M is for Monkey Business!

It's serious stuff, these are big monkeys; they tip-up tanks and swat bi-planes like gnats! It was going to be a 'T is for Two . . . ' but then I remembered the last image, which is a plethora of great apes!

This came in a few weeks ago now (feeBay I think?), branded to Imperial, but not one of their 1970's King Kong knock-offs, this is a modern issue (can't remember if it had a mid-to-late 90's date or a 2000's), although with a near constant stream of remakes, it's still probably a Kong knock-off!

Also it's that weird sort of clammy silicon rubber with what feels like a mixture of plastic pellets and slime inside, meaning it can be distorted by stretching or squeezing. Also; unlike the Works rhino we looked at a couple of years ago, the pose means you can change his stance quite a bit within the bounds of realism - have him straining forward, holding back, or arched opposite to the taken shots.

03-05-18 - I've checked them both and the monkey is 2009 (Imperial) the rhino from The Works was Toy Major (2005), all other consumer data on both bodies was identical, so they came from the same place!

Also interesting in its own way - as a minor curiosity - this came in a couple of weeks ago (Charity shop biscuit tin, I think - there have been several bulk farm and zoo come-in recently!), and while it looks like a bog standard counter-box generic from the 1970's; dense polyethylene, burst of spray-paint (silver tummy!), red mouth and dotted blue eyes, it's actually clearly marked 'CHINA'.

I would imagine the counter-top dispenser and generic bits are about right, but it must date from around the time of the handover (1997), or just before and may well be from older moulds, maybe a HK version will turn-up? You may remember Terranova sent us shelfies of dinosaurs I recognised from the 70's, but in pretty current packaging (were they dated to 2007?) for a Rack Toy Month, so there are still some old mould-tools soldiering-on in production banks.

Speaking of Terranova, Brian sent this to the Blog ages ago, and it was waiting for this post to materialise out of thin air! Lucky it did then! No, if the other two hadn't come in, I would have used it elsewhere, he sent some interesting celebrity statuettes in the same image-set; one of whom may soon be sharing the Nobel peace prize with Kim Jong Un (who will have succeeded in peacefully splitting the two Korea's for ever and guaranteed his dynasty's continuation before he's even had kids!); you can't make it up . . . the world really is going mad!

The main man; King Kong, bothering the Empire State building! It's interesting to see the different takes on realism and finish, although it would be better if the apes were in 'movie scale' clinging to the top, rather that oversized as these all are.

There's a couple of Crysler's too (New York tourist shop!), and I vaguely recognise the multicoloured cartoony one but can't place it . . .Nicolodeon? Comedy Central? MTV? Opening credits or brand mark for something I'm sure, but previously without a giant ape!

I'm guessing they are all poured resin, but the Chrysler on the right looks good enough to be die-cast alloy? Thanks Brian - they'll all get used in the end