T is for The Last of the Balls!

For now! Somewhere I have a tub of conventional Bouncy-, Super-, rubber-, Jet-balls, which include a marked Wham-O original, so they will need a box tick, one day, but for now, as a prop to the solid inclusion-balls, here are a few other novelty balls out there now, or recently.

There is a useful thread on the STS animal-collectors forum, which adds a distinctly European flavour to the stuff posted here in the last few days, and both more brands, and a couple of originators, vis-à-vis sculpts, or even product-mouldings;

 

https://sts-forum.forumieren.de/t25502-does-anyone-collect-animal-bouncy-balls?highlight=balls

 

You will probably need to sign-up, but it's well worth it. As an addendum to what's been said/shown there, the above, from a recent Bullyland catalogue shows, not only a range of teeny-tiny animals, but some of them in key-ring balls! I suspect the balls might be liquid filled, with the vignette free-floating?

 

As these babes are! Bought in the small-chain Bargain Buys, a few years ago now (2021), and they are more squishy than bouncy, filled with an inert liquid filling (probably a mix of glycerine, water and a small amount of bleach - to prevent mould/fogging), along with the figure and a pinch of glitter.

 

Something in it, has, nevertheless, reacted with one of the two purple misses, to cover her in a calcium-like deposit? Note also, the arse-injected ball-bearings, utilised to keep their heads up, in a liquid of similar density/specific gravity!

 

I'm not sure if these are liquid-filled, or solids, and the shading on the two at the back (green and orange) would suggest the latter, but I have a feeling that might be part of a bicoloured case, with free-floating contents? Find Hope are probably an Ali Baba or Amazon type phantom brand (image downloaded/obtained in 2005); there's nothing else on the Internet about them!

 

Back to Ravensden for an quick overview of the other stuff out there, and we've seen similar stuff in Show Reports from Deluxebase, Funrise, HGL, House of Marbles, HTI, Huggables, Kandytoys, Keycraft, Kidzone, Playwrite, PMS, Tobar and similar, and if we haven't, it's because they are still in the queue!

 

Ooshies, cushies, squishies, squeezies, executive stress-relief balls, the solid inclusion balls we've been looking at here, recently, funny face balls, odd-bouncing egg-balls, liquid-filled (the eyes are particularly disturbing!) and 'tactile' balls are all out there, I don't collect them, it's the inclusion-balls which brought the subject of novelty balls to the blog!

 

Which brings us to the end of this box-ticking exercise, but I think it's going to lead into another mini-season of Capsule Toys, as it's a few years since we did an overview of the non-Kinder stuff, with help from Brian B, and there's a load more in the queue now, including more images from New York.

 

And, yes, I know, I should be finishing the HO railway figure overview, from two years (three Christmases) ago, and which also has stuff from Brian, Jon Attwood and Chris in it, about ten folders, sat there waiting, and which should make about 12-posts, and an intro-page, and I know I should be doing, getting, finishing, finding . . . the reason you don't get endless eBay scrapings here, like you do at Bushy's, is because when I say there's a thousand posts in the queue, there's a thousand posts in the queue, or, at least, a thousand folders!

 

Take that image above, for instance, downloaded in 2005? I didn't have a computer in 2005! But I did have a dongle (524MB's!), I downloaded stuff to, on/from other peoples computers, so I may have found that image, browsing the coin-operated Internet terminals at Heathrow or Gatwick (one pound for five-minutes if I recall correctly?), while waiting for a client's delayed flight, or someone like John Begg or Paul Morehead might have found it, and emailed it to me, because I was known for the small-scale stuff?

 

We'll get there in the end! Afterbirth eggs next! No, seriously! But, machine-gun follow-up, first!

A is for A Friend Returns

There's nothing worse than losing something, especially when you know where it is, and losing books is particularly annoying, I am still missing two Soviet recognition manuals I lent to a friend years ago, so his wife (TA) could complete the same Soviet Studies course I had done a few years earlier, and after I ran into him about six years later, and reminded him, it's a bit galling that that conversation, where he promised to look them out, was, itself, now, 25-years ago!

 

Another book I leant to a friend, because I thought her kids would enjoy it, never to see again, was this, and, yes, it was probably silly of me to lend a book to kids, I should have either given it, or kept schtum, and they do say "Never lend a book [or money] you can't afford to lose", and while I'd written it off years ago (not so the Soviet manuals, they have emotional connections and I still hope to get them back one day!), I found another-one, in the Blue Cross charity shop yesterday!

 

Larry Gonick is well known in the 'States, for these ambitious tomes, educating through cartoons, and humour, he has done many on a variety of - mostly - scientific subjects, over the years, but this is a sweeping history of the Universe, up to the world of Alexander the Great, it's the first of several volumes, and arguably, the most fun one?

 

The style is slightly irascible, and a bit Horrible Histories, but predating that franchise by nearly two decades! Indeed, this volume, which covers the Egyptians, is dated 1990, three years prior to the first HH, coincidently (?) on the Egyptians!

 

I seem to recall getting mine in one of the remaindered bookshops which were quite common in the 1990's/early 2000's (they've all gone now, even the chains), probably on the Wandsworth Road, or up at Charring Cross, and I guess, that’s where/when this one originated, as it's not the one I lost, and I think it was only, ever, an import? But I'm enjoying re-reading it, and can recommend it to anyone who'll listen to my advice!

M is for More Balls - Bouncy Balls!

A bit of an image dump today, as we roll-up, on the balls! The first tranche are quite low-res, but illustrate a few points about how this stuff reaches the stores, while the others just show what's out there, often in the few remaining, smaller, independent Toy Shops, often in smarter towns (Farnham!) or the up-market or 'nice'  areas of larger conurbations. These are also exactly the kind of novelty you'll find in Gift Shops and Garden Centres.

 

I can't remember the company's name, but this was an online, trade catalogue for one of the Chinese factories, I think they might have been called Superball, rather unimaginatively, but here we have Wild Animals on the left, Farm/Domestic on the right.

 

Guinea Pigs & Otters!

 

Panda's and Dinosaurs, and, not those carried by Keycraft Global.

 

On the left Fishes, with a few cetaceans and penguins mixed in, on the right the set which Henbrandt obviously carried all those years ago, with plain, 'slush' and iceberg balls, and a crab?

 

While these last two are larger mixes, with fish predominating in the first set, and turtles/crabs (bottom feaders, shore/beach dwellers?) the second, but with cetaceans, sharks, fish and the odd polar animal mixed in. The point being that you (Henbrandt, Keycraft, Playwrite, Ravensden . . . whoever) go to the Chinese manufacture, and get a tailored selection, which suits the needs of your perceived customer base, budget or forecast trends.

 

The Playwrite (WH Corneilius - WHC/Success) catalogue from a similar time (2006), showing that they were carrying animal faces and insects, in addition to the more obvious stuff, as seen above. This, and the next two images, should enlarge properly.

 

Ravensden catalogue from the same era (2010's/20-teens), also has a full range of subjects, including some familiar looking ones, either from the recent, previous posts, or from the trade images above. And between them all, there must be a couple-of-hundred of these incredibly small sculpts, most of which are quite well done, and nicely decorated, down to species/subspecies identification, in some cases.

It's worth noting most of the above are either clear/tinted-transparent balls, or the bi-coloured, half-opaque ones, there are few of the background discs which were a feature of most of the Henbrandt imports. There are a few more in the last post of this series.

C is for Catalogue Cluster

Variously taken from the 1972, 3 and '75-79 catalogue scans the other day, they are sort of eye-candy, but mostly low-res, or not that clear, so to draw the curtain on the recent miniseries, and to get them off Picasa, here they are with a few notes, and in no particular order!

 

Larger playsets.

 

1st version Americans, with 2nd version in the boat, but they seem to have been given 1st version German helmets! I refer you to my previous comments on art-departments m'lud - muppets!

 

Ist version in the box, 2nd version outside the box! Americans again. It's not clear what the Bren-carrier crew have on their heads, but I think it is British helmets.

 

This shot was reversed in the 1976 catalogue, obvious from the red beret!

 

Window boxes.

 

Big beast, post-war British Chieftain Tank it was also issued in German grey, along with this one in a big-box play set, it's expensive when you find it, and rarely complete!

 

More art-department shenanigans here, some of the bases are wrong!

 

A bit silly, the Centurion turret is underscale and won't go through tunnels!

 

More art-department shenanigans here, some of the bases are wrong!

Have I already said that?

 

I think this is a mock-up too, the kneeling guy doesn't look right in the card-art, or in the blister?

 

That's it, I could have done a few more, but the effort of cropping them all was a faff!

 

 =============================================

 

Later the same day - 

 

I've added the Timpo paratroopers to the Parachute toy page, which you can find here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_14.html

L is for Last Ball

There are some follow-up or related posts, but this is the last of the samples of my figural inclusion-balls, with a summing up shot, comparing those we've seen over the last few days, and a non-figural 'also-ran'.

 

There were soldier balls!, At about 15/16mm, they were a tad small for compatibility with other popular scales (except 15mm war games stuff), but, being baseless would be really useful for filling open-topped vehicles, which are always short on space, due to overscale slab-sides reducing scale 'space'.

 

I don't know how many poses there were, as I found the last few, but I would imagine with three here, at least four would be a starter, probably eight or ten! And they are late-1980's US/NATO type,s in the then still newish, kevlar 'Fritz' helmets.

 

Using the left-hand of the 'mirror' as a key - on the left we have, at the top, the Keycraft Global dinosaur egg, with a plain red opaque background half, and the same issuers semi-transparent green ball. In the middle, a pack-ice/slush inclusion scenic Polar Animal ball, the footballer ball, with a half football as the other half of the ball and a full iceberg Polar ball on the right. While the lower pair are a skydiver ball with multicoloured chunks, and the soldier ball with camouflaged chunks. All branded to Hembrandt.

 

The FA ball (link in earlier post) was larger, and included a larger figure, a previously seen snowman Santa (with icing pick), had a clear ball with glitter included, while Keycraft were offering butterflies last year at the Spring Fair (I didn't attend this year, but may try the Autumn show), and wild animal balls, alongside the dinosaur eggs back in 2020.

 

While this non-figural, franchise-licensed, movie tie-in, came in with a job-lot from a charity shop (I think? Or one of Chris's parcels?), and you can see it's beginning to delaminate along the plain of the card disc, which would have caused it to fall in two if the previous owner continued to use it as a bouncy-ball! 

 

It looks to be a two-phase pour, like the dinosaurs, or FA ball, while most of the others would have required three phases to suspend the figures above the other inclusions/scenic discs.

J is for Jeeermuns!

Except these Jeeermuns are enemy Fokkers! An oldie, but a goodie, unless you're a German reader, in which case my apologies, but in the original, it is funny! The internet can't agree whether Roy 'Chubby' Brown or Stan Boardman were responsible for the original, but I first heard it from Brown, so tend to credit him, however Boardman himself, credits an episode of This is Your Life, with Eamon Holmes, while other sources claim WWII Ace Douglas Bader, or the RAF in general for an apocryphal wives-tale!

 

Having removed the Plasma tent and British stretcher-team, we're left with a few shots of the Timpo Germans, so as a bit of a box-ticker . . .

 

. . . the 'eye candy' is the German stretcher-team and casualty, who is the same as the British one, but in grey plastic, the figures with their cross-straps and high-boots were a new sculpt.

 

Variations on a theme, the MG-34 gunner as issued on the left, in the middle a No.2 has been created with the ammo-box from the Vickers MG vignette, while a No.3 guard/spotter carries a rifle, he should have the tripod, but he seems to have lost it in the fog of battle, spare barrels and marker poles would be the responsibility of the No.2. Last version, over-moulded head on the left, with less-common oxide-brown base.

 

This shot, courtesy of Theo Van de Weerden shows a few more poses, including my favourite, the MP-38/40 SMG chap, also with one of the less common late colour bases, and this was the only set with two obvious officers - no infantry Y-straps, and a Luger/Mauser holster.

 

The 1976, '77 and '78 Timpo catalogues reversed the infantry set's image, so we get several left-hookers, something Airfix managed to do with their WWI reissue box-art a while ago! On the left is the donor for the rifle in my MG team!

 

Always worth remembering; the art & design and press/marketing departments are jobbing employees, not geeks, not historians, not modellers nor toy soldier enthusiasts, if they were, we wouldn't still be getting the Airfix Sd.Kfz.234 with those ridiculous toy mudguards!

A is for Animal Balls!

No, not a study of gynaecological gonads, so you can fuck-off, you weirdo! But rather, a continuation of the overview of inclusion toy bouncy-balls, through the imports of Henbrandt and their Harlequin lines. The guys who started it, as I found them first, and actually two lots, the Polar Animals, whose tub I kept, to keep them all in, and a set of cetaceans, which, with other issuers/carriers can be intermixed, either with each other, or with other sea-life, sharks or more conventional fishes.

 

There are three types of these, and, after the card disc type and PVC landscape type, represent three other types, of four really, being plain, large iceberg (upper-left), pack-ice-slush (lower-right), iceberg with snow (below) and half-and-half clear and opaque, with the opaque half providing the backdrop, which we have seen already, with dinosaurs.

 

Airfix Zoo size! But only if they are all juveniles! So small, so easily lost, and with probably 90% of them either incinerated or in landfill already, it's lucky I've got some to show, although they are still available, from Chinese wholesalers and importers like Ravensden.

 

Snow over iceberg, two seals, and unfortunately, the method of construction, or properties of the materials means that while I could extract the tiny animals, or figures, the other inclusions were fully melded with the clear ball material, and broke-up with it, instead of coming out whole.

 

Although described as PVC in the Tags (the animals and figures are) the balls are made of something else, like polybutadiene, or polyvinyl acetate (PVA (like white glue/woodworkers glue)) adulterated with borax, (sodium borate), or a silicon/cornstarch mix, and even when formed in separate layers, they become one entity, which I had to scalpel to pieces, to extract the inclusions of more interest!

 

Underside of one of the icebergs.

 

My full sample, less the cetaceans, a range of sea lions, seals and a walrus, with penguins and a polar bear, most of them not longer than the width of a thumbnail, yet really quite well-decorated. They would have been an absolute in our Christmas stockings as kids, but seem to be a late-1980's-onwards thing, unknown to the parents or kids of the 1960/70's?

 

Another sizer, 'ball scale', the penguin's maybe 10mm?

 

Tub sticker!