DS Plastics is for Jumbo, Linde, Plasticraft and Thunderbirds - One Way or Another!

This is a post which has been 15-odd years in the gestation, and by way of correcting myself on this post . . .

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2022/01/1967-dutch-thunderbirds-game-by-jumbo.html

. . . and other people's utterances, elsewhere, they aren't Linde, they're DS Plastics (Dutch) copies of Austria's Linde coffee premium copies of the US Plasticraft spacemen, for a Jumbo (Hausmann & Hotte nv.) board game!

Which has cleared that up, so; what next? Some Spanish Romans I think, or more Historex wagons? What? You want more? Alright then, if I have to . . . but first go and read this;

https://www.lindefiguren.at/fotogalerie-linde/science-fiction/

For which link these are the English translations :-

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"Die Science Fiction Serie umfasst 6 Figuren in sechs verschiedenen Grundfarben (blau, grün, rot, gelb, silber und gold) - macht also 36 Variationen. Die Kennung befindet sich am Sockel und nur bei der Space-Woman (Nr. 5) und der knienden Figur (Nr. 2) auch am Rücken. Die Nummerierung (lt. Katalog Stukheil) entspricht den Figuren am linken Bild von unten nach oben".

The science fiction series includes 6 figures in six different basic colors (blue, green, red, yellow, silver and gold) - making 36 variations. The identifier is on the base and only on the space woman (no. 5) and the kneeling figure (No. 2) also on the back. The numbering (according to the Stukheil catalogue) corresponds to the figures on the left picture from bottom to top.

"Die Figuren dürften ohne Helm in den Kaffeepackungen gewesen sein. Originalverpackte, ungemarkte Figuren mit Helm im Blister sind mir bekannt und auch im Katalog von Peter Konrad, erschienen im Peko-Verlag, abgebildet".

The figures may have been in the coffee packs without a helmet. I am aware of unmarked figures with helmets in the blister in the original packaging and they are also shown in Peter Konrad's catalogue, published by Peko-Verlag.

"Die goldenen scheinen auch die seltensten zu sein".

The gold ones also seem to be the rarest.

"Noch ein paar Details: Es gibt diskrete Farbunterschiede: hellblau, hellgelb ..."

A few more details: There are subtle color differences: light blue, light yellow...

"Es gibt deutliche Unterschiede in der Gussqualität - siehe Oberkörper und Helm bei den Figuren links. Daneben ein typischer Gussfehler bei diesen Figuren: beidseits Einkerbungen am Sockel".

There are clear differences in the casting quality - see the torso and helmet in the figures on the left. In addition, a typical casting defect in these figures: notches on both sides of the base.

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Now, the rarity of the gold ones, seems to have been answered by Geoffrey Peeters, in part in his post here . . .

http://geoffstoys.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-plasticraft-mistere.html

. . . and I say 'in part' because while they come from Spain, there's no actual branding or brand-mark. Meanwhile to finish setting the scene, here's three of the Plasticraft originals with card;

https://vintagetoyarchive.tumblr.com/post/72606158389/plasticraft-1950s-space-expedition-spaceman/amp

They are a hard polystyrene polymer in the dime-store style, unlike the soft polyethylene of all the others.

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So, I had four, which I'd photographed as I was putting them away in the storage unit, in part for what - in my head - was an earlier and far simpler draft of this post, because I knew Theo Van de Weerden had sent me the answer in a catalogue illustration!

Here they are in the DS Plastics catalogue, clearly silver with blue helmets but rendered in watercolour sketch style rather that photographs, common in catalogues until at least the start of my childhood - the mid/late 1960's.

I first learnt about De Gruyter (a Dutch supermarket chain) in an informative article by Jan Boars in Plastic Warrior magazine about 25 years ago, although it was probably an even older back-issue? He told us expressly about their small-scale premiums, but in fact they were supplied by DS Plastics who had a wide range of 'dime-store', infant and rack toys, picnic ware, beach toys, construction bricks and other items, in the manor of Bell, Merit, Tudor Rose or Kleeware here in the UK, the German Manurba, or the US's Lido, Pyro, Empire or such like, with some of their tooling being bought from Siku.

Now I've had the image on the left since at least 2006 . . . 2007? Anyway, I had mentioned it in passing once or twice, but had forgotten I had the four loose ones, hence my photographing them against the side of a shipping container, when I realised I did have them, just has their box was going into 'the vault'! The thing was; I hadn't recognised the Jumbo logo, so have just referred to them as the/a 'Thunderbird's game' in past mentions.

While - following the post on Moonbase and the after-discussion, I managed to find a set on feebleBay for a reasonable amount (there were two at the time as well as the one on Marktplaats linked to by Paul), which I bought (image on the right), triggering this fuller post! There were none today when I checked, but they do turn-up reasonably regularly, if you keep an eye out, but you might be bidding against me as I still need two helmets!

The lack of a pair of helmets meaning I had to shoot these as two groups to do them full justice! Not Linde but DS Plastics for Jumbo, all after Plasticraft. Six poses, (as per Plasticraft and Linde) including one female who wouldn't look out of place with the Airfix space-lady, sartorially - and a comparison will appear on the Airfix page in the future. Three more casually posed; three apparently in combat and all betraying their 1950's pulp-matinee roots!

Looking at them here, I wonder if the same sculptor who produced the Lido 'Captain Video' figures didn't also have a hand in these?

So, having sorted them, we might as well cover the game, it's a funny thing really, obviously designed (cobbled-together is a better term) to tie-in with the Gerry Anderson TV series (which we can be sure the Dutch were mad-for, from the Xandria key-ring figures!), it's basically a glorified game of chase or a variant of the Snakes & Ladders mechanism, with added jeopardies on the asterix'ed squares. There is also some further trickery with the obtaining of a helmet before you can progress to the darker side of the board!

Note that snakes and ladders are footprints, dotted lines or rocket trails, and an attempt to please players either side of the board by having half the numbers upside-down only confuses everyone! And that's why it's a 'funny thing', and funny - peculiar, not funny - haha! But still; a fun item.

Jumbo are a huge (to this day, and now pan-national) jigsaw-puzzle manufacture, not a board-game maker per se, and it shows in this game which was obviously rushed together and rushed out, but lucky for us that it was, as it means sets of six DS Plastics' figures (less the odd helmet or two!) have survived, where the loose or bagged retail figure issues, whether De Gruyter premiums or DS Plastics direct, probably haven't, in the same way or numbers.

In order to further enhance the added-value of the set, the board rests on a raised card plinth which is a cut, fold & glue 'paper model' of Thunderbird 1, shorter than the folded board it creates a box or trench for the six figures and the oversized dice.

Someone has started cutting mine out, but not tried making it, nor - as far as I can tell - lost any pieces, so I will try finishing it sometime. Being silver-foil laminated, it was hard to photograph and may prove hard to glue to the facing surfaces?

Theo also kindly translated all the bumpf from the bi-lingual (Dutch/French) instruction sheet, and as this post has become a bit of an opus, we might as well have it all, these are the front and back covers.

While this is the six sheets inside, which translate as follows :-

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Board game for 2-6 people

Jeff Tracy lives on a deserted island in the Pacific with his sons Scott, Virgil, John, Gordon and Alan. Jeff Tracy is the founder of International Rescue, an organization that aims to preserve world peace and rescue people around the world, in sometimes the most impossible places and ways, at risk of accident.

For this they have at their disposal fantastic means of transport and communication, designed by the genius scientist Brains. Furthermore, International Rescue has a highly skilled secret agent, Lady Penelope who, along with her driver Parker, forms a dangerous duo for any criminal.

International Rescue's worst enemy is "The Hood", a very clever criminal who is always out to threaten humanity with new disasters.

The object of the game is to capture "The Hood". Each player chooses his own playing figure. Before starting the game, remove the space helmet from the head of the figure. One starts at the launch site for the Thunderbirds. Whoever throws the highest dice gets to start. One advances as many places as eyes are thrown. The first player to reach number 100 gets to capture "The Hood" and wins the game.

It is necessary to acquire a helmet while playing, otherwise you cannot get further than square 50, where the universe begins. You get a helmet when you land on one of the spaces marked with a helmet, i.e. 4,7,9, etc. If you arrive on space 50 without a space helmet, you go back the same number of spaces in the next turn or turns when one has thrown eyes, until one ends up on a square with a helmet. In the next turns, you move forward again. If you land on one of the following squares during the game, something special will happen!

No. 3 Thunderbird 1 makes an extra fast start to square 27.

No. 6 Thunderbird 3 rises almost perpendicular to square 44.

No. 8 Alan Tracy takes a little spacewalk and goes to square 16.

No. 10 Thunderbird 3 has to get to Thunderbird 5 on square 66 as quickly as possible to relieve Scott Tracy from his monthly watch. If you do not have a space helmet, you may not go into space and must continue your journey across the board.

No. 18 Jeff Tracy calls Thunderbird 2 back to square 1, to pick up another container.

No. 25 Lady Penelope takes her fast FAB 1 to square 49, her spacious country house.

No. 39 Gordon Tracy needs his spacesuit. However, this is on s square 67. Without possessing his space helmet, he is not allowed to do this and must continue his journey across the board.

No. 41 Thunderbird 2, attacked by enemy aircraft, moves to square 34.

No. 42 Thunderbird 1 searches for a suitable landing plate and finds it in square 45.

No. 50 John Tracy contacts Lady Penelope in square 77.

No. 55 An urgent message from Jeff Tracy, via Thunderbird 5: "Proceed to square 73"

No. 77 Lady Penelope has a code message from John Tracy, taking it to square 50.

No. 81 Thunderbird 3 goes off course and lands on square 71.

No. 83 Parker gets airsick and has to fly lower; goes to square 60.

No. 86 John Tracy digs into square 46 with the 'Mole'.

No. 93 Brains needs to pick up tools and goes to square 87.

No. 97 Thunderbird 3 has a malfunction in the nuclear reactor and has to go back to square 5.

No. 98 Scott Tracy sees Thunderbird 3 has a malfunction and guides it to square 74.

No. 100 THE HOOD. Whoever arrives here first gets to capture him and wins the game.

A build plate of the Thunderbird 1 is printed on the table in this box. It can be assembled as follows. Cut out all parts along the outer black lines. The dotted lines are fold lines. Always fold from the outside in, so that the metal-colored side forms the outside. Nose cone a is glued to the hull b; this hull is closed from below by circle c. The thickening of the hull, d, is pasted with the number 1 under the word Thunderbird. Round e closes the thickening. The narrow strip f is glued to the circle f in circle e. The top of the motor g is glued to f. The strip with the letters TB 1 (engine block) is indicated as in the figures g and i, folded and glued under g. Figure i closes the engine block from below. The wings k1 and k2 are folded, glued to the wing holders j1 and j2, and the whole applied to the stripes j of hull b. Finally, the stabilizer wings l are glued to the 4 protrusions of the engine block. In this manual you will find a drawing of the complete Thunderbird 1 after it has been assembled, to which the letters have been added according to the build plate. Good luck with this beautiful model!

Dutch Thunderbirds fans, ask your shopkeeper about the accurate Dinky Toys, scale models of the lightning-fast FAB 1, with its automatic rocket firing direction, with the imperturbable driver Parker behind the wheel and Lady Penelope in the evening toilet and the Thunderbird 2, the super-technical cargo plane of International Rescue.

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Note the advertisement for a Dinky toy; were Jumbo the agents for Dinky in Holland at the time?

To cover all the bases; this is my QA slip, the one in the Moonbase set was a yellow elephant, mine's dark blue-black, I suspect there were others (red, green . . . black?) and that they were randomly added to each box. Unlike the game instructions this is quadri-lingual, and presumably came with all the games, puzzles and any other products?

I would add that while there is a copyright date of 1967 on the lid, I suspect that's for the licensee (Century 21 Merchandising Ltd.), and is the date of registration of the TV series, rather than the game, which is probably later, the series was repeated several times in some territories, or when the Dutch got it . . . mid-late 1970's? Even as late as 1981, when it was resurrected in some areas? The game is quite common and the box and board quite glossy, while the whole thing is a bit glam-rock in it's look . . . maybe around 1974/5?

As you may recall from the Fireball XL5 post, I've been using an old Dr Who location for some of my space photography, or was it Blake's Seven? Not! The local gravel-extraction beds!

The figures are slightly to markedly poorer (my standing with two side-arms) quality that the Linde ones, and indeed, looking at the Linde ones makes you wonder if they weren't the first as the Plasticraft ones are of the same quality, maybe Linde (who were known for copying) actually got the old Plasticraft tool? But it's fair to say the DS Plastics are copies.

But, pulling everything together - it would seem that both the Plasticraft and Linde are sharper than the DS Plastics figures, the Spanish set may also have come from DS (same quality, also unmarked, but different colour figures and helmets), which would give us an origin, but we'd probably still be looking for a local [Spanish] brand-mark / importer.

Thanks to Theo, for the catalogue image and the translations/correspondence on this one, nods to Geoffrey Peeters and whomever (Herwig Oberlerchner?) is behind the excellent Linde site which I think I've used before, and a wave at Moonbase Central's post, which spurred me into snaffling a set and correcting my comment over there, fully, over here!

[Edited the same day to correct my confusion between DS Plastics and De Gruyter!]