D is for Donation - Chris - Military

Some lovely figures here, and a pair that have driven a follow-up, which will appear out of the current sequence, between this post and the last of the Gogo Crazy Bones posts. I seem to be in an odd rhythm at the moment of blank days and multiple post days, it's pure coincidence really, and it means you don't have to return here daily, but if/when you do, there may be a few posts to catch-up on!

 

A right old mix here, and because we've just seen the Marx 45mm link (in the previous post), here's two more of the possibly candy-holder vehicle/vessel plug-in/twist-in crew, and there's a strange deform behind them who may be a known character, but not known to me!

 

Chris filters out the rack-toy commonality, but sends the interesting ones, and here it's the two metallic olive-drab Airfix American Infantry piracies to the right, the Toy Story / Tim Mee clone to the left, another of the Timpo officer knock-off, and one of the large pound store ones from a few years ago.

 

These two 25mm Marx Miniature Masterpieces had not anticipated the thoroughness with which Royal Fail and/or Parcel Farce would explore their weaknesses and exploit the hell out of them! Sigh! But they were the only casualties this time, and it's bound to happen occasionally, with old figures.

 

A brilliant find, not only is it another WWI American clone from Airfix, not only is it another complete bubble-bottle handle/blower, but it's a new colour, and a new pose, and not just any pose but a prone pose, who, if you save him, after the bubbles end, by separating him (and his base) from the stalk, is now firing at 'planes.

 

And there's a lot of significance to this find. The first two finds (both by me) were in red plastic, if we now have green, we can assume maybe blue, yellow, even/or black? Certainly some other colours, second; we now have three poses, including a prone, so will most of the set be found? Will the wire-party be found as two separate figures?

 

Now if I've ended up with three, after 40-odd years (previous find was over ten years ago), how many centuries will be needed to get a full, or more informative sample?! The hope being that somebody, somewhere, made a decent hash of collecting a load at the time, and that they may turn-up poorly described on feeBay, or undescribed but included in a larger job-lot at a local auction house?

 

Other possibilities which become stronger with this find are that A) Airfix (or General Mills/Heller) might have licensed the figures, or even loaned the old cavities? B) They might be by Dulcop, who by the 1980's had moved out of figures* proper, and into bubble-bottles, in which field they are still globally known. With both the neighbours (Barravelli and Montaplex) also known for producing daft, upright/foot versions of Airfix prone/mounted figures, there is a Mediterranean thread running through the practice?

 

*The Dulcop figures carried by the - then - new, and growing, Plastic Warrior magazine, back in the late 1980's, were specially commissioned by them, and, from the plastic colours, consisted of half old-stock from the warehouse, and half new-runs, for the magazine. 

 

LJN GI's, another nice find, and there will be a follow-up shortly, Chris says the chap on the left is complete, as per the factory, but the chap on the right might not have the correct head, a problem with all these Hong Kong originating figures.

 

Again, I wondered if the poses might be taken from Cofalux or similar (see earlier post), but more on that in the follow-up.

 

These are brilliant too! In bright green they are sometimes (late issues?) the figures from the Lucky/Helen of Toy 'Woods Edge' or 'Tank Trap' comic-offer games, fighting the Ex-Giant Germans, in the mid-greens a common rack-toy figure, and I have a few in yellow/mustard, but I've never seen them in orange, or this blue, and I've never seen them on the runner, or in such a dark green, so quite the find! Copies of the Marx and Blue Box 25mm figures.

 

We saw the modern ones from Corgi Classics here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/t-is-for-tactical-strike-by-corgi.html

 

Right-back at the start of the Blog, but I had no idea there were WWII sets, and the 8th Army chap here, with a side-hat, is more LRDG/SAS than regular infantry, while the German looks to be an older man, possibly in glasses or with a monocle, and maybe Volkssturm?

 

More grist to the mill; I have meant to sort these 1st version Airfix clones out several times, and it's another project for the But is it Giant page (no, they are not Giant!), but it won't be for a while. These are one of the lesser versions I think, with the smooth base undersides.

 

Many thanks to Chris Smith for some very interesting figures. 

D is for Donation - Peter - Military

So, to the 'meat and two veg' of a toy soldier Blog (really I like to think we are a ' toy soldier, model figure and novelty' Blog!), with the chaps (and occasionally, chapesses) in Khaki, and it's always a mix of rack-toy rusk and quality seed!

 

A trio of odd figures, with what looks to be a Cofalu/x 60mm-copy to the left, solid head, rather than the plug-in of the original, a kit figure GI, Monogram or Revell? and a chunky Matchbox clone.

 

Originally Ackerman in the UK, these have now been seen in various configurations, and associated with various brands, and as generics, in two sizes, we looked at them here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/08/f-is-for-follow-up-to-some-stuff-we.html

 

with a link in that post to an earlier one, but more variants have come in, including other paint-ways, so a further sort-out and more definitive post will happen one day! It's the figure set which also, sometimes, comes with those big B/O tanks.

 

Miller's grist, the grayer ones might be Boley or similar, the greens very generic, and the reds very modern, and probably only ID'able from shots of carded or bagged sets shelfied, or downloaded from evilBay/Amazon etc.

 

A common set of modern (age and depiction) sculpts, many variants exist, and they will be looked at in detail another day, we have had the odd poke at them, already!

 

MPC clones, several variations of these, both from domestic US makers, and Hong Kong pirates, I tend keep two of each marking/colour variation, and put the rest in the swaps pile, but finding the right accessories is the hard bit!

 

Again, lots of variety in these Matchbox clones, not all ID'd yet.

 

More modern stuff and some old HO/OO Airfix bits.

 

The five same-colour figures are Fishel's unique mouldings, possibly worked off, or contributing to, their own US Police/SWAT set, and I think the brighter green chap is theirs too, but both the prone figures are unmarked. He looks a bit Speznaz, Afghanistan

 

Three generations of Hong Kong/China piracy; with the 1950/60's Tim-Mee in front, a 1970/80's Airfix clone to the right, and a modern (1990-2000's) to the left. A Blue Box GI with bayonet fitted for Jap-bashing, and a very good version of the Britains Swoppet clones, usually poor quality with the mortar bomb looking more like a kitchen implement or sex-toy, here it's well moulded, and the figure has a more substantial base . . . new to collection, I think?

 

Airfix original (damaged) and Hong Kong clones, almost certainly one of two apparent versions from Rado Industries (Ri-Toys).

 

Three tatty and paint-stripped Lone Star paratroops, could be useful spares or a future painting project? That peculiar mix of WWII battle-dress and 1950's 'futuristic' EM-2 Bullpup rifle, with overdramatic officer!

 

These are nice, probably from a big-box Chinese-manufactured play-set, and similar to some parachute novelty figures around in the last few years,. They're big at around 60mm, the chap in the right is more Russian in styling. Slava Ukraine!

 

Marx. Hard polystyrene plastic, 45mm, not the first found, but same pose . . . So, must be a Swansea thing? Possibly an accessory for a vessel or vehicle set? And might be related to the yellow one here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2012/07/l-is-for-late-thanks-to-blogger.html

 

Mostly Shing Hing (S.H. marked), with a comparison shot of the modern sculpt above, and an older Airfix figure in the upper/first shot.

 

 

Two mixes of modern/current production from various sources, copies of copies, of copies, in the end they get so poor they look more like Fantasy skeletal figures (back row, yellowish) and within set, often reference more than one other donor set! But all valid, and one-of-each, eagerly sought - 'for the record'!

So many thanks to Peter for finding some of them, and he's already eMailed me, with news of more finds.

C is for Charity's Colourful Carrion

This was a smaller purchase, around the same time as the others we've seen, i.e., more years ago than I care to remember, or have actually remembered! Nothing new with these, but the last post is interesting . . . ish!

 

Anodised metallics, with a transparent blue monkey on the left, it's actually one of the more realistic Crazy Bones so far, with the yellow tiger/cat (2nd post) a close, but demented, second, then I think we have a butterfly, a Hitler Dog (it's just the flash!), another animal and two pirate skulls.

 

Pastels and purples! See; not really a Hitler Dog!

 

Everything else Gogo! I quite like the ghost, bottom-right. Overall there haven't been many dark green ones from Magic Box, have there? The last post in this sequence will add further to the story, then we may have a more rambling post on all these blind-bag things, then there's more from Brian and some larger ones, before maybe some more Kinder and Lego?

D is for Donation - Chris - Sci-Fi & Fantasy

There was some equally interesting stuff in Chris's latest parcel, some of it ID'd thanks to Shaun's excellent Fantasy Toy Soldier Blog (link below), my go-to for a lot of this stuff, although I probably don't consult it as often as I ought to!

 

My second Crackerjack space figure, there were ten, not twelve, which I know because soon after showing my first here, all ten were posted elsewhere by three different authors, well, fancy that, as Private Eye would say!

 

These were the chaps ID'd on Shaun's Blog, here;

 

https://fantasytoysoldiers.blogspot.com/p/name-brand-sci-fi-toy-soldiers-after.html

 

About 2/3rds of the way down the page, as Trendmasters' 'Rumble Wars', and there are many more on that page, but it's nice to have a reference sample, for future comparisons.

 

One of them however, the one on the right here, would appear to be a copy or second tranche figure, he's smaller, unmarked and a slightly different pose, to the figure he appears to be aping, on the left in each shot?

 

I don't know if the larger figure is a King Kong knock-off, or more of a monster-monkey-man, but standard 'zoo' fare, he isn't, and more of a Halloween-targeted 'rubber jiggler' item I suspect.

 

The cat might be from a board-game, while the two googlie-eyed critters might be from the same maker, despite being quite different subjects? The eyes are the same size, they are both the same dense PVC, they are both pencil-tops. Although one also has a charm loop, which could be for a tassel, and it could just be coincidence!

 

More anthropomorphic animals here, with a flocked bear, blow-moulded cat, and several of those 'small animal family' types, which predate Kinder's hard plastics by a decade or so. Particularly interesting are the two Tony-Tiger charms, as they are umpteenth-generation, much size-reduced, copies of the original sculpt also seen here as a larger key-ring.

 

The three-wise monkeys are teeny-tiny, and may be from a kit of some kind, they are 'styrene, and possibly too small for Christmas crackers? While the large black cat must be a Halloween thing?

 

Trolls! Two cracker/gum-ball charms, and what I think must be one of the Wheetos premiums, there have been several sets over the years, having the coiffure'able hair of earlier trolls, the Wheetos ones also have distinctive faces and props/costuming like this guy's fiddle and shorts.

 

A pair of Sugar Puff's aliens, I used to think they were 'cutesy', as you might expect of kid's breakfast cereal premiums, but increasingly, they now seem to look a bit sinister?!

 

Barbarians ('Doomlords of Gulch' if Tomy version) from Crossbows and Catapults, I have mentioned in the past that there are different versions of these, and it's a future post to try and sort them all out, here you can see a clear size difference between two issuers' figures, with a probable Tomy original on the left.

 

Blind-bag Star Wars deform, a couple of novelty cracker/Halloween skeletons, and a damaged Hilco spaceman, with two new to pile figures; a large (60mm'ish?) manga/anime type ninja superhero and a smaller figure who may be a Robocop clone?

 

A large robot, who has a mechanism underneath, which resembles that of a bayblade, and may indicate he was some kind of launched, spinning novelty? A pair of Manta Force from Bluebird/Tomy, and another Buck Rogers 'C3P0' pencil-top eraser to be colour checked against the master sample, and that bloody beebly-beeble from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century!

 

He's damaged, but fully marked, so gratefully received, as a sample, but I hate the little twat! I have a bagful of the Corgi ones and I hate them too - in fact, checking the Buck Rogers Tag, I've never had a good word to say about him, and always manage to insult him anew! He ruined an otherwise good TV serial!

 

Classic, big-box, TV-advertised, this-year's-big-Christmas-hit toy! I'd gone off to be grown-up, or as grown-up as I could manage, and missed most of them, but remember "Tee-Cee-Arh . . . totalcontrolracing!", the Star Bird one, "Em-Be-Games!!!!", Chutes Away, another with a helicopter and the exploding-bridge one!

 

This, originally from Tomy, was one of them, a bit big for me, and it will probably be offered-up as a swap (for other toys), but Chris explained it was only included as a space-saver/packaging. It ran up and down a track while two players fired ball-bearings at it, loser saw his bunker go airborne when the Terrible Tank reached it!

 

British Palitoy TV Ad; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMSfzxSy2FY

 

Finishing off with a few more of the Christmas cracker putti, it will be fun returning to them all one day and finding there's a whole, multicoloured orchestra, even if they have a limited number of intruments!

D is for Donation - Peter - Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Probably the best subsection after historical, for general interest, and new figures, due, as much as anything, to the large number of die-cast or big-box play set enhancers, or small run/low pose-number figure sets; drivers/pilots and play-accessories, novelties, or game-playing pieces, which turn up, and both donations have stuff which is new to me!

 

And we'll start with these which are all new to me, allowing for a couple of missing figures, they would seem to be a 48-count, split into four sides, each of 3x4 poses, although some of the poses are very similar.

 

Something of Groot, or Ents here?

 

Flamers, if you study the hands you'll see they are different sculpts - just!

 

Likewise with the second and fourth poses here.

 

Is it Earth, Fire, Air and Water?

 

A simple 'CHINA' is the only clue to these, who would have required a quite large bag or box. They are a softish PVC-alike polymer, possibly a silicon, but not the old glossy type of Diener erasers? Anyone recognise them, I don't think they can be that old, and may be/have been, from a game?

 

Two probable game-players here too, either side of a magnetic ger'nome of unknown origin. That's 16 out of 16 totally new items! Good start!

 

This is all new as well, or is it? We may have seen it here as a 'paint-your-own' shelfie, possibly from/in The Range, as I suspect that's what it is, I wondered if it might be/also be glow-in-the-dark, but it isn't/doesn't.

 

HG or DFC types, they all need a bigger sort out, as quite apart from three or four companies issuing this stuff through the 1980's, mainly, there were also sub-piracies, and base variations, which all need to be properly annotated.

 

I think we've seen these before, one Halloween, or in the build-up to, and despite the disparate nature of the and/or the materials they are made from, I seem to recall they were all the contents of one big-bag, from one of the UK's major supermarkets. It was a few years ago now, and recent years have seen no similar offerings.

 

Grist-to-the-mill here, but the more of these which come in, the more paint/finish variations pop-up, especially in the treatment of helmet visors, and the amount of paint on the figures, NASA-types, from four or five sources, here we see the smaller, believed to be Pioneer (for Realtoy/Dacron) and K&M (Wild Republic) sculpts.

 

A trio of MPC clones to be sorted into the collection, and a number of the Mon Desir chocolate egg premiums, but four sculpts we didn't see last time, so possibly-probably an earlier 1st, or later, 2nd tranche?

 

Five of the Lik Be (LB) spacemen, these are the later - Clifford era - version, following the paint scheme of earlier issues, but simplified (no green air-tanks, unpainted bases) with no paint on the back halves of the models, and the strangely blue-eyes; really late sets being unpainted.

 

And finally . . . an ornamental ger'nome, of the fairground side-stall prize variety - hoop, hook or shoot the ducks, fish or clowns, get a ger'nome, to take home! A solid chunk of polystyrene, decorated by automated or stenciled air-brush, it's very much in the same style as the Irish passenger-jig we saw a few years ago, as a PW show-purchase.

 

And, when I said it was a month to the next show the other day, it was actually two months, but now, it's only about six-weeks! Thanks to Peter Evans for all the above, does anyone know who the first lot are, or the pair with the magnetic Gnome, or for that matter, what he is?