K is for Kinder's Klassic Kapsule Kombatants

When it comes to Kinder figures, these are among the most sought-after by the 54mm purists which gives them a bit of a premium they probably don't deserve, which makes them harder to collect purely on cost, but I have had some success except with the Egyptians, where I've only managed to find one - and I forgot to shoot him!

These aren't even that old; 1990's, yet there's one on evilBay at the moment for which the seller is asking £117! They. Are. Not. Rare. I've only been picking them up since about 2010 and I've managed to find between six or eight (?), some here and some in storage, now they're all in storage, and it's actually the ones which were in the garage we're looking at today.

Each was available in all four colours and bases seem to have been random with black or a few shades of green and they are hardly animated, a quick dry-brush of silver and they're best suited for the corridors or lobbies of large dolls houses! But lovely sculpts and - without being an expert on such things - from the high-point of armour design; sort of Tudor'beathan?

This is a 'phew' moment, the rather pathetic contents of my Samurai bag, now, we've seen the archer a few times here I think, in mixed lots, of which one was painted, the others damaged, so it's nice to be reminded I had a good one, also 1990's and a little smaller as around 50mm.

The torso however, kept as a spare part 'in case' is just what I need for one we saw recently in a lot from Chris Smith (last image), who's sword was broken, but was otherwise OK, and with only the two poses in the set I believe, I've now got them both in good condition, an irony as I used to give them away to friend's kids when I was a small-scale collector!

Also much sought-after, and also NOT RARE, because also only the 1990's, the Wellingtonians probably benefit from a firm gluing at the waist and a decent paint job, like the knights they came in four colours, and can all be found in each colour I think, so you can swap legs for variety, but they are really clip-together (or 'pop-together') rather than swoppets, although (and unlike the knights) can have their heads swapped, which might produce other units/ranks, if you know you Nappy uniforms?

Flyer for them, again I remember getting these and giving them away in the early 1990's, made for Kinder by Res Plastics (RP) of Milan, I don't think they ever got a separate issue, but they may have done, and certainly some dealers in the past seem to have cleared unused stock, while I've mentioned the current daft-price knight, there are some reasonable Italian (and German) eBayers selling ex-Capsule toys, often in sets for sensible sums.

Arguably (along with the Egyptians), the finest figures of their type in Kinder's oeuvre, the yellow-tan ones seem harder to find, and being more 'swoppet', they can get changed around, so I'm not sure there's four different here, but you will be looking for four of each leg-pair, torso, loin cloth, shield, necklace and headdress to have all of them, and a flyer would help which I'm also short-of, although there will be a reference picture in the O-ei-A guides.

We saw these back at the start of the blog, so just a reminder and all marked RP for Res, I'm pretty sure everything in this post is by them, and the change from the rather crude stuff which was issued in the 1950's is obvious. You can see in the left-hand bag, these because a source of 'vintage' space helmets for unscrupulous dealers, looking to enhance older figures or the German/Spanish bubblegum figures, so are harder to find intact now.

Other swoppet types were made for Kinder, or supplied to them while having separate issues by the likes of CGGC (Cane-Grisoni; mostly vehicles/motorcycles), Giocattolo, Techno Giodi, Giopi (Wild West) and others, and I do have a few for another day, indeed we've seen one or two here in the past (ACW, Tarzan) but most of them are a lot more fiddly (Wild West and Samurai), and some of them (pirates) are also rather daft-looking!