H is for How They Come In - Theo's Parcel 2 of 2

So, continuing with Theo's donation to the Blog . . . I wrote as the opening to quite a bit of blurb, Monday night, for the finished article, which I then managed to delete!

Not the first time, it has to be said, but doing so brings with it both the depression of being very silly indeed and the knowledge you won't manage to re-write the article as well, in your own mind, a second time, it's one of those things, but I got the arse with myself, and sulked for a couple of days, then is was flat-viewing, then car trouble . . . then!

Anyway, we're here now, and continuing with Theo's donation . . .

. . . we'll quickly skirt-over a nice pile of Xandria key-rings, as there are full articles coming on them, but in the meantime and on the right, we have a mouse mascot/premium for the Dutch Frico (Friesian Co-Operative) cheese maker, they're still going and with both Edam and Gouda on their books, what's not to love there? Some warm sourdough rolls, salted butter, a few grapes and an apple . . . heavan! He's lost his nose though!

The other two are Germany's 'Swergs', can't remember if the Gnomes/Dwaves are Manurba (via Peltro or Fontanini, we had a link to a page of them once but I can't find it?) or someone else, although these days the caveat with Manurba seems to be 'Might not be, or might be Dom Plastik or Heinerle', and no one is as sure about all-three now, as they were a decade or so ago!

I think Theo explained the Indian to me but I can't find the eMail! Another mascot/premium type I think? The dog looks to be composition,but it's just playwear, and he's missing a hat, while the clown is hard make much of, he shares some properties with the Xandria stuff, but not the central core and could also be a mascot/premium type?

On the right we have two Oriental types with faux-antiquing, similar to other Euro-premiums, while we saw 'Bad Santa' the other day. The MacDonald's Dragon is interesting as I'm pretty sure I have another in a different pose, possibly two, so they must have been a Happy Meal set, but some time ago? And I like the blow-moulded mouse, reminiscent of some Soviet-era Russian/East European stuff and maybe also a mascot/logo premium?

Mostly Kinder and the hard plastic cartoon figures who have their dedicated collectors but aren't that rare, just fun! The fold-up/curl-up animals on the bottom row are modern versions of the older wheeled '90's one, while the sloth-bear is part of the current trend under MPG for realistic or semi-realistic (some have doe-eyes) wildlife sets.

Some more Kinder and other egg/capsule toys (Onken, Nestle), mascots and premiums, I rather like the grey bear who looks to be someone's logo-character? And the rail or bus/tram worker looks familiar? The four down the bottom (orange warthog to blue elephant) are rubber and similar to Schleich 'mini' animals, but more cartoony, and probably part of a larger set/series?

Loving the little tree and I think the sheriff's badge (from the typesetting/font) is for Desperate Dan, mascot of Dandy Comic for years, while the little green man may be an early (1970's) Kinder prize?

Above will probably go on to charity (in storage at the moment) as I can't start on Action figures, no time, no space and the wrong generation! Although - see below - for a exception, but they all get recorded as they come through and the little Playmobil-like character may be an early Maxi-Egg prize?

While the stuff below used to be a single takeaway tub, but are now sorted into a stack of thematic tubs; traffic lights, road signs, other street signs, traffic cones, pumps & dispensers, street-lights/lamps, barriers, other street furniture &etc! All grist to the mill and one day I'll get an ID page organised for them all.

Only recently covered the integral-moulded wheel minis', but there's a few here (and I found a lot from a loyal reader in Finland I left out of the recent posts, so follow-ups coming!

In this lot are three nice Kinder old fashioned cars (middle left) and a die-cast from the same source, several earlier trucks (top row) some of which may be Siku, which might actually make them DS Plastics of Holland as they inherited a lot of Siku's 1950's novelty moulds.

Nice Land Rover (sans windscreen) and a teeny-tiny Transformer type with a double-barreled turret, and I think I've seen that Grand Prix racing car, either on a card, or in a board game?

This is lovely! Modern (1992) and made by Bandai, it's a near perfect 1:76/72nd scale, pull-back motor Thunderbird 4, and will look good on a shelf with those Captain Scarlet conversions from Airfix cowboys; I know they are different franchises, but one show's 20mm puppets are good enough for another's!

Almost saving the best for last, these are action figures, but they will stay, as they are plug/pop-together, soft polyethylene (think Airfix or Jean), and when I first saw them I thought either the Plasty-Airfix figures to go with the tee-pee we saw here a while ago from Gareth, or maybe Jean/Manurba.

But the Plasty-Airfix figures are smaller and there's nothing useful or obvious on Google for either Manurba or Jean, and both Theo and myself have drawn a bit of a blank. The problem being they are totally unmarked. Also they wet to storage before I measured them, so I can only say I think they were about between four and six inches.

The closest I've found is several models of Wild Bill Hickock (and a Wyatt Earp), from the Legends of the West set by Exel Toys of Hong Kong, which are apparently both marked, and dated 1975, but the figures seem to be joined/jointed with steel-tube rivets, while the donation samples are all-plastic, take-apart/plug-together?

The best I can come up with is that they must be copies of the Exel set (itself ripped-off/resurrected in 1991 by Imperial, with fatter polypropylene figures), probably by an anonymous rival a few blocks away from wherever Exel had their plant? Or; an earlier/later version of the Exel set? But any help from Action Figure aficionados would be appreciated to tie these down, or even just add a bit of background however shaky?

Many thanks again to Theo for all these, I hope I've done them justice shareing them with you, lots of interesting stuff, and we're starting to build a nice picture of DS Plastics here at Small Scale World, with gap-fillers and Kinder bits for future posts . . . Xandria next, then London, then Chris's lot, Peter, Sandown Park, more capsule updates, more other stuff . . . and canoes! Cheers Theo!