F is for Follow-up - LB Spacetronauts!

I picked this set up in the November toy fair at Sandown Park, and it's interesting for a couple of reasons, one wouldn't necessarily get from online images, or, without the benefit of poring over it and comparing it to other examples.

 

Whole set.

 

Full extant of the graphics.

 

Card slid-out and opened-up.

 

Moon-shot landing module, and this is the first interesting aspect. Obviously it's missing its little antenna-dish, but I think I have a spare one, possibly in white, but there may be a chromed one kicking-around somewhere, so? And, if I only have a white one, you can get this media in paint-marker pens now, the Ad's keep appearing in my Faceplant feed!

 

However, you can see from the off-white at the hole, this seems to be the same lander which came as a cake decoration with the late NASA suited pair & flag, from Lik Be (LB), via Culpitts, which matched the robot aliens. Something that may not surprise the average viewer, as the figures look to be the larger LB figures?

 

But, as you can see here, they are actually the smaller ones, which were new to me with the little chromium-plated one we saw last time we had a catch-up of these old favourites. The original is on the left with a dodgy paint-job!

 

And, as a reminder that there's no fool like an old fool, a friend picked several of these out of a bowl I'd already ignored at a show (actually the September Sandown!), because I thought I had them all, but then I looked at these two remaining ones, and under the show lighting, they looked to have different paint, so I grabbed them both slightly chagrined I'd missed the other six, only to get them home and realise in the cold light of day, that the red, the gaiters and the silver on the rears, are all some other Muppet's home-painting! Hay-ho - a full strip awaits them!

 

But, by the time I realised my mistake, I'd already shot this comparison with an Athena spaceman from Greece, a UK knock-off of Premier's fellow (I don't know for sure, if the paint is home or factory, but they do turn up like this, occasionally) and one of the diminutive copies of Ajax/Archer, both of which may be Tudor Rose or Kleeware? All of which, I picked-up at the same show.

 

This all, above, led me to shoot a couple more comparisons the other day, and here, only from the stuff which has come-in over the last 24-months or so, we can see various treatments of the LB (for Lik Be!) and clone figures.

 

Of note here is that the hollow-based copy (forth from the left, is copying the earlier LB paint, which extended to the rears, and was dropped (probably as a cost-saving) on later LB issues, before all painting was dropped around the time the robots/Aliens were converted to chain-hangers.

 

While the yellow issue is a solid based version, despite hollow based monochrome examples also existing in yellow, and the small chrome chap (middle-right), is the same as the painted trio in the new set.

 

Coming with the lander, there is a strong possibility that it/they (set/figures) may be later, reduced-scale production from Lik Be, for a specific client/contract. But equally, one has to maintain the possibility that a pirate just bought-in some LB landers? Until I've compared with the known Culpitt stuff in storage, I'll sit on the fence!

 

The robot/Aliens, we actually had a very similar shot, not that long ago, but with 90%  of the LB & clones in storage, since before I shot the space-tanks, it's only the recent stuff I have to work on!

 

In both cases I've used the same sucker on the jumper and while previously seen here as a clearer HF, on this one, it looks a bit like it could be a poorly registered HE, so I've annotated both images to that effect! Personally, I think it is HF, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Every time I post Lik Be (LB) stuff (or even mention them in the text), one of two or three individuals will post an 'LP' article, usually within two or three days, as their stubborn refusal to accept it's an LB logo, apparently knows no bounds!

 

Their logic being backed up by the fact they think (with no empirical evidence) that it (the 'LP') is arrived at from;

The Lik Be Plastic And Metal Factory Limited,

 

. . . which totally ignores all the rules of English, and/or abbreviations, acronyms, initialism or shortened form/shorthand! By their own logic it should either be LPM, LP&M, LBP&M or LBP&ML, it's not any of those, because it's LB for Lik Be, but stupid is, as stupid does.

 

Just as it's not [technically] Spacex, but LB for Lines (Triang-Hornby and Raphael Lipkin), or LB for MPC, or LB for Ward, Sears, or LB for whoever, and Lik Be went on to produce many other versions/formats/packagings, with other Hong Kong numpties responsible for all the many copies, some also bought-in by Western branding's. Lines, Multiple, Culpitt, Clifford and co., just bought-in limited parts of the range from a catalogue, or, after a sales-rep's spiel, from Lik Be, from a Lik Be sales-rep'! well, Clifford might even be an LB branding, or partner?!!

 

One of the 'LP'-stubborn brigade has even used one of my clearer LB images (with the heavy corner where the bottom of the B's lower loop is), without permission, to try and maintain it's an 'LP'! But stupid is, as stupid does, and it's LB.

 

The new boxed-set with the more recent carded LB and other acquisitions (the hollow-based yellows are in the Space Patrol set).

 

You can copy all the feebleBay, Worthpoint, Scalemates, SAS, Vectis or wherever, whoever's images you like, but if you're not holding the stuff, looking at the stuff and comparing it in the palm of your hand, you're pontificating half-blind. . . Sigh!

W is for Welgar

Also in the Nabisco section of the folders (see previous post) was this from the 1950's, credited to Welgar, the original branding of the Shredded Wheat factory, Shredded Wheat being a US licensed product, which Nabisco bought, Shredded Wheat is now part of the Kraft group, while Nabisco is owned by Mondelēz. Welgar is a portmanteau word for Welwyn Garden [City], where the factory was established.

Part of a set, the rest can be seen here, but sadly only as thumbnails. I might cut these out one day and stand them up with a few Britains Polar Bears or something! Not really to scale, the two figures are around 60/70mm?

F is for Follow-ups - Recent Matters Arising

A few shots of thing mentioned in passing or otherwise covered in recent posts;

It turned out I actually had the buildings, found on the cereal packet-backs, that were part of the N-gauge promotion from Graham Farish in Shredded Wheat, hiding in the archive folders! They are based on existing structures from Grafar, but simplified, the farmhouse having two chimneys in the case of the original, for instance, while I think I have the BP garage as a small, plastic box, so we may return to these, one day?

 

The comparison shot I meant to take at the time, but didn't manage to, when looking at the Marx play-set tin, the other Marx in the middle and the Deluxe Reading (Thomas in orange) on the right. And I was wrong to suggest they'd go with the other figures, as both a markedly smaller, but you could mix them in with a larger set-up!

 

IF - reading the minds of the locals!

 

I wasn't sure if we'd seen the figure in  a post, but I don't think so, anyway, when I got home from the Sandown show, the red driver here had ended-up in a tray of smallies, but I knew it was part of this old Tudor Rose dumper-truck, so I suggested to Adrian that next time I saw him I might as well get the truck, as I should have done so at the time!

Twelve parts including the driver, and we've seen him before, he's one of those chaps that keep turning-up in lose lots and donations, and I should have him in blue, green and yellow plastic too. We have actually seen this before, it was an early post from archive material, shot with the blessing of John Begg, many years ago, with a multicoloured version in that set, one has to suspect all-one-colour versions were available in the other three colours as well?

 

Finally, combining the donation from Chris Smith with the Sandown purchase, on the little brittle polystyrene sub-piracies of what were probably early Matchbox 1-75 series, as mentioned previously, gives us six models! And the point it's illustrating is that with all this stuff there is often more than one pile currently in the stash, and when it all gets brought together, we will start to see some definitive stuff, I hope!

 

I was looking at a rather nice 76-foot long-boat the other day for £45k, well within my budget?!!

L is for Lithesome Luminous LED Lurker!

Picked this up the other day, it was greenhouse plant ties which kick-started the wider, more regular coverage of the almost timeless bendy-toy novelties here at Snall Scale World a few years ago, something which has lead to mini-micro bendies from Chris, and the discovery of possibly the first bendy on the back of the paperwork from the archive, so it's fitting that the latest instalment is back to gardens, or at least, a garden centre!

 

There was another in a sort of aqua/turquoise, but I thought the Purple People Eater ("But now he only eats guitars" Beeeoooowwh!) was the better of the two! The head is a rigid polymer, probably 'propylene, but the body is in the standard bendy-toy construction; a stable PVC-like material, with internal soft-wiring and the little air-holes, a central ball-joint then locates in a socket under the torch-head.

 

Illumination is bright-enough, modern consumer products tend not to disappoint in the way they could back in the day, how many cycle torches did we get through, it's like they were incapable of lasting five-minutes, whether 'Eveready', Pifco or Lucas - The Prince of Darkness!

 

The legs are long and flexible, and the torch can therefore be set-up to illuminate anything from a very specific angle, and I feel that, while I bought it as a novelty, figural item, with the Blog in mind, I will actually get use out of it, going forwards!

 

Manufactured by IF LLC of the USA, it might soon be hard to get, as I think the USA just shot itself in both feet after nailing them to the MAGA floorboards, but coming from Brwreakshiteer Britain, it's hard to feel superior at the stupidity of fellow citizens, failed by an education system only interested in churning out consumer/workers, who can just-about tie their own shoelaces.

 

Lurking lurker lurks!

J is for Jurassic Era!

Purely in the sense that that's what it says on the cards, and that it makes a rarer 'J' title, I'm quite sure an expert palaeontologist will tell me there are hundreds of millions of years between some of the species depicted in these sets!

 

These are in corner-shops, petrol stations and small convenience stores, as I write, and were last seen in the previous two posts, from Kandy Toys, they are retailed for between two-fifty and three-quid or thereabouts (2.99!), and while there are three sets here, each with different animals (four per card), there may be more in total?

 

So, I picked the upper one up back in the Autumn sometime, in a newsagent in Alton I think? Or Borden, not that it matters a jot, and is of no consequence to you, loyal reader, but I feel sometimes these irrelevent facts add . . . bones? To the blurb!

 

Then Peter Evans (Plastic Warrior's London office!), gave the other two to the Blog, in one of the November/December lots, so we'd obviously encountered them at about the same time? Each has the four prehistoric animal models, a twin-palm of common design, a blow-moulded boulder and a 'volcanic' piece, which looks more like a meteor scar, or fumarole, if you recall third-year geography!

 

 

 

Most are one-colour over a base polymer in another colour, with a third pigment if you count the eyes, two are red-plastic, with the Pterosaur being only one added colour, the rest a pale-yellow, and modern substitute-PVC type; soft rubberised polymer or elastomer.

 

Current thinking on the appearance of late Raptors, and a three-colour paint-job (with the eyes), done to a better level than the others. But, as with all toy Dinosaur sets, no scale beyond 'set scale', a matching-size form of the old 'box scale' concept, so this would be much smaller than most of the others, in real life, and I'd call the whole set medium-sized?

 

I think this last one, half-Spinosaur, half-Dimetrodon, is another of the not true dinosaur or mammal earlies, like Dimetrodon, but not related? I don't know, and apart from the obvious ones or favourites, I try to avoid speciation on dinosaur posts, so's not to reveal my ignorance too plainly!

Many thanks to Peter for the pair of blisters, and we have quite a bit covering Kandy here now. Onwards and upwards!

KTL is for Kandy Toys Limited - 2025 Spring Fair

Funny, isn't it? I had a good rhythm going, got a bit of a head-cold and some writer's-block on the previous post, and then, when I'd finally posted it, went down with something far worse, on the details of which I will not regale you, just in case it's breakfast-time where you are, but it took me out for nearly a week, and I was really quite ill, in a way I haven't been for many years.

 

Probably not since I was delirious with Gastroenteritis as a teenager and the motorcycle posters on my bedroom wall, started chasing me round the room, while the GP was trying to take my temperature! My 61st also slid-by in the last few days, strangely more of a milestone (mentally) than the round 60, last year?

 

Anyway, this is the second of the Kandytoys posts - they write it both ways and seem to be building KTL as a brand mark, presumably to compete equally with the rival HGL and HTI marks, although they are pretty freindly rivals for the most part, and always stall-out near each-other at these big trade shows.

 

Pretty much the same stuff as last time, but there's a load of new space items in this post which weren't in the inventory two years ago, and everyone likes new images!

 

Not 100% sure on these, some confusion on photo-order, but I think I shot them on the way back down the other side of the aisle, however someone else definitely had them, and they will be in another post, they are 3D printed stock, in both (?) cases being bought-in from a/the same 3rd-party?

 

You can find plenty of YouTube, TikTok and 'Reel' type shorts of this stuff being printed, it's clever, but it's automated and after some interest/involvement in the original conversations on the HäT forum, back in 2007/8, I will not post much on the subject, as it's almost limitless in its scope, whether one is talking about subject mater, plastic type or scale.

 

Indeed, one of the points I made in those distant (and long-ago deleted by 'H') threads, that it would eventually end the toy industry, seems closer to the truth. Literally it's infinite, and while I like seeing the odd bit, I'm not going to look at it here with any regularity, maybe the odd figure/vehicle, occasionally?

 

But these are quite clever, in that the fully animated model is printed in one piece, and with a few twisting clicks of the moulding, becomes the modern equivalent of those old wooden snakes or alligators which were glued to a central strip of leather, or the hinged, tin-plate fishes.

 

Timeless classic, I grabbed a couple more the other day somewhere, and they went straight to storage, but we have looked at them before, and there has been a follow-up brewing in Picasa for a few years, with contributions, so at some point . . . ?

 

Pulled-together under the Star Voyagers branding, there would appear to be the products of two or more lines here, and while the figures are a bit cartoonish or infant-toy in style, there are some useful vehicles and accessories in the sets. And with Padgett (A-Z) carrying a similar range, it's clearly a trend!

 

The traditional 'army men' are a bit thin on the ground these days, but they do turn-up from time to time, the upper ones are Matchbox copies (green) and those seen over the years in Poundland and the defunct 99p Stores, which Mark (Man of Tin) works his magic on (orange/charcoal), in both cases 35/40mm types. While the lower set is a more conventional 'battle in a bag'!

 

I had mixed-up images back in 2023, and only realised when sorting these out just now, so I've whipped a section out of the '23 Padgett post and added it to the previous (below this one) KTL post, also from '23, and now it all makes more sense! The additions are the upper-shot, Transformer knock-off T-50/60/70-somethings which convert into Autobot types!

 

Mostly larger size farm stuff, I know there's little interest in these from even loyal readers, but it all needs to be recorded for posterity, and to help ID the stuff when it comes in loose, a huge series of jobs awaiting me in my final home, with be the naming of the farm, 'Zoo' and Dinosaurs!

 

And, speaking of Dinosaurs . . . 

 

. . . smallies!

 

Biggies, seen before here, under several brands,

singly (boxed and in counter display boxes), in pairs and triples!

 

Biggies with eggs!

 

These will be in a forthcoming post, held-over as the last of the catch-up sequence from February, because I knew Kandy was coming! I'd bought a set, last Autumn, out-and-about, and then Peter Evans gave a couple more to the Blog, so there's a nice overview of them, next post, probably. Medium-sized.

 

Larger, and older/vintage mouldings by the look of them?

 

Tubbed playsets, medium/small.

 

Medium-large, just the three?

 

Another set of smallies, different to the widow-set above?

 

I haven't seen these out-and-about yet, but I have a feeling we may have seen them loose, so it's a case of retuning to them one day, fully ascribed!

 

Pretty sure I bought all four of these, just as I was moving into the flat, ready to sell the house a couple of years ago now, hard to believe this crap's been going on for four years-plus now! I don't know if I Blogged them, pretty sure I shot them, so, I'll have a dig. Each set has a subject-related head moulded-on to the toob's cap!

 

Various selections/formats of wild/zoo animals, sea-life and more species-specific stuff (lizards, cetaceans), including streatchies, jellies, insects, and a few dragons at the bottom.

 

Definitely the set which includes two of the creatures sent to the Blog by Jon Attwood, one of which I had a duplicate of, with the wings set at a different pose/attitude, seemingly deliberate, possibly a change made in order to allow more units per counter-display carton? There seem to be five to collect, but it could be ten, if they all got their wings moved!

 

Finishing up with the huge 'soft-play' squeezy, but not squidgy dinosaurs, I think I've previously shelfied such stuff in TKMaxx or B&M stores? And as mentioned a closer look at the blister-carded Dino's next, and hopefully I'm back posting again, for a while!