P is for PVC Puce Puma and his Pals

With Corgi, Kinder, a bendy (or two) and other key-rings I have about a dozen Pink Panthers' now, and this is the latest acquisition . . .

 . . . although quite new and generic (marked '© 1995 UA China') he's a fine example of a rare animal, never seen in the wild, and a footballer to boot! Around 50mm and a bit chunky with an odd-shaped not-really-united-artists-pink-panther head; he looks like he's swallowed a rugby-ball in that cartoon fashion!

Indeed, the divergence from the usual Pink Panther shape/design suggests that despite the UA validation, it's likely an unlicensed knock-off?

A trio of the previously seen ♫♩"Panthers pink-from-head tooo-towwwww"♩♩♫ . I will try to remember to prioritise the Kinder examples when I get the rest out of storage in a month or so. I've also introduced a PP tag, and won't retro-tag the posts they originally appeared in.

I hadn't realised how tatty the damaged key-ring was until I compared him with the others, I think I have another in storage the same, so he may yet go to recycling! I know I have a bendy in storage but probably also the same sculpt as the one which came in a while ago!

B is for Bought Yesterday

Or two days ago by the time this publishes. Tuesday's visit to the charity shops produced this curiosity for one of your earth-pounds; winging its way to Scope's accountants!

It was clear - even as I walked over to the till - that it was too clean to be an original, and sure enough it turned-out to be a Mattel/Atlas Editions thing from 2014, however, apart from the new consumer information panel on one side and one other change (below) I think it's otherwise a facsimile 're-issue' of an original piece of French Dinky merchandise from the 1950/60's and was still sealed.

Before opening and after sorting.

I've seen other Atlas Editions, they seem to be semi- 'part work', semi-subscription, mail-order ventures of some kind; there was a rather nice offer of a 'little grey' Ferguson tractor, and an original Mini Cooper or Morris Traveller, both advertised via flyers in Sunday supplements and the like, but I had no idea they were tied-in with Mattel? I guess they got the Dinky brand-mark along with Matchbox's when they bought off Universal?

It isn't clear if it's an all-French thing (that is to say both the original - which was - and the re-issue), the bulk of the text is 'foreign' (up to four languages) but the additional consumer panel is Anglo-French and the handler is given as Éditions Atlas, while the bases are all-English, and the whole seems to have been made in China.

Modern or not, it's a lovely little thing and for a quid you can't moan. A close-up of the base reveals that not everything is a full copy of the original, I have some British ones somewhere, so one day I'll do a comparison. If I can find an answer/more on Google while posting this (Wednesday) I'll place the link right here - no I won't - they are common as muck and all over evilBay @ £1.99, still a nice thing though!

And the signs themselves are just as nice as the originals, with a fine finish to the plastic poles/signs, and the same heavy, die-cast Mazac bases. I don't know if the French Dinky signs were always plastic, the UK versions - back in the day - were slightly chunkier, all die-cast, single mouldings.

F is for Follow-up - Lever Brothers

We looked at one of these two-years ago here but I had the fortune to see two together at Sandown Park courtesy of Mercator Trading, so took the opportunity to grab a little more on them both.

The UK's Lever Brothers (Progress, Sunlight, Vim) became the Anglo-Dutch Unilever some time ago (1929) and they have been in just about everything consumable, including a lot of premium issuers (tea, coffee, margarine, ice cream, and the washing powders that issued these), so while these certainly date from after the merger (1960's/70's?), the brand was obviously still a part of the UK arm, premiums found with Lever on the base can also be found with Primo in the same place; Primo was a European washing powder brand I believe.

The fact that they both owe much to Crescent figurines is also A) no accident and B) further sign of their having originated in the UK. They are quite chunky and toward 70mm which probably helps take them out of the 'straight' plagiarism zone!

Posed like-for-like on the left and more frontally on the right these are the two donors and you can see that they pulled from both the 54mm and 60mm sets from Crescent, adding a US/NATO type ' M1' helmet to both which further carries them away from the realm of piracy and more toward l'homage!

Corporate Stuff

Lever Brothers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever_Brothers

Unilever - http://www.company-histories.com/Unilever-Company-History.html

Van den Berghs - https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Van_den_Berghs

When you read a headline like "Unilever to Acquire Ice Cream Business Owned by Kraft Unit of Philip Morris" you realise just how murky the corporate multinational world is! Philip Morris make cigarettes FFS!

Equally; there's some irony involved in posting this the same day a report by a cross-bench group of MP's is issued recommending the phasing-out (or outright banning?) of cartoon characters and promotions on cereal packets!

Apparently the Jolly Green Giant (Santa in his day job . . . think about it . . . "Ho Ho Ho!") will survive to promote his 'healthy' vegetables . . . even though they are syrupy, tinned vegetables with probably similar levels of sugar-per-spoonful as some breakfast cereals, while the world swims through an ever growing sea of guns and waste plastic - way'ta'go MP's!

J is for Jaunty Jalopy!

This was another pound at the same show (Sandown park) as this morning's ertzgibirge effort, and it came with a figure, so if this morning's example was a bargain (and it was!); this was a double-bargain!

It has a slightly elongated or lengthened (at a cost to the width) appearance, seen on some early US-made toy Jeeps (The Ideal version - I-339 is one) which makes it too long and thin for the iconic look of a jeep which is a little more 'boxed' shape. However it does have a little man in a 'brodie' helmet which makes up for the slight stretching - even if he's pink!

It's missing a windscreen, so I'm still looking for a better one, but that's what made it a quid; with windscreen it would have been a fiver; Jeeps are sought-after by Jeep-collectors!

When I like something I always over-photograph it, so you can tell I like this (and the wooden limo'), hell; it's too cool for the motor-pool! The fact that it's manufactured in a dime-store, space-ship, metallic green polystyrene only adds to its overall bargainousness!

It looks like it should be a Hong Kong produced toy (and I think it probably is), but the lack of a mark and the rather too well-made for HK running-gear leaves a question over its origin, and it could be a Western play-set or model railway accessory - from the lower - budget - end of the market, or an actual dime store era/type toy?

A is for Auto-Accident!

Not for the first time some Germans* back the losing side in an argument! Lucky it's not football or they'd be 'all over' us!

*No war-warmongering Austro-Hungarians were hurt in the making of this vignette.

V is for Vooden Vonder Vagen!

Bit of fun today, getting back into the swing of things! Picked this up for a quid on Saturday, it's modern, so modern it's probably still for sale in Berliner or Bavarishe touriste kiosken ('scuse spelling) probably for about a quid, but I like the more quirky little things, especially when they are cheap!

Mostly pine with hardwood wheel and axle assemblies, it's simplistic, chunky, not seeming to refer to a specific real-life marque and the varnish is a tad on the heavy side, but what the hell; it was a quid! I love the rounded front, it looks like something from a Mordillo cartoon - it's got Zeppelin chic!

There is a small hole drilled approximately at the point of balance, so I suspect it once carried out duties as a Christmas tree-hanger/bauble but it may have been attached to a now-gone plinth or base-board of some kind, or even a larger item like a trinket-box or something?

It's a Duessenbacker von Rickenburg 24-litre V12 Tannenbaumer Holtzmachinen!

Ah! The transport of choice for an idiocracy!

Sieg Heil!

Seig Heil!

Sieg Heil!

Heil Kreig!

Heil Kreig!

Hail Orban!

Hail Erdogan

Jail Netanyahu!

Fail Chávez

Hail Trump!

Mereka! Mereka!

Hazzar Putin!

Hurrah for Boris, Reece-Mogg & the bloke who keeps being UKIP's leader, what-what!

Brexit!

Whatsthat!

Brexit!

Whatsit!

Brexit!

Thatswot!

Bullshit!

Too Right!

Build a Wall!

Build a Wall!

Build a Wall!

It's so, so easy, and we're so, so close, if we're not very careful all the sacrifices, all the advances of the last 104 years will have been for nought!

News, Views Etc . . . Incomming!

Two things which popped up today!

In a comment Gog pointed me to an excellent Blog - with imagery which puts me to shame! Loosely translating as 'Collecting the 1980's and '90's' it can be found here and is well worth a browse.

While having a cursory look for the Mordillo cartoon (I couldn't find) with the round-nosed limousine, I managed to find the answer to Owen Hoye's query in PW170 . . .

There's two actual Russian drivers (the subject of Mr. Hoye's search), and several more that can be converted, if Mr. Hoye's not on-line; could someone pass that on to him.

M is for Mini, mini, MINI !

I picked this up at the Sandown Park toy fair this weekend just gone, it's probably from one of the many sets of Matchbox 1-75 Series copies in little boxes from brands like Blue Bow (not 'Box') or the York ones we sawhere, except that this is not actually the Matchbox sculpt!

I vaguely recognise the reverse-K shape presented by the windscreen/cab arrangement (and the single rear axle) but can't place it at the moment; it's not Pyro (I just looked!). However - I bought it not to dig into its origins, but because it's such a tiny little thing! Marked 'No. 363' and 'Hong Kong'; that's my littlest finger; basically it's 'box-scale', maybe N-gauge compatible - too cool for amphibious assault school!

News, Views Etc . . . Forthcoming Events

Late Posting!

The next auction at SAS (Special Auction Services) is actually tomorrow! I was only reminded of it on Saturday and forgot to post anything yesterday, so it's rather short notice I'm afraid; if you're not already following events, but there's still time to view today, in person, or online (.pdf download here) or between 09.00hrs and ten tomorrow morning, the sales starts at 10.00.

One of the highlights of the sale - and cover star - has to be a Waddington's circular Dan Dare  jig-saw puzzle, as seen here at Small ScaleWorld back in 2014, I don't know if it's the same one or another example.

There are also a number of figure lots (333-363), a lot of quality OO-guage and similar railway stuff and plenty of die-cast, as well as some interesting general toy lots and a nice JR21 lot (282), for kit collectors there are a number of bundles of Aircraft models (257-268).

Forthcoming dates at SAS

The recent auction on Tri-Ang/Lines mentioned here a while ago raised in excess of £100,000 and was a 'white glove' sale with all lots sold, given the ink wasted in the national press on another sale recently, it's nice to see quality is as quality does!

Web: www.specialauctionservices.com

eMail: mail@specialauctionservices.com

Tel: 01635 580595

Fax: 0871 714 6905

Other Events

SRP Toyfairs (who used to put-on the Harfield's shows) have a show at Bexhill-on-Sea this Saturday (2nd June) and another the next day in Colchester (Sunday 3rd), so Gerry will be busy this weekend! Full details available from the website (www.srptoyfairs1.co.uk) or:-

eMail: srptoys1@hotmail.co.uk

Tel: 07739 998 012

Also on Sunday is a feast for aero-enthusiasts as RAF Kenley holds its annual swap-meet/open-day, and two different flyers came my way on Saturday gone, so they get top marks for publicity,  but that's about as far as it goes, with nothing on-line!

RAF KENLEY

AEROJUMBLE

Sunday 3rd June 2018

9am

Books, Toys, Models

Aircraft Parts, Uniforms & Militaria

Airfield Tours

RAFA Club

Kenley Aerodrome

Victor Beamish Avenue

Caterham

Surrey

CR3 SFX

Alistair White

TEL. 07860 762277

Stalls - eMail: acebellaviation@aol.com

Web: www.aviation-antiques.co.uk (dead-link? and there's nothing on the website! https://www.kafg.org.uk/newsevents.htm)

News, Views, Etc . . . Housekeeping!

Gog (Toys From The Past) posted that the latest issue of Figuras en Action (Action Figures) is now available as a free download from the dedicated blog, I had originally downloaded a few at the start (issue one published the same month I started Blogging!) then rather let it slip, but you can still download all 18 issues (as I just have), and don't let the title fool you, although it's all in Spanish there is plenty of smaller figure or plastic 'solids' stuff in there, this 80-page issue (for free!) has Comics Spain's fantasy D&D figures, Yolanda/Kellogg's basketball players and Sobre Sopresa envelop-artwork for a start, while the previous issue covered Comansi sets and Chambourcy premiums.

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Don’t forget it's Potter's Sandown Park Toy Fair this Saturday, if you are travelling down from the West (M4/A4 corridor, or A34) you could pop-in to Didcot on the way, or on the way back!

Barry Potter (BP Fairs)

www.bpfairs.com 

Sandown Exhibition Centre, Sandown Park Racecourse,
Portsmouth Road, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9AJ

01604 846 688

07966 527 177

Ronnie Davis (Retro Ronnie Toy Fairs)

www.retroronnie.com

Civic Hall, Didcot, OX11 7JN

07708 385 061

07900 266 427

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Toys in the Media! Boosted (geddit!) robot of the old school variety flogging a financial services 'product'! The irony is - he looks quite worried by the prospect.

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I have added some info to the HR Products entry in the A-Z adding details and a link to Grace's Guide which pushes the dates of their carrying-out business back a few years, adds some location details and a link to the other site. I am intending to do more with the A-Z's now, especially after everything comes out of storage in a couple of months, it will be a winter 'project'!

Normal-service here at Small Scale World may resume next week sometime - it may not!

News, Views Etc . . . Not Really Resting!

I've added some listings and company details to the Selcol-Selmer page and edited it a bit . . . and yesterday found this useful stash of stuff on downloadable/savable .pdf files;

Canadian Museum of History - toy catalogues.

Now I'm off to enjoy the last of today's sun in the garden . . . Ray! Gardening . . . not-so-ray! Well, I love gardening, but it's bramble-pulling this 'arvo! And nettles!

News, Views, Etc . . . Video Editing

It seems 'more haste less speed' was the order of the hour on Saturday night - an order I missed in the rush! As a result there were one or two typos to be ironed out, which I have done, but only by replacing the video and re-annotating the link . . . it now has a typo on the opening credits! I can't be arsed to sort it out again now, it's a hour I haven't got, but if you bookmarked the old one, you'll need to do a new one!

Technically I'm still on a break/sabbatical/hiatus, but here's a slide-show of some of last weeks sunny shenanigans.

I said I'd see "...what happens in the next few days...", and what happened was what I thought would, as a result there will be a few changes going forward.

N is for 'Nother News Flash! Charben's Tome Hits the Libraries of Britian!

The other news today was a new 'Special Publication' from the show's organisers, Plastic Warrior, It's really quite awesome and full review with be forthcoming in a week or two . . . which is all the time you need because it sold-out today!

Unlike previous editions of the Charbens 'check list', this is a book-bound (flat-spine) tome, with an absolute wealth of information and illustrations, most in glorious technimacolishiousness!

Further details - but give them a fortnight to print some more first!

Facebook

Blogger

eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com

 

N is for Newsflash! New Replicants Figures Hit the Streets . . . or should that be 'Hit the Plains'!

The new figures from Replicants were on show today and wow, what a line-up, available from Steve Weston's - presumably from tomorrow - if you didn't manage to make it to the show.

Here's a little preview I knocked-up this ar'vo! I will hopefully do a better review later in the week or the week after maybe, so much to do!

G is for Going to Hell in a Handcart!

When I suggested that the orange Brillo-pad was probably in line for a Nobel Peace Prize the other day, I hadn't anticipated that my own execrable Foreign Secretary (who seems to share a barber with Trumpton) would be suggesting it, live, on trash-telly!

Nor that - less than 48-hours later - the tangerine twerp would be hinting at getting one (a Nobel) himself, a day after he made the likelihood of World War III starting in the Middle-east all the more likely!

While his 'World Peace' Deal' is with a man (Kim Jong-Un) who killed his uncle at point-blank . . .  with an anti-aircraft gun, and had his brother assassinated in public!

You can't make this shit up, the world is rudderless and going stark staring mad!

Listening to Trump on Thursday night was remarkably like listening to Hitler; the way he was stoking the rabble to hate the press (a free press in a free country), to hate members of the previous administration, to distrust the only support systems they have, is exactly how Hitler took power from the organs of state and concentrated them in himself.

And:-  to the idiot who suggested the other day I shouldn't keep commenting on his President - I'll stop commenting on the orange-loon when he stops talking about Britain and France as if they are blood-soaked war zones, when they are not!

The idea that if the French had U.S. gun-ownership levels, 120 people could have been saved in  Paris was patent nonsense;

1 - There is no guarantee anyone would have stopped the terrorists anyway, after all - no one stops the school shootings in a country that does have those levels of firearm ownership?

2 - Those levels of gun ownership bring with them so many background deaths, he seems to have been suggesting that in order to [possibly] save 120 people, once in a blue moon, France would have to accept 5, 10, 20,000 deaths? Per year - every year?

The man's nuts! So's our Foreign Secretary.

I see Ollie' North (or is it 'oily') got himself a new lucrative income as overseer of the program to cull the national population with legally-held firearms! Really - you can't make it up.

P is for Position Still Open!

Bit of fun . . .

You were right who-ever-it-was - I will get better! There's going to be some changes around here in 2018!

N is for Never Mind! Better Luck Next Year!

If you haven't made it to Twicker's for more pressing reasons, but want a consolation nearer home there is a Comic Convention in Cardiff today and there are toy shows in Nelson Treeharris (I can't believe that's a 'place'!); Llancaiach Fawr Mansion (model railways, Contact Martyn Parry - 07990 752102) or Oxford; Exeter Hall (general toy fair, Richard Atkins Toy fairs - 01869 347489) that you may be able to sneak away to for an hour or so!

No news on any new PW 'Specials' this year? If there are any I'll let you know ASAP!

Stop Press

As I was loading this (in a rush on Friday), I got an eMail from Terranova with the best plastic-warrior ever - for Plastic Warrior Day - of course!

Marvel and DC on the same packaging, with a light-sabre and no license! Knock-off's don't come much more sublime than this, cheers Brian!

Details / Links

Richard Atkins Toy Fair
12/05/2018 - 12/05/2018
10.30am - 3pm Exeter Hall, Oxford Road, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, OX5 1AB, United Kingdom
01869 347489

Welsh Toy Show

Cardiff Film and Comic-Con

1 is for Less than a Day!

It's tomorrow!

Hope you make it, the weather - I think - is going to be perfect; fine, but not as hot as the recent bank-holiday weekend.

I was just thinking; of all the shows I've attended, a couple have been wet, one (the last at Richmond?) was showery with warm sun steaming the puddles between showers, and a few have had misty/drizzly, slightly chilly starts, clearing later, but most have been nice days I think? Perhaps I'm remembering them through the rose-tinted spectacles of show-plunder memories!