' style models; right up my street!

 

This was also in the tin? I don't think it belongs in the tin, I don't think it's even Marx, in fact, I think it might be a ladder from a carpet/beach-toy fire engine, but I don't know, and any clues will be gratefully received, but it is the same colour and type of polypropylene, that the vehicles are made of; which is the same plastic as the return-module, so it could be another, contemporaneous, Marx piece?

K is for Kennedy Space Centre - Rocket Gantry

Continuing to look at the contents of the Carry All Action Cape Kennedy Play Set, from the mighty Louis Marx Toy Co., we get to the important bit, the launch tower, there were the bits of two towers, in the tin, but only enough pieces for one working tower, and by 'working' I mean the gantry slides back and forth, the spring-mechanism for firing the missiles is missing, and will have to be searched for.

 

First, though, the flag! Did Marx ever issue a play set without a flag (or flags!)? The Cavemen sets, maybe, the Troll villages, Disney . . . OK, there were lots of sets with no flag! But it was a feature of many and there are variations, this is the common one, two-part plastic, the base an earth-pile, with a slip-on tin-plate National Standard.

 

The full construction with the main gantry pushed back to its start position.

 

The main components of the tower and base.

 

The launching spigot, which is clearly missing a spring or something?

 

Rocket in-situ, with the gantry slid forward.

 

For a toy, under the tree at Christmas, this is a fine thing, isn't it? More representative of what NASA was doing on the TV news night-in, night-out as the Apollo launches drew near, and more realistic than the earlier sets from MPC, Deluxe/Topper, or Marx themselves?

K is for Kennedy Space Centre - Helicopter

I think it's fair to say this helicopter is a bit fictional, looking more like a deformed Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw from the 1950's, rather than the famous Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King '66' of the Apollo programme, but then this set probably predates the Apollo missions by a year - my cursory investigations suggest these sets date from 1968, the set was renamed the Johnny Apollo Moon Launch in 1970?

 

In the simple style of a dime-store 'readymade' but in a soft, polyethylene plastic, like the T.Cohn/Airfix vehicles in the shops at the same time, rather than the more frangible polystyrene of the true 'dimestores'.

 

The hook and string are missing, usually a sturdy length of button-thread, I'll have to hope one turns up on a damaged model, going cheap! There was only one helicopter in the set, one of the few pieces not duplicated.

 

The bulges seem to be an attempt at the flotation wheel-housings of the Sea King, but placed up on the top of the helicopter? It's a 'space helicopter' isn't it? For a space station! It's certainly in 'space toy' metallic blue plastic!

K is for Kennedy Space Centre - Case

I picked this up in September, and while it's not complete, there's enough for a few posts, and I guess you start with the biscuit tin! The Marx 50mm figures; Carry All Action Cape Kennedy Play Set, of which there are several versions (this is 4625), and I wouldn't pretend to be an expert on any of them!

 

I'm guessing from the full colour, photo-artwork that it was a later set, and if the entire contents are in the picture, then I seem to have got most of the contents of two sets, less one or two important bits, which I'll mention as we go through them, but I also got an extra piece?

 

One item which was missing from the box, was the return-module, but we saw one here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/08/c-is-for-constellation-of-capsules.html

 

And, it's the correct red-hot steel colour, so that box is ticked!

 

 It's basically a colourful kid's briefcase!

 

I suspect this is a highlight, an undamaged vacform of the NASA 'Guided Missile Centre' offices, riveted into one end of the case. Assuming they can get damaged with age and play wear, but it's not like these sets are particularly rare, there were several on feeBay, when I was trying to work out my contents.

 

The two hinged sections which allow for the closing of the case are printed-up as double wire-gates, and connected with a roadway, which makes-up the spine of the case. I need to re-wire one of the hinges, as the piece is loose, and will need a new wire-rod, run down the hinge-loops.

 

The whole base, with plenty of room for the activities of the contents!

 

Ed's is complete!

https://toyconnect.blogspot.com/2012/06/marx-4625-action-cape-kennedy-carry-all.html