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Monday, March 12, 2012

T is for Toppers; Pencil Toppers

So to something completely different - Pencil Toppers! I originally started 'collecting' so that I could get as many poses as possible for painting-up and adding to my armies and or vehicle models. Knowing about the Blue Box and other HK figures 'cos they were already in the big tin (ex-army bulk biscuit tin with very sharp edges!), I moved on to tracking down the - then new - Atlantic and - short-lived - Rospacks, minor kit-figures from Fujimi, Hasegawa and Esci and such like, from there I started to find other bits and bobs and thought I waas getting somewhere only to find in Fleet toys ( months before I left home!) the new range of Esci ethylene figure sets.

After about six years faffing around in the Channel Islands and Infantry, I took-up where I left off, getting into shows and swap-meets and the then pretty new phenomena of Car Boot Sales, and realised that to get small scale usually meant either 50p bags or - increasingly - at shows £5 bags of all sorts. Buying like this brings in a plethora of weird and wonderful figures and other bits, among which has been over the years a fair few pencil toppers, so here are a few...Heroes and Super Heroes;

These are based on the Japanese character Ultraman I think (lower row), as are the little inset heads, done like the Munch-Bunch 'foodstuff' toppers. I'm don't know if the robots are Manzinger, Transformer or actually from Ultraman...and I don't care...although I'd be interested purely for identification purposes!

These turn-up quite often and I think I'm right in thinking that the one with the lightning-strike on his chest is 'The Flash'? [No - he's Captain Marvel, see; comments] If there are two Batman poses, there may be other poses of the other characters still to find? The brown Flash is in a softer PVC, the others in a harder, less flexible type.

BA Baracus (Bad Attitude); Whadyameen Foool! I 'aint gowin-in no-'plane...[Later] Whadyameen we're in'Hondurass...Foool - I'm gona'kilim!...From the TV series The 'A' Team, there are - I believe - 4 poses in the set and the other characters were never done as pencil tops?

Also from TV are two versions of Worzel Gummage (spell that again please?), staring one ex-Dr. Who (Jon Pertwee) and Postman Pat with his Black & White cat...Jess was it?

4 comments:

  1. HI there - Always enjoy your blog!

    I think you'll find that the figure in red with the lightning bolt is in fact Captain Marvel!

    Aka Biily Batson - a young reporter who transforms into the adult hero on saying SHAZAM

    Cheers

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  2. Well...Shazam is easier than finding a 'phone-box!

    Tanks for the info...I believe I'm right in believing I'm er...wrong!
    Hugh

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had some of these as a kid, and I think you will find the Batman with one hand on the hip was actually Bat Girl. Might be worth checking that out.

    Cheers

    Dave

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  4. Ah, well - that makes sense, he/she is a bit 'girly'-looking, but then they all are!!

    Do you know if there were any others?

    If you click on the Pencil Top tag, you'll find the Star Wars ones I posted back at the start of the blog...
    Cheers - Hugh

    ReplyDelete

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