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 20, 2017

ID'd is for Identified - 1 Tombola - Space Wars / Space Collection

For that is they! We have looked at these twice here (as a/with an attached question mark) and I know someone is looking for them elsewhere (LRG forum?), while somebody had asked me if I knew what they were in an eMail about seven years ago (which I can't find now?), yet (like Tatra - you read it here first) the answer has been there all along . . .

. . . on the side of the box! And the reason I kept saying I know [knew] who made them but can't find the note/evidence was because the figures were sorted out of the box (a 3-egg multi-pack), into a bag and labelled-up separately (storage - I only have the A-D's 'minor makes' box here).

Although to be fair, the storage ones included Star Wars figures and vehicles (some of which we've looked at here I think, back at the start), in a Star Wars box (also a 3-egg multi-pack), this box came from a show in the last few years, but the clue was there when I posted them last time!

My Image for the third time! Along with the image of the person who was asking about them. Tombola call them 'Space Wars' on the box, but the 'papers' state Space Collection, whether this points to separate issues or not I don't know.

There seem to have been 9 poses-each of both sides for an eighteen-count, with 12 ships to make up the '30 to collect' total, but even that is partial conjecture on my part as I have only found evidence for about 9 space vessels so far!

The 'Greys' are clearly the bad guys - they have Darth Vader-Imperial Stormtrooper-German Army of WWII type helmets . . . and orange 'rank' shoulder pads! Yet if you spray the 'Blues' black, they will look just like Star Wars Imperial pilots!

Although, the 'gladdy' washing-up gloves and wellington-boots make them all look a bit comical! Like as soon as they finish shooting each other, they're tasked with masturbating a prize-bull into a jam jar!

The three papers for my ship models compare with the shots below and you will see there was clearly some variance over what you got in the egg colour-wise both with plastic and paint. From the way these turn-up - I'm assuming (don't worry, he follows shadows the blog closer than I do!) they were always in 3-egg multiple buys and that you either got a figure box (three figures) or a vessel box - three ships.

Also you can see that each ship bears a resemblance to better known ships in the sci-fi cannon, here being (top-to-bottom) Bobba Fett's ship from Star Wars, a USS 'Something Class' Star Trek Federation Starship and something that looks to be between a Star Wars Star Destroyer and a Rebel Transport from the same franchise.

My Scorpion is a different colour-way but seems to be the same colours as the illustration on the papers, so all components in each colour of plastic, shared between three models? While my Galus is unpainted in silver/gunmetal plastic, and at only three parts one of the simplest.

While the model Navigator has the paint in the right places, but a different plastic/base colour. If you return to the top image, that funny little red Bronco/Bird-Dog thing looks familiar as well? Is it a Deep Space 9 influenced vessel, or something from Tron? And the silver thing also looks 'Trekkie', some kind of Bird of Prey?

Follow this link (hey, once you know what you're looking at it all comes out of the woodwork!) and you'll see he has several more, also recognisable from 'Trek, 'Wars or other well known Sci-fi movies, along with the paper from the figures.

Here's a couple of the Star Wars figurines from a display (pheasant feathers, Bisset/Hachette resin gods, Shermans and bags of dogs?!!) in an old flat from ages ago. But . . . if I'm taking the photograph, why can you see my camera in the shot . . . doo-doo, doo-doo . . . doo-doo, doo-doo . . . We have entered . . . the Twilight Zone!

Tombola seem to have faded from view (in the UK at least) and I don't know much about the immediate parent (De Jongh) although I will by the time I come to writing the A-Z entry, while the group's parent (Chuppa Chups) is very much alive. This set was run/dates from around 1996-8, I think the officially licensed Star Wars set was a little later - around 2004/6?

Two days later - following emails elsewhere, Paul Morehead of Plastic Warrior says these were sold as party favours with AFV's by Party Pig back in the early 2000's and same size not the 54mm I mentioned in the comments!

I've just tried to navigate PP's website and it would be easier to commit suicide by eating broken glass, but I'll add the importer to the tag list!

6 comments:

Brian Carrick said...

Hi Hugh, I gave you the Tombola box, papers and 3 space ships at a PW show a few years ago, they were the "bag of crap" that I put aside for you each year. I originally bought the box of 3 eggs on a backpacking tour of Northern Italy in April 1998, as I recall the chocolate was quite good but I was very disappointed not to get any figures, just the 3 ships. I'm certain about the date because Jane keeps a diary of these things. I was going to throw them away but there had been very slim pickings, figure wise, on that trip so I kept them on the basis that "someone will want this tat one day"!

Best wishes, Brian

Hugh Walter said...

Cheers Brian

I don't know where I got the dates from, but it's nice to confirm, and I did wonder if they'd come from you, that will explain why the figures came with the Star Wars stuff in storage, and the ships are here with the 'Space' box!

Paul has also eMailed me a copy of the Cover of Plastic Warrior Issue 82 (from 2001) which has 54/60mm versions, apparently in the same colour schemes, with my 82 in storage I've not got the blurb in front of me and I was going to suggest they had similarities with the various small scale knights and civilians of Supreme (but knew if I did; my shadows would have something to say about it) although with much better paint in both scales, but clearly there's more to discover about them....

They're nice - if it wasn't for the Marigold 'gladdies'!

Anonymous said...

HI Hugh, im from mexico, im still have in my box, 4 blue soldiers ( including the commander) and 1 gray soldier.

in my childhood, my parents buy me a lot of this chocolate eggs, in that time, almost i complete my collection of the differents soldiers of each faction, even i have a lot of repeated figures.

for my bad luck, one child enter to my room and stolen the majority of them, actually im still looking this figure, but my search well, not ends well.
if you find this figure can you share where you find it?

Hugh Walter said...

Evil-feeble-feeBay! They do get listed correctly from time to time, and shouldn't be too expensive, or a local Mexican auction site?

H

CheeKy said...

Hello,

I came across this blog after I searched for the power rangers version of these eggs. It took me a few years to find this...

I still have all the figurines from the image, except for the spaceships.

Do you know if Tombola still makes eggs or are they bankrupt? I couldn't find anything about the company on internet.

Hugh Walter said...

I think as a confectionery-maker (Ssweets, candies) they probably still exist somewhere (a lot of the chewing/bubble-gum labels are subsidiaries or licensees), but I don't think you can still get the eggs.

Maraja occasionally do sets of figures (often from SABAN-branded Japanese Anime) in their eggs

H