B is for Bones, Box-Ticking Crazy Bones!

This is from the folder 'Crazy Bones II', except they have five mentions in the Tag list already, but some of those mentions are in passing, of the Magic Box stuff in these next few posts, when they came-in, and are now all part of the capsule and blind-bag Picasa clearance exercise!

 

The original post was here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2017/10/c-is-for-crazy-bones.html

 

And, because I've learnt very little more about them, nor given them much more thought, beyond editing the posts in vaguely artful ways (by colour, alright! I sorted them by colour!), they really are just box-ticking, so any genuine fans who might find them, might feel inclined add comments of merit (like - are there any rare ones!), for those of us who remain no more than mildly curious!

 

Metallic finished ones.

 

Comparison between the 'traditional' ones and the metallics of the same moulding.

 

Blues.

 

Reds, yellows and oranges.

 

Pastels, purples and greens.

 

A couple who came in around the same time with more mixed lots, and this was all happening back in 2018, the flood of these to charity-shops seems to have receded, but for a couple of years I was picking up huge bags of them for pennies.

 

Something to add to the previous post's info' is that it seems that a late (or even 'contemporary' a few years ago) issue of Gogo Crazy Bones had these flat, triangular bases with curved tips, I don't know the significance of them, or whether they all had them, but it was taking them further from the original 'bones' concept, which, of course goes back to antiquity and a dice-less, dice-like game played with knuckle-bones, as is Jacks!

D is for Donations - Peter & Chris - AFV's

On the Military hardware section of these posts, and both Peter and Chris have included a few AFV's in the stuff they've saved for the blog, which, being not figures, tend to be more incidental, so I've shoved them into one post;

 

Micro armour odds-and-sods, I think the hull is a challenger, and that these are probably GHQ, the quality is better than the Skytrex I had as a kid, and the lack of cut-wire gun-barrels also precludes them?

 

Largish jeep, from the wheels I'd say pretty modern, so kind of grist-to-the-mill, but still a useful sample, especially if I don't already have one!

 

Ideal board-game pieces, these are rather piling up in a tub somewhere, and I'll have to think of something to do with them, they are fictional, and fun, and there are a few variants to be sorted out, reverse colourways etc.

 

One of the mini-tanks we looked at some time ago, but will return to, there's more on them in a download folder somewhere, and a couple of trees which escaped the 'odds' folder, the one on the left, a copy of a Cherilea-Phoenix window-box accessory, the other a current'ish Poplar, and a very new re-sculpt/evolution of the old Lego Lombardy Poplar, whose evolution we looked at in a previous post once.

This was a superb find by Chris, as I have a pair of these bobbing-commander tanks, unmarked, and possibly in a darker green, which is how you can find them across the pond too, so this one with its clear Peter Pan marking adds a whole 'nother paragraph to the story, which includes a different tank and those easter-bunny trucks! Presumably - a mould-swap?

 

Three micro-armoured cars, which we will return to one day, as there are three types of these Daimlers, two types of the little gun which often accompanies them, and only one version of the 'carrier', but with sets to look at and different wheel-axle types, worth a proper dive, one day.

 

Behind them is a probable Kleeware, or Pyro original on the right, and one of the metal axle trucks from the river-ferry sets, I call Type 5 or 5/6/hybrids;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2011/10/m-is-for-mini-trucks-part-6-types-5-6.html

 

Click on the 1-ton Humber Tag, for more on them! And many-thanks again, to both collectors, for finding/saving/getting this stuff to the blog, for me to share with you.

Y is for Yummy Gumi

An odd one these, I got my first last autumn, and two more a few weeks ago, they seem to be bigger in the 'States, and might have recently been pulled here, by The Range (where I found all mine) or Zuru, or they're proving so popular they've sold out? Online I found a piece claiming Zuru were fifth-biggest toy manufacturer in the world, they're not even in the top-ten!

 

The earlier Gumi Yum has a more generic lid, but states the contents are wildlife, while the latter two are more specific to their contents, with another wildlife one, and a Transformers one, you can also see the egg, with its jelly jacket!

 

A particularly weird concept, from the fevered mind of someone paid to come up with new concepts, who has run out of sensible concepts, but has a presentation deadline, like, tomorrow! The jelly strips (and red and purple 'buttons') are [sprayed?] on the outside of the eggs, the yellow strip covering the join-line in the egg. They are then covered in fine sugar (not castor sugar, just that fine stuff you get at service station coffee stands) to reduce the stickiness, for transport and consumption.

 

This, of course, results in sugar going everywhere, as you try to start a 'peel', continue a peel, and/or move on to the next one! Some residue remains on the egg, so you have to lick or suck the egg clean, yes, it's a choking hazard! With no air-holes. The 5 pieces advertised are a four-piece model and an extra accessory, in a little pillow/bag, because the planet needs more polymer-laminated packaging.

 

The first one I got was a reasonable crocodile, the accessory being a baby crock', and they're manufactured from a dense polyethylene, or a propylene of some kind. I say 'reasonable' as the rest are quite cartoonish;

 

The rest of the set, only a few of the animals come with a baby, the rest get scenic items, food or food animals, or, in the case of the vulture, the remains of their last meal! There's also a golden lion with crown accessory, who may be intended as a rarer 'chase' figure?

 

I forgot to shoot the flyer from the Transformer one, but you get four Transformers, and their four transformations, plus a gold version of one, for a nine-count to the set. Luckily I got the 'space tank', which I think I already have a solid Micromachine-style one somewhere, so a future comparison? Also, around the size of those Iwako style, eraser tanks, so a future micro space tank battle1

 

I won't get any more, not just because they have either been withdrawn, or run-out, but because this is the kind of stuff which will be in mixed lots for years to come, which will be chucked in bags of Kinder, LZ and Balaban stuff for years to come, and because . . . the box has been ticked, for years to come!

 

And don't forget, Sandown Park toy fair tomorrow, best in the UK! 

D is for Donation - Chris - Books, TV, Movie and Licensed

Chris has also sent a bunch of licensed stuff to the blog, it made only three images, but some very interesting or useful bits are in there.

 

Three very different Hulks, the Mon Desire chocolate-egg gift, an unknown, which may be something like Wizards of the Coast (it has a 'gaming' finish' to it, but no base?), and a vintage pencil top, which is a real find! Superman is another pencil top, while Spider-Man is an eraser. He's a waterslide transfer print, like many of the 'flat' shaped erasers of the time.

 

The Super-deform is probably contemporary, or near-contemporary and is one of the archers, from the clips I've seen on YouTube, there are several archers, of both sexes and both franchises - Marvel and DC! And the Flash (?) could be also be Wizards, sans base, Kinder, sans base or one of the electronic game pieces (sans base!) we had an overview of, a while ago?

 

Brilliant find! We finally have the eponymous Charlie Chalk pencil top (blue, on the left), and confirmation that the previously seen Trader Joe had mould-release damage to his hat, although, it seems to be a double stamp of the triangular fold which is meant to be in his hat, but still nice to get an undamaged one with normal eyes!

 

The Simpsons Nelson Muntz (he's a  . . . yeah!) may go with the Homer (set wise) seen in the immediately-previous post, of stuff from Peter, they are the same size, maybe they are Kinder?. . . Goes and does a quick search, yes they are, but different sets! Bully, he was a bully!

 

But the pink Wilma is a fantastic find, as it's clearly a Hong Kong knock-off of the Kohner set's figure, we saw here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2021/12/y-is-for-yabba-dabba-doo.html

 

And it is amazing how much stuff, ends-up having an HK clone, several times this year I've seen things I thought were too rare, or esoteric to have been copied, standing there, all Hong Kong'y! Many thanks to Chris for saving it.

D is for Donation - Peter - Books, TV, Movie and Licensed

OK, so we're on to recognisable characters, although these days, they are coming so thick and fast, from so many streamers, with all the old favourites getting darker (Batman) or lighter (the dreadful Disney Pooh) makeovers, alternate universe versions, good and bad clones (Spider-Man, or should it be Spider-Men now?), indeed, the whole Marvel/DC thing is disappearing up its own arse, as Andy Warhol once predicted, albeit with choicer language!

 

Another Smiley (we've seen one or two recently), but this one has some age, and unlike the modern ones with their overprinted faces, his facial detail is sculpted-in. A Batman keyring, a bit of a caricature, this one, and a Gamorrean Guard from Hasbro's Star Wars Command.

 

This is an interesting one, on one level it's a teeny novelty rack-toy from China in a generic bag, but it's in the style and material of, and the same size as, the Phidal interactive book figure Duke Caboom (Captain Canuck knock-off from Toy Story), and the suspicion is it might be from the same source/factory, maybe a cancelled order, on clearance, and is compatible with the better-known figure? We can compare in a later post of this series!

Disney . . . for girls! And we have two from Frozen, Kristoff and Elsa, both capsule toys, one Kinder the other a lesser make I think, possibly both seen before? Bo Peep from Toy Story, a larger figurine from a source unknown to me, and a less definite 'fairy' like figure, almost certainly a Kinder something?

Some Japanese Anime/Manga thing, don't know anything about him, but nice figure.

Alternate Hulk in red? Actual Hulk from Phidal, we saw another recently, but they are very different shades of green, a Hotwheels figure from Mattel, shades of General Grivous in him, a damaged LB knock-off in 50mm (in the wrong post!) and a stamper;

 

I searched 'yellow suit' and 'horns' for both Marvel and DC, and couldn't find anything looking like him, although I knew several of the new characters have a similar look, then I remembered the flyer from the Fortnite post, and there he was, top left in the 'legendary' section, so a Fortnite character.

 

Current, or very recent Kinder, in two separate lots from Peter here, and interesting as they seem to be copies (fully licensed, the Playmobil logo is all over the packaging) of the children from that toy line, but with clip-together waists, to get them into the eggs. DC Superheroes, they have all the better ones! And, I guess, you add them to your Playmobil tub, as children dressing-up as DC characters? No accessories, but the hands are full-size for standard Playmobil stuff, and - with these - there's already a lot of value packed into the standard-priced eggs.

 

No idea on the Superman, the diver is also in the wrong group-shot, but hey, there he is, definitely to be further sorted (he's probably still in a bag with the other three!) a modern stretchy-smiley, with the over-printed face and a Homer Simpson of the size of, but not from the Monopoly set, so maybe a lesser capsule toy egg issuer like Zàini - LZ or Maraja, like the Kristoff from Frozen above?

 

I suspect these are from a kid's comic or magazine/periodical, they are that two-halves-of-substantial-polystyrene, glued together, which you see with a lot of the cover-presents, we've seen Clangers, Peter Rabbit and Octonauts here so far, this is the Fat Controler from Thomas the Tank Engine I think, and clearly two different issues, one realistically finished, one all in silver?

Super-deforms, I recognise a couple of the recent Marvel Spider-People, don't know the other two. They might be from a blind-bag set Brian Berke sent images off, but I can't find them on the Blog, and I can't find them in the ever-growing Picasa queue, so possibly badly tagged, however, the search did reveal how much of this blind-bag stuff is out there, and how much we've seen, one way or another!

 

Two more, not much idea on the issuers, I think Chewy may be Kinder, the sucker Captain America is the first licensed figure of the type I've seen, but there is a growing bag of the generic cartoonish sucker 'monsters', in the style of Shopkins, Moshlings, Smashers, Ooshies or Superzings, from which he's taken!
 

On the left another superhero I think, but I don't recognise him or his line/make, then a Barbie, which looks Kinder, but is a whole figure and wouldn't fit in an egg, so some other cheap bagged, capsule or rack-toy line? Disney dwarf, and another Fortnite stamper, easier to ID, as most of the female characters seem to have those armoured knee-pads!

 

Thanks again to Peter for saving all this for the blog, quite an eclectic mix!

U is for Untitled!

These came in a mixed lot from Peter Evans, back in 2023, and I've left them in the eggs, because they're way outside my remit, being sort of 3-inch action figures, and they may prove useful for little people's presents, or future swaps against something the collection/blog need more?

Issued/carried/released/commissioned by Simba, they will be the price-bracket above a Kinder egg, I'd imagine, and the figures will be based on some better-known Western figures. They look to be somewhere between Action Jackson and Playmobile.

Each comes with a useful number of accessories, but then Action Figures were only ever that mid-ground between swoppets and Action Man! And I'll tag them ABS and Propylene, as they are likely one or the other! Simba's larger capsule toys, box ticked, many thanks to Peter.

D is for Donation - Chris - Historicals and Ceremonials

A bit late with part two today, as it's tomorrow already, but I crashed-out after work. At the grand old age of 62, doing 80-odd miles, stuck behind hesitant fuckwits in KIA's whilst also doing deliveries, rather takes it out of you, and I keep nodding-off after work, waiting for the weather forecast, which I then only half-hear! Anyway, they can stay up for a bit, with maybe just a Capsule toy post later today, and another donation-pair tomorrow proper - Thursday? Chris's older era and ceremonial toy soldiers and model figures, sent to me, to share with you;

 

Medievals defend against a Roman attack! The de rigueur shot of post-Giant and Giant knock-offs, I've been quite fortunate, in accruing these over the years, especially as a small-scale only collector for years, and it's the only way to obtain enough of them to start drawing conclusions, sorting their horses from the many Wild West sets, working out which lot go with which fort, & etc., so the more, the merrier, there's often a Quaker in the mix, and red horse is he, this time!

 

As if the cowboy pencil sharpeners weren't enough of a find, these, also 'Germany', are lovely things, a bit outside the toy soldier sphere, but absolutely within the whole lucky-bag, Christmas cracker, dime-store novelty oeuvre.

 

I'm not sure the two 'stakes' go with them, and I haven't worked out how the triggers work, they don't seem to hold the band, and may need reversing or inverting, but very interesting things! The channel is match-wood dimensions, so careful with those eyes, kids!

 

And eclectic bunch here! The Piper is a modernish tourist keepsake, as is the Lifeguard, who, almost matching the Horse Guard I got at November's Sandown Park show, is another of the - previously seen here - G·G ones, to join the Guardsman we've seen in the past.

 

I love the Russian (?) OBE standard-bearer conversion, from a Herald Guardsman, and the little chap is a rubber key-ring, but can anyone ID the Mountie, I assume he's a Canadian Tourist thing, from the size, and casual pose, he's hard 'styrene plastic, with a quite thin base for his size/scale? Or, is he an accessory-figure from a 1:24/1:25th model vehicle kit?

 

Two of the many figures accompanying various versions of Noah's Arks, not Blue Box, not Holly, and not New Maries, nor the Arco one (which was also another brand's - RAE), who's Noah was fatter than the pink one in the middle, and moving on to him, although similar, and having one of the three-digit codes, I suspect he isn't Holly or LB (Lik Be) 'funny animal' stuff, either! So the search goes on for both origins!

 

Ah, not sure if these were Chris or Peter, I suspect Chris, but I found them down the back of the bed a few days after I had finished sorting both Peter's third tranche, and Chris's latest parcel! One of the newer discoveries on the right, he's missing the 'styrene icing-pick, one of my favourites in blue, from Christmas crackers, and a 1990's Lucky Bag jobbie, with a shit-ton of flash!

 

And it's the first time the two on the right have been compared side-by-side, they go well together, and are marching off the same foot, a big band could be possible! Equally, those cake-spiked red plastic ones we've seen here a couple of times, are lacking a bass-drummer, I wonder if they are the same size . . . but they are standing at attention? 25-30mm between the three of them, all polyethylene.

 

Two MPC original 35mm's on the floor, and a victorious Hong Kong copy, in what I think is a new colour, to me at least. I've said before I thought I'd blogged these years ago, but it seems I just imagined an article in my head, while handling them, back in Berkshire, and didn't even shoot them, so that article has yet to come, but will be worth the wait, as there's packaging for both types, but I'm pretty sure my HK sample only adds black as a third colour to the MPC red and silver? So blue is all new!

 

This is fascinating, Chris said he'd seen them described as wood (it's obviously plastic), and by Van Brode, I couldn't find anything online, until I added 'wooden' to the search terms, and then found chapter and verse on them. They were made for the Van Brode Milling Co., by an unknown company in West Germany, a sticker on the base stated, for the cereal offer 'Sculptured Treasures of History's Immortals', which was a mail away, one bust (of twelve) per request, for which 50 cents and 2 Crisp Rice wrappers had to be sent first, presumably if you had multiple cents and wrappers, you could 'request' more, at one time?

 

The source (Worthpoint! So ex-evilBay), stuck with the carved wood fallacy, but they are antiqued plastic, possibly polystyrene, although the sample sent by Chris is now cracking in a very convincing old-wood drying out fashion! The cracks are not crumbly, and there is no dust, nor stickiness, so a new form of plastic death? Too large a single-shot or density of moulding? But, given all the Cleveland, Kellogg's and Total busts around the same time, a lovely addition to the collection.

 

As is this, presumably a US tourist thing, it's a slush-cast pewter/whitemetal bust, around the same size as the Van Brode Napoleon, around the 3½-4 inch mark, and over-painted in a silver, which may have been brighter once?

 

A capsule-toy ninja, a rather nice knight, in the style of Schleich-Papo-ELC-Wilco, and possibly from the latter's now defunct range, and one of those possibly, originally Fontanini or Manurba (?) gnome sculpts, but common in various forms, materials and sizes, and various formats, here as a key-ring hanger.

 

The knight's 'heraldry' reveals his origins in China, where they've given him a very ornate and oriental embroidered surcoat, which is not following the laws of heraldry, or the rules of the Collage of Arms! Unless someone was granted five wind-wraiths, on a field azure, matallique!

 

Two, probably factory-painted, Assyrian flats, almost certainly German, but without the catalogues in front of me, I couldn't begin to guess the maker! The horseman's lance is too far-bent to risk bending back, but they still make a nice pair with some age.

 

A nice sample of the separate head guardsman, we looked at their fort, a long time ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/t-is-for-tower-fortress-with-soldiers.html

 

I'm after a bigger sample of these, while the rest are buried in storage, as I'd like to do a photo-shoot of all the 'legal' drill poses, possible with these, the At Ease, can only go on the Easy legs, but the officer, Slope Arms and bugler can go on three different legs for instance, and there is half-a-post in the queue, on that subject, but involving the larger figures with oblong bases! So thanks again to Chris, for these and everything above . . . and below!

 

Pirates . . . come back in September!