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Sunday, August 6, 2017

HTI is for Halsall Toys International

And not Hallsal as it still is in the tag-list! But in storage I have stuff by them (with the same postcode) with packaging marked Haswell, so my dyslexia is no worse than their own copywriters!

Previously issued in grey-green and sand-yellow under Halsall's Time 4 Toys/My Toys labelling (Set: MT121), these appeared about a month ago in Martins/McColl's newsagents and must be from the DGN factory!

Look; they've got the same marking as Hasbro's Star Wars Command or Hing Fat's D&D's Jaru's Hing Fat's army-men! No, they have a base marking which is as far removed from either of the other two as they were from each-other!

Except this has an added EU CE-mark element. It's clear that there is a move by consumer legislation/legislators on both sides of the pond to aid QA/QC tracking of origin by marking one item in each pack with the relevant data, we'll be looking at a similar sticker on a tank in RTM and you may have notice a similar paper-label in one of the bags behind one of the shelfies in the last few days.

Meanwhile the rest of the set has almost as many base-marks as bases, with smooth, small and large 'CHINA's and a 'MADE IN CHINA', three different fonts being employed for the three marks.

Sorting by base-mark AND pose leaves no rhyme or reason to the sets make-up, yet there are 18 of each colour, so some design has been applied, I can only guess that either the mould-tool must be a conglomeration of usable cavities from several 1980/90's sources OR someone has to do a lot of counting-out (by hand?) from tubs of each colour, while ensuring one figure per bag has been printed with the consumer information panel!

Tired umpty-somthingth-generation, sub-piracies of Airfix British Paratroops converted to cold-war helmets with a couple of the same maker's German Infantry - similarly attired.

6 comments:

  1. just for info, the CE mark you make reference to means Chinese Exports and is not a quality symbol at all. In my personal opinion this CE mark is a deliberate attempt to misled those in Europe and is purely a selling ploy. You see it a lot with electrical and plumbing items where the CE mark displayed will mislead those unfamiliar with the true meaning.

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  2. I fear not Spartacus addict, the CE mark is a real EU consumer-thing meaning Conformité Européene, although in this case the two letters are too close together, suggesting no actual application to carry said mark, but just a fraudulent adding of it to the packaging, but then - rules are made to be broken!

    H

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  3. you are right in what you have stated about the CE mark Conformité Européene, however not in this instance! A correction to my original statement meaning Chinese Export, it should have read China Export. Please feel free to google China Export and CE mark, you'll see exactly the point I am making, there are some unscrupulousness people about!

    Please keep the informative work

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  4. From Wikipedia

    China Export

    A logo very similar to CE marking has been alleged to stand for China Export because some Chinese manufacturers apply it to their products.[17] However, the European Commission says that this is a misconception. The matter was raised at the European Parliament in 2008.[18] The Commission responded that it was unaware of the existence of any "Chinese Export" mark and that, in its view, the incorrect application of the CE marking on products was unrelated to incorrect depictions of the symbol, although both practices took place. It had initiated the procedure to register CE marking as a Community collective trademark, and was in discussion with Chinese authorities to ensure compliance with European legislation.[19]


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking#China_Export

    In addition China is itself introducing a similar CCC mark.

    H

    http://www.ce-marking.org/what-is-ce-marking.html

    (PS - You're starting to sound a little like Erwin Sell; 'maker-up of stuff as he goes along' of this parish, which would be most unfortunate if you are not Erwin Sell - maker-up of stuff as he goes along?)

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  5. as stated the CE mark, which you also see on electric and plumbing products cannot be trusted as the legitimate CE European mark for conformity. An example of this is that you will follow the WRAS code (Water Regulations Advisory Scheme) which is the only recognised conformity mark. I will look at your comments with a degree of sense and I do not wholly disagree with your comments, I am familiar with the edict the Commission put out regarding the alleged misuse of the CE mark. As but it appears it's use is not a Chinese government sanctioned practice. therefore they appear to have no direct course of action regarding the alleged use of the Chinese CE mark. If the CE mark is a 100% for conformity then simply why are other assured conformity marks now in use? The fact remains China is a hotbed of counterfeiting (or cloning) of toy soldiers, so why trust a random toy soldier with a CE mark? Has anyone seen the CE mark with Airfix reissues? A genuine question as I currently have no Airfix reissues in my collection. My point is to treat the CE mark with caution with any product coming out of China regardless of what the intended use is for that product!

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  6. Dude! You're making a mountain out of a mole-hill! I covered fake CE marks the other day, some of the above are probably fake, if they are too close together is the clue, but the China Export thing (your original point) is an 'urban myth', the CE mark - real or fake - is pretending to be the same thing.

    H

    ReplyDelete

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