About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

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:

Anonymous said...

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

Hugh Walter said...

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

Moss Eisley said...

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

Hugh Walter said...

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