P is for Portagiochi

I think we just have to face the fact that we aren't going to escape the 'P's this month, and it's not deliberate! I put 'Rack Toys' and 'Toy-rack' into Google Translate, and they both came-up Portagiochi 'portable toys' (?), so that's what I went with, as I like to go native sometimes with these specifically foreign toy posts!

 

Brian Berke visited Italy earlier in the year, and sent lots of photographs to the blog, on various subjects, enough to provide posts for some time, and it's not like Picasa isn't full of older stuff from him, but Picasa is filled with all sorts, it's a case of me getting round to it, like yesterday's fortuitous slamming together of three folders as four posts! Anyway, Brian sent us a flavour of current Italian rack-toy/kiosk fayre, so that what we're looking at here;

Starting with a lovely 'bog standard' set of Army Men, whose card roughly translates as Assault Troop, and while mostly the sort of stuff we've seen in many of these sets, it's interesting for being clearly Italian market graphics and looks to have new sculpts, the green grenade thrower doesn't ring any bells?

 

Apparently branded to Edizioni Nicoletta, these construction and firefighting vehicles will probably be bought in from someone like Pioneer, now Universal have gone and Mattel are sitting pretty with both Matchbox and Hot Wheels under their skirts?

 

Stretch-Dragonball-Strong! A bit out of our comfort zone maybe, but they are sort of solids, in that while squidgy, they have no articulation, and definitely novelty, while also TV-related, and it gets Diramix in the Tag List! There is a fledgling Dragon Balls Z post in the pile, and we've looked at them a couple of times already, so a useful addition to the Tag! Note they've dropped the 'zee' on this Italian packaging, or left it as it's Japanese character. Dragon Ball Super is the current iteration.

 

Nice to see some people can still get realistic cap-guns (even if they aren't actually cap-firers I'm afraid), here in the UK, it's all multicoloured nonsense, if you can find it, and if you do, there's the clear risk of being shot by half-trained police! And we have both cowboy classics (which are sparking I think?) and a more novelty dart-pistol. But it's also the 'Sheriff' badges, and a holster - proper toys!

 

A larger beach/garden type toy, in a net bag, like we're at the seaside and six-years old again! And while also rather outside the remit of the Blog, I know for a fact that fire-engine/firefighter fans follow the blog.

 

Thanks as always to Brian for these, and I've stopped myself cropping most of them for the hints of other stuff in the peripheries of the shots, not least an interesting sea-life set in the first shot! How the Italians are doing rack-toys at the moment!