About Me

My photo
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.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

4D is for Tank Killer

I had an odd experience this week (just gone), on Monday there was a tray of eight different 'generic' clip-together aircraft models for a pound-each in the Blue Cross animal-charity shop, I bought one for the record - as it were - and thought little more about them, beyond the forming of an idea for the article you're reading, until the Wednesday - when the odd bit occurred.

Boing Aircraft Corporation, Boing AH-64 Apache, AH-64 Apache Helicopter, Tank Buster, Attack Helicopter, 1:100th Scale, Combat Mission, Boxed Kit, Model Aircraft Kit, Clip-together Helicopter Toy, Snap Together Kit, Snap-together Model, Kandy Toys, Exeter, EX5 1DR, TY6923, 3854, 4D, 4D Puzzle Models, 8 Paragraph, ABS, GPPS, Oker Packaging, MM-0590, General Purpose Polystyrene, Akurate, Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, Catalogue Image, Gruman F-14 Tomcat, Migoyan Mig-29, Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, F-117 Nighthawk, SR-71 Blackbird, General Dynamics F-18 Fighting Falcon, McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom
This is the whole set, there was one of each in the tray, and they appeared to be new production (rather than a 'member of the public' donation), at a pound each it was worth a punt on one of them and I chose the AH-64 Apache.

Boing Aircraft Corporation, Boing AH-64 Apache, AH-64 Apache Helicopter, Tank Buster, Attack Helicopter, 1:100th Scale, Combat Mission, Boxed Kit, Model Aircraft Kit, Clip-together Helicopter Toy, Snap Together Kit, Snap-together Model, Kandy Toys, Exeter, EX5 1DR, TY6923, 3854, 4D, 4D Puzzle Models, 8 Paragraph, ABS, GPPS, Oker Packaging, MM-0590, General Purpose Polystyrene, Akurate, Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, Assembly Drawing, The Base, Box No Glue Required,
Eight little boxes; each containing a bag of bits and a rudimentary instruction sheet. They seem to be about 1:100 (or box-scale?) and branded - as imports - on the blank panel to Candy Toys, who keep popping-up these days.

Boing Aircraft Corporation, Boing AH-64 Apache, AH-64 Apache Helicopter, Tank Buster, Attack Helicopter, 1:100th Scale, Combat Mission, Boxed Kit, Model Aircraft Kit, Clip-together Helicopter Toy, Snap Together Kit, Snap-together Model, Kandy Toys, Exeter, EX5 1DR, TY6923, 3854, 4D, 4D Puzzle Models, 8 Paragraph, ABS, GPPS, Oker Packaging, MM-0590, General Purpose Polystyrene, Akurate, Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, Parts,
The bag of bits contains two small runners, one a frame-runner with transparent pieces and the other a branch-runner with the rotor blades, there's also a two-part stand and a handful of helicopter body-parts; both de-'sprued'.

More interesting is the fact that the bag is marked-up for 4D, but I suspect not the same 4D Master who was responsible for the PVC-type tank available from The Works a few years ago, the recent Kangaroo and other stuff seen around.

The packaging also usefully tells us what the model is made of; ABS (Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene); probably the rotors, and GPPS (General-purpose polystyrene) also known by the trade name Akurate; the green parts and transparencies.

They (4D) have been seen on various (antipodeans'?) Blogs issuing simplified, but useful AFV's in similar hard-plastic materials. Note: they are using the bags from Oker, also seen here at Small Scale World in relation to other brands/makers toy packaging!

Boing Aircraft Corporation, Boing AH-64 Apache, AH-64 Apache Helicopter, Tank Buster, Attack Helicopter, 1:100th Scale, Combat Mission, Boxed Kit, Model Aircraft Kit, Clip-together Helicopter Toy, Snap Together Kit, Snap-together Model, Kandy Toys, Exeter, EX5 1DR, TY6923, 3854, 4D, 4D Puzzle Models, 8 Paragraph, ABS, GPPS, Oker Packaging, MM-0590, General Purpose Polystyrene, Akurate, Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, Small Scale World, smallscaleworld.blogspot.com, Assembled Kit, Finished Model, Made Up Toy, On Stand, Posed,
It's a reasonable model, although a bit small, construction being similar to 4D Master (who they may be a part of, it's only a suspicion they're more clone'ish) and an excellent budget source of air-power for some of the modern 'corporate' gaming systems?

What was odd about it? On Wednesday the same tray appeared in the Scope charity shop, but with a price of £1.20p per set, that's another £1.60p per dispenser's contents which seemed a little greedy!

The Apache was still there so it wasn't a question of buying the remains of the tray from next-door but four and marking it up - obviously there's a batch of these doing the rounds of the charity community as some sort of corporate clearance/tax write-off; there's similar card-construction sets from PMS (one of the defunct 99p Stores' brands) in Help The Aged [Age Concern] at the moment, in both cases - get 'em before they're gone - I got a haunted house; with six figures!

3 comments:

jah said...

The local version of pound world was selling these and the tanks together they were in the same carton that had come from Kandy but packed and sealed in China

jah said...

Sorry forgot to add all the tanks sold out in all 7 shops within 2 days the planes are still sitting in the shops 2 years later.

Hugh Walter said...

The tray I got this from went the next day, but the one down the road was still there yesterday, clearly the extra 20p is the stump!

H