K is for Kinder's Kooky Karacters!

And . . . so to the missing post, I'd had the first two figures in the 'Halloween 2022' folder for a year or so, but when I started to collate all the other kwik-Kinder posts we've had in the last month or two, I renamed it and moved it to the Kinder section (2032), so it's been sitting five lines below the Halloween section (2033) in the Picasa index for the whole time I couldn't find it . . . sometimes I'm so dumb I'm a danger to myself; I don't care if I'm a danger to others, that's their lookout!

The left-hand pumpkin-head is by Zeta Espacial Sa., circa-2006, while the right-hand figure is a plug-together from Kinder, also 1980's (ran for a while) which came in various colours some of which the Germans get very excited about, but only if they know what they're looking for, they can all still be 99p on evilBay, or less as part of a mixed lot!

These I think were late 1980's or 1990's, and when I say "think", I mean I don't care! I've got the book back here to give chapter and verse, as I did the other night (to make a point), but really, if you need the code, estimated value and date, go find a Kinder site, there are dozens of very good ones.

Anyway, around that time there were two or three of these 'styrene sets of 'solids', which are of Ghosts doing everyday things, sometimes with a twist; painting one side of a wall from the other, sometimes not; reading a book?

While these are more recent, but include the same ghost trope with other characters, including a 'devil dog' chasing . . . . not sure, his own Ghost, a Ghostly rat? It's not clear! Likewise; "What's in the bag, sinister guy; kittens to drown"? And why is there a Werewolf in a bright-yellow flasher-mac? Very odd - is some of this Kinder shite!

Close-ups of the previous set, five of six and what is it . . .  a rabbit Ghost? All the pale bits - Ghosts, chased animal and sack are glow-in-the-dark, and I think the Werewolf has a cam-wheel connected to his working jaw? Some of these were shot a while ago and I didn't take many notes!

Not so Halloween'y, but it's a little Devil, the joke is he's stepping on the angel's scales to trick him into thinking he's overweight, but as he (the Putti)'s floating on clouds he should weight nothing! The set was of various mean-spirited actions by similar Imps!

These were the 2000's I think and again there may have been more than one set of Vampirellis, a very Italian-sounding title, because they are ultimately an Italian product.

These are odd; they are modern'ish 12/15 years back, maybe less? They are sealed Ghosts in a glasslike clear plastic, before they are sealed a very small 3 or 4mm's dice is placed in the cavity, so you can learn gambling!

Except it's quite hard to read the dice, and they sort of look like they are Ghosts of specific things, while also being pretty abstract designs, and the 'Championgho*st' graphic is given a medieval banner twist.

Another one from the MPG years (current), and also rather whacky stuff, almost channeling the daft plastic model-kits of Aurora, Revell and Pyro's 'Ed Roth'-esque and grotesque horror/surf-culture, back in the day, but very small!

It seems to me however, that while there's always something interesting around (Barbie and Superhero figures in recent years), the whole concept has lost something since MPG took over the management of the - now web-linked - toys? I guess trends, tastes and fashions move on!

I haven't even looked these up, recent additions; I think the one on the left is Kinder, but the one on the right may not be? I really don't care; it'll all come out in the wash, and while accuracy at that level will be needed on the A-Z Blogs, it's not so necessary here where narrative nonsense is fine!

Anyway, that's the [fun] horror stuff I've got for now, it's a few hours later than I said it was about to be in an eMail about three, four (?) hours ago, but i had to go out, then the cat puked - very Halloween! Something else tomorrow, and cheers to Brain, Chris and Theo for the other stuff earlier today. Happy Halloween!

D is for Dastardly Duckies!

Haahaa! I've found the missing Halloween post, so there will be one more sometime this afternoon or this evening, I got the images sorted in the early hours, but still have to do the blurb, however I have important stuff to do first! In the meantime this was the last of the pre-loaded posts . . .

A quickie, but fun, I had a Girlfriend/Lover about 20-years ago, who had a thing for Rubber Ducks and I managed to buy a shed-load for her one Christmas or Birthday which got me brownie-points! Colour Change, Glow-in-the-Dark, some character ones, possibly Hawkin's Bazaar (Tobar) as I seem to recall starting with a/the 'basic' net of five and then adding one-each from pick-bins?

Brian Berke shot these in a store a few weeks ago, and took a picture for us . . .

. . . then decided Grandson might like them in his bath so went back and purchased a few, taking more shots for the Blog!

What can I add? Supplied by FLP (Frontline Products) of Arizona, the Ghoul Essentials line of Halloween Rubber Ducks and they look to be about 60-mil by 70-mil, with paint variations - the 'Frankie' on a hook has different paint from the close-upped Frankie.

I know some people love these, they have dedicated collectors, they've been tracked across the oceans of Planet Earth, they are figural, they are Halloween related and one of the best, quirkiest Blogs I used to link to was 'Duck a Day' which showed - over time - thousands of these, and a few other non- 'rubber duckie' ducks, sadly it ran out of steam and disappeared down the link-list, before vanishing altogether, but we've got four different ones here today, so a big thanks to Brian and enjoy!

B is for Bone Breaker's Old Jones Bones!

Back together again apparently, but I don't even remember their first hit? Clearly a full-on homage to the Bone Shaker candy of the past, and of which we've seen the coffin here now once or twice, and very chuffed to find these.

When I couldn't find whatever I thought was in the queue for this year and realised I didn't have anything to post today, I remembered I had seen these in the window of a local sweet shop, but I had been rushing to somewhere else and they were busy, so I made a mental note to go back for them, which I did last Saturday (nine days before THE day), but they had not only sold-out, but sold the one/s in the window, and announced they hadn't re-ordered!

So, I thought; "Well, they must be online, and I've got a week?", so off to Google, where the most obvious result was an eBayer called The Wee Sweetie Company trading as Letterboxsweeties, who sent me three, from Dundee (or Glasgow?) in less than two days and for no more than a couple would have set me back locally, and that; Ladies & Gentlemen, is why the High Street is dying!

And "Specially produced in China for the Crazy Candy Factory - World of Sweets" (Leicester and Belfast), I hate to think what damage to the planet my purchase represents, but I know some scientists (and the Secretary-General of the UN) are only giving us about two years or less to save the planet now.

Although presumably new tools, the compressed chalky sugar candy (which I dislike) seems to follow the pattern of the old Bone Shaker faithfully and consists of 12 pieces, I did try one in case they were nicer than I thought, and it was rock hard for the first few bites, hence 'Bone Breaker', then melted away rather disappointingly.

But was otherwise as I remembered it; a bit chalky and not very tasty, or that sweet? Nor did it have the tang of sherbet, so the eleven remaining bones went under the hedge to feed insects after rain, while the other two coffins are still sealed for 'posterity'!

But not before I'd constructed the 'puzzle' once, for the Blog! For some reason the green and white sections are thinner than the other colours? Anyway, I managed - at the eleventh-hour to contribute something to the Blogs Halloween Day! This has reminded me . . . new paragraph -

When we were kids, little kids; about seven or eight maybe, someone gave us some Pez; not the holders, just the refill packs, which were similar candy, and we didn't like them, but as they were chalky-pink and brick-shaped, we glued-them into walls for our 54mm Toy Soldiers (with balsa-cement I think?), and a few were still hanging around, glued to cereal-pack card bases, when we moved from there in 1980, about ten years later - I don't know what they make that stuff out of, but it's nasty stuff!

F is for Fearsome Phidals - and a Walmart!

More from Brian B now, and while I'm no fan of a certain squeaky mouse, I realise that some of you are fans of him and his gang, while I keep saying it's all got to appear here eventually, and this is definitely the day for them!

Latest tranche of Phidal releases includes this seasonally themed set. I don't know if it's available in the UK as I haven't managed a trip to TKMaxx for a while now, but it's out there on the Internet wherever you are, I'm sure!

Brian shot this close-up of the set's contents, then went back to the store and took three more shots with a good shake in-between takes . . .

Which leaves us indentifying Mickey as Dracula, Minnie and Daisy as witches/wizards (?), Figaro as himself (you don't mess with a cat), Goofy probably trying to be Frankenstein's Monster, but without the neck-bolt tropes, really also being himself! One of the mouse cousins (Morty?) is a ghost, Pluto has been given a skeleton jumpsuit, and Donald is in a devil-suit, while a more anonymous bat and pumpkin take the set total to ten!

Brain also shot this Disney Encanto figure set in Walmart, I've not encountered it (as a cinematic production) so knew nothing about it, but a quick Google-search filled me on the magical abilities behind the story, so a worthy addition to a Halloween post!

Many thanks again to Mr. Berke.

G is for Grisly Gratis Ghouls

A short one, but some nice stuff! These first four were in Chris Smiths latest donation to the blog, which will be staring in forthcoming posts, while the last shot shows one in Theo Van der Werden's recent parcel, which is also in the queue, but these mixed lots usually hold a few Halloween'y novelty types, which is lucky for us, as it's Halloween all day!

Oh and I seem to have cured the missing 'n' but only by making them all double 'nn's or triple 'nnn's, so for now 'n's may be involved in more typos than is right and proper, but we are where we are, and I try to catch them!

Clockwise; modern Japanese 'vampy', gothy, anime lady key-ring, a large (and pretty exceptionally complete for it's age) skeleton, smaller one we've seen before I think (but there are always variations to be found with this novelty/rack-toy stuff), and a sort of Frankenstein's Monster type, we will concentrate on.

Close-up of the three more interesting ones; we'll have an over-view of the littlies another day, but there are a few on the Blog, mostly under the Halloween tag, which surprised me at 62 posts! The Monster has four articulated limbs. The girl's mark, if it means anything to anyone and the flat rear of the skeleton, he has nice brass rings at his four joints.

But back to the 'Monster, and a dark-eyed, legless Santa, who came from Theo a few weeks before the one from Chris, and whom I had put with the Christmas stuff, only to realise he's an 'evil' Santa! Chris also remembered sending aother legless skeleton one to the Blog a couple of years ago; sixth image down.

Now I though (without thinking because I do that sometimes!) they must be jiggling pencil-tops, but . . . there's no hole! They have solid bums! And then I got to looking at those holes in the hands and feet and realised they must be from a set/sets of mini, novelty, string-puppets? How cool, weird, whacky and novel is that!

Or . . . how cool, weird, whacky and novel would that be if, it was the case, because I then remembered these - or something like them - from our childhood where two lengths of nylon fishing-line ran through the holes, one through the feet, one through the up stretched arms, both of which were attached to plastic rings (I think . . . this is a very faint memory), and when you pulled the lines taught, by pulling the rings apart sharply (or twisting them?), the figures did a little trick or dance????

But . . . both paragraphs are assuming you're reading to the end before following the link, because Chris's previously sent skeleton is NOT missing his legs and IS a jiggling pencil-top, or is he, we couldn't work it out last time! So is my memory entirely made up? What was the true action of the apparatus attached to the skeleton and could they be used as mini puppets? Still . . . THEY'RE FUN!

Note that Frankie'Mon has the same limbs as the skeleton, and the Santa has a flange (belt?) at the base of his torso, which the other's don't, so different sources I think? Many thanks to Chris and Theo for these and the past skeleton, if a few more legs (or examples) turn-up, we'll return to them!

H is for Halloween How They Come In!

I was really struggling to find anything for Halloween, although I thought I had the bits of one post, you won't see it today, because I can't find any trace of it, if it existed! Anyway, with help from Loyal Readers we have a programme of mostly novelty [not] horror after all, and it started with these, sent in by Brain Berke, over in New York.

These are classic rack-toys! A felted or foam pumpkin attached to a pair of plain-lens, plastic glasses, which are so basic they probably used a 1970's mould-tool! Brand-marked to Party Solutions, I believe most of the items in the post were shot in Dollar General but I'm not so sure about this one.

Brian also sent this year's Dollar General offering in the figure department, the skeletons and mummies we've seen before, and the count had gone down on one I think, but now they are joined by witches, and all three are eight figures not ten - 'The cost of playing crisis!' *

He also offered to open the Witch Characters and photograph them, but I said that wasn't necessary as I knew Shaun had already blogged them so you can go and see them on his Fantasy Toy Soldiers blog - and check out his for sale department!

*for non-UK readers, the current global turmoil is being referred to in the British media, and by our politicians as 'The cost of living crisis'.

He also did the card back for us and it's here; cropped out and heavily contrasted to reveal the old crones in all their hideous glory! The semi-flat nature/design of them will be most likely to disappoint on the cauldron crone, but I like the look of them, nothing like them in the UK again this year, and I've searched!

All of which suggests the Zombie Pirate Army have been dropped this year, and that maybe in a year or two we could get a fifth set? And they are under the Old East Main Co. branding again this year.

From the dents left in the abdomens of these Forum Novelties (seen before here) spiders by passers-by, these look like blow-moulds, but the extremities don't look thinned-enough, indeed: eight thin extremities would be hard to successfully blow-mould, so I suspect rotary-moulding, where powered polymer is heated in a rotating mould to deposited a melted layer over the inside of the cavity.

Packaging to match the figure sets, these are nice looking skeleton hangers (length of sisal-string attached!), and while not apparently articulated they do seem to have revolving heads to help them wave in the breeze! About four or five inches high by the look of it?

Not Halloween per-se, but equally something we'd be less likely to see here, outside an RTM maybe, but with the glasses already above, and the naughtiness inherent in owning one of these, especially on Halloween, they definitely belong here!

It's ironic, because you don't see these like you did when I was a kid (hence 'vintage toys'), yet they have always been there, as we discovered - when I was a kid! Fishing-tackle shops will sell you a die-cast aluminium/mazac one, with heavy square-section rubbers and an arm brace, which will throw a grenade over a 100-yards - or a tobacco tin filled with dust and gravel!

And an old curmudgeonly codger could use it to fire sweeties all over the village green and start a kid's riot?

Cheers Mr. B - you saved Halloween!

T is for Two - Dippy Dino's

Speaking of Dimetrodons as I have been today, these two came in the other day, and I am very pleased to have found them, they are probably early/mid-1960's, or even late 1950's, certainly predating the 'Gary Gygax' monsters of the 1970's (Lik Be, Holly et al), but almost presaging them with the slightly 'monster aspect' of their not-quite dinosaurness?

Relatively the 'more dinosaur' of the two, but clearly a clinically depressed Dimetrodon, both he and his mate below are near mint on the paint-front, which is not exceptional with mass-produced plastics, even really old ones, as there's always some old shop-stock or unloved/unplayed-with stuff out there somewhere, but nice when you find them.

Actually . . . he could just be stoned out of his bracket-tree - something must have found the edible 'shrooms first!

While this is clearly the Rhinophantine Tricerafinbacksplitops Dame-Ednaii, a really, really rare beast, they've only found part of a jaw-bone so you can appreciate how much effort the reconstruction-artists had to go to, in the production of this complete and wholly accurate picture of such an unusual animal. Luckily for posterity, an eyelash found in amber gave-up the entire DNA-chain necessary to form this ghosting likeness!

Too cool for paleontological school! Is there such a word as Gygaxian yet? I think there should be!

A is for 'Animal Wild'?

Branded to a Wabro of Argentina, I have no idea if the contents of this tub, purloined from a charity shop for no shillings and a few pence, are original; I suspect they are, with a generic label (I didn't shoot clearly!)* and different contents tub-to-tub, but it may be a curates egg, or the contents (complete) of another tub?

* Well, I was trying to get the 'wild' animals and the text in one shot!

The point being it was used and played-with, and shows wild animals  . . . and a goat! Not the dinosaurs it's actually filled with? While three-bar fencing was pretty uncommon 200-million years ago.

Animals; I'd call them medium-small, but judging the myriad throngs of cheapo-Chinasaurs that have come out of the East is not an easy science! Still no bloody Dimetrodon, unless they expect me to fall for the red thing with half a fin?!

Other sides/ends; it's just not a Dimetrodon is it? Some Spinosaur who's regressed to four legs, more like, the other Spinosaurs call him Fourlegs Fatlad! The white Pteradactyl looks quite good from the other side, and the rest are much of a muchness. Funny, if my favorite was a Triceratops, Stegosaur or kerthunkasaurus, I would be much happier, as they are nearly always present!

Accessories; we've seen those two-colour moulded palms before, not that long ago either, which may be a clue to something, but as there's already too big a question-mark over the set/whole lot, any clue is lost. The fencing also doesn't sit right, but could be a space-filler, worse things turn-up in rack-toy tubs!

D is for Dinky Dino Egg

Under their Dinosaur Adventures label comes this third (?) offering from The Works, a quite large capsule egg, filled with quite small Dino's! Contents are nothing remarkable but they're fun for kids and more models for dinosaur collectors!

Typically the bottom unscrewed first, but with no clue as to which is the right end, you go with the flow until you realise both ends come off, but only the pointy-one is actually open!

A dead dinosaur is a bit macabre, I guess the toy-maker was thinking along the lines of "It's a fossil", but is a tub of 'live' dinosaurs; it's just a picked-clean dead one, isn't it? Also of interest is the triple palm-tree in the common/current style of the typical pair in front.

You can see from my pointing finger how small these are, not the teeny-size of those micro erasersaurs which were around a year or two ago, but small enough!

Most of the favorites are there, but no Dimetrodon (fussa-russa!) and two of them are bigger and may have been seen before in other sets, probably as generics? Note also how the larger pair are up-scales of; or down-scaled to; their smaller clone, suggesting all are out there somewhere in both sizes, possibly as part of a bigger pose-range?

T is for Tom & Jerry!

Twice in a week would give you the impression the world is awash with Tom & Jerry figurines, but with a few erasers out there somewhere maybe, and the inevitable sticker sheets, this could be about it, with the other day's pencil tops, Corgi's battling carts and the Marx figures we looked at a lo-o-o-o-onng time ago! Top of second image down.

Actually, a quick search on feebleBay reveals lots of Tom & Jerry stuff, of which several are from Kinder and we will look at the 'swoppet' plug-together's (Oh, are they stick-figures?) some other time, but these Kinder solids were to-hand the other day so I took a few quick shots.

All from the same set, we get them picnicking and surfing! Issued in most jurisdictions at various times between 2003 (K) and 2006 (MTG), they aren't particularly uncommon and 'book' at about €3, but check the cake-decoration section (or whatever your trick is for finding stuff) of evilBay for unattributed ones and you'll find them cheaper! They are all two- or three-part clip-together.

Five of eight, I'm missing Tom bar-b-que'ing and both of them weight-lifting, but listing things I'm not showing you is a bit silly isn't it? Listing things someone else had already shown and which I can't show you would be even sillier, huh?!!

News, Views Etc . . . Auction News

Two auctions are coming up, neither offering much for likely followers of the Blog, but the some of the guys at Pod Stallions may be interested in this three-date sale of a collection of mostly 12" Action figures;

https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/auction-runcorn-house-action-man-autumn-2022/

While the Vectis Toy Soldier Sale in on Monday (this Monnday), no nice mixed 'junk' lots, and far too much 'new metal' for my liking (as always!), but some quality mint/boxed Timpo and Britains among them for those who's pockets might be a tad deeper thann mine!

https://www.vectis.co.uk/news/military-civilian-figures-equipment-accessories-monday-31st-october-2022-0930am

I'm unlikely to go back to the full Friday 'Forthcoming Dates/Events posts for a while yet, but when I do, I will probably simplify them; I've noticed they can choke-up some search results, so they will be tagged less for starters! And when I'm feeling strong, I'll go back and clean up all 150-odd of the old ones!

News, Views Etc . . . Links, Silliness and Seriousness

Silliness first; Toys in the media . . .

A popular meme but not actually true for toy dinosaurs, as the real ones were still millions of years in the future during the carboniferous era, when fossil-fuels were laid down, but definitely true for plastic insects and invertebrates which are made from 'real' insects and invertebrates! I can't find the original post but I downloaded it a while ago and lost it in a dinosaur folder! Faceplant page is here; INRITH

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I found this (first link) a while ago, and now there's a follow-up (second link), lots of interesting snippets within the two, on Bergan-Beton and the early toy industry; not least how far Islyn Thomas's influence stretched!

https://www.plasticstoday.com/consumer-products/plant-manager-behind-modern-plastics-industry

https://www.plasticstoday.com/injection-molding/portrait-mid-century-plastics-pioneer

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Ken Osen, President of the W. Britain will be presenting the talk at Ross County Historical Society in Chillicothe, Ohio on the 16th of November, you may need to post the link directly into the top left-hand search bar of whatever page you've got open, I had trouble finding it again through a Google 'new page', but got the 'memory' URL to come up . . . and it may help to drop the final numerals? Or just Google it yourself from the above details?

https://eu.chillicothegazette.com/story/news/local/2022/10/17/ross-county-historical-society-announces-fall-speakers-series/69560279007/

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Staying in Ohio (lucky Ohioans this Autumnn/Fall!), the Dayton Art Institute has an exhibition of David Levinthal's photographs, running through to January, which involves the use of various toys including what look to be King & Country or Tamiya (?) Modern US Infantry. There's also a bit of a promo-video for a specific digital camera brand, but it's interesting none-the-less.

I can only post what I find, and I found Ohio twice!

This is on a Russian language anti-war article about the lack of democracy and the export of war (Putin's neo-Nazi Wagner Group are already active in Syria, Libya and Central Africa, as well as Ukraine and are now moving into the Sahel through Mali), which you can find here if you want to read it in it's entirety or translate it. Figures are Preiser.

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While a new game seems to have received several good reviews, as I've said before I don't have the time or inclination to game, but if you like a bit of X-Box action try Tin Hearts.

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Missed the event I'm afraid, but still well worth a read;

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/4609210/newtonmore-event-will-highlight-the-impact-of-the-indian-contingent-during-the-second-world-war/

While this shot, a commended photograph in this year's Drone Photography Awards seems to show women in Vietnam (I think) drying the dyed sedge straw from which I think my 'rope' dragon is made?

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The serious bit;

Obituaries

As well as sad news on David Pomeroy's slipping away earlier in the year and the recent passing of Eric Johns, We have also lost;

Ed Borris and Nick Versteeg - PlaysetMagazine Obituary

Britains Collector David Leigh - Legacy Obituary

Collector's Michael Fondren - JeffersonMemorial Funeral Home and Kenneth Backus -Kalas Funeral Home

And famous Spanish author Javiar Marias, of whom The Times said "Marías lived in an apartment in Madrid that was cluttered with toy soldiers, piles of dusty fan mail and . . . ", but as The Times (of London) is hidden behind a pay wall I wouldn't direct you to, I will post the New York Times Obituary, which doesn't mention the toy soldiers, if you have subscribed to the UK-title; the obituary's still there. 

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This rather staid image was on The Conversation's website, illustrating an article on wage growth, or the lack of it - foam-stampings or 3D-prints?